May 16, 2013

We are back from Houston, and Blake's MRI came back with happy results! His tumor continues to be STABLE!! Words cannot express our joy! Blake has one more week left as a Kindergartner. Its bittersweet. I am so proud of how far he has come. He never ceases to amaze us! 
Blake will be going to summer school in June-his teachers and us agree this will help him stay prepared for first grade. I still cant believe he is going to be a first grader. lol Oh how fast time fly's. 
I have been crazy busy preparing for our June Art Show & Silent Auction for givingSOLO. This year is going to be so much fun! We have been working so hard on improving the show and I know that everyone will be impressed with all the changes we have made. Everyone should mark their calendars because you DO NOT want to miss this show! Here is the flier: 

We are still looking for donations and children's art! So let me know if you want to participate!!! 

I will post again soon! As always, thank you for your support & prayers!!

April 5, 2013

Wow...I am ashamed that I have let a year go by without a single post! I dont even know where to begin. Life has somehow found a normalcy, that we are SO thankful for! Blake is about to finish Kindergarten and will be going to first grade next year. He has really come so far this year. His tumor has remained stable-we count our blessings every day! He has had 3 rounds of Botox since I last posted, and in February he had surgery on his right leg (tendon release) that is going to help him walk better & be able to put his heel down all the way. We are already seeing great results! He is growing like a weed, and is obsessed with superheroes-Batman specifically. He has quite the sense of humor and will talk your ear off if given the chance. He is such an amazing kid and I am so grateful that I am his mom.

Life has been good this past year. I am working again-almost full time. I am the office manager at a graphics company-I absolutely love my job! The hours are perfect, I am able to get Blake on the bus in the morning and I am home to get him off the bus in the afternoon. I couldn't ask for more perfect hours...or coworkers! Phil is still working at Pepsi. He has been there 9 years now. Where has the time gone?

We are getting ready to pack up and head to Texas for Blake's annual follow up at MD Anderson. We are really looking forward to spending a week down there-visiting family, going to the beach, adventures are endless! Blake has been asking us for months if it was time to go to Texas yet, he is so excited! Its our built in family vacation...even though we have doctors appointments almost everyday-its still a vacation to us!

I will try my best to get on here and post updates, again I appologize for not getting on here sooner! Life has picked up speed, its amazing to me how far we have come in the past couple years. Ya just never know what life will throw at you. We are BLESSED!!

At the Dixie Stampede in Branson, MO

Batman Live

Batman waters our grass for us

First Day of Kindergarten

November MRI @ Childrens Mercy Hospital

Kindergarten School Photo

April 15, 2012

driving home

Greetings! We made it home from Houston last night. Thankfully we had a safe trip, thanks to all of you who prayed for our safe drive! (There was a severe thunderstorm warning with possibilities of tornado's) I tried posting an update while we were in Houston, but time just flew by. We had such a great trip, but first lets go over Blake's MRI results. 

His MRI shows his tumor stable still, however we are watching that lesion a little closer because there was a slight change. Our doctors in Texas want us to come back in 3 months to do another scan on their machine so we can compare 'apples to apples'. We learned that different MRI machines have different strength magnets. Kinda like a 5 mega pixel camera compared to a 14 mega pixel camera. Its the same picture-but the 14 mega pixel is going to be a lot less grainy and more clear. The same thing with MRI's. I thought they always did the same scan-guess not. Lol So now I will make sure every scan is with the stronger magnet. It seems like common sense to me! 

So July we will return to Houston for another MRI. We also have his opthamology, audiology, neuro-psychology and check up from Dr. Mahajan at the Proton Center. We were also told to see an endocrinologist. Blake's thyroid level was a little elevated. Nothing to worry about yet-just wanting us to keep an eye on it. 

Blake and his Easter basket.

While we were in Texas we celebrated Easter with my Houston family. Blake woke up to a house full of eggs. The Easter Bunny found us all the way down in Texas-and left a Easter basket for Blake! He was very excited and had a lot of fun hunting all the eggs. He even found a basket for Nevaeh! (She wasn't able to come with us-we are STILL waiting for the court to grant us as Kinship providers) After hunting eggs-we all got dressed and when to a little park to take some pictures. Then we went to Papa's Seafood restaurant to meet all my family for dinner. Phil LOVES seafood so he was one happy guy! I enjoyed my chicken salad-it was delicious! lol 

Sleeping after his MRI

On Wed we had Blake's MRI.  It went smoothly, except for the whole poke for his IV. He threw a huge fit before he was even poked. He knows the topical numbing spray means he is about to be poked so he freaked out. I ended up holding him, and after a little fighting-his IV was in. On Thurs we met with Dr. Pearlman and Dr. Vats. After going over the results we drove to the Houston Zoo-for the first time! When we arrived the parking lot was completely full-NO place to park. So we decided to go eat and try again. That was a good idea because Blake took a nap for about an hour-we were driving around trying to find a good place to eat. We ended up agreeing on Quiznos. We returned to the Zoo and we found a great parking spot. The Zoo was great! The goats in the petting zoo were Blake's favorite, and the elephants! They had 2 baby elephants that were wrestling-omg it was so cute! On Friday we went to Galveston with my Aunt. Blake walked on the beach and collected a few small shells. He also found a pink Easter egg-we threw the candy inside away. lol Then my aunt took us to Moody Gardens. We went to the rain-forest pyramid. It was SO cool. The birds and monkeys are free to roam the garden. It was a lot of fun. Blake had a blast! 

Here is a little slide show I put together-Enjoy!!

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