My Dad

Well I haven't made an update on my Dad in a while so here it goes.....

After several more visits to St. Louis we know the exact type of Pancreatic Cancer he has.  Only 10% of people diagnosed w/ P.C. have the type my Dad has.  He was told it is the 10% you want to be in.  If you can say that.  It is considered to be the most survivable.

 He was injected w/ a nuclear dye to find any other traces of cancer in his body.   Nothing showed up except one small spot on his sternum.  And they aren't even sure that it is cancer.  It could be something he's had since birth.  It did not show up on any of the CT scans.  So they are reviewing it a little more in depth to see if they think there is anything to it.

Last Friday they scheduled him for surgery on May 11th.  But he got a phone call today saying they had a surgery opening come up this Thursday.  He took it.  So he will be undergoing his "Wipple" surgery this Thursday the 28th in St. Louis.  He will be in the hospital 10-14 days.  They say 3 mos for recovery.  It is major surgery. They compare it to open heart surgery. It should take approx. 6 hrs. They will remove the part of the Pancreas where the tumor is. They will also remove the gallbladder and a portion of the stomach where the pancreas is hooked on to.  They will then stretch the pancreas up and recreate the connection between it and his stomach. And NO you can not live with out your pancreas.  A lot of people don't know that.  It will be approx. 2 mos before he will get to start eating solid foods.

We are feeling very blessed that he has got the best news possible so far with all of this.  With faith, family, friends and lots of love he will persevere.

Love you lots Dad.

A Perfect Day

Monday we had an awwwsome day here.
75 degrees
No Wind!!!
It was pure bliss

So a couple moms and I took all the girls in Kennedy's preschool class to the park for the afternoon.
We had a blast.
And they wore me out

Bailey and Jill

Bailey LOVES babies!

And these two are the only two out of the whole group w/ blue eyes!

The rest of the girls have brown

Jilly Bean!

Spider Swinging

Thanks Shari and Melissa

It was pure sweetness :)

Good Aim

Bet you didn't know........

I have good aim!!!!

Yes, we have guns in our home
Yes, I shoot some of them
And go hunting
On occasion

I shot the target above w/one of these

And believe it or not.......
I enjoy shooting

It's just that thisWife,Mother of 3, part time hairdresser, cook, house cleaner, laundry "do'r"
doesn't have a whole lot of time to do it

But when I do
I hear I am pretty decent

Our Weekend

We went back home last weekend to spend some time with our family.
We celebrated some birthdays @ my aunt & uncle's just down the road from my parents

The party was in one of their barns
The kids had free reign
And to say they enjoyed themselves would be an understatement

Here is my Cousin's youngest son Jace
Gentry and him are just about 6 mos apart
She's the elder
You could say they are a lot alike
Or each others speed
They were a total hoot

 The cake was really cool

Here are the 3 birthday boys

My Uncle Gail, My Cousin Sean and My Cousin Kelly's son Caden

Everyone is singing and Caden is getting prepared to blow out all the candles!

Here were the goofy kids i sat around
Do you think they enjoyed their cake???
I think they were just rubbing it in

I gave up Sweets for Lent
And I am soooo proud of myself
I have been soooo strong
More will power than I thought I had
Less than 2 weeks til Easter
Thank the Lord

B/c this girl is ready for some PIE!!!

PARTY! PARTY!

and then they were POOPED!

 The next day my Parent's neighbors came over on their horses for a visit

This is Duke........he belongs to 9 yr old Emma

Here is Kennedy sitting on Duke

She LOVES horses

She's asked Dana for a pony before

And when Dana asked her where we would put the pony her response was....

"Duuuuhhhh Dad...in our back yard.  We have a fence!"

We got a good giggle out of that one

Here's a little taste of what things are looking like around our house

 I have so much more to post about.....

My Dad

My New Bedroom!

Emery, our little growing weed

but it's late and this post has been long enough

Hope this finds you all healthy, happy and enjoying Spring

You will also have to click on the flower pictures to view them larger
Eeeeewwww they are sooo pretty!!!

It's been a rough week....
If it wasn't for these little boogers
I'm not sure we would have made it

A week ago tomorrow life changed
not for the better
My Dad.....
One of the most influential people in my life
and My Friend
was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer

I have made several trips home since Thursday to be with my family.
We all feel as if we are living some kind of nightmare
Everyday we wake up thinking Please let it not be true Lord.

We are praying continually.
And got some good news to go off of last evening.
He had a CT scan yesterday morning.
It showed the cancer has not spread.
And it is not in his Lymph Nodes.

He meets w/ a Pancreatic Surgeon on Monday in St. Louis.
He is supposed to be the best in the U.S.
He will review the scans.
And probably set up an appt. for another more invasive scope
to be done w/ him there in St. Louis.
And then we will go from there.
Surgery will depend on what the Dr. has to say after reviewing
everything.

We believe in God.
We know he has a plan.
We believe in Miracles.
We have Faith & Hope
And we are Praying endlessly

We can't imagine life with out him
We don't want to
And we are going to fight for him
AS HARD AS WE CAN

Lighter notes of the weekend

while back home we also celebrated my cousin Taylor's
14th birthday.
I can't believe how mature and grown up my "little" cousin has become.
She is my only girl cousin on my Dad's side of the family.
So, she is very precious to me.

Gentry, Taylor and Kennedy

Happy Birthday Taylor!

Still Loving Sweet Potatoes!!!!

Hanging out in Biggest Sister's Room

And hanging w/ Woody

And last week while the older 2 were gone for a few days I made this wreath!
It cost me $9 to make the whole thing.
I thought it might look a little cheesy or tacky
since i was using the plastic eggs
But I am really happy w/ how it turned out.
The girls think it's great.
It was the first thing they noticed when they came home.
And Gentry asked if there was candy in the eggs

I will be making more in depth posts about my Dad in the days to come.
Our heads are still spinning and we still have a lot more to find out.
Please Pray for him :)
Thank you to all of you who have been helping me out.
Whether it be through a wonderful thoughtful gift
a card
watching my kids
texts
hugs
kind words
Facebook
EVERYTHING
THANK YOU
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH

This Week

The older 2 girls left Sunday morning to go stay with Dana's parents for a few days.
It's their annual spring break trip.
They returned home late this afternoon.
The time while they were gone was very nice.
A needed break you could say.
Emery & Mommy had some good quality time.
Got some good stress free shopping in!
And ate out with Daddy several times!
It was Peaceful!
But we definitely missed the little bugers!
It's nice to have them home.
Back to chaos & tons of noise.

These are all pics off of my phone.
So the quality may not be the best.

This first pic was our lunch date w/ Dana on Monday.
I think it's sooo cute!
Emery is already checking her Dad's wallet!!!! Ha!

There's not any left in there.....
B/c we had just come from the gas station.
My gas light had been on.
So I was running on fumes.
This is what I drive.

And this is what it cost to fill it up.....

Yeah I know....
Total Gas Hog
However
Our previous vehicle was a Ford Explorer.
And it got slightly worse gas mileage.
So we figured if we were going to get crappy gas mileage then we may as well get it in something bigger.
When you have 3 kids in car seats you are pretty limited as to what you can drive.
When we bought it over a year and a half ago we could fill the whole thing up for fifty some dollars.
It's really depressing.
You would think they would at least have medicated wipes for you at the pump.
You know......
For the burn you are left with.

Ok moving on.....
This girl is really loving her baby food!
Some days we get it in the mouth a little better than others!!!

Check out those eyes!!!
I get lost in them all the time.
I just hope I have longer than I think before a boy is getting lost in them!

Oh and also
Dear Mother Nature,
LAY OFF THE WIND
YOU HAVE RUINED 4 CONSECUTIVE DAYS NOW
I fully realize I live in KS
But Sheeesh!
Enough Already.
Thanks.

Around Here

Not a lot going on around here
Really only one major milestone

We have a sitter!
Our 6 month old beauty can now officially sit on her own for extended periods.

She is really enjoying playing w/ her toys & Mommy's magazines!
I also may be training her ;)
She's a girl after her mother's heart.

Here is some footage of the little pro!
You can hear Gentry's nebulizer going in the back ground the whole time and i think she's talking under her mask too :)

You also get a little glimpse of our new furniture.  It got delivered 2 wks ago. We decided to go w/ Lazy Boy this time.  In hopes that we would get some furniture that would hold up a little better than our last couch & love seat. So we picked the style, fabric and color of furniture and then ordered it. After 8 wks of waiting if FINALLY got delivered. We love it....EXCEPT...........I am more than positive the furniture is not the color i picked out. Something will hopefully be getting figured out with that. So PLEASE ignore how my new furniture clashes w/ my wall paint so "nicely".  Gggrrrrr!

Here is another video
I had to show you all how happy this little girl is when she wakes up.
Sooo Happy!  All the time.

You can also see how nicely her hair is growing in...down the middle that is.
The sides seem to be having some growth issues. Hopefully that will level out sooner than later!!!

So we've covered about everything now.
Except the weather.
OH THE WEATHER!
It's been great!
And these warm temperatures have our trees sprouting these nasty seeds all over.
We call them helicopters.
I'm not sure what the technical name is.
Soon these will be flying through the air and covering our flower beds, porch & yard.
There is something slightly cool about them.
But mostly I just really hate them.