....Back in Action....

Sometimes life consumes you in the every-day that we forget the important things like our blog! Better late than Never we say!

Dustin had his follow up appointment with Dr. Harris on April 6^th and it went great. We found out that we can expect to have a follow up bone scan in June or July to see if the Chemo worked.

The plan:

1. The bone scan in June/July will come back negative for anything abnormal. (If something shows up abnormal we will let you know that plan- but it won’t happen, we’re certain!)
2. Dustin will go in for monthly blood draws. This is a preventative way to monitor Dustin and make sure nothing goes wrong. The doctors say once you have cancer it makes you more prone to getting other kinds of cancer.
3. After a year of monthly blood draws he will start going every other month for routine blood draws. He will have to do this for 4 yrs.
4. FIVE YEARS!!! That is when doctors consider you “cured” or unlikely to have any further issues with cancer.

So now in the meantime we are trying to regroup and start getting back to a “normal” life.

We just celebrated Knox’s 1^st birthday! That was such a proud day for us. We are parents to the most special boy in the whole wide world. April 8^th 2011 was such an amazing day and we were so blessed that our family and friends spent the day in honor of Knox.

We got to go to Vegas the week after Knox’s birthday. Yes we went to Vegas but it wasn’t all fun, gambling, and laying by the pool. Kai was in conferences for work from 8-5pm. Dustin got to use air miles and tag along for the ride. While Kai was in conferences Dustin was missing her while he laid by the pool and was sports betting on the Mariners, Lol. We had such a great time because on Saturday work was over and Kai’s family from Hawaii was in Vegas too. We spent all Saturday and Sunday morning with Uncle Warren, Auntie Lorraine, Grandma Soo, Aunt Lori (Grandpa Ron’s Mom, Brother, Sister in-law, and other sister) We had such a blast. Our family from Hawaii are so funny and always a good time to be around. We wish they would move to Washington but then we wouldn’t have a “homie hook-up” in Hawaii with a free place to stay on vacation =)

Life goes by so fast and it’s Easter before you know it. We had a great Easter and was able to spend it with both sides of our Families. We spent Saturday night at the Summit Lake house and Sunday morning with Kai’s family and Sunday afternoon with Dustin’s family at Grandpa Keith’s and Grandma Sheral’s. One of the biggest blessings we have in our life is our families. We are so fortunate to have love, support, and encouragement 24/7. Thank you to all our family and friends for being our rock.

the Easter Bunny brought Knox and Isabella there very FIRST fishing poles for the lake!!

Easter Morning

The Adult Egg Hunt- Epic!!

Speaking of normal, Dustin started working again! He started on April 25^th working for the City of Lacey. The City of Lacey has been nothing but amazing support for Dustin through his battle with Cancer. We were so honored to have almost all his co-workers attend the spaghetti feed. We were both so excited that he got the opportunity to go back to work for the city and especially since they are like another family to Dustin. But Dustin still loves his “daddy time” when he gets home, that’s for sure!

We also just got the honor of spending Friday, April 29^th with Josh and Krista O’Byrne. Josh and Krista purchased the “behind the scenes” PBR (Professional Bull Riders) tickets from the spaghetti feed and spent a lot of money and we got to join them as part of the deal. It was such an amazing opportunity to get the chance to hang out with such great people. Dustin’s Aunt Julie and Uncle David arranged a dinner with 2 PBR bull riders and a PBR judge at Dukes Chowder House before the show.

OMG, how much fun was that. We got to eat dinner with the people that make the PBR what it is today. It was the highlight of our night because we got to find out how the PBR really works. We had no idea that it’s based on how hard the bulls bucked and how long the riders could stay on. It made the PBR a lot more fun to watch because we knew what we were watching. One of the bull rider’s parents was at dinner with us and that was fun to hear bull riding from a mother’s perspective, lol!!!  

We want to THANK Josh and Krista for purchasing those tickets at the Spaghetti Feed and for allowing us to join you on such a fun event and THANK you to Uncle David and Aunt Julie for providing those tickets to auction off.

It was an amazing time!

So now that we have NO more daddy daycare we have put Knox in daycare. We love the place we found but were so sad the first day!!

With daycare comes his first ear infection and baby sickness =(

So now we are kind of in a waiting game. We have about another month or so till Dustin will receive a follow up bone scan and we will go from there. In the mean time it’s Mother’s day this Sunday and Kai is so very excited that she gets a day to say “I Love Being a Mom” and Dustin is excited because he gets the opportunity to buy presents for Kai and write a love note to Kai from Knox.

We love you all and please continue to pray for Dustin and our family! We appreciate you all!