what a year :)

mark and i got to take a much needed vacation to mexico last week. we had originally booked this trip last year for our 5th wedding anniversary and my 30th bday, but mark ended up getting admitted to the hospital and getting diagnosed with sarcoidosis the week before we were supposed to go. we cancelled the trip in hopes that mark's health would greatly improve and we could rebook the following year.

we had no idea what our year was going to look like with mark's new disease. it is crazy to me it has been exactly a year today that mark had surgery. a year ago today the oncologist came to our room and said the preliminary pathology looked like lymphoma, he said there was a small chance it was something else but he was pretty sure we would be starting chemo within a week. we got into contact with support people at rocky mountain cancer center and booked our first appointment with dr jotte to plan marks chemo treatment schedule for the following tues. we ended up getting phone call on sat mid day that it came back sarcoidosis a rare autoimmune disease. we were really not sure what that had meant for us. we did a lot of research and talked with some specialists to figure out what that meant for our lives. we soon got in touch with national jewish hospital and mark got accepted into a research program there. for the next 12 months we spend a lot of time at national jewish getting LOTS of testing. we were thrilled to find that mark's sarcoid was localized for now only in his lungs. the masses in his lungs were large, but all his pulmonary function tests came back pretty good! God is soo good! the doctors told us to expect 2-3 years for mark to go into remission and then they didn't know if and for how long he would stay in remission...maybe 5 days maybe forever! even though last year was hard...it is amazing to see how much healing God has done in mark's body. last year this time he was SOOO sick. he could barely make it though the day. he was not able to help at all with the kids or chores around the house. God gave us amazing people who helped us and walked us through it all! and 1 year later mark is doing WONDERFUL! despite some annoying symptoms that now feel almost normal to mark i would say we are sooo close to remission! so since mark was doing sooo well....we REBOOKED our vacation! we celebrated the 1 year of mark going into the hospital from the beach of mexico! it was AMAZING! we are so thankful for so many things! we truly feel that this journey has brought us closer to God and strengthened our marriage. we feel it really was a blessing!

here are some fun pictures from our trip....as you can see we did a lot of NOTHING :)

we enjoyed the sun, enjoyed many yummy drinks and over all just enjoyed each other!

easter

we love easter. mark and I love taking time to talk and do things with the kids to help them understand what an amazing thing happened on easter. we have been reading books for the last month about easter and how the easter bunny is okay and fun...but it is not what the TRUE meaning of easter is. we did "he is risen rolls" again this year. kya LOVES doing this and it is a great visual for kids to yet again understand the easter story.
~you start with a large marshmallow which represent jesus and how he was pure

~you roll the marshmallow in butter and sugar and cinnamon as a representation of what they did to the body of christ

~you then place the marshmallow in a flattened roll and pinch it tight just like when they sealed the tomb with the large stone

~roll again in butter and sugar mixture

~you bake at 350 for 10 min

~after letting the rolls cool for a couple minutes the kids get to break open the rolls and...

~ it is empty...jesus has risen!

kya so excited on easter morning :)

kinley finally woke up to get her easter basket :)

my sweet girls all ready for easter church.

i am one blessed mama! i have an amazing husband and 2 beautiful daughters

the love of my life!

we had 19 people over for easter dinner. such a great day spending it with family and friends!

we were so lucky to have my grandparents join us for easter. pappy was so sweet and went right outside with kinley and pushed her on the swing. i feel so blessed that my kids have 2 sets of great-grandparents! what a awesome thing!

pappy and granny and papa and gaga and the kiddos :)

a family picture...so fun to live close to each other and be able to spend time together!

kinley loved just strolling around the yard..

pappy watching the kids do the easter egg hunt

thanks gaga for the awesome easter egg hunt! what a great memory!

wonderful weekend!

this past weekend we got to go up to grand lake again for a family get away. both my uncles have cabins up there and are SOOOO generous and let us use them! this weekend we went to my uncle dave and aunt dawns cabin with my parents, and siblings and kiddos!

the weather was beautiful while we were up there. bright blue skies! we spend all weekend snuggled up inside enjoying the beautiful view and each other! dana came up with a ton of fun games that kept both the kids and adults entertained. sonya came up with some AMAZING recipes and i got to watch and "help" in the kitchen learning a thing or two! we also just enjoyed relaxing. we read, watched movies, talked, listened to music, played games it was so nice! one of my favorite things was waking up to this view from our bedroom window!!

this also was some of my favorite times. i loved to retreat to our bedroom during the girls nap time and listen to music, drink some coffee, do my bible study and hang with my hubby :)

spring is in the air :)

i love spring. i love easter and the reminder of the awesome gift God gave us. i love being outside and seeing new things start to bloom. i love planting flowers. i love rocking in my rocking chair listening to music. i love watching the girls play in the backyard. i love having my doors open. i just love it all! today was one of those days i love! we spent all day outside. i cleared out some gardens and played with the kids. we ate lunch outside. it was wonderful!

i saw this fun project and was excited to try it out. you take egg shells and plant grass in them and then by easter morning you have festive decorations. :) if you look very carefully you can see one little blade of grass coming up!! soooo fun!

i love easter. i love doing fun crafts with the kids to help them understand the true easter story. i also just love putting up little fun decorations to celebrate spring.

i love tulips and daffodils...i am sooo excited to see mine starting to pop up!

i love planting the flower and vegetable gardens. we just started our seedlings a couple days ago and they are already sprouting!!

yes i am happy to say spring is in the air!

such a sweet girl!

on thurs morning kya when i went into her room to wake her up to get ready for school...she was waiting for me. her bed was made, and she was dressed sitting in her chair reading a book! she was so proud and so was her mommy!

kya is such a sweet soul and LOVES to make you happy!

this girl is SUCH a joy!

sick girls :(

well the poor girls got super sick after our fun weekend up in the mountains. kya started with horrible croup and fever. and kinley ended up getting it too. me and the girls were home all week trying to get them healthy. kya was so sad to miss school all week, so i told her i would be her teacher. we picked the letter of the week to be "b" and we spend time doing Beautiful crafts, Baking, taking Bubble Baths, reading Books and watching a lot of Barbie movies that week :) kya would giggle every time she would ask "miss brooke" a question! here is kya in her home "classroom" :)

we are so thankful the girls are on the mend. i am sure this nasty cough they both have is going to stick around for a little while, but they are both doing sooo much better. kya was sooo excited to get back to school, dance class and to see her cousins again. she missed them all soo much.

here are some pictures of maci and kya so happy to be playing together again!