Awareness

I was recently contacted by an incredibly strong lady asking if I would be willing to post her story on my blog. I am honored to introduce you to Heather Von St James and her story of courage and determination!

Heather was diagnosed with Mesothelioma, a cancer that kills most within the first TWO years, when her daughter was only 3 1/2 months old. You can imagine how devastated she was! Her first thought being her daughter and not knowing if she would have the opportunity to watch her grow up. As a mother that tugs at my heart extra hard.

With heavy treatments and recovery time, 7 (yes, SEVEN!) years later Heather is strong and cancer free!!!!! Her goal has become to turn her 'pain into purpose and become someone that other people can look to for guidance, inspiration and hope in situations such as her own'. 

Here is a the link to her story! Please take a moment to watch!!! Heather's goal is to make awareness of a little known cancer that is such a deadly killer but, as Heather states, 100% preventable! 

http://www.mesothelioma.com/heather

A birthday party and Father's Day

We had a very eventful weekend! We attended a bridal shower, a birthday party and had Father's Day - we made it through like champs :)

Kynzley's good friend, Olive, turned three! The kids had a ton of fun running through the sprinkler and Olive LOVED when everyone sang happy birthday! This is such a fun age :)

For Father's Day we headed to Nana and Papa's house for a nice picnic and lots of time in the pool. Oh goodness, Kynzley was in the pool from 11 to 4:30. She is our little fishy!!!! It was great to finally be able to enjoy the pool and sun!

She thought it was cool that she could still fit in the baby floaty

Before the bridal shower

A Campin' we will go

Our camping season has started!!! We had a great time on our first trip out for the summer! The rain held off until Sunday, which was perfect :) We camped right on the river - Kynzley LOVED being able to play in the sand and (freezing COLD) water. She also went fishing for the first time. No one caught anything, but we had a great and relaxing time trying!

Abby and Kynzley

We had AWESOME company on Saturday for a great cookout!

Nora and Kynzley really enjoyed jumping on our bed :)

Olive enjoying her s'more!

Happy Birthday, McKenna!

We had a great weekend in Chicago celebrating McKenna's 4th birthday!!! It was another opportunity for Kynzley to dress up pretty like a princess and have tons of fun! McKenna's birthday theme was princess and Kynzley went as Princess Sophia (from the Disney TV show). She looked amazing :)

Friday night Kynzley, Nana and I stayed in a hotel and Auntie Micki and McKenna came over for pizza and swimming! The girls had so much fun in the pools! They have tons of fun together :)

Saturday was princess day! McKenna's birthday was perfect for a princess and Cinderella even showed up to surprise the girls! They played games, danced and opened gifts. Such a bunch of cute little girls :) Kynzley and Mckenna were able to have a sleep over Saturday night, but both were SO EXHAUSTED from the days events we never heard any giggling or story telling, all that was coming from the room were snores!

It was a great weekend!!!

Nana and Kynzley before the party

All the pretty princesses in the bounce house

Nana even got dressed up :)