Happy Birthday, Dad!

Birthday cake made by Mason

Richard's birthday falls on Mother's Day this year, so instead of both of us scrambling around buying gifts neither of us need or want, we decided to forego gifts.  Honestly, I hate that his birthday falls on Mother's Day.  He has been beyond amazing this past year and he deserves a day all to himself to be celebrated.

Mason and I decided to make him a chocolate (cheese) cake.  Mase refuses to eat anything with the word cheese in it (who's kid is this??), so we are calling it a chocolate cake.  In fact, it's a triple chocolate cheese cake.  Shhh! Just don't tell Mason.  

My little helper doing some quality control.

Counting out the cookies for the crust very carefully.

More quality control.

We ended up with cocoa powder everywhere!

So proud of himself!

Mommy/Son Trip to Florida

Julie sure missed her sister!  Great to get to hang out together for a few days.

We had such a great time hanging with Jack and Jill

LegoLand!

Cousin's being silly

Tuckered out 

A few family snuggles before bed

Mason absolutely loved swimming at the Halsey's pool

Florida was great.  But Mom's favorite part was getting to spend some very special one-on-one time with Mase. 

Beach bum 

Stud

Because if you are on vacation, you can dress up (even if it's just a random day in April)

A little treat to cool down after playing at the park

Mom spent her mornings sipping coffee by the pool

Mase dominated at go karts!

Good byes are so hard, so we do "See you laters".  There are tears under those glasses.  

KC Road Trip

This weekend we decided to take a little road trip to the Kansas City Aquarium and LegoLand.  Mase was so excited!  Truth be told, Richard and I had a great time too.  Seeing Mason's face light up at all the fish was priceless. 

Kansas City Sea Life Aquarium

Fritz's
It's a train themed restaurant and your food is delivered to your table by a train.  Mase loved it!  

Winter 2014-2015

This was one of my sick days... But some snuggles lifted my spirits.

A little finger painting for Dad

More snuggles... Cherishing these times.

Love this kid!

The first time Mase wrote his own name.

An unseasonably warm day at the end of winter.  Someone is ready for summer!

Winter Soldier and Thor

Enjoying the Dance

Enjoying the dance.  Garth Brooks concert in Tulsa, OK with some great friends.
Brian and Marisa Blackford and Brett and Sara Wilson

A few weeks after I started my chemo treatments, Richard surprised me with tickets to see Garth Brooks in Tulsa, OK along with some of our friends.  As I went through my treatments, this was a trip that kept me looking forward.  I was so excited for the concert and to spend some time relaxing.  The concert was this past weekend.  We had an amazing time, listening to some great music, and hanging out with our fantastic friends.

We also ate at the Cheesecake Factory, where along with dinner, I ordered not one, but two pieces of cheesecake (lemon meringue and Oreo explosion), because I have cancer.  And I can.

Living life to the fullest and celebrating the dance.

Christmas 2014

Mason's tree on the left and our family tree on the right.  Notice all the ornaments from the bottom half of the tree have magically disappeared and wound up on Mason's tree.  The two trees make me smile exactly how they are, so this is how they will stay for the season!

Mase and Grandma Gillispie making cinnamon ornaments.

Moss family Christmas!

Mason can barely contain his excitement to start opening presents at the Moss family Christmas.

Poppy Claus

This kid!

Working hard on a gingerbread house.

This is our elf, Elfis.  He brought donuts on Christmas Eve morning. 

Mason is really into Lego's this year.  

Mase is super excited to open his presents.  Yes, they are all for him.

He's probably wishing I would quit taking pictures so he can rip this one open.

So excited! 

Christmas morning.  Just the three of us.  It was low-key and perfect.
Exactly what we needed after a busy few months.

Team Moss on New Year's Eve.
In the background is Mason's new fish tank.  I bought him a cheap one for Christmas.  Richard and Mase returned it for a much nicer, and much more expensive, one.  Complete with a changing LED light and aquarium safe TMNT figurines.  

Team Moss had a great Christmas!  We celebrated Christmas with both of our families, but Christmas day was spent at home with just the three of us.  Richard grilled steaks and it was all very low key, which is exactly what we needed after a busy few months.

Mason received a lot of fun gifts for Christmas, including lots of Lego sets, a kid smart watch, a tennis racket, a fish tank, basket ball, fishing games, Optimus Prime, and a real tent.

Richard treated us to wireless Beats headphones and I bought myself a nice little camera.  Apparently, we've all been very good this year :).

A Tough Season

Well, our family has stumbled upon a tough season...  But we will get through it TOGETHER!

In July, I found out she carried the BRCA gene mutation.  This mutation greatly increases the risk that one will get breast (87% chance of getting breast cancer, compared with the general population risk of 12%)  and ovarian cancer (40-60% chance of getting ovarian cancer, compared with 1-2% of the general population).

Since ovarian cancer has taken out several women on the maternal side of the family, we decided to proceed with prophylactic surgeries to reduce the risks.  Early September, I went in for a mammogram and results of that came back all clear.  Then, mid-September, I underwent a prophylactic hysterectomy.  The recovery from that surgery went very smoothly.

After my mammogram, I noticed a small lump in my left breast.  I didn't think much of it, as I had just had a clean mammogram.  After the hysterectomy, I noticed the lump got bigger, which I attributed to the hormone changes my body was going through.  Several doctors examined the lump and agreed it was likely just a 'fatty' and weren't too concerned.  Despite having the clean mammogram, we decided to push through with the prophylactic mastectomy.  Two days later, as I was home recovering, we got the call... The lump was cancer, an invasive cancer.  Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, Stage 1 (but very close to being classified as stage 2), grade 3, HR-, HER2+.  Since these surgeries were done in order to avoid cancer, we were shocked!  And also felt extremely lucky that we pushed through and listed to our gut instinct.

A week after my mastectomy, I had to go back into surgery where they did an auxiliary node dissection and inserted a port for chemo treatments.  As you can see, things moved really fast that week.  Luckily, my nodes came back clean, meaning we had caught the cancer before it had time to spread.  Praise the Lord!  We had a roller coaster of emotions, ranging from joy that the surprise cancer was caught early and that it didn't have time to spread, to grief and extreme sadness.  Our world was rocked!

Next week, we meet with the oncologist to find out what the treatment plan will be.  We anticipate chemo will be part of plan, but we aren't sure how many treatments will be needed.

Cancer is a family disease.  Richard has taken excellent care of me, Mason, and our home.  He has done this joyfully and enthusiastically.  So blessed to have a man like him the head of our sweet little family!

Me at one of my many doctor appointments.

Prior to the hysterectomy.  I struggled with the hair net concept.  

Richard and I before my node dissection and port installation.  

My sister and I waiting at the hospital.