Birthday party

We headed back to Iowa for Laura's uncle's 70th bday party. The kids were super excited to see their cousins. They spent most of the day with them before we headed to the party.

Once we got to the party, Gavin proved to be quite the trouble maker. Brian tried to entertain the kids, so Laura could visit with her family. However, Brian was so entertaining that he had almost every kid in that house attacking him, which allowed Gavin to continually escape. 

First time we found him, he had decided to take a fork and just dive into the sheet cake. Bite after bite after bite. 

He then decided the next time to attack the fruit, and when I tried to stop him, he decided to throw it in the dip. 

Finally, he decided to break an ornament. The kid seriously just always wants to be in trouble. He never wants to play with a toy...just breakables. Hopefully this will change soon! 

Conner had the best one-liner of the night. After the seven Dave's in the family were given Dave 1, Dave 2, etc shirts, Conner came up and said, "Dave 6 is down," when the one year old fell and got hurt. About the easiest time we have 

ever had identifying a Dave in this family!

Fashion Diva

After prepping for months for the fashion show, the day finally arrived. We had to be at the Ritz at 9:00 am. for breakfast. When we arrived, Alexis went straight for the food given she is on steroids right now. Right away her model partner came to find us. She is a sophomore in high school and was there to just help Alexis through the day.

After breakfast, Sophia took Alexis over to her chair (they had personalized chairs for each kid). On the chair, they had a new IPad mini and a bag of makeup and nail polish as a gift for being a model that day. Alexis was so excited! 

We then headed down to the rehearsal. They practiced walking on the runway and then headed to lunch with their model partner. 

Next we saw her, she was walking down the runway in the show with a huge smile on her face. She kept waving at us, and shaking her hips. The lunch show went really well. Brian and I were there to watch the lunch show, and it was really fun to see her that excited. 

We then had a little break in the afternoon. We checked into the room and Alexis immediately fell asleep. She was exhausted. She slept for an hour and a half. Then, the boys and Grandma Phyllis showed up. 

Gavin quickly left with one of our babysitters we hired to watch him for the night. We thought he was going to be sad to not be included, but he thought he was special to get ine on one time. He got to go to dinner with the babysitter, swimming and then sleep in grandmas hotel room. 

The rest of us headed to the dinner show. Conner was pretty excited he got to go. We were excited to see that Alexis's favorite nurse was at the evening show, and Alexis was super excited. Conner enjoyed getting a soda, special cucumbers and chicken strips, and taking photos and video with his camera. 

Alexis did such a great job and had so much fun! What an amazing experience for a little girl. Conner and Alexis were both so excited that even though it was late by time we got through the day, they couldn't fall asleep. Such a great feeling!

Treatment

Alexis had treatment today. We usually go on Tuesdays, but her fellow we love had class Tuesday's, so decided to go on a Wed to see her. That meant that our regular nurse was not there, though. So, we had a different nurse. I was a little nervous, as Alexis has gotten really attached to her nurse. She did great, and didn't flinch or cry when being accessed.

Between being accessed and seeing the doctor, we went down to see genetics. We decided to go ahead and do the most in-depth review of genetic screening. With both Laura's dad and Alexis having the same type of leukemia, we thought that combined with other info they might find might be benefitial to look into the genetics. So, Alexis got extra blood drawn while she was accessed and then both of us as parents got blood drawn as well. They will then look at each of our DNA, every single strand to try and identify any abnormalities. Although it probably won't benefit any of us, we are hoping it helps in identifying DNA sequencing in the future that may benefit others. At least a reason for all of us going through this!?!?! We won't get results for six months, though. 

We then went back upstairs to see the doctor. All looked good, we got a little chemo and headed home.