January 2012 = 7 YEARS CANCER FREE FOR KYLE!! Happy New Year!

Yep, that’s right! Kyle has been cancer free since January 2005. It seems like the time has just flown by and we thank God every day that Kyle has remained cancer free. As most of you may know, Kyle’s retinoblastoma was caused by a gene mutation which makes him at a higher risk of developing other cancers in other parts of his body. Cheers to living day by day and being thankful for all the small things! Kyle is our source of inspiration and even at the age of 9 he is and will always be my little HERO!

This holiday season has been fantastic, the kids have been out of school since December 20th. We have been enjoying lazy mornings and lots of movie nights. Christmas Eve was spent baking cookies, well the girls and I baked while Daddy and Kyle played football on the Xbox and asked every 5 minutes when they would be done. It was a day full of laughs and way too much eating!!

The kids woke up bright and early on Christmas Day and very eager to tear into gifts. If any of you have been following us on facebook you would know that Kyle has been asking for a long time for a phone. I have struggled with this concept so much because, let’s be honest, what 9 year old in the world NEEDS a phone?? It is all about wanting what everyone else has and I think that is why I was opposed to the idea in the first place. With that being said, if you know Kyle you would understand how hard he is to buy for. Even as a toddler he was never into toys all that much. Give the boy a basket of tennis or softballs and he would entertain himself for hours! I remember one time when we lived in Iwakuni, Japan we had friends visit our home for the first time. We always kept a basket of baseballs, tennis balls and softballs(this was before golf balls invaded our house) in our living room and as our friends were looking around he said “I didn’t know you guys had a dog?” I asked what would make him think that because we didn’t. He pointed to the basket of balls and laughed…..we explained “Oh no, they are Kyle’s”. Still cracks me up to think about. Anyway, back to Christmas….. yes, I caved!! I submitted to buying my child something that he absolutely doesn’t need because I just did, I gave in at a weak moment and bought Kyle a phone for Christmas! I knew that we were going to be buying our girls new phones for Christmas because they were due for upgrades so we just gave in and said why not Kyle too. Knowing that this would be the one gift that he would be blown away to get we made him wait it out until the very end. We had the girls open theirs first and of course they were screaming and jumping up and down with excitement while Kyle watched. After everyone opened all the other gifts we had hid Kyle’s phone in the back corner of the tree. Jeff called his number and the box started to ring. I acted very confused and asked Kyle to crawl under the tree to see who’s phone was under there. As soon as he crawled under and saw the box ringing with his name on it, he was through the roof excited. I tried to snap a couple pictures but he was moving around so fast I was only able to get this one…..

Not hard to see the excitement on his face!

He also got a kinect for his xbox, he was really excited to get the kinect sport.

He has been adding contacts into his phone all week and has been texting friends to include Kyle Korver, Greg Norman, and Jason Kapono. It really cracks me up that they text back and sometimes text him first! He is also tweeting a little more…..sometimes he tweets stuff you would rather he didn’t, for example his tweet a couple of days ago was “Golfing with my dad and he just hit a house.” Yeah Kyle, Daddy would probably rather you not throw him under the bus with your tweets!!

We did go golf a couple of days ago. It has been in the 80′s here in SoCal and wonderful weather for golf. The last round was at Legends Golf Course here in Temecula. Kyle had fun meeting a new friend named Matthew that had just gotten clubs for Christmas. They played 9 holes together with the dads…..I would have to say the boys did better, I’m just being honest! A great time was had by all and I loved the way Kyle was encouraging Matthew through out the round. Kyle is truly a great kid….but I am a Mom so I guess every mom says that!

Kyle and Matthew

Kyle LOVES his Dad! The golf course just isn’t the same without him

LOVE HIS SWING!!

We hope you all had a fantastic holiday season and we wish you all the best in 2012. January has become one of our favorite months because each time it comes by we get to add one more year to his cancer free count! Retinoblastoma is a horrible cancer that can silently steal the sight of sweet innocent babies. For that very reason, TKE is determined to raise awareness and make sure every mom, dad, grandmother, aunt, uncle and grandpa knows what to look for. It is possible to save the sight before it is too late. We couldn’t save Kyle’s sight in his left eye and I always wonder if we would have known what to look for, could we have saved his vision? We will never know and we can’t live in the “what if”, we can only live in the now and help others by spreading the word about retinoblastoma.

Start 2012 of right……I would like to challenge you all!! In honor of Kyle’s 7 year cancer free anniversary, I ask that you all share this post , his facebook page or his website with at least 7 of your family and friends…..you never know who may read it, who may see the early signs of retinoblastoma in their own child, or their grandchild, niece or nephew. You could save a child’s sight and in some cases, you could save a life!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU! Make 2012 great, TKE plans to do just that! We will continue our Fight Fore Sight…..wanna join us??

God Bess,

The Lograsso Family