Family – The Cody Report

We’re still here….

June 7, 2016 Kyllan Leave a comment

The Cody family has been staying busy as usual, so we apologize we have not been keeping up with the blog. We have slowed down a little on Elliottblog too. William has been begging me to post, but honestly, at the end of the day after a full day of work and kids, I am burnt out and just want to relax.

So on to the update…

The most important and exciting thing is that everyone is doing great! We had a busy few months with William’s birthday in April, my birthday, Elliott’s 3rd birthday, Laurel’s pre-K graduation and first ballet recital in May. That is on top of our busy work schedules, Elliott’s chemo treatments, and all our other activities. Elliott is still responding well to treatment and kicking Leukemia’s butt and Laurel is full of energy and joy as usual. William has been losing weight and getting fit and trim and I am almost a year out from brain surgery, seizure free, and on the road to no seizure medication. Good news all around the Cody house.

Instead of making this a long post, I figured I would just post photos. Additional photos can be found on William’s Flickr page.

We visited Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glenrose, TX during Elliott’s birthday weekend. Such a cool place. The animals come right up to your car and you can feed the animals from your car window. The kids really enjoyed it.

Elliott chose some cool binoculars at Fossil Rim to get a close-up of the animals.

Laurel initially didn’t even want her window down, but she eventually enjoyed feeding the animals and getting a close-up look.

Happy 3rd Birthday Elliott! He loves cake and cupcakes.

Rehearsal for ballet recital

Perfecting the moves in rehearsal.

The dancer with her gifts after the recital

Pre-K Graduate!

Proud family!

Laurel is 4 years old!

July 24, 2015 Kyllan 1 Comment

Wow. This past year has gone by so fast. After getting news of Elliott’s cancer diagnosis on Laurel’s 3rd birthday, we were immediately consumed with treatment, clinic visits, medications, hospitalizations, juggling schedules, sleeping on air mattresses, stress eating, and the list goes on. I had no idea we wouldn’t blog for a whole year (except with updates on Elliottblog, but that really became our life). This year, we are so excited that we are healthy and ready for a fun birthday weekend for Laurel. She has been asking if it is her birthday since July 2nd, and the day is finally here.

So what is Laurel like at 4? Absolutely, positively, full of energy and life. She loves everything girly… jewelry, dress up, lip gloss, nail polish, shoes, dancing, dolls, hair, she loves it all. She has a very vivid imagination and knows how to have a good time. She loves to play with her friends and she is friends with EVERYONE. She will make a random friend at the science museum (true story). This summer, she has been in school, but she has also been taking swim lessons with her same classmates from last summer and also began taking ballet lessons. She seems to really enjoy ballet, so we will see how long it lasts. She took ice skating lessons this past winter, but she wasn’t super excited about it, so we stopped once her 6 week session was over. I think she will stick with ballet and dance longer, but we’ll see. She won’t have a recital until next May, but she should have more solid technique by then, so I will be super excited to see her and capture that moment. I think she would say her favorite meal is chicken, french fries and lemonade and her favorite movie is probably Sleeping Beauty. I am not sure why she likes that one so much, especially compared to the newer Disney movies, but it certainly is the most requested. Her favorite things to play with are probably her princess dresses or her Barbie dolls. If she is playing with Elliott, LEGO blocks would probably be the chosen activity. We also have membership to the Dallas Zoo and Perot Museum of Nature and Science this year and she has very much enjoyed going to both places now that Elliott can get out and about as well. Overall, she is a happy girl and knows how to have a good time. I hope she always stays that way. We need more happy people in the world.

We will post more photos after the party, but here are some from her impromptu party at home since today (Friday) was her actual Birthday.

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY LAUREL!! WE LOVE YOU!

Elliott’s Health

July 28, 2014 William Leave a comment

Thank you for all of your love and support. We will be using ElliottBlog.com to keep everyone updated on Elliott’s health.

Disney

July 21, 2014 William 1 Comment

The family took an impromptu trip to Disney World over Memorial Day weekend while we were in Jacksonville visiting my parents. In retrospect, taking a toddler and infant to Disney World on what may be their busiest day of the year may not have been the best timing. On top of that, it was also “Rock your Disney Side” day, one of the rare events where the Magic Kingdom is open 24-hours and people can wear costumes into the park, making it a even more popular weekend than usual.

Given all of that, we still had a great time! We stayed at Disney’s Art of Animation Studios, which worked great for us. We had a Finding Nemo themed family suite, which gave us plenty of room and Laurel absolutely loved! The entire place featured art and imagery from Finding Nemo, the Lion King, Cars, and the Little Mermaid. If I had to guess, I would say Ariel better watch out. I think Anna and Elsa may be coming for her wing at the resort during the next renovation. Speaking of Anna and Elsa, we didn’t get to meet them at the park. Even when we woke up early and went straight there, the line was 420 minutes long. It was the only attraction that ran out of fast-passes ahead of time. Turns out Laurel was happy enough seeing the characters in the parades. We did, however, wait in line to see Tinkerbell, but that didn’t turn out like we expected. If you didn’t already know, Laurel is a huge Tinkerbell fan. She has seen all the movies… at least 20 times each. She would not stop talking about how excited she was and what she was going to talk to Tinkerbell about the entire time we were in line. As soon as she went up to meet her she claimed up. After an hour in line, she made a duck face in every photo. EVERY PHOTO!

I think Kyllan’s favorite part of the trip was watching all of the parades. Laurel’s was definitely Finding Nemo the Musical, especially after staying in a Nemo room. Kyllan and I were both shocked by how much Elliott enjoyed Its a Small World. In fact, he still perks up whenever he hears the music. My favorite was Kilimanjaro Safari in the Animal Kingdom. I think our time at the Animal Kingdom really made the trip. The crowds, the heat, and the waits at the Magic Kingdom were just too much for the kids to bare and the Safari and Finding Nemo the Musical were the two best attractions in the entire park. We have tons of pictures from the trip. Here are a few below.

Summer Post

July 15, 2014 William Leave a comment

This summer has proven to be a hectic one in the Cody house. Kyllan has started a new job, my research lab at the university is keeping me busy, Laurel now has her own social calender and Elliott has been fighting a nasty bug. However, it has not been all work and no play. We have still managed to have quite a bit of fun! I have been uploading pictures to Flickr, but have not managed to sit down and post about our adventures.

At the end of may my father received a humanitarian award from OneJax, an interfaith organization that promotes diversity. Kyllan and I were able to make it down to Jacksonville for the awards ceremony. Find the pictures here.

From the OneJax website:

This award recognizes individuals for their outstanding dedication and community service. William Cody, MD is one of four recipients of the 2014 Silver Award. Prior to joining St. Vincent’s Medical Center in 1991, Dr. Code practiced in the U.S. Naval Hospital. He spent countless hours teaching young physicians in the Family Practice Residency to care for and treat women. Dr. Cody personally delivered hundreds of babies and also supervised hospital residents. Much of the time and service he gave was uncompensated. Dr. Cody is currently the medical staff president-elect for St. Vincent’s, Riverside. He is an active member of the Deerwood Rotary Club and has enlisted the aid of his club in sponsoring nurses’ travel on the Haitian missions.

While in Florida Kyllan and I made an impromptu trip to Disney World with the Kids. It was an interesting trip, to say the least. I’ll make another post about the trip later this week.

The month may also means Graduations, especially in the Cody house where there is a graduation every year. Here is a link to pictures from my university’s graduation and from my cousin’s graduation.

Elliott’s 1st Birthday

June 16, 2014June 16, 2014 William Leave a comment

Yes, Elliott’s birthday was almost a month ago. I know. We’re trying, but we are exhausted.

For Elliott’s actually birthday we took the kids to the Fort Worth Zoo. (We went to the Dallas Zoo for Laurel’s 2nd birthday.) We had a great time and took loads of pictures. Laurel loved seeing all of the animals and I pretty sure she thought the trip was for her. Elliott simply enjoyed being outside and seeing new things. Kyllan and I were happy to have two well behaved kids! When we returned from the zoo Elliott opened his presents and we had birthday cupcakes. It’s been rough on her. My mom’s birthday, my dad’s birthday, my birthday, Kyllan’s birthday and then Elliott’s birth just come one after the other and she cannot figure why hers isn’t here yet.

You can find all the photos from the day here.

Elliott’s 1st Birthday Party

June 2, 2014 William Leave a comment

Here are some photos from Elliott’s 1st birthday party. We had a few friends in the neighborhood over for the party. It was our first real attempt at entertaining in the house and it was really nice to share the occasion. The theme was robots, a take on his bedroom theme of robots and rockets. (I think for birthday #2 we will do a rocket theme.) No injuries this year! Pictures can be found here.

Photos from Kyllan’s Birthday

May 20, 2014May 20, 2014 William Leave a comment

With all of the preparations for Elliott’s 1st birthday, I never got around to posting photos from Kyllan’s. Laurel and Elliott helped Kyllan celebrate with cupcakes from Sprinkles. Later I took Kyllan to dinner at one of favorite restaurants, which felt like our first real night out in almost 3 years. I don’t think we have had as much fun talking in a restaurant since I took her to Olive Garden for our first date in Horse Heads, Ny almost 12 years ago. I plan to upload the photos from Elliott’s party and birthday soon. There are so many that I don’t know where to start!

Happy Birthday Kyllan

May 6, 2014 William 3 Comments

Today is Kyllan’s birthday! I hope that it is a quite day filled with obedient children and a doting husband.

A Look Back at Elliott’s 1st Christmas

January 25, 2014 William Leave a comment

This past Christmas was an exciting one for the Cody. It was our first Christmas with Elliott. Much like Laurel’s first Christmas, he was not old enough to really know what was going on or be excited for the occasion. He was just happy about all of the attention he received, the paper he was allowed to tear, and that there were new items to stick in his mouth. Laurel, on the other hand, was all about Christmas this year. She was very excited about the “Angela” on the tree and loved looking at all of the ornaments. We were not able to put gifts out until Christmas Eve once she had gone to sleep because she keep trying to open the first few things we put under the tree. On Christmas she could believe it was finally time to open presents and could not get enough. Not only did she open all of her’s, I think she open all of Kyllan’s and half of Elliott’s. Both sets of parents and Kyllan’s sister’s family joined us for Christmas dinner. A few pictures are below. You can see them all here.