Today we celebrated Lily's 4th Birthday! It was a purrrrfect kitty birthday party.

Lily and her friends made these cute little princess crowns and some charm bracelets at the party. The girls were so cute! I honestly think this party turned out to be a success. :).... I know!

Lily is such a beautiful princess!

My sweet baby girl Lily cut her hair today. First time ever. It's not too bad, or too much, but was quite a shock to me. She doesn't typically get into mischief. I saw the scissors on the floor and asked her to please put them away (didn't have a second thought about it). Then she moved and some hair fell. Then I saw another small clump of hair on the floor. I then asked her what she had been doing, and she just smiled. I added a bit of tone to my voice and asked her if she had just cut her hair. She said "yes", and smiled. I was surprised and asked her why she had cut her hair, and her response was "mom, you're not proud of me", in a sad, innocent voice. I hope she really didn't think that was going to make me proud, but just in case, I didn't scold her, just told her to always talk to me or ask me first before doing something. "At least she didn't cut her face", as she would say. haha She's such a beautiful girl. Anway, this is a picture of her at the piano. She can play Mary Had a Little Lamb and is quite proud of herself. I started teaching her, but she pretty much just took over and learned it herself by ear, practicing. It's very cute. She can also play a little duet with me which she loves.


The other night I read a book to the kids called "The Dumb Bunnies Easter". These "dumb bunnies" get all their holidays mixed up and do very punny, silly things. It is dumb, but it makes us laugh. After we were done reading, Toby and Lexi ran off to dress like dumb bunnies. Thanks Dave for capturing this dumb bunny memory! haha


And last but not least.....we got a lot of snow the other day. Brandon and Kyle built a really cool snow cave in our front yard (big enough for them to fit in, as you can see). :)

This pictures is intended to help lighten the mood. I've been so stressed out lately with everything going on, (check out Toby's site if you aren't familiar, www.caringbridge.org/visit/tobywilson) so I wanted to take a minute and breathe. DJ will not be happy to see this picture when he gets older. I know, it's sick and wrong, but my goodness his hair is long, red and cooperative. haha :)

He's such a sweet baby boy! I love my kids.

8 blessings in my life

I have so much to be thankful for, but these are my top 8!


DJ aka DEREK
What a sweet baby! I love the way your smile lights up the room. I love the way you start dancing or rocking back and forth the minute you hear music. I love to hear you say "no no" or "uh oh", when you've done something you shouldn't have. I love the loud squeals of excitement. I love the way you run and giggle when I chase after you. I love your sweet hugs and cuddles. I love how happy you are to see me.

LILY
Our beautiful princess! I love to listen to you sing. I love the random letters you write asking me "what does this say", and when I reply "that says 'blirylana'", you say "I WROTE blirylana!" with such excitement, that we all wish it were a word! I love how you'll carry your books around with you, wanting to read and learn. I love that you're "so happy". I love your sincerety and abundance of love.

TOBY
My hero! I love your strength. I love all the funny things you say, that make us laugh on a daily basis. I love your desire to do what's right. I love it when you say "Hug me Brotha" to Kyle. I love it when you wont let someone walk out the door before they hug you. I love your 'no fear' approach to learning or trying new things. I love the way you belt out primary songs, right on pitch, happy to be singing them.

KYLE
The Wisemaster! I love the understanding you have of OH SO much, especially the gospel. I love the way you help your siblings. I love the example you set for them. I love your drive to learn about, and participate in sports. I love your ability to sing harmony....the tenor is so impressive. I love the quiet hours you spend reading, and time you spend reading to your younger brothers and sisters. I love your wit.

JAHDE
Marching on to Glory! I love the spirit about you. I love your drive in Band, and your skill and successes with music. I love how good you are to everyone in our family. I love that you're a peacemaker. I love the funny things you do to entertain me and the kids. I love it when you want dad to drive faster or slower so you can check out a cute girl in the car next door. :)

BRANDON
Showman with style! I love your confidence. I love your willingness to give, or to try. I love the quality time you spend with people. I love your athletic ability (especially swimming and basketball), and the hard work you put into improving your talents. I love the way you're responsible, with money, and just with life in general. I love your laugh.

LEXI
Our cuddly Princess! I love your excitement for life. I love to hear your thoughtful prayers (especially the one where you said "thankful it's Thanksgiving because we LOVE turkey, and help us to get full"). I love that when choosing which Articles of Faith to quote, you called number 66.:) I love the way you get along with everyone. I love the way hold my hand or give me a sweet hug, just cause.

DAVE
My rock! I love the way you take care of me. I love the way you take care of all of our children. I love your temperament. I love the silly banter. I love your athleticism. I love your intelligence and turtle brains. I love the way you play with my hair. I love your hands. I love the deep converstaions in the middle of the night, full of insight, hope, faith and love.

There are many, many more things than I've listed, and many of you share the same talents, but I had to vary things up a bit :)

~Celebrations~

DJ turned 1 today :) We had a simple party here with the kids. I'm not sure if it's the weather or the effects of ginormous amounts of candy, but it sounded like we had 77 kids in the house, not 7 :) Fun party anyhoo :) And Halloween was fun... a couple teletubbies, a ghost, a clone trooper, a cowgirl, and a bomber pilot.... you can't go wrong!


So the teletubbies costumes weren't quite as obvious as I'd hoped, but wasn't Dave a good sport? :) I had put together the red Po costume for myself, and the night before Halloween Dave said "Can I borrow your costume for work", so I ran out and got some green sweats and tried to alter a black hat to look like Dipsy. It's much more fun to dress up with someone :) So for the teletubbie belly TV's I purchased some stick-on glittery felt. Lily got one of the pieces and drew a picture of a snail (Gary from spongebob lol) and wrote his name next to the picture. She then wanted to cut out her work. She came to me a while later and showed me her masterpiece and then told me "Mom, I did it, and I didn't even cut my face!" haha If I'd only known that was something to worry about in the first place! Kyle also said something amusing today. During sacrament meeting in church he turned to me and asked me what SACRAMENT meant....as I was quietly thinking he said "I mean, does it have any Foreignese meaning". FOREIGNESE hahaha He knew what he meant, and he knew it came out funny, but it was still a brilliantly wrong word! :) And since I can't recall Toby's latest funny, I'll reminisce..... When Lily was watching Dora, Toby proclaimed, "That will poison your mind and give you evil thoughts". :) I just love my kids!!!!


(in case you haven't visited our youtube site)

seriously

Isn't it so cute when babies start getting into everything.... including the dishwasher! haha DJ is a hoot. He is taking steps on his own, wobbly steps of course. He also has learned how to go up and down the stairs and would do it all day if I let him. He is almost 1 year old. I can't believe it.

Am I crazy for wanting to dress up like a Teletubbie for Halloween? I say no! My husband and children will smile and say no, but deep down they are praying I wont do it. Too late! HA! I've got it all worked out :) Think how many toddlers faces will light up when they see a life size teletubbie! Woohooo! I will definitely share a picture when I get one.
So I've officially been released from 2 of my callings in church (my third calling is ward chior - I know :) I was the music (what's the official name?) person?leader?directer?teacher?....ugh, I was in charge of the music in Relief Society, and I was on the enrichment commity. They released me and called me to be a teacher in Relief Society. This is a first for me. I have typically served in the primary, which I have loved!!! I am excited for the opportunity to strengthen my testimony as I study and prepare. I was also called in to meet with a member of the stake presidency. He then told me that they wanted me to serve as the Stake Relief Society President.... haha isn't he just the funniest, ya I thought so too! Then, in seriousness, he asked me if I would be willing to be the stake Athletic Director for the Young Women. I accepted. I have never served in Y.W. either and I'm very excited about this calling as well. Thank goodness my husband is very supportive! My kids too, but they don't know that they have a choice not to be :)

I love this time of year!

I really love the fall! I love it when it gets cool, but the sun is still shining! So why am I inside writing on my blog instead of enjoying the beautiful weather out there? ha I have no idea! But the cool, crisp air takes me back to Michigan and our time spent at the apple orchards.....oh so fantastic! I always thought I hated Michigan :) but the fall was absolutely beautiful and fun! I really miss it sometimes. Especially Uncle John's Cider Mill. I hope I get to take all of my kids there for a visit sometime soon.
I really enjoyed conference this weekend. I was really in need of a bit of a lift, and appreciate the opportunity to be lifted up. I also found that I was able to take more to heart this time, and apply things to myself, instead of thinking 'oh so-and-so could really benefit from this talk'.... yeah I'm sometimes quite pathetic. In between sessions, the kids and I made Gingerbread men. We have read The Gingerbread Man a few times lately, and love that book, so I thought it would be a lot of fun to each make one :) We didn't have a cookie cutter, so we shaped them with our hands, so they are a bit....um awkward looking lol It was fun, but also a bit of a pain..... and then our cookies didn't come to life, nor were they very tastey :) Even the frosting didn't entice us to eat them. So our Gingerbread men didn't need to run as fast as they could, cuz we were by no means going to chase them haha
Don't forget to check out our latest youtube videos (the link is in the sidebar) :)

It's not about waiting for the storm to pass....

It's about dancing in the rain. My dear friend Courtney shared this quote with me one day when I was a bit down ... thanks Court! I will keep dancing! But let me just say...... A 3 year dance, 1/3 of it without a dance partner, sometimes with an extremely fast beat, and four children to teach all the dance moves to........ well, I'm exhausted! I do know that I've been blessed with a lavish dance floor, and an excellent dance partner at the moment, four kids who can really keep the beat, and the best dance instructor in the world, and for that I am grateful. I'm still tired though :)

I need more time!

Once I started this blog I was soooooo excited and I was going to somehow make time to post on it. I obviously haven't done so well. One of these days I'm going to post a bunch of pics of birthday cakes through the years. We've been busy. Toby is playing kickball and Lily is in a dance class. They are both only 6 week classes through the community. This Thursday is the last of the classes. Lily will miss her last class though because she's going up to PCH for a VCUG test :( I'm anxious about it, but I also have great faith in miss Lily and know everything will be ok. Toby went up last Thursday for ultraveinous chemo. It was actually a kinda fun visit because we had Kyle, Lily, and of course Derek with us. The visit was relatively smooth and then we got to meet Aunt Nikki and her cute kids Ethan and Annabelle for lunch. We put our home for sale on the market this last weekend. We are trying to downsize and also get in a neighborhood closer to the school so I don't have to drive 3 times a day 5 days a week when school starts...... ugh! :)

Fix You

I love this video clip. Lily was an early talker (and obviously singer). She was only just over a year old when I recorded this. Toby had recently been diagnosed with Leukemia and this song had/has a special meaning to me with the title "Fix You". This song really made me cry, but it also made me smile when Lily would sing it. I still wish that I could Fix Toby, but we've learned to plug through our trials in life. We all just keep singing!

Isn't he such a cute baby!!! :)

The time has come....The time is now.

It's time for me to start a blog. I have been keeping an online journal....kinda sorta....through my son Toby's caringbridge site, but that's dedicated to him. This blog is for our entire family. I have felt like I just don't have time to keep up with two journals, but no one is expecting anything from me (right?) :) So why not just type in here when I can, and make this site a fun break if and when I can? Obviously a rhetorical question. Sheesh, I don't know who I'm talking to, this might take some getting used to!