Happy Birthday Toby!! :) Toby had a Kung Fu Panda birthday party. It was so much fun. We had family and friends over. What's a party without a pinata, right? Toby cracked that thing open on his first swing! We of course let every kid take a few swings at it even though it was empty. :)
So all the kids at the party got these Kung Fu Panda character masks. We had to pop the eyes out of them. Kyle, Jahde and Brandon then put those eyes to good use!!!



Toby loved the new Jazz Jersey his dad sent him. It even has HIS name on the back :) He also got a remote control batmobile which he's quite excited about. It was so cute as he was opening a present and someone said "oh a coloring book" and then Toby's friend Chase said "Not just ANY coloring book, that's a STAR WARS coloring book" haha Kids are so cute!


In this picture, Toby is smiling ear to ear while opening a greeting card that plays the star wars theme.
Thanks to all of our family and friends for celebrating with us and helping to make it a special day for Toby!
Preparing for and hosting a party on one foot is kinda exhausting lol
And now a trip down memory lane :)

Age 5 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Theme

Age 4 Star Wars Theme

Age 3 Dinosaur Theme

Age 2 Dinosaur Theme (yes, my boys have liked dinosaurs a lot)

Toby turning 1 .... no theme.... no pic of a cake, except what's being eaten!

"Uh Uh"

The other night we were having fun with Derek's vocabulary. Our entire family was sitting on our bed and asking DJ to say different words he knows. I said "say Momma" he said "momma". Kyle said "say dadda", he said "dadda". Toby said "say bottle", he said "bottle". Say on, on. Say eye, eye. Say no no, no no. Say hi, hi. DJ repeated each word perfectly, keeping us all asking for more words. After a while Dave said "say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", he said "Uh Uh" LOL We all laughed SO hard. It was hilarious!!!! Each night our family does a cheer before we go to bed in conjunction with scripture study and family prayer. We make up our cheer during FHE each week to reinforce the principles that week. Well this week we couldn't resist and our cheer is - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, then in turn we say uh uh(dave), uh uh(me), uh uh(kyle), uh uh(toby), uh uh(lily) and then inevitably DJ will chime in with his UH UH.....usually even in rhythm lol.... it's so funny!
I am learning that having a broken food is much harder than I anticipated. I have so many things I want to do, wish I could do, need to do......and can't. I do not recommend breaking your right ankle to anyone!
And last but not least.....tomorrow is Toby's 6th birthday. This is his last birthday on chemo. I am planning on printing out Toby's caringbridge site and making it into a book for him to keep. I would appreciate it SO much if you would take a minute and sign his guestbook and wish him happy birthday. You can click on the link on the side of my blog if you lost or don't have the address. Toby has been through so much the past 3 plus years. His courage and strength have been phenomial. I want him to know how much he was loved. I want him to know that he has many wonderful people who pray for him and remember him. Thank you All!

What was that pop?

So Tuesday night I was playing volleyball with my friends at the stake center. We just signed up for a league team that starts next week. We haven't played for a while because of the holidays, so I was quite excited to be back on the court. I was playing back row, receiving the serve. I turned to reach a ball, twisted all the way around, heard a loud pop, and fell to the ground. Even the other team heard the loud pop. They thought I had hit my knee on the floor really hard when I fell. I told them I thought I broke my foot. I wasn't crying, so they thought It wasn't serious, or I was joking. I knew something was really wrong though. I have sprained this ankle 3 times now. So my dear friends tied my shoe up tight and helped me hop outside. It was my right foot, so I couldn't drive home. Maxine drove my van home, and Savannah followed to be able to take Maxine back home (thanks so much guys!). I came in and shared the news with Dave. At this point, I did start crying, but not because of pain. My sweet mother came over to stay with the kids while Dave drove me to the ER. The wait wasn't too bad there. I did break my ankle. The bone on the outside. I was given crutches and a boot. I am to stay off of it for 6 weeks. 6 weeks! Ok here comes my whinning, but I don't know how I'm going to manage this. I have a 1 year old baby who needs to be lifted into his high chair, crib, car seat etc. He can walk, but is still very much dependent upon me. I have to drive to pick up and drop off my kids at school 1,2, sometimes 3 times a day? Grocery shopping? making dinner? Oh my goodness it's overwhelming to me right now. Not to mention the fact that I no longer get to play on my volleyball team. Volleyball was the one thing that I have done for myself, and the one place that I see friends. Don't get me wrong, my kids and my husband are my very best friends in the world, but sometimes it's nice to talk to another adult now and then. Anyone have any suggestions on how I can manage to do something for myself right now, when I can't really even take care of my kids? haha UGH

Do you want to be smart?

Toby asked Lily if she wanted to go downstairs and go to pre-school with him, and he would be the teacher. Lily said no. Toby asked Lily if she wanted to be the smartest kid in kindergarten when she started school. Lily said yes. Toby got excited and told Lily to come downstairs with him and he would teach her... So Lily had her first class last night, and another one this morning. She earned 300 points and got a treat! I asked Lily what she was learning in school. She brought me a bunch of papers and said "I'm learning all of this". I asked again, wanting her perspective, and Toby answered for her (math, writing, eating broccoli because it's good for you etc.) I asked again, and told Toby I wanted Lily to answer. Toby went and whispered in Lily's ear "tell her you're learning math" (way too obvious - he must think I didn't graduate from my sibling taught pre-school, or my teachers, Dar? Krissy?, didn't teach me much :). Lily then told me that she was learning "laugh". And then with some help corrected herself and said "math".
Lily saw the words 'I love you' and decided she wanted to write them down. She wrote it and then added mom, Toby, Kyle, Lily, DJ. She'll do just fine in kindergarten in 2010 I think :)
Toby and Kyle were playing a game with Jono and Alex (friends from Australia). Kyle and Alex won, but it was such a close game! As soon as it ended, Toby got in Kyles face and said "Curse you, foul beast!" He really is hilarious!
Kyle is playing city league basketball and really applying himself. He's doing great. He continues to thrive at the top of his class. It seems he's becoming popular with the ladies now too....skeery! Jono and Alex went to school with him yesterday to experience a day at an American school....kinda cool. :) It was great having the Kimmings in our home. They are wonderful people.
Derek is getting pretty good at communicating. He says "bottle, more, apple, nanna, momma, dad, hi, ball, bubble". He copies sounds or rhythm that he hears the other kids doing. His personality is really starting to shine through and it's so fun!
I am just so grateful for my children!!! :)

What this time of year brings....

If you've had eperience with steroids, you'll understand this post. If you haven't -be thankful- and know I'm not exaggerating. :) Toby has had a lazy taco (corn chips, chili, lettuce, sour cream,and salsa) every single day, for both breakfast and lunch for several days now. Not only is he eating it all the time, but he's eating a TON of it. He has an adult size portion with seconds. It is so funny to me how these cravings effect him. Nothing else is even remotely appealing to him. But at least he'll usually eat something else for dinner right?
We went to a BYU basketball game the other night, courtesy of Children with Cancer Christmas Foundation. We've got some BYU fans in our family, so we were really excited and thankful to go. They had us and the other cancer families meet 8 minutes before halftime. At halftime they had us line up on the court and showed a short clip about CCCF and some of the CCCF families. Then they had us walk across the court, smiling and waving. I had no idea what to expect and thought it would be simple. The crowd rose to their feet and started applauding all these sweet children with cancer. They also played John Williams Olympic Theme as we walked. It brought tears to my eyes. I thought it was awesome!


We were bombarded with snow a couple days ago. Lily and DJ really enjoyed playing in it. It was so cute....I had DJ in his snow clothes, but no boots yet and he was standing at the door "talking" and anxiously waiting. I held up his boots and he ran over to me. Once I put his boots on, he bolted for the door and screamed like a girl. It was hilarious. Then Uncle Bret stopped by and he and the boys threw a ball for his dog Ally out in the snow. They had a blast!