*good times = picture overload* :)

Good Friends, good sport! Our dearest friends Janeal, Tanner and Cole, came over for a fun game of flag football. DJ and Lily ran in circles around the big boys lol



Happy 16th Birthday Jahde!!!! 16 is such an exciting age.... driving and dating. :) I hope this is a fantastic year for you!!! You are such an awesome son and brother! We love you.



We met our goal!!!! :) Thank you SO much to all of you who donated!!! Large or small, those donations make a difference, and mean the world to me (and lots of other families with children with life threatening illnesses). It's like giving $5 to say you care :) The Hopekids Wasatch Adventure walk was held at This is the Place Heritage Park. The kids enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air with star wars characters, activities like face painting, horseback rides, baby animals and trains :) Hopekids raised over $10,000, which was raised from Hopekids families and their supporters!!! They had an anonymous donor that matched up to $10,000, putting the funds raised to over $20,000!!! AWESOME! THANKS EVERYONE! WE LOVE HOPEKIDS!!! Medically speaking, our burden has been lighter, as Toby has finished his chemo treatment and is only going in for check ups/blood draws. But financially, our burden is heavy, and Hopekids provides us with acivities that we can do together as a family.... things that we would never be able to do or afford on our own. It has also helped us meet other families going through similar things that we have gone through, which provides great support. Seriously, Hopekids is a wonderful, wonderful blessing in our lives.











DJ put some woodchips on this little, innocent goats back. He looked up at Dave and smiled and said "I DID IT" haha :)
Dave sported a turtle on his cheek (probably the signature for our family's speed in the hope walk lol) This sparked 2 more tiny turtles to be born on Toby's and DJ's cheeks :) I had the Hopekids sun logo on my cheek and Lily had a cute flower. Kyle opted out of face painting even though I pressured him to show his support for BYU :) (maybe that turned out to be a good thing- after that sad loss)

*Hope*

Our family is walking with Hopekids in the "Hopekids Wasatch Adventure 2009". This is of course in honor of Toby. :) www.caringbridge.org/visit/tobywilson . We have to raise $100 to participate, but our goal is to raise $250. We figure if we get $5 per family/household, we will easily meet our goal!!! :)

http://www.active.com/donate/uthopewalk/TobyGage

Thank you to everyone who has supported us the last 4 years. Your prayers and love have been appreciated more than you know!

~a bit about moi~

So I always post about everyone else, but rarely about me. And when it is about me, it's typically very whiney.....probably hard to stomach when reading :) I'm not promising that this post wont have some whining :)

Lily took this picture of me..... I was impressed with her camera snapping skills :)

So I get my words mixed up.....ummmm fairly frequently. I am well known for calling my friends Jenny and Kaneal, instead of Kenny and Janeal. I also commented that I could hear a 'DARK BOGGING'. It took my family and friends a while to figure out what I was saying and how I mixed it up. It wasn't a simple first letter swap like Kaneal, it was entire word switching. I was trying to say Dog Barking. Dark Bogging. Nowhere close eh? We laughed pretty good at that one! And most recent, I ran to the store. I pulled into the parking lot, parked my van, exited my van, looked around my van, and then mumbled under my breath to myself " I'm a parky crapper" which of course should have been "I'm a crappy parker". I laughed and felt completely foolish, as I "crapped parky" and laughed at myself out loud in public! And now as I sit here typing and eating, I dropped a pita chip with spinach dip down my shirt. I really know how to impress!!
So my calling is Stake Young Women's Athletic/Sports Director. I have really enjoyed this. We are getting ready to start up volleyball and I'm excited! Volleyball is, of course, my favorite sport! I am still playing with a group of fabulous women on Tuesday nights..... love it! I'm trying to get some co-ed VB going in our stake. Dave and I really enjoy playing together :)
I have moments in my life where fear is present. I know that fear and faith don't coinside, and I do my best, but sometimes I really do 'fear'. I say to myself "what if we lose our home" or "what if Toby relapses" or "what if my life never settles down". But I think in general my faith wins out over fear. I have my momentary panic, but then I'm able to tell myself "even if we lose our home, we have each other and we'll make it" or "even if Toby relapses, my Heavenly Father will comfort me and help us through it". So why fear at all when I know that I have a loving Heavenly Father who is constantly watching over me? Because I'm not perfect.
My life hasn't been easy. Ever since Toby was diagnosed there seems to be constant stress. I have found myself wishing I could 'go back, before he ever got sick, back to a normal life'. It isn't that there aren't good parts of my life now, there are, wonderful parts! But there is so much stress that comes with 2 divorcees, sick kids, hospital bills and appointments, and what feels to be constant adjustment. But I know through it all that Heavenly Father has been lifting me up, helping me breathe one breath at a time. He has blessed me so much, even though sometimes it's hard for me to focus on, and hard to notice ALL that I have been blessed with.
So my ankle is healing, feeling better and better (yes a true blessing)! I am able to play volleyball at a skill level that doesn't make me crazy :) I have a court date set Sept 30th to fight my (what I consider to be frivilous) ticket. Even though I get sick to my stomach thinking about court, I do believe this is worth fighting. Ok I think that's enough about me :) lol


So Lily started preschool today!!! :) She did fabulous!

Toby had Miss Mary for preschool, we love her!




And while she was at school, DJ and myself picked up aunt Darcee and her boys to take another tour of the Spanish Fork airport (again) :) If you live close by, you gotta do this..... it's so much fun! Pilot Porter and passenger DJ.

See ya later cousins, I'm done. lol

~Family Pictures~

This is not our family picture ;)- - Dave went to China. He was so excited to go, but was ready for a home cooked meal after the second day :) The Jet lag was really hard on him! He will probably be traveling there a few more times before the end of the year, to train some people his company hired over there. The kids and I made some crafts to welcome him home! They each painted a wall hanging on their own with what are supposed to be chinese letters :) Jahde just started 11th grade. Brandon is in 9th. They are such awesome big brothers!!! Jahde and Brandon were so fun when we got our pictures taken.... here's a glimpse Jahde also turned 16! We haven't officially celebrated his birthday yet, so I don't have any pics or details yet, they'll come soon :) But DJ and Lily sang him happy birthday :)

Kyle is now in the 6th grade. He is playing flag football and doing quite well! And Let me tell you how sweet Kyle is.... Kyle, Jahde and Brandon all ran to the store. When they came back, the only thing that Kyle had purchased, was a clone trooper for Toby, because "he knew Toby would love it!!!" :) Kyle doesn't have much money to spend, so it really touched me that he would do that!

Lexi is now in second grade. She is a social butterfly... friends with everyone. She was sad in this picture because she had just hurt her ankle, so it doesn't show her typical smile and the twinkle in her eye.


Toby is now in first grade! He loves school (and school lunch :). Ever since he started steroids, he's had an interesting appetite. Sometimes he'll eat twice as much as an adult, and other times he'll have a few bites and be done. He also hates breakfast. More often than not, he's eating ramen noodles for breakfast. So this morning as he gets his noodles fresh off the stove, he says "Oh Blessed Steam of Victory" hahaha He was asked to give a talk in primary. He cut out pictures of good things (praying, reading scriptures, going to church, bapstism, prophet, temple etc...). He found and cut out the pictures himself. He was going to show the pictures and talk about all the different things he could do to make Heavenly Father happy. When primary started, I opened the folder and there were 2 pictures left.... TWO! I went around the entire church, but couldn't find the missing pictures. I know they were in the folder, cuz we went over the talk a bit during the sacrament. Crazy. He did a great job anyway, but it was a bummer that all his preperation was in vein!



Lily will be starting preschool next week! She's been looking forward to this day since Toby started preschool 2 years ago! I know she'll do great. She said something yesterday which made Dave comment "you've GOT to put that on the blog" but a day has passed and that's as far back as my memory goes! So just know that she said something very clever/cute and it was blog worthy :) She also told me about the Holy Ghost. How we have the Holy Ghost... he helps us when we're lost or scared, he comforts us, guides us, helps us choose the right. He's a tiny ghost in a box that we can't see. Wait, what was that last sentence?... Evidently her primary teacher used an empty gift box to speak about the gift of the Holy Ghost :)



DJ... red eyelashes and all! :) DJ copies everything anyone says now. He makes us laugh a lot. Some of our favorites... "I DO", "Hey, Hey, HEY". As he holds an umbrella and dances around the living room, "It's raining". Or, he'll crouch down and bend his knees....standing really awkward, and then shout "HIKE!". haha We love it when he runs, and when he screams and pretends to panic when the blender goes on, or he's using his imagination with blocks!

Kyle, Toby, Lily and I will be singing in sacrament this Sunday. We are going to sing 'I Pray in Faith'. The kids sound great and I'm excited for them to share their talents. hmmmm I should get it on video as well :) Then after we sing, we will head up to Pleasant Grove so Dave can ordain Jahde.... awesome :)

*bruised head*

When you read the title of my blog *bruised head* I'll betcha you wonder which one of my children is spending a day in the dr.'s office...right? But you're so wrong! It's me! Nothing serious....no need to panic.... but totally retarded that my head is bruised. In Relief Society (church) on Sunday, I had the cutest little girl crawling around me. :) She kept reaching under my chair and bumping against my legs and such. I finally realized that she had lost a little toy ball under my chair. I quickly thought to myself 'I don't want her to get hurt and bump her head on my chair or anything... I'll get that for her'. Without a second thought (obviously lol) I leaned forward and BAM! Whacked my forehead forcefully on the chair in front of me! It was loud enough that I was suddenly the focus of the room! The crazy part is, I had been teary eyed through the lesson, and no doubt, some of those women thought I was crying from my bump lol hahaha




Jahde, Brandon, and Lexi are here with us right now (for 10 days). Lexi is constantly saying things that make me laugh. She told me that she was born in the year 2012. I kindly told her that that wasn't possible. She reassured me that she was indeed born in the year 2012. I then explained that the year 2012 hasn't happened yet, and maybe it's the year 2002. She told me to call her mom if I didn't believe her, because she was, in fact, born in the year 2012. I didn't call her mom :)
She also said, while thoroughly enjoying her Doritos, "I wish I was a chip, that way I could lick myself". haha

Toby lost his first tooth! He's very excited about it!!! The tooth fairy keeps forgetting to come (I told him I'd spank her when she finally dares shows her forgetful face)!




My mom and I went to the little local airport the other day with my kids and their cousins. I know I mentioned before that DJ loves airplanes, so I thought this would be the perfect outing. The kids got to sit in the driver seat of both an airplane and a helicopter. They learned about them....how to make them fly, and why/how that works. Then we got to watch some small aircraft take off and land and walked around and looked at some of the planes that were parked there. It was pretty cool

And last, but not least :) DJ followed me out in the garage the other day. I came in and left the door open, assuming he was following me. It had been a couple of minutes and he hadn't returned, so I asked Kyle to please check on him. Kyle was laughing and told me to grab the camera and come check it out. :) haha.

Well I'm off to take Brandon to his orthodontic appointment in AF! Tomorrow it's SLC/PCMC for Toby's clinic visit. Thursday it's Lehi for family pictures, then the YW stake sports night ...... I really need a nap! Oh, and Dave is flying to China on Saturday for work (the same day his kids head home). If anyone wants to come over and force me to take a nap, I wont stop you. :)