Welcome Grandchild #7

Welcome to our 7th grandchild, Maggie May Colton. Maggie was born yesterday in Phoenix. I will be able to go visit her next week and I can't wait. Her pictures look just like her dad when he was first born. But of course those babies always change so much from what their picture looks like. Her mom, dad, and big brother Josh are all doing well.



Here is our most recent family photo, taken on Thanksgiving day. My son Daniel and his family, Holly who was pregnant then but not any more... and their son Josh (all dressed is white). Mauri and her family, husband Nathan, kids Katelyn, Elli, and Wesley, all in black. Jenna and her family, husband Jared, kids Jacob and Abbie all in green. And my parents and I are in red. It was nice to have the whole family together for the holidays.

0 to 60 in 3 days

I spent the past few days in Phoenix. I drove down with Mauri and her three kids on Wednesday and Thursday. They were great little travelers. We left Provo at 1:00 Wednesday afternoon and got all the way to Flagstaff. Which made the second day easier with only 2 1/2 hours of driving to go.

Thanks to my dad, who lives in Flagstaff. We appreciate your home away from home.

YOORAY to the Susan G. Komen walk for the cure for cancer. We raised over $5 million this weekend on our 3 day walk. There were 2,120 walkers in the Phoenix area on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

How thankful I am to all my family, friends, my kids friends, and friends of friends for all your donations and support. THANK YOU to all my support group for your donations!!! For three days prior to the walk I began receiving donations from people I don't even know (yet). It was emotional for me to open my email on numerous occasions and see that I had received a donation from someone I don't know. THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for all your support. I felt like the waitress and cop in "It Could Happen To You" when the city of New York sent money to two people they didn't know, just to show their support.

When I count my blessings my support group is at the top of that list. Someone is looking out for me, or rather I should say thousands of people are looking out for me. Thank you for your prayers on my behalf this past weekend, and for your messages and phone calls while I was walking. Thank you to those who came to the cheering stations to encourage, and show your love on our behalf. I knew it would be an emotional weekend but I had no idea it would turn out like it did.

My sister-in-law Carolyn, along with the help of Mauri, put together a wonderful book of those who sent pictures holding a sign saying you are on Darla's Team. Thank you for sending your pictures in, I can look at that book for hours and spend a great deal of time on each picture thinking about you and the memories we have had together. How grateful I am for your friendships. Thanks Mauri for "hacking" into my email account and sending an email out to my friends. Thank you Carolyn for such a fun idea.

Here we are with Carolyn when she came to one of the rest stops. She brought Mauri's baby Wesley so he could nurse. Oh why not, it's a weekend about the breasts.



Another sister-in-law Melanie and her family made candy lays and gave them to Mauri, Jenna, and me as we entered the closing ceremony after 3 long hard days of walking. The lays were a big hit, not only to the three of us but to hundreds of fellow walkers who thought they were pretty cool. Thank you Melanie, Jane, Thomas, and Brad.

Here is a picture of us when Melanie came to one of the rest stops.



Thank you mom for being there for me. I know it's hard to think your child may die before you. I know you would rather have this disease and just take it away from me, moms are like that. But don't worry I called the doctor during the walk and found out my cancer count had gone down almost 200 points. I'm doing great! Well, all except for the blisters I have on the bottom of my feet from the walk. Maybe not so much blisters plural, but just one huge blister covering the entire foot.

Thank you especially to my wonderful kids for all their love and support. THANK YOU Mauri and Jenna for walking with me and encouraging me every step of the way, not only now but throughout my life. Thank you to my son Daniel for his blog posts, heartfelt prayers, and always knowing just the right thing to say. And to all my kids and their spouses for your love and support. I know it's hard to know how to be supportive when you just want the disease to go away, when you just want the pain to go away. How do you show someone how much you care about them?

NOW FOR THE WALK...

Here we are ready to begin our journey.





My wonderful kids.



Opening ceremony, pink, pink, and more pink.



We had cheerleaders along the entire route. Neighborhoods coming out on every street passing out popsicles, cold cloths to wipe our necks, candy, stickers, ice water, etc. The support of the entire city was amazing. Practically every car honking as they drove past us. I think we only caused two accidents because the drivers were looking at us instead of the road.



On Friday when school was in session, the elementary school kids had pink ribbons and signs on their school yard fence showing their support. And the children all stood at the fence with their hands sticking through the chain link fence wanting to give us a 'high five' as we walked past.



Here we are at one of the rest stops. Still smiling.



The sprinklers came on while we were walking through this park. Startling but refreshing.



Lots of fun signs held up by the Phoenicians. This one was one of our favorites.



The walkers could carry banners along the route. We held these two for awhile and then you pass them on to another walker.





End of the first day, and our sea of pink tents.



Here are my cute girls walking in front of me across the over pass on Interstate 10.



Some of my fabulous friends from Scottsdale came to one of the cheering stations. Thank you Lesa, Leanne, Jill, Brenda, and Cindy.



Close to ASU, 'A' Mountain is ahead of us, but I'm not sure you can see the 'A' on the hillside.



We had a nice breeze when we were walking down the Mill Avenue bridge across the Tempe Lake.



Beautiful scenery through the desert.



Informative signs at each rest stop telling you how far you've gone and how far until the end.



Even baby Wesley wears a shirt that says, "I wear pink for my Grandma".



And of course there must be porta-potties at every stop.



There was a lot of community support. How cool is a pink breast cancer firetruck? And YES you see a wheelchair in this picture. There were several people being pushed by their friends in a wheelchair. Friends don't let friends walk alone.



We all got to sign the firetruck.





At the finish line.



Gathering for the closing ceremony.



Entering Scottsdale Stadium for the closing ceremony.



The cancer survivors were given pink shirts and the support walkers had white shirts. As the survivors walked in the support walkers held up their shoes.



Three happy but tired walkers. Thank you all!!!

Visit to Phoenix

I figured I would commandeer my mom's blog momentarily to share a little bit about her short trip to Phoenix last week. Now before the Phoenicians get all riled up wondering why she didn't visit any of you while she was here, let me explain her reason for the trip. My beautiful wife Holly has been on modified bed rest for the past month or so and needs someone to help out with things around the house, not the least of which is wrangling our very active 2-year old Josh. My mom was sweet enough to come down for four days to help us out. Therefore, she had a full-time job around our house and wasn't able to see any of her friends. I'm sure she'll catch you all when she's comes to town again. On to the pictures:

While my mom was with us, she made our traditional Halloween dinner, Pumpkin Stew. To make it all you do is hollow out a pumpkin, put all the fixings inside, and then put the whole thing in the oven. Josh added his own special touch by decorating the pumpkin before we baked it. It was delicious!





























On Halloween, Josh caught a bit of a cold and wasn't able to go out trick-or-treating. However, he loved answering the door and seeing all the kids dressed up in their costumes. Also, two of Josh's friends stopped by to say hi. Here is a picture of Josh (in the jack-o-lantern shirt) and his friends Camden and Effie.















Thanks for coming down Mom! We love you and loved having you here!

How did I get so lucky?

Halloween is one of those questionable holidays. But if you can spend the day at Thanksgiving Point hanging out at CornBellys with three adorable grandkids, it makes the day all worth while.


Elli and Katelyn


Handsome Wesley

I'm trying to be an equal opportunity grandma. So after a fun day at CornBellys I flew down to Phoenix for a few days.


Abbie wanted to wear my glasses, so here is cute Abbie with my daughter Jenna.


My three wonderful Arizona grandkids, Abbie, Jacob, and Josh


We spent one morning at the Phoenix zoo. I'm not sure if my son and daughter-in-law, Daniel and Holly, will invite me back to watch Josh. At the zoo, ON MY WATCH, Josh took a face plant and ended up cutting his nose and getting a black eye. Way to go Grandma!!! Jacob wanted to take Daniel and Josh's picture.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

mom...we just wanted to take the time to tell you happy birthday! you are a great mom, grandma, mother-in-law and friend. You are such a strength to our family.
We are glad you were born!
we hope you have a great day...
from your kids, kid-in-laws and grandkids.

Heaven on Earth

As with everyone, life goes on. Over the past few weeks I have been able to see countless blessings happening around me. My daughter Mauri had a garage sale to raise money for a cure for breast cancer. She raised almost $300 and donated it to the Susan G. Koman foundation. We'll find a cure if it's not from my own family doing all they can to support me and join the crusade to find a cure. My loving thanks to my family.

That same day I went to the circus with Mauri and her family. We go every year, it's a family tradition.

The cotton candy is always a big hit.




I thoroughly enjoyed conference last weekend. I was able to go Sunday afternoon with Mauri and we had a terrific time. The day was beautiful and the spirit was uplifting. How blessed I am to have the gospel in my life.



What added to the wonderful weekend was an enjoyable reunion with some of my Boston missionaries. I gave birth to three children but I have hundreds of sons and daughters. How grateful I am for the time I was able to spend in Boston. How grateful I am for the years I was able to teach seminary and for the association I had with some terrific high school students eager to start their day on the right foot. For all those whose lives have crossed my path, I will be forever grateful for the influence you have been in my life.

You may be aware it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I've been on the hunt for any pink paraphernalia I can find for the cancer walk I'm participating in next month with my daughters. Pink, pink, and more pink... If you would like to make a donation the link is on the left of this web page.

Speaking of pink, I've got an adorable little grand daughter coming in two months and she'll be pretty in pink. Her mom, my daughter-in-law Holly, is on bed rest for the next two months, so lucky me I get to go down and help out and play with my Arizona grandchildren a couple of times.

Augh yes, I did have an Econ test last week. Thanks to my terrific visiting teacher Mindy who majored in Economics, she came by to help me study and she was a great help! I took the test in class on a Tuesday evening. The teacher passed out the bubble sheet for me to fill in my answers. At the top of the sheet I had to fill in my BYU ID number. Well I did that and promptly took the test. It wasn't at all like the practice quiz I took online so I was anxious to get the results back. The teacher had to take the bubble sheets down to the BYU testing center and run them through the machine that grades them and then posts my score on my BYU route Y link. It wasn't until the next morning that the scores were posted. I opened my route Y link and there was an 84%, well imagine my surprise. I thought for sure I had bubbled in someone else's BYU ID number and the tests got all mixed up. I checked and doubled checked looking at my name thinking I was looking at someone else's grade. Who would have guessed!

Wednesday found me at the hospital again getting another PET Scan. My cancer marker is rising and the chemotherapy I've been doing for the past six weeks isn't working so the doctor wanted to see if the cancer is spreading. Another anxious couple of days waiting for the test results to come back. Hummm, I wonder if the lab tech might bubble in someone else's ID number and I'll get someone else's PET Scan results.

Today I had a visit with the doctor, Mauri is always a great support and came with me to hear what the doctor had to say regarding the PET Scan results. Would I pass this test as nicely as I passed the Econ test? Come to find out, the cancer has NOT spread and it has even diminished in my right hip where I had the radiation in August. He gave us a few options of what type of chemotherapy we should start next and after a little more test results we'll probably start something new the beginning of next week.

Yes, I am feeling like a pin cushion and it's hard to schedule all my fun trips around all these doctors appointments.

I left the doctor and did my traditional stop at Sonic. I sat in my car at Sonic facing East, looking at beautiful 'Y' mountain, four or five dozen seagulls flew overhead. I counted my blessings... Overlooking those gorgeous mountains that I love, wondering if people ever questioned why Utah has seagulls when we don't even have an ocean, being extremely grateful for Mauri for supporting me through all these doctors appointments, rejoicing over the fact that I will be in Arizona next week with the rest of my kids and grandkids, and appreciative that the cancer has not spread since the last PET Scan. I wondered if the joy in heaven would equal the happiness I felt at that moment in the Sonic parking lot that day.

I'm a game player at heart. I wouldn't consider myself competitive, maybe my family does. But I was playing a game the other evening and the thought occurred to me, "I can win". Yes, Darla, you can win. Maybe I am competitive, I can beat this and any other challenge placed in front of me.

Thought I'd try my hand at adding a few family photos

My daughter Jenna with her two kids, Jacob and Abbie. We were up at Aspen Grove this past summer.



Me with our newest family member, Mauri's son Wesley.



My son Daniel with his son Josh, just before Josh turned two.



My daughter Mauri's three kids, Katelyn, Elli, and Wesley.




Mauri blowing out her birthday candles with the help of her three kids.















Here I am a couple weeks ago in Santa Rosa, California.

Well those pictures seemed to turn out pretty well. I'm not sure how to line up the discriptions a little better. I'll keep working on that.