Please read this and help if you can

Click here to help fight against breast cancer

As many of you know (and for those who don't, now you do), my mom has been battling breast cancer for the past couple of years. During this time I have tried to learn more about what breast cancer is and how it is treated. Unfortunately, there is still a lot that science has yet to discover about this terrible disease.

Breast cancer has the potential to affect all of us in one way or another. Each year over 200,000 women in the United States learn that they have breast cancer. Approximately 1 in 8 women will develop some form of invasive breast cancer at some point in their lives. While early detection and treatment have significantly increased the number of breast cancer survivors, this horrible disease still claims the lives of over 40,000 women a year in the U.S. alone.

Breast cancer develops in stages: stage 0 through stage 4. My mom's breast cancer is currently at "Stage 4." That means that the cancer has spread from her breast to her bones and to other organs in her body, specifically to her liver, lungs, neck, spine, and hip. While there is still hope that my mom will be able to find the right type of chemotherapy to hold the cancer at bay for a while, there is still no cure for breast cancer that has reached this stage.

It is the hardest thing in the world knowing that there is nothing I can do to immediately help my mom. I have gone through the full range of emotions and, to be honest, it has been a rough ride. While I work to come to grips with the reality that there isn't much I can do individually, I find great comfort supporting those who are working to find a cure. Hopefully they can find something to help my mom but, if not, I can only pray that someday doctors will be able to come up with something to help someone else's mom, wife, sister, or friend.

This week, my mom and my sisters are participating in the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Breast Cancer 3 Day walk. Their goal, among the three of them, is to raise $6,600 to help find a cure for breast cancer. As of this minute, they have been able to collect $4,847. They are only $1,753 short. The walk begins this Friday and I want to do my part to help them raise their goal to helping find a cure for breast cancer.

I am asking all of you to please help me help them help everyone. I understand the economy is tough right now and for many of us money is a little tight. However, think of this as an investment. You may not see immediate returns, but the day they find a cure for breast cancer, we will all be able to reap the benefits by knowing that those we love will no longer have to suffer from this terrible disease. Will you all please join me in this important cause? Your donation does not have to be large in number to be significant in purpose. Every penny you provide brings people like my mom one step closer to winning their own personal battle against breast cancer. It is my hope that everyone reading this today will chose to donate at least $5. If you feel you can donate more, that would be wonderful, but every bit helps. Thank you so much for your help. Thank you on behalf of myself, my family, my mom, and all those who suffer directly or indirectly from breast cancer.

Click here to help fight against breast cancer!
Then click on either my mom (Darla) or my sisters' (Mauri and Jenna) name and follow the instructions to donate. Thanks again!

Halloween and stuff

I guess I could have made one post for Halloween and one post for the rest of what I'm going to say, but just in case some of you only look at the top post and don't scroll down, I'll put everything together. This Halloween we had Dan's mom in town helping out with Holly and Josh. It was great to spend time with her. While she was here, she made our traditional Halloween dinner "Pumpkin Stew." I'm not sure if that's the actual name, but it makes sense to call it that. See below:














You clean out the pumpkin, put in all the fixings, put the lid back on, and then put the whole thing in the oven. As Josh would say, "It's yummy delicious!" Josh had a blast drawing on the pumpkin before we cooked it. He had some help from Grandma.














Unfortunately, Josh caught a bit of a cold and wasn't able to go out trick-or-treating. However, he loved answering the door and passing out candy to all the ghosts and ghouls who roamed our neighborhood. This included two of Josh's friends Camden and Effie who stopped by to see us.














And now for the stuff. Josh is a wonderful helper for a 2 year old. A couple weeks ago we decided to rearrange our pantry. Our little cupboard monkey was right there to lend a hand.
































Next, we have a family tradition (my Grandma and Grandpa Colton's idea) of having all our family's kids get their picture taken when they are 2 years old. Here is Josh's. Click here and type in the customer name "Dan Colton" to see the rest of the pictures from our sitting.














Finally, we are slowly in the process of weaning Josh off his pacifier/binky/binkok (That's what he calls it). He has only been using it at nights for quite a while but sometimes he finds them during the day. Do you think he's trying to send us a message? Maybe something like "So you want me to get rid of these eh? Take 'em if you dare!"














We hope you are all doing well. Thank you for all your love and support you've shown to Holly and our family over the past couple months. Only a few more weeks until Maggie joins us! By the way, Holly had an ultrasound appointment today and they were able to see that Maggie already has hair! Any bets on what color it'll be?

Air Force Judge Advocate General

I am excited to announce that I have been accepted into the Air Force Judge Advocate General's Corps. The Air Force JAG Corps typically only hires about 100 new attorneys every year and is the most highly sought after JAG Corps in the military. I feel very grateful that I was accepted. Before I am officially committed to the Air Force, I will have to pass a physical and a background check and pass the bar. At that point, the Air Force will give me two different assignment locations and after committing to one of those, by officially joining, I incur a four-year service commitment. I will then go through a five-week officer training course and a nine-week JAG military legal course. JAG officers begin as a first lieutenant and after six months are promoted to captain. Holly and I are excited to see where we will be and are looking forward to a new adventure.

Family Pictures

A couple of weeks ago, we were able to go have our annual family pictures taken. It has been a fun tradition that we hope to keep up every year. This year, we had our picture taken by a good friend Jaqui who has her own photography company. As you can see from this year's picture, she does a great job. To see her web site click here. Here is a little stroll down memory lane to see how our family has changed and grown over the past four plus years.
July 2004


















August 2005


















November 2006












November 2007












October 2008

OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY!

Today has been fabulous! Holly went to the doctor and was told she didn't have to be on bed-rest anymore! Yipee! She still has to take it really easy for the next 3 months, but doesn't have to be confined to her bed or couch! Soooooo wonderful! Josh took a 3 hour nap, which Holly always loves so she can have some mommy time to do stuff and take a nap herself. We hope he keeps this up when Maggie comes! Dan had his interview with the Air Force Jag today and turned in his application. We're hoping to hear back from them by November, so then we'll know where we'll be moving to after Dan takes the bar next summer. For dinner we celebrated Lizzie's birthday by going to Cheesecake factory, always a favorite! Josh did exceptionally well at the restaurant and to top it all of when we got home he asked to use the potty and went #1 & #2 (which he thought looked like a snake)!!! This is the second day in a row that he has asked to go to the potty! He's on his way to being potty trained! HALLELUJAH!!! Lots of great things happened today!
P.S. that's not what Josh's toilet really looked like, we wish!

Ahh Books!

I can honestly say that during this pregnancy I have read more books than I think I have ever in a 6 month period of my life before. Books and having awesome friends and family have helped me keep my sanity through the oh so toasty summer months and this past week of being on modified bed-rest. So here are some of the books that I have read:

The complete Harry Potter septology. Yep, I finally had enough time to read all 7 books for the first time back to back. All I can say is "Wow." I think that series was one of the most engaging, compelling and fascinating that I have ever read. I absolutely loved it! Especially the 6th & 7th books, mostly because I had seen the movies of all the other books first so it kind of spoiled it for me because I already knew what was going to happen.
The cutest thing happened when I was reading the 7th book, there is this really sad part and being extremely emotional due to hormones and having my mother's over-reactive tear ducts I started crying a lot. Josh went over to his diaper wipes and got one out and then came over and said "Mommy sad?" and then wiped my cheeks and nose with the wet wipe. How cute is that! Josh has such a sweet side to him, it is so cute to watch, he's going to be such a great big-brother!
Jane Austen's "Pride & Prejudice," "Sense & Sensibility," & "Mansfield Park." I enjoyed all of them immensely, but my favorite was "Pride & Prejudice"
I read the final chapter in the twilight series, "Breaking Dawn." It started out really good and was very enthrawling but I have to say the ending was a little anti-climatic.
Today I just finished "The Proper Care & Feeding of Men." It's a great book about how to treat your man right, I would recommend it to anyone who is dating or married to a man!
I'm currently reading "The Holy Secret" which is complimentary to one of the most influential books I've ever read, "The Peacegiver." I'm about half way through and would recommend this to any LDS person. It is really easy to read, very quick and very insightful.
I would love to have some recommendations for more books to read.

In the past month...

The past month has been eventful. I'll try to sum it up. After Dan finished his clerkships we were able to go on a wonderful cruise with Holly's parents, brother, and sister to the beautiful Mexican Rivera (Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas) . Josh was the hit of the ship with the staff and all of the other guests.


He had a blast playing on the beach and soaking up the sun.


After we returned from the cruise, Dan started is final year of law school! It is a wonderful feeling knowing that the end is in sight. Additionally, Dan turned 28 last week so we had a fun get together at Dave and Julie's house to celebrate.

Holly is keeping busy chasing Josh while getting ready for Maggie to join us in December. She is also preparing the primary kids for their Primary Program coming up in October.

Here are a couple more pictures for your enjoyment. The first is a demonstration of how Josh eats a doughnut and the second is just a cute picture of Josh being Josh. Notice that he insisted on wearing his socks and slippers to church yesterday. Although he may not always match, it sure is fun to see what he comes up with to wear.