September and October Updates

Before the year zips by, here's a re-cap of September and October in the Timmons' house.

September marked the beginning of Josiah's Pre-K cooperative.  We have joined 3 other families to get our soon-to-be kindergardeners together for a morning of learning and fun each week.  Each mom takes turns with the kids and emphasizes a different subject; art, math and music, history, and science.    Mary completed an introduction to basketball workshop at school where she demonstrated a great attitude and sportsmanship, but didn't fall in love with the sport.  :)

September kicked off the beginning of fall t-ball
for Josiah and Coach Timmons.

In October, Josiah's Pre-K friends and their families had the opportunity to visit the Bat-cave!  The trip was a surprise, a blast, and complete with rides in the bat-mobile and bat-cyle.

a few of Bruce Wayne's buddies

Josiah reached another treatment milestone
 with the removal of his port in September.

Here's the sign we made for our neighbors
 during the world series,
they followed suit and blessed us with
 a Giants banner the next day.  :)

We celebrated Stella's 2nd birthday at a fall festival
at the end of October.

Our kids were joined by one of their new neighbors
 and shared their  first taste of trick-or-treating this year .

Go Gold!

September is Children's Cancer Awareness Month and we are sharing a video of Josiah's personal story over the last 11 months, information about children's cancer, and ways to be involved.

 Josiah's Journey….

Pediatric Cancer Facts

• In the United States alone 10,450 children under the age of 15 will be diagnosed with cancer in 2014.
• In 2013 Josiah was only one of 289 newly diagnosed cancer patients at Phoenix Children's Hospital.
• A child is diagnosed with cancer every three minutes.
• Phoenix Children's Hospital is a leading participant in research to find cures for childhood cancers.
• The gold ribbon is an awareness symbol for all forms of cancer that affect children and teens.  
• The color gold was selected because gold is a precious metal and children are more precious than gold.  

Ways to get involved

• Wear a gold ribbon!
• Raise awareness and support research with a vanity license plate.  In Arizona, the "Curing Childhood Cancer" plate costs $25, $17 of that goes toward childhood cancer awareness.  www.ServiceArizona.com or at the MVD.
• Contact our very own Kim Froehle, the Certified Child Life Specialist at Phoenix Children's Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders regarding patient needs and activities.  (602)933-0535
• Contact Bonnie Morgan from the Phoenix Children's Foundation regarding funding for research (602)933-2607.
• Support organizations that have been a blessing to many children and families like ours such as the Children's Cancer Network and Comfy Cozys for Chemo 

The tail of July and the tale of August

We were given the go ahead to take a family vacation (per Josiah's doctor) at the end of July so we booked it to San Diego right before Mary started school.  August mostly consisted of adjusting to the back to school routine, Aaron traveling for two weeks, and a visit from Grandma Nancy.  Aaron also took me on a date to watch dueling pianos and I have begun a women's small group at our church.

Mary's 1st Day of 2nd Grade

Family Vacation to San Diego at the end of July

We got to visit with our friends Kyle and Carly Walters.  Here is our "get a photo of all the kids" shot before parting.  :)  Stella and Sophia almost escaped the photo, but we got 'em all in there!  :)

Don't worry Dr. Dana, his port was never submerged in water or sand.  :)

Stella loved the giant sandbox we called "beach".

Mary with her carpool buddy Maddie.  It is monsoon season and we have been enjoying some rain showers and cooler weather.

Mary's favorite subject is history and she soaked up a recent date to a special exhibit on Ancient Egypt at Phoenix Science Center.

July update, so many things to celebrate!

On July 7th, Josiah started a new phase of treatment called maintenance.  This is a significant milestone  because the intensity of medicine and side effects will be lessened.  His hair is already starting to grow back.  He will only go to the clinic once a month for certain chemotherapy and take the rest of his chemo by pills at home each day.  Each month he will have five days of steroids and I truly hope that we all learn how to deal with that well as we get used to this new routine.  He is not himself, it is hard for the girls to understand, and it has been a challenge for me to know how to parent through it.  If he continues to do as expected, he will complete chemo treatments Feb. 2016.

In addition to regularly supervising this year's mini garden, Mary has been busy setting up a library.  I have loved every minute of watching her ponder which books to include in her collection, consider different ways to sort and label books, stick pockets in books, write on checkout cards, and learn to use a date stamp.  Opening week brought a handful of patrons who each graciously checked out just a few books as well as her first official story time.  For those interested, her library is open by appointment in our home.  Whose kid is this anyway?

Stella has been embracing the power of the stool.  Why wait to grow when you can get into way more stuff by climbing.  She has successfully transitioned to a toddler bed, loves baths, loves all things girly, loves brushing her teeth (aka sucking the fluoride free toothpaste off the brush) and has mastered her scream.  When she is not busy getting into things, she enjoys thinking of new ways to get into things.


I have recently had a dream come true.  Aaron and I have begun to work with wood together.  We have put shelves in one closet and in our utility room.  Awhile back I caught myself saying something like "In my other life I would have been a woodworker".  I have said things like that before, but this time I decided it was ridiculous to continue saying that.  So we bought some wood, and built some shelves, and bought more wood, and bought a saw, and build more shelves, and started designing a mud room/nook….  I'm so excited!

We enjoyed time with our friends the Harts during a recent visit from Kansas

Forth of July enthusiasm.

4th of July fireworks painting...explosive.

Josiah is home!

Josiah got to come home today!  His ANC (absolute neutrophil count) was 192 this morning and the doctor decided it was close enough to 200 to be released.  :)  We are all excited for some family time at home!  Once his ANC hits 750 he will start the next phase of treatment.

encouraging news

Josiah's ANC is up to 117 today!  (I was given a very low number this morning that was incorrect, so I hope no one gets too confused by that.)  Also, thanks to a new medicine that has kicked in, he is eating again.  Other fun news, my sister is in town for the weekend and Stella has two new teeth.

Monday update

Brief update, Josiah is feeling well, ANC of 40, hardly eating, enjoyed a visit from a friend this afternoon, content and happy in his room.  He officially finished delayed intensification today!

We had some sweet father's day family time yesterday morning and Aaron and I had a date!