september silliness

dad and the kids snuggling in bed, watching teen titans, their new favorite show. they get a new show they like, and pretend they are the characters. for the next few days, i was woken up being asked, who is the green guy, what is the girl's name?? thanks dad!!

the kids are in a music class, called let's play music. it is a 3 year program, and to make things easier, they all started this year. they are learning the scale, hand signs for each note, rhythms and lots more. they love it. here is caleb practicing on his bells for class.

and our new favorite pasttime is my new wii game, the american idol karaoki edition. my sisters and i play it, and here, we actually got nathan to join in! he did well, despite telling us repeatedly that he couldn't sing. simon does not agree!! although, i did win most of the rounds..... it is awesome to be critiqued by paula, she loves everything you do!! i will be auditioning for a real person this week, let's hope they like me as much as she does! wish me luck!

dad and the kids

it's kinda like i only like rachel and caleb, but that's not true, they are just the ones home with me all day. i take lots of pics when i'm bored!! i love this picture with dad and the kids. they are so adorable!!
and rachel in this white tennis dress that aunt kirsten gave abby, and now we have, is so cute!!





























the kids in the bath after swimming. we do this a lot just to get the chlorine off of everyone. they are silly kids!!

rachel brought her bike inside and has been riding it a lot. it's very cute!!

getting ready for a nap with daddy. such cuties!!

marne's childhood pics

this is me ready for church. mom always took pictures of me standing in the entryway when she thought i needed a picture taken. it is a family joke now!! i posted it to show that i can look cute, i think i've just forgotten!!

ok, so some of these are really small!! the first picture is of my uncle jimmy judd, the previous sheriff of cochise county, who was the judge at the time. me and my sisters, monica and tatiana were there to observe him in action for a class we were taking.

then, these are of me and my friend, allison. we were silly teenagers.

tattie took me to see riverdance after graduation, and here we are standing outside of the theater. it was awesome!!

high school graduation after tattie got off her mission. with chelsea, and my parents.

and me, at age 4 and 6. nathan thinks these look like rebekah. i don't see it!!

i had fun sorting and organizing my pictures from my own album this weekend. i am in the process of making my own scrapbook. everyone in the family has one but me, even dad!! it's nothing fancy, but at least explains about all the weird pictures i have!! it's been fun to take a stroll down memory lane. how time flies!!

kids are back

isn't rebekah full of it? this was after school the first day.
here is rachel loving on grandma after church. she runs up and wraps her arms around grandma's legs begging to be picked up. then she hugs and snuggles. it's awesome.

poor caleb had a toy taken away or something here. he really didn't want his picture taken, but i am a mean mom and did it anyway!!

rachel posing and playing in her cutie outfit














this darling little munchkin has been getting into all sorts of trouble now that the older kids are back in school!! the other day it had been quiet for too long, so i went searching....this is what i found!! little twerp was up on the shelves eating chips!! good thing she is so cute!!

i am a bad mom and forgot to take a picture before the kids left for school. so here is one after they got home!

nathan has decided he has been a trucker for about as long as he can stand, and is going back to school to try to better our lives. he will get his computer networking certifications in 3 months or so, and hopefully get a job soon after.

oh, and NO we did not keep the dog!!

summertime fun

wow, ok, so i uploaded these backwards, so i guess i'll start here and work back. this morning, this little puppy was following grandpa around in the backyard, and she has made her way into the kids' hearts. we'll see if her owner shows up, or what happens next. the kids have already named her cocoa, and said we are keeping her. we'll see.

rachel sat on the counter while i was doing the dishes yesterday, and found daddy's soda there. she loves soda, and was very happy to sit there and guzzle it for him!!

she had one of my sandals, caleb's shoes, and goggles. could she be cuter?

my birthday was rather a disappointment this year. i had been sick for the whole week before it, and saturday wasn't any better. i was dizzy and weak and nauseated for longer than i ever remember being. it wasn't pretty. thank goodness, sunday i started feeling better! now if i can just keep my strength up. yesterday i might have done too much, and didn't feel well for an hour or so. but thankfully, that didn't last long!

after taking a bath and getting ready for bed, rachel was in the living room playing. i put the boys in the tub, and after a minute, i hear screeching and yelling from the bathroom. when i went in, this is what i found. apparantly rachel decided she wasn't done in the tub!! silly girl.

swimming with cousins and grandpa mcnelly. it's been really fun having the pool up and running again!!

i have 2 portable high chairs, thank goodness. the twins eat dinner here at least once a week, so we started lining all 3 of them up like this. isn't it funny to watch all these tinies eating??

hopping on the trampoline

lake powell

we took our vacation this year to lake powell, and stayed on the shore with the houseboat just across the way. it is the best of both worlds. you can camp on the shore, and see stars like you will never encounter in the city. but you also have the comforts of having a stove and microwave, electricity, and a toilet (though you are supposed to pee in the lake, so the hold only has to be emptied once!!). we got to play in the sand, wade and swim in the water, and just relax. the more adventurous of us went water skiing, wakeboarding, and tubing. even colby went cliff jumping, which is amazing!! he didn't want to at first, but daddy called him a pansy enough that he just walked off the edge. and loved it!! go figure..
nathan got to drive the speedboat several times. it was second nature to him, and he thoroughly enjoyed sitting high in the seat with the wind blowing past him. i think he looks pretty happy in this picture!!




rebekah absolutely loved anything that was scary or dangerous. what a nut. she is not a daughter after me, but just like nathan!!
and here is travis, he is the coach at kris's kids school, meridian. we needed another man to help anchor the houseboat, and do all the other manly jobs. he graciously agreed to come on vacation with us. who could pass up a week on a houseboat??
there were many interesting experiences, but the one that keeps coming to mind is in the middle of week, when we needed to move the houseboat. nathan, josh, collin, rachel and i took the speedboat out to scout a good spot to bring the houseboat to. we went up and down the coves, dissappointed in what we were finding. we went down one, around twists and turns not seeing another soul the whole time. before we left, dave told nathan there was half a tank of gas, so we didn't really pay attention to the gage. we reached the end of the cove, and turned around to come back out. the boat sputtered, and stopped. we were out of gas completely!! we hadn't passed another person, and were way out of cell phone reception zones, and had no radio on the boat. we were completely at the mercy of the water, and had no way to help ourselves. josh and nathan got out the trusty oars, thinking we could paddle back by morning. the current and the wind made that impossible as well. we just went in a circle. i guess i didn't really understand the dire situation, or i knew something would happen to help us. either way, the others were getting a little nervous, when around the corner came a boat!! and not only another person, but a person with 3 containers filled with gas strapped to the front of the boat!! it was the answer to our unspoken prayers. the man wouldn't accept payment, and just told us to help another if the chance arose. we were so grateful!! now we didn't have to suffer through the night with rachel screaming, and being hungry and thirsty. we zoomed out of there as quickly as the boat would go. we have never been so grateful to see our families and houseboat in our lives!! nor do i think we ever will again.
other than this little experience, we had a wonderful vacation!! we celebrated caleb's 4th birthday, and rachel built sandcastles. it was great.

crazy painful days

ok, so i don't have pictures, i was too frazzled to get any!! we have had a very fun and enjoyable couple weeks. nathan's brothers and sisters and their families were here, minus 2 hubbys and a son. it was a little crazy at night trying to put 17 kids to sleep in the living room, but i think they all had a blast and made some good memories. everyone had gone home by sunday, except for aaron and his family. we decided we would each get a night out without the kiddos by trading. we stayed home with them on monday night, and they stayed home with ours on tuesday night. everything was going well, with no major injuries so far. until around 530 tues night. that is when we got a phone call from aj asking if we were on our way home yet. we were, so she told us we would need to take rachel in to get stitches. the story was unclear then, but since, we have figured it out. rebekah carries rachel around like a little dolly, and this time, she put her down on the air mattress in the living room. rachel walked across it, and lost her footing, flying headfirst into the corner of the fireplace. so she had a 2 inch long gash that bled a lot, as all head wounds do. it didn't stop her or even slow her down though. after giving her some tylenol, we took her to the er. she ran up and down the hallways, into other rooms, and basically made a nuisance of herself very well. finally, the doctors came in and gave her an iv line to administer concious sedation to do the procedure. if you can imagine our little tiny girl fighting with all she was worth, and 4 of us trying to hold her down enough to get the iv needle in without blowing a vein. it was a little crazy. finally, the doctor came in and did the actual procedure while she was staring at the wall off in lala land. she ended up with 2 sets of stitches, one at the base of the gash, which was a half inch wide, and the other at the top to close it. then steri strips over that, and gauze and a bandaid over that. all because she fell while playing with rebekah!
then, she had been whiney and irritable, but who could blame her after that. the next day, she woke up with a goopy eye and runny nose. i didn't know if it was because of the injury, or something else entirely. i took her to see her doctor yesterday, and he found that she had ear and sinus infections, on top of an eye infection!! no wonder she hasn't been her normal happy self!! so now she is on antibiotics, pain meds, eye drops and cold meds. poor girl. here's to a normal, non-injury, 4th of july weekend!!