no more pictures

i am so incredibly sad not to have lovely pictures to post on here. we had an awesome vacation, and i had pictures from caleb's bday party to post. sadly, i will never get the chance. i took pictures all week, and was so excited scrolling through them. i didn't bring the camera cord with me, and the card was so old, my laptop wouldn't read it. we had to wait till we got home to upload the pictures. now, i am just kicking myself. let me start at the beginning of the week. i had been having pain in my side for several weeks, but monday it started getting bad. tues, i finally gave up and went to the er. after blood tests, hours and ultrasounds, they said i had a ruptured ovarian cyst. nice. i went home and took some strong stuff, and went to bed. i woke up wed super dizzy and out of it. i still don't know if the drug triggered it, or i was set to have vertigo anyway. i spent the day in bed, and the next morning, the kids packed their own stuff for the stay at ajs house, and nathan did everything else. i went with nate and my sister tat to the airport, getting immensely sick while doing so. i can't say i have ever gotten so ill on a plane before! then we had a 4 hr drive to our hotel from the kansas city airport. thankfully, i started feeling better about half way through the drive, and had a great time while there. we toured all the houses and buildings, and historic sites. we played old time nauvoo games, walked on stilts, learned dances, and pulled sticks (i won!!). we watched the pageant, which was awesome, and spent time with family. i talked to my brother more this trip than i have in my entire life. it was a great time. the pinnacle was going through the temple with my little sister, and seeing the wonder in her eyes. she got sealed to her husband, and did all that was required of her to do so. she has had to change her whole wardrobe, and basically everything about her. she has done it though, and it was so exciting to be with her for it.
the next day, we went to carthage on our way to the airport. there is such a peaceful feeling in the jail, and you can almost see how it would have been for the Prophet Joseph. we took a lot of pictures, then went to return the rental car. somewhere around here, i put down my camera, and will never see it again. i have called everyone i can think of, but have had no luck so far. i can live with the lost camera, if i could only have the pictures on it! they are priceless. we survived waiting in the smallest airport i have ever seen, and the turbulence of landing in a giant thunderstorm (in phx, really??). we are home now, and back with our kids and our own home and beds. grateful to be there!!

family reunions!!

ok, again, these are in backwards order, so i will start from the end! we were in natalie's backyard and posed the grandkids with their bear blankets, that great grandma nehmer made for each and every one of them. they are well loved, and appreciated!!
what gorgeous kids!!
here is the whole clan, minus heather's 4, who are in the philippines
caleb was mad about something, and went to pout inside. here is where we found him not 5 minutes later!!
lake tahoe was freezing, but here is rebekah and alissa holding rachel
caleb
colby and cousin out on the rock
grandpa with jenna and morgan out on the rock
rachel and caleb playing in the soft sand of the beach at lake tahoe
rebekah and colby were crazy and brave enough to go out in the 53 degree water with most of the cousins and grandpa
here is caleb at the beach in san francisco. much too cold to swim!!
caleb, sam, andrew, and rachel playing on the beach

this is several of my cousins and other awesome family members that we got to see after almost 15 years without them!!
caleb holding a tiny baby chick
colby loved holding the baby chicks
sam and rachel looking a real live cow!
the cousins lined up looking at the pregnant cow
i didn't have my camera on me during some of the most enjoyable days i can remember. my sister kirsten got married, and we had so much dancing at her wedding! the rehearsal dinner and wedding produced a lot of fun pictures and memories, but alas, they were captured by a professional! i will see if i can post some of them later!

week of amazing experiences

i will add pictures once i get home, i did not bring my camera cord. i have been sitting in the airport again for 4 hours. i got the genius idea several weeks ago to ask one of our drivers who also works at usairways, to get me a buddy pass. it was so cheap, i was ecstatic. turns out there is a reason it is cheap. they overbook by 3 or 4, so the chances of getting on are nill. unless you camp out at the airport and get on the first flight of the day. they had 2 empty seats then. blah. who wants to be on a 715am flight? i was still snuggled in my bed. anyway, i had to buy a ticket on southwest on monday, for 300 dollars. today, i did the same thing. i have wasted many hours for being cheap, and i will not do so again!!! but i digress, the reason for the post is my amazing experience in slc this week. our choir, the evmco, was asked to come to slc and join with our sister choir, the ocmco, and record the messiah in america, the original oratorio written by our director, brett stewart. it was by far the most amazing experience ever!! there were over 400 choir members, and a combined orchestra of over 150. once the kids joined with us on friday, we had over 700 members on stage. it was spectacular!! i took several pictures of our amazing force, but am unable to post them because of copyright laws. we spent tues-thurs in intense, have to be silent, recording sessions. that is stressful. coughing is prohibited, and there are several of us that have coughs lingering for the last few weeks. tues was especially bad, and i was getting vertigo, combined with a severely upset stomach. i knew i couldn't continue like that, so i asked my father in law to give me a blessing before i left on wednesday morning. he did, and i immediately started feeling better. on the hour drive from provo where i was staying, into salt lake, i improved even more. i have never been more grateful for the priesthood in my life, and the knowledge and faith to use it. i was rejuvinated, and able to perform for the rest of the week. also, that day, i went through a live session in the salt lake temple for the first time in my life. it was beyond description. so beautiful, with the murals on the wall, and i loved moving from room to room as you progress. it was so moving, and the live actors they had, made such a difference to me!! i loved it!! i got to spend time with my sister every day, and my friends. i had some of the most spiritual experiences of my life, and was solidified in my testimony regarding so many things. we performed in the tabernacle friday night, to a sold out audience, and the sound was so crisp and clear and perfect in that building!! it was awesome. then saturday, we performed at 2pm in abravanel hall to another sold out audience. the entire organization was so exhausted from all the work of the last several days, that we did not perform to the best of our ability, but i hope our audience was moved despite our flaws. the soloists were stunning, and sounded perfect. i am so grateful i had the opportunity to do this. and that i get to go to choir every week and join in singing praises and being educated by such awesome people. i love it!! and now, i am very much looking forward to going home and seeing my husband and kids again. i had an awesome week, but i am more than ready to be home!!

concert, messes, and sick!!

again, these are backwards, so i will describe it all backwards!! after rebekah's first concert. she did great, and i loved singing with her onstage!! there are too many people for the adults to be onstage with the kids, but we were down in the audience, so i could see her singing her little heart out!
rebekah in her cute little choir outfit. she is such a doll!! her hair was curled by my friend, and stayed curly even for another day!!
my sister, tat and i. i always seem to look weird in pictures. not sure what it is......
trying to pose on my "skinny" side
my curls from the back.
walking up to the ikeda theater. so excited!!
rachel joined a swim lessons class for tiny kids. she loves it, and even moved up to the next level after 2 weeks. i never knew starting them young was so awesome! she is just thriving in there!!
after sleeping in foam curlers, here is rebekah
both girls from the back
rachel thought she needed some curlers too. i only had hair for about 4, to rebekah's 20. they were very cute though!!
so thursday, i started getting a tickle in my throat, and it didn't take long for my body to decide it was at war. i woke up saturday, the day of our big Collin Raye concert, with a barely audible voice, and really hurting when i did try to talk. i preserved my voice the best i could until the concert, and was able to sing a little bit for the first concert. by the second one, my voice was completely shot, and i snuck cough drops in my folder. i sucked on 5 of them throughout the hour and a half of the concert. i only coughed a few times, then went home and collapsed. sunday i was wasted, and didn't get up in time for church. i slept until almost 11, then took a nap at 2. nathan didn't sleep well either, so he came upstairs to sleep with me, and left colby in charge. normally, he does a great job keeping everyone out of trouble. not so with this day. he got caught up in the imaginary world he was in, and rachel got into some serious mischief. i'm not sure which came first, but she put a roll of tp in the bathroom sink, and left the water on. flooded the floor and outside carpet with inches of water, and little floating bits of tp. also, she got out the comet powder and dumped a lot of it on the kitchen floor. i guess she thought she was cleaning. i swept the whole floor of all the dry powder, but she had sprayed windex and bathroom cleaner on it too, so had to mop several times to get all the residue up. i guess that's what happens with a 9 year old is left in charge of a crazy girl named rachel!!!

Mom and Dad

After church on Sunday I took the kids over to see my parents. Here is Colby and my momHere is the rest of the kids with her.
and here they are with my Dad. He is always in his office when we come over, so we have to go in there to see him!! With a computer and his own tv, who can blame him? :)
I was trying to get cute pics of the kids, and this is what they gave me! little Toads!!!
My new dress. I got it for Kirsten's wedding, but had to see how comfortable and resilient it was first. And I got new shoes, which I love. Not sure if they go together well though....
Today I went to see a new guy for my headaches and back and everything. I went to his office, way out in Phoenix. Right away, it was different. There weren't six people waiting to get in, and he spent over a half hour with me. He did a minor examination, and listed off some problems I have that I hadn't even told him were bothering me. He gave me explanations for my headaches, back pain, neck and shoulders, all that has ailed me for so long. I was worked on for a while, and left feeling so much better I couldn't believe it. I have had a sharp pain in my low back that no doctor has been able to touch. Chiropractors, massage, anything. When I would sit down to drive, it would just feel like a knife was sitting in my back. Driving home was the first time in over a year that it didn't bother me!! Now all day, I keep waiting for it to come back. It hasn't!! But I do feel like I ran a marathon, all my muscles are SORE!!! Hopefully the exercises he told me to do will help, and I can finally have some relief. That is my deepest wish!!

great fun

Rachel is constantly asking where Grandpa is, or if she can go to his house. Nearly every day, he comes in our backyard to work on something. At the moment, we have a sea-doo, a boat, and an old pick up truck in there. Not to mention all the yard work he does for us when he can't stand it anymore! Rachel sees him back there, and flips the lock on our sliding glass door, and runs out to see him. Barefoot, through the rocks. She doesn't care. Anything to give her grandpa a hug. She loves him and has such a connection with him!!
The kids dyeing easter eggs. Rachel thought it was the best, to plop her egg in the dye, and splash it all over. Good thing I have a vinyl tablecloth on the table! They had a blast with the eggs this year.
After a few weeks ago's fiasco of getting white nailposlish all over herself, I thought we could soak her and get it to come off. No such luck. Although she really enjoyed splashing everywhere. A little big for the sink? NAH!!

The kids at play

I did not sleep very well last night, so while I was taking a nap, this is what Rachel did. It may look like lotion, but it white nail polish. The really strong kind that is stubborn and does not want to come off of the couch!!
Or off of Rachel's skin. Her nails are all gorgeous, but her legs and arms, not so much.
Last weekend, we went to Prescott for Mark and Heidi's baby's blessing. Here is Rebekah holding baby Matthias. We all loved to hold him, and marveled at what a beautiful baby he is! They did a good job with him. Makes me want another.....almost!!
When we came back from Vegas, Heather suggested this group to contact and see about the lice removal. She had it for almost 2 months. We could not get rid of the stupid eggs. She didn't like having her hair brushed and examined like it needed to be. So I bit the bullet and made an appointment with Hair Angels. It worked!! After her one treatment, it is gone. Thank the heavens!!!

And here is the wonderful machine. Kind of a glorified hair dryer. It dries out the eggs and the live ones, and you just have to comb them out after. No more hatching eggs!!
We went to the Ethel M Chocolate Factory, but the sun was in the kids eyes. The actual factory wasn't going either, something about the demand not warranting it at all times. It was still cool to see where the magic WOULD happen though!



we went to Heather's for Spring Break this year, and got to go with them to Chuck E. Cheese. The kids loved it. Rachel has her battle scars, as usual.

Heather and Taryn. I can't believe how long that baby girl's hair is!! She is not a baby anymore!!