Elko Prom 2014

I should have the girls write about this, but I'm just going to post the pictures that were taken before the dance.  Romney and Raegan were in the same group and looked beautiful.  A lady in our ward sold us the dress that Raegan is wearing a year or so ago and she's been waiting to wear it.  Romney's dress was a one-shoulder clearance find at Ross for under 30 bucks.  Who knew that they would all match so well?!

The girls all got ready here, Sophie is a master hair stylist.  When the boys came and all the girls walked upstairs to the living room, we all said, "Ohhhhhhhh" at the same time...

The boys looked pretty dapper too.

 I guess I should have realized when the girls were getting ready here that ALL THE FAMILIES of the girls would also be here for photos.  I would have cleaned a little more thoroughly.

I stood there taking pictures and watching all the other parents take pictures and it made me chuckle.  It's such a big deal!

Raegan went with Zach Daniels, and Romney with AJ.  Nice boys.

It was all shades of blue that night.

These are some beautiful sisters!

Spring Birthdays

Aliva turned 12!

 This is one great girl.

 She's been so excited to go into Young Women, and she looked fab in this new green dress.  The YW have been so excited to have her!  She got to do baptisms up in Twin Falls the Saturday after her birthday, something she had been counting down to.  And green is her color, dontcha think?

Scarlett is 6!

Scarlett had her GOLDEN or should we say GOULDEN birthday, turning 6 on the 6th! She wonders why her birthday is during General Conference every year...but we tell her she's lucky to share a birthday with the Savior and get to listen to FOUR hours of His apostles every year on her big day!

 Donuts n' More in Elko is the bom diggety.  

Since she had a Conference birthday, we invited some families with kids her age from the ward over for pizza and partying the night before.

 These kids know how to party.

Raegan turns 17!

 Raegan, Sophie, and Romney leave at 6am for seminary, so Raegan opened her gifts after school.

And she wanted a strawberry shortcake for her birthday cake.  We all appreciated that.

Romney turns 18.  (Did I really just type that??)

 Romney wanted a fruit pizza for her "cake".  The best part of her evening was that Tyler came over to have Brent style his hair.  It's a little part-time gig Brent is doing on the side.

They had a dress rehearsal that night for Bye Bye Birdie--something I'll post about next.

Wendy is Born (this section deserves it's own title)

The week of Romney and Raegan's birthdays I started feeling sick.  Like a brick was sitting in my stomach.  I took the advice I give my kids all the time and just tried to buck up and tough it out.  Romney's birthday was the only day that week that I felt even well enough to eat much, then the next day the pain became twice as unbearable.

Finally, after two days of excruciating pain and not even being able to turn over in bed, I called Romney home from school to take me to the ER.  It HUUUUUUURT.  This was May 9th.  Brent met me there as soon as he was back in town after his deliveries and they x-rayed my abdomen to find massive infection.  So bad that they couldn't even tell if it was from a ruptured appendix for sure.  

They ended up doing a 6-inch "exploratory" incision below my belly button to remove the appendix and all the infection from my stomach.  I spent five days in the hospital, throwing up the entire time.  I didn't like it one bit.  Usually a hospital visit is somewhat enjoyable for me--I push out a baby, then get to hold it and have delicious food served to me.  This wasn't one of those visits.

 Happy Mother's day in the hospital!

 When Brent called to tell me that he and the kids were coming to see me after church on Mother's Day, I said, "NO!"  I have never felt so crummy.  I didn't know if I could even pretend to feel okay.  The night before they had put an NG tube up through my nostril and down my throat into my stomach to drain the bile so that I wouldn't keep throwing it up all the time.  It was not pretty, and felt even worse.  So I took pictures from my bed of my great family and my room.  I think I looked at myself one time in the mirror in the full five days and decided not to do it again.

 But these are some precious people!  They said they offered me chocolates, I don't even remember that.  It would have made me feel sick anyway...

I went home on May 13th only feeling slightly better, and having a wide open incision in my abdomen.  It was so big they could fit three feet of gauze inside.  We began the process of changing the rolls of gauze twice daily.  It leaked, it felt like it was on fire when I moved, and it seemed like it would never close.  Bless Brent's heart for taking on the task of being my nurse!  The first night home as he looked at the gaping wound after pulling out the gauze, he said, "I can't believe you can be at home with a wound like this!" 

My sisters helped me name the wound Wendy.  Wendy became another person in my life demanding constant attention, and crying uncontrollably if she didn't get it. It was a long summer toting around gauze and medical supplies for Wendy.  The surgeon said it would eventually close, and it finally did, about exactly 3 months later.  Now Wendy is just a long purplish/pinkish scar, and a distant memory.  I have to say, I won't miss her.

Winter in Elko

I have to put a picture of our favorite car art.  In Elko, if you are loved, you get your windows painted CONSTANTLY.  And it freezes.  And it's hard to get off. But as the girls are washing it off weekly, I tell them that if theirs was the car NOT being painted, they would be so sad...

We always love watching our favorite dancers during the basketball games!

 VALENTINES DAY!

Can you tell I started cookies a little late in the day this year?  It was called "Decorate it yourself".  Still delightful.  Nothing like a V-day sugar cookie and a glass of milk.  I think that was our menu for two days.

Livie and her on-again off-again best pal Lily and their egg presentation.  Lily was a little like an egg during this project--fragile.  But they got a great score!

I took a picture of the primary classes for a time capsule we made in Sharing Time for the new year 2014.  Hartman wouldn't sit with his class for their picture, he's gonna regret it....!

We had a pretty mild winter in Elko.  The only big storm happened the night before I fell and almost broke my wrist subbing a paper route for my friend.  But even so, when the black Honda civic died, Brent needed a way to the bin every morning.  His best option, the scooter!

Ski goggles, two hats, ski gloves, ski jacket, thick pants, and he made it there without freezing to death going 25 mph at 3am.  

 This guy WORKS.  I've said it before, but I'll say it again, he works HARD for the money!  This is where he spends many, many hours of his week.  And we join him to help when we can--but we drive the car.

And this is why we are Popular in Elko.

Brent changed routes the beginning of 2012 and BLEW EVERYONE AWAY with his numbers on the new route.  He beat plan every single week, opened new accounts, added space in his current accounts, built up good relationships with all the store owners, and for all this he won....

A SHIRT!

A brand new Frito Bandito Shirt.  And the title of "Impact Salesman of the Year".  That's Paul Orton, his boss, presenting him with his big prize.  80 hours a week for a whole year, a lot of blood and sweat, and a new shirt to show for it all.  Thanks for working so hard for us, B!

What I didn't get a picture of is the dinner at this meeting.  Frito had the meal catered by a shmancy Italian restaraunt here in town, and the food was delish.  There was so much left over!  They were starting to throw it all away so the restaraunt could come pick up their containers.  We said HOLD UP and called Raegan to bring, what else, tupperware!  We took most of it home and enjoyed it for several days.  So that was his prize, a shirt... and some leftovers!  

Sadie Hawkins 2014

Romney and Raegan had a great time at Sadie's this year (MY dance, of course).  They weren't in the same group, but Raegan's group had a fancy pasta dinner here, and Romney made "1,2,3,4" shirts for herself and Cody (I think it has something to do with the Plain White T's and their song that starts that way?) but they all had a great time.