if you feel you have time on your hands...

a friend of mine that was in a Student ward of ours here at U of Idaho, posted this link; http://www.girlydohairstyles.com. I had to laugh at first because I am just happy if I can get them to let me brush their hair. However, I know some of you out there have children that will let you do things with their hair and not pull it out right after it is done so here it is. It gives you step by step instructions and they were really cute hair do's.

Adventures in Toddler world...

Hannah is a very busy little girl. she is the first of my children to really like to get into everything.. high and low to her. She has figured out how to move chairs around the house to get what she wants down and she thinks finding my knives is funny... sigh! Among many things Hannah loves to climb into Emeline's bed.. which is the top bunk. We have had to remove the ladder when Emeline is not in it to keep it safe for Hannah.
This morning Emeline and Cassie were the top bunk for some reason and Hannah wanted to join in. I was in my room and heard a loud scream followed by Emeline saying to Cassie.. Hurry go get mom.. NEVER a good thing to hear. I get to my feet and into their room rather fast and see blood dripping off of Hannah's mouth.. it was all over her shirt, hands.. you name it there was a lot of blood. I yell for Trent and take Hannah over the sink in the bathroom and proceed to rinse off the blood to see what is bleeding... I hold her toward Trent and he tells me she has bitten the inside of her lip... ok. I am holding a paper towel to her mouth and it is filling with blood.. and her mouth is shut.. where is the blood coming from? So I take her into my room and lay her on the bed. I see that she has a good cut on the outside of her mouth just under her lip line... and then proceed to put two and two together and look into her mouth.. yeah she has bitten all the way through! I freaked for a minute.. for two reasons, one she bit through and two she was still bleeding so much. I informed Trent that we needed to take her to the ER and called a friend that lived close to come and sit with the other children.
When we got to the ER they put her in the triage room promptly and had a nurse come in to assess her. The nurse decided to go and get the doctor to see if they would actually do anything for this.. since there were 7 people in front of us, in line to see the doctor and 5 of them had Flu symptoms (swine flu is all over the place here with all the college kids back) After talking to the doctor we decided to take her home. With instructions to ice it, clean it with hydrogen peroxide often and put neosporin on it a few times during the day. If it continued to bleed then take her to the Quick care office at 1. (it was almost 11 when we left the ER)
It has bled when she was eating and then again when she hit it on something.. but it seems to be getting better. It made for a crazy morning. I swear she will be the first of my children to break a bone at this rate... sigh! I love having a curious toddler!
otherwise we are up to the same old things. Micah and Emeline are liking their teachers and Cassie loves going to preschool. School is going well for Trent and I and we seem to have found some sort of schedule that works for all of us.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!

The day finally came. Both of the children were so excited to go back to school. We met teachers and looked over the classrooms last night and it made it hard for the children to fall asleep last night. They were crazy with anticipation! The house is quieter and starting next week will be even more so.. Cassie will be going to preschool during Hannah's nap times... What will that be like? I may not know what to do with myself :D

What's up at the Nelson home these days...

It's here.. The end of the summer. The last week of freedom for my children before they return to the task of schooling. It has been a great summer for us. We have had many adventures and road trips.
We got out and did some back to school shopping the last few weeks and I can not believe how much Emeline and Micah has grown. Emeline has gotten so tall she has almost jumped two pant sizes in the last 3 months.. yowza! We found what they needed and all in all spent surprisingly little. (I love clearance and yard sales)
Just a little change in our lives. Trent and I are both taking classes this semester at the University.With Hannah being born so early Trent never finished the few classes he had left for graduation. The HUGE bonus is that now he can take those classes at an amazing price of 5 dollars a credit.. I mean we would be nuts not to advantage of that! Trent will be taking one class and his boss is more than excited to let him break away from work and hour three days a week to do it.
With all this happening I had a huge impression that I needed to see what I needed to do to finish up my degree as well. It turns out that taking about 6 credits a semester will get me my degree in 3 years... so I am going for it! This semester I am taking 2 on line classes. I have made arrangements to trade care with another friend that is also returning to school that happens to live right next door. It is really working out.. oh and I get to attend classes for the same rate as Trent.. did I mention that? Awesome, I know!
Life may get a bit nuts at times around here but I know what we are doing is so important that it will all work out.
I will update with back to school pics in a week.. til then later alligator!

Family Photo session

After the Crook reunion and some showers... we went and had family pictures taken by Aunt Becki and her friend Andrea. They did a great job and with some playing on my photo editing I really love the last picture! Not perfect, but great! The picture of the children with grandma and grandpa was at the end of all of this and you can tell that most of the children had enough of pictures... It was great! Thanks!

Camping with Friends

Down by the water

Emeline and her best friend Maren listening to music on an IPOD... I think they are growing up to fast for me...

Hannah was very happy except when I had to wash the sand off her bum and when she had to go to bed..

Micah and his two best buds decided to create the grand canyon with water erosion... they had fun watching the water carve away at the sand as they poured it

Hannah and Kenzie playing on the older girls scooters.

We had so much fun camping for an extended weekend with some of our closest friends here in Moscow. The moms' were really brave and set out two days and one night before our husbands with all our children ( 3 moms to 12 children under the age of 9). When we arrived at the campsite it was crazy for a bit until we figured out where tents would be best and set up camp, but we got through it all and I have to say.. we did a great job ( I however do not want to go set up camp ever again with out my hubby) It was hot and sunny everyday we were there, we spent a lot of time at the river bed.
the last night we were clouds moved in and it rained.. we had to pack up in the rain and then set out our camp gear when we got home. As you can see by the photos we had a great time and look forward to finding another new place to camp next year.
On another note:
Trent and I have both decided to start taking a few classes again. Trent will take some classes as his work schedule will permit. I am going to start off with taking a class or two online and as I go I have worked out some trade for childcare with a good friend that lives not two houses down from me, She is taking a few classes too so we will both benefit. We hope to both be done with school slowly in 3 years. It will be busy and nuts at times I am sure.. but what else is new!
Micah and Emeline start school on the 2nd of September and are so excited. I have to admit so am I. Cassie is going to do home- preschool two times a week. A small group of moms are going to take turns teaching and it should be really fun!
Hannah is doing really well on her new meds. (It has been three weeks since she threw up and It is awesome!) We see her eye specialist in a month and she has an appointment In December to re-evaluate her digestive track and see where we are at.
Well that is enough from me... hope everyone else is having a busy, fun summer!

Idaho Falls Trip

We completely fell in love with this "hamster ball" and I will hear about it for years to come I think. It will have to be at the future reunions.. as long as no one pops it :D The kids would climb inside it and run around.. they would knock each other over and well just sit in it and have fun... way cool

On the 4th some of the "left over" crook reunion goers got together and finish off the watermelon and salad.. we added pizza (thank you). Hannah loved the watermelon and I was brave enough to let her eat it instead of chopping it up... she loved it!

On our way to the reunion we stopped a lot.. I mean A LOT! This is one of the stops and the kids thought it would be fun to sit on top of the car. Trent liked the idea and they took turns sitting there. I had to take a picture for a few people that told me on Facebook, when I was worried about how it would all fit into the car, to just strap Micah to the top... well there you go!

we have found a new fun food to bring on long car rides... a fruit roll up type thing called "stackers" we had a lot of fun with this and well.... I thought it would be only fair to let Trent have some fun while he was driving.. :D

So I realize that I do not grab my camera as much as I would like to during trips, and I missed a lot of photo opportunities, I did not get any of us just hanging out at Bill and Leanna's house and I did not get any of us with Steve and Julie when we went out to lunch. I also got to go up to Rexburg and see my Nieces, great nieces ( I am really not that old) and Nephew for a bit and of course.. forgot my camera! We got to see everyone that we wanted to on this trip and then some. I missed the Washington Crooks, we may have to make a trip over the sound and see them!
We had a good time in Idaho Falls and hope to get back there again next year. We loved seeing you all!!!