Have I changed?

Kyle and I were looking at pictures of us since we first met, which has been about 2 and half years. He look really different and I look exactly the same. I started looking at pictures from high school and I look exactly the same since then! I was wondering if anyone could put these pictures in order. Its not as obvious as you would think. These pictures are from when I was a sophomore in high school up to just this past summer. Please leave a comment and see if you can put them in order!

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World Record

Get ready for the worlds longest blog post!

I wanted to start with a quote from our institute class

" Just when all seems to be right, challenges often come in multiple doses simultaneously. When those trials are not consequences of your disobedience, they are evidence that the Lord feels you are prepared to grow more (see Proverbs 3:11-12)" - Richard G. Scott

This quote fits our lives perfectly. Last Christmas our lives were perfect, we had our live perfectly planned out and knew exactly what we wanted to do. Everything was falling into place, and then in just one small moment our lives completely changed. Last Christmas we were living with the Cordners and looking for a new place to live, Kyle was getting ready to take his Kaplan class for the MCAT, he was going to take it in April and then start apply to medical schools. He was going to graduate this May and we would hopefully be going to medical school a year from now. Two days after Christmas all of that changed and our lives are nothing like what they were before Christmas. The next 7 months were the most difficult of our lives. Kyle lost about 40lbs in a very short amount of time, we had a lot of Doctors visits, ER visits, an endoscopy, colonoscopy and a videoscopy. Finally after months of worry and trying really hard to stay positive our lives are slowly returning to normal. The doctors have tentatively labeled Kyle with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, but they are not one hundred percent sure. We are going to wait and see if he continues to improve, but for about the past two months things have been wonderful. This experience has changed the way we think about our lives, how we plan things and has changed what we want for the future. Our plans are slowly starting to rebuild in a very different way, but we have faith that this is what the Lord wants us to do. We moved into a wonderful townhouse, we are in a wonderful ward, I am the new beehive advisor and I LOVE IT!!! Kyle is trying to be a good sport about his sunbeam class :) Kyle is back in school and is going to graduate a year from Christmas. He is now getting ready to start his Kaplan class for the DAT which he will take in the Spring and then we will start applying for dental schools, and we will hopefully be going to dental school (fingers cross for Ohio State) in the fall of 2012. Life is full of adventures, trials, and especially blessings.

Now for the fun stuff!

We went to a Diamondbacks game awhile ago, my baby brother is one cool dude!
Carson wants to be just like Kyle in every way, kyle is a really good example to him as you can see from the picture below.
This is my little cousin Lynlee, she is the sweetest little girl in the entire world. The baseball she is holding was given to her by one of the umpires, he picked her out of the crowd and brought the ball right to her, it was really cute.
Below is the biggest waste of two dollars. But its funny.
We love our sunday afternoon naps
My Dad and uncles new Dental office Alameda Dental Care after it was remodeled. I wish I had a before picture because it was so crazy!!! It looks a million times better now.
This is about half of my parents new backyard. We love this new house!
This was Kyle's first day of school picture! Isn't he so cute! It has been so fun to have him back in school working hard and doing so well. All of those ASU girls better stay away, I know he is ridiculously good looking, but he is mine.
Please enjoy the video below, my little brother loves to play the Wii, especially this sword fighting game. He is better than any adult at it, he is the only one that can beat the game! It look like at last my parents have a child that is really going to accomplish things in life.

I love my Husband

In case you were wondering, I am head over heels for this wonderful man. He is so perfect for me. I just love him!

Utah Trip!

Last week went to Utah for some good quality family time. We went to two of my family reunions, my mom's side and my dad's side. We got stuck right outside of Moab for about 40 minutes. It was nice to get out of the car and walk around for a little bit, but at that point we were still about 4 hours away and were just ready to get there!

We had a really good time at the Jenkins' Family Reunion. The theme was "Be True to the Family Name you Bear". Pretty cute.

Everyone was pretty impressed by our mad skills at country swing dancing. We hadn't danced like that since we were dating!

I love my baby brother, he is the cutest sweetest little boy in the world. Every time you point a camera at him he makes a funny face. He keeps us all laughing. Kyle and I sang our song "the Book of Love" for the talent show. It was very very cute. We are amazing... and humble.

Then it was off to Ioka for the Nelson family reunion. Isn't it absolutely gorgeous. To me it is the most beautiful place in the world. It was so relaxing and wonderful to be there. We had all 7 kids and their kids, thats 18 grandkids including Kyle. All we were missing was my Grandparents, and that was really hard. They are serving their mission in Tallahassee Flordia and get back next June. We used Skype to talk to them a couple times. We can't wait to see them again!

Kyle and I widdled willow branches into hot dog roasting sticks. We would totally be able to survive in the wild. :)

My grandparents bought a boat. They have actually not seen the boat because they bought it after they left, but we are all getting some good use out of it. This is Kyle showing how amazing he his at wake boarding. It was my first time ever going and I almost got out of the water... almost. Next time I"ll get it!

Then we headed home. We stopped over in Monticello and went and walked around the beautiful temple that is there.

Monument Valley is my favorite part of the drive from Arizona to Utah!

The trip went by way to fast! It was so fun to see all of our family, we really miss you guys and can't wait until the next time we get to be up there again.

Summer Vacation!!!

BEST RIDE EVER!!!
Me and my two favorite sister in laws, but missing Tara who is still favorite but not as much favorite because she wasn't there. Just kidding!
All of us on Splash mountain, it was our last ride of the day and we all got really wet!

We had a really crazy day, but it was one of the funnest days I've had at Disneyland. We never waited in line even though both parks were really busy and it was the middle of the summer. It was a blast getting to spend the day with Sean and Angell and Keri! You guys were so much fun! I can't wait until we get to do it again!

Food Storage

What a Saturday Night

Saturday night I went to help my mom paint my little sister's room at their new house. We were painting stripes and it had taken us forever to get the stripes measured out and taped off to start painting. We wanted to get at least get one color painted on, we are painting a bright green color, dark pink, light pink and brown to match the stripes on her bed spread, it is going to be very cute.

We knew that we would only be able to stay until 8 because my mom would have to get the kids home and ready for bed. I decided that to help her out I would stay and get the first color painted on. I moved through it pretty quickly and it looked great. I finished off the second coat and went to get a drink, they haven't moved in to the house yet so there isn't any furniture. I sat down on the ground to watch the little TV we have moved over there. I had seriously been sitting there for about 3 minutes when it happened.

I had an itch on my back and reached up to scratch it... well it wasn't an itch it was a scorpion, on my back. And he stung me twice, once on the back and once on the finger. It hurt so bad.
I freaked out and got it out of my shirt and ran to grab my phone to call my mom to come get me. The pain was pretty bad, it spread out all over my back and from the tip on my finger to my shoulder.

I think that the worst part of the whole thing was that the nasty little scorpion was touching me, he crawled up me, gross, gross, gross. Every time I think about it I gross out and I still feel like its is on me!! GROSS!

Luckily after taking a nice amount of acetaminophen, I was able to fall asleep. All day Sunday my entire left arm was tingly, it felt like it was asleep but I couldn't wake it up. As the day went on it slowly went away until it was just the very tip of my finger... hopefully it won't last to terribly much longer.

So I've been stung by a scorpion, I'm the only one in my family to have been stung and we've lived in Arizona for almost 10 years. This would happen to me!

Good things about getting stung:
1. It was on my left hand, I hardly ever use that one anyway

2. It also stung me on my back not my foot, I would not have been happy about that.

3. The scorpion stung me in the exact place that Tragdon and Halee had been laying down watching a movie all afternoon. So it was good that it was me and not them

4. It stung me twice, so everyone that has been stung once... I trump you.

I've learned that things aren't so bad when you look for the good in what happened.

So next time I stay late to help paint one my brother or sisters bedrooms... I'm going to be a lot more careful. :)

And then to top it all off.. .the Suns lost to the Lakers that night. Not one of the greatest Saturday nights of all time!