Opps!

This a big opps...and I generally don't like to make public the dumb things that I do, but this morning while coming out of the dentist office, I accidently dropped my cell phone and then proceeded to run over it. I'm blaming this on being in a dentist office with 5 kids for almost 2 hours and coming out a bit frazzled. So in case your trying to call or text me -- needless to say I can't answer until I switch over to one of my old cell phones soon.

A Birthday Ho-Down!

This past week has just been one big blurr starting with last Tuesday evening Steve's parents flying in from Washington. They came down for Becca's (my niece) high school graduation. We're fortunate enough to have them both stay at our house while they're here, and we love it...even though it means Emi giving up her bed to grammie and sleeping on mom and dad's floor and grandpa taking over Jeff's bed and he's sleeping on the floor -- it's a sacrifice none of us mind. Needless to say, we have a house full, but the more the merrier.

While here, Steve's dad celebrated his 70th birthday!!! And since he's a cowboy at heart, born in a log cabin and raised in Idaho on a ranch, we couldn't resist surprising him and taking him to RAWHIDE - a little made-up western town 20 minutes from my house. We started over there in the early afternoon and had a great time walking around -- there was even a little courthouse/jail where Barb and Phil renewed their marriage vows via a "shot gun wedding" (it was a hoot). Another highlight was coming across a country band playing - they welcomed kids to come up, grab some instruments they supplied (tambourines, fake guitars, etc.) and join the band. At one point, the band's drummer went on break, so Steve went up to fill in -- he helped play a little Elvis tune and sang some pretty good back-up. We were laughing sooo hard -- one of those moments you really have to see to appreciate (good thing I captured it on video). At early evening, a hayride came by and took us to the Sunset Cookout out in the desert. They supplied cowboy hats and bandannas -- the steak, ribs and bar-b-que chicken were awesome, and so was the entertainment, (marshmallow roast, bull-whip demonstration, music, skits, and line dancing). Hopefully, this was a birthday he'll never forget -- we created some wonderful memories!

The end of Baseball Season...

These past 2 months have been just crazy with 4 kids on 3 different teams and games/practices averaging 5 nights a week - but we made it...and we're still sane. I don't think I could have kept up this schedule year round, but it certainly has been fun...and I'm a little sad to see it come to an end. Our spring evenings here are beautiful (70's) so it has really forced us to be outside most every night -- and I'll miss that "down time"... while my kids would play, I kick back, watch the kids play, thumb through magazines or text message family. On a positive note, Jeff may have finished his baseball scheduled games, but for the next 2 weeks, his little league team (which is in 1st place) will advance to the playoffs. So I guess it's not completely over yet. And with school ending THIS Thursday, summer reality is nearly upon us and the whole game (of life) changes. Now it's swim lessons, boredom busters, summer school, scout camp, and just keeping the kids and myself from going crazy from the heat.

It's Back!!!

A discussion was going on in Sunday School a few weeks ago about taking things for granted...such as living so close to a temple and not going as often as we should. Of course, Steve piped in "It's just like Krispy Kreme Donuts...we didn't appreciate it until it was gone."

Well, folks...IT'S BACK!!!!! After closing down all the Krispy Kreme Donut stores in the ENTIRE state of Arizona a couple of years ago, they finally opened up the ONLY ONE 3 miles from my house today. I have been by twice already - once after Joseph's game around 7pm and then just recently around 10pm -- both times there is a line of people around the building and seriously, about 40-50 cars in the drive-thru... so no donuts for us yet- guess I'm not that desperate. But boy, am I dying to sink my teeth into a nice hot soft plain donut...perhaps I'll try again tomorrow!

Mother's Day!

My mothers day was wonderful (with bits of fighting inbetween - hey, it can't be all perfect)! Steve and I were just reflecting recently on how fortunate we are to have such great kids -- and what's even more amazing is before we even got married, I was told it was possible I wouldn't even be able to have children (do to my endometrosis). We feel truly blessed to have had 6 beautiful children. It's absolutely the hardest job I've ever had, but I wouldn't change a thing!


Not to take away from Mother's Day, but one of the highlights of the day had to be my little brother, Bryce and his girlfriend, Heidi, announcing their engagement! For more details on his proposal, check out the Curtis Family blog link. YEAH!!!!!

Scout Advancement

On Thursday, our BS Troop held a Court of Honor and as part of the ceremony, Jeff received his Star rank. He also received few more merit badges and should be able to at least double what he has now since he'll be attending 2 scout camps this summer. We love that he's so motivated with scouts, as well as the Duty to God program!

Current Obsessions

I saw this on a friends blog and thought it was a great idea...

Steve: Baseball! Whether its watching or listening to the D-Backs, coaching the girls softball team, or rooting (very loudly) for Jeff's team.

Teresa: Budgeting (I love it and yes, you could say obsessed), getting our cub scout troop organized, figuring out how to fit exercise into my life, and of course...blogging (not to mention frequently changing the template).

Jeff: Baseball, hanging out with his friends, and counting down until he's officially done with grade school!

Starr: Hanging out with her BFF, discovering she LOVES softball, and trying to find more "me time".

Emi: Meeting her AR (accelerated reading) goal for school, and playing her own version of "school" every day with all her stuffed animals.

Joseph: Man, I have to pry him off the Wii ever since he discovered the Mario Super Smash Brothers game. The word obsession is putting it lightly.

Joshua: Playing with Lego's, blocks, puzzles, getting pushed around in his favorite red car, and pulling out all of my silky clothes from my drawer and carry them around --silly kid just really likes the feel of them.

Life in the Fast Lane....

Like my new look? It only took until midnight last night to figure out how to change the background without losing all the stuff on the side I added (I had to mess with my html)...but finally did it. Now I'm tired.

I'm finally updating our weekend...unfortunately, I didn't take ONE picture. I know, what kind of blogger am I? I'll do better next time, promise!

On Friday, we had the kids carnival at their school -- they do it outside near the park every spring and have about 12 blow-up bouncy things, Fuddruckers caters it (yum!) with tons of games and booths. Our ward even had a cub scout recruiting booth this year to find me more new cub scouts (yep, I'm in charge of cub scouts for our troop), but no such luck. This year they had a petting zoo where the kids could actually feed the goats some dried type of food out of your hand -- Josh wasn't so sure about it. Darn, I didn't get a picture.

On Saturday night, we had our Ward's 5th annual Luau. It's a huge event and was so much fun. They even had real Polynesian dancers perform! Before the luau started, the committee in charge reserved places (5x8 spaces)on the wall for families to decorate and held a contest of the best decorations. Our family did a Sponge Bob theme and also had cut-outs of hula girls with each of our family member faces in the place of the hula girls face. Anyway, we won! And once again, no camera, no picture! You'll just have to picture it in your mind. I'm looking forward to an uneventful weekend where we have NOTHING planned -- but, it won't be this coming weekend...stay tuned.