The BEST Day Ever

Or is it?

First thing this morning I went to the dentist with Ashley for our teeth cleaning. It's always fun to feel the sharp pokey thing scraping your teeth! And to be reminded that I need a crown for one of my molars. Since I can't afford a beautiful shiny crown, the dentist recommended that I have my filling re-filled. So, they will drill out my filling that is chipped and then put in a new filling. Ashley has an infected tooth, so she needs it pulled. Wwe both go back on Monday to get our work done. YAY!!! NOT.

Anyone who really knows me, knows that I canNOT stand ANYTHING SpongeBob.

Why? UGH he is so ANNOYING to me! His voice especially drives nails into my brain. I honestly can't believe that show is still on.

So, you can imagine my DELIGHT when Ben shows me that he just downloaded THIS song (and THIS and THIS) for Rock Band 2. Now I get to listen to the kids singing those song over and over again. I have to admit that Anson was SO CUTE when he ran to tell me all about the newest songs and when he sang 'Best Day Ever' with the microphone. I think we may have to turn down the volume for these songs or I fear that my ears will begin to bleed. LOL

Ok onto something more fun. Yesterday we took the kids to the park to teach them to play basketball (half-court). Ben & I picked our teams, which of course went quickly because there aren't many to choose from. I ended up with the older kids and Ben had the youngers. Periodically, Anson & Ashley would take off to the slides leaving Ben by himself. Not like he needs more players but it was fun with all the kids. We ended up switching teams mid game, boys vs girls (the way the kids really wanted it). We had so much FUN!! The boys won 11-9. Then we played H-O-R-S-E. Ben & I kept giggling when the kids called each other by the letters they had earned. Nathaniel would say 'I'm a HO' and Felicia would say 'No you're not! You're a HOR and I'm a HO!' tee hee :) They kept asking what was so funny! HAHAHAHA We were dying! Anyway, it came down to Ben & me and I WON because Ben missed his last shot! WOOHOOO!!!!!!

Anniversary, Birthdays, Bunko, Spring Break

Yesterday, Ben & I celebrated our 13th Anniversary! WOW I can't believe it's been that long already! And we dated for about a year and a half. Goodness! Look how YOUNG we look in our wedding photo!! And we thought we were so mature & grown up for barely being 21. HAHAHA

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BEN!!! I LOVE YOU so much! Here's to many more wonderful years with you!!!

Ok, now I'm going to back track a little. Since I haven't been posting regularly, I want to remember some of what's been going on these last 2 weeks.


My Mom had her Birthday March 3rd. I made her a beaded necklace, so I asked her to model it for me. I Love my Mom and couldn't possibly name all the amazing & wonderful things she has done for me. She has ALWAYS been there for me and I think she's the BEST!!! Hope you had a Fantastic Birthday Mom!!!

Our Little Bunny had her Birthday on March 6th! Now Ashley is 7. She also got to have her first sleepover. We let her choose one friend to come spend the night. They were so cute together!

I took this pic before she left for school. She is growing so fast, and keeps getting prettier & prettier!

Ashley blowing out her '7' candle. Suddenly I couldn't find all of our little candles to go with it.

She wanted a white cake with purple frosting and strawberry cupcakes with strawberry frosting. For the last several years, I've made the kids a cake and cupcakes, but they get special cupcakes just for them. I put numbers on their cupcakes 1 for each year. Ashley loved her 7 pink cupcakes!

Last week, we bought a football to teach the kids how to play. So, for Family Home Evening, we played football in our front yard {Girls vs Boys}. Can you guess who won?

GIRLS!!!!! 35-28! WOOHOOOOO!!!!! They were such CUTE little footballers! Ashley did NOT want to catch the ball at all, but she enjoyed running, blocking & sometimes throwing the ball. Felicia did great too, throwing, catching, running, blocking, tagging! You name it, she did it! The boys did good too, but apparently not as good as the girls! HAHAHAHAA

The main thing is that we ALL had a Blast and they want to do it every Monday now!

Felicia had to finish up one of her art projects at home and was upset and thinking it wasn't turning out the way she had hoped. When I asked her to show me, I was STUNNED!

Seriously, she thought this looked like crap! I had to give her a little pep talk and remind her that anything she makes could never look bad! She is talented!

Another one bites the dust....LOL Anson has been trying his hand at guitar on Rock Band 2 lately. I saw him practicing with the girls and couldn't resist capturing this! He was also swaying with the music!

Ummm who does he think he is going shirtless....Aerosmith? HAHAA

Really, he's good at drums & now he loves singing too! His faves are the heavy metal songs! Cracks me up!!! We're teaching 'em at a young age! tee hee :)

Here's my beautiful Spring garland that Jen helped me make! I didn't notice until after I hung it, but somehow during all our chatting and laughing (while making it) I mixed up the paper for the 'n' and 'g' so it's not consistent with the alternating pattern. Oh well, I think it's still beautiful!

Well, my FIRST time hosting Bunko went surprisingly smoothly. My sister was going to have all the kids spend the night at her place, but she had been sick so she cancelled. Then my Mom said she would have the kids over to her house for a while to watch movies then Ben could pick them up when they were done. YAY!! So we didn't have to worry about what to do with the kids all evening. Thanks MOM!!!

We all had a great time & laughed tons! Dinner was delicious (if I say so myself - hahaha). We had Hawaiian Haystacks {big THANKS to all who brought items}, Hawaiian sweet rolls {sorry I didn't make them, bought them from Fry's}, unusually large fresh strawberries, tropical punch {made by Alicia}, soda, and lemonaide cake for dessert.

Oooh and I won HIGH Score! WOOHOOOO!!!! Here's the prize I chose:

I guess everything didn't go exactly as planned. Somehow, I miscounted the door prizes and was short one. Sorry Alicia (how did we miss that???) I will get another prize for you! Apparently, I'm not the only one who has done that before. Whew! Guess that means I'm not the only dork in the group. LOL

Friday evening my Sister had leave work to go to the Emergency Room for a serious asthma attack. {I'm guessing it wasn't toooooo scary because after my Dad picked her up from work they stopped at Filiberto's on the way to the hospital to get some Mexican food since they knew they would be at the ER a while & would probably miss dinner. What the heck??? Always thinking about food - those two crack me up!} She was able to come home Saturday afternoon and is doing better. They sent her home with several medications and hopefully she'll be feeling better soon! Love ya SIS!!!!

Saturday started our SPRING BREAK!!!! No school (Ben's off work too) for a whole week! YAY!! We have needed a break. Feel like we've all been going and going like that cute little Energizer Bunny!

We all slept in Saturday morning. Dang that felt good! {Well, except for Ben, poor guy still had to work then he has a week off} To my surprise, Nathaniel & Felicia wanted to pull weeds!!! I didn't even ask them or anything! Ok, seriously, don't judge...Ben pours weed killer around our pool every year but it doesn't seem to help with these monster weeds! They seriously pop up overnight and double in size daily!

Nathaniel and Felicia came running in the house and told me to 'come quick & bring the camera'! They were excited to pull these bad boys & kept assigning names according to the size of their roots! Apparently, this was a 'General' because the root was big and thick! HAHA

They had a name for each one they pulled, but I can't remember them now. They are funny!

Nathaniel is out there again today pulling more weeds.

My best friend, Karyn, sent me a gift card for Old Navy and a couple coupons last week. So I went shopping Saturday evening with Felicia and bought a few things for me! Thank You Karyn for the late birthday gift! That kind of gift is welcomed no matter how late!!!! ☺

Ooops this turned out way longer than I wanted. If you made it this far, Kudos to you! And Thanks!

Have a wonderful week! And if you're on Spring Break too, then have a FUN & SAFE Spring Break!!!

Leaving you with this funny video that reminds me of something Ashley would do. She also thought this was HILARIOUS!!!

Discoveries & Fun Times

Oh my gosh! Have you seen this show on the Discovery channel?

I saw my first two episodes yesterday! {this was the only pic I could find - the dvd set but I watched on tv} I was totally glued & freaked out a little! Chilling goosebumps constantly on my legs! These shows are re-enactments of 'real' haunting/ghost stories but names are usually changed. WILD & interesting!

Ok, the only reason I even found this show was because the tv was still on the same channel from Sunday evening. Ben and I (and a kid or two) watched several episodes all about Dinosaurs. Not just any show though, it was all about the creatures who roamed the earth before dinosaurs and the evolution that led up to dinosaurs. It was so interesting & cool! It wasn't all boring talk it was computer generated dinosaurs & what the earth probably looked like WAY back then! We also watched Secrets of a Dinosaur Mummy, which was totally AWESOME! Some paleontologists found dinosaur remains {they named him Leonardo} that were fossilized & mummified in the Badlands in Montana! They theorized that the dinosaur died & fell into water, then was immediately entombed in mud {mummified} then when the water dried up it fossilized. SO COOL!! They went thru great lengths to get x-rays & gamma-rays & even special time at NASA to use their equipment. They were able to see the dinosaur's organs & whole digestive tract & scales on their skin, etc. It was really incredible!

Ok 'nuff of interesting discoveries! LOL

Yesterday Ben & Anson went swimming. I was tired from *power yoga* & didn't feel like it. So I watched them {from inside the house}. They were so cute playing together! Then one of the times I went outside, they were both chillin' on their own rafts! TOO CUTE! Sad I didn't get a pic of them!

Nathaniel was in charge of Family Home Evening (FHE) last night. However, we started finding fun songs online and the kids migrated quickly to the computer room for singing & dancing! So, we considered that our family time! haha Suddenly it was bedtime. We told him he could do the lesson another day this week. He was ok with that.

Today went to lunch at Barro's. Ben came with me and turned out that Alicia's hubby & Julie's hubby both came too. It was like a 'couples lunch'! It was so much FUN!! We should do it again! Thanks for the great time ladies & hubbies!!

I'm excited because tonight, I'm going with some friends to see the movie The Women. It's full of wonderful actresses & looks funny!

I'll let you know what I think. Have you seen it?

Crazy Fun Week

I didn't realize I hadn't posted since Sunday evening! WOW!

Here's the week recap:

Monday was pretty good. Felicia planned our whole Family Home Evening (FHE) for that night. She wanted to talk about Baptism and the Sacrament. I helped her only a tiny bit because she wanted pictures to go with her lesson, so I got them out for her. She did GREAT! We all discusssed her lesson & she asked questions & we played a little game! She's a really good teacher/leader! She also planned a little time for Ashley to show off some of her most recent art! Ashley was so excited to do that!

Tuesday my back was FINALLY feeling better! I went to the gym with Alicia & worked our butts off! Oh and Ben actually joined us to check out the class we were doing. He's not a big fan of the classes, but tried it for me. He agreed that it was a good workout, but he probably won't do it again. After the gym, I was off to Barro's for lunch with Anson & friends. He enjoys going there.

Oh oh - and I have exciting news - my SIL Heather (and her son Trevor) moved back! So Ben went to the airport to pick them up & spent most of the day at his Mom's house with his sisters.

Dinner time was super funny! We were ALL laughing hysterically at the table, Ben was even spitting out food from laughing so hard! HAHAHA We were talking about *cooties* and remembering what kids we thought had them when we were in grade school. It was the worst when we had to do square dancing in P.E. and I did NOT want certain boys to even touch my hands! Eeeewww! Part of it was to tell Nathaniel not to be gross at school cuz then the girls won't like him! LOL Ben told me that he was probably one of the gross kids & I wouldn't have liked him if I had known him when we were younger!

That night Ben and I also got to meet Ashley's new teacher. The classes were pretty big so they just hired a 4th teacher and Ashley got moved to the new class this week. She was actually pretty excited about it. Her new teacher seems really motivated & has some great ideas for the kids. We also talked to the teacher she had been with this last month. She was sad to lose Ashley & she said she was doing GREAT! Then we got to have a little key lime cheesecake for dessert! It was delicious!!

Wednesday we went to the gym again and Ben tried the different class with us again. He liked it but again probably won't go again, he'd rather do his own workout. I'm just glad that he checked it out with me. It was fun having him there too. And boy was I sore after 2 days of full body workouts. That's what I get for layin' around all last week because of my stupid back spasm!

Nathaniel & Felicia have had several orchestra classes now and are still happy to be trying it out.

Umm I think this was the night of the 15 minute burst of rain. It was pretty cool. I went to see my Dad to pick up some more fresh peaches & Nathaniel called to let me know that it had rained about 10 inches (in case I didn't know). HAHAHA Ok, Arizona maybe gets 10 inches in one year! LOL He's too cute!

Thursday (which is still Today for me even though I'm typing this really late at night) was fun! I got to spend lots of time reading books with Anson. He brought me a stack of little Nemo books (ok these are Phonics books and consist of maybe 4-5 pages with one or two sentences on each page - they're for beginner readers). There are 13 in the set, but I think one was missing. He is a HUGE Nemo fan so he just loved these. He hasn't let me read very many stories to him. He likes to look by himself. So this was kind of exciting. I didn't make it to the gym because we were having a sweet *moment* even though it lasted almost 2 hours. He wanted me to keep reading & keep reading another then another then another! HAHAHA I LOVE spending time with him while the kids are at school. I have to take what I can get because he'll start school next year.

Friday is BUNKO!!! Need I say more?! LOL

Allright this turned into a novel. Gotta get to bed, so I can get some work done tomorrow. My house is trashed but I had a GOOD day with Anson (and Nathaniel, Felicia & Ashley once they got home from school)! YAY for happy good days!!!

The *Shiner*

It all started on Monday (Aug. 4th), we were having fun swimming at my parents' house & having a BBQ.

Nathaniel & Anson (relaxing in his new hippo floaty)

Ashley & Felicia swimming with the pool noodles
My Mom & Dad (and Anson's little feet)
Ben was *holding* the hippo floaty while Anson was swimming without any help
Even their dog Madison joined us
I think this one was taken after the *shiner* so it didn't stop Nathaniel from having fun
Ok, so here's what happened..
Everyone was playing and having fun, then somehow Nathaniel got right behind or under Ben, well Ben went to move quickly and Nathaniel's eye got the brunt of Ben's elbow during a big stroke to swim away. It all happened so fast, that I didn't even realize that he got hurt until he came out of the water crying. We all took a look at his face. Yikes! Instant bruising and swelling plus a little cut. Poor guy! He put ice on it for a while then went back in the pool.


Here's how it looked when we were done swimming
(Ben felt so bad even though it was an accident)

He also kept ice on it while we watched "Goonies" that evening at my parents' house.
(The kids hadn't seen that movie yet and liked it. Total blast from the past. It came out in 1985. It was cracking me up the whole time!)


Here's how his eye looked on Wed morning
I used a little makeup to make it not look so bad (still very swollen though)
Here he is today. Hardly any swelling and most of the bruising gone.
He's already had to tell a few people asking about his *shiner* and who won the bar brawl. ha ha

He says it doesn't hurt much as long as no one touches it.

Good thing we have a couple more days before school starts. Don't want him looking like *Rocky* on his first day of school. LOL

FHE - Cleaning the Church Building

We had a GREAT FHE (Family Home Evening) last night! We weren't exactly at home - we volunteered to help clean our church building with another family. Families volunteer every Saturday & Monday. Our kids LOVE doing this! I don't know why because they don't like cleaning our house. I guess it's always more fun cleaning somewhere else. Anyhow, they did a really good job, and everyone helped even Anson. Especially since I had to take him to the doctor earlier because he couldn't stop coughing (he's been coughing for a while but it suddenly was a really bad day). He had taken a nap when we got home from the doctor's office, but woke up just in time to help clean.

Here's Anson helping to wash the bathroom counters.

Ashley & my friend, Kristy B, cleaning the bathroom mirrors, sinks & counters.
Felicia's wiping down the changing table.
Nathaniel, Matthew (they were in charge of emptying trash cans) & Ashley
Kristy & ME (She is so nice, she's one of the first people I met in our ward and I love this gal. She also was Nathaniel's first cub scout leader & he absolutely loves her!)
Kristy & Aisling
Ben vacuuming
Kristy's hubby, David - he also vacuumed
Adam & Aisling playing basketball when we were done. The grown-ups joined in for a quick little round of Girls vs Boys. It was FUN! They're a fun family!
Here's how Ashley & Anson celebrated (since they're never allowed to play on the stage during church, they finally got their chance)!
We're grateful that we had the opportunity to serve and show our love for our Savior by taking care of His church building.
We also showed our kids that we love and appreciate them by taking them to get a treat when we were done. I mean what's FHE w/o refreshments? We had to go to the store anyway, so we let them pick out some donuts! See, we can be nice sometimes. :)

Lights, Decorations, Tree

On Monday, Ben and I put the Christmas lights on our house! YAY! For our Family Home Evening (FHE) we put up our tree! Lots getting done! Although, the star is not on top of the tree, need another extension cord. We used them all outside. ha ha.

FHE was fun and my parents came over to help/watch. We had hot cocoa, sang some Christmas songs, and the kids all helped put up the tree (it's fake) and ornaments. Poor Felicia thought that decorating the tree was cutting into our lesson/activity time for FHE. Half-way thru ornaments, she said she wanted us to hurry cuz we were wasting time. ha ha. Apparently, she had some sort of little activity she wanted us to do. (She is really enjoying being in charge - self appointed of course.) I had to explain to her that the tree was the main event for family night and that we don't always have to have a lesson. Family night can be anything we want it to be. Usually there's a lesson involved, but it can also be other things. Ashley insisted that my Mom help her "read" a short story to the group. But it wasn't planned, it just sort of happened cuz we were all sitting down enjoying the pretty tree when she got up and took charge. Maybe that's what upset Felicia, the fact that Ashley got to do something that she wanted but not her. I'm not sure. When we were done we ate birthday cake because Ben's birthday was Sunday. All-in-all, it was a good day!