Sweet Moments

I wish I had a picture like this with each of the boys. I love it when they are so little, finally fall asleep in your arms, and you can take a deep breath to drink in the peace of that moment in time.

My Cute Boys

Trying to look ahead to Christmas Card season we went with Kaley, Chase and Madi to take pictures. This being the Year of the Rockstar, I decided to use that as the theme for our cards. So here is a smathering of some of my favorite pics!

Happy 6th Month Birthday, Brett!

I don't know if the tradition started because of wanting to celebrate family milestones or just because we like to give presents but in our family we celebrate EVERYTHING! So today, we celebrated Brett's 6 month birthday. It was pretty low key, for a Rockstar. One Happy Birthday Dude wrapped gift with a DJ Club Penguin inside. I'm sure he was elated!


So obedient to pose first and tear open second!


Trying to figure out how to get around the tape.


Not really sure it's worth the effort because he knows Grandpa has ice cream somewhere nearby!


Yeah, ice cream sounds better right about now.


Happy 6 Month Birthday!

A Rockin' Halloween!

Halloween and I have a love / hate relationship. I love being with my kids, ignoring homework and laundry, dressing them up crazy, dressing Scott and I up crazy, and spending fun, family time together. I hate all the candy that comes in the house and all the candy that goes out of the house for school projects and parties. I hate the hassle of kids who whine because their costume isn't perfect. They should've learned by now, if it's perfect in my head, it's going to turn out (at least) OK. And so this Halloween I continued my Totally Unfair tradition of picking out the kids costumes for them. I REALLY wanted them to be Rock Stars in honor of our cute little Brett. A few were not so thrilled but in the end everyone was happy. (Ok, the bribes of colored hair, blow-up guitars and funky glasses definitely helped my plea!)

So here is my Totally Scary Rock Band of Boys:

Bradley--The Classic Rocker


Bryson--The Punk Rocker


Blake--The Hottest Rocker


Brock--The Grunge Rocker (check out the Pleather Pants!)


Brett--The REAL Rocker (He'll "Poison" your heart with his cute smile!)


After invading Mom and Dad's Halloween Carnival in their neighborhood, we went over to Grandma-ma's and Grandpa Long's to show off our costumes. After pictures and treats we wandered around and ended up at Chris and Cassi's house where we tagged along with them Trick-or-Treating in their neighborhood. The kids had fun going around together collecting more candy than they could ever eat.


So, another successful Halloween was crossed off the calendar. Good thing I have a whole year to think of how to top our Rock Star Band!

Fall Fun!

I'll just say that Groupons are Great! Mom and Dad found a Groupon for the kids to visit the DeWitt Ranch for some Down Home Fall Fun! One of the first things the kids ran to was the mini horseback rides. They loaded kiddos up on ponies and rode around a little track--so cute! Kaley, Dad and Bradley went on BIG horses for a 30 minute ride. I think Bradley's only complaint was that it could have been a longer ride.



They also rode tractors and roped and lassoed things to their hearts content, bringing out the inner cowboy and cowgirl in each of them.


I toted Baby Brett around in our nifty babypack which proved to be an excellent back and abdominal muscle workout! He's a very sturdy little boy!


We piled into a covered wagon to go to their pumpkin patch where the kids got to pick a pumpkin. On the way there, the driver let Blake drive the horses--scary! On the way back all the kids got a turn. It's a wonder we made it back alive! Here I am with my little pumpkin, looking at a little pumpkin-Ha Ha Ha!


Yeah, this is about right if it had been back in Pioneer Days. Some people happy, some not so happy and of course all of that would change 2 minutes after this picture was taken. But it was a lot of fun to be down on the farm for a while and enjoy a simpler way of entertaining the kids!

Rice Cereal Vs. Ice Cream

You can probably guess how the score of this game is going to turn out. The first feeding of rice cereal for all the boys has been fun to watch unfold. I was pretty much a one man show trying to feed Brett, take pictures and not spill the cereal all over. As is so his personality, he was very patient through the process and willing to endure the unfamiliar taste and texture I was forcing down.


He's definitely thinking about giving it a second taste.


Nope. Second taste not so good.


Do we really have to have a third bite?


Patience is beginning to wear thin.


Contrast that to this picture of Dad giving Madi her first taste of ice cream. Brett (who knows the goodness that comes from a spoon on Grandpa's lap) waits anxiously for his turn!

Baby Madicyn is finally here!

The end of August brought a cute pink bundle of fun for my sister when Madicyn Joy was born. I got to play photographer for Miss Madi's first outdoor photo shoot. After 2 days and a million pictures later we captured some great shots for Kaley's Baby Shower. It will be fun to see she and Baby Brett grow up together. We call Brett her Body Guard because he is so much bigger than her! Anyway, there aren't too many things that are more fun than taking pictures of cute sleeping babies!

Fast Visit to Utah

When we left Utah in July after Soccer Camp I had this insane idea to come back on Labor Day weekend to let the boys go to the Women's Soccer game. BYU happened to be playing U of A so it was bound to be an interesting game. Ryan and Jennifer let us crash at their house. And when I say crash, I mean crash because we didn't get there until about 2am! Bless Ryan for staying up playing with his new sound system and miles of all kinds of cables that he now has in the new basement!

The kids always enjoy playing with cousins and the weather was great! On Sunday, after church, we drove to Layton to visit Grandma Partridge. Her health has been up and down and I know she misses Grandpa so much. We had a really nice visit with her. I helped her hold Baby Brett for a minute and she said "He's acceptable, I think." I love my Grandma so much! After our visit Scott, Ryan, Brett, Dad and a few other Priesthood holding cousins came to participate in a blessing for Grandma. (Mom and Dad flew up to join in for part of the weekend). Jennifer and I stayed in the cars with the kids. Scott reported that Dad gave a beautiful blessing of comfort for her. I am so grateful for many worthy Priesthood holders in my life!

So Monday morning at literally the crack of dawn, Scott took Bradley, Bryson, Blake and Brock all to hike the Y.




While it's true I have a giant aversion to hiking, camping and such, I really would have enjoyed this hike but I stayed back with Baby Brett and got our things ready for the day.


Here they are somewhere along the trail. Blake fortunately, is in the middle of the path--not leaning over the mountain edge!


A great view of Utah Valley!


And here's my guys at the top of the Y looking down. I know they will remember this little early morning adventure for a while!


So, later that afternoon was the actual soccer game. Ryan, Nathan, Benjamin and Joshua came with us. The game was amazing and BYU was killing U of A. Of course we had on our Cougar best! Then before half-time they asked for volunteers to play some games on the field during half-time. Oh I love BYU! So I totally wanted to volunteer! They needed a family of 4 so Ryan and I went down with Nathan and Benjamin. It turned out we did a relay race of different soccer drills. Nathan had to dribble the ball down to Benjamin and I and then we had to juggle the ball on our knees then Benjamin dribbled the ball down to the other side.


So I hope Benjamin doesn't read this but I was so nervous I was going to make a total fool of myself--which let's face it, would not be the first time. I practiced with him juggling the ball on our knees hoping I would not drop the ball on the first bounce. It was crazy fun!


Somehow we won the relay race and a gift card for Papa John's pizza! That was out of luck and not our mad soccer skillz. But maybe next year we'll win with our Mega Mad Soccer Skillz! Way to Go Boys!!!


It wouldn't be right if Blake didn't get to meet and attack Cosmo so here he is blowing up a fist bump!

After the game we loaded the car, took a quick potty break, said good bye and headed for a gas station to fuel up for the drive back. We decided to drive as far as St. George and spend the night there. That was a good move because not only did we get an early night's sleep before the rest of the trip but the hotel was across the street from the St. George Brick Oven! Yeah!!!! We totally ate dinner there at like 10 o'clock at night and it was so good! With a bottle of Apple Beer to go we headed the rest of the way home Tuesday morning. The trip was fast, fun and filled with memories!

Jedi In Training!

Our little Jedi In Training posed so nicely for me in a Pottery Barn Beanbag chair with one of the boys light sabers. He's so cute and getting so big and the time is going by so fast! Having 5 boys is totally crazy but Baby Brett is worth all the craziness in the world! For the most part, he is very patient and content which is a huge blessing because some days he is the only boy in the house who is patient and content!

Bradley is Twelve!

I can't believe Bradley is 12. It seems like yesterday he was crawling up the stairs in our first little house and sitting on Scott's lap while Scott worked on homework from ASU. Now he is taller than almost the whole world around him and becoming more amazing and talented every day!

For such a momentous occasion, we let Bradley have a friend party (these are few and far between at our house--I'm just mean that way). Since it was late August and still as hot as whatever we had a pool/BBQ party at Mom and Dad's house. Actually, we had two pool/BBQ parties that day.

We had all of Bradley's friends over first and let them play in the pool, super soak themselves with really cool water guns and eat hot dogs and burgers grilled by the Master Griller--Dad.


Here they are watching Bradley open gifts and stuffing down one last burger, dog or potato chip!


We threw them all back in the pool to play until it was time to take them all home. It was really a lot of fun. Bradley has a lot of good friends, for which I am very grateful. They are all really good, funny boys and I only had to shout at them not to drown each other a couple of times.


After we delivered Party #1 back to their respective homes, we geared up for Party #2--The Fam! Bradley dried off long enough to open family gifts and pose for a picture or two.


You would think a 12 year old boy would not really groove on getting new clothes, but Bradley was super excited about his new Fast Food wardrobe! The Legos and Chocolate covered Macadamia nuts were ok too.


After the wrapping paper was gathered and thrown we threw all our people into the pool and Mom cranked the Beach Boy Tunes--one of Bradley's summertime favorites! (You can see Megan is getting serious about soaking her Uncle Scott!)


Uncle Chase was so nice to take Baby Brett inside after his little dip in the pool. What a great Dad-to-Be--Soon!


The Grill Master fired things up again and we all got to enjoy amazing burgers and dogs!


On Sunday, we celebrated at Grandma-ma's house with one of Bradley's favorite desserts--Texas Sheet Cake. MMMMMM! Happy Birthday Bradley!