Happy Easter!

This year, I decided to spend Easter with my family in Las Vegas. Chris couldn't come because of work and church requirements. We missed him! I managed to get one Easter traditional picture of the kids in their church outfits. It's not the best picture. We were all having a hard time cooperating, but the kids and the outfits are still cute!

The kids had fun with Grandma Chesnik's Easter egg hunt! It was nice to get out of town for a couple of days and enjoy some relaxing time with my parents.

Christmas!

I love Christmas. I love the smells, the food, the family, the tree, the lights. OK, so I don't love all the craziness of getting to Christmas and all the work to get the gifts done, but I love giving gifts to my family, especially my kids.

Favorite memories from this year:

1. Visiting my family in Vegas for a few days to exchange gifts. This year is a "Partridge year" for Christmas. We trade each year between my family and Chris' family so we can be even. I took the opportunity to travel with the kids for a couple of days to say Merry Christmas to my family before Christmas.

2. Enchilada Christmas Eve dinner. It's a tradition in Chris' family to eat them on Christmas Eve. Chris' grandma makes the best enchiladas ever!

3. Sibling and cousin gift exchange. Because there are so many people and ever increasing little people, it's so nice to draw a name and buy a gift for just that person. Plus I find that I think of that person a little more through the holiday season and enjoy doing something for them. This year all of Chris' family came in town. I love it when we are all together! I think most everyone is represented with these 2 pictures.

Sorry for the terrible red eye in this picture, my photo program wouldn't take them all out for some reason.

4. Spending time with my little family and see them get excited about Christmas. This year was the year of the pillow pet. Santa also brought a bike for Katelyn, a scooter for Megan, and a train set for Adam. I can't find those pictures! They must all be on the video camera.

5. Family picture time! Don't we all love our picture taken (insert sarcasm here)? Well, it was a necessity this year since all the Partridge's were together and there were 3 new little people not represented in a family picture. Also, all the other kiddos are getting so grown up! The experience might have felt like a mess. Well, at least for me. Adam was having a horrible day. But the pictures turned out great!

Here's the whole family!

Keeping the kids busy while waiting to get everything set up

Adam with his cousin Bradley. Bradley was the only one who could get Adam to be happy.

Beautiful Katelyn

I really don't like pictures of myself, but everyone else was represented...I was feeling left out. 

Chris and my climbing Megan.

Da Girls. This was the easiest picture to take! There are not very many little girls so there were less distractions.

6. Big Mahalo to Scott and Cheryl for bringing the most exciting gift of the year. Each family now has a super amazing camera! I still need to learn how to use it to its full potential, but even for me just "pointing and clicking" still makes an amazing picture. The picture of the whole family was taken by our photographer. The rest of the pictures above in the family set were taken by our amazing new cameras. Wow the difference when you have the best tools!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was spent in Las Vegas with my family and we had a great time! My brother lives in town and my sister was able to bring her family down from Utah so we were all there. And my Grandma Basta got to come too! I love Thanksgiving time. It always means family time to me and I love having everyone together.

One of the kids' favorite things to do at my Mom and Dad's is to play in the backyard.

Sadly, Adam got pink eye on the day of Thanksgiving. That was a nightmare trying to keep him clean and away from everyone else! Eek!

These group of cousins have a great time together. They enjoy putting on mini plays or shows for us almost every time they get together. Here's the Thanksgiving version.

Because everyone was together, my mom requested an updated grandkid picture. We decided with this many kids that it would be easier to go to a park with a nice camera and do the pictures ourselves. I think they turned out great and the kids did a really good job. Big thanks to Kristin the photographer and her brother's camera. They are all such cute little blondies, you almost can't tell who belongs to which parents! We sure love these kids!

Phoenix Zoo Day

It's Veteran's Day and the kids have the day off. What am I going to do with all the monkeys? Go to the Zoo! Chris' work provided us with free Phoenix Zoo tickets that we hadn't used yet, so today was a great day to use them up. Katelyn even got to invite a friend to enjoy the day. Here's some of our favorite picture moments:

Happy Halloween

Presenting the Halloween bunch from 2011: we have Princess Leia complete with wig,  Dorthy complete with red ruby slippers, and Thomas the Tank engine who "choo-chooed" his way through trick or treating. We had a great year!

 Each year the school puts on a costume parade. The older grades get to watch while the younger grades get to dress up and be the parade.

Megan as Dorthy. "There's no place like home."

Katelyn as Princess Leia. "I don't know who you are, or where you came from, but from now on, you do as I tell you. Okay?"

Another Halloween tradition is crashing Chris' parent's neighborhood Halloween party to grab dinner and play carnival games. 

After the neighborhood party, we went trick-or-treating to Great Grandma-ma and Grandpa Long's house. Then we made it home to go to a few friends in our own neighborhood. As always, the kids have too much candy and had a great time getting it! Sounds like a perfect Halloween!

Fourth of July

We have lived in AZ for a few years now, but this is our first time staying in AZ for the 4th of July. Usually there is a Partridge family vacation over the 4th, but because of work and family things not everyone could go this year. It was fun to have a quiet relaxed 4th, but I'd have to say I missed being with everyone!

We started the morning with our regular swim lessons. It was fun to have Chris come watch the kids swim, since he had the day off.

This is Katelyn going in the deep pool. So hard to see from far away, but I promise, she's in there!

Megan doing her back float.

Megan looking super cute!

Adam's swim lessons. I'm so happy I get to get in the pool with him. It's so hot outside!

After lunchtime, we went to see Cars2 with Kaley and Chase. Fun movie! The kids enjoyed it. Then we went to Grandma-ma and Grandpa Long's for an amazing BBQ dinner. The adults got steaks! We are so lucky. Then we went home for a few of our own small fireworks. I remember loving doing sparklers as a kid. This is the first year my kids have done them. I still loved them, but I'd have to admit it made me nervous as a parent watching the kids hold a stick on fire! Suddenly all the memories of how many times I've burnt myself with a sparkler came flooding back. But, luckily no one got hurt and everyone loved them!

Adam loves holding the flags.

Everyone doing poppers.

Megan with her sparkler.

Adam is not so sure he wants help holding his sparkler, but I'm sure I want to help him!

Cute Katelyn

I love this picture with Adam and Chris

Katelyn in action. Happy 4th of July!

Happy Mother's Day

Katelyn's 1st grade class did a wonderful Mother's day program. Katelyn was so excited to share it with me. I just love being a mom! First, they invited us to our chairs (aka their chairs) and showed us presents they had made for us.

The book was a story they made about us based off the book series If you Give a Mouse a Cookie. The bag was full of little things they made for us, like bookmarks and cards. It is sitting on a place mat that also was for us to keep.

Second, they lined up and sang us songs and recited poems. So sweet! Then they served us muffins and fruit and then showed us around the room of things they had made about us.

I love my kids! I'm so grateful for my sweet Katelyn who is a joy in our home. I am so grateful for all the wonderful women in my life who support me and teach me how to be better. I'm especially grateful for my mom who doesn't get annoyed with me when I call her 3 or 4 times a week to talk or ask silly questions. And I couldn't ask for a better mother-in-law who is always willing to help and treats me like one of her own. Happy Mother's Day!!

Easter

I love Easter time. It is a time for family, a feeling of Spring, and a time to reflect on our Savior who died for us and to celebrate that He is Risen.

Each year the kids get matching/coordinating Easter clothes to wear on Easter Sunday. And each year it's a great picture moment!

 

And, of course, Easter time is a time for the big Easter egg hunt! It's fun to see the kids get so excited to find a plastic egg because they know something good is inside.

Adam, eagerly awaiting the go ahead to go outside.

Megan with her cousin Blake. The kids are divided up by age groups and given specific areas to hunt. It's perfect so the little kids don't have to compete with the bigger kids.