Mother's Day

Cassi said the only thing she wanted for Mother's Day was flowers. I'm good at a lot of things, but getting her flowers often isn't one of them. So, I was sure to grant this wish, and flowers were in a vase a couple days before Mother's Day.

For the first time, I got to take my family to the Nix Family Mother's Day Picnic/Reunion. This is a tradition my Great Grandma Nix started many years ago and wanted her family to continue after she died. It was fun to see some cousins I haven't seen in 10 or more years.

Utah Trip

At the end of April, we got to take a trip up to Utah with the whole troop (Grandma-ma included) to see Brett recieve his Master's degree; if you know Brett, it's a see-to-believe thing! :) I didn't get any pictures of the ceremony because I took Hyrum duty and let Stephanie savor the moment. The after-party was at Bamboo Hut. As always, it was D-licious!

Besides Brett's graduation, as always, there was a lot of other stuff going on this weekend. Brett and Stephanie recently bought their first house, so it was fun to go invade it, get a haircut, and assist with a little decorating. Brett's new 42" LCD with PS3 isn't bad either, even though Chase whooped me at NCAA Football!

My family took one day to visit Springville friends and Cassi's SLC family. It was Grandma McFarlane's first time to see and hold Adam, so we were sure to snap a picture.

Also part of the itenerary was Nathan's school carnival. We went last year, and this year's was bigger and better. Katelyn really enjoyed the rock climbing wall, and Megan liked the inflatable bounce house.

We celebrated both Ryan and Joshua's birthday's with a dinner at Winger's and then cake and presents at Ryan's house afterwards.

Sunday may have been one of the busiest days. We started early with attending Brett's new ward, where Brett's new baby (Noah) was blessed. On our way to the cars, we were astonished to find it SNOWING! Then we made it back to Provo to change and check-out of the hotel. Then we had one of the craziest "only-in-Utah" drives to visit Grandma Partridge. I don't think I've driven through harder rain before. Visibility was horrible and I was also trying to keep an eye on Amy behind me, since I was her navigation up to Layton. Somehow we made it up there and even found some sunny skies before it was all over. We had a nice visit with Grandma Partridge, and introduced Adam to her as well. I don't take enough time to call or write her, so it was good to take time to visit her.

After visiting Grandma Partridge, we made it to the airport and back to home. I'm glad our house is only about 15 minutes from the airport. By the end of the day, I think we were all pretty tired. This was our first trip as an official part of the "Arizona Contingency" of the family. Despite the craziness of schedules and weather and everything else, I'm certainly thankful for every chance we get to be together as one big crazy Partridge family.

There is hope!

I just have to quickly report that I got 6 whole hours of sleep in a row last night!!! I can't even remember the last time I had more than 3 in a row. You can probably tell I have more energy, by all the blog posts today! :)

Easter fun

We had a great Easter weekend at our house. I like to do a small Easter egg hunt on Saturday because Sunday mornings always seem so busy. Megan used her basket like a purse. The girls had a fun time finding the eggs and discovering what was inside. In fact, Megan opened several before the hunt was all the way done.
Of course Easter would not be complete without new Easter church clothes. I love my cute kids! Katelyn sang in a special musical number at church called "Beautiful Savior." Grandma-ma, Cheryl, Amy & Scott and the kids all came for the occasion. It's so fun to be here in AZ! I was so grateful for the help. It wasn't until about 5 minutes before the meeting began that I realized that while Katelyn was singing, no one would be sitting with Megan and Adam if we didn't have family with us. (I played the piano for the musical number and Chris was part of the choir which stayed on the stand for the entire meeting.) Katelyn did a wonderful job. It really brought the right spirit into this special Sunday.

Adam looked so handsome in his little vest. It was fun to catch him smiling on camera. Our days are full of loads of smiles!

Easter evening, we had an amazing dinner at Grandma-ma and Grandpa Ed's. After dinner, they all had an Easter egg hunt. Katelyn just asked me what I was writing and I told her I was blogging about her pictures at the Easter egg hunt. She replied, "mom, that was the best!"

Chesnik cousins come visit!

We were lucky to have my brother Josh and his family come visit us during their Spring Break week. We had so much fun!! The cousins loved playing together. The girls especially had fun at night because it was just a huge slumber party. Their favorite daytime activity was playing outside. The weather was gorgeous. Ben thought it was pretty cool that he could just pick an orange from our tree and eat it. I think my favorite thing was being introduced to the "concrete" at Nielsen's Frozen Custard. Wow. Other fun activities of the week included a trip to IKEA, a mall party trip, and the now famous dance party. Apparently Josh and Kristin and the kids do this dance party often in their home. Now it is a part of ours; although, Josh is the best DJ around. The fun pictures below are of the crazy dance party.



Notice in this picture Megan is getting ready for a summersault. This was her favorite move...a little dangerous with everyone else around, but there were no casualties!




Thanks for a fun week Josh and Kristin!

Shake those hips!

Katelyn did this little number on Easter afternoon, which provides the perfect pair to the video from my last post with Amy and Kaley. I'm starting to debate whether Amy and Kaley teaching Katelyn dancing is the best idea. :) At least I know they're all having fun!

My crazy sisters

This little clip proves I love my sisters - you'd have to to still call them family after this!  :)  I found this while going through some pictures of Grandpa Long's State Championship 50th Anniversary celebration at the Jobing.com Arena.  I'll post some more about the main event later.