Guess What?!

binoculars from Grandma & Grandpa Bradley

Cousins: Kyle, Skyler, Brooke, Nicole & Karlissa


Cousins playing DS games!



It's amazing how time can get away from you during the holidays. Especially when you're not feeling well. Of course, when you find out you're expecting it makes it all worth while! I thought it was from eating so much good food. I am now 10 weeks along and we are excited to have a new little one join our family the first week of September. The boys are also excited and are hoping we have a little girl! Caleb tells Mark the other day," I am so excited, I feel like I believe in Santa Claus again!" Then the other day I asked one of the boys how school was and they said, "Great, I came up with a new list of baby names!" Oh brother! So far, the morning sickness hasn't been too bad. I feel tons better than I did with the boys. We are thrilled to join the pregnancy ranks of 2 sis-in-laws. Andrew's wife Toshia and Mark's sister Danielle are both due at the end of July. How fun.

Now for the rest of you who want to know what we did for Christmas, I will insert a few pictures. We opened gifts at home and by noon we left and joined the Bradley family in Moroni. I love that Skyler, Kevin and Caleb have cousins their ages. I went looking for the twins while we were there and found all these cousins hanging out all playing on their Nintendo DS games! It was funny! For New Years we had some friends come over and played games.

Skyler is done with the swimming. The season is over and he had a great time. He is now going to go out for HS Baseball. The twins will start soccer next month. Then we will be busy. So, if you don't hear from me in a couple more months, you'll know why!

There's no place like home

Skyler, Grandpa, Caleb & Kevin

15 grandkids
Andrew, Daniel, Doug, Julie, Me, Crystal,
Dad, Connie and Ryan

For those of you who do not know, I hale from Portland Oregon. I grew up in the middle of the city with all the craziness that comes with it. 8 of my siblings and my Dad still live there. Eventually they will see the error of their ways and move out here. Ha Ha. In the meantime, I am forced to drive or fly back to Oregon whenever there is an important family event, or if we feel like going to the Oregon coast. In the past 15 years, Mark and I have only gone back to Portland for the holidays once. Skyler was 18 months old. So, this year, weather permitting, we made the decision to drive back to Ptld for Thanksgiving. We left on Wed. the 25th and we were blessed with great weather! We stayed with my sister, Crystal and her husband Jason. They were great hosts and my boys got to know their cousins, Kayla and Brandon, better. Thursday we drove to the chapel that dad had reserved because we have a large enough crowd that meeting at a family members house is daunting. Everyone was there except Victor, Shelly, and Nick. We had a great time and great food. It is hard to see my family and get causght up with all they are doing in such a short amount of time. So, thank heavens for Facebook and email! After the dinner the kids took a whack at dad's pinata. What fun!

We went out to see Shelly and Victor on Friday and did a little shopping. (Nick lives in California) Then Saturday we drove the 12 1/2 hours home! It was a quick holiday visit, but worth it. Now if we can just get a few family members to move out here....

Happy Haunting

I love this time of day when the sunset creates pink mountains.
Logan canyon colors

Caleb

Where's Skyler?

To say life has been busy around here would be an understatement. Since school started I feel like we have been going non-stop. Waking at 6 am to take Skyler to swim practice every morning is the first exciting thing to do on our trip through the day. After swim practice he goes straight to school then back to the pool from 3:30 -5:30pm, where Mark will pick him up after work. I will say, I am impressed with Skyler's self determiation to get to the pool everyday. He had his first swim meet last Thursday and I think he did really well, being a freshman competing against upper classmen. Let's play "Where's Skyler?" Can you spot him in the picture with his team mates? (hint: he's wearing white goggles) So far he is keeping up with his studies and piano. He also works for a widow in our ward, pulling weeds etc... on the weekends. Kevin and Caleb are not as involved with sports right now ,but come spring, soccer will take over. They are home around 3:30 and have a slew of homework and piano practice to get done. I am still doing water aerobics Monday and Friday. I have asked a friend to take over the Wednesday class because we have YM/YW and I was tired of running from one place to the next without dinner and a shower! Scary! I have also been working a few hours at Honeyville every week. It's good to be reminded about our need to stock up on food storage, however, I practically spend my paycheck there. In September we went to a free concert in town and heard Jon Schmidt play the piano. He is a famous LDS composer and Skyler has been learning to play his waterfall piece. This past month we drove up Logan Canyon for a look at all the fall colors before winter hits. I think these pictures don't do justice to the colors we saw. Saturday is Halloween K&C are excited to dress up and go trick-or-treating. However, I feel like Skyler is too old and should just invite some friends over to watch a Halloween movie. To top off my week Saturday night, we had a neighbor come over to tell us that water was coming out of the asphalt in front of our driveway. Since it was around 6:30pm, we called the after hours utilities and they came over and promptly turned off our water and dug up an 8' hole to see what the problem was. Forunatly it was a small leak and was in the street, so the city covers the expenses. Unfortunatly they filled the hole back up but have not reasphalted yet, so when it rains or snows this week, like predicted, it will be a muddy mess. I will still count my blessings it wasn't worse!

Bradley Reunion

Caleb and Skyler

Skyler the brave

Waiting 35 minutes to see this geyser.

Family fun on the ballfield.

Grandma & Grandpa with all 29 grandkids!

Mesa Falls

For the Bradley reunion this year we headed up to Rexburg. Mark's brother Stephen did a great job hosting 50 people! 21 adults and 29 grandkids! We had fun at the Mesa Falls and then Yellowstone Nat'l Park. We a great time at the park playing softball and other games.

Thursday, the boys and I spent the day at the Lagoon amusement Park. It was amazing how many wild rides my boys are willing to go on now, as opposed to a couple yaers ago, when we went and rode bumper cars the whole time!

Yesterday I celebrated a birthday with a nice BBQ and a new wii game.

Kevin & Caleb turn 12!

It's days like these that I feel so old! For the twins birthday we had a family party. The boys each recieved a set of scriptures. Kevin also got the rip stick he's wanted for years, and caleb got a cool fountain. They picked out a cherry pie for their dessert.

Ride 'em cowboy!

Caleb and Grandpa


Kevin

Skyler

Pioneer day we had the chance to visit Mark's parents on the farm. We were excited to visit and meet the new little horses. Unfortunatly, they weren't as thrilled about meeting us. At least not Skyler. Here are a couple videos and pictures of our experience. I'm sure this was a lot funnier for us, but I thought you'd get a kick out of it. The little horse that keeps chasing after Skyler is only a couple months old and likes to bite, so Skyler had every reason to be running!

This is Skyler's version of the Sanpete Co. Rodeo!

A visit from my side?

nothing beats a good water fight

Luke loved the water slide


Cousins

Just this past week we were privedged with a visit from my brother Andrew, his wife Toshia, and their boys Adrian, Luke and Johnathan. It was such fun as my boys don't get to associate with their Stott cousins much. We were able to show them around SLC Temple Square, watch the Joseph Smith movie, tour the conference center, visit the history museum, go swimming at the Brigham City pool, go to Hill Air Force Base Museum, have a picnic at the park, indulge in a water balloon fight and even shop at Costco! We had a lot of fun and wish we could of had a little more time! Thanks for coming, and Happy Birthday,Andrew!