Scott & Janae's Brady Bash

Pratt's New Look

2011-07-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

"Yeah! I am going to be a big brother in January!"

Vacation to Daddy's Birthplace

2010-06-30T10:15:00.000-07:00

Yep, Daddy was born in St. George, Utah, and aunt Mellie recently moved there with her new hubby Colby, so we decided to go visit June 18th-20th.

First stop, Warm Springs, in between Vegas & St. George. A small oasis of palm trees around a warm spring in the middle of nowhere, and the church has built an awesome recreation area there. Our ward campout in April was there, but we didn't know at the time that Elder & Sister Dansie were also there doing a senior mission! They're Daddy's second set of parents, he half grew up at their house playing with their son Jonathan.

They fed us an awesome lunch and told us about what a Warm Springs mission was like. It was great to meet them, and Daddy loved catching up.

On to St. George! This was in the Christus room at the temple visitors center. It gave Mommy good memories of the Christus room from the Hill Cumorah visitors center in her mission.

Here we are in front of the temple. I was having a blast, just glad to be outside. I saw where Daddy lived when he was first born, too. It's right across the street from the temple and chapel here. He says he doesn't remember it though, they moved when he was 1 year old.

Aunt Mellie showed us an awesome park with a bunch of water. It was right near the tabernacle. I love water, I wish I had been in my swimsuit!

Saturday night we went to a park by Colby & Melanie's place. Colby grilled up some burgers while we played! It was sweet, I really liked the swings.

St. George was a pretty cool place. I think I'll probably take Mom & Dad there again sometime.

California Trip Part 2

2010-05-25T06:30:00.000-07:00

It didn't take me long to figure this place out - this place is crazy! Mom & Dad took me to some place aptly name Goofy's house. Look at my eyes; do I look entertained?

Then Dad goes to show me the washing machine in Mickey's house. I really like the one at home because I can watch it slosh the clothes around, I think Mickey's might have been broken...

We went on some "Small World" ride after that... As you can see by my face, all I could think is "why do all these rides involve sitting in a boat and drifting helplessly downstream?!"

Afterwards it was all cool though, no more worries on this little boys face! It was like stimulation heaven, and I'll probably be singing "It's a small world after all" for weeks.

I sucked on a piece of apple while most everyone else went on Space Mountain, I guess it's not my type of ride.

While you may think I'm a little young for all this, I almost fell asleep on Pirates of the Carribean & The Haunted Mansion. Overall though, I loved it all. This day really wore me out. I didn't know Mom & Dad knew how to play so hard, they're usually so boring at home! It must have been Grandma, Grandpa, Tom & Serena that made the day so fun!

That's my first trip to California. I think it's a good place, for a couple days; I was ready to go home.

California Part 1

2010-05-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

Mom & Dad took me on a long boring car ride through the middle of nowhere and then said "Hey Pratt, we're in California!"

The first place we went with Grandma & Grandpa Hardy, Uncle Tom & Aunt Serena was Ruby's, a burger joint out on a pier above the water. I tried to get to the food the whole time but Mom & Dad kept holding me back!

It was my first time seeing the Pacific Ocean, and all I could think is "That is one sweet awesome bath tub, let me in!"

Out in front of Ruby's; yeah, it was a lot more fun on the inside, can you see how crazy the wind was? I told Dad to hurry up and take the flippin' picture!

As if standing on a pier with a huge crosswind wasn't enough, everyone wanted a photo op on the beach! I did have more fun than it looks like I did though. I was just being dramatic for the camera :)

Finally we went to our home base for the next couple nights. It was a sweet vacation home. We're on the back porch now, looking out toward the ocean. In the top left corner you can even see Ruby's out in the distance!

The next day we went to some place called Disney Land...

To Be Continued

Pratt's First Camping Trip!

2010-04-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was our ward camp out...yep, in April. The glories of living in Las Vegas. It was at Warm Springs, an LDS recreation area an hour northwest of the city.

Yes, we are "camping" on a grass field with an oasis of palm trees next to us. A little different than the Uintah Mountains where I grew up, but very cool.

Pratt's first time being in, or even seeing, a tent. Incidentally my first time in a tent since we've been married, at least 4 years or so. Janae thinks it's been about 15 years for her!

When I said it was at an oasis, I wasn't kidding. There's a warm spring, and they've built a huge pool out of it. So here we are, swimming at night, on a camp-out, in April. I love this place!

Pratt has never been in anything larger than a bathtub before, but we had a hunch he was going to love it. Don't mind the funny face he made, there was a lot of new stuff he was taking in!

Who would have guessed you could throw a few blankets down on the floor of a tent and the little first timer would sleep like a baby (Yeah, I know, easy pun). Of course he was snuggled between Mom & Dad, so he woke up a happy boy.

Pratt: "I love camping!"
Editors note: You think he got his mommy's eyes?

We had a blast, it was great to get out with some of the awesome folks here in our ward. There was peach cobbler and s'mores at night (courtesy of the Downey's), and an awesome breakfast spread (courtesy of the Elders quorum). And I can't forget the Liu's, who provided a pup tent for our little family to sleep in. It all reminded me of growing up camping, and knowing that I've got to keep the tradition as we raise our little boy.

Our Little Helper

2010-04-18T21:07:00.000-07:00

Pratt has learned how to help us with all sorts of things...

Here he is organizing our lids.

He loves unloading the dishwasher.

And his new favorite, helping with the laundry.

Can you stand on a belt?

2010-02-28T08:44:00.000-08:00

Pratt can. He stands on my belt all the time, I'll prove it.

I started out here holding him facing up over my shoulder, but he immediately stands on my belt and twists around sideways.

Look Mom, one foot!

Ta-Da!
Simple yet hilarious, he does it like clockwork.

Of course an elaborate trick like that wears him out.

Our Favorite Little Boy

2010-02-14T09:04:00.000-08:00

Personal news: I finally got my business license! After all the step by step things it took to get to this point, I'm now a 100% legit health care provider in the state of Nevada. While I could put a picture of the license up, that would be boring, so here are some more of our favorite little guy!

Nope, that's not a huge booger dripping down his lip...that's the rice cereal that never got eaten. Acts like he wants food, but I don't know if he's actually gotten any down yet.

Pratt loves playing on the counter...the danger...the excitement...I guess we shouldn't let him get used to it.

Sitting inside a box...yep, best thing since Christmas.

Yanking up on Daddy's nose when he should be giving me a head scratch.

That's more like it.

Hope things are well for you all!

Pratt's Utah Trip

2010-01-24T20:21:00.001-08:00

Yep, Pratt and Mommy went to Utah from the 12th to the 17th, leaving Daddy all alone (that would be me). I was relegated to evenings filled with no-brainer guy movies and the Wii.

Fortunately they came back with some great pictures

Pratt doing his thing...just kind of sitting there looking cute

Helping Mommy unload the dishes

Early B-day dinner for Mommy at Zupas. Yes, I love the place as much as her, and no, I wasn't there. Non paid shout out to Zupas, if you haven't been there yet GO. It's awesome.

He's lovin' that inflatable B-day cake. Remember when I got the cake? He was sleeping.

The 4 Generation Picture: Great Grandma Hardy, Grandpa Hardy, Mommy, and Pratt!

4 Generation again, including Uncle Nathan and Cousin Elijah

The Glorious 2nd Amendment

2010-01-17T21:00:00.000-08:00

While in Utah last fall, I wanted to take Janae shooting since she had never been. We lucked out & the sporting goods store in Vernal had an event at the shooting range where several different vendors had their whole line up of firearms to use. You would buy tickets, turn them in at the tables, and whichever gun you wanted to shoot determined how many rounds you'd get. Can you spell FUN?!

Here's a little clip of Janae nailing the target with a handgun. Before this day she hadn't even shot a BB gun, but there she shot 3 pistols (.22, .380, and 9mm) and a 20 gauge shotgun.

Now that Janae had been shooting there weren't any excuses left. We purchased our very first firearm, under the tutalage of Grandpa Brady. It's a Smith & Wesson 9mm M&P compact, and to make it really fun it has a Crimson Trace laser sight on it.

Janae and Pratt were visiting family in Utah most of this week, so that left me with some time to take it shooting for the very first time. Although I'm the last guy in our family to get into guns, I can honestly say it will be a great hobby!

Pratt's 1st Sunday in a Shirt & Tie

2010-01-10T15:16:00.000-08:00

We're sporting the new "My Pal & Me" ties Grandma gave us for Christmas! This kid is totally GQ!

Christmas Fun

2010-01-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

Pratt's favorite part of Christmas was all of this beautiful wrapping paper.

Pratt opening his first present (a CD from us) on Christmas morning at Grandma and Grandpa Bradys'. He loves all the new toys and books he got.

Christmas Morning in Vernal. We had a blast hanging out with Scott's family watching movies, playing games, and adoring Pratt.

Our little Santa Claus on Christmas.

Here we are at my parents' house enjoying our 2nd Christmas of the year. We had a lot fun with my family relaxing, watching movies, playing Rummikub, and making Pratt laugh.

Here is Pratt enjoying his first Christmas stocking from Grandma and Grandpa Hardy. We can't get enough of this little guy and his fun personality.

Pratt is 5 Months Old!

2010-01-05T20:09:00.000-08:00

The Love of Controlling Your Money

2009-12-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

YNAB 3 will be released soon! What?! You don't know what YNAB is? It stands for "You Need A Budget." Janae and I knew the creator of YNAB; Jesse was a CPA in our Dallas ward when we first moved there.

After a casual exposure to YNAB in May 2007 we became "YNABers." It's budgeting software that we have religiously used for the last 2 1/2 years and shamelessly plug it to anyone wanting control of their money!

Here's the cool part: focusing on a budget doesn't foster "a love of money;" it's more like "a love of knowing that my money is doing exactly what I want it to do." Make sense?

Check out YNAB 3 here. I watch the sneak peaks of this upgraded version and just get giddy all over! Here's a huge part of the solution to anyone's personal recession. Imagine what would happen if the government actually used a budget instead of just talked about one!

Vegas City Lights

2009-11-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

When we came to Vegas and found a nice little condo to move into, we discovered at night we could see the lights from The Strip quite well. We're in a second story unit, and there's an undeveloped piece of property straight across from us, which affords our little porch quite a view.

A couple weeks back we were trying to get a good night shot of the lights, which of course requires leaving the shutter open a couple seconds. Works great...if you're not trying to get a baby to hold still! Thought we'd share the fun in getting Pratt to not blur out.
After a few attempts, he held fairly still, and with a little color correction it came out nicely. You can even see the light shooting up from the Luxor over Janae's shoulder. 6 miles away is just the right view for us, we wouldn't want to be any closer!

Pratt's Baby Blessing

2009-11-02T16:56:00.000-08:00

During our transition from Dallas to Vegas, we spent a lot of time vacationing in Utah. While in Utah, we had the opportunity to do Pratt's baby blessing at my parents home on September 27th. It was a wonderful blessing despite the fact Pratt cried the entire time. It was great to be surrounded by family for this special event. Here are a few photos from the day.

Pratt poses!

2009-10-26T21:20:00.000-07:00

Here are some random updates & pictures in no particular order:

First off, Pratt...We always knew the guy was out cold when his arms limply hung straight out. He's only 5 days old here.

Same deal here, only now he's a month old.

When Pratt was one week old we took him to see Dr. Stacie Flanery, the chiropractor Janae worked for throughout much of our time in Texas.

The two main areas to check a baby for proper alignment are the Sacrum (at the bottom of the spine, shown to the left), and the Atlas (the top of the spine, shown to the right).

For anyone new to the idea of babies getting adjusted, no worries, it is very gentle with no rough twisting or cracking...and if you wonder why Pratt would need his alignment checked, try remembering back to the last time you came out of a birth canal :)

We finally left Texas on Sep 14th. Here is everything we own, minus what fit in the car.

We used 2 ReloCubes, the 6x7x8 moving containers that get dropped off at your house, picked up when you're done loading, and shipped off to your destination.

We moved to Texas in 3/4 of 1, and left with 2 full to the brim. We loved it both times, so here's a no kickbacks shout out to those considering using them. If you're good at Tetris, your stuff show's up exactly the way it left, and you never had to park a truck!

Pratt wondering what the heck we're doing with all these boxes down in Vegas...

My Birthday!

2009-09-26T20:05:00.002-07:00

On September 26th, 1980, at 1:02 AM, I was born in St. George Utah. That would make me 29 years old today!!! Fortunately I was able to be here in Utah with family for my big day.

On Friday the 18th, during our week in Vernal, Melanie came out for one night so we could celebrate together, just like the good ol' days (Her birthday is on the 20th). Our cake has 9 candles for my 29, and 3 for her 23...yeah, the math is funny, but there were 12 candles in the box, we worked with what we had...and yes, we've got funny faces, we're in the midst of singing "Happy Birthday" to each other.

The night before my birthday we went to see an old BYU room mate and his family, John & Jen Ketcher and their little boy Evan. They surprised me with my own little piece of cake, candles and all. Pratt was thoroughly into it (he was out cold).

This morning, now at Janae's parents home, I woke up to an inflatable birthday cake down in the family room. While others in the family have already been honored with this inflatable wonder, my wife is not one of them :-)

Notice who once again is sound asleep-

September 26th, 2009: I'm a lucky husband, a proud father, a new chiropractor, and 29 years old!

A Marathon Birth

2009-09-23T20:15:00.001-07:00

Most of Tuesday August 4th was spent going through the early stages of labor consisting of contractions every 5 to 10 minutes.

Around 8 PM we finally decided with our midwife, Dinah, to come to the birthing center. Once we got there we found out I was only dilated to a 2 1/2. The midwife sent us home to hopefully get some rest through the night.

After being home for a few hours, my contractions started to intensify; so we made the 25 minute drive back to the birthing center. At around 12:30 AM we discovered that I was dilated to a 3. We were somewhat discouraged with the lack of progress.

We spent the night at the birthing center. I spent most of that time laboring in a tub. It was during this time that I understood why so many women decide to go the epidural route. I somehow made it to the morning with the help of my husband.

Around 7:30 AM, Dinah let us know that I actually made progress and was dilated to a 7. It was at that moment, I knew I could make it through the rest of labor. It was a relief to know I was progressing.

I continued through the day dancing to Bob Marley, taking a couple of relaxing showers, drinking lots of water, and moving through contractions.

Close to 3 PM I started the pushing phase.

Around 6 PM, our midwives, Dinah and Ginger, informed us that we may need to transfer to the hospital because I was not making much progress. Thankfully, mine and the baby's vitals were great so that was not a concern. While Dinah worked on contacting her backup doctor, I worked on pushing.

A little after 7 PM, I had actually made enough progress that it would not be possible to transfer and Dinah said we were staying!

After pushing for 5 hours in almost every position possible our little baby emerged. Dinah handed me our baby and Scott announced that we had a sweet boy.

At 8:15 PM August 5th, Pratt Del Brady entered our world weighing 7 lbs 2 oz. and 21 in. long. As I held our boy in our arms, all I could say and think was "We did it!" Birth is truly a miraculous event. I felt so empowered by this marathon birth.

Our midwife Dinah is on my left. Ginger, in the back, is another midwife who came to assist with the birth.

Labor begins!

2009-09-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

I woke up on Tuesday, August 4th, at 4:30 AM and saw Janae kneeling down at the side of the bed. Wondering what was so urgent in the middle of the night I asked "Are you praying?" Of course she wasn't, she was just kneeling against the bed to help deal with the contractions she'd been having since 3 AM.

I had to go to school at 9 AM; it was one of my assigned days in radiology rotation. I eventually left after being there for a few hours, because, uh, my wife was in labor! Fortunately her mother Sherma was with us then, so I hadn't left her completely alone.

After arriving home, most of the remainder of the day was spent like this:

Yep, for all you fellas out there feeling a little low on hugs, spend a day with your wife in labor.

She was going through contractions every 7-10 minutes from 3AM that day until 10 or 11 'o'clock that night, when things started picking up...

"OB, or not OB, that is the question"

2009-09-08T20:00:00.002-07:00

With the approach of our new little one, we wanted to prepare the best we could and have a positive experience with pregnancy and birth. We started with an OB/Gyn because that is what "everyone" does. After several visits, we felt like I was just going through the "system". We wanted a more intimate experience than what we found at the busy medical office. We prayerfully decided on using a certified nurse-midwife, Dinah, and to birth at her Lover's Lane Birth Center in Richardson, Texas. Dinah's prenatal care was perfect for us!

The Pregnancy Adventure

2009-09-07T11:25:00.012-07:00

We have hoped since our marriage that our first child would be a Texas baby. Our time in Texas was growing short (I was planning on graduating in August '09), so when we found out last November that we were expecting a little kiddo we were ecstatic! Here's our "in a nutshell" recap of Baby's approach:

20 Weeks, piece of cake

24 weeks, starting to notice little Baby

28 Weeks

Jumping ahead to 36 Weeks

And the famous week 40. Yep, July 23rd (the due date) and no sign that Baby's wanting to come on out of there yet.

This was taken August 2nd, 9 days after the due date, and 3 days before Baby came. August 5th will be a good story for another day!

Bandwagon Here We Come!

2009-09-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

We've meant to get a blog going for so long, especially with the advent of our new little boy Pratt, so here we go! Last night, after a little conversation at a Dallas area Brady cousin get-together, we decided it's time to pull the trigger.