Thanksgiving 2011

We've all been dreading the holidays this year with Grandma Cynthia being gone; HOPING it would never come but KNOWING it was coming anyways, so we figured we ought to make the best of it. I think the first holiday without a loved one is the hardest because you finally realize that this is how life is going to be now. IT SUCKS!! November was mine and Scott's month to host our family dinner but with Thanksgiving and Christmas here we were just going to do it for the holidays. Thanksgiving was at our house this year and my mom and dad joined us also which was nice to have them around. Scott did a great job on the turkey like always and every family brought a dish to share. We had a great turnout. We watched football, celebrated birthdays and ate lots of pie- so we were all Good. Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone.

Easter 2011

This year coloring easter eggs, we had our really good friends The Johnson's over to make a mess with us, and boy did the kids do a good job at that. Whoever invented coloring easter eggs shouldve re-thought what they were trying to accomplish because it just seems like alot of work for something that really doesn't work, if that makes sense at all, anyways it took the kids literally 8 minutes to color 2 dozen eggs! Then off to play with dyed hands. Ya Gotta love it. Look at all that crap

And sometimes I just don't think they have enough patience to wait for the egg.

Kamryn was hilarious to watch,she just wanted one egg every single color and by the time she had dipped her egg in every color it was still white, I was cracking up cause you usually have to let it sit in the color for about 5 minutes or to your desired color you want, and she was going through eggs like no ones business, you forget what it's like doing these holiday adventures with little ones, and I laughed my head off, it was great having her around

Why is it that the men always get to sit and relax? I haven't quit figured this out but I think i'm going to stop this trend and make them in charge of all the festivities with the cleaning up after and let the women sit and visit with each other, sound like a plan ladies?

I don't think we could've gotten one more person in this area

My sister made this cute bunny cake for our Easter Party at my parents on Saturday and it was delish. It turned out darling, good job Lyndi.

Love These Moments

Ashlynn

Payton had 2 games before the party so that's why he's in his baseball uniform

Braken

Cole

What happened to the traditional egg coloring kits, that have the 6 normal colors, and the white crayon you write on the egg with then the writing shows up when you color it? That's how it should be done instead of all the different characters, sports, monsters, colors etc. kits that are too D*** confusing to figure out. Needless to say the eggs turned out very interesting.

Braken and Payton Easter morning in their new clothes they got

Braken got the new Tron(nintendo ds game) and yep your seeing it right Payton got his own cell phone too, and they were both excited and surprised for their gifts, because they didn't think they were getting easter at all anyways (due to bad behavior being off track) but I loved their excitement and now Payton is part of our crowd with cell phones, and yes he knows how to text so my fingers hurt by the end of the day with all the texting I do amongst just my family, not my extended family or friends, it's fun and I absolutely love the fact I can now get ahold of my kids at any given time I need them. (it's our own tracking devices, little do they know).

Braken trying to get all the eggs with money in them, good idea buddy

Jareth trying to beat everybody to the punch

Sydney I think was the winner this year with the most eggs, she scored big time

Grandma Cynthia and Ayden making sure they got all the eggs in that area

Love Easter Dinner

Getting warmed up for the big match

Grandma Cynthia got Badmitton for her house so when all the grandkids come over they have something to play, so uncle Clint and aunt Lindsay got it all set up and they did a great job.

A little competition in the family can sometimes be a bad thing, but I think for the most part everyone had fun playing.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter Boys, fresh out of bed the boys were so excited to start looking for the hidden eggs and baskets. It brings us both joy to watch our kids who still believe in the easter bunny and get excited to find their baskets and just take in the moment to remember it forever, because we know that one day it won't be that way so were enjoying it while we can. It didn't take them very long to find all 36 eggs and 2 baskets, they also got Alvin And The Chipmunks The Squeakual so we watched that while we ate breakfast. It was a nice start to a good easter sunday! We Love You Boys.

Ok Mom and Dad were ready

payton is putting the eggs he found away

Braken could barely reach this egg and also trying not to drop the other ones in his hand

payton showing off the egg he just found

both the boys were trying to get the egg out of the light fixture, we told them the easter bunny has no limits of where he hides the eggs

Braken accidentally found payton's easter basket in the coat closet, payton was sure glad he didn't have to look anymore, but he was nice enough to help Braken find his. Braken finally found his easter basket with the help from Payton, it was in paytons laundrey basket, Hope there wasn't dirty clothes, LOL

the boys like to compare stuff that they got in their easter baskets, but the funny thing is, is every year they get the exact same stuff. what a coincidence!

our dog Zoey thought that she needed to get a basket full of treats, she kept trying to get Braken's candy, it was hilarious.

There's many reasons I love the holiday season, but my favorite thing is the TRADITIONS, because that's what we remember most about our childhood and hopefully something our kids will do when there older with their own families. And the fact we spend alot of time with our families whom we love being around. We had our Tuttle family dinner a week before christmas and that was delicious, we didn't have our annual pratt christmas party so we started our own tradition and it's something different for us, we went to dinner at Tepanyaki and saw a movie "alvin and the chipmunks the squeakual" (darling show) scott's mom and sister came with us and we enjoyed having them. we then went for another tradition at grandma and grandpa Blackham's house to open up our pajamas and that's so fun to see the kids so hyper and excited for santa claus to come that night as their telling us their not tired and can't go to sleep even though their eyes are telling us something else. Another tradition we do is leave Santa Claus the 3 c's: Cookies, Coke and Carrotts. but this year instead of cookies we left him Chocolate thinking Santa is going to need the energy to work through the night. As the kids are fast asleep Santa and Mrs. Claus are VERY BUSY AT WORK. The best part of the whole thing is when the boys wake up really early christmas morning and the looks on their faces when they walk into the living room to see if santa stopped by our house and what he left. The boys say they got everything they wanted and even more. Good Job Santa! We went to Grandma Cynthia's christmas afternoon and did presents there and had a great lunch, then off to Grandma and Grandpa Blackham's for more presents and a wonderful dinner, Great Grandma and Grandpa Tuttle were there even so that was a treat to have them there to enjoy all the chaos with us. It comes and goes so fast, glad to see it come but even happier to see it go.