Happy Holiday's!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! We are in Utah right now and having lots of fun with family. As soon as we can we'll put pictures up of Christmas. I am thankful to be able to spend time with both of our families this Christmas season. I am thankful to remember the birth of the Savior and the gift of life that He gave to us. Amongst all the chaos of Christmas and the Holiday's I hope that we can all remember that Christ is the reason for the season. Happy Holiday's!

Growing Up

Rachel will be 5 months on Sunday and I just can't believe it! She is so cute and such a fun happy baby. We all love her lots. Last week she had her 4 month check up and weighed 11 pounds 10.5 ounces and 24 3/4 inches so she is tall and skinny right now. Also when I was at the doctor I noticed that Rachel has a tooth! She was fussy a couple weeks ago, but her tooth was a surprise to me. She has been rolling for a couple weeks now and is starting to get really good at it.

What a Day!!!

 

Wow! Today was a day! Madeline woke up and came into my bed at 7:15 and was cute and snuggly, but I needed to get up at 7:30 to get ready for the day and boy did that make her get up on the wrong side of the bed! She was crying and crying until aerobics... which caused us to be 10 minutes late, and I'm the teacher. Then she was crying the ENTIRE time too. In the midst of all of this, Rachel had an "explosion" and got it all over her clothes, and then Aliza also started leaking... My goodness! It wasn't even 10:00 am yet! So I went home and put Rachel and Aliza in the bath and told Madeline to go lay in bed. (She was still really fussy) While Aliza was in the bath she had another episode and pooped in the bath. Yuck! I quickly took her out (luckily Rachel was already out) and dressed her. I went into the girls room and saw quite a cute sight... Madeline had fallen asleep standing up!
Well I finally got the girls all in their beds, hoping for them to sleep and started on the laundry- which was much in need of being done- I did one load and went too start another and the washing machine had broken! It was on it's last leg, but today of all days... I decided that I really needed to go to the temple tonight. So I called and arranged for a babysitter and planned on doing sealings with Jared. We got to the Temple and Jared didn't have his reccomend! We almost went home, but Jared could tell I would have been REALLY sad if we didn't go to the temple, so thankfully someone from the Temple Presidency called our bishop and Jared got approval to attend. Whew! The sealing session was wonderful. I am so thankful to have a temple so close to us. I am thankful that I can forget my worldly cares for a little bit and remember what is important in life... my family! I am so grateful to be a mom and to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It helps me keep my perspective on days like this :)

Santa Claus Comes to Nampa

Believe it or not, but Santa came to our church building on Saturday at our ward party. I've always imagined him a little friendlier because about a third of the kids cried or were scared to death of him. We were first in line to see him, but Aliza didn't want to see him. Madeline said "Daddy, I'm not scared of Santa" but she was speechless as she sat on his lap in fear. Rachel was the only brave one of the three scaredy-Pratts. He brought all the kids crocheted beanie hats.

We ate potatoes, remember, we are in Idaho, and had people read inspirational Christmas stories, at least I think they were inspirational, I couldn't hear because Madeline and Aliza were causing trouble on our table and dipping my roll in my water.

First Snowfall in Nampa

Last year we waited for a big snowfall, and we never got one thanks to Al Gore, so this year, on a small one, we filmed a little bit and got some footage with the girls in the thin layer of snow.

Aliza likes to eat snow.

Drive to Garden Valley, Idaho

We took a drive to Garden Valley on Saturday. There was a little snow here, so we thought we could go sledding up in the mountains.

The drive was beautiful, steep mountains along both sides of the road, while driving along the Payette River.

We drove 1.5 hours and then drove back. There was no snow, but the view was worth it. It was surprising that there was more snow in the valley than the mountains.

MOPisms

What a funny title?? Well MOP is short for Madeline Olivia Pratt and I got the "isms" idea from my friend Brittney... these are the funny things that our cute little two year old has been saying lately.

While taking a bath, "Ine's (Madeline's) washing her heart"

"Rachel's a cute princess"

Mommy: Madeline, what are you?
Madeline: Ine's a big girl
Mommy: Mommy's a girl too
Madeline: No, mommy's not a girl, Mommy's a woman

"No mommy, no, don't touch Madeline's abcdefghijklmnop's no no mommy!" (I was trying to get Rachel and I was reaching over Madeline's foam letters)