Happy Holiday's!!!

Wow! It's been a while since I've written! Life has been crazy since we found out we were moving, and I don't think it's going to let up anytime soon. That's okay though, we've been able to enjoy a great holiday season so far. Spending time with family is wonderful and we were able to be with ALL of Jared's family. It was a great reunion with many great memories. I think my favorite part was playing in the snow with Mary and Michael and making a pregnant snow lady. I didn't take pictures, but someone did.... we'll get them eventually :)

I'm excited for the rest of the holiday season. I am so thankful for family and for being able to celebrate Christmas and be reminded of the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ. On Sunday we had a lesson in church on Hope. I really liked the lesson and am thankful to know that because of Jesus Christ we can have hope.

I'm excited for the New Year- 2009!!!! It looks like it's going to be another crazy year for us :) What would we do without craziness :)

I hope you all are having a happy holiday season!

First Official Wedding Cake

Thanksgiving weekend I took on a huge, and fun task... making my first wedding cake by someone who's not family or friends! I have to admit that I don't think I'll agree to make a cake the same week as Thanksgiving if I'm also in charge of Thanksgiving dinner, but it was a good experience, and I'm glad I did it.

I think it turned out good overall, I just felt pretty bad because I cut it WAY to close to the reception. I thought I had given myself plenty of time to finish decorating, but I was wrong. I was done by the time the reception started, but I should have been done at least an hour in advance... I guess that's what happens when you're starting out :)

I really liked the design on the cake. Elegant and simple. Here's to my cake decorating portfolio:

Pregnancy 26 weeks

Yesterday I had a Doctor's appointment (and meant to take a prego picture of me, but didn't so I'll have to do that later). Everything looks good with the baby. I'm almost 26 weeks, and I saw this "pregnancy tag" on my friends blog a while back and thought it would be fun to do sometime during the pregnancy. Today is also (according to my sidebar countdown) 100 days until the baby comes! Yikes! That's not very much time at all! This pregnancy is flying by and is probably just going to keep flying by. I can already feel her moving on both sides of my stomach at the same time.... am I really that far along??? She'll be here in no time!

5 Things that make my stomach turn…..
1. The smell of garlic
2. leftovers (not always, but alot of the time)
3. lettuce- I know it's good for you, and I always have good intentions of eating it, but it always goes to waste in my fridge.
4. A messy house- but really it doesn't make my stomach turn, it just makes me feel angry.
5. I really haven't liked very strong flavors through this entire pregnancy.

5 Things I Absolutely Love/Crave…..
1. A bowl of cornflakes and milk- A funny thing though is it has to be the cheap brand. I think Kellogs Cornflakes taste gross.
2. Raisins with cereal- basically any healthy cereal will satisfy me.
3. Fresh fruit- it's really convenient that apples taste really good to me since they're in season.
4. 7 layer bean dip... yumm! I think I could eat that all the time and be totally satisfied. 5. I love feeling the baby moving. It's probably my favorite thing about being pregnant.

5 Things I worry about….
1. Finding a good doctor when we move
2. If the baby is moving enough
3. If she will be clobbered- I mean loved to death- by her sisters :)
4. Having the baby on our drive to Florida
5. Finding friends in Florida to help me with the new baby

5 Things I Am Excited About….
1. Having another precious little newborn.
2. Having my mom come stay with us
3. Telling everyone what her name will be :)
4. Having four girls to play with each other
5. Not having to wake up 3 times a night to go to the bathroom... I guess I'll still have to get up 3 times a night once she comes :)

5 Names that I love…
Sally, Suzy, Samantha, Stephanie, and Sarah--- really, we're pretty much sure about the name, but we're not telling anyone until she's born. I just started listing off all the s names I could think of :)

Washington D.C. Trip Dec 08

When I go on trips I don't take many pictures. Work was fine. I got to hang out with Ken & Becky Hamblin, Tony & Jenny Roane (whose due date was the day I visited them), and Jon & Noelle Black. Jon took me to play basketball at his ward. On the last play I missed the game winning shot, ran for the loose ball and sprained my ankle. It was very painful the next day through the airport that some lady pushed me around everywhere. It was a little awkward, by I got to the front of security. From Denver to Boise, I rode with the whole Colorado State basketball team and their radio people who I recognized from the Mtn TV program.

Pratt Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving was fun. Joe & Liz came up from Provo for over two days. This was the first time that I helped make the turkey. Jen made me massage the turkey the night before with salt and it was hard, but somebody had to do it. Joe & I played in the turkey bowl with the ward and no fights this year. The meal was very good, especially the turkey, probably due to the great massage. We fed the ducks, watched a Jazz game while the girls made blankets, and sledded around the house. Jen & Liz braved black Friday at Joannes and ShopKo. They waited in long lines and enjoyed themselves.

We are Moving to Orlando

Our family has decided to move to Orlando, Florida. A job opening happened at my work and they asked me to fill it, and we accepted. It will be bitter-sweet, since Florida is so far away from family, but Orlando is a great vacation city. We have a lot of work ahead for these next couple months. We will try and start there early February. Life changes quick. So our baby will be a Floridian.

from----------------------------------to



from------------------------------------------to

from------------------------------------------to

Almost a Kitchen Catastrophe

This weekend I am making my first official paid for Wedding Cake. Exciting huh! Well today I've been making cakes ALL day (It's better to make them ahead of time and freeze them to retain more moisture and it makes the actual day less crazy) I also decided that I should probably make the rolls for Thanksgiving (freezing them as well). This bread recipe is DELICIOUS, so I made the bread, no problem, but I thought it looked a little different because it wasn't browning like it should. Well, AFTER the bread was already baked and I was eating a piece, I realized I'd forgotten the honey! No wonder it wasn't browning like it should (sugar does that to bread). So needless to say (pun intended:)) you have to add honey and butter to the bread to make it taste good... bummer... and I was going to try to impress my sis-in-law who's coming up for Thanksgiving... maybe next time :) Oh well.
Well then I still needed to make more cake so I made the cake batter (using 3 cake mixes) and thought, hmm.. this looks a little thicker than usual. Did I forget anything? VERY thankfully, before I baked the cake I realized I had forgotten the eggs. Oops! That's kind of a big thing to forget considering it only calls for 3 ingredients. I'm blaming it on my 3 1/2 kids... pregnancy makes me loose my mind sometimes... maybe that means we'll have a smart baby :)

City of Rocks

On the way home, Jen wanted to stop somewhere so we followed some signs to City of Rocks in Southern Idaho, about an hour south of Burley. I've always heard of the great rock climbing there, but have never gone since it's in the middle of nowhere. Well, it's a gorgeous place and it made me want to camp here for the week. It's like a miniature Zion's Park that no one has heard of. The girls and I called it a Rock Park and they loved it. I think Rachel loves rock climbing the most.

More Utah Pictures

We had a lot of fun hanging out with both of our families the rest of the weekend after Cameron and Rachelle's wedding. On Saturday (with the Smith's) we watched the BYU cougars win in football, went on a walk with Brittany and Steven(while Britt roller-bladed), ate a yummy dinner, and played some really fun games- my personal favorite was Imagineiff. I think I was just really tired, but I laughed so hard and had alot of fun.

Sunday we went to church with my family and then went and saw Jared's brother John and his wife Lisa's new house. Then we headed up to hang out with the rest of Jared's family. We had a fun time talking and relaxing. We always have fun on our trips to Utah!

Cameron and Rachelle's Wedding

My brother Cameron got married this past weekend to Rachelle in the Salt Lake City, Utah Temple. Since we don't live in Utah we didn't get to meet her until the wedding, which was kind of sad, but she seems like a nice girl and I'm excited to have her as part of our family.
The wedding was wonderful and I really enjoyed it. Jared and I were also married in the SLC Temple so it was fun reliving some of the memories from our wedding day (almost 5 years ago!!) My sisters Carly, Kaylie, and Brianna watched the girls while we went to the ceremony so a big thank you to them!
The entire day was really nice and everyone looked great. It was fun seeing all the little girls in their dresses. They loved twirling around and were good except for at the end... poor Jared. He took care of them most of the night so I could enjoy myself :) Maybe that's why he doesn't enjoy wedding receptions :)
We tried to get some good pictures of our family all dressed up (Jared was even wearing a tux), but no such luck... maybe one of my siblings got a good picture of us :)
I'm excited for Cameron and Rachelle to now join us old married people :)

The Baby is A . . . (for reals this time)

[message from Jen]
I think if I found out last month that it was a girl I wouldn't have been as happy as I am now, but I can honestly say that I'm really excited! Girls are so fun and sweet so I'm happy we get to have a fourth!! Finding a name for our babies has become tougher with each girl, so it was constantly on my mind at the start of the pregnancy but then Jared and I found a girls name that we both like and we're pretty much sure that will be her name (we're not telling people yet). It makes me really excited to have another girl since I really like the name. Silly, but true:) This girl might be wearing a little more blue than the rest of the girls though :)

[message from Jared]
I'm happy with God's decision to send us a girl. He's never usually wrong. Girls are fun to raise and we already have all the clothes, plus some.

[Baby Guess Survey]
I couldn't believe how many people guessed boy. I guess democracies don't always work.

Overall:
32% of everyone guessed Girl (34 of 106 )

Group:
Pratt, 44% correct (14 of 32)
Jen Friend, 36% correct (4 of 11)
Ward, 36% correct (5 of 14)
Work, 33% correct (4 of 12)
Jared Friend, 28% correct (5 of 18)
Smith, 11% correct (2 of 19)

Locality:
California, 57% (4 of 7)
Texas, 45% (5 of 11)
Idaho, 35% (11 of 31)
Utah, 27% (12 of 45)
Other, 17% (2 of 12)

Gender:
Females, 38% (22 of 58)
Males, 25% (12 of 48)

Politics in 2008

Well, although I didn't vote for President Obama, I pray he will do a good job. I did vote for some Democrats and Libertarians and Republicans though. Some of the Idaho Democrats would be viewed as Conservative Republicans in different states. I don't like our political system with only two parties. I would like to throw away the two party system and just vote for the better politician.

For home evening, Jen and I went on youTube and watched debates and interviews about the Idaho politicians to help persuade our vote. I was a little ancy to quit researching to watch the Jazz game, but that's why we have tivo.

On voting day, we voted at the elementary school behind our house. I didn't need to wait in line. I was happy to see the Hispanic population represented there, unlike the previous elections I've voted at. I went with Madeline and they gave her an "I Voted" sticker and she was so happy, although she didn't vote of course.



After reading about all the protests at our temples over Proposition 8, I'm just glad that I live in Idaho. It's good to see that this Catholic professor is appreciative of the Mormons is California.

Finallly Finished and having Fun!!!

My brother got engaged a couple months ago and I was crazy enough to volunteer to make dresses for all the little nieces- that means 6 dresses in about 8 weeks time- Yikes!!! Like I said, crazy, but I am happy to say that I finished the last dress earlier this week! (More than a week before his wedding) It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I was afraid I would never want to see my sewing machine again- at least for a long time- but I actually am excited to get started on my next project, so we'll see when that actually happens :) Here's a sneak peek at the dresses.

The girls and I had fun playing in the leaves the other day. Here are some fun pictures from the day.

Husband Tag

My friend Katie tagged me. I think it's fun to do this even if my husband didn't really want me to do this :)

*What is your husbands name: Jared
*How long have you been married? 5 years in March!
*How long did you date? 9 months from when we started dating to when we got married.
*How old is he? 27
*Who eats sweets? Jared, but we are on the healthier side of things. I'd say neither of us has a really sweet tooth. (As I'm reading this to Jared he said, really? I didn't know that, I just eat alot of sweets at work that you don't know about...hmmmm)
*Who said I love you first? Jared
*Who is taller? Jared
*Who can sing best? I think we can both sing pretty well. Probably he's better overall though.
*Who is smarter? Depends on the subject. I'm starting to narrow the gap with chess and football knowledge though :)
*Who does laundry? Mostly me.
*Who pays bills? I do, with the help of the internet.
*Who sleeps on the right side? Why does it matter? I just always sleep closest to the door so I can easily get up to go to the bathroom :)
*Who mows the lawn? Both of us. I actually really like mowing the lawn and do it for exercise and to enjoy the beautiful morning before the girls wake up. I think I would prefer working outside to inside- Jared is the same way.
*Who cooks dinner? me, unless I want frozen burritos :)
*Who drives? Jared.
*Who is first to admit they are wrong? Jared says definitely him, but I really think it's pretty even most of the time. But he is wrong more often :) hahaha
*Who kissed who first? It was mutual, but he did kiss me first
*Who asked who out first? He did.
*Who wears the pants? probably me, but I try to let him be in charge, but the saying, "if mamma ain't happy ain't nobody happy" runs true in our family:)

Super Grandma

I just wanted to post these pictures of the shirt we made for Mom Pratt. Thanks again for all of your hard work!! You are a great triathlete!

Halloween

We were able to get back right in time to go to trunk-or-treat at the church. Jared was worried he might have to miss his flight because of meetings, but was luckily able to make it on my flight home so we went to the Halloween party together. yay!
The girls were really happy to see us, but as you can tell in the picture, they were having some issues cooperating :) Once we ate a yummy dinner and went outside for the beautiful weather the girls were just fine... maybe candy played a little part in them being so happy :)
Madeline was a cat, Aliza was a dog, and Rachel was a bunny. It was great fun and now we'll be set for candy for a year :)

[Jared update]
The Idaho Statesman found our blog about last year's Halloween at Harrison Blvd and contacted us via email/ cell phone. You can read the entire article here.
It said:

Jared and Jen Pratt last year drove from Nampa with their three daughters, Madeline, 3, Aliza, 2, and Rachel, 1, to experience Halloween on Harrison for the first time. They were instant fans.

"We loved it," Jared Pratt said. "The street was lit up, they had police officers and crossing guards, all the houses were decorated - the whole community got together for Halloween. Where we live, it isn't that big of an event. We only have about 10 trick-or-treaters come to our house."