Finally...our new HOUSE!

Well we FINALLY found the house of our dreams! We never expected it to be in Placerville where I grew up (right around the corner from my parents house) and where JD spent his teenage years but we fell in love and here it is! We walked in that front door and I just knew. We did go back and forth for a while but ultimalty it is the perfect fit. We were concerned with JD's commute but he bought himself a Lexus and it really is only 35 minutes. Plus, when he travels I will have my parents near by to help me out... major factor in buying this house. We have the keys but a painter is currently painting the inside for us. Tomorrow our new furniture shows up, new refrigerator, dining room table and we will begin the process of moving stuff from storage. Did I mention I HATE moving and this will hopefully be the home my kiddos grow up in. One of my favorite things about this house is the views. There are no houses behind us or to the side. It is a breath of fresh air to have some land and have some space for the kiddos to run and be free. I am excited for the memories that we will make in this home and the memories the kids will make with their grandparents being so close. I missed that growing up and I now see how important that relationship really is. So, we will begin our new journey and chapter in life at our beautiful new home. "Life in the Pratt House" has a new meaning now!

The flu for Christmas...

Well our Christmas took a turn for the worst this year. We all ended up with the flu minus the baby. Poor Cole started throwing up on Friday night and continued throwing up until Christmas morning. I have not had to deal with a kid throwing up like that yet, so needless to say it was scary for not only Cole but for mommy as well. We cancelled all our Christmas plans and stayed at home. Because we are at my parents house Rich, Trever and their families were unable to come over because of the flu bug flying around. This was the first year all of us have not been together at my parents house. It was sad and just did not feel like Christmas. We did end up enjoying a quiet day with the kiddos playing with ALL their new toys. I did take more pictures but again they are on my camera and will post soon. We are all finally feeling better and looking forward to next Christmas in our new house!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is two days away and the excitement in the house is growing. Of course Charly has no idea what is going on and is probably a bit confused on why we have a spinning tree in the house with lights and a million ornaments on it and why she is being told NO every time she try's to grab one of those shiny things that are right at her eye level. Cole however at 3 1/2 is in full Christmas mode. Counting down the days on the calendar, shaking the presents, singing Christmas songs, pretending he is Santa while mommy parades him around the house on all fours wearing a red nose because of course I am Rudolph. It is amazing to watch through your children's eyes the joy of the Holidays. It really is all that matters and I am so excited for the future with these two kiddos. Merry Christmas to my two babies. Mommy loves you so much.

Catching Up!

Life it the Pratt house has been BUSY! Here are some pictures of the last few weeks. With the Holidays fast approaching time just seems to fly by. Charly girl is full on walking now, which I love and find much more easier. Cole man is growing up way to fast and I sometimes have to remind myself that he still is only 3. Sometimes I swear he is 8. He is so smart and his athletic abilities are insane. We wonder what sport he will like the most and follow through with. The problem is he is good at everything.

We also just bought another house...YIPEE. It has been a long time coming. We sold our house in East Sac and have been staying at my parents since September. Our plan was to buy a house in El Dorado Hills, however we looked at a house around the corner from my parents and FELL in love with it. Plus, the kiddos have gotten so close to my parents and my parents to the kiddos how could we take that blessing away from them :-)! I will post pictures of my dream home once we get the keys. Cole will be switching preschools, which gives me anxiety, only because he has made some good friends at Busy Bees in EDH. He will now be going to a Montessori here in Placerville. He already has a friend that goes there and he is already excited about going to his new preschool with 2 playgrounds! I still can't believe we are buying a house around the corner from where I grew up but life changes and we want to raise our kiddos in a small town, with good friends and grandparents that adore them. Plus, the date nights we get every Tuesday while my parents watch the kiddos aren't bad either!

Life in the Pratt house might be busy but It is a wonderful life!

Carly turns 1!

I can hardly believe my baby is 1! This has got to have been the fastest year of my life.

Charly my angel, mommy is so glad to have you as my daughter. You make mommy a better person and the love I have for you is indescribable. You are the funniest baby I have ever met and you make all of us laugh on a daily basis. You are also a wild little thing and when you are awake you are on the GO! You still take three naps a day and sleep well at night. I think you sleep so much because you NEVER stop when you are awake! You are the 96% for height and the 65% at weight (your head is 99% for your age...he he). You weigh 22 pounds now and LOVE to eat anything you can get your hands on. You smack your lips when you are hungry! You are wearing size 18 months clothes and size 4 shoes. You are already getting your molars in, which is very early for your age. You have started walking, which makes mommy very happy. You love your daddy and brother but I am still your favorite! We had a huge Winter One derland party for you. Grandma Pat Pat did a amazing job with the decorations and I will post the pictures once I get them of the camera. You were beautiful at your party and couldn't get enough of your cake. You finally have some girly toys now of your own and don't just have to play with brothers boy toys (although you still prefer his cars, trucks and trains)! I am excited for the next year with you. Grandma Pat Pat was right, when she told me one time, "There is nothing like a mother/daughter bond". You my princess are my world and life with you is PERFECT.

Thanksgiving!

As you can see I am a bit behind with posts and I am lacking in the photos from Thanksgiving. However it was a wonderful relaxing Thanksgiving weekend at my parents (our temporary home). Thursday, Rich, Emi and Regan came over and we hung out, ate way too much and watched the kiddos play. Charly and Regan are hilarious together and have a somewhat love/hate relationship. Pretty sure Charly might of bit Regan's finger as Regan likes to put her finger in Charly's mouth and I think they had a 1 or 2 hitting matches. Much more kisses and hugs were given out between them though. It will be so fun to watch the two of them grow up together. It is such a blessing that Rich and I had our girls just 2 short months apart. Friday, Trever and his clan came over and that is when the craziness begins. Between myself and my two brothers there are 6 kiddos and at this point they are 4 and under. The three babies, Austin, Regan and Charly are all 1 now and only 3 months apart. It is baby central and by the end of the day we were all tired, not just the babies. Friday we went downtown for the Christmas tree lighting and hung out with some old friends. Like I said it was a wonderful Thanksgiving! God has blessed me with the most wonderful Family. I am so Thankful for everyone. My beautiful babies and husband are my world!

Home Away From Home... Pismo Beach!

What a wonderful trip we had to Pismo. This is our 3 time this year and feel like Pismo is our 2nd home. We surprised Cole by having everything packed and ready to go and when I picked him up from school we told him we were headed to his favorite place on earth. Cole LOVES Pismo more than anywhere else we go. So much so, that the morning we had to leave he woke up at 4:00 am and asked if we were leaving, only to wake back up at 7:00 with tears in his eyes and his meltdown for 1 hour began. I mean hyper ventilating, screams, pleas to stay and the saddest face a mother has ever seen. JD and I joke that he will attend Cal Poly one day just to be close to Pismo. We would love to retire there one day! We want our babies to have Pismo as a second home. As always, we just relaxed and enjoyed eachothers company. JD had to go to a few meetings on two of the days and one of the days he was gone, I headed to the beach with Cole and Charly. I had the most amazing time with them. I laid out a blanket, laid myself down and watched just how different the two of them are. You see, Cole is my super clean little man and he loved the sand, just on his feet and that is pretty much it. He sat nicely on the blanket and his OCD kicked in when ever his dirty sister would even get a speck of sand on the blanket. My Charly Girl is one dirty baby. She must have eaten a pile of sand. I tried at first to stop the madness but after a while I gave up and off she went enjoying the grainy sand one handful at a time. It was a beautiful day and week and one I won't ever forget. The kids are getting easier and easier to take places and the memories we are making are what life is all about! The whole trip was amazing and we will be back in March! Pismo Beach you are my favorite place!

"Date Walk" with Cole!

So, I try and sneak away with just Cole as much as I can. After all, he was my only baby for 2 years and almost 9 months. It is hard to find time these days with Charly girl here. So any chance I get to take Cole for some one on one time, I do. I decided to take him on a "Date Walk" to look at all the beautiful trees that are changing in my parents neighborhood. I am not sure If It is just that I am getting older but I am IN LOVE with the changing of the trees and the Fall Season this year. I can't believe how amazing the colors of the leaves are. Cole was even into it all and so patiently starred in amazement at each individual tree with me. We had a wonderful time on our "Date Walk" and talked about everything from Batman to Love to his tummy growling because he needed a Otter Pop! These are the moments I will remember with my smart, handsome, funny and AMAZING 3 year old. Oh, the little things that really matter....

Tomorrow we leave for our Pismo Trip. So excited......

Milestone!

Baby girl is out of her baby seat! I am both sad and excited at the same time. Sad because the baby seat was also Cole's and I can remember like it was yesterday being so excited to buy the baby seat, getting it all set up in the car and bringing both Cole and Charly home in it. There is just something about a baby sleeping away in their car seat as you go about your day carying them around and having strangers come up to ask how old and commenting on how cute and how fast the baby stage goes by. Excited that the "baby stage" is over and we are moving on to the walking and talking stage! Excited that Charly is facing forward and I don't have to break my arm and neck trying to console baby girl when things aren't going her way. Excited that she was clapping and screaming with excitement as she watched the world go by her from a different perspective. My baby is growing up and truly it does go by way to fast. However, I am excited for the next milestones and the ones to come in the future. It has been a such a joy to watch Charly grow the last 11 1/2 months. I love this little girl with all my heart and she truly is my princess. Life is wonderful!

San Diego 2011

Oh San Diego how we love you! You see, San Diego is where JD and I met (even though we went to the same High School and for a short time he lived across the street from my parents). San Diego is where we spent 2 of the best years of our lives. Not a care in the world, partying with friends and falling in love! It had been close to 4 years since we had been back to SD and we still have a lot of friends there, so off we went with two kiddos in tow! We decided to fly, since a 8 hour drive with a 3 year old and a 11 month old did not sound appealing to us! Boy was Cole excited! He was full of questions and wonder as we approached the airport! As we made our way up to our gate the first glimpse of a Southwest Airplane landing, could of been the best thing he has ever seen! He could of stood at that window for hours watching the planes land and take off. We made sure we got there 3 hours early (he he) so he could do just that! Charly of course, had no idea what was going on but went along with brothers excitement and starred out the window with him clapping and laughing! The plane ride was a breeze for Cole, he got to go up into the cock pit and meet the pilots and sat perfectly in his seat and watched the glimmer of lights from below. Charly on the other hand was a nightmare the first 30 minutes of the plane ride (I chalk that up to not feeling well as the plan ride home was much better). We finally laid her down on the seat with blankie and her bunny and she was out! It is only a hour and forty minute flight, so we survived! Our beach house was super cute and comfy and perfect for us. Every morning we just relaxed and enjoyed being with eachother. We made it to the zoo, dinner at our good friends restaurant, dinner out with all of our old friends and their kiddos at Woodstocks Pizza in PB, playing on the Bay and at the ocean, a SDSU football game, snuggling by the fire as our power was at the last night and just enjoying being a family. I will say it is much different from when we were 22 and 24, partying till all hours of the night with our friends. Now we had a few pitchers of beer at dinner and then home and asleep by 10:00. We reminisced about those good old days but looked forward to our future with our kiddos and keeping lasting friendship with our friends in SD. Our trip home was smooth and now we are back to the swing of things on the homestead! Still waiting to hear on the offer we have on a house in El Dorado Hills and getting ready for more family fun in Pismo Beach in two weeks! Life in the Pratt House is pretty darn good.

Halloween 2011

Halloween 2011 was a success! This was Cole's 4th Halloween and our Charly's 1st! Cole decided he wanted to be Peter Pan months ago and of course he also decided Charly would be Tinker Bell. JD got their costumes in Orlando on a business trip back in September and as Halloween approached, we feared Charly Girl would not fit in her adorable costume. Well, after tugging and pulling and a few tears (sorry) we got her in! We started the day at the dentist for Cole's 6 month cleaning! He was really cute in his costume and everyone there loved having Peter Pan as a patient! We came home and got ready to head to Main Street for Placerville's Festival. They close down Main Street and all the stores hand out candy. It is safe and fun for the kiddos and Cole had a blast. Our Tinker Bell took it all in from the comfy seat of her stroller. The weather was a warm 80 degrees! We hung out with a few friends afterwards at their bagel shop on Main and then came back to Pa Pa and Grandma's to help hand out candy in their neighborhood. Cole Man was a tired Peter Pan and retreated to his room to watch The Incredibles (only after eating about 6 pieces of candy). All in all it was a wonderful Halloween and our Peter Pan and Tinker Bell had a wonderful day (well, 3 days if you include the Festival we went to on Friday and the fun the whole weekend).

Tomorrow we head to San Diego for 5 days and are staying in a beach house in Mission Beach. There is much excitement in the air as we are flying and this will be the kids first time on a plane! I will post when we get home!