Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Okay, so it has been a really long time since I updated anything. Between the holidays, finals and traveling it has been an extremely hectic month. Steve did very well last semester, but is really enjoying his break. He starts again on the 7th and we are both dreading it a bit. Lizzy has loved the extra time with dad and is really turning into a daddy's girl. I think it will be as tough for her as for Steve and I when he goes back. These are the stockings that I made this year. I have started to get into quilting so I made them like quilt blocks. I think they turned out pretty neat!

This was taken a couple of days after we decorated for Christmas. We had gone out for a drive to look at lights and Lizzy was completely exhausted. Not wanting to wake her, or put her to bed quite yet, I decided that I could just take a little snooze by light of Christmas tree as well.

In other news, we went to visit my parents for Christmas. Due to the fact that it is an enormously long drive, we broke it up into two days and decided to take a break at Temple Square. I hadn't been there at Christmas in years and Steve had never seen the lights there at all. We loved it! Lizzy loved it too. All the missionaries were taken with her and kept giving her those article of faith cards with a picture of Christ with the children. They were enchanted because she kept signing and saying "Jesus!" I think we had four by the time we left. We took a tour through the conference center. The guide insisted that Liz and I get our picture taken by this picture of Parley P. Pratt when he found out that I was a Pratt. He wanted Steve to take it again because I stuck out my tongue. I refused, saying that this was proof that I was indeed a Pratt.We were so excited when we found out that the Tabernacle Choir would be rehearsing the night that we were there. Apparently you can just go in and listen for as long as you like. It was amazing! Lizzy even enjoyed it. We couldn't get a good picture of her in here because she kept pushing us away to watch the choir. Everytime they finished a song she would applaud wildly. She is just so adorable. The lights were so pretty. Lizzy loved to point at all the lights and was facinated by the nativity scenes. Unfortunatley for her it was freezing. She was so bundled up that she couldn't really move but she didn't fuss much at all. She also learned the sign for temple and would show us at every opportunity.

We finally showed up in Arizona the next day, much to my parent's surprise. We had told them that we would be arriving Christmas Eve, but we showed up 5 days early just to see their faces. It was great. Mom's mouth just hung down and Mary and dad just kept saying "What is going on?" Grandma Lizzy took it in stride and acted as if she had expected us all along. This Christmas also marks the first time since 2000 that my entire family has gotten together. The family has grown a bit since then (by four children-in-law and 8 grandkids) so we took the opportunity to get some pictures. We couldn't resist the opportunity to be silly.The Pratt Bratts are together again! We tried to be well-behaved for the first shot, but things pretty much went back to normal for this one. Now you know where I get my fabulous good looks! My parents have said many times that if they had known how much fun grandkids would be, they would have skipped parenthood and gone straight to grandparenthood. They were in hog heaven with all nine there at once. Lizzy loved her grandma and warmed up to her quite well. She was a bit suspicious of grandpa, but asked for him whenever he went away. She came up with a sign for grandpa all on her own. She rubs her chin like she is grabbing a beard. Incidently, this is the same sign that she uses for Santa Clause. She recognized the connection right away and without any prompting. Here we are with our good-looking spouses. I may be prejudiced, but I think that my husband is the best looking! Look down at the bottom of the picture and you will see Lizzy and Joe who just couldn't be separated long from their parents long enough for a picture. It didn't bother us too much, we just took the picture anyway, but this is the only shot we got.

Mom bought Lizzy and Joe matching outfits for New Year's day. Since Joe couldn't look like a girl, we decided that Lizzy could look like a little boy. It gives you an idea what Steven Jr. will look like! I actually think that she still looks feminine, but I might not be too objective.

This is Lizzy and Heidi. I wanted to demonstrate the size difference, because Lizzy is tall and Heidi is tiny for her age (11 months). However, the picture is a bit misleading as Heidi is sitting and Lizzy is closer to the camera. But I thought you would enjoy the pictures of giant Lizzy!
Well we finally arrived home after much ado. We had mostly fabulous weather for travel except for 90 harrowing minutes of a slushstorm around Logan. Lizzy is still a little anxious from the trip and recovering from a cold but should be up to snuff soon.