Nuttall Family: Happy 2010 Holidays

The holidays this year were very special for our family as Braxton was able to celebrate his first Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years! Being only 9 months old for Thanksgiving and 10 months old for Christmas and New Years he didn't understand what was going on and quite honestly didn't really care either! I can't believe how quickly the holidays (and Christmas Brake) came and went! We were able to spend a lot of time with Family and Friends as well as each other and are so sad to be back to school already.

THANKSGIVING 2010

We were able to spend Thanksgiving morning at home sitting around, being lazy and enjoying each others company. That afternoon we had an early Turkey dinner with my family. Uncle Rusty and his family as well as Grandpa Davis and Sami and Zach were all there. It was so good to be able to see all of them. Because Grandpa doesn't like to drive in the dark we usually eat early enough so that he is able to eat and get home before the sun goes down. Braxton was so excited to see so much food. He LOVED all of it and wasn't afraid to chow down!

~Our cute little Family~

~Brax and Mom~

~ Brax and Dad ~

~The color coordinating wasn't planned! Well except for Sami :)~

~It didn't bother Lexi that she didn't match! We tried to get her to change for the picture but she didn't want to. That's why we love you Lu~

~The Boys didn't plan their outfits together either! What are the chances that all of them would have the same colors on?~

~Brax Loves his Aunt Sami~

~Sami and her fiance Zach - aren't they so cute together~

After spending the afternoon with my family we headed over to Aunt Annette's ward building for Thanksgiving dinner and dessert. Because we ate so much with my family we focused on the dessert part this time around. Hollie made a very yummy cake with whipped cream and sauce and there was also the famous cookies and pie!
After dinner the boys played some basketball while the girls watched the kiddos and shot some hoops at the other end of the court. After they all got tired and while taking a breather we were entertained as Aunt Annette, Uncle Craig and Bryan sat to play Jenga with cut 2x4's! It was such a creative idea and so fun to watch. After the game ended Nate's family decided that they wanted to go see a movie. The movie of choice.... Tangled 3D what a GREAT movie! I think it took over the spot for my new favorite Disney princess movie. It was a good, cute, funny, feel good movie - it had it all. The best part was that the little ones (Brynnlee 2, Gabe 1 1/2, and Braxton 9 months) were really good!

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND

On Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) Nate and I decided to do a little bit of Black Friday shopping. Because we had Braxton and didn't want any of the door busters this year we decided to sleep in and take our time getting out to the madness of the stores. We ended up heading out around 12:00 (noon) and what a great idea that was! There was still a lot of people out but because we were well rested we were ready to meet them with good attitudes, a little excitement and determination!

Our 1st stop: Best Buy

For: a NEW CAMERA!!

I was so happy when we got there and they still had them! We got such a good deal on it! We got the camera, a bag and a memory card for about $200 off + a free extra lens and a tripod! Now my next project is figuring out how to use it!

Our 2nd stop: Game stop

For: a game for Korbins Birthday/Christmas present

Our 3rd stop: Chick-fil-a

For: Lunch!!

Despite our preparations for being well rested and bundled up nice and warm - we still forgot one thing before we left.... to fill our bellies! Empty bellies = short tempered parents! For everyones sake (especially our own) we decided that a quick lunch stop would be a good idea!

Our 4th stop: Toys 'R' Us

For: Gifts for Jason, Kyler and Gabe. Also to get LOTS of "ideas" from Braxton for Santa

While we were at Toys 'R' Us we ran into Grandma Hollie! What a good surprise. It was fun to see her there, walk around with her for a little while and hear about her many very early morning adventures from that day!

Our Last stop for shopping: WinCo

For: BYU vs. UofU party snacks. We also got an add in the mail with Free item coupons. We got stuff like bacon, orange juice and hash browns with our in ad coupons.

After our busy afternoon of shopping and getting a good start on our Christmas shopping (which we were so excited about) it was time to head home, get stuff put away and get Brax fed in order to head off to our plans for the evening! We were getting together with my family for the night. All the boys (Nate, dad, Jason and Zach went to dinner at Arby's and then it was off to the Jazz Game! The girls (me, mom, Sami and Lexi) + Brax were going to go see a movie. The movie of choice....... Tangled! I was so excited to see it again. Yes, it was THAT good! The only difference was that we didn't see it in 3D. It was just as good though. After the boys left for their night together Sami, Brax and I headed out for ours. Lexi had a gymnastics review so her and mom met up with us later. We started out our night by going to Shopko to look for an entertainment center for Sami and Zach. We were so disappointed with their selections :( Mom wasn't planning on being done at the review until just before the movie was supposed to start so Sami and I decided that in order to kill some time we would stop at Zupas and have some dinner. As we were pulling in the parking lot we got an unexpected but exciting call from mom saying that the review would be finishing a lot sooner than she thought and they would have time to eat with us before the movie. Sami and I decided to get Cafe Rio to go because it tastes SO much better than the fake Rio in the District food court. We are so bad and decided we that could easily sneak it into the food court to eat it because of the fake Rio that they have! We were so right! As soon as we got in we threw the bag away and we got our drinks from the food court so we didn't have Cafe Rio cups! Lexi got chicken fingers and fries that she so generously shared with Braxton when he wasn't trying to get at my Rio. While we were there Sami got hit on by some crazy guy who tried to get her to bet him that he had her name tattooed on his butt?!?!? What is this world coming too?

The movie ended up being great again and Braxton was just as good the second time! He fell asleep about half way through which put me to sleep for a little bit. Not because the movie was boring but because I was so relaxed and warm and snugglie that I couldn't keep my eyes open! They boys had a great night as well - the Jazz won!

On Saturday (2 days after Thanksgiving) we had a bunch of friends over to watch the BYU vs. UofU game! I wish I would have taken pictures - I'll try to remember for next year! We had about 20 people over and only 3 of them were U fans! Needless to say, we had a pretty disappointed group at the end of the game. Despite the outcome it was fun to get together and cheer on our teams! Because of all the people we had someone bring another tv that we set up in the bay of our dining room. So fun!! After the game we spent the rest of the night playing Zombies (most of us just watched), watching Gabe and then going to Chick-fil-a after Nicholas picked him up! Then a few of us came back to our house to watch a movie. Then it was off to bed!

On Sunday I decided it was finally time and we finally had the time to put up our Christmas tree. While Nate worked on some homework I turned on "Christmas Vacation"(the only Christmas movie we own) and got to work on the tree! Braxton was taking a nap when I put the tree up and then I decided to wait until we put him to bed for the night to get out the lights and ornaments. Then next morning when I got him up and took him downstairs to play it took him about 15 minutes to realize that the tree was even there! He went over to give it a good looking at but lost interest in it very quickly which I was very happy about.

12/3/10

Gingerbread House Decorating

The First Friday in December we had The Gelters and Fesslers over for some dinner (sloppy joes, veggies and chips) and Gingerbread House Decorating! We are blessed to have such wonderful neighbors and we may have to make a tradition of this!

The beginning

Our House

(when we took our house out of the box the roof was broken! Nate tired his best, many many times, to fix it!)

..... still trying .....

..... And still trying.....

But nothing he tried seemed to work

He's not one to stop ANYTHING until it is FIXED or DONE. After about 15 minutes I finally talked him into giving up - and it absolutely KILLED him!)

The roof I literally "threw" together - after I finally got Nate to stop.

The Fessler's Train

(I think the train may be the way to go)

The Gelters Homemade house

(Aaron even nibbled at the squares to make the peek for their roof!)

MMMMMM, mom look at that frosting

Porter Loved just hanging out

Brax and dad

Brax and mom

~Braxton's yucky eye that will be yucky for only a little longer~

- The 4 kids all had different things keeping them busy and interested -

~Jackson was such a good helper and was son interested in his train~

~Porter was overwhelmed by all the goodies!~

~Braxton enjoyed playing with his ring......~

..... and the pantry door!

~Cicely was fascinated with the spinning balls~

The FINAL works of art

Our house

(from this angle you can't tell quite so much the the roof is gone! It doesn't look to bad)

(By the time we gave up on the roof everyone else was pretty much done with their houses/trains so I quickly threw what I could onto the front of the house out of pure desperation! No rhyme or reason whatsoever!)

~The Fessler's Train~

~The Gelter's Homemade house~

(I was very impressed by their creativity! What a cute idea)

After we finished with the houses/trains Jackson took Meghann on a "trip to the zoo" while the rest of us sat around and watched and laughed! Jackson as such a fun personality and an incredible imagination!

Family Christmas Cards

I deciided on Sunday, December 12 just about 2 weeks before Christmas that we should probably get pictures to put on them! If we didn't get them soon we wouldn't have time to get the cards made and sent out before Christmas!

I also wanted to have a picture of just Braxton on our family Christmas Cards this year. When better to take the picture than the day after his eye surgery! Christmas we now a week and a half away - crunch time! I was quite impressed at how well Braxton was and you couldn't even tell, other than the yucky nose, that he had anything wrong with him.

*** I ended up getting the cards in the mail the Friday before Christmas (8 days before)***

12/23/10

Braxton Meets Santa

I was so excited for Braxton to be able to meet Santa this year and I even knew what outfit he was going to wear! Unfortunately with everything going on - the crazyness of the holidays, work, Sami's wedding stuff, I never had a chance to take him. I had to work on the 23rd and on Christmas Eve and I was out of time. I knew that Braxton wouldn't know any different but I really wanted some first Christmas with Santa pictures! Nate knew how much it ment to me that we get those pictures and surprised me be moving some of his appointments around in order to pick him up from Grandma Hollies and get him to the mall before the Christmas party we had that night! When I came home the first thing I said was, "He wore that to meet Santa?" My next thought was how lucky I am to have such an amazing husband who would take Brax to meet Santa for me the day before Christmas Eve and waited in line for a good hour. Neither Nate or Braxton cared to much but Nate knew it ment a lot to me! It didn't matter so much what he was wearing or that his hair wasn't done! The pictures still turned out so cute.

~Thank you babe - and Grandma Hollie for keeping them company in line~

New Years Eve 12/31/2010

We spent New Years Eve with some friends of ours. We started out the night at Famous Daves. The decision to go there was mainly made by the guys. There were 9 of us that went. Those of you who know Famous Daves know about their trash can lid meal. Well the 9 of us split and finished 3 of those meals! It was disgustion watching the boys eat.

We came back to our house for games and snacks after dinner. Needless to say, we didn't get the snacks out for a little while.

The kiddos (Braxton and Mason) went to bed soon after we got back to our house but I was able to snag one quick picture of Braxton on his First New Years Eve

We played Monopoly, scrabble, some Wii and Settlers of Catan and had all kinds of treats including peanut butter and m&m (aka - peanut) m&m's and an amazingly yummy artichoke dip!