The Infamous Nut Party

What is a "Nut Party" you ask.

Well it is our little family tradition.

We have been doing it my whole life

and it started when my two oldest brothers were just little.

So what was a tradition of four, now is a tradition for thirty.

We did switch things up this year,

we always do a family draw, but this year

it was for kids 18 and under.

So after we have a feast for a dinner,

we take some family pictures,

then the kids open the gifts

rotating from youngest to oldest.

It was Kade's first

Christmas present,

and he did pretty good

not just being interested in the paper and the box!

Then, here comes the nut part, we have pudding.

And traditionally there is one nut hidden in the pudding

and whoever gets the nut gets the nut gift!

Well mom decided to have a loser tray

and a winner tray.

To slowly dwindle down the losers and make us all winners.

We put two nuts in the losers pudding

and one in the winners pudding.

So we had three NUTS!

If you know us at all I know what you are thinking,

"Your whole family is a bunch of nuts."

And to this I will totally agree.

But we are a bunch of nuts that love each other,

well most of the time.

Me and my brothers.

Steve, Ryan,

Jason, Me, Todd

Steve's cute family.

Steve, Robin

Brinley, Jake, Cassie, Nicole

Kyler

Todd's cute family.

Jackson, Heather, Todd, Karlee, Berklee

Austin

Austin and Jackson

Karlee & Berklee

I have a thing for funny faces.

I guess I just love seeing true personalities come out.

Jason's cute family.

McKay, Nicole, Jason

Nic, Oakley, Payton

Jason and his handsome boys.
This one cracks me up.

Ryan's cute family.

Lafe, Silas

Amy, Ryan

Kaleb, Wyatt

Our cute family.

You have to love that smile!

The Girls.

Berklee, Nicole

Karlee, Brinley

Since there is not that many of us,

we always take one with all of us original girls!

The Boys.

The Boys & Girls.

Just a little out numbered.

How cute is this.

My mom watching her

PRIDE & JOY

the Grandkids!
Of course we had to have a funny face picture,

with the whole crew!

If you haven't seen enough,

NOW ONTO THE PARTY!

Kade's first Christmas present EVER!

So cute.Karlee gave to Kade.

And another tradition is to hug whoever you gave to.

This is my favorite part.

Karlee got a puppy purse from Lafe.

And to this she said,

"Ohh...It's what I've always wanted."

So cute.
We love hugs!

Sweet Brinley.
Nic attacking his gift.
McKay loving his decals for his 4-wheeler.

So Kade got Austins name.

And I happened to be with Austin one day

when the SNUGGIE commercial came on.

"I really want a Snuggie." He said.

And I thought,

"Sweet!"

Can't get easier then that.

So as you can see, we had a great time!

The best part of Christmas is family.

Where have we been!

Well a lot has happened in such a short time.

We decided to put our house up for sale,

just to see what would happen,

and what happened is it sold!

So we bought a new house, that we love.

The week that we had to move,

Kade and Kevin got diagnosed with the H1N1.

So of course it was not a fun week and we are still trying to catch up.

We moved Halloween weekend,

so the big outing was going to my mom's

and seeing the other grandkids.

Kade keeps getting bigger and bigger

and his personality is just as big!!

We went to California for Thanksgiving

and we had a great time with Kevin's family.

So here are some

RANDOM PICTURES

that we have taken the last few months

including the beginning of football season (Kevin loves USC),

Halloween

and Thanksgiving.

GO USC!!

Kade's First Halloween!

Austin is on top, then left to right is Jackson, Kade and Karlee.

One really neat thing we got to do while in California

is Kade got to meet his Grandma Great.

Or in other words Kevin's Grandma.

And she is great!

We love her and are so glad that

Kade and Grandma Great

got to meet each other.

Also while in California Kade learned how to be a tease.

This is his cousin Tate,

and Kade thought it was hilarious to take his binkie.

This was a game that we played over and over.

You can tell he was quite proud of himself.

At Kevin's mom and dads they had booster seats

that put the kids right at table height.

Kade LOVED this!

I swear I didn't think the kid would ever stop eating.

Here is Kade with his twin cousins that are 16 months.

It was fun watching him learn how to act with kids close to his age.

Kade, Tate, Spencer

So it looks like Kade is crying and upset here, well he isn't.

This my friends is his "I am so tough" face.

Kade loves his Aunt Amy, I think the feeling is mutual.

Now this face is his weird new smile.

It cracks me up.

And the lovely drool, well he was working on his second tooth.

On Thanksgiving day we went to Folsom Zoo Sanctuary.

They feed the animals a

"Thanksgiving meal"

that was raw meat stuffed into pumpkins for the bears,

a raw chicken for the cougars,

that while they ate you could actually hear the bones crunch.

Yummy.

How cute is that face!

So this was back in August, but I love this picture.

And the duck placement, all on his own!