The Bret 'n Laura Family Blog

Luke David Nicholson

2011-04-05T19:05:00.001-07:00

Much to our surprise, Luke was born on Max's birthday, March 14th. He weighed 7 lbs 2 oz and he was 20" long. He is such a good baby, and the Max and Maddie can't get enough of their new little brother.

Another Update

2011-01-26T10:18:00.001-08:00

It has been a long time since I have updated our blog. At the end of July we found out we are expecting our third child in March and it is a boy! We are so excited! We had a great fall and Christmas season. Here are a some pictures of things we have been up to.

Max and Maddie have a great time playing together (most of the time!). With Dad's help they built a tower that reached the ceiling.

We had a relaxing end to our summer as I was pretty sick in the first trimester. We did get in a trip to the zoo which the kids loved.

In the fall, Max started 2nd grade, he is still attending Excelsior Academy, it has been a great school for him and he has a really good teacher this year. He is loves learning everything he can but his favorite subject right now is Math. Maddie started preschool she is starting to read and write. It is so much fun to see her progressing.

For Halloween Max was Wall-E again. He got a lot of attention with his great costume that Bret made last year. Maddie was Pinkalicious.

In December, we got a new camera. It takes great pictures and video and has been so nice to have. I took some practice shots when we first got it, this is my favorite that I took of Max and Maddie together.

We had a great Christmas spending time together and visiting family. I love watching the kids open presents on Christmas morning. At the end of December, Bret and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. We took a few days together and visited 10 temples. We feel so blessed that we live so close to so many temples.

The kids love to get new Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve.

One of Maddie's favorite Christmas presents was the Rupunzel Doll that Max gave her.

Max's favorite (and Dad's) was the Erector set he got from Santa.

During Christmas Break we got to go to Manti a couple of times. The kids had so much fun sledding with their cousins.

Summer Update

2010-07-14T15:17:00.000-07:00

We have had a fun and busy summer.. I can't believe how fast it is flying by. Here are some pictures of our summer so far.

One of the biggest events happened on Sunday. Our little girl turned 4 years old! I still can't believe she is 4. She is such a delight to have in our family, and we love her very much. She is all girl, she loves playing dress up and barbies. She is our little princess.

On Saturday we had a Cook family reunion at Jordanelle Reservior, we didn't take our camera. On Sunday for her birthday we had Crepes for dinner at Maddie's request and had Ben, Christina, Charlie and Andy over for dinner.

We had an eventful 4th of July weekend. We went to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake on Saturday. It was our first time swimming in it. You really float! It is incredible, it would be hard to sink. It is so, so salty. Saturday night we had yummy BBQ with some neighbors and did some fireworks in the street.

On Sunday, we had the blessing of my niece Ellie and we had Heather and her family come back to Tooele to stay and my Dad and Step Mom were in town from Texas. On Monday, we went swimming with family, the kids had a blast. In the evening we went to the bees game. It was a lot fun even though they lost. There was an amazing firework show to patriotic music. It was Pauline's last night in the USA, and it was a good send off for her. Maddie was excited she got to meet a life sized Snuggle bear and Bumble the Bee.

June was also an eventful month. We went to the Bonneville salt flats, there is salt as far as you can see in every direction.

We went to Manti for the Mormon Miracle Pageant. This was our first time taking Max and he loved it. The kids had a great time playing with cousins.

We also went shooting, shot rockets and went on a lot of scenic drives.

This is the Place

2010-06-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

For Memorial Day weekend, Pauline's cousin Laura (who is doing an internship in Idaho) came to stay with us. We had a fun weekend of visiting and BBQ'ing. On Monday, we went to This is the Place Park. It has changed a lot since I was a kid. They have a pioneer village, trains, animals, Indian Village and lots of fun activities for the kids.

At one of the houses, the kids got to do pioneer chores and learn pioneer games. Max thought the pioneer chores were pretty cool. He now wants us to wash our clothes by hand and give him pioneer chores to do. We do have chickens now, so I guess that's a start :).

It was Baby Animal Days and so the kids got to feed baby lambs and play with baby goats, rabbits, chicks and pigs. They also got to ride a pony.

First Camping Trip of the Year

2010-05-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

We have a friend from France staying with us for 2 months. Her name is Pauline and she was in our ward in Metz. She is doing an internship in Salt Lake and we are excited to have her staying with us. We decided to take a trip down to Southern Utah because they don't have anything like it in France. We stayed at the Dead Horse Point Campground so that we could at least have flushing toilets. (It was her first camping trip aside from girls camp). We spend three days exploring Dead Horse Point, Canyonlands and Arches. It was a lot of fun. The kids love camping and hiking, they had a blast. It was fun to show Pauline around and watch her reactions to the beauty that is So. Utah.

In arches we hiked to Delicate Arch. It is a fun hike because you get to climb up a huge rock and you feel like you are in a waste land and then you come upon the Arch and it is beautiful. The kids loved to watch for lizards and follow the cairns (stacks of rocks to show you where the trail is), Max even started some if his own.

Maddie ready to hike

They found a lizard

Our first view of Delicate Arch.

Pauline was proud of herself for conquering her fear of heights.

Bret and the kids under the arch. Look closely.

Bret and the kids looking over the edge after they hiked down into the bowl below Delicate Arch.

Another favorite at Arches was Sand Dune Arch. Max and Dad climbed to the top and the kids loved running down the sand hill.

We went to several lookouts in Canyonlands, we hiked to see the crater that they think could have been caused my a meteorite and we went on some beautiful scenic drives.

Bret too close to the edge for my comfort.

A cool rock tunnel we went through on one of our drives.

This is the Shafer Trail, the scariest drive I have ever been on. I drew a line to show approx. were the road was that we took.

This is us safe and very happy to be at the bottom!

California Vacation

2010-04-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

For Spring Break we took a trip to Southern California. We left on Saturday, early in the morning. We stayed on Saturday night in Anaheim with Bret's Aunt and Uncle. His Uncle is serving as a mission president of the Anaheim mission. Before we went to their place Sat night we just had to go to the beach and get our feet wet. The kids ended up getting everything wet! But they were so excited to be at the beach.

On Sunday, after church and a great visit with Sandy and Steve we drove down to San Diego. We had a beach house rented with my Mom, Ben and Christina, Heather and Andy and all the kids. It was a great house just a block off the beach on the north end of Mission Beach. On Monday, we spend all day playing on the beach the kids loved it! So did the parents!

On Tuesday, we went to Sea World. They have amazing animal shows and some fun rides for the kids. Maddie's favorite part was petting the Sting Rays and Bat Rays. She spend over an hour with her Dad playing with them. Max's favorite part was the pet show and sitting in the soak zone at all the shows, until the Shamu show when we really got soaked!

On Wednesday, it was a colder day but we wanted to get one more day in at the beach. We went to the beach near our house in the morning and played in the sand.

You can see our beach house, it is the tall blue one, behind the castle.

In the afternoon we took the kids to La Jolla to see the seals. Then we went to Tourmaline Beach at low tide, there are tide pools there with all kids of sea life. Max collected hermit craps in his bucket and he said, "We're making a hermit crab family!" We had a great time exploring.

On Thursday, we left wonderful San Diego and went back up to Anaheim for a day and Disneyland. The kids loved Disneyland. Maddie loved the rides and surprisingly wasn't scared at all. Max's favorite part was a presentation that they had of a robot Asimo. Both kids loved meeting Mickey Mouse and watching the fireworks. It was a fun day and a great vacation that we will remember for a long time.

Max turned 7!

2010-03-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that my little boy is 7. He is growing up so fast. He had his first friend party. It was a full house. We had 19 kids and our neighbors dog Lacy (Max loves her and sent her an invitation). The kids played Duck, Duck, Goose and Pin the Tail on the Donkey. We had a pinata and treasure hunt. It was a lot of fun.

Valentine's Day

2010-02-19T13:14:00.000-08:00

We had a great Valentine's weekend. On Saturday, we had a delicious steak lunch with some friends of ours. On Sunday, Bret made mizithra spaghetti like they serve at the Spaghetti Factory. It was so, so yummy! We even had sourdough bread, spumoni ice cream and Italian cream sodas. To celebrate as a family we made some Valentine cookies to decorate. I love my husband and kids so much!

Big Helpers

2010-02-10T19:12:00.000-08:00

Max loves to help his Dad fix things. On Monday night Bret was replacing the alternator in our car and Max wanted to help. Before long, Maddie decided she should help to. Bret was letting them put the part in and they thought it was so cool to be fixing the car with Dad.

Earlier in the day on Monday I took this cute picture of Maddie. We had come inside after being outside for a while and she was trying to warm up by the heat vent.

Ice Castles

2010-02-08T07:18:00.000-08:00

We have spent the last two weekends in Midway and Bret's parents condo. The first weekend we went up there to relax and spend some time with his parents and sister Jodi and her family. The second weekend we went up there with some of my family for a ski weekend. Both times we visited the Ice Castles at the Zermatt resort. They are amazing!

We couldn't get Maddie to stop licking the walls!

The Holidays

2010-01-07T18:34:00.000-08:00

On Monday I was sad thinking that the holidays were over. The time flew by and I felt like I do after coming back from a vacation, a little sad that it is over and we have to go back to the daily grind.

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. The kids were so excited for Santa to come. On Christmas morning we made them wait in the hall until Dad had the video camera set up and ready.

When they walked into the living room they say that they each had a present from Santa that wasn't wrapped. Max got a mega block track set for cars and Maddie got a princess dress up trunk.

They played with those gifts for a long time. They were having so much fun we didn't even mention all the other presents that were there. Max went and got all of his Cars mega block toys and started building a track and Maddie was having a ball dressing up. After about 1/2 hour I reminded them about the other gifts :). Bret commented that they would have been happy with just the one gift each and he was right.

The kids got a lot of fun gifts and it was a great day to relax and to spend time together as a family. I surprised Bret with a JetBoil and a water filter for backpacking and he surprised me with new blinds for all the windows in the house, and chopper, food processor and a sewing machine! We were both very excited about our gifts.

A few days later with our Christmas money from Bret's parents we got a couch and loveseat for our family room. Here is a picture of our new blinds and couches.

Max and his cousin Charlie both got rockets on Christmas so they spend some time on Christmas getting them put together and painted. On Saturday we drove out to no man's land so that they could launch them. It was freezing cold but the kids had a lot of fun watching the rockets and then running to catch them when they came down.

Here is a little video I took of Max's launch.

On New Year's Eve we had a fun party at our house with some friends in the ward we played games and ate yummy food. Surprisingly all the kids stayed up until midnight.

On New Year's Day we went down to Manti. My neice got baptized on Saturday, it was a beautiful sunshiny day so we went sledding down dump ground road again.

Bret decided to take a video as he was sledding down. This will give you an idea of how long of a run it is. We love this hill, it is so much fun.

After sledding we launched some rockets. Bret made Maddie a pink and purple rocket. She was excited to have her very own princess rocket.

Bret and I also celebrated our anniversary on the 29th. We have been married 9 years and I couldn't have asked for a better husband. It was a great couple of weeks to have Max home from school to spend time together as a family and with our extended family. Max said it best when he said, "Christmas is the best day ever!"

'Tis the Season

2009-12-24T09:39:00.000-08:00

We have been having fun celebrating the holidays. The kids can't wait until tomorrow! We went to Manti last weekend for some family Christmas parties. We had a great time visiting, playing games, sledding and of course eating. The only thing I got pictures of was the sledding. There is a great hill in Manti that you can drive up and sled down, it is over a mile long and you get going pretty fast. Max and Maddie weren't too fond of the snow spraying in their faces as you go down but they kept asking to go again :).

The kids on the way up the hill

I had to sacrifice myself to get these pictures! I went ahead so I could get some pictures about half way down. I was going so fast that the only way I could stop was to steer myself into the snow bank!

The sledders starting to come down the hill

Sharee, James, Charlie and Rosie

Max and Bret, you can't tell by the picture, but they are going pretty fast!

On Monday for Family Night we decorated Gingerbread Houses (actually graham cracker houses). We got messy, and the kids got on a sugar high, it was great!

Trimming the Tree

2009-12-16T18:24:00.000-08:00

We had a fun time decorating the tree this year. Both of the kids are old enough to help. After we had it all decorated, Bret and I were putting out other decorations and the kids set up some stools and were sitting watching the tree. It was so cute, Max had is arm around Maddie and they were admiring their work.

They are so excited for Christmas this year! And I will be too once I get all the shopping done :).

Thanksgiving Weekend

2009-12-05T10:09:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. We spent the weekend in Manti and we had a fun and full weekend. Thanksgiving Dinner was delicious with everyone pitching in to make it. We were kind of lazy with our camera but thankfully my Mom got some great photos and I got copies from her.

After our dinner had digested, we all gathered around for some yummy pie. We had Pumpkin, Cherry, Apple, Blackberry, Chocolate Cream and Sour Cream Lemon.

Then we played some fun games. Catan is one of our favorites to play when we get together.

On Friday we had a birthday party for cousin Charlie. He opened presents and we played some party games.

Then we went to the Manti Light Parade. The kids had fun seeing the floats go with all the lights. They stayed warm in the back of Heather's van while they watched.

On Saturday we went up in the mountains to get our Christmas tree. It has become a tradition to get a tag in Manti and cut down our own Christmas tree. Bret and Uncle Andy went and found the trees and then we brought the kids up to "find" the trees.

We also took the kids to Wal-Mart to see Santa Claus. They were so excited to see Santa and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. It took them about 20 seconds to figure out that it wasn't Santa, it was their Uncle James dressed up like Santa!

The weekend then had a happy ending (especially for Bret!) as we watched BYU beat Utah in overtime. It was a great game!

Silly Kids

2009-11-18T13:54:00.000-08:00

Maddie and Max love to make funny faces and to do silly things for the camera. Here are some random pictures of them taken over the last couple of months.

We love these silly kids!

Halloween Fun

2009-11-02T12:20:00.000-08:00

We had a fun Halloween this year. On the 25th we had a fun party and Grandma and Grandpa N.'s house. The kids got to dress up and play some fun games. Some of the adults had some unusual fun too :).

For Halloween we went down to Manti for the Trunk-or-Treat party that they do. We ate some yummy soup, decorated cookies, carved pumpkings, played in the leaves and ate lots of candy. Poor Maddie woke up with a bad cold on Sat so she didn't do much but she did go trick or treating. She did not want to miss it.

Bret made Max a great Wall-E costume. He was quite the hit with everyone. Maddie had a Eve (the robot) costume but because she didn't feel good we went with the warm cozy unicorn costume.

When the Cows Come Home

2009-10-17T10:16:00.000-07:00

We went down to Manti for conference weekend. We went hiking in Maple Canyon (I will post pictures of our hike when I get some that my Mom took), played games, picked a lot of plums, spent time with family, watched conference and last, but not least saw the cows come home.

The Manti City Chamber of Commerce ask if the Temple View Lodge (my family's Motel) could host Manti's first annual "When the Cows Come Home" Event. It was to celebrate 150 years of the cattle trail in Manti (which runs right past the motel) and to honor the cattlemen. They served breakfast, had speakers and a live band.

We had to wake up bright and early.This picture shows some of the people heading over to watch the cows. If you look at the tables you will see the awards they gave the cattlemen. They were gold plated cow pies attached to some barn wood. (No, I am not kidding!)
Maddie sat on Bret's shoulders and watched the cows come around the corner.

It was quite the event, I have never seen anything like it. We had a great weekend, we love visiting Manti!

Playgrounds are Fun

2009-09-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

Bret took some cute pictures of the kids on the playground.

Catching Up

2009-09-11T22:25:00.000-07:00

Once again I am behind on blogging some of the events in our lives. I was looking through my pictures and I realized there are several things we have done that I haven't put on the blog. I decided I am just going to put them all in one post so that I can get caught up.

On August 13 - 15 we went camping at Yearns Reservoir in Manti Canyon with my Mom, my sister Heather, her husband Andy and their kids (my Mom and Andy joined us during the day). The kids loved fishing, hiking and camping and they especially loved riding the 4 wheeler around.

The next weekend we went to stay and Bret's parents condo in Midway. On Saturday, we went hiking in the Uintas with Grandma and Grandpa and Jodi, Neil and Avery. We hiked to Ruth Lake, it was very beautiful scenery.

Two weeks ago our ward had an activity. It was a Drive-in Movie in the gym of the church. They wanted each family to make a car. Bret loves to create things so he this was right up his alley. The kids decided they wanted to make a monster truck. Max wanted it to be his favorite color, which is white, and Maddie wanted it to be pink so he made it both. They did a great job and the kids are still having fun playing in it.

On Labor Day we went hiking with Ben and Christina and their boys. We drove the Alpine Loop and then hiked to Stuart Falls. That is such a beautiful, scenic place. Max and his cousin Charlie were great hikers, they hiked 4 miles without much trouble. After the hike, we stayed in the canyon and cooked up some hot dogs.

First Day of School

2009-08-25T17:39:00.000-07:00

Max had a rough start to his first day of school. When he woke up he started throwing up. I couldn't figure out if he was sick or if it was just nerves but then Maddie started throwing up too.

After awhile he said he felt better so I gave him some cereal but he didn't hold that down. Maddie had breakfast and seemed fine after not too long. Max kept begging me to take him to school, he really didn't want to miss the first day. So he ate some more breakfast and by 10:30 he seemed fine. So I took him to school and he ended up having a great day. He was so excited to tell me everything he had done at school. He talked non stop for an hour after coming home and then he crashed, he was so worn out. Because he was late for school we went and took some pictures by his school later in the day.

Swimming

2009-08-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

I still have several summer pictures that I haven't put on the blog yet. Both Max and Maddie love to go swimming. The kids took 2 sessions of swimming lessons at this summer.

(Maddie, cousin Charlie, Max)

We also went swimming several times for fun. We took our camera with us when we went a couple weeks ago and with our waterproof camera case got some pictures and videos of the kids.

Fishing

2009-08-18T15:11:00.000-07:00

Maddie picked out a princess fishing pole with her birthday money from Grandma and Grandpa so we took the kids fishing at the reservoir up Settlement Canyon. They only caught little baby ones but they loved reeling them in and then letting them go back into the water. We had a good time and got some cute pictures of the kids.

The Uintas Backpacking Trip

2009-08-07T20:43:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Bret's sister Lori and her husband Scott came for a visit from Illinois. Bret and Scott took Max and his cousins Adam, Bekah and Caleb on a backpacking trip in the Unitas. They got cold and they got eaten by mosquitoes but all in all they had a fun time. Here are some pictures of their trip.

Scott, Caleb, Adam, Max, Bekah, Bret

Max and Caleb making a cairn to mark the trail

Bret cooked up some fish for dinner

Max fishing

I guess that is one way to do it!

Bret said that Max had fun just being in the tent

The second day Caleb fell asleep with a rock as a pillow! He got a strip of sunburn on his back.

Gorgeous views

They found some snow and build a little snow man. They thought that was pretty cool to build a snowman in July.

Maddie's Birthday

2009-07-26T15:04:00.000-07:00

July 11th was Maddie's Birthday, she turned 3 years old! I one hand I can't believe my baby is 3, on the other hand she acts like she is a teenager sometimes. We went to the zoo and then had a birthday party and BBQ with family. She loved the zoo and she loved the presents she got. It was a great day.

4th of July

2009-07-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

We went to Manti for the 4th of July weekend. The Max and Maddie had a lot of fun with their cousins Gracie, Susie and Rosie. They played in the water for hours on Friday afternoon.

On Friday night we went to the parade on Main Street in Manti. The kids were so excited to get candy! This is a picture I took of them waiting for the parade to start. I played around with it on photoshop because I thought it was a cute picture of them together.

Saturday Bret and James were playing with firecrackers. Max thought it was so funny. They were trying to blowup pop cans, potatoes, cherries, anything they could find. We also picked cherries from my Mom's tree and she made cherry cobbler, yum, yum!

Later that night they had tank wars, they used other fireworks to rig their tanks up to see whos would go the farthest.

The Tanks

The Teams:

Andy and Susie

James and Sharee

Bret

Andy and Susie's went the furthest. James' and Bret's had too much fire power and burned through the string before they went anywhere.

This is a little video of Bret's tank.

After the competition we went to watch the firework show. Manti has a great show for a small town. It was a fun weekend.

Pioneer Trek

2009-06-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

Bret and I were blessed to be Ma and Pa to an awesome group of kids on our Stake Pioneer Trek. We were gone 4 days and walked about 30 miles. We missed Max and Maddie a lot but they were well taken care of (Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Nicholson and Jodi and Neil).

This is our family at the beginning of Trek. We had 9 kids and a flour sack baby.

This is the Women's Pull, we had to pull the handcart up a big hill without the boys to help.

We had a great family, our kids were all very positive, didn't complain, got along and had a lot of fun together.

This is a video of our family on the last day, after being drenched several times, doing our family yell.

Good Night, Sleep Tight

2009-06-03T15:15:00.001-07:00

The other night the kids made a "clubhouse" in Max's room. They had a great time playing in it and they wanted to have a sleep over in it. They did eventually fall asleep and I was able to get some pictures of them.

I have mentioned in previous posts that before I go to sleep at night I always look in on my kids. Last night, I opened Maddie's door to find her half way hanging out of her bed. She was sound asleep. Like brother like sister I guess.

I tried to swing her legs around to tuck her in but she woke up and stood up a little disoriented.

I told her to climb back in bed but she was too tired so she layed down right where she was standing.

We had to lift her back up into bed and tuck her in. What a silly girl.

While I am posting pictures of sleeping kids I decided to add this one that I took awhile ago. I went in to check on Max and he was asleep holding a balloon that he had gotten and the store earlier that day.

One more sleep story. Last Sunday morning I went in Maddie's room to wake her up to get ready for church. As soon as she opened her eyes she said, "Hey, Giraffes don't have hair!" then she looked really thoughtful and said, Giraffes don't have hair, that would be silly."
I would love to be able to see the dream she was having when I woke her up.

Kindergarten Graduate

2009-05-30T16:19:00.000-07:00

Max had his Kindergarten Program on Friday. It was so cute watching the kids sing the songs that they had learned throughout the year. He is sad that he has to wait 3 months before he can go back to school again.

Maddie waiting for the program to start

Max with is purple cow hat

There was singing

and dancing!

Max signing his friends yearbook

Max and his teacher Mrs. Stowe

Max and Maddie outside the school

I can't believe my little boy is going to be in First Grade in the Fall!

Memorial Day

2009-05-26T07:30:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we went hiking in West Canyon of the Stansbury Mountains with Ben and Christina's family. It was nice to get out and enjoy the great weather. The kids had a lot of fun exploring. Max and Charlie are great hikers.

Tech-Savvy Kids

2009-05-20T18:26:00.000-07:00

Max: "Mom, I need my microSD card."

Maddie: (While digging something out of her eye) "I have an Eye Pod."

Max: "I'll have to look that up on the Internet."

Maddie: (Pointing to the computer) "Max, that has a mouse in it."

Gotta Love a Bargain

2009-05-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

We love to get a good bargain, that is why we love to go to DI so much. At a recent trip to DI Maddie was so excited to get a princess scooter ($4).

Max got Marbleworks ($4)! I think Bret has had as much fun with them as Max. I have never loaded a video before so I thought I would try this out.

Catching Up

2009-05-06T13:01:00.000-07:00

I am behind on my blogging. We have had a few weeks dealing with losses and sickness that have left me unmotivated to blog. But along side the trials we have had some happy occasions and family fun. I figured I would post the pictures of the last three weeks all together in one post.

The most exciting event was my brother James' wedding. He was married on April 25th to his long time love Sharee. They had a wonderful wedding and we had a great time.

Sharee, James and my Mom

James and Sharee at the reception.

Daddy dancing with his princess.
Maddie loved the dancing, we could not drag here away when it was time for bed.

Max and Maddie dancing.

Here are a few other pictures from the past few weeks.

The new nighttime ritual, a ride from Dad before bed. The kids love it!

One day we found Max up in his closet playing his leapster. Crazy kid.

I went to get Maddie out of the car after returning home from dropping Max off at school and this is what I found. She had pulled her hood up and put her shades on. I had a good laugh.

Spring Break Camping Trip

2009-04-16T11:24:00.000-07:00

Last week we decided to go find some warmth and sunshine. We went camping down by Goblin Valley. The kids were so excited when we told them that we were going camping. Max has a Camelbak that we got him when he was three. He calls it his "water backpack" and it has been great for him to have during hikes. Bret surprised Maddie the night before we went camping with her own pink water backpack. He bought it from the company Ben works for and Ben was nice enough to pick it up and bring it to us. Maddie was so excited!

We left really early Thursday morning hoping that if we got there early we could get a camping spot in Goblin Valley. When we got to the campground was full so Bret took us to a spot he had camped at before. At first I was hesitant to camp without a proper bathroom but it turned out to be a great spot to camp. The kids had a lot of fun climbing around on the sandstone and we had lots of peace and quiet.

On Thursday afternoon we went hiking in Little Wild Horse Canyon. It was a really fun place for the kids to explore and climb around.

On Friday we went to Goblin Valley. Max was having the time of his life climbing on all of the "goblins". We hid Easter eggs for the kids.

We roasted hotdogs for dinner on Friday night. Max said it was the most awesome thing ever to be able to roast his hot dog over the fire!

We found out that it was going to start raining late Friday night and we needed to get cleaned up for my niece's Baptism in Helper on Saturday morning so after dinner we packed up and headed for Price to get a hotel. We had a great time, it was nice to get away and have some family time.

Late One Night ....

2009-04-08T22:26:00.000-07:00

Last night after the kids were in bed I went to Wal-Mart. While I was gone Bret was in the garage unloading firewood. When he came back in the house he noticed that Max's door was open.

He noticed a cup on the floor by the bathroom so he figured Max must have gotten up to get a drink or go to the bathroom. But he wasn't in the bathroom so Bret started searching around. He found Max in our bathroom fast asleep.

Hanging over the tub.

He went and grabbed the camera to take some pictures. When he woke up Max he headed for the sink to wash his hands so we figure he must have used the bathroom then fell asleep.

He started to wash his hands but he was so tired. He fell asleep again.

He finally woke up enough to get back to his room. In this picture he has a look like, "Why in the world are you taking pictures of me!"

Here he is tucked back in bed. What a silly kid!

April Fool's Day

2009-04-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

I think this is Nature's April Fools Joke on us. Today Max had a Spring party at school, kind of weird with a snow storm outside. He said to me, "Mom what if we never get spring!"

Lounging in the Sun

2009-03-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

There is a cat (we don't know who she belongs to) that likes to come around once in awhile and lounge on our back porch. The kids love animals so they love when she comes around. Yesterday the cat was lounging in the sun taking a nap and Maddie decided to join her.

Family Circus

2009-03-18T19:51:00.000-07:00

I decided to redo my blog background today. I am so happy we are having such warm weather and I am ready for spring! I found some pictures that I haven't posted yet and I wanted to share them. Here are some pictures that Bret took one day at dinner. I am constantly telling the kids, "We are having a family dinner NOT a family circus. They have the hardest time staying in their seats and eating their food.

The next few pictures are some I took of Max and Maddie with their cute cousin Avery. She is five months old but they wanted to play with her. They were reading her Where's Waldo books.

Good for a Laugh

2009-03-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

This morning we were walking back home after dropping Max off at school and Maddie pointed to the crosswalk sign and said, "Look Mom, that sign says, the gingerbreads are having a race!" So I looked at the sign and had a good laugh. It is so funny to hear some of the things kids come up with.

Max's Birthday

2009-03-16T08:27:00.000-07:00

Max turned 6 years old on Saturday. He was so excited to finally be 6! We went with my family to the Draper Temple Open House in the morning. It is a beautiful temple and it was fun to show our kids what a temple is like on the inside. Max's favorite part was the chandeliers, they were so big and sparkly. We then came back to our house for a BBQ and had ice cream and cake for Max's birthday.

Big Girl!

2009-03-03T19:44:00.000-08:00

We had a big girl weekend with Maddie. She traded in her binky on Friday morning for a set of Princess Belle dishes and toy food. She was so excited she has played with them for hours everyday so we know she thinks she made a good trade. We also took down her crib and put her in a "big girl bed." She does go to sleep at night fine but she has not had a nap since Friday! I am not sure if it is the absence of the binky or that getting out of bed is easy for her now. I put her down for a nap and she ends of playing with toys instead of sleeping. I hope we can get her back into the nap routine she needs them and so do I! :)

Blast from the Past

2009-02-23T12:58:00.001-08:00

Bret and I were able to talk about our missions last night at a fireside for the youth in our ward. It was great fun preparing. I read my entire mission journal and was reminded of some great experiences I had. We also had a lot of fun looking at old pictures of our missions. For those of you who don't know, Bret and I met while in the same district in the MTC. For those of you that did know here is a pictures of our district... just a little blast from the past.

Silly Girl!

2009-02-17T19:34:00.001-08:00

What can I say.... she is such a silly girl.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-13T12:13:00.000-08:00

I am so grateful this weekend to have a wonderful, caring and loving husband. He gave me these beautiful roses last night.

Valentine's Day is kind of a bitter sweet holiday in my family. My stepdad John passed away 7 years ago on Valentine's Day. Five years ago my neice Maggie was born on February 10th and passed away on February 26th. As I reflect on the loss we have felt I also reflect on the blessings and joy that life can bring. We are going to Manti this weekend to spend time with my Mom. We want her to know that even though her sweetheart is not here she is still loved by so many. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and can reflect on those in your life that you love.

When his daughter Maggie passed away my brother-in-law Andy wrote "Maggie's Message" I decided to post it here because I think it is very fitting for Valentine's Day.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Crazy Clothes Day!

2009-02-09T07:52:00.000-08:00

Last Friday Max was going potty and Maddie went in to the bathroom right after him to go. They had both taken off their pants and left them in the hallway. Max was goofing around and I kept telling him to get his pants on. The last time I asked, he said, "Mom I do have my pants on, see!" I went out in the hall to see and this it what I found.

It took me a little while (partly because he is stubborn but mostly because I was laughing so hard) to convince him that those were not his pants, they were Maddie's pants. When he decided to believe me he gave Maddie her pants and she put them on backwards.

Later that night, Max decided to decorate his pajamas, I went in his room and he was all decked out.

So Maddie decided to join him. When I told her I wanted to take her picture, she climbed in my bed and said, "Cheese!" We have got some crazy kids, but they are so much fun.

Last Weekend

2009-01-29T12:29:00.000-08:00

We had a great time last weekend. We went up and stayed at the condo in Midway with my family. (Thanks Bill and Marsha for letting us use the condo :) We went skiing on Friday (thanks Ben for getting us tickets and thanks Mom for babysitting) with Heather, Ben and Christina, Bret and I. We hadn't been skiing since Bret and I were engaged so it was a lot of fun to go again. I remembered how much fun skiing is, but my legs were burning! I need to be in better shape next time we go. We took our camera but it was really wet and snowy so we didn't take it out for pictures. The kids had fun playing at the condo with their cousins and having Grandma babysit. On Sat we had a birthday party for my niece Susie. We played games at the condo club house and then they had a pinata for the kids.

Maddie loved playing air hockey

I had to include this picture because I see this face on Maddie at least 10 times a day and when I do I know she isn't happy with me.

Castles

2009-01-21T22:48:00.000-08:00

One of our favorite sites to visit when we lived in France were castles. We have been wanting to print some of the pictures we took to put on our wall for a long time and over the holidays we finally did.

It was Bret's idea to do them in Black and White and I think it looks really cool with the frames. Here are the pictures up close that we printed.

Vianden Castle - Luxembourg

Versailles - France

Sion Castle - Switzerland

Nyon Castle - Switzerland

Neuschwanstein - Germany

Malbrouck Castle - France

Chateau d'If - France

Haut-Koeingsburg - France

Cochem Castle - Germany

Chillon Castle - Switzerland

Chenonceau Castle - France

Chambord Castle - France

Berg Eltz - Germany

Vaux Castle - France

Beaufort Castle - Luxembourg

Magnificent Max

2009-01-18T14:46:00.000-08:00

Max is so much fun. He is always doing things that surprise us. Last night, I tucked Max into bed. He was laying on his pillow and under his blankets and then later that night when I went to check on him he was fast asleep in his tent on his bed! I decided to leave him be and this morning when I went in to wake him up, I snapped some pictures. He calls it his tent/bed.

This afternoon Max was playing on the computer. Bret noticed that he was typing and said, "Laura, you have to see this!" So I went and looked and Max was typing a letter to the babies from "Go Baby." I was pretty amazed at what he had typed all by himself. (Notice his hand are in the "home" position on the keyboard!)

He went on to finish after I took the picture. It says. Hi my name is Maxwell. I love to play with you I am 5 in A half years old. Baby your sisters name is Sophie. I tried to explain to him that you say 5 and a half years old but he said, "I say 5 in a half."

A New Year

2009-01-08T10:19:00.000-08:00

Well things are starting to settle down again. Bret is back to work and Max is back to school. There are a few things that have changed with the new year. Bret and have both received new church callings. Our bishop moved away and so we got a new bishopric, Bret was released and called as the Young Men's president. He is really excited about being able to work with the boys in our ward. I was released from primary and called as the 2nd counselor in the Relief Society..... I know, I know many of you are thinking, Laura in Relief Society.... what? That was my first reaction as well only because I think I have been to Relief Society only a few months of the 8 years we have been married. Well so far so good, I am learning a lot and I am really enjoying it.

I also wanted to post a couple funny pics of the kids. Max's favorite thing to do is get all the pillows and blankets he can gather and put them on the couch. The other day Maddie was watching TV and Max started piling blankets and pillows on her. She just sat there and let him pile them on. Here is the end result.

The Holidays

2009-01-05T15:55:00.000-08:00

It has been awhile since my last post. I was enjoying being spending the holidays with my family. Bret had 10 days off work and it was so nice to have "family time."

We kicked off the season with in Manti where we spent the weekend before Christmas with all my siblings and their families, my Mom and Grandma. On Saturday the kids had a great time sledding. Uncle Andy pulled the kids behind the four wheeler.

And then Maddie pulled her Daddy on the sled. I couldn't believe how well she could pull him.

We also went bowling, which was a lot of fun. Max and Maddie both love bowling but Maddie through a many fits because her turn didn't come around soon enough. She wanted to bowl the entire time. I guess taking turns is not a fun concept for a 2 year old.

On Sunday we had a Christmas party and had our traditional Nativity play. Max played Joseph, Maddie was a beautiful angel and I was a reluctant wise man.

Christmas Eve we went to Bret's parents house for dinner and had a great time. Christmas was a wonderful day for us. We were so grateful to be in our own house this year. We spend the day opening presents and watching the kids play with their new toys. Bret was very excited about his new down sleeping bag that I (with a lot of help from my brother Ben) got him as a surprise.

The weekend after Christmas we went up to Bret's parents condo and had fun playing games and visiting with them. Max and Maddie had fun in the bubble bath.

The 29th we celebrated our anniversary. It has been 8 wonderful years. I am so grateful for Bret, he is the best husband and father in the world.

I hope that you all had a great holiday season and I wish you a Happy New Year!

Family Pictures

2008-12-17T13:51:00.001-08:00

We were so excited to finally get family pictures. I wanted to share a few of our favorites.

We got some taken of just Maddie because Max got school pictures and we didn't have any portraits of Maddie.

Christmas is Coming!

2008-12-11T21:42:00.000-08:00

My kids are so excited for Christmas this year. Maddie has been decorating and redecorating the bottom part of our Christmas tree everyday. Both of the kids love to see the Christmas lights on people's houses and they both love, love, love the snow. They were so excited to get some snow this week. Here is a picture I took today of Maddie in her snow suit. It is so puffy that she has to waddle around, it is so cute.

We had our Ward Christmas party tonight. I am on the activities committee so I was serving food and stuff while Bret got to take care of the kids. Maddie was not making it easy for him. She would not stay put in one place. He got some cute pictures of her though.

The highlight for the evening for the kids was that Santa and Mrs. Clause were there. They go to sit on Santa's lap and they got a candy cane from Mrs. Clause.

Funny Maddie!

2008-12-06T19:48:00.000-08:00

It has been awhile since I posted last. We had a crazy busy week this week. I wanted to post this funny picture of Maddie but first I have to explain it a little. We had an appointment scheduled last night to get a family portrait from Max's school for a PTA fundraiser. They had a professional photographer come and for $10 you get a family picture taken and a 10 x 13. With the option to buy more pictures. I was so excited to finally get a new family picture because we haven't got one since Maddie was born. So we got all ready and went. The pictures they took were bad. There wasn't one picture where we were all looking at the camera with our eyes open.When we saw the pictures we asked if we could take more, they tried again with not success. The photographer didn't seem to care that he didn't get a good picture of us. So we came home and I started calling portrait studios. I found a coupon for JC Penny and called them. They couldn't fit us in last night so we went this morning. We got some really cute pictures that I will post when we get them in a week or so. Last night while I was trying to get us an appt while the kids were still in thier picture clothes. Maddie came out of Max's room dressed like this and said, "I'm Thomas the Train!"

She is so funny!

Our Week with William

2008-11-24T15:22:00.000-08:00

We took William home last night and both of the kids have asked about him today. We had a great time with him last week. He played so cute with the kids. As those of you who know William know he does not usually like to get his picture taken but I did manage to snap a few shots of him playing with the kids.

William with baby Andy

William playing was playing with Maddie but hid when he saw the camera.

He read Maddie a lot of stories!

Max and William spent hours and hours playing with the train tracks and hot wheel tracks in the basement.

Just for Fun

2008-11-13T12:09:00.001-08:00

Today is a pretty warm day for November. The kids were enjoying playing outside. Maddie loves to swing and Max loves to ride his scooter. He had a pretty bad crash on his scooter a couple weeks ago and I thought he might not want to ride it again, but it didn't seem to phase him at all.

This is the kids swinging with their cousin Charlie, who spends 2 days a week with us.

I also wanted to add this picture from last weekend. Max and Maddie were so excited to have their newest cousin, little Avery come for a visit. Max really loves babies, sometimes too much. He was so happy to be able to hold her....she looks a little nervous though. :)

Fun in the Leaves

2008-11-10T14:16:00.000-08:00

I found these pictures in our album and realized that I forgot to post them. They are from the day after Halloween. We were in Manti and Max and his cousins (Gracie, Susie and Charlie) decided to rake all the leaves into a big pile and then jump in it. They had a great time.

I love these pictures because they remind me of how much fun it is to be a kid. Even something as simple as playing in leaves brings so much joy.

Welcome to our New Blog

2008-11-08T14:37:00.000-08:00

We have decided to move our blog from bretnlaura.com to blogspot. We are glad you found us. Please let us know if you have a blog that we can visit.

First Place Photo

2008-11-05T20:21:00.001-08:00

Bret (psst... he doesn't know I am posting this :-)) won first place in a photo contest at work with this picture that he took in his parents backyard a couple weeks ago.

I thought it turned out really cool so I decided to share.

Neuschanstein

2008-11-04T21:15:00.000-08:00

We are back! We just got back from a really fun trip. We saw so much that I decided to write about our trip in increments. The first day we drove to Munich, Germany. This is the southeast area of Germany known as Bavaria. On Saturday we went to Hohenschwangua Castle and Neuschwanstein Castle.

Hohenschwangua Castle was a castle is where King Ludwig spent his summer as a child, then on the next hill over he built Neuschanstein Castle. To get to the castle it was a big hike up a hill. The castle is huge and very beautiful.

To see more pictures click here.

On Sunday we went to the English ward in Munich. It was so different to go to church in English again. They had a large primary and it was Max's first time every going to primary in English and he loved it.

Happy Halloween

2008-11-02T19:25:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Halloween this year. Maddie was a pretty princess and Max was Thomas the Train. The kids were so excited because they got to get all dressed up twice. Last Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa had a Halloween party at their house. Everyone wore costumes, we ate soup and played games. We had a great time.

For Halloween we went to Manti for Trunk or Treat. In Manti, they block off Main Street and everyone comes with their cars and passes out candy from the trunks. The kids had so much time playing with their cousins and collecting lots and lots of candy!

School Pictures

2008-10-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

Max got his pictures back today so I thought I would share them. I think they turned out very cute. He really loves school. Starting tomorrow, I am going to be helping out in his class once a week, I am excited to go and be there with him to see what his Kindergarten world is like.

Snow in October!

2008-10-11T14:34:00.000-07:00

We looked out the window this morning to find snow! Max and Maddie were so excited. They couldn't wait to get out there and play in it. As soon as Maddie saw the snow she ran to get her coat. The kids had a great time, playing in the snow. Maddie thought it tasted pretty yummy and despite both Bret and I telling her not to eat snow she would sneak a bite whenever she could.

Bret and Max decided they wanted to build a snow man before all the snow melted.

We had a lot of fun rounding up things to decorate our snow man. I think he turned out pretty good.

We are really glad we build him when we did because now it is mid afternoon and all the snow is melted, but our snow man is still standing :).

Recipes

2008-10-06T19:10:00.000-07:00

Last week, I participated in a recipe collaboration. It was put together by a very talented scrapbook designer named Pamela (digitreats). She made a 4 x 6 recipe template card and asked for people to use her scrapbooking kits to design recipe cards with some of their favorite recipes, then she put them all on her website to download. You can have them printed like you would a 4x6 photo, then put them in a brag book or photo album and voila, you have a new recipe book. She is allowing them to be given away as gifts or sold for charity (but not on the internet). Click here and scroll down to the bottom of the post to download, there are 8 downloads. You can pass these along to others but do not email them, refer them to her site to download them. I contributed these 5 recipes:

So, go download, and enjoy. I looked through them and while I won't print all 328 of them, there are some really good recipes in there.

Happy Birthday Bret!

2008-09-23T10:33:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was Bret's birthday, he turned 29 years old and the Cougars helped him celebrate by beating Wyoming 44-0! Grandma Anita and Gracie were in town for the weekend and Ben and Christina came over and we had ice cream and cake. The kids put the candles on the cake so they were a little crooked but he managed to blow them out :).

Last week Bret went to Palm Beach, Florida for 3 days on a business trip. During his down time he was able to spend some time on the beach and do some snorkeling. Because of all the tropical storms they have been having the water was pretty stirred up and not as clear as usual, but he had a great time.

On Thursday night we were talking on the phone as he was walking on the beach. While we were talking, he saw a huge sea turtle come out of the ocean and crawl up the beach. He ran up to his room to get his camera so he could get some pictures. The turtle walked up the beach and found a place to lay her eggs. The first picture is the turtle digging down into the sand and the second is turtle's trail back to the sea the next morning.

Wii Weekend

2008-09-03T09:38:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went up to Bret's parents condo in Midway. It was great to go and spend time with Jodi and Neil and Grandma and Grandpa Nicholson. Max was so excited to play the Wii. He played it a lot while we were there. As I am sure I have mentioned in several blogs, Maddie loves to do anything her big brother does, she is becoming quite the little copy cat. She had a great time playing the Wii with her brother (even though she wasn't really playing, she didn't know that ;-)!) Here are a couple pics Bret took of the kids playing in their PJ's.

P.S. I decorated a couple more blogs if you want to check them out. I re-did Joni's and then I decorated the Codella's blog.

First Day of School

2008-08-29T13:40:00.000-07:00

Max started school on Tuesday. He was so excited! He had a rough day the first day, he always kind of struggles with new things. But the other days he has had a lot of fun. He loves his teacher Mrs. Stowe. She is great and has been very understanding and willing to work with Max. She put him in a class with another child that can read and they are going to start a reading group so that they can work on their reading level while the other kids are learning the basics. Today he sat down with me at lunch and told me all about what he does at school. His favorite thing to do is the art projects. Here is a picture from his first day. He is also sporting his new glasses. Lately I can't get him to smile with out scrunching up his face .

The band aid is covering a sore on his head that started as a mosquito bite but he kept picking at it.

The Boys Backpacking Trip

2008-08-27T22:31:00.000-07:00

Bret and Max went on a backpacking trip this past weekend in the High Unitas with Ben, Charlie and James. They had a great time. They left early Fri morning and came home on Sat night.

When I asked Max what his favorite part of the trip was he said it was hiking because he got to wear his "water backpack." When I asked him what his second favorite thing was he said sleeping in a tent.

Bret said that his favorite part of the trip was when he was fishing and Max was sitting on a rock near by. Max called Bret over to come and sit by him. He said, "Dad, this is a really great place." Then he told Bret how much he loved being there with his Dad. Bret is so glad that Max shares his love of the Uintas.

While they were hiking they passed some pack Llamas and as they passed one of them almost got Max.

They had a great time and I am sure that this is going to become a yearly tradition.

They Grow Up So Fast

2008-08-15T14:36:00.000-07:00

It sounds like a cliche to say that but sometimes it just catches you by surprise how grown up your kids have gotten. I have a nightly ritual to look in on my kids before I go to bed. They always look so sweet when they are sleeping and I love watching them sleep for a few moments each night. Last night when I peeked in on Maddie she looked so grown up. I couldn't believe how big our baby was getting. She looked so cute all snuggled up to her pillow so I called Bret in to come and look at her and we decided to snap a picture.

While I am on the subject of Maddie, I want to post a couple pictures I was going to put up last week. A few entries back I showed some pictures of things Max had made with Lego Duplos, one of which was a rhinoceros which has become one of Maddie's favorite animals. Last week Maddie was downstairs playing and she came up with a Lego creation she had built and said, "Look, I made a rhinoceros!" It was so funny, she is always trying to be like her brother and do the things he does. Here are some pictures of her AWESOME rhino made out of Legos.

Lagoon Day

2008-08-08T12:32:00.000-07:00

Bret's work had a Lagoon Day this past Friday. We took William with us and our nephew Charlie (Ben and Christina's son). It has been a several years since we have been to Lagoon. We had a lot of fun. Max, Charlie and Maddie loved the rides. I was surprised that none of them was afraid of any of the rides at all. When we first pulled into Lagoon William started crying because he was so excited and Max saw all the roller coasters and said, "I want to ride that one and that one and that one." He is too small for the roller coasters but there were a lot of kids rides. I was surprised at how many there were that Maddie could ride on. Her favorite was probably the carousel she was so excited that she got to ride on a kitty cat.

Max and Charlie were just tall enough to ride the Bat so they went with Bret and William and they loved it.

They also loved the Dinosaur Drop and the Lady Bug Loft a new kid ride that is like the rocket only a lot smaller.

They also had a lot of fun on the log ride.

I went on the Wicked ride with William. Neither of us had been on it yet and we were both pretty nervous to go. While we were waiting in line William kept saying "They say that sometimes wicked is good." It was a pretty crazy ride, I thought I was going to fall out of my chair. About half way through the ride William started covering his face with his hands and crying. But when the ride stopped he uncovered his face, sighed and said, "I think we need to try that again now that I know what to expect." So we tried it again and it was better the second time. We had a great day and the kids got nice and warn out and they have talked about it every day since so I am sure we will be going back next year. Max is hoping he will grow 6 inches so that he can go on some roller coasters.

Max the Builder

2008-07-31T20:23:00.000-07:00

Last night Max was in his room playing with his Lego Duplos. After a while he came to me and told me that he had built a rhinoceros so I told him to take Maddie in to see it. Much to my surprise she came out holding a rhinoceros made of Lego Duplos! I was shocked that Max could make something like that so I asked him how he did it. He said he looked at the box. So I went his his room and on the box that holds the Legos there are pictures. He had followed the picture exactly, all by himself! He had also made a boy that was on the picture and then he said he was going to try to make a boat that was on a picture on the another side of the box. Bret came home when Max was building the boat and snapped a couple pictures of the things Max made and the pictures on the box.

Max also likes to build other things. He loves to set up dominoes and then knock them down. Sometimes his designs get pretty elaborate. Here is a picture I took of one he did yesterday afternoon.

He also loves to build what he calls "sets" with his wooden train tracks. He gets pretty creative and has started using 2X4's to make hills for his tracks. Here is his latest "set".

Pioneer Day

2008-07-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

Tooele has a Children's Parade for Pioneer Day. All of the ward Primaries make a float for the parade. I was surprised at how big it turned out to be. Max and I rode together in the float for our ward. Bret and Maddie watched with Ben and Christina and baby Andy. Here are a few pictures.

Audra's little scraps is giving away a cute Pioneer digital scrapbooking kit for scrapping your Pioneer Day pictures. She does some really cute free LDS themed kits.

Decorating Blogs

2008-07-27T15:04:00.000-07:00

As many of you know I have been doing digital scrapbooking for about a year now. I enjoy is so much more than paper scrapping. Anyway, lately I have been using some of my digiscrapping skills to decorate blogs. Here links to a few I have done.

Heather

Joni

Emily

One of these days I am going to figure out how to make this blog a little more colorful! It is more complicated because it isn't a blogspot blog. Anyway, if any of you want me to decorate your blog let me know, I love doing it.

Happy Birthday Maddie

2008-07-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

Maddie turned two on Friday! We had a BBQ to celebrate. I made cupcakes in ice cream cones earlier that morning and Maddie was wanting to eat one all day. At her party when she got to eat one she bit into it then she broke it in half, she was looking for the ice cream and was disappointed to find only cake inside the cone . So we got her a real ice cream cone. Here are a few pictures from the BBQ.

On Saturday we went to the zoo. Maddie loves animals and she was so excited to see all the different animals. Her favorite animal at the zoo was the rhinoceros! We visited them three times because she kept talking about them. The last time we saw them there was a man that came up with his daughter and he said to his daughter, "Look at the hippos." Maddie turned to him and said "Rhinoceros!" It was pretty funny. Another highlight for her was the carousel! She loved it. She is still telling us she wants to ride the penguin.

4th of July Weekend

2008-07-08T16:16:00.000-07:00

We had a really long 4th of July weekend. We left Tuesday night and stopped in Manti for the night. Wed morning we got up and drove down to Calf Creek Falls Campground in the Escalante National Monument area. We hiked that day to Calf Creek Falls, it was a long (about 3 miles each way) hike and it got very hot so we had to make a lot of stops a long the way. But the kids had fun playing on the rocks. When we got to the falls, they were beautiful! The kids were itching and ready to go swimming! The water was really cold but that didn't seem to bother them. I didn't get a picture of it but at one point Bret went running and diving into falls yelling, "Wahooo!!!" When he got out he looked around and said, "Oh, I guess we aren't the only ones here." It was pretty funny. Here are some pictures of the hike. The first one is looking down into the canyon that we hiked through.

On Thursday we took a "side road" from our camp into Capitol Reef National Park. There was some beautiful scenery on the drive but it got pretty bumpy at times. At one point there were some cows on the road and they were running from our truck but they would not move out of the road so we could pass them. Maddie thought it was pretty entertaining.

We met up with my Mom, my sister Heather and her girls at Capitol Reef. We went for a hike through The Grand Wash. The kids had fun climbing on the walls and exploring the holes in the sand stone.

We then went and had lunch in the park. There were deer everywhere and they weren't afraid of the people at all. Maddie loves animals and we couldn't get her to sit and eat, she wanted to go follow the deer around. There was also a really cool old tree with branches that hung down and twisted around everywhere.

We then went to another water fall, to cool off from the heat. Both mine and Heather's kids love swimming so the kids had a fun time. There were people diving off the rocks near the waterfall. The first picture you can see Bret as he is starting to jump off. On the left side you can see my neice Gracie. After Bret jumped Gracie jumped. I couldn't believe she did it! Bret said she was less afraid then he was. After they jumped Max found a smaller rock to jump from .

We then headed back to Manti to spend the rest of the weekend. We had a great time spending time with family. The kids had fun lighting sparklers and watching the fireworks.

It is Hot!

2008-06-27T18:11:00.000-07:00

My kids are having fun cooling off from the heat by playing in the water. Last summer we were in France and they had an unusually cool summer. It was in the 60's - 70's most of the time. Which was nice, but it is also fun for the kids to be able to swim and run through the sprinklers. They ask every day to play in the water. Maddie is always taking her clothes off and trying to put her swimming suit on.

Just Keep Swimming

2008-06-21T18:16:00.000-07:00

We have been spending a lot of time at the Tooele swimming pool this past week. Max is taking swimming lessons. He loves, loves, loves to swim. He used to be afraid of the water but now he has no fear and that scares me a little. We went swimming all together as a family after his lesson on tuesday and we had to keep a very close eye on Max. He is still learning to swim but loves to venture off to the deeper more exciting parts of the pool. Bret had a lot of fun trying out the new underwater camera case he got for Father's Day. It worked pretty good. Max was loving having his picture taken under water.

Two Front Teeth

2008-06-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

Max finally lost his second tooth. That little bugger was loose for weeks, but it kept hanging on. Max was so excited to discover the new hole between his teeth. He found out that it was great for squirting water!

It is crazy for me that our son is old enough to be loosing his teeth.

Were We've Been

2008-06-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

I saw this on someone's blog and thought it was kind of cool. I checked all the places that Bret and I have been together since we have been married. We love to travel and see new places, hopefully we can get to some of these states we have never been to.

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Because of the year spent in France we were able to see several countries in Europe. We still have pictures up in our photo album if you are curious about any of these places. We really came to love the culture and beauty of Europe while we were there and while we are glad to be home we still miss it a lot.

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Fun at Bedtime

2008-06-08T23:00:00.000-07:00

I love my family! As we were getting the kids ready for bed tonight Bret started playing airplane with the kids on our bed. That turned into a pillow fight which turned into the kids both piling on their Dad. It was so cute and they were having so much fun I had to snap some pictures. It warms my heart to watch the Bret playing with the kids. After they had played for awhile Maddie went and got a stuffed animal and was giving it an airplane ride. It was really funny.

Heber Valley Camp

2008-06-02T15:19:00.000-07:00

We had a Cook/Geloff family reunion this weekend up at the Heber Valley Camp. It was so much fun. It was good to spend time with family. The kids had a lot of fun playing with cousins. Max loved riding in the boats and drinking out of his water back pack. Maddie's loved watching the chipmunks, looking for ants, and playing in the sand. We had great weather and great food. We roasted marshmallows, rode boats on the lake and played games. We took so many pictures; it was hard to pick out just a few for this post.

Maddie sitting with her cousins Susie, Marissa and Shannon.

The kids playing games.

Roasting Marshmallows

Marissa and Shannon in their bunks

My Dad, Gayle, Susie and Marissa

My Mom, Becky, Shaelie and Shannon

Max learning how to paddle a canoe.

Bret taught everyone how to play Pétanque (a french game similar to bocce)

Bret, My Dad and Ben

My Dad and James

The Camp has a ropes course that was a lot of fun for the kids.

James referred to himself as the white ninja

Bret swinging, aiming for the circle

Brave little Susie going down the zip line

A Day Out With Thomas

2008-05-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we went to A Day Out with Thomas at the Heber Valley Railroad in Heber City. The kids had a lot of fun. Maddie was more excited to see Thomas than Max was. She was riding on the train talking to everything we went by. "Hi, cows.....Bye, cows see ya later!", "Hi river.....bye river, see ya later" etc. It was really cute.

Max's favorite part was being able to play with all the engines and tracks in the discovery zone.

We got to see Thomas close up and Sir Topham Hat from a distance (we didn't want to wait in line)

It was a cold day for May but the kids had a lot of fun. They love Thomas!

When we left we decided to take the back way to see if we could see Thomas out on the tracks. As we got to a railroad crossing we looked over and he was right there. Bret hopped out to get a picture. The kids were so excited to see him cross right in front of our car.

New Swing Set

2008-05-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

We bought a swing set a few weeks ago. I got pictures of it being put together put I never got one of the finished set. So yesterday I got some when I was trying out the new camera and I wanted to post them all together. The kids love to play outside and we thought it would be fun for them to have a swing set. They love it, the only problem with it is getting them to come inside. They also had a lot of fun "helping" put it together.

Maddie was having fun checking out the tools

Dad, Max and Maddie sitting on the box of lumber

Bret putting the ladder together

Max did a good job hooking the swings up and sorting hardware for Dad

The finished swing set!

Sold a Tooth, Bought a Camera

2008-05-16T17:59:00.000-07:00

I can't believe our little boy is old enough to start losing his baby teeth. We discovered it was loose when he came upstairs one day and said, " I think I need a new tooth." When we asked him why he said, "This tooth is wobbly, I need a tooth that will hold still." A few days later the tooth fell out. We told him he needed to put it under his pillow and the tooth fairy would come when he was asleep and take his tooth and give him money. The next morning when he found the money, we asked him wear he got it and all he would say was that he knew where he got it. When we told him it was the tooth fairy he said that it wasn't. I think that he knew it was from us but he didn't want to tell us that he knew it was us because he was trying to humor us. We couldn't convince him that the money was from the tooth fairy.

We got our new camera today! I am very excited to have a camera again.

Hiking Trip

2008-05-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

OK. I am seriously behind on my blogging. When I do have had time to sit down at my computer I have been scrapbooking. I found some pictures from 2003 and 2004 that got put in the wrong folder and didn't get scrapped. I want to get them done so that I can get some albums printed. Another reason for the lull in blogging is that I have been without a camera.

Bret, my brother Ben, and one of his friends, went on a little trip the first week in May. They spend the weekend hiking in the San Rafael Swell in Southern Utah. On Saturday, they found a great spot for a picture and Bret set our camera up on a rock so they could take a group shot. Well, some how the camera ended up tumbling down the canyon . Bret was able to retrieve the camera and tried fixing it but it was a lost cause. The good news is that they had a great time and the camera incident was at the end of the trip so he got some great pictures. Our new camera has been ordered and shipped and we can't wait to get it .

Hello?

2008-04-30T18:19:00.000-07:00

Maddie is growing up fast, she is developing the funniest personality, she is constantly doing silly things that make us laugh. The other night at dinner she took one of her apple wedges, put it up to her ear like a telephone and said, "Hello!....umm......ya.....ok......yuv you too.......bye." I thought it was so cute I had to run and grab the camera.

Once Max saw how funny we thought it was he decided he would play along and pretend like he was talking to Maddie on the phone.

2008-04-22T18:25:00.000-07:00

I thought this would be fun to try. The look-alike meter tells you which parent your child looks more like. We all know Max looks more like his Dad .

With Maddie we have gotten mixed opinions, some say she looks like me, some say she looks like Bret, apparently she is an exact mix of us both.

Beautiful Day!

2008-04-18T18:27:00.000-07:00

We have been having some great weather the last couple of days. The kids are really enjoying being able to get outside and play they have been spending a lot of time in the backyard. Today was windy but nice and warm.

Life has been good to us and we feel very blessed. Bret loves his job and we are really enjoying living in Tooele. It is good to be back in Utah and close to family again. In fact, my brother Ben and his family just moved to Tooele this weekend. We are so excited to have them live close by. We are still settling in and getting to know people in our neighborhood and ward. Our ward is really big, with lots of kids. There are 25 kids Max's age in our ward! I was just called to teach the Valiant 9 class and I am really glad to be able to serve in the primary again. About a month ago Bret was called to be the 2nd counselor in the bishopric. This came to a huge surprise to us, since we just moved in. It will be a challenge but also a blessing for our family.