Luke David Nicholson

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

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

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

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.