Valley of Fire State Park

So my parents were in town last weekend so we decided to do something fun and we drove out to Valley of Fire it is only about 1 hour from our house. We all had a great time.

There are all kinds of really cool rock formations. The boys had a blast climbing all over these. And there were lots of petroglyphs(sp?) on the rocks. They were right next to the trail too so we got to see them up close pretty well!

Plenty of dirt for little boys to play in.

Lots and lots of "caves"!

And the boys love Grandma and Grandpa!

Especially Grandpa as he had them WAY off the trail, apparently that is where all of the cool stuff is at!

But my favorite part was Brayden on the trail. He was Mister friendly saying hi to everyone even giving people high fives along the way. It was pretty funny! He also didn't like being left out, any time he would see Matthew and Grandpa up on a rock (or anywhere) he would scream, "Me me me" Apparently he thinks he is a big kid now!

PS Nate isn't in any of the pictures because he wasn't there! He was on a scout camp out and bummed that he got left out, oh well next time :)

New Years in Idaho

We had a nice trip to Idaho. Here are some highlights:

We went to the Museum of Idaho. The kids had a great time the in kid section and it was the only time that I took the kids out of the house! (They were having too much fun playing with cousins and toys!)

Brayden made good friends with Grandpa, getting rides in the box and sharing ice cream.

Brayden and his cousin Tanner played with Attack Uno. It was really funny to watch. They just kept pushing the button and when the cards came flying out they would laugh and laugh like it was the funniest thing they had ever seen.

Cousins!

And of course playing with the Wii!

On our drive home we stopped in Provo to see BYU play Wake Forest. BYU lost but we had a good time. We went to find our seats and sitting right behind us was a family from our ward in Billings. It was fun for me to sit and visit!

Happy Anniversary!

So we celebrated 6 years of marriage on the 27th of December! Time sure does fly! To celebrate we took the boys to Sea World! We had year passes that expired on the 31st so we thought we would use them one last time. We left on the 26 and came home on the 27. It was a fast trip but lots of fun fun fun!

Sea World just opened up a new kids area called Sesame Street's Bay of Play with all kinds of rides perfect for our boys. They had a blast on the kiddy rides and the giant jungle gym area.

People often ask me when Matthew is starting kindergarten because he is so tall (he is wearing some 5T shirts). Sometimes it is hard to remember that is only 3 when he is as tall as our 6 year old neighbor. But it worked to his advantage at Sea World. He was tall enough to go on all of the roller coasters! I was a little nervous that he would get scared but he had a blast and didn't want to get off!

First he went with Nate and then he went with me (there were hardly any lines, it was great!). There is a part when you go into the dark and I was a little nervous...for Matthew that is :o) And he told me, "Mom first we go up,up, up and then down, down, down. It so fun!"

I think that he is ready for Disneyland!

It was a very fast trip but we had a great time!

On Saturday before we jumped in the car for our 8+ hour trip home (there was a wreck on the freeway and we sat in traffic for 2 hours it was awful oh and Matthew threw up so we had to stop and clean that up, it was a fun drive) we had to stop at the beach because we are suckers for the beach, OK when I say we I mean me! :)

We got home just in time to wash some clothes and re-pack to leave on Sunday for our trip to Idaho (I think we are done with driving for a while!!)

One more Christmas Story

The Monday night before Christmas we were having family night. I always give my primary lesson which works out great! So we were talking about the birth of the Savior. At the end of the lesson we were talking about gifts that we could give Jesus since we are celebrating His birthday. Matthew hadn't really taken a nap that day so he was really cranky and didn't appreciate me asking him questions. So I was trying to help him. I was suggesting that we could be nice to others and Jesus might think that would be a good gift. Then I was trying to get more specific and I suggested that maybe we should be nice to Brayden and share our toys. So I said, "Matthew, do you think that is a good idea?" And before Matthew could answer Brayden (who up until this point had been running in circles around the room) came around the couch and shouted, "YEAH!!!"

Really Long Christmas Post!

Sorry this post is so long but I haven't had much computer time but I can't use that excuse any more...Nate got me a laptop for Christmas! It was way out of the budget we agreed on but he said it is for my B-day, anniversary and any other holiday that is coming up! I am excited and trying to break it in! (I am kind of computer illiterate so it may take a while!)

So Christmas really started on December 17th! The day it snowed at our house in Henderson! Here are a lot of pictures (I know not exciting for you all who live where it snows but very exciting for us who endured 115 degree heat all summer).

Not too bad a little accumulation!

Even better, we could make a few good snowballs with this stuff!

Holy sweetness! I feel like we are back in Montana now!

This is Matthew's lawn mower, he was pretty upset that it had snow all over it! He cleaned it off multiple times!

Our house!

Sledding at our park and in front of our house. All of the neighbors were out and we had a great time just pulling each other up and down the street.

It was a great day! I couldn't help but smile all day. We put on Christmas music and made Christmas cookies. It was wonderful! Call me crazy but I miss the snow!

Brayden is our cookie dough tester. I go through about 5-6 spatulas for just one batch because every time I turn around Brayden has a spatula in his mouth, one time it only had butter on it. Yuck! Although he thought it was great!

Santa came to our house and both Matthew and Brayden were on his list. Matthew was excited but Brayden was a little scared. The missionaries came too and gave us a little spiritual message too.

These are from Christmas morning. Matthew got a train which he has been attached to ever since. We went over to my cousin's house for Christmas dinner and after about 2 hours or so Matthew came up to Nate and told him that we needed to go home because he missed his train and his train missed him too. Brayden loves his dump truck and drives it all over the house!

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Way behind

Here are some random pictures from Thanksgiving (I know it is almost Christmas but I haven't had a lot of computer time and our computer is being really slow so it is hard to be motivated to sit and wait for pictures to be uploaded, I know I am lazy)

It was my sister's birthday and she got a lamb cake. I know it looks a little funny but my Grandma Gooch used to make these for all of our birthdays so it was fun to have it!


Brayden in my parent's little red wagon. He loved it we could hardly keep him out!



Having fun with cousins.

Having fun with Grandpa and his cool truck!

We also had a wonderful Gooch family reunion. It was way fun! And we haven't had an official Gooch reunion since before I was born! It was fun to see everyone together and let the kids play!

Also, Nate and I ran another 10k. I beat my last time by about 5 minutes or so. So I was happy. Of course I don't have a picture, again. Oh well, I really did run it even if I don't have proof!

Lots of other cool things have happened like; playing in the snow, making cookies and a surprise visit from Santa but I will have to post about that later. I am tired and going to bed!

Twilight, sleeping and Christmas Trees

A little update of what has been going on in our life:

Had a wonderful girls night out to go and see the movie Twilight. It was fun to eat dinner and chat and to be excited like teenagers for a movie :o) Nate was wonderful and didn't complain. The boys were in fed and in bed by the time I got home, it was great.

The movie was ok, the book was much better (as usual). It was still entertaining. And I have found that my criteria for a good movie has changed. If it doesn't have any sex, swearing, and can keep me awake it is classified as a good movie!

Our group!

Lately Matthew has been fighting us on nap time. So on Sunday I didn't make him take one (we have 1pm church and it is hard to get him down at 11am). He seriously fell asleep mid sentence. He was telling me that he wasn't tired :o)

This year we are headed to AZ for Thanksgiving, so we decided to get a head start on our Christmas decorations. So for Family Home Evening we set up the tree. The boys already broke 4 ornaments and I lost count how many times Matthew has rearranged the ornaments!