Vacation to St George

I am so completely behind on blogging, but I'll try to catch up on the last couple month the best I can...mainly for the sake of keeping a record of our lives.

Over Adam's birthday weekend in August, we drove to St George to visit my dad and say goodbye to the house I lived in during high school. Dad and Tanya are planning to move to Washington within the next year, so we decided this was the perfect time to visit.

Despite a harrowing night in our hotel in Grand Junction with a 2 year old who WOULD NOT sleep because he was scared of the "monsters," our trip turned out great and very relaxing. We went hiking, played at splash parks, swam in the river, visited the temple, played games, and overall just enjoyed being together and getting to know Tanya and her kids a little better. Max loved getting up every morning to go feed the chickens, and still to this day talks about Papa and the tractor. He and Frankie loved playing in the non-heated hot tub during the day, and chasing each around.

Overall a successful trip! Thanks Dad and Tanya for the wonderful memories, we love you guys!

Max's 2 yr birthday

How is this little boy of mine, just born yesterday it seems, already two years old?!
We love him to pieces.
A little update on him before I post pictures:

Max is very spunky, energetic, stubborn, and tender-hearted. One minute he'll be crying hysterically over losing a toy or shoe in the car; a minute later he's blowing kisses and saying "sorry" for the major tantrum he just threw. It makes it hard to stay mad at him when he's done something naughty because he acts so sweet afterward.
Max LOVES nursery and talks about it all the time. He's not saying full sentences, but loves to point out things he's learned in nursery, like pictures of Jesus, temples, church, etc. He loves to dance and wants us to play the "lala" song by Shakira a hundred times a day it seems. Right now, bedtime and naptime routines consist of only two books--we always either read "Vroom" or "Where the Wild Things Are." He won't let us read him anything else! His favorite movie currently is Monster's Inc, which we pretty much watch once every day. "No mons-toes?" he asks all the time, making sure that monsters aren't really there to scare him.

Time has flown by so quickly. We love you so much Max, we are so grateful you are part of our family, bring us joy, and make us laugh with your pranks every day!


This year for his birthday, we basically just had dinner and cupcakes with Grandma and Grandpa Hall, opened presents, and went to the Lollipop park. Nothing too fancy, but we still made it a wonderful day for him.

May: San Diego trip and Mother's Day

In the beginning of May, we made the annual trek to meet up with family in San Diego. Except this time, it was all new family for me! I admit I was really worried about us gathering with Tanya's family under one roof, but it turns out her kids are super sweet. We ended up having a great time!
 We spent a day at Balboa park, where we pretty much just sweat and looked for ice cream. We stayed in a really nice, spacious town home that was just uphill from the beach. We spent the majority of our time soaking up the sun at the beach and freezing our buns off in the ocean. We also did a family bike ride, although most of us young moms stayed behind to watch the kiddos. Our last night there, we wanted to get some good Mexican food in Old Town since it was Cinco de Mayo, but couldn't find any decent parking whatsoever, so we ended up walking around downtown San Diego until 9 pm to get dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. It actually ended up being a fun, crazy night, but we (especially Max) were completely exhausted when we got home the next day. Kudos and much thanks to Dad and Tanya for the fun weekend! Oh, and of course, we were forgetful and only took a few pictures...

Max LOVED being with Uncle Spencer

Max and Frankie at Hard Rock Cafe

For Mother's Day this year, Adam did breakfast in bed for me, and had bought me a beautiful sweet smelling candle (I LOVE candles!).

 And then, lucky us, I got a present from mother nature as well!

Seriously was not too happy about the snow. Especially after we had just paid nearly $500 to get our frozen pipes fixed...but all turned out just fine!

Easter 2014

Similar to last year, we had a low key, relaxing Easter at home. We attended a very spiritual sacrament meeting, and also watched a wonderful new LDS Easter video that, of course, left me in tears. :) After church, we did a mini Easter egg hunt for Max at the little park near our house. Max also received a special candy basket from Papa and Grandma T, so he was thrilled with the all his treats and new toys, and was completely hyped up on candy. That night we ate cheesy potatoes, roast, rolls, and lemon raspberry cake. I went all out this year!
We only took a few random photos of the day, as well as some video of Max's egg hunt, but that is just way too long to post.

Hasn't quite grasped the concept of posing and smiling for pics yet...

My handsome boys

"Bubbles!"

Playing Catch-up: Spring 2014

The last four months have gone by so fast, but I will try my best to catch up since this is my only form of documenting our lives.
On March 2nd, Eva Lynn Nicoli was born!

My sister Marni had lost a previous baby girl that was born at only 24 weeks gestation back in 2012, so we were elated that Eva was healthy and born full-term to Marni and Emilio. We are so happy for them, and just love Eva to pieces!

At the beginning of April, we drove to Salt Lake to meet Eva and spend some time with Marni. We had a blast spending time with cousins, staying with my uncle and aunt who had a plethora of toy cars for Max (he was in heaven there), visiting the Dinosaur museum, and of course, snuggling with Eva. My aunt Leona even arranged a nice family home evening and dinner with all her kids and grandkids--it was wonderful seeing all my cousins again and seeing Max play with their children. Here are some pictures of our time in Salt Lake...

More updates coming soon!

Winter 2014

January and February were mainly spent indoors, watching way too many movies and baking sweets. This winter has been fairly mild, but Max and I kept getting colds and this awful cough that would never go away. Not to mention, I've experienced a couple of disappointing chemical pregnancies that have kept me in hermit mode. However, I have some amazing friends who invited us to some awesome activities in February and have really kept my spirits up! You know who you are.... :)

Sometime in February, we went to the zoo. It was a gorgeous day and the animals were in mating season.

I have a friend who volunteers at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. She invited us one day to walk through the museum and let the kids play at discovery zone. Max LOVED the museum!

I decided to add some pictures of mine and Max's daily shenanigans.  

My dad, Tanya and her two girls came to visit us just last week! We took them skiing, swimming, went to the movies and the zoo, did a daddy-daughter date, and ate tons of food. I am so happy they made the drive to come visit us! It was great getting to know Tanya's girls better, and they were so helpful with Max. I wish I had taken more pictures, but here are a few from our day of skiing up at Copper...Adam took Max tubing while I skied with Marilyn for a couple of hours. 

Happy (almost) Spring Everyone!