Pumpkin Party

Ever since Hadlee was little we have carved pumpkins with her. It has turned into a fun little tradition. We have added a few more grand kids to the mix and yummy soup to go along with our pumpkin carving. Peyton, Hadlee and Bridger-these girls can not get enough of their new cousin and can't wait til January....they are FINALLY getting a baby BROTHER. We couldn't be more excited for them, especially for their dad!
Baby Bridger-he was born October 6th. I think he was only 2 week old here. We can't get enough of him. He is so sweet and cuddly!

Bret was a trooper and carved Bridgers pumpkin for him

Kimberly and Peyton

Ryley, Parker and Shaylee

The carving crew

Parker, Shay, Taylor, Hadlee and Peyton

They had so much fun carving pumpkins together.

I had to save the best picture for last! I'm sure they will be less then thrilled that I put this on here but I couldn't resist. Ryley's side of the family has a Halloween party every year and they always dress up. This year Shay and Ry were Batman and Robin. I love their costumes!

We have got to start this tradition on the Pulley side!

Don't they look awesome?!?

Girls......

Just wanna have fun! I love a little "girl time" every now and then! I have spent lots of that girl time with these 4 girls. The 4 of us lived in Provo together from May of 2007 to August of 2008. We have so many fun memories from our little apartment at The Branbury! We were so worried that after all of us got married we would lose touch with each other but....I am THRILLED to say that we haven't! We have been trying to plan a weekend get a way since we lived together-well 3 1/2 years later it FINALLY happened and it was so much fun! Then-Megan, me, Heidi and Becky
Now-me, Heidi and Becky!
A few weeks ago we packed our bags and headed to Park City for an over nighter! Heidi, Becky and I went Friday night and Megan met up with us on Saturday! (We are lame and only took one picture before Meg got there) Friday night we went to dinner and did a little shopping and of course we laughed until we were crying and stayed up way to late talking! Saturday we did A LOT more shopping went to lunch and did a little more shopping afterwards! We were all worn out by the time we were done. We had the best time together though and it was so worth it! I just LOVE these girls and am so happy we have stayed the best of friends! I can't wait for our next weekend get a way!

MORE GIRL TIME

Grandma, me, Lucy, Kenzie and Megan
You may recognize these girls from our "onesie" pj party pictures. Well we decided that getting together at our annual Onesie Christmas Party at Grandma's once a year just wasn't enough so we planned a night to go to dinner. We love getting together and it makes it more fun to bring Grandma along with us! I think she feels like "one of the girls" when we bring her and I love it! We couldn't have asked for a better Grandma! Thanks for the fun night girls-I can't wait for our ONESIE party!

UPDATE....

YES! We are still alive and kickin! It has been a crazy busy fun summer for the Pierce's this year. Since I have been terrible (terrible meaning taking NO pictures at all) at taking pictures this summer I am having a hard time remembering all of the things we have done over the summer. Here are a few of the things that stick out to me.

*The Fireman's Breakfast-a tradition with the Pulley family since my Dad was on the Department for so many years.

*Boulder Mountain-Bret and his Dad go with a bunch of friends and family every year. It is a fun fishing trip they have done for several years now. We love the stories we hear from this trip.

*Owlz baseball games-Bret's Uncle Blake is their pitching coach. We love a good baseball game!

*Rodeo's-what would summer be with out going to a few rodeo's? We love watching Ryley (Shaylee's husband) steer wrestle! It makes the rodeo much more exciting having someone you know in them.

*Scout Camp Out-Bret was called into Young Men's at the beginning of the summer and went on a fun camp out with the boys! They didn't get much sleep-I don't know who stayed up later, the boys or the leaders?

*Drive In Movies-We love a good drive in movie! We're sad we didn't make it to more this summer.

*Stadium of Fire-This was only the second time I have been. It was super hot but we were in great company and the concert and fireworks were awesome! We love Brad Paisley!

*Camping-we only went once with the Pierce family this year-We did get to try out our new tent we got for Christmas though and we love it! (Thank You Mom and Dad Pierce) Hopefully next year we will make it camping a few more times!

*Cherry Hill-a Parker Family tradition that has gone on for as long as I can remember! We always have a great time with the Parker crew!

*Birthdays and BBQ's-they seem to go together during the summer months. The Pulley side has a few summer birthdays and the Pierce side has several summer birthdays, which makes for a lot of fun birthday BBQ's! One of those birthdays was my sweet husbands! Bret turned 25 in July! Yes he is old! I am not looking forward to turning 25 in a few short months, I don't know why but it seems so old to me.

*The Hunt and St. George-Bret and his Dad spent over a week up at Strawberry hunting! They usually do a little golfing while they are there too. It sounds to me like its more of a vacation then a hunt but they have a great time so that's all that matters! While they boys were hunting the girls in the Pierce family (minus Michelle-she was in Florida visiting family, we MISSED her!)headed to St. George for the weekend to see The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn! We loved the show! It was a much needed vacation! We laughed, shopped and relaxed all weekend and loved every minute of it!

*Released-I got released from my calling a month ago, it is a little bitter sweet. I LOVE the women I served with and miss meeting with them every Tuesday night, although, it is nice having a little free time. I am happy being a Visiting Teacher and flying under the radar without a calling for the moment.

*SOLD-the Tacoma! I know it's so sad but Bret got a new truck that he LOVES (sorry I don't have a picture of it yet) I was kind of sad about selling the taco but Bret is so happy with his new truck. I just need to learn how to drive a bigger truck and all will be well. The taco was just my size.

We are kind of nerdy and had someone take our picture in front of it. We had to have pictures of the first truck Bret bought! We loved that little truck and I miss it already.

I don't know that I should share this, especially on here but for some reason I feel like I need to. In June we found out we would be expecting our first baby.......Six long weeks later we learned that we were miscarrying. I was 1o weeks along at the time we found out. We were both heartbroken. It has been very difficult for us to go through but we understand that the Lord has a plan for each of us and we know He gives us trials to make us stronger. I am so grateful for the Gospel and the understanding we have of it. We have been so blessed with amazing family and friends to help us through this difficult time and we can't thank you enough for all you've done for us. We are both doing much better and are looking forward to the future and what the Lord has in store for us.

All in all it has been a good summer for us! I am sad to see it end but I am loving the fall weather coming our way. Which means the holidays will be here before we know it! Sorry for such a long post-I am proud if you made it all the way through it! I will try to be better at taking pictures and keeping the blog up to date on the little adventures we have.

St. George

Its better late then never....Bret and I were able to go to St. George twice in April. Brets boss always plans a trip for all of the managers and their families to go to Sand Hallow every year. We were lucky enough to go this year and had a blast! We were able to go again over Spring break-I think this is one of my favorite vacations-we are surrounded by family and lots of great friends. I think this year there were close to 40 of us again-with that many people there is NEVER a dull moment! Here are a few pictures from both trips... Shea and Kyle came along too-we had a great time with them
It was so windy-we had sand every where

He loves his bike-I love this picture, such a pretty view!

Bret and Kyle doing what they love-riding bikes

These next pictures are from our second tripThe first day we always spend the afternoon at Sand Hallow. It's a nice relaxing day where the boys do most of the riding and us girls sit around and talk!

Well from the last 2 pictures you can see that it wasn't very nice for all of us. A few of the guys crashed on their bikes, and Bret got the worst of it. Since his chest protector is broken he didn't have that on, his paddle tire ran over his back and ripped through his shirt and tore up his back. He was pretty sore for the next few days. We are just grateful it wasn't any worse then it was. He's a lot tougher then I am, I'm just glad I wasn't there to see the crash. Looks like we need to get him a new protector before he goes riding again!!!


Our favorite trial-THE BARRACKSTiff and I

I met Tiff through Bret's family and just love her!

The Ranger Crew-yes my dad took this big thing on the trip with us, it reminded me of a little jeep you would ride in on a Safari. He loved it-my brother brought his little boy with us on the ride and we just strapped his car seat into the crew. Parker was as champ the whole time and loved the ride.

We had such a good time in St. George! We love that both of our families can go on vacation together. We have the best family and friends! Can't wait for next years trip!

Mom and Dad....

No we are not expecting.....but over the last month and a half Bret and I have watched a couple of friends kids so we have had a lot of practice being Mom and Dad. Unfortunately I wasn't very good at taking pictures so I only got a few of the ones we spent the most time with. We had so much fun watching these kids and got a little eye opener to what parenting is all about!MCDONALD'S

The kids were so excited when they found out we were going there and that we were even going to let them play on the toys! Who knew McDonald's was so great?
We even went to Kangaroo Zoo-the kids loved it!
Hadlee and Hanks

And Ivy was an angel the whole time we were there!

The kids stayed with us for almost a week and we loved it! The weather wasn't very good while they were here so we spent lots of time coloring and watching movies-lucky for us they loved doing both! I love the things kids say and how much they love you even if you aren't family. Sweet little Hanks told us "I just really love you guys here" So sweet coming from a 3 year old. They definitely missed there parents and would ask where they were. We were sad when it was time for them to go, I told them we were going to miss them and I thought Hadlee was going to start crying when she told me she was really going to miss us too. We loved having the kids here and miss them already. Thanks Colby and Heather for sharing your sweet kids with us!

2 YEARS!!!!

Bret and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary yesterday! It was very low key since both of us had to work and Bret had school. We have always wanted to go back to Disneyland ever since we went for our honeymoon and since we went last month we used that as an early anniversary trip! I can't believe it has been 2 years already. The time seems to go by so fast. I feel so blessed to be married to Bret-I couldn't have asked for better. Each year just keeps getting better! We have had so much fun the last year and can't wait for many more to come! Happy Anniversary Bret! I LOVE YOU!

DISNEYLAND!!!!!

We have been talking about going to Disneyland since last summer and we finally made it! We went the first week of February and we couldn't have picked a better time to go. The weather was perfect-yes it was 70 degrees! And it wasn't' very crowded at all. We didn't have to wait long to get onto any of the rides-most of them we just walked right on. We couldn't have asked for a better time!

(sorry for the picture overload-I couldn't leave any out)

The LONG 10 hour drive.....

We had to find something to do to entertain ourselves-pictures is always a good option.
We had had it by the time we go to California-all we can say is thank heavens my parents car has a DVD player in it! My Dad is a trooper and drove the whole way. I think he was just as excited as us to get there. He even sang a little song to us on our way that made us laugh. It went a little like this "hi ho hi ho off to Disneyland I go..." That's as much as I remember but it kept us laughing. We sure do love our Dad-he is one funny guy! Our husbands weren't with us because they were lucky enough to fly down the next morning!


THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH

We finally made it to Disneyland- Hadlee was so excited to be there. Peyton gets a little bit nervous with big crowds and strange places so it took her a little while longer to warm up to it. The first 2 days we were there she kept telling us she wanted to go HOME, we convinced her that we had to see Mickey Mouse and go on a few rides first.

As you can see, she was less than thrilled to be seeing Mickey Mouse. She did warm up to all of the characters by the next day in the park and then that's all she wanted to do-She kept telling us "I wanna see Mickey"

It just isn't Disneyland if you don't have a picture with Mickey

TOONE TOWN

The kids loved playing on the cars and Peyton loved being able to walk through Mickey and Minnie's houses. I think we all took a turn taking her through them. We are just glad she found something she liked. She wasn't to sure about any of the rides.

I love the pictures the camera's on the rides take. This is the only one we got-I kept forgetting to take my camera with me on the other rides.

BUGS LAND

I think this was one of the kids favorite places. Hadlee found several rides that she loved and couldn't wait for us to ride them with her.

Do we not have the greatest Dad and isn't he a great "Papa"? He was so much fun and went on everything at least once!

And of course we have the greatest Mom and such a great Grandma too!

We all took turns with the 2 little ones-they couldn't go on much and Peyton wouldn't go on very many rides so we would take turns sitting with them. It worked out great having so many adults there to help with the kids. Peyton was just as happy watching everything around her.

I don't think we can count the number of times the guys went on this ride! Every time they would get off of it they were laughing. I think this had to be one of their favorite rides. It was more fun watching them then I think it was going on the ride. We sure love our boys!

The big bear by the guys favorite ride-cute sisters!

TOY STORY

Hadlee loved beating all of us at the game on this fun ride

We are all grateful for this little caterpillar. Peyton LOVED it!

Peyton found something she liked and wasn't affraid of. We were all happy to take several turns taking her on this cute little ride.

Bret and I on the caterpillar

Shay and Ryley

More pictures by grizzly rappids

Shay and I wanted a picture with the huge bear-when we looked at it on the camera we noticed the head was cut off. We laughed and didn't get another one, thanks Mom for being such a great photographer, we love you!

THE WORLD OF COLOR

Thursday night we went and watched this water show they do in California Adventure. It was so much fun and so cool to see the things they can do. I can't describe how neat it was. If you get a chance to go to Disneyland it is definitely worth going to see!

Hadlee was posing for me and Bret jumped in the picture with her-she loved me taking pictures of just her! Such a cute girl!

The best Mom and Dad waiting for one of their favorite rides-INDIANA JONES

More GRIZZLY RAPID pictures. If you didn't notice by the pictures we have by this ride, they all loved it-some of us were a little wimpy (myself included) and didn't want to get soaked like the guys were so we got a few poncho's. They were worth it and neither Hadlee or I got wet. What a fun ride!

California Screamer- Hadlee had watched all of the "big kids" go on this roller coaster several times-even her Grandma and Grandpa went on it. She was a little unsure about it, but the last day her Dad convinced her to go. She was pretty funny when she got off of it-She just looked at her Mom and said "Mom, never go on that, it's so fast." She was a trooper and tried everything at least once.

We had such a FUN time in Disneyland! We sure did miss my brother and his family though. Next time we'll convince them to come! The weather was perfect, the lines were short, and all of the kids were great! We couldn't have picked a better time to go. Thanks everyone for the good time and for spending 5 days with us in Sunny California. We are so blessed to have such great families to go on vacations with. Sure do love you guys! We can't wait for next time!