2013 Recap

I have decided to do a recap of 2013. I always have a blog book printed at the end of each year, so this is a good place to keep track of all that's happened in our lives.

Comings & Goings

• Jan. 3 & 12 - Blake and Randy went snow machining to Island Park in below 0 weather.
• Jan. 19 - Blake and Randy went to Soda Springs to the Fishing Derby
• Feb. 2 - Blake, Randy and Courtney went to the Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole. Diana went to Smithfield to help clean out Grandpa Chambers house.
• Feb. 8,9 &10 - Blake, Diana, Randy and Courtney take the annual West Yellowstone Snow Machine trip.
• Feb. 22, 23 & 24 - Blake, Diana, Randy and Courtney - Bear Lake Snow Machine trip
• Mar. 1- 9 Diana went to Erie.
• Mar. 14-17 Blake, Diana, Randy and Courtney went to Bear Lake and then Woodruff for Dallin Leifson's farewell.
• Mar. 27-31 - Blake, Diana, Randy and Courtney went to Las Vegas for Spring Break.
• May 10-18 - Brian, Celia, Maden and Annie come during Brian's semester break.
• May 22-27 - Cindy came to be here when Jared came home.
• May 23 - Jared came home from his mission!
• May 31-June 2 - Blake & Diana went to Boise for a tennis tournament.
• Sometime in June - Blake, Jared and Courtney went 4wheeling in Swan Valley.
• July 4 - Blake, Diana, Randy and Courtney went to Island Park and float the Macks River.
• July 19 - Blake & Diana fly to Erie. Randy, Courtney & Jared start driving to Cindy's in Stevensville, MI. July 22 - Blake, Diana, Celia, Maden & Annie drive to Michigan to meet up with everyone there for the 1st ever Blake Purcell Family Reunion. July 25 - Everyone except Ken drive back to Erie. July 29 - Blake & Diana fly home.  Randy, Courtney & Jared arrive home on Aug. 1.
• Oct. 11-20 - Brian's family fly home for Jared's wedding.
• Oct. 11, 12 - We all go to Burley and Twin Falls for Jared & Nikelle's wedding.
• Oct. 17-20, Cindy, Ken & Sydney arrive for Jared & Nikelle's open house.
• Nov. 3,4 - Blake and Diana go to Boise for Anesthesia coverage.
• Nov. 20 - Diana rides with her parents and sister Lynne to Salt Lake for Travis Chambers wedding. Nov. 21-22 - Blake comes to Provo for the reception.
• Nov. 29-Dec 1 - Blake, Diana, Randy, Jared & Nikelle go to West Yellowstone to celebrate a late Thanksgiving.
• Dec. 21 Blake, Randy, Courtney, Jared and Nikelle go to Island Park to snow machine.

Family

• Cindy, Ken & Sydney - Bought a new, beautiful home in the same neighborhood. Sydney turned 12.
• Brian, Celia, Maden & Annie - Brian finished his 1st year of Anesthesia school. Maden turned 4, Annie 1.
• Randy & Courtney - Randy graduated with an LPN, started working at State Hospital South. Courtney is still teaching at Riverside Elementary in Blackfoot. They moved to Blackfoot in August.
• Jared - returned home from his mission to St. Louis, MO in May. Started working for his uncle Terry Purcell, Electrical Support Services. Married Nikelle Bair on Oct. 12. Lives in Idaho Falls, in the revolving Purcell house.

Church

• Blake released as High Priest Group leader, called to serve as the Ward Membership Clerk
• Diana teaches 4 year olds in Primary.

Health & Fitness

• Blake plays tennis on several leagues. He was asked to captain a couple of them, doesn't want to do that again.
• Diana goes to Curves 4-5 times each week. Joined Weight Watchers on line and lost 30 pounds!

Career & Job

• Blake and Mike Adams are still providing Anesthesia coverage for Parkway Surgical Center and Dr. Michael James. The case load has dropped this year quite a lot, so when an opportunity for he and Mike to cover about 3 days each week at Mountainview Hospital in Idaho Falls came up, they decided they couldn't pass it up. Their schedule will change, and they will work a lot more hours, so hopefully the income increases too.
• Diana still does the books for the Anesthesia companies.

December 2013

Stocking Holders
I had this bright idea to make some new stockings for the newcomers to our family.  They are just plain red and green, but they have everyone's name on them.  Well, I got the stockings done, but that created another problem....no way to hang them all! So I looked on Pinterest and found some hangers I liked. The next problem was that the mantle on the fireplace is very narrow. I came up with a way to make them, I think they turned out really nice!

I love that you can change the picture every year.

 

The next problem...they didn't stay put when the stockings were hung on them! So, Blake and Randy devised a wire and some hooks and kind of tied them to the fireplace. 

 

I love it!

 

Randy and Blake got the tree up and almost all decorated for me. They did a pretty great job!

 

Maden turned 4 on December 5th! He was lucky enough to celebrate with his Grandpa and Grandma Clift.  He made sure to tell me when we skyped a few days later that he was 4 now!

 

We got a real good snow storm early in the month. Then, it turned cold with temps near 0 and below, some days the highs stayed in the single digits.

 

Jared finally got to go snow machining on December 21st! Oh, so did Blake, Randy, Courtney and Nikelle. They went up to Island Park, it had snowed the day before and the snow was perfect. They ate lunch at Meadow Creek.

 

Jared, Nikelle, Blake and I went to the Live Nativity in Blackfoot on Sunday, December 22nd. Nikelle had never been to one before and loved it.  Luckily the weather had warmed up some, so we didn't even freeze to death.

 

I found this cute picture of Maden (on the left) when he was a year old in an elf suit that Cindy gave him.  Celia put the suit on Annie, so now we have a Maden Elf and an Annie Elf.

 

 

We decided to change things up a bit for Christmas this year.  Randy was scheduled to work on Christmas Day, so we decided to open presents and have dinner on Christmas Eve. We started the day out with the traditional monkey bread, then opened presents. During the day, we skyped with Brian's family for a little while. After dinner, Jared and Nikelle left for Rupert.  Christmas morning was really quiet and different.  Blake and I got to watch Maden, Brian, Celia and Annie open their presents thanks to Skype! I love Skype!We went up to Idaho Falls to Blake's mothers and had dinner with her and his sister Natillie and their family.  In the afternoon, Blake decided to enlist Natillie and Mark's help and take Helen's tree down. It was very nice to have help! We played some games and then came home. It was different, but that doesn't matter, the important thing is to celebrate the birth of our Savior!

 







Here we are on Christmas Eve with all our presents.  Blake did some shopping for himself and put them under the tree with tags saying they were from Maden and Annie! He thought he was pretty funny!

 

 



November 2013

Blake mowed up the leaves many times in November.

 

Blake and I took a trip to Boise so he could provide Anesthesia for Dr. Rodgers. We stayed in a hotel really close to Krispy Kreme, we had to stop in when the hot light was on!

 

We bought a new snow machine.  The neighbor's cat had to come check it out.

 

Blake, Randy and Jared went hunting a couple of times, they shot their guns, but didn't hit anything.

 

November is when you put the snow tires on Red.

 

Funny story.....Courtney had a sliver, so Blake removed it for her. Nikelle had to have a TB test, so Randy did that for her. This all happened simultaneously. Guess our dining room turned into a clinic.

 

 Blake and I stopped in Draper at Scheels on our way home from my nephew Travis' wedding. Scheels is sort of like Cabela's, it was a fun place.

 

 

Thanksgiving was a little different this year.  Randy had to work, Courtney went on a trip with some friends, Jared and Nikelle went to Rupert, so Blake and I had Thanksgiving dinner with my parents and brother and his family. It was a fun day. Then on Friday, Blake, Randy, Jared, Nikelle and I loaded up and drove to West Yellowstone.  Jared was disappointed that there was not enough snow to take the snow machines! We stayed until Sunday.  On Saturday, we drove up to Big Sky, MT.  There really was not much snow anywhere yet. When we got back, Randy and Jared shot some guns at a machine gun/rifle range. They thought that was pretty fun. We had our own Thanksgiving dinner in the condo at the resort.

 



Jared and Randy shooting.

 

Some of the higher ski runs were open at Big Sky.

 

Randy got tired.