Ryder's Blessing

August 9, 2015

August 9th was a special day for this little family.  Ryder was blessed by his daddy!

Here are a few pictures we took on the special day.  He's a very loved little guy!

We're all together again!

July 22 -26, 2015

Cindy and Ken came for a visit, so we were all together again. Well, almost. We were sad that Sydney didn't make the trip this time and we missed her.

We had a welcoming committee waiting for them at the Idaho Falls airport. Nikelle had made signs for the three babies saying "we have waited our whole lives to meet you." Maden and Annie had made signs and Nikelle had the help of cousins Jessica Vos and Alia Gams to make more signs.  I think Cindy and Ken were quite surprised and maybe just a little embarrassed, but everyone had fun with it. 

Maden and Annie loved making their signs!

Brian and Blake made it to the airport in time to see the luggage come. We all went to Olive Garden for a late lunch.  Then we went to see Grandma Purcell. Natillie, Darlou, Merralee and Marcele were all there too. On our way home, we went to get a snow cone, or shaved ice of course.

Thursday, we went to the Pocatello Zoo.  Courtney and Ryder, Nikelle and Molly and Celia, Maden,Annie and Clark all came too. There are not very many pictures because it was not a very exciting zoo.  The whole reason we went to that zoo was to meet cousin Beckie there.  And as it turned out, seeing Beckie and her 3 kids was the most exciting thing at the zoo, and I didn't even get a picture of that!

After the zoo, we just came back to our house and played games and hung out.  Ken made a really cool domino trail for Maden and Annie, it was really pretty awesome.

Ken and Cindy went on a little date Thursday night. Don't they look good?

Then things got interesting.  Randy was working, and Courtney won tickets to an Eli Young Band concert that was going on at the fairgrounds in Blackfoot.  She found a friend to go with her. Then, Brian and Celia decided they wanted to go too, so they figured out for Jared and Nikelle to go also. Well, that left Blake and I with all 5 grandkids! 

So what's a girl to do when she's in a stressful situation? Call her mom and dad, that's what! We all had our hands full, but we survived and so did the kids!

Friday morning, everyone was off work, so we all met at the fishing pond. Beckie and her kids came too. Cindy caught the first fish! Ken's sad because his was a big one too, it just doesn't look big in the picture.  There were a lot of fish caught and a lot of babies there too.

After fishing, we went to Perkins for brunch. I just love watching these three boys being such good daddies.

Then we went to the Rexburg Rapids. It was a pretty fun place.  Maden LOVED the lazy river! Ryder went to sleep as he went around the river, and Molly thought it was just a big bath tub.

It wasn't an extremely warm day, so it felt good to wrap up and soak in the sun after getting out of the water.  We decided to go to Wingers after, and Maden and Annie didn't have dry clothes to put on, so Cindy and Ken came to the rescue.  Annie wore Cindy's bathing suit cover up, and Maden wore Ken's shirt.  Worked out just fine!

We can't be all together and not get an updated picture! Especially with the three new members in our family.  I know it's not a favorite activity for most, but I sure do appreciate you all being so kind and going along with my need for new pictures! We decided to just do it ourselves with our IPhone cameras.  Once again, Mom and Dad came to the rescue so we didn't have to use the timers.

Looks like Randy, Courtney and Ryder are the only ones ready for this one. We included Sydney by holding a photo of her.

Now we're all ready.  Turned out pretty nice! I love all the colors. Sure do love all these people.

Here are some snap shots taken while we were waiting.

Here's the 4 kids.

Grandparents and Grandkids.  Ryder slept through most of the pictures. Maden is almost as hard to get to pose right for pictures as his dad was!

We did an all girls picture.  Kind of fun for Cindy to have some girls (sisters).

We also did an all boys picture.  I think they turned out really fun.

Even the photographers got their picture taken. Looking great!

Cindy and Ken, looking so fit and strong. 

Brian and Celia even washed and waxed the '65 so they could have pictures taken with it.

Looks like Ryder woke up for some of the pictures.

Cute, cute, cute. I decided as I looked through all the pictures, that Nikelle is the most photogenic...she always poses so cute, and keeps her eyes open!

It was a great few days. We had some great times and made some fun memories! I love having my family all home! It wasn't so hard to tell Cindy and Ken goodbye, because they are coming back after Christmas!