April 2018

 Grandpa cutting a small child's nails is a regular occurrence at our house. Molly and Ryder think they're big to sit at the bar to eat, but they have to turn around to watch Mickey Mouse.  Blake's sisters were all in town, so they got a picture with them and his mother.  Clark's Kiwi Crate was about fish, he liked "fishing" .  Clark and Annie had fun in the hot tub with Grandpa.

We took Maden, Annie and Clark to the Idaho Falls Aquarium.  It was a very interesting place.

Maden was very intrigued with the bird area, but he was also a little nervous.  He got brave enough to let the bird actually perch on his thumb and eat out of the little cup.

They all like watching the stingrays, but didn't want to touch them.  Then they had fun digging in the sand for treasures.

Ryder loves the John Deere Store, riding on the lawn mower with Grandpa, and doing things on Grandma's iPad.  He liked his fishing Kiwi Crate too.  He found a comfy place in with the blankets.

We had a couple of very big wind storms, one of which blew my parents little shed over the fence into the neighbors yard!  So, Blake, Randy and Dad made a new floor for the shed.  Mom and I were great watchers.  You can see the roof of the shed behind the fence in the picture with Ryder standing on the new floor.  The next day, the neighbors had some help and lifted the shed back over the fence, then Blake, Brian, Randy and Jared screwed it down to the new floor.  Now, it's better than ever.

While the guys were working on the shed, the little ones went across the street to the park at the school. They love the park!

When Jared got done with the shed, he had to have a turn on the slide too.

We ended up having an impromptu baseball game.  Everyone got a chance to bat and run the bases.

After the ballgame, we came back to our house, while the boys rearranged the shed, and Brian loaded up 4 kids in the bike trailer and took them for a little spin.

Later, Molly and Ryder played in the blanket box, we played games in the garage, and took a little trip to Walmart.  Brian played a long game of Mario-opoly with Maden.

Molly's Kiwi Crate was all about bugs and insects. Isn't she just the cutest little bug? Ryder is loving spending time outside, helping pump up tires and going down the slide.

Ken's birthday is April 19th.  Cindy ordered him a cake that looked like a cheeseburger, like in the top left picture.  She sent the top right picture of the actual cut cake.  Celia made a cake to look like the picture, and we had a FaceTime party with Ken and Cindy. It was a fun way to share Ken's birthday with him.

We have some new swings! We put this one in the back with the other swings.

And this one in the front!  I think they'll have a fun time with these for many summers.

Story time with three tired kids. Mickey Mouse time for two little boys.  Arcade time for Miss Molly, she's so excited to win this cool ball.

We took Maden, Annie and Clark to an expensive Dinosaur exhibit at the fair grounds. They liked the bouncy things better than the dinosaurs.  Made worked really hard at this one, he finally got the hang of it, and got pretty good at it.

Clark was very afraid of the moving and noisy dinosaurs.  Annie loved being in the dinosaur egg. They all loved the bouncy slides.

Molly and Nikelle had their first trip to the zoo for 2018, and that means the annual tiger picture.  Ryder loves helping mow the lawn.

Molly had her first (I'm sure there will be many more!) dance recital.  She was so cute! I loved it.

First boat outing! In April! It was April 27th, and Randy, Blake, Jared, Nikelle and Molly took the boat for a little spin at Blacktail.  The water was ice cold, but they loved it.

When they got done boating, Jared turned his sprinklers on, so they had a little fun running through the sprinklers in April!  

March 2018

Brian turned 34 on March 1st.  How did that happen? Clark is happy about the large amount of snow that we got. (Not many adults were happy about it).  Ryder thinks he's funny to crawl under the bed and hide.

Molly loved her Koala Crate with a snake. (I wasn't real thrilled to make a snake). Then she had a great time playing with Grandpa and the Magic Track.

Clark, Annie and Molly had a great time wearing these funny crowns.  Maden had a great time trying to photo bomb.

Clark is busy coloring the bugs from his Cricket Crate.  Maden made another light thing in his Tinker Crate.  I didn't get a picture of Annie doing her Kiwi Crate, but I did get one of her cute face that she got painted at Texas Roadhouse.  Grandpa loves playing and reading with his grandkids.  Ryder liked making a tower with his Cricket Crate blocks.

Ryder and I went to tend Molly one day.  They had fun wearing crowns, casting spells and chasing each other with the shopping cart and stroller.

Clark came to Blackfoot with his dad one day, so they went to Tommy Vaughn's for lunch. Then Ryder and Molly got to go to Red Lobster for lunch too.  It's always a party when these littles get together.  It rained really hard one day, and the rain gutter was plugged, so Blake had the great opportunity to go out in the rain and unplug it.  Molly is a really cute little Easter Bunny.  I guess Annie, Clark and Ryder decided to have a party in our shower.

March 30 - Blake and I took a little trip to Lava Hot Springs with Randy, Courtney, Ryder, Jared, Nikelle and Molly.  Molly is not afraid of anything and loved it all.  Ryder is a little chicken boy, and had to be coaxed into going down the slide.

Molly loved everything and had a great time trying it all out.

Such cute kids, and parents.

Just some more pictures of the water fun.  Ryder was really afraid of the big bucket that dumped water out, he even had nightmares about it that night.  Not Molly, she would stand and wait for it to dump on her.

Molly turned 3 on the 31st!!! She had a Minnie Mouse party! They watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, broke a piñata, opened presents, ate pizza and had a cute cake.  We love you Molly, you are such a delightful, happy, imaginative, talkative. sweet little girl.

Later in the afternoon after Molly's party, we had planned to go to a park for an Easter egg hunt and picnic, but it started raining, so we went to Brian's house instead.  The kids "found" a lot of candy and other fun things.  

We had planned to have a combined cake for Molly and Celia (Celia's birthday is on April 3rd), but Celia ended up going to Jackson with her mother and brother, so we sang to them both even though Celia wasn't there.  

Annie thought it was way cool to be sitting between her two Grandpas.  We even had Brian and Annie open Celia's present.  The kids loved playing on her ground hammock.

February 2018

Randy arranged for us to rent a cabin in Island Park during the 1st weekend in February. It's a fun cabin, and there was a ton of snow.  Maden had a ballgame on Saturday, so he and Celia didn't come up.  Brian, Clark and Annie stayed Friday night and left early Saturday morning.  Blake and I left late Saturday afternoon.  

Annie rode with Molly and Ryder in Randy and Courtney's pickup.  Molly and Annie liked playing with some play dough, Clark liked doing a puzzle while Grandpa and Brian talked shop.  All the kids liked watching a movie.

There was a fun dart contest. I don't know who won, but it was fun!

We all had fun while the darts tournament was happening.

On Saturday, Molly and Ryder played with the toys, watched some Mickey Mouse, and got ready to go outside in the snow.

They got a little turn on the snow machines.

Swinging in the snow? Why not?

We had another Darts tournament before Blake and I left.  I know I did not win!

On Sunday, Feb. 4th after church Blake and I took off for a much needed little vacation.  We decided we would make it a temple trip. We ended up going to the 4 different temples.  It was a great, relaxing trip.

We stayed at the WorldMark Wolf Creek resort in Eden, Utah on Sunday night.  These deer crossed right in front of us as we drove to our unit.  There were even more up the hill.  On Monday, we drove to St. George, and stayed at the WorldMark, St. George resort.

On Tuesday, we went to the St. George Temple.  We had both been there, but had not attended together.  It is a beautiful majestic building.  It is amazing how the early members could build this building without all the modern tools and machinery. 

We went to a nice car wash, they detailed it very nicely.

On our way out of town, we decided to stop at Walmart, and as we are almost getting there, the light comes on in the car telling us that we have a low tire.  We took it into Walmart and it took them an hour to get the screw out and patch up the tire.  We were glad it happened then, and not in the middle of nowhere on the way to Las Vegas.

We stayed Tuesday and Wednesday nights at the WorldMark Las Vegas, Boulevard Resort.  On Wednesday we went to the Las Vegas Temple.  What a calming place to go in that bustling, worldly city.  After the temple, we went to the some outlet stores, and wandered around the strip for a bit.  We ate a good buffet dinner.

Thursday morning, we got up early and headed for Cedar City.  It is a new temple, and is very beautiful.  After we finished at the temple, we got some lunch and headed toward Payson.  It was kind of a long travel day, but it was a nice day.  We stayed in a Quality Inn in Payson on Thursday night.

We got up Friday morning to go to the Payson Temple.  It was our favorite of the trip.  I can't really pinpoint why it was the favorite, but it was.  It is just beautiful, and well laid out.  It was the only temple that we had to take selfies, and we're not very good at it! We headed for home after the temple.  It was a great trip. We decided we'd like to do something like that again.

Maden had double header basketball games on Saturday, Feb. 10th.  He and his little teammates have improved so much.  It is so fun to watch.

Ryder and Clark had a fun time playing with cars while the rest of us watched the games.

We celebrated my Mom's birthday on Sunday the 11th. (Her birthday is the 9th) The littles all love to sing and blow out the candles. I'm not going to reveal her age, but maybe you can figure it out.  

Molly, Ryder and Annie are enjoying some tv watching on Grandpa's lap.

On Monday, Feb. 12th, Annie and Clark came down, so we did their Kiwi Crates.  Annie had fun making paint go up the "stem" of the flowers. It was interesting doing Clark's and Ryder's Crates at the same time.  It must have tuckered these little guys out, because they both went to sleep on their way home.

Saturday, Feb. 17th, more basketball.  I love this picture of Clark, what a cute little guy.

Monday, Feb 19th, Molly and I did her Koala Crate.  It was all about Arctic animals. We had fun playing catch with Polar Bear paws.  Then, I went and did Maden's Tinker Crate. We wired a light that changed colors.  I love spending time with my grand little friends.

I brought Maden, Annie and Clark home with me, and they got to spend some time with Ryder.  We had pasta for dinner, because Maden and Annie love pasta.

Celia took this cute picture of Annie when she cashed in her tickets for a ball at Culver's.  She's such a cute smiley little sweetheart.

Saturday, Feb 24th was Maden's last game of this season.  It was a fun season.  Annie was there, just not in the pictures, but she took the pictures of Clark and Ryder and me.  She loves to take pictures, most of which get deleted because I don't need 181 pictures of the game.  Grandma Beth and Grandpa Chin Chopper got to come and cheer Maden on too.  

After the ballgame, I went with Randy to JC Penney's. This is what happens when you go shopping with a 2 year old.  He climbs into the shelves, then can't get out.

Molly was such a big girl and got a really cute hair cut.  She's such a little doll. Ryder and I enjoy going to Story time at the library.  This is such a typical smile on Maden's face.  He is getting so big.