Princess Tea Party

October 17, 2015

Nikelle invited Maden and Annie and I to go to a Princess Tea Party with her and Molly in Rupert.  

Maden was the star of the show in his Prince Charming costume. Annie looked absolutely darling in her Princess dress. (Funny thing, her sparkly shoes that fit her on Sunday did not fit on Saturday!) Molly was the cutest little Cinderella in the dress her Grandma Bair made for her.

On the way up the stairs to the party, they got to meet all the princesses and get their autographs.  Pocahontis (Nikelle's good friend) loved little Molly Cinderella. They were all such good sports about getting their pictures taken over and over.

We had a fun little "tea party" with some good food.  All the princesses came in and sang a song to the audience.  The princess Anna from Frozen even sang to Maden.  It was a great day!

My Birthday, Babysitting and More Swinging

October 15, 2015

On the day before my birthday, we got a new car and fireplace insert! We decided to trade in the Escape for and Explorer. The new fireplace looks so sleek and clean, I love it!

On Sunday, Oct. 18th, the kids had a dinner for me at Jared and Nikelle's house. It was very good food! They all gave me these amazing canvases! I absolutely love them! But, not as much as I love those 5 little ones!

Babysitting

I'm babysitting Ryder 2 1/2 days each week, which is so fun. I think he likes coming to our house. One week I had the opportunity to watch all three babies at separate times. I can't think of a better way to spend my time!

Here are just a few pictures from our babysitting adventures. Aren't they just the cutest little humans ever?

Swinging

The tree swing continues to be a huge hit.  Annie especially loves it. Courtney and Nikelle got in on the action too.

Ryder and Molly have tried out the swing in the back and have liked it really well.  We haven't given Clark a chance yet, but he sure enjoyed watching Maden and Annie on the tree swing.  Nikelle got another chance to have a swinging good time too.

Corn Maze and Conference

Sept. 23, 2015

I went to the Wild Adventure Corn Maze with Brian's family.  We just did the small maze, and this is the only picture I have of it! They had a great time on the little barrel train.

The jousting bouncy thing was really fun too.  It was perfect weather!

General Conference

October 3 & 4, 2015

Jared, Nikelle and Molly came and spent the night on Saturday, so that gave us some really fun Molly time! She is getting so big!

Brian and Celia came down in the afternoon on Sunday. We watched a movie after conference was over. It was a fun weekend, conference was so good!

Blake's Birthday

Sept. 21, 2015

Blake turned the big 60 this year! We had a birthday dinner for him on Sunday, Sept 20th because it's easier to get everyone together on Sunday.  It's so fun to have these grandkids around for these occasions! 

Jensen's Grove, Babies, Swing, Kindergarten, Parade & Fair, Fishing

Jensen's Grove
Aug. 11, 2015

It was a hot day, so we visited the lake at Jensen's Grove. Maden and Annie love the beach and the sand. I had bought some sand toys but they played more with the ice cream buckets than the real sand toys.

Maden had a great time rolling down the hill several times.

Babies

Aug 26 - 29, 2015

I love tending these babies! I get to tend Ryder 2 days every week. I took these pictures of him on Aug. 26th.  I got to tend Clark while his parents and siblings went 4

wheeling on Aug. 28th. Then I got to watch Molly on Aug. 29th while her mom sold some things at a garage sale.  It's so fun to see their little personalities and watch them learn new things.

It's so fun to get these babies together. They are going to get sick of having their pictures taken!

Things are changing when the babies are together, they used to just lay near each other in their own little worlds, sometimes they would hold hands or look at each other. But, Molly doesn't just lay there any more! We don't know how Ryder's hand got in Molly's mouth! Funny babies.

New Tree Swing

Aug. 28, 2015

Brian and Celia bought a new swing for the big tree out in our front yard.  It was not easy to get the rope up on the branch, but they finally made it.  Brian tried it out first and it looks like he was having a great time!  Maden and Annie took turns too, Maden was a little worried at first but got used to it pretty soon. 

Maden goes to Kindergarten

Aug. 31, 2015

I got to go see Maden go to Kindergarten for the first time.  He goes to the afternoon session, so we had some time before to do some tricks outside.  Annie is so funny to copy everything Maden does and says.

We tried to get some pictures, first of all we had the "cheese" smiles, then it was just silly fully opened mouth smiles.  He was sure excited to get going to school.

We loaded the kids up in the stroller to walk to the school.  Maden was such a good big brother to hold Clark so tenderly.

Here we are at the school. Maden's all lined up ready to go into the school.  It was a little funny that Annie didn't quite understand that Maden was going to stay at the school and she had to leave him there.  We have enjoyed hearing the fun alphabet songs Maden has learned in school.  

Eastern Idaho State Fair & Parade

Sept. 5, 2015

Even though it was cold and windy, we went to the parade.  The kids had a great time gathering all the candy that was thrown at them.  They would dance in the street because they thought they would get more candy. We ended up with a grocery bag 3/4 full!

After the parade, we made our way over to the fair.  It was still cold and windy, but we had fun walking around and eating.  Maden and Celia went on the Ferris Wheel, then Annie and Maden and I went on the Merry-go-round. Then Maden and Annie drove these cars. Annie loved "driving" and talked about it for days after.

Fishing

Sept. 12, 2015

We went to "Terry's Fishing Pond" again. While Annie was fishing, Maden was singing his alphabet songs for us. It was a fun day.

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!