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! 

Blackfoot Pride Days

Saturday, July 11, 2015

We took Maden and Annie to Jensen's Grove to the Blackfoot Pride Days.  They had a great time, and so did we!

Just a little jousting with balloon swords.

This was a fun bouncy toy with an obstacle course and a slide.

Annie was a little worried about this large slide, but once she tried it she did it again and again.

Maden was very intrigued with this velcro wall. So he donned the velcro suit and tried it out.  It was hard for him to get enough height, but he did stick to the wall a little. He loved it.

Next, he had to try to dunk the girl in the dunk tank. He was so excited that he dunked her twice!

Randy, Courtney, Ryder, Jared, Nikelle and Molly were also at Jensen's Grove watching the snow machines race across the lake. It started looking like it was going to rain, so we decided to head for the cars. It did start raining just as we were getting into the cars.  We were going to Rupes, but it was too busy, so we ended up at Burger King.

Maden made sure that we all had crowns!

Mini Chambers Get Together

 Monday, July 6, 2015

My sister Shauna, brother-in-law Troy and nephew Logan came for a visit from Kennewick, WA. My sister Lynne and two of her boys, Ryan and Samuel came too, so my brother Randy and sister-in-law Julie and our 3 boys and their families, my parents and Blake and I all got together for a nice dinner and some fun.  It's always fun to be with family! We had a great time eating, playing games and catching up.

While we were taking pictures, we got these daddies and their babies together for a picture. This has turned into one of my favorite pictures ever!

July 4th, 2015

Look at these patriotic families.

Such cute kids all in red, white and blue.

Just can't get enough of these babies!

Randy and Courtney invited us to their home in the evening to roast hot dogs and smores. 

Courtney and Nikelle are twins! We had fun cooking over the fire. It was fun having Mike and Lexi Packer and their cute kids Grant and Merrelee there for our little dinner.

We had fun with the babies, and the little hill in their yard.  Then there were some races!

Here's our fun group picture!

Randy and Jared lit off some fireworks for us.  I love this picture on the bottom right, they are all pretty impressed with the last of the fireworks.