May 2019

Let's start with Flowers!  The tulips and daffodils were gorgeous this year.  Then, my kids got me the most beautiful flowers for Mother's Day.  I love flowers! Just wish they would last longer!

Ryder loves A&W, and whenever we go there, he wants a picture in front of the bear.  Molly even got to go one day.

May 10 - Clark came to play for a little while in the morning, then Molly came later and we went to the park at Jensen's Grove.  Molly thought it was really funny to give Hallie a bath in the sink.

May 11 - We got to spend some time with this sweet Hallie girl while her parents were gone boating.

May 13 - Molly invited me to go to Yellowstone Bear World with her for a Preschool field trip.  We had fun driving through the park seeing all the bears.  Molly wasn't real sure about petting the deer.  She had a great time on the rides with Nikelle.  Hallie was there too, but for some reason I didn't get a picture of her.

May 18 - Ryder loved this big bus in front of Discount Tires. We went to Rupe's with Brian and his kids, somehow Brian got to sit in the booth with all the kids.

May 23 - Ryder's 4th birthday! He got to spend the day with me.  We went to Walmart and he picked out a present, then we went to Dominoes for pizza.  He loved watching them make the pizzas.  Then we had cupcakes.  Just as we started singing to him, he banged his finger between the chair and the table.  Poor boy.

May 25 - Ryder's party at Leo's Place.  It was a Blaze themed party.  He loved it! All the kids loved playing in the play place..

May 27 - Memorial Day - We all met at Brody's grave on a very chilly, windy, rainy day. You can only see Hallie's little head in the group picture, she was all snuggled into Jared's jacket.  I love celebrating our Sweet Brody, he'll always be in our hearts.

We went up the hill to Mark, Helen and Terry's graves.  It was raining pretty hard when we got up there, but we took the time to take a few fun pictures.

After the cemetery, we ate lunch at Chick-fil-A, then we came back to our house.  Clark and Molly cleaned up this baby seat so Hallie could try it out.  I think she liked it.  We also went to see the movie "Aladin" later in the afternoon, it was really good!

May 29 - We sold our renovated '65 Ford Pickup to Blake's cousin Gerald.  Courtney and Ryder were the only ones around, so they came to say Goodbye.  It was loaded onto this car hauler for the trip back to Las Vegas. It was kind of sad, but it was the right thing and the right time to sell it.

May 30 - Annie's Kindergarten graduation! This tall cutie pie looked so pretty and did such a good job in her graduation program.  When her teacher, Miss Austin asked her what her favorite thing about Kindergarten was, she looked Miss Austin in the eye and said "you".  How sweet.  Nikelle, Molly and Hallie were there too, and Maden got out of his class to come watch.  Way to go Annie, now on to bigger adventures.

May 31 - Blake took Ryder fishing at Jensen's grove.  These are his attempts at a selfie with a wiggly fish.  Maden, Annie and Clark came to spend the night, and enjoyed some hot tub time with Grandpa.

April 2019

April 3 - We decided to have a couple of trees in the back yard cut down, and the big tree out front thinned out.  It made a huge mess in the yard!

April 6th - The clean up begins.  Randy found a guy that wanted the firewood, so he came and took most of the big pieces. Jared got a couple of trailers from work, so they started the cleaning up process in the back.

 While we were at it, we decided to take the lilac tree out of the the front yard.  It hadn't bloomed very well for the last few years.  They rented this little digger, and Jared was the driver to dig up the roots. Annie and Clark liked watching the process from the window.

After he got the lilac all dug up, they cleaned up the rest of the big tree. It was a long hard day, but it looks so nice.

April 8th - We rented this little tractor, and Randy hauled some dirt from the Anderson's yard to fill in the hole where the lilac had been. Ryder was his little helper.

April 12th - We went up to Grandma Great's house to see the progress that Blake's sisters had made on emptying the house. They have worked hard, it looks pretty empty! 

April 13th - Molly had a dance performance at the Grand Teton Mall.  She is so cute! I loved that she went to sit on Grandpa Chin Chop's lap when she was done.  Michael and James enjoyed watching the dancers.

Clark came to play for a while, he and Ryder had a fun time drinking out of their funny cups, riding the trike and going to A&W.

This is Molly getting excited to come to Blackfoot.  She and Ryder got to color some eggs and play in the hot tub. 

April 20 - We had an Easter egg/treasure hunt. It was a little breezy, but nice enough to have it outside. Lots of smiles on these cute faces!

There was a lot of treasure to be found, some high, some low, some hidden really well, some in plain sight.  My 3 sons were the ones responsible for hiding the loot.

After the treasure hunt, we played with and held Hallie, played in the driveway on the bikes, and took some naps.

April 24 was a sad day for Cindy and Ken.  They had to make the hard decision to have their 11 year old Great Dane, Stormy put to rest.  The top picture is on her "gotcha" day, the bottom is on her "lostya" day.  Cindy had this stuffed one made, which is an amazing likeness of Stormy. 

April 26 - We had a little gathering at Grandma Beth's to see some visiting cousins.  We played some games, and Hallie got to meet Cousin Kenzley, who is 2 1/2 months older.  Everyone wanted a turn to hold our Hallie girl.

April 27 - Brian and the kids came down for a visit, we went to A&W, and played in the hot tub.  

This little girl has all our hearts.  She seems to grow and change on a daily basis. Love her to pieces!

I love spring, daffodils and tulips! They all started to bloom late in April.  Not a better sight in the world!

March 2019

Helen Grant Purcell, 93

Jan. 19, 1926 - Mar. 15, 2019

Blake's mother graduated this life and moved on to her next adventure on Friday, March 15th.  We're sure her reunion with Mark was amazing after being separated for 39 1/2 years.  We will miss her, but know that she's happy and isn't inhibited by her weak body any more. She was very weak and sick the last few weeks of her life. We feel very blessed that she's not miserable any longer.

These are the last pictures we have of her.  They were taken early in the month of March.  It was so nice that she got to meet Hallie. Brian went to see her a couple of times in March, but did not get any pictures.

The funeral was on Saturday, March 23rd at the Ammon LDS church.  It was a very nice, touching service. She was buried in the Ammon Cemetery.  Brian, Randy and Jared were pall bearers along with their cousins, Brent, Mark, Doug, Rhett and Blaine. It was a little windy, but a fairly nice spring day.

We were so thankful that Cindy and Ken could come, so that all our kids were here.  This picture is 24 of 26 of Helen's living grandchildren.  I don't think there has ever been a picture of this many of them together.  We went to visit Brody while we were at the cemetery.

We had a nice luncheon at the Goshen church.  The grandkids, except Hallie, were glad to be able to get up and move around after sitting for so long during the funeral and the ride to Goshen.  They were all very good during the whole day.  We snapped this quick picture of all of us after lunch.  Now we have a family picture that includes Hallie.

Now for the rest of March!

Brian turned 35 on March 1st, so we celebrated on March 2nd by going to Texas Roadhouse.  Annie took a bunch of pictures for me.

Annie loves to get on the saddle, and insisted Brian get on for his birthday.  Annie was thrilled, and Brian was a good sport.

Then, we went bowling! The kids loved it, the grown ups too! Courtney was so excited that she actually won!

Here are some more pictures that Annie and I took of the bowling fun.

March 3rd, Hallie's blessing day!  She was given a nice blessing by her daddy.  I just love these pictures of this cute little family.

Clark, Annie and Maden had not been able to meet Hallie yet, so they got their first chance at holding and loving on her.

We took a whole bunch of pictures of all our grandkids.  They were such troupers and so kindly let us take so many photos. You can see their personalities just by looking at these pictures.

Here they are lined up from youngest to oldest.  Love it!

Hallie is the star of the show, everyone loves to hold and love on her.  Grandma Beth and Grandpa Paul went to see her since they were not able to go her blessing. We love our Hallie girl, and are so glad she's part of our family.

March 9 - Randy, Blake and I took a drive to Island Park and West Yellowstone.  They had record snow fall in February, so we went to see it for ourselves.  It was amazing! You could only see the rooftops of the buildings along the highway.  

We drove to the snowmobile parking lot up near Big Springs.  There was about 6 feet of snow on the buildings. I've never seen so much snow! It was truly and amazing sight!

These are just some random pictures from March.  Ryder tried to convince himself that he liked bananas, but after one little bite, decided he didn't like it.  He did like the corn dog, if he had enough ketchup and mustard to dip it in.  Molly likes the car at Aunt Merralee's. Molly and Ryder had a fun time at the boat show.  Smiley Clark loved swinging, even if it was cold.  Ryder loves to "help" me play games on the iPad. I was shocked that he went right up front in story time.  He loved that Cindy and Ken let him get in the hot tub with them.

Mar 20 - Cindy and Ken had arrived, so we went up to the Iona Park and met Brian and his kids, and Nikelle, Molly and Hallie.  It was a little windy and chilly, so Nikelle left and took Hallie home.  Maden brought his wagon of treats to sell and made a few dollars.

March 21 - Annie, Clark and Ryder loved that it was warm enough to go out and swing for a few minutes.  I think we were all suffering from Spring Fever.

We went to eat at the Smokin' Fin in Idaho Falls.  Cindy and Ken had sushi, and talked Blake in to trying it.  He didn't like it very much.

March 22 - We took Ryder to A&W, he had to sit by Ken. We also went to see the chicks at Bingham Co-op.

We had dinner at Brian's before Grandma Purcell's viewing.  Grandpa got to hold Hallie.  At the viewing, Brian was the Hallie whisperer, she was very intrigued by him, staring at him for a good 10 minutes.  Molly, Ryder and Annie were very glad to see Grandma Beth.  Molly loves to pose for pictures.

March 23 - After all the funeral events, everyone came to our house, there was story reading, Egyptian playing and Hallie holding.  It was a nice relaxing time, after an emotional, stressful day.

March 29 - Blake and I made last minute plans to go see a Utah Jazz game.  We went to the Ogden Temple and to Iggy's on our way down to the game.  I loved all the fanfare as they announced the Jazz starters.  It was fun to see Courtney's sister, Mikala at the game.  She is a huge Jazz fan. It was a good game!

March 30 - Molly's 4th Birthday party.  I can't believe this cute, sweet little girl is 4! Her party was a Barbie/Superhero party.  It was so fun! Even Hallie and Jared were dressed up in their superhero clothes.  They had a dance party, pinned the sunglasses on the Barbie.  There was a very cute Barbie cake, and a real live Barbie!

There was a fashion show, the kids walked down the runway, and had their picture taken in a Barbie box.  It was a great time!

March 31 - Molly's actual birthday! Looks like she and Clark loved the spaghetti! Michael and James liked it too, just not all over their faces.

Molly loved having her own cupcake, and for everyone to sing to her. What a cutie!

We also sang to Celia, her birthday is April 3rd.  We sang to Michael, his birthday is April 1st. So, we also sang to Adam, his birthday is April 7th.  It was a good day to celebrate all the birthdays.

Molly got to open some presents, then share them with her cousins.  She loved pretending to "make" with her present from Cindy and Ken.