January 2019

Annie and Maden are playing in the Iona Basketball League.  This is Annie's first year, and her mom is the coach! It's really fun(ny) to watch.  Maden is playing with the same team and coach for the 3rd year.  They have improved so much and play together really  well as a team.  

January 6th, Nikelle's 27th Birthday! It snowed a lot during the night, so Blake had to plow before church.  We had dinner, cake and played some games, but the only picture of the games I got was of "Hungry, Hungry Hippo".

More basketball. Annie is becoming a little more aware of what she's supposed to be doing, and Maden is getting pretty good at being in the right place at the right time to get rebounds, make passes and baskets.

January 19th - Grandma Great, or Grandma Purcell, or Mom, or Helen's 93rd birthday! Molly loved singing with the rest of cousins.

More basketball games! Clark, Maden and Ryder had a fun time playing with cars during Annie's game.

Some random pictures from January.  Ryder found a huge bear at Jump In, Blake put a hazmat suit on when he stopped into Parkway, so he could go in the OR without changing clothes, Molly loves to "make" cookies or anything in the kitchen. Clark got to come and play with Ryder one afternoon.  Annie loves to take pictures at the ballgames, her friend took this one of her and Ryder, but she took the one of me.

 One cold Saturday, Blake and Randy went to help Jared do some electrical work. Jared got to go up in the bucket. Ryder loves to read stories, and sit in the "box" with the blankets. Randy and Ryder came to get in the hot tub one evening. Ryder loved that the lights changed colors.

December 2018

We celebrated Maden's 9th birthday on December 1st! He was thrilled that he got the candles all blown out in one breath! Such a cute boy. 

On December 5th, the actual birthday, he got to go to Pizza Pie Cafe and a movie with his family and two of his good friends. I still can't believe he's 9! Love you Maden.

These littles were so fun with the Christmas trees this year.  Clark was so excited that he made some ornaments for their tree, and Molly loved decorating her tree. She made some ornaments too, but I didn't get a picture. Such exciting things for 3 year olds.

Ryder got to make some ornaments too. Whenever we go to A&W, Ryder has to take a picture with the bear.  Annie got to go to an ISU Women's basketball game with her mom. She loved it, and even got a shirt.

We took a little drive over to Rupert to see my brother, Randy and sister-in-law Julie.  They are living in Nikelle's childhood home overseeing some repairs and projects to the house.  Jared was doing some work in the garage, or as we like to say, he was "lighting the world".  Molly was the only little one there, and she loved having Grandpa Chin Chopper read her some stories.

We celebrated Jared's 28th birthday on the 9th. (His real day is the 11th.) I can't believe my baby is 28! Annie and Molly love to be together, and always have a great time.

One day when I was tending Ryder, I had a dentist appointment, so Grandpa Chin Chopper (or my Dad, Paul Chambers) got to take care of Ryder for about an hour.  They both seemed to enjoy eating lunch and playing air hockey together.

This is what happened on Jared's real day, the first snowstorm of the year that Blake had to plow.

Jared and Nikelle were Mary and Joseph for their ward party.  Molly was a cute little shepherd girl.  So cute, all of them.

I added some snowflakes to my tree this year.  They are actually temples! I got one for each temple we have been inside! I love them!

And then there's this! My friend from High School, Renae Cramer Hill is an amazing artist, and had a drawing for a print of this amazing painting! And, I won!!!!! She was kind enough to bring it to me in person!!! I just feel bad that I didn't get a picture of her. I absolutely love it! It goes perfectly in this space with my other decorations.

Molly had her first real dance recital. She looked so darling and danced so well for a 3 year old.  It was so fun to go watch her. She had a lot of supporters there, she's very loved.

I love these pictures of Molly and Ryder with Santa.  Nikelle loved seeing Santa's reaction when Molly told him that she wanted a light switch and a ding dong (meaning doorbell) for her playhouse. Ryder was really brave and almost kind of liked sitting on his lap.

I love this picture of Annie reading a story to Molly.  Maden was very intrigued with the game Jared was playing.

I also love this picture! Such a sweet forever family.

Jared is pretty happy with his early Christmas present! Brian's family came down to stay for Christmas Eve. We had dinner, made a gingerbread house, and played games. 

One tradition we started a few years ago was having Monkey Bread on Christmas morning. I put the dough in the pans the night before and let it rise all night, then cook it on Christmas morning.  Ken heard about this and they decided to make their own.  So I call this Monkey Bread Wars.  Ours are on the left, Cindy and Ken's on the right.  I think we are all winners of this war!

I only got pictures of Randy and Maden eating the monkey bread, this is Maden's second helping, he loves it! Randy loves it too, Ken and Cindy loved it too, it's good stuff!

Molly is thrilled with her light switch! The kids love opening the presents they've been so curious about.

More present opening fun.  Maden, Annie and Clark made me some ceramic snowmen. I love them! And I love that they were so excited to give them to me, and that they worked so hard to make them beautiful. I'm just not very good about making sure to get good pictures.

Blake got everyone some cool, non glare sunglasses. Now everyone is cool!

Clark loves his truck and trailer, that's one of his favorite things to do, play with trucks that have trailers.  Christmas can tucker everyone out.  Ryder got a turn at playing the Hungry Hippo game, pretty fun.

I'm happy that Ryder likes the writing board thing we gave him. Grandma Purcell really liked the book that Cindy put together for her. It has pictures of everyone that visited her during the year.  It was a lot of work getting all the pictures from everyone and getting them sent in to be printed in the book.  Everyone really likes it and has look to see if they made the book.

There was plenty of rabbit hunting in December.  The new guns work really good. They went so much, that they didn't take pictures every time.  Sure has been a fun pastime this year.

November 2018

On a cold Saturday, November 3rd, Brian, Celia, Maden and Annie participated in the Tater Tot Run in Blackfoot at Jensen's Grove.  Maden and Annie could have waited and run with the kids, but they decided to run with their parents.  Annie got a little tired some of the time, so Celia carried her on her back.  Brian and Maden got a little confused at the turn around spot and ended going 6 K instead of 5.  Brian and Maden came across the finish line just a little ahead of the kid runners, so they thought Maden was the 1st kid, and he got the 1st place prize.

After the race, they came and played for awhile.  They had a great time with the fast track and cars.  Maden and the kids liked playing with his Mr. Potato Head prize.

Annie lost her a tooth on top, just enough space for her tongue to poke through.  Maden lost another one on top, so he has three missing on top!

Molly got to come stay with us for three nights! Her Koala Crate was all about rainbows, she loved making a rainbow/cloud pillow.  She got to go visit Grandma Great.  Annie loves to get her face painted at Texas Roadhouse.

It snowed a little during the night, so Molly is posing in front of the window, so we can see the snow.  When she saw the Mrs. Butterworth syrup, she just hugged it and said "I love Princess Syrup!"  I had fun doing her hair, she's so good to sit still and let me do it.

Ryder came to play, then we went to Red Lobster, of course Ryder and Molly had to sit together.  Ryder used to like looking at the lobsters, but was scared this time.  Molly liked them though.  Meanwhile, at Brian's house, Clark was helping decorate their Christmas Tree. 

Molly got to go to church with us, she loved the nursery.  She wanted to wear Grandpa's glasses, she said they made things look funny.  She got to be here when Cindy and Ken arrived! They came for a Thanksgiving visit.  It was a horrible drive through Nebraska for them, we sure were glad when they arrived safely.

We had our Thanksgiving Dinner on Tuesday, due to Randy's work schedule.  We also had a mini Christmas, too.  Cindy and Ken brought presents for all the kids and Blake and I.  

My talented sister, Tricia made these digital watercolor portraits for me to give to my kids and parents.  She surprised me with one of Blake and I, and a 4x6 of each of the kids portraits.  They are so awesome!

Ken and Cindy also bought a basketball game for our house, it's so huge it has to stay in the garage.  Randy and Jared had to test it out.  So did Molly and Ryder.  Ryder loves it and wants to play almost every time he comes.

On Wednesday, we went to see Grandma Purcell.  She seems to be doing well.  In the first picture with Cindy, she told her to "act happy". 

Cindy and Ken left early in the morning on Thanksgiving to try to get ahead of some stormy weather.  So, Blake and I and Brian's family crashed Thanksgiving Dinner at my parents house.  My sister Lynne and some of her family were there, so we played a lot of games besides eating another great Thanksgiving Dinner.  Ryan and Samuel entertained Maden and Annie all afternoon, by making forts, and playing air hockey.

Brian and Celia played singles and doubles at the Turkey Tennis Tournament at Apple, in Idaho Falls.  Celia ended up winning the singles! We only made it up to one match.  It was fun to watch tennis again.  The kids were very good and quiet.

Annie was a brave girl and got her ears pierced! She looks so grown up! She took this close up selfie when se was playing with my phone at the tennis match.

Ryder got to help his mom decorate their tree, then he and Molly helped decorate my tree.  Molly liked playing with Ryder's ball game he got from Cindy and Ken.

We got all decorated for Christmas on Friday.  The top picture is 2017, the bottom one is this year with all updated pictures.

Ryder loves the basketball game, he knows which buttons to push and what music it will play and what it will say.  He had to play Quixx like Randy and I.  When he goes to A&W, he always wants to get a picture with the bear.

My niece, Michelle brought her two cute little boys, Michael and James over to play with Ryder one afternoon.  Michael and Ryder played really cute.  They are really nice boys, it was fun to have them come play.

Rabbit Hunting

Saturday, November 17. Blake and Randy went out west of Blackfoot on the desert to see if there were any rabbits this year.  Looks like there were! They had a great time.

Monday, November 19.  Ken came prepared to go out rabbit hunting too.  They were successful again!  Ken loved it too!

Wednesday, November 21.  Blake and Ken went back out for another time.  Each time they got more rabbits.

Thursday, November 22.  This time, Brian and my nephew Joseph got to go find the rabbits. They always seem to be able to find plenty.

Friday, November 23.  Finally, Jared got to go! They still found some!

The kids got Blake a new 12 gauge semi-automatic gun and gave it to him as an early Christmas present.  Courtney gave Randy one too!

Monday, November 26.  Blake and Randy went out again to try out their new guns. They love them! There must be an over abundance of rabbits this year.  They sure have had fun!