My buddy, my buddy, my buddy and me!

My kids crack me up. They have become such cute little buddies...don't get me wrong Ella still steals things from Jack and can be a little rough at times and he still tries to crawl all over her and pull her hair but they have a lot of fun together as well. They love to make each other laugh and can keep each other pretty entertained at times. I love it because when Jack is crying in their room when he wakes up Ella will sing to him, do silly things that make him laugh and say
" It's ok bud." and he calms right down and will usually end up jabbering right along with her. He will make these high pitched squawks and she loves to mimic him and so they end up sounding like some kind of primitive velociraptor (as Chad would say) communicating with each other. One afternoon they both woke up from their naps and they seriously played in their room communicating in their foriegn baby tongue for like 35 minutes! Don't think me a bad mom but i thought it was good for them to "bond" with one another and since neither of them were crying i thought hey i'll get a couple more things done! :) It was awesome.





She was giving him a hug and he decided her shoulder looked tasty so of course he thought why not suck on it? She thought this was quite hilarious!



As you can see her shoulder is all wet and slimy from Jack's super duper drool power he posesses.



Aww kisses!



This baby loves to smile. Even when he is crying he will break into a smile at times!



Our little Tinkerbell...we tell her a bedtime story every night and every night we ask her what she wants it to be about and she always says "Tinka-bell". She truly loves the Peter Pan movie and pretty much every day she says she wants to watch the "Pirate Show". She loves the "croca-gator"as she calls it, that is always after Capt. Hook and will walk around the house singing, "Ti-dum-Teedee a deedley dum ti- day." It's really funny.



She has developed quite the headlock...



This little drool-osaur as we call him is a little munch mouth. He has become such a little begger ever since he started eating solid foods and pretty much will attack anyone who is eating ANYTHING in front of him.



I just love those big baby blue eyes that he has. They melt my heart.



Pretty much these two make me laugh, cry, sing, dance, pull my hair out, entertained, exhausted, refreshed, impatient, excited, and have given me some of the grestest joys I have ever experienced in my life. They are truly amazing.

Splash Park!

So it's me (Chad) again, trying to redeem myself and accomplish a full post. I don't know how Crystal does this time after time, she is amazing and hot!



This is Ella at the water park here in El burgo. It is a classic picture of how excited Ella gets about just about everything in life...except sleeping lately...whenever we tell her it's time for a nap she says..."I can't sweep (sleep)" with pretty much the most sad and dramatic face she can put on. She is a stinker that girl.



One of the many expressions that we get from our daughter. Obviously, she was quite excited to play at the Splash Park.



This is a tricky and seasoned veteran, you can't tell but she is actually standing on the fountain. Yes, she is a magician.



There in the background is her little buddy, Ryan. They had fun playing there together, Ella just punched him in the nose. Jk, but it kind of looks like it...



It's time to start polishing the gun. This is essentially second base for kids under 3 years old.

Henkel Family Island Park Trip

This is Chad signing in here...

So Ella, what can we say? She is a funny little girl, all of the Henkel's got together in the last week of July and did some "camping" in Island Park, ID... as in we all pitched in and rented a cabin. It was a lot of fun. Here is Ella taking a break from chasing birds. I don't think she ever came to the conclusion that she'd never catch them. She is tenacious.





Here is the little bear having fun with Gramps, she was really liking the rocking chair.



My little niece Macazlyn is a funny little girl. If she is going to show affection in the kissing department you can expect an open-mouther.



As you can tell, not everyone is comfortable with it. "SAVE ME!"



So us kids floated the Henry's Fork as a little getaway, the sweet g-parents watched the babes for us. It was a lot of fun for the first 45 min when we had lots of energy. However, the float lasted a good 2.5 hours and the water was super shallow in some areas so we had to pretty much get out and push at some points. Needless to say it was a good time with the fam.





(So Chad couldn't handle finishing a whole post so I had to take over...i guess it was a good try for his 1ST time ever posting in like the 3 years I've been doing it. :) Love you still bud!)

Dallon and Chad decided to jump in to the pretty frigid water.



He's really hardcore...can you tell?



Uncle Dallon is Ella and Jackson's buddy.



Jack and his cousin Macazlyn are pretty good buddies... if you call their constant poking and mauling each other being friends then i'd say they're the best. :) It's way cute to see Cazzy get excited to see him and like to touch his face. I think he enjoys it too!



While we were at Island Park we got to go to Yellowstone for free! It was fun to see the sights again being that all of us hadn't seen them since we were young.



Of the animals to see there, we got to see 1 buffalo and a bald eagle in it's nest which was pretty cool.



On our way home from I.P. we stopped at Mesa Falls and there was this awesome rainbow there. The pic doesn't do it justice!



I'm not sure what our kids were looking at...



Sweet little Cazzy and Auntie Angie-bo-bangie!



The whole crew.



Ella was getting really into sniffing flowers! Even though there was a sign not to pick the flowers that we happened to see AFTER she had had a good ol' time picking as many as her little hands could carry, what can I say she's our flower child. Oopsie!

Well we had a good time getting to have a little R&R in the wilderness with the fam, with good food and good company, what else can you ask for? Hope to make this into a tradition! Love you Henkels!

Kemmerer Concert and 4th of July

Back at the end of June we went up to Kemmerer for the weekend so that we could watch Chad's Mom's community concert choir that she conducts and puts everything together for! She is amazing! It was a good time to be with family and to see the awesome patriotic performance they put on!



While we were there Ella and her cousin Cazzy took a bath together.



Giving each other kisses!



Grandpa tying them up with the shower cord...quite a good idea i might add! :)



And of course with their new fashionable hairstyles!



I just thought this picture was funny cause they look so interested in what Grandpa was doing. They're like in a trance or something.



Then of course they had to have a splash party...



It was quite the exciting bath.



Here's lil' Jack lovin life on daddy's shoulders. He would constantly lean over Chad's head and suck on his hair. It was really funny but I didn't get a shot of it.



Chad took me on a really masculine ride on his dad's motorcycle! We look really hard core with our helmets on huh?

On the way to Boise for 4th of July...



Jackson-boy doin' the usual- chewin' and slobberin' over everything!



But he definitely has one of the most contagious smiles ever!



My sister Tiffany bought a Duck randomly and Ella loved him with all of her heart! She did not want to leave him alone...the cutest thing about this Duck (named Wally by the way) is that Tiffany bought it as a little gosling and so it thinks that humans are his Momma duck and anywhere you walk it will follow you around and mimic what you do. For example my mom was out gardening in their backyard and Wally followed her everywhere trying to pull up weeds just like her. Plus he is completely friendly and will let you hold him and pet him etc. So pretty much Ella wanted to be his best friend.



Aww buddies.



The night before the 4th we lit off some sparklers to give Ella a taste of the fun she would experience the following night.



She thought that was a blast!



For the 4th we went to Anne Morrison Park to watch the big fireworks show there in Boise.
It was actually quite an impressive show and we ended up having front row seats! It was quite cool to be that close but made for a pretty loud boom which Ella did not care for. When they first started she was really freaked out and kept saying, " I wanna go home Mama." But I covered her ears for the rest of the show and I think she ended up liking them.



Jack was a pretty happy little guy the whole time and thought the fireworks were pretty mesmerizing.



Some of the fam that came with us to the park.



Cody helped cover her ears for awhile as well. :) Sweet little uncle!



Jack was glued!





Uncle Ty was holding Jack and he was liking grabbing and holding his face. It was really cute.



Sparkler fun!



El was pretty tired by the end since we had to keep her up late so she could watch the fireworks but i think she enjoyed it which was worth it!

Good times celebrating our Country's Independence. I am so grateful to live in this country with the many opportunities and freedoms we are able to enjoy. God Bless America!