A Facelift and Winter Arrives

I decided that my blog needed a facelift so I updated it today.  It had been a couple of years and it was definitely time for a new look. 

Winter has finally arrived in north Idaho.  We have been waiting and waiting!  We thought it had started back in November, only to disappoint us until now.  It has been snowing off and on for the past week and we even had a snow day on Friday because they couldn’t get all the roads plowed fast enough.  That made it a perfect day for the kids to stay home and play in the snow.  They were delighted.  I had to work that day, so it was a snow day home with Dad.  Fun was had by all. 

Last night I decided to brave the snow with Timberlyn and try out the sleds and our little hill to the side of the house.

KanyonMirandaKaydraTimberlyn I have to say that it wasn’t too bad for a hill right outside – I would have loved it as a kid – and the kids had a good time.  Timberlyn was nice and warm in her little snowsuit courtesy of uncle Mike Throckmorton – a gift before she was even born.

  How cute are they?!!We had a good time and the older kids were tougher than Timber and I.  We lasted only about 20 minutes but they were out well past dark and I had to call them in.  I have decided that my favorite time of year is when any season is in full swing – it’s the in between seasons that are tough.  Bring on the snow – but  when it’s time, then let me see the sun shine away!

Kaydra’s cat

For those that are wondering, we still have a cat.  The cat managed to work its way into our bathroom for almost a month.  The kids would play with it and try to get it to become accustomed to us.  Finally, we were having company over for Christmas Eve dinner and we needed our guest bathroom to be available!  Plus, we were getting ready to head out of town so we decided to acclimate the cat to it’s new home in the garage.  It was litter trained by this time, so we were hopeful that it would continue to use the litter box in the garage.  Leonard cleaned out the bathroom after we put the cat out -- while I was making dinner for our guests.  I have never heard him sneeze so much at one time.  It was quite entertaining and I appreciate him doing that – even though it was torturing him.   Poor guy!! 

Anyway, the cat found a new home under our freezer in the garage.  He continues to be scared of us and terrified of any loud noise.  He doesn’t hiss as much but still prefers to hide from us – well most of us anyway.  It’s been quite funny to learn that the cat has chosen Kaydra as its owner.  Leonard left one day for work and said “The garage has been open and I think the cat must have gotten out because I haven’t seen him all afternoon.”  Kaydra went out to the garage and called one time for the cat and he came right to her!   This happened another time when Leonard needed to find the cat for some reason.  He kept calling and calling with absolutely no response.  He called Kaydra and she called only one time again and the cat came right to her. 

He seems to be getting better and will now come for Kanyon and Miranda at times…funny how animals pick their favorites too!  We renamed the cat “Mystery”.  Then we learned that he is indeed a boy, so we switched it again to “Mister E”!  We think we’re pretty clever!  On the plus side, he uses the litter box in the garage faithfully

Timberlyn–6 months

Holy Cow!  Where has all the time gone?  My baby girl is six months old!   Here she is in her bassinet for the last time.  I took this picture because it seems she is protesting the swaddle. We still swaddle her at night because she ALWAYS wakes herself up by rubbing her face.  I am starting to let her take naps without the swaddle though so she can start getting used to it.  I thought it was funny that she seemed to be saying, “I want my arms stretched out as far as they will go!”

We put her in a crib, still in our room.  It’s purely selfish.  I actually think she would sleep better if she was in a room by herself, but I don’t want to walk up the stairs in the middle of the night to feed her.  She doesn’t wake up every night, but frequently wakes up between 4 or 5 in the morning.  I usually feed her and then we go back to sleep.  I like to do that as quickly as possible! 

She still seems like a little baby and I am happy to keep her that way.  She seems to give me a hug when I pick her up – I love it as she squeezes my neck and buries her face in my hair.  She likes to snuggle but will rarely fall asleep in my arms.  I think only twice in the last few months.  She got a new high chair and a jumper for Christmas and she LOVES the jumper.  It’s so fun to watch her jump and jump.  All the kids want one their size!

She loves it when someone talks to her and continues to smile with almost all eye contact.  She is starting to recognize her family – especially mom-- and seems to prefer us.  She is still a mellow and easy going kid.  She likes food and is starting to eat a little baby food and cereal.  She dives at the spoon every time but it doesn’t always stay in her mouth.  She is still not rolling over or even attempting to crawl.  She can’t sit up yet either but I don’t really give her much opportunity to try.  She doesn’t get much floor time with all the people we have around the house.  In fact, the other night she was on the floor and Miranda stepped on her.  It’s a dangerous place out there!   She is starting to fuss if we don’t pick her up when we walk by her.  She will smile and coo and do everything she can to get your attention.  She loves toys and will sit in her high chair for quite a long time just playing with things on her tray while I cook dinner.  She is still the happiest baby and I LOVE HER!

A little catching up…

So I have a little catching up to do.  I connected my camera and realized that Leonard HAD taken some pictures of Christmas.  Actually, only a couple but I thought I better share them so that we can someday prove that we actually had Christmas in 2011!

Here is Christmas morning at our house this year.

Pretty exciting, huh?!  We did make it up before the sun this year and we were treated to a beautiful sunrise.  Leonard managed to catch that as well.  I love this beautful place that we live!

Even though we didn’t record it very well, we truly feel blessed.  Especially during the holiday season.  We have so many things to be thankful for.

No Pictures

So I failed as a mother this year because I didn’t take a single picture of the holidays this year – not one!  Did I mention it’s Timberlyn’s first Christmas!  We’ll never be able to prove to her that she was here – Actually she slept the entire time we opened presents Christmas morning – so technically, she did miss it! 

We went to Idaho Falls after Christmas for about 5 days and I didn’t take any pictures there either.  I guess I better write a little bit about our trip so we can say that we actually went!  We got there on Tuesday evening, December 27.  Courtney’s family and Jake’s family were both out of town so we had Grandma and Grandpa to ourselves for a day, which the kids enjoyed.  They were super excited when their cousins returned home on Wednesday night.  When we asked them what they wanted to do in Idaho Falls they said “play with cousins”  When we were driving home and we asked them what their favorite part of the trip was, they said, “playing with cousins!”  I guess that means the trip was successful!

Timberlyn was the perfect age to travel. She was pretty good in the car and she’s not quite to the “stranger danger” phase yet so she was happy with anyone holding her. She is still such a happy baby. She had one night where it seemed she hardly slept, but otherwise, she did great.

We truly enjoyed our time together.   It would have only been better if Markell and her family and Scott and his family could have been there too.  Oh – and Jackson – but he’s where he’s supposed to be right now!  I hadn’t thought of it before now, but we had my parents first four children and their families there.  Our family would have been SO different if my parents had only had four kids.  We really missed those younger three!!   We stayed to celebrate the New Year and had a good time playing games on New Year’s Eve.   Then we headed home the next day.  It was really great to get away together – it had been too long since we had done that.  I am so grateful for all my family – now if I can just remember to take pictures of them!