Leonard’s Birthday

Leonard is another year older.  Seems like birthday’s come a lot faster when you get older.   Because I am pregnant, I couldn’t decide what to make him for a “cake”.  I tried to get him to decide but he said both ideas were great….so we made both and invited lots of family over to celebrate and help us eat! 

The first cake was a chocolate lava tube cake.  It was made with real dark chocolate with a ganache frosting that was SOOO yummy.  When you cut the cake the center was fudgy – like lava.  Awesome!

The second dessert was a huckleberry cheesecake.  I found a recipe online for this and it was the only one I could find that had huckleberries inside and as a topping.  The cheesecake was marbled beautifully with purple huckleberries.  I think it is now a family favorite and will be made over and over again.  Makes my mouth water thinking about it and I don’t even really love cheesecake!

Yes, that mish-mosh of candles somehow equals 38!

Before we went to Hawaii Leonard bought himself a new mask.  I got him the snorkel to match and he tried it on for size!  Love it!

Lots of family, food, gifts.  We love you babe!

Kaydra’s New Bedroom

This room was a long time in coming.  We gave Kaydra new bedding for her new room for her birthday when she turned 11 – in August of 2012 – almost a year ago!  We thought we would have her new room finished much sooner.  Leonard had surgery, I was pregnant, and only a little money at a time was set aside to finish the bedroom a bit at a time.  Leonard hung the drywall and did the mud, tape, and texturing.  He did a great job.  I painted the walls.  Leonard did the trim (with help from Mark Irving – our guest for about a month this summer) I put a finish on all the trim once it was up.  We bought some carpet off the roll at Home Depot and put it down.  We plan to carpet the whole basement all at the same time when we are able to finish the rest of it.  Finally she was able to move in!  I love, love, love her new room.  It is so cozy and quiet.  I hope she likes it as much as I do.  I think that she does.  She is happy to be out of the bonus room and have some space to her own that doesn’t end up with a million toys all over it. 

She wanted to paint the entire room turquoise, but she has conservative parents   She agreed to one wall turquoise and the rest yellow.  I think it turned out awesome!

The dresser and the desk were mine growing up.  We repainted both of them and they look fabulous.  I even repainted the hardware. 

She has this great light that we have had our eyes on for a year.  I love all the colors.

And a new chair for her birthday THIS year!

I also love the door we got for her.  We don’t have much “log” downstairs as compared to the rest of the house so we decided to go with pine doors for all the rooms downstairs.  They look great!

And her closet is one that every girl can love.  I wish my closet was this big!  She says now that she needs more clothes to fill it up.  I have no fear that this closet will be full one day of my teenage daughter’s clothes!!

Sorry it took us so long, Kaydra – I think that it was worth it in the end!  It’s awesome!

Kelly Creek Camping Trip

Every year the Regional Single Adults hold a conference in Coeur d’Alene in July.  We are instructed to go to church somewhere else.  We decided to take advantage of the one weekend in the summer that we didn’t have commitments at church and go on a family campout.  I have fond memories of having family church at the cabin growing up and wanted a taste of that for my own kids.  (FYI, the church doesn’t really let you do that anymore, but we thought we could still have a family testimony meeting out in the woods!) 

So, we packed up the truck and a whole lot of stuff and headed out to Kelly Creek on the Idaho/Montana boarder.  It is beautiful up there!  I had never been there but Leonard and his family have talked about this place for as long as I have known them.  I am glad we finally found enough time to go and take the kids.  I was a little leery being 6 1/2 months pregnant with a 2 year-old.  The last time I went camping with a 2 year old (Miranda) it was a very, very long couple of  nights; but, I was in good company with Sara, who was 7 1/2 months pregnant and their son, Bridger, who was 17 months. 

We arrived to find a great camping spot with lots of space for everyone – including a few billion mosquitos.  We set up camp and Leonard and his Dad hunted for firewood and came back with huckleberry bushes! (firewood too)  Len said he could smell them before he could see them.   We also discovered that we had about 2 ounces of mosquito repellant for all 17 of us.  I did not want to be eaten alive all weekend nor have my kids be eaten all weekend so it was decided that Leonard and Neil would go for a “drive” and buy more repellant.  It was, unfortunately, about an hour each way to the nearest town.  Leonard must really love me – or love to go on drives in the middle of the woods (a little of both, I think!)

The kids played in the river and we cooked dinner in the fire while they were gone.  The fire seemed to keep the mosquitos at bay and we had a great evening.  One of my fears, camping with a 2-year-old, never came to fruition.  At about 8:30 Timber came to me and said, “Pass – ni-night”  Which in Timber language means, “I am tired.  I want my pacifier and to be put to bed.”  So I took her to our tent, showed her her sleeping bag, tucked her in ---- and ---- she went to sleep!!  HUH!?  Who does that?  She was like that all weekend.  When she was tired and ready for bed or nap, she would come tell me and then she would go to sleep.  It was by far, the best camping-with-a-2-year-old trip I have ever had.  Awesome!

We were able to do lots of fun things.  We picked huckleberries, swam in the river, cooked over the fire, did some fly fishing (a bit), and saw some beautiful country.  We also had our testimony meeting around the fire on Sunday morning.  We came home happy, healthy, and with only a few mosquito bites.  We also came home with 26 cups of huckleberries – these big kids are starting to pay off a little bit and earn their keep!  Timberlyn and Bridger were so cute eating berries off the bushes as fast a they could.  Purple fingertips were everywhere!  

I didn’t take as many pictures as I should have, but here are a few to remember the trip!

I hope we can do it again next year!

Happy 2nd Birthday Timberlyn!

My baby turned 2 this summer!  Seems like we just brought her home from the hospital.  I am starting to realize how fast time starts to go as my kids get older.  When Kaydra and Kanyon were just little, and before they started school, it seemed like they would be little forever.  Now, all I do is blink and another year has flown by. 

We had banana splits for her birthday.  I haven’t had one of those for so long and they are so good!  We made a strawberry cake and cut it into small pieces to go with the splits.  We had ice cream, caramel, chocolate syrup, strawberry jam, whipped cream, and sprinkles.  And of course bananas.  They were yummy. 

She didn’t want her picture taken at first.

Miranda had to show her what to do….

Then she warmed up a bit!

What a cute, big girl!!

She had fun blowing out her candles which was good.  Last year she cried when we sang to her.  She loved to open the presents.  It was a good night and fun to share with family and cousins.

Happy Birthday, little princess!

Summer Days

I haven’t blogged at all this summer.  My blogging always correlates with my picture taking and that hasn’t been very good this summer either.  I am going to try to write a few things since we actually had a great summer and I want to remember it some day.  I really should blog more often. 

The summer came in loud and clear after the kids were out of school.  The Throckmortons showed up to LIVE in Coeur d’Alene about a week later.  The kids were so exited to have cousins to play with just down the road.  We made it a daily schedule to fit in a trip to the lake.  We seriously went almost every single day.  That is THE best part about being in Coeur d’Alene in the summer – Honestly.  We made a couple early summer trips floating down the Coeur d’Alene river in inner tubes.  It was awesome.  The water is cold but the sun is warm and the combination is just perfect.  Wish I had pictures!

The 4th of July brought the Stephans to visit as well.  We managed to fit in a trip to Silverwood and a bike ride on the Hiawatha trail.  We also held the 2nd ever FTS Olympic games in which all the adult couples compete for a coveted trophy – or compete to NOT lose because the loser plans the next games!  Either way, Leonard and I won the games and we have the trophy sitting on our mantle for anyone to see.   Again, no pictures.  I know that there are several pictures out there so hopefully I will snag a few before this blog entry gets published! 

The kids put on their own little carnival with all the cousins here complete with face painting, a fish pond, carnival games, and a water fight.  They also had cotton candy, snow cones, and a bunch of toys to give away at the end.  Good times with fun family! 

Miranda learned how to use the camera and so there are a bunch of random pictures on mine.  None of them have anything to do with any of the activities that I talked about – but they will have to do because it’s all I have.