Spring Break

Last year for Spring Break we traveled to Seattle and had a great time.  This year we stayed home and many people traveled to see us instead!  It was a lot of fun to have most of my family here from Idaho Falls.  We missed Scott, Traci, & Enoch – who are expecting a baby any day – and, of course, Jackson who is in Peru.  Otherwise, everyone else (all 21 of us) was in Coeur d’Alene this past week!  We had a full house and enjoyed having everyone here to celebrate Kanyon’s baptism.  

The fun started on Tuesday, March 20.  Mom and Courtney came in one car with Courtney’s kids and Jake and Jana came in another car with their kids.  My kids were so happy to see them all here! We had a fun evening and settled everyone in to their sleeping quarters for the week (Jake and Jana stayed with Neil and Kay – Thank you!!)  On Wednesday, Leonard had to work and I had a class in the morning that I had to go to so it was nice to have in-house babysitters.  It rained most of the day that day but the kids didn’t care.

Riley, Miranda, Tarek

They were all outside in the rain/hail/snow and had a good, wet time. 

Markell, Andre, and Archimedes made it up Wednesday from Moscow.  On Thursday we all headed to Triple Play.  We planned to spend the day there and we had a great time.  This is where the picture overload will start – thanks to Courtney and her new camera which I now covet  

First up was bowling!

Miranda

Archimedes

Mom/Grandma Fuller

Riley and Jana

Kanyon – in action

Timberlyn – right before she fell asleep!

Sweet Miranda girl

Miranda and MomTarek

Kaydra – my lefty

After about an hour of bowling – my mom beat us all the first game – we headed to Rock climbing.

Tarek

Kanyon

Kaydra

Kalli

Riley

Miranda

Jake

Brooke – I totally could not climb the wall – a little embarrassing!

After a little climbing we played laser tag – no pictures of that – and also a little mini-golf on a pretty boring course.  At least it was a quick round!

About this time we were all starving and luckily it was time for lunch!  We had reserved a room and had planned to have pizza.  It was actually pretty good pizza and was a nice break from the constant noise that is Triple Play.

Sage (Jake’s baby) and Timberlyn

the kids – waiting for pizza!

After we were all satisfied from lunch we changed our clothes and headed to Raptor Reef – the indoor water park at Triple Play. I don’t have any pictures of that but it was lots of fun.  We played there for about three hours.  It was a busy day but the kids had a blast and since it rained all day AGAIN it was good to have something to do with them indoors. 

Paul, Dad, Dan, and Dreyken were able to come to Coeur d’Alene that night.  By then we had 21 people at my house most of the time.  It reminded me of the days we used to have at the cabin with all the cousins.  I have many memories of those days and I hope my kids think of this spring break as fondly as I do of those days at the cabin. We were glad everyone could come. 

On Friday, Grandpa, Jake and Dan took the kids to the movie while Leonard and Paul stayed home with Sage and Timberlyn and the girls went to town with Archimedes.  It was fun to window shop and have a little time without all the kids.  Thanks guys!

Satuday was another day at home and getting ready for the baptism.  I think I’ll do a separate post about that.   We did find time to dye some Easter Eggs.

Jake and Riley

Kalli

Kaydra and Kalli – these two get along so well

Kaydra

Miranda

Brooke and Miranda

Dreyken and Courtney

Kanyon

Tarek and Kanyon

Dreyken and Tarek

Grandma and Timberlyn

Archimedes and Andre

The final product!

All in all we had a really good time and are so thankful for the wonderful family that we are tied together with.  Thank you all for coming and spending some time with us in Coeur d’Alene.  Come again soon!!

8 months

I didn’t post about Timberlyn last month so I thought I should catch up a bit.  She is eight months old now and really developing her own little personality.  She is still a happy baby and loves any attention that we give her.  She is laughing and we love to listen to her giggle.  She still won’t roll over or crawl at all.  I think she could roll if she wanted but she doesn’t seem all that interested.  She can sit up though, and she’ll play with toys which makes it really nice.  I can sit her on the floor and surround her with toys and she just sits and plays and doesn’t go anywhere! 

She has started on solid foods and likes pretty much everything.  Her favorite things are anything she can feed herself.  She likes crackers and pizza crust and is starting to like a little dry cereal but it takes her awhile before she can get a piece to her mouth. I think half of the enjoyment is watching her try to get it there!   She doesn’t like to be left alone and will cry if she can’t see anyone for too long. 

She likes to take baths and love to play in the water just like Miranda.  We are excited for the beach this summer.  She is starting to recognize that people look different.  She smiles for those that she knows and studies those that she doesn’t.  If you pass the test, then she will give strangers a smile too!   I have to teach at church and when Leonard is gone for stake business then she gets passed around to different members at church.  She seems to tolerate it pretty good.

She still has an umbilical hernia that she has had since birth. We took her to a surgeon and he plans to look at her again at one year old to see if she will need surgery to correct it.

 

It freaks us out a little bit but she doesn’t seem to care. It’s a little weird though and makes a squeaky noise when it moves in and out – it mostly scares me when I can hear it across the room in the morning as she wakes up! We hope that it will correct itself as she gets bigger!

I am still nursing her although she has become more of a social eater.  She doesn’t like to be covered up and she likes to eat a little and then look around and then eat a little again.  Needless to say,  I have to nurse her in a private, quiet room or it takes FOREVER!!!

She is starting to babble and will say “dada” when she is happy.  She can also clap her hands and she does this when she is happy too.  She “pops” her mouth by smacking her lips – sometimes when she is hungry- sometimes just for fun.  She can also be pretty loud when she wants to be - some pretty good squeals come out of that girl!!

She is a really good baby and I can’t believe that it has been 8 months since she was born.  These last 8 months certainly went faster then the previous months when I was pregnant with her! 

Love you Timber!

Invent Idaho

Last weekend we had the opportunity to travel to Moscow to participate in the Invent Idaho competition.  Kaydra and her friend Makenna Carpenter had submitted an invention at their school that had managed to place 1st  for a “non-working model”. 
The girls invented something called “Grow-a-matic”.  It is a special formula that you spray on your hair brush and then when you brush your hair, it grows about an inch every 5 minutes.  It’s purpose would be very useful for balding men, anyone who lost their hair due to chemotherapy, or teenage girls that wished their hair to be longer for the next prom!  
After the school competition the project placed 2nd at the District tournament and then 2nd again at Regionals.  This was what qualified them for the state competition that is held in Moscow every year.  It was also a good excuse to visit Markell, Andre, and Archimedes.  The kids were out of school on Friday, March 9 and Leonard had to work all day so we made the trip with everyone but Leonard.  We picked up some Winger’s sticky fingers and took them to Markell’s house to have lunch with them.  Then we left the little ones with Markell (Thank you!!) and walked to the Student Union Building to register the project.  We were then able to go on some tours that had been prepared for the Invent Idaho students.  Kanyon came with us to one of them where some grad students managed to blow some things up without killing anyone and made us instant ice cream with liquid Nitrogen.  Pretty amazing to young scientists!  We picked up the little kids from Markell and headed back home. 
Then next day, Kaydra and I made the journey back to Moscow for the awards ceremony and the Ice Cream Social.  The girls were supposed to stand by their project for 1/2 hour so that people could ask them questions. 

During this time, the MC , “Bashful Dan” from the radio K102, was wandering the floor with Senator John Goedde.  The girls were asked if they would take a picture with the Senator. 

  “Bashful Dan” REALLY liked the girls project and spoke of it many times during the ceremony.   Then he let us know that he was going to talk about them on the radio the next day.  We tuned in to K102 the next evening and heard him talk about Kaydra and Makenna and their project.  Because it is a “non-working model” the spray that they had at the convetion was actually glue with food coloring and glitter.  When Dan heard this, he thought it was pretty funny and said that the girls were trying to trick him into putting glue on his head.  Because of this statement, he dedicated the next song to them…Sugarland’s  “Stuck like Glue!” 
They didn’t win any awards at the state competition but they had a great time.  And the Ice Cream was worth it all !  
Congratulations girls for a job well done!

Kan-man

I am very behind in the blogging world.  It’s definitely high time that I write about our Kanyon.  Kanyon shares a birthday with my Grandma Parry on March 2nd.  He’s always liked that.  To celebrate we went to his restaurant of choice, Texas Roadhouse!

He was so excited to sit on the saddle while everyone gave him a big, "Yee Haw!" Timberlyn, on the other hand, didn't like that and cried very loud!!

We had a small family party for him the next night with Grandma and Grandpa FitzSimmons, Uncle Kelly, Aunt Sara, and Bridger, and Aunt Sara’s friend, Ashley.  First, all the men helped Leonard hang sheetrock in our basement and then we thanked them with homemade pizza.  It was delish! 

Kanyon helped make a cake of his choice.  It was rainbow chip cake batter with cream cheese and strawberry filling all covered with milk chocolate frosting and sprinkles.  It actually turned out pretty good!

He had a hard time blowing out the candles.  He missed them all the first time and then with a grin he said, “My smile took all my air!”   His smile was so big that he couldn’t really blow with force!   Funny guy!  He managed to get them all with the next try!

He got some pretty neat things – Thank you!!  And Happy Birthday Buddy!

Now that Kanyon is 8, he can start scouts!  He is officially a cub scout with Inland Northwest Council Pack 299.  He was so excited for his first den meeting and we are SO excited that his first pack meeting is the pine wood derby on March 21!!  We have hit the ground running….

Anyway,  Kanyon looked quite smart as he was all dressed up for his first den meeting. 

Kaydra had activity days at the same time and as we were driving to town she said, “Kanyon, you will have to tell me what you do as scouts because whenever I think about scouts I think about long meetings and basketball!”  Hopefully, there is more to scouting then Kaydra realizes!

A few things about Kanyon:

• He has a great smile – the best on Mica Flats we like to say
• He loves Timberlyn, he sits by her in the car and does a good job helping us out.
• Kanyon, Miranda, and Kaydra can be the best of friends at times.  I love to hear all of them playing some fantasy in the playroom.  They come up with some pretty amazing stories.
• He is a great helper when he chooses to be and when he realizes I need his help, he tries to think of things he can do for me.
• He LOVES to read and has started reading as much as he can. 
• He is a good friend to others and realizes that the things he does and says affects others.  He really cares about his friends.
• He talks in his sleep every night.  It’s very rare that we don’t hear him talking at least once before we go to bed!
• He is starting little league this year!  He is so excited and can’t wait for the rain to quit so they can get started!
• He likes to be in the woods and will pick up anything that he thinks is interesting and put it in his pocket for me to find later!  There have been many interesting pocket searches!

I am so glad to have a son…and I am so glad that my son is Kanyon.  Here’s to more wonderful memories! 

Love you Kanyon Paul!

Miranda turns 4!

I have a couple updates but I think I will start with Miranda.  My little girl turned 4 this last week!  She is getting so big.  The Coeur d’Alene school district accommodated her by having a “flex day” on her birthday so the older kids were out of school!  Kaydra made pancakes for breakfast and then Miranda did her very most favorite thing – she took a bath! :)  Then we did her hair and got her all dressed up for her special day with a new petti skirt.   She was so happy – and beautiful I might add!

When I asked Miranda what she wanted to eat for her birthday, she said pizza.  We had some things to do in town that day and we decided to have lunch at Pizza Hut to celebrate. 

Timberlyn was happy to be there too!

Then we were able to stop and see little Bridger Bryce FitzSimmons!  Kelly and Sara had a little boy on Valentine’s day.  He was all snuggled up and sleeping in his car seat and they were getting ready, so we didn’t disturb him, but the kids thought he was pretty cute – and tiny!  He made Timberlyn look so BIG in her car seat.   Congratulations to them!

After our stop at Kelly and Sara’s we hurried home to make a cake for Miranda.  I whipped up the batter and was about to call Miranda to come lick the bowl when Kanyon came in from the garage saying that Miranda was locked in the car!  She had been there since we got home – about 20 minutes!  She was crying and SO SAD!  What a way to spend your special day!  Sorry Mandy!

We got her out, gave her some love, and then she licked the bowl – cake batter can solve a lot of problems :)  I made a lemon flavored cream cheese frosting and we put it and some of Grandma’s homemade raspberry jam between two layers of strawberry cake.  We covered it with jam and some more frosting and ended up with a delicious cake.  Miranda helped decorate by adding her favorite – sprinkles!

We picked up the house just in time for a couple friends to show up to help us celebrate.  Miranda wanted a party with “friends AND family”  which she reminded us daily for the week before her birthday – so we invited a couple families from church that have kids her age.  

She was so excited she started blowing the candles out as soon as we sang, “Happy birthday dear Miranda”.  She couldn’t wait until the end of the song -- funny girl!  The cake was good and the company, even better.  Thank you Parkinsons and Gerens for coming on short notice! 

A few things about Miranda --

• She loves to watch “shows” and does so almost every day right after the kids leave for school.  We are grateful that she seems to have drifted away from Dora the Explorer and is quickly exhausting our DVD supply by watching every one!
• I said this already but it bears repeating – she LOVES baths and will take them everyday and even twice a day if I would let her.  If she is driving my crazy, I just ask if she would like to take a bath.
• She loves to play in the sink and will “wash” dishes for more than a hour.  Hope that one sticks with her!
• She loves nuts – especially pistachios.  Nearly every time we go to grandma and grandpa’s we can find her eating nuts.
• Her favorite phrase is “I’m hungry” and she says it about 30 times everyday.  She is always hungry – especially when she is bored!
• She loves to wrestle with her dad.  He can barely make it in the door after a 12 hour shift at work before she is saying, “Let’s wrestle!”
• She loves Kaydra and Kanyon and waits anxiously for them to get home from school.  She then proceeds to boss them as much as they will tolerate – usually much more then I would ever tolerate!
• She loves Timberlyn and is usually very sweet with her.  She tells Timberlyn that she is “so cute” and loves to try to make her laugh – most of the time she succeeds.

There are many more things about Miranda but I don’t have enough time to write them all.  She is a sweet, happy caring girl as well as an energetic, feisty, bossy hooligan and we love both sides!

Last night after a long day of work, I arrived home to find that Leonard had put the kids to bed.  While I was downstairs Miranda called and when I asked what she needed, she said “I want to give you a kiss.”  I trucked upstairs and let her kiss me on the cheek.  She said, “Oops!  I didn’t kiss you, I just sucked your face!”  I laughed and leaned in again.  She again kissed me and then said, “I did it again!  I just sucked your face!”  Once more I gave her my cheek and she kissed me.  She said, laughing, “That’s better!  I can’t believe I sucked your face twice!”  I was laughing too and told her, “Kissing is pretty much just sucking on someone’s face!” 

Love you, Miranda May!

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!