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!