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!

Christmas 2011

Well, I didn’t quite keep up with posting every day, but I did catch up on the things we did this month.  We are heading to Idaho Falls this week and so as a final post for the year I thought I’d put in our Christmas card for this year.  We sent out a lot of cards and if you didn’t get one, it may have been sent back to us or we may not have your address… SOOO here is your virtual card 

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

It’s that time of year
To let all of you know
The things we’ve been up to
This year -- what a show!

We are all adjusting
Our new log house we adore
We’ve moved all our stuff in
Didn’t really feel like a chore

We love all the space
And the breathtaking views
You all should come visit
You really can’t lose.

Leonard is busy
Doing this -- doing that
He enjoyed some time off
Simply being a Dad

Brooke has a new calling
Teaching gospel doctrine at church
Taking care of the kids
Makes extra time about zilch

Our summer was spent
At the lake every day
While Miranda May
Finally joined in to play.

She learned she could swim
Her eyes lit up with a gleam
We were so very thankful
She stopped her ear-piercing scream!

Kanyon is seven now
It’s just hard to believe
He’s reading like crazy
Always has a trick up his sleeve

He loves his new bike
And rides it a lot
It’s nice to be close
To Grandma and Grandpop!

Kaydra’s in fifth grade
She loves dressing with style
First place for her invention
She came home with a smile

She’s become very busy
Learning to play violin
With church, school, and lessons
It’s hard to fit it all in

Our biggest and smallest
News came in July
Timberlyn Ann joined our family
She makes all our hearts fly.

She smiles so often
And is starting to laugh
But I sure wish the laundry
Would be cut -- like in half!

She is now five months old
And teaching us more
How much we want to live
Forever with those we adore

That’s most of the news
From my family so dear
I love them so much
It’s what has made up my year

We’re happy and healthy
And so grateful too
We just want to say
Merry Christmas to you!

Are you hungry??

Last night Timberlyn was sitting near us while we ate dinner and she was fussing so I fed her some of our dinner.  She was eating mashed up broccoli and peas – she was a little excited!!

Yes, that is Kanyon with a burp at the end....HE thought he was so funny....

5 month pictures

Seriously – I have the cutest 5 month old!  Just try to tell me otherwise

Timberlyn 5 months

Oops!  I missed a couple days this weekend.  I think because nothing worth blogging about really happened.  We had a pretty mellow Saturday, cleaning the playroom and delivering some coconut bread.  Then Sunday we went to church, had dinner, and went to Grandma and Grandpa FitzSimmons house to watch Funniest Home Videos – its become a tradition because we don’t have t.v. and they do.  Plus, Grandma usually gives us something sweet to eat  

Today I went to work in the morning and Leonard went to work this evening so not much going on that is worth blogging about.  We still don’t have snow. 

Timberlyn turned 5 months old a few days ago.  She is still a happy baby and starting to become more involved in the world.  She notices when she is alone – and doesn’t like it.  She also doesn’t like being in her car seat when it’s dark outside.  That’s a problem because in North Idaho, it gets dark at 4:00 in the winter time.  So she cries in the car….

She has only rolled over a couple times by accident but she is starting to reach for an hold things that she wants.  She has discovered her hands but can’t control them the way she wants.  Its funny to watch her try to suck her thumb while she is poking herself in the eye with her fingers! 

She knows that I am her food source and when she is hungry she comes at me with an open mouth, trying to find her milk.  She will start sucking on anything that hits her lips.  An arm, finger, or my cheek…whatever is closest.  It’s pretty funny and I love it!! 

The kids adore her and we are so happy she’s here.  I cannot believe that she is 5 months old.  Where does the time go???  I’ll post a picture of her tomorrow!

Crazy Day

Today was a crazy day!  It seemed to start off okay but it was made a little crazy when Kaydra called me at 1:30 to tell me that she was supposed to play the violin at school for the Christmas program.  Oh – and she needed her violin that was at home --- and the program started at 2:30 – Oh – and I was at Kohl’s which is about 25 minutes from my house!!!! So I had to scratch all the plans I had and head back home to pick up her violin.  I couldn’t find her music and Timberlyn was hungry but I didn’t have time to feed her so I made her a bottle so I could feed her during the assembly at school.  With all the rushing we made it to the school at 2:20 – in time for her to tune up and get ready.

We saw Kaydra and the rest of her strings group perform.  There were only six of them so it was much different from the concert earlier in the week.  Their teacher wasn’t there – he had another commitment.  They had a hard time getting started by themselves – all of them have only been playing for about  four months and found that keeping in rhythm with each other is harder than they thought it would be– but once they got going they did pretty good.  Kaydra also played with Marimbas at the assembly.  This sounded awesome and much better than they did outside last week because it was loud in the gym.  She is doing great with both programs and I feel lucky that they are available to her.

While we were watching the performance I fed Timberlyn the bottle that I made.  She rewarded me by filling her diaper and getting it all over her clothes and mine while we were sitting there.  I just zipped up my jacket to cover my now pooped-on shirt and wrapped a blanket around her to cover her clothes and we finished watching the assembly.  Then we went to the car and changed her into new clothes.  I had to still wear my yucky ones, unfortunately. (Do  I need to start packing extra clothes for me in town now???!!!)

We (Me and all 4 kids now) ran to the post office to get the Christmas cards in the mail and stopped at a couple stores to do some things that I had hoped to do earlier.  We all made it home and I could finally change my clothes.  YUCK!!

All in the day of the life of a mom with FOUR kids! 

Coconut Bread

I love the smells of Christmas.  For me that includes the smell of freshly baked coconut bread.   We have been giving coconut bread away to friends and neighbors for about five years now – ever since we got the recipe from our neighbor, Julie Whitehead, in Idaho Falls.  If you know Julie,  you know that she makes FANTASTIC treats and this is one of my favorites. 

I am going visiting teaching tomorrow so I thought I would get started on the bread so I’d have some to take tomorrow.  Once I was going, and the kitchen was a mess, I decided it would be best to keep mixing and baking ….SOOOO I made FOUR batches of bread and put them in these cute holiday containers that I found.

That gives me 12 medium loaves and 6 small loaves!  They’re even stacked on my canisters in the back!!

Looks like we will be delivering goodies this weekend!

Merry Christmas!

Strings

Kaydra has started playing violin this year in 5th grade.  She is really enjoying it.  Tonight we went to her first strings concert.  They combined all the 5th grade kids from the local elementary schools (10 schools in all) and had them all play the same songs at the same time.  They sounded really good!  You couldn’t tell if anyone messed up because there were so many of them.  The gym was packed because there were about 150 kids there with all their parents and families.   Here is our view – this is only one side of the gym!

My camera doesn’t take a great picture with a zoom, but I did get a shot of Kaydra at the beginning of the concert.

Kaydra had a good time and reports that she didn’t mess up!  We will have to have a personal concert so she can show us all she’s learned.  I am proud of her for trying something new.  I really hope she stays with it, I think the violin is a beautiful instrument.

Christmas cards --- check!

We worked on Christmas cards tonight.  Many of you should have them in your hands by the end of the week.  If you aren’t sure if I have your address, feel free to let me know!   I’ll post the card on the blog later – I don’t want to ruin the excitement of opening your mail!

That’s pretty much it for today.  I worked on my lesson, did a little grocery shopping, a little Christmas shopping, and picked Kaydra up from Strings.  Pretty uneventful – Nice to have a day like that every once in awhile.

Santa and A Book

Every year the kids school has a night they call “Santa and a Book”.  There are crafts, cookies, hot chocolate, and a chance to sit on Santa’s lap and get a picture.  Each child is also allowed to pick one book from a pile of books from Scholastic.  The kids really like it and we have gone every year.  This year it was on Thursday, December 8.  I had to work that night but decided that I would pick up the kids from school, grab some dinner and then head back to the school for the party.  We would stay until 6:00 and then hurry home to drop them off at Grandma’s house while I headed to work to start at 7:00.  Leonard got off work at 7:30 so he picked them up when he got off and took them home to bed.  It was a busy, crazy night.  I didn’t get as much sleep as I would have liked before I had to stay awake all night.  I was tired as I headed to work;  BUT today, I got the picture that they took at the party and it made the craziness all worth it!  See for yourself…..

What a cute bunch of kids I have --- and when did I become a mother of FOUR!!!

Love them all!

Tithing Settlement

Today we had tithing settlement.  We had the chance to talk to our Bishop and declare whether or not we are full tithe payers.   It’s also a good chance for my kids to meet with the bishop.  As we were talking about the purpose and importance of tithing, Miranda chipped in from the corner of the room:

“Hey, Bishop..”

“Yes, Miranda”

“I really like candy, ya know!”

A classic to add to the book…Of course, the bishop had a bowl of candy for the kids and was kind enough to offer my kids some even though they had a round about way of asking for it!!

Marimbas and Tree

Happy Holidays!  Today feels a little more like Christmas!  We spent the morning cleaning and sprucing up the house a bit in preparation for setting up the tree that  has been on my deck for the past week!  Then in the afternoon we went to Fred Meyer to watch Kaydra perform Marimbas.  She is really enjoying this class and does a great job.  I feel lucky that they offer such great programs at her school.  The teacher that helps teach Marimbas is Mrs. G.  She VOLUNTEERS her time at four or five different schools in the district to help the kids learn Marimbas.  We are lucky to have her! 

It’s fun to watch Kaydra and her friends learn new talents!

We came home and had dinner – together, as a family!!!! – that doesn’t happen very often because of Leonard’s work schedule --   We had homemade Barbeque Chicken Pizza. It was yummy!  Then we all worked together to decorate for Christmas and set up the tree.  I didn’t pull out the camera until the end and it took about 10 shots to get a good one!   The kids thought it was funny to make grumpy faces with the tree in the background!   Timberlyn was sleeping the entire time, which, although a little sad because it’s her first Christmas, was a blessing!

Merry Christmas!!

P.S.  I am trying to post a video of the Marimba concert….Hopefully it works and you can see it just below this entry!

Marimba Video

Girls Night

I had to work last night – it is my only shift this pay period – I know, pretty tough job!

That meant that today was pretty uneventful as I tried to catch up on my sleep.  I was able to go to a Girls Night with some other sisters in my ward.  I love my ward right now.  There are some great people in it.  People I know that I will stay connected to no matter where they live.  Every couple of months we get together for a night with just the girls. Everyone’s invited – sometimes we have 10 people and sometimes we have 30.   We bring snacks and play games and just visit and get to know each other better.  It’s great because I can really start to relate to them as people instead of “so-and-so’s mom” or “Kaydra’s primary teacher”.  They are fabulous women and I am grateful for my husbands support in my outings. 

Not much else to report today – that’s what happens when you sleep half the day away!

Happy Birthday Paul - Pearl Harbor Day

First off, Happy Birthday to my brother Paul.  Hope you had a great day!
I know that yesterday was Pearl Harbor Day, but I thought I would talk about it a little today.  Every year the kids elementary school does an assembly honoring veterans on Pearl Harbor Day.  They invite veterans from the community and perform for them.  They have three fifth grade girls lip sync as the Andrews sisters to “The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”.  I wasn’t able to go this year but I heard that it was amazing.  Kaydra said her three classmates did great on the performance and today the local Coeur d’Alene Press honored them with a front page photo.

This is Kaydra’s classmate and friend, Sarena.  Doesn’t she look great?!  The photo was so amazing that The New York Post picked it up!  They are picture 7 of 10 at this link.
http://m.nypost.com/p/news/national/pearl_harbor_remembered_7Fntdzbsukff2octb2y2cO
Kanyon said his teacher told them the photo was in Korea and New Zealand now....   As a side note, a teacher from their school was nominated for teacher of the year in Idaho!  There is a short video on the presentation of this award.  If you have sharp eyes, you can pick out Kaydra and Kanyon...Congratulations Mrs. Lenz! http://vimeo.com/33366739  … all from the smallest elementary school in Coeur d’Alene!

I can only imagine the way America must have felt on the day Pearl Harbor was bombed70 years ago.  I am so grateful for our freedom and for the country we have to live in.  Thank you to those who have served us and to those who serve, protecting our freedoms every day.