Dancing Timber

So, Timberlyn is 10 months old now.  She is growing so fast and is learning new things everyday.  Right now, one of her favorite things to do is dance.  Whenever she hears music, or anything with any sort of rhythm (i.e. snapping fingers, clicking tongue, clapping, etc..) she starts to dance.  It’s quite funny to watch.  But it makes her so happy!  She continues to be our happy, smiley kid.  I wanted to post this video of her.   I’ll write more about her later and all her new accomplishments.  This video gives a really good shot of what we see every day in this beautiful little girl.
(hint - This video was taken with Leonard's new phone which does HD video and if you start the video and then hover your mouse over it so you can select the settings button - looks like a flower - then you can change the quality of the video.  You can increase it to 780p but it will take awhile to load.  I watched it at 420p and 780p and they look about the same.  I LOVE his new phone!!)

10 months old

Isn’t she just awesome??!!!

Turkey Day

It’s been a while and I really should take some time to update a little bit.  I’ll start with Kaydra.  Kaydra shot a turkey this week!  Does that sound crazy to anyone else?  She and Leonard have been out hunting turkeys a couple of times in the past month and on Saturday they thought they would try again.  They were up at 5:00 am and were unsuccessful when they returned home around 6:00.  I was supposed to work that morning so they came home but I had a phone call telling me that they didn’t need me to work…So… after a quick nap they headed out again.  I was working in the yard when they came home.  I didn’t pay much attention until Kaydra came down into the yard with a TURKEY over her shoulder! 

It was a pretty big bird (almost as big as she is – and bigger than the one her dad shot this year!) and she was pretty excited. (So was her dad!)  Leonard said she made a great shot right in the head.

 

I don’t know how she does stuff like that but she sure seems to enjoy it.  Not many mothers that can brag about their 10-year-old daughter’s hunting ability!  I am glad she has a good time with her dad in the woods – and so is he!  Congrats Kaydra!

Fire pit Christening

Last Saturday we used our fire pit for the first time.  Leonard spent a lot of time working on it last fall and we finally had a chance to use it.  It was a nice evening spent with our little family and we had a great time.
Leonard moved a HUGE rock from the woods near our house with the tractor and planned the fire pit around it so we could use it as a table when we use the fire pit.  It worked perfectly!
Getting all set up …
Eating dinner of fire-cooked sausages and smores – doesn’t get better then that!!  We even had some company – can you see them in the background??!!If you saw the deer, you have “sharp eyes” – so Miranda says!  Here they are again…They didn’t seem to care that we were outside – they wanted grass from the field.I hope we get to do this a lot more this summer – I’m pretty sure the kids would agree!

For Grandpa Parry

I’m pretty sure that my Grandpa Parry is an avid reader of my blog and that he occasionally prints them out and takes them for Grandma to read as well…this post is for them because I know they will enjoy it.  I have a few brothers that will think it’s pretty cool as well!
Kanyon started Little League!
This past Saturday Kanyon had his first Little League baseball game.  It brought back many memories of my brothers playing at the substation park by our house.  Mostly, just seeing him all dressed up to play got me a little teary!
Seriously, how cute handsome is that?!!
I can’t believe I have a kid old enough for Little League.  In fact, it seems we started him a little late as far as Coeur d’Alene Little League goes.  He is one of the oldest on the team but since he has never played before – not even T-ball (I know, I was a slacker), it’s a perfect fit for him and HE LOVES IT!  I love to watch baseball in the spring time – as long as the weather is nice!  It’s fun to see the kids all dressed up in uniform and fun to watch them succeed.  He has some great coaches and they are extremely positive.  Everyone gets to bat every inning so the innings are pretty long.  In one hour on Saturday, we got through two innings!!!  Luckily, there is also a time limit of one hour for each game!   In their defense, it was their first game and I think as the kids become better hitters, the innings will go faster.  They use a pitching machine for 3-4 balls, then coach pitch for 2 balls, then a Tee if they still haven’t hit, so everyone gets a chance to actually hit the ball.  Kanyon hit off the machine both times he was up to bat.  He played shortstop (I think because he’s one of the only kids that can throw from short to 1st base!) and then catcher.
My little shortstop…Playing Catcher …  after the game he kept saying, “When I was playing umpire….!!!”  Looks like we might need a little more teaching!! It was fun to watch and most importantly, he had a great time!  So Grandpa, I wanted you to know that we thought of you while we watched him play and wished that we lived closer so you and Grandma could come watch and give him some pointers.  We love you and miss you so much!!  Yay for baseball!!

Takes after Dad

This post is not for the faint of heart.  We have had children for over 10 years and have managed to fly under the radar as far as Emergency doctor visits have been concerned.  Apart from the occasional sore throat, breathing problems, and once for a pretty bad hand burn, we haven’t had to take our kids to the doctor.  Leonard, however, has managed several visits for various injuries.   Stitches a few times and once to take a fish hook out of his finger.  The number of times that Leonard has had a pretty bad cut on his hand are seriously too numerous to count.  He has gotten pretty handy with a little superglue.  I guess when you have a knife in your hand about 50% of the time you are awake (usually for gutting the most recent kill) you are bound to have quite a few cuts.  Anyway,  Kanyon has taken the steps to follow his father as we made our 1st visit for stitches on Saturday.

Saturday afternoon he asked to use his new pocket knife to cut some branches for a new “club” he had discovered.  I said, “I don’t know, buddy…”  Leonard said, “If you cut your finger off it will be pretty hard to play baseball.”  Kanyon said, “Please, I promise I’ll be careful!”  So we gave him the knife and sent him out the door. 

Only about a minute later Kanyon comes running in the door.  “I AM GUSHING BLOOD.  I AM GOING TO DIE!”  I thought he was joking because it had happened so fast.  I thought he must be teasing me.  But he, unfortunately, was not.  He had cut his left index finger and it was, indeed, bleeding quite a bit.  Don’t look at the next picture if you have a weak stomach!!

We washed it up, held pressure and I thought about trying to just bandage it but the bleeding was too much and the cut was pretty bad.  We knew that it would take a long time to heal without stitches.  I headed with him into the Urgent Care clinic in town and he won himself 7 stitches plus one underneath. 

He was pretty tough about the whole thing, and morbidly curious too.  He watched the whole time they stitched him even though it freaked him out just a little! 

He said a few funny things that I want to remember:

• He said that he would not use his pocketknife again until he was 13.
• He had cut his finger just a little bit with the pocketknife about a month ago and said, “I thought I already learned this lesson – why do I have to learn it again?!”
• “I tried to squeeze my wrist so that the bleeding would just stop!!”

All-in-all he really was a trouper and handled it well.  Hopefully we can last at least another 10 years before we have to do something like that again – although, I have a feeling that is not very likely!

Catching up

In March, Kanyon had his first cub scout meeting, his first pack meeting, which also happened to be his first Pinewood Derby!  I meant to blog about it earlier but --- I just didn’t!  Anyway, after a failed attempt to cut out the car with the wrong kind of saw Leonard went to the store and got the right blade for his dad’s jigsaw and had a bit more success.  Kanyon worked hard to sand it, paint it and decorate it to get it ready for the big night.  It was a lightweight when we got there but Leonard added a few extra touches to make it heavier.

Last minute adjustments….

Ready for check-in – with his best friend, Trevor.

The line up of the competition..

Close-up of his car

They had a little ceremony to join him to his new pack along with Brady Minzghor – another boy that turned 8 in March. 

Pretty exciting stuff… He was a happy boy.  How’d the car do?  Let’s just say that we could use some work on our derby skills but it wasn’t the slowest car there!!!  We had a good time and it was fun to do something for Kanyon!

I am a slacker mom and didn’t manage to take a picture of  my kids in Easter dress.  The previous Baptism picture (taken only a week before) will have to do.  BUT I did manage to take a picture of Timberlyn in her new Easter outfit.  It is a tradition in our house that the Easter bunny brings a new outfit for summer in the Easter baskets – gets everyone excited for the warmer weather.  Anyway, Timber looked pretty cute in her new outfit…

But she is not too sure about the new sunglasses the Easter bunny also brought her.  Hopefully she’ll get used to them.   This one’s a little better!  Hope you all had a good Easter!

Kanyon was Baptized!!

I am so proud of Kanyon for choosing to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   We have had a lot of discussion about what this means recently and Kanyon has shown that he was ready to make the decision to be baptized.  I hope that he looks back on this time with fondness and realization that he made a very good choice when he was only 8 years old. 

As I posted earlier, we had lots of family here to celebrate the special day with him and he had been looking forward to it for a long time.  We missed those that couldn’t be with us, but we know that you were thinking of us at this special time. 

We planned the baptism for right after the priesthood session of conference.  It seemed like a good idea because  the men would only have to get dressed up once that day – but it also meant that it left only the women to get all the kids ready in their Sunday best!  Of course, after a feat like that we HAD to take a picture!

Timberlyn, Kanyon, Riley, Tarek, Dreyken, Kalli, Archimedes, Kaydra, Sage, Miranda

The handsome boy in his new suit!

Our family

Kanyon and Dad – ready to go

Mom, Dad and Kanyon

my sweet boy

Grandma and Grandpa Fuller with Kanyon

Grandma and Grandpa FitzSimmons with Kanyon

I love you Kanyon and I want you to know that I know that Jesus loves you and is proud of the decision that you made.  I know that if you keep his commandments that you will have many blessings in this life and in the life to come.  I am so proud to have you for a son and I am thankful that Heavenly Father sent you to us.  You are amazing!

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!!