The first half of the year was filled with us anxiously awaiting the highlight of our year, the arrival of our new addition, Phoebe Lynn Dorrell. Coral’s pregnancy went well, without complications. Mekhi enjoyed helping us get ready for his new baby sister! Wade put in a new laminate wood floor in Phoebe’s room, Coral did the decorating and meal prep for the freezer, and Mekhi was a good helper!
In March we were visited by Wade’s sisters Melissa and Heather, and Heather’s boyfriend J.R. as they were here in Boise for the NCAA championship games. Later that month we made our last trip as a family of 3 for a baby shower and to spend time at Coral’s grandparents Art and Lynne’s house in Gleneden Beach, Oregon. Coral and Mekhi (and later Phoebe) filled their spring and summer weeks with playgroup dates about twice a week. We’ve been going to this playgroup since July 2008 and it has been fun making some great friends!
Mekhi turned 3 on May 25th and is still above the 97th% for height for his age. His Dr. predicts that he’ll be 6’4” as an adult, 6 inches taller than us! We had a birthday bash for him that included a barbecue with friends and his very own bouncy house for a day! He had so much fun! Mekhi started preschool at home with Mommy this school year, and he loves it! He has learned all of his letters by sight and their sounds; he can spell his name, and is getting really good at starting to write his letters. He loves doing crafts, especially painting! Mekhi has also learned to build forts out of couch pillows, make music, draw a person, play board games, and play Xbox games. His current favorite activities are playing Xbox, building his own design of tractors out of Legos, coloring, drawing, painting, and in the warmer weather, playing in the back yard with his tricycle, Little Tykes car and his digging toys in the dirt! Oh, and his lawnmower, he says. He also loves helping Daddy do yard work and other projects around the house.
June 28th marked our 1st wedding Anniversary! With Phoebe’s due date just around the corner we were unable to leave town, so instead we went on a 2 day staycation right here in Boise. We stayed at a hotel, went on paddleboats in the pond down town, cast a baby belly out of plaster, went to the Idaho Historical Museum, and dined at many restaurants while Mekhi hung out at his aunt Renee and Uncle Zach’s house with his cousins.
Phoebe finally joined us on July 14th. It was 3 days past her due date and we decided to go ahead with an induction to get labor rolling. After just 4 hours of active labor, we welcomed our 8lb 9oz bundle of joy. Labor was intense, but Coral was able to make it through the labor and delivery without any pain medications, with the support of Wade and Mom/Grandma Shari by her side! Phoebe was just as sweet as can be, and instantly had us talking about how much she looked like Daddy! Mekhi is such a sweet big brother, he absolutely adores her! Wade got a month of paternity leave. It was nice to have that time together. We had many visitors during Phoebe’s first month, and Wade was also able to do some projects around the house. He finished the floor in our closet, did a lot of yard work, but never did get that hot tub fixed…
Our summer was filled with visitors coming to meet little Miss Phoebe. Coral’s mom and sister, Valerie, were here awaiting Phoebe’s arrival, as were our local family, the Davises. Next Phoebe’s Great Grandparents Art and Lynne visited from Oregon, then Wade’s siblings. James and Carrie flew in from Washington, and then Melissa and Heather drove down from North Idaho, arriving just as we were hosting our 1st National Night Out party as the new Neighborhood watch chairmen of our subdivision. To celebrate Wade’s birthday, Melissa and Heather joined the 4 of us on our 1st camping trip of the year. We drove up to Shafer Butte and stayed for about 24 hours… 12 of which were spent huddling together in the tent to escape a nasty hailstorm!
Later that month Wade and Mekhi went “man-camping” with Zach and Josiah at Bruneau Dunes State park. They had so much fun that we all went back as a group to spend 2 more nights. Another fun summer event for us was the E. Idaho fair. We had fun looking at the animals, tractors, and people, eating greasy food, and riding on rides! Mekhi also took swimming lessons for 2 weeks in August. His big accomplishment was dunking under water. He was also a good floater and learned to kick those legs!
We managed to get out without the kids to celebrate our 3 year dating anniversary on September 3rd with a hot air balloon ride over Boise! It was such a fun experience! We’ve since gone out on a couple more dates, leaving Mekhi and Phoebe with Aunt Renee. We also celebrated one of our newer family traditions of “Fakesgiving” in September. We had the whole traditional Thanksgiving dinner with the Davis family, except that it wasn’t actually Thanksgiving.
In October, Phoebe was baptized on her 3 month birthday by Pastor Tom at our home church, Friendship Celebration. We were glad to have Grandma Shari here to share the occasion with us. Uncle Zach made the occasion really special by performing his song that he wrote for Mekhi’s baptism “Beautiful Soul." Coral returned to work part-time “flex” in October, after 3 months of maternity leave. Flex requirements are just twice a month plus the occasional meeting or certification. It was difficult for her to leave Phoebe for that first time, and Phoebe was not too happy about it either! We have all since adjusted a little better to Mommy going to work and Phoebe is much better at taking a bottle than she was at first. Although, she still does prefer to have mommy when she is tired or fussy. Phoebe and Mommy got to take off for a weekend away with Grandma Shari and Aunt Renee to go to the annual Women’s Retreat at Camp Perkins in the Sawtooth Mountains. It was Coral’s 4th year going, and it was a refreshing experience as always!
Wade and Mekhi had fun hanging out at home doing boy stuff. The next week, Wade got to spend the week in Las Vegas at the Microsoft SharePoint Conference, where he presented to around 1000 people. He also got to attend a big party there at which Huey Lewis and the News performed!Halloween was fun for us this year. Coral made our costumes (except Phoebe’s). We were a helping of our favorite Japanese dinner. Wade and Mekhi were sushi, Phoebe was the edamame appetizer, and Coral was the soy sauce packet with a side of ginger and wasabi. Our costumes were a hit at the Trunk-or-treating and Halloween parties that we went to, and Mekhi and Wade had fun trick-or-treating with the Davises while Phoebe and Mom stayed warm at home.
Wade’s parents Jack and Barbara skipped the summer visiting rush and waited until the beginning of November to travel down from North Idaho to meet their 1st granddaughter.
Phoebe is growing so fast now. She had her 4 month check-up in November where she weighed in at 16 pounds, 3 ounces. She is 90th % for weight, 95th% for length and 94th% for head circumference. And she started laughing on her 4 month birthday. This age is so fun and cute. She has rolled over once from belly to back, but hasn’t fulfilled our requests for a repeat. We made it to the annual Biederman gathering on Thanksgiving at Coral’s grandparent’s house in Gleneden Beach Oregon.
It was Phoebe’s first time on an airplane, and she did just fine. It was great to see all of our Biederman family, there were 29 of us total! We ate lots of great food, and it was even nice enough for us to walk down to the beach one day. Mekhi gathered shells and had fun digging with them. Phoebe just slept in Mom’s arms. Wade tried kelp… which is not very good, don’t try it.
In December the Christmas tree went up and we enjoyed checking out the local Christmas lights, including a really fun light show in our neighborhood!
We had such a fun Christmas this year, with a 3 year old and a bay, Christmas was great!
Our last adventure of the year was going up to Coeur d’Alene after Christmas to share a late Christmas and bring in the New Year with all of the Dorrells! There was actually no snow this year, which took us by surprise after the 3 feet of snow we found there last year!
We hope everyone had a great Holiday season this year!
Love, Wade, Coral, Mekhi and Phoebe
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