What's new with the Coombs?

Caleb: 

Just did a two week externship with a clinic in Roseburg. I missed him terribly and Shelby was sick every single day he was gone. I am a horrid single parent and I am going to be the most grateful wife from now on. Caleb also took his boards in January, which almost killed us both. I got the scores while he was gone and he did great. He passed, which was all I cared about. For those of you dental score junkies, he got a 83 on the first day and an 81 on the second day. He thought he failed both days, so we are very proud that he passed. Caleb also has a job offer in Eugene that is looking very promising. I will NEVER live in Eugene (sorry Andrea), but I can live in deep South Salem for three years and be happy. I still prefer to live in Portland, but Caleb's first job will not be his last. I shouldn't be that picky, a job is a job is a job.

Renae: 

I am halfway done with pregnancy #2. We are having a boy and his name will most likely be Calvin. I am still in shock that it's a boy, and I haven't been able to think in blue yet. Maybe it will come overtime. I just want to reuse all of Shelby's precious little clothes, and to think about buying more baby clothes makes me sick. I can't complain about being pregnant though. I haven't been sick, I just wake up really early and can't sleep like I used to. I can still wear all of my pants, but the shirts are way too small. I hope I don't get as big as I did with Shelby!

Shelby: 

She is learning so much right now, it's hard to think of all the things she knows now. She loves to sing songs that have hand motions and repeats a lot of words. She insists on feeding herself at all times and she won't crawl up the stairs anymore. She has to walk upstairs like a big girl, which scares me. She finally got over her bad cold and is back to running, screaming, playing and laughing. I missed her little personality when she was sick and it's good to have her back.

Christmas in Utah

We drove to Utah this Christmas and spent time with Caleb's family. Shelby got to play with dogs, pet a goat, ride horses, get pulled on a sleigh that was driven by horses, and see about 400 elk. She got a cute little riding plastic horse that she rides all over our house now.

Caleb took her on a few horse rides while we were there. She fell asleep riding on the horse and was sad if she was taken off. I thought she would be afraid by their size, but I guess not.

Her cousin Keith loved shooting bubbles out of his new bubble gun. Shelby thought it was great fun trying to pop them. By the time Keith ran out of bubbles, we were all soaked.

 

Family Photos

For Shelby's first birthday we decided to get family pictures by our wedding photographer Randy Kepple.

I love the pictures he takes and I figured it was time to leave it to the professional to get it done right.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Birthday Girl

How quickly time goes by. Shelby had her first birthday party. My friend and I made her a little birthday hat and a shirt for eating her cake. Here we are before the party began.

My friend Stephanie made her cakes and they were so cute, and delicious! She has a blog: the cake lady. Check her out, she does amazing work.

We didn't have time to start singing to Shelby before she reached out and grabbed her cake. She was ready for this moment.

The more of a mess she made, the more fun it became

The floor was starting to get covered in cake. I even got some on me.

It soon became a book party. Shelby loves to read, and she was in heaven.


Thank you to everyone who helped make her day so special.

Portland Marathon

I decided to try running another full marathon for the second time in my life. The first time I nearly killed myself by the end. I ran it too fast and I could hardly walk for a week. I swore to myself that I would NEVER run another full marathon again. 26.2 miles is kind of far, right?

Two years later, what do I do? I signed up for it again. It's like child birth, the longer you wait between, the easier it sounds.

I ran the marathon this year with two of my co-workers Bill and Claudia. We had been training for months. Bill was on my Cascade Lakes Relay team and my Hood to Coast relay team this summer. Claudia and I have run together for years now and she is always very fast and pushes me more than I could ever do on my own.

The weather was perfect this year. We allowed ourselves to stop for bathroom breaks (all four because of me), pictures, changed our socks, drank as much water as we could stomach, and we will finished in 4 hours and 38 minutes.

Here are some pictures that capture the fun. It's so much better to run with good friends, at a pace you can handle, and when family stops to see you. My mom, Shelby, and Caleb met us three times along the way with goodies. I have such a great family.

Summer Fun

Our family vacation to Sun River was exactly what we needed. I was able to run almost every day and I ended up with about 40 miles that week. Caleb and Shelby would ride the bike next to me and keep me company. We saw a lot of deer, duck, and other animals everywhere we went. I over ate and over slept, two of my favorite things. We stayed as long as we could and already want to go back again.

Shelby LOVES the water. We never realized she was part fish. Now we know.



The Hanson's came too and Shelby and Cooper became fast friends. Shelby was so glad to have another little person there to share toys with. Cooper was even nice enough to pee on her in the tub one night. That's a first for her.

On one of our bike rides we stopped for some photos. We went to the falls to check them out, but soon realized the bike and trailer would not go on the trail, so we had to come back.



Caleb tied flies on Sunday. It rained, and we didn't mind at all. I did a puzzle and Shelby ran around and helped pull things off the table that were in here reach.


We all took turns taking a daily nap on the hammock


Some of the deer that would come to the back yard and try to eat the Cheetos that Shelby left out for them. I guess they don't consider Cheetos food, because they never actually ate them.

Shelby's walking

Last time I wrote Shelby was taking a few steps here and there and taking her time. Now she is pretty sure she's ready to start running with me. She walks everywhere and does not want to be picked up anymore and held because it slows her down and she wants to explore the world. It's so much fun watching her learn to balance, turn around, step on different types of flooring, wear shoes and go up and down hills. She has scratched up knees and hands, but it doesn't seem to slow the desire to walk.

We tried to make her stop picking all the flowers and just smile for a picture. It didn't work very well. She was pretty pumped about picking the flowers and handing them to us.

Now if I could just teach her to load the dishwasher, fold laundry and vacuum.