The Coombs Family

The best things about our Christmas this year: 1. Lights- Caleb put up lights outside our house this year, but he forgot one critical step in the process. He didn't check the lights before he put them up. Our brand new LED lights we put up last year already stopped working. He took down one set of lights, leaving the other set up on half the house. He also left the hangers for the lights on our gutters. The second set he left up did work, but he didn't have an extension cord long enough to reach. So we left it like this all December: 2. Gifts- We wrapped all our gifts early so we could see the beautiful wrapping paper and ribbon for many weeks. I do this so that I can take my time, and also to do a check on the amount of gifts and make sure I didn't forget anybody. I also hate going to the stores at the last minute. But every year I still go to the stores because my dad didn't get my mom a present, my sister needs a few more things for her kids, and Caleb usuall...

Caleb and I have been trying to have a third child for over a year now, and we just can't seem to get it to work. At first we just were not getting pregnant, which was frustrating. Then we finally got pregnant and I didn't even tell Caleb. We had our big anniversary trip coming up and I was going to suprise him. Unfortunately I started having complications so I had to tell him as I sat in our bathroom and cried. We weren't sure if it was a miscarriage or not, but we were pretty sure. After our first set of tests at the doctor they said it was a good pregnancy and not to worry. They put me on "pelvic rest" which was suppose to help. Well, it didn't help. After three months of bleeding, we had a miscarriage. We have been trying to get pregnant ever since. It had been a year of trying so we scheduled an appointment with my doctor to get more serious. After I scheduled the appointment, I got pregnant again. YEAH! Again, I didn't tell Caleb because I wanted t...

We are just getting started with our traditions this year. Here is a sample so far: 1. We went to the free storybook display in Albany with the kids. It's a huge indoor amphitheater that is filled with displays from every book or movie from your childhood. Lots of weird scary displays too, but let's not focus on that. My kids both loved the train displays the most. In fact Calvin cried hysterically when we left. Shelby on the other hand ran right in front of the line and ran up to Santa. The line was about 20-minutes long so we skipped it, but I guess she wanted to say hello. Caleb grabbed her before any of the other parents threw a fit. We got a lot of mean looks, but I can't blame the girl for trying.  2. We attempted to to the Keizer parade again. We got stuck in bad traffic, even though we were an hour early. We had not had any dinner and we were all starving. It was pouring down rain and Calvin had been very sick the day before with some kind of flu thing....

The day after Thanksgiving we started our holiday extravaganza here at the Coombs house. We were all loaded up to go tree hunting when my brother-on-law Trevor blew out his knee and needed to to the ER. So we killed some time with my sisters kids and waited. It was nice dry day and the sun was even out while we waited. So we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally they got back from the hospital with some good pain meds for Trev, and we left him at home to take a nap. My sister and her 5 kids with Caleb and I with our two, and we went to go hunting for trees. The tree lot we use donates all the money to the schools, which is an added bonus. We got to the tree lot and both of my kids were passed out asleep, and it started pouring down rain. We left the kids in the car and went to find the perfect tree. As we hunted, we would leave one of my sisters kids by the trees we liked as a marker. Pretty soon all the kids were wet, cold, and had to use the bathroom. They were yelling at us to...

Caleb was gone elk hunting in Colorado and we had this great idea that I would drive our kids to Utah and meet him there when he was done hunting. Then, my sister decided to come with her kids, but she had a school final that didn't allow her to leave until late Friday night. I didn't want her kids to be stuck in a car and getting to Utah super late on Friday night, so I volunteered to take them too. I borrowed her huge SUV, slammed my two kids, and her four girls in the car, and we hit the road. They all stayed the night at my house the night before, I got the car loaded, and we left around 4:45 am. The trip is usually 13 hours, and we made it in exactly 13 hours. No extra stops, no fighting, a little drama, and the trip was great. Seriously, sometimes more kids is easier. They played so well together. The only melt down was when I had to use the bathroom super bad and I couldn't find Shelby or Calvin's shoes. So I carried them both into the bathroom while Rhoda's ...

Caleb is a pretty tough guy. He has been a man for awhile. But today he did something that made him an official man. He is officially a member of my family now. It probably should have happened when we got married, but he was still missing one thing. Today he shot an elk with my dad by his side. I honestly don't like elk meat, and I despise deer meat. But here's the thing- it's just what my family does. They are hunters. They love to kill stuff and eat it. I may not like the meat, but I love the experience he had this past week in Colorado. Driving that far with my dad and brother-in-law is pretty entertaining. Hiking 10 miles a day around a mountain is beautiful. Watching the sun rise, the sun set, seeing tons of animals, and becoming one with nature is what I like about the hunt. It's how I was raised and I am glad Caleb likes to do it. I was 8 years old when I started hunting with my dad and I still go when I can. I have never shot a real animal and I probabl...

Shelby decided to celebrate the holiday by being sick. She has had a cough for weeks now but it has gotten to the point where she actually coughs so hard she throws up. So we have been home for the past three days trying to get her feeling better. She took a nice long nap, and it's time to get dressed up. Here is Shelby with her costume on, all ready to go! As soon as we got to the church she went straight into a mud puddle (see right shoe).  We could barely get Calvin to leave his costume on. I purposely got something that looks like cars and regular clothes, hoping he would cooperate.  He finally warmed up once I showed him the scooter. He wanted nothing to do with the candy or talking to strangers.  After about 10 minutes, Shelby begged to go home. She took off her costume in the car, ate half of one sucker and asked to go to bed. Poor kids. Hopefully they will enjoy the holiday more in the future. Here is my favorite pumpkin that Caleb carve...

Took my little princess to go see Disney on Ice with my sister and her four girls. It was a pretty cute show and just perfect timing for Shelby. She has been obsessed with Cinderella lately. She is going to be Cinderella for Halloween so we used the costume early. She loved it. Here are some pics with my phone to show her face. She was thrilled. I loved the mommy/daughter bonding night. Dinner at Bridgeport, ice cream afterwards, and lots of giggles.  She danced during a lot of the songs. Luckily our seats were right by the landing so she could have space to twirl her dress around! Her face was so cute when Cinderella came on.