The Coombs Family

Caleb and I are getting some house guests for almost two months and we needed to make some room. Our house is plenty big, but we need to use every square inch to fit my sisters family of 7. They sold their house and bought a fixer-upper (major job here people), and we are going to have them stay with us as they get a rental situation figured out until their new-old house is ready. We have a room downstairs with no closet or window, so it counts as an office and we use it for a playroom. This is now my sister and her husbands room, so Caleb built them a nice walk-in closet. There used to be a door that opened to storage under the house. The storage was just black plastic and I hated it. I stored all my Christmas decorations and kids clothes down here and it was so disorganized and nasty. We started with building the closet. Then went on to build storage for under the house. What used to be a pile of mess, is now an organized system that I love!! This is the room and the door that ...

This year Shelby wanted to be a mermaid and Calvin wanted to be a dozer. Shelby got her costume for her birthday present from her Granny, so that was easy. But how was Calvin going to be a dozer? Caleb found some cute pictures online and copied the idea and made him a costume. It was awesome because Calvin got to see it take shape, get painted, and finally wear it. Now he just plays with it. We went to EZ Orchards with Grandma Wendy. We had such beautiful weather this year in October. It was a perfect day to go. Calvin stole this tractor and rode it all over the place. Here he is making a run for it.  And of course our carvings for the year. Let's just say, Caleb does all the carving every year. I help do the guts, and the clean up, but I'm not the creative one. I use the stencils in the books.

Shelby has been counting down the day for preschool all summer. She never mentioned school last year, but this year she has been begging to go. She is going to Sprague High School where they have a little tots program. It's great because the high school students are obsessed with the kids. They are almost as excited to play with the kids all day as the kids are. Shelby couldn't get ready fast enough and we were 15 minutes early to school. She argued with me over her clothes because she wanted to wear her Halloween costume and I didn't want her to. We settled on an outfit that she got to pick out. She rarely matches and doesn't care at all, and I'm trying to be better about not caring too. Caleb for sure doesn't care if she matches and that's probably because he doesn't even match half the time either. Anyway, she did really good at school except for one thing. She really had to go to the bathroom. And not #1. She had to poop so bad but she didn't wan...

This year Shelby decided that she wants a My Little Pony party. So I looked up party ideas online and found a lot of rainbows. She helped me pick out the food and decorations and we spent a day putting it all together. She mostly bossed me around.  Our first project was easy, the main cake table. We used construction paper to make her name, paper tissue for the flowers, tulle for the rainbow, and of course some pony decorations.  We made our own rainbow marshmallows that look and taste like peeps. Absolutely adorable and horribly disgusting to eat. You just wet the marshmallow, then wipe it down, roll it in sprinkles, and eat! Shelby and Calvin both got to help make them and mostly make a huge mess.  Shelby wanted me to fill the house with rainbows, but I managed to talk her down to just these flowers and rainbow back drop.  Both of the kids helped fill up the piñata with candy. Funny enough, this thing barely holds any candy. I guess it's just the wrong s...

We love to hike at Opal Creek and this year we actually found a warm, sunny Saturday that we could go. Rare this time of year, so when we woke up and saw the sun, we packed up and left. We went with our friends, Peter and his kids. His wife Anne was busy coaching volleyball, so she missed out this trip. The kids took about 2.5 hours to hike to the end (about 3 miles). There was a lot of stopping, playing, pictures, and adventure seeking. On the way back, we ran almost the entire time. We were hungry and tired and the kids wanted to run. It was pretty awesome to watch the kids run that far around all the rocks. There were a lot of crashes too, but it was so fun.

Caleb and I are digging a little deeper into our fertility issues. I finally got to see my own doctor, who I love, and he was very supportive. He was worried because he thinks that I had a third miscarriage about two months ago. He was out of town and I got the witch doctor again and she didn't want to investigate anything. But clearly the symptoms and issues I had were consistent with the other two miscarriages. My doctor was kind of mad at the covering doctor which made me feel better because I can't stand the other doctor. I really don't have ill feelings about anybody, but this lady drives me nuts. Anyway, so Dr Lewis, my favorite, sent us in for some tests. I Step 1:  Hysterosalpingogram or HSG. Sound fun? Think again. You go into radiology and have them insert dye into you and look at it in an x-ray to see if your tubes are open. It has to be a very specific timing, you have to take meds, and lay on a table for about 40 minutes while they prep you and then take the...

We've been working with Shelby on her ABCs almost every day this summer. Calvin usually reads a few books with us and does some of the games. Other than hanging out with us and Shelby, we really haven't tried to teach him the ABCs. We were eating ice cream and all of a sudden I hear Calvin sing the entire song by himself. I had no idea he knew that and Caleb didn't know either. We have a smart little boy on our hands. Just a few months ago he would barely speak, and now he busts out his letters first try. Maybe we should try teaching him things. Note to self!