The Coombs Family

It's been awhile since we went with our kids since it's usually the best to go in the summer. But we had such a mild winter and it was really warm, so we went for it. I'm not sure if Ronin saw any animals but Calvin and Shelby pointed out many to him. The baby lion cubs were their favorite. And we were sad to find out one of the giraffes had to be put down that same day we were there.

We made our first trip to Sunriver this year and introduced Ronin to his new vacation getaway. I know I say it all the time, but we love Sunriver. We took two families with us who have not been there before. The weather was freezing so we had to get creative with the activities. We went for bike rides, played in the hot tub, and went ice skating.

We blessed Ronin on Sunday February 8. Caleb's sister Jenny and her family came from Utah just for the blessing. We had a house full of family, lots of activities and a great baby blessing. We started the weekend with some shooting Then we went to Chuck E Cheese Finished the day off by swimming out in Dallas, and then stayed up late playing legos, and then went to bed. In the morning Caleb made breakfast and we ran out the door for 9 am church. Ronin was an angel and didn't cry and let everyone hold him and pass him around. Here's Aunt Jenny reading to the kids So grateful for this family of mine!

I am so glad that I hired Alee to come take Ronin's pictures. It was a last minute decision. I had tried it with Calvin and it didn't work out so well. And I just didn't really think about it before Ronin was born with all the Christmas preparations. I was at a friends house and she said she would loan me her baby crocheted hat and diaper cover. She had hired Alee too, so I decided to try it. The morning of the shoot she came to my house and I didn't even have to get out of my pjs. Ronin decided to stay awake almost the entire time, which is very unlike him. He was only 7 days old and I swear he is never awake. Luckily she had patience to wait him out and they turned out great. Here's our little man!

After two weeks of labor and contractions 4-5 minutes apart, it was clear that our baby boy was not going to come on his own. I had to go to my doctor almost daily to check my status, and every day I had regular contractions that were getting more intense, but no dilation. They gave me sleeping pills but even those would only last about 3 hours and then I was up. So I resorted to puzzles, online articles, and anything I could do in the middle of the night. Luckily on Dec 24 I didn't have hardly any contractions and got some good sleep. Shelby would pray every night that I wouldn't have the baby until after Christmas so that I wouldn't be in the hospital over the holiday. Sweet girl, and her prayers were answered. We went in for a scheduled c-section on December 27th. Due to complications with my other two deliveries, I needed to have a c-section, as much as I wanted to avoid it. I tried to think of everything and anything but my friends and family all told me that I needed ...

Christmas is finally here! I don't know if I have ever been as excited to count down to Christmas as I have been this year. Maybe it's the impending birth of this little boy that I've been growing, but I am just as excited as the kids to mark every day off the calendar. Christmas Eve we had the Coombs over for Christmas. They are usually in Utah but Eric just had a shoulder replacement so he was not traveling. It was really cool having them here and celebrating. We ate lots of food and then we opened gifts and read books. The Coombs are known for their thoughtful gifts. They always ask what the kids want and go out of their way to get a perfect gift. This year was no exception! Shelby got a nutcracker and a full ballet costume. She was in heaven and put on an amazing dance party for us! Calvin got a really cool grader that he has not stopped playing with. All the parts on it move and he dumps out all sorts of stuff just so he can push it around. When he opened t...

This Christmas was a little harder to get out and do stuff with the kids since I'm 9 months pregnant. But we still managed to squeeze in a lot of fun. We started with the Christmas tree on Thanksgiving weekend. This year we found an amazing tree and it was snowing (barely) when we picked the tree. We went with Rhoda's family and they hauled it to our house for us. Then we decorated it and Rhoda's kids did all the decorating of my entire house this year. I practically sat on the couch and barked out orders of where I wanted stuff to go. The house goes up so much faster with all the helpers around. The day after the tree went up and was decorated, Caleb went to friends house late at night to watch a TV show that he loves. It's about zombies, which is not my favorite thing ever, so he watches it with friends. Everyone was in bed and then I heard the loudest, glass shattering, crash ever! Our tree totally fell over. The stand was apparently too small. Now we know! O...