The Coombs Family

We finally got to take our anniversary trip, one month late, but we made it. This year we did not plan a single thing except for the babysitter. We had my brother and his wife come stay at our house with the kids, and that was all we needed to worry about. Caleb and I talked about many different places to go and the morning of our trip we agreed to drive up to Seattle. We found a hotel on my phone while we were driving, and called and booked the place. Amazing all the research you can do online while driving. We stayed in downtown Seattle where all the action is. We never pulled our car out of the parking space. We walked about 10 miles every day and got to do everything that we wanted to. I shopped in the mornings while Caleb slept in. I'm not very good at sleeping in, so I did the girly stuff while he slept in our silent room with blackout blinds. We went to lots of cool shops, restaurants, motorcycle stores, hiking store, tourist stops, and just watched people. The weather was p...

Caleb has been "self employed" now for the past year and had not paid taxes all year. I had no idea what to save or how much taxes would amount to, and neither did he. We played it safe and saved $23,000. We knew we probably overshot a little. He did put over 40,000 miles on our car last year, gets a break for food and insurance expenses. We have kind of turned into hoarders with money lately anyway. Not knowing what our future holds and where Caleb will end up working, we just keep saving.  Our tax guy just left our house at 10 pm on Sunday night, the night before taxes are due. I wasn't sure what to expect but Caleb has saved what he could.  Drum roll please......... we owe $349 to federal and get $400 back from state. So basically, it's a wash and we saved lots of money for ourselves. Without any hesitation, we are leaving this weekend to celebrate. We previously had planned on going this weekend for our anniversary trip that we have not had time to take. Now we...

Nothing better than a sunny day in Oregon for Easter. We went to my parents house all day on Saturday, church and to the in-laws on Sunday. The kids hid eggs, found eggs, ate chocolate, and had lots of fun. My sister and I even went for a run before we over-ate. Good thing too because the food was amazing. Glad to spend it with family. Sunday was especially fun because my in-laws have baby chicks they are raising. My kids got to play with the chicks, chickens, dogs, and cousin Isaac. Fun day for everyone.

When Calvin was 13 months old, we took him to the eye doctor as part of his other head diagnosing appointments. The doctor said he had a good chance of being near-sided and that we need to follow up. I took half the day off work and drove up to Portland so that he could be seen by a pediatric doctor. I am glad we did that because the doctor knew exactly how to handle a kid that was Calvin's age. They had fun toys in the room and ways to keep his attention. He could not see at all after they dilated his eyes, so it was one crash after the next. Then they told us his diagnosis -5 on the right and -8 on the left. I wasn't sure what to make of that, but she said it was really bad. We couldn't pick out any glasses in Portland because of the time of day, so we waited until Caleb could go with us. I took him to a place in Salem and Caleb and I were cracking up trying lots of different glasses on him. He HATED every single pair. It was hilarious. We knew that keeping glasses on him...

This year has been a very interesting year. Maybe this is how life goes when you're old. Some things are going very well for us and we could not be happier. And other things are just weird if not completely awful. One issue at a time here folks: My job- is the best job ever. Honestly, I have the best benefits and pay that I know of. For being a 33-year old female, I don't know too many other women who have the job of their dreams and the pay to match. I don't have to worry about money, I can afford to contribute a lot of money to retirement, and save for my kids college. I get to help employees at my work be safe on the job and healthy. We have changed peoples lives and I get kudos from employees regularly on how our program has helped make them a better parent. I rarely ever work overtime, and I get paid to travel around and speak at large events and share our company success. We have the best day care for my kids and they love being there so much that we usually never l...

This Christmas was one of the best we have had here at the Coombs house. Not because it was perfect, but it was pretty close. We took our sweet time this year and participated in many adventures. We saw more lights than ever before, got to take the kids to see Santa, gave away lots of gifts, and spent time together. Caleb spoiled me on Christmas eve after the kids went to bed. We agreed to keep the gifts small this year, but he ignored that rule. Which, was a fun little surprise. I got an iPad 2 and he got some cold gear for his motorcycle. We were both very happy.  The kids woke up early on Christmas day because we went to see my sisters' kids sing. Shelby started throwing up all over the church inside the chapel before it started and Calvin joined her after we rushed back home. I was sick all morning too, so Caleb had to run the show. He made an awesome Christmas meal for everyone and kept the kids happy while I rested. Luckily I made a lot of the food the night before and ...

This year we decided to kick off Christmas early and at full speed. It's early December and my house is completely decorated, shopping is finished, and I am counting down the days until Christmas. I am trying to make some fun traditions with my kids this year.  If you have any good traditions, pass them my way so we can be as cool as your family is. So far, this is what we have done: Cut down our own tree right after Thanksgiving Blast Christmas music as we decorate the whole house Caleb hung up lights outside this year for the first time. New tradition!  We did adopt a family which was a ton of fun to shop for.  Every day when I pick up the kids from day care, we drive around and look at the Christmas lights. Hoping this weekend we can start to hit the big attractions for lights. See our church nativity they put on. That has been a tradition the past few years as well. Make a gingerbread house, or this year- a graham cracker train. Let's keep the Christmas...