Trunk or Treating

I loved doing this theme with my kids this year!  It just so happened that we had enough people to play the parts and they all looked so adorable!!!

The ward trunk-or-treat was much earlier in the month than it normally is.  I always love having other excuses to wear costumes other than the one night of Halloween.  It makes it all more worth while.

We had a pot luck with chili and homemade bread before the actual treating part of the night.  It ended up being the perfect thing because we had crazy 50 mph winds all day and evening which brought the temperature way down.

Even though the weather was less than ideal, all the kids were ecstatic about getting candy.  Come on, who wouldn’t be !!!  Jacob was the funniest thing ever.  I don’t know if it was all the people around and the different characters and colors that he was enthralled with but he was smiling and happy all night long.  No amount of wind or cold could have changed that.  In fact, he learned how to pull himself into a more upright position in his stroller just so that he could see things better.

  

I think the highlight of my night was seeing the kids walking around with their arms all linked together.  We had watched The Wizard of Oz yesterday to kind of get them in the mood and they remembered that the group all links arms with Dorothy.  It was cute and it was a great way for me to keep track of where the kids were!

Joseph’s 3rd Birthday PARTAAAAY!!!!!

 

Today, our family, and 19 other little children, celebrated Joseph’s 3rd birthday!  I wanted to throw him a Halloween birthday party last week, but with the Primary program practice last weekend we got a better turnout doing it today.

  
 

The party itself was quite easy, it was just all the prep work that went into the food that took most of the time.  We had mummy dogs, melon brains, snack-0-lanterns, monster blood (juice drinks), and spider cupcakes.  It would have been nice to be able to do a lot of this the night before, but I wasn’t sure it the orange cups would turn brown over night or if they would shrivel up like carved pumpkins do sometimes.

I made the cupcakes the night before, but iced them and put their little spiders on this morning.

The mummy dogs needed to be warm so that had to be done just before all the kids got to the house.

The hardest one (and now I know that I can do it the night before and then wrap it in cellophane) was the melon brains.  The recipe told me to peel the green rind off but to leave the white part of the rind on.  I was then to make all these little cuts that would make it look like a brain and then smooth out the sharp lines.  I only had time to make the cuts and not smooth it out, but I think the kids got the idea.  Next time, I’m going to cut all the rind off (white and green).  It will make it much easier to serve and eat.

When the kids got to the house, to waist some time as we waited until all the kids arrived, I had the kids decorate a pumpkin that they would take home at the end of the night.  I wanted to have them paint them, but then I rethought that idea when I realized how many kids would be coming.  Instead, I had them each decorate their pumpkin using styrofoam stickers.  The clean up was so easy and the kids loved that they could take them home at the end of the night.

We played a few games while we cleaned off the table to get ready for dinner.  There were bean bag tosses, limbo sticks, and monster mashing!!!

The kids ate their dinner, some were a little nervous about the melon brains but once some of the older kids ate it everyone seemed to ask for it .

After dinner, some ghosts stopped by to let the kids know that they hid some surprises for the kids somewhere in the house.  They left little black cats around the house; if the kids followed the riddles, they would lead them to their surprise!

1. The day has been busy, I feel half-dead, I’m so very grateful for my ____.
2. Rhymes with slouch and you sit on it.
3. It’s like seeing a picture of myself, only backwards.
4. My letters are all out-of-order, you might use me to send a letter.
5. Scrape the scraps off all the plates, this machine cleans them all just great.
6. You solved the clues and in glory you’ll bask, it looks like you were up to the task!

After running all over the house and even a little outside, the kids ended up at the dishwasher where Joseph opened it up to find 20 different white lunch sacks with different ghost faces drawn on them.  Each kid got a goodie bag to take home with them.

While the kids were running everywhere during the scavenger hunt, we cleared up dinner and set the table for cupcakes.  We gave the kids a few minutes to look into their goodie bags and then we all sang Happy Birthday to Joseph!

I know, he’s not in his real Halloween costume.  By the time the kids started to arrive for the party I was still working on the food so I had him just get the first costume on that he could find.  The same thing for Emma and Benjamin.  We’ll have several chances to wear our OZ costumes next week, as it is.

I’m so glad that all these little kids were able to come and celebrate with us.  It was quite the party!

Nana stopped by after the party was over and enjoyed a cupcake with us for her birthday, which happened to be today!!!  I think she turned 51.  Not bad!

Good-night, baby boy!!!  You did good today!

Sitting Around

Jacob has been doing so much better with his sitting.  We’ve been practicing and I also borrowed a “BUMBO” from one of my friends.  I think it has helped a great deal.

With him sitting up better, I decided to give him a bath in the kitchen sink after dinner.  I kind of let him play with his food tonight since I knew he was going to get a bath.  Normally I feed him everything so that it saves me time later with cleaning up,  but I thought it would do him more good to try and work on his hand eye coordination.

He had such a blast playing with the sprayer and chewing on some measuring spoons.  He was a little wobbly but I couldn’t tell if that was from his inability to sit on his own or if it was because the sink was wet and slippery .  He sure has great looking eyes though!!!

I Can SEE!!!

Today I woke up, after several hours of required sleep, to the beautiful colors of the mountains outside my window.

Yesterday was a little crazy and I’ll recount what I can remember.  We dropped the kids off right after school (12:30 pm) and then Jared and I proceeded to the Dr. office.  We signed in at one o’clock and took some Valium to help with my nerves and help my eye muscles relax for the procedure.

They put several numbing drops in my eyes as they put in the restraint.  Then they tried to put the suction cup on my eyeball.  It was, by far, the most uncomfortable part of the whole process.  With the restraint holding your eye open as wide as possible, they place the suction directly over the iris and push it down so that your eye sticks out a little more than usual- making it easier for the lasers to do their magic!  They had a hard time getting the suction to stick since my eye muscles kept popping the seal.  After a couple attempts, they decided to send me back to the waiting room where they gave me another Valium and waited until it kicked in.

About 20 minutes later, they called me back in.  When I walked through the doors I guess I was giggling and the doctor’s laughed, saying, “Now you’re ready!  Much better!”

They put the suction on my eye (which cuts off some of the blood flow so that everything goes dark), wheeled me over to the lasers and had me hold completely still for 60 seconds while the lasers were going.  They pulled the suction off, covered my eye, and did the same thing with the other eye.

When they were done, they walked me to a recovery room where they check everything and gave me some prescription drops for me to use for the next month and a pair of goggles to wear every night for the next week so that no pressure is put on my eyes until they are completely healed.  Then they walked me out to Jared, who had the wonderful job of escorting me out to the car and making sure that I went straight to bed until the next morning.

It was 4:30 pm by the time we got home and I was mostly out of it.  I remember pulling up to the house but not much more than that.  When I woke up around 9:30 pm STARVED!!!  I was all groggy when I woke up, but I was lucid enough to remember what had happened just a few hours earlier.  I opened my eyes and found that everything was very blurry, and then I realized that I had my goggles on still.  I pulled them off and found that, even though it had only been 5 hours since my surgery, I could see very well.  It wasn’t perfect (it was like wearing a very old contact prescription) but it was better.  I grabbed a bite to eat and then went back to sleep until this morning.

I don’t know how to describe to you the amazing clarity of everything around me as I opened my eyes this morning.  For someone who has gone without seeing for themselves for most of their life it was a true miracle at what I beheld.  I spent the morning looking at my children, looking at everything outside, and the details of my house.

I had the unique opportunity to drive to my doctor’s appointment this morning as well.  Since I could see well enough the doc wanted to check out my incisions to make sure they were healing properly and that my eyes weren’t drying out.  While I was there, they measured my vision and gave me the staggering stats:

before the procedure: 20/200

after the procedure: 20/30

My eyesight is still not perfect but, as you can see, it has improved dramatically!  They say that my eyes will adjust and get better over the next month or two.  They expect that I’ll have perfect vision, if not better, by the end of the month.

Last Meal

Ah, tonight is my last night disabled!  It seems a little surreal that I’m having surgery tomorrow afternoon and that could very well come home and have improved vision.

I’m so ready to be rid of these  glasses.  I don’t really know what to expect though.  I’ve had to wear glasses, or contacts, for so long that I dont’ know what normal, naked eyes are supposed to feel like.

There is one thing that I’m going to really look forward to.  Over the past several years, there have always been times when the kids were so small that I couldn’t leave them alone, not even to take a shower.  They would always wait out the time while in the bouncer.  But always, without fail, they would cry or get upset while I was in the shower.  When I would open the door to check on them I would have to squint like crazy to be able to see that they were even still in the seat.  Most of the time I’d have to run out to them to make sure that I was seeing things right.  It will be so AMAZING to be able to see just by opening my eyes.  I am so excited!!!

Dilated

Today I had my final eye appointment before the surgery!

I can’t tell you how excited I am to get this procedure done.  It was a little inconvenient to have to wear my glasses for the last two weeks.  Everytime I’d bend over to pick something up, the glasses would fall off.  When I’d empty the dishwasher or wash the dishes in hot water they’d get all foggy.  Just little nuisances like that.  But I would go through a hundred more things like that if it meant I’d have perfect vision in a weeks time.

At the appointment today, Jared had to go with me so that he could drive me home since they were going to be doing a whole slew of tests on my eyes.  They had me read chart after chart, and look into all kinds of different machines.  They did moisture tests and glaucoma tests, distance tests and peripheral tests.  Pretty much any test that they have they did it on me so that they could tell if my body would reject the surgery or if my eye sight would deteriorate aver the course of the next few months to a years.  Since they had to dilate my eyes, I had to have Jared drive me home.  It ended up being really necessary because they put twice the amount of dilating drops in my right eye because it wouldn’t take.  It wasn’t until half way through the test that the drops started to really kick in, making it really difficult for me to open my eyes.  With us driving home at 5:30 pm and the sun directly in our eyes, Jared ended up being Superman.

I got my first pair of glasses when I was 7 1/2 years old.  I didn’t get contacts until I was about 12 or 13 years old.  To think that I’ve lived more than half my life with corrective eye wear so this is going to take some getting used to!

Can I just say that I’M SO EXCITED!!!!

My Little Vampire

Jacob finally had some teeth come through his gums this week.  It’s so funny because it wasn’t the typical front teeth or bottom teeth.

His side teeth came in so that whenever he smiles he looks like a little vampire!  It’s so funny, especially with Halloween just around the corner.  With Jacob being the cowardly lion his little fangs will come in real handy!!!

Our Front

   

                                   BEFORE                                                   AFTER

I think this is one of our more dramatic reveals in quite a while.  I know that when we first moved in there were a lot of changes and things that we had done to our house that made a big difference, but it seems like all of our more recent projects have been on a smaller scale.

It is so nice to have a front yard that doesn’t consist of ROCKS!!!  If you don’t know me too well, I HATE VEGAS LANDSCAPES!!!  Everything is so pokie, dry, lifeless.  I hate having a yard full of rocks because then the favorite past time of children outside playing is who can throw the rock the farthest- and I don’t really appreciate that.

I love being able to walk outside in my bare feet and jump onto the grass if I need to cool off.  I love that the big tree in the middle of the yard provides so much shade all day long that we can have shade for picnics and such.  I worked so hard to find flowers, plants, and trees that would look like the furthest thing you would find.  To be honest, our yard looks like none of our neighbors’ yards and that has Jared a little worried.  He’s afraid that the HOA will think that we did too much and that it looks too different from its original layout.

If any of you feel the same way about plants and flowers as I do I went ahead and labeled the following pictures with the names of the plants so that you can get them as well.  It’s been a few months since I’ve planted everything and everything has done so well- even through the hot summer months!!!  Everything in the pictures are annuals, meaning that they  ”>will loose their blooms but that they will continue to re-bloom until the end of their season and then they will go dormant until the following year.  I love how there are all different kinds of greenery and plumage in the flower beds.

Grandpa Combs, how do you think we did???

Labor Woes

The kids all woke up just like any other day.  They got dressed, ate breakfast, and went and climbed into the car !  They didn’t seem to understand that today was a holiday and that there wouldn’t be any school.  Benjamin actually seemed to think that he did something wrong and that I wasn’t letting him go to school.  It took some convincing, and we ended up doing a couple lessons here at the house but the water works stopped and he accepted the fact that he would be going to school again tomorrow.

Elementary Open House

Tonight, we as a family, all got to go and meet with Mrs. Toffelmire for the school’s open house night.

Benjamin was so excited to take Emma and Joseph to see the place that he goes everyday.  He had fun showing them his desk and the centers, the  different charts and graphs, letters and numbers around the room.

We got a 20 minute little lesson from Mrs. T and a packet full of fun things for us to do at home.  I got to talk to her for a minute about Benjamin’s progress over the last month. 

It was good for us to go tonight because I was able to meet some of Benjamin’s little friends that I have heard so much about over the last few weeks.  I can tell that he has already made some really close ties with some of the other boys in the room.  Let’s just hope that it doesnt affect him academically.

9 months and 3 years

Jacob

weight: 18 pounds (15%)

height: 27 1/2 inches (25%)

head: 43 cm (4%)

So, another month down and Jacob hasn’t progressed much on the sitting or crawling front.  He is sitting up, unassisted, a little better than the last time, but he’s still a long way from sitting on his own without falling over.

This check-up was pretty routine (with only 5 shots) until they got to physical check-up.  For whatever reason, and I don’t know how many reasons that would be because I’ve never been a boy, but for some reason the doctor couldn’t find one of his testicles.  He told me not to worry because with them being so small at this age it makes it more difficult to find them at times.  He referred me to the radiologist to get an x-ray done so that he can make sure that everything is alright.

Joseph

weight: 40 pounds (98%)

height: 40 1/2 inches (96%)

head: 51 cm (80%)

As far as Joseph goes… he had to get three shots, which was really hard because I had to practically sit on him to hold him still.  But, as you can see from the stats above, he has already surpassed most three-year olds in both height and weight.  It made me fell better when the doctor wasn’t worried when I told him that he was sharing clothes and shoes with his 5-year-old brother.  As long as his height and weight are of an equal percentage Joseph is considered proportionate and not overweight.

The Next 30 Years

There is too much to say about this event that I have been planning for the last two weeks.  It kind of ended up having a life of its own after I got started.  It was just supposed to be a surprise 30th birthday party for my sweet Jamie.  It kind of grew and morphed into a small wedding reception/ ward party!

 

It was so much fun to plan and execute such a large party!  This was to be Bella’s birthday party in the first chapter of New Moon.  I took what I read and put a few twists on things so that we could make it a dinner party (with actual food).

There were 10 tables with 7 chairs at each.  68 people ended up RSVPing that they would come celebrate with us!

278 white, pink, and silver balloons were strategically placed all over the room.  It helped make it look like we were at a different venue besides the overflow of the chapel.

There were 48 lanterns strung across the ceiling of the room that were different shades of pink and different sizes.  A man in my ward was awesome to wire little battery operated candles into the lanterns so that we could turn them on and they would flicker when the house lights were turned off.  It was such a beautiful effect!

Like I said earlier, this party was the “Bella Birthday Party” from New Moon.  Jamie’s a huge fan and we thought it would be a fun theme.  These are the silver wrapped gifts that Bella got her paper cut while opening.  We opted for bags because we could just slip people’s presents into them as they arrived.

 

And what is a Bella party without Edward?!?!  He was the first thing that she saw when she came through the door!  I was able to get this great 6 foot cut out of him just a day or two before our big bash.  We positioned him so that he stood guard over the buffet table where we served fettuccine noodles with a choice of marinara or alfredo sauce; meatballs, chicken breast, and italian sausage; caesar salad; french bread; water and this great sherbet/ 7-up mixed drink.   But I’m telling you, Edward was the perfect icing on the cake!

 

Speaking of ICING….  we had this AMAAAZING birthday cake.  Tried to get it to look as much like the cake in the movie.  We sacrificed a third tier so that the price would better fit the budget and we added roses to match the other roses all over the rest of the room.

  
 

To add some extra soft lighting, we took tulle and bunched up tons of icicle lights!  It gave a great effect, I only wish we hadn’t run out of lights because we could have used a few more here and there.

We had over 19 dozen roses scattered all over the place.  They were decorating the cake, each table had a centerpiece with a dozen and a half roses, we scattered petals over each table and the food areas.

And to top it all off, there were 82 votive candle holders (including candles) with different colored tissue paper to add a little colored light to the room.

           

I was so pleased that Jamie was surprised!  It took a lot of work and I was SURE that she would find out some way or another.  Chuch was such a great sport in letting me run his life for a couple of weeks.  I’m sure it wasn’t easy for him.

I think the best thing that we could have given her that night was her sister, Heather.  We sent out an invitation and Heather was able to come down from St. George and be here to celebrate Jamie’s big 30 with us!

I’m so glad that I was able to do this for Jamie!  It wasn’t nearly as stressful as I thought it would be.  It’s refreshing to know that I can handle something like this and not completely fall apart as a mother and wife.  Jamie, I hope that your next 30 years are as wonderful as your first 30!  You are an amazing mother, wife, and friend!  Thank you for all that you have taught me and continue to teach me every day.  You are a wonderful big sister!!!  Happy Birthday!!!

“Looking” into things!

Today I had an appointment to see an optomitrist.  It wasn’t your typical appointment.  I went to start looking into my chances for having LASIK surgery.

I looked into it years ago, but at the time I was still nursing Benjamin and I was planning on having more children.  They advised me to wait until I was done having children because your eye sight can fluctuate while you’re pregnant and nursing.  They sure knew what they were talking about.  My prescription changed every couple years (just ever so slightly) but just enough that I’m glad I didn’t have LASIK done back then.

Now that I’m done having children and done nursing, I thought it was worth taking a second look at.

I meet with their LASIK specialist who took several tests and asked a bunch of different questions.  It all happened so fast.  Before I knew it I found out I was the perfect candidate for the surgery and I had a tentative surgery date and time.  Before the actual surgery I would need to go without wearing contacts for a two-week period so that my corneas would have a chance to relax back into their normal position.  I would have to also have another appointment where they would perform a whole slew of tests (including dilating my eyes) so that they would be able to see if my body would reject the surgery or not allow it to take effect for the 15- 20 years that they were guaranteeing me that this procedure would last me.

So, as of this Saturday, I get to wear my glasses for the next two weeks and then I should have BRAND NEW EYES!!!

Surprise Gift!

Today we did a little different thing for our Family Home Evening.

Our good friend, Jamie Burt, turned 30 today.  She has quickly become one of my closest friends and her whole family has become very close to my family.  Since her husband is the bishop of our ward, every Tuesday night he stays late at the church for meetings.  After the kids go to bed, it becomes the perfect time for me to go over to her house and hang out with her.

For the past few weeks, I have been bringing over home decorating magazines to get some ideas for her birthday.  There is this AWEFUL looking chandelier in the main stairway that comes standard with all the homes in the community.  She hates that thing with a passion (just as I did before we replaced it a few months ago).

We talked for hours about different things that we both wanted to do with our homes if money weren’t an issue.  I got her to tell me what type of chandelier she would like to replace the one that she had right now.  So, for the last few days I’ve been looking on Craig’s List for different chandeliers that fit her description.  It was amazing when I found one that fit what she wanted almost to a tee!

Tonight, we had Chuck text us when they went out for dinner so that we could sneak inside and install the chandelier.  I thought this was a better idea than just handing over a chandelier with exposed wires.  Since Jared had already done this same thing with our light fixture he was so amazing to help me with this little project.

I hope she really likes it and that it’s what she had invisioned in her home!

Happy Birthday, Jamie!

Cutie Pies

Today I picked up the kids’ pictures from Sam’s Club.  I could not have imagined a better set of pictures.  I was able to get an 11×14 of the shot to the left for free but then, of course, they threw a bunch of other shots at me of my cute kids.  Each of the kids ended up having individual pictures and then there were some of the boys.  After I picked all the shots that I wanted it was over $200.  I knew that wouldn’t fly!

I tried to be as diplomatic about it as possible and ended up just getting Emma’s picture to put in Jared’s office.  This way none of the boys could say “You have their picture but not mine”.  This way we can just say that we got Emma’s because she’s daddy’s little girl and leave it at that.  And it was too darn cute to leave behind!!!

Olivea Janelle Combs

My little brother is a daddy!

His little angel, Olivea, arrived late tonight.  She was a whopping 7 lbs. 15 oz. but she was 20 inches long.

It was quite a hard delivery on Abby but she safely delivered little Liv.

Unfortunately, Olivea is still stuck in the NICU for a few more days, but hopefully she’ll be able to go home when Abby is discharged.

Little Ethan

I was blessed to be able to go and serve my sister-in-law and brother-in-law tonight.  They took little Ethan home from the hospital yesterday so we’re all taking turns bringing her meals.  It was a great chance for me to spend some time with Ethan since I didn’t get to see him at the hospital.

He was such a little sweetheart.  So very tiny, but even then he was a lot larger than Jacob.  I remember that Jacob was small, but I forgot just how small until I held this little guy.  It’s only been a little over 8 months but they really do grow and change the most in that first year.  I’m so glad that I’ve taken it slow with him.  I just hope that Tori and Matt do the same.

Ethan Johnson

Matt and Tori welcomed their second son earlier today.  Little Ethan arrived this evening weighing in at 7 lbs. 9 oz. and 19.5 inches long.  He is healthy and doing well

I guess Tori’s water had been leaking and they didn’t find out until her appointment this morning.  They gave her an epidural and then broke her water.  It wasn’t long after that until the baby came.

He looks so different from Kaleb.  I’m curious to see if he takes more after Tori or Matt.

Siverish- Blueish

I don’t know where he and Emma get them from.  Jared and I, both, have dark brown eyes.  Brown is supposed to be a dominant gene, but two of my four children have these silvery- blue eyes.  Benjamin and Joseph both have hazel eyes, but that look different colors dependent on what color clothing they are wearing at the time.

Jacob is doing so well with eating solid foods.  He is growing so much, but it’s a good thing.  I have been making sure to enjoy this little guy (not take his babyhood for granted).  I’m so glad that he is learning and that he’s becoming more interesting to the kids.  It’s great when they can start interacting with one another.  The kids are going to be such great friends!!!  It almost makes up for all the craziness of having them so close together in age.

Talking Squirrels

While getting ready for church this morning Jared made an odd observation.  I had just finished doing Emma’s hair and she was asking him how she looked.  As Jared was talking to her and telling her how beautiful she looked Joseph and Benjamin came to join us in the bathroom.  All three of them started talking at once, speeding up or increasing in volume and pitch to be heard above the other.

Jared simply looked over to me and announced, “Who knew we were raising a bunch of squirrels?”

Seriously!  Why can’t children just wait 5, maybe 10 seconds at most, for the other person to finish talking?  It’s some kind of competition to see who can have their questions or comments acknowledged first.