Summer Fun

At the end of June my family (the Tod Comin family that is) had a little reunion. It was such a blast! The kids could not have had more fun with their cousins. The adults took some time on Saturday and we did our own activity. We all went to see Wicked! It was amazing!!! We were on the sixth row and boy, I will never forget that experience. Then we went out to dinner at a sea food place, I can't remember the name. But I was feeling very adventurous and tried crab legs. It took me a minute to figure out how to use the tools but once I got the hang of it the meat was quite tasty.

The next day we headed up to the house my parents rented at Big Bear Lake. That too, was amazing. It had a super fun basement where the kids were in heaven! They even got to sleep (or were supposed to sleep although not much of that went on) down there together. The deck to the house had a hot tub the kids tried out one of the days we were there.

B.J. and Kiki brought a TON of cloths for Parker and Makay that they were given so the girls put on a little fashion show while the boys splashed in the hot tub. Grandma Kim made it really fun and dolled the girls up before hand, make-up, fingernail polish, feather earrings and dollar store hair extensions! The girls were in heaven!

We ate all of our meals out on this awesome deck. It was so much fun.  As everyone knows, Ryan and I aren't the best picture takers so we left most of that up to the more talented people in the family. Hopefully we'll get some of those soon so everyone can see the boat ride, the day of swimming and hiking and the fun day at the park where we played kick ball, yes, even me being 8 months pregnant ran around the bases (although I wont horrify you by posting it)! Thank you Grandma Kim and Papa for an unforgettable reunion, we love you!!

Once we got home it was only one week until Creeds birthday. He turned 7! I can't believe it!! (FYI-The kid cannot take a picture with a nice smiling face to save his life so that's why he looks like he's been electrocuted in every shot.)

A really cool book from Grandma Button  and "Seven whole dollars... I'm rich!" I took Creed to Red Robin for his birthday dinner, just him and me, and he read me the book the whole way there and back, it was pretty cute.

My parents have a ball toss game that Creed LOVES so they got him a similar one for his birthday. This one is actually pretty cool because you get to shoot the ball at the other person and then catch it in the net. They love to shoot the balls but they are going to have to work on their aim some because they are having trouble catching it still.

When we have a family movie night, seating gets a little tricky, especially with me being huge pregnant and not wanting big kids climbing all over me. We end up having all the kids on the floor with pillows and blankets and then Ryan and I can actually be comfortable on the couch... alone. Well, this bugs no one more then Creed. So we got him his very own seat for his birthday. It's so great when you find the perfect present!

Our kids don't know much about Star Wars but their cousins sure do. That's all our kids have talked about since the reunion, the love it! At the reunion Ryan would go down at night to the kids room and tell them a Star Wars story before bed. Apparently he kept messing up the story so Sam (our Star Wars expert) would correct him. So Creed got a Star Wars themed cake complete with Sand Troopers, woohoo!

Last but not least, we have been doing extra chores this summer to earn money and get used to paying tithing. It's working great but I kinda feel bad about all the tithing envelopes we go through! The kids finally earned enough to go to the store, it was insanity!! I'm never doing that alone again!!  Anyway, Beckham got a bird house he really wanted to paint. It was so cute seeing him be so careful to get the right color on the right side.

Easton got a canvas with a picture of a robot on it and paints attached to the back.  The boy sat there for almost three hours turning it into a work of art. It's pretty cool too. And don't worry, it looks like Creed is upset but he was just playing at being camera shy, ha!

So what's next for us? Well, hopefully very soon I'll be having this baby! The doctor did a scan and said it looks like it will be over 10 pounds by my due date, yikes! Well, keep everyone posted!!

Family Time



Normally people go and do something fun on Memorial Day weekend.  We we don't like to be normal and I think we pull it off pretty well.  So we decided to head out of town the week before Memorial Day. Where did we go? San Diego of course!

Ryan was able to take Friday off work so we left Thursday evening, very effectively missing Friday L.A. traffic, and had all of Friday and Saturday to play! My sweet mother took the kids for a while so Ryan and I went to the temple together (we usually take turns with the kids and have to do sessions separately) and then went to lunch at Islands after.

Saturday was a true party day when we packed up the kayak and lawn chairs and headed to Mission Bay. There was a giant walk for Cystic Fibrosis going on but we still got a little bit grass and beach all to ourselves.

We brought a bag full of balls and paddles and who knows what.  It kept the boys busy all day long!







 Creed figured out how to throw and catch with these basket things and never put them down unless it was to eat. I'm talking 6 hours worth!

 Papa was a good sport but I think it went a little long for him. Plus, papa was the one doing all the running for the ball, mostly into the parking lot.

 When Creed found another partner to throw with Papa took a rest teasing Makay. You can't see the wooden paddle she is threatening him with but she figured out real fast how to counter his teasing.

 When Easton got roped into playing ball with Creed they played down on the sand. It saved the cars in the parking lot and pedestrians on the side walk anyway from that darn red ball.

 Beckham thought that he was part of the game even though he never touched the ball.

 Ryan got a family day (no work) this weekend so Makay and Beckham played for hours with him. Their favorite game is where Ryan lays on his back and the kids run onto his legs and he flips them up and over him. The timing to capture these was very tricky, luckily they played it for about an hour so I finally got one.

This is step one - running onto daddy's legs

Step two - let daddy swing your legs up over your head

Step three - land gracefully (and not on daddy's head!)



 Daddy time is so much fun!



February through April

Hello Family and Friends!

We finally found our camera! Yayyy!  Thanks to my disorganization we have been missing our camera for a few months now. If I were wittier I would have blogged anyway but I'm not. I know the only reason people read our blog is to see our crazy and cute kids so sorry for depriving everyone for so long. Let me fill you in on what has been happening...

Easton turned 8 in February and got baptized! It was so great, both Tod and Kim Comin and Doug and Kim Button (plus Nick) were able to come down for the weekend.  It made things really special for Easton so thank you to the grandparents!



Here is a picture that was taken at the baptism (I'm not sure by whom) but I love it! Parker has these crazy hazel eyes that can go really green sometimes and we alway wonder where she got them from. Take a close look and it's right there in the photo, the same cool hazel eyes from Grandma Kim.

After all of our guests left we still had the blow up mattress out and I came into the living room to this scene. It made me so thankful that we don't have to live in a one room cabin!!!

On February 17 @ about 2pm Ryan called me from work and asked if my parents wouldn't mind some visitors that weekend (it was Friday). We had been looking for a van to buy and Ryan found a great prospect in San Diego. I called my Dad at work and gracious as he is they let us come down.

I packed some clothes and we hit the road around 4:30 and got to grandma and grandpa's house at 11. It was our birthday weekend so Grandma Kim made scones one night for dinner, it was great! This is Makay helping in the kitchen to make the dough. Every time she's helping in the kitchen now she lets me know that "I've already done this before mom." I keep forgetting she's a pro. (By the way, the van didn't work out but it was a great weekend!)

Now that Easton turned 8 he can go to cub scouts. He's so stinkin cute in his uniform I couldn't stop myself from taking pictures.

Ryan and I hadn't been to the temple for a while and have been trying to figure out how to go. We are in the L.A. temple district and it's really hard getting down there and back in one day. We found out the temple owns apartments right there on temple grounds so we rented a room for a night and wa-la, we got to go to the temple. We drove down on a Thursday, went to subway for dinner (that's what the kids are eating) and Ryan hit up the 7pm session. We slept and I got up early and hit up the 6am session the next morning and we were out of there and on  our way back home by 11. Thank you L.A. temple, we'll be back soon!

Our kids school is crazy about handing out awards. I've never seen so many awards before. It's great for the kids, it keeps them motivated and feeling great about themselves... but when you are 6 months pregnant and sitting on the hard floor because there aren't enough chairs and you have listen to all the millions and millions of awards being passed out, it can get a little old. Sorry for being so negative.

So Creed is one of those kids where school isn't really his "thing". He does fine and has a lot of friends but it's just not his cup of tea. We got a note saying at the next assembly he was going to be "Cougar of the Month"! I had to brave the hard floor and never ending awards for that! Parker and Easton were only getting math awards (pff) (I'm just kidding people!) so they got their pictures taken at home.

It took Creed a while to find me in the crowd. Sadly after all that suffering on the ground and waiting for his award to finally be called, I didn't even get a decent picture!!!

P.S. Even though the van from San Diego didn't work out we did end up purchasing one from Portland. We will try to have pictures next time of our big 15 seater van!