It was a rainy, rainy 4th here.  Luckily, thanks to all my Washington roots, I’m totally used to that.

After church, we came home and the kiddos popped some confetti poppers, went through a few boxes of snap-it poppers, and Royal lit off some worms and smoke bombs.  They thought it was awesome!

In the afternoon, after a pathetic attempt at a nap by Willow, we headed over to Nick and Sabrina’s house.  It was still pouring down rain outside, so the kids played inside for a little bit.

But my Washington side came prepared with a towel and extra clothes because you just can’t play inside all day on the 4th of July!  So, we drug the kids outside to find some puddles to jump in and a dirt pile to play in.  Funny thing about the dirt here in Kansas when it gets wet….

…it totally sticks to everything!

Thanks to the kids little to no naps, they were a tad cranky, so we kept feeding them popsicles to keep them happy.  I think they ended up have like 3 of them.  :)

We also let off a few more fireworks in the street, pulled some confetti poppers, and popped a few more boxes of snap-its.  The kids loved the snap-its so much, that Nick headed back to the fireworks stand and came back with a box of 50 boxes of snap-its.  The kids opened and popped every. single. one.

There were so many popped snap-its on the ground, it kinda looked like it snowed.  :)

Thankfully the rained stopped in the later afternoon and we were able to light off the rest of our fireworks and let the kids try out some sparklers.

Later that evening, you know, when the kids were way past tired and were crashing from all the sugar we fed them, we finally went home and got the kids dressed and ready for bed, then we drug them outside on the driveway to watch the country clubs light off all their big fireworks.  We had a lot of fun and the kids managed to sleep in until after 8 this morning.  :)

Royal’s father’s day started out a little rough.  Jayden woke up at 6:30 with a wet bed.  I got up, changed Jayden and his bed.  Willow woke up at 7:15, also with a wet bed.  Royal got up, grabbed Willow and Jayden and put them in the bath, then went out to the kitchen to finish doing the dishes from the night before.  About 5 minutes later he hears me yell from the bathroom, “Um, Royal, I need your help!”  Willow had pooped in the bathtub and I was frantically pulling kids and toys out of the tub before someone grabbed “something” and was like, ‘what is this?  a new bath toy???’  Luckily things went a better from there, but nothing like being reminded first thing in the morning what being a dad is really like!

We spent the morning at El Dorado where the kids played at a playground, Sam chased some birds, we went for a little hike, and then the kids went swimming.  Royal wouldn’t even put his foot in the water because the lake looks so dirty, so I waded in the water with the kids.  So far, no one has grown an extra limb or anything  :)

The kids got Royal a sno-cone machine for Father’s day.  While in Arizona, Royal was making sno-cones with my parents margarita machine about every hour, so I thought since it is approaching triple digits here in Wichita that he (and the kids) might like some ice treats here too.  I never seem to get to eat mine, because the kids finish theirs off so quick they move right over to mine and help themselves.

This was our 2nd Easter here in Kansas, all alone, with no family around.  I actually don’t really mind being all alone on this holiday.  Back in Washington, Easter was like all other holidays and semi-holidays and sometimes weekends, lots of people, lots of food, lots of noise, lots of fun.  But for the past few years, I don’t mind not doing that.  Easter 2007 was the last time I saw my brother alive, so Easter’s now are a little depressing and sad for me (despite the reality behind Easter - The Resurrection! - not depressing and sad at all!), so a low key Easter is all right with me.

We dyed eggs on Friday.

It was Willow’s first time getting to participate!  Please ignore the drool, the girl is always drooling…

Then it was time to put some stickers on our newly colored eggs!

Willow thought it was more fun to put stickers on her leg…

She also thought the eggs were balls, so she wanted to play with them.  I said, ‘well, just give her one, they’re hard boiled, so it’s not like she could crush it and make a big mess’

Guess I was wrong.  Egg. Down.  Never underestimate the thumb strength of a 16 month old.  ;)

Today after church, we came home and did our egg hunt.  I swear it was over in like 2 minutes.  It didn’t take Willow long to figure out what was going on and she loved finding all the little eggs in the yard, especially when she discovered that some of them had candy in them!

(be sure to notice Willow’s shoes…luckily there’s no hippos around here)

After the egg hunt, Jayden really wanted to try and eat an egg like Marcie on “It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown”.  I told him he could try it, but we were going to take the shell off, something that Marcie forgot to do…

While Jayden was trying out his salted hard boiled egg, Willow was digging through their Easter boxes looking for more candy.

I decided this year to get these canvas boxes to put their Easter presents in, since they could still use the baskets that I got them last year, and we could use the canvas boxes for collecting toys throughout the rest of the year.  Jayden’s is blue and is an elephant, Willow’s, you’re not gonna believe this but…Willow’s is a pink hippo.  And I got these a couple days before the whole shoe/hippo incident.  Guess my life really does have some foreshadowing in it.  Maybe if I was paying a little more attention, I would of noticed that God was trying to tell me that hippos were going to play a small, but very funny part in my near future.  :)

Royal and I and the kiddos went to the 2nd annual StrollerFit Easter Egg Hunt today.  It was a lot of fun, and while I am going through a ton of pictures and videos that I’m going to be editing and putting together for Tonya’s blog, there were just a few funny things that my family did today and I just can’t not share.  :)

The unique thing about the StrollerFit Easter Egg Hunt is that the kids are allowed to get out of the strollers (usually they need to stay in strollers during workouts) and find the eggs, but it’s whats in the eggs that makes all the difference.  They aren’t filled with candy, they are filled with pieces of paper that have exercises on them.  Things like pushups, ice skaters, lunges, hill runs, squats, etc…

Royal did all the work today, as I was taking lots of pictures, so I took pictures of him doing the work.

Running…

Ice skaters…

Push Ups…

And then there was the bunny hop sack race.  I got to get out of it because of my bad knees, and I wanted to get some pictures, which I am so glad I did because Royal did the most hilarious thing.

Here they are at the starting line…

Hop, Royal, Hop!

Then comes the funny part.  Royal thought this was the finish line, he didn’t realize you had to turn around and hop back.  So, in order to insure his victory, he dove across the “finish line”.  It was hil.ar.i.ous.

And just so Willow’s not left out of this post completely, here’s a picture of her doing the kids easter egg hunt!  :)

or, as Willie and I always called it, Happy Singles Awareness Day!

For part of the kid’s presents this year, I decided to make them something.  For Jayden I made him a flannel dinosaur pillow case, which sadly has already gotten a lot of use since it was opened this morning.  Jayden has been real sick for the past few days.  He had the flu on Thursday and then Friday the flu seemed to turn into a cold, and now he’s all laid up on the couch.  Poor kid.

For Willow, I made a little valentine dress.  And for the 5 minutes she had it on today so I could try and take some pictures, she managed to get food on it!  How the heck did she find food????  I figure she’s got a secret stash  around somewhere…

For lunch, I made the kids and Royal some heart shaped sandwiches.

And then I finished up my heart sugar cookies by frosting them with some chocolate royal icing, Royal’s favorite.

This has been some of the longest couple of weeks ever! We’ve had so much going on that I should of had tons of post about, but there has been sickness running rampant around my house and I haven’t had a chance to sit down and write anything.  So, here’s kind of a catchup with ALOT of pictures to satisfy all you suckers out there who have been muttering mean things under your breath each time you check my blog and see the same post up.  As you know my parents got back here from Pennsylvania at the beginning of December.  And then Jordan flew in on the 13th to spend Christmas with us.  It has been so fun to have him around, even if it feels like I still hardly see him.  He stays up way too late for me and then sleeps in a good part of the day, but when he finally gets up, its fun to have another McComb in the house.  I’m just not sure there is anybody else out there who gets the McComb sarcasm that gets thrown around when there is more than 1 sibling together. :)  We have gone around and looked at Christmas lights a bunch of times.  My mom and I went to a Christmas dinner cooking class.  And we have played inside alot because it has been soooo cold.

Willow has gotten very good at throwing and catching balls.

Jayden has continued with his obsession of all things dinosaur and we are now building them out of blocks.  This is flying Little Foot.  And I don’t have a picture of a later version of him that Jayden and Papa built, but he had guns on his wings.  It was pretty awesome.

Christmas Eve came fast around here since we’ve all had the flu at different times this week.  But we were wishing for a white Christmas and in the form of extremely high winds (like 50 mph) and snow that came down sideways, we got one.

Jayden all decked out in his Christmas T-Rex outfit went outside to check it out. And then later, we put a few more layers on the dinosaur, so he and Papa went outside to “swim” into the wind.

Here is the Christmas Eve dinner my mom and I cooked together from the recipes we got from our cooking class.  We made a roasted pear salad with candied pecans, beef wellington that looked like presents, and duchess mashed potatoes that were pipped out to look like Christmas trees.  (My potato trees could still use some work, they actually looked better than in the picture.  In the picture they just look like a blob) But it makes a pretty little plate!

After dinner we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church.  The kids did pretty darn good during the service, even if Jayden did keep the rows in front of us entertained.  Jayden sung pretty loudly during the worship part, which is great, it was just funny because he didn’t know the words so he was just singing loudly. (best way to spread Christmas cheer, right??).  He then let out a very audible gasp when our paster said something out Jesus dying on the cross. And then at the end of the service he had his candle lit and Papa was kneeling next to him to keep him from lighting the church on fire and Jayden yells out, “Papa, hold your candle up higher!”  “Papa, STAND UP!”  It was pretty darn funny.

After church we came home and the kids got to open their Christmas pajamas, which I made this year.  And I also made a matching pair for Royal. :)

Christmas morning didn’t start as early as I thought it would.  Jayden slept in until almost 8 and Willow slept in until 9!  Christmas miracle?  I think so!  Since my dad had come down with the flu last night, Jordan, Jayden, and I went and picked my mom up at the motorhome this morning so she could come and open presents with us.

Jayden had to try out his new sand chomper in some snow that blew up on the deck!

Jayden then proceeded to help everybody else open their presents by pulling all the presents out of the stockings and handing them to you.  Once our stockings were finished, and it was time to open the other presents, Jayden would grab a present from under the tree, run over to me, ask who it was for, then run to the person it was for, open it right in front of them, and then hand them their present.  He was quite the helper.

Jayden helping Uncle Jordan.

Jayden helping dad…

Jayden helping Nana…

Jayden helping Willow…

There’s not much cooking that happens in the kitchen on Christmas day.  I did the cinnamon rolls and breakfast casserole on Christmas Eve, so all I had to do was pop them in the over in the morning.  But on Christmas day, we try and focus on the fact that it is Jesus’ birthday, so ever since we have had Jayden, I have made a birthday cake for Jesus and after dinner we sing Happy Birthday to Him and eat birthday cake.  Even Jesus got to use the Thomas the train candle this year!

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus!!!

Jayden and I went to a gingerbread house making class yesterday.  It was so much fun, even if I spent a good deal of the time telling Jayden to stop eating off of the tray that held preztels and candies for decorating and that no I am not going to pipe the bag of frosting right into your mouth.

The first thing we did was make stained-glass windows in our house, by breaking up Jolly Ranchers with a hammer - which Jayden thoroughly enjoyed! - and putting the broken pieces in our windows and melting them in the oven.  Here are our finished windows along with a couple pretzels we put “glass” into too.  It was a little hard to take pictures and control Jayden’s hammer at the same time, so no action shots for you on this one.  :)

Once the windows cooled down, I started assembling the house.  Once again, there are no pictures of that because I really needed like 3 hands to get it done and Jayden was just trying to sneak Skittles off the tray.  But with a little help from one of the assistants, I got our house glued together and standing.  While we were waiting for the icing to dry, we were given a bunch of gingerbread dough to use like modeling clay that we were going to bake and place around our house.  Jayden being the only boy in the class had very unique creatures he made from his clay.  Most of the other kids made, snowmen and presents and santas and things like that.  Jayden, well, he made snakes and had me build a t-rex head and a long neck dinosaur and then I did end up making a snowman out of some of it too because, well, I AM a girl.  :)

And then it was onto decorating the house.

Here’s the finished product!

I know I said I was not going to do anymore running after the half marathon, but I’m like a junkie, I just can’t seem to quit the stuff.  I haven’t done any serious running, and I have gone to a doctor for my knees, and I have been doing the physical therapy that I was told to do.  The run today was kind of like a test to see if the physical therapy has been working and if we need to move forward with more drastic measures of fixing them.  I go back to physical therapy on Monday to assess any damage.  :)

Today, in the frigid Wichita weather, Royal and I bundled up and went and ran the Jingle Bell Run.  When we lived up in Seattle, I think we ran 3 or 4 of the Jingle Bell Runs there, and they have always been one of my favorites.  You get jingle bells along with your race number that you attach to your shoes so the mob of people running down the street sounds like mass jingling.  It’s awesome!  So very Christmasy!  However, I have never ran when it’s been so cold out.  The temp this morning was 28 degrees, but with the wind chill, it dropped it down to 12.  12 degrees!  It. was. C.O.L.D.   I wore my running tights and a pair of shorts over them because with just my tights on, my poor buns always get so cold. (tmi??? sorry, i guess i am losing sight of my boundaries for sharing)  And then I wore a tight tank top, a long sleeve moisture wicking shirt, a long sleeve fleece shirt, and then my running vest over that.  And then I wore a headband to warm up my ears and a fleece neck warmer I managed to find in my bag of ski stuff down in the basement to keep my neck and face warm.  I strapped on my race number, tied my jingle bells to my shoes, and I was ready!  It actually wasn’t as bad as I was imagining.  I woke up this morning wishing I had an excuse to not do the run because I hate being cold, but once we started and got the first 1/2 mile or so done, we flipped a 180 and had the wind at our back and the sun shining down, I actually started getting hot and thought about stripping a layer off.  But then I’d glance over at the Arkansas River that we were running next to and see that the top was completely frozen over and I decided to keep all my clothes on.  It was a good, fast run, and I only got sprayed by Royal’s spit twice.  (tmi???)

Jingle, jingle, jingle!

Jayden and I did a little Thanksgiving craft today while Willow was taking a nap. And while most days I am completely frustrated and exhausted that lately everything with Jayden tends to be a battle, there is usually a moment during the day where things are easy and I am reminded how much I love the kid. Even if I have to tell him that he is most definitely NOT allowed to smile in my pictures to get him to stop ignoring me and smile.

I was stealing some Skittles out of Jayden’s halloween candy and he caught me and said : “Hey, Mom. I think you should share those with me”

Me: Um, I don’t know. I really like Skittles.

Jayden: Please, mom. I’ll help you fold the laundry if you share them.

Me: Very tempting.

Jayden: Mom…I love you…And I’ll love you for 3 1/2 months, but that is it. Now, are you going to share them now?