“I have whiskers, just like dad!”

Time for me to hide the blue highlighter.  Jayden now has blue whiskers that don’t wash off very easily at all, and when I came home from my mini roadtrip with Kaylee this weekend, I found Willow with little blue dots on her head.  :)

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!!!

Before I became a mom, and more precisely the mom of a talking, independent, stubborn, very curious little boy, I would of never been able to guess the types of questions I would answer or the types of requests that would come out of my mouth.  And I’ve decided it’s time to start writing some of them down because there’s no way Jayden will believe me later the things I’ve had to answer or ask him to do.  Here are a few of the latest questions that have come up, that I’ve had to create answers for.  You’ll notice there is a running theme in the majority of the questions going on right now…
Jayden: Are those the tracks for the Polar Express?

Jayden: Does Dora have guts?

Jayden: Would a T-Rex eat my Rudolph?

Jayden: Are there guts in my neck?

Jayden: If I’m a T-Rex, what kind of dinosaur am I eating for breakfast right now?

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?

On Monday night, I got word that my grandma was not doing well and that she may only have a few days left to live. So, I found some plane tickets back to Washington that night and bought them. All I have to say is some airlines that I thought were my favorite (ahem, Frontier) have very poor customer service when it comes to booking bereavement filghts. While others, (not naming names, but United) who were my least favorite airline thanks to some poor seating arrangements and rude flight attendants when I was flying with Jayden, totally redeemed themselves. So, I spent all day Tuesday doing laundry, packing, writing lists, shopping, packing, oh, did I say packing? I was having a bit of anxiety about flying with both kids alone. Jayden on the other hand wasn’t leaving without everything he owned. So, I opened up another suitcase that I wasn’t packing and let him put every book he could find in there, zip it up, drag it to the front door and tell me it was time to leave for the airport. He was a bit excited. Wednesday morning, I got up at 4, finished packing the last of our stuff, got the kids up, dressed, and headed off to the airport. On the way to the airport Royal kept asking me what I was doing. I kept saying, “I’m praying. This could be a disaster of an experience for me”, really expecting things to turn bad at some point and leave me fried. Turns out, God DOES answer prayers. :) The airports, security, changing planes, departures, arrivals, flight attendants, not to mention the kids, were all perfect. It was so nice. You’d think I would’ve learned my lesson and start to pray about everything, all the time, no matter how small, because I didn’t think to ask God to help us all get some sleep once we got to my parents house and I think I got about 3 hours last night between Jayden and Willow waking up. Oi, I’m pretty darn tired.

My grandma is still with us and is now out at my parents house, so me and the kids have all been able to see her. Jayden keeps asking why she’s so tired and why is her body so worn out and why this and why that. He is so cute, he’s totally got his dad’s soft spot for little old ladies. He wants to make her a bowl of hot soup to make her feel better. And after today, we talked about how pretty soon great grandma is going to go live with God in Heaven and that God is going to give her a new body that isn’t old and worn out. He sat and thought about it for awhile, then said, “I think great grandma is going to have a red one” I said, “Her new body is going to be red?” And he said, “Yes. Well, no, I think yellow with blue dots. Well, no, I think it will have cars on it. No, I know! It is going to have a black train on it. Yes, great grandma is going to love a new body with trains on it”

Despite the sadness that goes with losing yet another member of our family, it is so nice to be here. I love Washington. And we have been taking full advantage of the freakish heat here (even if it does feel a lot like Wichita) and the lake!

Here’s to show that big bugs live here in Washington too. I think they are starting to follow me around. I found this spider on my towel when I was pulling it out of the bin. I quickly dropped it and found a new one.

Joanna and Willow. Willow is slowly warming up people. Jordan still makes her cry just by looking at her.

My dad enjoying some delicious cupcakes my mom made. I think I ate 3. Well actually I know I did.

My mom

Here’s how the lake looked last night.

Sister Jo - she makes me laugh a lot

Pancakes for breakfast this morning and what looks like could be coffee is really just milk.

Evidence that Jayden has been helping the puppies escape their enclosure.

Willow

Going swimming!

Jordan’s going in!

First off, baths. We take baths over here. A lot. Baths take up a good deal of time in the evening after dinner when I feel totally overstimulated from the day and I need the kids entertained without them having to touch me for awhile. :) Thank goodness they both love baths and taking them together!

Next up, bugs. The bugs here are huge! And since it seems all our neighbors are spraying their houses for bugs, I think the really huge ones who are smart enough to get away from it, are migrating to our house. Royal found these suckers last weekend.
Nasty!

And look at this sucker! Royal actually spotted it in the grass when he was mowing it. It is HUGE!


Even with all these gigantic, nasty bugs around. I’m still not on the bandwagon of having our house sprayed. I think it’s more dangerous to expose Jayden and Willow (and poor Scooties) to the poisons and chemicals that it would take to keep the bugs away, then just having the bugs around. Plus it gives us something to check out and be gross out by.

And now for the birds! For the past few months, we have had some barn swallows make a little home on our covered porch. At first, I thought it was a little annoying having them swoop at us everytime we went outside, but then I thought it’d be pretty cool to watch them have their babies so close to us. So, we put up with the birds and eventually they got used to us and stopped throwing mud at us when we were out there. They provided great entertainment and some life lessons for Jayden. We would sit on the porch and eat lunch and watch the birds building their nest. Then sitting on their nest. Then the 5 little babies birds hatching and poking their heads out. The mom and dad birds flying off to catch bugs to feed to the birds. Although, when asked Jayden would tell you that the momma bird didn’t feed bugs to her babies. She fed them with her “great, big, birdie boobs”. Obviously my large chest has had an impact on Jayden, as well. :) We came out one morning and the bully baby bird in the nest had pushed out (well it’s my theory) 2 of the other birds, obviously the nest was getting to crowded. So we had to explain to Jayden why the birds died. Not that he hasn’t already had a ton of experience with mutilated animals on the porch thanks to Scooter. So then we watch the 3 birds left fight for food and open up their huge little mouths. And there really was a bully in the nest, I watched him climb over the other birds all the time. When they were getting fed, he’d get some, then the parent birds would fly off and the little bully bird would climb over one of his siblings and change places with it so when the parent birds came back, he got food again and the bird he climbed over didn’t get any. It’s a wonder the other little baby birds survived. I’m sure none of you will find it shocking that the little bully bird got the fattest and he was the first out of the nest and flying around. Even though all 3 of the little baby birds have flown off, they still come back at night a lot and sit under our porch, especially when it gets stormy. I love those little birdies. I actually learned quite a bit about barn swallows during this whole thing. They are federally protect, so we couldn’t destroy the nest even if we wanted to. They often come back and build a nest in the same place every year, so I might get to watch these birds have more babies next year! And while I thought the nest would be real nasty full of poop and stuff, it turns out that when the babies are tiny, the parents pick the poop up and throw it out of the nest, and the once the babies are a little bigger, they actually back themselves up over the edge of the nest and poop out of it. Smart little suckers!
Here’s the bird’s nest. The male bird always sat on our light, while the female was roosting around making the nest perfect.

Here’s the first bird out of the nest. The little fat bully bird. They pretty much let me get close enough I could of grabbed it if I wanted to.

And now for the backyard! Well actually, just the kids in the backyard.
I won this little bubble blower contraption at StrollerFit. I can hold a plank position like it’s nobodies business. Nice to know I still am a little competitive.

Little Willow. 8 months old now!

And this is what I did while sitting in the backyard. Working on a pink pumpkin hat!

Jayden tells me today, “Mom, Scooter is my VERY best friend”

Ahhh, Jayden and Scooter. Theirs has been a love-hate relationship from the beginning. Jayden would love on Scooter and she’d tolerate it. Then he’d love on her a little more and she’d swat at him. Then he’d squeeze her just a little too hard and she’d scratch and bite him. Through many time-outs and talks about how we treat animals, Jayden has SLOWLY started to be gentler to her.

Then, after telling Jayden how great he was treating Scooter and how much she loved him petting her so nicely, I walked away to make lunch. 2 minutes later I was breaking up a kid/cat fight because Jayden was trying to force-feed Scooter one of Willow’s little plastic stacking rings, telling her, ‘You have to eat this Scooter, it’s your breakfast!’. Baby steps……baby steps….

Really, this is a movie quote, but I think it’s hilarious! The first movie Jayden ever quoted was Charlie Brown. He ran around the house saying “good grief!” all the time.

Jayden usually gets stuck on a movie and chooses to watch the same one over and over and over. The most recent movie has been Ice Age:The Meltdown, which is the movie that the follow quote came from.

At dinner a few nights ago, Jayden and Royal were discussing the monsters in the basement and Jayden told Royal he wanted to go “sneak” after dinner.

Royal: “Are you afraid of the monsters?”

Jayden (all matter-of-factly): “Dad, fear is for prey”

So it is…..so it is.

“RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”