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.

Yesterday, we headed up to Kansas City to hang out with our friends who live up there and stay at the Great Wolf Lodge.  We had so much fun!  I was a little worried about the kids in a hotel room, but I figured even if they had trouble sleeping, we were only going to be there one night, so it felt like I could handle it, knowing we were just going to go home and that it’s easier to deal with the crankiness when they can yell and act-out without us trying to control them in public.  Little did I know that Royal was going to be the problem at night, not the kids….  Willow didn’t take much of a nap in the car on the drive up to KC, so when we were still all playing in the water park around 7, I figured I’d take Willow up to our room and get her bed set up and maybe get her to sleep without too much trouble before Royal came up with Jayden.  Willow went to bed with little fussing, and then Jayden came up and got ready for bed.  He was so worn out from swimming and so excited that he got to “stay the night at the Great Wolf Lodge?!?!?!”  and “in the same room as mom and dad?!?!?!”  that he pretty much crawled into bed, read a couple of books to himself, and then tucked himself in.  We shut out the lights a little before 8, and really I was pretty glad to have the excuse to go to bed so early, I was tired.

We had this heater in our room, a typical hotel heater that was super loud, but pretty much blocks out all the other noises going on in the hotel.  It doesn’t really bother me, I can just shut it out as white noise and go to sleep.  Royal on the other hand, is VERY sensitive to noise and lights and whatnot and even while we are at home he sleeps with earplugs in because he can’t stand to hear the refrigerator running, or an ice cube dropping, or a car driving by, or a bug hitting the window, or the wind, or anything else like that.

Around 8:30, Royal is like, “Are you asleep?”
Me: “Well, almost”
Royal goes, “How the heck can you sleep with that jet engine in our room?”
Me:  “It’s not that big of deal.  I just block it out.  And now I am going to go to sleep.  Don’t you have your earplugs in?”
Royal: “I forgot to bring some”   (uh-freakin’-oh)
Me: “Bummer”
I probably could of been more sympathetic, but it’s not my strong suit and I was tired and Royal was keeping me awake…Royal continues to toss and turn and toss and sigh and turn and sigh and toss…Finally he’s like, I’m going to go turn it off.  He creeps across the room in the dark, because the heater is by where Willow is sleeping, and I hear him hitting buttons and little beeping and stuff and then he’s back in bed and the heater is still on.

Me (jokingly): “Couldn’t figure it out?”
Royal (not jokingly): “It won’t shut off.  How the heck am I going to sleep with that jet engine in our room?  I’m going to be up all freakin’ night”
Me: “Why don’t you try putting some rolled-up toilet paper in your ears?”
Royal:  “It doesn’t work and it just annoys me”
Me: “I think I might have a couple cotton balls, you want to try those?”
Royal: “This is stupid!  You pay this much money to stay here, I DEMAND perfection.  I will NEVER be back!”

So now I started panicking a bit because when Royal says stuff like that he’s not kidding, and he doesn’t change his mind easily, and the kids were having so much fun, and I wanted to come back, but not by myself…  So, I convinced Royal to go down to the front desk, ask about the heater, and see if maybe they have some earplugs there or something.  Royal comes back to the room, even more flustered.  He said that they’d have to send maintenance to come check it out, but that he told them not to bother since the kids were sleeping.  He had in his hand, though, a little box of earplugs.  Not earplugs for noise though, earplugs for keeping water out.  And obviously they didn’t work too well, because 10 minutes later, he was waking me up again, complaining about the heater.  I told him if he was really this unhappy, to go downstairs and tell the front desk about it.  Ask if they had a room that he could have that didn’t have a broken heater, or maybe they could refund him some money.  I said hotels are all about customer service, they are going to try and keep you happy, especially hotels that are all about kids, they want you to come back.  So, Royal puts his pants back on again and heads downstairs.   After a few minutes he’s back and tells me that they said they had to send maintenance first before anything else, and that he also told them that they’d have to try and fix it without making any noise and they could use a flashlight because he wasn’t turning the lights on since the kids were sleeping.  So, a maintenance guy shows up, creeps across the room with Royal and in like 30 seconds has the heater turned off, and leaves.  Guess there was some switch (other than the on/off button on the top of the heater that Royal tried) that was hidden underneath the thing that shuts the whole thing off.  Thank goodness it wasn’t super cold outside and we weren’t trying to maintain a certain temperature in the room or anything, because we would of ended up freezing so Royal could sleep.  :)  Royal came back to bed in a MUCH better mood and I think feeling a little silly at how easy the problem was to fix, and also  wondering why the heck they couldn’t of told him about the switch in the very beginning.  He kept trying to joke around with me, but since it was 10 o’clock now, and I was now really tired, I told him to stop talking to me and go to sleep already (I get cranky when I’m tired).  So, I rolled over and started to fall asleep in our now quiet room.  Ahhhhhhh….sleep…..And then,
Royal: “How long do you think Jayden is going to snore like that?”
Me: “Ugh!”

Other than that, though, we had so much fun in the water park!

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!!!

Royal’s parents flew back to Washington early Sunday morning. However, they didn’t leave before Royal came home with a HUGE bag of pecans that needed cracking. I figured Royal was paying back his mom for all the times he’s had to snap green beans, or cut corn off the cob, or stuff potstickers, or frost christmas cookies, or any of the other projects she seems to have going when we show up. Let’s just say Norma and my hands were pretty sore from cracking the nuts…funny how the morning after Royal brought the nuts home, he and his dad went hunting…

Jayden loves trains and had been talking about wanting to ride one for awhile. So, while we were staying in Kelso earlier this month, when Royal was here, we decided to take a train ride to get out of the house for a day. Amtrak stops right in Kelso, so we bought some tickets and rode the train to Portland. Jayden loved it! Here we are in the train station in Kelso waiting for the train to arrive.




And here we are in Portland, sitting on a bench right outside the train station with a typical Portlandite - blue hair and all!

On Friday, we decided to make a trip to Seattle to go to the aquarium. Instead of driving though, we got on the ferry in Bremerton and Jayden got to experience his first ferry ride!

The 3 boys weren’t sure what to think when the captian blew the horn!

Kay and Jo

Brendan playing with Willow

There’s Seattle!

Looking at fish

Checking out the Nemo tank

Into the under water dome!

After the aquarium and before we got back on the ferry to head home, it was time for a carousel ride!

Willow was all worn out

On my sister’s blog Royal only refers to himself as Uncle Bubba, which is the name that Kaylee’s boys call him. And as Uncle Bubba, he only ever leaves comments that have something to do with fishing - shocking, I know. So, while we’re all here, Brendan, Wyatt, and Jayden have been so excited to do some fishing with the master!

Finally the secrets are all out! We’ve been planning a surprise for Jordan for months. My parents are throwing him a graduation party and as a surprise me and Royal and the kids, and Kaylee and her family were coming! Me and the kids ended up coming early when my grandma got sick, but Jordan had no idea Royal was coming, and even though we’ve about blown the surprise a ton of times, Jordan never quite caught on that Kaylee and her family were coming too. Royal flew in last Wednesday and finally today Kaylee her her family got here from Pennsylvania! So me and Royal and the kids are now back at my parents house at the lake, with Kaylee and her family. But since Royal has been here, we’ve been “hiding” down in Kelso with his family, and there has been tons of fishing goin’ on. Royal’s been getting up around 4ish to get on the river and finally get to some fishin’ that he’s been really missing out in Kansas. He told me today that in the past 4 days, he’s caught 18 fish! Most of them had to go back in river because they were wild, but we’ve got a bunch to stick in our freezer! Wooooo! Hooooo!

Here’s Royal’s first fish. You will also be able to tell this was pre-haircuts! ;)

These are the fish from day#2!

Jayden was really starting to warm up to this fish and gave it a big ole kiss! Royal was pretty pumped about it. :)

The next couple days were a bit of a dud out on the river and Royal didn’t manage to bring anything home. Big ole bummer. But that afternoon Fireball, Royal, and Gabe took Jayden out on his first fishing trip in the boat out on the river and went harvest trout fishing. From what I hear, Jayden LOVED it! And he brought home a couple harvest trouts. We don’t eat them, but Royal’s grandma loves ‘em so we kept them for her!
Here is Jayden with his first fish!

Then this morning Royal went out and snagged one more fish for us! Jayden brought out the measuring stick to make sure Royal wasn’t makin’ up how big it was.

Jayden loved lighting sparklers last night! We totally kept him up WAY past his bedtime so he could watch the fireworks with us, and I wish my video camera was working because he was hilarious. He got so excited he couldn’t sit still and I figure he was channeling his grandpa Fireball (or his mom) because he was talking a million miles an hour.

Even though the weather wasn’t the greatest this morning, we decided to go hike around El Dorado State Park anyway. Everything was so green, which we wanted to take advantage of, because in a month or so everything around here will be nice and brown!

Royal, the ever tracker, spotted deer tracks the minute we got on the trail. And once he showed Jayden what they looked like, Jayden was tracking them too. And then we (by we, I mean Royal) spotted them.
See the deer?

There it is!