Smiley Guy

I just wanted to post a few pics of our little man. Even though he's had a little bit of a rough start in life, Porter's smiled through it all. What a trooper! I don't think I've seen a baby smile as much as he does this young! What a cutie!

Final Christmas Days

So Christmas was a success! Brighton had a great time and was so excited that Santa had come to our house. It really does get a lot more fun the older your kids get. She really understood what was going on. On Christmas Eve, we acted out the nativity, frosted Christmas cookies to leave for Santa, opened our Christmas pjs and had a great little time with Uncle Ty and Aunt Casey. Here's a little recap of our past few days. Brighton had to cut the cookies al by herself. She actually did a good job doing it!

Gotta love that cheesy smile!

Frosting with Uncle Ty.
"Baby Jesus" with our little angel during our nativity reenactment.

One of Brighton's favorite gifts were the Dora baskets her Great-Nana gave her. She loved putting them on. Thanks Nana!


We all decided to go play in the snow as a family. We had plenty of snow due to the snow storm!


All bundled up and ready for fun!



We just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and hope you enjoyed the Holiday season. For those of you who didn't recieve our Christmas card, here it is:

Merry Christmas Eve!

We just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas Eve and hope Santa treats you well!

More Days of Christmas

I haven't been very good at keeping up with our 12 days of Christmas so I wanted to share a few pics and events that have been enjoyed by the Comin Fam:

-Putting up stockings

-making snow angels

-looking at Christmas lights in the neighborhood

-Visiting Santa Claus

-Going to the Temple to see the lights ( and go through a session. It was my Birthday wish which was on the 20th.)
-Making Christmas cookies

-Going to the Creche Festival (A community event where everyone brings their nativities and displays them for all to see while local choirs perform)

-Hot Chocolate and listened to Christmas music

The stockings were hung on the wall with care.

This is as close as Brighton would get to see Santa. She was pretty freaked but the rest of the season she's been obsessed with him.

Brighton's first voyage into the snow.

Snow Angels by Daddy and Lil' B.

More pics and events will be forthcoming. Things just get a little crazy over the holidays but very fun and worth every minute! We hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season as much as we are!

The 12 Days of Christmas

When I saw My best friend's sister's blog (Hillary) I fell in love with the idea of doing family activities for the 12 days of Christmas leading to Christmas Day. So we started our tradition yesterday (we started late but we were out of town the other days) by making a gingerbread house as a fam! Brighton thought it was the coolest thing and wanted to make another one today, but we moved on to putting the stockings up. Here are a few pics from the fun event. Brighton actually did a good job putting all the candy on and was ecstatic about the entire thing as you can see by the grin on her face! Here's the process...

And the end result...

The whole fam together with our finished product!

And for the most part, this is what Porter was doing the whole time. He's been a better baby since the surgery as you can see.

We'll update you on the rest of our days of Christmas as they come!

Storybook Cavalcade

One of my favorite things about living in Cedar City is the fact that there's a festival or some sort of community event every other weekend. This last Saturday we went to the Storybook Cavalcade Christmas Parade and Brighton has been talking about it ever since! They had a ton of children's book characters on all the floats and it was a pretty elaborate parade. Here are a few pics of the event. Cinderella's Float (Brighton was a BIG fan!)
All the girls hanging out

Brighton got to meet Elmo, although anytime a costumed person came close, she would freak out. She had to be really brave for Elmo.

Brighton and her best friend, Uncle Ty.

One more sweet pic of Lil' B and Daddy. If you'll notice, there's no pics of Porter because he slept through the whole thing. Thank goodness for newborns that sleep all the time!

Surgery & Thanksgiving Update

So we survived the Thanksgiving week which included a trip up to Primary Children's for Porter's hernia surgery. Kyle's mom came to meet Porter for the first time and visit us at the hospital which was great. The surgery went well and there were no complications so that was a relief. It was a routine procedure, so there wasn't too much to worry about, especially when you see all the other children there with so many more issues than a little hernia. I am so grateful we just have to deal with a hernia and our kids are healthy for the most part. I think I take advantage of our health and going to Primary and seeing all the major things families have to see their children go through gave me a reality check of how blessed we really are. I just have to say that Primary Children's is seriously the best hospital. They made sure you were okay with everything and very aware of what was happening. The entire staff was helpful and friendly and I definitely felt assured putting my 6-week-old in the arms of the anesthesiologist that he would be safe. It was an all-around great experience and I'd recommend the place to anyone who has a child with medical needs.

Porter in his tiny hospital gown (It was pretty cute).

Kyle, Porter, and Grandma Kathy post-surgery.

The little recovering Porter and his battle wound. He's just coming out of the anesthesia here.

*****

While we were in Salt Lake, Brighton stayed in Provo with her Aunt Annie and cousin Landon. She had a ton of fun and didn't even notice we were gone. Big thanks go to Annie for watching Brighton all day! I know Brighton definitely appreciated the time she spent with family, so thanks Annie.
Brighton and Landon camping out.

Brighton loved Landon's horse and talked about it for a week after we got home!

************

So after we got the surgery over with, we went back home on Wednesday and celebrated Thanksgiving with Casey and Tyler and had an awesome dinner with all the trimmings (mostly thanks to Tyler's cooking perfection, but everyone was involved.). Casey had all these activities planned for Brighton so we had a very festive Thanksgiving and it was a blast. I am seriously dreading the day when we have to move away from them. It has been great having them so close. It's one of the things I'm most grateful for this year!

Brighton, Kyle, and Casey making a pilgrim house for the FHE pilgrims we made.

The boys doing what they do best: watching football.

Aunt Casey helping Brighton make necklaces and bracelets. She hasn't taken hers off since Thanksgiving!Mom and Brighton wearing matching bracelets. And if you haven't noticed, this is curly sue Brighton. The results of sponge curlers. It makes her look a lot more like her dad when she's got it done like this.

Anyway, it was a great day. Happy belated Thanksgiving to all out there!

Potty Training Success!!

Brighton is officially potty-trained! We started it when my parents were here and Brighton was so excited that Nana was helping her go potty, she never looked back! I really can't take much credit for it because Kyle and my mom were the big pushers of the toilet while I was dealing with Porter, but she didn't seem to have any issues! We got her some Elmo panties and she thought they were so cool, that she hasn't really had many accidents in them! So we're basically down to 1 kid in diapers and I couldn't be happier! It's funny how little things like potty success help you make it through the day, but it has helped me a ton thanks to my big girl!

P.S. Also, we got her some sponge curlers that she thinks are the coolest so that's what's up with the funky hair. I'll post the results of the curlers later!

Bittersweet

Even though I haven't slept in days and I'm at my wit's end, it 's all worth it when I look at them. Who could resist this pair of cuties?

Crazy 8's Tag

My friend Corynn tagged me a while ago and I finally got around to finishing this. I tag anyone who wants to do this because it was kinda fun to think about. Thanks Corynn!


8 TV shows I like to watch

1. The Office (I'm obsessed)
2. Seinfeld
3. Everybody Loves Raymond
4. Super Why (Basically because I watch it with Brighton everyday and she loves it)
5. The Biggest Loser
6. Chuck
7. American Idol
8. Jon & Kate + 8


8 favorite Restaurants

1. In & Out Burger
2. Wingers
3. Olive Garden
4. The Brewhouse (It's a famous Alaskan place that's great)
5. The Moose's Tooth ( Another Alaska treasure... Amazing Pizza!)
6. Millhollow's (This is in Rexburg, ID and SO Delish!!)
7. To be honest we don't go out much and I can't think of anymore. As you can see above, we haven't gone out for a while since all of my favorites are in different states!


8 things that happened yesterday

1. Porter cried
2. Brighton went potty in the toilet
3. Porter cried
4. I went to the library
5. Porter cried
6. I changed 10 diapers
7. I made teryaki chicken for dinner
8. Porter cried


8 things I look forward to

1. Kyle finishing school
2. Living in a bigger apartment
3. Not breastfeeding
4. Working out again
5. The weekend
6. Kyle coming home from school everyday
7. Going back to get my Master's degree
8. Christmas


8 Things I love about the Fall

1. The changing leaf colors
2. Apple Cider
3. Wearing sweaters again
4. Hot chocolate
5. This was when Kyle and I started dating so it reminds me of those good times
6. When everyone gets ready to go back to school
7. Thanksgiving dinner with family
8. I really love Halloween!


8 things on my Wish List

1. Printer
2. A nice new camera
3. Getting family pictures taken (it's like pulling teeth to get Kyle to agree)
4. Snowshoes or Cross-country skies (I really want to take one of these things up)
5. New running apparel
6. A trip to Hawaii
7. Super cute fabric to make a baby blanket
8. A nap!

Nana & G'Pops

My parents have been visiting the past week and it's been great. We've gone on lots of walks, gone to parks, read lots of books with Brighton and colored a ton with her too. It was so nice to have them here and made us miss them even more when they left. Here are a few pics of us when we went to Cedar Breaks National Monument which was gorgeous. We had a lot of fun, although it was freezing. You can see the coldness in Brighton's face down below. Anyway, thanks Nana and G'pops for coming! We loved it!

A Trip to the Dentist

Brighton went to the dentist yesterday for the second time, but actually had a good exam for the first time. She actually laid down for the hygienist and watched a movie on the ceiling while they cleaned her teeth. She obviously wasn't a fan, but she tolerated it well. She was a trooper! Way to go Brighton!

Crazy Week

This past week was a little crazy for the Comins. First, last Monday Brighton had surgery on her eye in the morning. Next Porter had an ultrasound to see what was up with something he had in the groin area. It was a busy Monday. On Tuesday, the doctor called to tell us he has a hernia and since he is so young, we have to travel to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake. Well, they scheduled an appointment for that Wednesday (the next day) so I traveled up to SLC to have a consultation the following day. It only took about an hour and now we have our surgery day set for Nov. 25th. I drove home the same day, so I was kinda wiped the next day, and that about sums it up. I know it probably doesn't seem like much, but when you're not used to two kids and you're trying to run around everywhere and get stressed over medical stuff, it takes its toll on a person! I just have to say that I admire all moms with multiple children out there. It's definitely not for the weak of heart! Juggling life just gets harder and harder with more kids and I give much credit to those of you out there that do it!

Great Beginnings

So Kyle and I decided to treat oursleves to a night on the town in celebration of having 2 kids. We left them with a friend for an hour and went out to dinner. We tried to remember the last time we went out by ourselves and realized it was since we lived in Alaska! Almost a year and 1/2 ago! It was kinda fun and made me reminisce about the days when we were dating. We started dating in Rexburg, ID when we were both going to school at BYU-Idaho there. It was actually this time of year that we became a couple. We would go for long walks on Main Street and see the lights that decorated the trees down the lane. I remember we would go to devotionals together and sometimes I would bring him lunch. We would spend hours in the David O. McKay library, needing to study, but talking forever instead. We had a fantastic beginning together and it brings back really fond memories everytime this time of year rolls around. I appreciate him and all he does! I found myself quite the catch and couldn't be happier. What a great life and a great husband I have!

Halloween Fun

For Halloween this year, Brighton really wanted to be a princess, so we put this little costume together and she thought she was the coolest! First we went to our ward's trunk-or-treat and then we went out around our neighborhood and she thought getting the candy at each house was so awesome. After going around for a little while, we went to a friend's Halloween party and she really enjoyed that too! The whole night was pretty fun and Porter slept the whole time which made life a little easier. Kyle and I decided to dress up as well this Halloween so we went as Napoleon Dynamite and his girlfriend Deb. It was pretty funny, but looking back at the pics, it was pretty gross. Here are the pics to show our fun evening! We hope everyone else had a great Halloween weekend!

The cute tutu princess Mom/Deb with the cute princess!

And the frog prince

The happy family... Deb, the tutu princess, the frog, and Napoleon Dynamite.

Brighton playing games at the Halloween party.

The happy couple Deb and Napoleon! We look sick right?!

Couldn't resist one more cute pic of the princess!