The Comin Family

The Reason for the Season

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:40:00 +0000

Brighton loves the Little People nativity we got this year and has really started understanding why we celebrate Christmas. This morning she woke up and said "Mom! Tomorrow is Jesus' birthday!" She always sets the nativity up in a way so everyone can see the new special little baby Jesus. What a sweet spirited girl we have!

G. Kohen Romeril

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:57:00 +0000

Before I continue ranting about Christmas acitivities we've recently done, I couldn't help but brag a little bit about my new nephew! This is Gregory Kohen Romeril who was born on November 3rd and is the cutest baby ever! I couldn't be a prouder aunt and I can't wait to meet the little guy! Way to go Casey and Ty! You make beautiful babies!

Happy Birthday to...

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:12:00 +0000

ME!

Today is my birthday and since it's Sunday, we just had some friends over for dinner. We've got some great friends here named Jenny and Jon Cummings. Jenny is so great. She baked me a super yummy birthday cake and got me 2 of the best gifts: 1- Twilight lotion (okay it's from bath&body works but we loved the movie so it worked both ways) 2- A subscription to Runners' World. We've been planning on running a marathon together in 2010 and this just gets me more excited to do that! She's so awesome and I don't know what I would do without her here! Thanks again Jenny!

Trimming the Tree

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:26:00 +0000

We decorated our Christmas tree about 30 minutes before Kyle went to work, which was fun, but rushed and although we went in a flurry,it was nice to get it done quick. Brighton just loved looking at all the different ornaments and had to put up the prettiest ones all by herself. She also did the honor of putting the star on top. I love this season and it's exciting to see Brighton at the age where she really gets into it. Porter had a good time just trying to get into the decoration boxes. It was a good little time as you can see!
The gang in the midst of hanging

The cookiness never stops with this little girl

Porter really wanted to help. Even now he will go up to the tree and put his toys on the bottom branches. What a cutie!

* Viewer discretion advised due to content of panties*

Brighton was just tickled that daddy and her put the star on top!

Cat in the Hat Girls' Night

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:53:00 +0000

Whenever Kyle works nights, Brighton and I have started having girls' nights. Sometimes they are themed, other nights she just gets to stay up a little later (until 8:30 which is big for her) and hang out. A few nights ago, they had The Cat in the Hat movie on TV so I said she could stay up and watch it. We have the book so we read that and we have a stuffed animal from my Nana that she got to play with so she thought that was great. We ate popcorn and hung out like 2 girlfriends. I love the times I get to spend with her. What a fun little girl I have!

The Backyard

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:34:00 +0000

So I'm back tracking like normal because of my procrastination when it comes to blogging. It seems like after Halloween hits, there's not enough time in the day to do holiday things, clean the house, take care of the kids, make dinner, etc... and then I have to blog after all that is done? No thanks. Anyway, much has been happening now, but I wanted to backtrack to when my parents came because I wanted to share with you what my dad is like when he comes to visit. I'm a lot like my dad in the fact that I always have to be going, going, going all the time. I always have to have a project I'm working on or be busy around the house which is just like my dad. This does not bode well for us when we're on vacations because relaxing just isn't in our mental capabilities. So it was no surprise when we woke up one morning and my dad had already started working on astroturfing our backyard! It was actually a great idea because the previous renters didn't do anything to the backyard so there was nothing but dirt and gravel. It's a pretty tiny yard so we just didn't really think to do much to it ourselves either. Brighton was always asking to go outside but it was just gross out there and I hated the kids playing outside. Anyway, I wanted to show the progress of my dad and Kyle's project so here it is:

Before...dirt, rocks, potholes, yuck.

Step 1: Pouring sand into the entire yard to even the ground out.
Brighton even got in on the action. We all had to "walk like a penguin" as she calls it in order to press down the sand.

Step 2: Laying out the astroturf. It's coming along!

Step 3: Nailing the wood plank sides to secure the astroturf.

And ta da! Now we have a backyard fit for a football player! Brighton loves it back there. She always asks if I can cook on the grill so she can have an excuse to play outside. Now if only it would warm up in Texas so we can enjoy our yard! Thanks mom and dad for coming out and doing everything you do!

Happy Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:22:00 +0000

For family night this week, we decided to make a gratitude turkey and add a feather for each thing we're grateful for (thanks for the idea Clarissa). Brighton was pretty proud and pretty grateful for all of the things in her life as are we! We hope all of our family and friends out there know how much we appreciate them. Have a Happy Thanksgiving today!

Braum's

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:31:00 +0000

When I was little and we lived in Oklahoma, we would always go to this amazing Ice cream shop called Braum's. I had very fond memories of going with my dad after softball games to get a scoop and loving it. So when I found out that there were Braums's in Texas, you can imagine my excitement. We made sure on our trip to Dallas we hit up one at least once and it did not disappoint. It was delicious and it took me back to my childhood. And Brighton and Porter loved it as well. I guess they inherited my love for ice cream! Thank you Braum's!

Nana & G'Pops Came to Town

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:15:00 +0000

When we were in Dallas, my parents came to the Nascar Race there so we met up with them and drove back to Midland for their week long stay in Texas. But before we left the Dallas/Fort Worth area, we stayed the night at the Great Wolf Lodge. For those of you who have never heard of it, it's this indoor water park attached to a hotel. The whole hotel is super kid-oriented so there were forest animals everywhere and storytimes and craft rooms and everything else you can imagine. We thought Brighton would like it more than she did because she learned how to swim last summer, but I guess it's been too long because she was pretty apprehensive about getting in the water the whole time. Honestly she probably would have been happy if we'd have left her in the craft room the entire trip. But she did enjoy the storytime and little critter replicas everywhere. We had a pretty good stay and it was just the beginning of my parents' stay here! More to come on that soon!The happy camper taking a break.

The waterpark

Daddy and little B by the big clocktower for storytime.

Here's brighton's 2 favorite things... crafts and nana. She was proud of her finished product and happy to be doing it with nana.

Me and P

G'pops and Brighton enjoying the water

We decided to snap one last family shot before leaving. What a fun trip it was!

Meeg Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:07:00 +0000

2 weekends back, we were lucky enough to go see our favorite friends in the world, the Meegans! They live in Dallas which is only like 5 hours away (which is better than when we lived in Alaska and they lived in Wisconsin. Now that was a distance!) We haven't seen them in about 2 years so we had been looking forward to this trip for some time. Also, they just had a brand new baby and we were able to be there for the blessing which was a great thing for us. The girls got along great and it was like old times at BYU-Idaho again. We sat around and talked for hours while Kyle and Pat played chess. I forgot how much fun we had with them and being around the Meegs made me miss them even more. I guess I'll just have to wait for the day when we're neighbors again!Me and Miles. If you can imagine, he's even cuter in person.
Gracie, Brighton, and Alli all in their Sunday best
It's a tradition to always get a self-portrait when Clarissa and I are together and it almost never comes out very well. Oh well.
Pat, Claw, and cute baby Miles
Aren't they cute sisters?

Backed Up

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:19:00 +0000

I've been backed up lately and I don't mean intestinally. We've had so so so many things going on and I have had zero time to share it with the blogging world. SO here it goes...

We had a total of 4 Halloween parties during the Halloween week! By the end of the week Brighton was exhausted! I won't bore with a ton of details, but here are a few highlights. There was a party at storytime where they had all the kids go trick-or-treating around the library. God times were had by all except for Porter when I wouldn't let him open up the candy and eat it.

The unveiling of the Halloween costumes... A tooth fairy, a piece of candy, a tooth, and a dentist. We tried to go for a theme but I'm not sure if we hit the mark. Oh well, it was fun anyway and we had 2 super cute little kiddos.
We had a ward trunk-or-treat and carnival that was a hit in little B's eyes. She loved going and finding "buried treasure" at the sand box (which was filled with old grain by the way and was the best idea.) All the little kids seemed to migrate toward the treasure pit.

Porter loved burying his hands in the grain.

Have you seen a tastier piece of candy corn?

And lastly, we topped off Halloween night by wearing skeleton pajamas to bed. It was a whirlwind of a week but fun for all.

Fatigue

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:23:00 +0000

This is what happens when church is at the same time as nap time and you're trying to eat lunch before you finally get to go to bed. He looked like one of Dwight Shrute's bobbleheads the way his melon was trying hard to stay balanced as he was trying hard to keep those peepers shut.

Preschool Party

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:34:00 +0000

This week I was in charge of preschool which made it extra fun (but honestly a little stressful too)because we had our halloween party! All the kids dressed up in their costumes and we played fun games like pin the face on the Jack-o-lantern, eat the donut off a string and other fun stuff. We also read halloween books, made a halloween bat, and decorated halloween cookies. It was actually a lot of fun and went off without any major disasters! We have a really good group of kids and I'm so grateful I get the opportunity to participate in it with Brighton!

Our beautiful line up that includes a cheetah, dragon, princess, rock star, little bo peep, and the tooth fairy.

They had to make funny faces. Who could resist these cute creatures?

They got a kick out of making the jack-o-lantern look silly.
They just love craft time! Especially Halloween craft time!
And this is what Porter enjoyed doing during the party...

Pumpkin Patch

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:26:00 +0000

Brighton's Preschool class had an orange day last week where they were all supposed to wear orange and bring an orange snack to share and go to the pumpkin patch to look at orange pumpkins! She had a blast and even though it was one of the colder days we've had here, the kids couldn't get enough of playing outside and seeing all the pumpkins! Brighton loves her friends from her preschool group. I'm so glad I decided to join the preschool fun!

Smooth Sailing

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:33:00 +0000

Ever since the triathlon, Kyle and I have been dying to get some road bike, as our mountain bikes really slowed us down in the race. We finally did and we love them! They run like a pair of champs! They are so smooth and super fast! Kyle has even been able to start biking to work which he loves. The weather has been so nice lately that we have made it a routine to go on family bike rides. Now we just need to actually start training for the Capital City Triathlon in May! You knew I couldn't write an actual post and not put a picture up of the kids! They're loving the bike rides as well!

He's Uno

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:45:00 +0000

So I said I would post about all our fun festivities for Porter's birthday and here they are. Having the language abilitlies that I do, I thought we could have a cultural first birthday so the theme was...Uno. I know you're impressed right? I made an uno card birthday cake for him(easiest cake ever obviously!) and some uno numbered cupcakes for everyone else. I even made him an uno shirt using my freezer paper stenciling skills. We had some friends over and planned on actually playing uno, but we ended up talking the night away instead. It was a fun evening had by all and Porter loved the whole thing as you can clearly see in the pictures and video.My creative side coming out. Ridiculous right? But these were super easy so you can't go wrong! He literally dove head first into his cake. I really don't know why it took him so long to figure out he could pick it up, but it was very entertaining. The finished product... a very sugar-filled happy one-year-old!
He loved the candle on his cake. I think we've got a pyromaniac in the making on our hands.

Firsts

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:42:00 +0000

Porter has had a lot of firsts lately. He took his first steps a few days ago. He he learned his first sign (Which is "more" by the way. He's a big eater so obviously that was the first thing he picked up.). And today was his first birthday! I can't believe a year has already gone by since we had our little Oakey Doke! So many things have changed in our life it's incredible. We're so grateful for him in our lives. It's funny because you remember what life was like before having kids but you wonder how you survived without these little pieces of your heart running around the house. Anyway, we love him and we can't believe how fast time flies! We're planning on celebrating his birthday this weekend so future events will be posted at a later time. For now, Happy Birthday Porter!

Life

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 01:32:00 +0000

I know, I know. I've been terrible at blogging. How does life get so busy that you don't even have a second to take a breath? I can't even imagine how I'm going to deal with things when my kids become teenagers or even pre-teens and get involved with sports and what not! Yikes! I guess I'll just have to take it one day at a time. Which is what I've been doing lately and blogging has never made it to the top of the list by the end of each day. Anyway, I'm here. I'm having fun hanging out with my kids that are growing like crazy. Porter is almost walking, but he can stand on his own with ease. I think he's just so fast on all fours that he doesn't have an interest in trying just the 2 legs. He can seriously keep up with Brighton by crawling. It's nuts. He's nuts. He is all over the place and will not stop go go going. Brighton never had this much energy which means I didn't need that much energy for her. But Porter is definitely a different story. My energy level has been mandatorily increased. He makes life a lot crazier but a lot more fun too. If he wasn't so happy all the time, I think it would be a little harder to deal with. But he's so smiley that you can't help but be happy around him. And he's almost 1! Where did that year go? We all seem to be growing up and it's scary but fun! Life has it's ups and downs but it's worth it to see these smiling faces everyday!

Oh and did I mention today I turned my back on Porter for a minute and found this? He's quick.

The First Day

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:33:00 +0000

I can't believe I'm writing this but Brighton had her first day of school today! And don't let this picture fool you because she was over the moon about going to school. Some women from some of the wards here got together and decided to do a traveling preschool thing so yesterday was her first day. She must have really been ready to go because she didn't even turn to say goodbye. She just yelled "See ya mom and dad! Love you!" and was gone. Where did my little baby go? And who is this independent little girl?

We Tried

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:39:00 +0000

So I know I've been a terrible blogger, but my life has been too busy lately to even think about the computer. But I did want to mention at least one more thing that took place when my parents were here. Kyle and I did the YMCA triathlon! We've been training since we moved here (which is only a couple months but we thought why not!)and it turned out to be kinda fun! It was definitely long and arduous but we finished and that's all that matters right? And I think that this will be the beggining of more to come. We even got my dad to semi-agree to do one with us sometime soon! So I'm sure you're dying to see our lovely spandex-clad pictures and I won't leave you holding your breath any longer! Enjoy!
This is Kyle starting the last leg of the race. It was a 500 meter swim, 13 mile bike, and he's starting the 5k run portion.
Here I am looking like a goober trying to get off my bike and get ready to run.
This was when I crossed the finished line. You can see my obvious excitement and determination to finally be done!
The happy (and exhausted) family! We did it!Kyle was pleased to be done, as evident in the picture. Daddy and Porter finally relaxing in the car. To show their support, the kids wore their triathlon shirts that I made for them. Brighton was very proud.We even had some friends from our ward do it as well. Here are Erin, Sarah, and Jaimie with us. They did an awesome job! It was a fun time and I can honestly I would do it again! I guess we'll have to wait until next year or another one comes around sooner!

A little Putt Putt time

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:14:00 +0000

One day my parents were here we went putt putt golfing. Some friends gave Brighton a golf set for her birthday (Thanks Nikki!) and she has loved playing so to actually go to a place that had her size golf clubs and put the ball in the hole was pretty exciting to her. Although it was naptime by the end so she was getting to be quite a pill. But, all in all everyone enjoyed the time outside and loved playing th egreat game. I will add that I beat everyone, including my dad, which is a difficult task so I was pretty proud!Brighton concentrating with G'pops.
Kyle thought he could show Brighton some techniques. The lesson was in vain though because she went back to her old way of whacking the ball like she was using a baseball bat and baseball.
The face of a tired and cranky golfer.
There's never a sad moment when Porter's around.

Abilene Zoo

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:35:00 +0000

While my parents were here we drove out to the zoo. I've never seen Brighton so excited about animals before. It was sweltering but she could not get enough of the monkeys, zebras, and giraffes. The cool thing about the Abilene zoo is that you're able to feed most of the animals and they have a bridge over the giraffe's living space so you can reach high enough to feed the animals with ease. I took a video because Brighton finally got up the courage to feed them and it's entertaining. Even though it was a fun time, it was way too hot for any of us to enjoy more than an hour of animal fun so after our faces turned red and my mom almost passed out, we headed for the car. We'll definitely have to go back in the winter time when being outside doesn't make us want to throw up! For now, enjoy the pics!The crew finally finding some shadeG'Pops and Brighton just hangin outBrighton called this guy Marty from the movie MadagascarPorter was as happy as a clam just to be outside Brighton was super stoked to feed the giraffe (Melman from Madagascar, if you will) so here's a little show of her excitement.

Long awaited news

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:04:00 +0000

I know for all you Comin fam blog fans, this past month has been rough without any Comin news. The fact is, we've been so busy I haven't had a minute to sit down and post. So at long last, the famine is over and hopefully you're ready for a feast because a lot has been going on! From my parents coming, to training (and finishing) a triathlon, to moving across town, our month has been packed!

Let me first start with my parents coming because that was the highlight for all of us. They visited in the beginning of August and we had a lot of fun. Brighton was very entertained the entire time they were here because she had a buddy to color with her, style hair to, read books with, and just have fun with! We went to the zoo in Abilene, a Rockhounds baseball game, out to dinner a few times, and the pool a ton. It was a great time and we were sad to see them go, but we'll see them in November so we're counting down the days. Here are a few pics from the Rockhounds game. More posts will be forthcoming with all the juicy details of our many adventures from the past month!

Nana with Porter

G' pops and Oakey Doke

Kyle + Scissors = Bad News

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:28:00 +0000

So on Sunday while I was talking to my sister-in-law on the phone, Kyle had this great idea to give Brighton a hair cut without letting me in on it. Having no previous experience himself in the hairstyling field, he thought he was highly qualified to do the job. Now I've really been trying to grow her hair out for a while. It's so thin and takes forever to grow, so it has been quite a feat lately as I have been able to put it up in french braids. That's why you can obviously see that when I came in to the bathroom, I was pretty upset. Kyle had chopped off a good inch and a half in the front and only an inch in the back. He made it look like we were going for a very subtle mullet. He told me he was going for an "A frame" but he obviously didn't think it through because an A frame goes the opposite way (short in the back, long it the front. So now it's kind of uneven and I have to put it up all the time, which is hard to do because it's just a little too short. I know it's not too drastic, and from the pics you're probably thinking "That's not a big deal. It was barely a trim.", but for the person who does it everyday, it's not that fun. Anyway, thanks Kyle.

The Before photos

The After shots

A Typical Comin Day

noreply@blogger.com (The Comin Family) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:07:00 +0000

Can you tell she got dressed all by herself today?

And little mister is pulling himself up on everything and has 4 teeth now (you can only see half of them if you look close). So between teething, cruising around, and playing dress up, our days are quite busy!