Birthday Weekend!!

Jaron and the kids decided to spoil me this year for my birthday and they did a good job of it!

My birthday happened to fall on a Thursday this year and my favorite thing to do on Thursday is go to institute. Jaron kept the kids home with him this time and I got to ride with my sweet friend Julie Bahr. She's so great and keeps me laughing nonstop.
After institute Julie had planned a lunch with some of our friends which was super fun and thoughtful. I have met so many amazing people here in San Antonio and feel so blessed to have their influence in my life.
After lunch Jaron came and picked me up and brought all the kids (plus two of Julies that he had been watching).
Then it was off to Padre Island. Jaron did an amazing job at pulling everything together WHILE watching our two (and Thomas equals atleast three or four) and my fiends two. He is great! I had packed the kids and my bags but Jaron did EVERYTHING else...(which I must admit was a little scary:))
Padre Island was just perfect! We stayed in this great hotel and our room over looked the ocean. We were literally twenty steps from the beach. Since it's technically "off season" it wasn't too crowded and we all just had a blast! Our hotel had three pools and a hot tub that sat on the edge of the beach so that was nice when we were done with being covered in sand!
We also brought our bikes and road up and down the beach. We fit couldn't Jaron's bike on the car so he jogged, ( but I think he enjoyed the extra exercise:))

I felt like Jaron deserved a kiss....especially since just before this pictures Thomas was stuffing sand IN Jaron's ears! Jaron was such a good sport!
Miaja and I finally got to ride our "beach cruisers" on the beach! It was every bit as fun as I had imagined!

The kids made countless sand castles. I love how much fun a beach is...it reminded me of living on the beach in Maine...which does almost seem like a dream now...a great dream though!

Jaron was just like a little kid on the beach with the kids! They named our kite "Shamu". Seaworld has had a HUGE effect on my kids! They have no idea how fortunate they are to live five minutes from Seaworld!

Oh how I love these guys. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday! I guess 33 is off to a good start!
(I do have a ton more pictures....these were off Jaron's phone but my camera is in Jaron's car...at work. I'll post more pictures later!)

School Days!

I guess I should post our back-to-school pictures...since it's almost Halloween! We LOVE the kids school and are so sad that, most likely, this will be their last school year at Ott. My kids LOVE everyone from the PE teachers to the crossing guards and have been given so much support and love.

Anyways, as usual for me...I love school but it's never easy to send them on that first day. I am such a wimp. We made it through the day and boy did those kids get BIG hugs & kisses when they got home!

Here they are...Miaja, Ayden (He anted to hold something so he got his tithing bag...silly boy) Thomas (He too wanted something so he got his scriptures and is "reading them") then Chase...I LOVE these cuties!

Chase was so excited to have his picture taken. Little stinker. He loves to pose if he can be silly.

My Miaja...I'm so excited for her third grade year! She is such a great little student and she has an awesome teacher.

Ayden and Thomas are doing homeschool preschool with mommy and we LOVE that. We have school here at home Monday and Wednesday then a coop with three other good friends on Tuesday. The favorite is Friday Field trip day! So far we've been to the fire station,
Chick-a-Fila and the local children's theater! I don't want to think about hte fact that Ayden goes to school next year! Oh dear!


Love this picture of these two..they are so hilarious!! I love how Thomas is actually serious. This was on green day...just in case you were wondering...you should have seen my outfit:)

Spelling names with the play dough they made. Thomas mostly wanted to eat the play dough.

Ayden...He is always so careful and is very "detail oriented". He is such a good balance for Thomas!


I love the strangle hug:) Ayden and Thomas could have spent ALL DAY at the fore station. We were the very last to leave.


Ayden and Thomas with their little friend Kyle. One fire fighter told me, "Don't worry about them up there...there's rally only one button that could hurt anything." Inside I was thinking..."oh great, Thomas will find it!" ...but he didn't. Thankfully!

Back-to-School Party

This past August, just before school started, the kids and I decided to do read-a-thon's with their friends. We had planned to do a swimming party at the end of summer but as it got closer we were spending every day in the pool and it was SOOOOO HOT so they voted for a Read-A-Thon.

We did one for Chase and his friends and then the next week we did one for Miaja and her friends. Although I was nervous if the kids would have a great time the kids planned EVERYTHING and they were a hit!
With Chase's friends we read, The Indian in the Cupboard. We made Indian headbands and while I read the kids go to make, out of cardboard, their own cupboards, to put their special treasures in. After lots of reading and snacking and creating we finished and all the boys got to watch the movie! Most friends left asking if we were going to do this again next year! I was impressed with these young readers! We had such a great time!
Miaja really wanted to read, The Little Women, with her friends and although I was hesitant her friends all love to read too so we went ahead and read it. They all came in their jammies and of course we had snack galore and all kinds of goodies then the girls got to make their own photo albums and decorate them with pictures from our fun day! These girls were great and awesome readers. When we finished we all loved watching the movie...even a few moms came and watched with us.
Well, this post is making me miss summer! I love getting to enjoy summer with my kids home and we are so grateful for all the great things we got to do.
(I completely forgot to take pictures at Chase's Read-A-Thon...sorry Chase)

Miaja and her friend Lucy

The girls making their photo albums...Ashlyn, Daphne, MacKenzie, Natalia, Lucy, Miaja & Chase

Group pose...silly style!!!


Watching the show and munchin' on popcorn...happy not to be outside in the 110 degree heat:)

My Big Brother

I know that I already posted about our visit from my brother Keith but I wanted to add a few pictures that I just downloaded. We had such a great time with Keith. I'm am so grateful for such a great family.

Headed down to the Riverwalk

Taking a lovely river tour via the "luxurious" river boats:)

Thomas couldn't get enough of Uncle Keith


This is a wonderful Mexican Restaurant that has such a great atmosphere! I feel like I'm in Mexico...in a good way!

Anyone Feeling Chapped?!?!

It is way too common in our house to hear this...

"Wow...it's pretty quite...WHERE'S THOMAS!"
Well, the other day I was getting dinner ready with the kids and Miaja said, "Mom, it's really quite. I wonder where Thomas is?" So I asked her to go check on him for me. All she did was walk around the corner and I heard her say,
"Oh no Thomas..that's for your bum!"

I so wish I ha dtaken a picture of his whole body. Honestly inside I was thinking, "He's probably thinking this must be a good thing...their taking my picture and everything"...oh dear!

There Thomas was COVERED from head-to-pinky toe (literally) in his white elephant gift from his cousin..."Butt Cream". I don't know if you've ever tried washing diaper cream out of hair (you wouldn't think), but I'll just tell you, it doesn't come out easily. It took atleast a good two to three days of baths to get rid of all of it! Oh Thomas, you keep things exciting! Atlleast it wasn't the nail polish...this time:)

School Night Sleep-over...Success?!?!?

It's a FULL HOUSE at the Coombs House Just successfully put NINE kiddos to bed on a school night. That's NINE sets of teeth brushed AND flossed (I was tempted...), NINE stories (instead of chapter books we read nine pictures books tonight), NINE songs, NINE snuggles, NINE prayers and NINE kisses...although I do feel quite the sense of accomplishment I actually feel quite blessed. I got NINE silly foamy toothpaste smiles, NINE snuggles as I read a favorite book, NINE sweet prayers to listen to, NINE perfect kisses. I guess I should do this more often.

Here's the oldest Bahr girlies...Kennedy & Emma...Kennedy actually isn't here tonight, she had a baseball game. Miaja and Emma had Faith in God, a activity night for LDS girls 8-12 yrs.
These are quite the buddies. Ashton, Ayden, Easton and Thomas. I love these guys played so hard today that they went out pretty quick!

Miaja and Emma are pretty much BFF and they are adorable. They even got the same teacher this year at school which is so fun for them. Thank heavens for great friends!