Button Family Update
Hello Family!
Can I just say that I am loving this Comin Family Blog!?! It's so great to keep up with everyone this way. And now it's your turn to catch up on us :)
We are doing great! The past couple of months have been quite a roller coaster. Ryan was told in January that he would be deployed to Afghanistan in June, a month and a half before our baby's due. I thought we handled it pretty well and we started getting ready. He was supposed to be gone for eight months, from June to February. In the middle of May they said they made a mistake and he had to leave in two weeks, so we started scrambling to get everything he needed (which turned out to be a ton of stuff!) Three days before he is supposed to leave they said his deployment was canceled! Yeah, I was so relieved!
Oops, just kidding, he's still going. It went back and forth about ten times and finally he left for training in May. It was a rough week and then Ryan shows up at home on Friday. His deployment really was canceled! We are learning that nothing is for sure in the military and we need to be ready for anything! So things are good now, Ryan is home and will be here for when the baby is born at the end of July, yeah!
The kids are doing well. They handled all the changes pretty well considering but they may be really messed up when they get older! (Just kidding... I hope) Parker just finished up 3rd grade and LOVES to read. We set reading goals for this summer and we thought she could read 2,000 pages before school started in August. We've only had a week and a half of summer and she's only a few pages away from that goal. I think we are going to have to re-calculate.
Easton finished 2nd grade and is upset about leaving his teacher behind (she's very attractive, I think he has a bit of a crush on her). He's great with playing with his younger siblings and loves to do arts and crafts. He tells everyone he wants to be an artist when he grows up (or a scientist so he can make potions).
Creed finished 1st grade and is one funny kid. We gave our kids the challenge of reading The Book of Mormon by the end of the year. It's very slow going for him but he is so determined, it's adorable! Creed also never sleeps in, 6:30 every morning, he's ready to start the day so he has some quiet time to work on his goal.
Makay will start Kindergarten this next year and can't wait! She loves having the kids home from school and mostly drives them crazy with so much attention. She loves to help out around the house though and every single meal she is ready to be my sous chef. Every time she says a prayer she thanks Heavenly Father for the baby in my tummy and asks that one be a boy and one a girl. I have no idea why she thinks there are two in there because I have repeatedly told her there is only one but I really wish she would stop, it's making me nervous!
Beckham is almost 4 and FINALLY potty trained! This is the first time I have no kids in diapers in almost 10 years. Too bad it's going to start all over again in six weeks! Beckham also loves having the older kids home and they baby him a lot, he loves it! I wonder how he's going to handle the new baby.
As for Ryan and I, things are great. I'm just happy he's not getting deployed. To be honest I was pretty worried about being a single mom for eight months with a new baby. My calling (Primary President) is endlessly crazy and really keeps me both stressed and amazed. I'm enjoying having the kids home although it's a lot of work! Ryan loves his job and is keeping really busy with it. We love you all and can't wait to see everyone next summer!
Hi everyone. I know..this is a shock. We have an update here in the Ben Comin family!:)
I don't know the last time we updated everyone, but we are here in Las Vegas making it through the summer months and loving life. We don't feel like we have any "new" news, so we will catch you up with what we do have.
On December 8th, Maizie got the best birthday present...a new brother! Maxwell Benjamin made it clear that he wanted to share a birthday with his sister (I even prayed it wouldn't happen)..he showed up 8 lbs 4 ozs and has been such a joy in our home. He is UBER loved by his brothers and sister..read: he is poked, pinched, rolled and held non-stop.
He has the sweetest little personality...so calm and happy. Definitely a blessing in our crazy life. Looking at the picture above makes me giggle..I bet you can't guess what color his hair is.:)
Having 4 kids has been a blast. They have so much energy, we sometimes don't know what to do with it all, but wouldn't have it any other way.
Maizie continues to be a little sparkplug. She has taken on the role of the earliest up in the morning. 5:15 comes early, but who wouldn't love to wake up to a sweet little "Good Morning, Mommy and Daddy" every morning? She LOVES her big brothers and follows them around constantly. She enjoys playing the computer, working on reading, and being the queen bee. She is obsessed with Hello Kitty, and has the most contagious laugh you have ever heard. (She even had our neighbor doing tricks with her dog, just so she could hear her laugh!) She loves to dress up and in the last 2 months has had 6 photoshoots to help me out with a contest I was in..and LOVED every bit of it.
The boys are best friends and connected at the hip when we are at home.
Booker is going into 3rd grade and is 110% boy. He loves sports..and just finished up his first season of soccer. He excelled quickly and loved playing sweeper as well as forward. He loves to MAKE his own versions of video games with blocks and figurines and has a natural curiosity for all things SCIENCE. He has been the best helper with Max and is seriously my best helper around the house.
Lincoln just turned 6 and will be in 1st grade next year. He still LOVES to read and often has 4-5 books going at one time. He loves to build new ships, houses, cars, etc with his legos. He usually has at least one funny joke ready at all times and loves to play little jokes on his brother and sister. He also loves to play on the computer and soaks up as much information he can while watching any science videos he can get his eyes on.
January 21st was a big day in our house as it was Ben's birthday. But this year, it also happened to be Booker's baptism and Maxwell's blessing. What an awesome day it was to feel the Spirit and witness the Priesthood in action. Grandpa Tod and Grandma Kim came and got to be a part of the big day and it was just so fun to be together as a family!
Ben has been busy with work as he started working for a larger firm here in Vegas and he has been LOVING the change. He loves the area of law he does now (Corporate Transactional Law), which make the long hours while he is away much easier. His favorite thing to do at night is come home and get wrestled by the kids. He lives for Saturdays (his one BIG day to be with the family) and is looking forward to hiking Half Dome this summer.
I (Kiki) have just been busy with all of the same....being a mom, a taxi, a nurse, a cheerleader, a cook, etc. I started a new website in May which has kept me swamped and motivated and am loving the summer with no schedule and my kids home all day.
We hope this finds you all doing well and look forward to keeping up with all of you on this fun blog.:) Have a happy summer!
Drew Comin Family Update
We are currently living in Lehi, Utah. Melinda is teaching 5th grade at
an elementary school in Provo, and I am working as an estimator for Progressive
Insurance and finishing up my grad program at the University of Utah. Last
weekend we went and watched Melinda complete her second marathon and we had the
boys run the 1k for fun. We have 3 boys,
Sam, Isaac, and Lucas. Sam is turning 9
in a few weeks and playing baseball right now and flag football later this
summer. Isaac is 5 and just started
T-ball and is doing swim lessons again.
Lucas is 19 months and mostly just hits people and says “no” a lot. Our big trip this summer is going to be a
trip to San Diego to visit Tod, Kim, and the Pacific Ocean. We also have some fun hikes planned and some
mountain biking. We love you all.
Tod & Kim Comin Update
Here is our blog for the month of June. Too bad it has to be on the last day of the month but its here nonetheless! The kids wrote their own so we’ll send theirs right after I send this one. Thanks for keeping up our family blog. We do love reading it. So here goes:
We have had a great year so far. Far busier than planned but we have to take life whatever way it comes to us. Kim went back to school full time to get her CNA (certified nurse assistant) license. It was a 120 hours of class and 120 hours of work experience and a lot of study time for her old brain. Tod did all the cooking and cleaning for 3 months but it was so much fun that she considered going back to school full time but only for about 2 minutes. She has a small job for the next two months visiting an Alzheimer patient. In January she was called as the Young Womens president – apparently there is no age limit on callings… but it has been fun and rewarding.
Tod and Calvin are having fun with their gun class taught by the SD police department training instructors. They love it and love the time they get to spend together “improving their talents”. Tod is taking a break from running since his meniscus tear and is looking forward to surgery AFTER the half dome trip. That will be the highlight of his year. It will take place Aug 7th-11th and will include a lot of your family members! I can’t wait to hear the stories…
We find time to bike and hike a lot on the weekends. Sometimes we take the kayak to the bay. If we have to do that exercise thing to stay healthy it might as well be fun. Tod stays busy with being High Priest Group leader, work, and helping me with my latest project, the garden and my sister’s family who live just around the corner.
We just finished a TC (that stands for Tod Comin) reunion with all our kids and grandkids. We haven’t all been together since Drew left for his mission. We rented a house where we ALL stayed for 4 days in the mountains (all 12 kids from 6 mo. To 9 years old and 8 adults). We even still like each other! It was refreshing and so much fun. Wish I could say we had a picture of the whole fam but we didn’t get one there. Unfortunately Calvin had to work so he was only able to spend the weekend with us.
Calvin has been working this summer in Kentucky with the same job he’s had but they closed an office in Florida so decided to send him out to finish up some jobs. He loves racking up the miles since he gets to come home every other weekend. It is hot hot hot and a bit humid there but the pay is great so he doesn’t complain. He also has had an eventful year. He was sent to Italy to train a new Nuflow contractor and this guy took a liking to him. He knew that Calvin wanted to go to the Ferrari museum and so he paid 100 Euros just outside of the museum to a company that lets people test drive one of seven Ferraris there on the property – Calvin chose the Ferrari California – go figure. We watched the video they took of him driving and it was fun to see him re-live the moment and giggle when they let him “let it go.” You couldn’t have given him a better gift- he had no speed limit… But lest you think that life is too good for him, the next event was not so happy. Earlier this year he bought a Pathfinder that he had spent a lot of time and money on fixing up the way he liked it. Then he went camping with 4 of his buddies and on some tough off-roading – broke a motor mount. They lost all torque so Calvin used some tie down straps to allow them to get to the highway. They put a sweatshirt between the strap and the engine so the strap wouldn’t melt. They soon found out that sweatshirts don’t melt – they BURN!! Unfortunately, after gassing up and deciding the truck was doing fine at 65 mph – the truck caught on fire as they were headed up a hill coming back to San Diego. All escaped without injury except for a small burn on one boy’s leg. A few items of camping equipment melted after they got them out of the truck but they were still too close to the raging fire. He is now car-less. He will be starting school in SaltLake at LDSBusinessCollege in Aug.
We love you all and look forward to hearing the news of each family!
*Reminder: To see any of the pictures larger, click on the photo and it will open in a new window.
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