The Combs Krewe

Over Fall Break we took a little hiatus from our usual school work and studied the arts Halloween style. The little kids each had a monster face a day to design. First we did jack-o-lantern mosaics.    Next they painted Frankenstein's monster and used buttons, stickers, and yarn to make him a face.    The boys painted their witches hat and face then glued on eyes, noses, and mouths cut from magazines (also a very fun thing to do on real pumpkins!). Very Picasso, don't you think? For Dracula, they went freestyle and drew on faces with crayons. The little kids worked on learning a poem together. We chose, "Five Little Pumpkins." To help we did a craft to go along with the poem. First we gathered a few acorn and painted them orange. I made a gate out of craft sticks. When the orange paint was dry we drew Jack-O-Lantern faces on the acorns. Then we used our gate and acorns to act out the poem as we said it. Here Jathan is being the wind and th...

I bounce back and forth between being an uber organized meal-planner and a fly-by-the-seat of her pants microwaver. A couple of weeks ago it felt like we'd been in a rut, scrambling to come up with last minute meals so I hit up my Invited to the Party in My Tummy board on Pinterest for inspiration. What followed was  a week of busy chopping and mixing, trying new ingredients, and chowing down! Not all of the recipes were worth the effort and there were a few I will make changes to next time. Here's what I cooked. The Winners In no particular order... Creamy Country Chicken and Vegetables So, this picture looks awful but I forgot to take a pretty picture before we SCARFED it all down. If you need a pretty picture, definitely follow the link to the recipe. I really loved this recipe; it was savory and homey. The recipe called for poultry seasoning or  sage but I chose to add both. I also had some mushrooms that needed using so I threw them in there, too. We ate it ...

Wednesday marked 16 weeks into my pregnancy. I'm happy to be fitting into maternity clothes now instead of being at that weird in-between stage. At around 12 weeks, I was certain  that I was feeling some movement but then they were few and far between until this week. Then I had one day when I felt a lot of little flutters but only on one side. I know that one placenta is anterior and one is posterior so I wonder if this has something to do with that. After a two-week wait and calling to see what was up, I finally got a call back from my nurse setting up my BIG ultrasound appointment. Sadly, it's not until November 13th! I will be one day shy of 20 weeks so hopefully we will get a nice view of them and find out their genders. I hate the wait, though. I'm contemplating having a gender-reveal party. I think it's such a fun idea. I really, really don't want to wait myself, though. Would it be bad if Jackie and I found out then had a party to tell everyone el...

Today I am 15 weeks pregnant! According to BabyCenter , the babies are each about 4 inches long (from head to rump). They can sense light through their still-fused eyelids and are peeing out the amniotic fluid they've been swallowing. Ah, they grow up so fast! = ) Their sex organs should be visible on an ultrasound. I'm still anxiously awaiting a call from Dr. Perret's nurse to schedule that all-important one. I can't wait! We are one of those families that finds out the genders before birth. I think it would be so much fun to wait and have a birth surprise but I just can't bring myself to do it. One of the main reasons I like to find out is to feel more connected to the babies before they are born. Then you can pick out special bedding and clothing and know their names. I just think it's a wonderful privilege.  I'm most excited at the moment to choose baby names! Although Jackie likes to wait until we know the gender, I love perusing name books...

Yesterday I celebrated being 14 weeks pregnant! Today I had my OB appointment. I was so happy when, after a very long wait, the doctor said, "I'll be right in. We're going to get the ultrasound machine."  She said that at 14 weeks it would be difficult to distinguish between heartbeats simply using the doppler. Plus I think she just wanted to see them which was totally okay with me!  Jathan came with me today and the doctor gave him the first peek. She pointed out their heads and "frog legs." Then I got a looksie.  This is a picture of the twin that is on the right. It was in a good position and the doctor try to determine its gender but felt it was still too early to tell. At 14 weeks boys are easier to spot than girls and this baby didn't have any obvious, um, protrusions, shall we say, but we just couldn't tell for sure. I'm betting on girl, though!  The baby on the left was not feeling so photogenic today. It was imp...

In late July Jackie and I discovered that our family was expanding. We usually wait several weeks just to make sure everything is okay before we tell everyone (usually after I go to the doctor for that first ultrasound) but this time I struggled to conceal my nausea and tiredness. My family was coming to visit and I knew there would be no hiding it from them so on my mother's birthday which I admit I forgot--can I blame baby brain?--I sent her a text of the kids saying happy birthday and told her that her birthday surprise was that next year there would be one more singing to her! After that we let everyone in on the secret. Over the next few weeks I felt much like any other pregnant woman--sick and tired! In my mind those are good things because they mean a healthy pregnancy. I wasn't overly sick or overly tired, but something was different . I had a funny feeling and kept finding myself referring to the baby as "them" or "the babies." I Googled things li...