Lil Sis'N'Fam Come up to Swim! Aug. 8th, '08

Ok here's another one finally! So for those of you that don't know. I actually have had two children. The second one I placed for adoption almost 4 years ago (4 yrs on Feb. 21)! I gave/placed her with a family I met through friends of the family that are pretty much like family to me as it is! I met them through Alicia and Shawn Dixon also Aundrea had mentioned them as well while I was in search for good families. If in case I couldn't find a couple/family I didn't feel was right, of course I'd keep her but I thought/knew she deserved better/More! They couldn't have kids on their own and were ready and living right to be able to do so. I wanted the baby to have what I wanted some day for myself and family to be sealed in an LDS (mormon) Temple! It wasn't something I could give her right away and she deserved that. She didn't have any choice in how she was being brought into the world, and I honestly hadn't been living right for some months and knew she deserves more than I could give her. I already had the chance to be a mother as well as could hardly afford to care for her on my own as it was. I had a strong feeling that Lorien and Logan were 'it' but made sure not to make any rash. decisions 'til later. There were other families I was deciding on too. When I met them I'd like to say they had me from Hello, he he but it was pretty much by the end of the evening after having dinner with Alicia and Shawn and Lori and Logan and Kenzie and I then a movie at Shawn and Leesha's. The funny/amazing thing about my choosing them is that Taylor looks just like the two of them put together! I just knew she would too! Lori and Logan are two of the most amazing people I've ever met and I totally look up to them and can confide in them and talk with them about anything, no matter what!

So yes if you've been wondering, yes it's an open adoption. They were/are certified or what not through LDS Social Services (adoption) but since I met them through friends we didn't go through an agency. Kenzie and I get to see them every year around the holidays! This summer though we got a special treat! Since Kenzie and I live in apartments with a pool and hot tub Kenzie really wanted to invite them up for a swim. So when they were going to be up here for Logan's moms birthday they decided to come up for a swim after all! Hooray! So we went to dinner and then for a swim together! It was great fun! In these photo's they are at the Manti Temple where they were sealed together when Taylor was 6 months old! So they came back to show her and tell her all about it! I'm so proud of them and of myself that I chose them. They are our favorite people ever! (Of course I love my family and friends but yea) :P WE LOVE YOU LORI, LOGAN AND MISS TAYLOR MARIE!

{Coombs} Family Reunion in Aug.'08

Hidy Ho all ya'll! So I'm now posting another blog finally and I'll still be behind a bit but I'll catch up slowly but surely! In August this year we had a reunion on my dads side (Mr. Mark F. Allen aka Pops), :) through my dads moms side, Henrietta Coombs. (Her maiden name)

~My cousins Dawn and Wendy and I~

The first day we went to Wheeler Farm in Salt Lake City, UT. We had a lovely breakfast that was like a pot luck then had a meeting for future reunions (every other held in Gorgeous Alberta, Canada) and then an auction to put funds toward our reunion fund! I brought a couple quilted baby blankets and they all were auctioned off. Kenzie has a few already we are keeping for her. I made her one myself, my sis Ashley and I made her one as well and one or two more! My cousins Wendy and Dawn provided harmonious entertainment!

~Wendy with her amazing Violin playing!~

~Dawn with her talented voice! (She sang in Italian!)~

A lovely shot of my brother-in-law (married to Angela)! He HE I had to throw it in! He was trying to blow me away and well now I've got a perfect 'Blue Steel' Look of him! Lol

Some of the Midvale Fire Department came to Wheeler Farm to soak the kids down (The kids were there for a day camp) - with the giant hose from the fire truck! Kenzie had fun joining the other kids even though she wasn't in a swimming suit, she came away pretty wet and enjoyed herself immensely! It was pretty hot outside, close to 100 degrees so that must have been pretty nice for Kenzie especially since she was getting pretty bored with our reunion meeting for funds for geneology work! She did make a beautiful bead neckless with the activities for kids during the meeting/auction.

Nathan (my bro-in-law) and Kenzie and I walked around and played with the ducks and geese. Before we left my dad and Kenzie and I went to look at the other animals and Kenzie got to ride a pony!

The next day we went to The Beehive House and the Lion House in SLC, UT for a tour and then breakfast/brunch.

~Angela and Kari, my sisters~

~Kari and her hubby Jordan, and Ashley's eyes!~

~My brother-in-law Nathan and my cousin Clinton~

~My cute lil Kenzie baby!~

~Mi Padre aka Dadio~

~All three of my sisters (Angela, Kari & Ashley) and brother-in-law Jordan~

Afterwards we walked up hill in the heat to the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Building. On the way up I got a picture of The McCune Mansion that was my Great Great (1 plus or minus Great) Uncles, he built it himself, Alred McCune!



One of his younger brothers, Henry McCune was my Great Great Grandfather, my dads Great Grandfather. Their father Matthew McCune was a pioneer who crossed the plains and suffered much tribulation in following his faith and moving to Salt Lake with many more pioneers! Another ancestor, Isaiah Moses Coombs, left so much behind (including a wife and child that didn't make it) to come west.

Kenzie just loved the Fancy Pioneer Dresses! She is very girly like that. :P

If you'll notice her outfits she threw together from the two days. :)

She just loves dresses and skirts!

I am grateful for all my ancestors that did travel and go through such hardship to do so! Thank you familia of familia!

Our Feathered Friends!

(Nevermind the date on the pics, it was spring/summer 2008)

Ok you guys (and gals),

I haven't blogged for a season and a half! How sad is that? I've had pictures to post and yet NOoo I haven't done it! Bad Cheryl Bad! Ok well I didn't get to many pictures but the first set of pics are from spring/summer taken of our duck friends that reside here at our apartments. (Outside of course!) They've had 3 sets of babies, or we had new baby ducks or excuse me before my daughter corrects me... ducklings, 3 different times! I wanted to get a picture of the bigger ones the medium sized ones and the widdle tiny ones but um, well that didn't happen. So just the first set will do. We love are duck friends! I like to call them the duckeroos, quackers and such but my daughter gets at me for not calling them their correct names! She is very articulate and grammaticaly correct with proper names and all. She cracks, no wait quacks me up! HA HA HA (She'll roll her eyes when she reads this I'll betcha)!

So here are some cute pictures of a duck momma, daddy and their babies.

The first one is of the daddy as he's running to rescue and protect his woman duck and babies. He was across the parking lot hangin' with his homies.




















We've had some fun experiences with the ducks around here. We'd feed them bread and watch them play in the rain puddles. Once we fed some babies and they ate right out of our hands! It was fun, Kenzie kept petting them when they'd get close and they'd run a few feet then come right back for more. If there is such thing as reincarnation they must have been pigs before! This one would jump up real high to get pieces of bread out of Kenzies hands. Cute little beggers but no patience! The other one kept nipping at Kenzies little toes when we were sitting down and the lil white sea shells on her shoes. She must have thought her lil white toes and the sea shells were pieces of bread! It was to funny!



















This picture you can't see much but I love it 'cause the father duck is in front of the mama duck protecting her and the ducklings are hiding behind her! How Sweet!




















To bad I didn't get a picture of our little feathered friend Ron. Yes Ron was/is his name. He was of the second hatchlings if I remember right, he was born bright yellow and the momma was trying to kill him! :O For sad huh?! We think there may have been something wrong with him or he was slower hatching. So some friends that live here at our apartments, the Kellers were able save little Ron and you guessed it, named him RON!! I remember the first day I met him! I still worked graveyards at the time and my daughter and her little friend Carson brought a sweet little yellow duckling in to me as I was lying in bed reading! He was so cute and little I bet I could fit two of him in my hand. Carson and Kenzie introduced me to little Ron and set him down on the bed beside me. After talking for a few minutes about him and how they saved him and that the apt. office staff let them keep him, the two kids decided to go get or do something from the front room and left Ron right next to me. Well as you may know, ducklings (all birds I think actually) think the first person they see after hatching is their mom and well I think when the kids took off into the other room that baby duck wanted to do the same. The only problem was that he was way up high on my bed! He didn't even think about it though and just scampered right off that bed! I about jumped off that bed after him shouting OH NO!! He went from snuggled up sitting their to running off that cliff of a bed in an instant! HA HA Poor lil thing ! Our friends took him to their mother (Carsons grandmother) in Bountiful where she has a farm or something to that affect a week or two later but let Kenzie go with them to see Ron as he got a little older. As he got older and his down feathers fell out while growing new adult ones he turned white and had red eyes! He was/is albino! We wonder if that had anything to do with why the mama duck tried to kill as he hatched. Who knows. Now that it is almost winter and it has already SNOWED!! Arg! (I hope winter goes by fast)- ANyhoo maybe since its almost winter Ron decided to fly south. Wherever he went he just up and left! Farewell to our feathered friend Ron the duck!




Since having Ron come into our lives as well as all the new ducklings this year Kenzie has wanted and even begged to have a duckling for a pet! I told her maybe someday when we have a yard. I want a puppy someday too, when we have a yard so I dont know if having a duck and a dog would work. Ya never know though!

The ToOtHLeSs WONDER !

So Kenzie has finally lost some of her baby teeth but um, not exactly how it usually happens.
We were on our way to the Dentist to get her silver crown that fell off from a previous root canal put back in and her Dentist noticed one of her permanent teeth about to come in. It was behind the other teeth and crooked so he wanted to take an X-Ray. Sure enough just as he suspected all the 4 front bottom teeth were crowded. He said it would be better to take the bottom 4 incisors out before the others start pushing through. That way they are less likely to be so crowded and crooked. So we already know Miss Kenzie is going to need braces in the future since she hardly has any room for her baby teeth let alone when her permanent teeth come in. So Kenzie took some medicine in a cup to drink down that pretty much sedates her. It makes her all floppy and loopy. She said after she felt like she was speaking a different language, as she slurred her words (partially drunk n partially cause her bottom 4 front teeth were missing). So she now has a little bit of a lisp from her teeth missing, the new tooth has come up through the gums now too. She was deciding for a day and half if she wanted to put all 4 teeth under her pillow for the tooth fairy or just one at a time on different nights. WOW what a big decision! She ended up choosing to put each tooth individually under her pillow on different nights. We went to Barnes and Noble to get Kenzie her free book she won by reading enough books and keeping track of them and her favorite part of each book on a log sheet (She got a 5th-6th grader book when shes just starting 2nd grade this Monday!) , so we found in the books on sale or clearance this Tooth Fairy Book and pillow with pocket to put teeth in. It tells all about the process of loosing baby teeth and getting new permanent ones and about the tooth fairy! There are envelopes and sheets of paper to keep track of when each tooth fell/came out also! We both thought that was pretty neat!
Even though the after affects of Kenzies recovery after getting her 4 front bottom teeth yanked (one broke and he had to go pushing/fishing around for the broken off root in her gums- OUCHY) , weren't to much fun, since she was upset she couldnt act or feel normal or control her body movements or speach to well, let alone her vision was blurry and she was seeing two of Hannah Montana on the movie we were watching (She was not ok with NOT feeling Normal!) when it was done and over and Kenzie felt normal and like Kenzie again she couldn't WAIT to show all her friends here around our apartments and other friends and family! I decided it was time to finally post a blog and pictures of it finally! So now I finally have Hooray! (I've been slacking on the blogging, I'm tryin to catch up , honest.)

Kenzie and SOCCER (& Sports)

Hooray for Kenzie! She was able to be in AYSO soccer last year and this year! When they sign up they are on the same team for Fall and then Spring ! Kenzie was in soccer before but through Weber States La Roca Juniors futball! They were taught by the Weber State soccer team players! She had fun with that too. Kenzie is also signed up again for AYSO for the next two seasons. In fact her new coach just called to get in touch with us for the first time the other day about starting the new season soon! Here are some pictures.... of Kenzie in La Roca Juniors and her AYSO soccer picture and her TROPHY she received as well! Yippie !

(Shes been in T-Ball and she seems to be more girly and wanting to dance around so she is now in a Dance class also. Here soon I'll have to get a picture of her and some of her at their recital at the end of the summer!)

Swimmin' FUN!

SO HOORAY ITS SUMMER! We live in apartments with a pool for the first time so guess where we spend most our extra time?... especially Saturdays! Yup the POOL!
I took a few pics of Kenzie and our lil friend Bailey. (She is 8 months younger than Kenzie and yet is almost a head taller!) Splishin n Splashin Water Babies We ARE!!
Kenzie and I have new swimmin suits this year that are more modest but Bailey forgot her swimmin suit so she wore Kenzies new swimmin suit and Kenzie wore her one from last year.















Ashley came over to join us! I dont have a pic of me though, dang it ! :P (Yet)

















Bailey came to play in the Hot tub with me! Oh how I do like the hot tub!



Kenzie was off swimmin in the deep end since she learned to swim on her own in the deep last year! I never even put her in swimming lessons! Although I still may so she can learn all the ways to swim. This year she's already learned to swim to the bottom of the pool to get throw in swimming toys that sink to the bottom! Hooray!

We just Loovvee to swim! Yes We Do!