Happy Halloween!

We had a fun filled Halloween this year. Cole is finally old enough to understand what's going on and the festivities go on for about a week here in Iowa! The Friday before, we went to the neighborhood Halloween party for Fun Friday (and I forgot my camera!). DMU had a kiddie party for all of the students' kids, with pumpkin painting, games, prizes and food (and I forgot my camera!). Friday night was Beggar's Night where everyone goes trick-or-treating, so we took the kids out in the freezing weather (and Ben remembered the camera!). Saturday night our ward had a Halloween party followed with a Trunk-or-Treat in the parking lot (and I forgot my camera!). Did you catch a theme her? I was a big ditz and never remembered the camera for all of our fun parties. Luckily Ben remembered to get it out for Beggar's Night and we got a few pics, but still not as many as I would have taken. Although we have little proof, we had a fabulous, sugar-loaded Halloween!!

Cole was Dumbo (again) this year. I don't think he remembers last year anyway and, as some of you know, he has been on a Dumbo kick so he was pretty excited to wear it this year. We'll see how many years we can get out of this one :) Luckily his coat fit inside the costume, because it was FREEZING when we went trick-or-treating. I never dressed up Ellie because it was so cold that we just left her bundled in the carrier the whole time.


Since we didn't get any pictures of the baby I'm throwing one in so everyone can see her chubbers! I swear she gains about a pound a week...and I love it!!

Pumpkin Time

Last night for FHE we carved our pumpkin. Well, Ben carved it with Cole's "help", and Elise and I watched :)

Cole got a pen instead of a knife to carve it. Cole wanted a "Happy Pumpkin, not a scary one"

Happy Halloween!!

As Requested...

Here are a few pics of our little angel for those of you who have asked:

Look at those cheeks...Yum!

I know she's not supposed to have real smiles yet, but that is not a gas grin if you ask me.

Here is a shout out for GG and Grandpa Green: Thanks for the cute outfit and Thomas the Train!

She is definitely Daddy's Little Girl. Elise smiles all the time when Ben talks to her :)

Cole is the best big brother!

He's always playing with her and giving her

loves...especially when she's asleep

Elise will be 3 weeks old tomorrow, and as of yesterday was 10 lb 2 oz! She obviously loves to eat, and we love her chubbers :) She is such a good baby and we can't get enough of her!

Elise Cathryn Coombs

Our precious baby girl finally arrived on Saturday, September 26 at 2:25 PM. She weighed 8 lb exactly and was 20 1/2 in long. The labor and delivery were easy breezy and she has been a great baby! Now, if we can get her sleeping better at nights she will be a perfect baby!!

We love our Ellie Bug!!

Cole loves to look at "Baby Sister" and play with her and laughs at every noise she makes. He doesn't like her very much when mommy holds her though :)

Ben can't get enough of his "Baby Girl". She already has Daddy wrapped around her little finger!

Life has been a little chaotic since we came home. She sleeps great during the day, but not so well at nights. This has made med school really hard for Ben. And I wouldn't be surviving if my mom wasn't here to help out so much. Cole has been pretty jealous. He has also been throwing up since we got home, so that doesn't really help because he wants me to hold him all the time and gets mad when I hold Elise. Every day is a little better though and we are all really happy. We are so blessed to have this sweet angel in our family!!

One Last Hoorah: Take 2 (AKA Geisler Farms)

As some of you know I was supposed to be induced today. Ben had a big test and we wanted to wait until after the test, but make sure we had the baby while my mom was here, so the plan was to induce me after his test today. The dr. on call decided that she didn't want to induce me on a Friday afternoon so it got postponed until tomorrow morning. We were a little bummed so I tried to make myself go into labor yesterday by painting our living room, but I ended up with less contractions and feeling better than usual.

We decided to make the most of the postponed induction and we had one last fun night out as a family. My mom took us to a yummy dinner at Red Robin, then we met up with some friends at Geisler Farms.

The only crazy animals running around this time were Lucielle, Cole and Jazzlyn

This is an aerial pic of the corn maze...isn't that amazing?!

Making our way through the maze...We found all 11 numbers in the maze!

Cole kept asking the whole way through the maze to ride the tractor. When we finally got through it was dark, but the driver took us for one last hay ride behind the tractor. It was so bumpy I was sure it would put me into labor...but no such Luck. As usual Cole wanted to sit by the girls :)

In the end, we were really glad that I haven't had the baby yet. It was such a fun night, and just the break that all of us needed (especially Ben who studies non-stop). Thank you to the Worthams for helping us have one last night of family fun before our lives our turned upside down!

One Last Hoorah (AKA Howell's Pumpkin Patch)

I've been pretty lazy lately, being 9 mo pregnant and all, so Cole and I have been taking it easy. I started feeling like the worst mom, depriving my child of all the fun because I didn't want to do anything that took energy. So, thanks to Jamie, Friday I caved and we went to Howell's Pumpkin Patch with the group for one last adventure before the baby. It was too early to pick our own pumpkins, so we didn't take the tractor ride to the field/corn maze...but there was still a ton to do.

There were small farm animals everywhere: goats, bunnies, ducks, etc. Cole was brave (with Mindy by his side) and hand fed the cute little goats wandering around.

There was a whole row of tractors to play on...so of course Cole was in heaven!

There were cute little wagons for the pumpkins, but the kids loved them too.

Cole used them to get to the girls:

Here he is taking the twins Kylie and Kaitlyn for a ride...followed by him sneaking a smooch for Adalee :)

Cole and Rykker had a ball playing in the pumpkin wagons...

a swingin' time on the horses...

and didn't want to leave the messy sand box filled with corn. (Note that Rykker's pants and Cole's shoes used to be blue and are now white)

There were the cutest tractor bikes, and Cole's legs could actually reach the pedals! But he decided it was easier just to pull it :)

It was such a fun place and Cole had a hey day the whole time. What could be better than animals, tractors, wagons and lots of dirt & dust? It was little boy heaven. I'm really glad that we were able to have one last hoorah for Cole before baby sister comes and his life is turned upside down.

Trains

Cole LOVES trains. Luckily, we pass over train tracks every day and there always seems to be a train coming. They are extremely slow here so the joyous occasion lasts a long time for our little guy :) Iowa is turning out to be little boy heaven!