Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish all of our friends and family a very Merry Christmas!

Love from us!

Merry Christmas!

Well, this week has gone by SO quickly, and now Christmas is right around the the corner. Here are some highlights from our busy week:

• Sunday - we had church in the morning, and in the evening at church we had a special worship service called "Christ in Song" with lots of music telling the story of Christ. I got to sing in a ladies ensemble, Kenny sang in a men's quartet and the kids sang with the kids choir. It was a beautiful service!
• Monday- Nathan and Tim had their annual Christmas concert with their piano teacher. Their teacher, Mrs. Schnieder, was voted "Best in Brentwood for 2007!" The concert was wonderful; the boys did great!
• Tuesday - piano lessons, making cookies and two parties filled this day. I made cut out Christmas cookies with the kids, which is one of their favorite Christmas traditions that we have. They each take a turn rolling and cutting the dough, and we spent about 3 hours doing this! Lizzy got to go to a caroling party with her good friend Emmy in the evening, and Kenny and I went to a nice dinner party at the Trummel's with several of our dear friends. It was another special day!
• Wednesday - the dreaded Winco trip (anyone who lives in Brentwood will understand!), more cookies baking, candy making and prayer meeting...oh and we delivered our Angel Tree gifts after prayer meeting!
  
• Thursday - AH, the ONLY day where we did not have to go anywhere except the boys' TaeKwon-Do class in the evening. We made more cookies, and I finished wrapping all of the presents!
• Friday - I finished my baking yesterday, ran a couple of errands and then we went to another Christmas party last night at the Clappins with a few good friends. A fun way to end a busy week; just relaxing, chatting and eating yummy appetizers!

So, today is Saturday, and my parents arrive this afternoon to stay until next Thursday...so starting the official Christmas celebration!! My brother comes on Monday. I may not have time to post again until after Christmas so I want to wish all of my blog readers a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!


"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
~Luke 2:1-14

Community Service

Today our Keepers of the Home and Contenders of the Faith groups went to Eskaton (where Kenny's Mom lives) and some of the kids played piano. We also asked the residents a few questions, such as "What's your favorite Christmas memory?" or "What was a favorite toy you received as a child?" It was fun to hear some of their answers, such as the "roller skates with metal wheels" or the "oranges in my stocking!" A little different from what our kids know of Christmas! The kids handed our ornaments that we had made last Friday to all of the residents as well.

We also sang "Joy to the World" with them; spreading a little of Christmas and Christ with them. It's good to honor our elderly and show the love of Christ in small ways.

Merry Christmas!

Snickerdoodles

We love to make snickerdoodles and Christmas is a perfect excuse to make some! For a fun holiday twist, add green and red sprinkles to your sugar and cinnamon mix. When you roll the cookies in this, they will bake up looking quite festive!

I'm not even going to post the recipe here b/c it's one of the most well loved cookies in America! :o)

Happy Baking everyone!

Comments

For some reason, blogger did NOT alert me to the comments that I just published this morning when I got on here to post something. So to all of you who left comments, I apologize that it took a WEEK to get them on here!!

Thanks for the birthday greetings too!

This doesn't look right....

Yesterday Kenny's laptop decided to stop working. Kenny is quite sad b/c he does SO much of his work on that thing. Anyway, he decided that he would just try to fix it himself! For those of you who know Kenny well, you know he is NOT going to be considered for a job with the Geek Squad any time soon (like never) so I was pretty nervous when I saw the laptop 'innards' all over my desk. He's more of a "ooooh, let's take it apart and see how it works and then put it back together" type of guy! I can imagine that when he was a little boy, he was actively taking apart the toilet or his dad's radio.

So, he got it back together, but without figuring out the problem. I just thought I should document the moment.

Thanks to Jason for talking sense into Kenny, and telling him to not mess with it anymore. haha!

New Blog

I've added a new blog site to our list of favorites sites.

Serving the Lord in Lakeshore

Our church is sending 21 people to Lakeshore, MS in January to help rebuild homes in that town that were destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. We have set up a blog for them to post on while they are there, so we can keep track of what they are doing! They leave on January 5th, and will be gone for a week. It is our prayer that much can be done to serve these people who have been without homes for so long. There is another link on our sidebar called Rebuild Lakeshore as well, if you want to see the ongoing work there.

Check out the blog! Nathan and I will be posting little things before they go, but hopefully they will be able to post daily while they are there.

Nathan and Kenny are going on this trip!

More Birthday Stuff

I never finished posting about my nice birthday-day. I woke up to breakfast made by my three sons. Such a treat! A short time later, the phone rang...and Pauline sang "happy birthday" to me over the phone! Later, Stef brought me a yummy peppermint mocha (my favorite!) and Sue brought me a carrot cake (again, my favorite)! I felt very blessed and loved! :)

Thanks to everyone who called, sent me e-cards and gave me little gifts! Later, my family made me another carrot cake (Stef, I can share with you...I know how much you LOVE carrot cake!) and gave me more presents.

It was a special day, and I am thankful to God for the great blessing of family and friends who are like family! You all made my 41st birthday fun!

Birthday Breakfast!

So today is my birthday (#41) and my boys all got up at 6:45am and made me breakfast!!! Such a sweet surprise! They served me a ham and cheese omelette, a bagel with cream cheese and sliced apple! Very delicious, and a LOT of food at 7:15am. :o) Kenny helped me finish it.


Such a nice way to wake up on one's birthday!

Lizzy and Dan also signed contracts written by Nathan and witnessed by Tim, promising to "obey unconditionally" today. What more can a Mom need?

Christmas Tree!!

Saturday we put up our Christmas tree...it's an all day event! We have to borrow the Betti's BIG ladder in order to decorate the very top! Personally, I do NOT like the high ladder (or any high place for that matter!) so the kids enjoy the climbing part. :) Even Lizzy climbed all the way to the top to put ornaments up HIGH (12 foot tree).

My parents give the kids each an ornament every year, so they each have a set of Hallmark collectibles that will be theirs to keep one day. Nathan's set is "Kiddie Cars" but that collection ended last year, so this year he got a Corvette ornament. Tim's set is "All American Trucks"...lots of cool pick up trucks! Dan's set is called "Flying High"...all airplaines. Our tree looks quite "boyish!" Ah, but then there is Lizzy's set...now she has a "Fairy Princess" set, but her first set was "Little Women" with the four sisters from that famous story. So, there are a few girly ornaments too! Anyway, it 's fun to pull out all of the ornaments each year and add the newest one!

Fun with friends

Yesterday I went out for breakfast with Jess and Stef, and we went to Mimi's to celebrate Jess' 30th Birthday! Baby Austin joined us, and he was SO good!

Anyway, if anyone ever goes to Mimi's for breakfast, you have to try their new 'Breakfast Ciabatta' because it was SO good! I ate the other half today for lunch, and it was just as good reheated. :)

And best of all, it was fun to sit and chat with my two good friends while I left my kids at home. Very relaxing and a nice break for me!

Thanks girls, for a fun morning!

Any 24 fans?

Just a reminder...season 6 comes out on DVD this Tuesday - December 4!

Promised Pictures!

Here are a few pictures to go along with my blog post from yesterday - some of the fun we had in Southern CA last week. Enjoy!



Dan and Kenny playing games at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Riding in the tow truck on the way home - what fun!?

Tim riding on Jeff's three-wheeler!

A beautiful, red tailed hawk...up close and personal!

Our family in front of the fountain at the Nixon Library (we didn't go in, just stopped to take a picture!)

Lizzy bowling!

Nathan learning to drive golf balls!

Thanksgiving and such

Well, Thanksgiving is past...we had a good one this year with our family. It's the only time of year that we get to see some of our family, and it's always an enjoyable day. Lizzy especially enjoyed her cousin who is the same age as she is.

We had a nice time with my parents too, and did some fun stuff:

1. Kenny and Grandpa took the kids bowling.
2. We went to a local bird store and got to see some wild, predator birds up close. Beautiful creatures!
3. Mom and I went shopping on Black Friday and got some great deals!
4. We played cards a lot.
5. We ate a lot of good stuff.
6. The weather was warm...it was 80 degrees on Saturday!
7. Grandpa taught the boys how to drive...golf balls, that is!
8. Kenny took the kids up to a friend's house (a longtime friend of Kenny's) who let Nathan and Tim ride his three wheeler!
   

We got home tonight. Unfortunately on the way home our van decided to breathe its last breath. About 75 miles from home, our transmission died. Thankfully we have AAA, and a nice man with a big tow truck came and rescued us from the center divide of I-5.

It could have been easy for us to get upset and be anxious about this, but Kenny and I quickly thanked God that we were not injured and also thanked Him that we were at a place on I-5 where we could safely get off the road. Then, we waited for the tow truck...and of course the kids were all pretty excited about riding in a tow truck! Thankfully again, the company that came to get us had a rig big enough to transport us all home, and the driver was a very nice, Christian man. He even brought me and the kids home before following Kenny to the transmission shop where we left the van until tomorrow when we can get an estimate.

So, while our trip ended on a difficult note, we were able to thank God for His mercies through it. Now we will have to make the decision...to fix or not to fix?

We hope all of our readers had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday!

I will post pictures tomorrow... :o)

Thanksgiving

The kids and I have been doing a fun unit study on Thanksgiving this past week. We've learned some fun stuff and one of the little projects was for them to find fun little "Did you know" facts. Here are a few that we found interesting:

1. The Pilgrims only bathed once or twice...a YEAR! The thought bathing was unhealthy.

2. They did not celebrate Christmas (or Easter) like we do.

3. They did NOT eat turkey at the first Thanksgiving feast! They ate duck or goose! For that matter, they didn't have mashed potatoes or cranberry sauce either!

4. About half of the original 102 Pilgrims died the first winter.

5. The Mayflower was never intended to be a passenger vessel; it was a merchant ship. There were actually two ships that left for the New World; the Mayflower and the Speedwell (which was the passenger ship). The Speedwell leaked so badly that they had to go back and leave it; and everyone going on the journey had to cram into the Mayflower!


Let's remember to give thanks to our loving and merciful God this Thanksgiving; we have SO much to be thankful for!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Recipe

Well, Thanksgiving is only a few days away now, so I thought I'd post one of my favorite Thanksgiving Day recipes. Our family has some traditional family favorites that we always have; it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without them!

My aunt and uncle bring this dish for our family celebration. There are never leftovers!


Green Bean Casserole

2 lb. frozen french style green beans
2 Tbs. chopped onion
3 Tbs. butter
2 Tbs. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. sugar
1 C sour cream
¾ lb. swiss cheese, grated

Put thawed beans in a large bowl. Melt butter and sauté onion until clear. Add flour, salt, pepper and sugar. Stir until smooth; mix with beans. Mix in sour cream and cheese. Pour all into a 9x13 casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Tim's Belated Birthday Party

Tonight we have some of Tim's friends here spending the night to celebrate Tim's birthday (one month late). Earlier they went bowling and had a fun time!

Recipe

My friend Rosanna gave me this recipe and it's yummy!! Thought I'd share!

Lasagna Roll-Ups

3 cloves minced garlic

3-8oz cans tomato sauce

1 Tbsp Italian seasoning

¼ tsp pepper

1 ½ C ricotta cheese

1 ¼ C shredded mozzarella

¾ C parmesan cheese

1 egg, lightly beaten

¼ C parsley

1 lb lasagna noodles, cooked

Mix sauce ingredients together (first four) in a pot and let simmer for about 15 minutes or so. Preheat oven to 350, and spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, combine the remaining ingredients (except for the noodles) and mix well. Put a little bit of sauce in the bottom of the casserole dish, just to cover bottom.

Put approx ¼ C of the cheese mixture on each noodle, and spread lengthwise. Roll up and place seam side down in the pan. Cover with sauce. Bake until bubbly.

Driving

We embarrassed Nathan by taking his picture before his first driving lesson. :)

Congrats to Nathan!

Big congratulations to Nathan - he passed his driver's permit test yesterday and now can officially start driver's training! He has his first lesson on Monday!

Exciting but scary at the same time.... :o)

Love the rain!

We enjoyed our rainy day today, even though I had to drive into Livemore for part of it. :)

Our kitten, Louie, has never seen rain like today's. He kept staring at the sliding glass door, and the rain drops that were streaming down the glass. Every once in a while, he'd JUMP up and try to grab a water bead, as it slid slowly down the glass. Then he'd stare some more. We had fun watching him and laughing at his antics!

Thank you God, for the rain!

Fall Recipe!

This is so yummy...and so "fall-ish!"









Pumpkin Roll

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp nutmeg

¾ C flour

3 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

1 C sugar

½ tsp salt

2/3 C canned pumpkin

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375; grease and flour a jelly roll pan. Mix all dry ingredients in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat eggs, until thick. Beat in sugar. Stir in pumpkin and lemon juice and fold in dry ingredients. Pour into prepared pan and bake 12-15 minutes. Loosen edges immediately and flip onto a towel covered with powdered sugar. Roll up towel and cake together and allow to cool. Unroll cake and spread with filling; re-roll and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cover and chill for several hours before serving.

Filling

¼ C butter, softened

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 tsp vanilla

1 C powdered sugar

~Blend all in gradients; spread on cooled cake.

a great read...

I just finished the best book titled Some Wildflower in My Heart by Jamie Langston Turner. We read this book for my Book Club that I am in, and it was SO good!

Just thought I'd share! :o)

Happy Belated Birthday Tim

Since we were on vacation for his actual birthday, I didn't get to post a HAPPY BIRTHDAY note here for Tim!

On October 1, Tim turned the big "1 3" ...a teenager! Happy Birthday!

We love you!

Vacation

We had a great time on our vacation in Capitola and Santa Cruz. We spent the week relaxing on the beach, in the warm sunshine. Our warmest day was Tuesday, at 81 degrees!! We enjoyed the company of our friends, the Matt family and they helped us celebrate Tim's birthday while we were there.

Friday we drove to Santa Cruz, walked on the boardwalk (which was closed), walked down the pier to see the the noisy sea lions and then had lunch at a nearby park. We drove to The Mystery Spot, for a tour in the afternoon.

All in all, we had a wonderful and relaxing week!

Vacation

Lizzy on the beach in Capitola










Our family in Capitola














In Santa Cruz on the pier










One of the biggest castles that Kenny, Nathan and Tim worked on for HOURS!










One of Kenny's sand creations











Nathan with his skim board...he actually got pretty good at it by the week's end!









Another creation by Kenny












Dan being silly

Driver's Ed Part Two

Talk about FAST! Nathan already rec'd his pink Driver's Ed Certificate today in the mail; I just mailed in his course materials on Tuesday and it's only Thursday!

Now on to the next step of enrolling in Driver's Training (behind the wheel) and then heading over to DMV to get the permit.

He's thrilled...he passed!

Driver's Ed

Well, to further help me along in my "feeling old" days, Nathan finished his Driver's Ed course. I mailed it off yesterday. The next step is to wait for the certificate to come in the mail, and then we'll head over to DMV to get his permit.

Then I actually might have to let him drive the van.

With me in it.

Monday

Well, again I have neglected updating this thing. Nothing much is new, other than the fact that in one week I will be the mother of TWO teenagers. I feel old. :) Tim will be 13 next Monday.

Nathan and Tim did take their Black Belt pretest last Saturday (the 15th) but they still haven't found out how they did. Not sure why it's taking so long, but they aren't worried. The pretest results will tell them how soon they can test for Black Belt. Quite an accomplishment!

I'll have to update my book reading update too...still reading Feminine Appeal, and it's been an excellent book so far.

Okay, now I just realized that we are out printer ink and I can't print out the kids' school schedules for the week. Argh. I have to now hand write them all out...what fun!

That's all for now....

Recant

Okay, I have to take back what I said about only one house putting out a flag on 9/11. :) I was pleasantly surprised on Wednesday morning when I walked, that there were many more houses with flags out. So, people maybe put them out AFTER I walked by (since it was early when I walked).

Either that or they read my blog and felt guilty. haha

Anyway, my faith was restored in suburban Americans. :)

Hope everyone is having a good week!

September 11th

Do you remember what you were doing 6 years ago, on this date? Probably the same thing most Americans were doing. Glued to the TV, watching in horror as the events of that historic date unfolded. Praying, that God would continue to be long suffering to this country that has strayed so far from what it used to be. Praying for those families who lost a loved one...or even two...in those disasters that we couldn't believe were really happening.

So today, take a moment to pray. Pray for revival in our country, and remember to thank God for the hundreds of men and women who serve in our military. Pray also for the families who have a son, daughter, husband or wife fighting to keep this country free.

I was saddened this morning, as I went for my walk, to see only ONE other house besides ours that was flying the American flag. Out of probably 100 homes that I passed, only ONE had a flag out in remembrance of this day.

Do you have YOUR flag out today?

If you don't have a flag, click on the rectangular bar underneath our flag photograph. That will give you a pdf flag that you can print out and put in your window!

Chapter 3

A couple of thoughts from Feminine Appeal, Chapter 3, titled "The Blessings of Loving My Children."

"Moms, you may be up to your earlobes with babies, and dirty diapers. Or you may be spending half your life in the car, driving your children to and from numerous activities. In whatever stage of motherhood you find yourself, may I remind you of something? It won't last very long. In Psalm 90 Moses depicted the reality of the brevity of life. He compared our lives to a watch in the night, a dream, grass that flourishes and then fades - all brief and fleeting images. Then he prayed this way: 'So teach us to number our days.' (v. 12). Have you numbered your days lately? If we pause to count the remaining days we have with our children, we will realize how few there are. This awareness will help to safeguard us from neglecting a tender love."

She goes on to say later in the chapter:

"So if today you missed opportunities to show a tender love, or if you neglected to pray for your children, or if you were impatient with them, and even if you lost your smile and feel like a completely failure as a mother - take heart! God's grace is sufficient for you. Look to the cross where Christ died. There He purchased forgiveness for our sins and power to grow in godliness. Not one of us is equal to this task of mothering, but He will help us in our weakness."

I was really convicted by this chapter. I so often give my kids an impatient answer or a sigh of exasperation. What kind of example does that set for them? And when I think about how little time I have with them in the scheme of life, I realize how much I need to redeem the time and spend that quality time loving my family. :)

Friday night excitement

Tonight, someone threw an egg through Dan and Tim's UPSTAIRS bedroom window! And it was a stinky, rotten egg too. They threw it hard enough that it went through the screen (made a big hole), hit their fan and broke on the back of their oscillating fan. THEN, the egg and shell went through the fan, and blew pieces and goo all over their room. I'm not kidding!!! We called the police and they came and drove through the neighborhood. Anyway, I hope their room isn't going to stink like rotten egg now. What a rude thing to do to someone's house.

While we were outside waiting for the police, we watched 5 raccoons come out of the storm drain across the street, run across and into our front yard. Then they climbed over our fence and went into our backyard.

Yep, exciting evening here at the Combs' home. :)

Pictures!

Picture number 1 - Eclipse on August 28th at about 4am, taken from our driveway! Beautiful!

Picture number 2 and 3 - Dan and Lizzy in our pool.

Picture number 4 - Labor Day with Kenny's Mom.

Labor Day and such....

I know Labor Day was a few days ago, but at least I'm still in the right WEEK! We had a wonderful holiday on Monday, with just our family. We worked around the house, had lunch with Kenny's Mom and then just hung out here together relaxing. It was quite nice, and very restful.

We're having a good week with school and nothing much is new. I'll post some more about my book I'm reading, as well as another recipe soon! I'll also post a couple of pictures soon too.

Have a great Thursday...sorry for the boring post. :o)

Chapter Two - Feminine Appeal

Some of you asked me to post some more of the book I've been reading called Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney. This week I read chapter two, which is about loving our husbands. This book is definitely written for married women, or those seeking marriage. Very practical and convicting advice given here! Here's an excerpt from chapter two:

"Like a pebble tossed into a pool of water, awareness of our sinfulness generates a marvelous ripple effect in our marriage. Here's how it works: The more we understand the sin in our hearts, the more we appreciate the patience and mercy of God; and this, in turn, produces an attitude of humility and mercy toward our husbands."

"Our gracious God delights to honor our obedience. As we seek to prize, cherish and enjoy our husbands, He will freely fill our hearts with love and affection for them. this will happen regardless of your circumstances. God's grace provides all that we need to love our husbands. In fact, God lavishes us with grace!"

Encouraging words! I can easily say that I love my husband, but am I honoring God by unselfishly loving him? God loves us with such patience and forebearance...do we show that same love to our husbands...our children...anyone? Or do we more often think only of ourselves? I know I was convicted by her words...but encouraged at the same time.

More next week from chapter three...

First Day of School

Aw, the first day of school...such fun! Everyone is excited, motivated and ready to work at insanely early hours of the day! Yep, it's a good day. But, give it a week or so, and things will be more "normal" and not quite so exciting. :) Today went well, and everyone finished early.

Lizzy also had her first gymnastics class this afternoon, which she enjoyed very much! She learned how to do a handstand and a cartwheel and is looking forward to going again to practice!

Hope everyone had a great Monday!

Louie

I haven't posted any pictures of our kitty in a while...Louie is about 15 weeks old now and getting pretty big! The kids really enjoy playing with him and he's turning into a really nice cat! He's quite tolerant of the kids, and likes to be held and carried around. :)