Mom is busy resting, eating, and counting down the days till she is not pregnant anymore (I mean until we recieve the wonderful gift of life into our family).
Dad is working and busy relieving mom when she needs it, which is more often than not. He has a sad face because this was the last time we went to Disneyland for a while. Like 13 days in a year hasn't been enough!
This little sassy one is busy going potty on the toilet...she's doing well but we aren't completely out of the woods in my book. She also loves to pose for pictures and wrestle with her brother.
This little boy is the same as always. I'm convinced his curiosity will never be satisfied. He so kindly sprayed half of my perfume (don't be surprised that I own perfume...it was a gift from Tim:) on his blankets and filled the house with the concentrated scent of Flowers. Thanks Anderson:) He's also avoided a few public exposure charges recently as he felt free to whip it out and relieve himself at the TOP of the bleachers at a high school football game (facing the crowd no less) and at his cousin's flag football game. Hopefully he's gotten that out of his system. Andy never ceases to amaze me.
to doing it earlier than later: it's done before the baby comes, it's done before we can hopefully move (sometime soon hopefully), no 2 babies in diapers, and the Minnie Mouse undies are too cute. I can't resist. The way I look at it, we have to either do this now, or in 6 months. Either way, she has to figure it out. Wish us luck!
When I was a kid and my dad was released from the Bishopric, he came up with the "top ten reasons you know you have been in the bishopric too long" and of course, read them from the pulpit. Real typical of the Coombs' and so funny. So I was thinking about the "top ten reasons why I LOVE being pregnant". 
I found this old picture on my parents computer. It's Anderson a year ago. Sometimes I have to look back at pictures of my kids to remember when they were sweet:) I consider myself a pretty real person. I am not afraid to say my true feelings about life and motherhood and my kids.I don't know if this is a good quality or not. And more than anyone, I really appreciate when other people are honest, and don't try to live up to an expected image that seems to be the norm. I am fully willing to admit when things are tough, and they are tough right now. It seems easy to focus on the bad things that are going on, when kids misbehave, current temporal circumstances, being pregnant (I know...probably shouldn't be on the "bad" list) or anything else that seems to go wrong. Having your own pitty party is sometimes a hard thing to snap out of. I loved President Monson's talk in the first session of general conference. It reminded me to be grateful and show gratitude for the things we are blessed with. This makes things a lot easier to endure and always draws you closer to the Lord. I always wonder why you always try to do everything right when you are struggling with something, but then become somewhat laxed when things seem to be running smoothly. Why isn't it like that all the time? How much better would I be if I tried this hard always? Sorry for the spiritual soapbox.....just need to vent a little.
This is how I feel lately. Stressed. Why is it that when it comes to this, when it rains it pours? And why is it that you are always pregnant and sick when it's pouring? I find it so easy to tell others (and I believe it 100%) "it will all work out and be fine" when they are in stressful situations. But that becomes a little harder to put into practice when I'm there. Time to man-up I guess and practice what I preach.
Anderson and his cousin Leah. She is 3 1/2 months older than him and they are always playing together.
Grandpa and Grandma made it to the beach but not in the water this year. I will say it is freezing!
Anderson ate lots of oreos. This was his perfect mustache.
I can't wait to go back next year. Next year we'll have another little booger to watch in the sand. At least that one won't be able to move yet.
Will his curiosity and busy-ness ever be satisfied??????????
This one must have taken lessons from her brother. She climbs EVERYWHERE. On Sunday Tim was giving the kids a bath and we usually take Minnie out, put a diaper on her and stick her in her crib while we get Andy out. I was downstairs doing dishes and I hear a huge thud and Minnie freaking out. I run upstairs and she had climbed/fallen out of her crib and was hysterical and walking toward me. I couldn't find any sign of serious injury, and luckily we were still able to move her matress down another notch. She had gotten the blankets and pillow in her crib stacked and used that to step on. She climbs on the kitchen table a million times a day and into the TV cabinet too. When am I going to get one that just likes to relax?! Sometimes I don't mind if they are sick because then they sit still for a while. That's terrible.
So most people tell me that Minnie looks just like Tim. I'm never good at figuring out who kids look like, but I think it's Tim's dark hair that seems to sway people. This is me when I was a baby, and believe it or not my hair is pretty close to as dark as Minnie's. I am the only kid in my family with blue eyes and light hair. My brothers and sisters used to tell me I was adopted, and of course I believed them. My mom says we got a new home teacher (classic joke, right?).
Two more weekends of Tim's class. Hopefully me (and my kids) can make it alive. If we do, I will consider it an accomplishment.
Last weekend I threw a baby shower for my sis-in-law Courtney who is having a girl in April. I took this picture for Marci (who has one tomorrow--Sorry Marci) so she could see the table. I am not very appreciative of stores who totally hike their flowers prices during the week of Valentines day. Even Costco, where you can usually get 2 dozen roses for $12.99, let me down and had a dozen roses for $15. And, no good pink ones. So I found these tulips at Wal-Mart for $5 a bunch and they worked great. Courtney got a lot of good baby stuff and I am very excited for Minnie to have a cousin that is actually younger than her (I didn't think that would EVER happen) and it to be a girl.
And finally, we made it to Disneyland. I am proud to say Minnie is TOTALLY done nursing!! And, she loves milk (in a sippy cup too). So we left her with Tim's mom, and drove to CA Monday night. We pricelined a hotel for that night for $40. We went to Disneyland the next day and the clouds were not very friendly. It rained off and on for the first few hours in the morning. Then it stopped for a while so we did a lot of the outside stuff. For example, probably Andy's favorite thing he wanted to do was ride the "big truck" (which sometimes doesn't come out so clear as big truck if you know what I mean:) that rides down Main Street. At like 3:00 it started POURING and didn't stop for a few hours. I was surprised they kept it open. We were going to leave and decided to ride a few more things. After that, it stopped raining around 6:00. Everyone had left, so we rode a ton of stuff that last couple of hours. We were totally by ourselves in our own boat on Pirates of the Carribean and Small World (which we only went on to warm up--it's a long one for us). We maybe waited 4-5 minutes at the most the whole day. We pretty much walked on to everything, and it was completely free! We already want to go back...not till next year though. Hopefully Disney will keep us this "Free Day" Promotion stuff next year! I would HIGHLY recommend doing the Give a Day Get a Day thing. Check out the disneyland.com website and follow the links. It's totally worth it!
On Friday Minnie turns 1! This was seriously the fastest year of all time for us. She is starting to walk pretty much all of the time right now and is starting to understand a lot more. She is also becoming a sneaky little thing. In true Vanderwalker fashion, I made my millionth call to Poison Control the other day. Anderson had a fever so I thought I was in the clear, since he was completely glued to the couch. I went upstairs and brushed my teeth and changed (which I NEVER do when Andy is awake and healthy) and when I came down stairs, I found Minnie with the reed diffuser dumped on the ground. Of course she smelled like the oil everywhere and her mouth also smelled like it. When I called (hopefully they don't keep track of the number of calls from one household) they said most of the oil contains alcohol so to watch her to see if she starts acting drunk. Thankfully she was fine. And she is now a permanent air freshener everywhere we go! I guess for once it wasn't Anderson being a stinker. Happy Birthday Minnie!
One of my favorite things to do when I was a kid was go get a "hit" (a Thirstbuster) and a treat with my dad at Kwik Stop. I find myself taking my kids to do the same thing. I remember my dad driving home from San Diego, then driving back the next day to watch me play in the semi-final and final games of my Basketball Tournament. Then turning around again and driving us home after we won that night. I know almost every song that is played on 94.5 because of my dad. I have been to more ASU games and more Suns games than I can count with him. I have so many fond memories of my dad. I'm so happy my kids are by their Grandpa and love to play with him and that they ask to go see Grandpa. Happy Birthday Meltdown!
So Minnie has crazy hair and lots of it! But she won't keep any sort of clip in AT ALL. But, she will wear this styling 80's head band. And she loves to wear it like a sweat band. Whatever keeps those crazy bangs out of her face...she pulls them down and they are long enough to reach her mouth. I can't bring myself to cut them though.
Let's hope Anderson isn't giving Minnie any secrets about getting into stuff. I don't know what I'd do with myself if she is as "curious/busy/never sitting still and getting into everything" as Andy is. By the looks the of the next picture, I may be doomed!
