Mothers Day, May 8,2011

We had the most wonderful day on Sunday. Got up early, made an asian slaw salad and fruit plate. Katherine made her famous lemon bars. FIRST gift of the day....driving to San Diego to attend Megan and Owen's ward, the San Diego 10th ward where Owen blessed Bennett. After sacrament meeting, we went to Megan's to have a yummy dinner with Owen's family as well. Pulled pork sandwiches, strawberry spinach salad, asian slaw, assorted fruits, and lemon bars. It was delish! So much fun to hold that precious baby on Mothers Day! Megan hand crafted a grey felt flower pin for Laurie and I. Really cute. I loved it.

The SECOND best gift of the day was being able to SKYPE with Hillary! It was so great to SEE her face, and cute little body. She looked absolutely radiant. She is very happy being a missionary and serving the Lord in Chile. She was freezing while speaking to us from a room inside the church where the computer was. Winter is approaching there, and she didn't have a coat on. She was able to catch us up to date on her days as a missionary, her investigators, companions, favorite foods, acitivites, all her joys. She had no complaints or needs. We caught her up to date on our family's activities, as well. She was able to see Bennett for the first time. Tia Hillary ! (Tia is 'aunt' in Spanish). So tender.

LOVED being with my whole family for a short while on Mothers Day. So grateful to be a mom and grandma.

We are Grandparents!!

We welcomed baby Bennett Owen West into our family on March 29th, 2011. He weighed 7lbs and 12 oz and is just the cutest thing ever! He and mom are doing well postpartum and we are just so thrilled to be grandparents. Connor and Katherine are equally thrilled to be given the titles Uncle and Aunt. Here are some pics of the little guy!


Beautiful newborn...


Caught in a random sleep smile.


Here with Grandma in the hospital.


Sleeping so peaceful...


Here with his Daddy...


Some special Grandpa time.

So happy we live close enough to visit! This is such an exciting phase of life and we are so looking forward to doing all the fun Grandparent things!

CONNOR'S EAGLE!!

Dear Friends,

Connor finally did it. He was awarded the rank of Eagle last night. We just wanted to thank all of you for all you have done for him. Some donated to his Eagle Project that benefits severely handicapped people, others have been his teachers, leaders and friends. We cannot begin to thank you for helping Connor to grow into such a good young man. Know that the achievements he makes in his future will be in a large part due to your love and support of him. Thank you. Please feel free to attend, but please do not feel obligated and DO NOT send gifts. This is just a heartfelt thank you to those who helped, donated and supported him throughout this endeavor.



We are all so very proud of him and what a wonderful young man he is becoming. We love you Connor!

I LOVE AUTUMN!!!

Hello friends and family! As you can see, it has been 2 years since anyone has added to our family blog. OOPS! Megan set it up for us, and I am JUST BARELY becoming computer literate and expanding my technical horizons, foraying into the blogger territory ever so gently! I am hoping to upload some recent pics. Much has happened over the past two years. I will update with highlights as I can recall:

July 2008 - We moved from our previous home 3 blocks away into our new home. David wanted a pool, and we found a lovely home with a small pool.

We have enjoyed putting our home together. We did some remodeling during the first six months of ownership. We have enjoyed the additional space, and hope to fill it with college children bringing their friends home, friends and family coming to stay, and grandchildren :)

During fall/winter of 2009/2010 we had our nephew Steven McCombs from Ajijic, Mexico come and live with us, attending his first year of HS. He and Connor are the same age, so they braved their freshman year together. We loved having him live with us and were sad to see him go in June of 2010.

As you can see in the above picture, in June of 2010 our son in law, Owen graduated from UCSD with his Masters Degree in Business. We are so proud of him, and happy for both he and Megan to be finished with school! They are both working and expecting their first child in April 2011!

Our darling daughter, Hillary Mae accepted a call to serve as a proselyting missionary to the Chile, Concepcion Mission. She reported to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah March 3,2010. She will serve until September 2011. We have LOVED receiving weekly email from her. She absolutely loves what she is doing, loves the people, and is enjoying this new adventure in her life.

We found a darling cabin in Lake Arrowhead, CA! We purchased it in March and have been remodeling it since then! It is almost finished. We absolutely loved celebrating July 4th holiday at the Lake. A barge of fireworks was pulled out onto the lake, and a fantastical fireworks display commenced and lasted for about 20 minutes. David, Connor and Katherine have enjoyed their new found sport/love! Motorcycles and exploring the many motorcycle trails winding through the San Bernardino mountain tops. I hope to get some pics on here soon!

That is a lot of updating in one sitting. Hope to be able to update more frequently. Would love to hear from any of our friends and family who blog!

Megan's New Job!

Well, Megan got a new job teaching English at Crawford High School in San Diego! She is learning a lot and has really diverse students: Vietnamese, Cambodian, Somali, Hispanic, and African/African-American! This is a picture of her very own classroom! We are very proud of her! GO COLTS!!

Israel and Egypt

We just got back from our family vacation from Israel and Egypt! It was such a great trip thanks to Dad's hard work and planning. Everything was so magnificent. Israel was very religiously intriguing and Egypt was hot! Overall I think everyone is just really happy to be back in the states where the tap water is safe!

Disneyland with STEVEN!

So I have promised to post these pictures for a while and finally ... here they are! These are the pictures of our Disneyland trip with Connor, Katherine, Megan and Steven! We had so much fun. Steven especially liked Space Mountain. Connor got pooped on, which everyone got a big kick out of. It was a really nice day! I wonder if the kids had as much fun as I did! ;)

The Big Move!!

For all of those who didn't know already, the McCombs family is packing up the old house and moving into a bigger one in a week! Everyone is so excited about the move, especially dad because he says he "now owns water." He would of course be referring to our very own new swimming pool!! The new house has a swimming pool and a real backyard with two sideyards even! this house will be a really fun place to come back and visit when we are all grown up and have our own kiddies! There is so much space. Katherine and Connor have both picked out their rooms already. There is a library and a window seat, so the English major inside me is practially drooling, there's a pool and built in BBQ area for dad, a huge driveway for Connor and his skating, and a huge kitchen and downstairs master bedroom for mom! Hillary has more to hide now if she doesn't want to be seen as a rich city girl ;) and a separate garage for her little Jeep! There is even a rumored crush living next door for Katherine! It is perfect! Mark your calendars and if you know us and need our new address you had best call soon! New house...HERE WE COME!!

Movie Critique...

Last night the fam went to go see WALL-E and everyone felt differently about it. This is a space where everyone can add their own review of the movie!

Megan says: I thought WALL-E was pretty cute. It was no Finding Nemo or Toy Story, but I thought it was funny and sweet. I especially liked the humor and love story that happen between WALL-E and Eve. Overall I would have to say that I'm not sure it was worth seeing in the theaters but definitely worth seeing!

Dad said: "It was depressing: fat people, computers, and polluted world. All things that are sad and depressing. It was icky."

Countdown to Israel

51 days left until The McCombs Family, Owen and Megan West, and guest Alissa Jane will be departing to Israel and Egypt! Dad has been anticipating this trip to the Holy Land for years and we are finally going! We will walk where Jesus and the Pharoas walked and experience the majesty of the Holy Land- unless we die from excitement and anticipation!!

Spotlight-HALLERY!!

I decided that I wanted to spotlight my sister Hillary this week. I have been so impressed with her and how hard she has been working in school. She is currently going to school at Brigham Young University-Idaho and having a blast! She has only four weeks of school left and finals are comming up! Hillary- We all love you! Good luck with all your endeavors! We can't wait till you come home!! Happy Studying! - Love Meggie

Better Family Picture!

Ok this picture was taken before Megan was married, so unfortunately Owen was not with us. But this is a pretty good picture of our family in front of Waterford Castle on Waterford Island in Ireland. Beautiful setting! It was a birthday present to Mom! Happy birthday!

Ma Souer

Ma Souer! That means 'my sister' in French! This picture was taken in front of the gardens of Waterford castle in Ireland before Mom's birthday feast.

This photo features the McCombs Sister Trio on top of the Eiffel tower in Paris, which had a spectacular view. It is so good to have such wonderful sisters!

First Family Picture!

This is the only picture I have of the whole family at the moment and thought it would be nice to see a picture on our new blog. This picture is actually of the whole company that came to Owen's and my wedding. It was taken on April 6, 2007. Our side of the family made up well over half of the people there. Oh what a happy day!

New Blog!

This is the McCombs Family blog!! I have created this space for our family members to add pictures and memories to share with each other and others! Please feel free to add whatever you like to this. Update it as much as you like and be sure to add pictures! Happy Blogging!