Drumroll Please.....

We have a tooth!

She's Off!

It's amazing how quickly babies can figure things out when they decide they're ready. Lilah started crawling yesterday- on her 7 month birthday! She's been trying to figure it out for a week or two. I was at GG and Papa's house yesterday and they were playing with her on the floor, when she decided to crawl over and get a toy she wanted. Then when I got home last night Brady put her on the floor and she crawled clear across the living room to get to him! So now that she's got the hang of it, she's all over the place... Time to go get baby gates for the stairs and to do a once over on the house to make sure it's baby proofed!
Here she is showing off her mad new skills...

Here I come, Daddy!

Mama's...(Achoo!)....sick....(sniffle)...

It inevitably happens when I'm running myself ragged, day in and day out. School, House, Kids, Husband, Meals, Laundry, Baby.... Week in and week out. The baby hasn't been sleeping well; as always happens when they are learning so many new things at once! Right now she's so close to crawling! She can get from her bottom, to her knees, to her belly and back again. As soon as she figures out how to use her legs right, she'll be all over the place. She already scootches really well. 

So now I'm down with a nasty, flu-like cold. Really nasty. I've been down for 2 days now and I HAVE to be better by tomorrow so I can get the weekly shopping done and the house's weekly deep clean accomplished. I already put it off a day, and it can't be postponed any longer. That is if we want to eat this week!

I'm prostrate on the couch, feeling guilty because the kids are watching PBS- but there's no other way for me to get any rest. 

I may amuse myself today by doing Mandy's Tag that I haven't gotten around to. We'll see. :>P Probably I'll take the opportunity to read. 

Wish me luck on getting up tomorrow!

Business as usual

I haven't been blogging much lately, because there just hasn't been much going on. Don't get me wrong- I'm terribly busy. However, not with anything exciting. My days are pretty much business as usual.

 School is taking up my time. Both the kids are doing very well in school and we are enjoying it. Jaxson is learning to work well on his own and is doing excellently in all of his subjects. He's aced his spelling tests three weeks in a row! Ellie has already completed one of her two math books for the year, I will be purchasing her the next set- and as I posted before she is reading already. 

Vance pretty much just makes a mess of the house while we do school, but he sometimes sits down with a paper and marker and proudly announces that he is "doing school too". 

Lilah will be crawling before we know it.  She's growing so fast. 

Brady and I are taking the 101 membership class at our church and looking for more ways to be feasibly involved (with four kids). Brady is doing the children's small group program with Jaxson. He will be leading Jaxson and Alex's small group. They start next week and are really looking forward to it. We LOVE our church- it's unlike any congregation we've ever been a part of in so many ways! It's incredibly refreshing. 

Well, I'm off to lesson plan for next week, and menu plan as well so that I can shop tomorrow morning. If you happen to be at the grocery store at 6 am- I'll probably see you there, Starbucks in hand!

Another Campbell Discovers the Joy of Reading...

We've only been doing school for three weeks.  She's not supposed to read her first word for at least another three weeks. We've only just begun blending. And yet, yesterday, Ellie picked up a book and read it to me. Granted, she already knew her letter sounds. But still, she's only four years old, and I'm so proud of her! Way to go, girl!

Bodily functions... and other more appropriate topics

I try to teach my kids manners. Really, I do. But those of you who have boys know that they have a natural aversion to manners, and a natural affinity for... well, bodily function jokes. I say natural because it isn't something that's taught- no, they are born doing these things. 

Point in case: Vance has taken to letting out an extremely loud "belch" every time he takes a drink of something. No matter where we are. Or who's around. 

You may have to pause my awesome music (at the bottom left of the page) to hear this....

Seriously. Whose kid is that anyway? I had to video tape it because I knew that none of you would believe that my sweet, little Vancey could do such a thing! Sometimes he'll even stand up and hold out both of his arms before he does it. Now, I realize that laughing is just encouraging it, but come on, I dare you not to laugh. 

Ellie is going to be a stylist when she grows up! How do I know this? Because, she gave herself her SECOND self haircut! So my little pixie fairy now has cute, pixie fairy hair. I think it really suits her, what do you think? 

And Lilah is showing off her newest skill... sitting up on her own! Another month gone by, another milestone reached, another baby of mine growing up far too quickly. 

I'm getting the urge....

To change my blog design....

I know, I just can't help it. 

So don't be too surprised if we look a bit different soon. 

More cute pictures

Cohen Ray, 7lbs 6oz, 20 inches

Here he is! He looks just like Jessica! Isn't he the cutest baby? I wish I could see him in person. All I have are cell phone pics right now, but I'll post more when I get them.  AHH! Jerry is a daddy!

Wenatchee

We took a quick trip last weekend to Wenatchee to visit Grandma Rothrock and Grandpa Leonard. We took Alex with us because Dave and Janelle were in Mexico for the weekend..... so we had 5 kids in the van for the 3 hour drive. We left late so that they would sleep on the way there, which worked out well. On our way out of PF we drove through a HUGE lightening storm. It was the craziest storm any of us had ever seen- we counted at least three lightening flashes every SECOND, literally. It was forked and striking all around us. It was crazy.

Anyway, we made it there and had a fun weekend.
Here are several highlights...

Grandma always has special little cereal boxes for the kids.. they love it!

The kids always want to play in "the bucket" at Grandma's- this bucket was played in by Daddy and by Daddy's mommy!

Grandma and Leonard enjoying the kids.

Vancey-- wet and cute as can be!

Daddy and Lilah fell asleep on the swing in the backyard.

Unbeknownst to me, Jax and Alex decided it would be "funny" if they wore different, non-matching shoes to Wenatchee. I didn't find out about it until we were there... and of course hadn't packed any other shoes for them! So they wore these all weekend... even to church. Sorry Janelle! I don't know WHOSE idea it was, but I'm sure it wasn't MY kid's idea......(can you sense the sarcasm?) :>P

The drive home was slightly more difficult... 5 tired, cranky kids gave us quite a run for our money. But we made it home safely, which is the important part. And it was nice to just get out of town for a weekend. 

Canning Peaches

I caught the canning bug. There is just something nostalgic about canning- it takes me back. I've wanted to do it every year for years, but never had time. So this year, I just decided to make time. I got a box of peaches from George ( I have the sneaking suspicion that he gave me a deal on them, but he won't admit it!) and I was able to can some and freeze some as well. They turned out beautifully! It was really fun. This was my first time canning on my own and I felt like such a big girl! :>P I did call mom and sis a few times with questions, however. 

Canning is MESSY! Here is a picture of my kitchen after the job was done- this is especially for all of you who make fun of me for being OCD!

And here is a picture of it about 20 minutes later, back to normal (because I can't stand just leaving you with a picture of the mess!)

Frugality

How does a mom clothe 4 children on a budget of $200 per year? 

1. Wear clothes until they fall apart or they can no longer squeeze into them. 

2. Sell things on Ebay to come up with clothing money. (I am now a prolific ebayer)

3. Only shop 2x a year.

4. Switcheroo! My new favorite children's clothing store! 

Seriously, they sell very gently used, nice clothing at a great price! It is all clean, unstained and in great shape- no picking through to find the good stuff. Many of the clothes are name brand-Gap, Old Navy, Children's Place, Gymboree etc. And Tuesday is known as "$10 Tuesdays"- you receive $10 off any purchase of $50 or more. 

All in all I purchased:

     7 pairs of pants 

7 nice sweaters

4 button up shirts

1 pair of pajamas

1 pair of overalls 

All for.... drum roll please.... $88!  That's an average of $4.40 per item! 

So if you are in the market for kids' clothes..... Switcheroo is your place! 

(they also pay cash or store credit for nice, used clothing so if you have anything to trade in, they're your place as well!)

The Party

We had a little birthday shin-dig for Jaxson and Brady's birthdays on Sunday. Thanks everyone for coming! 
Here are some highlights....



The Cake....

The boys with their cake and candles....
(Doesn't Jax look so much like Brady?)

I thought this was a cute picture of the girls... Cassie, Janelle and Taylor.....

For his birthday, Jaxson wanted to have a boys backyard camp out. So we had Alex stay over and set up the tent in the back yard. They wanted to watch a movie too so we put a little tv and dvd player in the tent and they stayed up late eating snacks and having all kinds of fun!
Here they are in the tent....




Doesn't Brady just look thrilled to be sleeping in a tent with three little boys? :>P


Here's my big boy eating his blueberry pancakes the next morning....

While the boys had their sleep over Ellie went to Auntie Shannon's house and had a sleep over with the girls! She had so much fun. She was going to go home with them from the party that night. She was so excited to go that we heard about it for 2 whole days before hand, and on the morning of her sleep over, I came downstairs at 6:30 AM to find her sitting on the couch, dressed, with her little back pack full of clothes and her toothbrush -ready to go! It was so cute.


And just because, here's a picture of how big Lilah is getting! She's rolling over both ways and sooo close to sitting up already. I can't believe how quickly time goes by.

Signing off now....Talk to y'all soon!

7 years ago today....

My eldest son was born. I felt like I'd been pregnant with him forever. When I finally got sent to the hospital to have him it was because I was pre-eclamsic and had to be induced. They started the induction and we went ALL day with no success. Finally they turned off the pitocin and let me get some sleep. They sarted early again the next day and brave (read "dumb") ol' me decided I could do it all without an epidural. After an entire day of labor (most of which I hardly remember because I was so tired) and over 3 hours of pushing, we finally delivered our baby boy, all 9 lbs, 8 oz of him. I remember being so relieved that it was over, and so excited that our little one was finally here.
And now he's 7. I tried to tell him that it was only yesterday that he was born but he didn't believe me. He's such a big boy, my pride and joy.
How did he get so big??
Happy Birthday Jaxson!!
We love you!

9 years and counting....

Nine years ago today Brady and I were married. Or, as Brady put in the other day, 9 years, 4 kids and 256,000 diapers ago! I can't believe it's been so long. He's such an amazing guy and I'm so very blessed! He takes such good care of me, and he's my best friend.
I know he has all kinds of plans for the day, and I've already been surprised with beautiful roses and a photo of the two of us on the wall (the first we've had taken since we were married).
I love you so much, sweetie! Happy Anniversary!