Decorating

I love decorating for Christmas. This year was especially fun because Noah really got into it. Both he and Gabs loved helping to hang things up.

Once Noah was finished with the tree, Gabs was able to hang up the star for us. But then we decided that it was too big to put up. Our ceiling was just a bit too small for the whole tree and star so we did a bow instead.

The Big 1-8

I can't believe my baby sister is now an adult!

This cute girl turned 18 in November.

Growing up we had an unofficial tradition of getting an ice cream cake for our birthdays (I say unofficial because it wasn't something that happened for every one on every birthday). Taylor has lived with us for her 17th and 18th birthday and has had her ice cream cake tradition fulfilled. This year the cake turned out so much better than last years version.

And then my cake was forgotten when her boyfriend paid for someone to make her a cake. Kidding. It was probably a bad thing to have two cakes in the house but they both sure were tasty.Some of her friends decided to throw her a surprise party. The surprise part of it was kind of ruined when the communication broke down. They were practicing how they were going to jump out and yell surprise when she and Drew walked through the front door. It's the thought that counts though.

Happy Birthday Tayyer!

Oompa Loompa Doobity Do

I will catch up! I promise.

Gabs and Noah had awesome costumes this year for Halloween. They were the cutest little Oompa Loompa's you ever did see. We bought some fabric and the shirts and pants to create this masterpiece.
Our neighborhood was so great for Halloween. The kids walked around our little section and got tons of candy. It was so fun to see how excited they got for each house they went to. It should be interesting next year with three kiddos.

Pregnancy picture

This was taken at 21 weeks I believe. I am currently 24 weeks.

Total weight gain to date: 14 pounds (not sure how that is possible since you all know how big I get, but I'm loving it!) And believe it or not, No Swelling! Again not sure how that is happening but I'll take it.

Our baby girl is doing great. We had some issues with my blood work and antibodies but after going to a specialist twice, they have decided that she is not anemic but we will need to be monitored for the duration of the pregnancy.

She will probably be delivered sometime in late December instead of early January.

Her name is going to be Elizabeth Ann, Lizzie for short. Her name comes from quite a bit of our family heritage. I have a very special aunt who suffered through an aneurism earlier in her life and had to complete relearn everything that Lizzie shares her name with. She made a great many changes in her life that I respect and admire her for. Lizzie will also be named after her paternal Grandma, a fabulous woman who has taught me quite a bit in the time since Kyle and I met and married. We are looking forward to Lizzie learning a lot from both of these special women and from the many others in our family lines that she will be sharing a name with.

Gabs and Noah are super excited to meet their baby sister. Gabbie gets to share a room with her and she can't wait! They were both able to see a 4d picture of her from our most recent appointment with the specialist and that made it more real for them. Noah was a little freaked out because Lizzie's face was smushed and she looked a little like an alien.

Things are going great and we look forward to meeting a little girl in a few months (it seems to be coming faster than possible).

Quite Late But Still Important...

Bubs turned 2 in July and I am barely getting around to posting the pictures. Lame, I know.

We decided to make a fish cake for him (I had seen this idea on one of the blogs I follow but I can't remember which one now). Here's my poor version of a fish swimming among some coral reef.

He got to sit in his favorite Lightning McQueen chair to open presents. He as super excited and ready to go at it.

Gabs needed to be a part of what was going on as well so she made sure to sit right beside him and 'help' him along the way.

These are some of my favorite pictures. They should be looked at in sequence to see the reaction he had to one of his presents.

Checking to see what is in here...
"No way! You guys are awesome!"

"Woah! It's a book all about Mater."

"See you later...I'm done. I'll be reading over here now."
Oh, back to open another one? This one is pretty cool, but it's no Mater.

Noah is a very fun boy to have around. He has some of the craziest ideas about 'fun' things to do (very much like Daddy). He is fearless which causes me quite a bit of hesitation to let him out of my sight. He loves to play dolls and princesses and princes with his big sister, of course she doesn't give him much choice, but he doesn't complain about it. His emotions are very tender and he can definitely use that to his advantage at times. He and Gabbie fight a lot. They love each other so much, but I think some times they just get on each others nerves. We frequently hear arguments from them that go like this: Gabbie-"I'm three." Noah-"Me too!" Gabbie-"No you're not three, you're two." Noah- "I'm three." On and on and on until one of them looses their patience and grunts or hits the other one. (currently trying to figure that one out so if anyone has advice, I'm all ears)

He is our favorite little guy and we are so grateful that we are blessed to be his parents. I am nervously looking forward to the years to come. Pretty sure he will give me gray hair before my time, but he's going to help me lighten up a bit I imagine.

Choo Choo Express

The kids were begging Daddy to play trains with them when he got home from work so he graciously decided to humor them.

Again, notice how short Noah's attention span is.

Baseball in the Backyard

We love the backyard at our new house. We can finally do the things we have always talked about wanting to do in our own yard, like teaching the kids how to hit a ball. This came about because Noah likes to walk around the house swinging that green bat at anything that comes close to him. We figured it would be better for all involved if we took it outside and showed him what the bat is really supposed to be used for.

He tried really hard but was only interested for about 2 minutes. Then it was Gabbie's turn.

Kyle tried to show her the correct position but she kept turning her body right after her had positioned her correctly.

And here is Kyle showing her how to hit keep your eyes on the ball the whole time.

I love our yard. I can't wait until the scorching heat is over; we have only been out there to play a handful of times. Come September or October, we will be out in the yard every day.

Hula Hooping Anyone?

We have learned that not many of us in the Campbell/Christensen family have hula hooping skills.

The kids always want to try them and Aunt Tayyer was a good sport to go up on the stage with them and 'show them' how it's done. They didn't like her way all that much so they came up with these instead...

Who Do We Look Like?

We literally can't sit our glasses down for a minute. For some reason, this is one of the kids' favorite activities....

So stinking cute. Our glasses are a little bit stronger this go around then the last one so hopefully Gabs doesn't break them again like last time.

A Special Actiivity

We were introduced to the No Kill- Friends for Life Animal Shelter by a co-worker of Kyle's.
Each month they bring some of the dogs and cats out to a local park to try to raise awareness for their cause. You can walk or run with a dog while you make your way around the trail.

We thought this would be a great opportunity to see how the kids do around animals. It's not in our budget right now to take on an animal but we have been thinking about doing some fostering so we can learn together as a family how to take care of animals.

We got to walk Nedd, an adult male schnauzer. He was great with the kids. They loved petting him and taking him for a short walk.

Gabs was a little scared but she was trying to be so brave! So proud of her and her willingness to try things that are intimidating.

We also got to pet some beautiful cats too. Our allergies are so bad though, we will probably never own a cat. The kids had a wonderful time and still like to remind us that we told them when we moved to a house that had a bigger yard we could get a dog (didn't think that one would happen as fast as it did when we told them that).

Quite a Busy Month!

With all the packing and moving into our newly purchased home then unpacking and setting everything up, blogging has taken a backseat. Hopefully we can get caught up and post some pictures of our house soon.

We attended a free musical at Miller Outdoor Theater, which was really too hot to enjoy, but the kids seemed to enjoy it. They both were doing some awesome dancing.

They also love to wear anything that belongs to Daddy.

Each one had to have a turn with the by-u hat.

Noah loves being splashed so we went to one of the local splash pads to cool off and fight the boredom.

While doing all of the packing up in the old house, we found some things we had been missing for over a year (amazing how that happens). Of course both kids had to try them on.

And Prince Noah doing some coloring after Father's Day. It was very low key for us with my parents visiting and the upcoming closing on our house. We made a special dinner for Kyle and the kids enjoyed making him a crown and giving him some Daddy coupons.

So many changes affected the kids too. This happened during the middle of lunch one Sunday after we got home from church.

There will probably be some more pictures coming because it has been awhile.