Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Catch Up!

It's been a crazy week!

Actually it's been a couple of crazy weeks. We have been nonstop with family visiting, sicknesses, birthdays, random activities, a zoo trip....and I don't even know what else because I'm trying to block it all from my memory....but I'm ready for some down time.

I have a lot on my mind, and have had trouble sleeping lately so might as well catch up on the blog postings since the house is quiet!



Every now and then I get in the mood to be productive. It's like a combination of a sudden surge of energy and an intense need to clean takes over...and I end up starting something that I don't necessarily have the capacity to finish. Sometimes Mark will come home and find me doing some project and he knows immediately to run away or I'll enlist his help.

This week he didn't get the chance to run away. We tackled our garage, and I'm so glad we did!


I cleaned out the highchair so Stella can start using it. Now that she's 6 months old I thought I should probably start trying to feed her some baby food...


Initially Lucy was really excited about helping out with the garage. I guess she gets that from me. But then after about 30 minutes she decided she had better things to do. I guess she gets that from me too. She headed over to the neighbor's house and picked some flowers (with our sweet neighbor's permission). Our neighbor has a serious green thumb, and always has beautiful flowers. No matter that they are surrounded by garden gnomes and various other redneck yard decorations. She let Lucy take some to make a bouquet, that is now gracing our kitchen table.





Finished garage! Ahh.....isn't that better? I feel like I should clean something else now...

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Zoo





This will be the first of many zoo posts...my fabulous mom got us a family season pass to the zoo for Annie's birthday! I'm so excited....

Annie has never been to the zoo before so we decided for her birthday we wanted to take her. The week of her birthday the weather was horrible so we ended up waiting, and I'm glad we did because it was a perfect day! Mark took the day off and his mom babysat Stella so we could just have some time with our big girls.



The petting zoo was a big hit. The girls loved all the animals. The Giraffes and Zebras were the favorites though I think.




Pandas are mommy's favorite!

Apparently it was national field trip day, because there were about 20 different schools there. That's not an exaggeration at all. Seriously. I didn't get to take as many pictures as I would have liked because we were navigating around the classes and trying to avoid them, which was near impossible.



Is it just me, or are gorillas really scary?!





Lesson learned....pack a lunch and eat it in the zoo. I did pack a lunch for all of us, but we left it in the car in a cooler because we figured we would just eat when we left. The girls were STARVING for some reason and got really cranky towards the end. I'm not sure why, because usually we don't eat lunch early at all. Must have been all those school kids eating at 11 am!

Still a fun and successful trip!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Stella's Half Birthday

Ok I wasn't sad about Stella turning 6 months old until just now when I typed the title....and realized that we are half way to her birthday! How is that even possible? She's still a newborn, right? (cuz if she's not, then what's my excuse for living in pjs and my house being a mess?)


Like it or not, Stella is definitely not a newborn anymore. She is a babbling, bouncing, hair grabbing, finger biting 6 month old.

She is still VERY laid back, and is definitely the least active of the Campbell girls. I'm not sure if that's because she likes it that way, or because she doesn't really have a choice since I'm usually chasing her older sisters (one in particular....) around the house all day.


She has this little vein in between her eyes just like Lucy. I used to think she looked just like Lucy but lately she is resembling Annie more.

She is wearing size 3 diapers but I doubt for much longer...which means she and Annie will both be in size 4.

6 month clothes are getting a little tight but still fit for now.

She still sleeps on her back! Both the other girls were on their tummies for sleep by this point, but Stella really hates rolling over. She has gotten better about playtime on her tummy, but it is definitely her least favorite position to be in.



I promise she really does hate it. 

She is really starting to prefer me to anyone else. Before I don't think she noticed, but now if Mark (or anyone else) is holding her she will look around the room until she finds me. And if she hears my voice she whips her head in my direction so fast you'd think I have some sort of baby feeding device attached to my body. 

Oh wait, I do.

Speaking of feeding, she still nurses 5 times a day, although I'm sure she would go down to 4 if I pushed it...I just like how relaxed her schedule is when she's on 5 feedings. Plus she really isn't that great at eating food yet. I've only given her some mashed up bananas and sweet potatoes a handful of times and she tolerates it at best. She just really doesn't seem hungry or interested in it. She does look cute and tiny in that highchair though.



Annie cheese grin photo bomb.

She still spits up A LOT. There is a constant bib and burp cloth shortage in our house. And the past week or so she has been drooling like crazy so add that to the mix and the kid is basically soaking wet all the time. I don't think she's teething.....but for some reason the drooling has started out of nowhere.



Stella is very easily entertained, and in classic third child fashion, just likes to be looked at and talked to. That pretty much keeps her happy. You don't even have to do anything funny....just look at her and she will give you a big smile.

She has gotten pretty good at sitting for short periods of time. If she is slightly propped up she can sit for a long time, but alone she doesn't last very long.

Blurry picture because she is about to tip over...


She loves her sisters so much, especially Lucy. Lucy can make her smile and laugh probably more than anyone. 

She is so very chill and I know I'm spoiled rotten by how easy of a baby she is and by how much she still sleeps. I have been blessed with good sleepers, so for Stella to sleep even more than Lucy and Annie is certainly saying something. She still takes 3 naps a day and I almost always have to wake her from every single one. She's a champ. 

It's funny because in the late afternoon when Stella is awake and the big girls are napping, she talks and YELLS so much. She barely makes a peep the rest of the day but when they are asleep and it's just her and I, it's like she knows she has the floor. She certainly speaks her mind during that little window. 



I know it's not common now to have more than 2 kids. Things start to get complicated after two. But what joy and sweetness and pure love we would have missed if we had not been blessed with Stella. I am so glad the Lord laid it on our hearts to have another child (although it was a little earlier than we had imagined...but proof that His plans are always better than ours)

OH how I love this little girl.

Monday, April 8, 2013

A Day for Annie



My crazy Annie girl turned 2 on Thursday! The fact that she is already two years old is almost as amazing as the fact that she has made it to her second birthday without stitches or a broken limb.

All who know Annie know that she is fun, wild, charming, and a teeny bit bipolar.

We started off her second birthday by waking the girls up throwing/kicking balloons into their room. Lucy loved it and jumped right up, but Annie was a bit cranky...




She perked right up when we told her we were having pancakes for breakfast. Fortunately Mark didn't have to be at work until 8 that day so we woke the girls up early so he could have a quick breakfast with the birthday girl.



My 4 (almost 5!) years of mommy wisdom has taught me that birthday parties are a few things: stressful, expensive, and almost never worth it. Especially when they are young enough to not care or understand. So I decided to forgo the party for Annie this year. She's 2, she doesn't care, and I'm sure we will get the chance to throw her plenty of birthday parties in the future. 

In lieu of a party, I decided to just make the whole day about Annie. Do whatever she wanted to do.....so we ate pancakes for breakfast, and spent the rest of the day doing fun Annie things.

We played with Play Doh, and I didn't freak out once when they mixed the colors all up...


I made her a special birthday lunch including her favorite fruit smoothie


I let her help me make cupcakes and I didn't freak out when she made a mess (noticing a theme here?)


We had her favorite for dinner. She would seriously eat Chick fil A chicken nuggets for every meal every day if I would let her. In fact, Lucy would too. I'm thinking they put drugs in their food...


She put her own sprinkles on her cupcake (and I didn't freak out!) and we sang Happy Birthday to her.


It's funny because although I'm pretty sure she had no clue it was her birthday, she definitely understood that the day was all about her. I could tell that she loved the special attention and she was all smiles and grins the whole day.

My mom and Michael (Grandpa) came over for dinner and cupcakes because Michael knew he wasn't going to be able to see her on Sunday, which is when we all went out to eat and had cookie cake. (Ever since we told Annie her birthday was coming up, she says "Burpday, cookie cake!!" over and over and over)

She opened a few presents



And she ended the day by doing her absolute favorite thing: jumping on/from/into furniture


To try and explain with words how much I love this little girl would be an extreme injustice.

She brings life and laughter into every moment. She has brought me hope, joy, and fear. She is a constant reminder of God's grace and favor to our family. She is my crazy girl whom I love with all my heart!

Happy Birthday Annie Faith! You are more of a blessing than you will ever know!