Win Cool Stuff!

Hello everyone! My friend from high school has a pretty cool new website called "Give Away Today" and apparently, she's giving stuff away...for free!

Right now, the give-away is a $100 gift card for Target! Who couldn't use THAT this time of year?! Just go to her blog at http://www.giveawaytoday.blogspot.com/ and then follow the easy instructions! Wowzers! That's all I can say! And then, check back daily! Hope you win! Actually, no, I hope I win! Hee hee!

Santa...fact or fiction?

At night when I tuck the girls into bed, I always say, "do you need to talk to Mommy about anything?" Well, the other night, Kaycee said, "yes" and so I snuggled in bed next to her and we began THE TALK. No, not the "how are babies made" talk, but the "is Santa real" talk.

So she asked if Santa is real, and since she is 9 years old, (and an honors student, I might add!) I decided it was time for the truth...I responded with, "well, what do YOU think?" and she laughed and said she thought Santa was me and Dad because "how could someone fly around the world, in one night, being pulled by animals that aren't even real." (Aren't reindeer real? I saw some at The Quilted Bear a few years ago!) Well, we had a great chat about how it is fun to believe in Santa and that the IDEA of Santa is real...Then came the next questions...

"The Easter Bunny?"; "The Tooth Fairy"; "Mother Goose?" (That's a Campbell Family New Years' visitor...apparently NOT REAL either!) So we had a great chat about all of them as well. You could tell that she was actually kind of proud that she was in on the whole Santa thing now-you know, she has a younger sister that "still believes" and Kaycee likes the idea of knowing something that her sister doesn't know.

Well, just as I was feeling like a great Mom, and as I was kissing her cheek one more time prior to leaving her room, she blurts out, "Oh! So Heavenly Father and Jesus aren't real either!" Crap! I've got a lot more teaching to do as a mother...

I figured if I changed the background of my blog, everyone would think that I've posted something. Well, I haven't. But I will. I'm too busy reading all of YOUR blogs to update my own. Really!

October 11th...only in Idaho...

Okay, here's proof. We were pounded with snow the past couple of days and boy, is it a mess out there! We have about 18 inches on the ground, on the rooftops, and knocking down the trees and powerlines! Those of you who I've almost convinced to move to Idaho are having second thoughts, aren't you?! I talked to my sister in Boise, and they didn't get any snow. Gup, how about in winter-all-year-round-Montpelier? Did you get it? Church was cancelled for my in-laws ward, 10 minutes away, why weren't we so lucky?! I mean, my, weren't we blessed! Where's St. George when I need it?!

Blah, blah, blah

That's what I feel like my blog has been lately...blah, blah, blah...and I look like a hick in the last few posts...it's supposed to snow tonight...wasn't it, like, 90 degrees just last week?...I need a maid...my camera broke...I need a new one...soon!...my crock pot broke too...I need a new one...soon!...I'm officially a registered voter in Idaho...my ironing board broke too...now that I'm back in the working field, I actually iron my clothes...I didn't know ironing boards could break...I miss my sisters...A LOT...I miss my parents...a little...just kidding...A LOT...I miss Utah and malls...I'm going to bed...goodnight.

HARVEST TIME!

Okay, who wants to come for a visit?! I'll send you home with pumpkins, peaches, plums, corn-on-the-cob, grapes, raspberries, red potatoes and tomatoes! Once again this good ol' Idaho soil has given us quite the abundance! Check it out!

My babies: (Don't tell them I called them that!)

Guess What?! I'm Alive!

Hey, I've REALLY been missing this whole blogging thing, but apparently there are a few things that are really important to me that were higher on my list! If you haven't given up on me, I hope you're still checking with me now and then and keeping in contact, even if I've been MIA! Here's a few highlights from the past couple of blog-less months:

1) School started! All of my children are now in school, so what does that leave me? Well, smart moms would enjoy this quiet time to catch up on housework, renew hobbies that have been put on the back burner, etc. I guess I'm not a smart mom...I decided to go back into the work force. I am now working full time as a secretary at the elementary school...hmmm...750 kids+1500 parents+45 faculty members=1 crazy office chic! I have a greater appreciation for administrators and teachers, I tell you!

2) Church callings! You know, if anyone ever tells you that being the Primary President is much easier the second time around, don't believe them. Oh, and if anyone ever tells you that running a Primary with 50 kids is easier than running a primary with 180 kids, don't believe them. But if anyone ever tells you that Primary is the BEST place to be, believe them!

3) Temple Celebration! Wow! What a crazy, but amazing time this has been! I was a counselor in the Young Women program before this Primary calling and goodness gracious, what an awesome but busy time it was getting ready for the Twin Falls Temple Youth Celebration! If any of you have experienced one of these, you know how time consuming but amazing it is! The Open House was amazing! Brian and I were able to serve as ushers, inside the temple, during this time and Briana (who is now a YW!) was able to serve in the temple too, putting footlets on those who came through. President Monson, President Eyring and Elder Cook came for the Youth Celebration and for the Dedication! It was fantastic! And we now have a temple in our midst! Yippee!

4) Growing Girls! Yes, that's right...I'm officially OLD! My oldest baby is now a Young Woman and in Junior High, my middlest baby is dashing through 4th grade, and my youngest baby is now in school! Oh, that reminds me...I haven't posted from Briana's birthday! It was in July! Crap!

Well, that's just a quick summary of the past month or two, so hopefully I'll "get bloggin'" again! Just so you know, I really DO check your blogs weekly, I just haven't taken the time to post my own! I swear...I saw all the awesome pictures on my sisters blogs from our family reunion...I saw that retarded picture on Catrina's blog from our High School days...I read the frustrating car problems on Karen's blog...I saw that Angela had moved oversees to take on the Philippines...I see that my cousin's blog is now private and I can't get on it...see! I do check yours, and now I'll go and check them for this week! Adios! Hope you haven't given up on me!

We have a temple!

In the past, we've had to drive at least 2 hours to get to the temple. Now, I'm not complaining about that. I realize that MANY people live much farther than that from a temple. Our temple district has actually been the Logan Temple...a good 2 hours from Burley. We also have the Boise, Idaho Falls, Rexburg, and Ogden Temples within a 2 1/2 hour drive radius! Lucky, I know, but guess what!? We now have the Twin Falls Temple 35 minutes away! Yippee!

Well, the great news...ANYONE can go inside the temple right now. Anyone! The public Open House just started and continues until August 16. Then we'll have the huge Youth Celebration with 14 stakes of youth and the Dedication on the 23rd and 24th of August. So exciting! Briana has been practicing with our Stake and is dancing in the Youth Celebration! President Monson will be there! So much excitement going on around here! So, if any of you are in the area during the next month, take some time to go to the Twin Falls Temple Open House (and then I'll feed you lunch or something!).

Oh, and lucky me, I will be "hosting" in the hosting center following the Open House tours on July 22nd so come and see the temple, see me, and have a cookie!

The girls and I went to Twin Falls last week to go school clothes shopping and we stopped by the temple to take a few quick pictures. We're so excited for a temple!

Campin' in the Country

We just got back from a little campout with Brian's family. Well, I don't know if you want to officially call it a "campout" since we just pitched our tents in his brothers yard and we didn't have a campfire, but oh well, it was fun anyhow! We thought we were going to at least have a campfire, so we brought our marshmallow roasting sticks and our Starbursts. Have any of you tried roasting Starbursts? They are heavenly! Well, we didn't get to roast them...no fire...so we ate them the old-fashioned way...unwrap and pop them in the mouth! Not as fun and not as tasty, but oh well. I think I said "oh well" too many times, so I'll just show some pictures now: Here's Grandma Nut in the tent playing cards with cousin Mallory, Kelsie, cousin Shaeley, Kaycee,and cousin Abby:

This picture is taken from inside the truck looking out at Briana, Kaycee and some cousins riding in the back (I'm usually a paranoid mom, so it took a lot for me to allow the older girls to ride in the back of the truck!):

They live in this tiny town of Virginia, Idaho so apparently gathering eggs from the chickens is normal! Here's Kaycee feeding the little dudes:

Kelsie, Briana, and cousin Abby gathering eggs:

My sister-in-law Bekki and me in the hen house:

and finally, here's a group of us posing with our eggs in the chicken coop, hen house, whatever it is called!:

Don't you just LOVE Idaho?!

Jazz, lyrical, hip-hop, ballet...dance!

Since Briana and Kaycee are participating in a Summer Dance Workshop, I thought I'd throw a few dance pictures on here. These pictures are from their May recital. Yeah, I'm a month late, but as the saying goes, "better late than never", right?! The girls had a great year in dance and since my pictures from the recital were too dark, here's a few picts of the girls in their dance costumes. Briana was Grandmother Willow and Kaycee was a Savage (Indian) in the Pocahontas Ballet. Briana and Kaycee also performed in some jazz, lyrical, and hip-hop numbers. Kelsie was a precious ballerina in a few Dumbo songs and I was a proud mom (Brian was a proud dad who couldn't wait for the final curtain to close! Those dance recitals can go on and on and on...)

Girls Camp...Done and over with...

I spent last week with a bunch of Young Women in the great outdoors...it was a fun and spiritual experience, but boy, is it great to be back home! We had 20 girls and 4 leaders from our ward (about 100 girls in the stake) with a jungle theme..."It's a jungle out there; you've got to be steadfast and immovable..." This year it was stake camp and seriously, it was the most organized Girls Camp I've ever seen!
We did so many fun things (rappelling, game shows {Don't forget the Lyrics}, contests between bishops, tie-dyed socks, archery, skits, etc.) as well as many testimony building activities (devotionals, night hike, missionary moments, trust falls, etc.) I didn't have time to miss my girls back at home! Here's a few picts from the week...yes, that's me with a bandanna on my head...it sure beats having to worry about fixing my hair while camping!

I'm alive...I'm alive...barely...

Hello! It's been a month since I've blogged anything and boy, have I been missing out! It looks like I'm not the only one who has a busy life, but can't it just slow down once in a while?! That'd be nice. You see, in the past, when I had a free moment, that's when I would blog...read yours, post on my own, etc. Well, in the last month, if I had a free moment, I was reading the Stephenie Meyer books (finally!) and, as you know, once you start reading them, nothing else gets done! No housework, no church callings, no blogging, nothing.

Well, I have to say, I'm actually a big fan of Jacob Black. Most of you love Edward Cullen, but I am drawn to Jacob and I don't know why! I guess that I'll have to wait until August to find out if I'm still a Jacob fan...

A few weeks ago, we packed up (jeep and all!) and headed to St. George for a much-needed get-a-way! The weather was perfect and the company was even better! Ben and Nadja were there too and they stayed at my Mom and Pop's house and we stayed at Val and Kory's house. Joel and Kally were a hop, skip and a jump away, but the best part (no offense to the rest of you) was that I was reunited with Keith!

As most of you know, I hadn't seen Keith, my twin brother, my other half, my womb-mate, whatever you want to call it, for 3 1/2 years! He's only in Vegas and I'm only in Idaho, but for whatever reason, he couldn't come to a lot of family things in the last few years and I wasn't able to get to the get-togethers that he was at! Since I'm the older twin (by a good 3 minutes)I demanded he meet me in St. George and he did exactly as I said! (Kinda like the fly-swatter-licking scenario when we were young). It was also Brian's birthday (crap! another thing I need to blog about!) so we had a birthday party in St. George and the twins reunited!....

St. George ("what? No heat stroke?!")

Yes, you read that right, we were in St. George and we didn't die of heat! It was actually a bit rainy and cool while we were there...comfortable! We had so much fun at Val and Kory's house! Our girls are really close to their girls (and Gavin!)and so they just played, played, played! We brought the jeep down so the boys could hit some trails, but I think they were more successful on the golf course! Of course, the sisters and Mom are just fine with hanging out and chatting, but we still found time to play at the Sand Dunes, watch Karissa play ball (she's REALLY good!), throw a birthday party for Brian and Karissa, go out to lunch with Pa, play in Kally's pool, and barbecue! It was so fun to relax and have a ball! (Sorry Val, Nadja, Kally, and Tran, the few picts I have with us in them suck!)

Thanks Sweetie!

I just need to make a quick post to thank my sweet Brian for spoiling me rotten on Mother's Day! You would not believe it, but following church, he surprised me by fixing me a feast! Seriously, a feast! When he finally let me come into the kitchen, the table was full of sauteed shrimp (to die for!), a fruit platter with fresh pineapple, watermelon, cantalope, strawberries, kiwi, grapes, apples and pears, chips and fresh salsa, a caesar salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots on the side, and teriyaki chicken! The girls were so great to jump in and help dad too! Thanks so much, family of mine! (Now, if there was only a way to celebrate Mother's Day every Sunday...)

My baby is 5 years old!

Oh, you're not going to believe this and I am so devastated, but Kelsie Ann just turned 5 years old and her pictures have simply disappeared from the dang SD card! I even made a somewhat cute cake, but hence, no pictures to show! We had nine little 3, 4, and 5 year olds partying it up, but hence, no pictures to show! She woke up to her bedroom door decorated, but hence, no pictures to show! If I can figure out the video camera, I could post a video, but hence, I'm retarded with the video camera! I'll have Brian help me with posting the video later, but seriously, there are NO pictures from her big birthday and I have no idea how they could just NOT be on the SD card! I'm so sad!

Well, we ended up bagging the pinata at the party (it was too cold and windy outside and there was NO way that I was going to have a bunch of preschoolers swinging a stick inside the house!) so at least I still have the pinata! Her birthday was on the 9th, and since I didn't realize until today that her pictures had vanished, I had her pose on her new bike and show us her unbeaten pinata! Happy birthday Kelsie Ann!

Let's get this party started!

Yippee! Ben, my big, little brother, graduated from the University of Utah and is now officially a "Doctor of Pharmacy"! He graduated on May 2, but I'm finally able to sit and post about it! Luckily, Nadja took a bunch of great pictures from the graduation ceremony, so check their blog (I was having trouble inserting a link to their blog, so just click on their name on my bloggin' buddies to see them!) and then they hosted a wonderful graduation party the next day. There was tons of yummy food and also tons of yummy company! Here's a few pictures from the party:
The happy couple (Way to hang in there Nadja while Ben was plugging away at school!):


Here's our crazy Campbell clan (I made Ben stand in all the pictures...after all, the party was for him, right?!) click on it to see it enlarged


And of course, Ben's proudest accomplishments:



Thanks for being an awesome example to all of us, and our kids, Ben! And thanks so much for an awesome party Nadja! We love you!

Kaycee's 9! (Yeah, I'm old...)

Happy May Day to all of you! Yes, it is May 1st and that means that it is Kaycee's birthday! Hip hip hooray! Nine years ago today my water broke and Kaycee came into this world (we were supposed to be at Andrew's baptism on that day, too! Sorry A.J.!)! Well, one of our traditions is to decorate the birthday girl's bedroom door so that when they awaken, they have to come through streamers and balloons to start out their day. Well, I had a long day with our Youth Temple Celebration practice (we are preparing for a huge celebration for the Twin Falls Temple Dedication) and I fell asleep on the couch downstairs. I woke up around midnight, dead tired, and realized that I hadn't decorated her door yet and I HAD to do it before morning, so thus, the hastily decorated bedroom door:

Oh, and notice that Kaycee already has her school clothes on...I didn't wake up in time to video her coming out of her room as she woke up...and she DIDN'T want to put her jammies back on just for a picture! Well, Briana gave her some more PetShops and Kelsie gave her another Tamagotchi, Grandparents spoiled her with money and Webkinz and we gave her a trampoline...yeah, you heard me, a trampoline. I'm already having nightmares of broken bones...do you remember Kaycee broke both of her arms a few years ago...no, not just one, but BOTH arms at the same time! That was from jumping off a swing, not from a trampoline, so (knock on wood) we should be okay...Okay, back to birthday stuff... Well, some friends came over for a party and spoiled her with a few more PetShops, and some other very nice gifts! We played lots of games, ate birthday cake-in-a-cone, made mini pizzas and whacked a pinata (I don't know what it is about me and pinatas lately...maybe the "karmen" in me is coming out...you know, if it's spelled with a "c", it is SO dang Spanish, or Latin, or Mexican, or, you know, pinata-like. If this is not making sense, sorry, I'm just tired, but I really wanted to post something, okay!!) Enjoy the pictures:

Happy Birthday, Gup!

Sunday, the 13th was Guppy's birthday (I won't say how old she is, I'll just let you know that it starts with a "3" and ends in a "6") and the girls and I were able to zoom on up to Montpelier to spend a few days with her and the Ruuds! Tiffany was there for some of the time too so we made sure that we had a party! First, we made her an angel food cake (Okay, "Hostess" made it, but Tiff, Kenna, Brooklyn, Briana and I decorated it up a bit!)

Oh, and notice the chocolate fountain in the picture...we had lots of fruit and lots of snacks to dip! The funny thing about the chocolate fountain...this was our second batch of chocolate...you see, the first batch was just as beautiful and delicious looking until TONY DECIDED TO ADD MILK TO IT BECAUSE HE THOUGHT IT WOULD MAKE IT A BIT SMOOTHER! But NOOOOO, it totally clumped it up and clogged the motor thingy! I thought that I had a picture of the nasty stuff, but it must be on Gup's camera! Check out the bonfire that was created from all of Koriann's candles! (If you don't already know...Koriann is Gup or Guppy...check her blog for an explanation of this nickname that has stuck with her since she was a baby!)

Here we have the crowd gathering for some chocolate fountain, minus me and Tony (I was taking the picture and Tony was probably still hiding under the bed-worried that he was going to mess up another batch of chocolate!)

What would a party be without a pinata?! Tiff and I thought it would be fun to have a pinata, so here's a picture of Tiff, Gup and the pinata, and me...does it look like her?! The kids had a blast beating on that thing while Tony swung it from the banister overlooking their family room! (Check out Briana's blog to see pictures of kids swinging at the pinata! )

"What is Tony doing?" you might ask...he's making out with the head of a forlorn and beaten pinata that looks like his wife!

Well, Gup, we hope you had a very happy birthday and thank you so much for letting us come and celebrate with you! Oh, and she even had to teach Relief Society on her birthday! Because we were all there, she didn't even start preparing for her lesson until like midnight and it was a great lesson! She is excellent with her wording and making a lesson exciting and spiritual all in one! I'm jealous. Happy birthday Gup!