Quick trip to St. George

We took a quick trip to St. George for part of the UEA school break. Our original plan was to visit Great Grandma Campbell in Pioche, but after she hurt her back a few weeks ago we found it necessary to reschedule the trip to a later date so she would have a little more time to mend before playing hostess to our little family. This video clip is when I asked Britton to say why we were in St. George. I was expecting him to say, "We're visiting Gramma and Grampa," but, of course, Britton being Britton had a lot more to say. . .

The part that really gets me is when he refers to Grampa Campbell as "Adam's Dad." What is up with that? Britton kills me with his random use of our first names. I must say I've never heard him refer to a grandparent in that way before. What a character!

The kids had a great time at Gramma's Halloween party. They got to bob for apples, paint pumpkins, dress up in their costumes and play a few other games with cousins.

We loved spending time with Grammie Eksund! Here she is looking very festive in her Halloween sweater.

It was a quick trip, but the kids had a great time.

Star Student

Britton was the Star Student for his Kindergarten class this month and got an award at a school assembly today. The school called on Monday to tell me, but it was supposed to be a surprise so Britton didn't know about it until they called his name. The assembly was in the afternoon so I had to take him back to the school after the bus dropped him off from morning kindergarten. I told him we had to go back for a meeting and he didn't even question it. He was positively beaming when they called him up for the award. It was a proud moment for him.

Yesterday I heard Britton telling one of his friends, "Yeah, my nickname is Billy Bob." I just starting laughing on the inside. I called him that when he started losing all of his teeth, but I guess he really took it to heart. Jenna still thinks her middle name is Benna. During the same conversation I heard her say, "Well, MY full name is Jenna Benna Campbell!" Hmmm, I wonder when we should break the news to her. . .

The Band Aid Bandit

Anytime anyone in our family needs a band aid Korinne is convinced she needs one, too. If Jenna comes to me asking for a band aid, I automatically get 2 out because I know that Korinne will be along in 10 sec. or so insisting that I put one on her arm or leg. As you can see from the picture I gave out at least 2 band aids during the day.

A few days ago I was eating some yogurt and got distracted by something. Not long after I saw Korinne in her room holding my yogurt and eating it with my spoon. She had somehow gotten it off the counter in the kitchen and had it all over her hands, face and clothing. "Korinne, is that my yogurt??" (In retrospect it was a silly question to ask as I already knew the answer) She looked at me with a big smile and calmly said, "No." I couldn't help but laugh. I took the yogurt from her and went to get a washcloth to clean her up. By the time I returned she had run into my closet and with her messy hands and face she was holding onto all of my long dresses and putting them up to her face to hide. She was laughing and giggling, but all I could think about was how I was going to have to wash all of my dresses! My little Korinne is such a handful. She definitely has a mischievous side. She loves to help with everything, but is anything but cooperative when I'm trying to get her dressed or get her in her car seat.



So sweet. . .

But with an attitude!

National Day of Rejoicing

Yeah! It's my 31st birthday! People laugh at me, but I've always loved my birthday. If you know me really well, you know that I even celebrate my half birthday (that would be April 21st). :-) It was a great day. Britton and Jenna colored me pictures and sang to me and Adam always does a good job at stringing out little surprises so the celebrating lasts all week. A card here, a little chocolate treat there, cinnamon rolls for breakfast, etc. Thanks to everyone who called and e-mailed, it was good to hear from you.

My parents sold their cabin in Midway so yesterday we helped them move everything out. The kids were great and did an excellent job "helping." For example, G-ma Price had extra popsicles in the freezer that would have to be thrown away if they weren't eaten. The kids saw a need and set out to help! They ate as many as they could. . .even though it was cold and snowy outside. What troopers!

Dinner Database

I have been in a dinner menu slump. If I don't have it all planned out well in advance I have a hard time coming up with something that actually sounds good to me. I once solved this dinner dilemma by having a 2 week menu at all times. . .but in that last year or so I've gotten to where coming up with a menu is getting harder and harder. It's all the same ole' stuff, you know? For me it is a lot easier to prepare everything if I don' t have to come up with the idea first. Anyway, for my upcoming birthday Adam created a dinner database and it is pretty much the coolest thing ever! He put in everything we have ever had for dinner (which can be updated at any time) and created a program that will allow me to just select items for the menu from a list and can be based on prep time, etc. It keeps track of when we had each meal so that we don't repeat something too often. It also creates a shopping list for me based on the meals I have selected. This morning he handed me a 2 week menu. It is so nice to not have to come up with the ideas myself! I'm not sure why, it just is. Anyway, I love practical birthday gifts! It's just perfect and didn't cost a dime!


He overshot on his time estimates, but I'm flattered that he thinks I actually spend that much time preparing meals. :-)

Bad hair day?

This, my friends, is what you call a serious case of bedhead! It happened about 6 months ago and I was so impressed that a pillow and a little sleep could result in such a hairstyle I took pictures before I attempted to comb it through. I try and keep it combed even when she won't let me do anything cute with it. The longer it gets the harder it is to keep on top of it.


Exactly 1 year ago yesterday before Adam and I went to bed we went and checked on all of the kids as usual. When Adam got to Jenna's room this is what he found.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with this style of hair it is called a mullet!! When we put her to bed a few hours earlier her hair was long like in her 3 1/2 yr pictures taken only weeks before.

Apparently she didn't fall asleep right away on that fateful night and in her boredom got some craft scissors out of the kitchen cupboard and cut both sides of her hair off. We found hair all over the bathroom floor. Then she went back into her room and fell asleep.

My only request to the hair stylist the next morning was to make her look like a girl if possible. She made a great snow white for Halloween.

It's taken a full year, but she is almost back to where it was before, not quite, but we are getting there. What's funny is that even with being such a girly girl Jenna loved her short hair! She was so proud of it and never once regretted cutting it. She used to say things like this to her cousin, "Anna, your hair is TOO long, you need to cut it short like mine." Only days after the incident one of her little friends DID cut her own hair short after Jenna had spent a little time with her. I can only imagine the conversation that took place between the 3 yr olds. (It's a good thing her mother had a sense of humor.) She's excited to be growing it out now, but knows that only certain people can cut her hair and she isn't one of them!!

Where there's a will, there's a way!

I walked in the kitchen yesterday to find Korinne on strategically placed chairs allowing her to easily reach previously unreachable food items. Where there is a will, there is a way! She can't get up on the stool by herself yet, so she found a helper chair and worked it out. When I got out the camera she gave me her cheesiest smile. That girl makes me laugh.

I wish she would let me do her hair more often. This bow stayed in for about 10 min. I am constantly trying new things to try and get her to leave it properly groomed. Mostly she just runs around with wild hair like in the above pantry picture.

The K-1 Crew

During the 1995-1996 school year at USU I lived in Old Farm apt. K-1 with Malinda, Kaylynn, my sister Heather, and my friend from High School Cyd. We became the K-1 Crew and officially adopted in Ker-dog, Katie, and Sandi who lived with us for the last quarter. We are all happily married and have 26 kids between the 8 of us!! (The K-1 Crewbies) Ever since our time together at USU we have stayed close through daily e-mails and every fall we let the husbands hold down the fort for one night and have a girls night slumber party at my parents' cabin. Its a tradition we cherish and won't be giving it up any time soon! My kids love spending time with Adam and really don't miss me much so it works out well for everyone.

Chinchiladas

The Chinchilla is a rabbit-sized rodent native to the Andes Mountains in South America which is often talked about in the popular children's cartoon "Go, Diego, Go."

Chicken Enchiladas can often be found on our dinner table and are made from chicken, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, diced green chilis, olives, cheese and tortillas.

What do you get when you have chicken enchiladas after the children have scene an episode of "Go, Diego, Go" ? Chinchiladas. My kids have been calling them chinchiladas for months now. I'm not sure they will ever be called by their correct name again. What is so funny is that they aren't trying to be funny. They really think that is what they are called! They also have no idea how they came up with it. . . it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out, just a Mom who is paying attention.

Britton's "hillbilly" tooth finally came out. Having one surviving front tooth sticking out in the middle had me calling him Billy Bob. Britton laughed every time I said it. My favorite feature was that it seemed to be pointing in a different direction every day as the permanent tooth was moving it around a bit. Well, it came out and the permanent tooth can already be seen coming in to take its place. No time wasted there! The tooth fairies failed to properly communicate with each other last night and they both visited only to find out they both had visited when Britton came in the next morning with twice as much money. Oops. Some day we will get it right.

Britton was practicing his reading tonight and had me laughing whenever he tried to sound out the word "shut". Let me just say it didn't always come out as the word "shut", but I'm sure you can imagine how it came out! My kids aren't acquainted with the swear words yet so he had absolutely no idea that what he was saying was considered a very bad word. I just quickly corrected him and he went on. Sure made for an interesting reading session.

P.S. No, we don't actually have a chinchilla. I got the picture off of Wikipedia. The chicken enchiladas are real, however. We had them for dinner tonight. Yummy.