Bead mania!

I wasn't expecting it, I really wasn't. All I did was turn my back while making a snack for the girls. I was literally three feet away and eyes turned for a couple of minutes. I should have known this would happen, it is inevitable that Piper will strike at any time towards Winnie without warning. 

This time it was with colorful beads and a beautiful baby with marker on it's face, next time it may be something even crazier...like perhaps underwear on her head. Eh, had to get the camera in between my laughter for proof of this undeniable love.

Mardi Gras

It's nearly three on Sunday afternoon, the girls are playing behind me with "their treasure" (beads from Mardi Gras), Winnie is sleeping in her usual place (in the sling) and I am reflecting back on the last 30 hours and what a whirlwind it was.

Saturday morning I woke two very excited girls up at 5am to get on the road to Shreveport, LA for a Mardi Gras celebration where we would be meeting up with my mom, Kristy and Rochelle who were driving up from SA. 

Upon arrival, after three straight hours in the car, my mom dressed the girls while Winnie and I took a much needed nap until everyone was ready to head out to the parade route. 

I guess this Mardi Gras thing is kind of big in Shreveport because there were loads and loads of people staking out their spots beginning early that morning. Lucky for us we didn't need to show up to our plot until around noon where a yummy filling lunch was provided by Kristy's family. 

While it is always fun letting the girls play it was overwhelming for me to constantly have an eye on them in a sea of people everywhere. Despite the busy atmosphere there are always moments with my girls that make it all worth while.

Like these....

I guess Piper has added skateboarding tricks to her "to-do" list. A little boy there was flipping the board in front of her and that's all it took for Piper to want to do it herself. 

We got to the route about 5 hours before the actual parade started so there was a lot of sitting around, along with even more running around. Charly lit up when yet another birthday cake came her way with candles on it, seven to be exact! 

Forty floats later and a gigantic bag of beads in tow we headed back home this morning, nearly 20 hours after arriving.

I'm not trying to brag or anything but despite getting back home at 8am we managed to shower, dress and eat breakfast all before we had to leave at nine for church. Yes, all four of us, minus Nate (serving guard duty this weekend), it was a proud mommy moment in my tired fog. LOL

While this weekend trip was almost a blur and we are very tired as a result, I am happy with the cheerful attitudes we are all trying very hard to keep up. The girls had fun and at the end of the day that is what really matters.


PS...Patti, this is for you ;)
Below: two tired girls after a couple of hours of church in shirts of mine I turned into dresses just for the occasion. It is a quick and easy trick taking very little time, what a great use for shirts that are too small for me. Click here for the tutorial


Here is the link for the fondant I made for Charly's cake. This one is definitely going in my recipe book for later, I will NEVER frost a cake again.

Sunkissed!

Last Saturday when we were enjoying the sunshine in the park for Charly's birthday Winnie was sleeping away in arms of love. February sun crept up on all of us and none of us, I think, were expecting to get pink....but Winnie did. Her first sun kiss. So naturally momma had to make her a couple of bonnets to protect her in the future. 

Our sweet little Winnie in a bonnet may just be my new favorite thing....especially when she is splashed in loads of colors!

Piper really wanted Winnie to hold a stick in her picture, but couldn't quite get her to grab it. She settled for it resting on her belly. LOL

Charly is continuing to prove her awesomeness to me with her skateboard. Nate is teaching her a couple of tricks and she is catching on quickly. It probably helps that she has some super shiny, confidence building shoes from her Grandma and Grandpa in Utah...those babies really skate well!

He loves me

I love that Nate laughs at me when I'm acting like a goofball...

or smiles when I am being completely cheesy and ridiculous.....

 He embraces me always. 

 I adore this man I am lucky enough to call my husband, better yet, my eternal companion.

For my mom!

It has been a while since I had a little photo session with my mom and the girls, in fact it was probably back when I had three things I knew how to do with editing. I have since evolved, LOL. Here is a little peek at some of the best from the weekend. I can't wait to see them on my mom's walls, although I may have to talk her into ordering bigger sizes, she is convinced an 8x10 is large enough. *cough, cough*...definitely not! Look at these girls! And Rochelle, my beautiful little sister has a smile that is contagious!

 My mom is our girls biggest fan, she always has a special way of showing them love. The love Charly and Piper have for my mom is evident whenever she is around, I hope I captured that in the pictures as well.

Part 1

This weekend has been glorious! So many "roses" to note. Charly's birthday party and Winnie's blessing to name a few. Let's start with Charly's unofficial turning 7 years old birthday "party" in the park. This year she wanted to invite a couple of friends over to the house for some cake to help us celebrate, what ended up happening was a park filled with a few sweet friends, sunshine and lots of sugar and wind! 

All week Charly and I researched and watched videos on making homemade fondant and how to cover cakes with it. I thought this was a mighty big order for me considering I am not a great baker or cake decorator but none the less we embarked on the journey together. Every year for their birthdays I have tried different things and they usually don't ever turn out the way I plan for them ,but this year was a smashing hit! Check out our cake! Completely from scratch, every last bite, Charly was so excited about it and very proud to have helped out with the task, although she didn't hesitate to tell me what she would have done differently with the final design. Gotta love Charly and her honesty. 

When I look at pictures from her seventh birthday I am filled with overwhelming love and appreciation for where we are and the people we are surrounded by.

She got some pretty thoughtful gifts this year from fantastic people, all handpicked just for her . I received a gift as well, rather, realized I had, one I'm going to try as best  I can to describe......

Have you ever had a goal, one that felt nearly impossible to reach? You try to get there and stumble along the way, lots of times, only to suddenly wake up and realize you are closer than you think. Nearly two years ago upon moving here we met a family who,when near you could not mistaken their abundance of love for everyone around them. I remember asking if things were always like this with their family and a particularly thought provoking answer came my way..."it comes from truly living the gospel".  Those words have lingered in my mind and I would often wonder if my own family that Nate and I have created together would ever attain those same blessings.  

This weekend my family received a gift greater than any tangible thing will ever bear.  A testimony of Family home evening, reading scriptures daily and consistent family prayer. I have slowly been noticing blessings all around me and feel now am practically smothered in them and overwhelmed with joy in my heart.  While of course I know we have a long way to go, it is indescribable the feelings this path brings to me as a mother. I know I say this all the time but I feel so blessed, something I literally want to shout from the rooftops to all the world.

Charly, being almost 7, would probably say her favorite gift was this gnarly skateboard she has not stopped riding. What a fun time!

We were also blessed to have Nathan give Winnie her blessing this past Sunday and have My mom, Rochelle and Kristy attend. It was a great feeling to hear the words Nate spoke as Winnie was surrounded by worthy men cooing all the while. 

I have always known Winnie would be different. All of our girls are of course treasures in their own way but Winnie, I have felt since her birth, has a unique purpose. Since just before her birth I have come to realize so many things about myself, my role and purpose in life. Winnie is very special and has come to us at a perfect time, just when we needed her spirit most. It is no accident we named her Love. She is certainly allowing us to show and have more love in our daily activities. 

To Be Continued.........

I found this picture of Piper the other day when I was flipping through the thousands of pictures on our computer (which I have yet to back up). I can't believe how little she was and how much she has grown. We have been in this house for two years now, and while it feels like we have settled and made it a home, it still seems like we just got here. Time is such a strange concept. One minute could take an eternity to go by but when it comes to your kids growing up it seems to flash by  in an instant.

Gotta love.....

Baby Legwarmers!!! 

So cute, I seriously could just eat her squishy little legs up with these things on. Yes I went a little overboard when I bought 12 pair of socks at 75 cents each to make some more but seriously I can't get enough of the baby leg warmers.

 

Jay-Walking and free spirits!

How cool is it that we can hang out in the middle of the street without the threat of cars running us over. Ah, I love this small town.

 Homemade cupcakes!

Especially when they are being eaten by two sweet girls on a lovely warm day after a week of freezing cold temperatures.

Moments in between the moments!

 And.........

Toothless grins!

The best ever

I am not the girl who typically loves Valentines Day. Up to this point I took all the sweet things Nate always has done for me for granted. 

Somewhere in between Nate's talk he gave yesterday at church about husbands loving their wives (attached at the bottom of this blog post) and waking up at 5am to a house smelling like fresh pastries, I felt an overwhelming love for this day with a deep appreciation and excitement for what the day has brought me since being with this wonderful man. 

It wasn't always this way, I was the girl in HS who never got flowers, balloons or those cheesy stuffed animals that no one really wanted anyways. I guess I put up a defense against the holiday itself. Now I'm thinking back from the very first V-day Nate and I celebrated together, he has always always put so much thought into it for me and now the girls also. I only hope they remember days like this with a warm feeling when their daddy woke up at 3:30am to make scones from scratch.

What started out as a warm breakfast transformed into the best V-day ever when we got to share our excitement with a couple of wonderful families in our ward. We decided it would be a fun thing to do to "heart attack" a family with The Brooks this evening. I have never been so excited about sneaking around in the dark as I was tonight. It was so fun to  be able to do this for such a great family. We wrote on a bunch of hearts all the things we liked about the family, putting them all over their grass, garage and even the insides of their cars! Ahhh, I could not stop expressing how much fun it was for me. The girls and Nate had a blast of course, but for me I felt like a school girl being introduced to the true meaning of V-day. Charly and I decided we would make the "heart attack" a family tradition every year. Definitely our sunshine for the whole day!

This day will go down in Campbell family history as the day Renée FINALLY started to LOVE Valentines Day. Poor Nate, only took him eight years to try to turn my V-day feelings. LOL

 Took these yesterday after church in the bright sunshine, check out Piper trying to get in the shot with Nate and I below. LOL

As I mentioned earlier, Nate gave a talk yesterday which truly felt more like a love letter written just for me and read aloud to me in front of everyone.  I have never had such a public declaration of love so it was pretty special.  I  tried to attach it to this blog because I knew it would be something memorable for his mom and grandma to read, however, I think because it was a word document I can't copy and paste into the blog. I suppose I could always email it.

He sure did have some pretty amazing women in his life growing up who showed him so much love. I am grateful  this reflects in the way he treats me everyday.

He called me a what???

Seamstress. Yup, I suppose after seven years of self taught sewing I am finally worthy of Nate branding me a seamstress. *squeal*.  So with that said, I am in the market for a serger. Any suggestions of a reliable brand/style? But more importantly where I Can find an awesome sale on one. Thanks my friends.

My little berries

The other day I was inspired to knit a couple of hats for the girls and Winnie was more than happy to model hers for me. Of course, no photo session with her is complete without Piper climbing all over her. Charly is more of a behind the scenes helper, picking her up when she cries to console her. She is really soft and gentle in everything she does with Winnie. Today while driving home from Paris Winnie started crying and Charly was pleading with me in the middle of nowhere to stop so she could nurse "Ah, mom she wants nursey....poor Winnie"(we were not that far from home but when Winnie cries it feels like forever when you can rescue her).

When I see Charly mothering Winnie with her gentle touches I am reminded of the sweet girl she is and wants to be.

Winnie doesn't seem to mind all the sweet love and is blooming into her own personality every day.  Meanwhile Piper and Charly seem to be going through a growth spurt at the same time. They are growing so quickly and changing so much.  I want to cherish these little girls being little girls for as long as I can.

Two months

Technically Winnie is two months tomorrow but since I have no children leaning over my shoulder (Other than Winnie in the Moby wrap, but she doesn't count because she is asleep AND can't talk yet, LOL) I figured I should take advantage of the situation and post some pictures now and a blog about how wonderful this girl is! 

It is really funny how different a third baby is when compared to the first two. I know I have said this before but we just can't get enough of her. When Charly and Piper were babies of course we cuddled them and loved on them but we were also so anxious for the next stop that I don't think we fully embraced the "nows" of it all.  She is changing right before out eyes and smiling every day and my goodness did I mention her smell? Seriously her smell is so good. I wonder why it took me three babies to figure out that their plain baby smell is enough? With Charly it was Johnson and Johnson, Piper it was Burt's Bees and with Winnie it is just her scent and I LOVE IT!!! I can't stop smelling her head. Seriously, she may have issues with her mom smelling her head and face all the time but I just can't help it.  She. Smells. SO. Good.  It's no wonder they say that a mother can pick her baby just by their smell.

A while back I took a picture after church in this location and was inspired by an awesome  photographer to do it again and update it with the whole family.

P.S. Grandma Mickey, do you recognize Piper's dress? I made their dresses with some remnant fabric.

In other Winnie news, her legs are still as squishy as can be and she continues to be the light in our lives. Piper of course has a more "in your face" approach when it comes to showing her love. 

Piper is learning how to write her name, with lots of help from Charly. So far her name is filled with lots of P's and a few I's. She has really shown an interest in letters the past couple of weeks so it should only be a matter of time before she has her whole name figured out.  Charly is thriving in her reading skills and continues to drag her feet with math. We will be starting a new math curriculum in the next month and I'm hoping the different approach with make it more enjoyable for her. I have decided to start over with her in first grade math to make sure she understands the basics and has a firm math foundation.

We are hoping this week brings warmer weather with no snow so we can get back to normal weekly outings. Did I mention Charly isn't doing belly dancing anymore? She told us about a month ago she didn't feel comfortable because of the way the other girls were dressed. We didn't want to encourage her to do something she was uncomfortable with so in that very same conversation we decided that would be the end of it. That very same week we heard about a drama class in Bonham and jumped on the opportunity for Charly. She has been going to that twice a week and they are putting on a play in a couple of months...and like Belly dancing, most of the kids are home schooled as well so she fits in just fine....not that home schooled kids are weird or anything.  LOL, that came out wrong. What I meant was she really fits into the whole drama thing and seems to like it. The end.