Our baby has arrived and...

It's A GIRL!

Cambria Raquel Campbell

7 lbs. 11 oz. 20 3/4 inches

Cambria Raquel Campbell was born early Friday morning August 28th at 1:30 a.m. Mom and baby are home and doing very well.

The hospital food and bed were not as good as I remembered, so I opted to come home a day early. Especially when my Mom so generously offered to take the kids a couple of days. Thanks Mom!!! And thanks to Kelly and Ron as well!!!

Less than 48 hours old

Cambria is already demanding lots of holding time from Mom since arriving home this afternoon.

She lays in my lap even while I type this. We feel so blessed to have her little spirit in our home!

New Beginnings

Lisa, Jeanine and Kelly

So I don't have a new beginning to report on yet, but I've been thinking so much about my sister Lisa's New Beginning at BYU this last week. She started in the Honor's program at BYU and started school on Thursday. Her departure last week brought on a flood of memories of when I started at BYU so many years ago. I'm so happy and proud of her and in some ways envious of her stage in life. Not that college is all fun, but who wouldn't go back and do it again and do it better than the first time around. Oh, those painful hours in the testing center are best forgotten, but how great was it to be around so many fun and upbeat people. I wish I could live it through my sister. If I wasn't 39 weeks pregnant I would have gone with my family to drop her off just to feel a little bit of nostalgia again. I love being on the BYU campus, it just brings back so many good memories.

Of course I am about to be a part of my own new beginning, and yes I am quite excited to meet our newest family member. But ahhh, there's nothing quite like starting a new life in college. Wouldn't you agree!? Maybe I'm just getting old and wishing back those younger carefree days.

I just watched a bit of the movie "Coraline" with my kids last night and thought, "I don't want to be a stuffy old mother - boring, matter of fact" - and that's just what I've become. I need to remember the younger days when life was more FUN. Okay, I know I've always been more of the responsible type rather than the carefree, but not so much the latter now. Those are the feelings I need to rekindle in myself to be the kind of Mom I want to be. How do you do that?!?!?!?

Can you guess which one is me? An old friend posted this recently on Facebook from our Freshman year at BYU. This was around Christmas, so I had already gained my Freshman 15. . .does is show?

June and July events

I just can't keep up on this blogging. Maybe because I'm trying to prepare for the arrival of our next little one. Or maybe because I've become more obsessed with keeping the house clean so I spend more of my free time doing that than on the computer. Nonetheless, here are some events from the summer. To start Dawson finally lost one of his upper teeth. It's been almost a year since he lost the bottom one, or so it seems. He was very excited and he looks pretty cute without it. Next, I have some pics from a beach outing to Salt Creek. I posted the next picture realizing that my oldest son is looking more like me all the time, (minus the dark bags under my eyes - thanks to those less sleepful pregnant nights).

Everett and Sidney are enjoying our beach outings more this year. I've been enjoying them too!

Everett turned 5 at the end of July. I can't believe he's growing up so fast. He definitely seems taller this days and more handsome too. He is trying to be a big boy. We've been working on reading and writing this summer and I'm so pleased at his progress. We had a small birthday party for him. It was just perfect for me. He loved having a pinata and other games. The boys were all very good!

And here we have our most recent picture of me and the kids taken today. I'm 37 weeks pregnant. And for those who still think my belly is little, I want you all to know I have gained the required 35 lbs and maybe a little more. So. . .like I tell my son, I still feel like I'm carrying around a bowling ball on my tummy and my back is taking a beating for it! Three more weeks to go and I'm very excited!

Sidney said the funniest thing tonight when we were at a wedding reception. She was watching the bride and groom dance and her Daddy asked her if she wanted to get married and wear a white dress like the bride someday. Her response was, "Yes, I want to wear a pretty white dress and then I can have a baby in my tummy and it can grow bigger." I'm glad she has the order right.

All the kids are getting excited for the baby's arrival. They all know it is coming soon. Sidney is hoping for a girl, the boys of course want another brother. Greg and I just want a healthy little person to welcome into the Campbell family. We'll let you know when the surprise baby arrives!

Turning 7, Baseball, Babies, and other stuff

Coach and Dawson

Proud to be a baseball player!

The month of May was so busy for me. I don't think I ever stopped going. Greg was gone an awful lot for work and church related things. I'm glad we survived. So, what's been going on the last few weeks? Well, Dawson's baseball season is over. He was so excited to get his trophy. His coach was proud of him too! Dawson really is loving baseball. If I had more energy he'd play catch with me for an hour every day if he could. He looks so cute in his uniform. Greg still hounds me about how Dawson can't stand to get his uniform dirty. He says I've damaged him for life. Dawson's just being considerate of his mother's workload.

Speaking of workload, we had a birthday party for Dawson at our house this year. Why do I do these things? We love our kids, but birthday parties are exhausting! Not just the party itself, but all the prep that goes into it. We had about 18 kids and Greg and I pretty much ran the show. We should have hired some help!!!! Especially since Greg was deathly ill the whole week leading up to party day. Talk about mayhem. I had not anticipated that many kids but I think they had fun. Dawson is such a sweet boy, it's no wonder they all showed up!

The limbo - this was the first game. After that I couldn't take pictures

and keep the chaos under control at the same time.

Kids really do like the cookie cakes over regular cake! And they are easy to make!

Then my nephew, Matthew, was born about 3 weeks ago. I flew out to Plain City, Utah (West of Ogden) to visit him and his family. I wouldn't recommend flying at 28 weeks pregnant. I threw up in a barf bag for the first time in my life on this very turbulent airplane ride. Fortunately I was in the back row with no one next to me, so I wasn't too embarassed.

I miss being closer to my brother, Dan. It was a nice break away from the family duties, but I did miss my kids and hubby a lot. My other nephew, Nathan, was funny! He is still getting used to having a younger brother - poor guy! We went to an air show at the air force base one day. The jets are pretty awesome when they do their stunts. We saw just one set of jets performing in the air at the end of the day, but it was really neat!

Nathan and Matthew

And just in case anyone is wondering, my pregnancy is still going well. Getting more aches and pains, but just under 12 weeks to go. After seeing my new nephew I'm getting nervous about how I'm going to juggle all 4. Hopefully my newborn will sleep A LOT!!!!

The next time you go to Disneyland. . .

take a minute to think about this. We finally got to go back on It's a Small World. It's been closed for so long. I was trying to see what was new or different. There was one new area I don't recall from before. The Native American zone, but the other cool thing was when we went into the last room with all the cultures together. I don't remember all the children being dressed in white. Granted there were pink lights cast on the figures, so it wasn't pure white, but I suddenly felt this spiritual similarity betwen this ride and the Temple. Odd comparison, I know, but honestly it made me think and I had to point out to my kids how all children from every race can be looked upon the same way and loved equally, differences put aside. Okay, so maybe this is of course what the whole point of the ride is, but for some reason I saw it from a spiritual perspective. Our Heavenly Father does loves all His children equally. I almost started to cry thinking about it.

Sidney's first time riding the Tea Cups. . . I love the little tune, it's so catchy.

Sidney's new plasma car

We finally gave in and bought Sidney her own Plasma Car. She loved riding the ones the boys had, but it finally became obvious that she needed her own so they could all ride around the backyard at the same time. She loves riding it!

Mother's Day should be more than once a year!

Okay, who votes for having Mother's Day like 4 times a year! Don't you think it's what stay at home Mom's need to recharge their engine and add a whole new meaning to the word tolerance. After this Mother's Day, I just felt so good. Couldn't get enough of my children. I think I might mention to Greg that we need to start a new tradition in our family of having Mother's Day a few more times each year. Greg doesn't enjoy breakfast like I do, so to have him bring me breakfast in bed is SUCH a TREAT! I just love it. And the kids were really nice all day. I am so lucky to have a wonderful husband and terrific kids!