Once in a Leap Year

I should preface this by saying, I am not a kid party person, so it should come as no surprise that Charly's 8th birthday is not a usual occurrence in the Campbell house. In past years we have played it pretty low key for birthdays. However,  since this was Charly's 2nd official birthday that also happened to fall on the year she was baptized, we decided to indulge her in a party of her own.

It was a huge success and the company that came was terrific! The gifts were so thoughtful and Charly really appreciated every single one.

I especially liked the homemade cards, and reading the kids handwriting. definitely keeping these for the books. Notice the lady in the rocking chair on the porch? That's me.  So cute, right?

 Nothing like a game of Red Rover to get the party started!

Charly adores all those who were there to wish her a happy birthday! Can you tell? It's a good thing the 29th only come every four years, this much excitement every year would throw us in happy coma!

Baptism

Yesterday morning as I was getting Charly ready for her baptism all I could think was, the next time I get her into a special white dress will be on her wedding day. *Gulp. I'm sure it will be here before we know it.

My heart is so full as I try to collect my thoughts and feelings.  I am still spilling over with the love  felt from all those whom we adore that were there to share in this special occasion with our family. 

Charly was lovely, she was radiant and beautifully beaming. We are such proud parents of the special girl she is becoming.

Our whole family was so very touched, and our testimonies strengthened, by the love that surrounding us yesterday. We were especially touched to see our friends and neighbors of different faiths come together to support Charly. It is such a blessing to have these people in our lives, we are honored to be a part of this community and to have so much love all around us. We could not ask for better, more caring neighbors and friends. 

We will of course remember how lovely Charly's baptism was for the sacred covenants she has made with our Heavenly Father, but we could not possibly forget the overwhelming spirit we felt being surrounded with all who were in the room. We are eternally grateful for all those who came.

A Honey Grove neighbor was generous enough to let us use her beautifully decorated porch for some of these pictures. I love small towns, pretty much all you have to do is smile when you ask someone something and they will more than likely say yes. I'm sure it helped tons to see a sweet little 8 year old girl all dressed in her freshly made baptism dress.

 Is it just me or did she instantly change overnight when she turned eight.

A special day indeed, shared by some of my family, but felt by ALL of our loved ones.  I am overwhelmed with gratitude to our Heavenly Father for the countless blessings I have seen in our family. 

I know with all my heart that this Gospel we are trying so hard to follow leads us to eternal families, and it's comforting to know that these children we cherish so much are forever sealed to us even after death. It's a good thing too, because I can't even imagine living without them!

Piper GO!!

Piper is either going, at warp speed.....or sleeping. There is no in between, and that's just the way we like it!

8 is Grrrrrreat!

Why, hello there February 29, it's so good to finally see you! It's been a long four years waiting around for this day, Charly's second birthday when she turns 8!

It was super awesome to wake up this morning, on her actual birthday, and sing to her! Even though we miss her while she is at school, I think it's very exciting for her to get to have a birthday with all of her friends. She was thrilled about the rainbow cupcakes I made for her class. After getting started I was kind of rethinking the whole 48 rainbow cupcake idea for her party on Saturday. It's pretty time consuming to do.  Eh, she is happy!

Nate and I let her open her presents before school this morning, she was pretty excited about her new white shoes to go with the dress I made her for her baptism and a super cute outfit from her grandma. Not to mention her first official set of scriptures, complete with her name and all! I'll make sure and post all that when we do her baptism pictures.

We Got Papers!

I know I will potentially embarrass the crud out of Nate for posting the about picture, one I took while testing the light in our room, but I don't even care. He is the most handsome, bow tie wearing fellow there ever was!

I am so proud of him! Lets be honest, it ain't always easy living with this gal, but he happily loves me always. This month he officially finished his Bachelors degree after nearly eight years of school. Seriously, I have a hard time keeping up laundry sometimes! 

He rocks! And to make this day even better, when I got home I asked him when his actual degree would be in the mail, he didn't know. Guess what came via UPS just a short hour later? You guessed it, his official college degree!!! Him and I both are still on cloud nine. Something about holding onto that piece of paper makes it feel official, and yes,  that degree is just as much mine as it is his. OK, maybe a little more his, but seriously this is a long time coming! He started school when I was pregnant with Charly. With all the moves and school transfers it has been a long journey to get here and we ecstatic! 

This week may go down as the most epic of all our life!

This week we have been preparing for Charly's 2nd birthday when she will officially turn eight. How is it even possible that we are here? Seems like yesterday she was born and this day was only a distant vision! She's going to be baptized this Saturday and we are all on countdown mode. It's going to be a great day, I just know it!

Yesterday we attended a baptism of another little girl who just turned eight and it made it very real for me. Our Charly is nearly eight!!! Her next actual birthday will be when she goes into Young Women! Pretty cool how leap year occurs on special birthdays, seems very fitting.

Typical Piper face! I've been trying forever to catch her making this face. I'm not even going to lie, this little girl can drive me bonkers sometimes (OK, lots of times) but the second she makes that face, I can't help but smile. Even sweeter making that face while her older sister braids her hair.

Cute, fat little baby playing with my pearls, yes mom, those are indeed the ones gifted from you guys on my wedding. I promise she is gentle with them. 

Like Charly, Winnie is a little bit harder to get to laugh. We certainly do it, just takes more effort...unlike Piper, she'll laugh at ANYTHING! Pretty sure the only thing Winnie is laughing at here is the fact that her momma is C-RAZY!

Tower of Fun!

This picture makes me laugh, here is our little Piper, eating her toast an hour after I prepared it, still with messy hair and chasing it down with an herbal infusion. Can't you just imagine her 15 years from now in that same spot? The past couple of days she has slept in until about seven so she hasn't changed from her pajamas when we drop off Charly at school.  

Most mornings so far have been great, but yesterday and today we left Charly while Piper was crying for her to come back and give her just one more hug. It's sad and happy at the same time to see that. The time we have while Charly is home seems to be adding up to a lot of quality time for the sisters to play. 

Winnie is changing right before our very eyes, just days ago she was babbling jibber jabber and now in the past three days has started saying two phrases. "Uh-oh", and "thank you".  It seriously might just be the cutest thing I have ever heard.

Today was her first time to get to help with the dishes in our beloved learning tower. My dad purchased this for us back when Charly was nearing 18 months and it is proofing to be a solid investment still!

 Piper continues to want to squeeze Winnie's hands all the time!

All is Well!

We have past our first official public school week and our excitement is still going strong! Charly loves waking up and getting ready for school while Piper, Winnie and I are getting lots done at home and enjoying the one on one time.  Yesterday we went to a little program at school where all the kids are recognized for their strengths and Charly was introduced as a new student. The program was held in the cafeteria and for most of it Piper sat quietly in a chair away from Charly. She decided she had had enough of just watching Charly and quietly got up and joined her sister's class. I was squirming inside, hoping her change of seating would go unnoticed. Yep, looks to me she blends right in.

It's been so nice every day getting to hear of Charly's learning adventures! She is doing so well!....and so are we!

(Second) First Day of (public) School!

Remember this day (click here), when Charly went to school for one day back in kindergarten, and how the whole day with her gone was spent with me knowing it wasn't the right thing to do? Remember that? It was awful. 

Well, yesterday was SO not like that at all. I spent all day yesterday with a stronger testimony of prayer and overwhelming feelings of comfort and peace, something I was desperately praying for as we made this difficult decision about six weeks ago. I have been in blog hiding for fear of writing any of this down because, to be quite honest, I wasn't sure I would have the abilities to be OK with all of this when it was all said and done. 

I can not even believe the place I am in right now, I know we are only on day two but I can see a definite change in how things will go from here, and how something I viewed as negative for so long will actually turn out to be a blessing. I can feel a huge weight lifted off my shoulders by not being completely in charge of school curriculum (obviously we are continuing to teach Charly at home and working with her), I feel like now I can focus my efforts on making sure the time we are all together is true quality time. God is so, so good. 

While I prayed for peace to come over me and not feel feelings of despair over this change I'm not sure I had the faith that my prayers would be answered.  I stand taller today with a stronger testimony which in turn strengthens that of our children. What a good place to be! 

Charly of course had her first "official" day of second grade public school yesterday. Charly has had a countdown on her calendar for the last month, reminding me every day how many more days she had until school....as if I had forgotten, lol. To gear up for getting up early, she set an alarm clock and has shown great responsibility by getting up by herself, which was on her own initiative. I'm so proud of the effort she puts into getting ready for school.  It's fun to see her want to be so independent.

My mom came up for the first day,  she took it the hardest. I offered her some ice cream after her emotional morning but she settled for going through a car wash in Paris, told you we lived fabulously!

I packed Charly's lunch the night before and Piper wanted one too. So there we were, Charly at school, Piper at home, both enjoying their love filled lunches. There are no words to explain the good feelings all around!

Our day at home went by so fast, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the clock near three! Charly was all smiles and excitement when we picked her up. I wish I would have had my video camera handy when she explained her first day, she really had a blast making new friends and being the shiny new student. Nothing but positive words came from her mouth and she was eager to do it all over again today.

We knew she would be fine about the whole thing, turns out she was more than fine, she was over the moon!

I wonder what today's adventures will bring!