At long last... an update!- a long update...

So forgive me, it's been a while since I've written. I have a good reason for not writing recently; #1, it took me 2 days alone to figure out HTML and how to change the look of my blog- I'm totally retarded- even though I've customized my blog page on my own before, it had been a while; like a dumbey I completely forgot the steps and I spent all of day one reteaching myself! I can't wait till Noah starts school and I have to help him with his homework- I'll probably spend the first half of the school year relearning my arithmetic- seriously!!! My second excuse for not writing more recently is because September's been a busy month! As some of you may remember, Spencer and I took the boys and vacationed in San Diego for a little over a week and a half. We had a fabulous time, but I confess, this is the first time I've ever been back to San Diego, where at the end of the trip I've actually been anxious to return back home to Utah! We hit up the majority of the amusement parks down there, visited the museums and beaches and dined on too much fast food; I probably need an angioplasty after eating so many greasy french fries!!! (when you're allergic to wheat/flour as I am, eating out whether it's fast food or in restaurants limits what your meal choices are- I can pretty much always bet every place we go to eat at least has one thing wheat free to eat- pomme frites or a.k.a. french fries.) Traveling with two kids, especially two kids under the age of two is definitely a bit more challenging than traveling with just one. We managed just fine- although I think I fell asleep every night before my head even hit the pillow from exhaustion!!! So I apologize I haven't posted pics from our So-Cal trip- I plan on doing that in the next day or so. As soon as we returned home from our trip, I was immediately busy planning and pulling together the last party plans for Noah's Pirate birthday party. We got back Thursday night and Saturday morning we had Noah's birthday bash. It was super fun- I hope everyone that came enjoyed it- I plan on posting pictures from that event at a later point too. It didn't help that on that same morning we had Noah's birthday party, I woke up totally sick- feverish- congested- and my voice was practically shot. When I went to get Noah from his crib he was dry heaving- last thing I wanted was to scare all of his guests away from the party by him throwing up cake, so I said a quick prayer we'd both be temporarily cured from any little sicknesses we may have had for the party. Don't worry, the guests didn't see any regurgitated birthday cake and I was so busy seeing that everything was in it's right place for the party, I forgot momentarily that I was even sick. After the bash though, I was right back to feeling miserable. For nearly a week I was a Sudafed, pill popping, sickie... I figure I had Sinus problems combined with a head cold. We slept a lot that first week after getting back- we were all in dire need of rest after missing naps and staying out late every night of vacation. We've been home now for just over two weeks and only now are the boys sleeping habits getting back to normal. Rule of thumb when Traveling with Children: Expect that once you return from vacation, it will take twice as long as when you were away, for your children's sleep habits to adjust back to normal. Oooops- I forgot to mention, the Monday after we returned from California, my oldest sister Celeste and my other sister Tricia went to sit in the studio audience of our favorite local morning show- "Good Things Utah" ( I was super sick with a crazy fever but I wasn't gonna miss out on the fun). It was fun seeing how the broadcast worked from behind the seens, plus we got free "goodies" just for being part of the studio audience! I couldn't help but keep thinking how funny it was how I always wanted to be a t.v. anchor. I enjoy being a fulltime "mommy" instead :) One of the pitts about traveling I've decided is that when ever I get back from being out of town for a week or more- I always come home to an empty refrigerator and I have a ton of grocery shopping to do!!! I absolutely hate grocery shopping! Seriously- I will do all of my other "wifely/motherly" responsibilities without complaint, but when it comes to grocery shopping I'd much rather starve. I hate making grocery lists- I hate it if I don't make a list- I hate while I'm in the store and I'm looking for the cheapest or best bargain deal on a product- I hate searching each item's list of ingredients for wheat/flour, I totally hate it when I'm done paying for my groceries and then I suddenly remember "one last food item" I really needed but forgot to get- and the absolute worst part about grocery shopping is packing the groceries into the car, taking them out and then spending another hour reorganizing the refrigerator/pantry so that I can put the groceries away!!! Am I the only one who feels this way about grocery shopping??? After a week of sickness, I had a ton of stuff to do- including- grocery shopping. I did get to do just a little bit of clothes shopping though too- and that I admit was rather theuroputic. I've also been busy with doctor appointments, the dentist, getting blood samples taken at the lab, the Dew Games, "The Hill's" viewing party, a friends baby blessing to attend,treadmills, etc., etc., etc. Okay, so the doctor appointments weren't for myself; they were actually for Noah and Ian. Noah had to get his shot since he just turned two and Ian had to get four shots. I guess I've been fortunate up until now that my children have never gotten sick after getting their vaccinations- but this last visit Ian got grouchy and feverish after getting his shots. Oh yeah, so this was funny- at every check up for babies and toddlers, doctors go over the child's growth chart with the parent to chart their progress. Nothing new... but as the doctor was going over Noah's growth chart he was commenting on Noah's height; he said it looked pretty good- last April he was 32 inches, at the end of August he was 98.9 inches and now he was 34.8 inches. Nothing unusual. Oh wait!... Ooops- the doctor caught the mistake about a minute later at the same time I did- my child was 98 inches in August and then shrunk back to 34 inches???!!! How did that happen??? Definitely an error of course- there's no way Noah had been taller than myself or even our doctor, and our doctor is nearly 7 feet tall!!! Aside from a shot and a slight height error, Noah checked out pretty well at the doctors- he is still a little floppy (Hypotonic) and lacks core strength, so the doctor suggested we take him back into physical therapy again until he's 5. He said there's a chance that with continuous therapy Noah can outgrow his Hypotonia. I'd like to see that, as long as he can still be our little Contortionist. Ian's quite the heavyweight!!! I swear to you he's getting huge- and I'm not just imagining it, I have actual proof! He's already wearing some clothes of Noah's that Noah didn't wear until he was a year or older. Ian is nearly 5 months old and he already weighs close to 18 pounds- thats only 8 pounds less than Noah- and Ian's in the 93rd percentile for height! His growth looks to be promising that one day he may just have the chance to play basketball for the Utah Jazz!-or at least for his ward Men's basketball team. :) I've said this before- but I have to say it again- I just can't believe how different our boys are from one another!!! Noah continues to stay at the small end of the growth curve- with the exception of once being momentarily 98 inches on August 24Th, and Ian has dominated the growth charts in height and weight. It's actually funny, cuz over the last few weeks the boys have been playing with one another more often. Ian really gets a kick out of wrestling with Noah- and while Ian still has yet to actually figure out how to pin Noah to the ground both hands and feet, he uses a great tactic and that is to hold Noah to the floor simply by smothering him with his body weight! It's the funniest thing watching them wrestle each other. Ian exasperates himself by laughing so hard! He has such a great personality!!! He's nearly always cheerful and he laughs more than I've seen any other baby ever laugh (I'm excluding that chuckling baby that dominated YouTube last year). Noah's had quite a few changes in the last week. Along with his doctor visit, he also had his very first visit to the dentist. I managed to talk Spencer into taking him in for that visit- I knew that it was going to be a nightmare; Spencer had no idea before hand, so I let him bear the shock of the temper tantrum Noah threw while the dentist poked around in his mouth. Spencer reported back to me after the visit and said that Noah's teeth are healthy- he still has yet to get all of his molars in-and when Noah's either 7 or 8 he's gonna break our bank account and he'll have to get head gear to wear in the evening and braces!!! Head gear just reminds me of the dorky girl in "Sixteen Candles"- how does one actually sleep in head gear??? And braces?!? I'm not bragging, but I naturally have straight teeth- I never had a need for braces- although in 2ND grade I thought it would be cool to have braces so I stuck paperclips in between my teeth and convinced all of my friends that I had braces; somehow, everyone believed me too. Anyhow- Noah has inherited this dental problem from the Campbell side of the family- Spencer has the same problem Noah will have. He has an under bite and his lower jaw is too small to fit all of his teeth. I think I better start reassuring Noah now that he's a "Cool Cat" regardless of what physical obstacles face him so he doesn't have complex issues. I probably needn't worry at all though cuz he's already extremely confident- that he got from Spencer too. So along with being Noah's first dental visit, we've also made some changes here at home to help out his dental hygiene. He is completely off the bottle now, HOORAY!, and he doesn't insist on drinking milk before bed. He'd been off the bottle before Ian was born, but then he found it too easy to just swipe the bottle from Ian and finish it off himself. He actually hasn't fussed all week about no longer having a bottle.

He also now voluntarily lets us brush his teeth. Before, it was always a struggle to brush his teeth- he'd snort and spit like a mad bull and throw himself on the floor like jello and then proceed to do a Croc death spin while we tried our best to pry his mouth open to clean his teeth. It was always a mess too- I'd have sticky toothpaste all over my hands and arms! I decided to buy him one of those spinning toothbrushes. He absolutely loves his Spiderman, push button, spinning toothbrush! He lets us brush his teeth sometimes for five minutes and he'll even do it on his own too. What ever works!...

He's really growing up. Not only is his vocabulary growing fast, but he's beginning to group words into two or three word compound sentences- like "Where grandma go?". He's also been walking around the house saying something that sounds like "Snap"- he repeats it all the time, "Oh Snap". I'm not quite sure where he would have learned this from.???... He still has yet to perfect his pronunciation of some words though. Like he'll say the word "here", but really it sounds like "arghhh". His favorite word right now is "M&M" (it's his favorite treat) so he'll ask us all through out the day for an "NemMenNen". He used to call Ian "In", but in the last two weeks, he's began saying his name just perfectly.
I had to take him in to the hospital lab this last week to have his blood drawn- turns out the doctor suspects he may be allergic to wheat too, just like myself. It is hereditary, and my children's chances of inheriting it are far more likely than they were for myself. We'll have the results back by this Wednesday. Although, even if the blood test are negative, there still is chance that he could be allergic to wheat- the only way to find out absoulutely for sure is if the doctors did a biopsy on some small intestine samples of his. I'd tried twice before to keep him strictly off of wheat/flour and I succeeded at cutting it out of his diet for a few consecutive months but then I gave up after catching Spencer or Grandma Campbell slipping him cookies!
Noah also got a new look this last week. After much painful consideration- we decided to cut his hair short. I'd gone in this last Tuesday to get my hair lightened back to blond (I love it, finally my reflection in the mirror looks familiar once again!!! P.S. I will testify that blonds really do have more fun!!! Sorry every one who isn't a blond- maybe you should consider going light if you were looking to spice up your life.... Just kidding!)



We take Noah to my same hairdresser and she's used to just trimming his hair a little so that it still stayed long and beautiful- so imagine the fun she had cutting it all off!!! I was a little hesitant in allowing it to happen, his hair was just so soft and beautiful and blond! He even loved to shake is back and forth just like hair models do on hair commercials! There's little girls his age who are still bald and their mothers are dying to have their daughters have hair like Noah's!...but alas, I succumbed my fears and he got it cut short. Surprisingly I love it!!! He looks completely different to me, and I'm relieved in knowing that it won't be every 3 weeks we have to take him in to get it cut and out of his eyes. Noah was quite shocked with the change too- when he first saw his reflection in the mirror after the cut he motioned to grab the hair that used to be there on top of his head but wasn't anymore. So sad. But he looks so great!!! In fact, with his short dew, I really see a lot of resemblance to my sister Tricia's two boys Luke and Eli in Noah. Funny how just a cut could do that. He looks so much less like a baby and now more like a little boy! Too cute. In fact, sometimes I don't even recognize him! The other day I went to pick him up from Nursery in church and I couldn't spot him in the mess of kids! Turns out he was standing right in front of me the whole time- I just didn't recognize him; I was looking for the long hair.

Along with all the changes we've mentioned Noah has made in the last week, he also just got a new bed! We just bought it on Saturday- it's actually a bunk bed from IKEA. So we're moving Noah from the crib into a real bed. Noah even had the chance to help Spencer put it together! He was such a great helper!

He still doesn't know how to open doors so he may have a few late nights this coming week, but at least he won't be escaping if we close his bedroom door as we usually do. I'm looking forward to moving Ian out of his bassinet into the crib- he's almost completely outgrown it- he has less than 1/2 inch of room to stretch in! Along with introducing Noah to his bed this week, we've also pulled out the potty chair for him to sit on. Right now, he likes to just sit on it- completely clothed. Oh yeah- I just started letting Noah take his bath together with Ian.

The two love sharing bath time together and Noah is so good about helping me wash Ian. We experienced a soap/shampoo shortage earlier in the week. In two consecutive days, Noah unscrewed the caps off of two brand new soap/shampoo bottles and proceeded to pour all of the contents into his bath! He enjoyed his extreme bubble baths. Soap isn't all he likes to pour out these days.... Just last night, I'd only turned my back for no more than a minute to put something away and when I looked back he'd already dumped an entire 64 ounce can of baby formula all over our bed!!! This is the 4TH time he has dumped out a brand new 64 ounce cans of baby formula! Each can roughly cost $32, x 4, hmmmm, that $128! He already has a frivolous habits! Oh yeah- before I forget to note this- along with his new bed, we also got him a new fisher-price radio/CD player with microphone he can sing on. He absolutely loves the microphone- and he didn't even need us to show him how to use it- he knew on his own. He is a natural "Crooner", he's ready for "Vegas"! He also got first remote control car- he loves it- funny though- the thing never moves cuz he hasn't figured out how to manipulate the controls to move the truck into the direction he wants it to go. He practices every day riding on our long board skateboards. He like to "hang ten" a lot. I took him out to ride a couple of days ago. He tried his luck standing, but of course, he can't quite figure out how to balance himself standing atop the board while the board's in motion, so for now he prefers to push the board along either on his knees or while lying on his belly.


I get a kick out of this, cuz one of my earliest memories in childhood is when I first learned to ride on a skateboard, and I learned on my knees too just as Noah's learning. Noah's also taken up an interests in Spencer's old pink moped. Any chance he get, whenever the garage door is open- he'll climb up on the moped! It's sooo fun watching him while he does stuff like this, or while he's kicking a soccer ball or wearing a baseball glove and trying to practice catching a ball. It always makes me curious to know what talents he'll choose to develop as he grows older... He's totally boy- no doubt about it. He loves cars, balls, and messes! A week ago, we took the boys to the Dew Tour in Salt Lake to see Motocross and the Vert Skateboarding Challenge. Rob Bernquest, Sean White, Andy McDonald and Ryan Sheckler were just some of the names of the guys headlining the tour. It was a bit challenging having the boys with us, seeing as they both were tired and had missed their naps- but we manipulated Noah with ice cream and Ian with bottles and they behaved fairly well. Noah got a kick out of watching the men skate the pipe.

He likes to mimic the motions the guys make on the skateboards. For instance: once just after Spencer paused a game of Tony Hawk Pro-Skate he was playing on X-Box, Noah watched and attempted to do a kick flip- minus the board- just like the animated figure was doing. We had fantastic seats right in front of both events. There were a couple thousand people at the Dew Tour, and I can promise you, we were the only family there with two children under the age of two. Noah was super fascinated by the Utah Jazz mascot that was there- he couldn't keep his eyes off of him. We took a picture with him just as we were leaving.

The boys seemed to enjoy the Dew Tour, as did we, but Spencer and I swore to never bring them back to something like that until they're at least over the age of 5. One of Spencer's best friends he's known since junior high just moved into our neighborhood along with wife and baby boy, who's just 3 weeks younger than Ian. His wife is the same age as me, and I get along with her really well, and she happens to share the same passion for watching "The Hill's" on MTV as I do. Since we share this interest in common, I've decided to launch a "Hill's" viewing party for the girls on my block who appreciate the show. Last week was our first viewing party- just Rachael and I watched it, but it made it so much more fun watching it with someone else who loves it too- that way we can share our opinions about the direction the show is taking. I just found out I have another friend on my street who loves the show just as much as we do, so she'll be joining our "Hill's" screening parties at my place every Monday night at 11pm. We went to our friends baby blessing yesterday- it seems all of our friends and even family members are all having babies right now or with in the next couple of months!!! It's exciting- I'm rooting for boys; that way my boys will have more in common with other kids during future play dates- I'm not going to encourage them to play with barbie dolls. So Spencer completely surprised me this last week with the best gift!!! He bought me a treadmill!!! I've been bugging him to get me a treadmill for weeks now. Earlier in August I was going to use an extra one my sister had, but it was one of those super super nice industrial treadmills that weighed like a thousand pounds, so when Spencer and 6 of his friends tried to move it and it would budge or even fit through a standard doorway, I was down on my luck and with out a treadmill. I love running, and I haven't ran for a super long time. I'm talking since pre-mish. I used to run cross country in high school and I ran tons for sports and then while in college, I'd run on the treadmill. I'm an endurance runner- I don't run fast- in fact someone once told me jokingly that they could walk faster than I ran, but it's cool- cuz I could run for miles and miles and miles without getting tired. The first two miles kick my trash generally, but after that, 4 miles feels the same as 12 miles felt. So anyhow, I have all of this extra baby weight I need to shed, and since I like running- but I can't stand the thought of waking up at 5 a.m. just to go running and workout before the boys wake up,I haven't been able to work out. Spencer's obviously paid attention to my pleads, and the other day he coaxed me into the garage where he surprised me with my very own treadmill! I love him!!! It's been gently used before- it was one of our friends, they bought it just under a year ago, but now that they moved to AZ. they couldn't take it along with them so Spencer bid on it for me. I've only used it once since he and a friend just moved it last night down into the unfinished part of the basement.

Now I can run anytime during the day- it's totally ideal for when the boys are taking their afternoon naps! I do use this blog for journaling purposes, so sorry if any of this entry ss boring. Oh yeah- here's a funny story; so for those of you who knew me before I married- I was not a cook at all! In fact, during college, somehow I managed to live off of chips and salsa, bean burritos, brusell sprouts, zingers, and cereal. I was a terrible cook- despite even hosting cooking shows for the pure entertainment of the rest of my roommates, boyfriends, and other friends we invited to watch. I managed to always make "Jello" that was too watery of too rubbery, and I would burn spaghetti! I never cared that I was a terrible cook though- because I didn't care about cooking for the most part...that is, until I married Spencer. Post marriage, I've had this fascination with learning to cook. I love to watch the food network and I absolutely love to cook for large numbers of people. I especially love cooking Sunday dinners for Spencer's family- so today, I was preparing meatloaf (it's Spencer's dad's favorite meal). I always follow recipes to avoid making mistakes, but somehow today while I was doing the meatloaf I misread the amount of salt the recipe called for. It called for 3 teaspoons, but I misread it and sprinkled in 3 tablespoons! I caught my error just after I mixed all of the ingredients together- I thought about it for a second but then I just figured a little extra salt couldn't spoil the meatloaf.... Well I was completely wrong!!! The meatloaf was extra saltly- I'm still parched after eating that salty meatloaf! Okay, so things are going well. This coming week I don't have much planned- but I expect I'll be busy once again with random things I've planned at the last minute. Spencer continues to stay really busy. He's busy with work and has a math class every Monday and Wednesday morning for two hours. The class continues for another couple of weeks and then after that he has to prepare to take the G.R.E. test for Graduate school- (I think it's called the G.R.E., I could be wrong though- it's the big test for English majors). It's exciting wondering where we'll be living next year while he's in grad school- I'd love to know already where he's going to go to school, but we still have a few more months ahead of us before we'll know that. P.S. Did I mention he just started getting sick? Sickness truly has it's long vicious cycle in families. Week after week, someone knew comes down with some sort of sickness. Alright,before I sum things up, I must mention for those of you who don't either live here in Utah or watch the Weather Channel, over the weekend it rained like crazy and we even got some snow here in the valley!!! The snow melt immediately almost just as it hit the ground, but there is still snow on the mountains. It's beautiful! I never thought I would say this, but while Summer has always been my absolute favorite season out of the year, I'm beginning to change my mind and think that Fall is. (That's probably just because Summer's are just too stinking hot here in Utah). The trees are finally beginning to change color and it's pleasantly cool outside now. I love it! I love cozying up inside.