Busy & Exhausted

I'm a total blog slacker, and for over a month now I've been trying to gather my thoughts and energy to sit down and update my blog- but every night after I put the boys to bed, I'm always just a bit TOO distracted or TOO exhausted and I find myself putting off updating my blog until "another day". Well not today... I'm dead set on updating my blog!

We've been pretty busy these last couple of weeks. There's been birthday parties ,baptisms, and baby blessings: Ian turned one a month ago on May 9Th. We celebrated with family the following day by throwing a party at Nelson's Grove. (Ian ate his first piece of pizza at the party- he ate the entire piece and actually had 2ND'S). I didn't go "all out" this birthday and custom make all of the treats and decorations as I've done in the past for Noah's parties- I just didn't have the energy or will- so I decided to be slightly more commercial and decorate with Winnie the Pooh balloons and decorations I found at Zurchers Party Supply Store and I had Macy's bakery make him a Pooh Bear cake. I got great pictures of Ian digging into his cake- but afterwards my stupid camera decided to wig out and deleted all of my picture images from my memory card!!! Luckily I got a little bit of the birthday fun on video but I haven't had the time to edit any of it to add to the blog. (note: I think it's definitely time to buy a new digital camera- anyone wish to help me convince my husband of this??? I'd like a Nikon D-80 Thanks.) It's been a month and I'm still bitter about loosing all those cute pictures...
Below is a picture of Ian unwrapping a birthday gift at home- who looks more excited about the new toy? Noah or Ian??? Noah ABSOLUTELY LOVED all the new toys Ian got for his birthday- he still has yet to understand they're actually Ian's toys.
My nephew Eli was baptized the first Saturday in May, and his brother- Israel, (Tricia's youngest) was blessed the following day in church. We've also attended a few other birthday celebrations for friends of ours.

Spencer was busy for weeks following the Utah Jazz in the NBA playoffs. He and his friends bought tickets for every Jazz home game. I had the chance to go and watch one of the Jazz playoff games with Spencer and 14 of his guy friends. I'm not a big fan of basketball, but I still must admit, the playoff game was actually really fun! I think I upset a few of Spencer's friends though when I told them I wasn't a fan of basketball- they probably had in mind a few other devout Jazz Fan friends they would have rather seen sitting in my place. I'm slightly relieved that the Lakers beat the Jazz to make it to the NBA finals- I was getting tired of watching basketball ALL the time or listening to Sports Beat radio in the car.

Spencer started a 2ND job working part time for a company who's partners with Sprint Mobile Services. He decided to take the part time job because he has the time- without school/classes going on during the day, he has quite a bit of free time and his company that he and his brother share/operate & own together pretty much manages itself- well not really, but as long as Spencer makes sure their employees are doing their jobs and he follows up on a few other things- that usually only consumes 2 or 3 hours of his time daily- his work is done. He figures by working for this company since it is still relatively small he can potentially move into management position quicker and the extra income he earns from this job can go directly into our savings.

It's sort of been strange having Spencer work outside of the our home, since I became so accustomed to having him around the house much through out the day. Of course there were times during the day here at home we weren't to bother him because he was working, but usually if I ever needed the extra hand or needed to run an errand without towing the boys along, I could rely on him to help out. I actually kinda enjoy having him away from home now though for that chunk of time he's working-I seem to get more chores done without him here distracting me or the boys. It sounds absurd, but it true.

Speaking of Spencer- his youngest sister, Megan, is engaged to be married on July 2ND, so there's been nothing but talk of weddings here around his parents house. She had one formal bridal shower two weeks ago with family members, and I offered about a month ago to throw her a fun bachelorette party for her girlfriends to attend. The party was this last Saturday. One of her good friends was left in charge of the games (which ended up being slightly risky but fun nonetheless), while I was left responsible for the invitations, food and decorations. I had so much fun planning this shower.
Along with the invitations I sent out to party guests, I sent these cutouts that guest could decorate and dress as if they were designing Megan's wedding night outfit. All of the girls that came to the party got pretty creative dressing their dolls as you can see from the picture below. My doll is the far one on the left- it looks like it's been smeared with pooh, but really I painted it with chocolate body paint- so it's looks like pooh, but it smelled delish!

If Megan hadn't been Spencer's sister, I NEVER would have planned a shower like this for friends, (sorry friends), but it was completely worth the expense and extra detailed attention I put into planning the party BECAUSE she is my sister in law. Instead of eating snack food, or little sandwiches, I decided to let the guests serve themselves at a Candy Bar. I had Megan list her top 10 favorite candies and we offered those candies along with some additional ones at the bar (skittles, peanut M&M's, sour patch kids, starbursts, 100 Grands, snickers, twix, kit kats, reeses pieces and reeses peanut butter cups, chocolate pretzels and rock candy pink lollipops). Guests had their own cute polka-dotted velum baggies they could scoop candy into, and in addition to the candy, we had pink frosted rice krispie cupcakes and a variety of bottled Crush sodas. The colors for the party were black and pink, and I decided to stick with the candy theme when choosing her gift so I bought her a bikini for the honeymoon that was completely made out of the same candies that candy necklaces are made of. Who knew there was such a thing?!!! The party was a hit (at least I thought so)- I'm pretty sure she liked it. Not quite as many girls came as I thought there'd be- I planned for 25- I believe only half showed up- so we had beaucoup candy left over! Noah was DELIGHTED to see me come home with it- what kid doesn't get excited to see candy??? Now we have a surplus of candy here at the house from this shower, Ian's birthday, and we even still have Easter candy left over! Anyone need candy???

So I mentioned that Spencer's sister is getting married July 2ND, less than a month away- just 9 days after my due date which is the 21ST!!! I'm not worried that I won't have the baby by that point, but I am slightly worried about finding something to wear to the wedding that fits me comfortably (since every woman who's ever had a baby knows that just after having a baby your bodies a little frumpy and flabby in places it's not usually). I think I'll try and hide myself good in the family pictures her wedding photographer takes- besides the day is all about her right? and not my flabby postpartum tummy.

We'll finish the boys swim classes this week, and this Thursday both of my parents are flying into town to house sit and babysit my sister Tricia's 8 kids while they're in Florida for the weekend. I don't really expect to see my parents this weekend as I know they'll have their hands full taking care of her 8, but it's been nearly a year since my dad's been up here to visit so maybe he'll get a chance to visit with us. It just dawned on me too that this Sunday is Father's Day- I'll have to remember to do something EXTRA special for him Sunday before he flies back home. Luckily as I think of it now, I don't need to worry much about taking care of Spencer's Father's Day gift- he just traded in one of his old Vespa's for store credit at the Scooter Lounge and bought himself a brand new Vespa he gets to pick up today. Since it wasn't an even exchange and he had to pay some in addition, I'm going to tell him he just bought himself his own Father's Day gift. I can't really be upset with him for buying another moped, especially since it's getting closer to $100 to fill up our SUV's gas tank! Maybe we ought to be inventive like some of the families that lived in Portugal- during my mission there, sometimes I'd see an entire family of 4 or 5 individuals all seated and riding on 1 moped!!! It looked kinda like a circus act and semi-dangerous, but hey, we're risk takers and I'm sure with some practice we could eventually pull it off with three kids in tow! (I'm totally kidding of course).

Friday, Spencer's brother and sister in-law, along with their 5 kids are flying in for a months visit from Uruguay (they've been living there for 18 months now, and after their month long stay here in Utah- they plan to head back to Uruguay to live there for another year or two or possibly longer). Anyhow, I'm not sure whether to be excited or slightly nervous about their visit. I'm excited of course to see everyone, but I'm worried about the extra noise and commotion that will be up above us here at Spencer's parents house since we still live here with them and his brothers family will probably be over visiting often; the combination of noise and commotion doesn't fair well with our two little ones who need their naps otherwise they're miserable to be around, and oh yeah- I'm having a baby in a week and a half- I'm hoping that I can get some good R&R too.

My due dates not until the 21ST, but my doctor is leaving for a week long vacation the day before so he suggested that I be induced on the 19TH, which sounds awesome to me, so a week from tomorrow, this baby's being born if it hasn't been born already. My parents will both already be up here, but they both have to fly home this Sunday evening because they have to return to work (my mom's a teacher teaching in a year round school). My mom will fly back though on Wednesday the 18TH to stay with us through the weekend to help out with the boys while I'm in the hospital and help me some once I get home from the hospital. Here's hoping the baby doesn't arrive any sooner than we've all planned for- especially this weekend since she'll be busy watching my sister's kids.

Spencer's family has a Campbell Family Reunion planned for the week just after I'm supposed to have the baby. His parents and the rest of his family will all be heading off on Sunday the 22ND to some campgrounds in Southeast Idaho to camp for a few days with other relatives. They've asked if they could take Noah along, but he won't be going, that is unless if one of those days Spencer and I feel like taking a long drive to and from there with all 3 kids in tow. I don't feel comfortable sending my 2 year old off for 4 days with other family members if neither Spencer or I are there with him; besides his world will already be shaken a little with the addition of the new baby- I'm sure that he'll have lots of adjusting to do so I wouldn't want to add anymore potential upsets or distractions to his daily routine.

Quite a bit has gone on over the last month and we still have quite a bit to look forward too/endure over the period of this next month- whether I've mentioned it or not. Fortunately, we have been able to enjoy our time together though as a family and we've done some pretty fun things like going to the Hogle Zoo with our zoo passes, or enjoying a movie together (we just went together as a family this last Friday night to watch "Kung Fu Panda" - it was such a gr8t movie- so funny). Spencer's even taken Noah miniature golfing on a couple of occasions and whenever Spencer needs to make a trip to the UPS store to ship off packages for the business, he'll often take Noah along for the ride so the two of them can stop in next door and look at the animals in the pet store.

I haven't really been nesting much towards the end of this pregnancy; just a couple of days ago it dawned on me that I probably should pack my hospital bag and pull out the baby bassinet along with the other newborn essentials. I didn't really need to worry about buying anymore baby boy clothes since we have a plethora of them, but I was at the mall on Friday and saw that Baby Gap was having a sell on their clothing, so I picked up a few cute new outfits for the baby. I still need to stock up on diapers and wipes and I also need to do a little grocery shopping so the pantry and refrigerator is stocked while my mom's here with us.

Before I forget to add, I have a couple of new movie rental recommendations... These last two weeks I've been having an incredibly difficult time sleeping at night (that's why I'm so exhausted through out the day) so lucky for me, my husband owns a business that has access to thousands of edited movies. We just watched "Things We Lost In The Fire" with Halley Berry- it was actually pretty good. I also watched "Awake"- it's a suspense/thriller with Jessica Alba- I loved it; I watched the teen flick "Nancy Drew"- so cute; I finally watched "I am Legend"- I'd been wanting to see it forever now and here's my honest opinion, it was sort of a let down- why does Will Smith ALWAYS have to be a hero in every movie he's in??? I had to watch most of it on mute though because the movie had me slightly terrified the whole time. We watched a few other movies- some of which I've forgotten the names of. Two movies I LOVED that we watched were "Into the Wild" - it's a true story and the movie is SO GOOD and another movie I enjoyed was "The Kite Runner" - this is also a true story produced after a popular best selling book! SO GOOD- you've got to see both of these movies- they won't disappoint you!

So it's been a busy and exhausting month, but all in all a good one- well that is if you excuse the week both the boys and Spencer were all sick- I don't think I can stomach the smell of vomit any longer. We've had doctor appointments, haircuts (the boys both got buzz cuts for summer, but don't worry we can still spike their hair) and we've been house hunting. Yes HOUSE HUNTING!!! It's been so EXCITING and yet so frustrating, but we've put in two offers and we're just hoping and praying one of these two offers, or possibly if we put in another offer on a home will be accepted SOON. Okay, well that's that, I'll explain later about our house hunting adventure.