JJ's Birthday

JJ's birthday was last Saturday, August 14th. We had so much fun. We went to Chuck E. Cheese's and used up the tokens we had left over from Madison's birthday. He thought it was great. Although he didn't really get the point of actually playing the games. He just liked looking at them. After Chuck E Cheese's we went back to our house for dinner. Ben, Sara, Kaiden, Grandpa, and the 5 of us were all there. We enjoyed hamburgers and corn on the cob. After dinner we sang to JJ and had birthday cake. He loved it because he loves tigger. Then after cake he opened presents. He loved all of his presents. We really love this boy and are so thankful that he was sent to our family. He makes us laugh daily with all his funny faces and mannerisms. He is so gentle and loves to give others hugs. He often will walk up to random kids and run up and give them a hug. We get so many comments from other parents in his nursery that their kids talk about him all day after nursery. He is also very stubborn and if he doesn't want to do something he won't. It's part of the reason he still doesn't say much. He is starting to sign quite a few words though because that is what he likes to do. He loves his sisters so much. They all play together really well. Of course they have their moments, but overall they play really well.

Here are pictures from the last two years:August 14, 2008

August 16, 2009

August 14, 2010

We love you JJ!

Patient Appreciation Day

Joe's orthodontist does a patient appreciation day every year at Eagle Island. We went this year and had so much fun. They had free dinner, water slides, face painting, and bounce houses, and prizes, and Gymnastics things you could do. The kids really enjoyed themselves. They all got their faces painted too.JJ was a dog. He was so proud of it and you could tell he knew what was on his face even though he never saw it.

Emily and Madison both got princess crowns. They also loved it. The paint they used was really hard to get off though. It took us a couple of days.

JJ's Stroller

JJ loves to push around the baby strollers. He rarely pushes around an actual baby though. Usually it is filled with cars and books and other manly things. (okay maybe books aren't manly) He will just walk around the house for hours with his stroller. If I need him to get out of my way(while I am making dinner) all I have to do is ask him to go find his stroller.

Marshmallow Fondant Cake

A couple of weeks ago a friend in my ward and I decided to do some MM Fondant cakes. We made the fondant ourselves and it was so easy. We had a lot of fun decorating them. She helped me decide how to do mine. I would love to do some more to get even better at it.

New Niece

I have another new niece! She was born yesterday to Dean and Amanda. She is a cutie. We are so excited to meet her in a couple of weeks.

Tonsils Update

Emily did great on Friday getting her tonsils out. They also ended up taking out her adenoid because it was too big. They said it was a good things she got her tonsils out because there was scar tissue from having so many infections (she never even said her throat hurt) and they were full of crud. Hopefully this will help with her EE too. She still isn't feeling the best and they say it will take about 2 weeks for her to feel completely better. In the meantime she is enjoying soy ice cream, popsicles, and flan along with lots of juice.

Tonsils

Emily had an ENT appointment last Wednesday to look at her tonsils. She hasn't ever had strep and only had tonsillitis once that we know, but when we went in for her GI appointment last time they were inflamed and the GI doctor said that if they are chronically inflamed it makes it hard to treat her EE. She sent us to an ENT. The ENT said that her tonsils are quite large and the veins are at the surface and red which is a sign of infection. She said that the amount of sleep Emily gets is too much for her age and that she needs to have them removed. So Emily gets to go in this Friday and have them out. She has to cut her visit with Aunt Rachel and Uncle Tim short because of it. We also will have to postpone our official family fun day for her birthday until after she has recovered. Since her birthday was on Sunday and she is gone this week we were going to celebrate on Saturday after she got home. I'll update more after the surgery is done.

Emily's 5th Birthday

Emily had her 5th birthday yesterday. I can't believe that it has already been five years. We were in Utah for our Kimball family reunion on Friday and Saturday. We stayed at my Aunt Janine's house on Saturday night so they all got to enjoy Emily's birthday celebration with us. They were really good sports too because yesterday was fast Sunday and Emily and Maddie went home with Tim and Rachel so we ate her cake there and none of the Campbell's got to enjoy it with us. They all sat there and watched us eat.

Emily got really embarrassed when we were singing to her. I kind of figured she would because my mom had left a message on our answering machine for Joe's birthday of her singing the birthday song and Maddie always asks me to play it. Every time I do Emily says the song makes her embarrased.

She requested a princess cake again in purple. So here is the finished product.

Here she is blowing out the candlesand opening her presents

She was very excited for her presents, but not so excited that they all had to come home with mom and dad and she can't play with them until Thursday. She did get to take her new booster seat with her though.
I am so happy that we have been blessed with Emily in our family. She is such a wonderful little helper. She is very inquisitive and I know that she will know lots of things when she gets older because of all the questions she asks. She has such a strong little testimony of Jesus Christ and even knows the first 5 Articles of Faith. She is also an awesome sister and makes sure that her brother and sister don't get left behind. She gets in trouble sometimes because she is trying to protect them and it isn't necessarily what she should be doing at the time. She loves books and is learning to read. She is starting Kindergarten in the fall. We love you Emily.
Here are some pictures from the last 5 years.

August 1st, 2005
We are blessed with a beautiful baby girl

August 1st, 2006
1 Year

August 1st, 2007
2 Years
August 1st, 2008
3 Years
August 1st 2009
4 Years
and August 1st 2010
5 years

Pillowcases

I found a really fun tutorial on one of my favorite blogs, Skip to My Lou. It is for doing glue batik. I had never heard of it before, but it looked like lots of fun. First, you use blue gel glue and draw a picture on some fabric. I decided we were going to make pillowcases so I cut the fabric out and let them choose what picture they wanted. Then I drew on the pillowcases with the glue. After it dries you use watered down acrylic paint to paint however you want. I let them do that step. Then you let it dry. After drying you soak it in water for about ten minutes or a little more and then scrub the glue off. Then let it dry again and make whatever you are making with it. After making Emily's I learned that a bigger picture is better so Maddie and JJ's are a little better. We also learned that if they paint to much in one spot the paint doesn't work so well.

This is Maddie's Before

and after:
Emily's Before
and after(I still need to take a picture)


JJ's beforeand after

Tired

One night I went into Emily and Maddie's room to find this.

She was sleeping with the hymnbook on her lap. Apparently she was really excited to learn some new songs.

The Cabin

Last month we decided to go to the cabin one weekend. We had a really good time. Ben and Sara even came up with us. The kids enjoyed playing with a homemade bow and arrow, hiking, and playing with all the toys in the cabin. Emily now wants to live there. They were really sad Saturday afternoon when it was time to leave.

Bird Feeders

Last month sometime we made these fun bird feeders.

All you do is take a pine cone and cover it in peanut butter and then roll it in birdseed. My parents left behind a huge container of bird seed so we decided to give it a try. The kids loved it and I think the birds did too. Although I think the squirrels also loved them because a couple of the bird feeders are completely missing.

Berries

One nice thing about living in my parent's house is that they have lots of berry plants. There are strawberries, blackcaps (similar to blackberries), blueberries, and grapes (not a berry but a yummy fruit). The grapes aren't going to produce anything this year but hopefully will next year. Maddie has been in heaven with all these berries. She especially loves to help pick because then she eats about everything she pulls off the plant. One day after picking I had to take this picture because her hands and face were covered in purple from eating so many blackcaps and blueberries.