Hot tubin' in the winter time...

While Ben was in Hawaii, Tucker and I had a lot of fun together. We played in the hot tub almost everyday. We didn't want Ben to be the only one who was having fun playing in the water! :) Tucker had swimming lessons, we had play groups with our friends almost everyday. We ate dinner at our friends houses almost every night. We had a great time! Here are just some pictures I took while playing in the hot tub one day...



Tucker had fun playing in the jets...

And here is a photo I took of myself while Ben was gone. While he was gone I officially hit the 36 week mark...

Winter...what???

This winter has been unseasonably warm! We have loved it, especially after the winter we had last year. This year we are thinking we might actually be able to stay in Spokane. Last winter we were ready to pick up and move as far away as possible! :)
We've taken advantage of the warm weather with some fun family outings. The weekend before Ben left we headed up to Riverside State Park for the afternoon.
Tucker and I in the truck:

Tucker loves to 'Ice Skate' on the ice...

Ben & Tucker at the Bowl and Pitcher...



And our final destination, throwing rocks into the Spokane River...

These two boys were in Heaven...



Ben attempted to climb up this big rock, but thought better of it after realizing he had a pregnant wife and a three year old to take care of... :)

We couldn't ask for better weather this winter! We are just hoping it stays like this until the spring!!!

While the husband is away....

We are really missing this guy, right now:

He left us for a week to go to Hawaii...again! Can you believe the nerve of him? I mean, it is for work, but still...
So far, we have survived. Ben asked me before he left if I was up for it. If I could handle Tucker for a whole week by myself being 8 months pregnant. (since I can't really bend down all that easy, or get up all that easy, or breathe all that easy) I told him that we would be fine, we might not leave the house for a week straight, and eat Chips Ahoy cookies for every meal, but that we would be fine... :)
I have tried to fill up our days with things, so that Tucker doesn't go out of his mind. And luckily I have lots of good friends who have been helping me out. We have only had one trip to the Doctor, one morning of throwing up and only one night of him climbing in bed with me. And Ben's only been gone for 4 days! :) We have had swimming lessons, movie nights, lots of play groups planned for this week, and way too much cartoons, but I'm hoping that the rest of the week continues to go by fast!
Hopefully Ben comes back with some beautiful pictures from Hawaii and I can dream of my paradise get-away. Although, I did have to promise that I wouldn't post any shirtless pictures of the guys over there, like I did last year. He was not too thrilled about that! :) And hopefully next time he goes to Hawaii, it will be with me and not 4 other guys! :)

The above picture is of my big boy's first day in Primary. He is now a Sunbeam! I can't believe how big he is getting. He did great, the only thing that his teacher said was that he couldn't understand why in Sharing time he had to take turns answering the questions and saying the prayers and helping out. He wanted to do EVERYTHING and wanted to be called on every time. So, I guess it's a good thing that he wants to participate, right?! :)

Sweet Southern Christmas...

OK, last Christmas post, I promise! :) I need to get these done before it gets too far from the holiday's and I lose my memory! Things like that are going pretty quickly these days! :)
If anyone knows my husband well, they know that he is not one to shy away from a good barter, or a good deal. He made sure to take advantage of my huge belly and got us upgraded to first class--for free-- on our way to Alabama! :) He is not afraid to use his southern charm! :) It was so nice! We got to board first, and immediately they served us drinks, like while people were still boarding the plane, we sat sipping on a nice cool beverage! :) We got food while the rest of the plane only got drinks. We had nice roomy seats with pillows and blankets, another amenity the rest of the passengers didn't have! :) We were spoiled!
My two boys, riding first class...

We flew into Alabama on Christmas day and Ben's parents had no idea we were coming. We had told them we wouldn't be able to come. With me being pregnant and flights being so expensive. Well, we secretly booked the flights, and told only Ben's little sister, Meg. She agreed to pick us up from the airport and didn't tell a soul about it. So, we got to Ben's parents house like at midnight on Christmas night and Ben's mom was waiting up for Meg to get home, so we knew she would be awake. Earlier, Meg had gotten this big box and we had Tucker lie down in it and Meg went in and told Ben's mom that there was a package on the porch. A few minutes later, they both come back outside. (Ben and I were waiting behind some bushes) and my mother in law is looking at this box, trying to figure out what it is.... and she cautiously bends down to open it, and we had told Tucker before hand that he was to jump out and yell, Surprise! But when she opened the lid, he just laid there and started giggling! :) It was still really cute! :) She of course, was so excited and then Ben and I jumped out and yelled Surprise! It was so much fun!!! Tucker then went inside and snuggled up to his Grandpa in bed, to wake him up and Grandpa was SO excited to see Tucker, too! It was fun being able to surprise everyone for the holiday's!
I love going down to Alabama for Christmas. Ben's mom always makes Christmas so special, especially for the grand kids. The house is always so beautifully decorated and she just goes all out! There are always delicious desserts to eat, at any time of day or night, and always delicious food to eat! She always has fun activities planned and fun things to do while we are there.
Here are Santa's little helpers themselves...

Don't you love my father in laws red shoes? He was very proud of them and insisted on wearing them while we were opening presents. They were his official elf shoes! :)
Opening presents:

Since Grandma is a librarian, she always sends us home at Christmastime with the best books. Seriously, I think half of the weight of our luggage was due to the books that she gives the kids at Christmas! Tucker loves his new books!
Here he is reading one of his new books with his aunt Meg:

Roasting marshmallows before bed with his daddy and aunt Meri:

We also got to meet our newest Pyper niece, Kaiya. She is such a sweetheart! I am so excited that this little girl of ours will at least have a few girl cousins close to her in age. There seems to be a boy trend among the Pyper and Campbell families. :)
She looks exactly like her daddy!

Jonah, our nephew, walked into the room right as I took that picture of Kaiya, and not one to shy away from the camera, went down and laid on the couch and then told me he was ready for his picture! :) What a little poser! :) He is so cute though! I love me some Jonah!

Here is a better picture of Kaiya that I took one afternoon while trying to get some family shots. Isn't she beautiful?! :) Love that smile!

And here is one of her and her parents. Seriously, she is so photogenic. That is Ben's little sister, Meribeth and her husband, Riley...

So, I meant to post this a few weeks ago, but if anyone knows anything about college football, then they know that Alabama was in the championship bowl game this year. (Which they WON!-yeah!) :) Football is HUGE down there. Ben's mom and three of his sisters graduated from the University of Alabama, so to say that the Pyper's are Alabama fans is an understatement. (Ben has always been an Auburn fan, but up here in Washington he is a fan of any SEC team.) I saw more crimson during the week I was there than I have ever seen in my life.
Signs like this were pretty common, and they made me laugh:

While we were there we also celebrated Ben's 30th birthday! I think that I get the 'lamest wife' award. Seriously! He is always so good at making my birthday so special, and his just always seems to be melded in with Christmas somehow. I had these high hopes of having a little get together to celebrate, but I'm afraid his day was spent watching kids and just hanging out. He did get to go see Avatar with his dad and brother-in-law, which he enjoyed, but other than that, I felt really bad for his lame birthday. Luckily, I think that he was just happy to be in Alabama with his family on his birthday. :)
Anyway, here he is with our nephew, Everett, on his birthday. Everett is probably one of the funniest kids I have ever met! :) I love this big chunk!

And here is a little family photo on Ben's birthday...
I was going to do an entire post honoring him on his birthday, and let everyone know how wonderful I think he is, and how lucky I am to be married to him, but yeah, that obviously didn't happen. So, just know that that's how I feel! :) (maybe I will have the energy and creative juices to do it after this baby is born)

Somehow I only took a handful of pictures while we were there. My brain is dead and my body is slow right now, so I often neglect things like that lately. But the only other picture I have of our trip is Everett getting his haircut. All of the boys got Tucker hair cuts while we were there, he is such a trend setter! :) And Uncle Ben was the one to do it.
The only way Everett would let Ben cut his hair was if Grandma bribed him with candy. Go figure, he's a Pyper! :)

Two of my most favorite memories from Christmas in Alabama were:
Aunt Meg's "Big ol' Bottom!" :) and Dave's clothes having trash dumped on them and almost being thrown out! :) Seriously, of all people! :) Those two things right there make me laugh right out loud and made the whole trip worth it! :)
Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa for all the good food, good presents for Tucker, and just great Christmas memories we always have at your house! :) You guys are the best!

PS....exactly one month from today is this little ladies due date! :) Yeah! There is a light at the end of the tunnel!!! :)

Christmas time!

The week before Christmas we went caroling with some good friends. It is a yearly tradition, and I love it. Ben was sick, so just Tucker and I went this year. We go to our friends house for Soup and yummy food and then go caroling and then come back for Hot Chocolate afterward. It is a great way to spend the holiday's! This year we went to visit some of the elderly ladies or couples in our ward. Tucker ( who HATES to be the center of attention) would run up to every person after we sang and give them a big hug and say 'MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!' He loved caroling. They all loved that. It was really cute. A few weeks later one of the ladies got up in Sacrament meeting and said how when he did that it just made her Holiday's! She just loved it! :) I thought that was so sweet and I was glad he did that for her! He is a sweet boy!
Here's the gang on our way out the door:

This next picture is the illegal picture of Tucker with Santa that my mom took! So, last year when we went to visit Santa, I just asked them if I could use my own camera to take the pictures of Tucker and Santa. I couldn't bring myself to pay $25 for one picture!! This year I noticed that there was a sign that said something along the lines of 'personal cameras can only be used after a minimum purchase, yada yada yada...' So, me being just too tired to even care, and even more cheap than I was last year, thought. OK...no pictures this year. Tucker really only cares about seeing Santa and sitting on his lap. I don't want to pay $25 for a picture that I will only look at for one week. ( I know, I've been lame lately...just too tired to care about much recently!) :) Anyway, I'm with my mom, brother, sister-in-law and nephew. They go first, get his pictures taken, my mom is snapping away, but it was OK for them, because they bought a package. Up comes Tucker, I make it a point to tell them that I am not ordering pictures, that I have no camera to sneak a shot in, I'm not trying to be sneaky, I just want Tucker to sit on his lap and chat with Santa. Well, then my mom continues to snap away and they look at me, and I look at them, and then Tucker is done, so I turn and run! :) OK, it wasn't that dramatic, but it was a little awkward. I felt guilty! I didn't even mean to steal a picture, and now I have one.
Here is the proof:

And the joy that is on Tuckers face in this picture makes it all worth it! :)
The next two pictures are from Christmas morning at our house. It was so fun to just be the three of us. I could only post two pictures because in the rest of the pictures, my husband is not dressed appropriately, sorry! :) I loved watching the excitement on Tuckers face as he opened up all of his presents. He got so happy and excited over EVERY single present! I loved it! It totally made everything worth it to see his face! I had tried to get his presents shopping done in advance so I wouldn't have to rush last minute. So by the time December rolled around, we pretty much had him done with. Then for the whole month of December all we heard about was him wanting a green dinosaur. Of course, one thing I did NOT have for him. So on Christmas eve Ben went to Wal-mart and bought a $1 green dinosaur and of course, it was the one present he was MOST excited about! :) Go figure. I'm going to save my self a lot of money and stress next year and just go get him a Dollar toy on Christmas eve! :)

We did have a lot of fun just the three of us. I love my little family!!! Kids make Christmas time SO much more fun! :)

Even for being a burned out, tired, and uncomfortable pregnant lady, I had a great Christmas. I'm hoping that next year will be even better with TWO little ones and NO 20 lb. belly always getting in the way! :)

Campbell Christmas...

The Campbell family has officially been babified! This Christmas was all about the kids, and it makes it so much more fun to have little ones involved at Christmas time. Kayla & Jason flew into Spokane the weekend before Christmas and Allen & Kelli could only come up to Spokane that weekend as well, so that is when we celebrated. We spent lots and lots of time just hanging out and playing with little ones.



Aunt Kayla made all of the kids these really cool quilts that have their names on them. They are SO SO SO cute, she is so talented!!!
Here is Tucker opening his on Christmas morning:

Keyton with his quilt:

Carter with his quilt:

And Cassidy's quilt:

She even made one for Grandma:

I made baby Carter a C for his nursery. I think he really liked it! :)

And here are the boys with their new babes...
Nathan & Carter:

And Allen & Cassidy:

Model shot of Carter in front of the tree. :)

Tucker got a fish from Angie & Nathan for Christmas. He thought it was pretty cool!!! :) When he first got it, we asked him what he wanted to name him and he said, 'hmmm.....what about fish friend!" I thought that was cute. Then we asked him again a little while later and he said, 'Peanut Butter and Jelly!' Tucker LOVES PB&J sandwiches. So that's what he named him and we call him Jelly or PB&J for short.



Yeah, we know we are HOT in this picture! :)
We had a great Christmas with my family! Lots of relaxing, lots of good food, and just enjoying everyone being together!

The month of babies...

December was the month of babies for our family. Not only because it's finally starting to sink in to us that we are going to have a baby of our own here in a few weeks, but because between the two of our families, 3 babies were born within the month to month and a half before Christmas. My brother, Allen and his family had a little baby girl right after Thanksgiving. So we headed down to Quincy for the day to visit little Cassidy. She is the first grand daughter on the Campbell side and is seriously the BEST baby. I'm hoping she will be a good example to this little girl of ours. :) I just know that I am not going to get lucky twice with good babies. I'm preparing for the worst here. :)
We, of course, had to have a little photo shoot with her:

And other than that, the rest of the day was just spent holding her and cooing over her.
Her and her mommy:

Her and her daddy:

Her and her big brother, Keyton:

Her and grandma:

Her and her favorite aunt:

And Tucker just loving on her:

I love this bath time face :
She will love me for this, one day! :)

Allen & Kelli just moved into a brand new house so while the men folk were hanging blinds and doing other manly things, we helped set up their Christmas tree.
Tucker also got in some time to do one of his favorite past times these days! :)

And of course, Tucker and Keyton got in some good playing time:



In other baby activities this month, my other brother Nathan and his wife, Angie had their little guy, Carter blessed. They did it at my dad's house because my other brother and his family couldn't come until Sunday night and so we did it on a Monday night when all men from both families could be present.
Angie, Nathan & baby Carter:



All the men:

Kayla & Jason had also just flown in from Wisconsin for the holiday's, so of course, Tucker got lots of loving in from his aunt Kayla:

And lots of playing in with his Uncle Jason:

Tucker loves to rock out with his new guitar. I think the glasses add just the right touch:

Me and my sissy:

And my mom always has to take a belly shot:
I am 31 weeks in this picture:

I love that the holidays give a perfect excuse to get together as family, and having two new little babies makes it even better. Ben's little sister also recently had a baby, but more about her and pictures of her to come in a later post. Now if only our little one would make her entrance into this world soon, that would be wonderful. :)