Campbell Soup

Did you know…

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 01:31:00 +0000

…that the correct response to “Capisce?” (cah-PEESH) is “Caposh.”?

…that “pupcakes” are really yummy?

…that you can be in trouble or you can be in “big BAD trouble”?

...that the opposite of a “slow poke” is a “fast poke”?

…that it can be “the BEST DAY EVER!” almost every day?

…that I love being a mom?

Fish and Life Lessons

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Tue, 10 May 2011 02:35:00 +0000

My parents went on a trip in January, and we volunteered to fish-sit for them. My mom decided to actually bring the fish to our house (which was quite an endeavor since they need a rather large tank).

She brought the fish, and since there were four, the kids each named one.

Gwyn called hers “She She”

Maddie named hers “Susan Franklin”

Lana called hers “Sally jumps into the sky”

and Everett’s was “Charlie”.

The kids enjoyed watching the fish and really looked forward to feeding them.

The fish returned home to Grandma’s house after a few weeks, but the kids remember “their fish” and are happy to see them each time we visit.

On Sunday when we arrived at Grandma’s house, she informed Cary and I that “Susan Franklin” had died. She asked us how we wanted to handle it, and we thought it would be good for the kids to know about it, and help bury the fish.

Mom told the kids what had happened, and then asked what we do with a dead fish. Lana piped up and said “We eat it!”Lana cried right away when she actually saw the fish though.

Then she consoled herself with the idea that the fish would be “resurrected after three days”. (We’ve been teaching them a lot about why we celebrate Easter lately, but it seems we have a little more to teach.)

Grandma has promised to buy a new fish for Maddie to name.

Memories

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 14:01:00 +0000

Today I came across some pictures that we had made and hung on the wall of Lana's room at the feeding clinic. These things still have the power to move me to tears.

She was there in April of 2009.

Kill the wabbit…

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:51:00 +0000

Last night we had a family home evening lesson on choosing good music. We told the children that some songs have a message that is not good, and that even though they may not understand what a song is about, it is important to only listen to the good songs. We would help them to choose until they were old enough to choose for themselves. I also played a couple of different songs for them to illustrate how different music makes you feel different. We listened to a hymn, and ended with “Ride of the Valkyries” by Wagner. I picked the children up one at a time and helped them “fly”around the living room like superheroes.

Right before bed.

Needless to say, bedtime did not go very well last night. Silly me. I should know the power of music!!!

as little children

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 01:02:00 +0000

Matthew 18:3 “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

This time of year, the PTA offers classes after school. Cary wanted Everett to take the basketball class. Everett had his heart set on magic class. They were on the same day, and we didn’t want basketball to feel like a punishment, so magic it was!

Two classes have been held so far, and Everett is really enjoying them. Everett has learned some simple tricks, and how to make a dog and a bumblebee with balloons. He proudly demonstrates each trick and practices it repeatedly. Everett brought his bumblebee home on Monday, and on Tuesday while he was at school Lana and Gwyn accidentally popped it. Lana knew that Everett would be unhappy, and was so upset about it that she was in tears. I suggested that maybe the girls could use their money to buy Everett some new balloons so that he could make another bumblebee. They jumped at the idea, and Maddie even offered her dollar to help out.

We went to the store, where we bought balloons and a pump for Everett. The girls each spent $2, which is all the paper money they had.

When Everett came home from school, Lana and Gwyn immediately told Everett that they had broken his bee and that they were sorry. He burst into tears. Then they gave him the balloons and pump and his tears became tears of joy. There were hugs and smiles all around. Everett quickly made a balloon animal for each of his sisters, and then one for himself. He hasn’t taken much of a break since then. There are probably 15 balloon animal in the playroom right now.

We have had family home evening lessons on love and repentance, but there is nothing like a real application to teach these things to your children. I got all teary myself.

Happy Baby

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 00:29:00 +0000

I’m really enjoying every stage of Emma’s development. Most recently she has become quite the chatterbox. On Wednesday, Cary was holding her near the family picture in our living room when she caught sight of it and started laughing and talking up a storm. Last night after I saw to her needs, we heard a full half-hour of “Ah bah bah baahh.” Unfortunately, this lengthy serenade took place around 1:30 AM. While the timing was not optimal, it was definitely preferable to crying.

Emma has also discovered her feet. When I put her in the bathtub, she thinks they’re the coolest thing ever! She makes me smile.

Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 00:35:00 +0000

My little girls are getting big.

Maybe it’s because I have Everett, who is so smart and obedient and two years ahead of them, but I still think of them as little girls.

Spending some time with a newborn in the hospital definitely made them (especially Lana) seem bigger when I came home. One night last month I heard Maddie crying. I went in to comfort her and was rather surprised when I picked her up. Kids always feel different when they’re really relaxed, and she just felt huge. But what really got me was when I watched an extra kiddo one day. He is two years old and suddenly my girls looked like big kids. I’m not just talking about size. There is quite a difference between seeing an infant next to your other kids and a more independent little two-year-old. I expected them all to just play and have fun together, but the girls were probably more like little mothers than peers that day.

On March 1^st, my “little” girls turned 5.

In August they will all go to kindergarten. All day.

On Sundays we always invite my parents over for dinner. We really enjoy this time with them. Currently we are using some time after dinner to record my dad’s personal history. I mentioned that he hadn’t talked about getting married or having kids yet, and he said that raising children had been a wonderful stage of his life. That hit me pretty hard. Right now it is easy to feel like raising children is my life. But it is only a part, and it passes so quickly. I find great joy in being a mother.

We went for a family walk yesterday, and the girls said that Grandma has no kids. I said, “Sure she does! I’m her kid.” They said they meant little kids. I told them that someday they would be all grown up and I wouldn’t have any little kids any more. Their response: “But then you’ll be a grandma.”

I hope so.

Oh Deer.

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 01:35:00 +0000

On October 29th, a deer hit Cary. Cary was going about 65 mph on a major road when the deer attempted to jump from a bank over two or three lanes of traffic. (“I believe I can fly!” is a song phrase that comes to mind.) The deer had grossly overestimated its abilities, and landed right on our van.

When I saw where the deer hit, I could tell that Cary had been protected that day. The deer could have easily gone right through the windshield and killed him. Instead, the deer hit and then flew up over the van. Cary was unharmed. There were shards of glass in the van, but the windshield held together. The van was drivable, and since most of the windshield damage was on the passenger side Cary was able to see clearly, finish his commute, and teach his classes for the day.

I am so glad that I still have my husband. We all said prayers of thanks.

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 13:44:00 +0000

I brought a box of baby toys down from the attic yesterday. Today I walked into the livingroom to see Lana and Maddie, each with a pile of baby toys in front of them. They had carefully divided the toys up, and Emma was looking at the box.

Evolution

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 03:17:00 +0000

It all happens so fast! When did my babies get so big?

The bunkbeds are done!

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 03:00:00 +0000

I hoped for success with this project, but I have been so giddy as I’ve actually seen it come together! (Ask my kids. I was actually jumping up and down.) A real carpenter would probably laugh at me, but I’m pretty proud of myself.

I cut the boards Saturday and put together the bed on Monday. On Tuesday (the girls’ birthday), Cary helped me sand it and I started staining. At some point, I realized that I wasn’t going to finish it that day. And I really needed to get ready for the birthday party that would happen the next morning!

FYI, possible side-effects of building a bunkbed while also trying to take care of 5 children may (and did) include:

a house that looks like a small but powerful tornado was unleashed within
a lack of bathing, resulting in undesirable body odors
mild sleep deprivation

So I stopped staining and started trying to reclaim my home, shower, go shopping, bake cupcakes, make food, and prepare games for the party. (More on that later.)

On Wednesday, we had a nice party and I took some time to just be mom again. Cary helped me finish the staining that evening. On Thursday, he helped me put on the polyurethane. Today I installed the hardware for the plywood mattress supports and Cary sanded the boards so they fit just right. I was so glad to have his help! It is hard to find time for things like this while taking care of the kiddos I did most of the work while Emma was napping and after the kids were in bed.

The girls are thrilled with their new bed. The only problem was that no one wanted to sleep on the bottom bunk! We had some tears over that, but will be switching bunks fairly frequently for a little while to give everyone a turn.

Adventurous

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:58:00 +0000

I'm stepping it up! I used a saw yesterday. Normally I stick with tools that can't remove limbs or digits, but I'm determined enough to overcome my phobia. It was actually kind of fun except for the dust part. (I had to do it indoors because the weather hasn’t been great and I’m on a time crunch.) I’m making a triple bunk bed for the girls’ birthday.

I made my plans a while ago, but just bought the wood on Thursday. That was an interesting experience. I gathered my supplies and ordered wood at the project desk at Lowes. An older man at the desk asked me who was going to build it. I told him that I was. He looked at me and I could almost read the thought, “But you’re a girl!” It seemed like those I talked to there were surprised that I actually knew what I wanted and had my plans in order. I don’t have experience, but I do have a good brain, so I’m hoping this will turn out well. We shall see!

Emma and her nicknames

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 17:04:00 +0000

It took a while to come up with Emma's name. (We had chosen two girls' names before we knew we were expecting triplet girls and had a hard time coming up with a third one.) I checked some name books out of the library and started looking through them. I made a short list of possibilities, but nothing was really standing out. Then one day when I was looking through the name books, I came across the name "Emma" and had a very strong feeling about it--so strong that it actually brought me to tears. "I guess that's her name" was my immediate thought. It's not something I would have picked on my own, but it is right.

Cary and I narrowed the middle name down to Brynn and Faith, and went with "Faith". It reminds me of Cary's grandmother's middle name, which is "Fay", and means something on its own as well.

Emma Faith Campbell was born on November 12th after a very stressful pregnancy, weighing just about 7 lbs. Her first cry released all of the burden of worry I had carried for nine months and longer, and I cried along with her for joy and relief. After that, it really didn't matter how labor had gone or what previous loss and heartache had been like. She was a crowning blessing that healed me. Her smiles continue to do so.

Sometimes we call her Emma. Sometimes we refer to her as "the kid". I also call her baby, sweetie, sweetheart, or pookie. (Cary doesn't approve of that last one.)

What has happened since August 17th 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:43:00 +0000

Well, in case I never actually "catch up" here, I'll at least list the important happenings!

August:

We took a day trip and a little vacation
Everett started first grade
I was big

September:

Cary defended his dissertation
Everett's school went on strike
Cary and I went to the temple
I got bigger

October:

the girls started preschool
Trick or Treat!
A deer hit Cary
I got even bigger

November:

Everett turned 7
Emma was born
I didn't get much smaller :)

December:

Cary's parents came for a visit
Emma was blessed
I got older (32)
Christmas!

2011 so far:

I'm getting back to my normal self, emotionally and physically. I'm getting adventurous with cooking. The kids are getting cuter (but that's normal). Life is busy and joyful. I count my blessings every day.

"Peanut" is a GIRL!

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 01:19:00 +0000

So "Ian Luke" won't work for the name. This is going to be tough...

Oh what do we do in the summertime?

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 01:55:00 +0000

Oh what do we do in the summertime, when all the world is HOT?

I have never been much of a summer person, but it has felt abnormally hot and dry to me this year. It may have something to do with the fact that I am expecting. Whether it’s really been hotter or not, I haven’t wanted to stir much out of doors. I am so thankful for air conditioning! Here’s what we’ve been up to:

1. Visiting the local kiddie pool and splash park

All four kids love the kiddie pool. Maddie and Gwyn aren’t huge fans of sprinklers, but they all have fun wherever we go.

Incidentally, when I was shopping for swimming suits in the spring I bought three different suits for the girls and decided I’d let the girls pick what they liked best. If necessary, I’d go back to the store and exchange them for three matching suits. I took each girl into a room one at a time and had them choose. (I wanted it to be unbiased—I have a couple of sweeties that will change their minds so that a sister can have what she wanted.) Well they each chose a different suit. I wasn’t terribly surprised. These kids are definitely individuals!

2. Enjoying fresh food from the garden

3. Going to church (as usual)

I let Everett pick his own clothes. Without fail, on Sundays he wears a vest and tie.

4. Playing indoors (Be glad this picture doesn’t come with sound!)

5. Trying to establish/maintain order

The kids enjoy drying dishes and making interesting sculptures (cities?) on the table with the pots and pans.

My experiment with taking away their toys and shoes went pretty well. The kids have earned things back, and lost them, and earned them back again. I still have to remind them about a LOT of things, and we definitely have less toys available than we did before, but the order has gotten better. I have more time to focus on MY jobs when there is less nagging to do about the kids’ jobs. And we have more time for games and outings. It is hard to have any kind of structure when you’re working to achieve “square one”. Once we’re there, I’m a lot less stressed and the rest of the routine can be built. It’s hard to say where we lost it in the first place, but I’m guessing it was during morning sickness :)

6. Making our weekly excursion to the library

7. As always, striving towards normal eating behavior for Lana

In the morning, we give her a choice between “pink milk” (strawberry soy milk), “white milk” (vanilla soy milk), or chocolate. One day Cary made Neapolitan for her.

I’m sure we are making progress slowly but surely. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it until I take a good look back and see how far we’ve come. There was a time when I was feeding Lana by syringe and she was still throwing up all the time. She still needs lots of persuasion or outside motivation, but she drinks from a straw or an open cup. She can feed herself with a spoon or fork, though I’m usually the one giving bites. She has three meals per day where she chews food. She eats some things voluntarily because she is interested in them. She is no longer taking any medication, and goes months without throwing up. This may not sound like much to most people, but for us it is a big deal. I know we have a long way to go, but we are making progress. I still have this dream, but I see little glimpses of it every now and then.

8. Building anticipation for “Peanut’s” arrival

This one was taken at my last ultrasound—where we had hoped to see the gender. We didn’t, so baby is still “Peanut” for the time being. I love Maddie’s facial expression.

I am trying to take good care of myself. Diabetic control was excellent before pregnancy, but is becoming increasingly difficult.

9. Looking forward to the imminent completion of Cary’s dissertation, and getting “Dada” back!!!

(To say that I am REALLY looking forward to it is a gross understatement.)

The good, the bad, and the ugly

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 01:58:00 +0000

The kids are often very good helpers. When directly supervised (sometimes with prodding), they stay on task, get a lot done, and even have fun doing it.

Gwyn, Maddie, and Lana washing dishes

Lana, Maddie, and Gwyn making Cary’s birthday cake

Everett cooking meat for Cary’s birthday lasagna

Cary enjoying his birthday lasagna (His birthday was in May, and the kids did a great job getting everything ready and making cards for him. They also enjoyed sampling everything)

Lana, Maddie, and Gwyn helping in the garden

Like I said, they are good little helpers when supervised. But it gets a little ugly when they’re not supervised. Unfortunately, that has happened more often than I would like since I have been rather tired/nauseated for the last almost 19 weeks. Sometimes I nap whether I want to or not. Sometimes everything’s fine when I wake up, and sometimes it’s a disaster.

Today we came home from church, I got lunch for everyone, then I had to take a nap. When I woke up, the livingroom was trashed. We had to get ready to go to dinner, so I had the kids do a quick clean up and off we went. We got home at bed time, so I told them to put their shoes away and get ready for bed.

I got the kids to bed (there was carrying on, water all over the bathroom, etc, but it got done), and then Cary informed me that our home teachers would arrive in about half an hour. I went downstairs and nearly keeled over. No one had put their shoes away and the livingroom was still covered in toys, books, trash, etc. I quickly cleaned it all up, thinking all the while “I shouldn’t be doing this. I should be saving this for the children to clean up tomorrow.” But I would be too embarrassed for anyone to see our house in that state. I came to the conclusion that anything I had to clean up would disappear. Tomorrow the children will find that they have no toys to play with, no books to read, and no shoes to wear. We’ll see how this goes. I need to be able to ask them to do something and have it get done whether I’m watching them or not. Do you think it will work? I sure hope so. I’m getting tired of the mess and destruction.

Delinquent blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 00:06:00 +0000

I started out well with blogging. I was excited about it. It was like a journal with pictures that I could immediately share with family and friends! The fact that a few other people were reading it and looking forward to posts helped to motivate me to keep it up. (Plus the fact that the kids are so cute and I wanted a record of every bit of cuteness.) I have never been good at keeping a journal, and I think I let my some of my old issues bog me down with the blogging too. I get busy, stressed, etc, and I stop for a while. Then I feel like I can’t skip important events, so I want to “catch up” before I continue with the now current events. Then I get to the point where I don’t know if I can ever catch up and it feels like a huge project. I am going to try to repent. I’m starting with what’s happening now, and if I happen to get a chance to go back and catch up on something else I will. So don’t be surprised if you see me writing about something that happened six months ago (or more) every now and then.

For now, here I am at 19 weeks:

I will be posting photos of my cute kids soon. I promise.

Boys

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 23:54:00 +0000

So I went to pick up this guy from a birthday party

and I came home with this:

I think something went wrong.

Speaking of changes…

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 01:22:00 +0000

If all goes well, “Peanut” will be joining us sometime in November!!!

Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Tue, 04 May 2010 23:44:00 +0000

When Everett started Kindergarten and began bringing home treats for every holiday, I was mildly concerned that the girls might be a little jealous. But without even a word from us, Everett eagerly took out his treats and let his sisters choose whatever they wanted. He was so excited to share that he would give them their “after dinner candy” long before dinner and they would want to carry it around for a couple of hours. He has shared every last bit of his loot from every holiday.

We still have our scuffles over toys and other possessions, but we’ve come a long way from the overwhelmed little boy who would carry all of his toys around in his arms in order to keep them from his three curious little sisters. (Yes, I am a proud mama.)

Pets

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:38:00 +0000

(I know this is a rather random topic, but I figure that it’s something my kids will enjoy reading later.)

I saw a tiny baby bunny in the back yard today. Cary was thinking about scooping it up in a bucket and putting it in the woods somewhere. I’m a big softy, and it reminded me of the one I used to have as a pet. I figure that as long as we have a garden fence, bunnies are just cute.

I had a lot of pets as a kid, and would probably have one now except that:

1. I have four small children to take care of, and my plate is full.

2. I have four small children who would likely terrorize a pet (unintentionally of course).

There are other reasons, but those are the two biggest.

My first “pet” was a toad. We lived in a farmhouse near a couple of ponds, and would often see frogs or toads in the evening, sitting on our sidewalk. My toad was named McKenzie. I’m sure he was really several toads, and maybe even a frog or two, but I was convinced that he was my pet and that he kept coming around because he liked me. He even followed me to my new house. I was so excited to see him again.

After that I had some hamsters and we had lots of cats. The hamsters weren’t very memorable because they weren’t too fond of being held or petted, but I really loved the cats. Motley, Purrball, and Jake were a few. Jake was probably my favorite. He was a stray that became part of the family. He was orange, very loving, and drooled like crazy when he was happy. He often slept on my pillow at night. It’s amazing what awkward positions I was willing to sleep in so that cat could have his choice.

Then, I had Crumpet, my pet rabbit. I learned a lesson I would never forget from Crumpet. My brother Jordan had cared for rabbits for years. I fell in love with a little one at the fair, and thought it would be wonderful to have a pet bunny of my own. My parents got him for me and I eagerly took him home and fed him, let him run around, etc. I loved Crumpet, but not enough. When winter came I got lazy. One day I went out to find him dead, with the water in his dish frozen solid. Crumpet had died because of my neglect. I cried and cried. I was sad that he was gone, but mostly I was sad because I knew it was all my fault. How could I be so selfish and let a living thing die just because I didn’t want to go out in the cold? I was so ashamed of myself. I’m sure the experience did me good, though I’m still sorry that Crumpet had to pay for it.

My last pet was Stuart. Cary and I wanted to have children as soon as I finished school, but things don’t always happen the way we want them to. It would be three more years before Everett would join our family. It was very hard for me to wait, and sometimes very stressful and emotional. I worked at a portrait studio at the time, and would take pictures of babies and children all day. I also had a hard time when I would hear of someone who expecting and didn’t want to be. We got Stuart when he was a tiny kitten, and he was a great comfort to me—someone else to love while I waited for Everett.

I’m sure that our kids will get to have pets too, when the time is right.

I guess it’s a girl.

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:01:00 +0000

We haven’t seen “How to Train Your Dragon”, but we got the toy dragon from McDonalds. This is what Lana did with hers:

The best medicine

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:12:00 +0000

I walked into the kitchen the other day to see this:

Lana is wearing a beach hat, and has carefully laid out a large handkerchief on the floor, spread with all kinds of play food from her basket. She is having a picnic.

Maddie and Gwyn have each put both of their legs into one sleeve of their jackets, and are flopping around on the floor. They are mermaids.

While they are currently capable of trashing the house in a matter of minutes, these girls make me laugh all the time. I love seeing the products of their imaginations.

Our Christmas Card, to You

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:01:00 +0000

I’ve been a little delinquent this year with my Christmas cards. I only mailed cards to family members, and those got sent out today so they won’t even be there on time. For those of you who didn’t receive a card, I’m sorry. I wanted to send one, but I will at least put our Christmas well-wishes online.

Merry Christmas!

With love, from Cary, Mandy,

Everett, Lana, Gwyn, and Maddie