Merry Christmas

We never got around to mailing out Christmas Cards this year, because… well, we umm; oh yes, we wanted to help save the planet and reduce waste and our carbon footprint and all that earth loving stuff. Pfft, you probably thought it was because we are slackers and maybe a bit unorganized and never made it to the post office to mail then even though they were all filled out and in the envelopes sitting on the counter and Carrie had asked me to mail them and I never did. Nope it's definitely the first thing

Here is your Christmas Card

M&E

The photos were done by someone else, but I did go the layout (does that count). Anyway, we like it and thought we would share this with any of you that actually read this blog. :)

it never gets old

Elf Yourself

and Rock'n Out

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

a moment in time

Do you ever wish you could freeze moments in time? Well you can't. So what I have done is take photos of life as it passes by. Here are two photos of our life at the moment.

Max is making progress in freeing himself of diapers.





Evelyn is learning to sit up with the assistance of her Bumbo chair

What should I eat?

At least that's what I imagine he is thinking while looking in the refrigerator.

October

Thought we'd get the whole month in in one post.

We'll start with trip to Southbrook Pumpkin Patch, where Max took a ride on the SPP bus. We came here last year and enjoyed it so we thought we'd come back again


A quick look at the gigantic tractor tires. Next year I'm sure Max will be climbing all over these.


From there it's back home to carve our pumpkins. The boy did more licking of the pumpkins then he did carving or gutting.


The finished pumpkins. There are only 2, the big one has the crying face (Evelyn) and the triangle eyes (Me). The small one is Max and Carrie didn't make her face because…


Getting ready to go out "Trick or Treating". A shot of the girl sitting around waiting.


The boy with his moustache and goatee


Here they are in their costumes


After visiting the lobbies of both buildings, Max and I went out and hit up the townhomes for a little extra loot.


Check out the haul.


That's it.

Hope the rest of you soup blogger post your Halloween excitement too. yes that means you cough cough Trish, Amy, Dee, Heather, Sarah, other Sarah cough. :)

Movember

Q: What is Movember?

A: It's a campaign to help change the face of mens health, by raising awareness of cancer in men.

Q: Why should I care?

A: Because 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and thousands will die from it. Take a look at your family and friends. Do you know 6 different men. Well statistically one of them will have to deal with cancer and could die from it.

Q: Why is it Called Movember?

A: The men that sign up to participate will be growing a mo (moustache) for the entire month of November

Q: So how do I get involved?

A: Go to the Movember website and sign up. Start off November first clean shaven, then grow your mo for the entire month.

Q: What if I'm girl and can't grow a mo?

A: Encourage the men around to you to get involved and grow their mo.

Q: What if I don't like donating to charities because only a portion of the actual money donated goes to the cause?

A: It's not all about the money. It's the awareness that is the most important. The more men that get checked out by a doctor the better. By simply talking about cancer you are helping.

Q: What if I do want to donate to charities because I know that even though only a portion of the money raised is going to the cause every little bit helps.

A: You can donate to the cause through me by going to my MoSpace Page

So what are you waiting for, go get involved. Sign up or donate you decided, but don't do nothing.

Family Photo

Figured it was about time we took a new family photo. I'm still trying to figure out this whole portrait photography thing. Yes I know the shadows are too harsh, it's noisy, not very sharp and the composition is lacking, but I'm posting the pic anyway. :)

family of four

Max moments

there's not really a story with these photos. I like them and I thought I'd share 'em with ya'll

this first one is shot of Max after chasing a squirrel up a tree.


this (in case you couldn't tell) is a shot of Max after eating a peanut butter sandwich.

Apple Picking

As most of you know, my Mom was up here to see her new Granddaughter. We decided to go apple picking (little did we know that she would go apple picking with Nate and Doe's family a week later in North Carolina) in an effort to keep Mom for getting bored.

We packed up the car and headed to Chudleighs Farm to pick our apples.

They had a massive play area with some really steep slides. if you look at the photo you will see a bunch of scuff marks on the slide just above Max's head. That is where the slide changes from a 50° slope to a 30°. It looks a lot steeper when you are at the top of it. Max liked the slide and we went down three times before the lineup got too long and we moved on to play elsewhere.


The petting zoo area was a lot of fun because the goats where chasing Max. (Didn't get photos of that, cause I was chasing after him too) The Cows however where not moooving at all (sorry I couldn't resist)


Once we were out in the orchard we stopped to take some photos. Here is GG (Grandma Gretchen) with two of her favorite grandchildren.


Then we decided to get a quick family picture.


Carrie shot this one of Max and I with our big bag of apples


And that was our day out picking apples.

Making Dessert

I had Max help me make a banana pudding dessert and Carrie decided to film some of it. Once the pudding was on there he couldn't resist sneaking into it, so this time I grabbed the camera and filmed him while doing a bit of cleaning up.

Max Max Max Max

just a fun image of Max playing on the playground.


and okay I throw in the one of Him and I cheering from the bleachers.

how Evelyn got her name

We posted all the names that we (Carrie) liked on the wall and had Max choose the name he liked best. Before Max was allowed to choose we showed him a picture of the baby on the iPad (pampers hello baby app) and explained to him that she needed a name and then asked him to choose one from the wall.

Another Campbell

This is where I will be updating you all. So check back here if you want to be up to date.

2:00 Epidural is in and things are much calmer now. Looks like this baby will be here before most of you wake up.





6:45 still nothing. We are just waiting for this little girl to arrive. Everything is progressing normally. I got about an hours sleep so I'm good to go. Carrie has been able to get a little more sleep then that. All in all I'd say we are doing okay.

7:20 baby will be here just as soon as the Doc arrives and says "start pushing"

8:15 Doc says it too early to push so we are back to waiting.


9:20 here we go

9:25 Evelyn Frances Campbell is here pics to follow 9lbs 14oz

Max was the one that named her. There will be a post on that later, with video.





we've been asked to post more pics of Evelyn so here they are.

Nanny holding Eve


Max is still a little unsure about his sister


another shot of Evelyn to appease the masses

Baby Blanket

Just finished the blanket for our new little one



I tried making the stuffed animal out of the lion, twice, but it just wouldn't work for me so I tried the giraffe. If you think it looks funny in the photo you should see it in real life, it's hilarious.

Kitchen Reno

I'm calling it finished, and posting pictures. Now before we get to the good stuff I'll post a few "work in progress" images.

okay there were too many to post, so I've created this fun little time lapse video for you.



and now to the panoramas:

before

after

after (from the other side)

a 360° view

before and after together


This project started way back in January when we (Carrie) decided that it would be a good idea to renovate our kitchen. Well seven months, countless trips to Home Depot, Rona, and Lowe's, a bit of blood, a lot of sweat, a truck load of swears, a dead vacuum, and lots of cleaning up (thanks Carrie) it's finished. And we did it all with out a single trip to a Marriage Counsellor.

Although I'm sure there were times when Carrie wanted to just "call in the professionals", (I was about ready to with the plumbing) we did it all ourselves. It's not perfect, but neither are we. :)

Zoo/Splash Park

As the temperature goes up you have to find ways to stay cool. So a trip to the Zoo's splash park was the order of the day.

We were a little early for the splash park so we went to visit the Polar Bear

Still not open, so off to see the Arctic Wolf

Now it's time to get wet. Mom easing him into the water

Max is a little timid in swimming pools so we figured he may be the same here. We were wrong

He wasn't down for more then two minutes before he was soaked

Max loved the duck so much he decided to give him a hug.

Dad and Max playing.

We beat the heat this week. Now we only have ten and a half more weeks to get through before Autumn begins.

sk8

Max and I where playing on the skateboard in the house and he was having so much fun I thought we would take it with us when we went out for a walk. So after our lunch we went out to have a skate.

He stands on the board fine but doesn't always look where he is going. (we are working on that part)

Once he is on the board I will push him and let him ride by himself. Yes he is moving in this photo, I just didn't to a good job of showing it.



We also ride together. (Carrie took this shot when we went out after dinner. Just in case you were wondering why the lighting is different)



watch Max go!