The Campbell Fam

That’s what you get

lexylou18 — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:39:27 +0000

Brody knows not to come out of his room during nap/quiet time. Today was bitter sweet. He’s such a good obedient little sucker (yeah right) that he pooped in his room instead of coming out and using the bathroom right next to his room! At least he’s pooping massive logs instead of soft ice cream! lol.

Something………………….

lexylou18 — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 02:54:08 +0000

Something you want, Something you need,

Something to wear, Something to read.

My good friend Tawny told me about this saying and we used it as a guideline for Christmas this year. I feel like every Christmas it’s hard to find a balance on what Santa gets the kids and this was a great way to do it. My older boys were saying that Mom, Dad, Grandma and Papa always get them lame gifts like clothes! What?! Actually it’s true, but this year that all changed but honestly I don’t think they even noticed who gave them what. I feel like my kids got a perfect amount of gifts and got fun stuff and stuff that was needed. I will defiantly be using this saying every year from here on out.

What a great Christmas season this was. It was my favorite by far. I’m pretty sure this was the last “magical” year of Santa for Jackson and Ayden so we soaked it up. They were so excited. We talked about it all the time and watching non-stop Christmas movies and just lived in the magic. After watching one movie the boys were up stairs and they were talking about if they believed in Santa and Jackson said “oh he’s real FOR SURE”, Ayden said “I only think he’s 50% real”. I love listening to their conversations, they crack me up!

Christmas Eve we had a wonderful ham dinner that Ryan make for us. We watched a Christmas movie and check where Santa was stopped at online. The boys love that! Christmas morning was soooooooooooo wonderful! All of my kids were so cute. Leah got a HUGE pixar art set with All the Toy Stories, Ratatouille and Finding Nemo, stickers, crayons, markers, stamps, paper. To watch her eyes pop out of her head was priceless. She kept screaming and stomping around with joy. Jackson and Ayden were ripping presents open not caring who’s was who’s and loving everything. Brody got a balance bike and kept yelling “for me mom”? over and over again. Jackson got a bathrobe and a shark tooth necklace and kept telling us that he feels like a “man” in his bathrobe, who knows where the kid got that from, Ryan doesn’t wear a robe. (side note: Pajama day is on Monday and he can hardly wait to wear his bathrobe to school!)

We got the game “Life” from my sister and my kids have been playing it non-stop. It’s great listening to there reasoning and already life experiences. Jackson wants to for sure marry a girl from “high circumstances” which we have no clue what that means, but it’s a big deal. We asked him what circumstances we are in and he said the middle, lol, but Ayden is low circumstances and will probably marry a girl from low circumstances. Where is this kid getting him info from?! Jackson also only wants 2 kids because he hates the babies and thinks that Ryan and I hate them too-uh oh!! Ayden wants 7 kids, so he makes up for our bad parenting.

What we really needed this year was a new camera, but the budget didn’t make that happen, so sorry you have to look at our crappy pics. Enjoy!

Checking on Santa before going to bed

Stocking!! They’re kinda a big deal at our house(Brody ate 95% of all the candy that morning!)

Leah was stomping and jumping around like a crazy women! I couldn’t get a good pic of her

sibling presents

Cars 2! We’ve been watching it non-stop ever since

“My Man” in his bathrobe w/his cool shark tooth necklace

Batman on his balance bike

My boys doing what they do best, playing the new Xbox

Ninjago HEAVEN!!

Ryan and I got the boys these awesome helicopters and they are a family hit! They are so cool Ryan wants one for himself.

Ready, set, Christmas!

lexylou18 — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:21:50 +0000

Christmas is a go at the Campbell household. We are set, we got the tree and decorations up and are now patiently awaiting Santa’s arrival. The kids have the entire week off before Christmas. Let’s hope all the kids survive the week!

We headed to a U-Cut Christmas tree place. We braved it for the first time with all 4 kids and it wasn’t a nightmare. Leah had a blast running wildly through all of the tree. Luckily it was at like a farm and fenced in so she couldn’t get lost in the forest. It was a beautiful sunny day(Love livin’ in Oregon) and we all had fun!! Then we headed home and make some holiday cookies and decorated.

Picking out the Christmas Tree.

Ayden helped me make cookies while we decorated the tree, Leah “helped” me scoop the cookies on to the cookie sheet.

My boys decorating the Christmas Tree.

I realized after doing a year photo book for my parents that we hardly have any pics with me in them. So I just had to take one of me with my boys.

ugh, the bug!

lexylou18 — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:17:38 +0000

It looks like I got the bug, the running bug that is. I’ve spent the majority of my youth years running. I’ve always done 5k’s, 10k’s and I ran the mile and 1 1/2 miles in track. But since having kids I just haven’t found any time for it and frankly have realized that I hate running! Well Mikelle invited me to do a 10 day fitness challenge with her, which was to exercise daily and burn at least 300 calories. The easiest way for me is to run, quick, easy and painless. After the 10 days I realized how much I’ve missed running. So the bug began. I’ve never in my life wanted to do a marathon or half marathon, honestly who wants to run for that long? I sure as hell don’t. BIG BUT, I needed a goal and a friend of mine signed up for a half marathon on Mother’s Day weekend. So I’m doing a half marathon in May!!!! My first. I figure that with 6 months to train I might not actually die! I ran my first 6 miles on Saturday. I wasn’t too happy with my time and realized that I need to get into the doctor and get my 2 asthma inhalers refilled if I want to actually breath while running, but all in all 6 miles wasn’t a big deal, probably because I’ve done 6 many times before. We shall see how it goes when I start adding more mileage. So here’s a cheers to running.

I hurt……………….

lexylou18 — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:13:51 +0000

Ayden had a friend over and they were up stairs playing football in his room. Brody of course wants to be wherever the boys are and joined them. Can I just tell you that a 3 year old + 8 year olds=black eye! Brody fell right into the bunk bed ladder and hit his poor eye! I’d like to say he took it like a champ, but he didn’t. It’s still very swollen and very black! lol.

front view

close up!

Thanksgiving

lexylou18 — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:07:47 +0000

We got to spend Thanksgiving with just our little family. Can I tell you how thankful I am for my little family? I love them so much and they feel my soul with joy and love. I would say most love spending holiday’s with all the crazy relatives and having it be a HUGE production, but that’s never been me. I love it being just us. We got to watch movies, play games, eat loads of food and hang out. Low key and on our own agenda. Ryan cooked the Turkey and whipped up some awesome gravy and I made the rest of the side dishes. It was so wonderful.

My cute kids!

Notice that you can see Brody’s underwear in this pic? lol. His pants were falling off of him all day.

Poor Leah had a nasty cold and her nose was bleeding all week.

Leah always wants to hug on someone for a picture, it’s too cute

Scissors

lexylou18 — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:28:30 +0000

Does everybody else hate scissors like I do? Scissors + kids=nothing good. Today Brody found some scissors and cut off his beautiful locks on the crown of his head! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! He’s our first kid to cut their own hair. I’m sure your saying to yourself, “but he’s a boy, who cares”? Well I do! We’ve been growing it out for a year now and it’s so long, silky and beautiful and now it’s going to have to be cut. ugh!!

Birthday Week

lexylou18 — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:14:59 +0000

Happy Birthday week Campbell family!! I feel horrible that I dread this week every year. Ryan was joking with me the other day saying that I purposely had 2 kids within 5 days of his birthday to make his day less special. It made me laugh because we are so different. Birthday’s have never been a big deal to me and now that I’m an adult it’s just another day in life. I’d rather celebrate only the big one’s, the 0′s and 5′s. But no worries, I’ve learned after 11 years of marriage that this week, is a big deal and we celebrate all week long!!!

Ryan’s birthday is the first of the bunch. He turned 34! Wow! I’d like to say he’s old but it’s a touchy subject, for me. When your married to a man who is 4 years older than you, yet you have people think that he’s your child’s brother not father, yet they know I’m the mom, it starts to get to you. lol. Age has been very kind to him and he is a very good looking 34 year old! I took him out on a hot date, to dinner and some downtown Portland clubbing. It was a good time getting out and being “normal” 30 somethings! lol. Later in the week we celebrated with the kids. I made his fav cake, lemon cake, and it was soooooo good.

We celebrated Leah’s birthday the same night. She doesn’t like cake or cookies or candy, or anything sweet, so why go to the trouble of making 3 cakes in one week?

Her favorite part is blowing out the candles. We had to relight it at least 5 times so she could do it again. She was blowing so hard that she kept blowing her bangs off of her forehead, it was so funny.

Leah made a haul this year. She got new boots, a doodle bear, 2 princess dresses and the movie Rio. It was an off night for her, so she wasn’t happy at all. She didn’t give a second glance at the presents but LOVED all the cards and slept with them that night! (Though we did watch Rio a millions times the rest of that week!)

I can hardly believe that my baby is 5 years old! (carrying her cards around!)

Last but not least Ayden turned 8 years old! I’m always surprised at the unsettling feeling I get when it’s Ayden’s birthday. Jackson is my oldest, so I expect him to get old, but Ayden still seems like my sweet little boy and I don’t want him to grow up! I just can’t believe he’s 8, where has the time gone?

We did a big party for him this year. We did Sunset Lanes bowling(like Jackson’s) so he could get his VIP gaming card. He could hardly wait all week for his birthday party to come. Saturday morning he was bursting from the seams for it to start! He had a great time hanging out with his friends and messing around.

Sunday morning on his actual birthday we celebrated with his favorite breakfast, breakfast burritos w/bacon and hash browns and he opened all of his birthday cards from his family. He got 80 bucks! Holy Cow!

School Pics

lexylou18 — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:16:16 +0000

My boys school pics are finally here!! Yay! Jackson had to get retakes cause the picture was blurry, hello stupid company, don’t take blurry pictures, I’m just sayin’! They both turned out great! Man I’ve got some good looking boys.

I haven’t gotten new pics for Brody and Leah. They are little nightmare’s and it’s just not worth the headache for me. I may attempt to get some of Brody soon, we’ll see……….

Don’t you be an asshole

lexylou18 — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:48:56 +0000

One of my friends posted this article on FB and it really hit home to me. I know Leah isn’t autistic but I still share/live in this mother’s world having a child with a disability. Five through two really ring true in my life. I really try to avoid going anywhere with Leah. Not that I’m scared of what people are going to say, because I’m a tough chick, but mostly because it’s very physically, mentally and emotionally hard on me. But I do work really hard to get over myself and expose my daughter to the things that will help us move into positive growing and going out in public and doing “normal” things in on the list. I often wish that others knew what it is I go through on a daily basis with my daughter but they don’t and probably never will.

Article below:

We’ve all been there. Every autism mom has had at least one encounter with some insensitive jackass who insulted our children or criticized our parenting. It might have been the perfectly groomed soccer mom who said your child was merely spoiled, or maybe the old biddy that told you to take your screaming kid outside even though you were already dragging him out the door in a Fireman Carry, or maybe just some random mean guy who muttered, “This is why I hate kids” under his breath while your child happily flapped past him.

Usually we just have to mention “autism” and the critics slink away, embarrassed and with their tails between their legs, but every now and then you meet somebody who is such a huge asshole they don’t care if your kid is autistic, they just care that your child’s noise/stim/existence is annoying to them, and they don’t hesitate to tell you about how obnoxious your child is and what a terrible job you’re doing raising him.

Sometimes their callousness shocks us silent, and we sit in the car afterward, thinking of all the retorts we could have made. Sometimes we take the higher ground and walk away, and sometimes we dig in and defend ourselves. (And sometimes we defend ourselves loudly and with many obscenities, but that bitch in the bookstore deserved it!)

These people who attack us are horrible because they have no empathy. They’re shallow people who probably lead miserable lives devoid of depth and meaning. They need to learn compassion and respect, but mostly they need to learn to fear us, because autism moms are not to be trifled with.

Top Five Reasons You Should Never Piss Off an Autism Mom

Five. We’re Already on the Defensive

What? You think you’re the first person to think I’m a bad mother? Get in line. People have been assuming I’m a bad mother for the last five years. I chew up people who think I’m a bad parent for breakfast. You think there’s something wrong with my kid? No shit, Sherlock – this panel of physicians and psychologists agrees with you. Tell us something we don’t know. Have something new and clever to add? No? NO? I didn’t think so…

In other words, we have experience with assholes like you.

Four. We Are Not Socially Well-Adjusted

We were real people once, and we will be real people again someday, but right now we’re living on the fringe of polite society. We have cut ties and discarded the family and friends who couldn’t handle our situation. We all suffer from severe PTSD. Our houses are messy, our surfaces are sticky, and we know the words to way too many Wiggles songs. We clean up disasters that you couldn’t even begin to contemplate. We live in semi-isolation, trying to have philosophical conversations with children who only know 18 words. We wear yoga pants all day. Our lives are not like other people’s lives. Do you really want to make us angry? Or do you want to give us a really really wide berth and back away slowly because you’re scared of what we might do if we snap? Yes. Good choice.

Three. We Know How to Fight

Autism moms know how to fight because we practice. We fight all day long. We fight with doctors about treatment, and then we fight with insurance companies to get it paid for. We fight with the state over services and we fight with schools about our IEPs. We fight with our families who won’t come to visit us anymore and we fight with our husbands to let off steam from all the other fighting we’re constantly doing. We fight with our children to make them keep their pants on in public. Do you think for a second that we would hesitate to fight with a complete stranger who was totally asking for it?

Two. We’re Already Angry

Autism moms carry huge amounts of unprocessed rage just below the surface. We’re mad at god or the universe or fate or whatever it is out there that gave our children autism. We are furious at the cards we were dealt and indignant that such a horrible thing had to happen to our children. We are angry about the loss of the child we were supposed to have, and we never truly stop mourning. We’re angry at the doctors who didn’t catch it early enough and also at the doctors who did. We hold a grudge against anybody who ever failed us as we tried to make sense of this chaos, and we’re also furious at ourselves, because we constantly feel like we’re not doing enough to help and we’re secretly afraid that it might somehow be our fault in the first place. We are already walking bundles of resentment…do you want to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back?

One. We’re Sleep Deprived

Some of us haven’t had a good night’s sleep in years. Between the stress, depression, anxiety, and the kid who wakes up screaming for popsicles at 3 a.m., we’re all beyond exhausted. We’re muddled and short-tempered and irrational and crazy. Like ax murderer crazy. Like Mel Gibson crazy. There are all sorts of studies linking sleep deprivation to psychosis and that would probably hold up in court if I decided to assault you. Keep that in mind the next time you fail to keep your opinions to yourself, and beware the autism mom.