A visit from Frank...

Christmas is in full swing at the Campbell house. The tree is up (not decorated yet...tonight I hope!) and the rest of the indoor decor is up too.

Scott was visited by his Christmas elf for the first time this year last night. His Christmas elf, as it turns out is the son of my Christmas elf from growing up, who has since retired, and the brother of Parker J.'s Christmas elf. Franklin, Scott's elf, left a long note to Scott about who he was and how he has been watching Scott be such a good boy (and of course reporting back to Santa). Scott was especially good over this Thanksgiving break, he learned a lot and shared well with all of his friends, and it did not go unnoticed. Yesterday in fact Scott played so nicely at Ryker's house with Daddy, Ryker, Maddox and Beau while mommy and Andy had a girl's day out (it was SPECTACULAR, great company, great food, great shopping!!!) so Franklin figured it would be the perfect night for his first visit. He left Scott his very own Christmas Nativity Scene. Scott has been very interested in all of our Christmas decorations this and has done a wonderful job of playing carefully with them (only one minor Santa hat snafu on an ornament) so the elves figured it was high time Scott have a decoration of his own...not to mention Mommy is not putting out her nativity this year due to its breakable nature, sentimental value and lack of free out of reach surface area.

Scott got up this morning and found his nativity first thing (before breakfast....if you know Scott you know we do NOTHING before breakfast....he asks for "nack" the moment I get him from his crib). Mimi and Papa were spending the night so Scott shared his find with Mimi this morning.

It was a hit! Scott especially loved the animals and baby Jesus (whom he calls baby and if he gives it to you he expects you to rock him in your hands) he also learned to say "Mary".

Please note Scott's snowmen friend to the right. The moment he came inside for decorating Scott has carried him around the house everywhere he goes. If Scott ends up in a room without him he says "oh, where man?" The snowman even spent the night in Scott's room last night.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was full of friends, fun and food at the Campbell house. Mimi and Papa, Matt, Hilary and Jay, and Beau, Alexis, Ryker and Maddox came over for a Thanksgiving feast and LOTS of playing! We started the day in the "cave". Mimi and Papa just got new appliances at their house so they brought the washer/dryer box to play in....it was hours of fun (still is). Scott insisted Mimi or Papa be in the cave with him at all times. The picture above Hilary was lifting up a blanket covering the entrance to surprise the boys...they laughed harder each time! It was hilarious!

When Ryker got there it made for even more fun. The 3 oldest boys had a great time and got along really well. Ryker is such a good example for the littler boys....which is a good thing because there are even more little boys on the way.

I have zero pictures of the dinner portion of the evening...it was delicious chaos! After dinner was cleaned up we had pie and ice cream (with some gluten and dairy free choices too!). Ryker helped me serve everyone...he was such a wonderful helper....so careful and didn't spill a drop, but had he spilled it would have been ok because we had more than enough pie : )

Some of the guests enjoying desert and company.

Scott had some bites of ice cream and a little bit of whip cream too...he was delighted...

Mimi is always willing to give another bite!!!

So after pie and ice cream for all it was time to work off that energy. These 3 boys went absolutely wild...and surprisingly: no major injuries were sustained!

Baby dog pile on Uncle Beau!

The whole time we watched the boys run around, jump off of things, wrestle etc. I kept thinking to myself that this is only with 3 of them. Maddox was too little to join in the action this year and by next year Scott's little brother will be on the scene. Not to mention Hilary's sis in law is having a boy and so are our good friends Adam and Crystal. I'm really trying to encourage someone to build a foam pit with padded walls in their backyard or garage so we have a safe place for them all to be boys!

We had a wonderful time with our family and friends - we are so thankful for you, and for everyone we didn't get to spend the day with!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Playdough!!!!

Wednesday we made our very first batch of play dough. SUCCESS!!! It turned out great (my first time making it since I helped my mom make it 20 something years ago) and Scott loved it!

We made "tootles" (turtles) and "roars" (dinosaurs) and Scott wanted each of them to wear a hat. My sculpting skills are not as great as my play dough making skills, but Scott was able to recognize what I made so that's the important part right?

It was so much fun, I'm sure we will be getting out daily from here on out!

Noah's Ark

We have been having such a fun Thanksgiving week. On Tuesday Andy, Zoey, Scott and I went to the Noah's Ark exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center. It was a wonderful day! We got there a bit early (because who knew that it doesn't open until noon on weekdays? not us.) So we had some time to kill. We grabbed an early lunch then played in the courtyard outside. A few minutes into running around the courtyard the kids found a small puddle and proceeded to splash and get soaked (completely soaked in Scott's case) before we headed inside. With no change of clothes for Scott I definitely got some strange looks for a) letting my child play in the puddle in the first place and b) going into the exhibit with drenched khaki pants on...mother of the year people! Whatever....he dried fast.

Once we got in we listened as the one of the docents told us the story of Noah's Ark and explained details of the exhibit - like how everything was made from recycled and repurposed materials.

Then in we went to see all the neat animals. At first Scott and Zoey hardly knew what to do with themselves. There were so many things to see.

The Ark.

The kids were allowed to touch (and climb) on everything....Scott had a camel ride first thing.

The giraffes were also a favorite of Scott's.

Zoey enjoying the wheelbarrow

Hanging out in the corn house

With puppets (there were TONS of different animals puppets...and two of each of course!)

The hallway between two of the rooms displayed many Noah's Arks - they were so gorgeous....Scott could not understand why they were behind glass and he couldn't play with them.

Arks need to be cleaned of course...Zoey didn't mind helping out

I think the highlight for Scott was this wooden ark with two of each animal, just the perfect size for him to stand and play at. Once he found this, it was over. He kept coming back to it...sometimes he would get distracted for a minute and go look at something else but within a minute or two he found his way back to the ark. If only we could build one for our house....what do you think daddy?

Another view of the ark...

Scott and Zoey enjoying the swing

And the walrus chairs

Aaaaaand...back to the ark!

It is an amazing exhibit and I highly recommend it. We may even try to get back at some point (don't know how long its there for?). And its free for kids under 2!

Thanks for a great day A & Z!

Turkey Hands

As promised, Scott's finished turkey hands project. He really loved the tracing of his hand portion but then really wanted the scissors as I was cutting the hands out. Then he really loved gluing them onto the paper...until about the last 5 or 6 then he was totally over it and just wanted to play with the glue stick, so I put the last 5 or so on and I cheated a little and balanced the turkey a little. I did the body and Scott glued it on. Then I tried to get Scott to hold up his project for a picture - no dice!

He was onto to big and better by then, we built a neighborhood and train station, turkey hands were this mornings gig mom!

Last night Scott's Grandma and G-pa came for a visit before Thanksgiving. They brought us a fun snowman band Christmas decoration and Scott is OBSESSED! It took him 2 seconds to find the buttons to turn the guys on and he spent the rest of the evening turning them on and carrying them around the house! Totally hilarious!

Scott with his Grandma and G-pa during their visit. Can you even stand his cute grin?!??!!! "CHEEEEEESE"

Meena, Meeta & Peeta

What language is that you ask? Oh, its just some of Scott's latest vocabulary. And you won't be able, in a million years, to guess what they mean!!!

Meena: Music, used when sitting in the car and pointing to the radio for me to turn on the tunes. Or at home he points to the iPod for music and dancing ("danty")

Meeta: Mickey Mouse

Peeta: blanket - I think I've mentioned this in another post...but don't ask me how got to peeta from blanket.

He can pretty much say or repeat any word nowadays. We are extremely careful with what we say in front of him as he has already repeated C-R-A-P - oops!

Another favorite of mine is Scott saying Charlie, pronounced "Chawweee", its so cute! And he also describes everything as "neat" lately which is hilarious. And when he asks about something or is trying to figure something out and you explain it he says "Oooh"!

He is getting really good at the ABCs and loves to repeat them back. He can say "A-B-C-B" on his own but then needs help figuring out what comes next but when I say it he can repeat each letter perfectly. He especially likes saying "R, P, and S". He also likes to go to his easel and pretend to write the letters on the board, well not pretend, he's really writing. When we practice them together I write them on the easel as we say them so he likes to do the writing now as well.

In other news: we are so excited to be starting Thanksgiving week. Brian has the whole week off so we have lots of fun family activities planned, possibly including counter tops (fingers crossed people!). We are having a very low key Thanksgiving day with family and some close friends coming over to eat and play all day! And I'm just thrilled to be pregnant during the holidays again - all of my clothes are built for expanding bellies so bring on the turkey! Brian being off also leaves plenty of time for Christmas decorating - quite possibly my favorite thing to do ever! Christmas music is already in full force and the weather is getting pretty chilly so its going to be a great week!

Scott did a turkey hands craft today so when he gets up from his nap I will be sure to get pictures of him holding his masterpiece and post those later!

Happy Thanksgiving week friends!

Pismo beach camping

What a weekend! Brian took a half day on Friday and we drove up to Pismo for the weekend. It was Scott's first camping trip!

The trip started off a little rough as it was raining the whole way up and the whole first evening. Keeping a 20 month old entertained in someone else's motor home gets less fun as the evening progresses. We got to sleep in the empty toy trailer which sure beat sleeping in a tent in the rain which was great, but there was a bit of an incident the first night resulting in a bloody mouth for Scott and lots of tears (for Scott and for mommy) - so between the rain and the injury it is a wonder I didn't make Brian pack us up and head home that night....but we toughed it out and the rest of the weekend turned out great!

Saturday was sunny all day and Scott discovered all the motorcycles ("BIKE"). At first he was happy to just sit on all of them, but it wasn't long until daddy took Scott on a ride...resulting in "Daddy, more ride, peas!" being the theme of the rest of the weekend.

Just sitting by himself!

We also spent some time playing in daddy's truck. It was the blazer's maiden voyage to Pismo (or anywhere outside of our immediate neighborhood and Malibu for the day) which was pretty exciting for us (ahem, Brian).

Sweet ride baby boy!

We even got a family picture in the blazer (don't be shocked if you see this one again in Christmas card format, shots of the 3 of us {looking decent or otherwise} are few and far between)

Bump bump bump....22ish weeks!

Told ya they went for a ride....Scott couldn't get enough....he is totally hooked.....wonderful (sarcasm) : /

We also did a little photo shoot of the blazer

As a special treat daddy took us for a ride along the beach and Scott got to sit up front in my lap (since we were only going about 5mph and no sand dunes). It was the first time I've ridden in the blazer in years and Scott's first time ever!

At night we snuggled up by the fire for great company and smores. Scott even ended up falling asleep laying with me by the fire (best day ever, he is not a snuggler) wrapped up in his "pita" (pita is Scott's word for blanket...I have no idea how but there it is).

Sunday morning we went for a few more rides with daddy, in our jams no less.

We headed home mid day in time to stop for an early dinner in Ventura to celebrate Mimi's birthday. We had fish tacos at Beach Tacos on the pier - to.die.for.good....spicy garlic shrimp tacos - omg I could have eaten 10! A side note: I had Scott practice saying "happy birthday mimi" on thursday (her actual birthday) to say on the phone. So we get her on the phone and I tell him to say it...he says "happy neigh neigh mimi!!!!" Hilarious!

Pismo was great and I can't wait for our next camping trip! Scott did so well and really enjoyed spending time with his cousins!