The best 4 years of my life...

On December 27th, Ben and I celebrated our 4th Anniversary! I can't believe he has put up with me for that long... My sweet mom and dad got us a room at the amazing Intercontinental Hotal in Atlanta and kept Campbell for us. We went up Wednesday afternoon and went straight to Ikea - and bought our Anniversary gifts to each other... kitchen curtains, a storage unit for our bedroom, shelves for the bedroom, etc. I love that place - I could spend DAYS (and millions)there! We then went to dinner at an upscale mexican restaurant named Rosa Mexicana. (thanks for the suggestion Brian!) They have amazing margaritas and prepare guacamole tableside. Yum! The fist picture is the view from our room - it was beautiful (and much better than the Ritz) The second picture is from our first anniversary in NYC - time flies!

Wow - am I bad at this...

Please bare with me... since it has been a while, I have lost some of my blogging skills and forgot to put the slideshow on the Christmas post. Plus, most of my pictures are turning the wrong way, I can't figure out how to add captions to pictures, help!

Campbell's First Christmas

Christmas came and went in a blur - lots of traveling, and lots of toys! It was so fun to see Campbell open presents and experience Christmas for the first time. We went to a "Happy Birthday Jesus" party at my parents church on Christmas Eve and Campbelled loved it - but not as much as Daddy, Papa and Uncle Brian! :) As commercialized as Christmas is getting, I hope Campbell will always know Christmas as the birthday of our savior... plus, we are still trying to figure out this santa thing. I had santa growing up, Ben did not. Neither one of us want to lie to our daughter, or make Christmas about a man in a red suit and not Jesus birth - so what do we do? I would love any ideas or suggestions from you veteran parents as Ben and I start to establish our own Christmas traditions for our family.

Joy's Christmas Shower

One of my best friends, Joy Ogle, is getting married in March! We had a Christmas shower for her the second weekend in December, and she got tons of great stuff... I was very jealous! Congrats Joy!

*Side note: I failed to explain the random cake picture in the last post... I tried a new recipe (Pumpkin Spice Cake with homemade icing) for Thanksgiving and was really proud that it turned out okay - or maybe Ben was lying...

So very Thankful...

Ben had to work on Thanksgiving, which was sad... but, I did get to spend the day with someone very special. My very dear friend Katie McDowell Isaak (who discipled me in high school and who has had a HUGE impact on my spiritual life) was in town from Canada and I got to eat Thanksgiving lunch with her and several other friends. I haven't seen Katie in a really long time, so this was a real treat. She got to meet Campbell, and we got to catch up for several hours before taking Ben a plate of leftovers up to the hospital! I was (an am) thankful for many things this Thanksgiving - my wonderful, loving husband and healthy baby girl, the most amazing family and friends - and most importantly, the saving grace of Jesus... the giver of all these blessings.

 

 

 

 

War Eagle!

Campbell got to experience her first Auburn tailgate and her first Auburn football game this Fall. (not on the same day...) We took her to tailgate - and several games later while Honey & Papa were babysitting, they took her to her first game!

More pictures...

 

 

 

 

Happy Reformation Day!

We are not big Halloween people, so we'll just say these pictures are from us celebrating Reformation Day (an important day in the history of the church - celebrated the same day as Halloween) instead! :) Campbell was the cutest Sweet Pea I have ever seen - and she even got to try some candy... Daddy gave her a lick of his Dum Dum - but in the picture it looks a little like she is smoking... whoops! We took her to a few of our friends houses in Birmingham and she had a blast!

 

 

 

 

Long time no see...

We finally made a trip down to Mobile to see our good friends new baby - Taylor Villacampa. Campbell loved meeting her newest friend... It was so good to spend time with people we love and miss so much - Nick and Robyn, Annie and Scott (and Paige and Annalee!), JD and Danielle, Demetrius and Amy (and baby Jayden!) - and all of our friends from Grace Community Church. (Campbell's middle name came from this special place!) The Lord really blessed us with the most amazing body of believers while we were in Mobile - it made it so hard to move! They still are and always will be a very special part of our lives. We miss you guys!

 

 

 

 

Dr. Pamela Boyd - Auburn's Professor of the Year!

My mom was awarded Outstanding Professor at Auburn University for 2007 - congrats Honey! This is a huge honor, and we are so very proud of her... God has really given her a gift to teach. She was nominated for the award by several of her students. They had a ceremony at the Conference Center and many of her students came, as well as my moms elementry school teacher who inspired her to be a teacher - it was amazing.

 

 

More pictures from Atlanta...

 

 

 

Our Atlanta Trip

This was not a recent trip - but the pictures were too cute not to post...
We finally got to Atlanta to see Nathan and Taylor's new house and let Campbell meet her good friends Owen Morrison (son of Matt and Ginny) and Dylan Brown (daughter of Nathan and Taylor). We had a blast and wish we could see them all more often... we miss you Morrisons and Browns! The kids were so cute together...

 

 

 

 

My New Years Resolution...be a better blogger!

Happy 2008 everyone! I am not a big resolution person, but there are many things I would like to do better. One of those things is blogging. I could give you a million reasons (okay fine - excuses) as to why it has been since SEPTEMBER that I posted anything - but instead I will just beg your forgiveness. :) So, to make up for the last few months, I will try to capture all of our (mostly Campbell's) happenings... I will try to do better!

Shady Skate 280

 

 

Although the above picture needs some explaining, I must first brag on my sweet husband...

When we lived in Mobile, there was a skate center down the street from our house. I always begged him to take me, and tried to force our friends to go too. Not only did I want to go skate - I wanted a skating birthday party. Yes - you heard right... a skating birthday party. Well that never happened, and then I got pregnant and couldn't skate at all. I had since forgotten about my strong desire to go skating, since I had seen no skate centers in Birmingham.

So, on Saturday night - the day before my 26th birthday - Ben blindfolded me and said we were going to dinner. I got in the car, very excited but curious. (those of you who know me well, know that I LOVE surprises...) 20 minutes later, Ben helped me out of the car - my eyes watering from the blindfold, and I heard this loud thumping music in the distance. As we walked, the music got louder - until Ben opened the door and took off my blindfold. Several of my favorite friends jumped out and yelled surprise over the music of... SKATE 280 - Birmingham's premier skate center.

Finally, I got the skating party of my dreams - complete with all the skating, rap music, pizza, diet coke, and Zoe's chocolate cake my heart desired. Not only that - but they welcomed our party over the loudspeaker, we got to see Emily get plowed over by an overzealous speedskater (and no, it wasn't Ben), AND Auburn beat Florida! What a night...

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

So, first I should apologize for taking so long to get an update posted... and -this is my first official post! Ben has finally showed me how to navigate the blog, so I am taking the reigns because of his busy schedule...
This weekend my parents came up for my birthday, and today we took Campbell to the zoo for the first time. The weather was perfect - and we had a blast (other than parking forever away and having to take a shuttle - school bus - to the actual zoo, with baby, parents, grandparents, stroller, carseat, diaper bag, and baby bjorn all in tow!) Don't know just how many animals Campbell actually noticed - but she did hear the tiger roar (go auburn!) so that was good enough. :) Here are some pictures...

P.S. Parksies - for some strange reason, the Gators weren't out at their exhibit today - they must have had a rough weekend...