Family!

I've had family on the brain lately! Guess that's what happens when you live away from 'em! :)

So yesterday, Joseph and I decided to hang some pictures and vinyl lettering we got for Christmas from my parents. I got the idea in Hobby Lobby while looking at their vinyl quotes. So we chose a place for it and spent a LOT of time carefully peeling the vinyl off the paper and sticking it to the wall and Joseph carefully (under my supervision) :) measured and hung the pictures frames. now we just need a family picture from Campbells and it'll be complete! (This is the most crafty thing I've done in a LONG time. I've been saving it and I'm glad it's up now for us to enjoy!

I also thought I'd give a little update on the fam. as well! We're expanding!!! We're going to have a new member of our family on April 23, 2011! Her name is Amber Kimzey and it will soon be Amber Huntsman! :) Tricked ya... I know what you were thinking! :) Yep- a new sister-in-law! My brother, Mitch, is engaged!!! He and Amber met up at BYU-Idaho this last fall, started dating, fell in love, and got engaged a couple weeks ago. They're getting married over Easter Weekend in St. George, Utah! (I'm waiting for Amber to send me a pic. of the two of them and I will post it! She's SO cute and we're so excited for her to be in the fam.!)

So ALMOST as exciting as the wedding is the fact that my family is flying into PHOENIX a couple nights before and we're all driving up to St. George together! My fam. flies in on Thursday evening and we'll leave Friday morning for St. George. We'll get there, set up the church for the luncheon, and meet the Kimzey family! Mitch and Amber are getting sealed Saturday morning, then we'll have a luncheon, and a reception that night! We'll drive back to AZ on Sunday morning and my family flies back to TX that night. It will be a very FAST trip, but VERY fun too! And the other good news- Joseph has work off on Good Friday so he doesn't even have to take time off! (HUGE BLESSING!) We also just found out that my fam. gets to come to AZ for a few days in March over Brad's Spring Break! They have some good friends from their ward who are being sealed in the Mesa Temple, so we all get to go to that and enjoy a few days together here in good ol' Scottsdale! (Speaking of Scottsdale- the PGA Tour is here right now! haha We drove by the other day. Pretty crazy! Joseph said, "I don't think we belong in Scottsdale!" haha But then we remember that we live in a little apartment in Scottsdale and even we if aren't rich and don't seem to really "belong", we still love it here!)

The other exciting news about family is that Joseph requested some vacation time in June and we will be making a trip up to Utah to see his family! It'll be a long drive, but we're sure excited to spend time with the Campbells up there and escape the HEAT that will be here! :)

There is one other family member I wanted to mention. It's my brother, Austin! Austin is AWESOME. Seriously. He is currently serving a mission in Montana and he's FREEZING! :) He loves it there though and we think he's getting used to it b/c he told us this last week that it had been in the thirties and felt "warm". We try not to mention our weather here in AZ too often- but when we do, he wishes he could try it out! :) We feel especially close to Austin right now because of the time we had with him at BYU. He was there his freshman year while Joseph and I were there for our last year. He would come over to do laundry (or I'd just go pick it up and do it for him), have dinner, and just hang out. He also treated us to dinner on his "Dining Plus" card a few times and we always enjoyed that! He sure loves Alyssa and misses her a lot. He reminds us to show her pictures of him and tell her who he is so that when he gets home in July 2012, she'll know who he is. :) He's written us two letters the last couple weeks (in the MAIL) and it's so fun to receive them! We're still working on getting back to him, but soon enough, we will. :)

Anyway, just had to give a little shout-out to him. He's doing amazing things as he's dedicated two years of his life to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Joseph reminded him in a recent letter to enjoy the time he had as it was the only time in his life he could devote 100% of his time to the work of the Master. Pretty amazing!

Here are a couple pictures of him and Alyssa last summer. MAN I miss this kid...

Christmas Catch-Up

This is about 5 weeks late- but better late than never! :)

As I mentioned earlier, we had Christmas with the 3 of us this year and it was WONDERFUL! Christmas Eve was very fun, and I was so excited for Christmas morning. Alyssa wasn't too sure why she was opening presents the minute she woke up, but it didn't take her long to realize how fun it was.

So a little pre-Christmas present came the day before Christmas Eve. It was Joseph's present from my parents. I had him open it as SOON as he got home from work that night and told him it'd be working the next day! :) Here he is opening "it"...
He was thoroughly confused as to why he was getting a "Cox Communications Starter Kit" box...

Then I told him that his present was a month of cable!!!...

He was very excited to have ESPN and all the other sports channels to watch the bowl games and other sporting events for the month of January! It's funny how little things like cable are SUCH a big deal when you go without them for SO long! :) *Thanks Mom and Dad for the fun present!*

So back to Christmas morning... Alyssa's favorite present of the morning was the little clementine in the bottom of her stocking from Santa! :) It was just her size and fit right in her little hands. Life's simple pleasures!

The book was a close second... but notice the clementine tucked in her lap still...

And no way could we go without the binkie for a picture...

She loved her new clothes too, but the clementine still wins- she's giving it a hug here. :)

We enjoyed the day just relaxing and having fun together. Alyssa thought the batteries were a fun new toy- don't worry we took them away after the picture. She was buzzing her lips here...

She's getting so big! You can see some teeth in this shot... she has 3 molars now too! One is completely through and the other two are almost there. 12 teeth has made for some cranky nights lately, but she's still SUCH a good girl. She's walking all over the place and opens EVERY cupboard and unloads EVERYTHING from them, but we still love her more every day and she keeps getting more fun! :)

Resolutions for Focusing on the Fundamentals

So I still have some catching up to do with Christmas and stuff, but I just had to post this really quickly. The last couple weeks have been pretty hard for me. I've allowed myself to get consumed with thoughts of, "I don't do anything productive, I don't do this, and that, all I do is this and that, and I'm just not doing well at life, and things are just hard." I think a little of it has to do with the fact that we live away from family, and there are little spurts of missing them (well, we always miss them, but sometimes a LOT! :)), and missing our weekend hang-out buddies (David, Aleasha, Caleb, and Olivia- who we've never even met! :)), and having Joseph gone ALL day (after having MONTHS of time together all day, every day). I think the other portion of it has to do with little Alyssa being quite a handful sometimes. I guess I can't blame her. If I had gone from having 6 teeth to 10 and then to 12 teeth within a couple months' time, I'd probably be cranky too. (In fact, last night after putting Orajel on her gums before putting her to bed, I ended up having dreams that I was teething! haha And it hurt a LOT and I was miserable. Kind of random, and funny.)

So I've come to the consensus that being a Mom is NOT easy and staying home with a one-year old all day is NOT easy. Anyone who says it is, is lying. :) Having the only things I accomplish during the day be getting ready, eating breakfast and lunch, feeding Alyssa breakfast and lunch, having dinner ready when Joseph gets home, making the bed, picking up toys and messes from Alyssa all day, changing diapers, and maybe washing a load of laundry, does not always feel like a list of the most satisfying accomplishments in the world. I've wished I was able to make crafts, sell things and make money, have a clean house, (each room being clean all at the same time, rather than just one at a time), have a happy baby ALL day, have a perfectly decorated apartment and the list goes on and on- the list of things I've thought could make me "happy".

Anyway, I think you all understand that sometimes life is just HARD and doesn't seem "fair". And it's easy to think about it when you have ALL DAY by yourself (or with a one-year old who doesn't talk. :)) But the other night for FHE, I became refocused and was reminded of "Things That Matters Most." I know I've mentioned President Uchtdorf's talk before from last conference, but we read it again the other night for FHE and it just hit me like a ton of bricks. This time the part that hit me most was when he was talking about football. (My dad would be proud.) :) He says, "The story is told that the legendary football coach Vince Lombardi had a ritual he performed on the first day of training. He would hold up a football, show it to the athletes who had been playing the sport for many years, and say, 'Gentlemen, ... this is a football!' He talked about its size and shape, how it can be kicked, carried, or passed. He took the team out onto the empty field and said, 'This is a football field.' He walked them around, describing the dimensions, the shape, the rules, and how the game is played. This coach knew that even these experienced players, and indeed the team, could become great only by mastering the fundamentals. They could spend their time practicing intricate trick plays, but until they mastered the fundamentals of the game, they would never become a championship team."

There it was, spelled out for me. It was like the page was saying, "Duh! THIS is how to be happy!" So I imagined the story being about myself: "The story is told that the ordinary mom, Chelsie Campbell, had a routine she performed at the beginning of each day. She would kneel with her husband and daughter, show her how to fold her arms, and say, 'Alyssa, .... this is how we pray.' She would offer a simple prayer, expressing gratitude for the many blessings they'd been given, and requesting the Spirit to be with them that day. She would finish the prayer and take her daughter out to the kitchen. She would give her some breakfast, then make a lunch for her husband to take to work. She'd kiss him goodbye, and get her daughter ready for the day. Over the next 8 hours, she would play with her daughter, change her diapers, try to keep her happy and tell her how much she loved her, fix dinner, and maybe get around to picking up the house before her husband came home from work that night. At the end of the day, when her daughter was tucked into bed, she'd kneel again to pray, expressing more gratitude to her Father in Heaven for the wonderful, hard-working, and patient husband she has, and her sweet and healthy baby girl. She knew that her little family, although feeling they'd accomplished more in the past by doing different things, could become great only by mastering the fundamentals. They could spend their time making intricate things, working toward very temporal and menial goals, but until they mastered the fundamentals of life, they would never become a 'championship' family."

Isn't that the kind of story we want to be told of each of us someday?- that we focused on and mastered the FUNDAMENTALS of life? I found these "resolutions for a mom" on a blog and thought I'd share them.
1. I will embrace the fact that I am not perfect.
2. I will get down on the floor and play with my child(ren) every day.
3. I will take care of my body.
4. I will learn to love the chaos.
5. I will make family dinner a priority.
6. I will focus a little more on my marriage.
7. I will make time for my friends.
8. I will remind myself daily that time with my children is precious.

While each one of them may not be something you can master in a day, I think each one leads to focusing on the fundamentals. I think when we focus on what matters most, other things fall into place, or at least we don't worry about them. So here's to a "new" (kind of) year and becoming rededicated to focusing on "Things That Matter Most".

Christmas Eve- Just the 3 of us!

Well it was our first Christmas Eve as a family of 3 and it was FABULOUS! I have to admit, I was a little nervous to be without family this year, but we are creating our own little traditions and have our own little family and it was so fun to just spend time with the 3 of us!

On Christmas Eve we decided to start a tradition of 3 P's- Pizza, Peppermint Dessert, and Pajamas! But first we went to the Mesa temple where they do TONS of Christmas lights as well as have a performance! It was a singer... can't remember his name... but it was great! He had a beautiful voice and Alyssa LOVED looking at all of the lights. We came home, made homemade pizza, enjoyed peppermint dessert (Joseph's favorite!) and watched Alyssa open her pj's!

Here's the cool light dispaly in front of the temple (it was BIG but we were far away.) Gotta love those palm trees in the background! :)And here's Alyssa opening her pj's... she thinks it's funny to put clothes on her head.

We gave her a bath, put her in her new jammies, and she snuggled with dad. :)

Check out those baby blue eyes... on both of them! :) I love it.

EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS MORNING TO COME! :) We tucked Alyssa into bed, and Santa filled our stockings with fun things! It was a great Christmas Eve!

Miss Alyssa Renee- 1 Year Old!

WOW! I am way behind on blogging. I've sure had fun reading all of your blogs though and reading all about 2010 and the joys it held for each of you. First thing's first...

My baby's birthday!!! (December 21st) She's 1!!! I can't even believe it's been a whole year since she was born! Time flies when you're having fun! :)

Here's Miss Alyssa Renee, all grown up! (Yes, she knows she's cute.)

1 year stats:

Weight: 18.4 lbs (7th %)

Height: 29.5 in (61st %)

Head: 47 cm (93rd %)

She's tall, skinny, and VERY smart with all those brains. :) (I think we know who's genes she got.)

Still no front-facing carseat (she's gotta be 20 lbs for that). I'll have to admit, I still love having her infant carseat when we're at the grocery store and she's asleep. I'll miss those days of her falling asleep in it and not having to wake her up to go into a store.

So we celebrated Alyssa's birthday with my family in Texas, but of course we still had celebrating to do on her ACTUAL big day (Dec. 21st). We woke her up early that morning to open presents before Joseph went to work. She got two baby dolls- one from Grandma and Grandpa Campbell, and one from us. She LOVES her babies. Anytime we ask her where her babies are, she goes and gets them. She loves giving them hugs and lots of kisses (tongue and all!)

Not quite awake yet...

There's a little smirk. :)

So, having no family here to eat cake and ice cream with us, we invited the closest we have to that :) THE FULLERS! Jarelle was in town too for the Christmas break so it was fun to have them over for cake and ice cream and singing "Happy Birthday". We didn't get a picture of them but we're glad they could come!

Alyssa wasn't quite as interested in the cake this time.

It was a fun day celebrating Alyssa. We are so grateful for her and the joy and peace she brings to our family. She is so much fun and we love her to pieces!

On another note- the night Alyssa and I got home from Texas, Joseph had a surprise waiting! A little background... when we moved from our basement apartment in Provo last year, Joseph wanted to throw things away. One of those things was a little 2-foot Christmas tree we had. Joseph suggested throwing it away and I of course said no. He said it just took up room and that we didn't need it. SO the deal was, if we get rid of it, he had to get me a real tree at Christmas (we never had a real tree growing up, so I thought it'd be cool to try it out) :) SO of course we move to Arizona (after several moves in between) and we set up Christmas decorations, and there was NO TREE! I immediately reminded Joseph of his promise to get me a tree. I teased him about it for a long time, but we weren't going to get one this year. WELL... he kept his promise and pulled through. :) We walked in from the airport to a perfectly clean apartment and a REAL LIVE CHRISTMAS TREE!!! He loves colored lights so of course it had colored lights on it. The presents were all set up underneath and it just made me so happy! It definately felt like Christmas with our real tree and it's a tradition I'm hoping we continue. :)

We also got a package in the mail from my mom and dad for Christmas and Alyssa had fun opening it!

I got one quick picture with the headband and that lasted about two seconds before it was off. :)

Last couple days in TX

Slowly, but surely, I'm catching up on blogging! :) Here are the last few days Alyssa and I spent in Texas.

Monday night we went to Brad's basketball game. Each of my brothers have played basketball at Georgetown High School, so our family has attended 100's (literally) of games. Joseph asked my parents what they were going to do once Brad graduated and my dad said, "We'll just keep going to the games!" :) So I didn't get a picture of Alyssa and Brad, but here she is with Grandpa, enjoying the game.
Tuesday night, we celebrated Christmas since we wouldn't be together for it. First, we made sugar cookies! We actually never decorated them because Alyssa was too tired after all the fun she had MAKING the cookies. When she was about 6 months old, my mom showed me an apron she'd got. She said it could only stay at Gramz's house and that Alyssa could use it when she came to visit. Here it is... (Alyssa's hair in these pictures is from her bath the night before! haha it stuck up all day... it was like feathers or something! So fun!)

It says "Queen of the Kitchen in Training" :)

So of course we thought it would be fun to introduce Alyssa to the flour. It started out in a bowl... but she quickly discovered the whole can of it and it ended in a MESS and lots of smiles.

And as you can see, she eventually discovered she could put it in her mouth. It ended up being a lot of yucky, slobbery dough all over her mouth. :)

Funny side note... Brad came in and saw her eating it and said, "Oh no! Don't tell Joseph- it's not even wheat flour!!!" haha We had a good laugh.

And what would a celebration of Christmas be without the nativity? Dad was the reader, Brad was Joseph, I was Mary, Alyssa was baby Jesus, and Mom was the sheep. Yes, the sheep. :) You can tell by our laughing faces that it was not the most "reverent" reenactment of the nativity we've ever done. It was just too hilarious not to laugh. We've always had someone be the sheep and wear the sheep skin we have, but it's usually one of the boys or little kids that wears it. Well, when no one could fill that roll, Mom stepped up to the plate and dressed up as the sheep. :) We'll always enjoy this memory.

So our trip to TX was VERY fun!!! I'm so grateful we could go spend time with my family and that they could see Alyssa. She enjoyed the "Huntsman Walking Boot Camp" and has been walking all over the place ever since we got home. :) We are excited for the New Year to see all of the new adventures we'll have with the Huntsmans! We love yall!!! Thanks for such a fun trip!