Awesome Kids!

Last Thursday, Desiree was inducted into the National Junior Honors Society!! I really had no idea what it was. Apparently it's for good grades and good behavior at school and it's supposed to look great on a college application! Desiree has never brought home anything less than an A on her report card! Part of that could be that the Krispy Kreme here (and maybe other places) gives the kids one free donut for every A they get on their report card. You just have to take it with you and show them. So, every 6 weeks we go and take advantage of this great promotion. We just did it last night for FHE. Anastasia gets only straight As as well, so we end up with 11 free donuts, plus the sample you get while you're in line waiting to pay. We really score! That's a whopping total of 16 free donuts! And we have no problem eating them for breakfast the next morning and then taking one in their lunches to school the next day. Needless to say, they're all gone within less than 24 hours! Sad, but true. But, I digress....

Desiree's ceremony for the induction was cool. They lit candles and talked about the good qualities that these kids need to have to be leaders. There were a lot of kids that got inducted that day. The whole thing was a good experience for me. That kid of mine is awesome!! There isn't anything that she can't do if she puts her mind to it. Sometimes she doesn't even have to put her mind to it, she can just do it. It's unfair really. :)

Jax is learning how to pedal a tricycle. A friend of ours gave us this tricycle that looks like a Harley Davidson. It's cool! He hasn't been able to reach the pedals for awhile, so now that it's getting warmer here he can be outside and pedal away! Gotta love his cheesy smile!

As for Anastasia, she has really been doing her homework and piano practicing and taekwondo and chores perfectly! She does everything she needs to every day. We recently found out that she's reading at an end-of-fourth-grade level at school! She's a smart little kid! She's looking forward to Spring Break next week so she can learn to ride her bike without training wheels. That's our goal for the week! I know it's a little late for her but we really can't hang out outside for very long here because of the heat and she's been really scared to. We're determined! I'll take pictures of that,too!!

When Grandma and Grandpa left, they left a storage unit full of their stuff here. Grandma has a TV that she inherited from her Mom, Granma Gigi, when she passed away and it has a built-in DVD player so I went ahead and traded her TV for my old ugly one without a DVD player and put it in my bedroom so the kids could watch movies on the weekends before they go to bed. They love it! They get all "cozy" on my bed and watch a movie with the lights off. It's so cute I had to take a picture!

I've been reminded lately of the blessings that I have in my life with my children. I love them and couldn't have asked for better kids. We only have about 5 years left with Desiree at home and I know that's going to go by so fast I'm going to die! It makes me sick to my stomach to even think about it now....:(

Busy Week.....

Boy, have we had a lot to do this week! We made a trip up to San Antonio (2.5 hr drive) last Thursday to see Jax's hand specialist doctor up there about his surgery. Jax was born with a condition called Erb's Palsy. It has affected the nerves in his right arm and they are slowly coming back, but he's needed a little help along the way. He's already had one surgery on his bicep to help him regain the bending motion and now he has to have one on his wrist to help him be able to move it up and down and hopefully rotate his forearm, too. The first one was so stressful for me as a mother. I cried a lot! He had his poor little arm all wrapped up against his chest for three weeks afterwards. The bandages rubbed him all raw under his left arm, but he was a trooper! That was almost two years ago now and we're ready to go for it again! Hopefully this time won't be as bad. He does have to have a cast on for 6 weeks after. For now the surgery is scheduled for March 21st. We might have to change the date to early May for reasons too long to get into here. :)














Desiree also had her basketball tournament this past weekend. She just turned 13 and is 5'8"....When she said she wanted to try out for the basketball team, she was nervous that she wouldn't make it. Why, I'll never know....who wouldn't want the tallest 7th grader in the school on their basketball team?? So, she made it. Her team wasn't the greatest team in the school district, but she had so much fun and was staying active. Winners all around. So, they had their tournament this past weekend and they played Thursday and lost and then they played Friday and lost again. She was secretly happy they didn't have to play Saturday because then she could sleep in. :) She's turned into such a teenager overnight!

                                                 This is Des in action during the game!

                                                           Here she is with her coach.





So, over the past few years I have gained a lot more weight than I'm happy to admit.......(I'm not even happy with one lb). So, on Monday I joined a group here in our city that's going to do a version of The Biggest Loser. We all put $20 into the pot and the one who's lost the most at the end of 12 weeks gets the money! I am so not motivated right now to do anything about this "little" problem I have, so I thought I'd give it a try. We did our weigh-in on Monday and the race is on! Well, my kids have been wanting me to get healthier for a long time, so they are thrilled that I'm putting in an effort to do this. I've been counting all my calories since Monday, but the working out is going to take a little more effort. When I went to get into bed on Monday night, I found this note by my bed:                                          

Anastasia had written me out a workout plan! It was the cutest thing I had ever seen! I've been doing it, too! She asked me the next morning if I'd gotten her note. I told her I had. She then proceeded to tell me that she had made it easy for me since I was just starting. Gotta love that kid! I know she loves me, that's for sure!



Well, Valentine's Day was yesterday and we never really make a big deal out of it here at our house. I made the kids heart-shaped Norwegian waffles for breakfast and me and the hubby went out for lunch to Olive Garden, my favorite! It was actually a pretty good day for us! Here in Laredo, all the parents buy their kids these huge Valentine gifts with balloons and stuffed animals and all sorts of chocolates and have it delivered to them at school. I do think it's kind of a cute idea but I just can't bring myself to do it for them. They're always so sad about it, too. My guilt passes quickly, though. :)



I hope you all had a great day yesterday and that it was everything you wanted it to be!

I have to go now. It's Wednesday and I need to go reach for my toes sitting down for 10 seconds....

Sad Day at the Campbell House...

On saturday at 2:00 pm Grandma and Grandpa drove down the street (Grandpa a little before Grandma :))and around the corner to Arizona....
One month shy of four years ago we moved to Laredo for the hubby's job. We were so excited because we weren't going to have to say goodbye to the comforts of living by our parents. We were leaving Canyon, Texas after having lived by and with (thank you again:)) my in-laws for six years. That's a total of ten years we have lived by family! We are so lucky!!
We haven't had to pay for a babysitter in ten years! (nor do we have to now, with Desiree being of the legal babysitting age and all...) We have always had somewhere to go for Sunday dinner for ten years! Holidays were never lonely. We have never had to go shopping alone or spent a birthday without family or had one school function pass by without someone there! School projects have been just a little bit easier having someone around to share their specific expertise with the kids. We have been so lucky!!
Our kids have been able to benefit from the wisdom and experience of an older generation and had playmates when there were none to be found or Mommy and Daddy were busy. We have been on family trips, borrowed cars for an extended period of time for free, had groceries brought over when needed, and always had a shoulder to cry on in tough times. The list goes on and on of the benefits of living by your parents. If you haven't been so lucky, we definitely recommend it! :)
So, Saturday was a hard day for everyone in our family as we saw my parents drive out of sight. The girls were both crying pretty hard. Desiree was "hulking," as we say in Norwegian, and that's when I snapped this picture. :(
We will always have good memories of the last ten years, but things will never be the same.
Thank you to all four of our parents for being there to take care of us when we needed it (and still are). We love you! Hopefully we can repay the favor someday! Looking forward to it......