some of my adventures the past 29 years

long ago i had started a list of things i wanted to do in life by the time i turned 30. 

that was back when i thought life was taking me on a MUCH different course & that 30 was old. 

it definitely included things like start having kids & save money to buy a house.

welp...it's more like

 be done having kids

and find our 3rd house to buy.

i tried to come up with a list of things i wanted to do in this last year of my 20's. the last year of fun, or like my sister said, before i have to be responsible. but truth be told, i've lived a lot in my short 29 years. and frankly, i think i've already made a list of goals for the year & amendments to that list. 

so instead here are parts of my life that i want to celebrate! 

29 things i've done...no particular order

1. graduated from high school & college

2. travelled outside of the US {mexico, guatemala & spain}

3. lived in 4 different states

4. bought {and SOLD!} 2 houses

5. worked a full-time job

6. bought myself a car

7. been in a beauty pageant

8. learned to ride a bike

9. raced my dad's corvette around the texas motorspeedway

10. travelled to 34/50 states...maybe its 35

11. been proposed to 

12. got married to the love of my life

13. got pregnant & birthed babies 3x 

{yes only 4...remember, the last time was twins?!}

14. was a pastor's kid & then a pastor's wife

15. had cancer invade my life

16. experienced not 1, but 2 miraculous healings of my body

17. been a passenger in a car accident

18. been pulled over

19. driven at speeds over 100mph {see#9}

20. dyed my hair

21. learned how to snow & water skiing

22. played soccer

23. looked at colleges as a soccer recruit 

{even thought i didn't end up playing}

24. was a model

25. learned how to develop & print film

26. got my boating license

27. learned to play the guitar

28. also played basketball, softball, volleyball & ran track

29. started a business of my own

8 more days to vote!

flashback adventure: happy birthday matt!

giving thanks for this guy today. because today he turns 29!

i love his ambitions & his ability to not just dream big, but go hard after those dreams. 

i love his personal sense of style...which is normally comfort over trendy fashion.

i love his loyalty & sincere heart for people...especially his friends. 

i love that he has always created a special place for me in his life. 

one that cannot be taken or refilled with something else.

i love that he has helped me live life a little more vibrantly.

i love watching him love on (& wrestle with) our boys. 

his father's heart blesses & moves me daily.

i love how we've come so far from this birthday celebration last year...

i can't believe that much life happened in just one year?!

i fell in love with him when we were still kids.

and i have loved watching him become the man that he is today as he turns 29.

here's to the last year of our 20's...the best one yet!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE ONE & ONLY, MATT RUCKEL! 

what do you get an adventurous boy for his 3rd birthday?!

last friday was our {gaber} boy's 3rd birthday. and we had a fun-filled weekend for sure. 

{matt} & i made our inaugural step into parenthood as we stayed up late and put together our first "big" present. like we started at 10pm & it took us just about 2 hours. and well, it was probably the largest gift they may ever get. and i say they, cause it serves as {ben}s birthday present too. 

this pic made me laugh. when you're feeling nostalgic about your kids growing up too quickly and getting too big...just buy them large gifts to put their size perspective. ok, so that may not really be the reason why we got them the trampoline, but that's what this picture made me think of. we bought it because we have boys, well 4 boys, that possess this amazing amount of energy. and they all love it. oh and the baby gates, you like that touch?! yeah, we had to ensure that little curious boys wouldn't wander into a certain death trap.

and bonus...the neighbors set this slide out for trash pickup on his birthday. major score! 

we had a party for the little big guy on saturday. when i asked what kind he wanted...all he said was a "gabers party". so i just let him pick out plates, napkins & streamers from the party section at walmart. the party was complete with lots of sunshine, friends, jumping & cupcakes. well, a maybe a few bumps & bruises along the way.

and so thankful for the friends & family that made this day perfect & extra special for our buddy. my parents were in town for the weekend which made it even more fun.

single parent sunday :: at a birthday party

usually our sundays are filled with church and naps. but last week, instead of going to night church, we went to our friend {sawyer}s 3rd birthday party. and what an adventure it was!

for the most part the boys did great. it's a child-proofed house filled with plenty of toys to distract from anything too troublesome except...

the table. {sam} has this  obsession with climbing up on the chairs to get to the table. it's why my table looks like this...

and then there was the kiddie table on the porch full of half eaten cupcakes. after i got done feeding {sam} & {matty} their cupcake, they b-lined for the table of abandoned cupcakes before i could even get up. it was an epic twin tag team battle. i'd get one of their hands cleaned off & pulled away from the table while the other jumped right in...this continually happened for a good couple minutes before i was able to get them both cleaned, cupcakes snatched away & put some place unreachable. wish it would have been captured on video somehow because i'm sure it was hilarious to watch. i then brought them inside and proceeded to chase them & pull everyone's cups/plates/food out of their hands. 

and {gabe} decided to forget he is potty trained. and of course, i didn't have any extra clothes for him. so he ran around in a long sleeve shirt, diaper & his shoes...the majority of the night. he also didn't want to leave the train table & pitched a small fit. then i reminded him that he had trains at home now too. thanks {grammie} & {granpop}!

and {ben} wanted to help open all the birthday presents. he also was playing baseball outside and i nearly got hit in the head by him twice...i'm sure that others had the same experience. sorry 'bout that folks!

needless to say, they were giving me a run for my money. and i decided that it was time to leave when i started to break a sweat from chasing boys & just trying to keep up. and pictures? like i had the time or sense of mind to take pictures. lesson learned...birthday parties require 2 adults to keep up with these boys & all the sugar that comes with a birthday party. 

good thing we sure love that {sawyer} boy and his mom & dad so much! 

and today is the actual birthday... 

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY SAWS!

a hot & adventurous 1st birthday party

the dynamic birthday duo
{matty} peanut butter &
{sam} jelly

the party was quite the celebration! our theme was "we go together like...peanut butter & jelly"

menu:

bbq & beans

mac & cheese

pb & j (for the kiddos)

apples & oranges

and for dessert:

milk & cookies

the weather even played along with our theme with its summer heat...so we brought out the water! the pool, sprinklers, squirt guns & buckets-o-water galore

part of the 2 & under crowd...
there were at least 5 others running around

{ben} sporting his party shirt
{gabe} was too quick into the pool to get a pic in his shirt

lesson learned: need to figure out who's name to say first when singing happy birthday, otherwise it's a jumbled mess. ha! it was my first ever twins birthday party. i've learned and still am that there's a learning curve with multiples on everything.

singing happy birthday

since we were only serving cookies as dessert, i needed to find a softer cookie for their 'smash cakes'. i found the perfect solution...whoopie pies. it was a super easy recipe.

digging into their 'cake'

{matty} & {sam} hanging with dad after cake

and since it was so hot, the flies were horrendous. thankfully i had these containers from our wedding!  to use. they worked perfectly for cookies & fruit. all the other food was in crock pots or in jars with lids.

and to make the boring ole pb & j a little more interesting, i bought these sandwich cutters. i thought about buying the gender neutral shape ones...but hey, if i'm spending the money i might as well buy something i know the boys will love. so cars it was! pretty sure the big boys have eaten car or truck sandwiches every day since the party.




and my fav drink jug ever & kiddie cups. we had the kids take these home as their favors. these were little jelly jars with holes punched in the lids & cute striped paper straws. i adore mason jar sippy cups...once they have passed the cup throwing stage that is. 

and thankfully we signed a contract on our house that day, so now immediate clean up required!

single parent sundays & our house selling adventures

my sweet little house

we've had quite an exciting few days around here. the twins turned 1. we had a party. we signed a contract on our house. yep, you just read that. i hadn't really even had the time to sit & write a post about the adventure we were undergoing in selling the house yet. so really we spent  what felt like the weekend, but today's sunday the last few days in shock and celebration!

thursday was the twins actual birthday...and the day we ended up having 2 showings on the house. one time block was from 10-1 sometime and the other 12:30-1:30...so i had to be outta the house all day. once again, thankful for that my in-laws still have a house i can hide out in. and in those 2 rather large blocks of time they both showed up at the same time! and then we got an offer that evening....signed a counter-offer and the following morning... received a second offer. simply amazing in this market! we had a bidding war folks and the result was a full price offer & minimal closing costs. and friday afternoon we stopped party prep to sign the contract.

it's all truly an answered prayer because it's only been on the market for 2.5 weeks & after a cancelation on wednesday, we were feeling a bit discouraged. and knowing that God is a God of not just big things, but small things too, we prayed specifically for a high demand, a bidding war & full price. we aren't trying to be greedy here people. we bought the house while the market was still hot and are selling it for more than $25,000 less than we bought it for. we just wanted to walk away & not owe the bank money. and that we are!

as people arrived to the twins birthday party, we began to spread the news & we had just one more reason to enjoy the pool besides the smothering heat of course because this was likely the last big hurrah in this house. the catch to our contract, the buyers want to occupy on august 15 because the husband deploys on the 17th. oh the joys of a military town. so tomorrow, we'll kick things into gear for the inspection on tuesday & pray that nothing deal breaking pops up. i mean time is on my side for once. ha! so posts may be fewer & further between, but i'm hoping to get the party pictures up soon.

turned out to be the best birthday present possible for the twins 1st birthday!

my first year of adventures with twinsies

to say the least, it's been a doozy! i'll be honest, if it weren't for pictures, i'm not entirely sure that i'd remember those first few weeks...or more like months...but alas, we've reached the 1 year mark. WE'VE SURVIVED! i realize that is by no means the end to that feeling, but it's quite an momentous occasion, as the leap from complete dependence on me mainly begins to lessen and a personal independence is established for both {sam} and {matty} and me again too. i have loved being their source, but now i too need a little more 'me time'. it's a bittersweet birthday. they are toddlers now either by age or by the fact that they are actually toddling around the house. {sam} actually decided to become a walker on his first birthday!

as the bittersweetness sets in, i wish i could have soaked up all of it a little more, but with 2 it makes it a little harder. i know i've taken time with each boy and learned who they are individually. yes, they are twins, but their personalities are so very different. and i've loved seeing those little personalities develop!

{sam}
he's my big sensitive bear. he's more brut & brawn than gentle or graceful. his heart is tender & sweet. i treasure his huge grin and his giggles & babbles that fill the house. he's also my big snuggler. and who doesn't love a snuggler?! it's great because he's sturdy enough to squeeze really tightly. just thinking of how good it feels to squeeze him almost makes me want to go and get him out of bed...almost. at times he hesitates or wants a little extra assurance that i'm still close by. i have a feeling he won't ever be far from me & that makes my little heart happy.

and {matty}
he's my scrappy little fighter. he has no idea that his size is small or that it should inhibit him in anyway. if he wants it, he'll go for it! and sometimes he has even taken on {ben} to do so. i laugh at the prognosis the doctors made of him. there is no way this little guy was ever gonna 'have a high likelihood to pass away'. he's an explorer by nature. driven to find and try new things. this kid will always be keeping me on my toes wanting to know what's gonna happen next.

and so, when you put them together...they melt my heart. i see that they balance each other. i see that they have to work together to fully succeed. they were made as a pair. but the sweetest and yes, now i'm crying thing i see of them is that {matty} is not only a fighter, but a protecter. and {sam} not only has a sensitive, but a loyal heart. {matty} is the protector of {sam}s heart and {sam} the softener to {matty}s.

i am in awe of the 2 of them...what they've come through, who they are becoming and how they change the dynamic of our family. happy first birthday to my babies!!

the adventure continues...with twins!

Matthew Campbell & Samuel Aaron

the story of the twins arrival...in bullet points because there were just too many details!

• we were told at 20 weeks that we're expecting not 1 boy...but 2 spontaneous twin boys! (as best they could tell they were spontaneous/identical)
• at 28 weeks we were told that there was a 29% difference in size between the boys
• finally at 32 weeks went to the maternal-fetal medicine to have have in-depth ultrasound on the boys
• that day...june 24 (the day before my 5 yr anniversary & 2 days after {Matt} left for nepal) i was told that baby B was in the 5th percentile and the chances of him "passing away" were significantly high & they 'may' have heart problems. they sent me to get a steroid shot in case they needed to come early...
• i promptly got in touch with {Matt} who was in the mountains in nepal (as promptly as one can) and told him i needed him to go through this with me....he left that night. rode down the mountain on the back of a motorcycle at 4am.
• met with a pediatric cardiologist. he wasn't worried with what he saw. which just made me confused, not assured.
• over the next month i was put on bed rest (ha! that was a joke!), went back to the doctor weekly for more ultrasounds, blood flow and growth checks.
• finally at 35 weeks they decided that there wasn't enough room for baby B to grow and that the following week they would take the babies by c-section. i'm pretty sure i busted out in singing the "Hallelujah Chorus".
• july 21, 2010...we arrived at the hospital at 7am ready to have some babies!
• after 3 emergency c-sections, plus another ones that were already scheduled to happen before mine...4:52pm babyA {Sam} @ 6lbs 7oz and 4:53pm babyB {Matty} @ 4lbs 14oz... were finally release from the confines of my belly.
• i tried to savor every last second of my being pregnant, but being strapped up with multiple monitors laying on a gurney (not even a real bed!) i was ready to go home and stay pregnant one more day! emotional wreck for sure.
• then once the babies were out they were wisked away to the NICU at CHKD. they only brought 1 bassinet (for babyB) but got charts or something mixed up and they both went.
• recovery from a c-section was a beast compared to my other births. i felt all itchy as the spinal wore off. so they gave me benadryl...straight into the IV. whoops! i was a hot mess.
• matt went with the babies. i tried to rest, but my adrenaline was getting the best of me and i just couldn't fully rest. i had several conversations with people with my eyes closed because i literally couldn't keep them open. i blame the benadryl.
• first scans of the boys looked good but they wanted to watch them over the next few days. so if i wanted to see them i had to be wheeled down a maze of corridors to CHKD to see them.
• they were in separate rooms so the scrubbing of hands and dressing of gowns was repeated many times. thankfully they were only in the NICU a couple of days.
• on july 23 {Sam} was released from the NICU and spent the next 2 days just down the hall (that i could walk to) in the level III nursery. i got to hold him and was able to start trying to breastfeed.
• on july 24 {Matty} was released from the NICU and sent to the level III nursery as well. they were both cleared of any heart or other medical problems!!
• thankful doesn't even begin to express my feelings...
• i was released the morning of july 25. and then we hung out in the hospital all day waiting for {Sam} to be released. he wasn't until 9pm!!
• we were in the middle of a heat wave so at 9m it was nearly 99 degrees!! i was thankful for the time in the AC that i didn't have to pay for :)
• we were told that {Matty} would be released the next day as long as he passed his car seat test. he had to sit in the car seat for an hour without having any heart arrhythmia's. he did that in the morning....and again, wasn't released until 9pm on july 26. the night nurse had never done a medical release. that week she did 2. and bonus for us, she just kept giving us formula and diapers galore!

we did it! we were home as a family of 6! it was the longest lesson on waiting & patience ever!

an adventurous birthday in bed

we just celebrated matt's 26th birthday. his family has a tradition of the family piling in the birthday person's bed & opening gifts. so we all were in the bed that morning snuggling, but once i went to get the camera for a photo op, ben went bonkers! we cherish our morning snuggle times with our boys. i know they'll outgrow it one day, but for now it's my favorite part of the day.

happy birthday daddy! bright & early on a sunday morning!!


our little peanut...who is getting to be not-so-little. what a chunk he's becoming! 

adventures with picture phones

what did we do before cell phones had cameras?! we missed out on so many sweet moments of life that just couldn't be captured. now we can share those moments with any & everyone. it's great. i can send evidence of the boys' cuteness all the way to california for grammie & grandaddy to see. :)

so this is our tribute to phone pictures (all from matt's phone). ya know sometimes they are the best!


some growing gabe pictures...

march 20

loving the paci & the carseat

snuggling with daddy

trying to keep a safe distance from the wild man. who looks like he's doing the disco by the way

loves his paci!

paci loves gabe

wide awake & ready to go

this is what we call milk drunk :)

april 11

ben's need of haircut...
swinging on the porch swing & enjoying the outside!

look what you can do with really sweet long hair!

and the result of a great haircut...after a nap :) we went to a barber shop & the man was not afraid to let ben yell. he literally palmed ben's head and held him in the chair. it was quite a show. and ben earned the lollipop at the end-yeah he yelled but he didn't get out of the chair!

and ben's family 2nd birthday celebration caught via iphone. we had strawberries & angel food cake for dessert and ben devoured several helpings!

he's eyeing the cake already. wait for it....

loved blowing out the candle & he did it all by himself!

proud of himself for blowing out the candle & loving all the attention

and this is the part where he devours his cake :)

can't go wrong with strawberries & angel food cake

naps with daddy are the best!
easter afternoon nap

if you want to keep up with matt's doings (and random pics of the fam) check out matt's twitter.