Rigdon's Blessing

Rigdon was blessed on August 26th by his dad. We had lots of family come and we ate a massive brunch after. (I should have taken pictures of the spread, it sent most of us into carb induced comas) We are so blessed to have such wonderful family that loves and supports our children!

Introducing..... RIGDON TYLER!

Rigdon Tyler Campbell July 18th, 2012 7 lbs 4 oz, 20 inches So I thought I'd better post something about our new little guy, Rigdon. I was due July 23rd but because of Tyler's work schedule and the fact that we live 50 minutes from the hospital we decided it might not be a bad idea to be induced. I called my midwife and she said we could do it the next morning. So, last Wednesday, the 18th, we packed our bags, dropped our older boys off at my sister Amy's house and headed to the hospital. I had decided to go natural. I wanted to prove to myself, but mostly Tyler, that I could do it. After a few hours on pit and having my water broke I was in active labor and dialated close to 5. I was managing the contractions ok. And when I say managing I mean gripping the side of my bed and moaning. Tyler was applying counter pressure to my hips, back and knees which helped a ton. My labor usually progresses pretty quickly once I'm dialated to a 5 so I knew I wouldn't have to do this much longer and I thought, ok, I know I can do this but I don't have to. I'm going to be exhausted by the time this baby gets here and I'm going to wear Tyler out, too. Plus, I was worried that I would be in so much pain immediatly after delivery that I wouldn't be able to just enjoy holding my beautiful baby. So, I decided to get an epidural. About an hour or so later, I was ready to push. He was out after just three contractions. He would have been out sooner but I was able to watch the whole delivery and I got distracted and forgot to push for a minute. He was really blue and had the cord around his neck so it took him a minute or two to come around but eventually he did. After they weighed him and took his vitals and all that good stuff and I was holding him again, I was talking to him and he turned his little head and looked straight at me. He was so calm and quiet. He was listening so intently and he knew my voice! Neither of my other boys ever responded that quickly to me. Ridgon and I stayed two nights at the hospital, while Tyler stayed with the boys. The first two nights were really rough. Rigdon had low blood sugar and wanted to eat every hour or so but I wasn't making milk yet and my colostrum just wasn't cutting it so we had to supplement feed him until my milk came in the next day. But once we figured that out and I was able to get some sleep life couln't have been better! He is such a good baby. I've never seen a happier baby. By the time he was 72 hours old he was doing that sqirmy smile thing babies do before they can actually smile. All you got to do is just talk to the little guy and he's squirming with delight! Jaxon and Linkon are doing really well with him. Jaxon wants to help do everything from bringing me diapers to throwing diapers away to bringing me water and burping Rigdon. First thing Jax has to do in the morning is hold Rigdon and the last thing he does before he goes to bed is love on Rigdon. Linkon loves to help with anything I ask but is a little less interested in the hands on stuff. All in all we couldn't have asked for a better week. Everything went perfectly and the boys are all doing so well. We feel so blessed and I am so in love with my little family and life right now! I hope I never come down from this high! Ok, ok enough talking. Here are some pictures!

It's like Christmas morning!

Rigdon and Grandpa Barnes. Grandpa Barnes and Grandma T were the first ones to meet Rigdon, other than me and Tyler obviously, when he was just 15 minutes old.

Rigdon and Grandpa Campbell

Rigdon and Great Grandma Barnes

First family picture. Poor Linkon was getting squished by Tyler!

My beautiful happy baby right after we got home from the hospital.

An Update.... Finally!

Ok so here's the run down on what has happened since my last post: Jaxon's birthday, I went on a three day cattle round up, my birthday, Halloween, Pregnant!, Tyler's dad got remarried, Thanksgiving in Utah with Tyler's family, Christmas at our house with my family, it's a BOY!, trip to AZ to see Amy, Matt and their boys, Linkon pees in front of a dozen other people at the Pheonix Zoo, Easter, Linkon's birthday, Tyler's birthday and we got a new car to accomadate our growing family. I think that about covers it. My camera won't load pictures so I'm missing some and most of the ones I have I stole off John and Christine's facebook but here are some pictures of our happenings:

Half the cows at the holding pens up Fall Creek

We were all pirates this year, well, everyone but Tyler who refuses to dress up.

John and Christine's wedding

Jaxon and Stratton petting the stingrays at the Pheonix Zoo.

John and Christine planned a huge Easter party a week before Easter. We had a waffle brunch, an egg hunt, a bouncy house, a prince and princess party, and a bbq. It was a day chuck full of fun!

We had a huge combined birthday party for Linkon, Tyler, our nephew Jaryn, and Teresa. We had everyone out to our place and had a big dinner. The weather was perfect, there was a pinata, and there were more cakes and dessert than should ever be at one party! We had a great time with all our wonderful family! All the kids lined up ready to blow out candles

Teresa made her own cake. She lied to me and said Desi was going to make it. Next year I will know not to trust her!

The pinata Adam and Emily brought was a HUGE hit! Literally!

Link had a little help opening his presents...

This is the new car we just bought since we couldn't fit three kids in our accord. Its a 2011 GMC Acadia and I am in love with it! Its the most comfortable car we've ever owned and it drives really well. But it is a little stressful for me to have a such a nice vehicle. I'm constantly worried that its going to get a scratch or the kids will spill something in it. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to get used to it!

Busy, busy, busy

We've had a really busy summer. So, needless to say blogging was traded in for trips to the lake and soaking up every bit of summer we could. I'm losing my tan fast but at one point I had a pretty nice tan, the kind I used to get as a kid! We practically lived outside for the entire months of July and August. If we weren't up at Palisades we were running through sprinklers or cooling off in cold hot tubs. We had lots of picnics at the lake and on friend's lawns. All in all we've had one of the best summers I've had in a long time! I felt like a kid again. No worries. Very little stress. Even though I'm not ready to be done with summer, I'm very excited for fall time. Now that it's cooling off we can do more hiking and horse back riding. Also, another exciting fall thing is that Jaxon started pre school! He has been looking forward to it since April! He has so much fun and is learning so much! Linkon misses him the whole 3 hours Jaxon is gone and Jaxon is always so excited to see Linkon when we pick him up from school. When we get home I give the boys a snack and they sit at the table and Jaxon has to show Linkon all the things he brought home and tell him everything he learned and did at school. It makes my heart so happy to see them be such good friends. Anyway, here are a few more pictures of our summer fun!


Making raspberry jam! The boys were awesome helpers! I'm still finding raspberry jam splatters under the cupboards!



A day at Palisades with Amy and Matt and their boys and Emily and her boys.



After playing in the water we had a hot dog roast. Left to right is Samuel, Linkon, Lulu (my friend Jenny's little girl), Matthew, Jaxon, Stratton, and Jude. They had so much fun and got so dirty at the campground! At one point I overheard the boys talking about taking Lulu on a date. She was a huge hit with all those boys!


Tyler and Jaxon tubing. Nate, Emily, Matt, Amy and all their boys came up for a couple days and we went boating and tubing a ton!

Me and my friend Jenny tubing. This was my first time in probably 10 years and I was a little scared but we had so much fun! And we never fell off! Our ride consisted of a lot of these jumps. It was really windy that day and the wind would pick up the tube and it would act like a sail. But with Nate's mad driving skills and me and Jen's mad hanging on skills we stayed on!

I wish I had more pictures but I'm awful at remembering to take pictures. I will try to do better!

Random Pictures

These are just a few random pictures of what we've been up to the last few weeks.

Link's mosquito bite on his ear. The poor guy, his ear was so swollen and big that when he ran it litterally flapped up and down!

Playing in the "pool", or cold hot tub up at our friend's house. The little girl in the picture is my friend, Jenny's little girl, Lulu. She is just 2 weeks younger than Link. Jax and Link just love her. Everyday they ask if they can do something with her. One day one of my boys will marry her.

Grandpa Barnes gettin some Joseph loves while relaxing in the shade with Grandma T at our house after a lovely Sunday dinner.

Linkon and Matthew eating an ice cream cone at our house. This picture reminded me of a picture I have of me and my cousin Shantay when we were probably 3 or 4 at my Grandma Green's hosue eating ice cream and giggling.

Family Reunion

This year we had our Barnes Family Reunion in Island Park. It was perfect, except for the massive swarms of mosquitoes. Seriously, when we ate we had to watch very carefully to make sure we weren't taking a bite of mosquitoes. I've never seen so many mosquitoes in all my life. We played a game where we were moving around and being really active. Because we were sweating and our blood was pumping we were mosquito magnets! We were literally covered head to toe in the little winged vampires. The only way to avoid them was to go on four wheeler, motorbike and mule rides, which we did, a lot! Went up to Big Springs to feed the fish. I think we saw 2 or 3. But there were a ton of seagulls and a muskrat, so we fed them instead. I didn't take a lot of pictures, because I was usually too busy swatting away mosquitoes! Ok, I don't really have an excuse. But, I hope you enjoy the few I took.

I had two paragraphs typed up about our trip to Utah a few weeks ago and the internet froze so we had to do a forced shut down and it erased all my work. So, here is the condensed version. We went to Utah for Tyler's step-grandparents 58th wedding anniversary party. We decided to stay for a few days, went to Lagoon, I'm a chicken and can't ride roller coasters like I used to so Gail came to ride rides with Tyler, I had just as much fun taking the boys on rides, after every ride Linkon exclaimed, "Mom! I had fun! I'm not scared!" although his face rarely displayed much excitement, Jaxon loved the Dino-Drop, I did NOT, we ate Bajio's two days in a row sine it's Tyler's favorite place and we don't have one in Rexburg or Idaho Falls anymore, and we had an awesome time hanging out with family! That's pretty much our Utah trip in a nutshell! And here are some pictures: