The Best of 2008

It is hard to believe that another year has gone by so quickly! 2008 was a great year for the Campbell's. As we look back at the year we feel very fortunate for our happiness and health and are thankful for all the wonderful memories.

We had the pleasure of celebrating the marriage of Ben's cousin Emilie to her sweetheart of 5+ years Matt and our friends Stephanie and Dean in August. We also that the pleasure of celebrating the births of several of our closest friends first babies: congrats Robyn and Mark (Caleb was born in July) and McKenzie and Ken (Maya was born in November).

This year was once again full of exciting travel with vacations to South Dakota in September, Portugal and Spain in October and Las Vegas for Thanksgiving.

And, we grew our family by one as we added Odin (our Brittany) in May, celebrated our 6th anniversary, a total of 9 years together. What a great year 2008 has been! We look forward to a great 2009. We wish everyone a Happy New Year!!

Christmas 2008 Highlights

Our Christmas festivities started as usual with having my family and as a special treat- Ben's parents and sister over for Christmas eve dinner. Everyone had a good time eating, drinking, playing the arcades, pinball machine, playing with the puppy and catching up.

We woke up to snow falling (we already had 10+ inches), which was the perfect way to start off Christmas Day. We headed over to the my family's house for the start of what is a busy day for us. We started off with breakfast (overnight french toast, sausage, and fruit) and then gathered around the Christmas tree for what my little sisters still consider the best part-opening presents. We all took turns opening the bounty of presents from everyone in the family and everyone made out quite well this year and there were even a few surprises in the presents.

After opening presents we headed back home to relax and opening presents with each other and Odin. Being that this was his first Christmas we had fun spoiling him with a Christmas bone and other treats and a couple of new toys. Here are a few pictures from the day.

Odin with his very first stocking full of treats!

I love my iPod and have been wanting the new iPod touch for a long time. Ben is the best present giver ever!

Ben with his new flash--this will come in handy for all of our nighttime photos on vacation

That evening we headed to Ben's grandma's in Auburn to celebrate with his extended family. Both of his aunt and uncles that live here in Washington as well as cousins, parents and siblings were there. Everyone spent the evening catching up, opening presents and of course remembering grandpa Baker who passed away in January of this year. While everyone was a little bittersweet that grandpa Baker is no longer with us we were all glad to know that his spirit is always with us and grams is doing well.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Best wishes to all!

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

Caught In The Act

Last night we came down to our living room to find Odin sleeping on one of the couch pillows which is a big no-no since we do not let him on the furniture. Here is a picture of our little trouble maker caught in the act.

Snow Day

The predicted snow in Seattle came late yesterday afternoon and we woke up to about 5 inches this morning. We have about 7 inches on the ground as of this afternoon and it is still falling pretty hard. Ben decided to bundle up and take Odin out to play since snow is a relatively new thing for him. Such fun.