Our Missionaries

It was a busy October, since we said goodbye to two missionaries! My brother Kenton and Kyle's brother Kurt went into the MTC just 2 weeks apart. Kenton is going to Paris, France. Kurt is going to Puerto Rico. We were sad to say goodbye, but a mission is a good reason to go.

I'm thankful that these guys are good examples for my boys. I am thrilled that Noah and Jake will be getting such a good sermon on missionary work for the next two years!

Kurt, reading his mission call: "Peru!!!....oh wait, I messed that up. Puerto Rico!"

Almost-Missionary Kurt at the St. George Temple:

Our goodbyes to Kurt, the morning he drove up to Provo:

We missed out on the MTC send-off experience (which is apparently not much more than a parking lot drop-off), but were able to have a special Campbell family MTC experience planned by Shanna. The whole family was there for the occasion. Hopefully I'll get a picture of the family that night (Ryan and Kari, if you are reading this...hook us up). We love Kurt and we miss him so much. Grammy's house is great, but it definitely seems a lot quieter these days!

And as for Elder Pieper, we were able to spend time with him the last weekend before his mission. We stayed up in Rigby, Idaho with Granny Pie and had some good Pieper fun. Which means we ate a lot of food and played a little Sisco, walked to Ben Franklin, watched some football, and had a little juggling and tightrope-walking show courtesy of Uncle John!

Everybody, including sweet Granny Pie

Noah and Jake with Uncle Elder Pieper
And the five rowdy Pieper children while Christian hits his head on the tree branch

football, part 2

Yesterday we went to watch another of Kyle's games. There he is, in the middle, white shirt and hat, saying nice coach-y things to one of the players. Our boys had a great time. They sat and watched for almost half a quarter.

We had to bring a football from home, of course. Then we headed down where there is plenty of room to run. The boys found some big boys and they all played football together. See if you can spot Noah in this picture:

And Jake just looks on, with a bit of concern. Actually Jake got into the game too.

Even though the big boys were twice their size, Noah and Jake loved every minute.

And there's that stance again. Funny little boys.

our life during football season

Football is alive and well in the Campbell house.

The word heard most frequently from Jake's mouth: "football". He uses it at least 50 times a day. Usage of this word is not limited to the daytime. A few nights ago, he woke up all fussy at 2:30. He kept repeating "football! football! football!" I didn't know what else to do, so I took him into the living room and turned on a little ESPN, which calmed him down immediately. After a few minutes, I passed out on the couch. When I woke up again at 6:30 in the morning, football was still on, and Jake was stretched out on the floor with his blankie fast asleep.

Noah went to toddler time at a friend's house and the theme was "feelings". The art project was to complete a face by adding facial features and labeling the feeling. Noah made an excited face, but then went on to add a body below the face. The body was holding a football, which apparently in Noah's mind, is associated with excitement.

Speaking of excitement, watching games with the boys is hilarious. Noah's football vocabulary is growing, so his sideline commentary is pretty amusing. He likes to say: "Stop him!! Stop him!" and "Oh what a tackle!!" and "Sack him!!" and "Cover one three down!" (whatever that means.)

As for Jake, well, I don't know if a more enthusiastic 17-month-old football fan exists. While frowning and clenching his fists, he screams at the top of his little lungs: "GOOOOOOO! GOOOOOOO! GOOOOOOOO!" but his G is more like a D, which makes it even funnier. And occasionally he throws in a "'Mon!!!" (="come on").

And then there's Kyle. This time of the year, he eats sleeps and drinks football. When not working, he's coaching football, and when not coaching, he's watching football, and when he has some freetime, he is teaching his sons the football stance. It's funny. What wasn't funny was BYU's loss to Utah State last night. That left a little black cloud over our house for the night. But things were looking up today, what with General Conference and all. Kyle came home from priesthood session and the first thing he said was: "Now I can't hate Utah." (referencing Pres. Uchtdorf's talk that addressed sports rivalries and pride.)

What about me, you might be wondering. Some might say I'm a football widow, but I prefer to look at it like football is our third child. :) A foster child that is only around for half the year and takes a lot of time, energy, and emotion. I am not as close to this child as Kyle is, but there are a lot of things that I appreciate about the season. The list:

• Going to the Snow Canyon games and seeing Kyle coaching from the sidelines
• Watching Jake and Noah play football together in the living room
• Cheering for BYU (although the Cougars aren't lately making this any easier!)
• Scoring foot massages from Kyle during long games or series of games and an occasional surrender of the remote for foodnetwork or chick flicks (and he even watches with me!)
• Hosting or attending game day parties with other football fanatics and their normal wives
• Understanding how happy it makes these boys of mine!

All in all I'd say I can live with it for another season. Go Cougars, Warriors, NFL teams who happen to have an LDS player, and all other teams who include Kyle's fantasy football players on any given Sunday!