Reid and Stefani Adopt

Isaac recently learned to army crawl.  He is no longer satisfied with his toys.  He wants to explore everything.  Today I snapped a few shots of him trying to sneak up on the cat.  This was unusually funny to me because our cat is known in our neighborhood as "the hunter."  She is always trying to sneak up on unsuspecting birds, mice, and fingers.  It was amusing to watch Isaac stalk Izzy with his incredibly slow and clumsy army/inchworm crawl. Isaac spots the cat. Izzy, still not realizing the danger she's in, watches Isaac curiously. Izzy, the unsuspecting victim, waits patiently as Isaac draws nearer. Mom snaps the last picture and then intervenes in time to avert a crisis.

Aunt Christine the pie queen, and Devin, licking the beaters.  Once Devin's beater was a little too clean, he dipped it in the frosting bowl for a second helping.   Daddy's first smoked turkey and Mommy's little turkey pictured. Back row: Christine & Devin, Molly & Soren, Stefani & Isaac Front Row:  Collin, Ian, Quinn, Georgia, and Kajsa The Pilgrims and Indians ready for Thanksgiving! A happy, slobbery Thanksgiving guest. Isaac's cousins came to visit for Thanksgiving.  Grandpa and Grandma Archibald came also.  It was a full house with happy little pilgrims staying in the tent upstairs!

This is Isaac moonlighting as a Raccoon for Halloween!  This picture may be a bit blurry, because I snapped it with my phone.  I actually took this picture at the end of September.  Isaac was just learning to smile back at me, and I was too excited to actually wait until October to buy a Halloween costume for him.  So as soon as I bought the costume, I tried it on him and let him lean against the back of the lazyboy recliner that our awesome neighbors gave to us.  Then I smiled at Isaac and snapped a shot!  I just can't get over how cute he makes his costume look!  This is probably the best picture I have ever taken.  (Shows how awesome of a photographer I am!) 

Isaac, as usual, was very hungry when he got up this morning.  I had a bottle ready, but I didn't want to keep him in such a soggy diaper while he was eating.  When I laid him down on the changing table to change his diaper instead of giving him his bottle, he was instantly upset and started to wail.  So I gave him his bottle, and for the first time, he more or less held it up by himself and ate while I changed his diaper, and then ran to get the camera to take a picture!  It doesn't take much to make this mommy proud! Go Isaac!

Isaac, Soren, and David in their matching state onesies.   Grandma on double duty with Isaac and Soren. Last week, Reid and I went to visit Reid's family.  There, Isaac met his two cousins, Soren, who is two weeks younger than Isaac, and David, who is about two month younger than Isaac.  Reid's family was thrilled to welcome Isaac as part of our family.  He barely was put down the whole week we were with Reid's family.   Grandpa and Grandma Archibald were always more than willing to hold him whenever my hands were busy and sometimes when they weren't!  We are so blessed to have a family that are as excited to welcome Isaac as we were.

My sister-in-law, Christine, graciously volunteered do a make-over of Isaac's baby room.  Together with the donations of a few other family members--you know who you are, so thank you!--Christine did wonders on Isaac's room.  She helped us paint and decorate, and put in some furniture.  We now have a very inviting room for Isaac to grow up in.  Thanks, Christine!  Now the rest of the house looks badly compared to Isaac's room.  Oops! The Elephant,  a piece of the rug, and the changing table. The pictures of the Savior, the Temple, and the giraffe.   The monkey clock, the "no more monkeys jumping on the bed" sign, and the cubbies. The tree, the monkeys, the owl, and the rocking horse and sock monkey. The cutest thing in the room, of course, is Isaac!

I've been trying to catch this on video for a while now.  Every so often when Isaac is playing under his playmat, I'll hear the jingle from the little ladybug, and I'll make a mad dash to get the video camera.  Then I will coo and encourage and bribe Isaac to try and get him to do it again for me on film.  It took about 4 different times to catch this on video, which is why you hear me cheering so exuberantly for him to "pull it" in the video.  In the end, it wasn't even me who caught it on film--it was Daddy! After watching this again, I felt a little foolish.  I sounded like a crazy lady that gushes over the unimpressive things her children do...and that's probably spot on.  Oh well.  When one spends all day with an infant who specializes in eating, crying, filling his diaper, and sleeping, this little vignette really is something to get excited over.

Sunset on Lake Superior by our cabin. Sunken Ship on our glass bottom boat tour. During the 4th of July holiday, we traveled to Michigan's Upper Peninsula to meet up with some friends from college.  It was our first Archibald-Menlove reunion since college.  Reid, Isaac and I stayed in Munising, MI, and enjoyed a Glass-Bottom Boat Tour on July 3rd, and then traveled to the Porcupine mountains where we stayed in a cabin for a few days and enjoyed hiking, sunsets, and the company of good friends.  We were very blessed to have cooler temperatures, and got to swim a bit in Lake Superior.   Stefani, Isaac, and Reid Back Row (L-R): April, Sonja, and Jacob. Front Row (L-R): Daxton,  Tijah, and Brenden Another cool thing that happened was that I accidently left my ipod touch in the cabin.  I worried for a day or two about it, until we got a call from the couple that stayed in the cabin the night after we did.  They were the n...

West Michigan Whitecaps vs. the Bowling Green Hot Rods Stefani chatting with another fan. Reid feeding Isaac.   Yesterday Reid and I took Isaac to his first baseball game.  We enjoyed 10¢ hotdogs, and chatting with another fan who, incredibly enough wanted to show us pictures of his black grandchildren (also adopted).  I think Isaac got jealous of our hotdogs and started crying, but Dad just fed him milk anyway. Our team won 13-11.  I got a little crazy cheering during the 8th and 9th innings because the HotRods passed us up, and then later we got in 3 more runs to put us ahead again.  

Grandma and Grandpa Carroll came this past week to help us out with the new baby.  Grandma was able to catch the cutest dimpled smile I've ever seen!  I think it a small miracle that Isaac smiled just in time for Grandma to snap that picture. Isaac came to us from Southeastern Michigan.  We learned about him at the beginning of May.  We were not expecting him until the 10th, but he surprised us by coming early.  Reid and I had all of our camping gear packed the Friday before Isaac arrived--ready to go on one last camping adventure before we were blessed with children.  Then we got the call.  We dropped everything and drove to the hospital.  After a few days of waiting, we were able to bring him home from the hospital.   Now Isaac has just had his 2 week well child visit with his pediatrician.  He has grown almost a whole pound and grew over one inch in his two weeks of life.  He is a joy and we feel continually blessed to ha...

Say hello to Isaac Reid Archibald! Here he is being welcomed into his new crib by his Sock Monkey.  Isaac was born June 2 at 4:36 a.m. He weighed 6 lb. and 13 oz and was 20.5 inches long. He was brought into this world by his very special birth-mom. We are so grateful for her love for Isaac and her willingness to place him into our arms through adoption. She will always hold a special place in our and Isaac's hearts. So far he has done a lot of sleeping, eating, peeing and pooping. What can we say, he's a baby boy and he's doing a great job at it!  He's been such a wonderful blessing in our home. He's been welcomed by so many loving friends and family members that all want to come see him. We are very grateful for their love and celebration for our family.

My neighbor invited me to go with her and her kids to the critter barn. It was a fun little place where I got to see a chinchilla and a very, very furry bunny rabbit. Even though I thought the kids might be afraid of the animals, they surprised me. They put on their game faces and held a few barnyard animals themselves.

Reid and I went to my niece's wedding in Nauvoo, IL this past weekend. It's crazy to think that I have a niece old enough to marry. That means there's a high likelihood that my oldest sister will have grandkids before I have kids--which I think is pretty dang funny. It was great to chat with Laura (bride) and Chris (groom). We are happy to have Chris be a part of the family. Reid and I have had a good time getting to know Chris better. He is perpetually smiling--maybe because he got such a cute wife! We also found out that Chris was adopted, and it was fun to learn a little bit about his adoption story. His family is super nice. We're happy for Laura.

Reid was kind enough this year to give me 4 roses...one for each of the years we've been married. They look great on our new table. We purchased this table knowing that the table more than fills our need of a table for two. The size of the table embodies the hope that someday, this new table will be the center place for our children to enjoy family meals, do homework, play games, and enjoy family time.