Reid and Stefani Adopt

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and we got a new baby! We were contacted November 4th that twin girls were coming our way.  Super exciting.  Then we met with the birthmother a week later, and a week after that she went to the hospital because her water broke early.  Then one of the heartbeats of our little girls stopped a week after that.  The babies were born Monday, November 25th.  We had a memorial service that weekend, and a burial close to home.  Then we waited for our other little girl to come home and be released from the NICU.  During this time, we had family for Thanksgiving, who graciously got a baby girl room ready, attended a funeral for her twin sister, and made us 8 freezer meals for later in one night!  They were amazing.  We had an outpouring of love from family, friends, and church members.  Our bishop was gracious in helping us find funeral services for Rachel, and his wife helped with the baby shower for Esther. ...

Halloween time in the Archibald household brings our traditional Halloween dinner:  Monster mash, bug juice, and mini pumpkin rolls.  Isaac had a ball this year going trick-or-treating.  He walked in his little monster outfit to over 20 houses in our neighborhood, and when he was done, he handed out candy to the other trick-or-treaters.

I think this video speaks for itself...

Preston  & Clare are my neighbors.  I had the opportunity to babysit them today.  Preston smartly chose the blue cup and Clare chose the green cup.  Preston smartly informed me today that his cup's name was Simon, and Clare's cup was named Theodore.  If only Isaac had a red cup, he could have been Alvin, but instead, he's a mix of Simon and Theodore.  We could possibly dub him Siodore, maybe.

We traveled a lot this summer, and it's been a pretty busy time.  Since school is starting in 2 days, I thought it appropriate to write a post about some of the things Isaac has been up to this summer. This summer Isaac: 1. learned to go down the slide by himself  2. went camping with daddy for the church father's and son's outing   3. hiked Mt. Rushmore     4 . petted a goat at the zoo There were many other things that he did that are not pictured, including but not limited to: *boating on Bear Lake with the Archibald clan, *racing with Grandpa Archibald in the annual "Baldy Dash," *flying in an airplane to and from Utah, *hanging with Grandpa and Grandma Carroll in Blanding, *lodging at a hotel at the Carroll family reunion in South Dakota, *winning a stuffed dog for completing a reading challenge at the library, AND *keeping his mamma and daddy busy and entertained. What a busy summer!  Whew!  We're ki...

At the encouragement of my friend, I decided to put pictures of the "Quiet" Book I made for Isaac on the blog.   The activities are all matching games of some sort and came from the "Finch Family Games" Book.  I just copied, printed, colored, cut out, laminated, cut out, glued, laminated and velcroed them.  Then I bound them in a book.   Unfortunately, Isaac is not quite developmentally ready to use the book properly.  He currently just wants to rip all the pieces off and crumple them.  I was so looking forward to taking this book to church and have Isaac quietly entertained--but then Reid pointed out that the velcro wasn't exactly "quiet" anyway.  I am a little disappointed.  Next time, it's either felt or magnets.  

 Last Sunday Isaac turned one year old.  The day before that, Reid and I threw a birthday party for Isaac.  During this event, we turned our thoughts back to the day one year ago, when we were in the hospital, meeting both Isaac and his very special birthmother for the first time. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her.  We hope that she has been able to meet the goals she has set for herself up 'til this point in her life, without too much worry about her little baby boy.  He is well, happy, and even though he made some funny faces as he tried cupcake and frosting for the first time, he ate it all happily.  Thank you very much for the very difficult decision to choose adoption for Isaac.  We love you! Isaac's birthday cake.  This was my first attempt at cake decorating.  I chose to do the very hungry caterpillar to ease into the world of fine cake decorating.  The wonderful decorations were put up by April Menlove an...

Today Reid and I took Isaac to the Memorial Day Picnic that our ward puts on every year.  This is the first time I've been able to take Isaac to a baby swing.  He loved it, after he discovered that Mommy was going to tickle him every time he swung my way.  He was giggling and having a great time.  Too bad it was a little chilly.  We had to leave early.  It was fun while it lasted.

Ever since Mom caught Isaac trying to climb the stairs by himself, she has endeavored to teach him to climb down on his own, hoping to prevent a painful tumbling down the stairs that seemed inevitable. So far, so good!  He hasn't fallen down the stairs yet, and he is starting to get a hang of climbing down on his own.

So, a little explanation... We broke our camera, and hence we are a few months behind posting pictures.  So the next few posts will playing catch-up.  These are our Easter photos.    Even though Isaac didn't get any Easter candy, he did get egg-shaped sidewalk chalk and a book.  We also read the Easter story as told in the easter eggs in the brown & green basket on the left.  In each egg there is a little scripture written on a strip of paper, and a little item that symbolizes what the scripture talks about.  Each Easter we read the scriptures and talk about the object inside of each egg.  This is Daddy and Isaac, showing off the dyed eggs that Mom hid for them on Sunday morning. These pictures are really just showing off Isaac's eggs and super cute Easter Sunday vest, tie, and striped shirt.  He is such a handsome little man! This is Daddy and Isaac finding eggs on Easter.  At the very least, Mommy had a great ...

It's Sunday after church.  Isaac fell asleep in his car seat on the way home from church.  Since it was his nap time anyway, I thought I'd try and keep him asleep.  After carefully taking Isaac out of his car seat,  carrying him upstairs, gently putting him down onto his changing table, carefully removing his coat, hat, and gloves, and  changing his diaper, I successfully laid him down in his crib--still asleep.   He was so cute in his little red argyle sweater, bow-tie, red and gray pinstripe shirt, and black and red plaid pants that I wanted a picture of this adorable sleeping bundle.  That's when I ran into trouble.  I went to go find the camera and it was no where to be found.  After a frustrating search, I decide to use my cell phone camera.  As I was messing with the setting trying to turn off the shutter sounds so as not to wake him up, I accidentally changed the shutter sound to an ...