ArchibaldFive

Barely keeping up!

Things are changing at the Archibald house. The boys are growing way too fast. I know we always say that as parents but seriously there are seasons where it seems you blink and when your eyes open your children are just older. It's so weird to think that soon we will have a 3, 4 and 7 year old. My youngest will be 3 and my oldest will be 7???? Seriously???? I need a time-out or slow-mo option for a little bit.

started school Monday. He's had this biggest changes obviously. I was very very nervous about his starting school but Neil and I feel like it's what is best for him at this point. He's been 2 days now and he seems to be LOVING it! Monday when I asked if he was ready he told me "No no no I no go to school" Aiden and I tried to talk it up. By school time, he was EXCITED and prancing around showing off in his backpack and hamming it up for the camera. :0) He had a great first day. His second day was even better. He is coming back from school happy but worn out. We are excited to see how going will affect everything....

Aiden -- well he got a haircut this weekend. He has really pretty curly hair. Yes I wish he'd allow me to teach him to fix it better or brush it -- but he's a boy and he's 6 so it's not a big deal. So anyway he told me that he thought he wanted to cut it shorter so he could fix it more easily be more like his Dad. I said okay. I took him over to the Duncan Brothers school as they have done a GREAT job on his hair in the past when others haven't. Plus they are CHEAP. :0) Anyway, he gets this super cute girl with rockstar hair. It's blue and black and all over the place in a fun funky way. I tell her he wants it shorter - something trendy and fun that plays up his texture. She is excited. Aiden is excited. So then I get the other boys set up to get their hair cut. She comes over to me in the middle of Chase's cut and says "He says he wants it buzzed off -- what do I do?" She did NOT want to do it. I did NOT want her to. He insisted he wanted it all buzzed off. In the end we decided it was only hair and he could grow it back and did what he wanted. He's happy. I wanted to cry. I dunno how many girls came over to me asking if I was sad or saying they couldn't believe he wanted to do that or whatever... The girl cutting his hair was having a hard time watching his curls fall to the floor. Neil picked one up and brought it to me to save. OOOOOH WELL!!! The next day he also lost his second front too. So he's hairless and toothless in the front. He looks like a completely different child to me. I miss his hair.

Alex seems to be mellowing a bit. I hope I don't jinx myself saying that. Of course when I say mellow he's still like 4 energy levels up from the normal child but thats about 4 levels down from where he was before. Less whining is involved which is good. There are times when I feel like my ears a going to break. :0) Overall though he's just a FUNNY kiddo. Yesterday in the car he told me to stop singing cuz he couldn't clap while I sang. He then showed me how he can Alligator clap, and proceeded to alligator clap and make munching sounds for the next 10 minutes. Did I mention that with the boys current school schedules and pick-up/drop-off times I get to now spend 1.5 hours in the car with Alex EVERY DAY!!!! That's ALOT of time in a small space with a loud child. That first day was hard. Yesterday was better. If nothing else we'll get LOOOOTS of one on one time. Overall though I am looking forward to having a few months of having my afternoons with just Alex. I haven't had that ever and while he's my most energetic he's also super funny and super sweet. It will be fun to have that special time with him. :0) Right now he's just kind of ticked off to not be going to school. Hopefully it will get better. :0)

There is lots more I could post but I've taken enough time out already so I wont today but maybe soon. :0)

ARIA Ready for an Opera?

Yesterday afternoon (Sunday) we took Aiden and Chase to the Opera at the Civic Center. The Oklahoma Philharmonic does a series of children's concerts as part of their discovery series. Yesterday was an introduction to Opera. It was ALOT of fun! To be part of the club it's stupid cheap and you get 4 tickets and a special gift at every show and a t-shirt and all kinds of stuff.

We weren't sure how Chase would like going but he LOOOOVES classical music and just music in general. He looooves Little Einstiens and the music they have on the shows so we thought we'd give it a shot. The hour before the show they had a bunch of instruments out for the kids to play with and try out. The boys were really cute. Chase loved playing the violin and Aiden liked the cello (however you spell that) and the drums. Both boys tried a few brass instruments but just blew slobber. YES they had lots of sanitizing on hand in between children, and they were very thorough. LOL!!! Chase actually tried to swallow the whole mouthpiece on the trumpet and freaked the highschool student that was helping him out. LOL!!!

The "Opera" was about an hour long and both boys enjoyed it. It was pretty comical, Neil and I enjoyed it alot. Chase LOVED hearing the music and clapping after each piece with the crowd. Aiden got a little bored right as the last song was being played so it was just the right amount of time. Everything was either sung in english giving a lesson about what the opera was about -- for example there was a song about the different musical parts there are. Alto, Tenor, Saprano, etc... For instance the Tenor is usually the old guy, or the bad guy, and he hardly ever gets the girl.... LOL! It was really a cute show I --HIGHLY-- recommend it.

The next showing is in April and it's called "Yo-Ho-Ho A Pirates Life" it sounds as though it will be alot of fun. We have tickets to go to that as well and may even venture out and take Alex. Because the place is totally filled with kids they didn't have to be completely still and silent though we did promote sitting still with our kids and highly suggest not sitting in front of the people we sat in front of but overall it's okay if they wiggle in their seats some. :0)

The Archibald Five go to Texas

Well we had a change of plans. We'd originally planned to visit my Mom, Mike and my step-siblings in San Marcos this year (near Austin). Instead we ended up taking an overnight trip to Dallas to meet them half-way and hang out. It was GREAT.

We left early Saturday morning and got to Dallas around 11 am. We headed over to Grapevine Mills Mall, and took the boys to eat at Rainforest Cafe. That was a lot of fun. I highly recommend splitting the appetizer platter. Neil and I did and the little boys split a meal as well. Much more affordable that way and they give ALOT of food. Anyway the kids LOOOVED the atmosphere and all the animals.

After we ate we walked around the mall some and then stopped in at the Skate Park to watch everyone skateboard on all the ramps. It was pretty cool.

We met up with my Mom and Mike around 3 as well as my step-sister Michele and he husband Bobby, their kids Caleb & McKayla (I am forever spelling her name wrong I know), also my step-brother Randy came. Randy lives in Dallas. It was the first time we really got to hang out with him since my Mom and Mike married. The boys really liked him. (We did too). Okay so yeah we met up at Incredible Pizza and played a ton of games and ate pizza. As we were getting ready to cash in tickets I decided to finish off a few of the playing cards on a jackpot game. My second time to play I hit the jackpot. I will a little over 350 tickets! I won another 100 in a few turns. IT WAS CRAZY! We got about 800 tickets total. It was a lot of fun getting to hang out with everyone and see the boys play with their cousins.

Later we headed over to the hotel. We stayed there 4 years ago on our last family vacation -- the only other time we've stayed in a hotel since our honeymoon. LOL!! Anyway it's a great set up it's like a 2 story 2 bed 2 bath apartment, very reasonable as well. So yeah we all hung out and opened presents. Then the kids all played with the presents. Chase got his marble run and played with it for well over an hour. THATS AN INSANE RECORD FOR HIM!!!! We all settled down eventually -- thats when the real "fun" began.

So yeah Neil and I stayed upstairs with the 2 younger boys. Neil in the bedroom with Chase and I stayed on the foldout in the living room with Alex. Aiden slept on the fold out downstairs. Everyone was sleeping great until around 10:30ish when the people next door decided to have a party. Their balcony connected to the window right next to where I was sleeping. Around 11 I was just fed up. I went to peek out the window to see if I could tell how many people were there and a girl proceeds to lean over the balcony right in front of the window and start vomitting. I WAS DONE!!!! I called the office and the lady assured me they would send someone out. Around midnight they are still going strong. I called back. At this point some chick is crying and ranting and her friend is trying to console her. Every other word is an f-bomb over and over and over. THANKFULLY ALEX WAS SLEEPING THROUGH IT ALL as you could hear them like they were in the room. So yeah the front office says they will call the cops. Instead they send out a security guard who we are informed is really just a matinence guy. He tells them they need to stop partying by 1 am. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! I gave up. They died out around 3. I fell asleep around then and woke up about 4 times between then and 6 when Alex woke up.

So we ate breakfast with Mom and Mike and then they went home. We called the hotel and asked for the room to be written off, we had to sign a no party contract beforehand and felt it should be free if they were going allow others to party without kicking them out or offering to change our room or SOMETHING. They agreed pretty easily and so the hotel was free which freed up cash for us to go to the aquarium with Michele, Bobby, Randy and the kids. So that made the puking, crying, and partying worth it -- almost. :0)

It was our 3rd time to the aquarium. The little guys 2nd time, they didn't remember it. Aiden did. It was everyone else's first time. It's alot of fun. The boys all had a great time and we got alot of great photos and made alot of fun memories.

We made it home with no further eventfulness and overall we had a GREAT trip!! The boys are ready for next year. :0)

Christmas

Christmas was a BLAST for everyone in our house. We had dinner on Christmas eve at Neil's parents home with all of family. It was nice. Mindy (Neil's Mom) made a turkey and a ham, and alllllll the sides. She did a GREAT job.

Everyone came over on Christmas morning to open presents. We were all really blessed in the present department. The kids got lots of really really cool stuff. Our entire family got a computer with a bunch of extra features. It is awesome. I will be gradually switching over to the new comp so if you don't get ahold of me immediately call me. :0) Email might be sketchy for a week or so.

The cutest thing that happened on Christmas -- Alex not being able to wait for us to let him open his presents so he baaaaarely ripped the paper and kept trying ti peek in the little hole he'd made, he kept making the hole a little bigger and a little bigger. It was soooo cute!!!

So far the favorite things the boys got have been: Aiden -- Star Wars shirt, video games, and heelyz. Chase -- Pat Pat Little Einstiens Rocket and his marble run. Alex -- His Fisher Price space hero guys and anything his brothers are playing with. He got the big rocket to go with his space guys and loves that too!!

Anyway Christmas was fun for everyone as always and we're still recovering. Hope it was great for everyone else!

Peaking out at Wednesday

Well it's Wednesday the peak of the week... haha I'm a poet and I didn't even know it.

Things are starting to fall into place and seem less crazy this week. We have our LifeGroup party tonight then shopping for our family on Friday. I get to shop for our family on Saturday with Neil, then we're DONE until Christmas morning. Oh yeah Aiden's school party is Thursday afternoon too. But yeah that's all doable and not so stressful sounding. :0)

Monday we had our 2nd annual gingerbread party. It was CRAZY but lots and lots of fun! We are so glad that everyone could come!!!! You can view photos from the part in the album at the right or just click here http://archibaldfive.typepad.com/photos/archibald_five_122007_gin/

Well I don't have anything profound to say today so I will sign off for now.

Busy oh so busy....

So yeah I wrote out a list of all I have to do the next two weeks and the list took 4 pages of notebook paper? WHY DO I DO THAT? I thought I was cutting back and here I am adding. What if I hadn't "cut back" on some of that stuff. EEK! God was sure taking care of me on that one.

I love to give of my time and of my talents. God gave me a ton of talents that I thoroughly enjoy, and love to give of but finding that balance can be hard sometimes. Maybe that should be my "New Years Resolution" if I really made them, to find more balance in my life. Does one ever really find balance though? I am sure with God's help it's possible, it just seems out there at the moment.

Nothing too big going on, on the homefront. Aiden's asthma is flaring up again. Grrrrr!!! Chase is doing okay. He's been really really sleepy lately. Last night the school psychologist and speech pathologist came up to watch how he interacts and plays at church. We are trying to figure out what our next step is, if there is one, in helping get him back on track developmentally in multiple areas, as well as see if there is a diagnosis/treatment for why he is not developing typically or if he's just taking his time. Either way, he's one happy happy child! His newest thing is to tell me he's a "big kid". We've made a big deal out of it when he does things big so maybe he'll start to see himself that way and I guess it's working. It's soooooo sweet. At the same time I know he needs to start growing up and all of that but Chase seemed like a baby for sooooooooo long. He has always been my boy to snuggle and be held and just gave me lots of time in each stage to really enjoy everything. He took his time getting to where he is now, and I am going to miss that. I already do. I am very excited to see him growing up though! :0) Mr. Alex is a mess! One really really funny mess. I have never met a child that makes me laugh the way Alex can make me laugh. He can either cause me my biggest frustrations... knowing WHAT to do about him... or my biggest laughs. Funny that he does both. I --CAN'T WAIT-- to see how God uses him. It will be interesting if nothing else.

The ice is mostly melted now. Thrilled about that. Hopefully the electric crews can get the power restored to people quickly over the next few days while everything is melted off. We're due for snow on Friday evening/Saturday morning! I am excited about that, but not thrilled about having to drive in it. I have "stuff" that has to get done this weekend. So we'll see how that goes.

Well I am off to make icing and start decorating some cakes! :0) Have  a GREAT day!

A year changes alot!

Wow! It has been a YEAR since I posted on this page. A few of my friends have recently become interested in blogging and it has renewed my itch for it. Soooo here we go again! :0) 

As I signed on I was looking through all the old photographs on the page. Do you realize I had 2 years worth of photos stashed here? As I looked through it and rewatched the videos it just made me smile. I forget so much in the craziness that surrounds us as we raise our children. So often one can miss the little things or not take the time to really ponder them. I forgot how much Chase used to like toy snakes! There was a whole season where he always had one wrapped around him chewing on some part of it. I forget all the silly outfits Aiden dressed up it. Like his Mickey Mouse Mr. T outfit -- and how he would tell me "I pitty the fool who don't eat breakfast".  I forget Alex as a baby because so much was going on and he seemed to grow up so fast and hit each milestone so quickly. It's fun to really look at the photos and see the learning frozen forever in a photo. I need to make more time to really OBSERVE my kids for --who-- they are and --where-- they are. It's been said so many times but is so true -- THEY GROW UP WAY TOO FAST -- !!! So anyway I deleted all the 2005 photos to make room for some of the 2007 photos I'd like to add and all the 2008 photos I will be adding as the year goes on. Take a moment to look through the old stuff or look through your photos and just remember.  New stuff will arrive shortly!

One for the books...

Well today definitely was blog worthy...

I woke up and it seemed like any other day. Little did I know I should have just stayed in bed. Haha! But no I got up and started my day not knowing what laid before me.

We have been driving Neil to work because he needs new brakes and rotors on the Saturn. It's not a big deal, we'll get it done soon just haven't yet. Well we go to wake all the kids up and Aiden gets up and gets upset over something trivial and causes himself to have an asthma attack. We couldn't find his inhaler. It's in a bag with his toothbrush from when he spent the night with his aunt but where that is I don't know. He's been using a different tooth brush. I didn't even think about the inaler being lost until we needed it. Well he breathed through it. We drop Neil off and head over to Target to get it refilled. Well we get there at 8. The store is open at 8 but the pharmacy doesn't open until 9. So we walk around an hour. Chase pulls things off shelves and Alex screams the entire time because he drank all his cup and wants more. He wants to dig in my purse to find more. I wont let him. IT WAS A MESS. So the pharmacy opens and what do you know his script is expired. While we're in the store he had his 2nd attack of the day as well. So the pharmacist calls our Doctor's office and the nurse tells her no she can't give authorization for anything not even one treatment without the doctor going over the file although he's been in numerous times for asthma reasons and albutirol is prescribed to 99% of the kids with asthma. Yeah no "THERE IS A PROCESS". So Aiden ends up missing school today because he didn't get medicine until time for school to start.

So I am frustrated about that, I get home and check our bank account and I see that we are overdrawn by ALOT OF MONEY. And it's NOT our fault. I went to Old Navy saturday and paid with check. They run checks electronically. You sign it they scan it in and stamp it void and hand it back to you. Well the computer said it was good then went to print on it and the computer dies. The manager comes over and says "Oh we've been having problems with this register you helped us know it's still broken." LUCKY ME!!! She assures me the transaction did not go through and rerings me. This time the computer won't take my check. Our bank has a lock where it won't allow identicaly transactions to occur in a certain timeframe. She assures me again the first check did NOT go through that the computer is set up so that WILL NOT happen. (Although this has happened to me in Wal-Mart before) I go against my gut and this time write her a check. She assures me that she will look at the log the following day to make sure my original check did not go through. If it didn't then she would deposit my paper check. Well today both check show up. One electronic, one a paper check. Having it go through twice made us negative. I got the boys ALOT of clothes they needed- so it wasn't a small amount.  Having it got through twice was a BIG DEAL. In turn it caused 6 different $3-$10 transactions to gain overdraw fees at $26 a pop. I promptly step into the laundry room close the doors and scream. Aiden is like "Mom are you okay?" I then call Old Navy and explain. They apologize and give me a number to call. I call, they give me a different number to call. I call the 2nd number and it's still the wrong number. I call the new one and they have to trasfer me. I *finally* get the right person get it sorted out, she agrees it was their fault and is going to process it and send it to the next person in the *process* well I ask her -- how long will this take to get my money back -- well over $300 at this point with fees. She says casually 2-4 weeks!!! I WAS FLOORED. I ever so "nicely" explained to her that Christmas was 12 days away and that by my visiting their store they now have over $300 of my money that they shouldn't have and I have 3 kids to feed and Christmas presents to buy and that was just UNACCEPTABLE. She then says "Well I can put a rush on it" I was like "YOU DO THAT" I promptly faxed her our bank statement as proof to which she was supposed to call me back to let me know she got it -- NEVER DID THAT -- So I call Neil and unload again. He says to go to the bank and get them to sort it out. So I do -- all 3 kids in tow. They did sort it out and we'll be back to normal in our account by midnight. All fees erased etc. Tha's great, just wasted a good 2+ hours of my day but it was t aken care of.

So then I think WHEW that's all under control now I can relax. I am cleaning up and Chase runs in CRYING. I haven't even really set foot in the living room. Well Neil ate some grapes last night late and left the bowl with the branch part on the back of the couch. WELL Chase thought it would be a good think to eat some branches and got one LODGED in between his front tooth and his canine. We're talking a large branch. So I have him on the floor and am trying to remove it. It's sticking out of his mouth and going into the back of his mouth. It is LODGED and I keep just breaking the branch shorter and shorter trying to get it out. He's now bleeding pretty good. I call Neil he has no idea. I get spoon and am trying to scrape it out without getting his gums. That doesn't work. Tried flossing it out - doesn't work. Tried chewing gum (thanks Christy) that didn't work. So then Christy says tweezers and I don't have any. So I hang up and go next door to ask Chase screaming in my arms. They aren't home, and it dawns on me Raymond behind us should be home but sleeping and he's a EMT. Shoulda gone there first. I run over there Chase in tow -- Aiden and Alex locked in the house. Raymond is awake in the attic and comes down gets his tweezers and we lay him down on the hood of the van. I hold him down and Raymond is able to finally get him to open up enough to yank the stem out. He's now got a gap but is branch free.

ITS BEEN A SERIOUSLY CRAZY DAY!!! The kids are napping now, THANK GOODNESS! Hopefully we're in the clear now. I am exhausted. LOL!!! So that's a day in the life....

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!

So we got our first snow of the season yesterday. It snowed ALLLLL day. Neil and I took the kids out in it around 4:30 before the real bulk of it came down in Edmond. The news this morning said that our area got 9-12 inches. I think we're probably about in the middle. There are drifts that are around 2 feet or more in some areas. ITS AWESOME!! We don't get snow like that in Oklahoma much so when we do it's a big deal.

When we took the kids out it was still coming down and blowing alot so the little guys didn't last very long at all. They liked it though. Chase LOVED sledding down the hill to the park across the street. We used a storage box lid we had that is curved and smooth to "sled" because sleds aren't common around here. Haha!! Anyway Chase LOVED it. He would lay in it and his face was just sheer delight sliding down the hill. It was so cute.

Aiden loooved the snow. Neil took the little guys in, and I played with him for a while, then traded off with Neil. Aiden was out there about an hour and a half in the snow. He really got a kick out of eating it. At one point he just leaned over and took a big bite out of the hill. It was funny looking. I got a picture of it.

Hope your all having a great holiday season! Check out all the next snow pictures in the November album!!!!!

So I skipped October

Okay so I skipped October -- not much happened in October anyway... Haha!! Really though we did alot but other than Halloween nothing HUGE happened I don't think. Halloween was a blast as usual. Aiden got an insane amount of candy. More than any child needs to eat in a year, but that's the fun of it right?!?! Chase surprised us and was REALLY into trick or treating and actually would say "Trick or Treat" and he'd use sign language to say "Thank you" to people after they gave him candy. Aiden and Chase were both Power Rangers. Alex was the Frog. Every one of our kids has been the frog for their 2nd Halloween. It was fun.

So now he were are at the end of November. TIME FLIES!!! The boys are all GREAT!! They've been a little more challenging these days. Alex and Chase especially. Chase is a good kid he's just a very curious child and constantly finds himself in trouble. He's alot of fun when he's not into something he shouldn't be. Alex is just a mess lately. He's right at that age where he's too little for alot of things but wants to do them and finds himself frustrated OFTEN. He even more often takes that frustration out on Chase who just takes it. Alex is definitely the youngest. He wants to be the center of EVERYTHING. He's so cute he often is. He knows he's cute, that's the problem. He's really started talking ALOT and cracks us up with his talking consistently. He's quirky too. Aiden is GREAT he's learning so much at school! He can write his name now on his own with no help and all the letters are facing the right way. It's great. He's turned into a little artist as well. I looove seeing his drawing and what is inside his head. He's really a good kid, Neil and I enjoy him alot.

Neil has been crazy busy with work. Even more so than usual. Things should slow down around Christmas. Cmooooon Christmas. It's tiring for him and for me, and his working so much really is cruddy in regards to the time he gets to spend with the kiddos but this too shall pass.

I'm doing good. Keeping busy like always with kids and friends and all that. I am still running my boutique and am starting a business with some friends. We are hoping to launch in January. We call our business "Naked Garden" we will be making and selling all natural FRESH babyfood, fruits and vegetables at a huge discount price twice a month - kind of a co-op thing, as well as some of my handmade items for babies and kids. We're excited about it all. :0)

Well that's all for now. I've added an October and November photo album and some new video clips!! Have fun looking at them! :0)