ArchibaldFive

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!