More Archer Pictures

We made it home on Tuesday around 5:00 pm and have been so glad to be in our own place. It has been either raining or snowing ever since we got back, but it has been working out pretty well. Archer is adjusting to his new surroundings and is adored by his brothers and grandparents.

As far as everybody else we are all recovering well from the time away from home and at the hospital. We were so glad to get out of there, we asked them to get us out early so we could beat the weather home as much as possible. Since baby and Mommy were doing so well, they had no objections. Yay!

And if you hadn't already heard about the delivery, it went really fast and easy. Hooray for natural birth that goes according to plan! I am barely feeling the effects of it. The lack of sleep at the hospital wore us out more than anything else.

Archer Wells Pike

Here he is. 8lbs 6 oz born monday dec 22 at 421 pm.
Carolyn will make this post better when she get's on next.

last call

last call for middle names, due date has officially changed to dec 22., on which day this baby will be induced.

'snow goes with christmas' - odin pike

how many people get to cut down a christmas tree from their front door anymore! the first tree we inspected was the perfect sized cedar growing in a cluster. making memories AND making room for forest growth at the same time. not to mention saving money. bonus.

lessons in how to drag a christmas tree

the first snowfall dec 13,
a super fun morning-
ok, now let's go build a fire

take a picture of us! ronan's cheesy smiles where he wrinkles his nose and squares his lips are hilarious. and he will hold it for as long as you need to take the picture. you can tell where the smile starts to become fake, but he still holds it.

apples at the miller's

picking apples on thanksgiving day. a super fun activity for all the kids while they waited for everyone else to arrive for dinner

baby prep update

our top favorite suggestions: kahn, ör, wells, cy, and didymus. i wouldn't be surprised if one of these became our name choice. thanks for the awesome ideas everyone.

now that we are down to the wire-week 36 this coming sunday-

i am starting to feel the pressure of getting things done.

so i assembled ronan's toddler bed (thanks again, kate) to figure out how the three beds will fit into the little room we have for the boys

this started a big round of musical furniture:

toddler beds kicks out big green recliner,

recliner moves to bedroom as it is this mother's other-well more like primary-sleeping arrangement

recliner kicks dresser to closet, which fits only if closet weren't overrun with cans of food storage

food storage goes under bed which is now fully reassembled (thanks again, mark)

storage cabin must now also be rearranged and cleaned up for sake of said dresser to fit in said closet because moving said food storage is still not enough space in the right place

what, we have too much stuff?

middle name?

so i am completely stumped. mark is too, and he has given it up to me to decide which middle name to give to our third boy. i have searched and searched and thought and thought. maybe there are some suggestions out there for me? opinions? help!

things i want in a name that are slowing me down:

our other boys' names are--Odin Taft and Ronan Ash, what in the world could match the style of our family names and still sound cool with the name Archer, which we have selected for this next one?

the other boys' middle names are one syllable. i like how it has worked so far, so do i want to keep up the pattern?

and if i REALLY want to stick to a pattern that has emerged, then i must limit the total number of letters in first and middle names to eight. that leaves me only two letters for a middle name. without making up a name (which i really don't want to do) or sounding totally lame, what two letter name options do i have that still sound good? probably none.

so at this point i am seriously considering using just an initial, which actually has fowler family history, but i wonder if the child will feel ripped off. where is the rest of the name? i could take an initial and spell it out as it sounds, but that seems then like a real name and not just an initial. it loses the family connection as its purpose for being used and then i might as well just pick a name at that point and not go with initials.

but then that takes me back to just picking out any old name, i would like it to have some connection. for example, Taft is where mark's family lived when he was born. Ash is a shortened version of Ashby, a family name-not to mention a totally cool name and a great character from a movie trilogy that some of you might know.

i think i have made my point as to how come we are stumped. so ANY suggestions? i need an awesome name to get me out of these hold-ups that are slugging my brain for ideas.