New Parents and Grandparents 6-23-07

Here is the new Mom! Straight home from the hospital we went to visit both of our families. Over the next few hours (and days in fact) we really didn't hold our baby very much. Our families have been so excited and supportive and have just loved cute baby Sam to death.
New father and son. We have just loved him so much. He has been a very fun and mellow baby. Our first night, we jumped up every time he moved or breathed different. Over the last week or so, he has only been up three times a night, so we are impressed. (Last night 6-29 he only woke up at 1am and 5am!) He is absolutely sweet and really doesn't cry much.
Ralph and Annette have just been absolutely giddy to have a little grandson. I wonder if Annette will make Ralph dye his hair now that he is a grandpa? Gotta look the part!
My dad doesn't have much hair to dye, so no problem there. This is the third grandbaby on the Droge side, but Samuel happens to be the first one local. My oldest brother Shawn has two cute children but lives in Tennessee, so my parents have been hungry for one to dote upon locally!

Placement: Saturday June 23, 2007

On Thursday night at 8:47, Samuel David Droge was born weighing 7 lbs 7 oz and 20 inches long. He was born with a whole head of hair, and in fact came with light colored streaks. It looked like the stork had stopped by the salon on the way to the hospital.
Saturday morning we went to the hospital to meet up with the birthparents and the birthmom's parents. It was very sweet and we traded gifts with the birth grandparents. They gave us a basket full of very heartfelt gifts and we gave them a picture of the savior and a little boy-- a picture that we thought had a lot of meaning to all of us. It was a very neat experience.
Later that afternoon was the placement. We went in and signed our papers and then waited. Our side was a lot less emotional draining of course than the birthparents. They had already come to love this little boy so very much, and the thought of not parenting him was just ripping a hole in their hearts. We just hope that the emptiness can be partially filled by the thought of our many-years-emptiness was being filled. They wanted him to have all the opportunities they wouldn't be able to provide, and give him a stable environment. The actual placement was very short and sweet. We talked for a couple minutes, then she handed Michelle little Samuel, and everyone started bawling, and they left. For a couple of minutes we shared tears of joy as well as sorrow towards our birthparents. Over the short couple weeks, we have come to love them so much and we feel so much for them.

Here is little Samuel. Let me out he says, I'm ready to go home!
What a darling little boy.
This cute little outfit was given him by his birthparents and birthgrandparents.
Little Sammy's first car ride. Let's go home!

Las Vegas Regionals June 17-21, 2007

Here we are again going to a soccer tournament for Michelle's sister Heather. She is number 21. They lost the first, won the second and tied the third. It's a shame that three of the best teams in the whole tournament were in the same bracket, because they didn't make it to the next level. It was fun though and very relaxing. Each day we slept in, went and did one activity, and then went and watched soccer at night. It was great.
Here is big dog Ralph at the Coca Cola world. Ralph's blood type is diet coke so we had to get a picture of him in front of the big bottle.
Michelle and I on the strip.
Here is the soccer star Heather, but perhaps she is considering a career change, and being the M&M nascar driver.
Here is Michelle sitting with the green m&m. Look at her. Not a care in the world. Last friday she found out that we were selected by a couple to adopt their baby, but he isn't due for 3 1/2 more weeks, so we have plenty of time to prepare. Little does she know that later this day, she will get a phone call saying that our birthmother is in the hospital in the middle of labor!!

We were driving home, just passing Filmore when a phone call sent us in to panic! The little guy was coming. A quick shopping trip by Michelle's mom Annette got us ready for a few days and a bunch of the neighbors and friends brought over things to keep us on our feet. We were so grateful for all the love and support we received those first couple days and these last couple weeks.

Michelle's whole family got together to sew a quilt for our birthmom. It was awesome!

Update on Simba -- All grown up

Here is an update for some pictures of our cat Simba. He has a wonderful personality. He is very social, so he will follow you around the house like a dog. He loves drinking the insides and outsides of glasses, especially after a smoothie.
Here he is hanging out on top of his perch. The perch is a three tiered thing about five feet high, and he loves just hanging out there on top.
We put him in the garage to sleep at night, and apparently the top of the car is the best place to sleep!
He is very good about letting us tease him, here he is looking annoyed at being put into a little garbage can.
If you look closely this glass has been cleaned about halfway down. We tried to get some pictures of him with his head all the way in the glass, but they didn't turn out.

Camping with the Hendricks' Memorial Day 2007

Jon and Carrie Hendricks are our good friends who live in the ward. Michelle and her have a ton in common and Jon and I have hit it off well also. For memorial day we went camping with them up in the mountains above Lava hot springs. We had a lot of fun.
Here is a game that we played a lot. It's like a cross between golf and horseshoes. You have these golf balls tied to rope and try to lasso one of the three horizontal bars. It's really quite fun.
Here are the girls getting ready to throw.
Dave and Jon looking at the tinfoil dinners cooking. Sadly, these burned pretty badly, but the parts that weren't charcoal, were excellent!

Greg & Wendy wedding May 12th 2007

If you are tired of looking at wedding photos, imagine how tired we are of weddings! But of course it was wonderful and great and all that, and very excited to have Wendy join the family. They are very happy and seem to complement each other well.
The standard guy picture.
Michelle and her sister Nicole were the photographers for the wedding and did a wonderful job. There were a number of very good looking pictures, including this one here.
This family portrait is a lot less complete. Annie was just visiting from Michigan where they are selling security systems for the summer, and Shawn's family couldn't afford to fly out to Utah 3 times in a few short months.
Here is how I interpret the looks on our faces. Dave -- I can't wait for this day to be over. Greg -- I can't wait for this day to be over!

Heber Getaway -- Spring break March 25th 2007

There have been way to many weddings going on, so we decided that we needed to get away. We took a quick spring break getaway up to Heber valley. We were sad to find out that we couldn't ride the Heber Creeper (too early in the year yet), but we took some pictures anyway, and bought a cool Train whistle. D -- where is that whistle anyway? M -- I took it to school. D -- (grunt) oh yeah.
Here's Dave!
We saw the memorial hill, and decided to see the view from the top. What a beautiful view!
The memorial was cool, documenting soldiers with relation to this valley who gave their lives in just about every war that has happened. Very inspirational and thought provoking.

Mike and Annie wedding March 9th 2007

It seems to be a popular thing to do recently if you are in the Droge family and "of age" to go and get yourself a spouse. Annie did just that and found herself a great guy named Michael Thomas.
It wouldn't be a wedding album without one of these shots!
Look how cute the two girls born into the family are! This is Shawn's daughter Sarah.
This is the most recent and finally a complete photo of the Droge family.

Birthdays 2007

Michelle doesn't want to start broadcasting how old we are, so I'll just share how old I am. I turned 26. Michelle has been craving a coldstone cake for a long time, so she got her wish.
Michelle's good friend Carrie Hendricks gave her this tile about Christ. It was wonderful and is now the centerpiece of our island.
Here I am blowing out my cake while Bruce, Wendy, and Greg look on.
Here is the cake I got this year. Each year I ask Michelle to do a sort of themed cake, because she is the champion cake decorator, so this year we did a golf cake. As always, it turned out great!

Byron & Elizabeth Wedding 12-29-06

Now starts the stream of weddings over the next few months. First was Byron and Elizabeth.
Greg and I enjoy a little break from the festivities to try and look cool.
All the younger brothers taking out years of frustrations, oh wait no they just wanted us to do a crazy shot. I guess violence is just the first thing that came to mind.
Can you believe that this portrait is already out of date? Well obviously Shawn and his family are out of the picture, but shortly after this, Greg acquired a permanent arm ornament as well.
Here we are!

Christmas Day 2006

This was our first Christmas that we woke up in our own bed and did our own little Christmas morning. It was nice, relaxing and very simple.
Here is Dave with his loot which included a music stand, Dilbert Calendar and the Mille Bornes game.
Michelle got a new necklace (featured around her neck) and a cute little kitten Simba.
Afterwards we spent time with the Droge's and then finished the day at the Pond's for the traditional afternoon brunch. We always have great food and a bit of a program. This year Ralph shared with us the legend of the wide mouth frog. To be honest, we were worried he just might pass out, but all concluded without any incident!
It was definitely a crowd pleaser, what a memorable show!

Christmas Eve Porkchops 2006

Christmas tradition at the Pond House is to eat porkchops on Christmas day. Usually grandpa and grandma prepare the pork chops, but with the passing of grandpa comes the passing of the porkchop tradition. Here grandma teaches us all how to make her famous porkchops (the night before the big feast -- christmas eve). We all had a turn dipping into crackers then egg then cracker again.