Sammy at 3 weeks July 13th, 2007

We didn't take too many pictures for this week. It was one of those weeks that on Sunday night when we went to see what pictures to send to our birthmother, we said "oh no, we haven't taken any pictures this week!" So we quickly took a few. This picture above is one of my favorites. It shows how much he is growing, and he's even got a bit of a smirk on his face. The facial expressions are coming more and more, which is just a total blast!
Michelle with Sammy all bundled up!
Here is Sammy and Dave. Hey look he is sort of awake! This also is happening more and more.
What a cute little family.
Hmmm, I love this soft bear blanket! My birth grandma gave it to me.

First annual DaBell Family Olympics -- July 4th

The first annual DaBell Family Olympics was a total blast. Kimberly and Brandon had recently done some of these events for their youth conference and so they put on the olympics for us all. We had a great time. Here is Nicole, Jen, Kimberly, and Annette looking on as we did the shotput. (We were throwing a wet sponge)
Here is Kimberly getting ready to toss. Everyone seemed to have their own strategy (some using trickery others not)
Ralph, Robyn DaBell, Dave. We had to keep an eye on Robyn, you never know what strategy she'd employ! :-)
We switched to a freestyle throw and Mike Whitesides quickly ended the competition with an out of control toss onto the roof. Luckily Brandon employed some Monkey skills and got it down. We all had a good laugh and a good time.

Sammy's week 2

This week Sammy had a great time! It was the 4th of July, so of course we all went to a movie. Samuel's first ever going to a movie was to go to Transformers. He was great and hardly made a sound! Afterwards, we went to the Baum's for family olympics. It was a great time. The above picture is Sammy and Grandpa Pond, with second cousin Blake Whitesides who is older than him by 6 weeks. If you look close, Blake and Sammy showed up in the same onesie (Future sluggers). Since Ralph was wearing his Big Dog baseball shirt, we had to get them all together in a picture!
For Grandpa Droge's birthday (July 6th) we went up to the canyon with all Dave's family and had a wiener and marshmallow roast. It was a lot of fun.
This is Sammy just chillin'
Bath time! We love taking pictures of Sammy when he is all wet. His hair is very curly when wet, and we just think he's adorable of course!
This is his birth mom bear. Sammy and his birthmother have the same bear. It will be fun to see him grow in comparison to this large bear and share that with her.

First week with Sammy July 1st, 2007

Here is our first family picture. He is just the cutest little guy and such a delight to have in our home! The first week was filled with showers, thank you so much to all those who came rushing to our aid! It was a bit hectic and the time was so fast, but right now we feel great and are just enjoying this little spirit in our home.
Our neighbor Nikki Miner gave us this onesie (it says "Instructions not included"). We would just like to follow that up with a big AMEN!
Dave teaching Sammy the fine art of taking a nap on the couch!
Dave's two favorite people.
Yeah life is good! I whimper -- food comes rushing to my lips; I wrinkle my nose at it -- they'll heat it back up! I fidget -- they change my diaper. This is the life. And everyone I meet holds me and loves me!

Primary Children's Hospital June 24th to June 26th 2007

Saturday night we noticed a bit of a rash on Sam's neck. Baby's get rashes, so we didn't worry about it. Through the night during the feedings we noticed that this rash was getting a bit scary. It started breaking out on the neck like a combination of a horrible case of acne or blisters with big pussy looking heads. It was really thick and really gross. Then it started to spread. At first we just assumed it was where the skin was rubbing and getting sweaty and stuff, so we tried cleaning it and putting baby powder on it. As it started to spread, we started to get a bit nervous. We called our elders quorum president who is a physician and he wanted to come and have a look. After looking at it he told us that it isn't something he sees at all, and for sure wasn't an allergic reaction or some normal rash. He mentioned that it looked like a Herpes related something and recommended that we go to primary children's as a precaution just in case it gets worse and he starts breaking into fevers etc. So we did. They checked him in immediately because it did indeed look like Herpes. The test results would take a couple days so until they got the results they would treat him like he had Herpes. Immediately the IV went in pumping a number of antibiotics. The nurses were all very good, and Sam was actually quite the trooper, only crying when he was being poked by all the needles etc.
We had a ton of visitors, and here is Byron and Elizabeth who finally were able to see the little guy. Michelle's family came and stayed with him during the day on Monday and Tuesday while I had to take care of things and work and Michelle had some things to take care of as well.
Being at the hospital was good. I felt that our parenting skills increased quite a bit as we watched the nurses take care of him.
What a sweet little boy we got! Tuesday afternoon we were discharged from the hospital with all the results coming back negative for Herpes. The antibiotics apparently helped, because all the bubbles went away and he looks great. The final analysis says it was possible that he picked up the herpes like growth during birth, or it was just the "world's worst case" of rash as the doctors put it.

Welcome home!

While we were gone, the Hendricks' came and put up some balloons and a sign saying welcome home. It was a very nice touch. Jon put up the balloons on the left (and popped them :-) ) while Carrie was apparently a bit more coordinated in her efforts and was able to sucessfully hang them.
Here is a closeup of the sign. Thanks guys!

New Uncle, new Aunts!

My youngest brother Joseph was pretty excited.

Michelle's sister Kimberly takes a turn.
Here is Michelle's sister Jennifer
Here is aunt Heather
Last but not least Aunt Nicole.

Michelle's sisters have had some playful banter about a competition for becoming the favorite aunt. I promised to influence Samuel one way or another and was happy to take bribes! Heather took it to heart and has brought me goodies to the showers that we've had. Well done! :-)

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!