HP -- Our local hero

HP, or H, or Heather Pond, however you prefer to call her, is our local hero. She plays for the USU soccer team and does a great job. This is her freshman year and she is getting lots of playing time. In fact, this week she just made the travelling team (Oct 19 - Oct 21) and that is very exciting. It's been a lot of work but we are super proud of her accomplishments and we're glad she's our sister. We haven't been able to go to a ton of her games, but here is a preseason game when the Aggies played Dixie. Go HP!!

No, she isn't just standing around, she's preparing for her next attack!
Sammy's first soccer game.
Go Heather!
Sammy's little Rugby outfit.
Anyone recognize that belly? Sammy looks upset that he was beaten in the big belly category.

Sammy's Month 2

It was fun to watch Samuel's growth during his second month. He went from sleeping a whole ton, to being awake and cracking smiles. Each week as we email our birth mother, it's fun to note his growth and the activities that he enjoyed. During his second month, he went on his first vacation, went to a couple movies, listened to all of Harry Potter 7 and developed a time of the day to fuss. We of course took a whole ton of pictures, so just scan through and enjoy.

Sammy in Grandpa Pond's Coca Cola hat. This was at the USU -- Dixie Soccer game
Michelle and Sammy lie down for a picture together.
By the end of month 2, he could sit up on the couch (momentarily)
Sammy with Grandma and Grandpa at the soccer game
Super Sam!!
Samuel's birth grandparents gave him an outfit, and by 6 weeks he was looking like he was ready to be blessed, but that won't be until 6 months.
Yes this is the same child. Our polynesian Sammy gets all curly Q when bath time comes.
Sam and his Daddy
Hey! How ya doin?
Look I can hold my head good.

He is so precious asleep..
He is so precious awake.
Hey you have plenty of time to ponder on the complexities of life, just enjoy for now.
Harry Potter Week! We both took turns reading, but Sammy just listened.

Bear Lake with the Ponds August 2007

We took another trip up to Bear Lake with the Pond family the first week of August. Like last year, it was a lot of fun. We boated, and played games, ate a lot of food, listened to Harry Potter on Ralph's ipod, and even went to the Bear Lake County Fair. Ralph bought a pig and a cow at the livestock auction, which was a very interesting experience!
I started to get the hang of the Airchair, but we didn't get any pictures of boating with our camera, so we'll have to update this later..

We were a little nervous with how Sammy would do, but he was a trooper! Annette bought a little lifejacket which was just so huge on him, but hey if we swamped the boat our little guy would float! Safety first, so in the jacket he would go. He endured to the end though and we were able to have a great time. Everytime we put him in it, we just had to smile at how annoyed he looked!
Sammy busted out the mo-hawk look while wearing his motorbike shirt.
At the fair, there was an activity for the kids under 12, the tractor pull. The guys running the show would throw some weight in the back depending on age and the kids would see how far they could go. Heather and Nicole wanted to go for a ride, so they hopped on and got a picture on the fun little tractors.
Here is the auction. I'm not sure if this is the steer that Ralph bought or not.
Here's our little family!

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! :-)