Sweet Dreams of LEGOLAND!!

This picture is a MAJOR cause for celebration in the Archibald house!!  Aidan is sleeping in his own bed!!  ALL NIGHT!!

A few weeks ago he decided that he would give this very frightening skill a try one more time, and with a little motivation from a reward calendar hanging above his bed, HE DID IT!!  And he has continued to go to sleep in his bed and stay there for almost a month now.  Yes it was a small miracle in our house!  Bryan and I no longer have to sleep with a tossing and turning child who hates blankets and is a BED HOG!!

Here was the deal....every day he slept in his bed he received a treat of his choice, things such as slushies, donuts, and ice cream were his favorites.  Very healthy I know, but hey whatever would work!  And then if he could make it 7 days in a row, Mommy and Daddy promised to take him to LEGOLAND!  Well day-by-day he proudly put the stickers on the chart and reached his goal!  And has been in that bed every night since, going on a month now! 

Great job Aidan!  We are so proud of you!!

So as promised, we took our trip to LEGOLAND!  And man was it worth it!  He LOVES this place.  And thanks to Nana and Papa for the awesome memberships, we will be able to enjoy it very often!

The big boys posed by the tiger as we entered the Jungle!  Love this picture! Their faces give such a perfect characterization of each boy and their completely different personalities!

Aidan was so PROUD of his accomplishment and enjoyed every minute of his reward!!

And then it was time for Aidan's favorite part of Legoland!  You build your own car and race it down the many ramps they have.  He took this building process very serious.  He would build a car, go race it, and then come back and tell me he had to "build it more action"!  Which I understood to mean it needed to go FASTER!  With Aidan this is the key to life, who can go the fastest, and WIN!!  Every thing is a race!

This one was ready for ACTION!





 Daddy and Maddux had some fun with the ramps too!

And they also took a ride on the bikes that fly!

Payton enjoyed watching them soar through the air.

He also really enjoyed the baby slide!  He wanted to do it over and over and over.....

Then the little guys headed over to the giant buckets of Legos to build!  So cute watching these two play side-by-side!

Love Payton in the background!  Just making sure Maddux is doing it the right way. :)

He was also very focused on the task at hand!

What a GREAT family trip!  Thanks Aidan for giving us a reason to celebrate.  You are growing up to be an amazing little guy!  We are so proud of you and we love you so much!!

TOY STORY MADNESS!

This is the scene that most often fills our house these days!  The boys are madly obsessed with all things Toy Story!  They play with their characters that MaMa got them for Christmas nearly all day every day.  They love reenacting the scenes from the movies (they got all 3 of those too!  MaMa is their hero!), and making up their own scenes as well!  It is really cute listening to them come up with new adventures for their friends.  Although it can get quite loud as you can probably tell by their faces!  But I must admit, it really melts Mommy's heart watching them play together!

Aidan is in full character here, with his Buzz Wings on!  He tends to always take the game to a more aggressive level when he joins in!

Maddux with Ham and Jessie chasing Buzz aka Aidan down the hall....

Oh no!!! Buzz turned around.....Watch out Ham!!

Payton simply sits in awe!  He is just trying to stay clear of all the chaos!  Watch out for Buzz, Pay!

Every once in awhile they accidentally drop a figure along the way and Payton gets to play for a split second!

In the midst of a heated battle between Buzz and the evil Dr. Porkchop!

Maddux can make some pretty good Buzz faces too!

And here's where the trouble begins....they are negotiating who gets to hold what toys.  The problem is, Maddux doesn't like to trade.  He would much rather be in possession of ALL the toys!  So.....

He takes them in the corner and HIDES!!! So funny!  "Ahh Mom you caught me!"



So he sadly stands up and struggles terribly to decide which one to hand over.

But all in all, it's a lot of brotherly fun, when Toy Story takes over the Archibald House!!

Lunch with Daddy....

Today we took a special trip to one of our favorite restaurants to meet Daddy for lunch.  Two Toots is an adoreable little cafe that is all about TRAINS!  My boys love this place!  There is a train track running around the restaurant and the train delivers your food to your table!  SOOO Fun!  The boys are in their birthday club, so during their birthday month they get a coupon for a free meal with a yummy train whistle cupcake for desert!  This gives us a great excuse to visit!  We weren't able to make it in December for Maddux's birthday so we used his certificate today.  And to make it even more special....Daddy met us on his lunch break!  PERFECT day!!


 Aidan posing with the Thomas outside the restaurant.  Notice Maddux in the background "hiding".  So sweet!



Maddux's turn!!  What a face!  I think he's having FUN!

Maddux enjoying his YUMMY cupcake as the train passes by!



Aidan trying to pose with the train! :)

 Every trip to Two Toots must end with a ride on the horse!  This time Payton even got to ride!

Maddux telling him to "Giddy up horsey!".

What a super fun lunch!!!  Bye for now!!!

Welcome 2011....

Hello from the Archibald house, and Happy New Year!!  One of my goals for the year is to start blogging.  I feel this will be a great way to preserve memories for the boys to look at in the future, and also to keep those we love updated on what's happening in our always crazy household!  So here goes...  OH BOYS!!!

Meet the family!!  I am blessed with the most amazing husband EVER!!  He is the best friend anyone could ask for, the most playful Daddy you will ever find, and an extremely motivated and talented person!  He works for Legat Architects, in Oak Brook and Aidan finds it absolutely amazing that Daddy designs big buildings.  We LOVE Daddy!!

Our oldest son Aidan is now 4 1/2!!!  This seems unreal to me!  He will start kindergarten next year and although he is more than ready for this new challenge, mommy is NOT!!  Aidan is an awesome kid.  He is so fun, VERY outgoing, and a BIG ball of energy!  He is ALWAYS on the go.  He loves all sports, especially baseball, soccer, and football.  One of his favorite things to do is take batting practice with his Papa Gerry on the University of Georgia softball field.  He is definitely a little athlete in training!  He entertains us daily and can always bring a smile to my face......

Maddux just turned 2 in December.  He is definitely his own person and quite the opposite from Aidan.  Maddux is our cuddler and our musician.  He is such a sweetheart!  He is definitely the "gentle giant"!  He wants nothing to do with Aidan's wrestling, and is much more concerned that no one gets hurt!  Maddux loves to sing and play his instruments.  But his absolute FAVORITE thing to do is to ride tractors with his Great Grandpa Gerald!  This little man is precious beyond words and such a blessing to our family....

And last but DEFINITELY not least our little Payton.  Payton joined our family on March 7th, 2010!  He is such a sweet, loving baby.  He seems to just sit back and go with the flow, which in our wild household can be quite the ride sometimes!  He suprised us all by arriving 4 1/2 weeks before his due date, but we could not be more blessed to have this little man in our lives.  He is slowly starting to catch up to his brothers in size, he was by far our littlest baby 6 lbs 13 oz.  We can't wait to see him start to develop his own personality and find out what will interest him and what great things he will accomplish in this big world!!

I look forward to sharing our lives with you all in 2011!  Happy New Year!!