Bundled up like a cute little eskimo. 

Our week-old boy

One week down...many, many more to go! Everything's just rolling along here at the Archer House. Abraham is such a good baby! The only hard time we ever have is arguing over who gets to hold him and feed him.

We went to the doctor on Monday for his first check-up and it went really well. Most baby's lose weight for the first couple of weeks, and then start putting it back on. But, not old Abe. He weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces! He's well on his way to becoming a Michelin baby.

Anyways, here's some of his latest pics. Thanks for your prayers!

Here's Abe in his little bouncer. He's such a stud. 

Here's one of lil squeaker's many daily feedings. He eats about every 3 hours and around 3-4 ounces at a time. 

Chillin. 

He's already got more hair than his dad. 

A.J. is here!

It is my greatest pleasure to announce the birth of Abraham Jackson Archer! He was born Wednesday, April 6 at 1:22 am. He weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces and was 20 3/4 inches long.

Kerrie and I just got home from the hospital with Abe a couple of hours ago. We've been at the hospital since Monday evening. The doctor's decided to induce labor on Tuesday morning, and it took a little time, but little Abraham arrived in great shape.

He's the greatest little man in the world! He really never cries--which is amazing. He does like to squeak softly to himself, though.

Why the name Abraham Jackson, you ask? Well, a few reasons. First of all, we really liked the name Abraham. It's got the "cool old man" vibe and it's one of those unique names that gets better the more you hear it. Secondly, we love the story of Abraham from the Bible. (Read Genesis 12: 1-3) Third, my great grandfather's name was Abraham, my grandfather's name was Abram, and my dad's middle name was A. So, we just decided to keep the family name and just un-abbreviate it. Also, we've always liked the name Jackson, but there are so many people lately naming their kids Jack. We just wanted to be a little different. And there's the fact that if a person has a name like Abraham Jackson Archer, he's got to be pretty cool and probably famous.

And the final reason is this--I'm all about the nicknameability of a person's name, so I figure the possibilities are endless with Abraham Jackson. We've already got Abe, AJ, Jack, and AJacks. My grandmother's name for him is Abrajack, which sounds like some sort of fish. It's impossible to weigh the importance of a good nickname.

Anyways, I've been up pretty much since Monday night, so I think I'll end this little rant and take a nap with my 36-hour-old son. Thanks for your prayers and support!

Here's our little boy! He doesn't open his eyes much yet, but here's a rare moment of him checking everything out. You'll notice he's also wearing some rocking little monkey mittens. They're like little boxing gloves. 

Proud papa with the little yawner. 

We brought him home this afternoon and Riley's still not sure what to think of him. All Riley knows about him so far is that he makes noise and he has some really cool toys. 

You think he's adorable, don't you? 

OK, seriously. Being completely objective here...he's the cutest baby in the world. 

Kerrie got to go into the nursery right after the birth while they cleaned Abraham up and did their initial tests. She took about 150 pictures and 20 minutes of video in there. The nurse was pretty surprised because she'd never had to do all that stuff with the mother looking over her shoulder! 

Here's Grammy with the lil' bugger! 

This used to be my Grandma's baby blue hutch cabinet. Now, we've painted it and it's going to be Pedro's new changing table. 

Pedro's closet is already filling up! 

This is his ultra-cool Fisher Price cradle/swing! It has some really cool nature sounds and a ton of fun classical music. 

Here's lil' Pedro's crib and nightstand. 

¡Estoy en Chihuahua!

¡Hola, Hola, Coca-cola!
¡Bueno, Bueno...mas o menos!
¡Nada, nada...limonada!

I´m here in Chihuahua in the host home of my new parents, Felipe y Olgita. They are great people, but they do have the slowest internet connection on the earth. So I´ll keep this short and sweet.

I haven´t gotten to talk to my wonderful wife yet, but I love her and miss her SOOO much! I´m really excited about Pedro coming soon, but it better be after I get back. Everything is going really well down here. Our group is doing awesome and the host family and church are some of my favorite ever!

If you read this, please tell Kerrie that I posted this and I´ll talk to her soon.

The following are all pictures from our January trip to Kauai. It's definitely the most beautiful place we've ever been and it was such a huge blessing to go there. Enjoy!

I took this out on the catamaran. It's amazing to think that when God was creating the world he was looking forward to January 19th, 2005 so he could share this with me.  

Check it out...this is the waterfall from Fantasy Island. We also saw the dock where Tatoo yells, "Da plane! Da plane!" Doesn't get any better than that. 

These are spinner dolphins playing underneath our catamaran. 

Endangered Hawaiian monk seal

Kauai mountains 

During a hurricane in 1992, a bunch of chickens escaped from their pens. For some reason, chickens are a protected bird in Kauai, so now they are EVERYWHERE!  

Humpback whales winter in Hawaii. 

Computer Troubles

Hey! Sorry we've been gone so long. We had some computer problems and haven't been able to get on the internet. I've been workingon it, but I finally broke down and took it to the church today to have our IT guy look at it and he fixed in in about 20 seconds. Oh, well.

Things are going pretty well in the House of Archer. We've been working on getting Baby Pedro's room together. It's actually looking really good. I'll take some pictures pretty soon and post them up. I just downloaded Picasa so I can send pictures of that and some other pics, too.

In fact, I'll end this post and work on sending some Hawaii pics. Adios.

BIG NEWS!!!

Hey, ya'll! Many of you guys already know this, but for those of you who don't...Kerrie and I are adopting!

We are going to be adopting a little boy who will be born in early April. We even get to bring him home from the hospital! We've been praying about it and talking it over since late October, but we decided not to tell anyone until recently, just because we santed to be sure. This has been a really big decision, but it's been a huge blessing to see God's hand in it every step of the way.

The past few weeks have been spent filling out adoption forms. For anyone who hasn't ever done this, it involves a ton of paperwork. Almost a bigger workload than I had when I was an outdoor recreation major. We also spent a few days registering for baby stuff. We had no idea what we were doing, but thankfully Abel and Sarah Schafer and Hollie Voth went with us to help. We're registered at Target, Toys R' Us, and The Baby's Room in Rogers. Kerrie already has a couple of showers coming up, and we're planning on having some "meet the baby" showers in April, too.

Which brings me to my question...what do you think we should call him? I've been calling him Pedro for the last few months, but Kerrie's not really voting for that. We have some thoughts, and I think we've got one that we've pretty much decided on, but we're welcoming any new suggestions. Thanks for sharing in this with us!

You can stop holding your breath...we're back!

Break time's over!

OK, I know it's been awhile...but I have to tell you--Kauai is awesome! Kerrie and I had a great time. Here's an ultra-abbreviated summary of our 2-week trip

We got there at 6 in the morning after a horrendous 5 hour flight delay in Los Angeles. Definitely, the worst part about Hawaii is the trip to get there. We stayed at the Radisson and it was pretty nice. Kind of a moderately up-scale hotel. We didn't really get bored with it, so that's nice. Most of our days consisted of sleeping in for a bit and the lounging around the pool or the beach. The hardest thing to decide all day was where to eat. We saw a TON of humpback whales, seals, and dolphin. I got to go deep sea fishing for yellowfin tuna, which rocked. I tried surfing, which didn't rock. And, we got to go on a really fun tubing ride up with a company called Kauai Backcountry in these irrigation ditches that were dug in the mountains in the 1800's. That was really cool, because most of it was underground in these crazy tunnels. (By the way, that is the first hyperlink that I have ever done...I'm really proud.)

It's crazy that Hawaii is part of the U.S. Think about it--you're in a total tropical paradise that's almost equal distance from California, Alaska, Japan, and Australia. So, it's literally in the middle of nowhere. Every native Hawaiian looks exotic, but then they come up and say, "How's it going, bro?" But, I think the most wild thing about Hawaii is that everyday we could jump in our sweet Chevy Cavalier and within 10 minutes be at the nearest McDonald's, Starbucks, or Pizza Hut.

donde esta mi hermano

mateo???????? remember when you used to write as a kid a lot? at least i think you did, i always thought of you as a very literary person. always reading something or rather. from calvin and hobbes to choose your own adventure. readers make great writers too. escribe por favor. :)

remember knocking on the wall between our bedrooms as we read? i am happy that our parents made us readers. i can't go to sleep without reading, how about you, mi hermano?

long day

I spoke today in FSM, which always means that I don't get much sleep the night before. I think I probably slept like 3 hours last night, but I was able to sleep straight through my alarm this morning and wake up an hour late. Fortunately, I was able to get to the church on time...it was just a bit stressful.

After speaking for 2 services, we went to Ron and Pam Sweeney's wedding in Bella Vista at 2. Needless to say, it was a little unorganized. Kerrie was basically a spur-of-the-moment wedding coordinator for them. (She found out last night!) It was a little crazy, but they left the chapel married. That's the most important thing, I guess.

This is unprecedented...I think we're going to bed at 9 p.m. This may be the earliest ever. Well, goodnight.

deep thoughts

alright, so i started checking around other people's blogs and i found that pretty much everybody else blogs about really deep stuff like the meaning of life, the doctrine of the Trinity, the overcommercialization of christmas, etc. i felt bad. so i'll try and talk about deeper stuff from now on. so here goes...

...


...


...


i got nothin'.

ok, i have this game called bejeweled on my palm that i play about any spare moment i have during the day (meeting a lunch appointment, waiting in the doctor's office, going to the bathroom, too much information). i'm pretty addicted to it, and i hear that lots of people play it, but i have no idea if i'm any good at it or not, because i don't have anyone else to compare it too. my high score is like 110,000. is that good, bad, laughable? who knows?

that's my deep thought for the day. my last blog of 2004.

sabattical is upon us...

i just realized a few things today...

1. we have the week off between christmas and new years, so we really don't have to be back at work until next monday, january 3rd.

2. our sabattical starts thursday, january 6th. so our last day of work is the 5th.

3. we leave for hawaii on sunday the 10th.

4. from december 23rd to january 27th, we will only be working 3 days.

5. we have a TON of stuff to do in those 3 days.

well, i gotta go get to work. stressful.

we made it back

hey. we're back from oklahoma and we had a great time hanging out with the family and just chillin together.

i'm up to speak sunday, so i'm working on that right now.

kerrie's last present finally came in today. she got a new big flash for her digital camera. it works great and she's excited to use it. (her other present came in, too. but i can't tell you about itbecause i haven't given it to her yet. i'm really excited about it, though!)

well, i'm going to go play my new video game--the sith lords. i started it last night, and it's pretty fun. i might be getting addicted.

yesterday

the dossetts and some other friends came over last night. we played "scene it," which is a pretty fun dvd game. kerrie's friend haley came to town for the night, too. it was fun.

we finished the first lord of the rings and watched about a half-hour of the second one before mom had to go to bed. hopefully we'll finish the rest soon.

big gulps, huh? well, see ya later.

update

riley finished part of his candycane bone. some family friends are coming over tonight to hang out. we might play scattergories. i'm trying to get better at this.

this is where you lose me

there you go. we are going to start blogging again. we just had christmas. and we got lots of presents. kerrie really likes her new dyson vacuum cleaner. it's the first vacuum that doesn't lose suction. i got lots of fun stuff. including some movies and xbox games, a ladder, an air compressor, a camping stove & much much more. sadly, two of kerrie's gifts did not make it in the mail in time. hence, we will christmas a second time around new years.

riley's having a great time and enjoying his new dog toy & candycane bone. we're going to watch a movie now.

may the joy of the birth of the christ child bring peace and happiness in your life today.

sincerely,
matt & kerrie archer
jaime miller typing (to show how easy this is)

Life in general

welll, sorry for not posting for so long. Life has been busy with work and all. I really enjoy the new Halo 2 game for the Xbox. Very fun. I went out and played with my dog Riley today. And we also have two cats at the moment, Isabella and Sancho. Isabella is up for adoption as we already have too many animals. I like the Beastie Boys too. Ummm... Jason is probably the coolest brother-in-law that anyone ever could have and is the greatest Halo player of all time. Thats about it. See everyone around.

come on and blog

hey guys, everyone really wants to know what is going on in your lives. Get that blog going. Matt has been fly fishing for too long now.

Jason

i think i know my brother too well

hi this is jaime. i just wanted to say hi. um, yes, i hacked into matt's blog. i think i know him too well.

Fly fishing

Sam Hannon, Chase Davis, and I went out yesterday morning at 5:30.  Fishing is about the only thing I'll get up at 5:30 to do.  We headed to the White river below Beaver Dam.  I've never had much luck there, but now we have secret weapons...PJ's Finesse Baits.  Our friends Jim and Pam Hall make them, and they have these microjigs that are phenomenal.  I know they're not true flies, but they are hand tied and they only weight 1/180 of an ounce, there were all sorts of guys fishing around us, and they kept getting closer and closer the more fish we caught.  By the end, everybody on the river was within 50 yards of us.  We pulled out over 100 fish, and there were periods of time when we were catching fish every cast.  We pulled out at noon when the dam started generating.
 
I wish every day of fishing was like that!  You can check out Jim and Pam's jigs at www.ejigs.com
 

Sorry!

Alright, I have to apologize.  I've been a bad blogger.  I just have a hard time thinking of very exciting stuff to write about, and Kerrie and I have been gone so much lately, and I guess that's about all the excuses I can think of. 
 
Anyways, we spent June 26th-July 10th in Colorado at Ravencrest.  For those of you who have never been to Colorado during the summer, there's about no better place to be!  There are so many outdoor things to do, the weather is perfect, and you're in the middle of one of the prettiest place on earth.  That about sums it up.  The camp was awesome and it's always great hanging the Ravencrest staff.  After seven years of going there, they've really become some of Kerrie's and mine's close friends. 
 
If you're interested in seeing any of the hundreds of pictures of our weeks, you can check them out at www.ravencrest.org/glimpse04/week4/html
 
It's been tough to get back into the swing of things around here.  We've been trying to catch up on everything around here--sleep, work, friends, blog, etc.  I promise to write more and post some pictures!
 

what to type when you don't know anything...

OK, so I have something really personal to admit...I'm actually excited about the Vin Diesel movie coming out this weekend--The Chronicles of Riddick. Sad isn't it? I know. Pray for me.

Oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please, let the Pistons beat the Lakers...let ANYBODY beat the Lakers.

Kerrie's new camera rocks.

Derek and I are headed to Colorado on the 16th for a five-day whitewater rafting trip on the Arkansas river. That's going to be amazing! Basically, it'll be me, Derek, and a guide on the river for five days--either the guide is going to get saved or kill us...or both. I'll definitely keep you guys updated.

This is our dog, Riley. He's pretty much the coolest furry guy in the world.