The Real Family Picture

Merry Christmas!

This past weeek I have been repeatedly reminded just how blessed my life is. I have a wonderful family! I am married to a great guy who loves his family and works hard. I have four amazing kids. I live in a beautiful home in a wonderful neighborhood. I have great friends. Most of all, I have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for all that I have been blessed with. Some days I get so caught up with the things may not be going the way I would like, that my perspective gets a little out of whack. I guess I need a good kick in the rear on occasion to put me back in my place. Maybe I should be thankful for those not so gently nudges.

Seeing that I have been a little preoccupied this year, I have decided to put our annual family newsletter on our blog rather that sending it out with our Christmas cards. I will give you the Cliff Notes version of our year.

Nelson has been very busy. He still works for Farm Bureau Insurance in Payson and has one more year left on the city council. This year he has been over the sewer and water. If you want to hear an earful from him, just ask him about the chicken issue. As if he wasn't busy enough, Nelson was called to be the Executive Secretary in our ward.

I have finally graduated from primary! It took me longer than most children, but I have finally advanced to Beehive Advisor! I love my new calling, especially since I have the same group of girls that I have been involved with since they turned 8. I told them that they were stuck with me forever. I still volunteer as an EMT for the city. This spring I took an additional course and am now certified as an EMT-I. I have also been babysitting my neice Hannah this year. And since I had a few extra minutes, I took on the job of book fair chair at the kid's school.

Mike is 10 years old and looking forward to becoming a New Scout in March. He is in the 5th grade and doing great! He loves school especially his GATE class. He has been mourning the loss of his pet cockatiels, Lucky & Bucky. They were his best friends. Yesterday we welcomed the addition of a new memeber of the family. Baby is a 1 year old pied cockatiel. Mike is very excited. Baby even ate breakfast with us this morning. Well, she did until she pooped on the table. Josh didn't like that very much.

Morgan will turn 9 on December 23rd. She is in the 3rd grade and loves school. She also enjoys her GATE class. Morgan is a very artisic girl who loves to draw, dance and sing. She loves her pet bunny Snowball and is very good at taking care of her. This year Nelson and Josh both won ribbons at the state fair for their pigeons.

Josh is 6 and in 1st grade. He is becoming quite the reader! I think he is a clone of his father. He loves trains, pigeons, Transformers, Star Wars and most of all his pet lizzard Spikey. He keeps me on my toes. I never know what is going to come out of his mouth or what he will do next.

Maggie is 3 and started preschool and dance this fall. She loves it! She is still very small, but has a very big personality. She is not affraid to stand up for herself. While driving in the car the other day, she announced that she doesn't like boys, she just likes pink! She loves Tinkerbelle, and her favorite princess is Belle.

We hope that you are all doing well and have a very merry Christmas!!
Love,
Heather, Nelson, Mike, Morgan, Josh & Maggie Abbott

We wish You a Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Time for a Change!

I have finally come to terms with the fact that I am getting older. My hair just keeps getting darker and darker and I am sick of fighting it. I have decided to quit trying to contend with the unsightly regrowth. I have done the unthinkable and have gone darker! Not as dark as I thought it would be, but we will give it a try for a while. What do you think?

Christmas is Coming!

In an attempt to be somewhat on top of things this Christmas season, I am starting to get organized. I know, it is a shocker! I would like to send Christmas Cards to all of my friends. The only problem is that I don't have all of your addresses. Could all of you wonderful people who read this please email your current address to mikemorganjosh@yahoo.com? Thank you!

Elections

When Josh got home from school on Monday I could tell that something was bothering him. When I asked him what it was he proceeded to tell me about the election that the first graders at his school were holding. They were going to be voting on a class president on election day. The candidates were Clifford (yes, the Big Red Dog) and Duck. I don't know how many of you have read the book Duck for President. I have never read it myself, but a couple of years ago I was helping out the librarian at the school when she read it to a class. It is basically about a duck who gets sick of Farmer Brown telling the animals what to do and the duck was tired of doing his chores, so he decided to run for president of the farm. Duck wants Farmer Brown to do all the work so all of the animals don't have to. Josh was very concerned about having to make a decision. He thought that Clifford would probably be a better president, but thought it would also be nice to have Duck. Duck promised to be kind to the animals, and wouldn't make them do any work. That sounded kind of nice to him. He doesn't like to do his work at home. Luckily, yesterday it was announced that Clifford had one the election. I think he ended up voting for Duck because he seemed a little sad about the outcome, although he would never tell who he actually voted for.
I was rather shocked last night at dinner when Morgan was in tears telling us how much she didn't want Obama to win the election. At school yesterday there were children at school telling her that Obama told women who were pregnant that didn't want any children to kill the baby. She was very upset. I never thought when I sat down to dinner last night that we would end up having a lesson on abortion. Morgan had an even harder time this morning when she found out that Obama had won the election and that she now had a future president who in her mind went around killing babies. I spent most of the evening last night and part of this morning telling her that Obama didn't actually kill the babies, that it was doctors who made bad choices, and mothers who made bad choices. Obama only makes it easier for them to make those choices. Our job is to be a good example and tell people not to make those bad choices. There are a lot of people who would love to adopt those babies that aren't wanted for one reason or another. That made her sad too because she has several friends who are adopted. She was very grateful that their birth mothers had made a good choice when they were in a bad situation. I think it is very sad that we live in a society when 9 year olds have to even know about abortion. It is amazing what our children pick up. I sometimes think that they are more aware of what an important issue is than some adults. I'm grateful that I have them in my life to keep my priorities in line.
On a much lighter note, The kids brought home their school pictures yesterday. They always crack me up.

Halloween

I thought you might like to see some of our Halloween pictures. Mike was Superman again. That is what happens when you take too much time trying to decided what you want to be. Morgan was Hannah Montana. Josh was a Clone Trooper and Maggie was Belle.

Mggie's Birthday!

Maggie turned 3 on October 14th. I can't believe my baby is three! She had so much fun! She was very excited to get more dress ups and little people from Grandma. Her Payson Grandma gave her a pink pillow case. She thought it was a sleeping bag. She has spent hours inside it. She also likes to share it with her Barbie.


After work and school we all loaded up in the van and went to Jumpin' Jacks. The kids spent several hours running around like crazy people. They had loads of fun. They didn't want to leave. After several hours they decided that it was okay to leave because they were all starving. So we stopped at Cracker Barrel on the way home. Maggie has decided this is now her favorite restaraunt. She likes the macaroni and cheese! It is hard to believe how fast they all grow up!

Playing Catch Up!

So I think I have now officially become the blogging world's biggest slacker! But I am now trying to change that and update everyone on all the crazy events of the last month and a half. One day, back in September, the kids were all out in the driveway riding their bikes. Maggie, who lives in her dress ups, asked if she could go out and ride her bike too. I told her she could if she put her shoes on. When I went out to check on her about 5 minutes later, I just about died laughing. She still had her dress up on, put on her princess snow boots, and had Morgan help her with her helmet that has googly eyes on it. She was quite a vision of loveliness!




Morgan wanted me to take her picture sitting on her bike with the kickstand down. She thought everyone would think she was riding her bike and then she could have the perfect pose. She is really into posing. What she didn't realize was that you can see the kickstand in the picture. She was happy though, and sometimes that is all that matters!


Mike wanted me to show everyone his latest Lego creation. He loves building things with his Legos. He has also recently discovered that you can design your own Lego model kits online, design the packaging, and them buy them online. They send you all the pieces you need. He hasn't saved up all the money he need to buy his kit yet, but he has sure had tons of fun working on it!

Nelson has decided that now that his Mustang is 14, almost 15 years old he could enter it in a car show. They have a fun little car show in Payson on the last Saturday in September. Half way through the car show they take a small road trip up the Nebo Loop. It was beautiful! The leaves were at their peak and it was really neat to be driving in a big, long line of beautiful old cars!

Nelson thinks this is the next car. I think he is up in the night!

Timpanogos Cave

Last Saturday was the first Saturday in recent history where we didn't have 10 million things going on. We couldn't do much work on the bathrooms because we were waiting for the paint to dry, so we thought we would take advantage of the situation. We took the kids to Timpanogos Cave. They had so much fun, and we didn't hear one complaint the whole way up. The way down was another story, but even that wasn't to bad, they just thought they needed an entire handful of Swedish fish at every switchback. We really enjoyed the time we got to spend together. Sometimes I feel like we are all going in so many different directions all day. I have to keep track of who is at soccer, who is at dance or scouts, who is going to be at home with the kids, who has meetings on which days. It was a nice break from the rat race. For one whole afternoon, we were all heading in the same direction at the same time. Hopefully we can find more moments like that when the whole family can be together for more than just dinner or a quick family night. It was very refreshing. The best part was that they were having too much fun to argue or fight with each other. I am still amazed!

Maggie is Growing Up!

She may be really little, but Maggie is growing up! She is by far the tiniest person in her class, weighing in at a hefty 24 pounds, but Maggie started preschool yesterday! She had so much fun that she didn't want to come home. She spent the rest of the day telling me all the fun things that she did. This morning she was very upset when she found out that she couldn't go today and had to wait until tomorrow. It is so hard to be patient when you are so excited.

I Am Blessed

I have spent the last couple of hours thinking about how blessed my life is. Nelson has a second cousin who has a daughter about the same age as Maggie. During the July 24th weekend she was involved in an accident where a giant beam fell on her head. She was Life Flighted to Primary Children's Medical Center where she had to have a portion of her brain removed. She has made incredible progress even though she has a long way to go. She has to learn to do every all over again. She has even had to learn how to breath on her own. This little girl is truly amazing. I am attaching a link to the blog where you can see how truly remarkable this little girl is. Click on the photo bucket link to see video of her in rehab. I am so grateful for my 4 beautiful, healthy children that I have been blessed with. I don't know how these parents have the strength to deal with what they have had to deal with and to make the decisions that they have had to make. They really are inspiring people.
http://www.larenabbottfam.blogspot.com

Maggie's Shiners

Yesterday, I came back into my bedroom after changing laundry loads. I just about died. I thought it was strange that Maggie could have hurt herself so badly without making a noise. Upon closer examination I discovered that she had actually gotten into my long-lasting lipstick and put it around her eyes. It won't wash off!! It is still there. I found Maggie sitting on the stairs yesterday looking at herself in a mirror. She couldn't stop laughing. We both spent quite a bit of time laughing yesterday. When we went to Josh's soccer game last night, everyone wanted to know how Maggie got her shiners. All I could do was laugh. I hope it comes off soon!

Family Pictures

The Mayan With Grandma & Grandpa

A Weekend Full of Family Fun!!

We had a very eventful weekend!! My parents were in town for a McCullough family reunion as well as my uncle Paul's wedding. Annie thought it sounded like fun, so she and her family decided to make the trip from Texas to join in on the fun. As if that wasn't enough fun, My mom decided that since we were all going to be in town at the same time(something that hasn't happened in over 4 years) she was going to have family pictures taken. So on Saturday morning we all made the trip to the Classic Fun Center in Sandy for a very exciting family reunion. We had fun in the bounce zone and roller skating. My kids weren't really happy that I wouldn't let them go on the water slides too. I didn't have time to go home and shower and make everyone look pretty again before pictures, so I know Katie, Annie and I really are the meanest moms in the whole wide world. They'll get over it eventually. After all of the fun we had in the morning, Grandma & Grandpa thought it would be really fun to take all of their grandkids to the Mayan for lunch. Our family has grown quite a bit from when we were a party of 6. We are now a party of 21. That was quite the adventure! After the fun lunch, we had just enough time to run to B.J.'s house so that all 21 of us could get ready for pictures. For as many of us as there were, it went pretty well. I hope they turn out okay. We should get to see them sometime this weekend. I can't wait! Until then, you can look at the few that were taken with my camera when I wasn't busy wrangling children. Thanks Mom and Dad for all of the wild adventures last weekend!

School!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love summer. I love having the kids home. By the last week of summer, I am more than ready for them to go back to school. This last week has been torture. It's almost as if they have cabin fever, only they aren't in a cabin and they aren't sick. All of a sudden they have nothing to do, they want to fight, their toys aren't fun anymore, their friends can't play when they want to... You get the picture. It's around this time that I realize that it is time to go back to school. They need a change of scenery, a rigid schedual, time away from their mother. And I need a break! Needless to say, I was rather releived when the school bus came this morning. Apparently I wasn't the only one. There were several other mothers at the bus stop this morning who were ready to party as the bus pulled away. I honestly don't know where some mothers get the motivation to home school. I don't think I could do it. I like my freedom too much. Maybe I'm just selfish. Probably. Oh well. I will be a much better, well relaxed mother when the kids get home in another 45 minutes! When I was younger, I would hated the idea of summer ending and school starting. I never would have immagined throwing a party because school was starting!

Finally!

So, as you all probably know, I am a slacker! But, I finally have the rest of the pictures from our trip to Michigan on the blog! Yeah!! We had a lot of fun and enjoyed our stay at Grandma's house. The kids keep asking when they can go back. Some, okay most of the pictures are very blurry. That is because Josh, my photographer in training, hasn't figured out how to take a picture without touching the lens. I didn't realize how messy the lens had become. Hopefully you can kind of make out what the pictures are supposed to be of!