Abbott Crew

Life

2011-06-03T09:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I was shocked to learn that 2 people that I know, but have not had contact with in many years passed away in a tragic plane crash. I grew up in the same ward as Chad Wade. He was one of my dad's scouts. I could tell you lots of stories about him. The other was Justin Yates. I worked with him 12 years ago when he was a student at BYU. Both of them were good people that had young children. Justin also left behind a wife. This morning I learned that a memorial fund has been set up for Justin's family with the most immediate need being covering the cost of funeral expenses. Both of these men are considered very successful in the business world. I don't want to judge, or to sound like a commercial, especially since my husband sells life insurance, but on occasions like this when we are reminded of how fragile life is I am so thankful to have the knowledge that if something were to happen to my husband or myself we would be okay. I can't even imagine having to deal with pain and heart ache of losing a spouse. To couple that with the financial burden of having to come up with a way to pay not only for burying your loved one, but how you would live with the resulting loss of income would be unbearable. Life is so fragile. You never know when you will be called home. I am very thankful for the small piece of mind I have from knowing that If something were to happen, my family will be okay.

Maggie

2011-04-23T06:58:00.000-07:00

I know it is shocking that I am posting something on my blog, but I thought this was probably the easiest way to keep everyone up to date with Maggie. Some of you know what is going on, but we have been getting a lot of questions. Here is the whole story. This week was book fair week. That means I live at the school. That is where I was on Wednesday morning. I dropped Maggie off at a friends house to play before she went to preschool. She was just fine, and acting as goofy as she always does. She went to school and was having fun and acting completely normal. She planted seeds and after she washed her hands, sat down on the rug for story time. During story time she had a seizure. Her amazing teacher, Miss Jennie, quickly got all the kids into the other room to play before they saw what was going on, called 9-1-1, called another parent to come and watch the other kids, and called me. She had what is called a grand mal, tonic-clonic, or generalized seizure. Those are the more dramatic seizures where their eyes roll back, they have very dramatic muscle spasms, foam at the mouth, you get the picture. As soon as I got Jennie's phone call, at came as quickly as possible. I wasn't worried about getting a speeding ticket. I knew that if the sheriff wasn't already there, he would be going to the same place I was. By the time I got there, she had just finished with her 3rd seizure in a 15 min period. Nelson arrived right after I did. She had never had a seizure before. She had not been sick. She did not have a fever during her seizures. We took her directly to our doctors office. by the time we got to the doctor, Maggie had a fever of 103.6. She also had a blood glucose level of 136, which is high, but not high enough to cause a seizure. The doctor thought that it was probably a febrile seizure and sent told her to get her fever down with ibuprofen and acetaminophen. He also scheduled us to come in on Thursday morning for a 2 hour glucose test. After a couple doses of medicine, her fever was completely gone. Later that day I got o phone call from Primary Children's Hospital Neurology department. They told me that they had talked with our doctor and Maggie was on "fast track" to meet with one of their doctors. They wanted me to call and make an appointment after Maggie's glucose test. Thursday morning, Maggie and I were getting ready to head down to the doctor's office for her 2 hour test when I got a phone call from the doctor. He told me that he had 3 conversations with the neurologists at Primary Children's. They think that Maggie's fever and elevated blood sugar were probably caused by the seizures rather than causing them. He wanted us to do a finger prick glucose test instead of the 2 hour test and then call the neurology department and schedule an appointment. Her blood sugar was at 99. We were able to make an apointment for 8:45 am on Friday. The neurologist thought it was a little concerning that she had 3 clustered together so close. She also wondered if she wasn't fully coming out of the seizures and it was one really long one, which is also concerning. While we were there, Maggie had an EEG to see if they can find any abnormalities. Maggie was so good! She sat so still while they attached 23 wires to her head and tried so hard to fall asleep when they asked her to, even though she couldn't. I need to call the neurlologist on Wednesday to get the results. In the meantime, we get to watch Maggie closely. She needds to have someone with her all the time. This has been really hard for her. She is a very independent child. We have to be really careful if she takes a bath, and it is strongly encouraged to have her only take showers. They also sent us home with nasal Versed to administer if she has another seizure that lasts more that 5 minutes. Now we just wait. Hopefully they won't find anything. But if they do, It will be nice to at least have an answer. Needless to say, this has been a REALLY long week and I am very glad that it is Saturday. Book fair is over, and we are done with all the doctor visits. I am looking forward to just resting today because I am exhausted! Thanks for all your prayers. I will let you know if and when we have any answers.

WOW!

2010-09-04T03:49:00.000-07:00

I think I can officially claim the title of the Biggest Slacker Blogger! Sorry. I will try to do better. I will spend hours catching up on all the things we have done in the last 6 months. But not now. Now it is 4:30 am and I am not sleeping. I have been up for hours. On the bright side, I have caught up on reading everyone's blogs. Now if I could only find the strength to post the millions of pictures I have taken and explain what is happening in them. It is a little overwhelming. Kind of like the mountains of laundry the seem to accumulate after a vacation or the piles of papers that the kids bring home from school and then put in strange places. I will do it...later. But, just so you know, we are all still alive.

Big News!!!

2010-01-25T15:54:00.000-08:00

This was announced at 4:00 this afternoon. The new temple site is about 10 minutes from our house and we are sooooooooo excited! I think this means a change in family night plans. Maybe a little field trip to the temple site?

A new temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to be built in Payson, Utah, it was announced today by Church President Thomas S. Monson.

The new temple will help meet the needs of a growing Church membership in the area and will ease the heavy use of the Provo temple, which is one of the busiest in the Church. The Payson temple will bring to 15 the number of operating and announced temples in Utah.

The property for the Payson temple is located on gently sloping ground at approximately 930 West and 1550 South on the southwest side of Payson, a mile from the 800 South I-15 interchange. The property offers scenic views of the area as well as easy access to the freeway.

The new temple will serve approximately 22 stakes from Spanish Fork to Nephi comprising approximately 78,000 Church members. Temple-going members have been driving to Provo or Manti for temple services.

Artists’ renderings, the size of the temple, groundbreaking dates and other information will be released as they become available.

“Temples answer those soul-searching questions of the purpose of life, of why we are here and where we are going. They are sanctuaries from the storms of life and bless the lives of members of the Church who worship within their sacred walls,” said President Monson.

Latter-day Saint temples provide a place where Church members make promises and commitments to God and where the highest sacraments of the faith occur such as the marriage of couples for eternity. Temples differ from the tens of thousands of local meetinghouses where members typically meet for Sunday worship services and midweek social activities.

The practice of temple building is rooted in both the Old and New Testaments, and from its historical beginnings to the present day the Church has constructed temples.

The first temple was built by the Church in Kirtland, Ohio. The first Utah temple was completed in St. George in 1877, followed by Logan in 1884, Manti in 1888, and Salt Lake City in 1893.

The Payson temple will bring the total number of temples worldwide already in operation or in the planning and construction phases to 152. A letter was sent to local Church leaders today regarding the new temple.

Mike's ABC Book

2010-01-15T09:49:00.000-08:00

Last month Mike had to write an autobiography for school. This wasn't just a plain autobiography, but an ABC autobiography. He had to write something about himself that started with each letter of the alphabet. I thought this was hilarious. Hope you enjoy it!

My ABC Book
By Mike Abbott

A is for art. I like to draw. I especially like to draw birds. It all started when I found my dad's How to Draw Birds book upstairs in our bookcase.

B is for birds. Some of my first memories have to do with birds. I have had a bird since I was in preschool. They have all slept next to my bed.

C is for cockatiel, my favorite kind of bird. Besides pigeons and doves, it is the only type of bird I have had. For a while I had the same two birds but then one died then the next year the other one died. But now I have a new bird that likes me more than any other animal I have ever seen.

D is for dog. We got a dog last spring. It's supposed to be a toy poodle but I think it is a cross between a bichon and a teacup poodle. It's nice to have a dog but I hate having to take it out to go potty in my pajamas when it is 7* outside.

E is for emergency. One time when I was little I drank bleach. I know Eating bleach is an Emergency. But you have to understand. I was about 4 years old and I was thirsty, it looked like water in a cup. So I drank it.

F is for flight simulator. I like flight simulators. My favorite three are Google Earth, Flight simulator X, and one in Michigan where if you do a flip the machine makes you do a flip.

G is for gum. When I chew gum I hate to loose flavor. So when I chew I continually add sticks of gum until I get gargantuan gooey globs of gum.

H is for help. I have had to help my brother with some odd thing like today for example. I had to help my brother find his salamander (but the thing is, when I left it was still missing).

I is for icicle. One time when it was getting close to Christmas we had a huge icicle on the outside of our house. It was Massive! It was about 3 feet in diameter. So my dad climbed out the window and hit it off with the broom.

J is for jack-o-lantern. I made the coolest jack-o-lantern for Halloween. It had three coyotes in the desert howling at the moon. But unfortunately a deer ate it Halloween night.

K is for keyboarding. This year just like every other kid in 6th grade. I left the class typing at forty-one words per minute.

L is for Lucky. The name of one of my first birds. It was kind of interesting because when I first got the birds Bucky was mean and Lucky was nice. But when they died Bucky was kind of timid and Lucky would bite your finger off.

M is for Mike. My name. The thing I go by. I know 2 people named Mike. My dad's boss and some kid I met when I was little.

N is for nacho cheese. My dad puts nacho cheese on the weirdest things. He puts it on macaroni and pancakes. I think he even puts it on his hot dogs.

O is for octopi. Octopi is one of those weird plural nouns. They drive me insane. For example: rhombi, octopi, cacti, die and all those words.

P is for poll. When I take polls I fill out the weirdest answer. For example: I took a poll that asked whet I thought the moon was made out of and I answered moldy potatoes.

Q is for quilt. When I was in first grade my mom was making a quilt and I thought she was giving it to someone for Christmas or something. But in the end she gave it to me for my birthday and now it is my thickest quilt.

R is for reading. I like to read a lot. On a good day I get 2 hours of reading. I started Harry Potter 4 in first grade. I was sounding out in preschool and reading is one of my favorite things to do.

S is for scar. I have a weird tiny round scar on my right hand. It has been there for a really long time and I don't know how it got there.

T is for time. If I had one superpower it would be to stop time. For example when I got hungry at church I would go get something to eat and then walk back. Same thing with school. Or if I had to go clean I would do it then unstop time.

U is for university. I want to go to B.Y.U. for college because it is a really good school and they accept only the best students.

V is for violin. I don't want to learn how to play the violin. In my opinion knowing how to play one instrument is enough.

W is for world. When the guy from the Clark Planetarium came he changed my perspective on how small our planet is compared to our sun. Then he showed us how puny our sun was compared to the biggest star.

X is for Flight simulator X. It is my favorite flight simulator of all because you can pick your plane and it has all these cool features like you can see the landing gear come down and you can watch your flight from the nearest tower and you can see inside the cockpit.

Y is for yellow. I like yellow smiley faces but in other places it drives me crazy.

Z is for Zebra. You know how a lot of people say "is a zebra white with black stripes or black with white stripes?" Well when I was in first grade I noticed that zebras have white bellies so I think they are white with black stripes. So what do you think?

The End

The Mouse Is Gone!!!

2010-01-12T10:10:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know, we have had an unwanted visitor in our house for the last couple of weeks. I discovered this on the Saturday before Christmas when I pulled out a pan to make breakfast. Inside the pan I found that lovely sign that tells you that you have a mouse living in your cupboard. You know what I'm talking about, mouse poop. I know it hadn't been there too long because I am in these cupboards regularly and it wasn't there before. Anyway, after that I started finding more of it the more I looked, and believe me, I was looking everywhere to try and figure out the extent of our problem. Luckily, the mouse seemed to be staying in the kitchen and only in the lower cupboards and underneath the stove. So we started setting traps. We put regular traps in the cupboards under the sink and next to the dishwasher where we found most of the poop and glue traps with a little bit of peanut butter on them under the stove where the regular traps couldn't fit and function. On Christmas Eve we had our first hit. Unfortunately I wouldn't call it successful. We keep our cute little dog Millie kennelled at night. On Christmas Eve morning I slept in and asked the kids to take Millie out to go potty. Normally this would not be a problem, however, during the night this sneaky little mouse found the glue trap and decided to escape rather than meet a cruel death. He dragged the glue trap out from under the stove and then when he figured he had no other option, he chewed his own leg off to break free. Since I was not up and in the kitchen like I normally would be, I did not see this problem. Millie did. She quickly found the glue trap with the very enticing peanut butter that was sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor and thought she had hit the mother load. I had to cut all of the glue out of her fur. It was not pretty. The kids were disgusted by the fact that Millie was that close to a chewed off mouse foot and refused to get too close to her until she had a bath later that day. After this incident we named our unwanted friend Tripod for obvious reasons. About 2 weeks later tripod found the glue trap again and escaped again leaving a good portion of his fur behind. Luckily I discovered the glue trap in the middle of the kitchen floor before we let Millie out. On Saturday morning Nelson was having a hard time getting the bottom drawer in the kitchen to close so he thought that maybe something had fallen back behind the drawer so he took it out and made quite an interesting discovery. The mouse had hidden almost a half a bag of dog food behind the drawer. I thought it was rather weird that Millie had been eating more food lately and then I found out that I wasn't the only one who had been filling the dog bowl. We spent most of the day Saturday pulling out the fridge and the stove and everything in the lower cupboards. I don't think my kitchen has been this clean since the day we moved in. Mike had the brilliant idea of setting the glue traps around Millie's food when we go to bed and then moving it in the morning. We did this on Saturday & Sunday night with no success. Today was another story. After we were done with family scripture study Nelson went to move the glue traps so that we could let Millie out for the day. He was a little bewildered when we discovered that they had been moved. Then he counted them and noticed that one of them was missing. We were looking everywhere for it. When we couldn't see it in the kitchen, Nelson and I started looking elsewhere around the house when we heard the loudest screams we have ever heard. Morgan and Josh found the mouse. They kept saying it was in plain sight right underneath the hooks in the kitchen. Nelson kept looking and couldn't find it. He even moved the coat that was in the way and still couldn't see it. He asked Morgan and Josh to come and show him, but they were still screaming and refused to come anywhere near the kitchen. I discovered the mouse stuck to glue trap and still very much alive hiding under the coat. Every time Nelson moved the coat out of the way he was also pushing the mouse out of the way.
Upon further inspection, we are pretty sure that tripod is the only unwanted guest. He had 3 legs and fur missing from most of his body. I was very glad that today was garbage day. He was carefully wrapped up in a plastic bag and deposited in the garbage can that was already out at the curb. The garbage man has been by and the mouse is officially gone!! While we are pretty sure that we only had one mouse here, we will continue to set the glue traps around the dog food for the next week or so just to make sure.

October!!

2009-11-02T15:19:00.000-08:00

Yeah!!! I am almost caught up!!!
Can you believe that my baby Maggie has turned 4? I sure can't! She is so much fun. You never know what is going to come out of her mouth! This year she got a Barbie bike for her birthday. Grandma was kind enough to send her a barbie to go with it!

The kids had fun with the camera on a Sunday afternoon walk. I love where we live!

Maggie is so funny. I was glad I had the camera nearby when I saw this.
I went with the Beehives to Gardner Village for our own Witches Night Out. We stopped at Arctic Circle where we all got Square Pumpkins and when we were done finding all the witches we all got our free cookies at the Neighborhood Bakery.

I grew up in a great ward and had a ton of great friends that were all the same age. In our stake we earned the name "Killer Bees" when we were Beehives at girls camp. A few of us that live nearby were able to get together for dinner. It was so much fun catching up with each other. I can't wait for the next girls night out! Thanks Jill, Kim, Oakley and Jami!

Morgan is doing her county fair project on Morgan County. Since she had never been there, we took a family field trip to Morgan county and visited ALL of the historical sites listed online. We started with the Morgan train station.

We saw Devil's Slide

The cabin where the first baby boy in Morgan County was born,

the opera house and the tabernacle

and we even stopped at the rest stop where all the trappers had a big rendevous!

So how do you entertain a 4-year-old for an entire week at a book fair? With a camera, paper, pen, and tape!

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Because I spent the whole week before Halloween at the school running the book fair, I kind of forgot to buy pumpkins. I told the kids as soon as they had there rooms clean on Saturday we would go buy pumpkins and then carve them when we got home. You would think that would be an easy thing to do. We went to grocery stores in Salem, Spanish Fork, and Springville and couldn't find any pumpkins. We went to walmart and they didn't have any pumpkins. We even told the kids that they could get plastic pumpkins and a can of spray paint so they could paint them any color they wanted. They wouldn't go for it. We decided to drive home the back way through Mapleton and hoped that we could find some farmer selling pumpkins on the side of the rode. We passed a sign for a pumpkin patch and corn maze. Some family near the mouth of Mapleton Canyon let their teenage kids plant pumpkins and corn in the front 2 acres of their property. They were done for the season and cleaning everything up when we got there. We found one of the girls who said since it was Halloween we could have any pumkin we wanted for a dollar and then she said we could go through the corn maze for free. The kids thought it was the neatest thing they had ever done! It was great! They all came home with big pumpkins that were a little odd shaped, but they didn't care!

This year Maggie was a good witch for Halloween and told me that I needed to be a wicked witch. She later changed her mind and told me that I could be a good witch with her, so we were both good witches. Josh was a Clone Trooper again, but this year he had a new and improved helmet. Morgan was Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. I was going to make her costume, but luckily my mom took pitty on me and made it. Morgan thought that she was pretty special to have Grandma make her costume and ship it to her in the mail. Thanks Mom! Mike decided that he wanted to be white trash this year and Nelson went as a train engineer. When we were done carving pumpkins we had just enought time to get into our costumes and head over to a neightbor's house for a "White Trash Monster Bash." It was really fun! We ate lots of spam, cheese, Jello and an assortment of fried foods including fried twinkies. When the kids were done trick-or-treating we were off to another neighbor's house for dinner and another party. I was really glad that we were able to sleep in an extra hour on Sunday!

September

2009-11-02T14:30:00.000-08:00

With all the big kids in school Maggie and I were ready to party. My sister Katie invited us to meet her at Thanksgiving Point and spend the day at Farm Country. After a little bit of drama getting there, Katie ran over a knife and had it stuck in her tire, Maggie and Abby had tons of fun!

My sister-in-law Jenni asked if if I wanted to make some bags to sell at a boutique she was having. They were a lot of work, but it was fun! The best part was that Nelson had the kids all day and I spent a relaxing morning sitting in the sun with no children!

Nelson and the kids showed their pigeons at the state fair this year. They all did quite well at brought home several ribbons!

Nelson celebrated BYU's first loss by mowing a giant Y into our front lawn before the big game.

Wow!! Has it really been that long?

2009-11-02T12:03:00.000-08:00

Okay,I am a really big blog slacker!!! I was looking through my camera and discovered that I forgot to post one of my favorite pictures from our trip to Michigan this last summer. It was taken on our way home. We were in my mom's Durango with 4 kids, 2 adults and 2 dogs. Apparently Maggie and Spike had enough for the day and both fell asleep.
2 days after we got home from Michigan we went camping with my family. That was another wild adventure! I would have more pictures of this camping trip, but Nelson locked my camera in the truck and then went back to work. The camera wasn't the only think he locked in the truck. My keys, the dog kennel, all the snacks, allergy medication and many other things that I won't mention were also locked in the truck. It's a good thing I love him and there wasn't a forest fire while we were up there. We would have been stuck.

Mike, Morgan and Josh all started school the next week. That was a welcome break! Mike is in 6th grade this year and is in Mrs. Peterson's class. Morgan is in 4th grade and was super excited to get Mr. Haskell, and Josh is in 2nd grade and loves his new teacher Mrs. Lunceford.

The next week Maggie started her 2nd of 3 years of preschool. We love Miss Jennie!!

Maggie had so much fun taking pictures on the 1st day of school that she insisted on doing it again on the 2nd day!

July and August

2009-09-17T10:29:00.001-07:00

Wow! I am on a roll!!! 2 post in one day!!!
In July I had the fabulous opportunity of going to girls camp. It was so much fun and I hope I get to go again next year. We had a ward camp this year and went to Flaming Gorge where we went tubing, river rafting and fly fishing. I think my ward has the best young women and leaders in the entire world!!

Maggie started swimming lesson the next week. She was so worried about having a boy swimming teacher. I didn't think she was going to get in the water. Then she met Riley and she fell in love! This poor little girl has quite a crush!

The day after we were done with Maggie's swimming lessons we made an unexpected trip to Michigan. I took my aunt Leslie's van out for my cousin Bonnie who is living in Detroit while her husband does his residency. That was another fun adventure. I drove out last year and so I wasn't too worried about it. The kids do really well when we travel. We just had to make MANY stops along the way because this year Maggie was potty trained and we had our puppy Millie with us. Unfortunately I don't have too many pictures of this trip because my camera battery died. I will have to get more pictures from my mom. It was fun to visit with Bonnie and her cute little boys. While we were in Michigan we went to Bronner's. It is the largest Christmas store in the whole world. It is the size of football fields. I loved it!! So did the kids!

We also went to Holland. Michigan that is. They have a cute little Dutch village there where grandma bought all the kids cute little wooden shoes and learned how they make them. Morgan learned a Dutch dance. This is where my camera died. I only have 1 picture here. I will have to get more pictures from my mom. Her camera was working and she took tons of pictures.

Suprise!!!!!

2009-09-17T08:27:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it? I am actually blogging again! I know, don't be too shocked!! So now I get to catch everyone up with everything that has happened since the first part of June. Be ready for quite a long post, or serveral posts, depending on how this all plays out!

Okay, lets start with June. Normally I take my kids down the street for swimming lessons. This year Morgan's 3rd grade teacher was teaching swimming lesson and Morgan really wanted to take from her. I was able to get Mike, Morgan & Josh in all at the same time, but she didn't teach tiny kids, so Maggie went to the neighbors a few weeks later.
I'm not quite sure why Morgan's picture is sideways. It isn't like this when saved on my computer, but for some reason it goes sideways when I upload it onto Blogger. You will just have to tilt your head!

On June 27th Nelson and I celebrated our 12th anniversary. I don't feel that old, but I guess I have to be considering the fact that I have an 11-year-old son. We were able to sneek away for a day and stayed in Midway at the Homestead. I didn't want to come home. It was so relaxing and quiet! I think we need more getaways!
June 27, 1997
June 28,2009
I am so lucky to be married to my best friend!

I was watching the news one morning and they mentioned that the Provo airport was having an open house and it was free. We were in great need of a distraction and so I loaded the kids up in the car and off we went on a grand adventure! They had all kinds of airplanes on display, they were able to get inside a few of them, and they were able to take a tour of the airport control tower. It was really cool!

Are Things Ever Going To Be Less Complicated?

2009-08-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

So I apparently took a blogging sabbatical over the summer. We had a few loops thrown into our stress free, easy going, no major plans summer. It didn't work out. Anyway, things are starting to slow down and I have a ton of pictures to upload, but it is not going to happen today. Maybe tomorrow or maybe on Monday. Today I get to make cookies and pack everyone up for a quick camping trip. If I am lucky I may even get a shower in before I go! So, if I have time sometime in the very near future I will update everyone on all the crazy things that took place in the past couple of months. Until then I thought I would just let you all know that yes, we are alive.

Just Another Crazy Week!

2009-06-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

I will probably get used to having the kids home all day when it is time to send them back to school. It seems as if all schedules have been thrown out the window, but we have had some fun! On Wednesday we took the kids to Lagoon. Yes, it was very rainy, but we are used to that. It always rains when we go to amusement parks. We even keep our Disneyland panchos in the car just for that reason. They are very well used! Morgan has finally decided that it is okay that she is too big to ride Bulgy the whale. She also has decided that it is fun to go on fast rides. This is a huge improvement. She laughed the whole time we were on the White Roller Coaster.

We discovered that Mike is apparently afraid of heights. He about had a fit on the Sky Scraper.

Friday was a big day for the girls and their Dad. They had a dance recital. Yes, you read that right, Nelson was in the dance recital. Maggie's class did a daddy dance. It was so cute! Don't worry, a video is coming. I am still working on that. I never thought I would see the day when my husband would be performing in a dance recital. I guess I shouldn't be too suprised, Nelson was a contestant in th Mr. Snow Pageant. He danced on stage there too!

Those girls love any excuse to wear make-up!

On Saturday Nelson suprised me with a newer couch and love seat to replace the super old falling apart ones in my basement. I love them! His aunt was moving and needed to get rid of them and they look brand new. I am very excited! They look so much better! Now if I could only get rid of the old ones! If you know anyone who needs a free couch and loveseat let me know! I will even deliver them if they don't live too far away!

If you look carefully you can see the old couch behind the new one. I can't wait to find them a new home!

I Finally Did It!

2009-06-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

For years I have been saying that I would get a dog when all my kids were potty trained. I did not want to do diapers and puppy poop at the same time. When Maggie was potty trained last fall the kids wanted a puppy. I told them that they could get one if they could keep their rooms clean for 3 weeks without me having to remind them. That didn't happen. About a week before I broke down and got the dog Maggie came unglued. She came to me crying that we have 3 boys in our family and none of them would be her prince. She then proceeded to tell me that if we had a dog he would be her prince. Anyway, I had been looking online for the past couple of weeks and the last week of school I found one. Maggie and I went to look at the puppies and Maggie fell in love. She picked out the runt of the litter. A cream colored female toy poodle that was about half the size of her brothers and sister. She wanted to name her Flower, but when I asked her if she was sure, she came up with Millie and it stuck. We have had her for 2 weeks and she has been a lot of fun! She sleeps through the night in her kennel and doesn't make a sound until she hears that someone is up in the morning. When she gets tired or has had enough of the kids she puts herself to bed. So far so good!

We Made It!!!

2009-06-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe, but we have finally made through another school year. Mike just finsihed 5th grade, Morgan 3rd, Josh 1st, and Maggie survived her 1st year of preschool. With the end of the school year comes the all so important school programs. Those last few weeks I was starting to feel as if I were living at the school. Maggie's program was first. She had one speaking line. She practiced it for weeks. It was, "Last night I had a dream." She sang lots of songs and had lots of fun and can't wait to go back next year.

Mike and Morgan both participated in the Hershey Track meet and the high school. Mike ran the 400 and 800 and the standing long jump, Morgan ran the 50 and then did the soft ball throw and the standing long jump.

Next on the list was Josh's 1st grade program. I had an extra child at that one who thought they needed to cry unless held, so I missed getting an awesome picture of Josh hula hooping. I didn't know he could do that and he was awesome!!

Mike graduated from the N.O.V.A. program. It is similar to the old D.A.R.E. program but also includes gang education. He was refusing to smile for me.

You have to love how kids cooperate for you. I asked Mike to smile so that we would have at least one nice picture to send grandma and this is what I got!

During this last program Maggie was a little bored. To entertain her, I gave her my camera. This is what happened. Keep in mind that this is just a small selection of the 100 pictures she took in a 10 minute period.

Now we just have to survive the summer!

Just a Quick Plug

2009-06-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

My super cute sister-in-law Jenni makes these awesome recipe organizers. She just started a blog for them and I wanted to post a link just in case any of you might be interested. They make awesome presents!
http://organizemyrecipes.blogspot.com/

Will They Ever Get It?

2009-05-29T08:20:00.000-07:00

The other day I just about lost it with Mike. I love the kid, but sometimes I really have to wonder about him. We had company coming over and the kids had left there stuff all over the living room. They had all walked in the front door from school and dumped their backpacks on the floor and then proceeded to empty them and scatter the contents all over the place. They do this quite often and I am always telling them to pick up their stuff. The silly thing is that they have really nice hooks for backpacks, coats and whatever else the feel they need that are not even 10 feet from where they drop their goods. Anyway, I was a little on the frustrated side because I had spent a good portion of the day cleaning the house. When I saw what they had done and knew that I had about 10 minutes before people were going to be at our house I proceeded to tell my children that I love so much that they needed to clean things up because people would be there soon. Mike, being the incredibly obedient child that he is then told me, "Mom, why do we always have to pretend that we live in a nice house? Everytime people come over you always make us clean up our stuff. Isn't that kind of like lying?"
HONESTLY!!!!!!!
It is a good thing I love that child!

Will I Ever Keep Up?

2009-05-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

Probably not, but at least I am trying! Now that I have found my camera, I can now post pictures!! Yeah!!!! Unfortunately there aren't pictures of as many events as I would like to post. I guess that is what happens when you loose your camera.

Let's start back with pictures from March 6th. That was the day we celebrated Nelson's birthday. I would have posted them earlier when I posted about his birthday, but silly me, I lost my camera!! This wasn't the time I really lost it though. I only misplaced it for a day or two. It was found before the next major event. I just couldn't find it when I was on the computer. Anyway, as you might recall, we took Trax and FrontRunner to Ogden to go to a train show. Nelson had lots of fun.

Next on the list is Mike's birthday. Can you believe that I have an 11-year old? I sure don't feel old enough! He turned 11 on March 24th. For his birthday we went to the BYU Museum of Art. They had a really cool exhibit there by the artist who does all of the Eye Spy books. We had tons of fun. When we were done there we stopped at Two Jacks Pizza in Spanish Fork on the way home.

Isn't Mike handsome in his new scout uniform?

Mike had a bunch of his friends over for a little party the next Friday. That was a wild experience!!

The last thing that took place before loosing my camera was Maggie's first dance recital. She was a lion in a production of The Wizard of Oz. She was so excited and nervous before it started!

She was so excited afterwards that it tooks hours to get her to go to sleep!

And then I lost my camera...

Who Needs Technology?

2009-05-12T12:26:00.000-07:00

Well, to answer that question, apparently I do. I have had my life completely turned upside down the last 2 months. I never realized how dependent I have become on all the little gadgets that make my life easier. To start things off, I lost my camera right before Easter. I have no pictures of Easter this year. You will just have to believe me when I tell you that my kids looked really cute in the matching clothes my mom sent for them. You will also have to take my word for it when I tell you that my daughters were awesome when they each donated 10 1/2 inches of hair to Locks of Love. They look really cute with their new short haircuts. I also have no pictures of Josh's 7th birthday. I am really frustrated by this. The good news is that I found the camera on Sunday!!!! It was at the bottom of a bag that I very rarely use that was hanging in my closet. Now I have to make up for some of the pictures I missed. I didn't realize how often I use my camera.

I have also misplaced my phone several times in the last month. Luckily I never took more than a week to find the darn thing. I think I should have it surgically attached.

I also never realized that I really NEED to have my mp3 player with me when I run. I am way too easily distracted. My old one that I have had for quite a while finally decided to quit working a couple of weeks ago. It was stuck on pause. Then when I tried to plug it into my computer, the computer wouldn't detect it. I tried running without it. It didn't work. I am way too ADD. Luckily I have a wonderful husband who took pity on me and bought me a new iPod for Mother's Day. Another problem solved.

As if that weren't enough to deal with, my computer has broken twice in the last month. I think I have become obsessed. I almost went insane not being able to check my email, facebook, and catching up with everyone's blogs. I have felt really out of touch with everything!! My poor mom thinks that I have fallen off the face of the earth and that she needs to hold an intervention. I think we have everything fixed now and life can get back to normal. I should be done with all the panic attacks for a while!

Tagged by Katie

2009-03-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

It's photo tag; here are the rules:
1. Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer.
2. Select the 4th picture in the folder.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag 4 people to do the same.

Okay Katie! You asked for it! This really was my 4th picture in my 4th folder! Now for the story. We went Disneyland in October of 2007. Katie and Pug were there with their kids and so were my mom and sister Annie with her 2 girls. We had a lot of fun. This was on our last day at Disneyland right before we went back to the hotel. We met Katie and her family at one of the many gift shops. I took this beautiful picture of my sister!
Okay, now I tag anyone who reads this!

Happy Birthday Nelson!!!

2009-03-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

Wow! We have had one crazy week! Nelson's birthday was last Saturday. Since my neice McKenzie was baptized on Saturday, we thought we would throw him a little party on Friday. We checked the kids out of school early and had one crazy outing. We drove to Sandy, parked the car, rode Trax downtown, rode Front Runner to Ogden and then went to a train show at the Ogden Union Station. It was quite the adventure! All of the kids, including Nelson, had tons of fun. After Kenzie's baptism on Saturday we had cake and then my sister Katie and her family, brother B.J. and his family as well as my parents all loaded in the cars for a wild party at Cabellas. I think we all had more fun than we could handle.

I am so blessed to have such an awesome husband! He is my best friend. Happy Birthday Nelson!!
Nelson 35 years ago

A Fun Suprise!!!

2009-03-04T13:42:00.000-08:00

I got this from my awesome sister-in-law Jenni. Here is how it works-the 1st 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive at some point during this year a handmade gift from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise! The catch is that you must participate as well. Before you leave your comment here write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going( or cut and paste..no one will judge you, cause that is what I did). Then come back and let me know you are going to play, and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift. Remember only the 1st 3 will qualify. Good Luck!!! Thanks This should be tons of fun!!!

Even Better with the sun!!

2009-01-29T12:50:00.000-08:00

Let it Snow!!!

2009-01-27T16:08:00.000-08:00

I think I live in the most beautiful place in the world! I am so thankful to live here! We have had almost 3 feet of new snow since Saturday night and it makes things even better! These are pictures I took from my front porch. Aren't I lucky?

Crisis Living!

2009-01-22T08:44:00.000-08:00

You know how the prophets have counseled us over and over to avoid crisis living? I know that usually this refers to financial matters, but the last 2 months this seems to be the best way to describe the chaos in my life. It all started the last Saturday in November. Mike had just finished writing his report for the 5th grade wax museum. He had his 30 second oral presentation memorized. I thought we were set. Never having had a 5th grader before, I didn't know how this whole thing was supposed to work. I'm sure his teacher sent a note home explaining everything that was supposed to happen, but it was lost in Mike's black hole of a backpack, never to be seen again. I was busy making a turkey and Thanksgiving dinner for our annual Saturday after Thanksgiving dinner with my brother and sister. Mike came up to me and said, "Mom, I need to get a costume for the wax museum." I told him that we could figure something out and asked him when he needed it. He then told me that he needed it by Thursday morning. That sounded a little rushed, but figured we would be okay. I couldn't do anything about it on Saturday. The turkey took priority. The next day was Sunday. Monday I was on call and couldn't leave the city. For anyone who has never been to Elk Ridge, there are no stores or schools here. We don't even have a gas station. It would have to wait until Tuesday. Mike was Steve Fossett, the famous adventurer and world record setter. I thought I could just run to IFA and buy him a cool little jump suit, you know the kind, the ones Grandpa used to wear. I could make up some cool patches and sew them on. It would be an awesome flight suit! Little did I know that they don't make them in children's sizes. They don't even make them in my size! So I thought, it would be a stretch, but i still have enough time I could make him one. So I went to the fabric store, found a pattern for a Speed Racer costume that I could tweek and make into a flight suit. I even found silver satin on clearance for 75% off! I was set! So I went home and got to work! I got it all cut out and started sewing! The second step was to sew in the zipper. My sewing machine broke. It would not sew. It would only make big knots of thread. This was not an uncommon event with this lovely sewing machine of mine. Let me give you a little history. I was given this machine shortly after I was married. My mom gave it to me. It was her machine. She bought it in 1981. It was a great machine that did a lot of sewing over the years. It was starting to act up and my mom was sick of fighting it so she bought a new machine and gave my this one. I have been fighting this machine for 11 1/2 years! Every time it breaks, about every other project I work on, My loving and ever so handy husband says don't worry, I can fix it! And he does. I have been trying to convince him for years that I really need a new sewing machine. Every time he just tells me that the one I have works fine. He can just fix it every time it breaks. Back to my story...I really was starting to stress out. I had a total of 2 hours to work on this costume on Tuesday nad a total of 2 hours on Wednesday. I didn't have time to wait for Nelson to come home and fix my stupid machine yet again. I called him up in complete frustration and I'm sure I said some not so nice things to him. I also may have told him not to bother coming home unless he had a sewing machine that worked with him! He came home without a machine, but did have his mother bring me hers so that I could finish this costume. I finished Mike's costume about 5 minutes before the bus came on Thusrday morning. Friday evening I took Nelson to the Bernina store in Provo and bought my Christmas present.

The next week Maggie had explosive diahrea. It started the day I had planned to take Maggie to have her picture taken. It lasted a week. I then had to take her in on the last day I could get the pictures back before Christmas. Last year I swore I wouldn't do that again, but it happened anyway.

The next week I was sick as a dog! I never get sick, but this was bad. I had the cough, fever, runny nose, sore throat, you name it. After a week I was somewhat functioning again, but still coughing and not up to normal. I was just thankful that I was functioning!

Morgan had a birthday on December 23rd. She is now a big nine year old! We had her usual birhtday lunch at the Chinese restaurant in Payson. This year they were giving out pens for Christmas and New Years. She loves getting any kind of gift! Last year they gave her a calandar. Then we went to Great-Grandma Skeen house for a huge Birthday-Christmas party.

We then had the annual Nativity pagent complete with "wise guys", camels, sheep, and all manner of crazy monkeys and angels. We have out grown the number of costumes. Next year I think I will be bringing my own personal supply of nativity costumes.

Because of the possibilty of snow, and the fact that my grandma lives above the Bountiful temple, we decided that we would take the truck to the party. We didn't end up needing the 4 wheel drive to get to her house, but it was nice to know that we were prepared. On the way home, it started to snow. Not a lot, but enough to make the roads very slippery. We had just passed 4500 South when Nelson said, "The roads are getting a little slippery. I think I will change lanes and slow down just a little." It wasn't even 10 seconds later that a black car getting on the freeway came around the curve a little too fast, started to fish tail, lost control and spun completely across the freeway not even a car length in fron of us, hit the Durango in the next lane over, where we had just been, and pushed it into a van in the car pool lane who was pushed into the concrete barrier. At this point we cannot believe that we came through without being hit. Had the cars not been pushed to the left, we would have been in the thick of it. We didn't dare stop, for fear that we would lose control on the icy roads, or that someone might hit us. Instead, we called 911 and reported the accident adn said prayers the rest of the way home thanking Heavenly Father for keeping us safe. We found out later that there were other cars behind us that were involved in the accident and that the freeway was then closed for several house while they were cleaning up the mess.

We had a wonderful Christmas and Santa was very generous even though he did cut back this year. I forgot to take pictures though. Sorry!

New Years day we had my brother B.J. and sister Katie and their families over to our house for a fun party. They brought their wii and learned that I am a very uncoordinated person!! They had no idea that you could turn into a giant snowball and roll down the mountain! I am so glad that I am good entertainment!! We were lucky enough to have my neice Kenzie spend the next 2 nights with us. We had so much fun! Morgan had been given a bag of fabric scraps from her Payson grandma and they wanted to make something with them. We sorted through all the scraps and found enough to make the girls 2 matching purses. They had to do all the hand sewing and did a great job!

Josh was feeling a little left out and wanted a project too, so we made a quilt for his best friend, Spike Mojo.

On January 9th my Great-Grandfather turned 102. He is an amazing man! He still gets around and is very sharp! We were on our way to his birthday party and as we were getting on the freeway our van died. It wouldn't start. We checked the fuel gauge and had a half a tank, so that wasn't the problem, he had power, so we knew it wasn't the battery, so we called Nelson's brother Kenneth who is a mechanic. He thought it might be the fuel pump, so we had the van towed to his shop and my mother-in-law came to rescue us from the cold. She took us home so that I could get the truck pick up Nelson from the shop, and then hopefully still make it up to the party. Our journey started out at about 5:00. By the time I had all the car seats safely buckled up in the truck it was noe 6:00. I started to back the truck out from the side of the house when I got stuck. Even with the 4 wheel drive, we had so much snow and ice that I was stuck on the side of my house. 20 minutes later Nelson called me to find out where on earth I had gone to and as was not very nice to him. I was very frustrated. It took me another 15 minutes to get the truck out. I was not a happy camper by this time. The helpful driving tips from my kids in the back seat were not helping the situation. I think another contributing factor was the fact that I was still battling the nasty cough the I got the week before Christmas. By the time I made it to Payson to pick up Nelson it was after 7:30. We didn't end up making it to Grandaddy's birthday party. Kenneth had fixed my car by lunch time on Saturday!!! Apparently the sensor for the fuel gauge was broken. The car said we had half a tank of gas, but in reality we had none!! So to fix that, he had to replace the fuel pump because that is where the sensor is housed. To look on the bright side, I am very thankful that we ran out of gas on the on ramp and not in the middle of the freeway. It was a much safer place to have problems.

My mom has been trying to get me to go to the doctor for weeks for my cough. I kept telling her that it would go away and that I was doing better. 2 weeks ago I thought I had pulled a muscle in my ribs from coughing. I thought it would go away. Monday we went sledding in our back yard for family night. I thought I was going to die. I felt like I had been kicked repeatedly in the ribs. I couldn't breath. I couldn't sit, stand, lie down or move without severe pain. So I finally broke down and went to the doctor Tuesday morning. Apparently I have had bronchitis for a month and a half and had torn tendons inbetween my ribs. On top of that I also have a sinus infection. I guess that explains why I have had no energy and have felt like crap! At least I am getting that fixed now.

Even though things have been very crazy around here, I also have to admit that I have also been very blessed through all the craziness. I just really hope things can just be calm and boring for the next couple days at least!

The Real Family Picture

2008-12-20T14:18:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-19T10:27:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-16T11:33:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Time for a Change!

2008-11-22T19:01:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-07T12:41:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-05T11:48:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-05T10:24:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-05T10:06:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-05T09:31:00.000-08:00

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

2008-09-16T12:23:00.002-07:00

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!

2008-09-16T12:23:00.001-07:00

Maggie is Growing Up!

2008-09-03T10:28:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-02T19:58:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-27T10:39:00.001-07:00

The Mayan With Grandma & Grandpa

2008-08-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

A Weekend Full of Family Fun!!

2008-08-27T09:48:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-08-27T09:40:00.001-07:00

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

2008-08-20T14:03:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-08-20T13:56:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-08-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

2008-08-07T16:27:00.001-07:00

Nauvoo

2008-08-07T16:18:00.000-07:00

My purse finally came today, so now I can start posting all my pictures. This may take a while. I have to weed through the 300 pictures and decide which ones I really don't need to share. I think I will start with the first leg of our journey. We met my mom and sister Katie in Nauvoo on July 15th. It was quite the adventure with 7 kids, but we did it! Everyone seemed to have fun, just not all at the same time. But, all in all they did pretty good. We spent one night in Nauvoo and then drove on to Grandma's house in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Still Waiting!

2008-08-07T10:19:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been waiting for my purse to show up for a week now. Hopefully it will be here today. If not, I guess I will have to start calling people to see if I can track it down somewhere. Hopefully someone will know what happened to it! I would love to put pictures of our trip on here. I have a really great one of Mike throwing a fit in the sand. I think when I post it I will have to post a very similar one taken 8 years ago in San Diego. You would think that some things would sink in... Oh well. Maybe someday common sense will kick in. Sometimes I wonder.

Summer Vacation- National Lampoon Style

2008-08-01T22:45:00.000-07:00

So I just came home from a wild adventure to my parent's house in Michigan and was really excited to upload a bunch of pictures to share with all our friend's and family, but I can't. Being the genius that I am, I left my purse in a bathroom stall at Cabela's in Sidney, Nebraska. I almost made it to Laramie, Wyoming before I discivered what I had done. Luckily, I hope, I think someone honest found it and turned it into the customer service desk, and after a crazy turn of events, they are sending it to me UPS. Hopefully, if my camera is still in there, I have some really cool pictures of our awesome cross country adventure to share with all of you! We started this grand adventure at 6:00 am on July 14th. I took off with all four kids to meet my mom and sister Katie in Nauvoo. Walking around Nauvoo, or anywhere for that matter with 7 children under the age of 11 is quite the adventure! After that we drove to Kalamazoo, Michigan to visit with Grandma & Grandpa. The kids loved their pool! I had some really cool pictures of the kids swimming, but you can't see them. They should be in my purse, in a box, somewhere between here and Sidney. It was in Sidney that Josh made an amazing discovery. He discovered the joys that maps and brochures can bring to your life! He told me at one stop that he hit the Mother Load when he came out of a rest stop with both arms completely full of paper. He has already planned our next several trips with activities and places of interest that he discovered while reading his literature. He has also appointed himself our official navigator, and when he is navigating, he cannot have anything else going on. I am really tired, and think I will go to sleep now and finish writing about our vacation when I am a little more rested and can write things that will make more sense!

City Celebration

2008-07-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was Elk Ridge City's celebration. That is how Nelson and I spent our anniversary. We had a parade and everything! I was so exciting! I got to ride in the fire chief vehicle and make lots of noise with the siren. Nelson was in charge of all the kids. They decorated their bikes with streamers and flags and had a grand old time! This year Mike pulled Maggie in the bike trailer and Nelson rode his scooter. After the parade, Nelson took us out to eat for our anniversary. We went to the Mayor's Dinner and had hot dogs and chips. We really know how to live it up! Saturday we had the fireman's breakfast in the morning. I was lucky enough to get the early shift. It works out really well. I go down at 6 am and then Nelson meets me at 9 when my shift ends. We all eat and then go to the carnival. This is the kids favorite thing. They look forward to this carnival every year. Maggie even rode a horse all by herself this year! pretty exciting stuff!

Wonder Mike the Magnificent horseman!

Josh...a.k.a. Mr. Serious

Morgan on "the BIG horse"

Maggie and Sally

Puerto Vallarta

2008-07-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

Here are a bunch of pictures from our trip to Puerto Vallarta. We had so much fun! I really could have stayed an extra couple of days. It was very relaxing not to have to worry about anything for a while. Nelson earned this trip at work so we didn't have to pay for it. We had 4 nights in an all-inclusive resort. We've decided that this is the way to travel! All of our meals were included, and if we were drinkers, we really would have gotten our money's worth! All the drinks you wanted! We even had an open bar in our room, right next to the giant jacuzzi tub. So instead of getting really drunk, Nelson and I lived off of virgin pina coladas (I think I had about 50 of these!) and virgin strawberry daqaris. We spent a lot of time relaxing on the beach, but still found time to kayak in the ocean and go boogie boarding. We took a canopy tour. I highly recommend doing this is you ever get the chance. It is a series of zip lines through the tops of the trees in the rain forest. We even hit the flea market in downtown Puerto Vallarta. Instead of risking our lives in a Mexican taxi, we decided to take the more scenic (and I would argue safer) option and took a water taxi in a small fishing boat across the bay to get downtown. It was so much fun! We saw baby sea turtles on the beach trying to get out to sea. We helped a couple of them out. They were having a hard time getting past the waves. Nelson even stepped on a manta ray and a crab. I have been telling him to watch where he was walking since we were married! You'd think he would learn on of these days!

Nelson has the worst record when travelling. We have been delayed 8 hours in Orlando, we've missed a flight in Chicago, he's been snowed in in Chicago, stuck in Denver, he was in Des Moines on 9/11. We always seem to have some kind of problem when Nelson is flying. I never have any problems when I travel on my own. It's just Nelson. He seems to attract trouble. We thought we were going to make it this time. We had no problems on the way down and we even had a layover in Denver. On the way back, we thought we were home free. We made it on the plane, we had a direct flight, the plane was on the runway, and then we stopped. The plane had a problem with a hydraulic pump on the rudder. We had the pleasure of sitting on the airplane for the next 2 hours waiting for them to fix this problem. We finally made it home. We were really behind schedule, but luckily everyone who was watching our kids were patient with us. At least we did better than last year's trip. We made it home a full 24 hours late with that one!

Mike's Braces

2008-06-21T13:43:00.000-07:00

Mike was feeling left out when Josh was on the computer and he wasn't. So here he is with his new braces on.

The Scooter

2008-06-21T13:33:00.000-07:00

I have had many requests for pictures of Nelson's new scooter. Here it is!

This is his birthday, Father's Day & anniversary present. I hope he likes it! Notice the flames on the helmet. He was quite excited when he found it.

Swimming Lessons!

2008-06-11T19:06:00.001-07:00

I thought I would throw in a few pictures from swimming lessons. The pool is just down the street from us. It is so much nicer than driving into Payson like we used to. The pool is beautiful, and I think the pool house is bigger than my house! It is amazing.

Fishing

2008-06-11T09:21:00.001-07:00

Nelson decided that he was going to take the kids fishing on Saturday. He checked the forcast and the weather looked good, so he invited his dad and brother to go along. When we woke up on Saturday morning, it was cold and rainy! This is typical for us though. We had planned on going up Payson Canyon to Maple Lake. This plan quickly changed when we looked out our front door that normally has a beautiful view of the canyon. We couldn't see the canyon! So we made an executive decision to go somewhere that was hopefully not as cold or rainy. We went to Spring Lake!

Nelson

Mike and Grandpa Abbott

Mike trying to stay warm

Maggie

Josh, Grandpa, Mike, Nelson & Morgan

Morgan reeling in her big catfish

Morgan's catfish

Josh casting

Morgan enjoying the sun

Even though it was REALLY cold, the rain stopped after and hour or so, and the sun even came out a few minutes before it was time to go home. Both of the girls caught catfish. The boys didn't think this was fair. Josh became really good at catching the tree that was right behind him. He learned how to do that from his grandpa. We are all excited to go again. Hopefully next time will be a little warmer!

Lagoon!

2008-06-05T13:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took the kids to lagoon. We always seem to find a nice cold, wet day to do anything outside. It was raining so hard on the way there, that we were sure it was going to be closed. We even stopped at the Gateway and let the kids walk around the Clark Planetarium hoping that we would get even a little break in the weather. It worked!! it was still wet and cold, but it was great!! We left Maggie with her Aunt Tiffini because we knew she would be miserable in the cold, but the rest of us were prepared this time. It rained uncontrollably the last time we went to Lagoon and we didn't have any jackets or sweatshirts. It was so cold that we ended up spending $200 on 4 sweatshirts. We were desperate! Anyway, this time we all had jackets and the nice Micky Mouse ponchos that we bought when it rained at Disneyland. I guess we have a little bad luck when it comes to weather and amusement parks. That's okay though. Yesterday we walked onto almost ever ride. The only one we had to stand in line for was the new ride Wicked, and that wait was only maybe 5 minutes. We also get to go back for free between now and June 16th.
Anyone who knows Morgan, knows that she has a pathological fear of anything fast. She must get this from her father, because it certainly didn't come from me. We were a little worried that she might fall apart when she discovered that she had grown too tall to go on her favorite ride, Bulgy the whale. Luckily, this didn't happen. In fact we were able to get her to go on several rides, and she even enjoyed a few of them! She now likes The Bat, Dino Drop, and Lady Bug Bop, but swears she will never again go on the white roller coaster. I don't get it. Oh well, at least she had fun.
Mike is my ride buddy. I can usually get him to go on just about anything with me. He's a boy after my own heart. He even went on wicked twice. He didn't like it so much the first time, but said he had fun the second time. He was looking forward to going on colossus with me, but the cars got stuck at the top right before we got on, and they closed to ride down. He said his favorite ride was Wild Mouse II.
Josh likes to go on as many rides as Mike, even if he doesn't like them, because he doesn't like to be left out. He wanted to make sure that we knew he never wanted to go on Wicked again! He'll probably love it next year.
Nelson was glad to stay with Morgan while I took the boys on several rides, and was really glad when it was time to go home. At least I know where Morgan gets it from!
Sorry I don't have any pictures. I discovered when we were half way there that I left my camera on the kitchen counter. Oh well. Tomorrow I will take the camera to swimming lessons.

2008-05-31T17:26:00.000-07:00

I thought this was too cute. Maggie fell asleep reading her new princess book that she got on our girl's night out last night. She already has it memorized!

Playing Catch Up

2008-05-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

Seeing as I am really slow at sending pictures to everyone, I thought I would take this opportunity to just recap this whole year for you really quick. Morgan was baptized on January 5, 2008. We were lucky enough to have all of my family in town, except for Annie's husband Derek, who was in Iraq. We even had Grandpa Bob right before he joined Derek in the desert. Nelson's sister and her family were also in town from California.

Morgan in her pretty, white dress.

Nelson & Morgan

Nelson, Morgan & Heather

Later that month, I got to visit my great-grandfather Eldred G. Smith on his 101st birthday.

Mom, Grandaddy & me

Josh got to participate in the Kindy 500 in February. Each child had to build their own car out of cardboard boxes. Each car had a licence plate from a different state. During the Kindy 500, they rode around the school in there cars and visited different places of interest around the United States. They visited the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, and many others. Josh loved it!

This is unloading "The General Lee" from the car.

The starting line!

My mom sent matching Easter clothes for all the kids.
Mike

Morgan

Josh

Maggie

As you can see in these pictures, There is snow everywhere except on our front lawn. Nelson was tired of all the unusually large amounts of snow we received this winter, and thought he could make it feel more like spring if he removed the snow from our front lawn. I was rather surprised on e afternoon to find him using the snow blower to blow all of our snow onto the street so that it would melt faster. Keep in mind that we had over a foot in the front yard when he did this. He tried to do the same thing in the back yard, but quickly discovered that this was impossible as a 3-foot glacier had formed! I'm sure all of our neighbors thought he had completely lost it.

Maggie was so excited when she discovered that all her eggs had candy!

Mike turned 10 on March 24th.

Morgan is quite the dancer. She has been really excited because this year she has 2 dance recitals. The first one was in April, and the next on e will be in June. The April recital was a production of Alice in Wonderland. She was in the Lobster Square Dance. Katie brought her girls to watch it. Morgan loves having an audience!

Morgan & Mckenzie

Well, this isn't everything that has happened this year, Josh turned 6 in April, and somehow those pictures were deleted from my camera. As you can see, we keep pretty busy around here. Hopefully my next entry won't be nearly as long because I won't be trying to update you on 5 months of events.

We'll See How This Goes!

2008-05-29T06:01:00.000-07:00

Today I am starting a blog. I have never done anything like this before, so I apologize if it seems strange. I guess I will catch everyone up on what is happening in our family. Today is the last day of school. I'm not too sure if I am ready for all the kids to be home all summer long. I guess I really don't have a choice at this point. Mike is 10 and is just finishing up 4th grade. Morgan is 8 and finishing 2nd grade. Josh is 6 and graduated from kindergarten last week. He has already told me on multiple occasions that he doesn't like being home all day and wants to go back to school so that he be with all his friends all day. I have a feeling this is going to be a very long summer!

This is Josh at his graduation. He thought his cap was pretty cool!

Mom & Josh

Josh & Dad