Monday, May 25, 2009

Niamh at 7 months

The Little Princess
Almost crawling


Loves playing with her big brothers


Water Baby




Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Fathers and Sons


Gavin, Tyrone and I went on the annual Fathers and Sons camp out. This was at Mount Charleston. Im not a big camper or outdoors person, but the boys have been begging me for weeks to go camping.

Mandy had packed us a pretty good "survival" lunch so we wouldnt starve 40 minutes away from home. The minute we arrived the boys asked for their lunchables, and of course Tyrone ate the Butterfinger first. They sat on top of Grandpas truck and ate their food.

The cousins; Wyatt, Waylan, and Colt also came up for the evening. Gavin and Tyrone has a great time exploring and looking for patches of snow. We all made marshmallow guns. There was a family competition of shooting cups off of a table. The prize was two LED flashlights. Tyrone and Gavin begged me to win them. All the Dads toed the line to shoot their marshmallow guns. I fired one shot knocking our cup off the table. Tyrone started yelling "we won, we won." The boys were happy to claim their prize. I was happy just to beat out all the other Dads.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Last week

I really meant to do this post last week, but I was waiting to have pics to go with the post and didn't get many, so here goes. We had a pretty busy week last week.
Niamh had her 6 month checkup. She is now 17lbs. It's funny, her height and head circumference are in the 75-95 percentile, it must be the Abbott side :) Niamh is such a fun baby, she is really good and I rarely have bad days with her. She is so energetic and loves to laugh. Her latest thing is bopping her head whenever she hears music. She'll get really excited and start yelling, I think she is trying to sing along. She is such a joy to have in our home and is loved SO much.
Lucas and I got to go to the temple last Thursday thanks to my sister Beverley who watched the kids for us. It was so nice to get back to the temple. We've tried to go at least once a month. It's also a great date night.
On Friday, I went to Alamo with the kids to visit my mam and her husband, Malcolm. My mam has goats, chickens, ducks, and many cats at her place in Alamo. Some of her goats had babies a couple of weeks ago and one of the chickens had babies also. The boys were so excited to see the baby goats and chicks. The goats were seriously so cute. They were so tiny and were trying to jump up on my legs. They would run and leap like little lambs. The chicken had 11 little chicks running behind. It was awesome to watch how the mom chicken would run back to make sure the stragglers didn't get lost.



On Saturday I was able to have a girls night with my 3 sisters; Kim, Trudi & Beverley. We went to see the movie "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past." The movie was pretty good, a total chick flick. Then we went to Capriottis, where they make the best sandwiches in the world. It has been a while since all of us sisters could get together and catch up. We had a great time together.


On Sunday Lucas and I got a new calling, as Primary teachers. We are not sure what age group we will be teaching yet, but I think it's 9 year olds. We're excited for this new calling and it will be fun teaching together.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Tuesday...

I HaTe ThE FLU!!!! I have been sick with the flu since Saturday. First I thought it was allergies, but I woke up on Saturday morning and my head felt like it had rocks rolling around inside. My eyesballs ached, my whole body ached. I should be grateful, the last time I was sick like this was a year ago. I guess its my turn again. It's a little scary having the flu when there is "Swine Flu" on the loose. I have been watching the news and trying to keep updated on all the new findings. It's kind of scary but I'm pretty sure I just have the common cold flu. Luckily I haven't shared my sickness with anyone else in the house. I have to say that I have the best husband in the whole world. Lucas made me rest, he brought me drinks and food whenever I asked. He took care of all three kids and even got them out of the house so I could rest peacefully. He is so good to me.

Some little things that have happened:

Gavin: The other day when Gavin was being dropped off from school by a new busdriver, she pulled up in front of a different house. Gavin let her know, "This is not my house." He knew exactly where his house was and showed her. I was pretty impressed with this, seens as he is only 4 years old and we've only been in this house since the end of February.

Tyrone: Although back-talking is never cute at the moment it happens, Tyrone has made Lucas and I laugh so much lately with the things he says. The other day I told him to go out of my room because he was messing with my makeup, he said "Mommy, you're ridiculous!" Then today Lucas got mad at him because he wouldn't put his seatbelt on in the van. Tyrone said "Daddy, you're a Jerk!"

Niamh: Says Mama and Dada. She did say Mama first :) She is so wiggly all the time. When I sit her on the floor to play with toys, before too long she is on her tummy, rolling over, scooting across the floor on her back. She is so quick. She loves yelling and making sounds. My sister-in-law Susana lent me a "jumperoo" for Niamh to use. Niamh loves it and jumps and jumps. Whenever we take her out and she stands on our legs, she will start jumping as if she was in the jumperoo. I can't believe she is 6 months. Her update is coming shortly....

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Making a House a HOME


We've been in our new home for almost 2 months now. Lucas and I have been having a hard time adjusting to this new part of town and ultimately a new beginning. In all the craziness of packing, moving and unpacking, I didn't realize that I would actually have trauma from the whole ordeal. Not only did we lose the first home we ever owned, but we struggled for a long time about what the right decision would be and when we would take the plunge and start back at square one. It is only since we moved to this new house and I've been trying to get into some routine and fit in, that I've realized that I never had time to deal with the emotions that came with moving. We are living a lot closer to my sister Kim and her family, which is great. And our new ward is really great and they have been so welcoming to us.

Although we chose to move to this part of town, there have been some growing pains and we do miss our old part of town and the familiar places where we shopped, ate and played. I hadn't unpacked all the boxes, I hadn't hung many pictures up and everyday I just kinda felt like I was going through the motions without any motivation. Then, it hit me. I didn't feel like it was home and that's why I wasn't happy. So, I decided that this is our home for the time being and I am going to make this house a home for us. My outlook has changed and I am ready to make memories.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Easter in Alamo, NV

Nana and Niamh

The Cousins

Babys first Easter

Friday, April 3, 2009

California Dreamin'

***Warning*** VERY LONG POST WITH LOTS OF PICS.

The first swim of the year






This was Niamhs first encounter with the pool. She absolutely loved it. She was splashing like crazy and kept trying to get out of my arms to swim. I'm sure the fact that it was an indoor, heated pool had a lot to do with it. My kids are little water babies. We loved the hotel pool and swam there at least three times.

The San Diego Zoo

1. We went to the Zoo on Monday. Got there when it opened. Went straight to the Pandas. There were two chewing on Bamboo. They were beautiful.
2. Saw some Orangutans; they were funny to watch. We saw two wrestling like brothers, reminded me of Tyrone & Gavin.
3. Next came the Hippos, Bears, Monkeys Lions, Koala Bears & Flamingos. We saw lots of birds and deer. Needless to say, the Pandas were the favorite. The Elephant exhibit was closed,sadly.
4. We went up in the sky tram and looked out over the whole zoo. The view is spectacular, but I wouldn't know I was clinging for dear life to the boys incase we fell out.
5. We left after two hours, satisfied that we saw all the animals we wanted to. We also probably all walked 2 miles.







"The Happiest Place on Earth"

1. Our first day at Disneyland, we were there from 10am-10pm. We got on so many rides, I can't even remember the order. The second day we went for a few hours, ate churros, bread bowls and huddled together. It was a little chilly.
2. Buzz Lightyear, was the boys favorite.
3. They were terrified of Pirates of the Carribeann and The Haunted Mansion. Go figure :)
4. We waited 30 minutes for The Nemo Submarine ride. It was pretty entertaining.
5. We watched a parade celebrating all the birthdays. Lucas turned to me and said "So this is what its like to be in the middle of a musical." The boys & Niamh loved it.
6. The fireworks were fantastic, it was worth waiting until 9:30pm.
7. It's not very fun dealing with three, exhausted, grumpy kids leaving Disneyland at 10pm.
8. It was worth it all.













Last but not least, some things that we did not plan on doing on our trip to California.

I decided to cut my hair.

We drove by the San Diego Temple. What a magnificant sight.

We got in a little fender bender, the day before we left for Las Vegas. Nothing major, we nicked the back side of a Dodge Van. Luckily no damage to their vehicle but the right side of our bumper is smashed in. They make them cheap these days. I didn't get any pics of the bumper, its ugly.

We had a wonderful time in California and cannot wait until our next trip.