John 14:15

Gavin was asked to do the scripture and prayer in primary on Sunday. He was given a week to prepare for it. Mandy asked me if I had any suggestions so I said John 14:15. "If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments." simple enough for Gavin to memorize. He did a fantastic job and has really taken a liking to reading the scriptures. He took an old set of scriptures of mine and opens it to any random page and then quotes the above scripture. Im proud of the little guy.

Niamh

Isn't it about time.

That I update my blog, that is. We haven't done anything too exciting lately, but I don't want to wait a whole month to update. Lucas is at a training class for three days this week. I love when he works the day shift. It makes our schedule seem more normal and he gets to be here at night time. He has been working graveyard for almost 4 years now. It's taking it's toll and I think he is ready to work a day or swing shift too. The hard part is that graveyard pays 8% more, which when things are tight, really counts. I think by the end of the year, Lucas will be ready to switch his schedule. Gavin finished school on June 4th. He really enjoyed his teacher, even though he was only with her a short while. He will be starting Kindergarten this fall. Where has the time gone, seriously. I'm trying to keep up on practicing writing and speech with Gavin to keep the things he learned fresh in his mind. Tyrone is my little actor. He is constantly acting out scenarious as a pirate or a superhero. He loves playing dress up. He is my little "cheeky" kid. (Cheeky also means "sassy" in the Irish lingo.) He talks back to me all the time. I try to remain patient as I am reminded of how much I talked back to my mam when I was younger and realize that I am getting back what I gave. My boys are growing up too fast and sometimes at night when I tuck them into bed and watch them sleep, a wave of sadness rushes over me as I realize how quickly they do grow. They're not my little babies anymore. Even my little Niamh is growing up sooner than I expected. She has begun to pull herself up to stand beside furniture. She is so focused and even if she falls over, she crawls right back over and pulls herself up. She crawls so fast and I really can't take my eyes off her for a minute or she is getting into something. She has two teeth now, on the bottom and loves The Wiggles. She only has to hear them singing and she will stare at the T.V and listen. It's so funny. I still remember the day I had her like it was yesterday. I try to cherish every moment but time is speeding up. Lucas and I have been working really hard on a goal we started together at the beginning of December. We're almost there, but still have a little way to go. I am so grateful to have a partner in love and life. He is so supportive of everything I do and is always there to encourage me on those bad days. He's my rock! So, hopefully in a month or so I will be blogging that we have completed our goal and have lots of photos to share.

Memorial Day

We went to a BBQ at my sister Kim's house for Memorial Day. We spent most of the day by the pool. The only escape for the heat nowadays. Niamh tried her first watermelon and loved it! The guys had a friendly game of water football and Lucas won...yay! Gavin & Tyrone got new goggles for the occasion and had a great time looking under the water with them. We ate and ate till we were stuffed and swam some more. That afternoon we went to Lucas' brother Jasons house and had another BBQ and pool party there. We seriously ate so much, I don't even want to remember it. I forgot my camera so no pics there. The pool was a little chilly for Niamh, but once we got in the jaccuzi (that was just beginning to heat up) she went crazy, splashing and squeeling with delight. Needless to say the kids passed out on the way home that night. If only we could spend everyday like that........

Niamh at 7 months

The Little Princess

Almost crawling


Loves playing with her big brothers

Water Baby

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.

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.