Sunday, March 17th, 2013

Today was going to be a crazy busy day so I woke up early and went for a bike ride just as the sun was coming up. Beautiful. Peaceful.

Matt Philips came into town and came over for brunch. We forgot to dye the crepes green for St. Patrick's Day:( Oh well.

Then we had church and it was Quinn Frehner's mission farewell. He gave an amazing talk about testimony. I talk him in Sunday School when he was 13 and he was such a punk. It's amazing to see him all grown up into a nice, capable, talented person.

The sweetest thing he said in his talk was that he was so lucky that he got to take his brother and his mom with him on his mission and not many get to say that. Wow. I know Debra must be proud! (Debra, his mom, and his brother passed away within the last year and a half)

Friday, March 15th, 2013

Today was my last day of a three day cleanse that Kate suggested. I ate nothing but vegetables for 3 days. I had a lot of energy sometimes and felt weak sometimes.
Here's the short version:

Day 1, 2 & 3
* UPON RISING - Ginger Lemon Detox Drink
* BREAKFAST - Super Detox Green
* MID MORNING SNACK - Cucumber, Celery & Carrot Sticks
* LUNCH - Sushi Salad
* AFTERNOON SNACK - Activated almonds
* DINNER - Potassium Balance Soup
* DESSERT - Chia Pudding
* AFTER DINNER - Calming Chamomile Tea

This is a picture of wheat grass that I put in the smoothie.

Saturday, March 16th, 2013

Aneen and her friend Madelynne Welling have so much fun dressing up, playing house and having extravagant tea parties.

Thursday, March 14th, 2013

Today we got ducklings. (We got chicks yesterday) They are all so cute! I love getting chicks in the spring.

Spanish Fork allows all city residents to have 6 chickens per home. We have had chickens for 2 years now. Every year we lose some. This year three froze to death during the winter.

We've also had ducks off and on. We had one duck survive since last spring. I bought 2 ducklings so she can have a friend.

I really want a cow to milk too but I have to remember I do live in a city:)

Wednesday, March 13th, 2012

Today Collin and I went to the playground and enjoyed the beautiful spring day. When I took this picture we were playing the swing game. I push him and then he touches me with his feet and I pretend it hurt like crazy and fall back 5 feet. Sometimes I fall over or just scold him. Whatever the reaction it is always dramatic. And he giggles and giggles. I have played this game with each of my kids, the kids I babysat, and it was played with me as a child. I don't know why it works so well but it does:)

Tuesday, March 12th

Today I drove for a school fieldtrip for Sinead's 6th Grade class. We went to the Leonardo museum in Salt Lake City. It was fun to get to know some of the other girls in Sinead's class. And of course we had plenty of fun with Kimball. We saw an exhibit of mummies. It was amazing and creepy.

That night Aneen and I finished our first chapter book together, Charlotte's Web. I love that book! It was great to see Aneen really get into a story. I love good literature. I don't know what to read with her next...

Monday, March 11th, 2013

Yesterday was Scout Sunday and these boys (and a couple of others that ran away from the camera) did the whole sacrament meeting themselves. Liam's talk was on the scout motto: Be Prepared. He did a great job! He really has a talent for writing talks.

Sunday, March 10th, 2013

Today Aneen turned 6.

Aneen is strong, sweet, sensitive, aggressive, kind, loving, SMART, fun, full of giggles!, generous, social, helpful, responsible, and has a my way or the highway kind of attitude. She will definitely go places:)

When she was born I couldn't believe she had blonde hair and blue eyes. It was so cool! I got to enjoy her as a baby so much because Kaiti-O came to nanny for us. She got to bond with Aneen as well which was so cool for their relationship still.

Right now Aneen is in Kindergarten half days in the afternoon at ALA. She is home every morning with Collin and I. They play together so well! Play dough, coloring, tea parties, duplo car races on the kitchen floor, dress ups, baking, cleaning, folding laundry, washing walls, playing with Boots the cat and so much more. They are buddies and I love it:)

Aneen's after school activities are ballet and tap on Mondays and musical theatre on Wednesdays. She wants to play soccer, do gymnastics and swimming.
She loves movies and books, horses and art. She loves playing princess but isn't afraid to get dirty.

My favorite saying of Aneen's right now is "I love you to heaven and back. Because that is where the most love is." She is sooooo sweet!

Saturday, March 9th, 2013

Your Adventure Awaits...
At Aneen's BRAVE 6th Birthday Party!
Saturday, March 9th, 2013
1-3pm
Merida's Castle
1018 W River Ridge Lane
RSVP Heidi at 801-602-5444

Today was Aneen's party and she wanted it Brave themed. We had wisps that led you to each activity. Rides on Angus, "WISPer" telephone, archery, triplets donut eating contest, a trip to the wood carver's/ witch's cottage to create your very own potion, coloring, and a piñata.
Aneen got mermaids and brave dolls, summer stuff and stickers. She had a fabulous brave cake and even got to watch Brave with all her friends.
The guests were: Mom (photographer, decorator, orchestrator), Dad (archery master, Angus the horse), Sinead (witch, planner, event host), Liam, Kieran, Collin (Hamish, Harris, Hubert-Merida's famous triplet brothers), Naomi Gross, Andy Knapp, Tad, Sienna, Madelyn Welling, and Luke Tanner.
What a day!

Friday, March 8th, 2013

Sinead has this crazy girl over as often as she can. Sinead met Kimball Clements in grade 1 and our life has never been the same:)

Thursday, March 7th, 2013

Aneen and Naomi go to dance at Neesha Woodhouse's studio, Lifehouse Dance Academy. Every year Neesha puts on a Fireside at the Covey Center for the Arts. This years fireside was on gratitude. It's a modern dance night with about age 8 and up. It was beautiful!! I took Sinead, Mataya, Naomi and Aneen.

Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

Liam and I had optometrist appointments today. We go to Dr. Jones at Advanced Family Eye Care.
Liam has his father's eyes. His prescription is already -5.5 and -5.25. Today he got contacts. Sadly he wouldn't let me take a picture of him with them on. I think it's because he doesn't want all the girls to find out what a hottie he is;)

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

Today Kieran had the Cub Scout Blue & Gold dinner. They needed a baby picture of him for a game. I was looking everywhere on the computer for baby pics of him before I realized that he was born predigital. I got out his first year scrapbook and took a picture of his pic with my phone. This was my favorite.

Monday, March 4th, 2013

Aneen is a math whiz! (And she is so much fun to do home work with!)

Sunday, March 3rd, 2013

I've been thinking alot about how to decorate our room again. Here are some inspiration pictures:

Saturday, March 2nd, 2013

Today I painted the baseboards, doors, and trim on the main floor and the stairs. It feels so much cleaner in here and I LOVE it!!

Kieran helped me paint this bench.

Friday, March 1st, 2013

Collin plays video games and watches movies way too much. He took the screen shot of the iPad after trying to crack the code.

Thursday, February 28th, 2013

Someone posted this on Facebook today. I love the bold reality it makes us face.

I have been off sugar for more than a month now and I feel great! I have no plans of going back on it.

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

Today Aneen had a mini performance at her musical theatre class. She was a fairy and what a good job she did!

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

Here is part of an email from Paul:

"Some quick stats (I wouldn't be an actuary if i didn't include some numbers) baby was born at 1:15pm Feb.26th 2013 ( a little fun b-day math: 26 divided by 2 = 13 :) i.e 26/2/13 ) after a whopping 33 hours of labor. Baby is 8lb 2on. 19.5 inches."

Hanna Kaitlyn Abbott welcome to this Crazy Loud Fun Loving Family!

Monday, February 25th, 2013

Aneen's coloring fun!

Sunday, February 24th, 2013

Collin took this picture of himself while i was getting ready for church.

He takes a lot of pictures of himself with my phone!

Saturday, February 23rd, 2013

I forgot to mention that Cleopatra and Medusa (Kimball) caused our basement to flood which we discovered Friday morning. Saddest of all was my new bass guitar lying in water:)

Saturday morning I took Kieran to drum lessons. It was so cool to see how much he has improved!

Them I came home, made lunch and went to bed for the rest of the day. I got a terrible cold!

Friday, February 22nd, 2013

Today was the wax museum for 6th graders at ALA. Sinead was asked to be Cleopatra. This was her script:

"My name is Cleopatra. I was born in 60BC and died 30BC. When I was only 11 my father was overpowered and forced to flee to Rome. I married 3 times: my two brothers, Ptolemy the 13th and Ptolemy the 14th. Later I married Roman Mark Anthony. I had four children. Their names were Alexander Helious, Cleopatra Selene, Cesarison, Ptolemy Philidelphios. How I died was that a rumor was spread that I was dead but that rumor was false. Once my husband heard of this he stabbed himself with his sword. After I heard of this I took my life as well. I held an Asp to my neck and let the poisonous snake bite me."

Thursday, February 21st, 2013

Collin got a hair cut today. He was a little stressed:)

Wednesday, February 20th, 2013

We hung out with Shauna today and Collin fell in love with Preston's car.

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

This is my work out today: elliptical and Parenthood for 45 minutes

Monday, February 18th, 2013

Kieran had one more soccer game Monday. They won!! We were so excited! And Kieran played so great! My camera didn't get any great pictures:(

During the game Collin and Aneen were walking around check out the farm that the tournament is held on in Washington, Utah.

Sunday, February 17th, 2013

We went to the St. George Temple Visitors Center and then to a park for lunch. Nice and relaxing!

At the park we saw a man with a tight rope strung between 2 trees. The kids immediately ran over and made friends with the man and tried out his rope.

We took Scott to meet up with Chad, Matt, and Tyler. They went on to a convention in Las Vegas.

We then went to the local beach. It had orange sand which was cool but it was sooooo cold!

From the beach at Sand Hollow I could see a short cut on the map to get back to the glitter pits. That ended up being a 4x4 road only. Poor van!

We got back to the glitter pits to the glitter pits alive and the kids loved it. They just couldn't get enough:) Liam wanted to go back the next day with pick axes and pails to carry the loot.

We then went out for dinner at the Golden Corral which was a highlight of the trip. And then back to the hotel to swim. It was so cold. I did a work out fully dressed while the kids swam in the outdoor pool. I've got some tough kids!

Saturday, February 16th, 2013

Kieran had a game at 8 am this morning. Scott took him and the rest of us slept.

We had 2 adventures today other than soccer:

1. We were trying to find the "Glitter Pits" from a hand drawn map that Jordan emailed us. And we were on the wrong road for about an hour. But we got to go offroading in a mini van and hike through a desert. Gorgeous!

2. We went back and found the Glitter Pits and the kids were in heaven! It is an abandoned quartz quarry. Gorgeous!