Abbott's Habits

Before I start I need to apologize for the excessive number of pictures in this post. A lot has happened in the past 3 weeks since I last blogged! I am guessing that everyone else's life has been much like mine, though:alarm goes off too early, jump up, run from place to place all day and night, not completing as much as you want, then your head hits the pillow again and it starts all over again the next day. Happy Holidays? I was not nearly as prepared as I would've liked this year but we did have fun...

These are pictures of the girls with Santa at the mall. We were there exchanging something and they just had to sit on Santa's lap!

Oops, this picture didn't get fixed before I uploaded it. sorry.

We thought we didn't have enough going on so we decided to replace our windows. We have done one here, one there over the years but this time we finished the job and replaced all of the ones left. Here is a picture of the old, single paned, aluminum framed windows. It is hard to believe we had these as long as we did. They are so cold!

A view from the front of the house...

and now the new windows!! It is amazing. They are not cold anymore and it looks like I got a whole new room in each room with new windows.

Isn't this a great picture of the kids making gingerbread cookies...let's try again

not any better, oh well.

We decided to set up the trains around the trees this year. It has been a few year since we have done this and it was fun to have them out again. We had the Alaska Railroad around the big tree...

and the James train around the little tree.

Here's David and Max watching them go around and around.

Michael got asked to Preference with a big snowman so we baked a snowman in response.

Happy 12th birthday David!!! This is a collage I made of some of my favorite and funniest pictures of David. He is an awesome kid! We love you David!!

David got a k'nex roller coaster from Grandpa John for his birthday. Here it is all put together.

David's favorite cake is butterscotch bundt so that's what he got. I usually try to have his party really early in December so it's not so close to Christmas but this year time got away from us and we had to have it pretty close to Christmas. Because of that it was a much smaller party than last year. Last year I think David invited 25 or 30 kids, this year, just a couple.

We went bowling and David got his all time high score! He was so excited.

Here's David at the Cascade Christmas sing for parents. Can you believe it? This is my last ever. Ok, this year I have had a lot of these moments. David is the youngest and therefore every event at the school is the last one I will get to go to. Kind of sad...

The 6th grade 12 Days of Christmas

On the 23rd, we went to the Saxey's and had Christmas with my side of the family. Katie played the piano and we sang Christmas songs.

Nelson, Chris, Rob, David and LaDena waiting to open presents.

Christmas Eve at the Abbott's. Here are all of the guys with the big guy himself, stopped in for a visit.

He brought a gift for all of us as a preview for what was to come.

The girls got scarves, hats and mittens...

and in keeping with the boys gingerbread house theme, they got guns.

Michael as a donkey, holding baby Jesus. Way to be a good sport!

Michael as a donkey giving Mary (Brittney) a ride, followed by Joseph (David).

Angels Lindsey and Caroline singing for us.

Katie was the pianist this year and couldn't be left out so she wore a costume, too.

The Nativity

Waiting to come down the stairs Christmas morning.

The big hits of the day were some additions to the game room in the basement. Air hockey, gaming seats, a tv and stand for the game systems.

We hit the slopes the day after Christmas. It was cold but sunny so it was really nice.

David was ordained a Deacon by Nelson and Michael and the grandpa's participated. We are so pleased with what a good young man you are David. Congratulations. Grandpa Lorin and Nana Kathy stayed the night so they could be in sacrament meeting for the first time David got to pass the sacrament. It is such a wonderful blessing to have both sons participating in the sacrament ordinance.

David with Dad and Mom

All of us!

David got rockets for Christmas and we went to shoot them off on the 28th in the field behind the Junior High.

Getting it all set up...

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 blast off!!

After rocket craziness!

We have loved having our basement finally finished for the kids and their friends to hang out in. Here are some of the neighborhood crowd that came over to play!! On to the New Year.....!!!!

This is Michael and his Senior Ball date, Maggie Plothow. She plays on the Orem High girls basketball team and because of a tournament the day of Senior Ball, they had their day date a couple of weeks early. They made apple pie and delivered one of them to Brother Judd, a seminary teacher at Orem High. He gave his classes a pie challenge, that is to make pies and deliver them to people as an activity. So, they took one to him. We ate the other one. What a fun date!

Here is the completed pie to deliver!

Michael is one of the swim team captains and each night prior to a meet, they have a get together, bonding I guess. Here they are at our house to watch a movie and eat pizza.

And finally, Thanksgiving. Here are some of the girls posing in the kitchen.

Oranee asked me to make a cornucopia this year. I made one a lot of years ago and have been harassed about being Martha Stewart ever since. It's a big joke because we all know that Nelson's sisters are really the creative project people in the family. It turned out really great this year! It was our vegie tray.

Katie played show tunes and drew a crowd for a sing along. Phantom and Les Miserables were the top picks.

Here is the crowd gathered for dinner. Jordan's friend Josh was there, luckily, and volunteered to be the photographer so we could all be in the picture. It was delish, as always, who doesn't love food?

The next day we went bowling. The girls had their own lane.

The boys had a lane with Grandpa and then the rest of us together in the last lane. My kids say we need to go more. David said he had never been in his whole life. I guess it has been a while if he doesn't even remember.

Michael and Katie chatting between play.

Caroline and David getting ready to play.

For mutual last week, the youth went caroling and stopped at our house to entertain us. Great job everybody! Thanks for thinking of us, it was great of you to come!

Our ward Christmas breakfast party was last week and Santa came and everything! Here's David getting a candy cane. He has been a good boy this year!

After a two week break in between the day date and the date, here are Maggie and Michael dressed up for Star Wars Christmas, Senior Ball. Maggie's hair had come out by the time we got a picture. She was Princess Leia (perfect long brown hair for giant side buns) and Michael was Han Solo. They had a fun time and their group came here for brownies and to watch Thumb Wars after the dance.

Snow!!!! Finally!!!! I was beginning to wonder if we were going to go straight into tulip weather soon but no, winter came. And, it keeps coming. We haven't had too much snow but it sure is pretty.

Lisa and Kib invited all of us over for family night last night. We had pizza and then had a gingerbread house building, uh, creating, contest? It was so cool. Of course it was girls vs. boys. I will reveal the results later...

The girls working hard...We had time to brainstorm before we were allowed to start and then one hour to create.

How awesome is our "house"?!?! Our theme is Lake Powell. Maybe it can only be appreciated if you have spent the last 15, 16 years with your family there. We made a froggy land, complete with the frogs escaping, sand castles, a water-skier dodging the trees sticking out of the water, the slide off of the back, floating in inner tubes at the back, swimming, wet towels hanging off of the deck railing, and of course the giant mountain with the flag on top - the ultimate boy scouts challenge (the girls participate and the moms stay at the bottom fretting, praying, cursing the men for putting our children in harms way, etc.).

Here we are with our creation.

Here are the boys and their "house". They built a tribute to the armed forces, complete with Santa armed with a machine gun, flaming candles for guns, an American flag, troops and ...What's that red puddle that everyone is pointing at?...

Ho Ho Ho H'Osama.....or Peace on Earth. I admit, a little gruesome for Christmas but hey, it was the boys' house, not ours. It may have been a bit biased because Lisa decided the winner, but the girls won! The boys have won for the last couple of years so I guess it's about time. She said she just had a problem with Santa armed with a machine gun, sorry boys.

We end today with a swim meet against Westlake/Lehi. They were tough teams to beat but in the end Orem won, both girls and boys. Orem boys are 12-0 this season!! Sweet!