magic olive fingers

You can remember doing this when you were this age... (we all know you did, so don't try to act all sophisticated)

Silly kids in rain slickers

We have had some crazy weather here the last couple of days. Two days it has even snowed! Thankfully it only stuck to the grass and not the driveway; but even still, there were 2 inches of new snow on the grass in April.
After the snow melted it was still grey and cold, but the kids still wanted to go outside and play. I can't blame them. They really love their new rain coats.

popcorn pop

In Lightening's dance class they do a dance called 'popcorn pop' to warm up before they begin doing their other stuff. His teacher sent home a cd with that song and the song they will be performing for their recital so Lightening could practice at home. Spidey and Lady Bug like dancing too, and are sometimes a little jealous of Lightening getting to go to class. But they love dancing together at home.

K visits

Last month Rachel's sister K came in to town from Oregon to visit for a couple of weeks. Rachel had a lot of fun visiting with her. We tried to get a picture of all the cousins together, but this was about as good as it got.


Luckily, the sisters were a little more cooperative, if just as rambunctious. (you wouldn't think so from looking at the picture...)
For fun, all the girls went out and got pedicures/manicures. They were so proud of their toes afterwards.

Conference Weekend

We had a good time listening to General Conference this weekend, even with three small children. Rachel planed ahead this time and prepared some conference packs for each of the sessions for the kids. They still need some tweaking, but it was a much more enjoyable experience this time than it has been in the past. I have some pictures below of the first activity, making fruit loop necklaces. Lady Bug was really good at not eating them and just giving them to mom to put on her string. Lightening quickly caught on and started working on his by himself, but Spidey just wanted to eat them and had to work with dad to make his necklace.








After the necklaces were made, mom went into her scrapbook room to finish something while listening to the end of conference. Lady Bug didn't want mom to get away from her so she tried to follow.

(I learned this from my brothers...)

I don't have pictures of the other activities that Rachel had for the kids, but they seemed to have fun and let their parents listen to most of conference.

In other news...

A little while ago we got Rachel a bike so we can start taking family bike rides (we have a trailer for the kids) and try to save a little on gas for short errands. It has been a lot of fun to go out together and the kids like it too. But then tragedy struck on Saturday. We were on our way from a picnic at a park to the store to get a redbox movie for Rachel to watch while I was away at priesthood session, and Rachel tried to ride up a driveway. The driveway had a tall curb and she tried to take it at too much of and angle, and she ended up sprawled on all fours on top of her bike. Luckily she wasn't hurt bad and she was wearing a helmet. She is finding new bruises as time passes though but I think she'll be just fine in a day or so.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Happy St Patrick's Day! I hope you have a lucky day!

Love, The Abbott's

Spidey's 3rd Birthday

Here are some photos of Spidey on his third birthday (today). He is holding his new Leo baton from the Little Einsteins. I also thought I would send this cute conversation I had with him this morning:

Mommy: Happy Birthday Spidey! Do you know how old you are now?

Spidey: ....no.

Mommy: You're 3!

Spidey: I don't want to be 3!!!

Mommy: How old do you want to be then?

Spidey: um... 5!

Mommy: Will you turn back to 3 tomorrow?

Spidey: Yes. I'll be 3 and 5.

I have no idea where he got 5 from. He sure is our cute little boy and we love him dearly. We hope everyone is doing well.

Lightening video

Here is another one of just Lightening playing.

Rachel's art work

Rachel has a website for her Close to My Heart stuff, and she has a section where she posts her current art work. I really liked the butterfly card ( New Create-A-Shade Pearl Paint Class)

The butterfly looks like one of those ones you see at the store in the plastic domes or something.
and this one ( Paper Garden 3x3 Card ). She is getting ready to submit these and some other pieces to the Close to My Heart corporate office to see if she can teach a technique class at the national convention this summer in Orlando, Fl. I'm not sure what other art pieces she is submitting, but you can ask her or just check out her art page and see what appears in the next week or so.

Valentine's Day

Another Valentine's day has come and gone. A good day, but I'm glad I only have to remember it once a year (that way I only have one chance a year to forget it as opposed to 12 times if it was monthly). As you can see from Rachel's smile, I didn't for get this year. (also note her new hair cut)
Rachel likes to make sure the kids are involved in things too, and for Valentine's she always gets them balloons. This makes Lady Bug especially happy, she will carry her balloon around all over the house and to bed with her (the boys do this sometimes too). She is very possessive and will yell at anyone who touches her balloon (like her brothers), but all smiles the rest of the time.

My birthday

It was my birthday last week. I had a good time for the most part. I decided to surprise Rachel and take her out on a date for my birthday/Valentine's day. I even got a babysitter, made dinner reservations and called the theater for show times. The only problem was that Macaroni Grill in Murray can't handle large crowds. It happened to also be dance night for one of the local high schools (we saw some interesting things that passed as formal dresses...), so it was busy; but I made a reservation... I had good company for the wait (it is not often that we get to talk for more than 5 minutes without being interrupted by children) so I didn't notice that we had been waiting for an hour and a half to be seated. When I asked the greeter, door person why it was taking so long, it turned out that we had been forgotten and skipped!! We couldn't stay because we had to get to a movie showing on time and get the kids. All they could say was "we're very sorry". No offers to make it up or anything.
The rest of the night was great though. We ate dinner at the theater and then saw National Treasure II, which was pretty good for a sequel.
Rachel made a great cake for me on Sunday, it was a peppermint poke cake. The recipe is on the back of one of the Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix boxes, you take a chocolate cake, poke holes in it, and pour a vanilla pudding mixed with peppermint extract over it. Frost it and put pieces of peppermint pattie on top and enjoy!

Lightening and Spidey

I taught this one to Lightening last week at church to try and keep him occupied and quiet during sacrament meeting last week. He taught it to Spidey the best he could remember, and this is what we got. The original words go like this:

Here is the chapel,
Here is the steeple,
open the doors and see all the people.
Close the doors, so they can pray.
Open the doors and they all run away.

Lady Bug's in nursery!

Today was Lady Bug's first day in nursery, and mom and dad's first Sunday without kids in sunday school in 4 1/2 years. Lady Bug went very willingly, and everyone said she was the cutest little girl in nursery.

President Hinckley's funeral

Friday morning we went to the viewing for President Hinckley. We were debating on whether or not to drive into Salt Lake or not. It was snowing while we were driving, and by Sandy traffic was standing still on the freeway because of an accident. We quickly exited and rode Trax into town, which made the kids happy.
It was a good thing we went first thing in the morning. Rachel and the boys entered at 9:30 am without having to wait really. After I got in line 5 minutes later (I had to drop my backpack and the camera off at the baggage check desk first) Lady Bug and I waited about 10-15 minutes outside (in the express line, the purse check line was at least twice as long) and another 20 minutes inside. Just like the Rexburg temple open house, this was very well organized. No one seemed to mind the waiting, and the ushers were very kind and had us sitting when there were long waits.
We watched the funeral on TV, which was nicely done. I'm sure re-broadcasts of the funeral will be available online for those who missed it. Afterwards, it was special to see all the people lining the route to the cemetary. Many waved white handkerchiefs or canes in tribute, and many of the churches and the City-County building rang their bells for him. President Hinckley will be remembered for many things by many, many people.

Handball tourney

I had the chance to play in a handball tournament last weekend in Murray. For those who don't know, handball is a lot like racquetball but you hit the ball with your hands and it's alot more fun. I lost both of my matches, but still had fun!

Rexburg Temple Open House

January 14th we braved cold and snow to go see the new Rexburg temple. Because of allergies we had to spend Sunday night at the Days Inn in Rexburg, but that made it easier getting to the temple by 8:30 am. Being Rexburg it was bitter cold, it would have been that way even without the wind blowing!
The open house was very well organized. We all went into a room for a 15 minute video presentation on temples (there were a dozen or so room set aside for this) at the new stake center next door. The we walk up to the temple doors through on a covered, heated sidewalk. At the door they had volunteers slip booties over your shoes, then we went on the tour with a couple for tour guides. We never had to wait for anything, and never had to be in the cold.
The temple isn't very big, there are only 2 endowment rooms; there are 5 sealing rooms though. There are several motifs inspired by the area, wheat is seen in several paintings and in the decoration in the carpet and stair railing. The walls in the ordinance rooms are painted with outdoor scenes from the area.

Snow days

We've been getting a lot of snow here lately. One brother at church said that this was more snow than he has seen in ten years of living here. Remarkably enough, we had clear skys for president Hinckley's funeral. It's making up for it now though, we have gotten about 5 inches at our house since last night, and it is still snowing!

Be careful about studying physics, it will change the way you look at the world. This is a hybrid tree outside the county offices in downtown Provo. It is a beautiful tree. It is also an excelent example of torque. Look at the bottom two pictures; The branches are so thick and grow out at almost 90 degree angles from the trunk. As the branches get farther from the trunk, the torque on the joint gets larger, until it gets so large that they have to put supports under the branches to keep them from snapping off. Physics is everywhere, you just have to learn to recognize it.

more pictures of baby Lady Bug

Here she is with her eyes open a bit. She looked around for a bit and made her cute little baby noises for us.
She started nursing for the first time (and on the first try too).
So relaxed with mom...
... and with dad. Mom and dad were so happy to hold her again.

Lady Bug's journey

On Thursday, the team from Ogden came up to fly Lady Bug down in the helicopter. She was sedated for the flight and then secured in her bed. Rachel got to say good bye while I was away getting my bags packed to follow her down.

We finally got to hold her again. She was the most alert I have ever seen her (although she had her eyes closed here).

Lady Bug is sooo cute!

Rachel got to hold her first in Logan.

I was so excited to be holding my little girl for the first time.

Lady Bug (update 3)

Lady Bug is doing even better, she continues to make small improvements which makes us and the nurses happy. She was moved to a different ventalator yesterday, and was scheduled to be taken off yesterday evening. She had other plans though, and pulled the tube out around 2 pm. She was put on a canula with some oxygen and has been doing well since. She seems to be tolerating her tube feedings well, and was even able to nurse a little today.
We got to hold her today, I was so excited to be able to hold her again. It has been since Wednesday night since I got to hold her. When the nurse handed Lady Bug to Rachel, she woke up a bit and started looking around, checking out mom and dad. That was the most alert I have ever seen her.
They were able to take out most of the IV lines too. Now she only has one going in her arm (called a bolus). The other ones kept closing up on them. She still needs her oxygen, and her breathing rate is still somewhat irratic though it is more often in the right range than not. She will need to be completely off the oxygen and breathing comfortably on her own, nursing well on her own, and done with her antibiotics before she can go home. So we are looking at around Wednesday or Thursday before she gets to come home.
Rachel is recovering really well. She is feeling good and is walking around without trouble. The hospital has given us a room in Labor and Delivery to stay in. It is next door to the NICU so it makes visiting a bit easier. It's not the same as home, but it is nice to be so close to Lady Bug and see her as often as we can.
I tried to upload some pictures, but I think the hospital internet connection strips them off. I'll do what I can.

Lady Bug (update 2)

Hooray!!! Lady Bug seems to be making vast improvments. Her blood gases are looking good and she is breathing better. She is scheduled to be taken off of the ventalators all together this evening. She just needs to stay better now, and start feeding on her own and she can be released to come home. This is much faster than I had anticipated. When I go up to Ogden tonight I'll get pictures off of the camera; then as soon as I find internet access I'll load them up. Lady Bug is such a cute little girl, she has her mother's toes and fingers, and a decent head of hair too.

Lady Bug (update 1)

Rachel called me this morning to tell me that Lady Bug was being moved off of the high frequency oscilating ventalator to an intermediate one that will let her do more of the work of breathing. With the ventalator and antibiotics she has been slowly improving since she got there. They have been weaning her off of the oxygen all night and she has been doing fine. They are going to try tube feeding her breast milk today and see if she can tolerate it. With the move to the new ventalator, we should be able to hold Lady Bug again. That probably makes us the most happy right now.
Monday Rachel goes in to have her staples taken out. While we are making several trips back and forth anyway, I might take Lightening in to see Lady Bug. He is old enough that they will let him in for a few minutes to see her. That ought to make him happy. Spidey isn't old enough to go in, but he could look through the window. I don't know how much Spidey would appreciate it though.
We are extreamly greatful for everyone's thoughts and prayers for us and Lady Bug. It has made this much easier to deal with.

Lady Bug

(I will have more pictures soon.)
Lady Bug's lung problem turned out to be more serious than we thought. She was starting to make some progress on Wednesday, but Wednesday night the nurses saw that she was laboring really hard to breath. They inserted a breathing tube (and had to sedate her to keep her from fighting the tube) and started out with 100% oxygen. With the tube in she was able to relax more and eventually come down on the oxygen a bit.
Wednesday night they did an echo cardiogram (it was described as an ultrasound for the heart). It showed that the blood flow to the lungs was not obstructed, which had been a concern. It also showed, however, that the artery that shunts blood away from the lungs while baby is in the womb was still open (it usually closes at birth, the doctors called the condition PDA, and I can't remember what that stands for :) ),and that there is a hole between her atria. The doctor explained that both conditions are not unusual, and that they should take care of themselves with a little time. The doctor also decided to give her some surfactant, which helped a lot. To help with the blood draws, they inserted a small tube into the artery in her belly button. In addition to letting them draw blood without sticking her heel all the time, it also alows them to monitor blood pressure constantly.
Thursday she was stable, but she wasn't improving. The doctor didn't feel comfortable keeping her in Logan and recommended that she go to Ogden to McKay-Dee hospital. They have a more advanced NICU with neonatologists. She was flown in a helicopter at around 4 pm to Ogden. Rachel was able to get released a day early and she and I drove down to be with her. The hospital there allows you to stay in empty rooms in Labor and Delivery for free. Rachel is trying to get into a guest house that they run so that if Labor and Delivery gets busy, she won't be out of a room.
When we arrived at the NICU in Ogden, we got to talk to the respitory therapist who was helping Lady Bug's nurse. He said that while she would probably be in the NICU for several days, he didn't see any reason that she wouldn't be just fine. His confidence made a world of difference for Rachel and I.
While doing some blood work Thursday night they found some signs of infection. It sounds kind of backwards to say that that is a good thing, but at least now it explains why she wasn't improving as fast. She was on antibiotics while at Logan, and they are continuing with them here. She seems to be doing alittle better now. They were able to lower the pressure and amplitude on the resirator a little Friday morning. She won't be coming home for 5-7 days at least though, so she can finish her antibiotics and start doing all the normal baby things before going home.