Happiness

The rest of the trip would be best shown in pictures. Thursday night we stayed in a scary hotel and went to the park with Molly and Doug and kids. After that we ate lunch and drove up to Uncle Doug and Aunt Sheelah who live near Santa Barbara, California and very close to the beach. We went twice. Friday afternoon and most of the day Saturday. Here is Asher with a toy on his head. Carpinteria Beach, Ethan and Jonah exploring the waves. They were hesitant yet brave. They loved the splashing of the waves, but mostly they loved the sand, as seen later. Aunt Sheelah and Elizabeth making cookies. :) Asher with the sandcastle that he built next to mine. He feared the water, any dogs and all seagulls, which made for a scary time. Oh, well. Maybe next year. Ethan loved the sand. They would stop, drop and roll around in the sand and then even make snow angels in the sand. Silly Eastern kids! Jonah opted out of sand castle making in favor of digging a giant hole. He was very proud of it in the e...

Josh and Elizabeth, waiting at the airport in Dulles Grandpa John with baby Mitchell Aunt Molly with baby Mitchell- I just want to eat him up!! These baby cheeks make me Baby Hungry!! All 15 Grandkids, minus Charlotte The pictures are from Day 1- family reunion at Gma. Betty's . Today Ethan says to me "So, you blog everyday, right?" "Yep," I reply "Everyday." But, I'm not addicted like I was when I was depressed. When I was depressed all I wanted to do was sit on the computer and read blogs, for hours and hours at a time. This was the summer of '08. I had all four kids at home- no summer school- and my neighbor said to me at one point: "Have you guys been on a vacation for a long time?" Um, no- I've just been depressed. Thank you very much. Anyways, now I have a limit and I am back to normal. All those who saw me in Cali can attest to that, right? I love being normal. I'm planning on stopping my meds in July. Not because I...

Picture taken of the whole family! Missing Tommy, Kelsy and Charlotte On Thursday, June 17th, the day after school got out, Josh and I and the four little ones flew out of Reagan National Airport (thanks, Aunt Ellen, for driving us) and headed on out to good old California, where my Parents and Josh's Parents and some other family live. It was a long day- flying across the whole country! We took 6 sandwiches, 6 empty bottles of water to be refilled past security, one big, black checked-in bag, 4 small sleeping bags (which we didn't end using but they carried their pajamas anyways), 3 big carry-on bags, one purse and one box of sees candy acquired at the airport (my favorite!). We had two legs of the flight- 2 hours to Chicago, a long walk across the airport carrying said bags, sleeping bags and chocolate, and another 4 hour flight into LAX. Upon arriving at 2:30 pm or 5:30 pm Eastern time, what amazed the kids the most were the palm trees. They had never seen them (well,...

Oh, you didn't know I was on vacation? Sorry! I've been keeping it on the down-low and scheduling blog posts before I left. Now you know. I have tons to blog about, which I will do as soon as I get back or as soon as I recover from the 3 hour time difference. Whichever comes first. Meanwhile, check out Hilary's cute blog that has pictures of my adorable kids on it. Oh, and some of their cousins as well. We are having a BLAST! Too bad it all ends soon. Very soon. http://www.keepitsimple-hilary.blogspot.com/ Love, Megan

Asher is my youngest child. As such, he gets all of my attention and love while the bigger kids are at school. Sometimes I feel this is spoiling him to no end. Other times, I just love it and dote on him as much as I possible because I know that next year he will be in Kindergarten. Next summer he will even go to Summer School. And just like that, it will be over. The time spent and home with mostly Mom and a few friends and a little preschool. Asher cracks me up by the way. When I was pregnant with him, he was always moving and kicking and doing something. He never let up. Okay. Maybe to sleep a little, but other than that it was all the time. He kicked more the twins, put together! When he was born I said "Phew, now I can feel some peace and be alone for just a second." He still has the same personality. He is always going, going, going. The other morning, I went to wake him up and he was standing on the top of his bed frame, just looking down at me ready to pounce! The oth...

Jonah and Ethan, 2005 Jonah and Ethan and Elizabeth, 2007 Ethan and Jonah, 2010 Ethan and Jonah are now graduated from Kindergarten! Wahoooo! Actually, I'm kind of sad. Where did the time go? With Elizabeth, everything was completely new and exciting.With Ethan and Jonah, I knew more about the curriculum, the school schedule, the field trips, volunteering, a lot. If the years go by faster with each child, then by the time we are done with our last one, the school year will be gone in a blink of an eye. Let me tell you about two of the cutest twins around. Seriously, they are a-dorable. They are both blonde and blue eyed. Josh teases me that I married him to have blonde kids. It's partly true. The day I met Josh, I later saw him sitting under a lamp, the golden light sparkling off his hair and I knew that I wanted to know more about him. One marriage, 9 years and 4 kids later, here we are in Washington D.C. But that's another story. Ethan and Jonah are identical. I can alway...

My dad! It's Father's Day! I am with my Father-in-law today and I get to see my Dad in a few days. How awesome is that? I love both of my Fathers very much, but today I wanted to focus on my biological Father. I was just reading (just as in a few weeks ago) reading another blog where the girl dedicated a post about her Father. You see her Father has cancer and was told that he would die in six months if he didn't do anything about it. My Father had cancer. CLL, or Chronic Lymphonic Leukemia from June 2006- sometime in 2008. He is in remission. He didn't die. And I am oh so glad. Because I wouldn't have been able to handle it. I was already suffering from major Depression (actually Bi-Polar but I didn't know it at the time) when he started getting worse and worse. His white blood cell count was bad. He was doing radiation. He had low energy. Things were not going well! We had a fast as a family for him. I fasted. My sisters fasted. My brothers fasted. My Mom fas...

Elizabeth, May 2010 Elizabeth, 2007 Elizabeth, 2005 For all of those who don't know Elizabeth very well and would like to get to know her better, this blog post is dedicated to you. Elizabeth is my oldest child and only daughter so far. She was born with a dark, bushy head of hair, defying all the Dr.'s claims that our baby would surely be blonde. You go girl! Her hair lightened into blonde by the time she was one but until then it was kind of dark. She had so much hair you could put it into pigtails at the age of six months old. People would think she was a lot older than she was and would comment "You can put her down and let her crawl around" and I would have to respond "She's only two months old!" I felt that I had almost been cheated from having a baby and gone right into the toddler age. Elizabeth's eyelashes are dark and she can tan really well also. Enough about hair. Elizabeth loves to go to Church, talk with her close friends Mary and Madis...

You know when you find a book you love and you become completely engrossed in the story line and in the characters and you feel as though you know them and they are your friends? Well, that's how it is with The Secret Life of Bees. I woke up this morning at my usual hour of 4:20 am and was trying to get back to sleep by reading this book. Wasn't going to happen. I kept reading and reading. Yesterday I was folding laundry but all I could think about was "how can I get back to reading that story?" Sadly for me waking up at 4:20 am requires a nap in the middle of the day and yesterday I could not stay awake at 4:20 pm, even if I did want to read the story. What were my four hyper, crazy, ready-to-be-done with school kids doing at 4:20 pm? They were watching Heidi- a new movie I picked up at the library. Now when they watch a show I would never be able to get an hour and a half nap in, but twenty minutes is good enough to keep me going until say 9 pm and then I'm out ...

Ethan loves to write. He must be the son of a lawyer. Growing up, I never knew that Lawyers write. A lot. I always thought they went to court and sued someone. Turns out most of the cases are resolved before they even get to court. Nobody wants to go to court. No one. Ethan once told me "Daddy works on the computer, right?" That's right. Ethan thought that was pretty cool because he loves playing on the computer. They do a lot of writing in Kindergarten. Amazingly so. I guess the writing stuck in his head because a few months ago Ethan made a book. All by himself. It was entitled "Ethan's Rocket Jurnal." Each page said something different. I was thrilled that he did this all by himself, just for fun and enjoyed it. Here are the scanned pictures of Ethan's first book ever. This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbbott.

with me falling asleep during my nightly prayers on Wednesday night. All I know is that I was praying my normal prayer and then all of a sudden there were monkeys and zoo keepers and orangatangs (ok, maybe not orangatangs) and Josh was coming into the room and it was 20 minutes later. That was weird I thought. The next morning I woke up and took my meds on a empty stomach. Well, almost empty. I did have some Stephens Hot Chocolate and I felt that that counted as food. Nope. Up it all came. With the kids watching. I was down for the count. Then it came out the other end. For four hours. I weakly drove the kids to school and got back. I thought Asher would be okay as long as I turn on a movie. On went the movie. To dreamland I went. Ten minutes later. "Mom!!! Something happened." Up I went to see what was the matter. Back to Dreamland. "Mom" on and off for an hour. Josh called to check up on me and suggested I find someone to watch Asher. It's so nice to know that...

Ethan and Jonah are both finishing up Kindergarten this year and had an Author's Tea today. An Author's Tea is where the Parents (or whichever Parent is home taking care of the kids) goes to school and listens to them share their writing. They're in Kindergarten, mind you! Each couple of classes sang two songs and then the whole group sang A Tooty Ta- which was hilarious and has been stuck in my head ever since. Then I had to switch between going to Jonah and Ethan's classroom. Later I heard that Jonah's class got really awesome treats. But so did Ethans. Dang it. I need the power to cut myself in two and go to both classes. Oh,well. It's crazy to think Ethan and Jonah will be in first grade. My strategy of buying them 4t shirts for the past year has not caused them to stop growing. Dang it again! The time is going by too fast! In other news, I'm starting to talk to the PTA members and learn more about getting involved next year. This will be good as I will ...

We had an absolute blast at Ben and Barbara Abbott's wedding last week. As you can tell, the Abbotts really love each other a lot and know how to throw a good party! Good thing we'll be back there soon for a Hulihan Reunion and another round of fun in San Luis! For more pictures check out www.ineversawthiscoming.blogspot.com This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

My sister-in-law's sister, (I know-confusing, right?) Helena is hosting a giveaway at her blog. Leave a comment, post on facebook, follow Life in the Pitts and enter to win a free header, menu bar, button and signature for your blog. Pretty awesome, right? This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

Playin' in the bubble bath: Jonah and Ethan Yesterday was something we call Fast Sunday in our Church. It happens every first Sunday of the month and we go without food or water for usually a 24 hr period while praying for something specific. We also donate the money we would have spent on food for that day to the Church to feed the poor with something called a fast offering. Yesterday I fasted about our job situation. Josh has been out of law school for 4 years now. (Can you believe that 4 years ago he was studying for the bar exam in Provo and that Asher was born? Crazy, I know!) Well, it's about that time in a young lawyer's life where they decided whether they want to try to make partner in another three years (they do it at 7 years at a firm) or consider other career opportunities. After a beautiful, inspired blessing from Dad Abbott while we were in town, we believe that it may be time for Josh to look for a job in the Government. We know job hunting takes a lot of ti...

For the past three days Josh and I have been in San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles California, sans children, to attend the last of his siblings wedding. We had the most amazing time! One of our babysitters asked us "Was it worth it???" Was it worth the money we spent on plane tickets and food and clothes to get ready? I would say YES!!!! Was it worth the long airplane ride and everything that goes along with that? Heck yes!!! Was it worth being away from our kids for three days or going to the wrong airport so we had to hurriedly get our car and run up two flights of escalators and make it to our flight with only five minutes to spare? Yes! Yes! Yes! Ben and Barbara were married in the back of Kristen's house surrounded by all of Josh's immediate family and a few close friends. We ate a catered dinner afterwards and took family pictures. The weather was gorgeous, the people fun and happy and the food delicious. What more could one want? Today I will highlight our trip i...

On one very cool awesome blog ( eliseblaha.typepad.com ) the author mentions how she made a list of 25 things she wanted to this year after she turned 25 years old. I thought that was a great idea, but seeing as the year is almost half over for me, with my birthday being December 19th and all, I decided to make a list of 16 (half of 32- yes, I'm old!) things I want to do this year. I may include things I have already planned, but that's okay! If I get them all done I get a waffle cone from Brusters! The List! 1. Run a 5k race. 2. Swim 16 laps in the pool. 3. Go camping. 4. Make lime-ades. 5. Sing with Elizabeth at Church. 6. Successfully stop all medication. 7. Take part in the PTA. 8. Teach piano lessons. 9. Paint something artistic. 10. Do a Martha Stewart Craft. 11. Recognize each birthday that day. 12. Finish reading the Book of Mormon and buy a new one. 13. Go to California. 14. Pay off credit cards and maintain that. 15. Go skiing. 16. Babysit. This is my blog. My name is...

This is the beautiful scanner/copier/printer Josh got me for Mother's Day. Scanned kid's artwork to follow! Until 6:15 am! A full 8 hours, besides waking up with Ethan, who wanted to come into our room and sleep on the floor, and Jonah who had a scary dream and Ethan wasn't there to talk to- a full 8 hours! Wow! I feel so rested! I think it was the Depakote that helped me. When I woke up at 3:30 am, like I usually do, I felt pretty groggy and went back to sleep and it was a kind of drugged groggy not just a really, really tired groggy! Well, lots of exciting things are happening this weekend. I'll post pictures and talk about it more later! Just know that it involves family, food, staying up late partying (although that may not be good for me) and a warm sunny place! Hooorraaayyyyy!!!! Let the good times roll! (okay that was kind of nerdy! Just wanted to let you in on my excitement!) This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

Elizabeth had her very first piano recital two Sundays ago. I got a few pictures but forgot to videotape it all. Here she is playing "Quiet River" on our new digital piano. This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

Me and Jonah, playing miniature golf! (Me-without make-up! Scary, I know!) I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's mania or Spring Time or that I'm addicted to quiet time on the Internet so I wake up two and a half hours earlier than when I have to be up. I wake up at 4:30 almost every morning. Saturday morning I was up for the day at 3:30 am and then in bed by 8:30, only to awaken at 4:30 again. When I was tired at 8:30 that night I knew I had to stop the cycle of craziness. I even called my Dr. about this and my ringing of the ears and she called in a prescription for Depakote. Over the phone! I was hesitant to use it. I mean, it's an anti-seizure, bipolar medicine that could have some random side effect I have never had before. Like you know, gaining twenty pounds in two months. I can't handle that! I have a wedding to go to in three days! It could make me turn into a zombie (aka may cause drowsiness) and I would just sit on the couch and stare at the w...