Happiness

Josh's sister Emily's husband Troy is an engineer and an inventor. He likes to make things and try new things out. He also has his Masters in Business. He invented the Koolspoon- a spoon that you keep in the freezer and can cool hot food items down. Ever try to cool down your hot chocolate? Oatmeal? Ramen? Hate blowing on the food for your kids until it's cool? Try the KoolSpoon! (it's not yet available for purchase but will be soon!) Josh's brother Ben and our nephew Brennan star in this amazing video premiering the Koolspoon! I love it! ***I tried to embed it on here from youtube but I have 8 blogs and it went onto the Mormon Mommy Blogs Team blog. Oops! Hey, maybe they'll post it! They don't post my writing! Go to Youtube and type in KoolSpoon! Or go here KoolSpoon I admit it. I'm just a blogger. I'm not a tech guru! I have been humbled! What do you think of it?? Would you buy one? This is my blog. My name is Megan A. p.s. We've returned to a ...

No school again today. Amazing: We went sledding and the kids had a blast! They were so excited to see the new, untouched white snow at the bottom of our street and the big snow pile the trucks had made at the end of the road. Amazing: We got a new game of Candyland- ours was missing essential pieces- and had fun playing w/ it. They now have a cupcake commons, icecream land and a Princess Frostine who is dressed immodestly. I miss our "vintage" game. I'm not that old, am I? Amazing: I had a dream that I was pregnant and it was a boy and he was nestled in my left side. Amazing: My sweetheart left chocolates on the freshly made bed this morning: knowing I was not thrilled about the snow day ahead. Awful: This morning the kids left to go play outside and the new game was scattered across the floor. I hate that. I couldn't call them in to clean it up because it would get mixed with snow and ice Awful: We went sledding yesterday- Asher forgot his boots and his gloves fell ...

Asher and my snowman. The snow was so heavy we had to struggle to lift it! Elizabeth is trying to be tall by standing on her almost built snowman behind him. Elizabeth and her tiny snowman. Yes- she's wearing her pajamas- and Asher too. She wore them all day and all night, but not today. I didn't mind! No school today. The kids are very happy. Luckily, we never lost electricity last night! The lights flickered and went out once- causing all clocks and computers to reset- but other than that we were fine! Lost of downed tree branches because of the heavy snow though. These pictures are from yesterday. The pictures I took from today I'll post tomorrow, as I think it will be snow day #4 since the snow will melt and then freeze- causing ice. We'll see what happens though! Also, a neighbor boy came by last night and offered to shovel our driveway in the morning. We took him up on it and this morning he and his Dad showed up with a snow blower. Phew! I was wondering how he wa...

I love watching my kids sleep. They are so silent! Such a rarity! Well, it's the second snow day of the year today. I knew it was going to snow and early in the morning peeked outside my window to see just how much. An inch. Okay. I thought. 1 hr or 2 hr delay- which will it be? How does this throw off my plans for today? No visiting teaching I guess. I wished I had put Josh's phone which has unlimited internet access right by my bed. But I hadn't and there was no way I was getting out of the warm, heated bed, going downstairs, getting it and looking online. Later, I showered and checked. Canceled. Fine with me! We've built snowmen (it was good, heavy snow), drank hot chocolate, eaten popcorn while watching Man Versus Wild (my kids love that show- except when for the eating various animal shots), eaten warm macaroni and cheese, made treats for a baby shower I'm throwing on Saturday and made cinnamon rolls- although they didn't rise as much as they could have! Mo...

All 4 kids on Jan. 6th- 3 Kings Day. In Spain, where I served a mission, they celebrate 3 Kings Day and each person gets one or three small gifts. We do one smallish gift as Josh's family celebrated this as well. They called it Little Christmas. We've done it three years now. On the table is a half eaten ring cake in which I put a coin. I told the kids that whoever got the coin would have a lucky year. In Spain they make a circle loaf of bread, but I didn't have time. Ethan pretended to put his own coin in his own piece and find it. Silly kid! Me with Asher Elizabeth, smiling. This is my blog. My name is Megan A.

Ethan sleeping again. Think he's warm enough now? It's been freezing here. Absolutely freezing! We need new windows. Stat! Okay. Today is Jan. 25th. Time for those resolutions to falter. I have to admit that some of mine are. I wanted to write every day. After about 20 days I was stuck. Blank. Dried up and nothing was coming. Who knew that I had three weeks worth of writing in me and that's it? I've still been writing but it's junk and I know it. Does that count? Should I still write- even if it's no good? Playing the piano everyday? Check. But now I am rushing through one song and calling it good. That's not how life should be. I should enjoy it, throughly. Drinking the marrow out of it's bones. I can do that several times a week. But not every day. I just don't have the time in my schedule. I like to do other things too much- like read, blog, have a tickle fight with Asher (who requests one often BTW), etc. Blog- I enjoy doing it, but I never want ...

Ethan, with a nerf gun he got for 3 Kings Day/Little Christmas Jan 6th The kids are out of school today! Again! Professional day for teachers. We've been keeping busy by going to the gym and doing grocery shopping and laundry, but we need to spice it up a little! I let the kids all do their own lunches and they came up with grape/chip sandwiches. Silly kids! Asher also asked me for a sleep-over last night so all three boys slept in one room and Elizabeth in another. Jonah ended up on the floor and they all stayed up an extra hour talking and playing the ABC game "A my name is Alice..." I don't think we will do that again for a while though. What do you do when all the kids are home from school? I need some good ideas to keep them all entertained! Happy Monday! This is my blog. My name is Megan A.

a bald, blurry Ethan since I mentioned the word "baby" on here. It's Saturday and normally I don't blog on Saturday, but I've found myself with an open, lazy morning and thoughts buzzing around in my head and here I am. Last night I went to a Relief Society Activity- a service auction. These activities used to be called Enrichment or even before that Homemaking. Now they just call them activities. So, there you go. At the service auction I won a totally awesome item, but I cannot mention it here as I am still deciding if I should gift it as a Christmas present. It was totally fun! I loved it! I also met a beautiful new Mom who is a friend of one of the ladies in our ward. I was immediately drawn to her as she was carrying a small little baby car seat holding a tiny pink bundle. I introduced myself and coo-ed at the cuteness of her sweet little 6 week old. We exchanged info about ourselves and she told me that she was returning to work in 2 weeks and was looking ...

"Sow good services: sweet remembrances will grow from them." Md. de Stael I have a daily calendar and I love turning it's pages each day. The quote above was the one I read today and it really struck home for me. I get focused on myself a lot and it's helpful for me to remember to give service. In giving service I forget about myself and the things I want and focus on others and what they needIt's a ritual and it gives me comfort. I've had one for the past four years. My first one gave me things to be thankful for. The next one was an Anne Geddes one- love those babies! The last two have been Mary Engelbreit, whom I simply adore. She lives in the same town as my sister! I'll have to go visit them both! This is my blog. My name is Megan A.

Jonah, Elizabeth and Ethan on the sled For Christmas the kids got a sled from Santa. A week ago we tried it out and learned that if you put three grade-school aged kids onto the sled and take it to the top of the highest hill you can find you will go straight to the bottom and you will hit anything that is there- be it a chain link fence or a wall. Luckily no one got hurt. They loved sledding and had a blast! At the end they ran off into a tunnel to explore and wouldn't come back when I called them, so we all came home a little upset. Hopefully they will remember the good times and not the bad! This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

In the first week of January, the kid's school (Watkins Mill Elementary) had one of their two character counts assemblies. Each of the kids got an award. Ethan and Jonah got the same exact award- Outstanding Respect, even though they have different teachers. They came up to me after wards and were shocked that they had both picked the same one. They both gushed about them and while I enjoy that as a parent, it also made me feel slightly awkward. Elizabeth got an award for Outstanding Respect. I took pictures as well, but that cafeteria is always so dark and they always come out blurry. This video is of Ethan's class doing a little saying. Enjoy! This is my blog. My name is Megan A.

We woke up this morning to the classic East Coast frozen rain. I had gotten an e-mail last night with a Winter Weather Advisory so I knew it was coming. There had been an inch of snow and then on top of that, it had rained and all the rain turned to ice. It was like taking a snow ball and putting it in the freezer- having a hard crust of ice on top of everything! Needless to say, school was canceled. Which I was happy about. There would be no sledding in six inches of soft fluffy snow though. There would be going outside and throwing chunks of ice and saying "Everything is ice! This ice throws like a frisbee." Those kids! They would play in anything! I'm glad they're learning about the properties of ice though and I get to read my book. In my pajamas! And drink Stephen's Hot Chocolate and eat German/Big Pancake all morning. Sometimes it's nice not to be commuting to work. I work right from home and love it! Have I mentioned that we are night-time potty trainin...

Ethan and Jonah O.K. One more post with the mustaches and then I am done! I bought a few packs of fake mustaches back in November to use with our family pictures. I never used them and since then the kids have been begging me to play with them. Finally, I gave them the go ahead. They played with them all evening one night. My kids LOVE dressing up- love it! (see previous post with Ethan sleeping with his!) Later I would find rumpled, un-stickable mustaches sticking to the floor, looking like little dead caterpillars. Once I even stepped on one and it stuck to my foot and freaked me out. Into the trash they all went. But it sure was fun! This is my blog. My name is Megan A.

The following post has nothing to do with this picture of Ethan, asleep in his bed- with a fake mustache on, but I wanted to put it on here anyway! I'm almost done with reading He Did Deliver Me from Bondage and wanted to share another thought that I had while studying the other day. Perfection. From my journal: "I like being perfect in many things and I get upset when I fall short of that- which is most of the time. When I get upset that the kids have to talk to me when I am headed upstairs or when they have interrupted me for the 4th time while playing the piano or when they are grumpy + tired + I can't take it anymore- I need to stop and reassess. Am I really doing/acting how I should or could I be just a little more understanding, less selfish and willing to see where they are coming from?" Today I focused on my Savior and that really helped me not care about perfection. As I taught piano lessons today, instead of demanding perfection or getting irritated I was mo...

This is what we are doing today: playing in the snow! A big storm came and swooped the East Coast. We were waiting to see what it would do here and finally around 6 pm it started lightly snowing. Enough to coat the roads with ice and cancel Activity Days/YW. School is delayed 2 hrs and we're playing in the snow. What are you doing today? This is my blog. My name is Megan A.

Today is 1-11-11. To celebrate of this day, I would like to share with you a few of my recent I-love-this! items. Oreos Mint Fudge Cremes. I bought a three pack at Sams Club and mysteriously there is only a half of a pack left. I wonder how that happened. Delicious! Google Maps. www.googlemaps.com If you type in my address growing up, you can see my house- literally- there is a picture right there! You can also drag the little person and have him walk up and down the street. Last night Josh and I calculated how long it took him to walk to school - a little over half a mile- and how long it took me- a little less. Our kids get driven to school. They may change as they get older. Etsy.com- Dainty Heart Necklace. We all know Valentines Day is just around the corner (34 days people!) and that Valentines Day is my favorite of all Holidays, besides Christmas. I've been excited to see the red and pink hearts popping out everywhere in getting ready for V-day! Etsy is a great place to buy ...

Saturday afternoon I came home after a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese that Elizabeth was invited to. And I became sick. I couldn't eat at all and we had a big night planned of dinner and a movie with a babysitter already lined up. We canceled and I spent the evening on the couch watching Where the Red Fern grows with the kids and eating popcorn (I did manage to eat that finally!). And you know what, being there with all my kids around me and crying at the sad parts together, it was worth every moment of being sick. Almost! I drifted to sleep after the movie ended at 7pm and finally woke up around 11:15 am the next morning (with a few wake-ups inbetween). All Sunday I laid in bed, reading, drinking and doing a lot of thinking about my life. As Josh and I went to bed that night he was not at all surprised at the things I concluded. He usually never is. He knows me too well. So, today I am up and feeling better and while I'm not going to run a good 2 miles today, I am taking th...

7th grade. Honors English/History. That's me in the front with the pink shirt. Yeah, I still wore pink! This picture was found via facebook. Love that. Love that I can know what half these people are up to now b/c of facebook! Check out the two guys making peace/gang signs in the back (Jeremiah and Shaun!) 8th grade dance. circa 1992. ?, Nikki, Molly, Michelle and Me. Eight grade graduation dance. Don't you just love the poofy bangs? Mine were calm that night. What a great time we had! This is my blog. My name is Megan A.

Hershey, Pennsylvania Josh and Elizabeth on the ride! The Awesome Gingerbread House made with huge hershey kisses, whole candy bars and tons and tons of chocolate! mmmm! Let me let you in on a little secret- Ethan doesn't like his picture taken. And when I say "smile!" he usually is the one not looking or smiling really goofy, so if you see a picture and you want to know who is Ethan or Jonah, Ethan is the one will a silly, goofy face or not looking at you at all. Josh Being workers at the Chocolate Factory. Josh was able to take most of the week off after Christmas. We spent a lot of time playing games and working on the "Honey-Dew" list like fixing the bathroom towel bar and getting our gas fireplace going again (mostly the work of the repair man) but inbetween we went on a few adventures and a litte geocaching (a story for another day). Last Wednesday we finally visited Hershey, Pennsylvania- a small town built by Mr. Hershey himself to help th...

Asher, stuffing his mouth with Christmas candy! Asher has been heard to say lately: "When I yawn, it's like a wind storm in my mouth." Ethan was reading a book to me and my hand was covering part of the page. Asher, who always like to listen along, said "Your hand is blocking those reading thingies." "Those are words, Asher." I replied. Elizabeth, who is in 2nd grade also added: "It's text, Mom. Text." Phew. First of all, I was a third grade teacher and my 4 yr old doesn't even know the term "word" for the written print on the page. Second of all, Elizabeth has been doing a little too much TN2 (a test 2nd graders in Maryland take) Prep. Sheesh. Also, what do you guys think of the "My baby can read" program? This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

via Pioneer Woman I love the scripture that says Jesus grew in wisdom and strength, in favor with God and man. Every year or even every season- Fall, Winter, Summer- I like to set goals in each of these categories. I've mentioned my Sunday Planning on here before and my goals go right along with that. Every Sunday, I go over my list of goals and see how I'm doing. Here are a few of my goals for 2011: Intellectual - Read 1 book a month and attend Book Club as often as possible. Physical- Run a 10k (and train as well). Spiritual- Attend the temple once a month. Social- Go on a date with Josh once a week and go to MOMS club at least once a month. And learning everything I can about JOY . This is my blog. My name is Megan A.

January we ran in the New Year with a little bubbly and some treats. We got snowed in in February with more snow than we've ever seen before! March- we tried to stay warm by drinking hot chocolate (Jonah) April- I went to BYU Women's Conference with some of Josh's sisters and helped out with a service project. It was wonderful!! Ethan and Jonah turned 6! When once preemies, they are now healthy and normal! Josh and I flew by ourselves to California to see his littler brother Ben get married. Yay! June- we took the whole family to California for a Hulihan family reunion. Fun! Us, the kids and my Parents, Grandpa and Grandma Hulihan This is my blog. My name is Megan A.

July- Asher turned 4!!! August- we visited New York City without the kids and had a blast! September- Back to School. Elizabeth in 2nd grade, Ethan and Jonah in 1st and Asher in Preschool! September- Elizabeth turned 8 and got baptized! It was such a sweet experience! October- my 4 little ghouls dressed up as a scary guy, a vampire, a fairy and a lion (2 years running now) November- we had Molly and her family over and Josh cooked a delicious turkey! December and Happy New Year! The kids spent their Christmas money at Chuck E' Cheese's and I love that 2010 left us all healthy, happy and loving each little moment in life! Happy New Years, everyone! This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.