Happy Birthday Josh, Dec 21st!

Well josh didn't start his birthday out on the brightest note, he had to have a tooth pulled first thing in the morning and because the tooth was so infected it was hard to get it completely numb! Here he is trying to recover from the trauma.

Fortunately, Josh recovered quickly and that night we rented out Soldiers Hollow sledding hill for a private party, we had about 150 friends come up sledding with us! It was so much fun!

Happy Birthday to Josh, our best Christmas present ever! This was Josh's picture for his birth announcement!

Josh @ 7 months!



I decided to put some of Josh's favorite things on this post!
Josh loves playing tennis and has already won 5 trophies!




Tyler and BYU Football are on the top of Josh's favorite things list!




Josh LOVES boats, here he is getting an early start! Josh would just go sit on the Polaris' waiting for someone to come give him a ride.

A few years later, still sitting and still waiting for someone to come give him a ride!

Josh is the most helpful kid on the boats, he always wants to tie up and do all the ropes by himself.

Last summer Josh pulled me aside and privately (very proudly) told me that he "was only 7 years old and knew how to drive 5 different kinds of boats, a polaris, a ski boat, a cabin cruiser, a dinghy and a yacht, and it could be 6 boats, because he knows how to drive both polaris'!" Go Josh!

Santa makes the favorite things list for sure!

Another favorite, his dad & skiing!

Happy Birthday Josh, we love you!

Happy 21st Birthday Jordan!

I didn't mean to start with this picture but somehow it ended up here, I just wanted to wish Jordan a happy 21st birthday and let her know how proud we are of her and how much we all love her! The boys on Brad's tennis team always tell me and Jordan that we are like the same person and say the same things and even think the same things. I am always proud to be connected to her in anyway!

Here is Jordan a couple of days after she was born. Being our first baby and the first grandchild on both sides of the family, it was months before she was put down or didn't have a crowd around watching every grimace or diaper change!

Here is Jordan on her 2nd Birthday!

I had to put in this picture, not because it was the greatest picture I had of Jordan, but because it reminded me that I have gotten old enough to have a 21 year old daughter.



Here is one of my all time favorite pictures of Brady, Steph, Tara & Jordan. If Brady hadn't died they would have all been in high school for one year together (9th, 10th, 11th & 12th grade).

Jordan & Tara! One thing I really love about Jordan is that she has always taken her role as the oldest cousin and sister seriously. She has been such a good example to her little brothers and sisters and has really loved them and taken care of them all!

Grandpa & Jordan, there are certain perks to being the first grandchild. My younger kids will probably never see an igloo unless they go to Alaska!

Had to put in this picture because it is probably the only picture in existence of Jordan cooking. I know this because this is probably the only time she has ever cooked something!

Steph & Jordan before homecoming.

I was sad thinking that my little girl was growing up and then saw these pictures and realized she will never really grow UP! Sorry Jordan, I couldn't help myself with that one!

Since Jordan has been in college her birthday has always been in the middle of finals. Of course she has a final today at 4 pm, so here we are celebrating at 7 am, as she is walking out the door to the library!

Happy Birthday Jordan, we love you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are the girls slaving away in the kitchen!

The whole Abbott Family! (or most of them)

Brad, John, Matthew & Josh all went to California. Brad had to do some recruiting so the boys went along. We ended up having a girls weekend with lots of chick flicks!

Go BYU Football!

Josh is the ultimate BYU Fan!

Here is Tyler warming up before the game.

Tyler came over before the game so that we could get a picture of him and Josh in their uniforms.

Matching #31's!

We had a great time with Josh at the game!

Josh asked me to buy him a binder so that he could make a playbook, to write down good plays BYU makes or come up with new ideas for plays. Here he is faithfully writing down his plays during the game.

It was freezing cold at the game, I kept telling Josh to put on his coat (which is also BYU), but he kept saying he didn't want to wear it. I told him that even the players put on those big jacket things when it gets really cold. He told me that when Max Hall puts on his jacket he looks like he needs to go on the "Biggest Loser," so he would rather not wear his jacket. Finally the cold got to him and he put the coat on!

Congrats to AJ & Kelsey Young!

AJ Young (a member of our tennis team) got married in the Salt Lake Temple on Thursday! We were lucky enough to be invited to the temple with them. It was a really touching ceremony, and so fun to see how happy and excited AJ & Kelsey were. Here we are with AJ, Kelsey & AJ's parents!

Happy Halloween!

Halle & Josh getting ready to go out trick or treating!

We just happened to run into our favorite BYU Football player, Tyler, at Lisa's house.

The family (and Keaton) all dressed up!

Big Foot (grandpa) kidnapping the pilgrim!

Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite!

The other day Matthew complained to me that he thought he got bit by a spider during the night and was so itchy. I didn't really think too much of it. A few hours later, he told me he must have bed bugs because he had a lot of bites. Again, I didn't think too much of it and told him to bring up his sheets. After another hour of constant complaining I finally went to look at him. When he took off his shirt I couldn't help but laugh, he was COVERED in hives and rashes over his entire body (literally head to toe). I felt bad laughing but this was so obviously not a bite but something else, we took him to the doctor and they confirmed that he was having a severe reaction to his amoxicillin.

I told Matthew if he ever had this many bed bug bites we would have to move!

The Verdict is In!!!!!

Jordan's mission call FINALLY arrived on Saturday. All of our cousins were out of town for fall break so we waited until Sunday night to open it! (Longest 24 hours of our lives)

After 105 guesses (as to where Jordan would go on her mission), represented by 105 flags on our maps, that spanned:

• 23 States

44 Countries

and 6 continents (Jordan was glad that noone guessed Antarctica)

the time had finally come, and all of our friends & family crammed in to hear where she would go!

The Drum roll Please!

PARIS, FRANCE, LEAVING FEBRUARY 10th!

As you can tell, we were all pretty excited! Everyone who knows Jordan knows that Paris is her favorite city in the World. We had 11 winners who guessed Paris.

The roommates! And congrats to Rebecca (2nd from the left), she just got engaged last Thursday!

Luckily Jordan could find Paris on the map!