Mr. Mom and Mother's Day

Well, sports are winding down. Here is Michael at the region track meet last week waiting for his turn at the javelin. He got an Academic All-Region award, that was a nice surprise for the day! He and Katie competed but won't be going to State this weekend so I guess we are done. David's soccer team lost in the quarterfinals of the tournament Saturday so they are done, too. Track is over for Caroline also. They all had a great year and it will be nice to have a little more wiggle room in everyone's schedule.

Michael has adult roles this year in school. This last weekend he got his turn to have a baby. They have the baby for a little more than a day and have to care for it properly and get graded on how the computer chip in the baby scores them. Michael got a 97 so I guess he will be a great dad!

He named his baby Abcde(pronounced ab-suh-dee) Amanda Abbott, or AAA battery for short, that's what she runs on. He and Connor spent most of their time in the basement playing game cube, watching movies and trying to sleep. Connor's baby was maybe more difficult than Michael's but they both survived.

Ingenuity. They used the spare diaper tethered in the baby's arms to support the bottle.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers reading this! I had a wonderful day and hope everyone else did, too. Nelson canceled church meetings Sunday morning so he was home to make breakfast with the kids and hang out. It was really nice. Then we went to church and the graduating Seniors spoke about mothers. I didn't realize until a couple of hours before church that Michael was speaking. He did a great job, it was funny and real. My kids are awesome.

Then we went to Chuck and Oranee's for dinner. The guys are in charge of all of the food and cleanup so it's especially wonderful to sit back and be waited on. Ahhhhh, mother's day is one of my favorites.

Happy Birthday Michael

Eighteen years ago Michael made his entrance into the world. Here he is with dad on the way to the nursery while the doctors finished up with mom.

Michael was the center of our world, what first baby isn't? This is in Long Beach at about 2-3 months old.

Thomas the Tank was HUGE with Michael. Here he is with Katie and Dad.

Look how big my baby is now! For Michael's birthday today he got 1 candle on his strawberry shortcake to represent the beginning of his first year as an adult, well, also we couldn't fit 18 candles on his portion. One of the traditions we have for birthdays is the birthday person gets to choose what we eat for all 3 meals on the day of their birthday. These are usually their favorites of everything. Michael's birthday happened to fall on fast Sunday so we ate his favorites on Saturday. Then for dinner on Sunday we had his choice: steak, baked potatoes, salad, zucchini, homemade raspberry lemonade and strawberry shortcake. We had a great day. The Seniors were invited to the Church Educational System fireside, these are generally for young adults, and then stayed after refreshments for a testimony meeting. He didn't get home until 10 so we had dessert late.

Michael also earned his Duty to God certificate for Priest and earned the medallion for earning all three Duty to God certificates. We are so happy with what a fine young man you are, Michael!

Spring Fling Asking

With two teenagers old enough to date, it seems we have a lot of dance date experiences. Spring Fling is the next dance and it is girl's choice. Katie and a group of friends have plans to go together as a group and she asked Ben Cookson to be her date. We went to the piano store and got a grand piano box and spray painted her asking...

This is in our driveway testing out the plan. Michael and I carried the box to his driveway and put the box over the top of Katie. Then Michael rang the doorbell and ran. He came out and yelled to a friend next door that he just got asked. Katie started shaking the box so he would know someone was inside. He lifted the box and she showed her face long enough to reveal the asker and then we all dashed away.

Her answer was this jack in the box wrapped up in another box on our doorstep the next day. I don't have any pictures for Michael because the whole thing happened at school. They announced Monday morning at school the details of the dance and during 2nd period he got asked by Keri Erdmann. She asked Michael on a piece of paper, crumpled it up and threw it at him. She was hoping to get caught passing a note because the teacher they have makes you stand up in front of the class and read your note out loud if you are caught. The teacher turned to face the class, she aimed, and just as the note went sailing, he turned his back again. It was a nice try. Michael responded the same way in a later class period. The dance is in 2 weeks so watch for pictures of the event to come!

Life last weekend

David went camping at the Sand Dunes with the scouts. He slept out under the stars and played steal the flag and other games in the moonlight on the dunes!

This is Michael with his piano teacher, Judy Johnson after the Gold Cup recital. More info about this later in the post...

Katie ran the 3200 at the Taylorsville Invitational.

3 times a charm. They had to start the race over and over again...they're off...finally!

This is my attempt to post a video and I am hoping it works. This is Michael playing Jon Schmidt's All of Me. It is a crazy-fast-banging-loud song, the kind Michael likes the best. This is not on the approved list for festival music but for the gold cup recital you can play whatever you want and Michael has been working on this fun song for a while. He earned his 30 point duet cup and his 45 point solo cup. Each year, you can earn up to 5 points so this represents a lot of hard work and dedication on his part. Great job, Michael!

Spring Sports

At the moment, all four kids are running track. David is on the Orem Youth Track club, Caroline is running for Canyon View Jr. High, and Michael and Katie are running for Orem High. It has been fun to see them try new things and improve. Here's Michael running the 300 hurdles.

Michael and the OHS high jumpers. This meet was cold and wet. At one point, they were high jumping in hail. Katie's only event was to run the 3200. After she had warmed up, and was waiting at the start line, they called the meet because lightening was spotted, too. Crazy Spring weather.

Michael at practice, jumping 5 feet 8 inches.

Caroline in the 4x100 relay.

Caroline in the long jump. Her longest jump is 11'5".

David is also closing out the soccer season. He has his last game tomorrow and then on to tournament. He loves soccer but track is quickly getting to be another love.

Catching Up

We have some catching up to do! These pictures were on the video camera and they don't get downloaded as often as the camera. Here is Caroline playing a duet with her piano teacher, Sis. Stiles. Caroline loves Sis. Stiles and has a lot of fun with her at lessons.

Even though Katie doesn't take piano from Sis. Stiles she still played at her recital. Erika Hoyal found a great piano piece on YouTube called Perpetual Commotion, a piece for 8 hands and asked Katie to play with them.

2 pianos, 8 hands is a lot of fun to watch!

In the middle of the prom excitement, my neighbor Lynette showed up with a cake for me. Our Relief Society had a service auction and I drew Lynette's name. Her service was to bake a birthday cake for whatever I wanted. I called her and asked if she could do one for our family birthday party and make it a Spring theme. We also had an Easter egg hunt along with the birthdays. She did a fantastic job!

Here are the March, April and May birthdays...Matthew, Justin, John, Michael, Katie, Halle and Tara (Brad missed the picture)! Happy Birthday everybody!

Prom

Michael's prom group came over Friday night after the "day date" to Chuck E. Cheese and had cereal.

Prom day has arrived and Katie's friend Aubree came over to participate in the glam squad!

Voila! I am her mom, but isn't she gorgeous?!

Katie borrowed this fabulous dress from cousin Stephanie, thanks so much!

Here they are! Michael's date and Katie have the same color dress so they match! I had Katie ready a little early so we could take pictures of the two of them together.

Ok, so I am his mom, too, but isn't he handsome?!

Andrew Harrison and Katie.

Grandpa and Nana Abbott and Aunt Lisa came to see them off, I think we scared Andrew. Katie's friends were still here, too. Kaylee had come over to participate in the glam squad also.

Watching them go!

Michael and Jenna Bowen. We didn't get to see them in person but Jenna shared her pictures. Thanks Jenna!

At Prom, they had carraige rides outside for everyone! How fun!

Michael and some of his group at Prom! Michael and Katie both had a great time!