march madness

it's that time again - the highlight of ed's year when 65 college basketball teams play for the NCAA championship. game after game and coverage of said games consumes our tvs & computers and we have vicious wars over our brackets. good times. :)
everyone (including rachel) has a bracket filled out and we'll see who comes out with bragging rights (and a promised reward from dad) in the abbott home. so far, rachel & noah are creaming the rest of us... it could be pretty pathetic if we all lose to a 3 month old.
among the other madness, here's a little update into our world:
yesterday drew & i drove an hour away for the first available driving test for his license. it was an unbelievable adventure. the hour-long drive wasn't enough... we got there and discovered that he couldn't pass his test because the horn in nana & ace's car that we borrowed for the test didn't work... so we (drew, rachel & i) raced to a dealership to ask for help, they sent us to a different garage (all in a little town that seemed to exist in 3-4 blocks) and a kind man there fixed the fuse and got the horn working... an answer to my fervent prayers!! so, we raced back to meet the deadline given by the administrator of the driving test in order to continue drew's test (rather than head home and try to reschedule which would take weeks), drew completed the test and passed! praise God for being always faithful to us!! and we're so thankful to have an extra driver in the house!!
after his test, drew drove us to the boathouse so that he could go to crew practice (a little late) and then i turned around and fought rush-hour traffic to race home in time to get taylor to the school for his opening night in the musical. later, while a friend took care of rachel, nana & ace & i went to see seussical (taylor was a who!) and it was really, really good! such a fun show! i can't wait to go back with ed on saturday!! taylor was great and really seemed to enjoy himself (despite hating musical practices for the past few weeks). oh, and while we were at the show, drew drove to the airport to pick up ed!
and, among other big news: evan recently completed training to serve as an acolyte at church and he'll serve his first sunday on palm sunday! we can't wait!

favorite things...

i admit that i LOVE to just watch rachel. she absolutely fascinates me. and she cracks me up. two of my favorite things to observe lately are the times when she is startled awake and when she is on her play mat. totally typical baby experiences, i know. but i love them so much anyway.

it cracks me up when she is snoozing in her swing or bouncer and is startled and her arms go up/palms down like she's saying "what's up?!" and then she looks around either with a bit of a scowl (looking like me when i'm awakened) or a sheepish look that seems to scan to see if anyone noticed her sleeping (EXACTLY what ed does when he is wakened). love that.

and she has an ocean-themed play mat that she's finally getting into (i think because she can finally see more and focus on objects). on the top, above her head when she lays on it, is a green octopus with a rattle on one of his arms. she LOVES this guy. she smiles and coos at him even more than she does me! it's adorable. as soon as she focuses on him, she's happy. then, the other day, she pulled her eyes away from her octopus friend and discovered the big fish with a mirror on it. yikes! she was THRILLED to see that baby in the mirror! huge smiles and couldn't take her eyes from the mirror. it was such fun to watch.

i do love when she gets excited to see me. this must be one of the best things about motherhood... even when i know it's just because i feed her. :) and i love when she makes eyes at her daddy or big brothers. there's no question she knows those are guys who love her well. now, the boys take turns reading to her at night. we may have a houseful of boys who hate to read, but they are more than happy to jump into a book with their little sister (helps that it's usually dr seuss or berenstain bears - who doesn't like to read those?!). it's super cute and i hope it becomes a regular part of her life for as long as they are living at home. what a special time to share with her brothers!

short update

i'm going to type a quick update while nursing the baby. turns out, i'm pretty good at multi-tasking (although a slower typist!). ed is in wv today and should head to another location tomorrow before coming home for the weekend. we're anxious to have him home again! drew is ready and waiting to take his driving test... too bad the blue car is not running right now, as that is the car he hoped to test in! maybe we'll get it running before the test. taylor, now a week away from the musical is completely tired of the experience and desperate to be done with it. i hope the performances themselves will be great fun for him! noah is gearing up for his first racing season and we're hopeful that he does well and loves it the way drew did. (considering his "gaggle of girls" who will also be at the races, i suspect he'll have a blast.) as for ev, he's still not really in any activity... not sure what to update on him. as for rachel, she's doing great. she's smiling so much more and very alert. she's such fun to watch - especially on her playmat when she sees her octopus friend (he makes her smile more than anything else) and her newly discovered "baby in the mirror"! too cute.
okay, back to work!

5 kids

there have been so many pictures of rachel lately, i was worried that people might think we ditched the boys! we didn't. it's simply that they are even tougher photo subjects... rachel only squirms and refuses to smile. we can barely find all of the boys these days!

everyone is busy and active this winter. taylor is in the heart of a heavy practice schedule for the musical. he will play a "who" in "whoville" for the suessical musical in mid-march. we can't wait to see it! (taylor had joined the diving team, but quit because practices conflicted with musical practice.) and drew & noah are both very busy with crew, practicing from after school until 7 pm 4 days a week. and we're getting into racing season now, so we'll have races almost every weekend (and we're trying not to read that as $$$$$ every weekend...). drew also spends a lot of time with his girlfriend and getting ready to take the test for his license (!!!). and noah is still maintaining his heavy social calendar, only now, it includes "his gaggle of gals"... fellow rowers who he hangs out with often. (it doesn't hurt that they are cute girls, i guess.) and as usual, ev isn't really into sports or school activities, but he's kicked his social life into high gear this year and is often out "walking in town" with friends.

honestly, we'd like to encourage a little more focus on school work and improving grades, but they are good boys and we're proud of who they are. and they are wonderful with their little sister! how lucky she is to have them! (and they adore her now... when she isn't getting into their things...)

rachel is great. she's smiling more every day. and she's doing pretty well with coming to work with mom. (we've had some tough days that forced us to head home early, but my boss & co-workers have been wonderful!) she's growing every day and is just more and more fun all the time!

ed is now traveling all week, every week, for a new job opportunity. we HATE the travel and having him away, but we're encouraged that it seems to be a great fit for him. and we make the most of our weekends together. :) he really adores his little girl and they love to be together when he's home - snuggling, "face-wresting" and just looking at each other. too cute. :)