Mason Wayne Abbott

My sister, Rose-Marie, went into labor yesterday--at my house--and had the baby at 12:37 AM that next morning. He was 7lbs, 2oz and was 20 and 1/2" long. Here are the first pics, courtesy of her big brother. I think he looks like Grover--with long hair. :)

For the record . . .

I don't believe in Santa, but I do believe in the Spirit of Christmas. Jesus Christ is the reason for the season and I know he lives. Through him we can return to the Father and live together as eternal families.

I hope each of you have a Merry Christmas and may the light of Christ enter into your homes so you might have an increase of peace this year.

Whoa--It is getting nasty over there . .

way too heated on my sisters blog--silly Santa!

Anyway . . . Here are some more pictures/vids of Laurie. I managed to get a few of her gas smiles. The girls and Emily are doing well--The girls sure like to hold the baby.



We have been extremely fortunate to have so many friends help us out with presents and dinners. My in-laws are got here the end of last week. Must be time to Celebrate Christmas!

Sisters in Action :)

Little Miss Laurie has quite the sneeze! I have been trying to get in on camera and I finally did. The first one includes Miriam trying to say something. We get into a laughing tizzy because Emily's belly was shaking and Miriam noticed. It took us several minutes to finally catch our breath!

Here are three videos pieced together showing the big sisters helping. :) It is a little long, but it does eventually end!!

A few more pics--and a video!!

Emily is still not quite home--hopefully in about 2 hours or so. Then the fun really begins!!!

A few more pics

It is a little strange to look at the family pics and see three kids!! Miriam finally got to see the baby this afternoon. Oh, we decided to scratch the Claire from her name, we may use that next time--your welcome Ana-Christine. :)

Laurie Adeline Claire??

Miriam really likes Claire and it just might make it into her name. Hope you enjoy the pictures. **Update** Emily made it fine through the night and she has started eating and it looks like we are in the clear now. Thanks for all your prayers!!**
First Pic

Just Scrubbed down

Proud Parents

With Lainy today

Welcome Laurie Adeline!!

Well, it took a little longer than we thought, but Laurie Adeline Chacon was born at 9:14PM is looking good!! She was 6lbs 14oz and was 20 3/4" long. Emily started pushing about 5 after 9 and was extremely tired. She has dark hair like Miriam and is nice rosey pink color.

We had a bit of a scare afterwards; however, as I write this both Emily and the baby are fine. I will save you the gory details--you ladies can chat all about it later; however, the scary part came when the doctor said "we might need to take out your uterus". This was about 80 minutes after the birth. Both Emily and I got a little scared at that point, and I gave her a blessing, but for about 2 hours there they really had us going. We are not totally out of the clear yet, but things are looking up.

We are glad to welcome another child into the work and thank all those who helped take care of our kids in the process.

ok, it is going to happen tonight!

The doctor just came in and said Emily is ready to start pushing. They aren't back yet, but hopefully by 9:30 we will have this baby!!! What a day! Emily is doing well, just really tired and frustrated it didn't come sooner.

We forgot the cord to the camera so pictures will have to come later. Sorry!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and you are ready to spread some holiday cheer!!

It was my turn to carve the turkey this year. There were only a handful of us together and I was a little nervous, but luckily we had plenty of turkey(13lbs) for the 6 of us. Needless to say, I didn't have to cut every morsel of meat for us the get plenty of Turkey, but we could sure use my dad next year!

We still have a few leftovers, except the rolls, if anyone ran out already. :)

So you wanted to raise a boy . . . ?

This has definitely been a week of surprises for me. I feel ashamed I every second guessed or tried to find fault in my leaders--I guess I still have little growing to do and apparently I haven't been pushed quite to the edge yet. This morning Emily and I met with the Bishop and I was asked to serve as the Young Men's president. Now the kicker is that I was release from my previous calling to serve in this one==how do you like that--I bet the bishop was wondering what all my complaining was about. What a whiner!

Well, the Lord is in the details of our lives. See at the beginning of the year if I had been asked to serve with the youth I may have said no. The youth are intimidating and I didn't think I would do well. Well, at the beginning of the summer I decided I was going to start camping again and wound up camping multiple times with the young men. I believe it was the Lords hand that led me to spend those handful of nights with the young men so that I might feel more comfortable around them. Now, ask me how I feel in a couple of months. :)

I'm here to release you . . .

That's what President Anderson said to me Wednesday evening. After serving as the "EQP" for almost 2 and 1/2 years, I was done. I was in and out of his office in less than five minutes. Just before we met, I thought I was getting an assignment to speak in stake conference . . . How clueless I was!

Needless to say, I was shocked--and a little hurt. Here I had been on the inside all this time and the next minute it's all gone; with a nice thank you of course. I was upset I hadn't gotten some type of warning, especially since I thought my release would have come next summer. My emotions told me I was being let go a little too early, that I had somehow lost favor . . . I still had young men to advance and brethren to strengthen.

Of course, the next day and with each new day I see the wisdom with how the Lord works. Not that I liked it, but I believe it is all for the best and wisdom prevailed. The bitter taste of pride I had is gone and I am looking forward to a little R&R, no telling how long that will last. I have come to love about 90% of my quorum really well (the other 10% have a face only a mother could love. :) ) and I will miss certain aspects of my calling and HT reporting will not be one of them.

While it might have been nice to 'know' beforehand, it instead come at the right time, by the right person, in the right place. Ok, where did I put that tissue . . .

Getting close to 100!

Wow, I am getting close to my 100th post!

Anyway, Congratulations! You know the newest member of the Donahoe PTA Hospitality Committee. Yes, yours truly has begun a life of public service. I just hope we have some say over what we server for refreshments--the last meeting we had stale cookies. :(

We missed Jason Chacon's wedding. In case you read this Jason, we are sorry we couldn't make it. I hope if was nice.

Oh, please recycle! Our neighbors put out about 5 garbage cans full; granted they have more people in their house, but it is not unusual for our recycling to be bigger than our garbage--even if recycling comes every other week.

Find Your Candidate

Ok, so there is a web site that will help you find the presidential candidate that closest matches your interests.

I took the poll a couple of weeks ago as independently as possible without trying to pick the answers my candidate--Mitt Romney(I am starting to waiver)--would have. Interestingly I was told Mike Huckabee would be my choice; however, Mitt had the same percentage and Huck.

I also found it strange that Joe Biden was a closer match than than Giuliani, McCain, and Ron Paul. I took it a second time tonight and got 1)John Cox--who I have never heard of, 2)Huckabee, then 3)Romney this time with different percentages. I think they update the questions every so often.

Have a go--just remember to vote for real next year. :) I would be interested to see what you came up with--just put your answers in the comment section.

*Update* Just remember this calculator is suppose to help you decide what issues are important to you. It is not a 'magic bullet'. Oh, if Mike Gravel is you candidate I would dig a little deeper--he is probably a nice guy, just a little weird.

Camping over Columbus Day Weekend

We went camping this weekend. The biggest highlight of the trip? Pancakes of course. :)

*Update* We went up the Natural Bridge area, about 2 1/2 hrs west, on Saturday with a quick stop at Carter's Mountain on the way. The weather ended up being a little hotter than we thought with Saturday getting up to about 91 degrees and Sunday about the same. We listened to two sessions of conference; however, as we went with another family the kids just seemed to always be active so although we felt bad about being 50%, we were glad to get in two! We managed to keep the kids off the playground on Sunday and I actually ran into an old friend during the Priesthood session and his family came for some smores Sunday evening.

Monday we went to the Natural Bridge Safari. It is kind of like the Night Zoo in Singapore only during the day. Luckily we made it there before the weather got too hot.

I made another movie. :) Oh for the record, I can't understand everything they are saying and Emily objects to the music. Enjoy.

Fishing with Dad

My dad and the girls went fishing in September--over Labor day weekend in fact. We went to the about the same spot where Doug and I go. 50 fish is a light day; however, the water must not have been just right because we barely had enough for lunch. The girls, while hesitant at first, had a blast and the weather was nice so it was well worth it. I think my dad enjoyed driving the boat. :)

Employee Profile Questions for The Link

We have a monthly news letter that has an employee spotlight and I was choosen for the Month of October. I thought I would pass along what they asked.

Name: Carlos Chacon
Position: Information Technology Specialist III
Years with VITA/state or NG: 2
Main job responsibilities: Provide Training and support for SharePoint/VitaWeb; Help keep the SQL and Oracle databases running

Etc. (Any miscellaneous info you wish to share, such as family, education, where you grew up, hobbies etc.):

My father is from Costa Rica, but I was born in the states. I graduated from Mills Godwin High School, but went to college out west. I also served a two year mission in Argentina. We currently live in Highland Springs and I am the only Redskins fan on my block. My wife and I are expecting our third daughter in December. I am extremely interested in politics and encourage everyone to vote in November!

What three things do you always have in your refrigerator? Butter, Lisano (Costa Rican sauce), Ranch salad dressing.

What is your dream vacation? Visiting the holy land during a peaceful time--preferably during Passover. Go to the temple on the mount, the grove of olives, the western wall, visit the garden tomb. We would have an Israeli and a Palestinian guide and talk about the history and culture of the two.

What was your favorite birthday present as a kid? Surprise birthday party where we went bowling

What is your favorite time of year and why? Fall--cool weather, football, and the holiday season is approaching.

What is the best piece of news you've heard lately? My éclair cake was the first one selected at the CVC cake walk, and Julie Rogers has agreed to a 'throwdown' at the cookie competition. ;)

Costa Rica Video

This is long overdue; however, I only finished it about a week ago. There were some problem with the movie and it took me a while to getting around to fixing them. This movie is by no means perfect, but I hope you enjoy it.

There is actually one part where you are supposed to laugh; however, no one in my family got it--they don't have the sophisticated humor I hope you do.

Anyway, this is a compilation of our trip down to Costa Rica. Special thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for helping us get down there.

Blog Hiatus

Ok, I think I finished my blog Hiatus. Sorry for being gone for so long--I hope I haven't lost all my devoted fans. Hopefully I will be posting a few more things in the future--oh by the way, my Costa Rica video is done and I need to upload it.

For your reward in coming back to my blog, I have included the following video. I hope you can understand the words--it is a foreign work. ;)

Romney In Richmond

My Man Mitt came to town yesterday to pick up the endorsement of Bill Bolling, our Lieutenant Governor. I packed the family up and made them attend--they could only be mad for so long--they were serving heavy orderves. The stump speech was the same thing I have been reading on line for months now, but it was good to get up close and personal with the future president of the United States!!