Christmas 2011 !!!!

Christmas, as always was perfect! We always have a good time and our kids are always fun. Kendra got her camera, Hadley got a snowboard, Kaden got a Green Machine, and Ryan got a scooter and Legos of course!

Mecham Christmas Party 2011

Good times at the Mecham Christmas Party. With Grandparents that had 14 kids, there are always lots of cousins that you have no idea who they are, lots of family that we only see once a year, and lots of excited kids to see Santa.

Brothers in Braces

Kaden got his full braces.

Now all of the boys have braces. I need to get a picture with all 3 boys together with their braces!

Jesus Birthday Cake

Ryan wants to bake Jesus a birthday cake this year for Christmas.  He's so cute.

Kids are so cute!

Ryan came to kiss me good night the other day and I told him, "You are getting so old."  He said, "So are you, mom."

Halloween dress-up

We had our Marshall Halloween party tonight.  We all love dressing up and most of us keep our costumes a secret until the night of the party.

Burke was a sheep farmer and I was his sheep!

Kendra was me when I was in high school on the Las Chalitas Drill Team.  Hadley was a Goth skateboarder. 

Kaden was a nerd and Ryan was the Energizer Bunny.

Marshall Halloween Party

We know how to have fun.  Some of us keep our costumes a secret until we show up.  This year Stan grew his hair out for about 4 months for his costume but wouldn't tell anyone what he was going to be.  We bring food and play games.  This is one of my favorite family traditions.

My Mighty Hunters!

Hadley shot his deer yesterday!  They were only on the mountain about 15 minutes when they found it.  He shot him, it went about 30 yards, all the boys helped gut it, and they went home.  It was fun to listen to the little boys talk about watching Burke gut the deer.  Everything's an adventure when you're a young boy.  Hadley was so proud.  This was his second deer.  His last one was a small two point...This one, a monster.  :)

 



Pumpkins

We loaded up the kids and Clay to go to the Big Red Barn in Santaquin.  We went on the hay ride, Ryan ran through the little maze alot, and we got our pumpkins for the year.  On the hay ride back to the barn, we were all having fun and laughing, when Ryan told me, "Don't laugh so loud mom, we're not the only one's here."  I sometimes forget how loud my laugh can be but I didn't think I was being that bad.  Then he told me, " I guess it's ok if you laugh as long as they don't mind."  Ryan always lets you know what he thinks, bless his heart.  It was a little cold but we all had fun.  Then we got an ice cream cone and went home to carve pumkins. 

Lagoon

We went to Lagoon with Penney and Todd and my brother Kelly.  It gets funner each year the older the kids get.  I can't keep up with them any more.  But I can watch them have fun all day.

Ryan's Braces

Ryan got braces on his top four teeth and he looks so cute!
He likes picking the colors of the rubber bands that go around the braces.

The Dirty Dash

My friends called and invited me to run in the Dirty Dash.  It is a 10K run with obstacles, in the mud.  Then Burke joined a team with a guy that I work with and they ran it too.  We had so much fun.  We started out cute and clean, and ended up filthy and smiling!

Me and the Girls on the Sportz Dogs Team

Burke, Me and some of his team.  Good clean fun.

Kaden's 11

Kaden had his 11th birthday.  He got rollerblades and we had the family over for cake and ice cream. 



I like to ride my Bicycle

Burke bought a road bike and started biking. He has really liked it. It took him a little while to get used to the equipment and the shorts but he has really loved going for the rides.

Baby Owen

Kendra went over to Penney's house and took pictures of baby Owen.  He is about 8 weeks old and the pictures turned out so cute.  These are some of my favorites.

First Fly Fishing

I had a GREAT day!!!  Stan and I went fly fishing.  We are both beginners at this but we did pretty good.  I caught two, Stan caught three, and I had a couple other fish bite that I didn't snag fast enough.  When I caught the first one, Stan took the hook out for me because I don't like holding the fish when they wiggle.  Then Stan went to the car and I caught my second fish.  I had to take the fish off myself.  The fish wiggled, I squeeled, dropped the fish, took the hook out while it layed on the ground looking at me with one eye, and then threw him back.  Both me and the fish were tramatized!  I love fishing!  It was an awesome day.

School Shoes 2011

It's a new school year.  The kids started school a couple weeks ago.  Kendra is a mighty senior this year!  Hadley is in 9th grade, Kaden in 5th, and Ryan in 3rd.  I can't believe how fast time flies.  I had to work on the first day of school and all of the kids leave at different times in the morning, so I didn't get pictures of the first day of school.  But this is a picture of the school shoes.

The boys custom ordered their shoes online.  Kaden went wild with the colors.  Ryan's are the green and blue, and Hadley's are the blue and black.  Kaden and Ryan's shoes even have their names on them.  Kendra just got moccasins, which she calls mossicans.

Timpanogas Cave

Me and the boys hiked to Timpanogas Cave today.  It's only 1 1/2 miles one way but it's all up hill.  But the boys were fun to hike with and didn't complain.  They were so much fun to be with.

Poor Kendra had to work at her new job!  She works at Sunroc in Springville and so she didn't get to come with us today.  It sucks to grow up and not get to always go play!  And Burke didn't go because he is in Colorado with my dad on a bear hunt.

Inside the cave it was only about 45 degrees and so we had to wear jackets.  Hadley is wearing the backpack in front because they make you, they don't want you bumping into the cave walls with your packs.  Kaden wanted so bad to pee in one of the bags they give you in the cave that turns the pee to crystals.  He thought it would be cool, I talked him out of it.  The boys really thought the cave tour was interesting and had a good time.

On the hike back down, I don't think that the boys stopped talking for two minutes.  I love when they do that.  I can listen to their stories all day.  It was a good time.  No T.V., no video games, no computers.  Just me and my boys and their great personalities.  The picture on the bottom right is Ryan stretching his legs.  He kept having to stop and bend down to stretch his sore legs on the hike down.  I thought it was cute.

2011 Trip to the Zoo

Stan and Shandy invited us all to go to the zoo with them for Zoee's 6th birthday.  The weather was hot.  We all made fun of Kendra for wearing a long sleeve sweater.  We had lots of laughs and tons of fun. 

Are you ready for some football?

Kaden and Ryan are in football this year. Kaden is in tackle and Ryan is in flag. They both love it. Football's not my favorite sport but I love watching these two play.

Favorite sayings

One of my favorite things Ryans says right now, "For peeps sakes!"  One of my favorite things Kaden used to say...when he was almost 2 years old is he would call you a 'poopy biaper'.

'New to me' TV stand.

I bought an old dresser off of the internet. I gutted it, rebuilt it.  Painted and re-stained it.  I was pretty proud of how it turned out.  We needed a new TV stand in our bedroom and it turned out better than I thought it was going to.  Here are my before and after pictures.

'Gall' that sucked.

I had my Gallbladder removed 5 days ago.  Not my favorite thing I have ever done.  I have been kind of sick with it for about a year but the last month I have been in alot of pain and been very sick.  I went to see the surgeon and he said, lets take it out tomorrow.  It was probably good to get it done fast so that I didn't have to think about it too much.  I'm doing better now.  Hopefully I feel much better in the long run.

24th of July weekend

We did alot of fun stuff for the 24th of July this year.  We started out by going to the movie in the park.  The city did it across the river at the ballpark.  We watched 'How to Train Your Dragon'.  The whole family went, Stan and Shandy, Kelly, my mom and dad, and all the kids.  We set out blankets and camp chairs and had all of our treats ready.  Then...as soon as the movie started, my mom and dad got up and headed home.  They said they just came to visit with us before the movie.  Then they went home and watched the same movie we watched in the park!  They are so funny sometimes.

Our next adventure was the Fish Rodeo.  They had a man-made pond at the city park and filled it with 500 fish.  The kids had to get in and catch the fish with their hands.  Some of the kids scooped them up with their baggies.  Bad thing about it, there was no catch-and-release.  We had to take the fish with us.  Kaden wanted to cook his but since it only had one eye, I talked him out of it.

Then we had the 3rd annual Backyard Campout!  We had a barbeque, played volleyball, spray painted tie-die T-shirts, shot off fireworks in the front yard, and watched the movie 'Rocket Man' outside.  It was great weather this year for sleeping outside.

When I grow up...

Ryan told me that he was going to have a sexy wife.  I said, "your wife is going to be sexy?"  He said, "Yep, I'm going to have a sexy wife and she's going to be a vet, 'cause I love dogs!"

Payson Lakes!

Amanda and Rachel planned a day for all of our family to go to Payson Lakes last weekend.  We went for a picnic and to play.  When we got there, the weather was a little cool and it was sprinkling just a little bit.  But as soon as we got to the beach...in to the water the kids went!  Kendra was in Idaho, staying for a few days with her grandma and my niece, Myriam came with us.  It stopped sprinkling but the sun didn't come out much but it was a perfect get-together.

Rob brought his canoe and Janet brought their paddle boat.

We had hot dogs and pot luck and hung out at the lake all evening.

The kids had fun playing in the water, even though it was a little cold.

Magical duct tape

Kaden has found the joys of duct tape. He has made everything from wallets to, my favorite, flip flops! He asked me to buy him a roll of duct tape at Home Depot one day. He was so excited about all of the things that he could do with it. I thing that the whole roll lasted him about a week.