The Mechams

Siesta Key Beach

2011-10-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

We headed to one of the worlds best beaches, Siesta Key beach in Sarasota Florida. It was only about three hours away and so worth it! We got there Friday night about the time the sun was setting. It was so beautiful! We went to St Armands beach Friday night and there were tons of shells. Jack and Max were having so much fun gathering all they could.

Mom I think you'd like all the birds! :)

Jack's collection.

Saturday morning we headed to Siesta Key. Not as many shells and the sand was seriously like powdered sugar. The sand was cold and never got hot. This is how we saw Janie most the day, just her hat, because her head was down eating the sand! Little stinker, it was so hard to stop her.

He first mouthful. I haven't gotten any sandy diapers yet so maybe she got a lot less then we thought.

Another mouthful :(

Jack found a hermit crab and played with it most the day. He put it in a bucket after a while and caught little fish for the crab to eat ;) He drew the quite the crowd all day long with that crab.

I love the way Janie is just relaxed leaning on Pete. She is becoming quite the daddy's girl!

Here's the crab.

I love the beach. It never gets old and the kids just entertain themselves all day long!

We buried Max, which he loved until Janie started pulling his hair.

We left and got cleaned up and headed to get something to eat and then back to the beach for the sunset. The kids were so tired and getting grouchy but we wanted to see the sun set one more time, its so beautiful!! So we played while we waited.

Max was so tired but we gave him the licorice bag and that seemed to help. I love that he is sitting on the squishy football for a seat.

We wrote our names :)

Lots of birds, mom you'll love it!

I wish I could catch the real beauty in the camera, it was so amazing!

Recent

2011-10-04T06:07:00.001-07:00

Janie LOVES her green drink!

Swinging at the park. We sure miss all the amazing parks in Cleveland!

Jack is going to take after his dad :)

So lately Janie has been giving me gruff about her bows! This is what she brought me the other day, flower in her mouth and band around her neck. I keep pushing it but it seem like she's without her bows more then with :(

We though it was funny that Jack brought this book home from the school library :)

Janie eats

2011-09-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

I know this one is random but loved these pictures of Janie eating. I swear all my kids are lazy eaters... love to be as comfortable as possible. The boys love to eat laying down in front of the t.v. and I let them. I try to choose my battles and that just isn't one of them. We do always eat dinner at the table with dad, but as for lunch and sometimes breakfast they win and get to eat in the living room.

I think these are when Janie was 7 months, gotta love those rolls!

If I knew how to crop Jack out I would have. It think it so funny because you can really see how much Janie looks like Max! So cute!

Also I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Max's belly. He's got this cute as can be round belly! Pete got this one when he noticed his belly hanging over the counter. This would be some good big belly jeans from his mama!

I'm back!

2011-09-15T17:55:00.001-07:00

Can't get enough of this sweet face! Look closely and you can see her two little teeth. Alright I'm going to get my bum in gear and try to keep up with my blogging. I need to get my bum in gear in other ways too. Gotta get this baby weight off... well is it still baby weight if baby is 8 months old? Either way I've got lots of bum to get in gear!! I figured I'd just start at where we are and slowly try to add the last 8 months in somewhere (wish me luck)! So here goes...

Jack started soccer and is liking it so far. These people are serious about soccer, not sure how serious Jack is since he's playing with the flag instead of listening to the coaches :)

Last weekend we headed out to lake Walburg. It looks beautiful but the water was murky and green when up close. It was fun but way to hot!! We started out on the paddle boats and by the time we made it back to the dock both Pete and I were ready to jump in that green water with the alligators! Yep that's right... ALLIGATORS! Too bad we didn't see any but we hear there are lots in their (probably staying low in the cool water). We will definitely be going back when the weather is not so stinkin hot!

Janie was hot too and ready to get out of there and get a much needed nap.

That night Pete and Jack went to the Gators game. Can't wait till I get to go... maybe next year when I feel better about leaving Janie with someone. They loved it... Go Gators!

They drove to the game on Pete's scooter. Jack was super excited to ride further then around the neighborhood and to wear Pete's helmet. Notice Max in the garage? He wasn't so happy he had to stay home with me and have a movie night... life if rough!

Alright this is where the pictures get all jumbled up. Sorry its obviously been a while since I've done this! Max started a preschool co-op with four other boys around his age. This was his first day and he was so excited to take his backpack. I had the boys today and a picture of the five of them is at the bottom of this post.

Jack started Kindergarten. He loves it. After the first week I decided he could ride the bus home and of course he loves that too. Both Janie and Max are asleep when he gets home so riding the bus saves their naps.

A picture of Jack's first day. He has to wear a uniform, polo and plain colored shorts or pants so not too bad.

We are enjoying the pool with this hot weather. We have a community pool, but we really like our friends as it has a zero entry so Janie and Max can play right by my feet.

Here's those five cute boys I was telling you about. That's all for now but I'll be back soon... I hope :)

Henry and Janie

2011-02-06T07:20:00.000-08:00

Hollie came over and we did a little photo shoot. Henry is 4 weeks older then Janie but looks like he could eat her! Janie was trying to wake up in the pictures so we got some pretty funny faces (grunts and tongue out). So Henry looks adorable in all and only a few cute of Janie. We are going to do this again for sure in a month and see how they've changed. Janie weights 8lbs 9oz. and Hollie thought Henry might be right around 12lbs. Cute little buddies, sad we only have a few more months together :(

Henry was DONE, and ready for a nap but had to snap a few since Hollie was actually dressed and ready for the day. I was not so no pictures of me :)

Janie's hospital stay :(

2011-02-03T20:03:00.000-08:00

Our sweet Janie ended up in the hospital for 7 days when she was almost two weeks old. When her cord was cut it always looked funny to me, not like the boy's cord, but couldn't tell anything with the stub still in. So her cord finally fell out on Saturday ( 9days old) and my mom and I thought her belly button just didn't look right. By Monday it was getting bigger and starting to look a little red around. Then Tuesday she was especially fussy and didn't sleep at all that night so Wednesday the red had spread and I decided I had better take her in just to get it checked. I figured it wasn't anything but wanted to make sure. So when we got to the doctor he looked at it and right away said you have to go to the hospital. I started crying and was so confused that it was actually very serious. The doctor thought it might be Omphalitis (and infection in her belly button). He said he hasn't seen it in like six years and got a second opinion, the other doctor thought the same and so we headed down to the hospital.

We were supposed to go to the ER and then get straight up to the Pediatric unit... but of course that didn't happen so we were in the sickly ER for a couple hours. Pete by the way was in the Dominican Republic doing dental work and at this time in the Jungle and we couldn't get a hold of him :( Thank heavens my mom was here! I called Justin Heaton to grab someone and come give Janie a blessing. We finally got up to the room and like 5 or so people came in at different times asking the story ( I wish they could all come in at the same time so I could just tell it once). I was super emotional and really having a hard time being there with my two week old baby! Finally (not sure what time... it is all a blurr) an intern came in said they wanted to do a spinal tap to see if the infection has gone to her brain. The thought of that of course brought lots more tears. So we headed down and she got blood drawn to see if the infection was in her blood, then an IV put in her foot where they drew her blood and then the spinal tap. The intern said she had done tons of spinal taps and it would be no problem, well when we got in there two other residents (this place is just like Greys Anatomy) were walking her through it, so obviously she hasn't' done tons. Janie was screaming and I was crying of course. Well they wanted to get 4o drops of spinal fluid but the first girl didn't get it so the other one tried and couldn't get even one drop so another one tried and couldn't get anything. I was so mad by this time and just wanted to cuddle poor Janie. They let us go, came in and drew a line around the redness so they could see if it was getting better. They were supposed to get her right on antibiotics but that took almost three more hours before they came in to get that going. She was hooked up to these cords which wouldn't stretch very far so we had to keep her in her bed or right by it to feed her and hold her. Plus they would keep falling off and the stupid beeper would go off and someone would have to come shut that off and fix it. It was so frustrating and about two days before we went home I actually took them off and no one said anything so I guess they weren't that important anyway.

Then we had to just wait to for 48 hours to see what the blood cultures were and if it had spread to her blood. She was on IV antibiotics every six hours. It didn't hurt her at first but by about Friday night it started hurting her as they would put it in because the IV had gone bad. Well Thursday evening her BB got really big and and started oozing before it actually popped and lots of puss came out. It freaked my mom and I out but the nurses said it was a good thing. They took a swab and it came back positive for staph. So Friday everyone was happy and thinking we could actually go home Saturday (her blood cultures came back negative, thank heavens). But then I think it was either Friday or Saturday afternoon her bb got big again and popped some more. Well this time they weren't so happy that it did it again so no going home for us. One night not sure which one they did an ultra sound on her at like two in the morning and it took the girl and hour and half to do it. We were so tired. It was getting annoying too that every time we'd get her calmed down and to sleep someone wanted to come in and check her out or poke around or something and wake her up.

By Sunday it was looking pretty good but they weren't thinking we'd be leaving soon so an IV doctor (resident) came to put a new IV in since her other was getting old and starting to make her foot puff up. So she tried three times and they all blew up, both her hands and her other foot. Can I say I was so sick of dumb people poking her who were learning and really didn't know what they were doing. I know its a learning hospital but come on, it my baby and she's only two weeks old! So that lady only saw one more good vein and wanted to save it in case they needed to do a pick line. Back to our room with poor sad Janie. Oh we got a hold of Pete Thursday evening and he got a plane to come back Friday night. It was so great to have him here as a support and I was glad he decided to come home early. Then he and my mom switched on and off watching boys and being with me and Jaine. So Monday morning things turned bad. She had to get another ultra sound (this one faster) to see if there were more pockets of the staph under her bb. So we hear there is one more and they want us to stay till Wednesday as the soonest we could leave. I so sick of being there, she was doing better and my mom was leaving Friday morning so I broke down again so upset! They had given her a shot Sunday that last for 24 hours since her IV wasn't in. I couldn't understand if she was doing so well why they wouldn't let us go home with oral antibiotics and check in with her doctor even everyday if they wanted. I know they were being cautious where she is so young and the last thing I wanted was to be right back there a few days after going home, but I was ready to LEAVE!!! So they were going to have the Pick line team come and put one in (poor thing, I was so sick of seeing her being poked and crying!) Then the ID doctor ( the real doctor called the attending) came and thought it looked so good, and everything changed. YAY!!! So they decided to forgo the the pick line and just do another shot on Monday night and then hopefully home Tuesday with oral antibiotics for eight more days. Things went smoothly and we even got everyone to kind of leave us alone and quit picking and poking her every hour so we could all get some rest.

Things were still good Tuesday morning so we got to come home that afternoon. Wow it felt good to come home after almost a week and I think Janie was happy about it too! The oral antibiotics made her tummy pretty upset and of course her sleeping was super messed up from being there so its been a tough eight more days but so much better then being at the hospital. She got off them Wednesday morning the 2nd and has been doing better now. Her bb looks great and the doctor said everything is good. Thank heavens it worked out so good for her and thank heavens for the priesthood, and great friends who hold the priesthood to help when Pete is gone. We are truly blessed to have amazing friends out here to help!

Not sure what day this was but it was looking so much better and the redness was gone around her bb.

Snuggle time with dad :)

Snuggle time with grandma :) In fact the only pictures we got of Janie and Grams while she was here. I'm telling ya this thing threw us though a loop!

I guess some of these are out of order because the picture up a bit looks better then these so this was probably like Friday maybe Saturday, still looking better then the first! Sorry for such a long post but I wanted to get the details in here before I start to forget them... if that's possible! So glad to have my Janie home and healthy!!

Janie True

2011-01-10T12:06:00.000-08:00

So I've been horrible at blogging, hoping that I'll be better now that I need to get some cute pictures up for all to see! So our sweet Janie True was born on the 6th at 4:43 pm. Everything went really really well and quite fast which was a real blessing for me! My mom got here on the 4th and I was hoping that Janie would have already come but she didn't. So Wednesday we headed out shopping to see if we could get me started. I had quite a few contractions but they started that evening around 7 at every 10 minutes apart. Then keep up and at 3am I got up to use the bathroom and they got stronger but stayed 10 minutes apart. At 7am when I got up they started coming about 5 minutes apart. YAY!! Oh and my was doing some really good labor zones on me which were KILLING me but really helped keep things going. We had a meeting with a realtor about selling our house so I stopped timing my contractions but they were still coming strong and within 5 to 10 minutes apart.

I took Pete to school after that and had a really really strong contraction and figured I probably shouldn't be driving. I got a phone call from the doctors office telling me I needed to come in that day or tomorrow and thought I had an apt that day at 11 anyway. So things were mixed up and I told them I was having contraction every 5 minutes so they said to head to the hospital. I asked them if I could just go in and get checked at the doctors office because my plan was just to labor at home as much as possible because going to the hospital make it hard to do what I want as they hook me up and all that jazz. So the nurse said yes... although she wasn't happy with me, but oh well. Slowly I got stuff going, found someone to watch Max and got Jack ready for school so we could drop him off after getting checked. So at about 11:30 I was checked and the doctor said I was a good 4 or 5 dilated and wanted me to get to the hospital. I still didn't want to go so we came home and my mom did another real good labor zone and rubbed down with some oils to get me going faster. The contractions were getting harder and we headed down to the hospital. We got there at about 1:30. Of course they strap me down and hook me up and the contractions get more uncomfortable as I'm sitting instead of walking. They checked me and said I was a 6 and an hour later the doctor came in and said I was a seven. Finally I got off the bed and on a ball, which was nice.

At 4:15 my water broke and then the contractions got really really bad. I figured I was going into transition because they were killing me and I was wanting to be done. I went to the bathroom and they called the doctor in, he checked me and said I was at an 8... WHATEVER, I was done and knew it! So in my mind I said nope I 'm done and I want to push and then I in a matter of seconds I had to push. The doctor probably didn't even get down the hall before they called him back in and said I was pushing. He checked me and said yep she's at a ten and ready. I couldn't move from being on my side and he didn't fix the bed he just said I could push when I needed. So that's what I did and she was born at 4:43. WOW did it feel so good to have her out! I'm so thankful it went so fast and was awesome to have Pete and my mom there. It was funny because Pete had a meeting at 5 and my mom said earlier that I would have her and all would be cleaned up by 5... which was pretty much true. I'm so thankful at how it all worked out and actually so glad my mom was here even though I had wanted Janie to come a lot earlier. She weighted 6 lbs 2 oz and 20 1/2 inches long.

We are all LOVING her. Max walks passed her says " hi baby!" Its so cute and Jack just loves her! We are hoping to do a cute photo shoot tomorrow so I will post those soon! Bring on the bows!!

More catch up!

2010-11-09T06:45:00.000-08:00

I'm thinking this was Jack's first day of school this year. Not sure why his nose looks like its running. The rest of these are the few things I managed to take pictures of this summer. Pretty lame of me but I was just too sick to catch all the fun we had!

Tall ships came to Cleveland. These were some beautiful ships. Jack loved them because they were "real" pirate ships.

For the 4th of July we had a breakfast and little parade with the ward. Sorry Jack's bike is so blurry (have I mentioned my camera sucks!!) He's got a napkin on his head for some reason? :)

Jack took swimming lessons this year and did really well! I think I only took my camera once so here's just a few.

These are the rest of Jack's soccer pictures. He LOVED it and Max wanted the ball the whole time. He LOVES balls, its so fun especially now because he says ball and usually adds basket, or bouncy or bouncy basket to the word ball. Its so funny to hear!

Gotta love the sweaty head!

Team picture, most are from our ward but a few weren't. Alison in our ward was Jacks coach. It was so much fun!

Max would always eat with his hands full, then need a drink so try to pick it all up. Thought this was so funny, he doesn't do that anymore :( Its crazy how fast they change!

Jack's last day of school in June. This is one of his teachers Mrs. Blados (she had a baby so she's not his teacher this year).

This is Mrs. Futchi, and she is still his teacher this year. Jack LOVES school and I'm so glad he likes it and wants to go everyday.

Huh, well I guess this is some catch up!

2010-11-09T06:21:00.001-08:00

Our sweet friends moved to Columbus so we headed down to go to the temple and let the kids play with the Rynearsons. Maddie and Bella are Jacks age and he ADORES them! They also have a little boy Nathan who is about a month younger then Max. Jack has so much fun playing with them that the next night he was saying his prayers and said, " Bless Maddie and Bella to be good so we can play in heaven together, because I love them so much even more then mom and dad." Then looked at Pete like oops. He asked Pete if that made him sad and Pete said yes but Jack said sorry I just really love them! So cute.

Our little Max is so funny and so much fun. He's always been my little ray of sunshine. This blue shirt was my baby brother Craig's shirt (who Jack is named after) Max is just a little older then Craig was when he died so its special to see him in this shirt. I love it but am so scared he's going to get it dirty and ruin it.

Max has started to LOVE books and will just sit down and look at one for quite a while. We found him after a bath one night sitting on this stool looking at a book. He also loves to look at the camera, smile and say cheese.

Max's first Indians game. He liked it but really liked that we had licorice for him to eat. There were fireworks after the game. They are awesome, better then the 4th of July. Both Max and Jack loved those.

Jack was more interested in sitting with friends and eating snacks. Sad to think this was probably our last Indians game. Its sad to think that this is the year of lasts for us in Ohio. We love it here and LOVE the beauty, however I'm pretty sure Florida will be just as much fun if not more! So for those of you who don't know we are heading to Florida this next summer for two more years of school, then into the real world of paying off a bum load of loans.

Recent happenings

2010-05-31T18:21:00.001-07:00

We went to the Memorial Day parade. Max was so tired and we couldn't tell if he liked the parade or not, this was his face the whole time...except when Anderson came to sit next to him. Max seemed pretty happy A was next to him for a few minutes. Not so sure Anderson was happy about Max picking on him! We thought the parade started at ten but realized soon that it didn't start till eleven. We had walked so we just chilled on our friends lawn for a hour while we waited. It was so so hot and humid but I guess a nice day for a parade. Jack made the haul with candy which I ate my fair share of.

Some of the group.

Some more of the group. Notice Jack picking a wedgie? I guess it s time to get him some bigger undies! Poor boy was having trouble all day!

Oh man this is sweet Eli! Look at those cheeks, this kid is irresistible!!!

Okay so I love these pictures cause both their hats turned while riding in the stroller and in both these pictures they have the same faces on as each other. Cute boys!

Jack started soccer. It was so much fun to watch, you couldn't wipe the smile off my face while watching these cute kids play. So funny!! Pete was golfing so he missed the first day. Max was good and sat in his stroller for quite a while before I let him out to wander. Jack did so good, although it was seriously 85 degrees at 9 in the morning plus super humid! They worked on skills first then got to play the orange team. The orange team called themselves the tigers so Ali (jacks coach) asked them if they wanted to be called something. One boy suggested the dragons. Jack was super excited about that and was ready to throw fire balls. A few years ago Jack was a dragon for Halloween and Pete taught him how to throw fire balls while he was a dragon. So I was laughing so hard watching Jack run around throwing fire balls at the other team instead of trying to play soccer. Anyway it was cute! Now we have to make sure we take our video camera next week to try to catch that. It really is so so funny to watch these little kids play when they have really no idea how to play. Love it! In this one below he is starting to throw them.

Just thought this was cute.

One Saturday Pete needed to mow the lawn. Max LOVES being outside and screams to go outside. So Pete put him in the swing and I just thought it was cute to see him out there totally content to just sit and watch.

We are taking a finance class and while there one week Max had a blow out and the friend watching him didn't tell me she just changed him but the clothes she had clean and able to get to quick were the reds and pinks in the dryer. So Max's first time in pink. I thought he looked pretty adorable!! Someday we'll have pink around our house... I hope!!

Just had to throw this in. Our favorite pizza place out here called Dewey's sells their dough. So I got some dough one night and make our own Dewey's pizza. It was HEAVEN!! Seriously the dough makes all the difference! If you are out this way you HAVE to eat at Dewey's

Max was super excited Jack left his breakfast unattended so he could get some!

Trying to climb the couch so he could get the big exercise ball back there.

Sorry about this scary picture of Jack. I couldn't see in the small picture all the food in his teeth. Pete went to a wrestling thing back in April and Jack got to go for a couple hours . He loved it and they both had a good time. This really made Pete miss his dad. They used to go to lots of wrestling tournaments together so Pete was really wanting to share this with him too. That's okay though there will be plenty more to come.

Jack had a field trip to the Lake Farm Park this year. I got to go and it was a lot of fun. He got to see lots of farm animal and even milk a cow. This above picture is funny if you can see whats going on. This lamb came right up to Max and was licking the stroller right by his face. Max was not impressed that the lamb was so close.

Max had a fever a few months ago (it was an ear infection) and I couldn't resist taking this cute picture of him. I felt so bad, he was miserable. Love the huge belly, sometimes I really think its so big and tight that it might pop!

Easter

2010-04-05T07:01:00.001-07:00

Jack got lucky this year and had three Easter egg hunts! This was just on Saturday at the church. He is in the very front in the blue shirt. I'm telling ya he's got some brains! He ran around the church to where no one was and got all the eggs there, while most just ran to the grass and started fighting for it. No one told him to do it! :)

Just some fun ones of Max. Jack was too busy running all over the place playing to really take any of him.

This is Nathan, he is a month younger then Max and twice his size! They are the red head twins! However I wish Max would have gotten the cute curl that Nathan did, he should have since my hair is so curly right?!

Max just got the ball taken away from him and he's not so happy :)

Now these next ones are out of order but we have some friends that live a few houses down from us and invited us to go to her parents house for an Easter egg hunt and BBQ. The parents live in Hinckly Ohio and is it so so so beautiful. I can only imagine what it looks like for the three PRETTY seasons here. They live on like 7 acres and the family next to them even has a pond. What fun it would be to grow up here or even have a grandma and pa to visit! I think we are going to adopt the grandparents so we can have some fun this summer!

Max was so great! He only had one short nap and played happily all day way past his bedtime. When we left it was dark and Max was out even before we got out of the driveway.

They colored Easter Eggs

Played in the pond, (well not in the pond)

and fed the fish.

Beautiful huh?! And the trees are still ugly from winter. When we go back I'll take some pictures of what this place can really look like!

This is Phil, Jessica's dad and host of the EE hunt. He was the Easter bunny (probably makes a good Santa too!) The sun was right in their eyes, Jack was trying so hard to keep his open!

Max even got one egg. He shook it and shook it and shook it. Nice when he's so content! Jack made a haul there! He filled up his basket and another bag full.

This is us and our friends John and Jessica. They have a four year old Anna, who Jack just loves, and an almost two year old Christopher. Super great family, we love to get together with them!!

Jacks first Easter egg hunt. He also made the haul here! It was just at a park the Pete took the boys too while I was home zoning. This got Jack really excited for all the Easter festivities!

It really has warmed up here in the last three weeks. This weekend it was in the 80's but a couple weeks ago when they went to this one it was probably in he high 40's. I'm so happy we have had nice weather and sun! It helps me enjoy Cleveland a little more!

When I had Max there were five girls that all had their babies with in a month of each other. Our great friends Scott and Katie had us all get together one night to celebrate these babies turning one. Theirs (Nathan) is the youngest and the biggest. Max is the oldest then our friend Meghan had Tyke (they moved away:( he was born on Max's original due date) then came Carlyn (the only girl), Jake was next (his parents are Kat and Jacob) and then Nathan. So the four of us got together (missed you guys Meghan) and celebrated. So fun, aren't these cupcakes so cute!!

Jake, Max, Nathan, and Carlyn.

Oh they are so cute!!

Prayers

2010-03-27T07:05:00.001-07:00

We've been working on prayers with Jack. He likes to say them but usually its a quick " thank you for everybody and everything and please bless everybody and everything" you get the picture right? So we've been asking him to try to think of things he is thankful for and name them in specific. The other night he was saying his prayers before bed and this was it...

"Dear Heavenly Father thank you for mom, Max and me. I'm thankful for our house and all the stuff in our house, but if we didn't have a house we wouldn't have anything to be thankful for. Thank you for the bushes to hide in. Thank you for mom, Max, me and dad. In the name of Jesus Christ amen."

It was hard not to laugh right in the middle and I came right down to tell Pete. He's really been getting creative in what he is thankful for. He use to just say please bless everything so we've worked on saying thank you for and now he never asks for blessing. Anyway I thought it was pretty funny and wanted to record it before I forget.

As far as Max goes he's doing great and super close to walking. He is so happy and unless he is tired or hungry he pretty much just does his own thing and is really happy. He can climb up the stairs and go down them by himself and is usually laughing the whole time. He gets into everything and somehow it doesn't bother me... for now anyway. He is still my little ray of Sunshine here in cloudy Cleveland.

Max turns 1

2010-03-07T06:21:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Max is one! Where did a year go? Although it is so fun to see him growing and his personality come out I sure miss the sweet tiny baby stage! One good thing is he is now a snuggler where as when he was a baby he didn't like to snuggle at all. Max turned 1 on the 26th of February and boy was that a crazy day in my life. So much pain and then the most amount of Joy I think I have ever had. Having a baby is AMAZING!! So we just hung out here and had a little party with just us for Max. He liked the paper after Jack opened all the gifts. In fact Jack was way more excited about the gifts then Max, he just liked the shinny Christmas wrapping paper! Thanks moms and dads, grandma and pa's, and aunts and uncles for the gifts! He got a glowworm, tub toys and carrier for them, a shopping cart cover (yea) a new outfit, some money, cute shoes, thats all I can think of right now. After presents we did the cake. So I wasn't planning on having a cake for him first because it would be his first time with sugar (only nice thing about being far from my dad :)!) and second because he's not really into textures and I figured he wouldn't like it anyway. Well I ended up making some cupcakes to try out a recipe that I have to make for the Relief Society dinner this week and decided he could have one just for pictures sake. I was surprised to see he loved it! Bummer!

Jack blew out the candle but Max really wanted to touch it :) Oh and yes Jack got a haircut, I promise I didn't cut it crooked, he's just got this messed up cowlick that I haven't figured out yet, so we'll keep working on that. Probably buzz it next time!

Jack helping however I must have got the picture on my phone of him actually picking it up and shoving it into his face. So cute but I was having a heart attack wanting to take it away from him!

I think he liked the sprinkles but they were probably to hard for him to eat.

So he didn't eat all the cupcake, in fact I took it and ate most of it just so he couldn't, but he did really like what he was able to get his mouth on!

A few things I want to write just so I don't forget. He got is first two teeth on the 27th of January, his bottom two both at the same time while grandma was here. He is standing by himself with good balance but no steps by himself yet. He follows us all over the house and can now climb up the stairs and does a pretty good job coming down them. He LOVES Pete!! If Pete is in the house Max is either in his arms or at his feet whining for him to pick him up. He got his first cold on the 25th (night before his birthday) Yea for making it almost a year super healthy. I guess me being a germ freak payed off... right? Oh man is he sweet and has the sweetest voice. He loves to clap and can sign please, more, and milk. We are working on thank you and please is really still in the process. If we do more signs he'll have learned more then Jack :) He loves to bounce in his bouncer and gets pretty crazy doing it. He loves dancing (bouncing to the music) and has the biggest smiles ever! He has some pretty grouchy faces too. I got my first kiss just yesterday, he's not fond of kissing anything but stuffed animals and they get it all. He clicks his tongue, has a love/hate relationship with his bath, has the softest skin I have ever felt, is a great sleeper and great eater and seriously has the yummiest floppy ears ever. Oh and I LOVE his red hair!! He is such a joy and I call him "my little ray of sunshine" (in case you didn't know we don't see the sun often in Cleveland) because he really brightens my day everyday! I LOVE you Max!!

I was putting Max to bed one morning after the boys had just had a bath and I told Jack to get dressed and then quietly go downstairs and watch TV while I got Max to sleep. I came down to him dressed like this and started laughing. He said he couldn't reach is shirts hanging up and was kinda cold (maybe some pants would have helped) and hoped he could wear it all day. I said sure and he really did wear it most of the day.

We decided to go to an indoor water park for Pete's spring break. We loved it and really needed a break from the house just to enjoy doing something fun. The boys loved it and so did we, however we were so tired that Pete and I fell asleep at 9 that night and were almost to pooped to keep going the next day. Jack had so much energy and could have lasted probably 2 more days. Jack is pretty much fearless and LOVES the water!

Max got stuck in between the bed and night stand, he wasn't very happy about it and even more mad when I grabbed the camera instead of rescuing him. He was heading for the alarm clock.

He's got some long hair so we decided to have some fun with a mow-hawk (for you uncle Rob)!

Max also LOVED the water however he was as exhausted as Pete and I were when we were all done.

Max has the best chubby belly ever! I couldn't really get a good picture of it but believe me he's got a good one.

Jackson and his friend Jack were dressing up. Love their serious faces, they were trying to be so tough :)

Max got his first haircut the first part of February and needs another one now. He didn't like it so much but the mullet had to go.

This is the before...

and the after, not to bad right?

The Dominican Republic

2010-02-13T17:53:00.000-08:00

These pictures ended up at the first, so Pete's trip is next. A last few pictures of my mom and the boys before we took her to the airport :( Miss ya mom! Come back soon... I'm thinking mothers day and if you want to bring Lisa and Indiya thats great too :)!!! Don't I have the cutest boys ever!! I'm one lucky mommy!

Okay so I'm going to let Pete take it from here, you're gonna wish you could have been in the

D. R. after you see these pictures!

These couple of pics are at Punta Cana a resort town on the east side of the island. This is our last morning there so I thought I'd better get up for the sun rise. pretty amazing!

Our resort was right on this beach. It was really rice. There was plenty of space to relax on the beach, play some volleyball, or shop at one of the little souvenir shops right on the beach. The resort was all inclusive so I took advantage of all the virgin strawberry daiquiris and pina colladas (?) that my body could handle.

Another view of the beautiful beach.

This was the path from the front office to the villa we stayed at.

This is the inner court of the villa. There were 12 villas I believe.

This is an LDS church we worked at for the 4th and 5th days. The church was really beautiful. We actually worked in the chapel which was also the cultural hall. The members were very organized, which made things run much smoother than at the schools we worked at. They wrote down the name, telephone number, and address of all the people who came so they could go and visit with them and share the gospel. They used this as a missionary opportunity. They had church videos playing in the relief society room where everyone was waiting.

This is future missionary. I can't recall his name. We were able to help fill out part of his mission papers by completing his dental work. I did about 14 filling on him. It was pretty cool.

This lady had a broken down tooth that we "built up". She was really happy. And thanks to JC and Haylee for the light.

These are some Dominican children at school. We worked at the school. They all wanted us to take their picture and they immediately wanted to see what the picture looked like.

This was the view from our hotel in Santo Domingo.

This is pretty typical of the housing where we worked in the city.

Below is a group of us on day one. From left to right: Dan Yates, me, Spencer B., Clayton Carpenter (front), Ryan Jones, and Courtney Johnson.

January's happenings!

2010-01-29T18:20:00.000-08:00

So Jack turned 4 on the 16th, and celebrated with a Pirate party. Pete left for the Dominican Republic on the 15th and my mom came on the 14th, so we went to pizza at Deweys that night and opened presents before Pete left the next day. I cant find Jack pictures of that night but he got lots of goods, including nerf guns, camera, a game, a Leapster, Pete made him a book shelf, and other great stuff!! Then on his birthday my mom took him shopping and got him a couple games for the Leapster (from g and g Mecham). Pete was gone for 10 days and it was so great to have my mom here to keep me company. We had a blast! Then she stayed for a whole extra week and just left today. Its so hard when she leaves but she gets to come pretty often which is SO SO great!! Here is the Pirate party... it was pretty much chaos, but Jack loved it so that's what matters most! My mom went a little/a lot overboard to make it a great party, thanks so much mom I know Jack LOVED it!! So he had the party on the 23rd. We tried to play games but none of them worked so went to presents and then cake. Then they broke the pinata which was a hit!! I only put a few pictures up cause there were a lot and I'm tired of waiting to download. After that they went on a treasure hunt to find a chest full of loot bags. Then it was time to go! We were pooped!! I'm probably going to be like my mom was with us and just do parties every 4 years cause its a lot of work and can we just say how spoiled Jack was!! He doesn't need that every year... right?!!

Oh and they were supposed to come dressed like a pirate, so they were super cute!!

The pinata fell on the floor so a few took hits to it on the ground, love this one of Jack Heaton. He really got into it. Then we were able to get it hung back up for a few more hits. I finally broke it and the kids dove for the goods.

What a cute pirate!! His friend Finn was talking to me while I was putting a tattoo on Jack and Finn asked where Jack was. He totally didn't recognize Jack with the hat and wig. So cute!

Cute Pirate cake, but during the night it split right down the middle, oh well!

We also took cupcakes (muffcakes is what Jack calls them) into his preschool class. He loved that!

Oh my sweet Max! Cant believe he is 11 months. WOW is all I can say. He is amazing, so sweet and so stinkin cute! His hair is growing (kinda a mullet) and red red red, I LOVE IT!! He sleep like a dream and is almost always happy!! He was great with my mom, it took a couple days to really warm up to her. He is pretty much a daddy's boy. If Pete is around he wants to be with him, kinda sounds like Jack... where's my mama's boys? Oh Pete loves it!! Big news for Max... he broke is first two teeth on the 27th. The only day he was grouchy and I thought maybe he is finally teething and my mom stuck her finger in his mouth and was like " He's got two teeth!" Funny huh! At least he broke them both at the same time, he's a late bloomer with the teeth but that's okay I love that gummy smile!

My mom seeing if it was a good time for a photo shoot, and obviously Jack had other plans. We didn't get very many great ones but that's okay I'm just glad we got what we did. She bought them matching red sweaters and they look so cute in them even with Max's red hair. I was skeptical about the red but thinks its pretty cute.

I wanted to show that Max's hair can be curly, but really just when its wet. He LOVES his bath... of course most kids do. Here's some of the funny faces of Max.

Oh Jack got these super cute jammies from grandma for his birthday too.

Some sweet ones with gram.

Some crazy hair he has!! I probably should put my haircutting skills to work on him, but I cant bring myself to cut it! I know when I do I'll wonder why I didn't do it sooner, but until then I'll just love the craziness!

Christmas n' stuff...

2010-01-01T17:10:00.000-08:00

Found Max here whining. It looks like he is happy but he sure wasn't and was even more ticked off when I left him there to get the camera. He was sure stuck... so funny!

Had to take a picture of this crazy hair he woke up with!!

The boys lounging watching a movie.

A friend of mine started a Christmas tradition to get a set of Christmas dishes every year. She now has four or five I think and they are all different but all Christmas. I loved the idea so we started this year and this is ours for the first year. Its great when you can get them after Christmas 50% off, plus a little Christmas money to pay for them! :)

So of course these all go backwards, but thats to be expected with me. Jack got lots of dress up clothes, so here he is as a motocross guy showing his muscles.

A transformer.

Oh shoot, this one is sideways... darn! Lisa made he and Max these cute superhero capes. Jack is a batman on one side and superman on the other. Max is Mr. Incredible and batman.

Jack's loot... boy did he make out!! Thanks to great families!!

Okay so I took quite a few pictures and Jacks face in ALL of them looked even worse then this one, not sure whats up :) Santa didn't bring much but he did get his movie UP.

Gotta love that chubby belly:)

Santa's gifts.

Gifts from families, thanks again everyone!!! The tree is looking sad after Max playing with it for a few weeks. He left it alone for a couple but then found if it was quite fun to play with.

Christmas eve we went to some friends and had such a fun time. Stacey read the night before Christmas and gave the boys reindeer food to put on the porch for the reindeer to eat. This was the mess left behind. :) Such a cute idea!

Decorating cookies for Santa.

Jack Heaton and Will Mortensen.

Little cuties!

The group. A lady from our ward came and had dinner and shared most of the night with us. She is so sweet. The boys opened pajamas and Myrtle got some too. It was a lot of fun to share the night with her too.

Kara and her sweet baby Eli. Oh I could kiss those cheeks off!

So cute all on the couch watching the Polar Express.

Doesn't the table look so great!

For my birthday Pete and Jack made me a candy poster ( well on the table). It was so cute and sweet of them! Thanks for a great birthday boys! Pete made dinner, a couple girls took me to lunch, and a few days earlier some friends took me to breakfast. I have the best friends out here... what would I do without them?! I really couldn't survive being here without them!! Thanks so much!! Pete and I also got to go to a movie while the kids snoozed in bed. Terrie (neighbor and friend) came and hung out while we went. It was great! Thanks mom, dad, mom and dad Mecham, and family for all the awesome birthday stuff. I have the best family and the BEST husband EVER!! Oh and the best boys ever... LOVE THEM!

A few missed from Santa's boot camp

2009-12-22T11:18:00.000-08:00

So I forgot to put on a picture of the kids watching the movie, nice we could get 22 kids to watch and stay put for a few minutes at least!

Accidently deleted Jeremy Buckners picture so here's his cookies :)

Can't forget my sweet Max!!

Santa's Boot Camp!

2009-12-22T09:50:00.000-08:00

So Pete and I decided we wanted to do a "Santa's boot camp". My sister's sister-in-law does one with her nieces and nephews every year on the 23rd of December and we thought it would be fun to try our own out. We invited the kids that were still here for the holiday's from our ward. We had quite the turn out...22 kids!! WOW it was crazy but lots of fun! We also learned as you do the first time you try something that we need to make some changes for next year if we are celebrating Christmas here next year too. All in all I think it was fun and I hope the kids enjoyed it! We taught the kids how to catch Santa and also got to decorate some sugar cookies for Santa, although I'm sure they won't make it until Christmas eve. We though it would take about 2 hours to do the obstacle course and decorate the cookies. It actually only took an hour so for the other hour the kids watched a movie. All the kids were good, we only had a few time outs :) Here's the bunch... I got most the kids pictures with their cookies however Jack Heaton didn't want to decorate and was more interested in the Santa course! I know of a few more I missed, sorry parents of who I missed! Sorry no pictures of the course, I had to man the kitchen while Pete did the course. Enjoy the pictures!!!

Before the MESS happened! We were prepared though!! :) Don't mind the Halloween table cloth, don't have a Christmas one :)

For my mom, I'll put everyone's name down! Aiden Holman

Tommy Holman

Emma Day

Jackson

Megan Buckner

Jaxson Day

Trevor Collette

Mia Croshaw

Jackson Croshaw

Finn Shculler

Molly Yonker

Annie Call

Lucy Schuller

Nathaniel Jensen

Charlee Yonker

Dillon Yonker

Samuel Jeppson

Ashlyn and Corbin Collette

The younger group guess I missed Jacob Huxel (bottom right in camo shirt).

Doing the "boot camp" part... push ups. Tell ya what kids are funny trying to do push ups and sit ups!!

Candy bar Christmas game

2009-12-20T14:12:00.000-08:00

We had a fun Christmas party with a few friends and played a pretty fun game! So to play this game you need some candy bars wrapped in newspaper a few times and taped really good. A bag of shredded paper, dice, a hat, gloves, and a scarf. You will also need a really good vacuum cleaner. In a circle you put the bag with candy bars inside. Each person tries to roll doubles. First person to roll doubles puts on gloves, hat, and scarf and tries to find candy bar and starts to unwrap. Then if someone rolls a double the person trying to get to the candy bar drops everything and the next person puts on all the stuff and starts until someone else rolls a double. If you get the candy bar unwrapped you get to keep it. Oh man this was fun and messy too! I highly recommend it!! Stacey and Scott made the haul with two each, and I got one too! Although everyone thinks I cheated to get mine, but if you know me I never cheat!! Here's Kara's try at it. I got a picture of everyone but me and Adam... sorry Adam!

Pete's try... poor guy only got a couple tries, not very lucky in rolling doubles! :)

Justin got a few turns.

Scott's the king of rolling doubles, and works quite well with gloves on :)

I vote Hollie cutest in that hat! :)

I vote Stacey "scariest" in this hat!! ha ha J/K I do LOVE this face! You can tell she's having fun!

Here's where it gets messy!

Jack, Jack and Will having fun with the shreds of paper!

Stacey's loot!

Scott's prize's

Okay so we also did a white elephant game. I got my camera out a little late cause boy was it a funny one!!! Adam got ours slippers made of pads...

but I guess Justin wanted them more, and he ended up with them. I don't think any of us will forget these white elephant gifts. Hollie and Adam have quite the sense of humor however I'm not going to share that story, its one that will just have to stay with us :) Such a fun night, thanks friends for being so great!! We are so lucky to have such great friends out here to keep our minds off missing home and family! Love you all!

Christmas Happenings

2009-12-20T13:07:00.000-08:00

Jack and I's try on a gingerbread house. It does taste pretty yummy and is almost all eaten by now. Jack hasn't had any and wonders who keeps eating it. We just say Santa's elves must be sneaking in to taste it :)

My pictures are all out of order but I'll try to explain. On the 14th we went to Lake Farmpark for their Christmas lights show. We went on a sleigh ride through the park of lights. Jack and Max LOVED it! Then we got to make a toy with Santa's elves... Jack picked a pirate ship of course! He helped build it and then painted it. I'm not sure its even dry yet because he used probably a gallon of paint!! Then we got to see Santa and the boys sat on his lap. Jack loves Santa and gave him a big long list of things he wanted. Max was looking worried but did okay with me smiling at him the whole time.

Here's his pirate ship!

Building his pirate ship with the elf, boy did he LOVE using the hammer and drill!

Sorry the pictures are blurry (camera sucks!) Here Jack is waiting in line to make his toy.

So much going on Max was loving it and checking out all he could.

An UGLY Christmas sweater party! I don't have a picture of the whole group but it was pretty funny! Hollie and Adam had this fun party and I'm thinking this needs to be a tradition (even though we only have one more Christmas left together with our fun Ohio friends). Oh man were there some UGLY sweaters... LOVE IT! Here's Adam and Hollie.

Justin and Stacey's whole family dressed for the party!!

Matt and Taylor Hall. My vote for ugliest sweater was either Adam or Matt. So funny!

Here's ours. My mom and dad's old sweaters. Well dad might still wear his :) Thanks for sending them out mom! What a great party with fun friends!!

Last Chance

2009-11-29T19:05:00.000-08:00

I'm planning on making our blog private next weekend so anyone wanting to view our blog you'd better get me your e-mail address so I can get ya in! The comments go to my e-mail so I wont share your e-mail address with anyone else.

Also I'm starting an Etsy shop so make sure to check that out. I'm just getting started and don't have a computer very often, so hopefully this weekend I'll have the pictures taken and it up and running soon.

The latest

2009-11-28T18:29:00.000-08:00

On Sunday the 25th of October Pete left for a missionary meeting and took Jack with him so I could take a nap with Max. On his way home he called and said that they had stopped by a little old lady's house to help her rack her leaves and decided to invite her to dinner. He called to make sure that was okay. I was a little upset because I wasn't really doing dinner that night and just didn't want to. He said they were on their way so I decided I'd better clean up and figure something out for dinner (and felt really bad after being rude about having someone over). I heard them come home, I was in the kitchen and then the door opened and I turned to say hi and saw my mom standing there!!! Talk about a shocker!! I was so excited and happy to see her and cant tell her enough how much I loved to have her here! She came for ten fun days that weren't expected and we had so much fun! Come surprise me anytime mom!! Well I'll take just about anyone, even little old ladies Pete decides to pick up. :) So While she was here we got some pictures taken and I loved so many of them, so thanks so much mom, I really wanted some family pictures!

I couldn't really see and didn't end up picking the best pictures... sorry mom your eyes are closed in one below and Jacks in this one.

We took her to Sulfur Springs and let Jack play in the water for a few minutes.

On the way to sulfur springs there is a Jackson field and a Jackson road so we decided we needed a picture for Jack

Max chilling in the swing waiting for pictures.

Love this one of Max's tongue!

Gotta love Max's floppy ears! I just want to suck them off! Such a handsome boy!

My Boys.

So I guess I haven't blogged about Jack starting school yet, but he did in September. He LOVES it and I really do too! He got to dress up for community helper day, and went as a fireman (along with most all kids in his class). Mrs. Futchi on the left and Mrs. Blados on right. Doesn't Jack make the cutest fireman ever?!

Finn is in Jacks class. The teachers say they act just like brothers... fight like brothers and yet choose to play with each other all day at school.

Max was seriously the cutest pumpkin ever!! Oh I can just squeeze this babe!

Jack was " Jacks Farrow" for Halloween, that's what he called himself, which cracked me up every time he said it. I didn't bother correcting him cause I loved to hear it that way.

Jacks preschool has lots of Jewish kids so they don't celebrate Halloween, but they had been learning about community helpers so they could dress up as one of those instead.

Random from 2 months!

2009-10-25T13:06:00.000-07:00

Okay so I've been awful at blogging for quite some time. I blame it mostly on not having a computer very often to get it done and also just being lazy when I do have time. So sorry but I'll get to it. We are also going private and so for those of you out there who want to still view my (hardly never updated) blog leave my your e-mail address and I'll get around to getting my blog private. The comments are sent to my e-mail so I won't show anyone your info.

Well it seems like we have just been really busy with everyday normal stuff. Jack stared pre-school and loves it, Max is growing and man oh man do I ever adore him! I will just put some of my favorites up and try not to make this a "you've missed two months" blog entry. However good luck to me with that! Rob came to visit but was way to short of a visit! He bought a 4 runner out here, so we picked it up and they he flew out here to pick it up and drive home. I'd hoped sometime out here that Pete would get to go to an Ohio State football game. I didn't really want to go because I don't care so much and the tickets were pretty expensive so I asked my RICH brother if he would want to go with him. We surprised Pete the night before with the tickets and a sweatshirt and hat. He was so excited and had a great time. Ohio even won Wisconsin ( however I can't remember the final score now) Go Buckeyes!! We visited the Amish community out here and had fun taking all the pictures of the Amish. What wired tourist we are!! Saw some beautiful trees changing color, which now are all almost done changing and falling off! I love the fall out here, it is beautiful!! So we had some fun couple of days and off he took back to Utah with his nice car, he didn't want to trade and just take our ( wonder why?) Oh and friend made the cute bear beanie for Max, isn't it so cute?!! Love my crazy boys. Excuse Jacks goofy faces in these pictures, he must take after his uncle Rob!! :)

Wow, lots to catch up on!!

2009-08-23T17:08:00.000-07:00

Well we had so much fun in Idaho this summer, and took a lot of great pictures! The problem is I didn't take any with my camera but my mom and Lisa did so we have lots with my family and not any with Pete's. Dad Mecham will just have to update his blog! :)

Love this one of Hallie!

Okay LOVE this one of Ky's face!! We had a few of these, he really was trying to squeeze gramie's face off!

Sweet kids!

My dad's birthday was the 26th of July. We celebrated and Hallie made my dad a cute card she was SO excited to give him and so proud of herself!!

Rob with the babies.

All of us at Craig's grave. His birthday was same as my dad's. He'd be 21 and probably just getting back from his mission. Wow I can't believe it!

More photo shoots. I think the ones that turned out best are the ones at the first when they weren't all dressed up and posing.

So sweet!

We took the kids swimming one night. Max and Indiya loved it.

Jack and Hallie took swimming lessons so this is us hanging out watching them. Ky was sad not to be in lessons but he made out with some pretty good treats anyway.

My poor little white child, who do you think he gets that from? :)

Another photo shoot. I couldn't see the pictures I was picking very good so I of course picked some bad ones and cant figure out how to get them off.

A visit with Grandma and Grandpa Strupp. I'll have to find some with my Grandma and Grandpa Thornton and also with Grandpa Hayes (who Max is named after).

The kids loved Grandpa's back yard and garden. He sure has a beautiful yard!!

The Amish

2009-06-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to an Amish community in Millersberg OH. It was so much fun and I know my parents and Pete's would just LOVE it. We were talking the whole way there about how beautiful the country was with rolling hills and little buggy's and all the Amish farms and how Pete's dad would be making us drive really slow so he could get pictures of all the farms and silo!! :) They have this zoo type thing where you can ride on a wagon and this Amish guy takes you through this little tour of a safari/zoo. It was so fun and Jack loved it. Then there was a petting zoo and Jack couldn't get enough. We will be going back for sure! They have a website called rollingriverranch. com Anyways if you're out this way you must check it out, so much fun!!

These are those Texas longhorns. They were huge!! Jack was hugging one while it was eating some feed on the bottom of the wagon. Almost all the animals came up to eat, it was fun. We all had buckets of feed to let the animals eat.

This was Max almost the whole time, just snoozing on my lap, what a perfect babe!!

Jack making friends. He would keep asking her for more of her feed so he could have more then her. I think she was getting pretty annoyed, at least I was!

A Zonkie!! Guess what two animals made this?? Ha Ha funny huh! They had lots of funny animals. Half buffalo and half Angus cow.

The Lama's were my favorite. They had just gotten a hair cut but the tops of their heads were left with the hair. They were all different and we only got this one good picture. One had one eye covered and one had a big poof standing straight up. Anyway get the idea it was pretty cute.

Max's blessing and more!

2009-06-07T17:07:00.000-07:00

We blessed Max on May 24, 2009. It was such a great day. My mom, dad and Lisa were here. It was so great to have family here and great to have my dad stand in the circle. Afterwards we went to Kirtland and took some pictures. Jack was being quite the bum and so we didn't get many pictures well many good ones anyway. I still haven't looked through them all to see if we got a good one of all of us. Jack was blessed in Pete's blessing outfit but because we blessed Max so old he wouldn't have fit into it. My mom bought him this one and it was so cute but I never tried it on him before the day. It was a 3-6 month outfit so I was sure it should work. Well we put it on him and he looked like a fat guy in a little coat!! Funny but still so cute! We just love our Max!

His floppy ears are so hard not to suck on!! I'm sure Rob will have lots of fun flipping them when he comes to visit.

Picked a bad one with my eyes closed, oh well. Look at that chubby Indiya!! Love her!

Max likes to stick out his tongue lots, what a cutie!

Pete and my dad worked on lots of projects while they were here. Jack was their supervisor.

Sweet cousins only four days apart in age. Indiya we think is taller but Max more filled out. It was sweet seeing them together. Usually holding hands or Indiya would even flip Max's ears. We will have lots of fun this summer when we go home to visit!!

Jack loving on Inny lou, however he looks like he'd been crying :(

We went to an Indians game.

Jack wouldn't cooperate to take a picture so its just us.

It was so windy walking in but when we got into our seats it was nice and warm!

Indiya and Max enjoying some tummy time.

Then Indi got tired and gave up.

What cuties!! Can't wait to get them together again soon!! Thanks mom, dad, Lisa, and Indiya for coming to see us and thanks Derrick for watching the kids so Lisa could come out. My mom did this for our mothers day present and I'm thinking it needs to become tradition at least one more year!! :) Mom thanks so much, it was really the best mothers day gift to get to see you, dad, Lisa and Indiya!! It means so much for you to come see me and now I cant wait to see all the family and the Mecham side this summer.

Fun with Family!

2009-05-28T11:38:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd add a few pictures however a lot more of my fun vacation with my family and all that's been happening will come soon!

Max was given this snuggly bear and he loves it. He hangs on to it and tries to eat it. Its pretty sweet!

Indiya and me the day they all left, what a sweetie!!

The sweet babes sleeping on our walk around the neighborhood.

Max snuggling with grandpa.

He has taken a few long naps this is one. As long as the binky is stuck and wont come out he does great!

Having fun on the swings.

We got to watch our friends girls, Shealee and Paige. They are so sweet and Jack gets along with them so good. The bad news is they moved about two days later to sunny Arizona. We will miss you Arnows!!

Update

2009-05-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

Oh look at those chubby cheeks!! Sorry mom I'm just getting pictures up and probably the next time I update it'll be when you are here with your good camera taking cute pictures of Max and Indiya! Yeah I'm so excited for you, dad, Lisa and Indiya to come!! Thanks Derrick for letting Lisa come and watching the kids, you're the best!! I've got some pictures of Jack wearing this outfit so I need to get them together and compare their looks.

Jack fell down today and scratched his knee. He was quite upset and has been playing it for all its worth. He's asking us to carry him everywhere because he cant walk. So what do you do if you cant walk, take a nap! Such a funny kid.

Sorry about the next photo's, I don't know how to flip them on Pete's computer. I thought it was cute that Max is smiling and below we were playing hid and seek. This was Max's way of hiding.

Jack has such a sweet smile, we love it.

King of the mountain.

Max being so good at the park.

He's getting a little better in the Bumbo, but still swaying to one side what a cutie!!

This is how Max always sleeps, with both hands up! So sweet. He is still quite the grunter and I think its so funny. Pete and I sleep much better having moved him into the other room.

Thought this was a funny face. Sorry my camera takes such blurry pictures!

Max and me. I'm still loving my hair cut and really like it curly as well. Which is probably good because the ends are FRIED from flat ironing it!!

Running out of titles, so...

2009-04-28T17:18:00.000-07:00

My sweet Max, this picture was taken tonight. Such a cutie pie!!!

He had is 8 week check up and is doing great!! He weighs in at a whopping 11 lbs 10oz. and is 22 1/4 inches long!

Finally caught a smile. He is so smiley lately. He is the happiest, sweetest baby ever!!

I got out his bumbo chair and tried it. He did good but I think his head needs to be a little stronger. Jack decided to help hold it up (I love his ears poking out!)

I think this above pictures looks a lot like his cousin Isaac, cute boys!!

Love his piggy's hanging out.

Max is not so snugly, I have to enjoy snuggling him when he is asleep because when he's awake his head is up looking around at everything. He reminds me of Hallie!

A friend gave me this shirt and its almost to small so we've been wearing it as much as possible because its so cute and Jack loves it (being a pirate lover and all!)

My boys

2009-04-22T18:06:00.000-07:00

Today is a good day, the boys were good. Well Max is always good but Jack was also pretty good. Lost is on tonight, although is just a recap and I filled up the car's gas tank for $.19 a gallon!!! If I had filled up yesterday it only would have cost me $.06 a gallon but gas went up today. I'm still smiling about 19 cents!!:)

Getting started on tricks, Pete isn't holing his back. Max is getting stronger but can only hold himself up like that for a few seconds.

The boys hanging out watching a movie.

This is a 7 week picture.

The other morning Jack woke us up at about 6:45 am to tell us he was ready for school. This is what he looked like. He was quite disappointed when he didn't get to go but daddy did. Such a silly boy!

Easter Fun!

2009-04-12T17:43:00.001-07:00

Our little sweetie! He is seriously the BEST baby ever. I thought he looked so handsome today. Mom I need to take some photo shoots, but really our camera sucks! This one below cracks me up, I caught his crossed eyes just perfect. I'm really hoping he gets his cross eyed thing figured out. The doctor says they should straighten out by four months and if they don't by then I guess we start worrying. He isn't crossed all the time but when he's looking at something and is trying to focus, sometimes he goes cross eyed. I just think it so funny and pretty cute as long as it stops by four months :)!!

Jack being a goof as usual but looking cute in his Easter clothes.

Cute bubba's not looking so happy.

I just love these boys and don't know what I'd do without them, well besides getting some precious sleep. But who needs sleep right?

Jacks Easter egg hunt. The Easter bunny came and led him on a hunt to a surprise of little games and fun outside toys. Next year we will be focusing more on Christ and the resurrection on Sunday and having the Easter bunny part Saturday. However it was a great Easter and SO nice to be at church!

2009-04-10T17:44:00.000-07:00

There was a small Easter egg hunt at the church today and Jack has been so excited about it all week. This morning when I told him today was the day he grabbed his goggles and said " I need these to help me see the eggs" I thought it was pretty funny so we put them in his (Halloween) basket for the hunt. When it was time he asked for his goggles and was ready to hunt! Silly boy!

Sweet little Max at six weeks. He keeps chubin out, although not as much as Indiya :)

AND... yep I chopped my hair! A few days ago I just decided I was ready for a change and super sick of my hair. It was hard to do and unless I spent some time on it, it looked awful. I decided to just chop it and try it straight. Hopefully I can do it cause its pretty short and might not look great curly. Surprise mom! Oh and I love it so far. Just had it done last night. Anyway all is going good here and Max is the sweetest ever!

Random pictures from the last few weeks

2009-04-05T16:13:00.000-07:00

Three sweet boys, Max is 5 weeks old!!

Sun bathing!

Max's first foot zone, he loved it.

The boys with matching jammies!

Cross-eyed bubba.

Jack loves racquetball and loves to play with Pete and I any chance he gets!

Max at 5 weeks. I want to take a picture of him at each week mark to see how much he has changed every week. The family pictures are of him at four weeks. He's losing his hair and its looking pretty white trash, but what little hair Jack had did the same thing and at about six weeks it started growing back. So hopefully Max's will start growing back in soon 'cause its pretty cute when he did have some!

Jack wanting to sleep in his sleeping bag. We told him he could put it on the bed but he insisted on sleeping on the floor all night long.

Gammie and Max, when he had all that red hair!

Great grandma with Max, he's between two and three weeks here, oh so sweet!!

Our sweetie is one month old!

2009-03-27T19:21:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Max is already four weeks old! We went in for his checkup and he weighed 9lbs 8oz. At two weeks he was 7lbs 14oz, so almost a two pound gain in two weeks! Scary!! Its great he's growing, but I really enjoyed Jack being so small because I'm quite the wimp and cant carry around a huge baby. I do love chubby babies though. We'll see how he does. Jack was growing good, and then slowed down so maybe Max will too.

We took some more pictures and tried with the whole family. A few turned out pretty good with all of us, I guess I'm just picky about myself, and we had a lot of great ones without me in them. Thanks mom for taking pictures, you do such a great job and I really like "free" photo shoots. Sorry everyone, now we will be back to my camera which is having problems lately. I think I want one like my mom. Maybe someday :)

Another try at a photo shoot

2009-03-23T09:12:00.000-07:00

We tried taking more pictures today, but we are having a hard time figuring out shadows in my house. We did get some good ones and after we play with them and crop and color stuff we will have some really cute ones!!

Thought these were funny. We think he looks like that one animal on the " Rescuers Down Under" ya know the one with the funny wings around his neck. Anyway thought it was funny!

Love this hat!!

This is what Max's face looks like most the time!

Having a hard time molding Max, he wasn't very happy to be in the bucket.

Having Jack help us figure out the lighting, he actually loved being in the bucket :)

Jacks first cleaning

2009-03-22T16:47:00.000-07:00

We've been meaning to get Jack in to get his teeth cleaned but with the baby coming and just a crazy life in general, we haven't done it yet. However we will be getting him in soon. Pete brought his tools home to check out my mom and grandma's teeth and decided to clean Jacks while he was at it. Jack did awesome so hopefully he'll do great with a real cleaning!

Mom, with some of my help and grandma's help, has been making this cute as heck quilt for Jacks bed. He and Max will be sharing a room and my sweet friends bought Max the crib bedding at pottery barn which will match this quilt. Jack has the lamp and two pillow shams that match. This quilt will go so perfectly and is so adorable!! I love it mom and can't wait to see it on the bed all done!!

2009-03-19T15:49:00.000-07:00

Lucky 1,2,3 !! Who will it be??

PaY iT FoRwArD!!

I found this fun idea on my friend's blog and thought it was a GREAT idea!! So be one of the first three people to comment on this and I will make you something- my choice!

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1. I make NO guarantees that you will LIKE what I make! (I can only hope)
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It WILL be done this year.
4. You have no CLUE what it’s going to be … it may be cards, a bookmark, something delicious or a complete surprise to you (and me!) … who knows?
5. Most importantly, you MUST offer the same deal on your blog - the first 3 people to comment on your blog get something made by YOU! (you may surprise even yourself how creative you can be when the pressure is on)

Sweet Boys!

2009-03-17T08:27:00.000-07:00

Labor Story

2009-03-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

Okay well I've wanted to put this on my blog for a record, but have been slow about doing it. Our computer has been broke for a while so I'm only able to be on it for a few minutes while Pete is not using it to study. Now he is on spring break so I have a little more time. My mom and grandma have come and will be here a little more than two weeks which is so great!! I'm loving it and will have some hard times ahead after they leave!!

Alright so here's the story of Max's birth. So Wednesday the 25th of February Jack and I had been taking a nap and woke up about three. I was heading to the bathroom and felt a little gush of water and thought what the crap! I thought it might be my water breaking, but was not ready to have this baby so I was in denial and went on with my day (I had had a lot planned to get done that afternoon). Well after a few more gushes I decided to call my sister and ask her what it was like when her water broke. She had just had her little girl Indiya the Sunday before. Rob answered the phone and said Lisa was sleeping so I told him I thought my water might have broke and he told me to call my mom. I knew my mom had a really busy day and didn't want to disturb her, but called her and of course she told me to call the doctor and ask what to do. So called the doctor and called Pete to come home. I started packing my bags and calling friends to watch Jack. I really wasn't prepared and figured there is no way I would go this early on my own. We got to the hospital at about five thirty and they admitted me because my water had broke. Contractions started but not bad. My sister had her little girl at home with no epidural. I was jealous and decide I wanted to try to do mine with out an epidural. She was taking classes with Derrick and told me lots of stuff and I really wanted to try. At the hospital they hooked me up to get things started but I wanted to be walking and moving and bouncing on a ball to help with contractions and move things faster. The nurses agreed as long as I would be monitored every hour for about fifteen minutes. I sent Pete home to get a few more things and some oils to help speed things along at about seven thirty or so. He got back about quarter after nine and contractions were getting stronger and about five minutes apart. The epidural giver (cant spell ana...) came in and told him I didn't want one, well didn't think I wanted one anyway. Oh by the way Lisa had no problem and hardly any pain, so I figured I'd be the same. Because I was hoping to have a V-bac and my water had broke they weren't going to check me often, which of course I was fine with. So when the doctor (not my doctor which I was grateful for after all was said and done because I would be embarrassed to see him again) came in she checked me about eight and I was a three. When I got there I was barley a one and so they thought it was going to be a long labor, at least eighteen hours. When Dr. David checked and I was a three she was surprised and said I might be at a five or six around midnight. I was going to prove them all wrong and it was going to happen fast. Max and I had had our talks and in my head it was going to happened exactly how I wanted it to. Anyway sorry if this is all over the place, writing is not my thing! Okay so about 10:30 I got into the shower and it really helped with contractions. Got out at eleven to be monitored and back in by 11:30. By then contractions were really getting strong and I was having a hard time breathing through them. So because my body was tensing up I was getting really tired. After twelve some time I decided I needed to get in bed because I couldn't stand up anymore. Pete was rubbing my back and legs and I was really starting to hurt. I was really really starting to hurt. I said a few times I wanted to get an epidural and couldn't do it anymore although I knew there was no way I could get one because I couldn't have held still long enough to get one. My contractions were on top of each other and hurting so bad. The nurse was so great and kept telling me I could do it and to remember why I wanted to do it this way. I think it was about quarter to two when I had the urge to use the bathroom. Emily (the nurse ) said she would get someone in there to check me because that usually meant the baby was coming and I was needing to push. Well I wanted to go to the bathroom because I was SURE I needed to go. She told me I could go but I was not to push. Well I needed to push, and so she talked me into going back to the bed and I would be checked. A resident came in and checked me and said I was at a ten and ready to go. So I started pushing because I needed to. Emily told me not to because there was no one there to catch the baby yet and I told her to get her gloves on because I was going to push. They were getting things set up and Dr. David came in. I had my eyes closed the whole time so I'm not sure about the time but I think it was between two and two fifteen. I pushed through three or four contractions (that were pretty much on top of each other) and Max was born. Pushing hurt but at the same time it felt so good to push and get him out. It was an AMAZING experience to have a baby not by c-section. Which this hopefully means my next one can come the same way. After the birth I felt so great I wanted to get up and run a marathon!! I cant even believe how great I have felt compared to when Jack was born. I was so glad everything really worked out so great! Max was born at 2:37 on Feb. 26, weighed 6lbs 10oz, 19 inches long and eight days early ( all the exact same as Jack). He is healthy and we are so happy to have him in our lives!! I'm so glad I was able to do it natural mostly to prove to myself that I could do it. It was hard but totally worth it!

Silly Jack

2009-03-06T18:07:00.000-08:00

Jack loves to watch the new madagascar movie. He loves to dance and "move it".

More Max

2009-03-06T17:44:00.000-08:00

Max getting a nice sun bath, we have to take advantage of the sun out here while we can!! He loved it.

Didn't mean to pick this one, and not sure how to delete it, when I try it ends up deleting other pictures I didn't want deleted, so sorry it's blurry.

We took Max to his first Dr.s apt. He looks so cute in his little snow outfit. Thanks to grandma Mecham for getting it for Jack. I love it, but it won't fit for long. Max is just such a sweetie, we love him so much!!

Oh we are so in LOVE!

2009-03-01T19:05:00.000-08:00

We Love this little Max, he is the sweetest baby! Everyone is doing great and Jack is loving Max! I wanted to get some more pictures up and hopefully get the birth story down here in the next day or two.

Welcome Maxwell Hayes Mecham

2009-02-27T13:44:00.000-08:00

Our Sweet Max is here! He was born Feb. 26th at 2:37 am. Weighing 6 lbs 10oz (same as Jack) and 19 inches long (Jack was 19 1/2). So almost the same. Max looks just like Jack but with more hair. He is beautiful!! Sorry pictures are out of order, I still cant figure out how they go in and mess up every time! Jack is loving him a little too much, but I guess that was to be expected. We hope he looks like a Max because it was a really hard decision to name him and didn't do it until I handed over the birth certificate papers. We'll get more pictures taken and try to get them up as fast as possible.

He was a screamer coming out and really has a set of lungs!!!

Just being admitted around five thirty pm on the 25th. My water broke about three thirty that afternoon.

Its been a while!

2009-02-23T16:27:00.000-08:00

Wow its been quite some time since I've blogged. Our computer is broke and who knows when we'll get a new one, so in the meantime I have to use Pete's laptop in the spare moments he's not on it studying or at school with it!

Life has been crazy getting ready for the baby to come and getting back in the hang of things here in Cleveland. We've celebrated Jacks 3rd birthday the Pete's 26th birthday. Sorry because of no computer there are also no pictures to show.

Some great news Lisa just had her baby last night (22nd) so baby Indiya will share a birthday with Pete. Lisa and Indi are doing great and everything went really well for the delivery, well Derrick delivered the baby on the bathroom floor but it turned out great! Read all about it on my mom's blog. Congrats Lisa and Derrick!!

I'm due on March 6th and ready anytime! We are still searching for a name, but as of right now it is looking like we might name him Greysen (Graisen) not sure about which spelling, if we don't find another name we like better. So now's the time to make the guesses and any help with names would be appreciated!! Maybe we'll even give the winner of the guess a prize or something! :) So guess when he's coming, weight, height and name if you want. Hopefully he'll come soon!! Although my mom isn't coming until the 11th so you probably wont see any pictures until at least then when she can do them on her computer! Gotta go, Pete needs his computer.

Pictures from our LONG holiday!

2009-01-20T17:54:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun while in Idaho visiting family!! Jack and I were there for about seven weeks and Pete was there for two of those weeks. He was studying hard for his boards exam which he did awesome on and we are so relieved to have that over with. Here are a few pictures from our trip. I didn't take many pictures with my camera because my mom always had hers out and hers takes better pictures. So when I get those pictures off some disc's I'll get some of those up also.

Rob and Jack enjoying the 4-wheeler. It was really nice weather until about the middle of December.

Hallie has all kinds of fun dress up stuff and Jack LOVED it. He would come out in Lisa and I's old dance costumes and was cracking us up! Hallie sharing her dance too toos.

Christmas morning!

Grandma Strupp got Jack addicted to tic-tac's, so being the cheap parents we are with no money we splurged and bought him some tic-tac's of his very own.

Hallie was begging for make-up and of course Santa brought her lots of it. Jack and Ky also LOVED it!!

These will be great blackmail pictures someday!!

For new years we went up to Tiffany's family's cabin which was a lot of fun!! So with the Strupps we celebrated the night before, and we also went bowling. It was fun and the kids had fun for a while but I did get a shot of these two being grouchy.

Hey Mom, can you see what wrong with this picture?

2009-01-14T19:02:00.000-08:00

After having this calendar (isn't it cute, mom you do amazing things and I LOVE it) a year I was looking at it the other night and noticed something. Pete and I got a kick out of it seeing that my mom and I have the same spelling issues. Don't worry mom I still love it and hope you'll keep making me cute things cause I really do appreciate them! Love ya

Potty Training, Yay!

2009-01-14T18:44:00.000-08:00

Potty training day one, GREAT and no accidents!

Potty training day two, not so good. Three accidents, however no poop mishaps!

Potty training day three, better than day two, only one accident.

Yay for Jack, he is doing really good and I just hope he can grasp on to what he's trying to do... soon! He does best not wearing anything, but really wants to wear his underware. So its kind of a bribe to have him learn so that he gets to wear his underware. Hopefully this will get better (not to bad so far) and he'll really learn and understand the diapers are going away. Our camera is having some problems so between that and Jack not holding still this was the best picture we got on the first day (monday).

Kim's wedding

2008-12-07T09:24:00.000-08:00

It was so fun to be home so I could be around to see my best friend from high school get married. Kim and Kyle were married on the 5th, it was a fun day. She is so happy and it makes me so happy to see her happy! Congrats Kim and Kyle!

ouch!

2008-12-07T09:22:00.000-08:00

Hallie got a little shiner, I love the picture below of her making sure grandma could see it in the camera.

Jack and grammie out collecting sticks for the christmas tree. Grandma put gum drops on the ends of them. The kids have done good staying out of them but Scott has had a hard time.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-07T09:21:00.000-08:00

We went to G&G Thornton's for thanksgiving dinner. Ericka and Ben were there also with Braxton. He is so cute, so so chubby! I cant get over how big he is, he's such a doll!

Grandma Mona and Braxton.

Grandma T and Braxton.

What cute kids!! I think Braxton is bigger than Ky!!

Riding the 4-wheeler with grandpa.