Out Numbered 4 to 2: January 2012

Sunday, January 22, 2012

2012 Here We Come!!!

For Christmas this year our household received tickets to Knotts Berry Farm. What a blast! We spent a glorious week in California. It was such a great time together, I love spending family time together without any interruptions. Just me, MY LB and our fabulous four.

MY BFF

Our first stop was a visit with Alice's clan. Alice and I have been friends since sixth grade and have spent many great moments, some of my favorite, together. I love her and I love that our families have remained close after so many years.

Waterfall Hike

Double Date

Two Friends Hanging Out

Off to the BEACH and KNOTTS

Next we were off to our beach side resort. We spent Monday at Knotts Berry Farm. We had such a good time. Once the kids over came their fears they were on a ride-page. I couldn't believe the rides they went on, and LIKED. We recently had watched We Bought A Zoo and in the movie they talked about twenty seconds of courage, the kids used this as their motto for the day. They kept telling each other, "Come on, it only takes twenty seconds of courage". It worked!

I used my twenty seconds of courage to go on the worst ride of my life and came very close to loosing my stomach. WORST RIDE EVER! Love roller coasters, HATE to spin! I was spinning, swinging and getting higher and higher.... I can't talk about it anymore. I had to take a good 30 minutes in the sun sitting completely still before I could continue on our Knotts adventure.

The kids each had their favorite rides and wanted to go on them again and again (which we could without getting off because there were no lines).

The boys favorite ride, 301 feet in the air spinning round and round. It was a pretty cool trip, once was enough for me.

Maggie, LOVED the swings! She stayed on for three rotations one time. I tried the swings right after my ride from HECK and it too was horrible, man I was sick.

Kendal loved the spinning hats and so Jeremiah was doomed to spinning ALL DAY, poor guy. By the end of the night he was all spun out. Did I mention I HATE spinning.

Overall the park was a blast, I liked the rides, we don't know about the food because none of us dared to eat, the entertainment was fun, however my favorite part was this moment I captured as I walked behind my family...

Vacation always brings us closer together. I am grateful for such a loving husband and wonderful children to spend my days vacationing with.

This is how I finished my night, on the kiddie coaster with two of my kiddies. We were screaming, laughing and throwing our arms in the air. A perfect way to end the day!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Merry Service

Each year Grandma and Grandpa Mecham ask for a service project for Christmas. For the past two years we have united with our cousins to make it an extra special project. This year we decided to reach out to cancer patients and try to make their holidays a little brighter. Both of our families have experienced loss do to cancer this past year and it made the experience very personal and special for all of us.

Our family dedicated our service project this year to our good friend and neighbor Shawna Gross. The Gross family moved in when Shawna was seven months pregnant, it was fun to get to know them. Shawna was a working women and dedicated her time to working as a manager at the CPS office. We didn't see her much until baby Carson came into their home. However we did get quite acquainted with her husband John and her two year old Jackson. John is so amazing and happy, every time you see him you are guaranteed a big happy HELLO or a honk of the horn if he is in his truck.
Shawna was diagnosed with cancer shortly before Carson was born and a short five months later she lost the battle and joined her Heavenly Father. She was an amazing example of hope and perseverance, I will never forget the lessons I learned from her. It was a devastating experience for all. The next 9 months of our lives our family grew we now had three more boys (including John, trust me on this one) to love, care for and help mend their hearts. These were some of the saddest and happiest times of our lives. Moving away from them was very difficult and we miss them everyday that we don't see them.

This year our family loomed 30 plus hats for the cancer center and another 10 for family members. We did this all in an amazing three weeks, we know the Lord was supporting us every step of the way. The kids were amazing and learned very quickly. We loomed while we listened to books, drove in the car and watched movies. We dedicated the evenings to watching Christmas stories of hope and service while our little hands loomed away. The movies really helped bring the spirit of giving into our home. Every chance the kids got they wanted to serve, socks for the homeless (YMCA service project), picking Angles from the WalMart tree, and dropping coins into the bell ringers little red buckets. What joy giving brings!

On the week before Christmas the cousins brought the goodie bags and we supplied the hats and we ventured to the Cancer Treatment Center to give our gifts. They were very kind and told us about Team Hope, that is a team of volunteers that would give our gifts to those in the center that they would most benefit. The kids are already asking about how you can become a member of Team Hope. I love this experience and thank Grandma and Grandpa for asking for such a selfless gift and giving us the opportunity to give of our selves in a selfless manner during the best season of all.

Happy, Merry, Happy

Happy Birthday to Me

I know it is hard for all of us to believe that I have finally reached the ripe old age of "30" plus five. Believe it, it is true! For my birthday this year we attended a Temple Sealing and hung out in Mesa for the entire day. Yahooo! There were all of my favorite things, a Temple marriage, free food at a wedding luncheon, a trip to DI thrift store, pizza at Organ Stop Pizza and the Temple lights. It was a fantastic day.