weekly rewind {april and most of may edition}

best: Will starting to smile - Owie's cute monster truck birthday party - Minnie's preschool field trip to Wheeler Farm that Will, Lou and I tagged along on - pedicures with Christine while our men watched our babies...happy Mother's Day to us! - family soccer games in the back yard after dinner - Mother's Day spent feeding our sweet mamas - Minnie starting soccer. It has been a bit of a rough start (she really had no clue what she was doing and would just run around like a bird most of the time) but with one game left in the season we are seeing some major improvement. She touched the ball like 10 times last game. I'm so proud! - Finally buying tickets to DC. We are so excited to see the whole Mecham crew! - Bountiful sidewalk chalk festival and finally going into Over the Moon where I found William's sweet blessing outfit - the tuft of dark hair on the back of Will's head that just keeps on going strong - park playdates with buddies - rainy day forts in the bunk bed - Tuesdays when Julia comes over and hangs with us for the evening while Bob is at Young Mens - celebrating Dad's 60th with a surprise dinner at Kyoto and going hog wild on alllll the sushi - the way Will loves his sisters...he smiles best for them - adventures on Lagoon Trail - walks and bike rides after dinner (but blast our hilly neighborhood!) - Will putting on some major pounds (double fist pump for that one) - Louie's obsession with picking dandelions. She's always bringing me "flowers" - walking into the living room the other day to find Minnie casually holding Louie on her lap. I died - being part of Jalene's Motherhood Project and going to see the gallery of photos at the Davis County Arts Center - Sweet Henry Burton's blessing at the Burton's house during the most epic windstorm - the Adseros no longer moving to Abu Dhabi...which should actually be on the worst list too because it was a major disappointment for Matt

worst: finding dandelions and other miscellaneous weeds all over the house (thanks Lou) - Will getting his two-month shots and the fever the few days following - weather that can't make up its dang mind - Minnie almost crashing her bike on Lagoon Trail (thank heavens Jessie's sister was at the bottom of the hill to catch her) - never wanting to make dinner but doing it anyway - feeling pretty sick most of the time lately and not knowing what the devil is going on (looking forward to my doctor's appointment tomorrow) - laundry that never ends...which I think I list in the "worst" category every time I write one of these. With a newborn the laundry has doubled so this definitely has to go in this one - Lou needing a nap during the day but then getting up a thousand times after we put her to bed at night. She will literally turn on all the lights and just be in there playing and Minnie will be totally zonked out and snoring. It kills me - trying to get the motivation to workout. Eating banana chocolate chip bread and catching up on Nashville always sounds like a better idea to me - Sunday night blues when we are driving home from my parents house and it sinks in that the weekend is over and Robert has to go to work the next morning

christmas with the whole crew

Christmas this year was pretty amazing! My sister Charlotte and her family came and stayed with us for over a week and it was all I had dreamed it would be. I love my family so much and there's nothing better for me than when they are all in one place. I am only now starting to crawl out of the deep depression I fell into after Christmas was over and the Adsero crew left. This blog post is going to be a major photofest because there were just too many I wanted to remember. Thanks to Charlotte for sharing lots of her pics with me. We had a pretty great (and surprisingly busy) week while they were here, but it was a party!

The highlight of the whole week was the sealing of sweet baby Jeremiah to my brother and sister-in-law, Nick and Megan. It was pretty incredible to all be in the temple together and to know that that sweet babe is theirs forever. I sure love that cute family.

On one of the first nights the Adseros were here we went bowling at the University of Utah, which takes all of us Mecham kids right back to our childhood. I bowled terribly (big surprise) and almost got beat by the 5 and 6-year-old, but we all had such a good time together.

A visit to the Grand America for a scavenger hunt and to see the enormous gingerbread house. This was nicely followed up by a huge burger at Crown Burger. Just what the doctor ordered, am I right?! We then took a trip downtown to see Grandpa's new office and the Macy's candy windows.

Lincoln, Charlotte's oldest, was aching for snow and boy oh boy did he get it! The week before they were coming it was nearly 50 degrees and we hadn't seen a lick of snow. I was worried his dream of a white Christmas didn't stand a chance. BUT, a day or two before they came we had the snowstorm of the century with nearly two feet of snow up at our house! It was a white Christmas and then some. We had a hard time finding snow clothes at any store after the mammoth storm, but after lots of hunting we found enough to get out and sled.

Every year we make a point to go grab dinner and see the Christmas lights at Temple Square. It was cold and kind of snowy this year, but it was still wonderful and awesome to all be together.

Charlotte arranged for us to go to Ballet West's Nutcracker with the big kids a few days before Christmas, and although the kids could barely sit through the entire thing, it was a lot of fun. There was a little party after the performance where you could have punch and cookies with the sugar plum fairy and a few of the cast up on stage, and although it was a little more rushed than we'd anticipated, I think the kids liked it and we got some really cute nutcracker ornaments out of it.

Christmas Eve is always a big deal at my parents house. My mom makes such incredible food and with the whole crew in town this year, the presents under the tree were overflowing and taking up nearly half of the living room. We played Christmas carols with chimes and each family took a turn to perform a little song they'd been practicing. After lots of present opening, all of the grandkids got dressed in their Christmas jammies and headed home to make sure cookies and milk were out for Santa.

We had Christmas morning over at our house. Minnie slept downstairs with all of her cousins (so Santa could set up the new bunk bed that wouldn't fit under the tree). Santa's little helpers (aka myself, Robert, Charlotte and Matt) stayed up later than we'd anticipated getting everything set up. Why does Christmas Eve always have to be that way? I even had all of our presents wrapped and yet setting up the bunk bed and arranging everything had us up until 2 AM. Oy!

My parents and Julia came over in the morning to see all the kids open their presents. The boys and Min could hardly handle themselves waiting downstairs for everyone to show up. Bless their hearts. I love Christmas morning, maybe now even more than I did when I was little. It's pure magic to me. Minnie and Lou were pretty pumped about their new bed which made me so happy. I haven't let Lou sleep in it yet because she stays in her crib forever in the morning and hello, I'm going to take advantage of that as long as I can. I figure it will be a pretty easy transition once it needs to happen (knock on wood). The boys were pleased as punch with the huge Lego sets Santa brought and were also informed in a letter from Santa that there would be a few more items waiting for them at home in Houston.

We headed over to my parent's house for brunch, which was incredible. It was snowing outside, the windows were steamed up, and we were all together eating the most delicious meal. It was a little bit of heaven to me. We weren't able to do a nativity the night before so after breakfast we busted out all of my mom's awesome costumes and put it together. I was pregnant Mary (naturally) and was escorted onto the stage by my last-minute trusty donkey, Robert. Minnie was the not-pregnant Mary and Lincoln was Joseph. Jeremiah and Oliver were both baby Jesus at different points, depending on who was willing to sit still. It was pretty fun and really sweet to see all of the kids acting their part. I love seeing all of them together.

I'd been looking forward to Christmas for months and it all came and went so quickly! Always does, doesn't it? A few tears were shed on my part on the departure of the Adsero crew, but we are already getting serious about planning our reunion this summer, which helps ease the pain a bit. I'm such a baby! I'm so grateful the rest of my family lives close. I'm not sure they always will so I should soak that up for as long as I have it.

halloween

Halloween this year was so much fun! Both Min and Lou were totally into it and loved their costumes. Lou was certain she was going to be a skeleton for about three weeks, but once she put on the lobster costume she was hooked. I was surprised how often Minnie asked to be something other than Ariel after we'd bought her costume. Oof! Luckily the witch costume from last year still fits so we pulled that one out (which wasn't hard because she wears it fairly regularly as a dress up) and she was able to trade off between Ariel and a witch. Our cute friends let us borrow a wig, but after a couple tries we gave up on it and decided to spray her hair red for the big day (which was probably her favorite part of the costume). The Ursula and King Triton costumes took waaaaaay more time than they probably should have, but it was so much fun. I love that Robert loves to get into Halloween. He spent an hour and a half on the trident alone. The family costumes are a ton of fun but they always require a lot of work. I'm not sure we can pull one off every year, but we might try. I will probably try to find a costume that doesn't require painting myself purple ever again...messiest stuff ever. Lou said, "Mommy, you scary!" I thought so too.

The Monday before Halloween we went to a pumpkin patch in Farmington to get pumpkins. The girls loved it and so did we. Later in the week Nick and Megan invited us to their ward trunk or treat and it was the first time Minnie was all dressed up, wig and all. A few kids called her Ariel during the party and it was as if all of Minnie's dreams had come true. "Mom, did you hear that? They think I'm Ariel!" Thank you to those blessed kids for making Minnie's Halloween! On Friday Julia, the girls and I went to my mom's school for their Halloween parade. I love going to that because not only do I get to see my mom in her element with her class, but I feel like I get to relive my childhood Halloween. It was so much fun and the girls loved it, although Lou had her fingers in her mouth 90% of the time because some of the costumes made her nervous. We ran to Banbury Cross for donuts and milk with Julia after the parade because...you can never have too much sugar around Halloween, right?

After spending a good chunk of Saturday working on our costumes we were finally ready for our ward trunk or treat which started early that evening. Most of the ward didn't know who Robert and I were because of the costumes, which was hilarious. After loading up on candy there, we headed to Nick and Megan's for their annual Halloween party and chowed down on such good soup and bread and treats. I love having somewhere to go after all of the trick-or-treating and an additional reason to dress up. After spending a few hours there we went to see Robert's mom and sister and by the time we got home and got the red washed out of Min's hair it was nearly midnight. Great parents, huh? Thank goodness for daylight savings. And now...the holidays have officially begun, right? I'm not looking forward to snow but being with family for days on end is what I live for.

the collard family reunion

We spent the weekend of the 4th at a Collard family reunion in Mt. Pleasant, Utah, a little town in the middle of nowhere. Although all of Robert's dad's siblings and their families were invited, the majority of the folks there were made up of our family. In fact, the entire George Earl Collard Jr. crew was there for the weekend which made the trip so much fun. Minnie and Lou were in heaven with about 8 other little girls from our family to hang out with. I actually lost Minnie multiple times, which was mildly terrifying, but the fact that we were staying at a boarding school and that pretty much everyone there was our family, I had to figure she was fine (although my crazy anxious self always assumes the very worst). She was typically just off exploring with her cousin buddies but we had to have a few little chats about how she has to tell me when she's headed somewhere without me. It hasn't quite sunken in yet, but we are working on it.

The family members who set up the reunion did such a great job. They had lots of competitions between families, including tug-of-war and potato sack races. We also played volleyball, softball and basketball one of the days we were there. Robert's family is quite athletic so it's always fun to play sports with them. We also have some older nieces who love to hang out with our girls so I was even able to get in on some of the games. Louie also took a serious liking to her older cousin, DJ, and snuggled up with him whenever she got a chance. It was pretty sweet. On Friday we tried to head up to Robert's brother's cabin up the canyon but his truck overheated so we didn't quite make it. We decided to head over to the Fairview museum for a minute before evening festivities began. It was hilarious and awesome all at once. It's pretty much just a bunch of stuff locals have donated, so there's a lot of random junk, but there are some super old treasures too. Ten or so years ago they discovered a mammoth skeleton up the canyon and have now built an adjoining museum to house that. It's pretty incredible. We made it up to George's cabin the following day which is in the most beautiful area surrounded by trees, but bless our little Mazda...I was afraid it was going to bottom out on the drive up there. 

On the 4th of July we walked up to the main street to watch the Mt. Pleasant parade, which was pretty much just a bunch of people in cars and ATV's throwing candy. But come on, CANDY! All the kids were in heaven. Minnie especially liked all of the royalty floats with the local pageant winners. She called them the princess floats because if you're wearing a pretty dress, you must be a princess. The local fire department drove a truck or two in the parade and sprayed the crowds with their hoses. Minnie and Lou both lost it. The girls love water, but they love it on their terms. A surprise squirt is about as bad as it gets for them. That night, the whole crew headed to the Mt. Pleasant rodeo, which was a lot of fun. It's certainly a cultural experience to say the least. I kind of loved it. Minnie was so bummed she didn't get to be a part of the pig chase. She started bawling to me exclaiming that, "I want to do that, Mom! I would be the winner!" Looks like we know what we are doing next year. That girl always surprises me. We brought a huge bag of candy caught at the parade to share with everyone and Robert surprised me with some nachos, which were seriously heaven to me that night for some reason. I've been craving them ever since. After all the events we had ourselves a pretty great fireworks show and it was so fun to watch Min and Lou's faces light up and to hear them squeal as the fireworks shot off. It is in moments like that in which motherhood really becomes magical. It was such a memorable day.

I'm so grateful to have a second family as great as the Collard crew. They are all so loving and inclusive. I love them so much and am grateful they love our girls just about as much as we do.