Shad Mecham Family

noreply@blogger.com (Cyphear) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:36:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 02:44:00 +0000

Today was the last day of school for Brenden and Ainsley. Brenden received a trophy for reading 100 hours in secomd grade. We are so proud of him and his hard work. He made amazing improvements in his reading scores this year thanks to an amazing and dedicated teacher. Brenden will be doing some summer school this year. He was invited to help him hang on to all the growth he made. Ainsley did awesome in school this year. She had all 3s on her report card, which essentially translates to straight "A"s. The kindergarten classes had a end of the year program where they shared some of the things they learned this year. Ainsley had a speaking part, which she did very well on. It was fun to watch her sing with her classmates. Ainsley loves singing and performing. Capri had her 3rd birthday recently. She had Mickey Mouse cakes, which she was so excited for. She received a scooter and roller skates, as well as some new clothes and other fun toys. It was a great day for her. Daphney is growing and changing. She is smiling, giggling, and talking. She loves her older brother and sisters and they love her. Capri keeps trying to "help" with Daphney. Luckily, there haven't been any injuries. When I stop what she is doing, she just looks at me and says, "Mommy, I helping. ", or "I love her". What do you say to that?

Daphney Etta Mecham

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:05:00 +0000

Daphney was born Sunday, February 27 at 2:08 pm. She weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces and was 21 inches long. She is a sweet baby that loves being held by Mom during her waking hours. Sometimes she will let Dad hold her. She has had some troubles eating. She was too sleepy and didn't suck hard enough to get enough to eat. Mom has been pumping and finger feeding her waiting until she is big enough to eat on her own. She is well loved by her brother and sisters who love giving her kisses and talking to her. Capri's favorite thing to say to her is, "so cute". We have been blessed to have Daphney as the newest addition to our family.

Ainsley's Fun Day

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 20:14:00 +0000

Ainsley has spent the past few days with her Aunt Teresa. Today they went to the Art City Festival with Grandpa and Grandma Anderson. Grandpa sent me these pictures. She had a great time. The only thing she wasn't a fan of was going potty in one that had "stuff" in it. I am glad that she is having a great time with her aunt and grandparents. We have missed her, even though it has been a lot quieter. I look forward to getting her back tomorrow.

Ainsley's Preschool Graduation

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:54:00 +0000

Ainsley is now finished with preschool. It was a great experience for her. She did a great job in her program. Her teachers expressed how much they enjoyed having her in class and that they are going to miss her. She is definitely ready for Kindergarten. Ainsley will be starting her Kindergarten Smart Start on June 14. She is pretty excited.

Capri's Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:25:00 +0000

Capri recently had her second birthday. We are now full on into the terrible twos with a red-headed female. At least she's cute. We had a fun birthday celebration. Because of the rain, we went to Chuck E Cheese to ride rides and play games. I checked Brenden out of school at lunch so he could go with us. Capri had a blast. She would move from one ride to another and wait for me to come put a token in to make it go. If she wanted to ride it again, she would stay on and say "please". I would go over and put another token in. Even Ainsley would put tokens in for her once in a while. We went home after for a dinner of hot dogs and cake. If you are familiar with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Mickey loves hot dogs. Mickey Mouse was one of her first words, used to request an episode of her favorite show to be played. She loved her Minnie Mouse dress and wore it all day. She also got a Mickey towel, a toy laptop, a guitar that she rocks out with, summer jammies, and a bubble mower. It was a great day.

Ainsley's Little Red Hen Video

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 01:50:00 +0000

Erin has asked me to make available to our friends and family the video she took of Ainsley's play she was in for her graduation from preschool. It is kind of large (450mb) and due to it containing other peoples kids I didn't want to post it on YouTube so I have created a link you can use to download and watch it from.

Click Here to Download the Video

Enjoy,

Shad

Ainsley's Unfortunate Incident

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:50:00 +0000

Yesterday Ainsley stuck a jelly bean up her nose and it got stuck. She came up to me a little panicked, taps me and says Mommy, then she tilts her head back so I can see up her nose. I asked her why she would do that, and she gives me this blank look. I had her get me a tissue so she could try blowing it out, that didn't work. I tried pushing down on it from the top, but that hurt her. At this point I am laughing, even though I am thinking that I may have to take her to the Dr. I called Shad to see where he was at on his way home from work, and when I told him, he started laughing. Now I'm laughing even harder and Ainsley is getting really distressed. Not to mention that she is mad at me for laughing. I grabbed some tweezers to try and pull it out. Which is hard to do when you are trying not to laugh. I finally got it out, had a good giggle, and had Ainsley blow her nose well. While it was stuck, she had cried a little and the drips from her nose made the jelly bean dissolve a little. I also had a chat with Brenden and Ainsley about not putting things in their noses or ears. I only wish I had thought to take a picture.
Update on the bully. Because of the concerns of a few parents, the school intervened and the bully had lost all recesses for about six school days. I am glad the school has stood behind their zero tolerance for bullying. Ainsley's head is healing up quite nicely. On Sunday she also purposely knocked her bottom two front, bottom teeth loose. One was so loose Shad pulled it out. All because she wanted the tooth fairy to visit and got tired of waiting. What a week it had been.

What a Day

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Wed, 05 May 2010 04:07:00 +0000

Have you ever gotten to the end of a day, sat down and just gone "Oh my!" Today was one of those days. It just kept going. It started out with the fact that I slept in and Brenden obsessing over this bully in his class while we were getting ready. I addressed some of it with his teacher last week, but more came to light this morning. I'm now stressed over this and I have to talk to his teacher again. I had to volunteer in Brenden's class today and wasn't able to talk to her then. Now I have to wait until after school to talk to her. Then I went to pick up the girls from my friend's house and was visiting for a few minutes (gotta have some adult time) when Ainsley starts crying. She had been hit by another child in the head with a shovel. There was blood. When that was mentioned, she cried even harder. Luckily, it wasn't too bad and didn't require a trip to the Dr, but it is still stressful. She has also been worried over it and freaking out a little the rest of the day. It was itching when she went to bed so she scratched it and reopened it. I had to doctor her up a little again. Capri, where do I begin? She has a cold so she is a grouchy, growly, bear, but she isn't sick enough to be held for very long. She still has enough energy to get into everything. We are talking nothing is safe from the curiosity and destructive power of this almost 2 year old. When I pull her out of things, we get screaming, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. All day long. And still it continues. I had den meeting today for cub scouts at 4:30. At 4:00 I remembered I needed to plan it. Oops. I'm trying to do that while I sit with Brenden and help him with his homework. I get to den meeting and we have a new cub scout. I am excited because this means that I will still have a wolf cub. The one I have now will be moving up next month. This means I will still have something to do. But he came today and we found out today. Actually, this was a blessing because I used the other boys to help get him started on his Bobcat. The got a review and were able to help him a little. Not to mention it took up half the time and what I had planned filled the rest of the time. That worked out well. I get home and Capri had lost a game cartridge to my DS, still haven't found it, and Brenden isn't helping to look for it, Shad is exasperated, and Ainsley was trying to help as best she could, but soon reverted to her usual. I actually stayed surprisingly calm, I wonder now if I was just overloaded and couldn't process it all.
Now the kids are all asleep in bed and it is quiet. I am sitting here wondering how I made it through without completely losing it. I guess it is because Heavenly Father loves me and helped me take it one thing at a time. I actually feel quite stress free right now. I am also really excited about the new cub scout. Our pack is only 5 boys strong and one is moving away next month. This is a big deal. I made it through today and I am still vertical. All I can say now is: "Tomorrow, bring it on!"

Funny Moment

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Sun, 02 May 2010 22:45:00 +0000

I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. Being May, we were talking about things coming up. Namely Capri's birthday. Shad had the kids trying to guess which day is my birthday. I told them to pick my favorite number between 1 and 31. Ainsley picked 32. When I told her that she had to pick a number smaller than 31, she still insisted on 32.

Ainsley's New Pet

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 21:59:00 +0000

We are happy to announce the newest addition to our home. Ainsley got a pet guinea pig. Shad made a deal with her that if she got her room cleaned up then she could get a pet. He made this deal with her a long time ago, but Saturday she finally got her room entirely cleaned up, so Shad made good on his promise. She picked this guinea pig out. During the week, this guinea pig had gone through several names, including but not limited to, Cookie, Buttercup, Marshmallow, Pumpkin, and Toasty. Hopefully soon she will decide on one name. So far, Ainsley has also done a good job of keeping her room clean, which makes one good point to this pet. It has been good for her, so far.
Brenden received a Falcon Pride award from his school yesterday. His award was for improvement in being focused and on task in class. We are proud of how hard he has worked in school.

Sleeping Baby

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:58:00 +0000

Capri disappeared on me one afternoon. As I was looking for her I found her like this. She had put herself down for a nap. She even covered herself with a blanket.

Strong Guy and Girl

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:32:00 +0000

We were getting Capri ready for the tub when I realized that she and Brenden were dressed or undressed the same. Brenden loves the "strong guy" from Indiana Jones. It's the big German Indy fought in Raiders in the airplane fight scene. They are doing "strong guy" poses.

Brenden's Little Miracle

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 06:47:00 +0000

Thursday night, after we put the kids to bed, a thunder storm blew in. At about 9:30, Brenden comes out because he was scared of the lightening and thunder. Not long after I went back into his room he asked me if we could say a prayer. In his prayer, Brenden told Heavenly Father that he was scared of the storm and asked the Lord to bless him to feel safe and not be scared anymore. After his prayer, I spent some time talking to him about what makes lightening and thunder and how being in the house makes us safe from it. We also talked about how Heavenly Father can tell the clouds and lightening and thunder what to do and they will listen. Eventually, I left him and he fell quickly to sleep. I realized a little later that I hadn't noticed any more lightening since Brenden said his prayer. Friday morning I asked him if there was any more lightening after his prayer. He thought for a second, then said that there wasn't. He then told me that Heavenly Father stopped the clouds from rubbing against each other and making lightening.
I was reminded of how much Heavenly Father does for us and how we don't always recognize His intervention. I am glad that Brenden recognized the source. What a faith builder! He may not remember this specific experience, but he will remember that the Lord hears and answers prayers. I will always remember that the Lord loves us enough to make the clouds stop rubbing against each other because a scared little boy asked for some comfort.

Capri's New Bed

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:51:00 +0000

Capri is now sleeping in a big girl bed with Mickey Mouse sheets. She loves it. She also loves that she has a pillow that she can pull out and sit on the couch with or copy her older siblings in the things they do with theirs. She is so cute at bedtime. She lays down and we arrange her blankets for her, then she has her book that she has to read in bed. She is definitely our daughter.

Life is an Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:26:00 +0000

We were watching the Gold Medal Hockey game on Sunday when the TV suddenly turned off. Upon investigation, we discovered that the power was off in only part of the house so we figured that it was a tripped breaker. Well, that would have been easy. Unfortunately, it didn't solve the problem. We had lost power to half of our house including the furnace. This wasn't a problem until night. We have a sweet brother in our ward that we were able to call. He came over when was able to. The problem: the 2 wires coming into the house had somehow touched and one of them short circuited or something. At least that is how I understand it. He was able to restore the power and is coming to fix it on Tuesday. It is actually a dangerous problem that we have and is not a very inexpensive fix. We are also going to have our breaker box replaced since all the current breakers are overloaded. All I can say is I am grateful for good neighbors, tax returns, and good timing otherwise I would be very stressed right now. I am very grateful to the Lord for watching over us.
We were able to watch the overtime on the Hockey game thanks to a extension cord on loan from a good friend. It was a good day to be a Canadian. It was awesome.

Brenden's Prayer

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:07:00 +0000

Brenden was saying family prayer tonight and because of our Bishop's illness and Mike's injury, we have been praying for recoveries recently. Well Brenden asked the Lord for Kevin's Bumblebee to be fixed quickly. He was quite upset when I told him about the car accident. In fact, he cried for Kevin, or the car, and was only consoled by the fact the Bumblebee got to ride on a tow truck. I'm sure Heavenly Father will grant Brenden's prayer and help Bumblebee get fixed quickly.

New Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Cyphear) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:09:00 +0000

We got some new portraits taken of our kids. Please let us know if you are interested in any prints. Enjoy the pics.

Primary Program

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:38:00 +0000

We had our Primary Program today. Brenden and Ainsley did so well. They both said their parts into the microphone so clearly. Brenden actually sang a few of the songs. That was pretty exciting for us. Ainsley sang out so very well. She brought smiles to a lot of faces. Shad could hear her singing at the back of the chapel. Capri had fun watching us and waving. It was a good day.

Time is marching and I can't keep up

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:11:00 +0000

I can't believe how quickly this summer flew by. We had quite the adventures. Brenden and Ainsley did swimming lessons in Roosevelt with their cousins in June. They did well and had a lot of fun. We spent a lot of time at the Dinosaur Park in Ogden and at the Union Station Train Museum. We also were able to go to the zoo a couple of times and we also got to spend a day at Lagoon. We also got to spend time at both grandparents' houses. I don't think we were at home very much. We made some good memories and had a blast. What more could I ask for.
Brenden is now in First Grade and loving it. He really likes his teacher. Brenden also gets to check out a book from the school library this year. It is pretty fun to see the books he comes home with each week. Ainsley is in Preschool this year. She goes to school 3 days a week for about 3 hours a day.Her teachers tell me that she is a delightful child and they enjoy having her in class. All I can say is, at least she's delightful for them. Ainsley loves being a big girl and won't let me walk her into the school. I'm not even allowed to get out of the car. Capri really enjoys the alone time with Mommy when everyone else is gone. She gets to run errands with me or we just hang out at home. Her new favorite thing is to have Brown Bear, Brown Bear read to her over and over again. Sometimes she will let us read a different book to her. At night, after Brenden and Ainsley are in bed, Capri will go back and forth between Mom and Dad having us read the same book over and over and over.

Peek-A-Boo

noreply@blogger.com (Cyphear) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:22:00 +0000

Catching Up

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:45:00 +0000

Since I started working the overnight shift at Wal-mart, I feel like all I'm ever doing is playing catch-up. I sleep when I get home until Capri wakes up, when Shad is home or when Capri naps. Brenden and Ainsley are really good about playing quietly until I get up in the morning. Ainsley is really good about watching a DVD or playing in her room while I nap. It took a little training, but she doesn't get into stuff like she used to. I am truly blessed that I have such good kids.
Brenden is doing really well in school. He is learning to read and it is so fun to read a book with him and have him read some of the words. It was recently discovered that Brenden has Childhood Apraxia. It is when the muscles have the ability to work correctly, but for some reason don't. It is almost like he has a brain to mouth connection problem. This diagnosis changed how his speech therapy is done. He is given four 15 minute sessions a week where he drills syllables which then becomes words. It's like teaching the muscles how to work. We have already noticed a difference. It is so exciting. I thank Heavenly Father for inspiring Brenden's speech pathologist so that he could get the therapy he needs.
Ainsley is a sweetheart. She loves Capri very much and is always wanting to help take care of her. She will play with her and loves to hold her. It goes well until Capri pinches her face or pulls her hair. Brenden and Capri have a very fun relationship. All he has to do is walk by and she starts to giggle. He also loves holding her, especially during Sacrament Meeting.
Capri is now 9 months old. She is crawling all over the place, can stand on her own, and is now starting to cruise. The kids love it when she walks behind the scooter. Capri is also starting to talk. Yesterday, she said "hi" and Brenden got really excited. Brenden and Ainsley love watching Capri grow and change. It is so great seeing how much they love each other.

Mommy look at what I can do!

noreply@blogger.com (Cyphear) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:11:00 +0000

Kids Portraits 08

noreply@blogger.com (Cyphear) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:16:00 +0000

Moved and Getting Settled

noreply@blogger.com (Erin) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 04:35:00 +0000

We got moved into our new house and are now trying to get unpacked and settled in. Capri was really good while we were trying to get moved. It was the most she was ever set down in her life. She still cried some, but not as much as I had expected. However, we are now facing adjustment issues. Capri doesn't like sleeping at night right now. I am so tired. I wish the phrase, "Go to sleep" actually worked. It is hard to be frustrated with her because all she does is smile and giggle at me. At least she's happy. Brenden and Ainsley like being in separate rooms, especially since they got nightlights. Ainsley loves her pink princess room. She also loves sharing a room with Capri.
We had a fun snow day this past weekend. The kids had fun playing in the snow on Sunday. It took some convincing to get them to change out of their church clothes first. Today, Ainsley wore shorts to the park. I love this weather.