Slacker

So I have totally been slacking on the blog end of things lately. In my defense I got called as the 1st counselor in the primary presidency a couple of weeks ago and that has made life a little busier. Bradley had his nineth birthday on monday, but we celebrated it last saturday with all his grandmas and grandpas.

Bradley got this sweet bike that his dad picked out for his birthday.

Katie had a dance performance for halloween at the Rec Center for the Spooktacular that they have every year. The rec center did a good job, You could take a scary canoe ride on the pool, bounce houses, big blow up slides and games. The only rip off was that you had to use three tickets to get into the performance, They made a killing off of all the family that came to see the kids dance. Katie did a good job and was super excited because it was the first time she got to do a dance in tap shoes. Bradley was suppose to perform but chickened out at the last minute. His class did thriller and did an awesome job to bad Bradley wasnt there to make it even better.

Halloween Costume pictures still to come, I bet you all cant wait!

Happy Birthday Katie!

On Thursday Katie turned 5! I cant believe how fast time flies. This year I let Katie have a birthday party with friends. She wanted to have a halloween party where the kids come in their costumes and we do Halloween things. We decorated bags to take trick or treating and painted pumpkins. We also ate donuts off of a string. Out of the 10 kids we invited only 2 came. Katie didnt even care she just had fun.

Here is Katie with Jackson and Sarah.


For her birthday she wanted her ears pierced. She chose little pink flowers(So Katie). She didnt even move when they did it although her eyes did just about pop out of her head.
She also got a barbie scooter and some clothes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!

Thunder!!

This morning the kids were listening to the radio and singing along so I decided to video tape them for a minute. Right in the middle of singing there was the loudest clap of thunder that freaked Katie out a bit so I thought I would share it. Its pretty funny.

Katies Big Accomplishment

So I have had the whole week off of work while Dr Smith is on a cruise and I vowed to myself to get so much done while I was at home and I havent accomplished one thing but cleaning the bathroom. Katie wanted to go outside to play and I suggested that she try to ride her bike again. We have tried and tried without the training wheels but she has had no balance whatsoever. I thought it was a lost cause but would at least give us something to do. After holding onto her for about 2 seconds she tells me to let go because she can do it herself. Sure enough she took off and never looked back. She had to run and get dad to watch her and call grandma to tell her. Grandma came and watched her ride for a minute and she was so excited to show off her new talent. My mom asked her if her dad watched her ride her bike yet and this is what katie told her. " Thats what dads are born to do watch tv and then come watch me ride my bike and then go watch tv again" She never fails to make me laugh even with the simplest of things.

3rd Grade

Bradley started 3rd grade yesterday. He is a little indifferent about starting school this year. He is excited though because his best friend is in his class. Up until now we had asked the school that they be in seperate classes because they are such a distraction to each other. We'll see how this year goes. Bradley pretty much lives at Hunters house if we are home and they have adopted him as their 4th boy. Bradley is such a fun loving, tender hearted little boy and I cant wait to see what this year brings us. For those of you just waiting on pins and needles for some video from hip hop class you will have to wait a while longer. He gets embarrased if I stay and watch. As soon as the teacher shows up he is pushing me out the door. I am trying to figure out how to video tape him because I want to see how well he is doing as well.

Update

Earlier this evening Kays dad passed away. He had to have surgery on a blockage in his intestines. They removed the blockage and part of his colon. He came out of surgery and when he was moved back into the intensive care he went into cardiac arrest. The doctors tried with no avail to bring him back. Kay jumped in the car and headed to Oregon once again. He has stayed pretty strong through this whole thing. I want him to know how much I love him and wish I could be with him in Oregon right now.

Kaylan Dad

Just thought I would let you know what has been going on in our family this week. On monday we got a call that Kays dad was in ICU in Oregon. He had been watersking the week before and had fell and landed really hard. His body really ached but he just thought he was sore. He started to get sick as well and was in extreme pain by Monday night so his wife took him to the Hospital. When he got there they discovered that he had a blood clot the size of your fist on his Kidney, Pneumonia and liver problems. They also found out that his heart was only working at about 50%. They decided to give him some blood thinners to see if that would shrink the clot, but because of the liver problems and the heart they had to really watch the amount so his liver would not start to bleed. Since being in the hospital he has gone into stage one kidney failure and developed MRSA in his blood and every organ but his heart. Things are not looking that good. They said that if you get MRSA in all of your organs your chance of survival is only 5%. Kaylan left on Wednesday to go up there. He is staying optimistic but its hard to tell by just conversations on the phone. He said that to go in and see him you have to completely gown up and wear a mask. He will stay until sunday and then come home. Who knows he might be returning to Oregon again shortly.

If you fight the knife the knife wins.

I was in the bathroom straightening my hair when I heard a blood curdling scream. Bradley comes running in with blood dripping everywhere. We tried to wash it off and put pressure with a towel but the bleeding wouldnt stop. So we grabbed Katie and headed to instacare. All the while trying to call Kay and tell him where we would be since we werent going to be home when we got there. We tried several times with no answer. The drive to instacare is literally two minutes from our house and i was relatively calm I could tell it wasnt a severe cut but we couldnt get the bleeding to stop by ourselves. Bradley on the other hand was in shock and he kept telling me the whole way there to hurry because "he was losing major blood here." We got to instacare and checked in. They seriously had us wait 20 min until kids care opened. I seriously was not happy about that I would have paid the extra $10 to just get right in but oh well. When we finally saw the doctor the bleeding had at least slowed and she was able to clean it off to see how deep it was. She said that she would put a couple of stitches in because he was an active boy that probably wouldnt keep still or keep it clean. The worst part was the numbing he cried pretty loud when she was doing that. After that he just laid on the table sucking the sucker they gave him not even moving. Both the doctor and the nurse commented on how well he was able to sit still. When we got out into the car Kay finally called and asked who had cut themselves, he was home know and there was blood all over. He said there must be something going on in our family because he had rear ended someone on the way home and that is why he didnt answer the phone. No injuries and little damage to either car so that was good. All the way home Bradley kept apologizing that he cut himself and telling me that hewouldn't play with knives again . He is so tender hearted. Katie on the other hand informed me that she wouldnt play with the sharp knives. Phew what a relief she will only play with the dull ones.

The pictures came up backwards but oh well. Kay had cleaned up all the blood really well by the time we had got home except I kept finding blood in all the wierdest places. This is at the very top of my kitchen cabinets almost to the ceiling.

I had to sneak a picture while he was sleeping because he would not let me take a picture of it. The nurse let him choose bteween a BYU OR UTAH bandage of course he chose Utah.

Fun In The Sun

We spent our 4th of July weekend in Spring City this year. It has become our favorite weekend getaway. We enjoy spending time with Mary, John and Andy and get to enjoy our favorite hobbies riding the four wheeler and target shooting. Kaylan has become very interested in antique guns and has done hours of research. His enthusiasm for guns has started to rub off on the rest of us as you will see.
The weekend started out at the Mountain Man Rendezvous in Mt Pleasant. They have many crafts, clothes and food from the pioneer days as well as a carnival and games set up for the kids.

Bradley was technically too big for this train but there was no one in line so the let him on. The poor train had a hard time even pulling him around the track.

Saturday morning we got up and went to the parade then in the afternoon we did some shooting. We shot all the guns ranging from the little 22 that is fun to shoot to the shotgun that will kick your butt. I have the marks on my shoulder to prove I even tried to shoot it.

Kaylan has been teaching Bradley how to shoot and how to safely handle guns. I am impressed with his ability so far and how well he handles the gun. I also go a little crazy as I watch him load the gun for himself and when he gets done shooting how he checks to make sure there are no bullets left and puts on the safety. He has definitely learned respect for what they can do and is very careful.

To carry on my worst mother of the year streak, Katie has her first sunburn. Apparently I put sunscreen everywhere but her back. Poor thing.

Here is our grand finale to the holiday weekend Bradley and Kaylan lighting the little package of fireworks that we bought. Bradley was so excited to fireworks the whole weekend and then when it came down to it was asleep by 9 o'clock each night. Saturday we actually woke him up when it started to get dark so we could light them off. We had a great weekend and Hope everyone enjoyed themselves as much as we did.

Katies Dance Concert

So I am pretty much still the most horrible mother in the world. I did however have a camera with working batteries in it this time, but didnt realize that the video would only shoot for 1 min and then you had to press play again. So the dance is in two different frames. Katie did a little better this year still just a tad behind everyone. It was fun to watch though. She is third in from the left on the back row.

The next pictures I just threw in here because they are pretty funny. Katie had to have a picture with her and her dad for a fathers day project at school. She would not give us one normal smile. So Kay got a gift with Katie giving him funny looks.

Camping

We spent the weekend camping and fishing with Kaylans family at Strawberry Reservoir. We had so much fun fishing, chatting by the fire and especially making "real smores" Katie has never been camping that she remembers to make smores at the campfire. She had a blast.

We were at the lake all day on Saturday fishing. I have never caught so many fish in one day in my life. Kaylan and I even fished through a major thunderstorm and only left because the lightening was getting a little to close for comfort. I wish I had pictures to show you just how wet we were. It was so much fun.

Katie never did catch a fish she just didnt have the patience. When we got back with the fish we caught she wanted her picture taken with it even though she wasnt the one to catch it. It was so funny.

NY

My post will be the first of the families about New York but probably the most boring because all the pictures are just places we went but most without people in them. New York has frankly always scared me a bit because everything I had heard about it was that it was a dangerous place to be. I loved New York so much I wish I could go back. I never felt uncomfortable or scared and there are always a zillion people around.

This is the statue in Rockefellar Center, The ice skating arena in the winter is just below the waterfall. The today show does there concert series in this area and while we were there Taylor Swift performed however it was raining and I didn't want to get up early enough to get a decent spot to see her. However while we were in New York Katie did get to go to the Taylor Swift concert here in SLC with Kays mom. Taylor Swift even walked right by her and said Hi to her. Katie was in heaven.

One day while Sarah and Kellie were sick me ,mom, brent and cindy walked all around SOHO and walked the Brooklyn Bridge. That night we went to Stomp! We were on the first row and it was incredible. We also made it to Wicked while we were there and I thought it was so amazing how well they sang and how funny it was, I recommend it to anyone who has the chance to see it.

This is the NYSE, they closed it to visitors after 9-11 unless you are invited in by someone so we just walked down Wall Street and saw all the huste and bustle.

This is Times Square my favorite spot. I didnt get that great of a picture but if you look really close you can see the ball they drop on New Years Eve. I had no idea that it stays there year round and even changes colors. While we were there the city shut down the area to cars and set up beach chairs in the middle of the road. You could just hang out in the middle of Broadway on beach chairs it was pretty cool. it also made walking in Times Square much easier. I cant imagine all those people smooshed onto the sidewalks. This is also where I picked up my knock off Coach and Kate Spade bags which I love.

The two pictures above are the Guggenhiem Museum. the architecture is pretty amazing.

This picture is for Bradley. Night at the Museum is his favorite movie and this is the Natural History Museum the movie is based off of.

The Statue of Liberty is also pretty amazing close up.

This is Ellis Island. I thought the statue was on Ellis Island however it is on Liberty Island. While on Ellis Island I was able to look up Marys husbands Johns father. He came to the US by boat in 1913. We were able to find the ships manifest with his own handwriting on it and print them off to give them to John. I cant wait to give it to him.

This is the site where the twin towers use to be they have since begun building the Freedom Tower so the area is really blocked off now and hard to see anything.

After 9-11 children began coming to the hospital right by the towers looking for loved ones lost in the buildings. They wrote on these little tiles thoughts of hope and peace and they have now hung all the tiles on these fences.

The Empire State Building. This is about all we saw because we saved going up in it until the last two days and then it was cloudy and rainy. At the top of the building on the observation deck the visibility was zero and they told us not to waste our money. But now we have something to go back for right?

The three pictures above are of central park. I had no Idea how big this park was or how pretty it was. In the middle of this huge city is this incredibly big park with small lakes and playgrounds, baseball fields and huge areas of lawn.
We walked around the park for several hours and were in awe of how wonderful it was. It was one week full of walking and walking and walking but so worth it and I cant wait to go back.

Busy , Busy, Busy

This month has started our super busy and shows no signs of slowing down. I thought I would give a quick update of whats been going on. The first weekend in May Kaylans dad and his wife Linda were down for his fathers 80th birthday party. It was a surprise party and I think everyone made it but 2-3 cousins. His family is so big that the party is always at a church because no one has enough room to accommodate that many people. It is always so much fun to get together with the Mechams. At the party we ate way more than we should have, played some fun games and of course with the Mechams no party would be complete with out Karaoke. Kay has a cousin that married a DJ and he always brings all his equipment. Katie and her cousins even got into the Karaoke doing every Taylor Swift song available. My camera of course had problems so I have no video but it was so funny.

Kaylans Grandpa telling everyone thanks for the big surprise.
The next weekend we headed down to Marys for mothers day. Grandpa gave the kids a ride around the yard with the four wheeler with all four of them yelling faster.


We decorated pots and then planted flowers. Katie painted the stripes. I put the white shapes on and then when we were all finished Bradley came and wrote. FROM BRAD ont the side. We then went hunting for our Mountain property. This is 40 acres for sale near Salina. Kay keeps telling me that the snow has barely melted and it will get greener and I keep telling him I really want a meadow with wild flowers. He tells me unless we have one million dollars the meadow is out of the question. DarnIt !!

On Sunday before we left Katie insisted on having a lemonade stand. Mary helped out by making the lemonade and getting it all set up for her. The funny thing is is that Mary lives in a very rural town where you maybe get one car every hour. So Mary called the neighbors to tell them that Katie was selling lemonade and everyone of them came over. It was so cute, she even ended up making 3 bucks. Which of course is already spent.

On Monday we headed to Tooele for Grandpa Murrays burial. It was a small service with the Navy colorguard present to present my Grandma with a flag. It was really neat and an honor to see them present my Grandma the flag. Grandpa Murray will be missed.

This weekend is probably more property searching and then next weekend off to NY!

Happy Birthday Kay!

Happy Birthday Kay, LOVE YOU!

Our New Office

Dr Smith has been building a new office for about 4 months now. With a couple of construction setbacks we are finally in our new place. It is so georgeous I wanted to share some pics with ya all of where I get to work everyday. He bought a condo suite in a brand new medical building at 4465 S 900 E

This is the front of the office building on 9ooE

This is taken from the parking lot in the rear.

The amazing new front desk.
The coffered ceiling in the entryway. I also caught Dr Smith in this shot.

Dr Smith did such a good job in picking out everything from the colors to all the fixtures. It is so fun to go to work everyday in such a beautiful building. I was worried that since it is now even further south from where we were that it would take so much longer to get there and home, but with direct freeway access at 45th south, it is actually faster than trying to make my way down 39th south to get to 33rd .

Our trip to Spring City

Last weekend we went down to Kays moms house in Spring City. We had the four wheeler in tow and were super excited to get some use out of it. It snowed all weekend, So the four wheeler sat on the trailer and we enjoyed some inside activities. We were celebrating Kays brothers 35th birthday and also an early easter. It was so fun to get away for the weekend and relax. We played dice and watched movies. We also painted easter eggs and had a little easter egg hunt for Bradley because he was dying to have one.



Katie in the car on the way down. She has been wanting braids in her hair lately and when she saw the after effect of taking the braids out the next day she wants them even more now.

Katie coloring on her egg with crayon before dipping it in color. Notice the wavy hair from the braids.

Bradley working on an egg.

The end result. You gotta love the no teeth stage!

We always love spending the weekend down south and cant wait for the next trip.