new cousin kennedy jane

it was fun to have cousins around this month. greg, jen and the boys came to go skiing and it turned out that lisa, ryan and the girls came to get baby kennedy.

Anna and Taylor had a very difficult time going to school before Kennedy was born - especially when the boys were here too. Finally Kennedy was born!

the only downside to having the paperwork go through fast was that the cousins went home

KENNEDY JANE MECHAM

Young Women's Conference Choir

Morgan, Anna and Alexis were blessed to be a part of the choir for the General Young Women's Conference. They had a wonderful experience and sounded beautiful. We saw Anna's forehead behind the organ. It took a great deal of time to commit to the practices but even the practices were full of great inspiration. We're so proud of you

KITCHEN done?

hard to tell how good it looks in just these pictures but things look great! you'll have to come by and check out our new kitchen ... we love the bathroom tile, the lights are perfect and add so much, granite counters simple and much better than ugly yellow formica, the cabinets exceeded our expectations ... we still need to decide on a backsplash for the kitchen - glass tiles ... but so far we have figured out what we do not like but not anything that is just right ... now the rest of the house needs new ...

GRANDMA GREAT AND GREAT GRANDKIDS

EVERYONE WAS TOGETHER IN THE SAME ROOM FOR LONG ENOUGH FOR A CELL PHONE PICTURE. AUNT JEN MENTIONED WE'LL HAVE A GENERATION OF POOR QUALITY FAMILY PHOTOS ALL TAKEN WITH CELL PHONES. BETTER THAN NO SHOT AT ALL FRONT ROW TAYLOR, KASEY, GREAT, REBECCA, CAROLINE BACK CONNOR, MORGAN, ANNA, PARKER, ALEXANDER

Deseret News | Stott's service on Utah bench governed by rules, consequences

Deseret News Stott's service on Utah bench governed by rules, consequences

Always Remember ...

"People, even more than things, have to be restored, revived, reclaimed and redeemed; never throw out anyone."

WORK IN PROGRESS

After 6 years we are finally fixing our kitchen and 1/2 bath. We have had horrid formica and have not liked the cabinets since day one. Around the first week of December we started making arrangements to redo the kitchen. We are getting some new cabinets and refacing some of the old ones. Along with cabinets comes lots of new lighting, Heber Valley Lighting - Char Clarke, mirrors, bathroom floor, faucets, rings in the bottom of the kitchen sink, knobs etc. Todd accuses me of trying to help stabilize the economy all on my own.

We now have the base of all of our cabinets and some of the trim. Wayne Clarke came and installed (with supervision from Todd) our lights and mirror. They are fabulous. Our granite and sinks were installed Wednesday and they are great. Urbano, our new everything else guy, had our tile put in today and the basement was painted last week (everything from the basement family room and the kitchen is in the storage room - we borrowed 2t of flour last week from the Grover's.) Everything is looking great but feeling slow.

Tomorrow is a new day, grout for bathroom floor, possibly set a new toilet, baseboards painted and installed in bath too. Mike, cabinet guy, is coming hopefully to mostly finish. He told me next week we'll be done. (?) Guy, cousin plumber, will hopefully come today or tomorrow to hook up the kitchen and bathroom sinks. Every day I change my mind about the backsplash for the kitchen. I know we are going to have glass tiles, what colors/types is yet to be decided. I think that has to wait for another pay check anyway.

Morgan in the morning

A few things about Morgan ... there are many many more but this gets us to the point of this particular morning. Morgan is an incredible artist, the other students at VAI - art school - like to watch her work. She tackles concepts in unsual ways. Morgan loves reading. She often doesn't go to sleep at night because she's reading til all hours. Morgan loves STUFF - stuffed animals, papers, "things", anything to take apart etc. Morgan loves her room - Aunt Jen painted a great M on her wall over her bed and got some great stuff to accessorize. That being said, her room is a huge disaster by parent standards - mostly because of the stuff. Morgan also loves to hoard candy and to eat in her bed even though there is a rule against food in bed. Morgan DOES NOT DO mornings! Morning is anytime before 2:00 pm. On Monday, when we tried to get Morgan up and going, we were all in for a big surprise! It appears, although denied, that Morgan had chocolate in her bed. Morgan sleeps very warm with lots of "stuff" around her. When I touched Morgan to wake her I knew something was not right. Morgan was a brown topper - like ice cream from Shivers. She had a nice thick coat of chocolate on the top half of her body. We tried to take pictures but they didn't do justice. There was chocolate covering 3/4 of her face, one entire hand, her neck, 1/2 of her hair and her bed and bunny and other stuffed animals. We think that perhaps the Leprechaun's brought the candy since Morgan denies having any.

get away for mom

Aunt Nan provided a great excursion for me, Shauna, aka MOM, for a long weekend.

Nan had a conference in Seattle, she couldn't talk any of her children into going with her so she called me. She knew that we had loved Seattle and figured I'd come along and we could go exploring after her meetings. I had a fabulous time along with a much needed break from real life. I slept in, or at least stayed in bed late, for 3 days, and had no "agenda" and no one that I had to take care of or entertain. The first day I called Barbara O'Brien and asked if we could get together over the weekend. She was busy on Saturday but said we could meet for "coffee" in an hour. She picked me up, we went back to Madison Park and she showed me all the changes and the sames, and had brunch at Tullys. Barbara is wonderful. She is full of positive energy and such a joy to be around. I was lucky to see Doug, he was off to meet another friend, and met their dog. It was perhaps more beautiful there than I had remembered.

After a fun visit with Barbara I walked to the Paramount Theatre in hopes of finding a way for us to get tickets to The Lion King that night or the following one. I had tried on phone and computer and through the consierre but no luck. I asked the woman at the box office, she offered to look but did not sound hopeful. The people ahead of me had had the same request. Two tickets for Saturday had just become available. They were on row L (12th row) center. After completing the transaction the clerk suggested that I now use my luck and purchase a lottery ticket. The show on Saturday night was fabulous! It was a super end to the trip.

After Nan's meetings we wandered downtown Seattle. We went to the Pike Place Market, bought t-shirts for the guys, walked down to the waterfront, had clam chowder and halibut at Ivar's, took an evening ferry ride to Bremerton and back then worked our way back uphill to the hotel. We stopped for hot cocoa, Nan tried a steamed milk with almond (I don't think she was a fan but she did try it). That was a lot of walking!

Saturday, after her meetings we went shopping. Nan was on a mission for new shoes and a white shirt. We found that and a bit more. We then wandered back to the market, then hopped a bus to the International District to explore Uwajayma, the largest Asian grocery store. Here Nan tried vegetable and shrimp tempura and gyozas. I don't think she was a fan of those either.

When we checked in at home we found that everything was running smoothly with Joe and Todd and the kids. Nan and I decided we need to do that more often especially since everyone did so well without us. THANKS NAN for a fun weekend.

"I GO SCHOOL ... I RUN FAST!!!!!!!!"

Alec loves two things ...

He loves to go to school and he loves to run fast

Ok, you're right, he also loves balls, cars, and chocolate, and his sisters, his Grandma (s), his Papa ...

Alec asks daily, upon awakening, "go to school today?"

His backpack has Lightning McQueen on it and it is almost as long as he is tall.

It's very cool to also wear his hat. You can't tell in this photo how fast his feet are moving. The minute he jumps out of the van he is on a run down the sidewalk, to the ramp and into school. He is generally 8 feet or more in front of me and running as fast as he can.

Another fun school thing is meeting the girls at school for lunch and recess. Alec loves to lead the pack in 1, 2, 3 GO. He then repeats and runs back only to repeat again.

One of Anna's classmates, Steven, is Alec's pal. He is always a good sport and runs fast with Alec.

Alec trys to get all involved and believes they are pretty cool and that everyone loves him. It doesn't get much better than RUN FAST at SCHOOL!