BLOG UPDATE

Wow! Time sure flies fast...it's been over a month since we have updated this blog and it's about time we do. The past month has been busy so we have plenty to post! The next few posts will update everyone on what's been going on in our lives the past few weeks. We hope you enjoy and since New Years is right around the corner, we have decided that a good resolution for our family is to update this more often. :) Just for the sake of having a picture, this is a fun one of the last day of school before the break...

A few of the cheerleaders sportin' our Christmas cheer!

We would like to wish everyone the merriest Christmas! This is such a wonderful season and means so much more than just the gifts and materialization of it all. Here is a great quote from our dear prophet Thomas S. Monson:

"Giving, not getting, brings to full bloom the Christmas spirit. Enemies are forgiven, friends remembered, and God obeyed. The spirit of Christmas illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world's busy life and become more interested in people than things. To catch the real meaning of the "Spirit of Christmas", we need only drop the last syllable, and it becomes the "Spirit of Christ". When we have the spirit of Christmas, we remember Him whose birth we commemorate at this season of the year. My prayer is that at this Christmas season and all the Christmastimes to come, we may follow in His footsteps. Then each Christmas will be the best Christmas ever."
-Thomas S. Monson

We wish the same for everyone and will definitely be updating soon.
Happy Holidays!

December and Aaron's Birthday

The month of December has been a busy one. The three weeks before Christmas just can't stick around at all. Between basketball games, music lessons for all of the kids, homework, actual working (for Greg and Marja), shopping, and all of the Christmas festivities going on, Christmas creeps up on all of us. This year, the cheerleaders got to cheer at a basketball tournament in St. George. So all 16 of us piled up in vans and headed down. Our coach and a few of the cheer parents (my mom included) were gracious enough to drive us down so we didn't have to make the 6 hour drive in an uncomfortable school bus. We left on a Thursday afternoon and came home on Sunday. It was such a fun weekend! Here are just a few of the pictures because if I put them all on, the blog would never end :)

Friday night at the Sky View/Dixie game

My cousin Jessica and myself...our teams (Sky View and Dixie) finally got to play each other so we were able to cheer at the same game our senior year! It was so fun to be able to do that!

Eating suckers at the Pizza Factory. My mom just fit right in with all of us and the girls loved her! :)

Our gorilla tape experiment! Our family is known for being quite the "Clampets" and this is another perfect example :)

My mom and me on the long drive back to Logan

Next thing is a little update from Matt! This is his first Christmas away from home and we're sure that it will be one of his most memorable! We have had some trouble with the mail the past little while and his packages have been getting stolen. Both my mom and grandma sent him one at the beginning of the month and neither package was received. That has been very frustrating but not to worry, we figured out a way around that! For his Christmas package, my mom Fed-Exed it to a ward member's home (the family actually used to be in our ward but moved because the husband is in the army and are now stationed in El Paso). They are having Matt over for dinner tonight (Christmas Eve) and will deliver it to him then. He is doing very well though! He sent us a few pictures a couple weeks ago and we'll include those. We are so excited to get to talk to him tomorrow! I would dare say that my mom is probably the most excited but all of us are anticipating it :) Anyway, here are the pictures he sent us...

Sergio's baptism with the Valdez family

Elder Camp, Elder Hubbard, Elder Davis, and Elder Bagley with the Montez family. Matt has frequently expressed his love for this family!

And last but not least, Aaron's birthday was just last week! His birthday is exactly a week before Christmas, December 18th, so he is our Christmas baby. Actually, let me correct that, he is our Christmas almost teenager!! Aaron turned 11 this year...he is growing up so fast! I remember when he was born 11 years ago and we brought him home from the hospital just days before the wonderful holiday. He was so precious and still is. I don't think I know a sweeter kid than Aaron! School was still in session on his birthday and it was another busy day. He was so patient to wait until after school, after dinner, after a SV basketball game and wrestling match, and after ice cream to finally open his presents at about 9:30 that night. But once he finally got to, he was one excited kid! He had a nice birthday dinner the next night and all was well :) Here are a few photos of the night.

Aaron the birthday boy!

Aaron and Jared

Jared, Marja, Aaron and Greg

Aaron and Megan

Grandma and Grandpa came over for the festivities!

Thanksgiving and such...

Thanksgiving was fabulous for our family this year! But before we discuss those details there are a few things that happened before. First of all, my Sadie Hawkins (Girl's choice) dance was the weekend right before Thanksgiving and it was so much fun! It was definitely in my top 2 favorite dances I've ever been to. The cheerleaders were in charge of planning the whole dance...that means decorations, DJ, royalty..the whole enchilada! We all went as a big group of 16 girls plus our dates and boy was it crazy! Here are just a few pictures of the eventful day.

My date Zach and me waiting to get pictures at the school

A few of the couples at dinner at my friend's beautiful home

Zach and me at dinner

Most of the girls in the group

The next thing we want to talk about is our missionary! Matt has been doing wonderful and is still located in El Paso. We look forward to his letters and experience the same emotions of happiness, disappointment and excitement that he does. A few days after Jared's birthday, he sent some pictures with his email! So here they are...we love sharing these!

Matt sportin' a sick old suit that he and Elder Camp discovered in their closet. He claimed that he could barely squeeze into it!

Elder Bagley, Destiny, Elder Camp, and Ray at the kid's baptism. This was Matt's first baptism :)

Matt's birthday greeting for Jared (he always used to call Jared "Cadillac" because of Jared's obsession of cars when he was about 2. Jared was very passionate about cars and Cadillacs specifically. He would pronounce the car brand like "Ca-lack-a-lack" and ever since then, the name has stuck with him!)

Finally, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! We unfortunately couldn't go down to St. George with my dad's side of the family, so we stayed here in the valley and spent the day with the Mecham side. It was great though! We went out to Michelle and Chris Daines's house and stuffed ourselves full of the tastiest food :) It was delicious! The spirit of the season was definitely packed into their home that day. Also, Aaron and Jared got quite the holiday surprise! Dave Chambers arranged for the boys to meet Diondre Borel and Robert Turbin (quarterback and running back for the USU football team). Now, we understand that Utah State may not have the best football team but it was still so fun for the little boys to meet them! They got autographs and pictures and had a great time! Thanks again Dave! Thanksgiving is truly a time to realize our blessings. How blessed we are to live where we do and be so close to family. How blessed we are to have the gospel in our lives as well. Anyways, here are a couple pictures from Thanksgiving!

Diondre Borel, Aaron, Jared, and Robert Turbin

Borel (quarterback) passing the ball to Jared

Turbin (running back) hamming it up for the camera with Aaron

All of the girls out at the Daines

Thanksgiving wouldn't be itself without football! My dad, Aaron, Jared and little Braden

Grandma and Grandpa Mecham :)

Sisters--Michelle and Marja

And finally, for a last little side note, I have some exciting news. My high school is doing "Peter Pan" for our winter musical. Auditions were the 11th of November and I gave them a shot, hoping for the best. Here is a little background of the audition:
Murphey's Law is out to get me because the night before auditions, I started feeling a little sick...the whole sore throat/runny nose/yucky cold kind of sick. So the day of auditions I woke up and funny thing, my voice was gone! I sounded like a raspy teenage boy haha. Anyways, about 10 minutes before they started I called my mom and had decided that it would be ricidulous to audition considering my health and how my voice sounded so I wasn't going to do it! But she gave me confidence and after seriously thinking about how I would feel after not auditioning, I decided to just go for it...voiceless and all! Anyways, to make a long story short, I got called back for some of the lead parts and ended up getting the part of PETER PAN!

Luckily, the directors all knew my voice and capabilities because I have worked with all of them in previous shows. I am so excited to get to play this part. Now, it probably seems a little odd that a girl is playing the part of a young boy. The reason is...because Peter is a young boy, and young boy's voices haven't dropped yet, the songs are all written much higher than a teenage boy could ever sing. So in all of the productions (from Broadway to high school) Peter has been played by a girl. This part will definitely be a stretch for me but I am excited to fly! It will be such a fun experience. It will be showing the second week in February so if anyone will be around to come see it, just let us know and we can get you details! :)

Jared's Birthday

November 15th was a BIG day at our house this year. It was Jared's 9th Birthday and let me tell you, he was counting down the days at least a month or two before. The kid couldn't wait! It was quite a fun day considering he had planned the whole thing out as well. He woke up and had a delicious french toast breakfast then played with friends the rest of the day. That night he opened his presents and we went bowling as a family. It was really fun and i'm pretty sure that my dad ended up beating us all...who knew that he was a good bowler? :) Anyways, to Jared's happiness, his birthday ended up stretching into the next day because we had his favorite chicken dinner on Sunday and a little family party (including Grandma and Grandpa Mecham and the Daines family) for him that night. It was a fun birthday!

Aaron and Jared on Jared's Birthday. They are wearing MEXICO shirts which were a little gift from Matt :)

Jared bowling

Aaron bowling

My dad, me, and my mom at the bowling alley

I like to call this picture "Jared and the Giant Candle." This was on Sunday night for his family party.

Also, on November 15th, SV Cheer had our annual "Kid's Camp". It is a day where little girls ages 3 to about 12 get to come to the school and we teach them dances, cheers, kicks, jumps, etc. and they get to be little cheerleaders! Then a week later they get to perform at a halftime for a basketball game. This year was so much fun and I was in charge of the 9-10 year old girls. They were such dolls and so I thought I would include a picture with a few of them!

A bunch of the little 9-10 year olds

They thought this little trick was pretty cool looking! :)