13 Memories of 2013

As we prepare to ring in the new year, we reflect on all the adventures that 2013 brought.  I can't believe that 2013 is over, it seemed to fly by.  2013 brought us some good times and some not so good times, a year we will always remember.  Here is 13 memories of the year 2013.

In chronological order:
1.  New Year's 
2013 started out great!  We got to ring in the new year with our little Mason.  Our highlight of 2013 has been watching our Mason grow and learn new things everyday.  We love this little guy of ours and feel so blessed and grateful that this sweet boy is part of our family.  

2.  Casey's broken wrist

In February Casey was playing on a basketball team.  Casey jumped up to try to grab the ball, when his legs were taken out from under him and he landed on his left wrist.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  Casey coming over to me, holding his limp broken wrist.  Casey's mom and dad took Mason and I rushed Casey to the Emergency Room.  Me, trying to park our newish van was a nightmare, I couldn't park it for the life of me in the small parking stalls at the ER.  Casey was in so much pain and I couldn't park our van!!  Luckily prayers are answered even for silly things like trying to park your car.  

The nurses took Casey into the x-ray room as soon as they saw his wrist.  The x-rays were pretty obvious that Casey's wrist was broken.  Thank goodness for Andy and Tayci who came to the ER to sit with Casey and I.  Andy even sat in the room while they had to set Casey's wrist back into place.  

Casey's mom and dad stayed with Mason until about 12:30 that night, until we got home from the ER.  It was a crazy night, but I still wasn't prepared to what would happen in the next couple of days. 

We were able to get in to see one of the best hand doctors around thanks to Amy and Jared.  After seeing him, he informed us that Casey would have to have surgery.  Surgery was set up for that Thursday.  My mom came to sit with me while Casey was in Surgery and my oldest sister, Amy, watched Mason for us.  Casey now has 12 screws holding in one metal plate in his wrist--I'm happy to report that he will no longer be playing city league basketball!  I remember thinking this is one of the hardest things we've had to go through, but looking back on it I know it made Casey and I stronger and closer to our Heavenly Father.  We had to rely on family a lot at that time, we couldn't of done it with without the help of everyone!!  This little adventure made 2013 unforgettable.  

 3.   Merilee and Garrett's wedding

In March my little sister, Merilee, got married.  We had so much fun spending the month of March doing wedding festivities, such as:  bridal showers, wedding luncheon at Goodwood BBQ, last minute wedding preparations, sitting in the Celestial room with all my family for the first time when Myrn went through to receive her endowments, and the actual wedding day.  Congratulations Merilee and Garrett we couldn't be happier for you!!

4.   Celebrating our 5 year anniversary

In May, Casey and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary.  My sister, Merilee, surprised us with a delicious home cooked meal.  She watched Mason for us while we ate our dinner over candle light then went to get an ice cream from Coldstone.  That weekend, Casey, Mason, and I went up to Park City to spend the night.  It was the first time Mase slept out of the home.  We had so much fun swimming in the indoor pool, shopping at the Park City Outlets, playing games, and watching movies.

5.  Summer at the Scera Pool

This past summer we spent most of our time at the Scera Pool.  Mason didn't like the pool that much starting out, but he grew to love the pool by the time summer was over.  I bought a punch pass for me and Mason.  A lot of the time Amy and I would take all the 5 kids to the pool during the day, sometimes Lin or Myrn would join us.  Other times we would take the kids in the afternoon so Casey and Jared could come with us.  We loved spending the summer at the pool.  

6.  4th of July

The 4th of July is my favorite holiday and this year was even better than ever because we had Mason to join us in all our holiday festivities.  We loved having Casey run in the Freedom Run 5k, watching the parade, getting snow cones, attending our annual 4th of July party at Tim and Natalie's, partying at Amy and Jared's, watching fireworks, and attending the balloons the morning after.  

7.  Girl's St. George Trip

In July the girls and the kids packed up our things and headed down to St. George for a couple of days.  We had so much fun!  It was so hot, that we mostly spent our days at the pool or the snow cone shack.  We had so much fun and we're looking forward to our 2014 girl's St. George trip.  

 

8.  Mason's First Birthday   

In September we celebrated Mason's one year birthday.  We made our little guy feel special when we celebrated his first birthday on 3 different occasions.  We look forward to celebrating many more birthdays with our little Mason man!

9. Capital Reef

In October Casey and I took a spur of the moment camping trip with Amy and Jared, Mom and Dad, and Ry and Meg down to Capital Reef.  We had so much fun!  Mason did great on his first over-nighter camping trip.  We loved going on hikes, celebrating Jared's birthday with peach cobbler and pumpkin pie, and enjoying our adventure of freezing cold weather while camping.  We hope to make this trip an annual occurrence.  

10.  Surf-N-Turf

We held our annual Surf-N-Turf in October.  The party was a great success.  We look forward to our next Surf-N-Turf in October 2014.

11.  Halloween

Although this was Mason's second Halloween, it was his first Halloween where we dressed him up and took him trick-or-treating to family.  He looked absoulty adorable in his Mickey Mouse costume.

 
12.  Front Sight and St. George

In November Casey had the opportunity to go to Front Sight in Nevada.  While Casey went to Front Sight mom, Lin, Amy, the kids, and I stayed in St. George.  When Casey got back we continued to stay in St. George for a couple more days.  We had fun hiking in Rock Canyon, partying at the club house, and spending time together.  We are already saving up for Casey to go to Front Sight again, but it probably won't be next year.  

13.  Celebrating the Holidays 

Our 2013 year ended with celebrating the holidays.  We enjoyed going to the Riverwoods and having Mason meet Santa, driving to Spanish Fork to see the lights, and spending time with family.  

Wow, what a year! 

 Last night before going to bed, I asked Casey what his favorite moment of 2013 was.  He replied with, "finding out I'm going to be a dad to baby #2."  2013 was full of adventures, but we are so excited for all the new memories we are going to create in 2014!!

 

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christams this year, filled with so many fun activites and spending time with family. 

Mason in his church Christmas outfit

Monday, December 23, 2013
We started our Christmas activities on Monday this year.  Casey's mom had planned her big annual Christmas Eve party, but since we'd be celebrating Christmas Eve with my family this year she decided to change it to Monday.  We started the evening out by eating delicious Hawaiian Haystacks.  Then it was on to our BINGO game.  Casey's mom always buys great prizes for the BINGO game and sometimes it turns into a small brawl over who gets what.  This year she bought multiples of everything so no one would fight over anything.  By the end of the BINGO game Case and I ended up with a great haul, including:  2 movies, comfy socks for me, regular socks for Casey, PINGO the children's book, car fresheners, lots of candy, a head lamp, and treats for Mason.  We had such a fun time playing BINGO.
After BINGO, C.J. read the Christmas story from the Bible.  Then it was time to say our goodbyes so we could take our tired Mason home. 

Tuesday, December 24, 2013--Christmas Eve
We celebrated Christmas Eve with my family this year.  We held our Christmas party at a church.  I'm so glad we did--usually Christmas Eve is spent at my grandparents house, but my grandma has so many trinkets and valuables that I was worried Mason would break something.  I didn't have to worry one bit about Mason at the church, he crawled around and has such a fun time.  We started the night out with a soup, cheese rolls, and salad dinner.  Then we played a gift exchange game then called it a night.  Case had a little last minute shopping to do, so while he went to Target Mase and I went to my parents house to write our letter to Santa. 
When Casey got done shopping, we came home and opened our Christmas jammies.  Then it was off to bed.

Christmas morning in their Christmas jammies

Wednesday, December 25, 2013--Christmas Day
We had so much fun celebrating Christmas with Mason.  Although he still doesn't get a lot of the present opening, it was still fun!  Mason ended up waking up around 7:30 on Christmas Day.  Although he didn't understand the present opening, I think he still new it was going to be a fun and special day.  When Case and I went in to get him he was jumping up and down in his crib like he knew there were presents under the tree waiting for him.
It was so fun watching Mason open his gifts.  Case and I would help him unwrap it a little, then he would go to town on ripping the wrapping paper off.  After the present was finally unwrapped Mase would play with it for about 30 seconds, then crawl to his old toys to play with them.  I know he was grateful for what he got for Christmas this year, even though he showed it by playing with his old toys.  This year Mason got:  a toy alligator, books, building blocks from Santa, and clothes, and a quiet book that I made him from Casey and I.  From grandma and grandpa Mecham, Mason got a new outfit and a pull toy bee, which he LOVES. 

After Case and I exchanged our gifts to each other and Mason finished opening his gifts we had some special visitors.  Mom and dad came over and brought us a delicious breakfast of Golden Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, donuts, muffins, milk, chocolate milk, and apple juice.  It was a delicious breakfast and we are so grateful for mom and dad who brought it over to us. 

After breakfast we put Mason down for a nap before going over to Casey's mom and dads to visit.  We had so much fun spending the morning with Casey's family.  Case and I gave his mom and dad a book of pictures of Mason.  They absolutely loved it.  They loved looking at it and seeing how much Mason has grown in the past year.  While we were over to their house we ate lunch and visited with family.  Around 3:00  Case and I decided to head home to put Mason down for a nap before heading over to my family's. 
We headed over to my family's around 5:00.  We ate dinner and snacked on treats, opened more gifts, and visited with family.  Mason got a new outfit, some fridge magnets, and a puzzle from grandma and grandpa.  We had so much fun spending the night with my family. 

Around 9:30 Mason was done.  Case and I helped clean up, then we took our little tired Mason home.  It had been a long day for him and it was totally exhausted. 

We enjoyed every minute of Christmas this year.  We loved spending time with family and we LOVED spending Christmas with our little Mason.  We also enjoyed reflecting on the birth of our Savior, we feel so blessed all year long, but especially around this holiday season. 

Thursday, December 26, 2013
Mase and I pretty much spent the day together playing with all his new toys.  Casey had to work until noon and when he got home from work he went and saw the Hobbit with his family.  I didn't really care about seeing the Hobbit and I didn't want to leave Mason the day after Christmas so I stayed home and Mase and I went out to lunch with Myrn and Garrett and Ryan and Meg. 
When Casey got home from the movie, we took Mason to see the lights in Spanish Fork.  I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see the lights before Christmas, but after going I was so thrilled we waited.  Last year we went to see the lights the weekend before Christmas and it was so crowded.  There were so many cars that they would only let you drive around once.  This year Case and I were one of the only cars there.  We would pull off to the side of the road so Mase could watch some of the moving lights.  Mason loved looking at all the lights and he loved helping Casey drive the car through the lights (we took Mason out of his carseat while we were at the lights, then put him right back in after the lights). 

While driving home, Ry and Meg called and invited us over to play games.  We had so much fun playing Wits and Wagers.  Mason loved playing with all of Mabel's toys, especially the grocery cart!
Around 8:30 we took Mason home to put him to bed. 

We are so sad Christmas is over, but we are looking forward to the New Year and all that year 2014 will bring. 

15 Months

I can't believe our little Mason is 15 months old.  Mason still seems so little to me, it's hard to imagine him growing any bigger.  I took him to the doctor, for his 15 month well-visit, on Friday, December 20th.  Here are his 15 months stats.

Weight:  Mason weighs 21 pounds which is in the 30th percentile.  He hasn't gained any since I took him in for his 12 month.  The doctor didn't seem too worried considering the fact that he is crawling so much and moving around so much.

Height:  Our little Mason is 30 inches tall which is in the 40th percentile.  He grew a whole inch since his 12 month appointment.

Head Size:  His head size is 18 inches which is in the 80th percentile.

Looking back at his 12 month check-up, not much has changed in Mason's size.

Teeth:  Mason has 3 front teeth on top two molars on top.  He also has 4 bottom teeth in front and 2 molars on the bottom. 

Sleeping:  Mason sleeps through the night.  We put him to bed at 8:30 and he'll usually sleep in until 8 in the morning.  When I wake up to go check on him each morning he is usually sitting in his crib, very quietly, playing with his hands, he finds a lot of fascination with his hands.  If we don't put Mason to bed by 8:30 he'll usually sleep in until 9 or later.
Mason is still taking 2 naps a day.  One around 10:30 or 11:00 and the other around 3:30.

Talking:  When you are talking to Mason and you say his name, he'll sometimes say "huh."  My sister says she heard him say "look" when he was looking at a few books.

Eating:  Mason continues to eat a lot.  Pretty much anything we give him he'll eat.  He went through a small phase this past month where we had a hard time getting him to eat anything.  He would take two bites of something then be done.  I'm not sure if he just wasn't feeling good or just wasn't in the mood to eat anything, but he's back on schedule now and eating lots and lots. 

Movement:  Mason's doctor seemed a little concerned that he's not walking yet.  Hopefully he'll catch on to it soon.  Mason will walk as long as your holding his hand, but as soon as you let go hel'll take a few steps then sit down to crawl.  He's so close, but he won't do it on his own yet.  He pushes his walker and walks along the furniture like crazy, but won't take more then two steps on his own.  I'm not sure if Mason is just scared or if he knows he can get around so much faster crawling and he just gets frusterated.  Sometimes Case and I will leave a gap in between us for Mason to walk.  He'll do it a few times then just collapese to let us know he is done trying to walk.  On a positive note, Mason is the fastest crawler.  He can get to one end of the room to the other faster than any baby I have seen.  I have to keep a constant eye on him or he is into mischeif in no time. 

Other:  Mason is at such a fun age.  It seems like he is learning more and more everyday.  The other morning for nap time I read him a story called Firefighter Frank.  The book has a dog on evey page.  I asked Mason where the doggy was and he pointed to the doggy on each page.  I couldn't believe how much he is taking in right now.  He's like a sponge taking it all in and learning new things everyday. 
I'm constantly having to keep an eye on our little guy.  I can't look away for even one second, or this happens...

Mason got into the garbage sack drawer and pulled out all the garbage sacks in less then 30 seconds.  Then he would quickly crawl through all the garbage sacks and watch them fly all over. 

Or this...

Mason got into my fingernail polish and threw it behind him.  The jar of fingernail polish broke and got fingernail polish everywhere.  Luckily Casey knows all the tricks to getting stains out of floors. 

We love our little Mason and we are so excited to spend the holidays, for the second year, with this little sweet boy of ours. 

Meeting Santa

We took Mason down to the Riverwoods on Monday, for Family Home Evening, to meet Santa.  The weather was freezing cold, so we bundled our little Mason up and took him out.  The cold didn't really seem to bother Mason, he was so snugly in his 4 layers of clothing, hat, gloves, winter coat, and a large blanket, that I don't think he even knew how cold it really was outside. 

Our first stop was to visit Santa.  After I sat Mason on Santa's lap he got a little look of worry, but then became so enthralled with Santa's fluffy white beard that he couldn't take his eyes off of him.  I was pretty surprised, considering the fact that I was scared to death of Santa for as long as I can remember.    Mason sat on Santa's lap for a good 3-4 minutes just staring, wanting to touch and pull that white beard, before our turn was over and we had to take Mason off Santa's lap.  As we were just getting ready to leave, Santa asked Mason what he wanted for Christmas.  I told Santa that Mason really wanted some building blocks. 

Our next stop was to ride the horse carriage.  Mason had so much fun on the horse carriage ride.  He loved looking at the lights the whole time.  After our horse carriage ride we went up front to look at and pet the horses.  Mason laughed and smiled the whole time he was petting the horses.   

 

After petting the horses, we walked into Blikenstaff's to get warm.  Mason loves the Jack-in-the-Box.  He laughs every time the clown pops up. 

 

After getting warm, we decided to walk around and look at a few of the lights.  Casey was loving every moment of this, because Mason was so snugly with Case.  This little guy of ours loves his daddy.

 

After walking around and looking at Christmas lights for about 5 minutes, we decided it was a little too cold to have Mason out any longer.  We stopped and got a Carmel apple from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, then headed home. 

 

We ended our night by eating our Carmel apple and drinking hot chocolate. 

 

We sure had fun spending the night with our little family.  We look forward to doing lots more Christmas activities with our family around his holiday season. 

Thanksgiving

I love this time of year because we get to spend so much time with family.  This Thanksgiving definitely didn't disappoint, we got to eat lots of yummy food and we got to spend lots of time with family. 

Thanksgiving this year was spent with the Mecham's.  Thanksgiving dinner was scheduled for 1:00p.m.  We had a delicious feast of:  turkey (deep fried and oven roasted), homemade rolls, potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, corn, and cranberries.   This was Mason's first Thanksgiving where he actually got to eat the food.  His favorite were the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, turkey and rolls. 

After dinner we cleaned up and let our food settle before digging into pies.  The pies were a great ending to our wonderful dinner.  We had an assortment of pies including:  pumpkin, banana cream, chocolate, and apple. 

After pie it was time to say our good-byes and leave to visit my family.  When we got to my family's we had more delicious food including:  a relish tray, turkey rolls, and more pie.  We spend the night playing games and having a great time spending time with family. 

Casey had Friday off work.  Mason got pretty attached to his daddy with all the time Casey had off work for Thanksgiving weekend.  Friday we spent the day relaxing at home with our little family.  Friday night we had fun playing games with Myrn and Garrett. 

On Saturday, Grandma and Grandpa Mecham hosted their first annual grandchildren Christmas party.  This year parents were invited, but when the grand kids get a little older...no parents are invited.  First on the agenda for the Christmas party was decorating Mason's very first and very own Christmas tree.  Grandma Roz had gotten pictures of Jesus and we made tree ornaments out of them then we put them on the tree.  Everyday we show Mason a picture of Jesus and tell the story of what is going on in the pictures.  We put Mason's tree in his room.  He loves to look at it all lit up at night. 

 After decorating his Christmas tree, Mason got to eat his favorite snacks...yogurt melts...of all different flavors.  Mason was in heaven shoving the yogurt melts into his mouth.  Parker is still a little young to eat the yogurt melts by himself, you can see his hanging out of his mouth.  Parker loved watching Mason eat them as fast as he could.  I'm pretty sure Parker was thinking, "I can't wait to be able to do that someday!"

After snack time it was time for stories.  Grandma Roz did a flannel board story of the First Christmas and then read the Night Before Christmas.  Mason loved listening to the stories and eating more snacks while listening.   

 

After stories, grandma and grandpa gave Mason his presents.  They gave him is very own Christmas ornament of Charley Brown standing by a Christmas tree, a board book of the First Christmas and a board book of The Night Before Christmas, and an advent calendar.  Mason loves turning the flaps on the advent calendar each day. 
Mason had so much fun at his first annual grandchildren Christmas party.  We are already looking forward to it for next year.

Later that night our little family was hit with the dreadful flu.  The flu has been going around my family.  12/22 of us have all gotten the flu.  I hoped it might skip over our family, but sure enough we were hit.  We spent Saturday night and Sunday recovering.  Luckily it only lasted about 24 hours. 

We love this time of year and the opportunity it gives us to really reflect on all our blessings and all the things we have to be thankful for.  Right now I am most grateful for our Savior.  Because of all that he has done for me, I get to be with my family forever and family is the most important thing to me in the world. 

Happy Thanksgiving!