pictures!!!!!

It's been a long time, but we've been busy adjusting to having two cute boys in our home instead of just one, and putting our home in order. We love our home, it's not big and it doesn't have all the latest things, but its ours and its home to us! :-) We love our boys! Will is always amazing us with the things he says and does and he still adores his "Little Ethan". Ethan is a wonderful and happy baby. He is a little over 2 months now. At his check-up he was 23 inches long and 13 lbs (he loves to eat!). Life is wonderful and we are looking forward to the holidays. Jody's family will be coming. We can't wait! Enjoy the pictures!

Will loved being a cowboy for Halloween.

Ethan was a frog for Halloween. His costume was huge on him, but he was so cute in it!

Ethan loves to smile!

What a cutie!

Jody did the turkey for Thanksgiving. It was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!! I think each year since we have been married we have had a different turkey each year. Jody loves to try new recipes.

My mom has a container full of beans for Will to play in. It's one of his favorite things to play with at my parent's house. Will was sitting in the beans and told us that Ethan wanted to play in the beans with him.

It's amazing the coloring of these two. You can tell that they are definitely brothers, but I think Ethan is going to be a little darker in coloring.

Give Thanks for Simple Blessings

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm so grateful for my 3 boys (yes I include Jody when I say I have three boys! :-), what more could a girl want?! I'm so grateful for our home, for Jody's job, for good health, for family, and so much more. I hope everyone enjoys this wonderful day.

Update

Just a quick update.....things are going well, though busy. It's hard to believe Ethan is a month old! Time had just flown by. Will still loves holding Ethan and giving him kisses. Will has been a great help around the house as well. He loves to unpack boxes and figure out where everything should go. Ethan wakes up about once or twice a night, which isn't too bad. Ethan loves to eat and when he is hungry he is not afraid to let you know. :-) We are enjoying our home. We still have things to unpack, but it's slowly coming together. Jody has done a great job in building shelves in a closet for all of our food storage. He also had to cut all the doors down a little in the house since we added carpet. He's had quite a few other projects to do also, but it's fun to do since its our own! Hope everyone is doing well. We will put up new pictures soon!

A Video Too!

Photos of Ethan & Family

HE'S HERE!!!!

Ethan Daryl Lane

7 lbs. 6 oz.

4:57 p.m.

Photos very soon!

At the Hospital!!

We are at the hospital awaiting the arrival of our new baby boy! (Thank goodness for free hospital WiFi)

I officially hate the Swine Flu (H1N1). The hospital has a very strict policy about the number of visitors and THEIR AGE! No one under 14 can visit any patient admitted to the hospital. This means that Michelle will not get to see Will for almost 3 days, and Will won't be able to see the baby until he is discharged. I know this is for a good reason, and I am not complaining about why it's being done. It just sucks for Will to not be able to see his mommy for so long.

Anyways, we will post photos as soon as we can.

It's Coming Along........

Things are moving along. We have spent the last few days cleaning, painting, and having carpet laid in our home. It's amazing the difference already with paint and new carpet.

There's no way we would be this far along if it weren't for the help from my family and my wonderful and amazing friend Kristi. My family was up in Pocatello this past weekend celebrating my Grandma and Grandpa Mecham's 50th anniversary (we feel bad we didn't make it, but with it being so close to the baby's due date and needing to get the house painted we decided it was best to stay home) and Kristi (one of my roommates at college) was in Utah for the weekend and spent Friday thru Monday helping us paint and entertain Will. What a life saver she was!!! My family came back Sunday night and Monday we were able to get most of the painting done. The carpet was laid yesterday and we finished the touch up of paint last night. Today and tomorrow morning we'll finish packing and move in tomorrow night. And then hopefully we'll have a few days to relax and enjoy conference before this baby decides to come. But we'll take him any time he's ready!!! :-)

We've been taking pictures of the house, but left the camera at my parent's house. When I get a chance I'll post them. Hope everyone has a great week!

Update!

Well we are official homeowners! We signed yesterday (we were supposed to last week, but somethings came up that delayed the signing a little). It's a great feeling to know that we have finished this part of the whole process. Now we just need to paint, lay carpet, and move in. We are so excited!

Just a few more weeks, hopefully!

We are doing good. We had to push the closing date on the house another week, so instead of signing on the house last week, we're hoping that nothing will come up so we can do it tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for us! :-)

If all goes well the plan is to paint, have carpet laid, and move in by next week. I plan to take it really easy just so this baby doesn't decide to come too early, though by next week we'll hit that lucky number of 38 weeks so all should be just fine if he does decide to come.

Will has been a great help in packing. He loves to help put the boxes together and tape them up. I don't think he quite understands that we're moving, but I hope by talking about it with him that it won't be too much of a shock for him when we finally get into the house. Plus he'll have a backyard to run around and play in, which will hopefully help transition.

While packing, I'm unpacking all of Will's baby clothes and such to have out just in case the little guy decides to come early. Will has enjoyed playing with the car seat and seeing all the little clothes that don't fit him anymore. He's going to make a great big brother. He's so sweet around other babies and is usually very gentle.

We'll try to get pictures of the baby up as soon as we can so you all can see the little guy. Though life is busy, we are excited and can't wait for him to join our family!

Jody is planning on taking two weeks off once the baby arrives, which will be so great. It'll give us time to get used to having four in our family and get settled into the house.

Chad is doing great on his mission! Last week he had the opportunity of going to a meeting where Elder Bednar presided. Chad said it was a great experience and one he won't soon forget.

Have a great day!

Pictures

Family picture day is such a wonderful and exciting day.......if that's how you feel about that day that's great! That is not how my family feels about it. It turns out to be a stressful day. On this such day it had been raining off and on. We weren't sure if we would be able to do pictures, but needed it to work because we wanted to get it done before Chad left for his mission. Luckily the rain stopped long enough for us to get the pictures we needed. The below picture is a little dark, but I wanted you to see how it turned out.

Will being his cute self.

This is Chad with his new companion. He's from Germany.

This is Chad with his Mission President and Wife.

Time to catch up

It's been awhile, so here's an update. We've spent the summer looking to buy a house. It's been quite the whirlwind. We've finally found one that we like. Our offer has been accepted and in about 3 1/2 weeks we'll be able to move in (if everything continues to go well). We're excited and nervous. It's such a big step, but one we are ready for. So once we move in we'll have about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks before the baby is due. My plan is to take it nice and slow packing and being careful about not over doing it, we don't want this baby to come too soon. :-)

We can't believe how fast the time has gone from when we found out we were going to have another baby til now. It's hard to believe the baby will be here in less than 2 months. We are getting so excited to meet this little guy!! When we move we'll be closer to my parent's house, which is going to be great. We'll have plenty of help. Jody is already planning on taking two weeks off of work once the baby arrives. It's be so nice having him home.

We seem to be amazed each day by the things Will can do. He's getting to be so big. I can't believe he is already 2 1/2 years old. Where has the time gone? Right now I'm working on potty training him. We are only into day 3 of it, but it's going really well.

Will loves all kinds of sports. Jody and I keep saying we better prepare now, we have a feeling we'll be going to plenty of games from here on out. :-) Will loves going to nursery each week and playing with his friends. And he loves to sing Primary songs. He's favorite right now is "I Hope They Call Me on A Mission." He calls it Uncle Chad's song. He's loving getting e-mails and letters from Chad.

Chad's doing well on his mission. He's been out of the MTC for about 2 weeks now. His companion is from Germany and Chad said that he's lucky that his companion is such a great cook! Chad is serving in the Liverpool, Wigan area.

Last week Jody's dad came into town for business. He stayed overnight with us. We enjoyed spending time with him. Will loved being around Grandpa Jack, though he wished Grandma Cathy could have come too. Ashley and Drew (sister and brother-in-law) came down for dinner and we all had a good visit.

Well we hope all is well for everyone!

Six weeks to go. Will loves giving the baby kisses.

Elder Mecham is in England!

Chad left last Thursday morning for the Preston England MTC. Wednesday night we all slept at my parent's house and stayed up pretty late helping Chad pack and just enjoying our last evening together. Thursday morning we went over to the stake center to have Chad set apart as a missionary. It was such a neat experience! After that we went back home ate breakfast, loaded up, and headed to the airport. There were several other missionaries who would be flying on the same flight as Chad. We were at the airport for a little over an hour. It was hard to say good-bye, but we are so excited for Chad to be serving a mission. He arrived in England about 2 a.m. Friday morning (our time).
We've received one e-mail so far and he's doing great. He's enjoying being outside of the country and being in the MTC. Today (Thursday) he will have to chance to go out tracting. He said he's a little nervous about it, but I'm sure he'll do great. He'll be in the MTC for another two weeks and then he'll head off to his first area.
Will and Chad have such a great relationship and I've been kinda' worried about Will not understanding why Uncle Chad isn't around. But so far he's been just fine. We keep telling him that Uncle Chad is on a mission in England. So now if you ask Will where Chad is, he'll tell you he's on a mission. It's really cute!
As for us, we are doing good. We're glad to be home for a while. June and July were crazy, but tons of fun for us, but it's good to be home. We have just a couple more months before the baby arrives. We are getting excited. Will has been so cute lately about the baby. The other night he kept poking my tummy saying, "Move baby, move!" Then he would wait to see if the baby would move and then do it again. Each day he asks me how the baby is doing. He's going to make such a great big brother!
Well hope everyone is doing well! I promise to post pictures soon.

We're Back!

We're back from our trip to Arkansas and Pocatello. We had a blast in Arkansas spending time with Jody's family. We were able to spend time with Ky's kids (Jody's sister) as well. Will loved playing with his cousins.

We spent some time at the condo and went swimming and boating. Will wasn't quite sure about the swimming, but he loved being in the boat. He kept telling Jody's Uncle John to go faster and faster.

We went digging for diamonds (no we didn't find any, darn it, but it was fun digging for them!), saw UP! and Ice Age 3, ate lots of good food, and just thouroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Will loved being around his Uncle Jeff. Jeff played golf and basketball with him, showed him how to fish, and pretty much did anything Will wanted him to do. Since we've been back Will keeps saying he misses Uncle Jeff. :-)

Grandpa Jack bought Will his favorite candy and a baseball and bat, which Will has loved playing with. Grandma Cathy read Will stories and helped him make a book and color it. All in all, Will enjoyed being spoiled by his grandparents! :-) Thanks so much for the wonderful time! It went by too fast!

We got home Thursday and headed up to Pocatello on Friday for the 4th of July. We spent the weekend with my grandparents and had a wonderful time as well. The boys all went golfing on Saturday (Will went too and loved it!) and the girls went shopping. That evening a crazy storm came through. Tons of rain, wind, thunder and lightening and hail (more hail then I have ever seen at one time), but it cleared up right before it got dark so we were still able to do fireworks.

I must say it is so nice to be back home again. We've had a great couple of weeks, but there is nothing like being home. I've got a lot of pictures to post, but I'll do it in the next couple of days when I have more time. Hope everyone is doing well and had a good 4th of July!

Idea for Father's Day

Here's a really cute card you can make for Father's Day if you need an idea.

http://marielovestostamp.blogspot.com/2007/06/shirt-folding-tutorial.html

Busy, Busy, Busy

Last week was busy but wonderful. My little brother Chad graduated from high school and went through the temple. Being in the temple with him was amazing. My whole family was there, including both sets of grandparents. Life doesn't get any better than that! I look forward to the day when we can be with Will and the rest of our children in the temple.

It's hard to believe that Chad, my baby brother (though he is taller than me), has finished high school and is preparing to leave on his mission in July. We are so excited for him!

Will continues to amaze us each and every day. His vocabulary is shooting through the roof. The other day he was playing basketball with his two great-grandpas and grandpa and every time they would make a basket he would say, "Good job Grandpa!!" He did something the other day when I was in the other room and I could hear him saying, "That's so awesome!" He says, "I'm okay" or "Of course" or "Sure" alot. And yesterday when I ran to the store, Jody told me that he had told Will that he needed me for something and Will kept telling him, "She's coming, she's coming" until I got home. Will has a great sense of humor and a caring spirit. Any time he sees that we are sad or frustrated he will come running and give us hugs to make it better.

Towards the end of the month we will be heading to Arkansas to visit Jody's parents and family. We can't wait!!! Will gets excited when we tell him we get to ride on an airplane. It'll be interesting to see how he does. The last two times he has flown he did wonderful, but its been quite a while, so we'll see. Will keeps talking about going to see Grandpa Jack, Grandma Cathy, and Uncle Jeff. It can't come soon enough for him! :-)

I'm feeling the baby move more and more. Jody has been able to feel it a couple of times. Still no name, but we're working on it. We look forward to this fall when this baby arrives.

Hope everyone is doing well!

We're Going to Have............

We went to have our ultrasound yesterday. We're having another boy!!!!!!!! We are so excited. It will be great having two boys in a row. We were thrilled to find out that he is healthy and that everything looks good. Now our only concern in finding a name. When we found out Will was a boy we loved the name William and that was it. Right now we have no names that we really love. We've got about 4 months to figure it out. If you have any ideas send them our way.

Today is our 4th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe how much things have change in the past 4 years and how fast it has gone by. Life just keeps getting better and better!

Update

Things are going well for us. I'm finally getting past the morning sickness. Yea!! We find out in about two weeks what we'll be having. We can't wait!

Jody's job is going well. Though it keeps him busy, he enjoys what he does. We'll be going out to Arkansas to visit his parents next month. We can't wait to go spend some time with them.

Will is keeping us busy. He has quite the imagination. It keeps us smiling. He can sing you his ABC's and count to ten on his own. He loves to read, play with play dough, play with cars, and LOVES to play golf. For his birthday we got him a set of clubs and he is always playing with them. He's actually quite good too. He rarely misses hitting the ball. A couple weeks ago Will went with Jody, my brothers, dad, and grandpa golfing. He played all nine holes. Jody said Will loved driving the golf cart around and at each hole he would jump out and wait for Jody to hand him a club to hit the ball. By the end Will was quite tired, but any time he hears the guys talking about going golfing he wants to go.

Will enjoys helping me in the kitchen.


He has become quite independent too. He likes to do things on his own. As you can tell one of those things is doing his own hair. We are working on not putting so much gel in his hair. :-)

Last week Will helped me make strawberry freezer jam. It took two mornings to finish using all the strawberries we had boughten (we found a great deal), but Will was quite the trooper and a great help.

We love watching Will grow up into the sweet little (big) boy he is turning into. He's going to make a great big brother!!!!!!

Drum Roll Please....................

Chad opened his mission call last night and he is going to the Manchester England Mission.  He leaves on July 24th for the MTC there in England.  So we'll be taking him to the airport instead of seeing him off at the MTC.  We are so excited for him.  He will be the first one out of our immediate family to go outside of the United States (my dad served in Washington D.C., Andrew in Boston, Marianne's husband Pete in California, and Jody in Las Vegas, Nevada).

IT CAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chad's mission call has arrived!  And he is kindly going to wait for all of us to get to Mom and Dad's house tonight at 6pm before he opens it.  Will post more once we find out where and when.

Something I forgot to mention, my sister Marianne graduated last week with a degree in Interior Design.  We are so excited for her.  Right now she is working for the Church in the temple department.  She helps redecorate temples that need updating.  She loves her job! 

Update...

Chad didn't receive his mission call yesterday.  Hopefully next Wednesday!  Ususally it should only take a week to get your call after you have put it in (since we live so close to Salt Lake City).  My brother Andrew ended up waiting 3 weeks.  Next week will be three weeks for Chad.  It must be a Mecham thing! :-)

Weekend

We had a great weekend!  We really enjoyed listening to General Conference.  It was great to hear something so positive, uplifting, and full of hope even though times are tough.  

We took Will to an Easter egg hunt Saturday over at my dad's work.  He had fun looking for the eggs and loved opening them to find candy inside.  I'll post pictures once I get the camera back from my parent's house.

Each day brings something new and fun with Will.  He brings so much joy to us!  He has been saying things lately that will have Jody and I looking at each other wondering where he picked that up from.  Some of them are, "Check it out!" and "I'm just hanging out" (he usually says that when we ask him what he's doing) and "Grandma's cute" (my mom loves this one!).  One time I was running my fingers through his hair and he said, "No, no, no ..... I'm boss!"  Then he turned around and gave me a big hug and said, "Sorry."  Several times a day he will ask where everyone is at, and when I say everyone I mean all his aunts and uncles, grandparents, and cousins by name.  Will loves to sing songs and read storys.  He has a great imagination.  Being a parent has been a wonderful experience and we look forward to having another child to raise.

We are thinking that my brother Chad will be receiving his mission call on Wednesday.  We are so excited to see where he'll be going.  He'll make a great missionary!  Once we find out, I'll post something to let you all know.

Hope everyone is doing well.  We love you!

Exciting News!!

A new pair of feet are headed our way in October!  We are so excited!  Michelle's been more sick this time, than when she was pregnant with Will, but hopefully it will be ending soon.  We can't wait to see Will with his new brother or sister.  He loves being around babies and he'll be a big help to us.  We're excited to find out if we're having a boy or girl, either one will be great.   Hope everyone is doing well!

Happy Birthday to Us!

Will and I celebrated our birthday over the weekend (Friday to be exact).  It's been 2 years now that Will decided to appear at 12:08 am on Feb. 20th, which just happened to be my birthday.  It's so much fun having the same birthday.  Jody always tries to make a big deal out of the day.   Will and I woke up to the streamers, sign, and balloons that morning.  It brought smiles to both of our faces.

My family was able to come over that night to celebrate with us.  Though Grandma and Grandpa Lane couldn't be there, we were able to talk to them on the phone.

Will loved eating the cup cakes.  In the above picture the cupcakes are in the shape of a 2 and a 5.  The 2 for Will and the 25 for me (yes, I am a 1/4 of a century old now, it's been a rough one! :-)

Will was excited to find money in some of his birthday cards.  He wanted to put it in his piggy right away.  

Jody and I gave Will a golf club set.  He has loved playing with it!!!  He definitely takes  after his dad,  grandpas,  and uncles.  Below is my dad showing Will how to hold the golf club.

It's hard to believe that Will is already 2!  Time sure does fly.  We are so grateful to have Will in our family.  He brings so much joy to us.

Happy Birthday Jody!

Happy Birthday Hon!  We love you so much and are so blessed to have you in our lives!  

  

A Visit From Family

Jody's parents and sister and her little girl (we missed having you come Jon!) came to visit the second week in January.  We had a wonderful time having them come.  We went to a dinosaur musuem at Thanksgiving Point while they were here.  It was a lot of fun.   Below is a picture of Will with Grandpa Jack smashing a penny.

There is a place in the musuem where you can dig through sand and play in water.  Will had a good time doing both!

This is Will and his cousin Annie playing in the sand.

In the gift shop my sister-in-law and I found oysters you can open up and dig through to find pearls.  We each bought one and had a good (although smelly) time looking for pearls.

We loved having everyone here and hope to see everyone again soon!

Wedding Pics

Here's a couple pictures from the wedding.  On Mary's side she has 19 nieces and nephews all under the age of 6!  It was quite the time trying to get them all to stay and smile for the picture!  Andrew and Mary are loving being married!

 

New Year......Time for a new look!

I found this awesome site.  They have really fun and cute backgrounds you can put on your blog.  After looking I decided it was time to change our blog's background.   Here's the address if you want to take a peek at the backgrounds.  http://www.simplychicblogs.blogspot.com/

Busy, Busy, Busy

It's been awhile, but we've been busy.  We've had Christmas, two birthday parties, New Year's, a wedding, and a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Lane, and Aunt Stephanie and Annie all within two and half weeks.  Will post pictures soon.  Hope everyone is having a great new year!!!!