Lotts of fun this summer

Aug 24   Brigham City Temple open house

Adam and Ethan wearing the shoe covers from the temple open house.  Check out the tie Ethan is wearing.  I figured what the heck.  Christmas is only in 3 months.

 

Labor Day (cousin Eliza in pink)

     Sept 7   Ethan having fun at Chuck-E-Cheese for his early birthday party

Sept 7  all done swimming

Labor day   Me and my twin nephew Benjamin.  We are both born on February 29th.

 

   Sept 10th  bowling

   Sept 12th  4  month anniversary.  Check out the jerseys and Mike in a sling.

 Last night Mike and Alex were comparing surgeries and battle wounds.  It was funny to see them both moan and groan.  Mike was doing his shoulder exercises- rolling his shoulders and squeezing a ball and Alex was trying to do a sit up.  Alex managed to do a crunch because he moved his knee closer to his elbow.  Let's just say I got a good laugh.  Sorry Mike, I think Alex wins for hardest surgery. 

Sept 8  Swimming in the Layton Holiday Inn for a "stay"cation.

Took the kids mini golfing.  Offered them a dollar for a hole in one.  Who knew they would all  get one and Adam even got two.

 

 

We are trying to make new family memories and do fun things together to help us through our sorrow.  I tend to take a ton more pictures, because you can really never have to many.  We think of Ryan at all these fun times and wish he were there.  They aren't the same without him and sometimes we have to smile through the tears. 

 

I want to continue to thank those who keep remembering us and for sharing happy memories and thoughts they have of Ryan with us. 

 

Mike is doing very well.  He is so glad he won't have to wear his tights after tomorrow.  He wants to personally thank the one person who got a blood clot and ruined it for everyone.  I think he actually looks pretty cute in them and he reminds me of a male ballerina. 

 

Little Adam is doing much better with his anxiety and going to recess and lunch again at school.  Thank you for all the extra prayers on his behalf.

 

Words can't express our gratitude and love towards our Heavenly Father and Savior.  We still have so many blessings.  We are so thankful to still have 4 beautiful and healthy children and one waiting for us.  We are also so grateful we are not alone and are being carried when it just becomes to much to handle.   Don't give up in your trials and tribulations for someday we will all see that is was for our own good.   It is worth it and we just need to be patient and endure and show faith and all will work out for our good. 

Mike's surgery

As Mike was leaving all preped for surgery I thought, we are crazy to be doing this again.  Oh well, too late now to turn back.  Mike's shoulder has been hurting him for years and had gotten worse with time.  With our medical deductible met this year we figured what the heck.  Now he is in for 6 weeks of wearing a sling and then physical therapy on top of that.  Then hopefully he will be able to throw a ball with his boys again and do other crazy things dads do.

The surgery went well and took about 1 1/2 hours. He had the labrum put back in place in his shoulder and some cysts removed.  Because he can't tolerate pain meds, he was given a sort of spinal block in his arm.  He took a little longer to recover than most.  He was very sleepy and dizzy and felt like he wanted to throw up.  Poor guy.  He still can't feel his arm and he thinks that's very strange.  At least he is still in no pain.

 About seven hours after arriving, we finally made it home.  He is doing great now as he is asleep on the couch.  Once again I will get to play nurse for a few weeks.  Many memories have come back to me of caring for both Ryan and Alex in the hospital.  I have had to make myself think of something else.    The little kids have been concerned about their dad and I have tried to make them understand that he will be ok.  My poor confused children.  Thank you for all your prayers for them.  They are doing well but it is still so hard for them.

Mike and I , or at least I, had a few laughs before he went into surgery.  He looked so cute in his huge green hospital gown, blue hair net and super tight white stockings.  He has to wear these stockings to prevent blood clots.  I do have some pictures but I did promise not to post them.  Maybe I will change my mind tomorrow.  All he needed was some makeup and a wig and he'd be a drag queen.

He just woke up and is feeling so much better.  Yeah.  He is even eating a bowl of cereal all by himself.  He has the bowl resting on his bad arm and is then able to feed himself.  The kids will be so relieved to see him feeling better tomorrow.  Now I just have to convince Ethan not to jump on him.

Thank you for your continued prayers and thoughts.  Tomorrow is four months.  It has been brought to my attention that the student body at Ryan's school are wearing orange in Ryan's honor.  That brings me tears of joy.  Thank you for still remembering him.  Thank you so much.

We love you Ryan and miss you so much.  We will never be the same without you and look forward to being with you again someday.

Awesome Glow Stick Dance, Dedicated to Ryan Lott

This performance was dedicated by our friend Rock at Rocky Mountain Junior High for my nephew, Ryan Lott.  See his comment from the previous post, below.

Hi, this is Rock. Recently at Rocky Mountain Jr. High School we had our Opening Assembly. We enjoy preforming this for the School, and after the assembly we decided to post a video of our skit on YouTube, and we dedicated it to Ryan. We all dearly miss him and wish he was back at school with us. It just isn't the same with out him. Thank you for letting us be a part of his life, and him be a pert of ours.

Love,
Rock Mecham

P.S. Here is the link to the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ichuSGnEc24

or "Awesome Glow Stick Dance, Dedicated to Ryan Lott"

Back to school fun

          So I figured out how to turn it yeah.  Now I need to learn how to change an old post.

Jaime- 6th grade   I caved and let her start wearing mascara and eye shadow.

Adam- Our cute 1st grader.



Crazy Ethan.  Wearing Alex's clean underware.



Alex's incision two months later.  It should lighten with time.

Ice Blocking fun

So it is a miracle I actually figured out how to post these pictures by myself from my email.  I am so proud of myself.   Anyways, the kids and I enjoyed ice blocking with the yw/ym in our ward today.  It was really very fun and we will definitely go again.  Alex was smart and just watched this time.  He is healing well but still trys to be careful.   He did try a few sit ups the other day and was bummed he had a hard time.  He has been going to football practice and has been helping the team.  I am glad they are still including him.

The kids start school tomorrow.  I am really going to miss them.  Usually I am so ready to send them back.  This year is defiantly different.  Maybe I should just home school them all??  Just kidding.  Thank you to all those who have been checking up on me.  I really appreciate it.  I plan to volunteer one day a week at school while Ethan is at preschool.  Hopefully that will help keep me busy.  Plus it will be fun to see the kids at school.

Now if I could just learn how to rotate the picture.  Baby steps right??  Just turn your head a little to the side and it's all good.

So I couldn't resist.  I love this picture.  This is poor little Ryan Kitty.  Believe it or not he actually does like Ethan.  He is a great cat and we really like him a lott (ha ha).  

We have had a lot of fun the last few weeks.  We have gone swimming a few times but the kids have especially enjoyed working in the back yard and digging out trenches and raking dirt and digging ditches.  We are so sorry for them that we are almost done.  Hopefully we will seed on Monday.  It will be so nice to have grass back there.  So if anyone is in need of free child laborers just holler.  My kids would be ever so grateful. 

By the way, we haven't had our share of hospitals and surgeries quite yet so Mike has decided to have his shoulder fixed that has been bothering him for years.  That will be in a few weeks and I just didn't want anyone to find out and think we had another accident.  We will be ok with this one and I am sure Alex will have fun telling his dad to man-up the pain and compare incisions. 

While we were at the consultation with the surgeon, the doctor was messing around with Mike's good shoulder.  He asked him if what he was doing hurt.  Apparently he was dislocating it out the back.  The PA who was in there at the time said he had never seen that done before.  He said if that was his shoulder he would have had to be taken to the operating room to get it put back it.  Crazy.  I guess my husband is made of rubber.  It didn't even hurt him.

Thank you again to all those who continue to keep us in their prayers and remember us. It really means so much that we haven't been forgotten. 

3 Months

Another month has come and gone.  This week I (Mike) had my echocardiogram completed and gave the family a little bit of a scare.  The results weren't "cut and dry" and the cardiologist saw some thicknesses in my heart that were higher than normal.  A cardiac MRI was quickly scheduled and I also had the privilege of doing that this week as well.  The three days in between these tests were a bit tense while we wondered if I had something similar to Ryan.  Fortunately we received goods news on Thursday that there was no abnormal heart tissue.  I will probably need an echo more often than the recommended 5-year interval for adults just to monitor things.  Here are a few pictures from the last week or so of things we've been up to.

Tonight at the cemetery

Adam's first catch

Each of the kids climbing the wall at the Cache County Fair

Alex gave it his best effort, but the harness was really hurting his stomach and he had to come down.

Ethan abandoned this method after the first couple frames.  He started just chucking it down the lane.

He was so happy to beat Jaime (the bumpers helped a bit though).

No more gauze Yeah!!!

Alex had another doctors appointment today.  He was was given the ok to swim and do normal things again.  He still needs to be careful and gradually work up to things he could do before.  I also do not have to pack his incision anymore.  Yeah.  We were both excited about that.  We go back in another two weeks to make sure it is completely healed and then I think he is good. 

He was so excited to be able to go and swim in the neighbors pool today.  He also wanted to play dodge ball at young men's tonight.  I told him he was crazy.  Thank goodness the leaders had common sense like me and he watched.  It was good to see him on the basketball court moving faster than an old man and trying to make some baskets.  I am sure he will conveniently be slow and sore tomorrow when I ask him to unload the dishwasher or something.  Just kidding.  I am still taking it easy on him.  He only has to unload the top so he doesn't have to bend down.

Last week the kids and I and my parents went to Antelope Island and had a fun time driving around and looking for wildlife.  It was a hot day but with the windows down there was a breeze and it felt great.  About ten years ago Mike and I drove up from Cache Valley and took  Ryan and Alex to Antelope Island.  It was about a thousand degrees and we didn't see a single animal.  The boys did enjoy a short swim in the fly infested water.  Gross!!  As you can see we really didn't have fun then and so we never visited it when we actually lived in Syracuse.  This time we saw a few lone buffalo.  We even had one get within ten feet of our vehicle and then cross the road in front of us.  It was exciting.  We saw a few pronghorn antelope and from a distance a herd of about 100 buffalo.  We had a lot of fun and plan to go back again- this time much sooner than ten years.  Ethan can't stop talking about it.

Thanks again to all who continue to show us they care.  Even though you might not know what to say when you see me, I really do appreciate those who do ask me how I am doing.  It is sinking in more that Ryan is gone so the continued support really does help.

 Hope you all have a happy and safe summer.  Spend it with those who mean the most to you and don't forget to take pictures.  You can never have to many.

Lotts of Love,
 Catherine and family

P.S.   I will have Mike attach some pics soon as I still don't know how.  He had shown me, I just didn't pay attention.