Thomas the Train is here!!

Yeah!! Thomas the Train came to visit us here in Washington state! Emma and Bryce love trains, though they didn't know Thomas too well until NOW! We drove up to Snoqualmie Falls to the train museum and entered Thomas' world. We had plenty of fun activities to do until our turn came to ride Thomas!
Here is a picture of us in front of Thomas. Unfortuantly I looked away, but it was a great picture of the kids so I don't mind making the sacrifice! lol!

Here we are again with the Conductor (I think!). Haha...Donnie just told me it is the Mayor! I don't think Bryce Harley smiled for any pictures; he missed his nap and was really tired. His favorite part was the pupet show. Both he and Emma laughed so hard.

Here comes Thomas! It was a wonderful welcome for him to come in as soon as we arrived.

Thomas took us on a 25 min train ride and right over the falls too! It was beautiful, the only sad part is we were in the very back and on the wrong side to see everything. But we now know for next time.

They had a little tattoo station and Bryce Harley and Emma both got their Thomas the train temporary tats!

Here is Emma laughing during the pupet show! She loved it so much she saw it twice!!

I know she looks bored here but she is not, she is waiting patiently for the train to start. I stuck the camera out the window to get a shot of her looking out at everyone.

Mom and the kids! I love this picture!!

Daddy and the kids....so cute!!

Emma and Bryce coloring and stamping, they had tons of fun. Emma also went jumping on the bouncy tent. There was also a place to play with trains hands-on. We enjoyed our family time together. I also ran into some old friends...what a small world!

How Can I Be...

A friend who has this video on her blog. I listened to the song and it is amazing! It moved me spiritually and hope it does to you too! Enjoy!

Here are the words as well... under video






Lyrics to "How Can I Be"

How can I be like my brother Nephi?
My father Lehi of old?
How can I be like Captain Moroni
In the wars that were told?

How can I see forever
Like the promise to the three Nephites?
I wanna be Samuel the Lamanite
I wanna be Benjamin the Wise
I wanna be like Abinidi
Oh tell me how can I be like them?

How can I be like Alma the Younger,
Strong servant of the Lord?
How can I be like Mighty Ammon,
Whose heart was his sword?

How can I be a stripling warrior,
And learn to fight by faith?
I wanna be Samuel the Lamanite
I wanna be Benjamin the Wise
I wanna be like Abinidi
I wanna be like Jesus Christ
Oh tell me how can I be like them?
Oh tell me how can I be like them?

The Beach Angel

Wow! Trying to come up with ideas for the kids to do so they don't get board out of their minds can be hard to do! Since we generally have to wait for Dad to come home to do our outings (we are a 1 car family) our options can be a little limited. So we decided to go to the Beach and enjoy the cool breeze and surprisingly warm water. We didn't put the kids in swimsuites because we thought the water would be cold. May be next time!

Here is Bryce Harley splashing away in the water! And yes he is actually sitting in a puddle!!

Our little beach angel!!

Our Smart Daddy!!

Donnie sure is a smarty pants! He was invited to join the Computer Science international honor society Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE). There was a introduction ceremony last week which we attended. It is nice to have something to say "hey good job!" He works really hard in trying to keep up his GPA and spend time with the family.

We are off of school for the summer and Donnie will be putting in some hours working for his parents. In addition to that he will be working on his web site. He wants to build one so he can get some experience as well as have something to show when he goes in for interviews.

Here is a picture of Donnie at his UPE ceremony!

Potty training time!!

Wow! It is that time! Time to tinkle in the potty. We were trying everything we could to get Emma potty trained. We tried stickers (no luck), we tried just going all day bare bummed (with no luck again but with lots of muck!) and we finally resorted to suckers. That was kindof working though I hated the thought of her getting a sucker first thing in the morning before breakfast. We had a friend suggest doing a prize box filled with goodies that Emma would love. So off to the dollar store we went and had a family fun filled day of potty prize pickings! LOL
Donnie was just as excited as Emma, He was the one that wrapped the box up and printed the little sign on the box! We spent about an hour unwrapping boxes and packages and put everything inside. There were a few things she absolutely wanted. She wanted the flute so bad and we kept telling her no, not until she went on the potty, boy did she cry. She kept running to the potty and sitting on it with no success, which upset her. But we stuck to the plan....no prizes unless you tinkle in the potty.

Then the next day....SUCCESS!!

Emma went on the potty! YEAH!! She was so excited and of course she picked her flute and a sucker! I didn't mind her getting both this time....LOL

Emma with her flute, sucker and in her panties! She's a big girl now! So far she has earned 5 glitter bugs (bugs like dragon flies, flies, beetles, but with glitter on it!) 3 pinwheels, 2 flutes, barbie laptop, sillie puttie, shrek puzzle and a squishie ball. We try everyday and now she goes at least once a day but I know that we still have a long way to go but we are so proud of her!

Our Brief Summer

A few weeks ago we had gone over to our friends the Kennar's with the Weight's for a BBQ and some swimming fun! The kids enjoyed splashing around in the pool together!

Emma and Bryce enjoyed splashing around in the little pool!

"What, no mail?!" Bryce here enjoyed playing with the mail box!

Just a little video of the kiddies playing around!

Springtime: Time to Spring!

As you can see it's picture day for the Meldrum kids! It takes a pretty fast exposure speed to make our kids look like anything other than a blur, especially now that Bryce is walking around, asserting his independence.



We have a lot of things to catch up on, from birthday parties to hospital visits to school and beyond...






















Emma turned three-years-old and magically grew out of the "terrible twos" at the stroke of midnight. Actually, Emma has had a rough time since her last birthday. She had siezures one morning and had to be taken to the hospital. Concerned about her health, the pediatrician referred us to a neurologist for a series of tests over the next few weeks. We're happy to say that the professionals are no longer concerned that she has epillepsy, but we'll still be on the lookout for any symptoms in the future.





Bryce had a big birthday party at the Children's Museum at Seattle Center. We had a jungle theme, with a jungle cake and jungle animals, all in the jungle room. Many friends came to celebrate with us and Bryce got more than enough sugar for the day.

Donnie started his new quarter at school and is working evenings at the college, heading the workshop for Discrete Mathematics. The job came up out of the blue, but it will sure help us get through until summer vacation.

Christina has been practicing cake decorating and made several purse cakes for Relief Society. Plus she has new calling as the Relief Society Music Director, which gives her a chance to practice the music theory she learned taking harp lessons. The church website makes it a lot easier to practice the hymns before each Sunday.

Enjoy these pics of the kids!