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!

Easter 2008

Easter 2008

Happy New Year!

Scenes from our very Merry Christmas



Thought you all would like a Christmas update from us! We had a wonderful holiday, beating all expectations. Emma was Little Miss Christmas this year, singing Jingle Bells and shouting "Merry Christmas!" to whoever we passed. She was very excited when we told her the Christmas is when we celebrate Jesus Christ's birthday. She would sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and tell him to blow out the candles!



The Meldrum kids were sent cards from thoughtful people across the country. We recieved season's greetings from people in Idaho, Utah, Michigan, Arizona, California, North Carolina and Maine. Emma loves her United States puzzle, so she got to actually hear from people living in some of those states.



Speaking of states, here's Bryce and his new jersey! He got to open his first Christmas presents and boy did he get excited.



Emma did enjoy ripping into the packages, but she even got excited for others' gifts. She would hand us a present and sing, "Present time, present time! Open a present and see what's inside!"

It was such a blessing for us to share Christmas together as a family. We taught the kids about baby Jesus and why this day is so important. We'll definitely remember this particular Christmas Day for a long time.

Trick-or-Treat!

If the day after Christmas is Boxing Day, maybe the day after Halloween should be called "Sugar Rush Hangover Day". Emma had a blast doing Trick-or-Treat. We went to several houses of our friends and neighbors and she would yell "Trick-or-Treat!" several times before the door even opened. She would always say "Thank you!" very loudly before turning around to trek to the next door for more candy. At one point she was practically dragging Mommy to hurry up to the next house. Her excitement grew more and more with each door, eventually culminating with an impromptu, energetic "I'm So Happy" dance at one elderly lady's door.

Our little witch only got scared a few times, once at a haunted house, another at a spooky graveyard with skeleton sentinel, and finally with another trick-or-treater dressed as a spooky old man. She didn't cry, she just froze and wouldn't budge.

The only one who wanted to prematurely end the night of candy was Bryce Harley. He wanted to go home, but Emma was saying "More trick-or-treat!" So Mommy took Emma around our complex while Daddy took Bryce home to fall asleep in his pumpkin outfit.

Even Caesar got into the spirit, even though a more appropriate costume for him would be a maniac, monster, jungle cat.

Welcome to the Meldrums' world!

Happy Halloween! We've already gotten into the Halloween spirit. Christina has the whole apartment decorated with pumpkins and ghosts. Emma picked out her own costume this year: a witch ("Nya ha ha!"). Bryce has an adorable pumpkin outfit that will keep him toasty warm when we go out trick-or-treating. Emma is only just learning the joy of treats ("More candy!"), and is practicing saying trick-or-treat to everyone she sees.

The Incredible Growing Boy - Bryce is growing by leaps and bounds. He's already outgrowing his 12 month outfits though he is only six months old. He ways more than some two-year-olds at 23 pounds, and his pediatrician tells us how strong he is, sitting up by himself. He spends his day putting toys in his mouth, giving everyone raspberries and learning to roll over. He plays well with Emma, who's just starting to learn how fun a baby brother can be.





















Super Emma! Emma seems to be on a superhero kick now. She always says "To the rescue!" when she wants to be a hero, or "Mwa ha ha!" when she wants to be a villain. We hope she'll settle on one or the other some day, preferrably hero. She impresses us to no end with her smarts. She loves reading her books and sounding out letters, almost as much as climbing and jumping off the furniture. The rainy weather gets hard for her since she can't go outside to play as much.

As to those taller than a yardstick... I'm attending school at University of Washington Tacoma, studying Computer Science. In fact, I have a mid-term today, so I'll need to start studying after this post. Christina has been great in giving me time to study and do homework for my challenging courses.























Christina has been very busy as well, taking care of the property and new move-ins. She and another resident threw a Halloween Haunted House for the kids in our complex, complete with peeled grape eyeballs and boiled cauliflower brains. She's been taking harp lessons recently and hopes to be able to play some Christmas songs soon. On Mondays, she volunteers at Pierce County Juvenile Court as a case aide/GAL. We miss our mommy when she's gone, even if it's only five hours a week!

We look forward to sharing more updates and photos in the future. Happy Halloween!