My "Ginket"

Natalie has successfully moved over into the purple room with Alicia, and she's finally conquered sleeping in a big bed. Only one problem - the cute pink baby blanket Natalie has attached herself to over the last year or so was supposed to stay back in the pink room for the new baby. This was not acceptable to Natalie, who still loves her "ginket" very much, so I had to go out today and buy a new pink blanket for the baby. I think I better leave it hidden until the baby comes around so Natalie doesn't think it's her blanket too!

Halloween is coming!!

I have a friend who absolutely adores Halloween and the month of October, so she has all of us lined up to make some cute crafts and is even planning a dress-up party for the adults. Her excitement is addicting, and now I'm looking forward to the holiday season.

We made these this morning...so, so easy, especially since her husband gets free wood from work and had them all cut and sanded for us already. We simply painted the blocks orange, stained them, then hammered in the nails and added cute leaves. As one of my friends hammered away at her nail, she said doing craft work should not involve working up a sweat! I had to agree with her. However, the craft turned out so cute in the end, it was worth the hard work.

An Eventful Weekend

On Friday we had some friends over for a BBQ dinner. I am sad that BBQs are coming to an end as the summer winds down. Anyway, John pulled out his Kestrel falcon to show our friends and while Kimberly was passing the bird back to John, he got loose and flew away. John tried to get him to come down, but rather than attempting to attack the tasty live bait in John's trap, the bird decided to fly off and find his own meal. I don't blame him actually, but he did have to weather out the thunderstorm on his own tonight. Bet he was wishing he had his confining bird house at that point.

Saturday we began the massive room shuffle in preparation for the baby's arrival next month. Sadly, Natalie had a fever all day long, so it was a little more difficult transferring things while trying to hold her throughout the day. However, we got everything about half done and will finish up tomorrow.

Speaking of baby...after much discussion and debate, we have finally agreed on a name for our baby girl!! Megan it is with the middle name still to be determined.

Saturday night John and I had plans to go on a date to attend a Voice Male concert, but with Natalie's fever, we had to cancel the babysitter and he stayed home with the kids so I could attend. You can check out the group at http://www.voicemalemusic.com/ (since I don't know how to hook it up as an automatic link in my blog like some of my other tech-savy bloggers). The group started up at Utah State while John and I attended school there and enjoyed many of their performances in Logan, so it was good to see them perform again after so many years.

And lastly, while we were at the park tonight, the girls found a beetle stink bug and set up several obstacle courses for the poor guy to endure. We may have all girls, but they definitely do some boy-type things like playing with bugs!

Yellowstone Adventures

We made it back from our adventure to Yellowstone this weekend. We had a wonderful time and I even learned a few things.

1) Having highly active/energetic kids lends well to this type of vacation. We hiked them all over Yellowstone and they didn't complain! In fact, John and I are currently "the coolest parents ever for taking them to such a neat place!" We'll see how long the sentiment lasts.

2) Don't judge a cabin by it's outside. You may see this...



but really, you get this instead...




3) Never assume a hike is 2-year-old and 31 weeks pregnant-mom friendly. We were told by a park ranger that this hike would be the one of the easier options to view the falls in the canyon, so we decided Natalie and I would do that hike and later John and the older girls could do the other hikes while I camped out in the car during Natalie's nap.

View of the falls from the top

Halfway down, this is what we encountered...

Not all 300 stairs are pictured here

We decided we could do it anyway and resumed the hike, much to the delight of all the people passing us. It was funny hearing all of their comments such as, "Wow, you guys are brave." "Are you sure you want to finish this hike?" and my ultimate favorite, "Good luck with that" by a dude who was watching us start out at the top.

Proof of our insanity -


4) Bison are only interesting on day one of a Yellowstone adventure. After that, it's - "oh, it's just another bison on the side of the road."


5) Strollers are very handy for keeping curious two-year-olds out of dangerous hot spots.


6) Sometimes when our kids do embarrassing things, you just have to laugh because in the end, it really is funny.

One night we had just finished picking up our food in the cafeteria-style dining area near our cabin. As Alicia was taking her tray over to the cashier, she dumped her full glass of root beer onto the floor. John was a little frazzled, but we were able to flag down someone with a mop and quickly got a replacement tray for Alicia. Luckily her food had a cover on it, so none of it was destroyed by fizz.

After our meal was paid for, Kimberly started walking her tray over to the table when she conked her lemonade onto the floor too!! Eating was uneventful as everyone ate their yummy dinners, but of course...Natalie had to join the fun and dumped her drink onto the floor at the end. Poor John was not a happy camper - and all I could do was laugh and tell him how really funny the situation was. Thankfully, we had no more drink tipping experiences during the duration of our trip. Well, Kimberly did lose her water bottle over the edge of a cliff, but no one will notice, right?

Now to reward those of you who finished reading my lengthy novel entry, here are a few more pics:

Mammoth Hot Springs

Lake Yellowstone

Old Faithful

Another cool waterfall. There are a lot of waterfalls in Yellowstone!

More Mammoth Hot Springs

A Little Bit of Heavan - Move over Cinnabon

There is a cute little cafe in Layton called Sill's that has famous scones and sweet rolls. I have been dying to try them out for years. Their parking lot is always full on Saturday and Sunday mornings, so I decided to find out what all the hype is about and stopped there with Natalie on the way home from my OB appointment today.



This is what they brought out for Natalie and I to eat...






We were not disappointed! Now I need to get back over there and try their scones that looked just as heavenly. I'm thinking family breakfast there soon :)

The Last Couple of Months

My Dad - June 2009

I thought I would just share some of the thoughts I have been having over these last couple of months while dealing with the passing of my father. I have never been in these shoes before so I had no idea how the death of a loved one impacts ones daily life. Now I know, and also know that many of you have gone through this as well. I assumed that after such a tragic event, one does their best to pick up the pieces and simply do their best to move on with life. For the most part, this is what happens. What I did not realize is that there is now one piece of my life that is missing and sadly nothing can replace that missing piece.

For all 33 years of my life, my dad has been an integral part of it. He had a special gift for making others feel loved and always wanted to be a part of his kids' lives. I've not known a life without him, so I am now grappling with the concept of going through the next 33 plus years in a life without him. I do know that he is actively part of our lives from a different realm, but it is hard because it is just not the same.

One of the biggest shocks of the ordeal is the feeling of disbelief. I will often feel like he is still around - that I could call him up in a moment's notice. It is always a jolt of shock when I remember things have changed. Hand in hand with that feeling is the deep sorrow and sense of loss that seems to hover just over the surface when I think of him.

My mom pointed out that perhaps we are all hurting so much because he was such a loving dad, and we know what we are missing out on. I admire my mom so much for holding up despite this devastation. She is determined to be our rock and the person we can lean on, when I'm sure her grief and pain is double mine.

What I never knew about this kind of experience is that the pain of loss never really goes away. Shortly after dad's death, several people told me about this aspect of the situation. At first I didn't want to believe them because I wanted to think things would eventually return back to normal. What I have now come to accept is that things don't go back to becoming normal. They just become a new normal, and you learn how to cope with the non replaceable lost piece of the puzzle.

I find that I can usually stay upbeat and positive for the most part and stay out of the deep sorrow pot, but then I guess my emotions get tired of holding themselves up and I somehow slip into the pot and wallow in sorrow and grief for a time until my emotions get tired of all the sadness, and I jump out of the pot as quickly as possible.

Now more than ever, the words to the song 'Families can be Together Forever' have new meaning for me and I look forward to the day when we can all be reunited. Until then, I have faith in Heavenly Father's plan, even though I do not have all the answers and don't fully understand the whys. I know that someone who loves me very much is watching our for me and my family from above, and for the moment, this gives me great comfort.

The whole Meldrum Clan 2006

Dad and me in Hawaii September 1996

Dad and Kimberly 2005

Dad and my girls having yet another water fight :)

Dad with Kimberly 2000

Graduation Day - USU 1998

Dad and Kimberly 2001 in Victoria, B.C.

Sledding in Utah 2000

Final Summer Fling

We finally made it to Bear Lake after two Saturdays of cancellations due to rain, thundershowers, and cold. It was most certainly a fun-filled day with the girls loving the jet skis. I can't wait until next year when I can join them again when I'm not prego.

The girls had so much fun playing with their Rimington cousins, although we sure missed the New York Rimingtons who had to fly home the day before :(

The girls also started their first day of school this week. They were both excited, but not nearly as much as I was :) I got my entire house clean on their first day of school, and it has remained mostly clean since then!! While they were home during the summer, my house did not stay clean for very long with all of their craft projects, lunches and snacks in the kitchen, and friends playing over.