Necessity is the MOTHER of....

Invention. Yes, I uploaded two months of pictures, sorted and labeled them and am back on the blogging bandwagon, just to distract from my chunky monkey appearance since (gasp!) APRIL!

My diabolical scheme is to blog enough to relegate these crazy photos to another page entirely.

Here is a brief recap since then.

MAY started out on a great note with BYU Women's Conference. Besides being uplifting and fabulous, I love being with friends that rarely see.

It's strange how small the world is in Provo. I really loved seeing all my friends from outside the bubble.

By the end of the month we were ready to party again, but the weather wouldn't cooperate. Our Memorial Day was a little damp. This is the sum total of all the males gathered around the sacred BBQ. Only Jeff, the photographer, didn't grab an umbrella or full rain gear just to put dinner on the table. Waders anyone?

JUNE... was cool for most of the month, which I loved. I generally like to put off the heat of summer for as long as possible. Noah turned six and has grown by leaps and bounds. He is always creating something. Here is a fishing game he made-- complete with magnetic fish hook and magnetic fish and eels. I don't know why Noah uploaded like this since the picture was taken in the right orientation in the first place, but he likes to buck the trends.

MOOOOving on.... Shortly after Noah's birthday, we finally had to pull out of our home building venture. Between lots of lot issues and some not so smooth sales performance, we terminated our contract and walked away.

Caitlyn turned three! and boy does she know it. Almost immediately we had a knock-down, drag-out temper tantrum in Target. Lucky for me, security had me on tape walking in with her, so her dramatic flailing and grabbing at every stationary object didn't present as an actual kidnapping. I was smirking a little because everyone was so embarassed for me, except me. You would never know by this pic though.

HairDO

Yes, we've had some hair drama this year, but nothing so sweet as this. After a couple years of long locks, I decided to make a dramatic change-- to the tune of 13 inches. A girlfriend and I went for a day at the salon and I donated the tresses to Locks of Love. Everyone stopped what they were doing to see the event, or were they waiting for me to cry? No way, I do not miss it at all. It was the quickest way to lose 10 pounds ( or maybe 20, if you look at these pics) and a couple years. Here are the before and after pics.

Disney Princess on ICE

As soon as Grandma saw the ads for this event, she was on the phone ordering tickets. Caitlyn was thrilled to dress up as Tinkerbell and go on a "Princess Date" with mom and Grandma. We had great seats on the 6th row in the corner. It was at the front of the stage, so all the characters spent a little time right in front of us. Caitlyn squealed each time the princesses came out and hid when Malificent turned into a glow-in-the-dark dragon to chase Prince Phillip. Grandma bought Miss Caitlyn an Ariel beerstein with shaved ice inside as a treat. We are still drinking from it nearly every day. Thanks Grandma.

STAPLES

No, not office supplies, the stainless steel medical appliance variety for us, thank you. Last Saturday, Benjamin split his head open on one of our doorstops. He was indignantly pushing books, which Caitlyn had dumped, from his bedroom into the hall. True to form, he slipped on a precarious stack and slipped. His head went right into the doorstop that was anchored to the bottom hinge. You can see the cleaned out version of the crevice that ensued. We packed up the crew and went to the ER. Benjamin was very brave, preferring to play games on the iPod rather than acknowledge any pain. After some topical litocane, all was well and the wait was on for stapling. In all the doctor gave him four staples-- three in the head and one to take home for his journal. Now that's a spendy souvenir that could even rival Disneyland paraphernalia. All in all, Benjamin was glad to have plenty of hair to cover the evidence because having staples focused too much attention on him at church and school.

Yesterday, the staples came out and we've had lots of talks about being too crazy and too messy. Now we can finally think about cutting that nappy long hair.

playingSALON
I admit that I could not get to my camera fast enough to catch Noah and Caitlyn playing salon, but the aftermath is captured forever. I went upstairs to round up the kids for our daily "go get dad at BYU" trip. In hindsight it was really quiet, but at 5:00pm, I am not my sharpest. I walked into Caitlyn's room to find that Noah had seated her at her table in a blanket draped seat. He had laid out all the various combs, brushes, clips, bows and sprays before her. He was armed with pair of baby fingernail scissors. "Look mom, I am cutting Cait's hair" as he pulled a chunk out and deftly snipped 2 inches from her head. I wanted to laugh and tell them they were cute, but the practical mom in me decided it was best to nip this scenario in the bud. I told Noah that people who cut hair have to be finished with kindergarten and even high school and then go to special hair school. He wasn't aware. "So, did you go to special hair school mom?" -No "How come you cut Benj and Me's hair then?" That was a discussion for later. I gathered Caitlyn's fallen tresses to show Jeff. I fille an entire sandwich bag. She ended up with a partial mullet, with one side short and the other long with some bangs.
Caitlyn got her first real salon haircut the next morning. Jeff convinced Caitlyn that Heidi was a princess who cuts hair and she sat perfectly still for the whole thing. Lucky for us Heidi was able to make it look like we meant her to have layers and swoopy bangs. Now we just have to train her hair to stay parted on the other side so the mullet underneath won't show...

before and after thank heavens for thick hair

Let It SNOW

Maybe this is normal weather, but it seems like a banner year for snowfall here in Provo. We have gotten a couple inches every weekend since the beginning of December. Usually it snows an inch or less, but we have been getting at least two inches from each storm. Yesterday was our first work week storm which doubled our 7 min. commute and dumped 4 inches on our slippery driveway. At least our children are loving it. Noah dressed up as an "astronaut" and went exploring the surface of the moon (our backyard). He even built a snow polar bear complete with fruit loop facial features. Caitlyn seems impervious to the cold and regularly escapes to eat "snowcones" even in bare feet.

Polar Express





That's right. The Heber Creeper makes a magical transformation every December to become the Polar Express. Grandma and Grandpa Meldrum surprised all the grandkids with tickets to kick off the Christmas season.
We braved the blizzard in Provo Canyon to meet everyone in Heber. The kids were giddy to a)be together b)ride a train and c) its the Polar Express of course. We rode in a 1940s train car decked with lights and all the Christmas trimmings. Chefs served "Mrs. Claus' Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies" and piping hot chocolate. Well, warm chocolate. The only exception was Noah, whose piping hot drink quickly ended up in his lap. He was more frustrated and embarrassed than hurt. Luckily, his paranoid mother had insisted on two pair of pjs, just in case we had to vacate the train for any reason. This came in handy as we had a brother with a change a clothes handy.

Along the way, we each got a Polar Express storybook and followed along with our own storyteller/host. By the end of the story, we had rounded Deer Creek and all the kids were pressed up to the windows to catch a glimpse of the North Pole and Santa Claus. While we waited for Santa to come to our car, we sang songs, heard silly Christmas jokes and had a Ho Ho Ho contest with all the grandpas on the train.

All the kids were excited for Santa, except Caitlyn. Her response to Santa's arrival was classic avoidance technique. She finally had to relocate from Grandpa's lap to dad-- it was just too scary. Santa gave all the kids one bell from a reindeer harness. Mason (our cousin) got two for being born on Christmas Day.

Finally our conductor came around to punch tickets and Mrs. Claus handed out the recipe for those great cookies. Caitlyn loved Mrs. Claus and told her that she wanted "presents" for Christmas.

It was a lot of fun and very magical for the kids. It was amazing to see the wonder in their eyes as each detail from the story came to life.