4 year old Allie

 

Allie is such a sweet, caring girl who calls everyone a friend.  On her progress report from preschool her teacher said she is always caring about the other kids and makes sure everyone is included.  Her feelings are easily hurt when someone is not nice to her and doesn't understand how someone could be mean on purpose... which I hope never changes - that ability to assume the best in everyone.

Allie had her 4 year old checkup and was on her typical curve- 98th percentile for height, 50th for weight  and when she got her 4 shots, she didn't cry or even yell.  All she did was say ouch on the one the nurse said would hurt the most.  She is one tough little girl and is ever patient. 

She is such a great big sister, usually looking out for Hadley and playing pretty well with her, coming up with some sort of pretend play or game.  She still loves art and is always up for coloring or painting.  She has started reading and sounding out words and loves it. We love our Allie and cannot imagine life without her. 

Clebrate good times!

 Hadley had her 2nd birthday this week, and we did the whole cake and presents thing then. However, we needed a chance to have a better celebration and Saturday was the first opportunity. We woke up early (just how Hadley wanted it, trust me this is never my idea), and went to the store. I let Hadley pick out some donuts for breakfast, and on the way out she asked for some flowers. I admit it, I caved, so we had flowers on the table for breakfast too.

Hadley enjoyed a strawberry jelly filled donut and would not let go of the flower pot for the whole meal! She was super excited to get her own flowers (this may have been her favorite part of the whole day).

After breakfast we went to the zoo for a family adventure. This time we decided to do one of the special things at the zoo since it was Hadley's birthday. So we got to feed the giraffes!

 Surprisingly enough, Allie wanted to go first. 

She wasn't even scared of the big giraffes and their really long tongues.

Hadley was next, she got a little scared (she closed her eyes when the big tongue came out), 

but did a great job.

I got to feed them little biscuits, and Rach took a quick turn too. 

(On a side note this is now the third or fourth time I have taken her to feed some form of wild animal. Which is great fun for me, but I don't think she would choose to do this on her own.)

The whole family in front of some really big giraffes. 

It was a great celebration for Hadley and fun for everyone.

Happy 2nd Birthday Hadley

 Per Meldrum tradition, Hadley woke up to a room full of balloons, which were all in the corners because the fan was on full blast.  Still lots of fun!  Hadley's birthday was on a Thursday so we had a mini-celebration before Mike left for work where she got to open one present to play with while Dad was at work and we opened the rest after dinner.  We decided to open Allie's gift to her so they could both enjoy it.

 A school bus! 

 After dinner we video chatted with various family members to wish her a happy birthday and watch her open presents and sing happy birthday.

 That is one concentrated face to blow out candles. 

 Not quite as messy as her first year, but still tired to eat her ice cream with her hands. 

 One of her favorite presents was this Minnie Mouse birthday card which sang happy birthday.  It was well played with before it died.  Hadley loved all the attention and kept singing happy birthday to herself all day.  We love you Had!

Ain't no mountain high enough...

For the longest time, Allie has wanted to climb a mountain. While she has seen mountains before while visiting Utah, she has never actually lived by any. So after weeks of asking we finally gave in and planned a family hike. In Tempe there is a small "mountain" next to ASU which looks over the whole valley. I decided this would be the best family hiking mountain. It is a pretty short trail (although as we quickly discovered it is very steep for the first part), and is located in the middle of town.

 At the top of the mountain you could see down to Tempe Town Lake below. The girls were very proud of themselves to make it to the top.

Our two newest hiking aficionados.

Allie and me at the tippy tippy top of the mountain. Allie wanted to make sure we got to the very highest point, so we climbed up a few rocks to see both sides at once.

We had someone else take a family picture up at the top. There were a lot of people using the hike for a work out, so we had plenty to choose from. (On a side note, Allie fared much better climbing the mountain than many of the adults trying to get some exercise. She walked the whole way all by herself too.)

Here are all the Meldrum ladies on the mountain. You can see all of Tempe in the background. There was a surprisingly good view of the whole valley from on top of such a small "mountain". 

Another picture from the top.

About three fourths of the way up the mountain, you can see the giant A on the mountain. Allie thought it was pretty cool that there was an A on the mountain just for her (Don't tell her it is actually for ASU, whose football stadium is built on one side of the mountain).

Overall it was a good hike, but may be the last one we do until fall.

It was already quite warm and the temperature has not yet reached 100.

It's a ....

 Rach and I went in to the doctors office today to find out what we're having. (Well, really Rach went to the doctor, and I just tagged along - nothing to look at here) We were very excited to go in and see our newest baby. 

This is a shot of Thing III's profile. Looks like we might have a gymnast or soccer player from this picture. Baby was moving all over during the exam, so we got lots of interesting shots.

Another profile. Good to know that the baby has a good looking spine. They then did all the normal things like taking measurements of the head, waist, and femur. They looked at the heart, brain, and other organs. I was happy to know everything is going great. It is always a relief to see a healthy baby.

BOO! Look at that cute little face. The best looking 18 week baby I have ever seen!

This is the point where Rach would like me to show the gender picture, but I have a little more decency than that. So instead you have to trust me that we are having a....

BOY!

We are very excited to have a new baby boy in the family, but need to go shopping a little since 95% of the things we own are pink. Look's like it is time to branch out into some new color schemes.