I was laying in bed this morning and started having a panic attack thinking how I never write about everything that goes on in the Meldrum household and how I wanted the kids to have someway to remember their childhood... I am starting over today on blogging and hope to be better at it. I make up for it in pictures I promise... I take a ton of pictures and have spent many hours making books of all of my favorite pictures.. I am so afraid that I will fall into the category of never taking the same amount of pictures of all your kids that I might over do it. if one of them do something cute and I take a picture, I go around and take a picture of everyone...

So, let's start at the oldest... me... I had two weeks of vacation recently and they went extremely fast, leaving me still a long list of things to do.. We have our house on the market right now, but no bites yet. It is a great house and if we don't sell we would be fine with staying.. I just want a house with 4 bedrooms so each of the kids have their own room and another garage or two would be nice. I love my job, especially as this weather warms up. Yesterday it was 80 degrees! I am learning more about physical damage than I ever thought possible for my brain, but I really am happy! I went to Madison three different times for training and Ben and the kids survived! That's all I can ask for!

Ben is looking forward to the end of the school year and is now working on finding a part time job for the summer. He doesn't want to work every day though, I think he wants to "work on his golf game", as always... He went to Florida in January and had a blast. He came home broke and tired. I told him his payback is coming. We just bought a new camper and we are looking forward to getting it out plenty this summer. It is a big improvement over our last!

Wyatt is the most sweetest, smartest kid I know (no, not biased at all). He is SO GOOD with Hattie and Hudson. He still calls himself bubba when he talks to them and he gets upset every night when it is their bedtime, b/c he wants to play with them more. He interprets them often, and then tells them that what they said is wrong! He is always impressing us with the things he knows and things he says. He loves to pretend talk with his toys in the highest voice you can imagine. I have taught him MOST of the state song, it is all I can remember. He knows all of his letters, numbers, months, days of the week, pledge of alligence. His daycare has been really good for him. He is going to St Stanislaus Early Childhood program starting in August and we are excited for him to be with kids his own age. He would make the cut for kindergarten, but we feel it is in his best interest in the long run to hold him back. He played soccer in the fall and was not very impressed with it, but is looking forward to playing teeball. AND SWIMMNG LESSONS. Amazing that he cried every time at swimming lessons last year but he has very fond memories of it! He has gotten very tall... I notice it mostly in the bathroom, as he has no trouble reaching the faucet now. He is very careful about bad words... he doesn't like to watch bad shows (family guy, simpsons (smile) b/c he is afraid that he will hear bad words and remember them. never mind the fact he hears us say plenty! He told me the other day that I sometimes listen to the devil and I need to not listen to him. The devil wants me to listen to him, but I have to tell him no. I hate to admit that I did not teach him this and I don't take him to church very much, something I hope to improve. We couldn't have asked for a better son - 9/10 of the time anyway! the other night he asked me if he could watch a movie in the living room.. I said I don't know, let me think about it.. just then the garage door starting opening and wyatt said "ut oh, that is not good." I asked why? He said "Dad is home and he will NOT let me watch it in the living room." He definitely knows who is going to give in and who is not..

Hattie - She is a great entertainment in our house! She is getting more attitude every day, and her personality is really showing up. She LOVES to eat. If you say eat in a sentence she drops what she is doing and runs to her booster seat and does her little dance stomping one foot and then the other. she has had a lot of trouble pooping and was throwing up every time she tried to poop. we now have her on a relaxer once a day and that has made a huge difference. She had her first haircut last Tuesday (3-2-2010). I couldn't stop staring at her that night because it really made her look more grown up! She didn't do the best- and screamed every time Tracie tried to make a cut! I eventually just held her and Tracie worked around it. Because of that, I didn't get near the pictures I wanted, so a before and after will have to do. We also took away bottles last monday, 03-01-2010. That was something we needed to do for a while, but never had the courage to follow through. We were in the routine of mentioning the word bottle and they would both run to the kitchen and wait for us to hand them their bottles, then they would run into the living room and on to their foam couches. Hudson almost always fell asleep, but Hattie would stay awake until we layed her in her bed when her bottle was gone. The first night we took away bottles Hattie was SO MAD. She screamed and cried. And her cry is so loud! Eventually we just laid her down. Things are better now, but still no quiet foam couch time. They better use them more, as those things were EXPENSIVE! Hattie is making progress on talking too.. she says duck, dog, mama, dada, bubba (I think that is what she is saying), juice, shoes and her latest is bad boy... she says others I think, but they are just not clear enough to count yet. she is a lover and likes to give kisses. she likes to dance, points to herself when you say where is pretty girl, shows her belly, and points to her haircut, ears, eyes, nose, mouth and teeth. she loves to cross her arms and stick out her lip when she doesn't get her way and it is priceless.. Hattie loves green beans (love may not be strong enough) oranges, and popcorn. she loves pushing her stroller around with both twins in it.

Hudson - He is the attention hog of the family! He is perfectly content with me holding him all night long, never playing or doing anything else. sometimes I can get him to play if I sit next to him, but if I get up, lord help us he will start the water works! He is a momma's boy. I have to get him dressed every day, poor Daddy isn't allowed to. Hudson is so quiet and seems to be more bashful. He flirts with his eyes already. He has rythym like his daddy and is going to be a good dancer. He gets his feeling hurt so easy, and gets down on the ground with his face on the floor and cries. And also hits some, and we are doing our best to break that. He loves to say no-no.. he also says mama, dada, ball, juice.. The boy could live on apple juice! He loves oranges and corn. But, he will eat pretty much anything! He is so much bigger than Hattie, they don't look like twins at all! even his hands and feet are bigger! It is looking like he will be the tallest Meldrum in our family! Hudson LOVES his vacuum. he also likes anything that makes music so he can dance! both babies go to bed at 7:15ish and sleep until 6:15 during the week (we wake them) and I don't get them until at least 7:00 on the weekends. This weekend is Daylight Savings, so I assume their bedtime will change until 8:00. Hudson has made a really good transition to cup from the bottle, better than anyone thought he would. He wants me to hold him and he gets drowsy pretty quickly. He barely even wimpers now when I lay him down.

well, I feel better...