Melodie is an Adult!!

Well, we've got another adult in the family! Happy Birthday to Melodie, 18 years old today! We took her out to eat to celebrate. It was a normal busy day for this senior, with school, then Lyceum and then a ward youth activity of caroling, so our dinner reservation wasn't until 9pm. We took her to the Roof Restaurant, to keep with our "Congrats - you're an adult" tradition that we also started with Joseph. 9:00 at night was a little late to eat at a fancy buffet where you want to get your money's worth, but we did our best.

I got full pretty quick. "You look full..." is the common comment when I say that. Yeah, I think my stomach storage capacity has gone down significantly.

So Joseph went to the Roof to celebrate his 18th birthday, and we also took Ethan to the Roof already, and that was his turn. He doesn't get to go again at 18 cause we're only going to budget one time per kid. Corey joked that we took Ethan at 15 years because that was when he thought/felt that he was an adult. I teased back that we were probably a few years late if that was the case, he's felt he was an adult/our equal atleast at 13 years... But back to Mel - wow, 18 years old!!! These kids are growing up fast.

Group pic, yay, There's me in my last trimester glory.

Never flattering. Oh well. Although I will offer it as my personal opinion that a pregnant women should never be photographed except for on delivery day. ...Even more so never be photographed by on purpose (I'll never do a preg photo shoot), and even more so in a bikini. Even if you're not that big, just don't, it's not pretty. Sure, it's amazing and a miracle, and I guess kudos to ladies who feel beautiful when pregnant, but that's not me. This is just the time to be endured. (I probably need an attitude adjustment. ...or I'll give myself a "This is my 12th..." pass again, cause yeah, the charm has kinda worn off...) Trying to so a selfie -

Then Corey said "Here let me, my arms are longer!"

While we were down at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, we figured we'd make a donation to the giving machine for the Light The World.

We didn't buy a cow, but might pool together with my siblings to give one of those as a group gift.

They have some fun options.

Happy birthday Mel, we're glad you were born! She also successfully made it through 18 years without kissing any boys, and so Corey's gonna have to pay up, per the deal that Corey made with Joseph and offered to the other kids as well. Mel says it was a little too easy of a deal for her, so she might feel guilty for draining her dad's bank account for something that wasn't a challenge. Or, she also said she'd be willing to keep it going for another year if it would give her a little more money. Ha, we'll see!Here's to your future, you're almost ready to launch into your life. We'll do our best to help you finish getting prepped in the next 6 months, and then good luck! We'll be cheering you on and will be on to the next kid on the chopping block.