Perfect Day

When the wind stops blowing in Livingston, it's time to get out and celebrate! Today it was 75-degrees and sunny and the wind was "7-10-mph." So I packed up the kiddies and we were off like a herd of turtles at 10am to play at Sacajawea Park and feed ducks at the Lagoon. Look! The water is like glass, and there are NO DUCKS or geese anywhere.
The girls were so excited!
James thought the ducks were so cool!

The girls were thrilled when they finally had some ducks to feed, although they enjoyed eating the popcorn, too... hmm...I really do wonder where the geese are. They practically mauled Addie when she was little and we could come feed them.

Bye, bye duckies!

PS: Looking at these photos, I was reminded of NC...it's so green and lush, it looks like we're down south. But I just wanted to add this exquisite piece of information: it's nothing like the south because there is almost NO HUMIDITY! And therefore few bugs and little sweat. YAY THAT! I think I was sweaty every second Ilived in North Carolina, even in the shower!

How Now Brown Cow

Sorry--it's been a busy week, and I was getting a bad attitude about the computer--I needed some space. So I took some time and we've made amends. I had to make some Primary stuff today, so I also took the time to make a new banner for my blog. I have mixed feelings about it, but I think it'll stay (photo credits go to my awesome husband, and Addie took the one of us beng silly).


So Monday we had FHE at the park with a picnic, Tuesday the kids had a date with Grandma while I trained for my new job as a front desk clerk at the Comfort Inn (4-5 evenings per week from 5ish-8ish over the summer...it's crazy town with the Yellowstone traffic), and I also had a parent-teacher conference at Addie's school (so fun--her teachers were so cool), and Rich had to help people move that night , so we ate tortillas and hummus and berry smoothies for dinner and went to bed early. Wednesday we got up at 5am and left for Helena at 5:45am, so Rich & Dad could attend an ainsurance conference and I could visit Lehmans & Posts! It was a busy, rainy day, but we had so much fun --the kids LOVED seeng their cousins and riding the carousel and I was so happy to see Matt, Amie, Laura, Darrin, & their kids! It continued to be rainy and cold, so I snuggled up with the kids when we got home at 3pm, then made a yummy dinner and went to teach a family with the sister missionaries. I watched CSI with Rich for the first time in like 5 years, and we crashed. Today (Thursday) was house cleaning and babysitting the Westenskow kids. I have a little more house work, start dinner, read with Addie, and then another night home alone while Rich attends a Stake meeting in Bozeman, and Friday is all about Primary Presidency stuff and helping the Warren family clean, pack, and move to Bozeman. Hopefully I will have done enough around here to allow for some fun on Saturday--we can play and get ready for Grandma Rosalie's 60th birthday on Sunday!

So that's al the news for now. I'll post a few pix later...I don't have any of yesterday in Helena cuz my camera was DEAD. Shucks.

Goodbye May, Goodbye School!

Yesterday (Thurs.) was the last day of pre-school for Heidi AND for Addie. Addie didn't have a graduation ceremony at school, but she saw the pictures of Belle's, so she cried until I gave her her own graduation party at the house on Thursday night.I made her a hat and some cupcakes and hung up her school art. Grandma Rosalie brought her a card and a gift...what a special day!
Heidi's excited for CUPCAKES!
Our Special Grad (after cupcakes)

Congratulations, Addie!

You'll do great in Kindergarten next year!

It's The End of The World As We Know It & I Feel FINE!

So Saturday was the only day this whole past week that was even remotely spring-like (and it was soooo perfect), and to welcome us back to the work week, look what we get:

Snow on May 29th from MelinFamily on Vimeo

May 29th, back on the chain gang IN THE SNOW...

So BUSY...

...having fun like this:







Addie at Chico from MelinFamily on Vimeo

Rainy Tuesday

Heidi and I both REALLY needed to get out of the house yesterday, so even though it was rainign we took a walk. I prepared five little ziploc bags for her, with red, orange, yellow, green and purple paper swatches. I told her it was a treasure hunt and she had to find something to put in each bag that matched the paper. We had SO MUCH fun, especially puddle jumping and eating chicken noodle soup when we got home to warm up (it was 40-degrees! and James came with us in his stroller). Hooray for Spring flowers!
looking down the valley
Heidi the Color Hunter
Puddle Jumper!

The Booty (we lost the purple bag on our walk, but it had a lilac in it!)

Good times!

Now we're going on a treasure hunt at the grocery store! Have a good day at your house!

Oh, What Do You Do In The Summertime?...

...that song used to chap my hide when I was growing up in Arizona because the only thing it was even SAFE to do in the summertime was swim, at least until the afternoon, then you could play it the rain and dodge the lightning). I was jealous of al the little Utah kids singing with glee on my Primay cassettes about the joys of summer. ECK! But now, it' all been made up to me by Montana summers, and here is one of a hundred reasons

SUMMER ROCKS:
On the 'Bean Hammock in our backyard last Friday...
yeah, that's my boy (and all 4 of us) in HOG HEAVEN!

Let Them Eat Dirt!

When I got adusted last week with my chiro/nutritionist, Dr. Doblebower, we talked about how I had been sick and that somehow my kids had not getten sick at all. I said, "The funny thing is that my healthiest kid is the one who eats dirt all the time." His eyes lit up and he told me he had just come from a nutrition conference and in one of the first presentations about asthma and childhood illnesses, they had an opening powerpoint slide that said something like,

"So what's missing from our children's diets?"

follwed by a picture of a kid eating a mud pie. Not unlike this, I suppose: Yep, there's my girl with super-immunity, who only gets SICK once a year!

(photo courtesy of Michaela Claar)

You can read some points about the rest of our nutrition/immunity conversation in this article, and this one, and this one.

So, to sum it up:

• 
  Early exposure to nature (dirt, animals, etc.) helps the body build up immunity and reduces allergies and asthma
  
• Early exposure to common viruses and bacteria does the same thing to help children resist or recover quickly from common childhood illnesses
  Use fewer chemicals in the home for cleaning (plain soaps, hot water, and vinegar usually disinfect just fine)
  
• To boost the immune system, include the following in your diet: Vitamin C and other antioxidants in fruits, veggies, especially berries, calcium in milk and in supplements, and iron in meats and beans. Zicam, Airbourne, or high-quality supplements containing Echinacea and golden seal (these are expensive but effective, and my nutrituionist recommends products form Australia where they are regulated) can help when you feel a cold or flu coming on.
• Let Them Eat Dirt!
  

THEN & NOW

Back in 2003, I didn't know how to post photos to my blog,

so here are some fun pictures from May '03... Addie eating ice cream with Daddy at the Pop Stand
Mommy & Addie camping on the Gallatin River
Addie feeding the baby geese at Sacajawea Lagoon
Dad & Addie camping at Pine Creek (that's mud on her eye, and marshmallow on her face)
Mom & Addie biking around Sacajawea Park with the Yellowstone River and Livingston Peak in the background. This is about one block from the apartment where we lived for 3 years.

***

Now...here are some overdue photos of May 2007
Addie and Heidi spotted a rainbow on 5/11...
...while Bubby jumped in his exersaucer.
Last Saturday at Geoff's graduation party, Addie & Heidi taught James about dandelions and wishes (they actually call fluffy dandelions "wishes" or "wish flowers").

Photos From a Walk...

...we took in honor of Larkin's & Gramma Becky's birthday May 16th.

Little Blue Eyes.

Sweet grin.

See more pix and video from this walk at Addie's Blog.

Gettin' Exercise...

I have started taking Heidi places and doing things that make her run around to get exercise. So instead of calling this "playing," she says, "I need exercise!" I took her to Sacajawea Park the other day and we spent about two minutes at each spot: a quick slide or two at Pompey's playground, then RUN across the soccer fields to the Merry-go-Round, then RUN to the swings, then RUN to the teeter-totter and back to the car...lots of exercise for mom & James, too! We were sad to find the latch of the baby swing broke, so James couldn't swing very high...:(
But Heidi had fun swinging and singing!
Look at her happy grin!

Real Quick

Jill is here with her four kids--spur-of-the-moment fun surprise for Mothers Day! YAY! So I am going to be brief and share some pix from our Sunday walk: Going up the hill on Summit street with our house inthe background. Addie is pushing the kids in the bike trailer and I am talking to mom on the cell phone.
This is our town from the hill by our house. You can see I-90, The Melin Agency, and Dairy Queen (owned by a family in our ward) from this angle.
This is looking south of town toward Paradise Valley...so pretty.
And to cheer up your hump day, here's my sweet, smiley boy!

Have a Happy Wednesday! We're off to have some Cousin Fun!

Couch Potatoes

We recently purchased a dirt cheap set of DVDs featuring old skool cartoons like Popeye and Betty Boop. Our girls are instantly sucked into the 1930's tracter beam, which is perfect for when I need computer time or time to cook dinner...
I like this photo just to compare their profiles....look at Addie's cute little Melin lip and Heidi's playdoh nose! Cutie pies.

I also took in a little TV this week--a lot, actually, with The Mormon Show on PBS, plus American Idol and Must-See on Thursday. And here is what I have to say about that:

1. BLAKEIFY: To make something lame (like a mushy country song or an 80's hairband hit) into something hip-hoppity-jazz-cool with some beat boxin' mixed in, 311 style. Okay, I LOVED Blake Lewis' version of Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name" so much, I have probably watched it 10 times. It sounded very 311 (I saw 311 back in 1997 and the lead singer was way cuter than he is in this video...I loved thier muzak, but they were way too drug-culture for me) to me and I find Blake thoroughly entertaining and original (at least by American Idol standards). Look:

2. Scrubs (click here) just about broke my heart. You probably know from reading this blog that I feel a kinship to the cast of Scrubs as if we had all grown up together. Seriously. Something about the show (maybe that the writers are all the same age as me?) just hits my young adulthood nail right on the head. So this past epoisode when Eliot gets engaged and JD is trying super hard to get with her friend, and then he asks himself why he's trying so hard, then answers his own question with the heartwrenching "It should have been me"-- UGH! I felt that! I know I have felt that and I know I made someone else feel that when I got hitched (I 've got it in writing). I wish I could fast forward and see what's going to happen, cuz JD still has that baby out there somewhere with that lyin' urologist from last season...

WHAT!?! Did you just tell me to get a life? Okay, okay...I have one, but I was taking a break this week to get over my chest cold! Gimme a break...I have to stop thinking deep thoughts SOMETIME!

Heh-heh.

PS: Happy Saturday, y'all...git your BelBivDeVoe on.

Ah, Friday...

I took a much-needed nap today, hoping while I was asleep the homemaker's elves would come finish my work so I could enjoy the weekend, but those chumps never showed!

It's not so bad here--just some clothes to fold and floors to clean. I have been busy getting ready for the elders Quorum family party tonight--"Fiesta Quatro de Mayo," a Mexican potluck-n-pinata extravaganza. Being the First Lady of the Elders Quorum (okay, there are no ladies in the EQ, but I help my husband be their President) I felt the need to make a giant and fabulous pot of Tortilla Soup, complete with diced avocados and homemade tortilla strips. The girls and I also had lots of fun making huge tissue flowers for the tables. Ole!

Also, ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY...

(2004, to be exact), my niece Summer Melin was born in Texas (she and Heidi were due the same day!). She now lives in North Dakota with her two brothers and has a full time job being Cute and Sassy.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Sum-sum!

Guess what Summer got for her birthday? A COUSIN! Yep, Rich's OTHER brother and his wife welcomed new baby Jared to their family today. He has two big sisters (and we mean much bigger and a little older--his two-year-old sister weighed over 9 pounds at birth, but little Jared only weighed 5-11!) and Uncle Mark sure is glad to have another man in the house!

Congratulations, Melins! Yay for sweet baby boys!

The Plague

Bubby and I are sooooo sick, I really look ( and feel) like death. It's pitiful.

BUT! I am so happy that the plague (which I could feel coming on for the past two weeks) did not attack me until the morning that Sam & Kristen left...that was merciful, because we have been so busy for the past two months. Oh, wait--I meant the past three years.

Anyway, we had a BLAST with Sambo & Special K on this leg of their Rocky Mountain adventure. They got better pix than I did, and I can't find time between coughing and blowing my nose to uplaod the few pix I got, but trust me--we had a great time, Montana spring is beyond gorgeous, and Sambo and SK are as cute as ever! The Lehmans joined us for some Hawaiian dinner on Thursday afternoon and evening and it was so much fun. MY SIBLINGS RULE.

I have to go nap, but here are some fun pix of LAST weekend in Utah: Jen's Temple Square pix here and Michaela's pix from the Buchert Compound are here (check out Heidi, my pica girl).

I'll be back when my head is less cloudy and I can see out my gooey red eyes. Lovies...

Dads & Daughters in Moab

Rich had the idea to invite Drew & Willy to take their eldest daughters to camp in Moab for Spring Break. It all went down this weekend...

Here's the camp
Here's the scenery
Here are the girls: Ally Petersen, Addie Melin, and Melanie Post
Mel and Addie having an adventure
The girls enjoying the campfire
Apparently the dads got tired of taking the ladies out to potty, so Uncle Drew and Uncle Willy made a special potty chair for the girls.
Here are Addie and her Daddy on Saturday morning...so cute!
Here are Addie and her Daddy defying death above the Colorado River (yikes!)
Addie and a view of the lovely desert in Arches
Will, Melanie, Addie, Rich, Ally & Drew
GROUP HUG! Silly cousin girls breaking camp...
...and heading into town for some dinner Saturday night. That's Addie at Zac's pizza.

Last Week: Photos

Heidi had her three-year-old check up with Dr. O'Hara. The doctor complimented me profusely on my kids' development, both physical and social, and on their health. She mentioned that it looks from their records that they are only sick a couple of times a year. We discussed my awesome parenting (AHEM) and pinpointed (a) the kids' varied but mostly good whole food diet and (b) the fact that I exposed them to every possible virus/ bacteria at an early age (like when James went to church when he was 4 days old--don't worry, we left right after sacrament before anyone slobbered on him) and that I often refuse antibiotics unless there is definite evidence of infection or urgent need (otherwise we tough it out naturopathically because I'm all Andrew-Weil that way).

I suppose it also helps that I wasn't in high school whenI got pregnant and my kids never come in contact with cigarette smoke. As far as their social development--well, she hasn't seen Heidi tired and we didn't talk about those days when I have computer work to do and they watch about 3 hours of Playhouse Disney while stuffing their faces with baby carrots and Ovaltine milk. Anyway, Heidi weighs 40 pounds and is 39 inches tall, and is one smart cookie.
James likes the fish on the doctor's wall... and speaking of James, he got checked up the week before and he weighs a few ounces shy of 23 pounds and is 29-1/2 inches tall.
Here I am rocking my boy...
...and watching Heidi build a tent out of pillows on the couch.
She's a busy little stinker!