Where Are They Now?

If you click here to read my very first post on this incarnation of my blog, you may wonder what the people mentioned there are doing now. Well, here's the answer:

1. Addie was 18 months old. Now she's 5-1/2, finishing up pre-school, excited for Kindergarten at Winans School, member of the all-girl CTR-6 class (6 girls!) at church, can make several meals/snacks on her own (ramen, nachos, PBJ, lemon bars), is a fabulous big sister, and is my mini-me! We have so much fun and I LOVE watching her grow up.

2. Coincidentally, we saw Abby and Lynzee for the first time in about 3 years last Sturday at their Uncle Geoff's graduation from MSU (they live in Oregon now). We hope to see them again when their grandparents com ehome from thier mission to Croatia.

3. Grandma Lyn is still with us, thank heaven, and she still keeps me connected with my AZ peeps. She recently turned 76 but doesn't look a day over 60. She is still one of my best friends, and she clips all of the Sunday coupons and mails them to me each week with a note. I LOVE that, even though I feel guilty for only using 3-4 coupons at a time. I love her notes and recently purchased a lovely hat box in which to keep them. Most of the time when I update this blog, I do it for gram & gramp (and all the other g'rents who check the blog to keep in touch).

4. That "new baby" Ryley just turned 4, just like my blog, and she is FANTASTIC! If I ever saw a real living "SPRITE," she's it. Ryley is a big sister now to Ben and Olivia, adn her Auntie Maren in a mom now to Morgan. Check out Ryley on her mom's blog here, and more fun Mayberry footage here at Brent's blog.

5. I was getting ready to go visit my mother in Missouri in that first post (which I won't be doing again for AT LEAST two years), and she is still there after four years, much to everyone's chagrin. Mom's got her own blog now, and that bathroom we helped frame up 4 years ago is almost done! I loves me mum!

In my second post, I talked about my struggle to assimilate to my teeny tiny redneck town. I believe I have found my niche and gotten comfortable here--not so much assimilating as accepting. A lot of the comfort has to do with treating my life like a misison and learning to bloom where I am planted. Now, I don't claim to be a vibrant rosebush or anything, but I think I can safely say I'm at least a brave little wildflower, trying to keep my face to the sun (even in the snow!). I really love our life here and I am everso grateful for what I am becoming here.

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").

Heidi & The Sugar Bug

Heidi had a dental check up on April 27th and Dr. Orton found a tiny sugar bug on a lower right molar (poor Heidi didn't get Daddy's super teeth!). So on Monday 5/14, she got the sugar bug out and a shiny filling in... Here she is wearing her "clown nose" to get some "giggle gas"
There's Dr. Orton doing her teeth...
...and Heidi's so happy when he's all done!
(Dr. Orton is great with the kids, and it helps that he's our bishop, too)

Spring House

I was bragging to Willy about how awesome our yard looked when everything bloomed and realized that I never took a picture of my fab tulips in their full glory (I cut about 20 of them for Mothers Day, adn now they are withering in our unseasonably warm weather--this, after the snow killed the daffodils in April). Anyway, here are some Johnny-come-lately photos of our house as we left on a walk the other night. From across the street in front of my SIL Angie's house (with some neighbor chicas out front)
Little red geraniums coming up on the proch for summer and fall.
Ta-da!

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!

My Airplane Revelation

"Can you realize even slightly how relatively little we know? As Paul said, 'Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him' (1 Cor. 2:9) ."-Spencer W. Kimball

Read what I just learned about my potential over at Segullah (click).

Wanna read the rest of President Kimball's talk about our potential? Click here.

Senses Working Overtime

(if you're dying to hear the ol' XTC song, click here)

I have been thinking about this post for a long time, since I cleaned out my bathroom products and used up the last of my Bath & Body Works Apothecary Lavender-Vanilla bubble bath, which sent me right down memory lane. I, like most people, have strong scent memories. I heard on TV that this is an anatomical fact because the olfactory centers of the brain have no filters--what we smell is not processed, so it goes into our brains and creates a vivid memory right away. That's really cool, and very animal-like, no?

Some of the most surprisingly vivid and tender memories I have are from when I brought each of my three babies home from the hospital. Each time I was pregnant, as delivery grew nigh, I bought (or was given) a new set of scented soaps and lotions to help me feel pretty before and after delivering the baby.

So here is a list of some of my strongest scent memories:

• B&B Cucumber Melon Body Wash: Newborn Addie, courtesy of myself.
• B&B Apothecary Lavender-Vanilla: Newborn Heidi, courtesy of one of my dear YW, Lauren.
• Victoria's Secret Love Spell Body Spray & Scrub: Newborn James, courtesy of my mom.
• bleach/ chlorine water: mmmm, reminds me of pool water, and on a winter's day when I am sanitizing the linens of my cold-ridden family, the smell of the bleach water in the washer can send me right to a sunny, 105-degree day, playing in the pool in Arizona.
• orange peels, orange blossoms: takes me right to Arizona, too...warm sweet-smelling breezes...yum!
• Creosote, Mesquite=MONSOON RAIN in southern AZ. I'm tellin' you people, if they could bottle that smell...(if you've been in Tucson in August, you know what I am talking about!)
• fresh berries and dill also smell so good and fresh to me, and combined with lemon, can brighten and freshen any dish (berries for sweet, dill for savory, of course)
• Ralph Lauren's Safari for Men: when this scent came out, I loved it and I put the scent cards everywhere, even though I never knew a guy who wore it. I suppose it was the smell of the fantasy man of my early 20's.
• Ciara: The Scent of Grandma Lyn...I can smell it on my kids hours after she has hugged them!
• Dove Soap: Grandma Muriel...soft pink soap in her tiny pink-tiled bathroom.

Also, I had some thoughts about sounds the other night. It was a warm night and we had a fan on. The kids were in bed and the dishwasher was humming. I thought to myself that, aside from the sound of silence, the sound of the dishwasher might be my favorite. It's the sound of my woman's work being done at the end of the day. Ahhhh! I also like to drift off to sleep to the sound of the vacuum, the TV, and/or a fan going...I am a huge fan of white noise. Of course I love to hear my kids giggling, especially when they are making each other laugh.

And sometimes I worry that James will have some primal respose to the Scrubs theme...I am afraid he will suddenly get really hungry or want to suck on something, since I watched a tivo'ed Scrubs episode almost everytime I had to nurse him when he was a tiny baby. His first words will probably be, "I can't do this all on my own, no, I know I''m no Superman."

We'll talk about sight, taste, and touch another day. What are some of YOUR favorite scents & sounds?

Check it Out

I absolutely LOVE this video of Addie we just posted to her blog...it's just so her...skipping along and singing and looking out for her brother and sister. Enjoy!

James & The Otter Pop

Otter Pops became the cuisine du jour last week (5/10-11) when Jill was here and everyone was throwing up. James tried one for the first time (video courtesy of Jill)...






James & an Otter Pop from MelinFamily on Vimeo

All I Ever Knew...

Let me preface this post by acknowledging my dear friends who wish to be Mothers and are not, and/or who have lost their mothers and grandmothers. I always think about you on Mother's Day and remember the little squeeze my heart would feel each Mothers Day in my 20's when I thought I might never be a mother. Thank you for your influence in my life and for blessing my kids' lives, too.

Mothers, Grandmothers, Sisters, Aunts, Girlfriends, Stepmothers...enjoy.

Happy Mother's Day

(I know--JCPenney? Really? But it's such a great commercial, and this version of the song is so beautiful when you imagine it's about mothers!)

PS: Read THIS (click).