Monday

Monday was relatively uneventful--just hanging out with the girls, doing laundry, watching kids' TV and coloring--until late afternoon when OUR BARN BURNED DOWN at the ranch.The cinderblock addition is all that's left of the barn, the corral, and the woodshed.


Rich arrived after 4pm and watched the fire spread from the barn to the woodshed, where the Melin boys had carefully stacked thousands of dollars worth of prime, reuseable barnwood from another structure on July1st...shucks! The fire trucks arrived a few minutes later, and they were still working when we went back between 7 & 8pm last night (the fire was out; they were just stacking debris and removng burnt trees). No one was hurt or even in danger...we had no animals or equipment nearby, and our garden and apple orchards were fine (so was Grandma Vivian).

Sunday

Sunday was a very long day for us! We drove to Bozeman at 7:30am so that Rich could be set apart as Elders Quorum President by our Stake President. We got back from all of that at 9:30am and went to our regular three-hour block meetings and waited a half-hour for Rich to have his first EQ presidency meeting. Luckily, I snuck out during Sunday School and put lasagna and breadsticks in the oven, so they were ready when we got home at 1:40pm. Then we took naps til just before 5pm, then we had some snacks and did crazy hair-dos. Then the girls played dress-up and we took the following pix: Princess Adeline
Behold the dress-up box!
Princess Heidi
Heidi getting dressed

(I am sorry we missed the moment when she was wearing the one purple shoe and the one turquois shoe!)

Their Royal Highnesses, Happy & Grumpy!

(I LOOOOVE this picture)

Saturday

Silly Daddy bought these Cookie Dog Bowls for the girls for a treat...
...they had lots of fun pretending to be puppies!
Saturday evening we had a microburst with winds over 60mph, which knocked out our power for an hour. I was checking out at Albertson's when the power went out...all the lights went out, but the registers just flickered--they must be on a generator thing or something. It was interesting! I came home and we had to cook dinner on our camp stove. Good thing it was a skillet meal!

Fantasy Shopping

I decided to make a baby registry/ wish list in case anybody wants to send us baby gifts or we have a shower. I don’t think I have registered for baby before, and I got plenty of lovely, personal, useful gifts without asking for them. But I thought since this is the last baby and it looks like a boy, there might be some specific items we need and others we don’t. So here’s a link to our target.com wish-list (just enter my name). And I am kind of kidding about the Whale Crib set...it's so cute, but so pricey...we'll probably go with an Ikea crib comforter and sew a cover that goes with the plain creme crib stuff we already have; so if you're near Ikea, let me know because I need one of these and they're not sold online:



We also love the Johnson’s Bedtime bath products and white onesises in every size. Or maybe if you’re really ambitious, you could collaborate with Rich and the gang and get a very cheap version of this (in navy, red, or taupe--I swear I saw a cute one at Walmart that would work, then never saw it again)!



We DO need a nice, compact high chair, and we plan to get the little Ikea one, and I plan on borrowing a good bouncy seat from one of my sisters or sisters-in-law.

Other than that (and lots of diapers and wipes), we are pretty much set. I guess mostly this post is just me typing out my mental inventory list…it’s the crazy nesting setting in!

PS: Thanks, Jill & Audrey, for all the nice baby boy clothes! Once I am sure this baby is a boy, I am sending tons of cute girls clothes your way!

PPS: Click here to see something else I really, REALLY want!

Birth Blogging

I was chattin’ it up with my OB nurse (Hi, Barb) today and I gave her my blog address so she can read about what’s going on behind the scenes, and about my delivery when it happens (she only works at the clinic, not the hospital, so she will miss out on all the fun UNTIL she reads it here). I just realized that I went on total blogging hiatus when I had the girls, but I recorded their birth stories later (well, I keep a regular pen-and-ink pregnancy journal, and eventually I posted the birth stories from there). So here's the link to Heidi’s birth story (I don't know where I posted Addie's), and the rest of the blog records the aftermath we call Melin family life.

By the way, dear readers, the "resting" seems to be paying off, as I gained 2 pounds and the BP was lower today. The ultrasound results made the doctor happy (big fat baby=possible early induction, which in turn makes ME happy), and I feel like I just might survive the next 2 months!

Finally...Beautiful Artwork!

On a whim I just tried posting pix to blogger, and Lo! It worked! So here are some cute pictures colored by Ally & Addie one week ago today! This masterpiece by Adddie shows Ally, Belle, & Addie sitting on lawn chairs after swimming last Saturday. To the right is the pool and the triangle thingies are our fence. Note Addie's distictive signature on the left preceeded by a heart (the artist herself explained all this to me).
I love this picture by Ally so much, I might make notecards out of it. I can't wait til she gets a tiny bit older and can come stay with us for a week or so...she is still my baby niece!!
Here are the cuties at the church during the July 1st pancake breakfast. Jack is on the ground catching ants.

I may be pushing my luck, but here are some more pix....here's our table at the breakfast: clockwisee from left, it's Ad, Al, Belle, Jill's frined Michelle, Jill, Ben, Uncle Mike, Heidi, & Jack.

Later on Saturday, Rich took the kids to play at Sacajawea Park. Ally & Addie swing...

...and Belle, Heidi, and Jack swing, too.

Funny Girls

I have been trying to post some new pictures and some beautiful artwork created by Addie & Ally, but I haven't been able to post any images for three days! I even have some great Tucson monsoon pix for my most recent post at Framanisco , but they won't go up either. Shucks.

But I won't withhold the bits about my girls anymore--when blogger gets fixed, we'll post the images that go with this text.

Last week Addie told me what she wants to be when she grows up: "Mom, I want to be THREE things: a ballerina, a gardener, and a grandma." It made me smile, and I told her that she could very easily be all three of those things.

Heidi talks so much, and mostly she speaks very clearly. However, she has some words that are uniquely her own, so here is a sample of "HEIDI-ISMS":

zuda= soda, as in root beer, sprite, coke...
kiki car= daddy's teal Escort hoopty car...we have NO IDEA what the prefix "kiki" means!
pockiple= popsicle...for a while we tought she was saying "basketball" and wondered why she kept asking for a basketball. She finally opened the freezer and enlightened us with an Otter Pop.
libbit= a little bit, as in "Pleeeeease...Mama, gimme libbit in my hand."
sumber=thunder, as in "Hear dat, mom? Dat's sumber! It's a storm!"
Cockadoodledoo= what Heidi says in our ears when she wants us to wake up.

And, finally, a classic sentence. Last week when we stayd in Billings for our Melin Reunion, Heidi threw up for the first time. She mostly got the bed sheet and her blanket, so I just piled them at the foot of the bed, cleaned her up, and got her back to sleep. Later in the morning, she wanted her blanket, but she saw the vomit and said, "Eww, yucky! I spit poopies out my mouf, mom. Yucky! Poopies out my mouf!" I thought that was so sad, and FUNNY! I taught her the right word, but hope we don't have to use it anytime soon!

Melin Reunion

Melin Family 2006

Sunday, July 2nd before church

Back: Jess, Kelli, Davy, Mike, Mom, Dad, Mark, Jamie, & Rich;

Front: Summer, TJay, Angie w/ Rosalie, Danny, Liana, Elena w/ Sariah, Addie & Heidi

Monday: Brothers Hike Mt. Baldy

On Monday, July 3rd, Rich & his brothers and a few friends hiked up Mt. Baldy to retrieve a plaque that Jess put up there 20 years ago.Mike, Mark, Jess, & Rich Melin with Livingston in the background
Jess found his plaque!
The boys called us from teh top and told us to watch the peak while Mike signaled us with this contraption.
All the boys chill on the ridge
The hikers: Jeff & Shaun Spalding, Jess & Rich Melin;

in front: Cliff Gray, Mike & Mark Melin

Sunday: Parade

In Livingston, Independence Day starts on July 2nd with the Parade that kicks off the 3-day Livingston Roundup. It's a MADHOUSE!Here is our parade gang sitting out on 2nd & Clark Streets.
Addie, Belle, & Ally watch as the parade begins...
...so do Jack & Heidi (from the comfort of the stroller)
We LOVE pipers!!
Uncle Jess & Summer
Five Big Kids: TJay, Danny, Ally, Isabelle, & Addie
Heidi modeling her cowgirl hat.

Here's Rosalie relaxing at the parade....

TJay, Heidi, & Addie watch one of the last floats go by.

TJay & Addie being silly.