Speaking of Sweethearts...

Seven Years Ago (on Sunday) I Married Mine!We're off to Billings for the weekend to celebrate!!!

(sans children--can I handle it? I think so! Thanks, Grandma Rosalie, for taking care of them!)

Happy Valentines Day!

This is, of course, the most important and loviest of all my valentines...the forever one.

I LOVE YOU, RICHARD!

This is to all my loved-ones who make my life so rich...

This cute Valentine reminded me of all the Melin Boys...

Happy Valentines Day to all the OTHER Melins!

(and this is my RESPONSE to the last Valentine!!!! :))

This is for Spam & Special K...we've got a piper down! Love and Miss You Two!

...and of course this one reminds me of my step dad!

Happy Valentine's Day, Mom & Mark!
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Enjoy your day & remember you are LOVED!

Recent Photos

On Sunday (2/10) we took a trip to Helena to visit with Postums and Lehmans. There was just no other time this month to make a visit and we hadn't been there since November, so we left after the 2nd hour of our church and took a crock pot dinner of roast & carrots, plus broccoli, asparagus and wheat montana rolls for Sunday Dinner. We had so much fun just hanging out, and Addie was so excited when she and Aunt Amie had the same pink sweatsuit!Heidi, Amie, & Addie
Snuggle Bunnies
Pink Ladies!

Click here to see more pictures we took with Matt's new i-book computer. It has a built-in camera with special effects (photo booth), which is like having your very own fun house! Aren't we hideous?

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On Monday (2/11) when I was cleaning the great room like a crazy woman (it was sunny and bright so I even raised the curtains and cleaned the windows! It was deceptively spring-like), James and Heidi wanted to "color" at the table. The amazing thing is that they will do this for 20-30 minutes!

Another amazing thing is that James often holds a pencil the right way!
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On Tuesday (2/12), we had another mild, sunny day and I let the girls out to play between 4-5pm (waiting for dad to come home). James, however, had to stay inside because he still crawls around outside and it's far to slushy/muddy/snowy for that right now! He gets really mad about having to stay in, but he consoles himself by watching the kids from the front window.

Eating an apple
Standing up on the cedar chest

Watching the kids, longingly...
Addie brings a kiss...AWWWWWW!!!
My sweet, silly (out-of-focus) boy!

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Have a great Valentine's Day tomorrow!

I Hope This Happens to Us...

(I don't think we'd last too long w/o eachother!)

Sister Ruth Wright Faust dies exactly six months after her husband, James E. Faust. Click Here to read more of their love story.

Video from Six Weeks Ago

Late December Cuckoos from MelinFamily on Vimeo.

the way things are...

So I am cleaning up lunch, Heidi is contentedly watching Spongebob, and James is playing on top of the cedar chest in the front window (he climbed there to wave good bye to Rich, and stayed cuz he liked the view). Suddenly I hear this scribbling sound and I see that James has gotten hold of Heidi's mini color pencils and he's scribbling on the window sill.

I grab my magic eraser and some scrap paper and run over to stop the graffiti. I take the pencils from James, point to the scribbles and say, "No, no!" I show him the magic eraser and how to scrub off the mess. Then I get him down from the chest, put the scrap paper down on top, and show him how to scribble on the paper. I say, "Only on paper!" (a mantra around here) and hand him a pencil. He grins widely and scribbles with glee on the paper. Okay, I sigh, disaster averted.

A minute later he is scribbling on the window sill again and I run over there scowling. He looks up at me with a huge grin, folds his hands behind his back and says, "All gone!" As in, "Huh? What pencils? I have no pencils!"

Can you believe this punk, at only 17 months old? He's learned well from his dark master/ big sister.

I Wish I Had Seen This Last Week...

...since we are doing more looking forward than back this week, but it's still lovely and I had to share. Usually I find these things kind of sappy, but this one is SO well done and contains some beautiful pictures I have never seen. Enjoy, and RIP GBH & Romney campaign...

Three Things...

1. Too busy for complete sentences--catching up on all I've slacked, still so TARD!

2. Get Well Soon, Lisaree! We love you! (my lil sis is recovering from major surgery)

3. Click here and follow the links to vote so Erica and Zach can have an awesome wedding! (I don't actually know theses two, but Erica's blog cracks me up, so go there and vote, and Erica, if you win, you have to invite me! HA!)

Oh, and a 4th...way to go, AZ and CA!!! You knocked all the GOOD Republicans down on Super Tuesday....for shame! But my own private Montana chose Romney and gave a FULL QUARTER of their votes to Ron Paul (I seriously think Paul could be The KING of Montana--we love him!)And I couldn't help but thinking this morning as I watched all the tornado destruction on TV..."That's what you get for voting for Huckabee, suthernerz!" But I didn't say that out loud because I know that (a) God doesn't send weather to punish people (at least not very often) and (b) He doesn't really care who you vote for...in fact maybe he WANTS McCain to win so Jesus can come, or hell can freeze over, or what ever....

How I Roll

I just got off the phone with my friend Celeste who, due to the wacky AZ closed Primaries cannot vote for her favorite candidate, Mitt Romney.

We talked for a while and she has convinced me to use my Super-Tuesday vote for Romney. I do admit it would be more of a vote against McCain (and you can bet all my votes from now on will be against McCain and Clinton), although I have nothing against Romney. I was listening to Limbaugh while I was doing errands, listening to McCain's record ("a guy who runs on the right and legislates on the left") (and a funny little song to the tune of the CCR song, "Who'll Stop McCain?") and it suddenly occured to me--"Holy crap! It's already down to Clinton, Obama, McCain, and Romney! How did that happen so fast?" Seriously!? I thought about how much McCain has let us down this past decade and I just thought to myself, "I have to keep him out!" Of course, I don't really know how things work here in Montana--Super Tuesday here is just some kind of Caucus prefernce thing and I don't know if it even counts for anything at the convention, but IF I were voting and IF it counted, I would vote for Romney tomorrow.

But I LOVE Ron Paul. I really do. Ron, this isn't about you, it's about McCain. Please don't hold it against me.

So, my peeps, I IMPLORE YOU to get out and vote tomorrow. It's what we need to do to exercise our God-given agency and our hard-won rights. And I won't even tell you who to vote for. Cuz that's how I roll...

(...but I will tell you to vote AGAINST McCain and Clinton!!!!!! :))

Post Script...

Not to ruin any surprises or anything, but I am totally getting this T-Shirt for Sam when I get the cash:

You should check 'em out at THIS link.

I know it's evil, but I reeeeeally like "I'd rather be waterboarding"!

A Month of Saturdays

...well, half-a-month, anyway. It DOES seem like forever since I uploaded some pictures because I was deathly ill from one Saturday to the next (1/26-2/2). I went to church today, though, and asided from a stuffy nose and tiredness, I think I am recovered. Yay that. So anyway, LAST saturday we made a morning trip to Bozo so Rich could test-drive a Land Cruiser and we could all go to the Museum and Walmart.

At the museum, Rich saw the bat exhibit for the first time (it changes this week), and I took the kids up to play in the Discovery Room. This time they all put on astronaut costumes and pretended the play gym was their space station. Sadly, Heidi had taken off her suit before Rich came up with the camera, so I just got Addie and James in their suits...

Addie & James in their "space station" at Museum of the Rockies
Astro-Addie
Bad picture of James throwing a fit in his space suit
Heidi playing dinosaurs at the museum.

A few days later, Heidi read library books to her broken baby brother in his walker (which used to belong to Rich). It's nice to catch her doing something NICE for a change...

So THIS Saturday was kind of weird because I was still sick and we were hanging around watching BYUTV's Hinckley coverage. We really enjoyed the interview with Sheri Dew (his biographer) and the other coverage with Jane Clayson Johnson. President Hinckley's funeral was soooo sweet. It was such a great way to spend a Saturday, reflecting on his life. President Monson's comments especially made me feel how close their friendship was, and gave me a sense that our relationships truly are eternal--the way he talked was just so peaceful and familiar and joyful, and it made me feel happy instead of sad. I did, however, fall to pieces when they talked about him being buried with Lancashire dirt as well as Utah dirt, and OF COURSE when the piper came to play Danny Boy, Amazing Grace, and Praise to the Man (the drinking song version--what's that called?). I always felt like such a dork because I still have a soft spot in my heart for North Carolina where I served (and have been known to cry a little when the James Taylor song plays), but now I feel less dorky because even President Hinckley, 70 years after his mission, had tender feelings about England--the place where he served as a missionary and really came to know Christ.

Me, watching the graveside service
The girls coloring and playing Play-Doh and eating pizza
James shared HIS pizza with his doggie. Now doggie in in the washer.

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Later on Saturday, I took a nap and my peeps hung out...

Heidi got something super-special and AWESOME in the mail from Cousin Summer...

ELEPHANT JAMMIES!!!!!
Thanks, Aunt Kelli & Sum-sum! You really made Heidi's week!

She loves her new jammies!

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And that brings you up-to-date with us. I will spend this coming week trying to make up for all my slacking this past month, and especially this past week while I was bed-ridden--the house is pretty trashed and all the nooks and crannies need to be re-organized. I need to get back the energy I need to keep up with Captain Furious /Elephant Pants and her little brother! We are all well, thanks to my super-hero husband who held us all together this past week. I sure love him!

Have a happy new week...