On This Date in History...

...my Grandpa Elrey (that's him on the right with his mama, circa 1927) was born! Happy Birthday, Grampy!Read more here.

Papa Bill shares his birthday with Elle MacPherson, Cy Young, Pearl Bailey, & Amy Sedaris. March 29, 1973, US Troops left South Vietnam, and in 1848 for the first time in recorded history, Niagra Falls stopped flowing. An ice jam in the Niagara River above the rim of the falls caused the water to stop.

Today and Yesterday

Yesterday my kids were surprised by a fun package of animals (I told you they were spoiled!). Here they are rejoicing over their new toys (Addie is especially thrilled about her new soft whale, which she just calls a dolphin because she collects dolphins now). They had fun playing outside in the nearly-fifty-degree spring weather while I made dinner (taco salad). Later we had a "working-together" Family Night to get the upstairs clean (Ad is becoming a great bathroom-cleaner, and Heidi did a great job helping Bub clean up his room). Daddy mopped the wood floors while I cleaned up the kitchen and baked some brownies. Later we took them to the Young Family because they have two birthdays this week, and we came home and hit the hay ourselves. Happy Melin Kids!

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Today was the last day of Addie's spring break, so we tried to live it up. After a silly morning of playing we all got dressed and went to the store where we bought tons of yummy produce and other groceries and filled my prescriptions (I signed up for the monthly refills/ reminder call because I keep forgetting to get my meds before I run out--I've been out of tapazole since my Saturday night dose--DUH!!!). When we got home the kids played outside while I made lunch and did some dinner prep for the next few nights. While they were outside, James got genuinely dirty for the first time! Rich put him in the tub while I fed the girls some lunch.

My filthy toddler--pre-bath, lunch, and nap today.

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For dinner, the girls wanted lettuce wraps so I made TONS. They had their friends Kelli and Gracie over today so I made stuff while they played. After we took Kelli and Gracie home, we raced Daddy home and the girls set the table in about 2 minutes flat! It was so great! Here they are, ready to eat dinner at about 5:20 tonight.

Here's our colorful, yummy spread! I highly recommend lettuce wraps--they make a great meal, and James just eats the meat filling with rice since he is too little for lettuce. You should google "PF CHANG'S LETTUCE WRAPS" and do your own version of their recipe (I throw is all the veggies I can find and use ground turkey instead of chicken as per my amiga Debbie's version).

"It's [been] a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor...would you be mine? Could you be mine?..."

(Mr. Rogers would have turned 80 last Thursday! Next year I'll remember THIS to celebrate) (CLICK HERE FOR A SMILE )

Easter Meaning

Before all the Easter Morning Hullabaloo, we had our own little family "Sunset Service" at home. After the kids got into their pajamas at about 6:30 Saturday night, we all snuggle up to watch "Lamb of God", which I had tivo'ed last year off BYUTV. We were able to watch it together, to pause and answer their questions, explain what was happening to Jesus and why (in pre-school terms, of course--try breaking the whole Gethsemane/ blood-from-every-pore part down--we did our best), and skip some of the more graphic scenes when Addie began to cry (she cried when the sadducees spit on Him--"that's too mean," she said as a tear fell down her face--broke my heart!) We talked about how the resurrection is for everyone, and they went down the list of people who have died that they would like to see again--Addie is always excited to meet Grandma Adeline and for me to "get my Grandma back" (my Grandma Layton died last winter and I think that's the first time she saw someone get sad about death). We also talked about how Jesus got to keep His scars so people would know who He is, but that all of us would be well and whole again, grown up but young and healthy--Addie's eyes got wide and she exclaimed, "I'm so excited about that!"

That exclamation made my heart smile because it's our natural reaction to the "good news" of the gospel of Christ, isn't it? I'm excited about that, too, Addie. I am so thankful for Jesus and I am so thankful that Heavenly Father let me play a part in giving you that beautiful, perfect body of yours--that vehicle that will, after a glorious resurrection, take you closer to Our Father. I am so thankful for ALL the things that Jesus did for us during that Holy week that make it possible for us to be a forever family and be with Heavenly Father again. I'm so excited about that, too.

To celebrate my half-birthday...

Back in the Day

On Saturday while we worked on the yard we blasted The Best of INXS. How can I keep forgetting what an excellent band they were? and oh, mercy, the crush I had on Michael Hutchence...my heart races just THINKING about it! Have a gander at two of my very favorite videos EVER:

Easter Fun, Melin Style

H E L L O !
It has been a l--o--n--g week--2 holidays and a temple trip--but we're back to blog it all!

I still don't have pictures from our FHE treasure hunt (3/17), but I wanted to tell ZUZANA thank you for the easter package! The girls love their hair bows and we used all the yummy candies as the treasure last Monday night (the leprachaun's "pot of gold"--the gold chocolate coins were perfect!) . I am sorry I didn't take pictures of us opening the package. It came during our sick week and cheered us up! We had a wonderful Easter and we hope you did, too!

Another thing I don't have pictures of is the snowy weather on Thursday and Friday--way to ring in spring! We tried to make it a fun spring break for the girls by doing some Easter crafts inside, but we missed going to the park in the sunshine!

Easter Preparation: Addie kicked off her spring break by coloring eggs on Thursday afternoon...

James and Heidi helped, too, and we put up some of our decorations (late, I know--I couldn't get into all the advance-celebrating this year--still worn out from the sickies, I guess!)

Sunday (easter morning), the kids discovering thier booty! (Candy, books, kindereggs, wooly willies, and Smarties Connect Three games)

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After snarfing candy & boiled eggs & toast for breakfast, we went to church adn then to Grandma Melin's for a yummy dinner and egg hunt.

Heidi, James & Addie in all their Easter glory...

Ready for Grandma's egg hunt!

Cutie Pies!

Ad and Me being silly

Heidi styled me and took this photo...
Grandma making a yummy green salad to go with the ham, funeral potatoes, rolls, green beans, etc...)
The girls were so excited to see Uncle Mike!

Grandma giving the kids instructions for the Easter Egg hunt
James stopped in the middle of the hunt (yelloe eggs) to start eating his candy!
Heidi hunted orange eggs

Addie hunted pink eggs
Daddy, Uncle Davy, Uncle Mike, and Grandpa helped ths kids find thier eggs
This is what we got when we tried to take a picture of all the kids together...Addie and Danny with their full baskets.

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I followed all of this fun with a NAP--Addie came and woke me up at 6:30! We web-cam-chatted with Uncle Jess in Florida for a bit. We came home and put the kids to bed, enjoyed the tivo'ed abc shows and a chat with Sam & Jill. It was a very nice day & we felt very grateful for Christ and his resurrection, and for the beauty and hope of spring time. We hope each of you had a great Easter, too!

PS:

two items of business...
We did get to go on a date Saturday night (thanks for babysitting, Brandi) and everyone is pretty much well at our house now! Yay! Let's keep it that way!

We are going to the Billings Temple on Saturday and we are going to Utah to meet up with family over conference weekend (4/3-4/6--we will be staying at the Comfort Inn in Draper)-- if anybody wants to meet up with us on either of those trips.

Wednesday Morning Break

This morning we took the kids down to the elementary school to get their pictures taken and afterward I took them to "the secret park"--a previously undiscovered park in the heart of a neighborhood northeast of ours. It was not the best day to go to the park because it was a really cold morning and some sleet from last night had frozen to all the rides. But I had promised Heidi she could go today (her day off) so we did some fun swinging...
James thinks swinging is hilarious...
...and Heidi likes to "kick the tree" up high! We played on the swings until their hands were practically frozen, then we came home to snuggle!

Top O' The Mornin'!

Monday Morning we put on our favorite green clothes and Daddy made us green eggs for breakfast! The girls had fun activities at school, mommy took James to the doctor for his checkup, and we had Grandpa & Grandma Melin and the Gray Cousins over for a corned-beef-and-cabbage dinner followed by a Family Night Treasure Hunt! It was a really fun day!Addie wore her Shamrock shades, her St. Pat's button and hairbow, and her Flogging Molly shirt.
Heidi had a button and a hairbow, too!
Cute little leprachauns!

While we waited for the doctor, James saw somebody he recognized on the bulletin board! (3/17/08)

Saturday at DB7 Ranch

Grandpa, Dad, and Uncle Mike had lots of underbrush and tree trimmings to burn on Saturday. We joined them at 10:30am to check on the progress...
James loved playing with Madison, the ranch neighbors' dog!
Here's James in the back of the ranch truck...
Peek-a-boo!
Uncle Mike workin' hard

James, Grandpa, and Mommy watch the burn
James got to drive the ranch truck for the first time...
...off to work with Papa Tom!!