Our Arizona Trip

I didn't do a very good job taking photos on my trip to AZ 1/21-1/28, but here's what I got...The kids built this snowman as we were getting ready to leave for the airport. Even though it's snowy, it was a very warm day.
James thought Owen would be excited to see the snowman.

At 5:30 pm, James and I boarded our airplane to fly to AZ. James was super excited!

Ready for take-off!

***

Aunt Lisa picked us up in Mesa and drive us to Grandma's house in Sierra Vista. I am sad that I didn't take any pictures with Lisa or her boys, but we had a super fun time! Love you, Leees!

On Saturday night (Grandma's birthday eve) Sam brought over Grandma's big 80th birthday gift...

...a new hp computer so she can keep up with all her kids and grandkids!

(if you haven't contributed to the gift but want to, I am sure Sam & Gram would appreciate it).

On Sunday we gathered at the Layton's (formerly Aunt Marti's--Aunt Marti & Uncle Ralph are now on a mission in Ukraine and Sam & Kris are taking care of their house) for Grandma's 80th birthday (and Cousin Scott's 23rd and little Travis' 3rd, and in spirit, Cousin Kevin's 33rd).

Uncle Matt & Cousin Jeff S.

Scott giving James a typewriter.

Owen and Uncle Matt Elrey

Owen and James

James and Penelope Mayberry

Cousins Pearl & Elise with the buffet--

soup in bread bowls with green and fruit salads--YUM!

The gang at dinner time

My cute SIL Kristen & Owen
(Kristen is expecting a baby boy 6 days before me!)

Uncle Matt & Aunt Lorelyn

The birthday girl and her oldest son

(Grandma Lyn and Uncle Sam)

Cousin Maren with Cooper and Kristen with Owen

James & Cousin Robby

Penelope & Morgan eyeing the birthday cake

(Penelope aka Peeps belongs to my cousin Dave & Lacy, Morgan belongs to my cousin Maren & Matt Allred)

Sam with the boys' birthday cake--time for singing and wishes!

Scott & Travis after blowing out their candles

Travis opening his cool nerf guns

(James, Travis, Morgan, & Penelope)

***

Later in the week, James and Owen enjoyed some cantaloupe at dinner time

On Thursday--our last day in town--Kristen and Owen came and took us to the park. James took his dinosaurs and made some new friends.

Owen got brave and mastered the slides!

Owen & Kristen on the slides

The fun park by Grandma Lyn's house

After the park, we picked up Grandma and met Lacy and her girls for pizza at Vinny's.
(Lucy, Lacy, Peeps, Gram, and James)

The pizza was so good and we had such a good time with our AZ family! Thanks for the fun visits, Kristen & Lacy!!!

***

On Friday, Sam picked us up at 9:30am and we headed to Mesa to catch our plane. I tried really hard not to cry saying good bye to my Gram! It was fun to visit with Sam on our drive...it's never long enough! Our trip home was smooth and we were so happy to see Rich adn the girls at the airport. We went to dinner at Baja Fresh in Bozeman then came home and I hit the hay before 9pm. I was so dang tired! On Saturday morning, I went to the doctor and found out my sinuses and ears are infected, but the trip was totally worth it! Grammy, I miss you already, but I am so glad you have a new computer on which to keep up with us! HUGS!

Sunday Night

Happy Birthday Dear Grandma... from MelinFamily on Vimeo.

HoHum

Sorry I have been away so long. Not much is going on so it's not like you're missing much. We just spent a week focused on the ranch house. Hopefully all the decisions we made will keep the project rolling along. I am now the webmaster for Diamond Bar Seven, which means I now have a part time job setting up our vacation rental website as well as maintaining the new RANCH BLOG and getting all our marketing stuff and contracts together. No big deal, right? Yeah.

So if you get bored here, you can prolly find something new over at the ranch blog. This week I'll be working on the ranch history and some construction "Before and After" Posts. I can't wait to show you how the guys moved the stairs from the laundry room to the living room. It's kind of awesome, and so is the new huge picture window/ sliding glass door facing the river.

On Friday, James and I are heading south for a little sunshine and love with Grandma Lyn and the rest of our AZ family in Sierra Vista (If you are an Elrey relative in AZ, you should plan to come down to Grandma's 80th birthday dinner next Sunday at the Mayberry home/ Sam& Kristen's house!!). We look forward to it, although I am always a little nervous to travel when pregnant. I hope my hubs and girls will be happy and loved in my absence. Sniffle.

Anyway, all is well as far as I know. I'll update soon with a few snow-fun photos.

For The Melin Girls in Texas

Playing with Cousin Jared from MelinFamily on Vimeo.

Elvis Everywhere, and an update.

I've been having a bit of an Elvis revival since I saw him on Colbert a couple of months ago, then he popped up hosting Piano Jazz on npr (and I never listen to THAT show), so indulge me as I post the first Elvis video I ever saw, back in 1983. I've been thinking of this particular video ever since Will & Kate got engaged. I am so enamoured of the clever lyrics (typical of Elvis) and the snarky (fortelling?) video, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that this music all happened nearly 30 years ago. WHAT? I know I sound elderly when I say it but I must: in many ways, it seems like yesterday. I swear. Dig if you will:



Favorite lines:
"Your dreamboat turns out to be a footnote"

"Even in a perfect world where everyone was equal
I'd still own the film rights and be working on the sequel"

Ah, so fun.
***

So this has been a pretty ho-hum, post-holiday week. It was exciting and & comforting to see our baby boy on Tuesday, then I did the Young Women's Personal Progress activity on Wednesday, PTO on Thursday, and went out to check on the ranch house remodel on Friday night (the upstairs s already gutted and so. much. BETTER!). Also this week, our friends The Claar's lost their Grandma's house in a huge fire. I blabbed about it on facebook, but you can click HERE to go to Jen's blog to read the story and see the pictures.

I've been thinking a lot about my auntie and uncle (Marti & Ralph Mayberry) who entered the MTC on Monday to go to Ukraine Kiev and other Balkan states as Missionary Medical directors. I can't wait to hear how it's going. James and I bought tickets to fly to Arizona and visit with Aunt Lisa, Grandma Lyn, Uncle Sam, Aunt Kristen, and cousin Owen for a week (1/21-1/28). This coming week, Uncle Mark & cousin Jared are coming to visit us from Texas and work on the ranch house, and Uncle Jess will pop in from Florida for a bit, too, so we only had a short post-holiday lull.

The ranch house is going to be a fantastic project over the spring...I may start a remodeling blog just to keep the rest of the fam posted on our progress (I thought making decisions between the two of us was tough when we built our house---try doing it with 10 people all over the country, a few of whom are not quite on the same page--this otta be fun!)

So more soon, k? Have a peaceful sabbath, y'all!

We Saw The Baby Today...

...and it's a BOY!

(for the sake of his modesty, we did not print the adorable and unmistakable photo of his manly parts, but it's a boy fer sher!)

This was the most fun ultrasound I have ever had! The baby was cooperative, the technician was totally excellent and professional (and patient), our whole family was there, and the baby is healthy and put together perfectly (so far)...WOO HOO! I even got to watch him scratch his head (fingers! working!) and stretch his legs out straight, alternately. The tech said, "Now he's just putting on a big show, look at that!" Won't be able to do that for long, little man, so enjoy it!

We are all really excited. The girls only had an hour left of school, but they wanted to go back adn show off their pictures of teh baby and tell everyone it's a brother, so I have to go back adn pick them up now. YAY!

Funny

Here's a small thing that makes me laugh:

Every time I click on my blog (or click back to my blog), the little cartoon baby/fetus always pops up first, before the page changes. It shows up, just bobbing around on someone else's web page for split second and it cracks me up. I hope the real baby is that eager to "pop up" when it's time. And I hope it's not modest during The Big Show (ultrasound) tomorrow.

New Year's with Melins

New Year's Eve 2010-11 from MelinFamily on Vimeo.

Happy New Year!

We're still working on our Time Capsule post, but I thought I'd post some images from our New Year celebrations. I was sicker than sick on New Year's Day, but the family gathered at the boat house for games, puzzles, s'mores, and a run-down of what needs to be done to start the remodeling at the ranch house.

Here Addie, Grandam, Uncle Mike, James, and Heidi do puzzles and party it up in the boathouse.

There's even a TV to watch parades and football games!

Heidi roasting a marshmallow

Heidi, James, and Addie by the fire.

They got the life, mere yards from the Yellowstone River!

***
The night before, we went to the Bates Family party for an hour then came home for our family party--games, TV, treats with the Melins.

Here's James in all his party gear

All three kids ready for midnight--REAL midnight, can you believe? I was already in bed.

Watching the ball drop on the Mountain-Standard-Time replay.

Cheers from Addie!
Earlier in teh evening, when Grandpa & Grandma and Mike were still here, we celebrated East Coast New Year, watching the ball drop live on TV...Heidi, James & Addie were just warming up while I was heading to bed!

But not before wishing everyone a fabulous 2011 in my own party gear! :)

What's in YOUR Time Capsule?

Remember this from last year?

We celebrated "East Coast New Year" with our (mine & Jill's) kids at 10pm at my mom's house. Just before the big countdown, we gathered the kids around the table and asked them two questions: (1) What are you going to try to do better in 2010/ How will you try to be more like Jesus? and (2) What's your best memory of 2009? I am posting their answers here so we can look back on them at our 2010 New Years Party, where ever we are. We can check our progress and ask ourselves the same questions every year. If you want to join in (we missed so many of our cousins and would love for you to play along), post your family's answers to these questions as a comment on this post (or send me a link), and we'll all open our 'time capsule' next NYE!

Lyndi Alice, age 10: Be nicer to my siblings. Don't grind my teeth.
Heidi Lynn, age 5: Bake cookies for Santa in my Easy Bake. Don't scream in the house.
Jack Elliott, age 5: No sucking my fingers. No slamming doors.
Addie Rose, age 8: Try not to cry when I get frustrated and say words instead. Do my Faith in God book.
Isabelle Marie, age 7.5: Help my mom keep the house clean and give her hugs.
James Ole, age 3: "Uhhh...be a SUNBEAM!"
(Ben was playing downstairs)

BEST MEMORIES of 2009
Lyndi Alice: Addie's Baptism
Addie: My baptism day
Isabelle: Grandma Petersen's funeral because now she is back in heaven.
Jack: My birthday
Heidi: Riding an airplane and other fun stuff.
***

So how did we do, guys?

Heidi did bake lots of cookies in 2010, but she's still screaming in the house, especially lately because she's stir crazy on winter break! But she has been doing much better, so good for you, Lynners.

Addie is doing better expressing her feelings rather than crying, although she's still our most emotional offspring. She has done about a quarter of her Faith in God book but needs to catch up memorizing Articles of Faith.

James has been a great Sunbeam this year!

***

Petersens, leave a comment and tell us how you did. Then on New Year's we'll post our answers/ goals for 2010, okay? Everybody on board? Leave a comment!

Christmas Chaos

Here are the actual Christmas pix of our family. I called this post chaos because that's what I see in the pix--my house has been upside down for a week, but I am trying to enjoy the happy-crazy of being home on Christmas break. On to the photos... Addie opening the first gift of Christmas morning...she and Heidi couldn't WAIT to see what Aunt Lisa sent!

(Santa doesn't wrap at our house, so they had already found and played with their Santa gifts--Wii games, dolls, pillow pets, etc.)
This picture is just for Lisa...Heidi opening her beading kit!

James loves this build-a-mighty-machine kit Daddy picked out for him!

Heidi, our animal lover, is thrilled about her new dalmatian furreal puppy.

Grandma Melin made each of the kids one of these adorable frames for their rooms.

James looks excited here, but he'd soon be a little deflated by a new pair of snowpants!

Addie opening her picture from Grandma.

The girls got new dress coats...t

hey look positively Dickensian (1850s London-Chic) in them.

Rich with his new TShirt Quilt

The kids got a telescope from Daddy, but so far its been too overcast to see much.

Rich and I got a pressure cooker from Angie & Davey...

it's FABULOUS!

Here's Addie playing "Babysitting Mama" on the Wii.

Santa wants her to get ready for the new baby!

***

After gifts and cinnamon rolls and playing, we met Gram, Gramp, and Mike at the Community Christmas Dinner. It was delicious and nice to be with our townsfolk on the holiday. We're usually traveling, so it was a nice mellow day!

***

The kids on Boxing Day, on the way to church.

I'm kind of embarassed about how much I like this picture.

My kids are kind of awesome.

***

We had a little "second Christmas" last night (12/28) when we got our gifts from Nana's house

(Matt & Amie went to Utah for Christmas, so mom sent our gifts back up to Helena with them, and Mom & Dad Melin had to go to the VA Hospital in Helena yesterday, so they brought the gifts home for us--thanks to everyone in that chain!!!)

Also, notice we are watching Sixteen Candles on Lifetime. Nice.

Addie

James & Heidi

The kids got together in Heidi's room to play with the cool animals Nana sent...

Thanks, Mom & Mark!