New Barbie House

The girls always impress me with their Barbie creations. 

This was taken before a cereal box elevator was added to the right side, too.

Yes, our Barbies have it pretty good around here!

Victory

The Wildcats won their first game of the season 24-18 over Sunshine Bible Academy.

I asked one of Landen's friends to take my phone and get a picture after the game.

I'd say he did a pretty good job!

Back to School!

Our school year officially started this past Tuesday, August 20.

The big three had all been in sports practices for about a week before that, so everyone was ready to go!

Landen is a sophomore. He is currently playing football and will be in FFA, Robotics, and probably several other things before the year is over. :)

Nathan is in 8th grade and currently in cross country and football.

Teresa is entering middle school and has 2 lockers! She is in cross country and volleyball.

Rachel is in 2nd grade with Mr. Duncan and gets to be the only Melius on the bus in the mornings. :)

Summer of 2019

This summer was actually quite different than I expected, but it turned out to be one of the best. I had my doubts after I experienced two migraines in two weeks at the beginning, but things turned around after that. We didn't have a lot of outside activities on the calendar, which made for forts in the trees and writing old fashioned letters to friends. It actually felt like a retreat. There was still plenty of screen time and fun times off the farm, but it was a blessing to just get away for awhile and regroup for the next school year. 

We started our vacations in July by traveling to Waterloo for my cousin Alaina and Nate's wedding. Teresa caught the bouquet. . . this is the 2nd one she's caught in her life already. :)

We stayed a couple of extra days to go to a water park and we hiked a couple of trails Backbone State Park in Iowa.

The end of July found us in Bismarck/Mandan for a weekend with the Joachim family. We spent most of our Saturday at Ft. Abraham Lincoln State Park. 

We all enjoyed our annual Lake Date with the Johnstons at Enemy Swim and caught lots of not-quite keepers.

Teresa became a published author in Highlights magazine! Her poem is in the September 2019 edition.

And here's more of that old fashioned fun . . . zip lining Barbies!

Craw fish Visitors

With the plentiful rains this past summer, even the craw fish paid us a visit! There were a few crawling over the gravel road as Macy and I went for an evening walk.