It's over!!!!!!

Chad's residency has finally come to an end. It ended June 30, 2009. Yeah!!!!!! On Saturday, June 27, we went to the end of residency BBQ. We went last year to start off his residency. It was quite a different experience this time around. The residency is behind us and Chad was one of the ones being honored. It was a lot of fun and such a weight has been lifted. We can finally get on with life.

(Chad with all of the other residents and their boss, Kristina)

(Chad with his fellow resident, Matt Wade)

(Chad with his boss, Kristina)


(The happy Mellen family)

Now that Chad's residency is done, what are we going to do, you ask? Well.... we are heading to good old Prescott, A-Z. Chad was offered and has accepted a position as a pharmacist at the VA there. He will be working with his friend Matt (see above). Chad starts his job on July 20. We went up to Prescott from July 1-3 to look for a house to rent. After looking at a ton of houses over two very exhausting day, we rented the very last house we looked at. For all of you Prescottonians reading this, we are renting the Shelstad's house on Williamson Valley Road. Matt came up with us and did his house hunting too. We stayed at Alison Stanford's house because she was on her honeymoon. Shelli came up too and helped us out by watching the boys while we house hunted. It was such a huge help. Grant had a great time playing at the Gould's house. He also loved all of the new, fun toys at the Satnford's house, particularly the big bucket of Legos. Both boys also loved a fountain that was on the back deck.

This is evidence of just how exhausted we all were.

We were able to have some fun up in Prescott too. It was July 4 weekend so we were able to go to Fair on the Square on Friday before heading back to Tucson. Sadley, it was pourding down rain for much of our outing. We had enough dryness to make it part way around the square, buy fry bread and make it to the gazeebo before it started downpouring. I sure love my 4th of July fry bread. All three of my boys do too.

(Grant helping to push Cole. He was in a bad mood so he was hiding from the camera.)

(Cole enjoying fry bread.)


(Chad and Grant)

Our 4th of July was also fun. We went to see the movie Up in the late morning. Grant loved the movie. He also loved the popcorn. We bought a Jumbo popcorn and Grant ate almost the entire bucket himself. Both boys enjoyed the movie. Grant laughed a lot at the dog in the movie. In the afternoon, our friend Rachael Prussi, come over for a BBQ. We had a lot of yummy food and had a relaxing afternoon while we waited to head over to the fireworks. Grant was so excited because we made homemade ice cream. He loves to put the ice and the salt on the ice cream maker. Cole and Barry also had a fun time with the ice and salt.

(During dinner we put the dogs outside, or at least tried to keep them outside.)

(Barry and Grant making ice cream)

(Cole and Grant making ice cream)

(The finished product)

(Grant sampling his masterpiece)

I took this picture on our way home from church last Sunday. I was talking to Shelli on the phone on our drive home. All of the sudden, I realized it was very quiet in the car. I turned around and saw Grant looking like this. Notice the upside down Cars sunglasses. Nursery sure can be exhausting.

I was at Joanne's the other day looking for some things and Grant found a small wood birdhouse for $1. He has been very into painting and other art so I bought it for him. He had a fantastic time painting the little house. He was so proud of it too. I wasn't supervising the painting very closely so when I did go to see how things were going I found that half of a large bottle of red paint had been poured on to the paper plate. Oh well, all's well and good in the name of art right? When Grant was done painting, he took it outside and tried to call for birds to fly into it. We hung it on our pomegranite tree. He goes out periodically to check to see if there are any birds in it.

This picture of the dogs perched anxiously below Cole's highchair is a daily occurrence. You can see the dogs learned early on that this was the cashcow of food.

Grant loves the ability to get food for himself out of the refrigerator. He loves to get himself out pieces of fruit when he wants a snack. The other day he pulled out a peach to have a snack. He sat down on the floor across from Cole and said he wanted to share with Cole. He would take a bite or two and then hold it out for Cole to take a few bites or sucks. They did this for a little while then Grant decided he was done with the peach so he gave the peach to Cole to finish. Cole was working on the peach and then Barry decided it was his turn so he grabbed it and ran. Such is life in the Mellen household...protect it or lose it. Cole will learn soon enough. Thankfully, Cole did not seem to care that it disappeared.

These pictures are also evidence of the first lie Grant told me. Years from now, he will be mortified about the story I'm about to tell but I'll deal with it then. Grant has this weird need to remove all of his clothing and I mean all of it before he poops. It drives me crazy because I hate redressing him several times a day and it's particularly annoying when we are in public and he feels the need to do this. Several weeks ago, I made a new rule that he had to poop with his shirt on or he would have time out and no treats for the rest of the day. He has been doing really well with this new rule and has been so proud of himself. On this particular day, he hollered at me from the bathroom that he had pooped with his shirt on. I started giving him all of the requisite mom praise on my way to the bathroom. When I opened the door, I found him with his shirt on but inside out. He sat there so proudly telling me he pooped with it on. I had to sit there and try and explain about lying and that he was telling me a lie. It was really hard not to smile and laugh. He was so proud of himself. I was actually proud he got his shirt back on by himself, inside out or not. It also made me wonder how many times previous he had successfully put his shirt back on.

One Sunday evening, we were outside enjoying the semi-cool weather and surveying the needs for our backyard. We were particulary focused on our ever brown small patch of grass. Chad pulled out the hose to soak it and try and revive it. Grant had a great time running through the hose and soaking himself. He started out with his church pants on but we had him take those off to keep them from getting ruined. Hence, the shirt and boxers in the pictures below.

One of Cole's favorite foods is blueberries. I buy the big containers of them from Costco and put handfuls on his try in the morning for a pre-beakfast snack while I prepare the boys' breakfasts. He eats them up and loves them.

Grant asked me to take this picture of him after I took the pictures of Cole eating blueberries. Isn't he a cutie?

These are my boys relaxing on the couch. Cole loves to role and flip around on people and things. He and grant were wrestling and flipping next to daddy.

One more Grant story: I realized after learning some very sad information about someone else that I needed to start talking to Grant about strangers and keeping his personal areas private and things like that. I have only talked to him a couple of times about it and wasn't sure he was really grasping what I was saying until the other morning. These days when Grant wakes up, he heads downstairs for the pieces of bread I left out for him in the refrigerator then heads back upstairs to watch cartoons until Chad and I get up. This particular morning, he was on our floor watching TV and banging on a big metal bowl with a pen he found on the floor (mom and dad were so happy). All of the sudden, we hear Grant chanting, "No one can touch my penus or my bum," over and over. Chad and I just looked at each other and tried really hard not to laugh. I guess your kids really do listen.