6 months. half a year. 182.5 days.

here we are.

happy newlyweds!

half way to one year.

we celebrated by going to church, mr. barlow doing his home teaching, and me taking a 3 hour nap!

we also made a delicious dinner and watched modern family all night.

we are pretty romantic huh?!

oh hi husband.

i love you.

we celebrate in style!

obvi that means some Martinellis.

i love me some marriage.

ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

[no we are not pregnant.] 

even though the knot.com is trying to get us to join thebump.com [see below!]

we have a calling at church!!!

mr. barlow and i are teaching the CTR 5 class!

they are so cute. and rambunctious.

they are ages 5 & 6. and we have 12 of them.

wow.

this sunday was our first time with them and i would say we survived!

we taught about the healing power of the Priesthood and we asked the class if they had ever gotten sick..

one little girl raised her hand and said, "i take medicine that makes my poops really big!" 

what can we say.. we love our class!

inspiring poem..

Good Timber

by Douglas Malloch

The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.


The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.


Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.


Where thickest lies the forest growth,
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.


i read this poem in a book and i immediately became obsessed with it.
life is hard.
but those hard things make us strong.

hello there 27!

welcome melanie to your late 20's.
LATE TWENTIES!!!
wow. seriously, where did my early years go?

at least mr. barlow likes me being older.
even if it is only by 2 weeks.

my birthday morning started out with mr. barlow bringing me breakfast in bed! 

what a nice husband.

those honey nut cheerios hit the spot.

then that sweet man brought me some presents!

he is a good gift giver.

my husband knows i like things related to my camera.

he got me a fancy tripod and a remote control to my camera.

so fun.

he makes me smile.

and doesnt mind me taking photos of him early in the morning.

my family sent me sweet packages.

i am still really interested to see what my big sister laura got me!

all i know is that its from etsy and coming from Israel. should be exciting and/or interesting?!

here is me, the birthday girl.
playing with my fancy camera remote!
i am kinda obsessed.

after mr. barlow left for work my day went as follows ..

fell back asleep for another 1-2 hours.

who am i?!

and what is wrong with me?! i already had a good 8 hours of sleep in me.

brought lunch to mr. barlow at imagine.

birthday lunch date! it was nice.

and we are both grateful for my flexible job and his job which lets me come hang out with him.

a couple days before this day i told mr. barlow that i didnt want to plan my birthday.

i plan a lot and i just didnt want to plan anymore.

so this great husband of mine said, "i got this!"

he told me we would go to trafalga, [its a mini golf place and we have this pass called, 'the pass of all passes', clever right?!] anyways it gets us into trafalga and seven peaks.

he was also planning a thai dinner date for us.

when i left his place of work he said to me, "be ready to go at 7pm when i get home!"

i said, "ay ay captain!"

so i go home and decided since its my birthday i will relax and watch me some netflix.

little did i know there were other plans going on around me ..

here is what happened.

jacobs computer is hooked up to our tv so therefore i was using his computer to watch said netflix.

around 7:15pm i see his computer come to life. 

his mouse is moving on the desktop [mind you, i am on the couch, no where near the mouse.]

google music opens.

my netflix stops.

I START FREAKING OUT!!!

then this song starts blasting ..

then our front door opens and i hear ..

SURPRISE!!!

mr. barlow organized a surprise party to come to me.

that man is good!

i just love him.

and he has skills when it comes to his computer and freaking me out.

some of my favorite people all in our little apartment!

too bad my family & cat couldnt apparate here.

i really was surprised.

and i got to use my new fancy remote again!

can you see me NOT being sneaky about it?!

mr. barlow enlisted some helpers and fb continues to bring everyone together.

kim made my favorite chocolate oreo pudding cake.

whitney made some delish cookie dough cupcakes.

pammy jo made me a pretty sign.

cutest little abby drew me a birthday picture.

and everyone came to celebrate!

i felt very loved and celebrated.

thank you everyone for coming!

and thank you mr. barlow for being the best.

heres to being TWENTY-SEVEN!

oh hey quadrennial year!

the word of the day is ..

quad·ren·ni·al [kwo-dren-ee-uhl]

occurring every four years: a quadrennial festival.

 clever dictionary.com clever.

having a leap year not only meant those 29ers got to celebrate their actual birthday..

but it also meant WE GOT TO CELEBRATE 4 MONTHS OF MARRIAGE!

go us. 

not that big a deal but still cool.

at least we have made it far past the Kardashian's marriage!

i am pretty much obsessed with this guy.

i love being married to mr. barlow.

and i love our wedding photos .. thank you marcello!

here is one more for your viewing pleasure.

i would also like to dedicate leap year to disneyland!

how cool are they for staying open all day?!

pretty dang legit if you ask me.

and heres to my february craft!

just some little twigs from our yard and ribbon.

easy and almost free!

hope your quadrennial festivities were exciting! 

see you in 4 years february 29th. 

lovin on mr. barlow & valentines day

mr. barlow knows how to steal my heart over and over..

i flew home to our little apartment on tuesday the 14th.

just in time for the day of love.

all my husband would tell me when i asked what we were going to do was, "dont you worry."

my sister in law kim picked me up from SLC since mr. barlow was at work.

she is a nice gal.

when i walked in the door i heard music playing..

my first thought was it must be upstairs [we live in a basement apt, photos to come soon.]

then i walked in more and realized no, that is coming from our living room.

our wedding was song playing on repeat!!!

want to listen.. i know you do.

then i thought, "is mr. barlow here?!"

sadly he was not but i loved hearing our song over and over.
he had also set the screen saver on our computer to roses!

i wanted to see him as soon as i could [5 days was a long time for us to be apart!]

so i made him & i some lunch and headed over to imagine learning.

it was a joyous reunion!

later on in the afternoon this bouquet of real roses showed up at our door from mr. barlow.

when he got home from work i had a plate of his favorite cookies waiting for him.

and hearts all over the place!
he accepted to be my valentine.

he then had me close my eyes so i wouldnt guess where we were headed for dinner.

we ended up at thai ruby in provo.
i love thai food and mr. barlow wanted to surprise me!
it was not busy and so cozy.
we came home and watched our favorite show Chuck and cuddled.

it was the perfect low key valentines day.
my love for mr. barlow continues to grow day by day.
and i love that he is sweet everyday and not just on this holiday of love.

i am a lucky girl.
thank you mr. barlow.

the jastals

right before christmas i took some family photos for the lovely lisa jane and brandon jastal!

lisa and i went to UVU together and we had a lovely time there.

i took lisa and brandons engagements almost 4 years ago!

and so much has happened since then.

little ashlynn was born while i was on my mission.

now she can walk and talk and is oh so funny.

sweet aaron was born last april.

he was born with a heart condition and was on this earth for almost 3 months.

i love that she has his photo & bear in their family pictures!

in honor of CHD week i wanted to post their family photos and send some love their way.

i was grateful i had the opportunity to meet their little buddy shortly before he returned home to our Heavenly Father. 

Lisa has a team doing the heart walk in SLC this year and if anyone wants to donate or be a part of it go here >>> heart walk

proceeds benefit Pediatric Cardiac Research!

now on to their photos!

here you go ..

enjoy!

oh hey new year!

what a beautiful way to start off the new year ..

with my husband.

with lanterns in the sky.

and with the youth of our stake telling us we were the cool dancing couple.

ya we are.

welcome 2012.

farewell 2011 ..

dont worry, there is more to come later.

now on to partyin' in 2012!

two months of marriage today and we get these guys for the night.

life is good!

it is the 1st of December.
let the Christmas miracles begin!

so much thankfulness

i am thankful for another thanksgiving with mr. barlow.

last year we had just been on our 2nd marathon date.

we had thanksgiving at the barlows AND the warners.

this year we are marrieds.

we had thanksgive with the barlows and marmie warner came over to join in on the feast.

i am thankful for family.

my marmie, my sisters.

i am thankful for the 30+ barlows i inherited less then a month ago.

i am thankful for love.

from all my family and my husband.
everyday i am more and more thankful for my mission and that i was able to serve in wisconsin.
i am obsessed yet.

life is wonderful! 

each day there are miracles that happen in my life.

i watched this mormon message the other day and just loved it so much.

enjoy. its beautiful.

savin' me some dates!

a lot happened right before mr. barlow and i got our marriage on.

i like to blog about these happenings but my life was consumed with work and wedding plans.

but here is the goodness that happened ..

MY BIG SISTER GOT ENGAGED!!!

yep that is right.

the last warner girl is off the market.

big bro A will officially be my brother in law and i could not be more excited!

they go together like beaches and the sun.

[cheesy i know but they live in florida.]

night of their engagement!

09.28.11

they make each other so happy and i just love it.

my L showin off her bling!

and some amazingly good Dole Whip.

thank you Disneyland!

exactly 11 months from today my big sister will be ..

Laura Anna Marie Warner Wann!

[and just a btw i made their save the date for them! i kinda love.]

IDEA!

can you and A row off together into the sunset at the end of your wedding?!

AND ..

this next couple just gives me smiles and smiles!

PeyCat!

yes, my best friend Catherine N. Card has a shiny rock on her finger!

i love their engagement story and i am so glad there are so many photos!

on 10.28.11 they got their engagement on.

just the night before the barlow wedding!

cats sister, colleen, did all my hair and make up for my wedding [she is amazing btw!] and so i made cat get up at like 7am while colleen was getting me ready so i could hear all about her romantic scavenger hunt!

i love cat. i love pey.

i love PeyCat.

he treats her like a queen. 

and they rock the HK to LA dating/engaged relationship.

in 6 months and minus a day i will be at the PeyCat wedding of the year!

peyton,

just like cat passed the baton to jacob when we got engaged i pass mine to you for cat. we will always be MelCat but i know you will forever make her the happiest women!

i love weddings and marriage.

especially when its your family and best friend!

mark & terri warner

i love that they were born the same year, same month and only a week apart from each other!

i love that my mom started the tradition of a balloon on my dads birthday.

thank you husband for remembering!

thank you marmie for being the best of the best marmies us three ladies could have!

thank you and dad for being born and getting married!

and obvi having us three!

im sure glad these two were born.

i've always looked up to them!

quite literally.

happiest birthday sisters!

surprise is on you miss card!

i am so grateful this lovely lady was born.

pretty sure peyton is too.

10.10.11 is her actual birth but i got a text from peyton late monday eve asking me if we could pull off a little surprise for this wonder women on wednesday.

i said no problem.

with the help of liz, max and using the womansion we had it covered!

she thought they were going to get sushi after a quick stop by the womansion but was she in for a treat instead!

dont worry boo, sushiversary on me when you get back!

isnt she a beauty!

the birthday girl.

i can feel love in the air!

i love you boo.

thank you pey for getting the surprisee surprised!

we all love you birthday girl!

enjoy the fall of virginia and turning 23 officially.

>>>

and on a complete side note someone sent me this quote and i really like.

I choose...
to live by choice and not by chance;
to make changes, not excuses;
to be motivated, not manipulated;
to be useful, not used;
to excel, not compete.
I choose self-esteem, not self-pity.
I choose to listen to my inner voice, not the random opinion of others.

30 DAYS!!!

time is speeding up.

seriously where does it go?

in just 30 days i will be sealed to mr. barlow for time & all eternity.

this makes me happy. really happy.

in honor of this upcoming event i was showered with love and more love!

my lovely catherine card along with her mama held a shower for me just last night.

cat is the pepper to my salt. the jelly to my peanut butter. the cheese to my macaroni.

i know we say this alot. but it is a true fact.

she is also the hostess with the mostess!

thank you for the beautiful shower my lovely.

this was probably my favorite moment of the night ..

it is a beautiful crocheted decoration for our future barlow home but some people thought it was something else! 

[thank you hayna & granny babs!]

i feel blessed to have some very lovely & beautiful girlfriends from the G7! 

emily you are counted in this even though you left right before this photo!

also it was ever so lovely having my family, future in law family and monrovia ward family there to celebrate!

never knew this was a bridal shower tradition!

now i do!

thank you for your hard work haybo!

it was like my birthday but not!

i feel so loved!

and right when the party ended mr. barlow came by to give me a hug & kiss. or two.

30 days! 30 days! 30 days!

we will see you dancing right next to us.