No Training Wheels!

Last Monday Melissa finally learned how to ride a bike without training wheels! She has been so reluctant to learn, and now she is so pleased with herself and loves riding bike (something we used to have to force her to do). So exciting!




I also have this video from a few weeks back of Melissa and Ken using the trail-a-bike for the first time, before she was training-wheel-less, so she wasn't used to tilting or any kind of speed. It was pretty funny all the "weeeees!"

Peek-a-boo

This morning Brody initiated playing Peek-a-boo with me. So cute as he just partially covers his face and then giggles!

Mother's Day Photos

With Mother's Day behind us I can finally share some special photos that were taken by my BIL Jason of Revival Arts Studio as a present to our Mom on Mother's Day. 

 

And one of all the cousins together :)

There were plenty more, but I thought I'd share the best ones! We are so lucky to have a photographer in the family. I've sent picture 6 off to get printed as a large canvas for in our family room. I have had this blank wall there for 1.5 years, and finally it will get something beautiful and meaningful to fill the space :)

Build-a-bear

For Melissa's birthday she wanted another Build-a-Bear as we have done the two previous years. This year she had her heart set on a Hello Kitty. 

Here is a view of the wall where you select your stuffy shell... so many options to choose from!

Here is a video of the stuffing process: 

After stuffing, she "cleaned" Hello Kitty - fluffed up the fur and blew off loose fluff...

Then she picked out some clothing for Hello Kitty and signed her up online. 

Here is a pic of the final Hello Kitty...

First Teeth

I took this pic last Tuesday to show Brody's two new teeth which have finally broken through! Yippeee!

Here is another one of our cutie all smiles :)

Four Leafed Lucky Charms

I found a bunch of photos that go along with this one, so I have reposted this entry with them. 

Melissa has been on this kick lately of searching for 4-leaf clovers. Just her luck our lawn seems to produce a number of them. Here are some pics I took of her one afternoon... she just kept coming back to me, saying she found another! It used to take me what felt like hours to find one when I was a child!

Hunting with her hands-on helper :)

Melissa compiled this sheet to show everyone. She brought it to school for show-&-tell and she asked me to post it on the blog too. You'll see she has collected them for particular people / pets :) If you are in need of a lucky charm, I'm sure she can find one for you too! 

April Birthdays & Easter with the Thomas/Brooks Family

Early April we celebrated a combination of Ken & Melissa's birthdays as well as Easter with Ken's family. 

Brody saying hello to Pop. He really seemed to enjoy the feeling of Pop's scratchy gotee :)

Melissa was excited for this early present opening - seeing it was a week before her actual birthday! She was thrilled to receive a Wii Build-a-bear game "Friendship Valley"

And a basket of wonderful smelling items from the Bath & Body Works store. Melissa and Nana had a special time together the weekend prior shopping for these girlie items, which included body spray, hand lotion, lip gloss, a special mirror and hand sanitizer.

Brody scored with his Easter basket from Nana & Pop... a bath toy, baby crackers and snacks. (notice he is "thumbing" his toy)

Melissa's Easter basket was full to the brim! Enough treats to take us to Halloween I figure ;)

Instead of birthday cake we tried something new this year - cake pops. This was my first stab at them, and I wanted some practice before making them for Melissa's "friend" birthday party.

We were joined for dinner with the rest of the Brooks family (Nana's side). Here Brody had a little visit with "GG" (Great Grandma)

Swinging

A fun addition to our playground has been adding a baby swing. Brody has thoroughly enjoyed it too!

Thumbing - Brody 9 months

Here is a video I took to show Brody's unique approach to feeling things: