The Big Update!

Well, I really should be prepping for my anatomy lab that I have later today, but I'm not being productive and blogging is better than being distracted by the rest of the internet.

We have done a lot of fun things over the last 4 months or so since I really blogged. Here's a quick recap:

Mikayla came home from her mission! We were so excited to see her again and for Melanie to meet her for the first time! Now she's back at school in Idaho and we miss her lots.

We had a date night to Culver's.

We used our spring break to go to Minneapolis! Mom drove us there and we split our time between Josh and Katy's family and AnnaMarie and Caroline's families. It was so much fun. Melanie was a great little traveller, except for having a complete blowout in the car on both of our driving days. Yuck.

The three Thornock Cousins! :)

 We went to the Mall of America.

Everyone loves Melanie and Melanie loves everyone!

 Oh, Jane. She's so awesome. Plus, she thinks I'm awesome.

We tried our hands at making homemade asian noodles. They were pretty good. I'll have to do that again some day.

Lots of visits from Grandma and Grandpa.

We went on a really fun date to the Dow Butterfly House in Midland. Melanie was pretty interested in the butterflies and the whole day was just really nice.

 Melanie liked the plants just as much as she liked the butterflies.

 Family selfie! We're getting pretty good at those.

We made a really good turkey breast for Easter and shared Easter baskets.

 Spencer got me this basket as an Easter basket. He's so witty. Plus, we needed a little laundry basket for Melanie.

 She got this pool and all these balls! Plus some stacking cups for the bath.

The weather got nice and Melanie and I spent a lot of afternoons in the grass.

In May, I took a trip to Ironwood with Melanie! She did great for most of the drive, and I'm so glad we went. Spencer had a test to study for that weekend, so we took off for a visit before my classes started up a few weeks later.

 We took a trip to the Temple and Brigham and his girlfriend, Sage, watched Melanie for us so we could do a session together. It was really nice.

We tried Melanie's pool. That lasted for about 2 minutes. She usually likes baths, so I thought she'd be all for this. 

I turned 23. Spencer made me a cake and his Dad took us out to eat at a nice restaurant in town. Melanie enjoyed chewing on Spencer's leftover ribs.

I started my Physical Therapy program!! My first day of first year and Melanie's first day of daycare.

A couple of weeks ago, Spencer finished up his first year of medical school, and that's a pretty big deal! I'm so proud of him! He is a great student and has worked so hard. I'm glad he gets the summer off to relax and spend time with Melanie! So much happened during his first year, from Melanie joining our family 2 weeks into classes to me starting my program a month before his classes ended. He never complains about all the studying and he is always willing to help with things around the house. I can't believe how fast the first year went!

That pretty much sums up what I've missed writing about. I have a lot more pictures, but I'll add them to the monthly update posts that I wrote before.

School has been going really well. It's been so busy, but I've been really happy. Learning makes me happy. Coming home makes me happy. Melanie makes me happy, and Spencer has been such an amazing and supporting husband. Sometimes I feel out of balance, but I'm getting it figured out. I'm half way through my semester now. My pharmacology class is over now, so I just have human development and anatomy left. Human development isn't bad, but anatomy is very time consuming.

Sometimes I'm not sure how I'm managing to do everything I have to do, and I feel a lot of support from my Heavenly Father. Before classes started, Spencer gave me a priesthood blessing and I was reminded that God loves me and knows the struggles I am going to face though my schooling. He promised me that if I keep my priorities straight and remember to pray, that I will get the help I need. I have already felt that promised support and help. I'm so happy to be working toward finishing my education, even though I miss my little Melanie when I'm on campus. My classmates are really wonderful, and I've made several good friends already. Okay, there's more to write about school, but I've got to go get ready for lab, so that's it for now! We're happy, healthy, and growing in all sorts of ways! 

10 Months

Well, Melanie is 10 months old! Last week. :) Better late than never, right?

At 10 months, our little girl is a bundle of happy giggles and squirms. Here are some of her favorite things:

Melanie is usually a great eater. She loves her veggies and likes most fruits now, too. We have been giving her more and more finger foods, and some days she refuses to eat from a spoon.

She's been a pretty good sleeper, but she's been getting up early.

She crawls, bear crawls (if she is on hard floors or is wearing a dress that her knees get stuck in), cruises, and can now stand on her own!! She does squats all day long, so I'm sure her first independent steps aren't too far away now.

Melanie loves music and will usually bob her little head to the beat.

"Dad" is her first (and only) word! On Sunday, Spencer helped to pass the Sacrament and every time he walked by our pew she would watch him and say, "Dad. Dad. Daddy. Dad!" It was pretty cute. And very distracting. She mimics a lot of other sounds and words, but I don't think she's really knows what they mean yet. When we call Dad and I tell her to say, "Hi Grandpa!" she goes "Gaaaamba!". Momma still comes out as "mbaba".

She just cut her second tooth! She now has both bottom incisors, and I suspect she is working on her top teeth.

She did great with Daycare and still loves strangers. Whenever we have people over she is not shy about getting in their faces and demanding they hold her. She has also been able to spend a lot of time with both of her Grand Haven Grandparents this last month. Mom comes here almost every Thursday to watch her for us so we can study (though Spencer is out of classes now, so she just comes to visit) and Melanie loves it! Spencer's Dad also stops by about once a week still, and that makes her pretty happy.

Now that Spencer is done with his classes for the summer, she gets to stay home with him all day, and I think that has been really fun for both of them. She just adores him. When he spreads his arms and says, "Melanie, can I have a hug?" she crawls over as fast as she can and burrows her head into his stomach or gets her little arms around his side and snuggles in. :)

Melanie is a little ball of sunshine in our lives. She keeps us happy.

 She still loves to hang out at this window. She also loves to run away when we are trying to get her dressed.

 She was waiting for some of my friends to come over one day.

 

Sometimes she puts a sock in her mouth and crawls around. Silly girl. :)

 She is interested and a little nervous about Cosmo when we go to Grand Haven.

She absolutely loves Brigham! I love this picture of them.

 Grandpa came to take her for a walk one day! She really loves going for walks these days, too. Just being outside makes her happy. She's usually happy.

 And Grandpa read her some stories. Love.

Her daycare had a mismatch day, so I had fun getting her dressed. :)

 She's messy.

 And she loves it.

 Watching the rain.

 We went to Grand Haven for father's day (Spencer's first weekend after finishing his school year), and we took the boat out!

 Here we are at the dock, waiting for them to come pick us up.

 I like this one. :)

 She has no idea how much everybody adores her.

 She really enjoyed watching Brigham and his friends tubing. I was surprised at how well she did on the boat, but she just held on tight and grinned the whole time.

I am like 4 months behind on pictures before this post and even further behind on regular posts. Sorry. This blog isn't dead, it's just hard to find time for it with everything else going on. :(

9 months

I'm writing this a few days late, as things have been pretty busy with school starting up, but here we go.

Melanie is 9 months old!! I can hardly believe it. She is the love of our lives, and I don't know what we'd do without her. Our 9 month old Melanie:

Is still the cutest thing in the world. At least once a day I look at her and my heart just about bursts from all the adorable cuteness.

She is getting pretty steady with her standing. Sometimes she lets go of her support for a second or two so she can use both of her hands.

She loves to eat new foods, and she is getting better at chewing things. I try to do one meal a day of all finger foods so I can get some other things done while she is contained.

If I am eating anything, she crawls over, pulls herself up on my knees, and makes a longing face at me with big eyes until I share or it's all gone. If I share she just wants more.

She babbles a lot now. She is usually saying "da da da da" or whispering all sorts of sounds to herself like she is testing them out. She still won't say "mama", but " ba ba" and "la la" are common. She also yells, squeaks, squeals, and growls.

Her favorite game is being chased around on our hands and knees.

She loves her big stuffed unicorn and will tackle it if you make it move toward her. Usually as she squeals with delight or growls.

She loves to walk while holding your hands. She also loves going for walks in the stroller. One day Spencer showed her how to kick the white, fluffy dandelions and now she likes to kick and stomp them when we walk by them.

She has a sweet, cautious, silly demeanor. She always will give me a big grin and like to follow people around. When new people come over, she almost always crawls over and wants them to pick her up.

If you build her a block tower she comes over happily, then reaches out to carefully grab the top block. If she can't reach it, she backs off and tries again, like she is worried about knocking over the whole thing.

She is doing well with daycare, but that is for another post. We love her so much!!

I need to add pictures, I know. Someday, but it's late tonight.