Family fun!

My family drove down from St. Louis last week for what they thought would be a nice relaxing visit. Little did they know that we had lots of work that needed to be done around the new house! I promise that was not our intent, but it seems like that's how it always turns out with my family! The floors were swept, the dishes were cleaned, the laundry was done, the landscaping never looked so good and most importantly, the house was filled with my favorite people! Even Brooklyn's Tia Katie came down for a few days. But apparently we were too busy to take pictures while she was down here! Sorry, Katie!

We were able to have some fun while my family was here. A.J. and Beth were in charge of keeping the pool clean so we could go swimming each day. We also made a trip to the beach club in McKinney one day. And Sammy caught several fish in the neighborhood ponds. I promise that even though Brooklyn is rarely wearing an outfit in the following pictures, we do have clothes for her! She just ran around in her diaper most days because it's been unbelievably hot!

I love this swimsuit! How cute is this girly?

She loves the pool and swimming with her daddy!

Brooklyn followed Sammy boy everywhere the entire week. She woke up looking for him every morning and crashed hard every night at bedtime. She wanted to do everything he was doing...eat, sleep, play, run around the house, jump on the bed. I don't think she left his side from the moment he walked downstairs the first morning they were here. Brooklyn clearly needs a play buddy around her own age. Mama isn't cutting it anymore!

Sammy and Brooklyn playing in their cardboard fort that Beth made. It took some coaxing by Sammy to get Brooklyn to go through!

Brooklyn walked around with this water bottle and soccer ball for the entire morning one day.

Such a multi-tasker! I don't know where she gets these ideas!

We found Brooklyn reaching into her car seat and pulling out puffs and yogurt melts that were left in there from an earlier car ride. She looks like she just got busted!

This girl loves her some watermelon!

Sammy and Brooklyn with their grandparents

Brooklyn opening an early birthday present. Clearly she was more interested in the card!

We had to get the big guns in to help since she was going too slow! Thanks, Sammy boy!

These two cousins love each other!

'OK, enough! Let's go play!' Brooklyn says!

Beth took them for a walk in the stroller and they both fell asleep before she hit the end of the block!

Sammy on the merry-go-round at the mall

We even put the two cousins to work cleaning the floor!

Such good helpers! Seriously, does no one in this family wear a full outfit?!

Brooklyn did get her first tooth while the family was here. She's just trying to be like Sammy any way she can!

Sweet baby sleeping. She was sucking her thumb because her teeth were coming in.

Stay tuned for pictures from Brooklyn's First Birthday Party!

Brooklyn walking

This is the only way I could figure out how to get a video on here of Brooklyn walking. It's funny to see how far she's come. She barely ever gets up and falls down immediately anymore and she can walk all around a room, no problem. Maybe we'll get that on video soon! The middle clip is the first time we attempted getting her on video and she just wanted to dance.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Pictures from the camera

I took the pictures off the camera the other day and decided to share them with everyone since we haven't really had any pictures lately. Enjoy!

I couldn't get this one to flip around. But it's funny, none the less!

So this was the face that Brooklyn began making after getting water up her nose when we took her swimming every day of Memorial Day weekend. So funny! And it's practical...she can now blow her nose!

How cute! Watching fireworks for the first time with Daddy! She was enthralled!

Apparently we didn't want our picture taken today!

Ahh, memories! Our family in front of our first house.

Attack of the Brooklyn gal!

Cousin Lexi swimming

Vanetta and cousin Adrian also swimming during Memorial Day weekend

Brooklyn was worn out! She fell asleep with lots of screaming and splashing going on!

This is what happens when you're in the car ALL THE TIME and your mom tries to feed you puffs while driving! Sometimes we get them in the mouth...sometimes we miss!

OK, off to unpack some more stuff! I'm beginning to think I should just get rid of it all! It's not like we've used it in almost 2 months!

Weeble Wobble Walker

Brooklyn took her first tiny, wobbly steps on June 12th. Now in the past couple weeks she's able to stand up from a squat or half kneel and walk/run all the way across a room! Crazy! She's even able to hold something small and walk. I have attempted to upload video of her walking for the past week and for some reason it's not working. Hopefully I'll get smarter than blogger so you can all see the toothless wonder walking around!

In other news, we're finally in the new house. There are still a crazy amount of boxes to unpack (or maybe just leave packed up!), but we're getting there! Pictures to come soon!

"Old" House

As many of you know by now, we're in the process of moving to McKinney. It's taking a little longer than expected to get the new house ready, but we've been fortunate enough to be able to stay with Greg's mom. We're hopeful to move into the new house soon and get back on a regular schedule for all of us.

It all started several months ago...

Greg enjoys the occasional browsing of new houses that come on the market. Right before we headed down to Florida for a vacation (back in March!), he found a house that he wanted to go look at. So we toured the house and were intrigued by the idea of fixing it up. So we put an offer on the house when we were in Florida and ended up accepting their counter offer. Who buys houses when they're out of town? Apparently we do! Anyways, when we got back from Florida we had to get the "old" house ready to sell. My mom graciously came down for a few days so we could declutter and get the house staged. We had a couple open houses and had a contract on the house in 3 weeks without a real estate agent! We ended up selling the house to a super nice family who is adding on to make it a little larger. Hopefully they'll let us come back after the improvements. Here is how I'd like to remember the house...

the front

living room/kitchen

kitchen

living room

Brooklyn's room

master bedroom

Stay tuned for before and after pictures of the new house!

A whole month?!

That's what I said when I saw how long it had been since I've updated the blog. We've been crazy busy! Right now I'm too tired to wait for a ton of pictures to upload, so I'm just going to put a few on and promise to come back later and add more with explanations! Enjoy!

Playing with the glass wall in Daddy's office

Giving Mama some lovin'

Helping move!

Climbing stairs. Yikes!

Talking to Daddy on the phone during our 7 hour stay at the Little Rock airport

Trying out some snazzy glasses

Waiting for the pedi at our 9 month check up

Helping with the laundry

Waking Daddy up

Easter Pictures from Alumni Weekend

We went up to Conway a couple weekends ago for Alumni weekend at Hendrix. We had a great time visiting with everyone and showing Brooklyn off. We were able to spend some time with my brother, A.J., who is finishing up his last year there. So sad. Our friend, Leah (a fellow alumnus and professional photographer!), followed up our maternity photo session with one for Brooklyn. Despite Brooklyn skipping her afternoon nap, Leah was still able to get some great shots! See for yourself!

Brooklyn in true "Mean Girls" form!