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!

8 Months

Brooklyn turned 8 months almost a month ago now, but I wanted to make sure I remembered what she has accomplished in these past few weeks. She's been crawling as fast as she can go, pulling herself up on anything that is remotely stable and even trying to stand up from a bear crawl position. She's also been working on her standing balance by letting go of what she's holding on to. She's up to about 7-8 seconds and is getting brave enough to wave her arms and reach a little without support. An unfortunate result from her new found bravery is her first shiner on her forehead. That darn nightstand just jumped up and got her!

Words-wise she's been saying, "mama, dada, baba, this (or at least that's what it sounds like!), hey and nana." She's eating new foods each week. Lately we've had apricots, sweet peas, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, acorn squash and she loves feeding herself puffs! She's changing so much each day...who knows what she'll be doing next month!

Recently we've been watching Wheel of Fortune because I found out one day that Brooklyn LOVES it! I think it's all the dinging, but it is so funny to watch her! She's nicer than Greg and lets me figure out the puzzles without shouting them out!

Mesmerized!

I'm trying to watch Wheel of Fortune here!

We went to Richardson to meet Greg and decided to take some pictures in their wildflowers.

I don't know if she was saying "So big" or "Pick me up please"!

So pretty in the wildflowers

More pretty flowers

"I'll get you for this, Mom!"

Playing with our friend, Isaac

Too bad Brooklyn kept using Isaac to try to stand up. He didn't mind it at first, but then he would get upset when Brooklyn would get close. Such a bully that girl!

A Swinging Good Time!

We took a walk to the park tonight and decided to let Brooklyn try out the swings. It was super funny! She's laughing like she does when you throw her in the air. I guess it all feels the same to her! As you can clearly hear, I couldn't stop laughing! I thought it was hilarious!

Here are some still pictures. It was a little difficult for me to time and these are the best ones of the many I took. Thank goodness for digital cameras!

She's cruisin' for a bruisin'!

Brooklyn has been very busy the past couple weeks learning how to pronounce 'b' sounds, cruising on furniture, army crawling backwards and just yesterday moving forward in hands and knees crawling! Her incentive to crawl you ask? Her mom? Her dad? Nope! The laptop! It's by far one of her favorite toys! Too bad all of her favorite things just happen to be Mom and Dad's electronics! My job is about to get a lot busier! Here are some pictures from the past couple days.

"Oh...computer...so close!"

"Whew! Getting tired. Gotta take a break!"

"OK, back to it!"

The other day Greg and I needed to do some cleaning up around the house so we put Brooklyn in her crib to play for a while. I literally came back in 2-3 minutes and this is how I found her!

"Oh no! She caught me!"

This was the first time (at least as far as we know) that she's pulled herself up in her bed. It might be time to move the mattress lower!

"And I can walk down to get you one-handed!"

This is where the cruising all started!

Taking a break from eating avacados to take a pic.

DJ'ing with Uncle Ryan's headphones that he let us borrow.

More standing on whatever is in her path!

Florida Trip

Despite it being unseasonably cold while we were there, we had a great time in Florida a couple weeks ago. Brooklyn seemed to enjoy playing in the sand and didn't mind when Greg put her feet in the cold ocean water! We enjoyed some delicious food and had a wonderfully, relaxing few days! Brooklyn did awesome on both flights even after getting stranded in New Orleans for a few hours! Now we're back in Dallas where it's been 75 and sunny one day and 30 and snowing the next! Literally! Crazy weather!

Our only family pic from the trip. See the nice lady on the side trying to get Brooklyn to smile! She was the wife of the random guy taking our picture!

It was so cold waiting for the sun to set! But Brooklyn was a trooper!

Swimming with Dad in the heated pool! It was too cold for me!

Taking a dip in the ocean!

Chillin' with Dad!

Brooklyn wanted to ride one of these huge bikes, but we said she had to wait until she could touch the handlebar.

My favorite picture from the trip! Brooklyn loves being tossed in the air!

Hanging out on the beach in long sleeves.

Brooklyn didn't mind the cool weather.

Hamming it up for the camera

We went to the lake this past weekend and A.J. and Curt were nice enough to come down and help Greg clear the brush. And we were very fortunate that they came because Brooklyn and I were sick and couldn't help much! All of us have been fighting off something the past few weeks. We're ready for our mini-vaca to Florida this weekend! Woo hoo!

Despite feeling under the weather, we've been pretty busy around here. Brooklyn has begun solids! It's been super fun! She gets so excited when she sees it coming. She actually only likes when Greg feeds her. She just blows bubbles when I try to feed her. These are pictures of her trying carrots and rice cereal.

The picture in the upper left-hand corner is a picture of Brooklyn's rash she had a couple weeks ago. No idea where it came from, but it's gone now! Also pictures of Brooklyn hanging out with uncle A.J., playing with a wrapper and my phone (real toys are boring!) and showing off her standing skills. She's been practicing her standing for a few months now and we've been getting more and more daring (i.e. taking pictures from a few feet away) since she's able to stand now for about 10 minutes with someone guarding!

Greg has a picture wearing a Cardinals' outfit when he was about 6 months old, so we thought we'd recreate it with Brooklyn since she looks so much like her daddy. Here are some of the cute pictures!

We'll have more pictures from this weekend in Florida!