Brooklynn Turns 1

When looking at Brooklynn today, it is hard to believe that she is the same little girl that we held for the first time one year ago. It is amazing to see how much she has grown and developed over the last calendar year. I will never forget that first time I held Brooklynn. She was so small and completely dependent upon her parents. Today, she is walking and wants to explore everything independently with no help from mom and dad. Now we get to move into that new era where we sit back and watch her do things on her own. We get to let her learn things through trial and error, but we will always be there to catch her before she falls. This year has been quite the experience both for Brooklynn and for us as parents. As we move into the future Brooklynn's trials will become more ambitious and her errors will become more taxing, but we will always be there.

While it has only been a year, we cannot even remember life without Brooklynn. I don't even know how we were able to survive without her. Everyday Brooklynn makes us better people. She deserves everything this world can offer. As she grows as a person, we want to continue to grow as parents, so we can do the best that we can for her.

We are so thankful for Brooklynn. Her constant smile will always make even the worst days worth living. We can't wait to see what the future holds for such a special girl!

Brooklynn's First Birthday Party Video

Birthday Party

We had Brooklynn's first birthday party today! I am working on getting the album up. Hopefully, I will have all the pictures on the link tomorrow.

Christmas Time- Part 6

Saturday we had our last Christmas party. The Floyds came into town from Augusta and the house was full of girls! The men in this family are quickly becoming outnumbered with four little girls running around. Brooklynn got lots of great presents! I also received some great gifts from Aunt Shay, which included the bow holder you see above and three books with great ideas for arts and crafts that Brooklynn and I are going to start over the summer!

Christmas TIme- Part 5

Christmas night we had dinner with Mom, Dad, Nana, Blake and his girlfriend Kaley.

Christmas Time- Part 4

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas celebration with Nick's family on Christmas Day. I have added tons of new pics to the photo album. It is a slow process! More to come!

Christmas Time- Part 3

This morning Brooklynn got up about 6am and she had a blast opening all her presents from Mimi and Pops. She studied each present throughly and then moved on to the next. She was worn out after breakfast and has been asleep since then.

Christmas Time- Part 2

Last night we had our Christmas celebration with the Wilson family. As you can see, Brooklynn is getting pretty good at opening things! She loves her Handy Manny toolbox and bath toys from the Barfields and Wilsons! Thanks everybody!

Christmas Time!

Brooklynn has officially had her first taste of Christmas. Dad has been so excited about giving Brooklynn her presents that he has already given her one present to open every day we have been in town! She is getting the hang of ripping into them and she should have that mastered by the time her birthday party rolls around on Sunday.
Last night we had our Christmas party with the Farr side of the family. As you can see from the pictures, Brooklynn and Marlee both received four wheelers from Granny and Papa. It is pretty funny to watch B try to figure it out.

I'm working on getting a Christmas album up on the picture link.

Living Room Graduation

Today is my graduation day! Unfortunately because of the weather our families could not get to Chapel Hill. The weather in Greenville seems to be ok and the weather here is just really cold and wet, but the weather in between is a mess! I decided to not attend graduation today since no one was here and instead I graduated in the living room! Nick even made a paper diploma. Now I think I will go shopping which sounds like much more fun than listening to a billion names being called for the next three hours.

Christmas at The Goddard School

Brooklynn was so confused today when I sat her in Santa's lap. She was obviously scared to death but she became very confused when she heard Nick's voice come from this big hairy red and white man. She would have nothing to do with him. Nick on the other hand, did a fabulous job today. He visited seven classes and may have a future in the Santa Claus business. He was so good at talking to kids. Brooklynn seemed a little upset with Nick tonight when we got home, but she got over it pretty quickly. We were planning on taking her to see Santa on Monday, but I'm not sure she can handle it after what I saw today!

Brooklynn's "Husband"

This is Brooklynn's "husband" at school, Nathan. Everyday Brooklynn likes to greet Nathan at the door with his Mom. She plays and talks to Nathan while he is in his car seat and Mom is unpacking. His mother told me today that she is very upset that Brooklynn is moving up to the next class in January. She likes to call herself "Brooklynn's Mother in Law" because Brooklynn is the only child that Nathan seems to be fond of at daycare. Brooklynn has a bad habit of pushing Nathan's crib from one side of the room to the other when he is trying to sleep. Nathan doesn't seem to mind and her teachers don't stop B because it seems to be good entertainment for everyone. It looks like B may be missed when she moves up. I kind of wish she could stay with all her buddies and Mrs. Kathy and Miss Krista too!

Grad School

Last night I officially finished my last grad school assignment. I had to present my learnings to the faculty in my department along with the other graduates and I am glad to finally have this degree behind me. Above is the picture of the graduates, all of whom started the program with me and were in all my classes.

Family Photo

My cousin, Meredith has been digging through the old pictures and articles from generations past at Papa and Nana's house! This one is by far my favorite and makes me smile every time I look at it! The man in the middle is my great-great grandfather R.E.A. Hamby who was a Georgia state senator. I have no idea who the other two fellas are, but I can't help but love them!

Class

My sweetie pies!

Plates!

This weekend Brooklynn made such a big improvement at mealtime. We started putting her food on a plate just to see if she would continue to play with her food. Instead, she kept her tray really clean! We have discovered that if we take her plate away as soon as she finishes it doesn't give her time to play and make a mess. She concentrates so much on eating that she forgets how fun it is to mash her fingers in all her food until after it is gone! I hope she keeps this up, it makes cleaning up a whole lot easier. Above are some pictures from tonight's dinner.

It's true!

Well we have been hearing it for weeks now, but have yet to witness all this walking around that Brooklynn has been doing at daycare. Yes, we have seen her take as many as four steps before sitting down but every day when we pick B up all we hear is about her walking. We couldn't figure out why she was walking at daycare but not at home. Today I decided to move the coffee table out of her "play area" in the living room and what do you know? Brooklynn was on the move by lunch time. I guess she just needed more space. I'm not sure why, but she is shy about her walking. She'll walk and when she notices us looking or if we get excited, she sits down and cracks herself up. She has definitely been a giggle box the past week. Anything cracks her up. This is humorous for Nick and I until we tell her no and she looks at us with a huge smile and laughs. Her balance continues to get better and better and she is going to be running from one end of the place to other before we know it.

Last week when Nick picked up B at daycare her teacher Ms. Kathy told him that it is definitely time for B to move up to the one year old class. Apparently while all the other babies were napping this week Brooklynn went from one crib to the next shaking it, stealing paci's and talking to all her classmates. Of course this woke everyone up. I guess she just wanted a playmate. Ms. Kathy also gave us Brooklynn's progress report. She is on track in all developmental areas. She got straight A's. B has two more weeks in the infant class and then after Christmas they will transition her to the 12- 18 month class. This should be exciting for her because she will have lots of new friends, new teachers, and new activities in which to take part!

Yummy, Dinner!

I took this video tonight while Brooklynn was eating. As you can tell, mealtime has become quite messy!

11 months

Happy 11 months, B!

Thanksgiving Pics

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Farrs and I think Brooklynn ate and enjoyed herself more than anybody! Nick and I got an early start this morning and accomplished most of our Christmas and birthday shopping. I finally called it a day around 5 and I have been exhausted ever since! We also got the reservations set for Brooklynn's birthday party and the invitations are ordered. We appreciate Mimi writing the poem on the invitations and then ordering them from Swoozies! We will send them out in a week or two.

Meredith's Pics

My cousin, Meredith took a few friends up to Papa and Nana's house recently. I think her pics from Papa and Nana's backyard overlooking the school are too pretty not to share.