Our little gardner.

Brooklynn loves to help us out in the garden so much that we had to get her her own set of gardening gear. She loves to walk behind Joy and water all the plants. She also points to all the flowers and says "lowel". As soon as we handed her the little pink rake, she headed straight to the garden. She's way too smart for her britches.

Some more Easter fun!

Brooklynn had her first Easter egg hunt this past Sunday in our backyard. If you've seen our backyard, you'd know that there is absolutely no place to effectively hide eggs. But this worked to Brooklynn's advantage as she seemed to lose interest unless the egg was staring her in the face. It was a quick hunt, but very fun none the less.

HAPPY EASTER!

We hope everyone is having a great Easter! We just got back from an incredible Easter service at our church and thought we'd snap a quick family shot since we were all dressed up.

Yes, that's OUR garden...

After several years of letting our garden patch in our backyard become a breeding ground for lots of really cool-looking weeds, we finally decided to use the space more effectively and plant a garden. Well, it looks like we'll have a little "helper" all summer as Brooklynn just loves to look, er...grab the plants. We'll let you all know if we actually see some fruit from our harvest.

Just Reading

Brooklynn loves to climb up into her chair and sit at her table that her Mimi and Papa gave her. She looks like such a big girl while she "reads" her books. The book she is reading here is one of her favorites and came from Aunt Laura and Uncle Steve. As for the adorable dress...Mr. Bill and Ms. Sabina sure know how to dress her too! Thanks everyone for loving and spoiling our little girl!

Longer days, longer swing times.

Brooklynn loves to go down to the park in our subdivision and swing on the swings. Now that the weather is great and our evenings are longer, I think we'll get down there much more often.

Gotta love the spring weather!

Spring is definitely here and the weather has just been awesome. This past weekend we enjoyed the perfect weather over at Joy's parents' house. Brooklynn loved running around their yard and "pointing" to the flowers. She's such a character!

There's a whole world out there!

Brooklynn is growing up so fast...it seems like she's changing every single day. She's also always on the go! Here she's dreaming of the day that we open up that back door and let her run around the back yard until she drops.

This little girl has some serious energy!

We mowed the yard this weekend and let Brooklynn loose in the backyard. She loved it! She ran around until she couldn't run anymore. Once the grass turns green and we get her some backyard play things, she's never going to want to come inside.

She's still our little baby.

Even though Brooklynn seems like she's grown up so much, there are still times that we are reminded that she's our little baby, especially the moments where she snuggles and sleeps in Joy's arms. You can only have these moments for so long so we're treasuring every minute of it.

Don't you just love the southern weather!

One great thing about living in Greenville is that we usually get some very nice days early on in the year. Today was one of those days. The weather was perfect and our whole family took advantage of it by heading down to Reedy River Falls Park. Brooklynn really got excited when she saw the water, and then got pretty skeptical when we actually put her feet in it. But once her litte toes hit the green grass, she was off and running faster than her feet could go. She never stops!

Oh, now I see the animals!

Brooklynn had only been to the zoo once before yesterday, and at that time she really didn't get the fact that the reason you go to the zoo is to look at the animals in the cages. This time she was old enough to actually see all the animals and she absolutely loved it! She loved the lions (which say "meow"), and couldn't stop watching the howling monkeys. We ended up getting a year's pass to the Greenville Zoo, so Brooklynn will get a lot more "animal time" this summer.

You think she likes spaghetti?

Sometimes it is such a challenge to find something that Brooklynn really likes, but make no bones about it, she LOVES spaghetti! Of course, she loves to eat it in her own special way as well.

Mommy's girl!

Just this week Brooklynn has started saying "Mama" all the time when she sees Joy. It's so cute, and Joy just loves every minute of it. It's amazing to see the special "mother/daughter" bond that both Joy and Brooklynn share.

Our little "big" girl.

Our little Brooklynn is growing up so fast! It's amazing to watch her walk around like a little independent girl and take everything in that she encounters. I can't believe it's already been a year since she was born...time is just flying by.

More birthday fun!

Here's some more photos from Brooklynn's birthday bash. Hope you enjoy! Joy made Brooklynn her own cake and we all anticipated her diving in and getting really messy. Well, she delicately picked icing off and never "dove in." It wasn't until we forced her to get messy that she started playing in the cake. I guess she really is a little "miss priss."

Now that I'm one, I can call myself a big girl.

This weekend Brooklynn celebrated her first birthday with a bunch of her close friends and family. She was the perfect little birthday princess as she walked around in her brand new dress that her mommy made and princess birthday hat. It was really a great time had by all. Look for more pictures soon.

It's the BGC and the SBC!

Even though her aunt Sara is really busy with student teaching this semester, Brooklynn loves it every time she gets to see her and spend time with her.

She's all over the place!

Here are some more cute photos of BGC from the other day. She's growing up ever so quickly!

"How old is Brooklynn?..well, almost."

Not only is Brooklynn getting better and better at walking, but she's also learned so many other things the past few weeks. One thing that Joy has taught her recently is to put one of her fingers up when asked "How old is Brooklynn?" It is such a cute sight!