Boo in the Zoo!

Once again we took Brooklynn out to the zoo for Halloween. They have what they call "Boo in the Zoo" where you walk through the zoo and get a bunch of treats from different organizations. It's always fun to watch all the little kids that are dressed up. Brooklynn's costume had to be the cutest of all as she went as a little butterfly. She was so proud of her costume.

Our little artist

Mimi took Brooklynn to the Children's Museum and she had quite the time. There was so much to do that she didn't know where to start. We learned one thing that day...Brooklynn loves to paint and it was the one activity that actually stopped her dead in her tracks and had her undivided attention. The wild, crazy girl was all of a sudden the calm, serious, concentrating girl. The setup was really cool because it let the kids paint on a glass wall. I snapped some photos of her through the wall and captured some really great moments.

Making cookies with Mimi!

While Brooklynn is up at Mimi and Papa's, she gets full attention and then some from her grandparents! Monday morning she got to help her Mimi make some cookies from scratch. They must have turned out great because Brooklynn wouldn't stop stuffing them in her mouth.

It's Mimi and Papa time!

Now that we've arrived at Mimi and Papa's house, the fun begins! On Saturday we all went to this pumpkin place in Champaigne, Illinois. Even though it was cold out, Brooklynn had a great time riding her first real pony and seeing all the farm things. More fun to come!

Ohhh so tired...

On Saturday Brooklynn made her second airplane trip up to her Mimi and Papa's house and she did really well considering that we had a stop over in Detroit, then hopped on a plane to Bloomington. Having flown out of Greenville at 6:00am, it was inevitable that Brooklynn was going to crash. I snapped a quick photo of our cute little sleeper.

It's park time again!

Just recently we've been hearing the words "park" and "slide" coming out of Brooklynn's mouth. She just loves the park and luckily there's a great one pretty close to our house. We took her out a couple times this week, and Saturday night I took the camera and snapped some pics. She's a fearless little girl...climbing up and down everything and going down the big slides. She has quite a time!

Dooo-nut, dooo-nut!

On most Saturdays we grab a dozen donuts from a little donut shop near our house that truly has the best donuts in the world. Brooklynn has grown to love the tradition and many times wakes up in the morning asking for "dooo-nuts". Now that she's watching our every move, she has quickly learned to mimic the way her daddy eats his donuts...dipping them in a glass of milk. We thought these pictures captured the moment perfectly as Brooklynn truly enjoys her Saturday morning donuts!

It's football time again!

It's time to cheer on those Carolina Panthers as the football season has started up. The first two weeks of the season have been pretty rough for our Panthers, so Brooklynn and I decided to sport our jerseys for the game this past Sunday. Well, it seemed to work as the Panthers got their first win this season. Looks like we may be wearing our good luck charms more often!

Big day on the farm!

This past Sunday afternoon we stopped in for a visit with Brooklynn's Great Grandpa and Grandma Cutter, and it turned in to being Brooklynn's first big trip to the farm! Great Grandpa took Brooklynn down to the barn to see all the cows, Aunt Sherry let her sit on her horse, Papa showed her how to drive a tractor, and she even rode the concrete cow statues in the front yard. It was such a great visit and it was so good to introduce Brooklynn to my Dad's side of the family.

Brooklynn meets Great Grandma

One of the main reasons for taking a trip up to Indiana this past weekend was to introduce Brooklynn to her Great Grandparents. We stopped in and had a great visit with my Grandma who we haven't seen in three years. Brooklynn loved her apartment and made herself right at home as she played with all the "tweet-tweets" and ran around the courtyard.

Meeting friends in Indianapolis

This past weekend we were able to head to Indianapolis to meet up with friends of ours that we haven't seen in quite some time. We were able to see Rob, Katie and Clint on Friday, and then met up with Eric, Niki, Tayler, Trey and Ty on Saturday. It was so good to catch up with both families and it was fun to watch Brooklynn interact with the kids.

Daddy's dream come true

On our way up to Indiana to see friends and family, we stopped in for a quick stop in Cincinnati to visit Great American Ballpark, home of my Cincinnati Reds. I hadn't been to the new park before, and since the Reds weren't in town I settled for the next best thing...a tour of the stadium. The tour was really awesome as they let us down on the field and into the dugout. I was able to get some really memorable pictures of Brooklynn sitting in the dugout and walking up the steps onto the field. They also had an awesome Reds Hall of Fame which brought back a lot of memories from childhood, and they had a huge giftshop where I was able to buy Brooklynn some Reds gear. You have to raise your children right, you know.

Froggy Caboggy

Brooklynn received her first pets this past weekend as her aunt Sara, who teaches fourth grade science, had some extra African water frogs that needed a home. She brought them over to our house and Brooklynn was immediately obsessed with them. All she wanted to do was watch the frogs. In fact, the very next morning Brooklynn woke up and the first word out of her mouth was "caboggy" (she can now say frog, but how cute is that). We ran out to Petsmart and got her new pets a home and she just loves watching and talking about her frogs.

My new favorite place...

We took Brooklynn to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time tonight as we met her cousins Anna Kate and Lauren there for dinner. She loved all the little rides and really enjoyed playing on the toddler playground. I think we'll be coming back here quite often in the near future seeing that Brooklynn cried when she had to say goodbye to "Chuck-E".

Brooklynn's First Fair!

Our friends Bill and Sabina called up and invited us to go the the Upper South Carolina State Fair tonight. We weren't sure we were up for it as it was pretty crowded last year, but we decided to take Brooklynn this year and let her see the animals and ride all the rides. It turned out to be a really great night. There was hardly a crowd, there was no waiting in lines, and the weather was nice. Brooklynn loved every minute of it. She got so excited when she saw the elephants and zebra, and she wasn't afraid at all to ride the rides...even the huge ferris wheel with her daddy! All in all, it was really cool this year watching Brooklynn have so much fun at the fair. Oh yeah, she kept asking for that cotten candy which turned her into a little smurf.

"I got my own little lunchbox!"

Our little girl is growing up way too fast! Brooklynn started "school" this week as she's attending Mother's Day Out two days a week at a church here in town. She did really well her first two days and it really gives her a chance to learn to interact with other kids her age. Upon picking Brooklynn up the first day, Joy asked the teachers if she did well. They said she was really good, but she sure was a climber. They said they turned around for one second, and when they looked back she had gotten herself up into the sink. That's our fearless little girl.

Brooklynn's First "Build-a-Bear"

The store that is known as "Build-a-Bear" has always amazed me. You could walk past that place 2 minutes before the mall closes and it's still going to packed with mobs of kids getting yet another stuffed bear to add to their probably insurmountable collection at home. This business is not even close to hurting financially, and we contributed to their profits this weekend. We took Brooklynn there for the first time and we were happy to see they actually had a Winnie the Pooh bear as we had been looking for one for quite some time. Brooklynn loved every bit of it and she wouldn't let go of her Pooh-bear for the rest of her night. I really hope this isn't the start of what could be a very slippery slope of stuffing-filled, wallet-draining bear toys...who am I kidding. Let the bears begin!

One last summer swim

This weekend Brooklynn was invited to go swimming with her cousin Blythe at the public pool. She absolutely loves the water and has no fear of going in the deep water with daddy. The pools around here close pretty soon so it was good to take advantage of the heat relief one last time.

The "Bigger than Brooklynn" Bear

Brooklynn received one amazing gift this weekend and it came all the way from New Jersey. Joy's Uncle Bob and Aunt Eileen came down for a few days to spend some time with Brooklynn and they brought her a stuffed bear...a humongous stuffed bear! I'm guessing that Brooklynn absolutely loves it as she tackles it, rolls around and cries "WHHEEEEEE"!

Ice cream with the Highsmith cousins!

Brooklynn got to go see her big cousin Anna Kate play soccer tonight and afterwards we all went out for ice cream at Brusters. We took advantage of the moment and snapped a quick shot of Brooklynn with Anna Kate and Lauren. It was great to get all the girls together again.