Bryleigh - 9 months old

We don't know where the time has gone, but it has definitely passed quickly. Our baby girl is now 9 months old! 9 amazing months have passed us and we still remember seeing her for the first time like it was just yesterday. We are still reminded of how blessed we are every time we look at her, listen to her giggle, or kiss her goodnight.


She is still a very happy baby that appears to have a lot to say (even though we can't understand very much of it)! ;) She is sleeping VERY well at night but her naps tend to get interrupted frequently by her big brother. She is eating 3 meals a day (1 bottle and Stage 2 baby food at each sitting). This month we decided to also start more finger foods so she enjoyed her first taste of puffs as well. So far we have not found anything that she won't eat for us. :)

She is continuing to sit up very well on her own and is also still rolling all over the house. This month, she appears to have mastered crawling. She is still not lifting herself up off of her belly to do it, but she seems to manage just fine "combat crawling". She started out very slow with her crawling but has recently picked up her pace tremendously. (We think she's trying to keep up with Brenden.)

We had her 9 month check-up on Tuesday and the Doctor was very pleased with her progress and appearance. She was 15 lbs 1 oz and 26 1/4 in. :) (We know, she is petite! We know, most babies are 15 lbs at 6 months! ha!) The doctor assured us that Bryleigh is growing as predicted and by "the curve" she is continuing to grow in both weight and length on the same scale she has each month previously. He was also pleased with her crawling, sharp bottom teeth, and constant chatter over us talking. He seemed to like her waving "bye bye" most of all! :)

We did have some "what next" questions for the doctor and were both pretty surprised by the answers. We wondered about needing to move her out of the carrier car seat into a regular car seat (because of length, not weight obviously) but he said that he couldn't foresee her needing to switch until she was a year and ready to turn around to face forward. (Courtney, what do you think about that?) We also wanted to know about best practice for transitioning her to formula. He asked us some questions about family history and then encouraged us to go ahead and try regular milk and skip formula all together. We processed that advise for a few days and then decided we'd try...so far she seems to like it and it seems to settle fine with her! We are going very slow, though, and know that only time will tell if it really works well with her little tummy. :)

It makes us very sad to think about how fast this time has passed us, but we don't have time to sit around and cry. Every day we wake up to Bryleigh's adorable smile and we're filled with appreciation for all that God has given us. We know that she is His child and we're just blessed that he picked us to be her parents! Seriously, look at how cute she is...

More Soccer Firsts

Brenden had another soccer game this Saturday morning. This was actually his first game in awhile since we had Easter weekend and then strep that prevented him from playing the past 2 weeks. He was very excited not only about his game and getting to "run and kick that ball", he was also excited about the individual pictures...

and the team pictures....

Unfortunately, Brooke couldn't be there for this game because she was participating in a walk in Greensboro at the same time. However, Nana took lots of pictures and video footage for her to look at when she got back home. It's obvious from the videos and pictures that Brenden has improved with his soccer skills recently...

He is doing much better with chasing the ball....

Keeping up with the pack...

Drinking lots of fluids during the breaks....

listening to "the coach"...

Participating as a team player...

Oh yeah, and this......

We're so proud of him (yes, it was on the wrong goal, and yes he did celebrate like a professional soccer player, and yes-Mommy was not there to witness this first goal...but we're still SUPER excited about this for him!) This sports experience has been all about Brenden and what we thought would be best for him, so to see him succeed, to see him enjoy, to see him try...WE'RE VERY PLEASED!!!!!

10 years of "dating"

In late March of 1999 Brooke was watching TV (like a loser) in her dorm room while her roommate and friends were out and about. They came back to the room and told Brooke she had to meet this guy across the hall that was visiting a neighbor. Brooke obeyed and went across the hall (in her pajamas) and introduced herself to an amazingly hot guy named Bobby! :) Suddenly Brooke became more and more interested in hanging out with her roommates and friends...oh yeah and also the hot Bobby that she met that night. After about a month of hanging out, Bobby and Brooke decided that they would try to date each other and stop the whole "friend" game.

The night of that first date was 10 years ago tonight, April 23, 1999...it has been the most amazing 10 years of "dating". They have lived in Greensboro and Durham. They have changed jobs and changed cars. They have made new friends but kept many of the old. They have lost family members and celebrated the arrival of nieces and nephews. They have had fights, laughs, and memories that they will never forget. They have had 2 amazing kids! They have seen the tops of mountains and valleys that are dark and scary. They have both dedicated their lives to Jesus and have grown closer and closer to Him with each day that passes. They are one blessed couple and they are so thankful for everything that has happened to them over the past ten years, but they are most thankful for the love and bond known as "The Farrs"!

Us then - April 1999

Us now - April 2009

Bryleigh is CRAWLING!!!

Okay, so we know that Bryleigh is almost 9 months old which means that she is officially old enough to be crawling...however, we are still having a lot of trouble believing this...

Her "crawling" is VERY similar to what Brenden did at her age. He "combat crawled" on his belly until he was up and cruising the room. Looks like crawling like this runs in the family. We're very proud of her determination even though we're not ready at all for her to grow up!

Sleeping Beauty

The other night when we went in to check on Bryleigh, we were happy to see she was sleeping soundly in her little crib. Then we couldn't stop laughing when we realized how she was sleeping...

She may be a little young for "beautiful", but she is definitely adorable!

Easter (Part 2)

We already shared with you some of the fun that we had the week prior to Easter, but we never posted the events that occurred Easter weekend. We decided to spend the day at Nana and Papa's house on the Saturday before Easter to have a mini celebration with them and the cousins. We enjoyed dying some Easter eggs, had a great Easter egg hunt, and enjoyed a YUMMY Easter lunch before heading to church for an "Easter Eve" service. The kids all did a great job with dying the eggs. Hope really enjoyed drawing and writing fun things on the eggs before she dyed all of hers while Brenden and Hailey were more entertained by splashing the dye all over the table while they dropped their egg in. The Easter Egg hunt was also a HUGE success even though Papa hid 100 eggs and Hope found 49 all by herself. (Luckily Brenden and Hailey didn't mind.) Bobby and Nana prepared a great Easter lunch with ham, deviled eggs, pasta salad, and baked beans. The weather was beautiful, the company was great, and it was a wonderful way to celebrate such an amazing holiday. Below is a collage of pictures from the day of fun.

Here are also a few great pictures of just Bryleigh celebrating and enjoying her first Easter! :)

"Hippity, Hoppity...

...Easter's on it's way!" Holidays are not only a fun time for us at home, they are also a fun time for Brenden at his preschool. On Thursday, his class had a little party and a brief Easter egg hunt. Since Mommy was on intersession, she got to bring Bryleigh to school and enjoy the festivities as well. Below are the pictures from the day.

Bryleigh definitely enjoyed the party!

Brenden and Mommy during the special snack.

Brenden was SO excited to see that Mommy came for the party!

Avery and Brenden...what a team!

The entire class waiting for someone to say "GO!" :)

The sun was a little too bright for Brenden to enjoy the photo op.

Brenden's first find during the hunt...he was SO proud!!!

He was on a mission but there's always time for a "cheese" though!

He found 14 eggs total during the hunt!

We all had a blast and can't wait to celebrate Easter more this weekend!

Sibling Similarities

Everyone always has an opinion of who your child looks like. You know..."WOW, she looks just like you." or "He looks a lot like his Papa". Sometimes we feel like we have heard every similarity in the world but the one we hear most often is that our kids look like each other. Poor Bryleigh, you would think people would naturally say that she looks like Hope, Hailey, or any female relative, but we think that she gets compared to Brenden more than anyone else. We've always seen some of the similarities between the two of them, but at the same time we are also able to see the numerous things that are VERY different about them that give them their own look or personality. As you know we went to the park on Saturday and took some fun pictures of the entire family. Once we got home we remembered taking Brenden to that same park when he was little and wondered what those pictures looked like. Well after a brief comparison to the old pictures, we were able to validate...YES! Our children do look a lot alike! :) They are both chunky with the cutest cheeks! They have the fattest little legs, the same kind of hair, and they are both absolutely adorable! We are so blessed!

Bryleigh and Brenden at the Park

We enjoyed a fun afternoon at the park on Saturday. Since this was Bryleigh's first time at this park, we had to take pictures. Enjoy!

Friday Fun at Fuddruckers

Tonight we decided to go out to eat with the family since Brenden was back from MawMaw's house. We went to Fuddruckers which tends to be one of Brenden's favorite places to go, especially now that they sell Mac-n-Cheese. However, even with mac-n-cheese on the menu, it's still obvious that his favorite thing is still all of the games that they have for him to play. After he ate most of his dinner he was allowed to get up to play some games with Hope and Hailey. It was only a few minutes of playing without money before all three kids came over begging for money and some help on one of the games. The game of choice...the claw game where you waste money trying to grab cheap stuffed animals with the swinging metal claw that barely closes its grasp around the toy. We know you all have seen and maybe even played with this game before. Needless to say, we were all VERY entertained when we realized that this was the outcome of Bobby helping the kids on this game...

Yes, Bobby successfully grabbed 8 animals in about the span of less than 15 minutes! One time he was even capable of grabbing 2 animals at one grab! All three kids were SO excited and proud of their treasures...but we think that Bobby was probably the one beaming the most by the end of the night! He was definitely our star until this...

Yes, this is Brenden holding the Taz stuffed animal that he grabbed by himself with the claw. That's right, Bobby was too busy showing off his loot for the camera to help with this one but Brenden managed just fine on his own. It definitely makes one wonder, does this game really rely on skill or is it just luck?

I'm sure both Farr boys would agree that it's ALL skill! ;)