Brooklyn's Accomplishments

Brooklyn's accomplishments this week were making a new friend (hopefully she'll make some friends that actually talk back when Mom and Dad finally let her out of the house), going for her first walk in the stroller, and rolling over!

Utah vs Houston

No, this post is not referring to a basketball game or anything like that. Some of you might have already heard, but Joe and I have really been contemplating and praying about where he should do his internship/student teaching to complete his degree in History teaching. There are actually 4 places that BYU will let you teach--these places include Utah, Houston (Texas), Washington D.C., and Mexico. Now, I wouldn't mind visiting Mexico with Joe but if I'd have to get around by myself, I don't speak a lick of Spanish. D.C. is beautiful, but it's just way too expensive to live there and so far away from family. So that left us will the decision between Utah and Houston.

It was a hard decision, but we decided to move to Houston. We will be moving in August. After weighing out all the pros and cons to each place, the bottom line was that we felt Houston would give us the opportunities needed to help Joe get his Masters Degree as well as help our family get a good start with a job and then after a few years, be able to choose where we want to "plant our roots" as opposed to feeling stuck. We want to be closer to both our families and hopefully this decision now will help with our decisions in the not too distant future.

We appreciate very much the support of our families with our decision! THANKS!!!

New Discoveries

Brooklyn has been smiling now for about 2 1/2 weeks, but we have not been successful in capturing it so that all of you could enjoy it. Well, I finally caught it today! I was so excited I even got a video of it and as you will be able to tell from the video, she was trying to hide her smiles.

It's fun to finally have her interact with us and to recognize who we are.



"OK Mom, I'm good to go. Let's go for a ride!"
(No, I did not pose her for this picture)

She loves to play with her Dad. Do you remember the video of Brooklyn hitting the toy giraffe in the nose and knocking it over? Well, before I took this video, she bopped Joe on the nose a couple of times. We thought she might do it again, but she decided to tease us instead.

She's not to the point where she can roll over or sit up yet, but she is getting stronger every day. The picture on the left is how she use to spend "tummy-time" but as you can see in the video, it's a bit more productive now.

She is starting to explore more things with her tongue. She may look like a cat cleaning her paws, but I think she's trying to find her thumb. She's put almost her whole hand in her mouth before probably because her thumb is too small by itself.

Brooklyn's Blessing Day

During church on Sunday February 3rd 2008, Joe along with other family members took Brooklyn in their arms and gave her a name and a blessing. It was a very special moment! I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want all of us to know who we are, where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going after this life. Brooklyn is a gift from our Heavenly Father. She is one of His children that He has entrusted in our care. We feel privileged for this awesome responsibility to be her parents and are grateful for God's great Plan of Happiness so that we will always be together as a family.

This is a precious Daddy Daughter Moment!
(more pictures on our Flickr account so go check it out)

2 Months Old