Pure Joy!

The pure joy that comes from a child's laughter. Here is a minute well spent--visit this post often to cure a bad day.

Joe was running around the house trying to catch a fly that had been buzzing around all day. It would have been a lot easier with a fly swatter but not nearly as entertaining. Brooklyn just found it hilarious!

Precious Moments

I love the time that I get to spend with our little girl, but I love the precious moments she spends with her Dad.
She has started walking with just holding onto one hand now.

So Much Fun!

We have. . .
. . . a Climber,

. . . a Cruiser,

. . . and a Chatterer.

First Houston Visitors!

There has been so much stuff to do and blog about lately that I failed to make mention of one of my favorite weekends. It was a few weeks ago now, but Joe's parents came to visit us, and we did lots of fun things. I actually made dinner a few times, Joe helped me make the birthday cake I planned on making for him before it was interrupted by Hurricane Ike . . . (It took so long to make this cake that I told everyone to lie to me if it wasn't good. Don't worry, they didn't have to lie at least that's what I tell myself--I thought it was sooooooooo good!)

. . . Joe and his Dad went to the BYU game, we went to the zoo, and just had a fun time spending time together. Here are some of the pictures I took. You can also find more pictures and details about their trip by clicking here.

On our way to Fort Worth/Dallas area:
Statue of Sam HoustonSad game for BYU
On our way to Houston:
Downtown Houston
Houston Zoo

The Bird House
The giraffe licking Dad's head (not really, but I thought it was funny).
Brooklyn in the bald eagle's nest.Brooklyn standing next to ? (a warthog maybe)--I just thought it was cute.

We know how to have fun here so come visit us anytime. The weather's great right now--no snow, mid 70's. Doesn't that sound nice to those of you who are freezing in WA, ID, and UT? Those living in a nice warm places are still welcome to come visit also.

11 Months Old

Wow! I can't believe our little girl is almost a year old. She is getting faster and more mobile every day so it's getting harder to catch her and take pictures of her looking at me before she tries to run and grab the camera or hides from me.

"Peek-a-Boo Mom!"

I caught her with my legs. She thinks that's so funny!

She doesn't smile with her teeth showing so here's the best one I've got. She's got 4 teeth on top and 2 on the bottom.

Our New U.S. President

I pray that he as well as all the other people voted into offices yesterday do what's best for our country. God Bless America! I love this country and feel blessed to live in it.

Happy Halloween

This was Brooklyn's first Halloween. Who would have thought that skulls and scary pumpkin faces would actually be funny to her.

We may not have dressed up, but we had a fun time dressing her up and decorating our trunk for the ward's "Trunk or Treat" night.

Isn't she the cutest bee you have ever seen. She even has wings! I was pretty happy with my little creation (I just couldn't find any black socks).

Halloween day we thought we'd start the evening events with being a bit adventurous . . . we tried our first "Whataburger" hamburger. That seems to be the famous place here to get your hamburgers. They were better than McDonald's if that's saying much. Anyway, we went home and had some more dinner and then made (or tried to make) mini caremel apples (thanks Sue for the idea--we got it from your blog). We'll have to keep practicing!

Well, we thought we'd watch a move while waiting for trick-or-treaters to come. We started on 2 different movies that we ended up turning off and then ended up watching "Tuck Everlasting" and went to bed with no trick-or-treaters. Oh well, at least we bought candy we like.