Major Update

I want to first apologize for my lengthy disappearance. My posts have been pretty sparse. Let me try to explain what has been going on in our lives these past few months and maybe you'll understand and just maybe cut me some slack. We've been doing a lot of work but also a lot of playing I will admit. First obstacle has been that we've been without the internet in our home since mid June until now. Of course there were places we could access essential information we needed but to sit down, blog, and update was not the ideal situation.

Anyway, first line of business I wanted to share is that we are expecting a baby boy in Oct! We'd been trying to keep it a secret from Joe's family for a while so I didn't want to slip and say anything online that would leak out to them. But now they know and so I can share that exciting new with anyone else wondering or didn't know yet. Sorry to keep you in the dark for so long.

Second line of business is that we moved to Washington State! We've been living in Houston for the past 2 years and have now come back closer to family; although, we deeply miss our dear friends in Texas (but I don't miss the weather right now being 7 months pregnant). We didn't expect the move quite so soon but a job was offered and felt we needed to take advantage of the situation. So leaving a place we may never be able to come back to, we had to take the opportunity to see everything we could before we left including a trip to SeaWorld in San Antonio.

It was a long one day trip, but it was sure fun!


Our New Home!

(front)
(back)

I'll have to update you more on our move and the new house next time--hopefully in the near future.

Brighten Up Your Day!!!

Spring Break

No - we're not having Spring Break in May but this is the first chance I've had to write about our fun adventure back in March. This is going to be a pretty quick version so you'll have to get a better idea of what our trip was like by looking at the pictures.

We spent a few days in Orlando visiting Disneyworld and the Animal Kingdom. Brooklyn loved every minute of the parades, musicals, rides, etc. More than anything else she loved the parades, except for when the charachters came right up to her. As long as they kept their distance, she had a blast.

This was our cold breakfast break on our way to Orlando. We made it from Texas to Florida before we even had breakfast. Joe drove through the night so we could make good time while Brooklyn and I slept (it was a pretty short drive for those sleeping).

This is what I found after I came out of the shower about 6pm. We all had a good night sleep!

Swimming at the hotel. The water was nice and warm.

DISNEYWORLD!!!

We figured this picture would have to suffice for the Dumbo ride. Although I wasn't willing to wait 1 1/2 hours to take Brooklyn on the Dumbo ride, we did wait 45 min. to go on "It's a small World." Below is a picture of how much Brooklyn saw of that ride.

Watching cartoons in the hotel.

Finally meeting Minnie Mouse!

Brooklyn was so giggly happy it made me wish we had spent more time seeing the characters.

After Orlando we drove down to Miami to quickly visit Joe's mission. We visited the mission home, office, a few old apartments and tried to track down some old friends. He was able to find one familiy at the end fo the day but unfortunately both the parents were still at work. Even though he wasn't able to find many people it was really fun to go back and see where he served his mission. Just seeing a few streets help to make his stories come to life. Here's a picture of the mission home.

The last couple days of our trip were spent at Daytona Beach. It was awesome to wake up and be right on the ocean. Unfortunately, the water was too cold to get in, but we all had a great time playing together on the beach. Here's the view from our hotel room patio.

It was a really fast but fun trip.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Brooklyn made these valentines mostly by herself one for each set of grandparents. We were going to mail them but thought this might give them a little incentive to come see us--you get your valentine from Brooklyn when you come see her!

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone is enjoying a Merry Christmas and has a Happy New Year!!!

Birthday Videos

These videos are a bit lengthy, but I know some people want to see her more than they are able to. I hope these helps the grandparents feel like they were there. The first video is of Brooklyn first thing in the morning and the second video is at her birthday party that afternoon.

Happy 2nd Birthday Brooklyn!

It was Brooklyn's birthday last Sat (Dec 5th), and I know the Grandparents especially have been waiting anxiously for me to put up some pictures and videos of her birthday. Here are some pictures to tie you over for a little while until I get the videos downloaded.

Decorated the night before--it felt like Christmas. We thought it would be fun to decorate the tree with streamers so it could be part of the birthday theme.

She loves her bike and can almost reach the pedals all the way around. Just one more inch and few degrees warmer, and we'll be ready to take it outside.

For those of you who don't know this character, her name is Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street. It wasn't easy to get Brooklyn to help me decide what she wanted for her birthday, but I think it was a big hit. My sister-in-law, Kamee, helped me make her skirt to match Abby. She loved it (at least for a few hours).

I'd love to say that I made this cake, but I only had the idea and baked the cake underneath. I went to my friend Claudia's house to use her cake decorating stuff and get a few pointers. She helped me get started with it and before I knew it poof, it was done. Thanks Claudia for all your help! It turned out great, and Brooklyn eventually recognized who it was. Everyone else loved it too.

Pin the wand on Abby was a bigger hit than I thought. Brooklyn didn't go for the whole blindfold thing. The 3 older kids are the kids I nanny and then a couple families from our church came to celebrate with us (thanks for coming and for the gifts I told you not to bring--she loves them all).

She had a blast sitting at that little table with her friends. She now understands what the word "Birthday" means...CAKE and opening boxes! I told her my birthday was next week and the first thing she said was cake (even though I think she only took a bite or two of hers and didn't even touch the frosting). I also had a package come from my mom yesterday. I knew it was wrapped so I opened the box and the first thing she wanted to do was rip the paper off and open it. It didn't take long for her to catch on. She's going to really like Christmas! She'll just have to learn that not all gifts are her gifts.

Cats in the House

It's been quite a long time since my last post--sorry about that. I don't have a lot of time right now, but I wanted to show you our cute little kitty.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE!

Joe's birthday isn't until Sun (Sep 13th), but I wanted to post this early so if anyone else wanted to wish him a Happy Birthday, they could leave him a comment.

Happy 27th Birthday Sweetie!

Picture of the Week

Family Vacation

Our family enjoys finding opportunities to do things together. While living in Houston we have taken as much time as possible to visit local attractions (zoos, museums, etc), but have unfortunately found little time to leave the grasps of the big city. Luckily for us Tena's parents went to New Orleans for a business trip back in April which helped us visit family and go on a little vacation at the same time. (This post is a little outdated but I figured the pictures would be interesting anyway.)

I have no intention of boring any of you with a daily itinerary of our activities but thought some of you may enjoy seeing some pictures of the New Orleans area. We had a fun time quickly moving around the French Quarters, listening to local bands, going on a boat ride down the Mississippi River, visiting the oldest cathedral in the United States, and so on.

(Louisiana Superdome)

(one of the local bands playing on the streets of the French Quarters)

(boat ride on the Mississippi)

St. Louis Cathedral--founded in 1718
(view from the boat)

We also took time on our drive back to Houston to visit an old plantation in Louisiana. It's called the Oak Alley Plantation (built in 1839) and from the pictures below you will see the reason for the name.

(front view)

(view from the front balcony)

(view from the side balcony)

(view from the back balcony)

28 live oak trees in two well-spaced rows

(oak trees have the lifespan of about 600 years and these trees are about 300 year old)

Our Little Genius

I had no idea Brooklyn could to this until a few days ago. Joe said he tries to do this with her every day. I was impressed!

She has a hard time saying "F" but just wait until you hear how she says "W"--it's my favorite.

P.S. Don't pay attention to the bike in our bedroom. The apartment complex is suppose to be painting the outside of all the buildings "soon."