First Step

I think I saw Brooklyn take her first step yesterday. She's been standing by herself for a while now but usually when I let go of her hands she just freezes and then slowly squats down to the floor (she rarely plops to the floor). But yesterday, she moved one foot forward before she face-planted into my lap. I may be over excited, and it wasn't that big of a deal . . . but . . . it was a big deal to me. My life has slowly evolved with a little cruiser in the house; now what am I going to do when I have a little walker?--Enjoy life! It's been some fun learning experiences being a mom, and I love how life just keeps changing and evolving so we can continue to learn and grow.

10 Months Old

9 Months Old

Brooklyn is now 10 months old and doing well at her current weight of 16 lbs 4 oz. I haven't taken her 10 months pictures yet. I'll probably do that sometime this week and hopefully get them up by next week. I'm not going to apologize for not being up-to-date with everything because I realized I'm not "super-woman" and it's too tiring thinking I can be. I learned from the General Relief Society broadcast last weekend that I should be proud of my accomplishments and not focus on what I haven't done (that's not to say that I don't try to improve myself), but I'm enjoying more of what I do get done (some days it's more than others). Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures. I don't know how you can't--she's a doll!!!

Yikes to Ike!

(Here is where the fence was about 60 ft from our home)

Many of you know that Hurricane Ike paid a visit through Houston (where we are currently living) early Sat morning on Joe's Birthday (13 Sep). We were not required to evacuate, and we did not consider our leaving an evacuation--it was more of a vacation to celebrate Joe's Birthday. We decided to leave late Thurs night (11th) after Brooklyn went to sleep and headed for Austin. We figured if we were going to lose power as was predicted, we were not prepared to go days without it. I mean I guess we could have survived eating cold-cereal, cold canned food and soup, water, and powdered milk but why live that way if you don't have to. Besides, Joe ended up having a great birthday with not having to go back to school until last Wed (24th).
We spent a couple days in Austin and then my Mom informed me that I had relatives that lived just South of Waco (about 90 min. SW of Dallas). We ended up staying with them until we found out that our apartment had power again which was Wed the 17th. The more stories I hear about the damage that was done from Hurricane Ike, the more blessed I feel. The fence around our complex was about half gone, a few big trees fell down on some houses just right behind us, some people in our ward were out of power for 2 weeks, and many of the buildings in our complex are getting new shingling put on because of leaking problems but there were NO problems at all with our apartment. Well, we did lose all the food in our fridge, but I'm happy to say that we didn't really experience any major effects of the hurricane. We had to watch our use of gas and food until the supply was back up, but we made the best out of our experience.
It was really nice after we returned home, Joe didn't have to go back to school for another week so I had him help me finish unpacking our stuff from our move. I feel like we have finally moved in to our new home--everything is put away, pictures are up on the walls, the floors are clear to walk around, and the kitchen is usable! With the rate I was going by myself (and with Brooklyn's help), it would have been a couple more months before our place looks like it does. But thanks to Joe's help (even if it was just watching Brooklyn at times), it feels like home.

New Car

Can you tell that I'm trying to make up for lost time? I've been wanting to post more; I just wasn't able to get around to it. For those that wanted to see our new car, it's nothing fancy, but it didn't brake our bank and it runs great . . . or at least until the battery died! That's kind of a funny story because we got this car about a month after we arrived in Washington after dealing with our other 2 cars not starting and then this one wouldn't start one day. I just prayed that the only problem was the battery--and it was. The battery was about 6 years old so it was ready to go at anytime. I'm just glad it wouldn't start in front of my parents house, and I wasn't stranded anywhere. It did great on the trip down here to Houston, and we hope it will last for a long while.


Yes, that's right, it's a Ford Taurus! I never thought I would buy one of these because they're not very appealing to me, but it was honestly the best deal and the best of all the Taurus' we were shown. That was a funny story too because every car dealership we went to and told them some of the things we were looking for with the budget we had--without fail, ALL of the dealers pointed out their Ford Taurus' (we didn't even go to any Ford dealerships). I guess it was meant to be.

P.S. I posted a picture of Brooklyn's baby teeth under the post titled "Pearly Whites" (posted in July) for those who haven't seen it already.

We've Upgraded

I can't tell you how excited I am to sleep tonight. This may sound funny until I explain. Since our move to Texas, we decided to buy an air mattress to sleep on until we found a bed down here in Houston that we wanted to buy. Now, don't get me wrong, it was the nicest air mattress I had ever slept on but come on--it's an air mattress--they just don't get very comfortable. Well after just over 2 1/2 years of being married, we finally purchased our own bed! We went from borrowing 2 twin beds and pushing them together because that was the biggest size we could fit down our first apartment's staircase; downsized to a full to make room for Brooklyn's crib because we moved into a one bedroom apartment; then to an queen air mattress; and now to our very own king size bed! Now that you got me thinking about it, I think I might just go lay down while Brooklyn is asleep.

From an air mattress to a mattress with springs and foam-aw

Okay, so we don't have sheets that fit it yet. But those along with everything else that we own is still in the process of being transported by our moving truck.

Here's the Proof

When I say, "Brooklyn loves to walk," this is what I mean.

Too many bugs!

Several weeks ago I made a goal to be more diligent in contributing to the blog. Well I guess it is time to start. Many of you have been asking me about my job in Washington where I spent my time hunting down and killing mosquitoes, so today I'll give you a synopsis of the daily routine.

Every morning a group of 6-8 workers would meet at the shop where we would receive our morning announcements and assignments. We then went out to different areas in side the county lines and looked for mosquitoes, in their different stages (egg raft, larvae, pupa, and adult), and treated those areas accordingly. The job itself was very straight forward and not complicated at all, but what was difficult for me was learning the surrounding area and getting used to the different creatures I would encounter along the way. (It's probably good for you to understand at this point that I don't like bugs, snakes, spiders, etc.)

Well, it isn't very hard to guess that I had a few encounters with some different wild creatures. If you look at the pictures below you can see exactly what I saw this summer.

A lot of cows - never get between a mom and her calf!

goats

It seemed like horses were everywhere

Frogs in almost every pond

You never knew when you would walk across a rattlesnake - You just had to listen for the rattle

I had to check myself every day to see if I had any ticks attached to me. I made it through the summer tick free!

On my last week of work I was stung by three wasps.

I could write a much loner list of everything I saw but this should give you an idea of what I saw during the summer. Because I don't like half of the creatures I told you about I spent most of my time trying to avoid them, which was nearly impossible. When I wasn't running away from bugs I was looking for mosquitoes. Here are some more pictures that show what I was looking for.

It might be hard to see but if you look close you can see all of the mosquito larvae. If I found some of these in my dipper then I would get the appropriate larvacide and spray the mosquitoes. Like I said earlier, the job wasn't too difficult but I definitely gained a better appreciation for those who do this all the time. Just imagine if no one killed the mosquitoes. You'd be scratching all summer long.That about wraps it up for now. In the next few days I'll try to write down what life is like down in Houston. I start my first day of school tomorrow and am really excited to start teaching. I'll keep y'all posted.

Moving Forward

Brooklyn's pretty playful and active. She loves to sit up by herself and walk while she's holding onto someone's hands. Yes, that's right, she can walk (with help). I don't have a video of that yet, but I will. I was afraid that since she liked to sit up she didn't want to spend anymore time on her tummy. And since walking is much faster and more fun to her to be up high than crawling, I was beginning to think that she was going to skip the whole crawling stage. I'd still try, but she only managed to push herself backward, side-ways, and in a circle--just about any direction but forward and where she wanted. This was getting pretty frustrating for her. This first video shows you what I was describing.

She finally figured out how to crawl forward last night! I think her help and inspiration came from her younger cousin Reagan. We went to visit my brother Tony and his family one last time before we left Washington to move to Houston, and Reagan worked so hard to get up on her knees and lunge forward. Since then, Brooklyn has been trying to do the same thing. She is such a watch and learn kind of a girl. Here is a video of her crawling forward this morning. I thought it might take me a few days to get a video of her crawling, but I think she's got is down, and she hasn't stopped moving since (and when she moves, she really moves). Needless to say, today has been a much busier day!

It's not too hard to baby proof our house right now because we don't have of our stuff; we're still waiting for our moving truck to get here. But then again, the computer is on the floor and all these buttons are fun for Brooklyn to push (we'll have to get creative for now).

8 Months Old

7 Months Old

Brooklyn turned 7 months on 5 July, so I thought it would be appropriate to dress her up in red and white with a blue back drop in honor of the 4th of July. I've taken a lot of pictures over the summer that I haven't posted yet, so I'm trying to work on it. I know pictures of grandkids are the most important for the grandparents, so I thought I'd start with these. Enjoy! She's adorable--just wait until you see her next months pictures which I will post in just one minute.

P.S. Standing is Brooklyn's new favorite thing to do (no crawling yet).

Bragging Rights

I have the most wonderful husband in the world! The past week he's driven down to Utah, packed up all our things, dealt with the movers, driven from Utah to Texas (Houston area), set up the few things that he packed in the car into our new place, went shopping for some of the essential things, and managed to send me flowers! That last part was the "cherry on top" of all the things he's been busy doing this past week that I just had to brag about. We don't have the internet set up yet at our new place, so he can't read what I'm writing about him. I love him very much, and he is ALWAYS so thoughtful--the thoughtfulness comes in many different ways, but I do love flowers!

A New Contributor

Joe's been good to help me come up with things to share on our blog but wants to start taking a more active roll in participating. I hope you all continue to enjoy our blog and get to know Joe's personality through his posts (hopefully you'll get to read more about us this way too).

Pearly Whites

Surprise, surprise, I'm back to write another post! Brooklyn has some big news to share . . . her two bottom teeth popped through yesterday, and I think they're here to stay. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing, but I know for sure that our little baby girl is growing up right before our eyes! She is the best baby ever--I mean it. I've heard horror stories of babies teething--she fussed a little bit more (you could tell something was hurting her), but she still slept through the night, happy and laughing as always, and not even a slight fever. SHE'S A CHAMP!
If you click on the picture, it should make it bigger so you can see those razor sharp teeth.

Happy News

We finally, over a long process that I'll explain later, signed a lease to our new apartment in Spring, TX! We are excited in this next step of our lives but are sad to be moving so far away from our families. The summer has gone by so quickly and there are so many things that I want to share but just haven't got around to it yet. We've had a great summer and in just a couple weeks, Joe will take off to our new home and then Brooklyn and I will joint him about a week later.

Brooklyn's had some fun "firsts"--we've gone to the park where we've helped her go down the slides, she's splashed in a swimming pool, she sits up on her own and loves to stand while holding onto something or someone, and went to a minor league baseball game. I'm sorry I haven't posted more but the camera/computer have been giving me problems that it's taking me more time to do something so small and simple. I have lots of pictures to share, but you'll just have to wait until after our move--I know the anticipation is going to be a killer but oh well. We just wanted to let you all know that we are still doing well and loving life. Joe's working hard keeping the people of Adam's County happy by allowing fewer mosquitoes to live, and I'm working hard keeping our daughter happy by feeding, changing, bathing, reading, singing, playing, strolling, rocking, cuddling, laughing, tickling . . . (I believe I have the fun job)!

We love you all and please keep checking in with us through our blog or email or phone. I'll send out our updated info through email after we move so if we have already moved and you haven't received an email of our updated info, please let us know so we can keep in touch.

Happy Father's Day

Her shirt says, "daddy's girl" if you can't see it. This is a true statement. This is the face she pulled when Dad walked into the room. Thanks to all the wonderful Dads out there that make the world a better place.

6 Months Old

HAPPY HALF BIRTHDAY!!! Her accomplishment for today was that she rolled over from her back to her stomach. She's now over 13 lbs.

Did I Really Graduate?

So here's a funny story--although I didn't think it was that funny AT ALL at the time.

I get this phone call from my academic advisor from BYU who knows me fairly well since I went in to see her many times to make sure I had the classes I needed and completed what was required for graduation. I might have over-done my visiting rights. Anyway, I tried to be so careful as to not let anything slip by unnoticed. So the following was the conversation I had with my advisor Gail after she verified who I was:

Gail: "We have here that you walked in the Apr graduation"
Tena: "Yes"
Gail: "We never received a grade from your ballroom class that you took this last semester, and I can't clear you for graduation until I receive a grade. Do you know why you didn't get a grade?"
Tena: (frantic) "I have no idea why she didn't give me a grade--I did everything I was asked to do for that class. There's not much I can do about it now because I'm now living in WA."
Gail: "Could you email the teacher and ask her to submit your grade so I can clear you?"
Tena: "Yes, of course . . . but I didn't need this class to graduate--it was just for fun. Does that still matter?"
Gail: "You're right. It doesn't look like you needed that credit but just give her a call or email so you don't end up without a final grade on your transcript."
Tena: "Okay"

I was still frantic because Gail thought it would be okay, but she wasn't sure. I emailed my teacher, called her office phone, and called her home phone. I never got a hold of her, she still hasn't responded back, and called Gail back a few hours later.

Tena: "I haven't been able to get a hold of my teacher"
Gail: "Oh, I'm sorry, I was going to call you back and let you know not to worry about it. I was able to clear you for graduation."
Tena: (sigh of relief)

It wasn't until TODAY that I truly was relieved because I received my diploma in the mail. IT IS NOW OFFICIAL--I AM A BYU GRADUATE!

P.S. I still don't know what grade I would have received from my ballroom class--oh well.

Technical Difficulties

I've been meaning to post more, but it's just not as fun without the pictures to go along with it. As I think I have mentioned before, we are currently living with my parents in Washington for the summer before we move to Texas for a while. My parents have the same Kodak software that we have for loading our pictures onto the computer; however, whenever I try to load a video from our camera onto the computer, it says that there is an error and shuts down the entire program so that I can't get any videos and sometimes can't even select a picture that I want before it shuts down. Anyway, I will try and put up the pictures I can now, but you might want to scan through our blog to see more pictures later (hopefully by Sept we'll be moved in and have our computer set up so I can update the posts with pictures). Sorry for the inconvenience and for the following posts that might be a bit bland OR featureless--I thought that was a good synonymous word to use.

Happy Mother's Day

I just want to wish all the mothers out there a Happy Mother's Day today. Even if you don't have any children, I know that you are a mother figure in the eyes of someone! I want to thank all of the special and wonder women in my life. Every acquaintance/friendship I make makes an impact in my life.