Awesome April

showing off her new tutu

April really has been a great month for us.  Craig got a job, we sold the house, the weather has been great.  We really don't have anything to complain about.  We have been busy getting everything packed up and selling furniture and just getting ready in general for the move. The house is a complete disaster right now, but I guess that is to be expected with the move.  I taught my last classes at the YMCA this week, hopefully I can find a gym in Boise where I can teach a few classes (luckily now though it will be just because I want to and not for the money, yay for a real job!). Craig finished up his last externship and is ready for graduation.

We were able to go to a Redbirds game this month with some friends from the ward.  Brooklyn was a little nervous about the fireworks at first, but ended up loving them, she kept going, "fireworks boom boom".  We will miss the Redbirds games for sure, we always had a lot of fun at those. I guess it is time to support the Boise Hawks now.  We also spent a ton of time outside.  We went to the park almost every single day.  The only days we wouldn't was if it was raining.  Some days we would even go once in the morning and then again in the afternoon.  She loved to have "buddies" there.  For some reason she doesn't say friends but calls them buddies instead.  So if we went to the park and no one else was there she'd ask me "where's buddies?" and then if people would show up she would get so excited and start yelling "more buddies!" She loved when we went to the driving range one Saturday.  She took her clubs and was so excited when daddy let her hit a few really golf balls.  She really is just the sweetest thing and I love her growing personality.

Sitting on the bluff at the baseball game

Swinging "high" at the park

Driving the "boat"

She loves to watch the rain

Building a "house" at Overton park

playing with friends from the ward

showing off her new trick

Enjoying a Popsicle in the backyard

 I feel like Brooklyn's vocabulary has doubled this last month.  She speaks in broken sentences now and is constantly surprising us with new words and phrases like "Jesus baptized".  Just is completely obsessed with puzzles.  We got her a Minnie Mouse puzzle from the dollar store and she does it at at least 10 times a day. and most of the time all by herself. She can count to 10 now without skipping 7.  She loves to read her books to herself.  She has them memorized enough that she will say what is going on on that page and then turn the page and keep going through the whole book.  Sometimes she asks if she can read them to us. We had a little bit of a regression with her potty training.  She was doing so well, like well enough that I was about to say that she was totally potty trained, and then all of the sudden she was pooping in her undies.  The only thing that I can think of is that she is getting some anxiety with everything that is going on because it started right about the time we really started to pack and get rid of some big pieces of furniture.  Luckily she is still doing great with going pee in the potty and she is getting really good about telling us when she needs to go, instead of us having to ask all of the time.  Hopefully once we get moved and settled she will get back to normal with the potty.  She is still napping most of the time. There is usually at least 1 day a week that she doesn't nap, but she is pretty good to hang out in her crib for at least an hour. She loves to commentate when we are driving.  She tells me the colors of the street lights and when I should go and stop, she will count the cars and trees as we drive past, she will talk about the clouds and sun in the sky.  Her favorite thing to tell me is "2 hands mommy" which makes it really difficult when I get a phone call, but I guess it is safer that way.

She loves having "pink lips" like mommy

She loved going to the driving range with Daddy

Enjoying her reward for doing so well with her potty training (before the poop in the undies thing)

Having fun with "Petty"

She wanted a picture taken with her monkey

Count Your Many Blessings

Our family has truly been blessed during the last month.  We are happy to announce that Craig is the new associate at Eagle Vision One in Eagle, Idaho.  He officially signed the contract yesterday, April 13, 2015.  Craig has worked very hard over the last 4 years not only in his school work but also networking with people in the Boise area.  We knew that the Boise area was very saturated with all kinds of health professionals, but knowing this would be our number one place to get a job, Craig started early.  He was constantly emailing different doctors or if we were in town he would stop by a few offices.  At the end of January we had gone back to Boise so that Craig could interview at several different places, he was offered a lot of part time work, but nothing full time.  All of the sudden a few weeks ago Craig was offered 3 different full time positions, one in Yakima, one in Nampa, and the other in Eagle.  After some negotiating and a lot of prayer and fasting he finally made the decision to become a part of Eagle Vision One.

The other blessing that we got was selling our house here in Memphis.  Our neighbor had recently sold their home to an investment group so we decided to give them a call.  They made us an offer and then sent a contractor out to see if they needed to take any amount off that offer because of repairs.  Luckily they kept their initial offer and we accepted it.  The process could not have been any easier.  We really lucked out.  Although we might have been able to get a few thousand more had we sold it traditionally, it was not worth it to have the stress of showing the home and wondering if it would sell before we moved.  We close on the house on May 11th and head out that same day. We feel so truly blessed right now and could not be any more excited about this next chapter of our lives.  As much as we have loved our time here in Memphis, we can't wait to get back to Boise and to our families.  I am so proud of Craig and know that he is going to be an amazing optometrist. Eagle Vision One is lucky to have him.  We know that the Lord has had His hand in all of this and hope to do our part to look for opportunities to bless others.

Happy Easter

Since General Conference was over Easter weekend our ward did their Easter program the Sunday before.  The choir did a great job and Brooklyn loved it.  I have never seen her sit so still during sacrament meeting, even with very noise kids behind us.  She was totally zoned in.  I forgot to get a picture of her in her Easter dress, but she was super cute.  One of these years I will get her a hat to go with her Easter dress like I used to wear back in the day.  The following Thursday, April 2nd, our ward had their Easter egg hunt.  They did a short program before they let the kids hunt for eggs and the whole time Brooklyn just kept saying, "egg hunt, egg hunt"  Everyone luckily just thought it was cute.  After the program they let the kids loose in the grass behind the church building.  Brooklyn was super excited and was a little picky with what color of eggs she wanted.  She would walk right passed an egg if she didn't like the color of it.  She especially loved the candy inside of the eggs.  We had to give the plastic eggs back, but we might have kept one, Brooklyn was obsessed with opening and closing it and it wasn't worth the tantrum that would have come had I taken it from her.

Craig had to go out of town Saturday night and was gone for a few days, so it was just me and Brooklyn for actual Easter.  Brooklyn wasn't feeling super great and was pretty grumpy so we didn't have the best of days, so needless to say I will be reading all of the conference talks in the near future.  Some friends from the ward invited us to join them for Easter dinner and it was nice to get out of the house.  I wish I could have watched more of conference, but what I did catch was fantastic.  I am looking forward to reading/watching/listening to all of the talks.  Even though I didn't hear much of conference I was still able to fill the spirit and hope that Brooklyn did too.  I am so grateful for the opportunity that we have to listen to our living prophet, apostles, and other church leaders.  I am also so grateful for the Savior and His gift of the atonement and the chance it gives us to live with Him again!

Brooklyn's First Haircut

Brooklyn finally got her first real haircut.  I had trimmed her hair a few times, but I decided it was finally time to take her to get it cut by someone who does that for a living.  She just needed a trim and i was hoping that by getting it trimmed everywhere will help the front of her hair grow a little longer so that she doesn't forever have a baby mullet.  So I took her to get it cut on April 1st.  She did an awesome job holding still.  She just stared in the mirror watching the lady cut it.  I came totally prepared with toys, treats, and kindle, but didn't have to use any of them.  It only took like 5 minutes, but still cost me $15...oh well, what can you do?  You can't tell a big difference, but it does look healthier for sure.

Before

After

happy girl after her treat for holding still

March Madness

I love this time of year, spring is finally here and watching a lot of basketball. Good thing Brooklyn likes to watch sports. We have had a fun month.  The weather has been crazy. We've had ice storms and snow storms and then 80 degree weather.  Sadly I left Brooklyn's winter coat in Boise since I thought she wouldn't need it here, so she didn't get to play in the snow a whole lot, but she still had fun.  We have been trying to enjoy time outside whenever the sunshine has been out.  We have been to the zoo a few times, sadly our membership ran up so we won't be getting there anymore before we leave.  We go to the park as much as possible.  Brooklyn loves to "swing high".  We also spent a morning at the Botanic Gardens and go on walks around the neighborhood. We are just trying to get outside as much as possible before all of the spring showers hit us.

Brooklyn is still doing well with her potty training.  She is getting more comfortable with pooping on the potty, it only happens every 3 or 4 days, but at least she will sit on the potty for longer than 30 seconds and will try to poop instead of waiting until she has poop hanging out of her bum. She is doing really well with keeping her pull-ups dry when she sleeps.  She is dry about 99% of the time when she wakes up from her naps and is dry about 75% of the time when she wakes up in the morning.  She really wants to stay in her minnie undies when she sleeps and I am about to give into it for nap time.  I guess I will just have to be prepared to do a little bit more laundry. She keeps talking more and more.  She repeats everything we say and loves to try new words.  She loves to count and try to do her ABC's.  The cutest thing she says right now is "love you mommy" and "love you daddy". When she wakes up in the morning and from her naps I will walk into her room and she will go "hi mommy, baby awake"  She still loves to play with her golf clubs, she is getting really good, she has an awesome follow through. She loves all of her puzzles and watching Disney Movies.  She is obsessed with "Anna Elsa" aka Frozen.  We borrowed it from friends and she just wanted to keep watching it. After we returned the movie to them we started watching Lion King and she gets so sad when Mofasa dies.  She will just keep saying "Daddy wake up".  She is so dang cute and I love her to pieces.

Showing off her new shoes

Using her diaper pail as a drum

She had to stop to pet the "doggy" at Old Navy

She had to stop to smell the roses

Brooklyn turns 2!!!

February 22, 2015
23.5 lbs (27 percentile)
33 inches
size 18-24 month clothing

I can't believe my baby girl is 2 already.  The last 2 years have just flown by.  She is such a little person now and I love her to death.  We didn't do a whole lot for her birthday since it was on a Sunday, but we tried to make it a special day for her.  On Saturday she helped me to make some mini cupcakes that we then took to church on Sunday and she shared with her nursery class.  After church we laid her down for a nap and then we brought out her presents.  She was so excited to see her presents when she woke up.  She got a play vacuum and swimsuit from Nana and Pops, sundresses and puzzles from Grandma and Grandpa, a water bottle, toy animals, golf clubs, toothpaste, bubble bath and undies from mom and dad.  After dinner that evening we sang happy birthday and had her blow out her candles, which she did on the first try, and eat some cupcakes.  It was a quite day, but a lot of fun to spend it with just our little family.  Brooklyn was super cute all day and was excited to tell everyone that she was 2 and show them her 2 fingers.  It was fun for me too, because she actually somewhat understood what was going on.

She of course wanted pink frosting

my favorite picture from her birthday

birthday girl before church

This last month Brooklyn's vocabulary has shot through the roof.  She repeats everything and loves to try saying new words.  She is constantly surprising me with what she says.  One of my favorite things that she says is "cute".  Everything and anything that is small is cute, so even when she has to go potty and she goes just a little bit she says that it's "cute pee".  She is also a "cute girl".  If we ever tell her that she is silly or crazy or anything like that, she says "no, cute girl".  She is still doing well with her potty training, she still sleeps with either a pull-up or diaper on, but other then that she wears her minnie mouse undies and does really well with telling me when she needs to go.

She still loves bananas and fruit in general.  She does really well with eating pretty much whatever Craig and I eat.  She loves mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, and hot dogs (she can eat 2 in one sitting) for lunch.  She really likes meat (chicken, pork, hamburger, etc).  If we have fruits or veggies with a meal, we have to give them to her after she eats some of the entree, because if we don't she will just eat the fruits and veggies and won't want anything else.  She just got 2 more teeth in, her last K-9 and her first 2 year molar.  She is still obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and loves her Mickey Mouse stuffed animal.  She loves going to nursery now and gets upset when we  take her out to use the bathroom and she doesn't even ask to take her burp clothe, although she still uses them all the time.

I can't get over that she is already 2.  She is such a crack up, she makes us laugh all of the time.  She makes funny faces and has really good comedic timing for someone so young.  She loves her letters and numbers and is doing pretty well counting to 10 (just need to get her to include 7).  She is so much fun to spend my day with (well, most days) and I am so glad that she is ours forever.  So excited to continue to watch her grow.