Brooke was born and raised in Bountiful Utah. First living on the East side and then moving over to West Bountiful when she was 8. She attended Washington Elementary, West Bountiful Elementary, Bountiful Jr. High and Bountiful High School. Brooke always kept herself busy developing herself or working from the time she was very young. She was either involved in activities, studying for school or helping her mom with her 4 younger siblings. This love of work and self development as well as the need to be busy are personality traits she still carries until this day and have served her well.
When she was 6 years old Brooke began playing the piano. Her mother taught piano and it was an expectation in their family. However, Brooke truly enjoyed playing. She loved the beautiful music and the spirit it brought. She also loves the discipline and dedication that came from practicing and sticking with something. By the time she was 15 years old, she was able to teach lessons to the neighborhood kids.
At about 8 years old, Brooke also began playing soccer. It didn't take long until she was playing competitively. She loved being active. She played soccer until her Junior year of high school when she injured her MCL. After that, her leg was never quite the same and her soccer days were over.
This however propelled her into a new interest and hobby, musical theater. She took basic dance lessons from the time she was 3-10 years old. She also was singing in some of the school choirs. At that time when you auditioned for choir, you could also check mark a box indicating you were interested in auditions for the school musicals. So Brooke indicated her interest and ended up performing in 4-5 musicals during her Junior and Senior year of high school. She really loved this opportunity and especially the dancing. It kept her active and moving now that she was out of soccer.
But these weren't the only thing Brooke did during high school. She also got her first job at 14 working for Carmack's doughnut shop. After she was 16, she started working as a waitress for the El Matador restaurant. In addition to work and her activities, Brooke also enrolled in a few AP classes, just to have classes with her friends. She did graduate with college credits but she never really used them. The only one of the AP classes she really loved was AP Music.
The week after graduating from high school Brooke enrolled in the Salt Lake Community College hair school where she was trained as a licensed cosmetologist. While she attended hair school, she did take a couple business courses to help her be more successful with her cosmetology business. She picked up her licence and still does hair in her home today.
While attending hair school Brooke kept her job at El Matador but was becoming very disenchanted with it. The other women who had worked there were older and they always were able to get more tables and make more money than her. She wanted to be somewhere that she could increase her cash flow. Some of the girls at hair school told her that Discover Card was hiring in their call center and the money was good. So Brooke quit her job and went to work for Discover working in the collections department. Not only could she make her weekly wage, but bonus and commissions were included.
Another person working in a supervisory role in a different department was a 27 year old man named Andy Barker. A few people had tried to get Andy to take Brooke out. Andy thought Brooke was cute but didn't like everyone pressuring him, partially because she was almost 9 years younger than him, so he took his own sweet time getting around to it. Finally he asked her out and Brooke liked him right away. She found out on their second date that they had an age difference. She didn't quite know what to think about that, but she did like him and since Brooke had always gotten along better with people older than her, it seemed to work just fine. In fact, on their first date, a line from her patriarchal blessing went through her mind about the type of person she would marry. He seemed to be fitting the bill.
Their first date was in July of 2005 and Andy asked her to marry him in December of that year. Brooke was still living in Bountiful however, and Andy was living in Pleasant Grove. With their schedules it just wasn't possible to see each other every day. So in order to get to know each other better and have time to plan the wedding they had a 9 month engagement and were married in September of 2006. Actually September has turned out to be quite a significant month for them in their marriage with all 3 of their children Due or conceived in that month. Many other important dates have fallen in September for Andy and Brooke.
After being married they first tried living in an apartment complex in Sandy close to their work, but they didn't like having people living on all sides of them, so they moved to a duplex in the Glendale Rose Park area of Salt Lake – that's right the drive by shooting zone! They liked it and lived their until Brooke was pregnant with their first child, but they could see the type of neighborhood was not where they wanted to bring a baby home. Also, Andy had gotten a new job and Brooke was planning to quit so they moved up to Davis County buying a town house in Layton.
After Kaden, their first child was born, Brooke resumed teaching piano and doing hair. They wanted to add more children to their family but it just wasn't happening. Brooke has severe endometriosis and after 5 miscarriages and multiple infertility trials they put their papers in with LDS Family Services to adopt. They were picked right away by a girl who was due in 2 weeks and then Brooke found out she was pregnant again.
They were unsure of what to do. They didn't know if they should trust that Brooke would keep this pregnancy or not. They fasted and prayed and came to the decision to not press forward with the adoption. It was hard but they wanted to be sure another family who had no prospect of having their own biological baby could have a child. The pregnancy stuck and 9 months later they welcomed a beautiful little girl into their home named Hallie. After this instead of going right back on birth control to control the endometriosis, they kept the pipes opens and shortly they found themselves pregnant with another little girl. Within 3 years they went from 1 kid to 3! It was quite a shock to their systems. Lucky for them Andy has a lot of flexibility in his schedule and is able to be their to help with the children when Brooke is working from home.
After living in their Layton Townhome for 6 years the Barkers decided it was time for a change. They were ready for a little more room for their growing family. So even though they had many friends they loved, they put money down and started building their current home. In September of 2011 the moved into their home, finding out they were pregnant the same week- 9 months later in May she gave birth to Maycee. Later in that same year there were complications with an infection from her gall bladder. It was a scary and prayerful time for their family. How grateful the Barker's are for the support and help the ward gave them during this time.
Brooke says she loves living in this neighborhood and especially loves teaching piano to the neighborhood kids. She says she feels almost called to do it. She also still enjoys keeping herself busy with her craft of doing hair. She loves the social outlet it gives her and the chance she has to stay connected to her friends in her past by doing their hair. She also completely enjoys her calling in the Primary Presidency.
I found Brooke to be an extremely easy person to talk to and a great listener. I found myself doing way more talking than an interviewer should do because it was so easy to talk and be myself around her. I hope you will all have the opportunity to get to know her!
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