Meet Our Family -- Our Adoption Journey

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Strawberry Picking

We recently went to a U-pick farm and picked our own strawberries. It was a nice day, with plenty of strawberries to enjoy along the way. After we picked them we ate them in cereal, made strawberry freezer jam, strawberry pies, and sauces. Yummy!!


Brandt loved this kitten and was so excited to hold him.

First bite, so tasty!

Look at all this!

We found one, mommy!

I think this one looks just right.

Mmmmm GOOD!

We did it! We're a great team.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Our Silly Family

We are a family that really cares about each other, and have such a good time being together. We take a lot of pictures to capture our many adventures. Often, when we look through our pictures, we realize we caught one of our many silly moments on camera.

Brandt and Daddy mid tackle while wrestling at our science center.

We were going for a cute Easter picture....it's cute, but if you look closely BOTH of their tongues are sticking out!

Nice hair during bath time, he looks like a little Cherub.

Speaking of hair, we were taking a beach picture when Brandt grabbed my hair and YANKED it hard. Andrew on the other hand is just happily taking the picture.

Dixie, where's Brandt? He's so good at hiding.

Lookin' good in our hair nets and plastic aprons. We were working at a food bank for the day.

From the look on Rheanna's face you would think it was pretty intense sledding, Brandt on the other hand looks like it's no big deal. He would be right, it was a small hill, Rheanna was just getting into it.

A good disguise for Brandt, you'd never know it was him!

Like Father--Like Son!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Dixie

As we are updating this, we thought it would be fun to include our puppy Dixie. Dixie is a 5 year old Shih Tzu. She is a very sweet and loving dog, who is maybe a little spoiled. She loves her boy Brandt, and they often run and play together. She is a small, soft, cuddly, lap dog. We love our puppy!


This is the first time we saw her, look how little!

Dixie in her teenage years

Dixie even received her canoeing merit badge

Dressed up as a black cat for Halloween

Helping Brandt open presents.... she always wants to know what is happening

She is very curious....

Dixie bad hair day... you can see why it is always up in a bow

Dixie likes to run along with the kids while they search for Easter Eggs

Our adorable puppy!

Happy Easter!

Easter was so much fun for us this year. We were able to enjoy egg hunts with cousins on both sides of the family. By the end of the weekend Brandt was really good at finding eggs and putting them in his basket.

He LOVES balls, so the Easter bunny was kind enough find ball eggs for him to find.

I think we found them all!

Two cute boys having fun.

My puppy Dixie and I are best buddies. Look at all we found!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Brandt's First Birthday!

As I am catching up this blog, here is Brandt's first birthday in Nov.

To celebrate we had a party with family and friends. He loved everything about it. The people, presents, and the cake. What an experience for our little guy! It is hard to believe that turning one came so fast! We love every minute with our sweet Brandt.

He loved tearing the paper, and all of his fun presents.


He did a little finger painting at first, and then tasted a little frosting, then some cake, and loved it!


He thought Daddy might like a taste too.

So good at sharing, mmmmm...so tasty!

Yep, he liked it a lot. After this picture he went straight into the bathtub.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Taiwan Trip!

In Aug 2009, Andrew, Brandt and I went on a family trip to Taiwan. My parents were there serving a mission, they are now back home. It has taken me a while to get this updated, but here is our trip!


We were so excited to introduce Brandt to Grandmom and Grandpop for the first time!

Taiwan was a wonderful place to visit, with MANY amazing sights.

Taipei 101 is the tallest building in the world, and we walked around the top of it!

Scooter anyone?

Being with my Mom and Dad was so much fun!

After reading the sign and a little prayer, we were ready to go. Taroko Gorge was breathtaking!

Our cute Brandt in Taroko. This bridge was really long and really high, and fun to walk on.

In our week there we saw it ALL (at least most of it)!

We had some unique experiences, like getting our hair done and eating at Ice Monster!

These neat rocks were made by the ocean washing over them.

It was fun to share this experience with Brandt, he was so good!

Little beach baby, he loved splashing in the water. The locals were taking pictures of this cute blond boy all through out Taiwan.

What a pretty spot, with a cute family too!


Let the food experience BEGIN! Andrew tried some very interesting local cuisine. Brandt and I stuck to rice.

Octapus.........Rice

Whole fish......Rice

Stinky tofu, grilled squid on a stick......he was adventurous!

Headed back home, Brandt even got to sleep for a while in a bassinet on the plane. 24 hours of travel, no big deal. We'd do it again for all the memories we made!

If you made it through all of those...way to go. It really was a trip of a lifetime!