Holiday Fun

Christmas is only 2 weeks away! I am so excited!
The weekend after Thanksgiving we went out and bought our Christmas Tree!

The stump is a little crooked so we had a time of it putting the sucker up but it's a beauty!

Enjoying a little sparkling cider after decorating the tree

Our cat has taken up residence under it, especially when it's lit up. I think it's so cute that she likes it that I can't bring myself to put any presents where she likes to sit so they've started to pile up around her.

Our family got together to make gingerbread houses too! Our nieces and nephews do the best job at making their houses so cute and sweet! This is a favorite tradition of mine!

Merry Christmas all! 

p.s. Don't tell Brandon I put this picture on here - I'm sure he'll hate how I fancied it up (especially with a crown on him). LOL!

Bored!

Brandon had to change the headlight bulbs in his car tonight, so me, Diesel and Lucy went out to "help".

See me helping there at the bottom of the pic -- I'm holding the flashlight!

It started out as me helping ... but I wasn't much help.  So, helping turned into boredom, which turned into taking pictures with the animals.

Lucy did not enjoy the picture or the flash - so not impressed.

Diesel's head looks even more HUGE than normal being so close to the camera. LOL!

Bravelove

I can't tell you how much I LOVE this video! 
Brandon and I have such a high regard and sacred love for all birth mothers!
One day ...
One day a brave mother will make me a mom, Brandon a dad, and will make us a family - because we can't do it for ourselves! We love that brave mother already - the one we haven't even met yet! 
One day ... 
One day we will not only have a precious tiny one to take care of but we'll have a priceless relationship with an amazing mother. I dream of that day, almost every night and it feels so real sometimes. 
We're so ready and we know it will happen in due time. 
Yep!  
In due time - 
can't wait!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great thanksgiving!  We had our feast at my (Rachael's) parent's house, and then went to my Gram's house for pie!  It was such a fun day to spend time with family!

I also brought all of the fixins to make 'Apple Turkeys' - the kids had so much fun making their own/unique turkey.

We hope you all had a wonderfully fun and filling Thanksgiving!

Snow!!!

Look what we woke up to this morning!  I think this snow storm alone brought more snow than all of last year's winter combined!  Love it!

Brandon's car is buried!

And, look what Brandon brought me the other night!  What a sweet hubby ... I think I'll keep him! ;-)

Happy Halloweeeen!

I love Halloween!
One thing I especially love about Halloween is that it's my dad's birthday!  We got together to celebrate his birthday with cake & ice cream, a visit to the pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, and (of course) giving presents!  We all decided to dress up this year for the party, which was even more fun!

I was a cat for the party, Brandon was a 3-hole punch (like Jim, in THIS episode from The Office)

Picking our pumpkins in the pumpkin patch

A Witch and her cat (me and my mom)

Another thing I love about Halloween is that as a preschool teacher, we get to dress up and have a fun Halloween party with 4 different classes!  This year my aides and I were super heroes! I tried my hand at Captain America (ish) and girl-ed my look up with loads of glitter!

We hope you have the Happiest of Halloweens!

Adoption Video

We just put together an adoption video!  Just a little something to help get the word out and help others get to know us even more!

Feel free to share our video as well!  And if you share on your blog, please link back to our blog here as well, will ya?  Thanks!  

3 Years Baby!

Last week Brandon and I celebrated our 3 Year Anniversary!  It's crazy to believe we've been married only three years, because it feels like we've known each other forever!  I sure do love this man!

The day of our actual anniversary, Brandon gave me a dozen gorgeous roses, and that night we went out to eat!

And this weekend, we went to Salt Lake!  My favorite place to shop and hang out!  I'm so happy [lucky] to have Brandon!

What becomes of the brokenhearted ...

Do you remember that song?
"What becomes of the brokenhearted" by Jimmy Ruffin.
I know, I'm taking you back.



That song has been running through my mind a lot lately.  A lot.  I think it's because the song itself used to seem silly to me (kind of oxymoron-ish) because the lyrics are so sad but the music itself just doesn't sound sad (in my opinion); it almost has a happy sound with such sad lyrics.  I guess that oxymoron of a happy kind of sad has resonated with me lately.

Brandon and I recently experienced a loss - a failed opportunity.  Our first of how ever many in our process of adoption.  It was a heart-wrenching loss.  We had started to imagine this sweet baby in our arms, in our home, in our life, and it felt so good, so right ... but it wasn't meant to be.  We had to mourn the loss.  I'm still there at times, heartbroken.

However, with the loss, we experienced such amazing support and listening ears from family and encouraging words from the few others who knew, and awesome help from our case worker.  We have felt such a love and support from each other and have grown stronger and closer together.  We have felt the comforting spirit from our Heavenly Father gently comforting our hearts and reminding us that this is not the end.  Sometimes we taste the bitter to know the sweet; we will know the sweet more fully someday, and we already have a pretty sweet life together as it is!

I guess you could say we experienced (sometimes we are still experiencing) the sad lyrics with a happy tune, and that's ok.
Thanks Jimmy Ruffin. ;-)

Family Night-O-Fun

Brandon and I couldn't figure out what to do with ourselves on Saturday night - stay home and watch a movie? go out?  We ended up at the Nickel Arcade!

It was so fun!  We each got the same amount of nickels and had a contest to see who could get the most tickets - Brandon kicked my trash!  We usually give all of our tickets away to an unsuspecting kid before leaving, but we were one of the only people in the whole place, so we spent our tickets on a bunch of AWESOME junk [see pictures below]!  To top off the night, we went to dinner at Goodwood, ever tried their onion rings?  Holy-moley those things are HUGE and so de-lish!

Our mustaches were our favorite ticket purchase!

Good weekend. Great weekend!

End of Summer

It's sure been a fun summer!  I hate to see it come to an end!  My brother and his family have been visiting for a couple weeks and we've had a lot of fun!

We went to Trafalga - hadn't been there in a while (don't waste your money).

Last week we went to Lagoon!  Hadn't been there in a while either - it was super fun and super hot!

Last weekend my honey took me on a hot date!  Movie, 5 Guys Burgers and Fries (first time = good), and window shopping at my favorite store, Target.

Hope you've had a happy summer!

Haircut...

I got myself a new haircut.

I'm still getting used to it, I've never had my hair cut over my ears before!  

 Oh well, it's only hair, right?

I'm super glad I tried it ... if only to realize I need my bangs much longer and fuller or my sides longer or something a little less SO SHORT, I don't know. :-)

We are so smart!

Family Time

Brandon took Friday off so we could spend the whole day together out and about doing whatever we darn-well wanted!  I love our family time together!

We went to see 'The Amazing Spiderman' movie ... in 3-D nonetheless!!!  I've never been much of a big fan of the superhero movies, but I enjoy seeing one when they're new out and Brandon can explain what I don't get.  There wasn't much to explain in this one because it's a re-boot - an actual term I learned from Brandon a few months back that we argued over because I thought he made the word up to explain that a movie was a re-make ... apparently there's a big difference people - big difference!  I conceded after googling it and calling my brother to confirm.  "TheGoogle" doesn't know everything does it?

We spent the rest of the day walking through just about any/and every store I wanted to.  I love that about Brandon - even though he doesn't much like shopping, he knows I LOVE it and is willing to wander through my favorites with me without one ounce of complaint!  Then sushi for dinner, Yum-o-licous!

It was a great night!  Have I mentioned how much I love our family time together?!? Sure do!

Oh!  By the way, I had to share these pics!  My nieces came over for a sleep-over last night and we brought some fishy-friends over for a sleep-over in Diesel's swimming pool too!  Diesel was so curious (the fish were quite big)!  I think at one point he was trying to figure out how to "play" with them like he does with his cat by pouncing at them - it was hilarious!

After a bit he was content to just watch them swim.  I think he thought he had a few new pets to keep!

Happy Summer!

Fireworks!

On the 4th of July, Brandon and I thought we had figured out the best spot to watch fireworks - at the lake!  "Wouldn't that be awesome?" we thought... but we were wrong, very wrong!  I think that Brandon will ever lovingly refer to it as 'mosquito swamp' from now on!  We (me, Brandon, my parents, sister and her kids) only lasted about 5 minutes before the full can of bug spray was about empty - it didn't even phase the little buggers!  We went back to my parents' house and watched from a distance, no bugs, nice!

Love this one! Glad I could zoom in a bit on my camera!

It looks like a giant sparkler!

The group that ended up outside at my parents' house (Brandon and Dad stayed inside).

 Hope you had a happy (and safe) 4th of July!

Trip to Yellowstone!

Rachael just got back yesterday from a few fun-filled days in Yellowstone with family!  

We drove (6 hours, not bad) - we had a lot of fun in the car goofing around and at pit stops I made sure to drop off our adoption pass-along cards!

It was SO fun and I haven't been for years, so everything was so new and exciting all over again!  It probably would still seem new and exciting to me no matter how recent I had been.  The sights are so majestic and the animals so amazing!  

Isn't it just beautiful!?!

Me and: waterfall, buffalo, elk and another waterfall.

First, we went to Bear World!

The bears were so cool!  They had a lot of other animals there too, and they even had a little petting zoo area for the kids, and a few rides too!

We stayed in a fun cabin, played games and talked until late in the night and then got up early to start each day!  It was so much fun!  The only thing missing was Brandon, poor fella had to work.

Our fun cabin

We saw a TON of Buffalo!

This video is at 'Dragon's Mouth Cave'.  It sounded like a fire breathing dragon when the smoke/steam would come out.  

Old Faithful is always a classic!

Old Faithful ... a classic!

I took a video of Old Faithful ... we were so excited to see it, that we stayed and watched it twice!

The last stop on our trip was Mammoth ... my favorite!  I fell in here when I was a little kid, thank heavens my dad saved me!  I think Mammoth is so beautiful and super cool!

What a fun trip!