May Yay!

May was so exciting!  We had a fun end of year preschool party!  And we celebrated my (Rachael's) 40th birthday!!

Grandma and Grandpa came to the end of year preschool party too!

Brandon took us for a hotel stay in Salt Lake for my birthday!
Look at that view from our hotel - beautiful Temple Square. 

My favorite birthday gift - Brandon took me to Alex and Ani to pick out some bracelets.
I picked Maya and Brandon's birth stones- to always have them with me. 

May Yay!

May was so exciting!  We had a fun end of year preschool party!  And we celebrated my (Rachael's) 40th birthday!!

Grandma and Grandpa came to the end of year preschool party too!

Brandon took us for a hotel stay in Salt Lake for my birthday!
Look at that view from our hotel - beautiful Temple Square. 

My favorite birthday gift - Brandon took me to Alex and Ani to pick out some bracelets.
I picked Maya and Brandon's birth stones- to always have them with me. 

Our Forever Family!

Guess what happened in mid October?!?  Our adoption was finalized!  Most people finalize at a courthouse in front of a judge - but in our family, we finalize via text message! LOL!

Once we got the finalization paperwork in the mail we could start planning our very special day - being sealed together forever in our temple!  (If you don't know much about our temples or about our church you can learn more at mormon.org).  We were sealed in the temple on November 9th.

Best day ever!

Pic from my sister Amy

Pic from my sister Natalie

And we had fun celebrating after too - we all went to my parents' church where Brandon gave Maya a beautiful blessing and we had a luncheon to celebrate the day!

This is Maya's sealing dress she wore to the temple.
And the beautiful shawl made by my Grandma Maya was wrapped in for the blessing.

This is the blessing dress I wore when I was blessed,
Maya wore this blessing dress too!  So special!

Everything was pink, we had a fun 'Make Your Own Party Drink' table, Candy Cabobs,
My sister Amy made adorable cupcakes, and everyone wrote a special note to Maya.

We couldn't have asked for a better day!  Our hearts are so full to have our baby girl forever!  Oh, and I made this little slide-show that we showed at the luncheon too - just another way to celebrate our girl!

Happy Easter!

We hope everyone had a happy Easter!  We spent the our Easter Eve putting our mad-skills to work decorating eggs!

On Easter Sunday we went to Mom & Dad's and had a delicious Easter Dinner, celebrated my nieces birthday, made resurrection rolls, and my mom put on her annual awesome Easter hunt for the kids!

Our Easter Baskets filled with Easter treats - glad the Easter Bunny stopped by!

The kids ready to get the Easter Hunt started!

Our Resurrection Rolls - See the empty roll?  Our marshmallow Jesus is gone!
Great and yummy way to teach the kids about the meaning of the holiday. 

Christmas Cards & Christmas Lights

Here are our Christmas Cards!

I also made this silly one of our dog Diesel just for fun.

Oh, and just before Christmas I went with family to Temple Square in Salt Lake to see the Christmas lights.  It was so fun and so cold and so beautiful!

Our Happy Holidays

I can't believe Christmas came and went so super fast! But it sure was fun!  Here's some highlights from our Splendid Season!

We made Gingerbread Houses to kick-off the holidays!  We went to my sister's house for a yummy dinner and then got out the hoards of candy for the houses!

...And on to the jolly holiday itself!  Since our church was at 9:00am, we opened our presents to each other after church.  But we did have a bit of time to peek in our stockings before heading off to church. 

After church ... on to presents!  My favorite tradition of ours is 'Love Letters in the Tree'.  That's always the first thing we open on Christmas morning.  It's nice to talk about our love for each other, the past year and our hopes and dreams for the future together.  A perfect way to start the day!

Brandon spoiled me rotten!  He got me a gorgeous ring!  It's a white gold with a sapphire and 3 diamonds on each side.  I LOVE IT!!!!  I got Brandon a bunch of BYU stuff, some DVD's and games! 

We went to my mom and dad's house later for lunch and more presents!  It was so fun!  

So sleepy after a fun-filled day

My parents got us a beautiful picture of our Temple; a picture that I have been drooling over for almost a year!  

All-in-all ... everything was perfect!  Time with those we love, giving fun gifts and remembering our precious gift from Heavenly Father!

Hope your holidays were the best!

About Us

How HE + ME became a WE (our Love Story)

On December 26, 2008 - I joined ldssingles.com with the intent of getting a life! I had come to peace with the fact that I would never get married, but I wanted a great dating life so I signed up (along with one of my friends)!

I chatted with (and met) a few guys ... nothing more than friends, but it was fun!  Then on December 31st I found this cute guy!

I read his profile and I remember it didn't say a lot but enough to make me interested (and I thought he was CUTE), so I sent him a flirt (smile). He sent a flirt back (hi). I sent him another flirt (wink) and he sent me one back (thinking of you). Wow, this is great!  So, I sent him a message asking him to send me a message.  He did.  I replied.  Another message.  Another reply ... Our messages got longer and longer. Then texting.  Then talking.

Finally I decided: I like this guy! I  need to meet him a.s.a.p. to find out if we like each other in person before I get my heart broken.

On January 16th - we had our first date in a public place and I promised my friends and family I would keep texting throughout the night to say I was safe and I gave them all Brandon's phone number too (gotta be safe).  It was the best first date I had ever been on!  I felt like I was talking to an old friend, and felt so comfortable! And... I kissed him at the end of the night!! (1st date - I had NEVER done that before, and I had NEVER made the first move before either!  But - he was a super gentleman and I knew he wouldn't kiss me that night, so I had to take matters into my own hands ... or lips! ;)

... and the rest ... is history!
We fell in love within the next month.  Engaged 3 months after that.  Married 4 months after that. 

...and just after getting married, we got ourselves a "little" puppy named Diesel who is such a gentle giant - and he has a pet of his own, a cat named Lucy.  They sure love each other and we love them!

UPDATE: We no longer have our sweet dog Diesel. We miss him!

And now - we're currently living our Happily Ever After!

... and as part of our 'Happily Ever After' we are hoping to adopt!  I (Rachael) have been diagnosed with 'Premature Ovarian Failure' which is basically early menopause.  I expected from a young age that I would not be able to have children of my own because the women in my family have had difficulty with fertility.  Our family and extended family has been so blessed by the miracle of adoption already, and we are so excited to begin the process ourselves!

Feel free to browse our entire blog to get to know us better (we have a lot of posts)!