Friday, March 26, 2010

Fun FYI about us... ] open adoption ] adoption couples ] waiting parents ] adoption parents






So, as we have stated We are not your typical adoption parents. We are REALLY quite OPEN and we never hide our feelings! So get ready to laugh or sob or whatever while you read these things about us our childhoods and everything in between...

Brandon: Like i mentioned before, Brandon was adopted by his parents when he was 3 days old. He has always been proud of the women who gave him to his family. His birth mother is a hero and because of her He was able to have a great,loving,happy, full life so far...
When He was a boy, He always, Always wanted to BE the BEST and the smartest and so forth. He had the best highest grades( graduated with 4.4), he is a math whiz and he had so much energy that he would sometimes be a little too adventurous. When he was about 3 yrs. he jumped off a stage face first onto a wooden floor while declaring to his Mom : Look mom, i'm supa man" Then when he got up he said "did you see me fly for a second?" He got a nasty bruise on his forehead and then kept re-injuring the same wound while trying to fly off the flower boxes and furniture. What a determined little guy!

He loved Baseball, wrestling and Bowling too. He excelled in them and he also finished his Eagle Scout at age 14!!! He always won all the school fundraising contest where you sell treats or books or whatever! He has always had a way when it comes to connecting with people.
Brandon served a mission in the Philippines and loved every second of it. Except when he got an Amoeba!!! It made his so sick that he lost close to 30 lbs in 3 days and had to get IV's pumped back into him. He eventually recovered but, when we were first married, he would get stomach aches and i would tease him that he still had an amoeba. That only lasted for about another year, thankfully!!!
After the Mission, he drove Tour Buses in Alaska for Holland America! He looked super young and everyone thought he was about 16- not 23! So, he would joke with the passengers as they would say" Are you our driver?" He would say stuff like " No, I'm his son, He will be back ina minute" Then he would start up the Bus and say " I'm sixteen and i just got my license so hold on to something. I'm just getting the hang of this" You could probably cut the panic in half it was pretty intense. Then he would tell them his real age and give an amazing tour. He always got tons of tips b/c he was not only informative but funny too!

He loves to yell at the games on TV or in the stands- any sport will do. He gets so excited and emotional! His teams are UNLV basketball, Georgia Football and a few other teams. He is a College sports junkie and couldn't really tell you much about pro sports teams!
He likes wearing his old Concert T's and jeans and whatever is comfortable on
a daily basis. I think after his long 3 years of managing a marketing group and wearing suits and ties- he just got burned out of it! While he managed- he was the #9th office in sales out of over 300 offices. He is such a driven man! That drive has kept me from needing to work for the last 6 years! He's a great provider and such a supportive father too!

He's not at all like many typical men who LEAVE the KID/HOUSE STUFF up to the women! He helps fold laundry( did i mention how much i hate it?) cleans dishes, helps get the girls in bed or up and ready. He's a grill master and likes to make inventive marinades for the meats he cooks! He is happy to help and loves being a GOOD FATHER. He has such a big heart and tons of Energy and that's why I chose him to be my husband!

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Corrine:

My wife has 3 full sibling and 1 half brother too! She was always the little girl who would walk up to any old person and say" Hi Grandma" when she was about 2 or 3!!! Aria and Brielle did the same thing
too! Must be a girl thing! She has always been really social and open with everyone and i imagine that's why she has so many good friends and people that trust her.
Honestly, she isn't always on time to things and she prefers one on one time versus big social settings but does well in both. She knows a lot of interesting facts and can strike up a convo with just about anyone.
In her childhood, she did gymnastics, soccer, dance, softball, track, drama and choir! She hates Math but excels in english ( my worst subject). She is the reason our girls can speak so clearly and comprehend so much and such young ages. Thank heaven, we both balance eachother out in that way! As a teen she also loved to skateboard, ride bikes, surf, wakeboard, go for hikes, and sing at events! She needs to sing more often that she currently does too. I don't want her to forget to share that talent with others. Her mom taught her to sew and a lot of crafting basics as well. In College, i met her when she was Homecoming Royalty. She was the first FRESHMAN girl to ever be royalty in UNLV history! I thought she was a total snob and she thought i was a punk ( i kind of was). But after three weeks of weird vibes , something changed. And we started liking eachother!

Corrine is full of cool stories and she dated a lot before we got married and lived the Bachelorette life. She did all kinds of cool things like go backpacking in the snow in Alaska, fly in a tiny Cessna plane, and rock climbing! She went with a National choir called Sound of America when she was 16 to Europe. She sang in 7 different countries and danced too. After we were married we went to Italy together. She learned a little bit of italian so she could order food and ask where the Bathroom was and such.
She was also a bit of a nerd like me, and graduated with honors and 3 scholarships- mostly for music!
She plans most of the trips and I am glad b/c i just want to relax on vacations. We love palying games and have just picked up Backgammon- the oldest game in teh world. It's really strategic too!
Corrine loves being outdoors swimming, hiking or really anything! She had the girls in these neat classes for swimming called ISR- it taught the babies how to float if they ever fall in open water and then later teaches them how to swim. Both of our girls did fantastic. Brielle was a fish and Aria grew to love swimming this past year!

We are both close with our families and enjoy the regular stuff like Sunday dinners and games and the fun stuff like jet skiing, fishing, camping, four wheeling, sledding, boarding and so on.

She and i love to bike together on occasion and we love watching LOST and are just starting the first season together. It's nuts! There's so much more to us crazy in love parents of two so, read on, if we interest you.


pictures from top to bottom: Us and Myla our pug , Us with Brielle and Kara( her birth-mom), On a train in Italy, by the Denver Temple( our first time to Denver),Us with a local cleb " the Chopper- King of Cars, Us in Sedona for a Family Reunion!

Monday, March 22, 2010

what a weekend... [ adoption couple [ waiting parents [ adoption parents

On Friday we had a wedding and a birthday party and on Saturday we had 3 birthdays! One was Brandon's moms B-day! So, here's some pics from the 2 kid parties!
The girls had so much fun and were pretty good at each party too! By dinner time( at Gma's B-day dinner) they were a little wound up but did great! We ate at Macayo's! So yummy and flavorful!

Thanks for looking at our blog! Read on...