Welcome to our adoption blog!

Hello! Welcome to our adoption blog! We are Elise and Brandon and we are hoping to adopt again! Thank you for taking the time to look over our blog and for considering us for adoption.

We want you to get to know us, so we’ve put together a few things about how we met, who we are, and more. You can find these different pages by clicking the links below. We also invite you to visit our family blog (see the link in the right hand column) to keep up to date with what is going on in our lives.

Thank you! With Love--

Brandon, Elise and Cadence

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

What Does Brandon Do?

Seems like it's time for a new post. I'm going to try to intersperse informational posts with photo posts. Ultimately, the goal of this blog is for birth families to get to know us better! So, today it's all about What Brandon Does.

Brandon is a nuclear engineer. That is, at least, his title. But what he considers himself is a microscopist. What he does is look at nuclear irradiated materials under really intense microscopes (TEM) to analyze the effects of the radiation. He does some pretty interesting research on them! Here's an example of the kinds of things he looks at:
He really likes his job because it always presents challenges. He also likes that he works only 4 days a week! Makes the weekends extra fun!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Cadence, Hair, and Horses

Cadence has taken a fancy to doing everyone's hair lately.
She also loves horses!

Vintage Post

Here is Cadence in a vintage t-shirt from 1984:

Friday, October 12, 2012

All About Cadence - Taking out the Garbage

Cadence loves to help with chores right now. Recently she helped Elise dust, which included dusting EVERYTHING she could get her hands on. But her absolute favorite chore is taking out the trash.

In fact, we don't have enough trash recepticles in the house to keep her occupied.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

All About Cadence

Have we mentioned how much Cadence loves babies? I am sure we have. We were babysitting a few weeks back and Cadence wanted to do everything for the baby.
She really, really loves babies!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

All About Cadence - Super GIRL

Cadence is super... but she's also so, so girly! Elise loves it, because she's not really that girly and it's so fun. It worries Brandon a little, but Cadence is so spunky she'll still love to hunt and fish too.
See she's showing off her awesomely painted nails? Oh, and the Halloween costume for this year. And her awesome pink shades. She's so cool (don't mind the crazy bed head hair, though...).

Saturday, September 1, 2012

All About Cadence: Grandpa's Girl

Cadence really is a Grandpa's girl. And she is so lucky to have so many loving grandparents!

Saturday, August 25, 2012

All About the Millers: Baseball Dreams

Did you know it is our goal to see all major ballparks? Well, in July, Elise was at Fenway!

Saturday, August 18, 2012

All About Cadence: Dollies

Cadence loves to mother and play with dolls. We baby sat for a baby a few weeks ago and she LOVED playing with and feeding the little guy. Here she is, taking good care of her doll:

Saturday, August 11, 2012

All About the Millers: Our Home

We just moved into our home about a year and a half ago. Here's a little tour of our home!
 Here's the entry, from the living room:
 And our living room:
 Just off the entry is an office space:
 As well as the master bedroom (yes, we need more furniture!):
 Or you could come in from the garage and into the mud room (this is a view toward the garage from the kitchen):
 Here's the kitchen from the living room, with the mud room off on the right:
 There is a loft space above the entry that looks out over the living room. That room towards the back you see is the next shot:
 This room is off the loft. It's currently Elise's sewing room, but will hopefully be for a future baby!
 Here is the guest room:
 Here is Cadence's room, and she's just getting out of bed!
 Here is the other half of Cadence's room:
 And here is the bonus room above the garage, which we use as a family room and play room:

Saturday, August 4, 2012

All About the Millers

Did you know? We won the costume contest a few years back at a friend's Halloween party!


Saturday, July 28, 2012

All About Cadence: JUMP!

Cadence LOVES to jump on the trampoline. I think the pictures speak for themselves:


This was during a little family reunion, so the other kids are all cousins.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

All About Brandon: Cowboy Up

Brandon may not exactly be a cowboy. But he's an Idaho boy. And one thing they do in Idaho? Brand cattle!
Brandon had so much fun at our neighbor's helping with the branding and castrating a few years ago.
And Elise had fun watching (this was pre-Cadence).

Saturday, July 14, 2012

All About Brandon: Cinco de Mayo

Did you know that Brandon was born on Cinco de Mayo? It's one of his favorite holidays and he loves to celebrate with Mexican food! Here we are together, celebrating Brandon's birthday for the first time as a couple (7 years ago!):
Check out that pinata!!


Saturday, July 7, 2012

All About the Millers: Grandparents!

We are so lucky to have grandparents nearby. While Elise's parents live 1500 miles away in Wisconsin, there are lots of visits and Skype chats! And Brandon's parents live in town near us. But we also live just a few minutes away from Brandon's grandparents. And Elise has a grandma down in Sandy, UT.
Elise's grandparents in Sandy (grandfather now deceased)
We're so lucky!

Saturday, June 30, 2012

All About Cadence: Animals

Cadence LOVES animals. It's kind of nuts, actually. She is always wanting to drive by the dairy or see the cows and horses (we live just outside of town so we see a lot of farm animals when we go out). We've been to the zoo a few times:
And she absolutely loves to feed the ducks:
It's so much fun!!

Saturday, June 23, 2012

All About Elise: Baking

Elise LOVES to bake. It's definitely one of her favorite hobbies. She loves to try new recipes and experiment. It's also a great stress reliever. Lately, she's been trying out lots of new cheesecakes (because, of course, cheesecakes are delish!), including this chocolate one:
Yum! And while baking breads or just making new dinner recipes or trying other things are fun, too, dessert really is the most fun, because it tastes the best. Yum--thin mint parfaits!
She's even done a wedding cake for her best friend, Elizabeth, back in Wisconsin, with her mom's help:
(this was pre-Cadence, about 4 years ago now, standing proud by our creation)

Saturday, June 16, 2012

All About the Millers

We make it a tradition to go to Fisherman's Breakfast every year, which is a free opening day breakfast in St. Anthony. It's a lot of fun! Brandon's been going almost every year of his life and Elise has gone every year since moving to Idaho. Cadence has gone every year of her life too!
Above it Cadence's first year. Below is her second, just a few weeks ago!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

All About Brandon: Racing

Brandon is into NASCAR racing, in addition to all the NCAA sports he watches. It's a tradition in his family (with his grandparents and parents) to go to Vegas every year to see the races in March.
One time we were in Vegas, Brandon even got his picture taken by the car of his favorite driver--but it wasn't the real one, just the model at the M&M store.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

All About Cadence: Skype

Cadence LOVES to Skype! She gets to see her uncle and grandparents in Wisconsin when she Skypes. They chat and catch up and everyone loves it! Here she is, captured from the other end.... just lookin' like the E-Trade baby!

Sunday, May 27, 2012

All About Elise: Harry Potter Fan

Elise is a big Harry Potter fan. They're her favorite books. When she visited London, she had a chance to visit Platform 9 3/4!
When we bought our first dog, we named her Bellatrix, from Harry Potter. Not only is it a really cool name, but our black, devious puppy resembled the evil witch--and we thought it was fun!
So of course, when we got a second, we had to name her Narcissa (Nessa)!

Sunday, May 20, 2012

About the Millers

We're hardcore BADGER fans! Elise was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, explaining her addiction to the Badgers, and Brandon became a big fan while at school in Wisconsin.
But we're working really hard to convert Cadence too!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

All About Brandon: Baseball Parks

Brandon has a goal to hit EVERY major league baseball park in the US. That's a lot of stadiums! But we've been working on it since we've been dating.
We're just barely married in that shot! That's at Miller Park in Milwaukee, which is one of Brandon's favorites--he calls it "his park," since it's Miller.
But we've been to a lot. We've been to Miller Park in Milwaukee, as well as the Cubs, White Sox, Yankees (old stadium), Twins (old stadium), Baltimore, Washington DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles Angels, and Arizona. We've got a ways to go, still, but it's a fun goal!

Sunday, May 6, 2012

All About Cadence: Swimming

Cadence LOVES to swim. She has from the first time she tried it out! In fact, she has loved baths even before she loved swimming:
But we took her on her first official swim at a hotel in Utah when she was about 8 months old:
And she LOVED it:
So the next spring, we started swim lessons. She loved those, too. Pretty soon, she's going to be swimming by herself.
Here with Aunt Brit in Vegas
This summer is going to be full of fun in the pool!

We want to hear from you!!

You can contact us in any one of numerous ways! We would love to hear from you--here's how you can get a hold of us:
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By Email at brandonandelise@gmail.com

Contact our Case Worker, Dale Schneider, at 208-529-5276 or SchneiderD@ldsfamilyservices.org