Six Flags

We went to Six Flags last weekend and got this great video of Kiara on her favorite ride. It was a lot of fun and we can't wait to back soon!

Kiara sun-bathing

We love anything to do with the water and go swimming all the time.

Cousin time

Kiara loves any time she gets to spend with her cousins in Utah. We visit them as often as possible and Grandma and Grandpa visit us quite frequently.

Red Sox game

We love baseball, especially the Boston Red Sox. Here is Kiara before a Red Sox game we went to in May

Kiara dancing to Backyardigans

Here's Kiara dancing to her favorite show, The Backyardigans. She would watch it all day if we let her.

Kiara "singing" a book

You've heard of reading a book, here's Kiara singing a book. She loves books and music so it's only natural that she would combine the two!

4th of July

We were lucky enough to be invited to a beach house over the 4th of July weekend with my brother and sister-in-law and her family. We had a great time and Kiara couldn't have been better on the 5 hour drive. Here she is on cloud 9 watching Baby Signing Time in the car. She kind of looked at us like, "Why haven't you guys introduced me to this concept before? This is great!"

We got there before my brother and his family so we did a little exploring around downtown. It was so much fun and we had lunch at this great little diner. After lunch we walked around to some little bookstores and antique shops and then ended up at a beach that had this little playground. Kiara loved the swings even more than usual and didn't want to leave.

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog! We have created this site in an effort to give prospective birth families a more in depth look into our lives and what we do on a day to day basis. Please feel free to comment on any posts or ask any questions. We have enabled it so you may do so anonymously if you'd like or you can email us directly at benkatieandkiara@gmail.com. Thank you for your interest in our family and for even considering placing your child for adoption. We know this is an incredibly difficult time for you and you have many decisions to make. It is our hope that we may be able to provide you with some answers to your questions and that you will feel peace with whatever outcome you choose. Now to the introductions...

We are Ben (27), Katie (25) and Kiara (2). We were married December 20, 2003 in the Mt. Timpanogos L.D.S. Temple in American Fork, Utah. It was a beautiful winter day that marked the beginning of our wonderful journey together as husband and wife.

Kiara is the light of our life!

About 2 1/2 years later we adopted our gorgeous daughter, Kiara and she has been lighting up our lives ever since. She will be 2 this July but we joke that she is going on 16! She is incredibly active and lively and loves to share her opinion! Kiara is fiercely independent and not afraid of anything (except having her hair done)! She is beginning to talk all the time and constantly keeps us laughing. Her little voice just melts away all of our stress and without even noticing, a smile will come to our faces. Kiara loves to read, color and swim. She also loves animals and anything to do with music. From the time she was only a few weeks old Kiara would respond to music and as she gets older her fascination only deepens. She can't help but dance when any type of music comes on and it almost always cures a grumpy mood. Kiara is a very sweet little girl and gives the best "loves" (hugs & kisses). She loves to help and share and enjoys making people happy, which is her specialty! We love her more than we ever thought possible and are so excited to share that love with another child.

Ben's family (except his dad who was taking the picture)

Now on to Ben (although we could talk about Kiara all day)! Ben is the oldest of 10 children, with 5 brothers and 4 sisters. His youngest sister is only 3 years old and was adopted from Ukraine last year. He also has a 6 year old little brother. His other siblings range in age from 13-25. One brother is married and another is engaged. Kiara is the only grandchild on Ben's side so far but having such young siblings makes them feel more like cousins than an aunt and uncle to Kiara. Ben's parents and the 5 children not yet in college live in New Hampshire and we love any excuse to go visit them. The 3 kids who are in college all live in Utah where all of Katie's family also lives. Ben grew up on 6 acres of land in NH and loved having all that room to "be a boy." He and his brothers built their own baseball field and campground on their property and spent all of their free time there when they were kids. Ben is a huge sports fan, especially baseball and especially the Boston Red Sox. Growing up in New England he had no choice but now even living across the country we watch at least one inning from every Red Sox game. Kiara has already learned how to say "Let's go Red Sox!" She loves watching the games with us and always yells "Woo-hoo" when someone scores. Ben has his Bachelors Degree in Business Management and works in the sports industry.

Katie's family

Katie is the youngest of 5 kids with 4 older brothers. All of them are married and have kids. In fact, starting with the birth of Kiara and in the 10 months following each of Katie's siblings had a child. For 3 of the 5 siblings it was their first child. It is so fun to have so many kids the same age and know that they will always have guaranteed friends. Katie takes her role as aunt very seriously and does her best to spoil all of her 11 nieces and nephews. It is very important to her to keep a close relationship with each of them and make them know how much they are loved. One time her niece was told no to something by her mom so she said, "That's okay, I'll just ask Katie!" That kind of sums up her relationship with her nieces and nephews! Besides being with kids Katie loves music and even plays the piano. She loves to keep up on the current music and is an American Idol junkie! She also loves to do crafts, especially card making and photography. We have so many pictures of Kiara we don't even know what to do with half of them! Katie also loves writing, shopping, going out to eat and swimming. Family is Katie's number one priority and she considers her job as a mother the most important and rewarding thing she could be doing right now. She has almost earned her Associates Degree in Social Work and has worked a lot in that field as well as working as a teacher's aide in elementary special education. She loves staying home with Kiara and will be a stay at home mom for all of our kids.

As a family we love to be together no matter what we're doing. We love to travel and Kiara has already flown on 9 trips. We find any excuse to go visit family but we will go anywhere. On Saturdays we usually spend the day exploring nearby towns or visiting places in our own city that we haven't seen in awhile. We love the beach and go as often as we can. We are very competitive people and love to play games whenever we can. We get together with friends quite often just for game nights and whenever we're with Katie's family we spend the whole time playing card games. We also love to just hang out at home and watch movies a lot. We have started the tradition on Saturday night to have pizza for dinner and rent a movie. It's been a lot of fun and we look forward to it every week.

Well that's about it for the quick sum up of us and our lives and personalities. As was mentioned before, please feel free to contact us, either through the comment section here or email, if you have any questions or comments for us. We truly appreciate your interest in us and our family and please know that you will be in our prayers.