Sunday, November 30, 2008

My Grandma Laing's Funeral

Jasmine was the star of the show. Needless to say, it wore her out being such a social butterfly.
Here is my Great-Uncle Vincent Olson, the younger brother of my Grandma Laing. My Dad is particularly fond of him and has had a big influence in my Dad's life. I've always liked him, too. I had Kindra take this photo of Vincent and me mostly for my Dad's benefit.
Here is the coffin of my Grandma Laing. Already buried next to her is my Grandpa Laing's remains. I know they're in a better place, but I sure miss them.

Monday, November 24, 2008

My Grandma Laing


My Grandma, Dagney Olson Laing passed away earlier tonight (2008-11-24) at about 7:35 pm. To me, she was always very sweet and respectful. Her parents and siblings became the first generation of members of the Church so many years ago. I am grateful for her faithfulness. I know that she is finally reunited with my beloved Grandpa John Franklin Laing.
I love you, Grandma. May your reunion to your loved ones who have gone before be sweeter than description. May your rest be truly peaceful.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Random Pics

These are just some random pictures of Jasmine since her homecoming in July.


Monday, November 17, 2008

Jasmine's B-Day at Eric & Nancy's

I've posted a new video on my Facebook page. It's Jasmine's birthday celebration at my brother Eric's home. There's a 360 degree pan of all there. Eric, Polly, Dan, and us, including all our respective families. It was a great night.

http://www.facebook.com/inbox/#/video/video.php?v=109941205696

Friday, November 7, 2008

Sleeping Little One

Is there anything sweeter than a baby sleeping on your lap? I don't think so! Especially this baby. Being a mom is so great! I couldn't be happier.
In fact, I'm so happy with it, we are trying again! I went to a doctor yesterday to see about getting pregnant again. I have high hopes. He sounds like he knows what he's doing, so I'm excited about it. Jasmine is very well adjusted and so I think she could handle a sibling, and if there is succes, there will be nine months for her to get used to it!

Isn't that cute? She is the sweetest little one. I couldn't have got a better kid. Everyone loves her. She really draws a crowd! Everywhere I go someone stops me to ask how old she is. They can't believe that someone so little is walking, and when I tell them she's 2, they are amazed. People think she should only be about 6 months! We've had her home for 4 months now and so we are 2 months away from getting the adoption finalized. I am really looking forward to that. That will be a great day. We're going to wait for Mom & Dad Laing to get back from Thailand first, so that they can be a part of that. (It's only fair, since they are the one's that found her.) Luckily they will be back toward the end of January, so we won't have to wait long. Plus, it will give us time to finish with the preliminary stuff after the 6 month post placement. It will be good.



Saturday, November 1, 2008

Halloween 2008

Jasmine in her Halloween costume. Doesn't she make a cute black kitty? She picked this costume herself.

Jasmine with her makeup on. She sat surprisingly still for Kindra as she put the makeup on her little face.

Here's a beautiful witch and her black kitty.

Here's my Jawa costume. Not sure what a Jawa is? Watch Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope. And they are NOT the same as the Sand People. :)

The beautiful Witch, the Black Kitty, and the Jawa. This is my desk at work.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Monday, October 20, 2008

Due Credit

We adopted Jasmine in Thailand. However, it should be known that her discovery was made by my wonderful parents who are currently serving an LDS mission in Bangkok, Thailand. Only a month and a half after arriving in Thailand, they met the Burkes, who were the foster family of Jasmine (then, she was known as Tara or Tararath). When the Burkes needed to leave Thailand in December 2007, my parents were allowed to care for Jasmine until we were able to arrive in June 2008. Their Mission President was very gracious in allowing this unprecedented event to happen

Here we are at a Mexican-style restaurant with President and Sister Dodge on the left, Kindra, Jasmine, me, and my parents on the right.


Here's a photo of us and my Mom and Dad, JoAnn and Richard Laing. (I don't think my folks ever got accustomed to Thai food).




This was the day of our Orientation at the Amari Hotel in Bangkok. There was a Norwegian family there, too, that was meeting their little boy for the first time.





And then there's the wonderful first foster family for Jasmine, Claudean Burke and her family. Claudean wanted to adopt a little girl, but felt prompted by the Spirit that our little Jasmine was meant for another family. She lovingly took care of Jasmine from when she was just a month old until just after her first birthday when my parents took over the foster care of Jasmine. We have a lot of love and respect for the Burkes in being instrumental in bringing Jasmine into our lives.

We thank Heavenly Father for all the wonderful and instrumental people that have been involved in helping us adopt our little girl. There are many more people that have been there along the way to help us.

More Pics to Share

Kindra's sister, Lisa Fawcett and her daughter Zoe came up to visit last night. I snapped a shot of Jasmine and Zoe sitting on a banana chair together. Zoe's 3 years old.

Here's another shot of the two.

Jasmine sure loves to play with phones, especially our cell phones. I have a bad premonition of the future when she's 16. Yikes! :)

Jasmine sure loves watching her favorite, Elmo.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Some pics of our favorite little one!




Enjoy!

My Artwork (Part 2)

Here are some more of my favorites.

/sigh/ I have more, but I think this will all I will post for now. (Again, respect my copyright, please!)

Dan (my brother) & Sharee

Grandpa Joe during WWI
Eric (my brother) & Nancy
My Folks - Richard & JoAnn
Glass Slipper

My Artwork

Einstein
My Grandma & Grandpa Laing
Darth Vader
My Granpa & Grandma Logan
My wife, Kindra

This is some of my best artwork I've drawn. I have many others that I'm proud of, but this is all for now. :)


- Please note this is my personal work and I own the copyright. Be smart in how you use it. Thanks.

Just an update

Hi everyone! I don't have much time to write, but I just thought I'd write you all a quick update. I have Jasmine's Halloween costume. I haven't put it on her yet, but when I do, I will take lots of pics and put them on here. It was so cute when we got it because I held up two: a tigger and a black kitty with a pink belly and pink ears. She picked the kitty costume. I've come to the conclusion that her favorite color is pink. Whenever she has a choice that involves pink, that is what she picks. She's our girly-girl! It's kind of ironic for me, because, personally, I hate pink. It's just not my color. That's alright though. She is so cute, no matter what she is wearing. She loves to scribble on any surface! She finds pens and things and I have to constantly watch her with them, or she will draw on the furniture! (I'm sure you've all been there, done that!) She will be 2 in less than 3 weeks! (She is still about the size of a 6 month old!) She is healthy though. That's what matters. She is starting to ask "Why?" but not very often yet. I expect that will get more frequent soon. She is very curious and likes to know what we are doing at all times. She loves to get into things and then she comes and tattles on herself. It's rather funny. She will do something and come up to me and say, "Oh No!" One time it was because she found a bottle of lotion and poured at least half the bottle onto the floor and all down her dress! That was a mess to clean up, unfortunately, I didn't have the mind to take a picture of it. I was too upset to think of that! I laugh now about it though. I got her a book a few weeks ago. The pages are magnetic and it came with 15 animal magnets. She has maybe 4 now. She's stuffed the rest of them into a diskette drive on Johnny's computer! (Fortunately, he has it disabled, so it's not ruining anything.) Usually when she comes to me and says, "Oh No!" I tell her to show me "Oh No." Sometimes it's not obvious. Sometimes she does it to get attention. There have been a couple of times that she's done that and when she shows me, it's just a sippy cup set on the floor. She's a funny girl. Well, I'd better go and tend to her before she turns my house upside down. Talk to you all later!

Monday, October 13, 2008

First Snow

Saturday (10-11-08), we had our first snow for the season, and the first ever for Jasmine. It was hilarious! She stood at the threshold of our door and had a very apprehensive look on her face as if to say, "What the heck is this??!!!" It took a lot of coaxing for Kindra and me to get her out of the apartment. When she finally did, she frantically batted her little arm at the flakes falling around her trying to keep them off. She also exclaimed, "Oh, no!!" when she saw them resting on me and Kindra. Kindra and I had a good laugh on this.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

In the beginning...


I wanted to create a way that anyone can view pictures of us, particularly of Jasmine. I'll keep this posted of any other news and items of interest as we see fit.