Our Beginning

Brandon was born in Arizona, but credits most of his childhood to a suburb of Des Moines called Urbandale, Iowa. He grew up in a two-parent household, raised by his mother Shari, and father, Andrew. More often than not, you'll see his dad be referred to as "Smitty" which is a nick-name he's had most of his life. Brandon has a brother five years his senior named Austin.

I was born in Tennessee, moved around a few times as a kid, but I call Arizona my home. I too, was raised in a two parent household by my mother Lori, and father, Mark. I have an older sister, Rebecca, who is now married with a family of her own. Her husband's name is Justin, and they have a daughter named Carrie, and a son named Brigham. I have two younger brothers. Kevin, who is also married with his own family. His wife's name is Kandis and they have a daughter named Rose. My baby brother's name is Jake. On my side of the family we also have really close family friends that we consider family. My best friend from high school Alex, and her husband Mike, as well as their daughter Jacey.

Now how we became a "we". :) Brandon and I met in late November of 2009. He was a friend of my best friend/roommate Alex, and was at my apartment when I got home from work one day. I wasn't super excited, since I had made other plans for that evening, but we met and he seemed like a nice enough guy. A few more meetings like this and Brandon's charasmatic personality and smooth talking charm won me over. We became inseparable! He invited me to go to his parents house for Christmas dinner, and I agreed. Little did I know that his entire extended family would be there! And, I've told Brandon before that he can really credit our relationship to his brother Austin. At Christmas dinner, Austin introduced me to other members of the family as, "Marissa, Brandon's girlfriend". I was shocked, because nobody told ME that I was his girlfriend! But how do you correct somebody when you're being introduced to a whole slew of people?! Let's just say that the "girlfriend" thing stuck.

We fell very much in love, in a very short period of time. We got a puppy from the South Phoenix Humane Society, in February of 2010. We named him Chip Sahoy Smith. :) He was quite a lot to handle in the first few months, but we love him very much. He grew into a fairly large dog (about 70 lbs), which was surprising considering how he weighed like 6 lbs when we got him at two months old!

Brandon and I had both started attending LDS Sacrament meeting with my parents in early March, and started taking the missionary discussions in about May. Brandon surpassed any expectation I ever could've had for him, and finished the Book of Mormon in only one week's time. Over the next several months he and I both developed a testimony and a great love for the gospel.  We really bonded with our two initial missionary contacts, Elder Zach Lovell (right) and Elder Jordan Lee (left). They both have a special place in our hearts, and we owe them so much!

Although we'd been talking marriage for a few months, and I'd been begging Brandon to propose since April, he didn't officially propose until July 1, 2010. We got some wonderful engagement pictures done by our good family friend Kevin Beeson (he did an amazing job!). And we sent out our announcements that we would be married on October 9, 2010. *I'll put engagement pictures in a future post! :)

Brandon was baptized on Friday, October 8, 2010. The night before our wedding day. He was baptized by my dad, Mark. It was an incredible experience that we were lucky to be able to share with our friends and family!