Today officially marks our 13th anniversary. Blake and I first met each other in December 1994 when my friend, Paula, was set up with him on a blind date. A bunch of us were going to a Weber State hockey game that night and we told her to bring him. She didn't want to because apparently I flirt with all of her dates. So I promised her that I wouldn't and they showed up. What do you know...he sat right by me. I tried my hardest to not talk to him. It was really hard, because he was so cute. In August 2005 I went to a friend's wedding. My friend Cathy was there and told me that I should go out with her boyfriend's brother, Blake. I told her that I actually met him almost a year ago and thought he was really cute. That night Cathy gave Blake my phone number and he called me on August 22nd. He told me that he remembered me from his blind date and wished he would have called me earlier. 
I was going to Bear Lake that weekend with a bunch of friends. He invited himself, along with Ryan and Cathy. I was excited, but very nervous. I drove up there and on the second day we went into town and when we came back my friends were gone. They left us note where they changed camp locations but we never found them. In the process, I got my car stuck in the sand, backed up into a tree and decided to call it quits. That night we walked along the beach talking and he told me that he didn't hear wedding bells and he wasn't going to marry me. I kept thinking...he is crazy! None of those thoughts entered my mind, but I later found out they were his. 
Pretty much from that day forward we were together. I didn't know why he kept coming around when he told me he wasn't going to marry me, but he did. Six weeks later on October 6th he proposed. He took me to the Bountiful Temple and asked if we could read the scriptures together. When I opened up the Book of Mormon, there was my wedding ring in the middle of the page. 
Everything went by so fast and we were married on January 18th in the Bountiful Temple. It was freezing cold and had snowed quite a bit that morning. The roads were very icy and it was scary at times. We braved ourselves for a few pictures outside, but the snow and ice made everything beautiful. I am not like the average girl and I did NOT want to have a reception. Being the first girl, my mom begged me so we comprised and I did an open house. I didn't want a wedding dress only a nice dress, but my mom's friend, Debbie, brought me over her wedding dress the day before we got married.
My mom pretty much planned everything because I really didn't care. It was so simple yet it turned out beautiful. Years later I feel bad about my mom planning it all because I know it was a lot of work, but I sure appreciated it! So I had to make sure she knew it too!
We had our open house the next day on the 19th and it snowed really bad. Apparently they even closed the canyon during some of it, but we still had so many family and friends turn out for it. 
For our honeymoon we stayed over night at the Providence Inn in Providence. It was beautiful and all that we could do since we got married during midterms. Two and a half years later we made up for it by going to Florida and the Bahamas. 
After we got married we moved to Clearfield and rented a basement apartment. We had a crazy, but very entertaining upstairs neighbor. She was a single-mother who attracted drunks and caused a lot of scenes. It is was fun to watch out of our windows and hear them fighting through the heat vents. There was a heating duct that was on the ceiling and was about 6 feet off of the ground. Blake being 6'4" had to be very careful because if he wasn't paying attention he would hit his forehead on that heating duct. We sure have a lot of fun memories in that apartment and we were sad to leave it. After 13 years I still love Blake and he is my best friend. I still can't believe that in 13 years we have gained 4 beautiful kids, a mortgage, a minivan, and lots of love for each other. I love you babe!!!
Okay, since this is the first time since I was 16 that I have somewhat kept a record of my life, I am going to write about things in the past so I have it written down. I decided to write about how Deilen came to be in our family since it was just his birthday. After we had Kaymin we tried for about 4 1/2 years to get pregnant again. During this time I was praying really hard to find out if we should adopt (Blake has always felt that we were suppose to) or if we were suppose to do infertility. We received Blake's insurance papers in November 2002 and our insurance would now cover infertility 50%. I thought it was an answer to our prayers. The next month I was pregnant and we didn't even have to do infertility. I went in for my doctor's visit in January only to find out that there was a sac and no baby but it didn't look like I was miscarrying. My doctor sent me to do blood work at the hospital for the next 2 weeks. It was determined that I was going to miscarry, but it was happening so slowly it would probably take about 6 more weeks. I was already 10 weeks and the sac was continuing to grow. I decided to have a DNC. In July we were coming home from my parents one night and Blake said to me, "we need to set a date and if we are not pregnant by then lets begin the adoption process." I asked him if he still felt like we were suppose to adopt and of course, I already knew the answer. For a couple of days before that I couldn't get adoption off of my mind. 
The next day I called LDS Family Services to see what needed to happen. I can not believe everything that needs to be done in order to adopt. They told me that a lot of times insurance will help cover the costs of adoption. So I pulled out the insurance papers and sure enough right under infertility our insurance will reimburse us up to $2,000. I called them to find out the specifics and since Blake was working for IHC at the time, they matched the $2,000 and the state also reimbursed you $1,200. So all in all we would be able to be reimbursed $5,200 of our adoption expenses. 
The next adoption classes started in two weeks and they asked us if we would like to do it. In order for us to do it, all of us had to have a physical, meet with the bishop to have him fill out a financial paper, have 3 friends write letters of reference, fill out TONS of paperwork, do background checks, get fingerprints, and meet with a caseworker to begin the process. This is a picture of our casework, Paul. He was the best caseworker EVER! Believe it or not, we were able to get everything done. BUT...that was just the beginning. In October we were finalized and ready. In March 2004 I had a dream about a baby boy. It was clear as day and I could even see his face. He had tons of dark hair and dark skin. I have never had a dream about my kids before. A couple weeks later I had a dream about placement day and saw a girl's face in my dream that I did not know. It felt so real that I woke up crying. 
On July 21, 2004 our caseworker called us and told us he had something for us. It was a letter from our birthmom, Mandi, who found us on the Internet and chose to place her baby boy with us. She was currently 15 weeks along and it included a picture of her. She was the girl from my dream. I couldn't believe it. On September 21st I found out I was pregnant with Kameni. We told Mandi after I went to the doctor and found out that everything looked good so far. She wanted some time to look at other couples, which we understood. I had a really hard time, but Blake kept reassuring me that Deilen was meant to come to us and he would. In December we met with her again and she said that the other families she looked out were great, but they weren't us. 
He was born on January 3, 2005 and weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces. We were so excited. The next couple of days were the longest days EVER! On January 6th he was placed in our family. We were really lucky because his birthfather, Shane, was involved and we were able to meet him and get some pictures of him. During birth his eyelid was stretched out and his eye was swollen shut. He still was the cutest little baby boy. My mom took Kaymin over night so just the three us spent the night together. We love you, Deilen!!!
Wow, I can't believe Deilen is 4. Time sure goes by fast anymore. Deilen turned 4 on Saturday, January 3rd. He wanted a Hulk cake, to eat at Burger King, and go to Chuck E. Cheese. But before we took off to celebrate, the primary had a breakfast with their new teachers. Deilen and Kameni were so excited to go because they are sunbeams now. I don't have anyone in nursery and it is crazy. Deilen and Kameni have been in there forever because Blake and I were called to work in the nursery before either of them were 18 months old. They had a lot of fun going with the "big" kids. 
When they got home, it was time to open up his presents, then head to Burger King. The kids had fun playing on the playland and it was torture trying to get them to eat their lunch so we could go to Chuck E. Cheese. Finally they did it and we were off. It was packed as usual, but we had a lot of fun. Deilen kept saying that now that he is 4, he has a big head and he needs to play the big games. So of course, he and I waited in the lines with all of the teenagers so he could play the games. Or should I say, so I could play the games since he was still too little. After about an hour he figured it out that he was still too little so he would just stick to the littler games. 
I made him an ice cream pie and put his Hulk mask on it. Not very original, but it was quick and easy and he loved it. I am too cheap to buy cakes. 
He loves dressing up in his Hulk mask and his Hulk gloves that his grandparents gave him. He sure had a great day.
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