15 Years Of Blessings

15 years ago today Matt & I began dating! But lets go back further... 29 years ago our moms met at a bible study my mom was holding at her house (I was 2 and Matt was 5). They quickly became best friends, even worked together for a while! The best friends took notice of how close two of Marie's boys and two of my mom's girls were in age, and thus decided that Matt & Karen should get married, and Greg & I should get married. Well, as you know, Matt & I shattered that dream! (but as Jimmy & Karen and Greg & Stephanie would agree, it was for the best!) :-)

In the summer of 1993, we went on our every-other-year trip to Sun Cove. We were sitting around the campfire one night, and Matt mentioned that I deserved better than the person I was dating at the time (which happened to be his best friend). All of a sudden Matt & I began to see each other in a different light, we were no longer brother/sister, we were a boy and a girl. We spent many nights at Sun Cove laying on blankets together while staring up at the bazillion bright stars in the sky, and counting the MANY shooting stars that passed overhead.

Upon return back to reality, I quickly broke up with "the other guy" to make room for "what could be." Matt gave me a tape to play, it was Sammy Kershaw's "She Don't Know She's Beautiful." Well as you can imagine, my heart soared and I fell madly in love with him. :-)

On October 2nd, Matt and I stood next to my car outside his house for HOURS making small talk and watching what seemed like about a thousand cars drive by (he lived on a well-traveled street), all the while both wondering who was going to make the first move. Finally at 5:00 in the morning, he pulled me close and kissed me. It was wonderful, I was on cloud nine! I slipped into my car, drove the half-mile home with a humungous smile plastered on my face, looked at my clock and quickly was SCARED OUT OF MY MIND when I realized I was 5 hours past my curfew and knew my dad would be getting up at ANY moment! Well God must have had mercy on me because I slipped in the house and into bed without hearing anything from any room, but man alive you better believe I was staring at my door in horror of getting caught! :o)

We were in youth group together so we went on many excursions together, ferry rides, bike rides, etc. We spent one of our anniversaries going on the Victoria Clipper (which I promptly threw up on!), walked around "Beautiful BC" while I tried to get the puke-taste out of my mouth, and enjoyed a much better boat ride home.

Two days before Christmas of 1996, Matt brought me to Dash Point, carved my initial in a tree, and proposed to me in the rain! It was very memorable :-) [a quick journey back to explain: when he was a kid, he, Greg and some friends carved their initials with a heart in a tree, saying that one day they'd carve the initials of their future spouse in the empty spot - so that's how he proposed!] The rain just made my engagement ring sparkle all the more! :-)

As you can imagine, our moms were ELATED to learn of our engagement! The best friend girlfriends were about to be RELATED!!! They giggled through the entire next nine months until our wedding day. We got married at Faith Baptist on September 20th, 1997 and celebrated our honeymoon at Disneyland and Ocean Shores.

We have spent MANY more vacations at Sun Cove, that destination will always hold a special place in our hearts as that's "where it all began."

We are so thankful for all of the close family and friends we've shared our journey with, both old and new. God has placed them all in our lives and we are so grateful. Thank you all for adding to our 15 years, I can't wait to see what will hapen with us all over the next 15 years! Below are some pictures of our journey :-)

Matt and Denise boarding a ferry in Seattle during our dating years.

Matt & Denise at Jimmy & Karen's first house,

I'm sure a game & SNL night!

Denise & Matt celebrating their anniversary in Victoria B.C.

What cute newlyweds!

Matt, Denise, Karen & Jimmy at our parents house.

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Matt's parents got to be Best Man & Maid Of Honor at my parent's

vowel renewal a few years back. What a special time!

Matt & Denise with their first son, Jacob!

(cutting down a Christmas tree)

Matt & Denise with their best friends, Ron & Lisa,

about to go on a DATE NIGHT!

Denise & Matt at the Kubota Gardens, where we also

had our engagement pictures taken years back.

Juliana, Matt, Jacob & Denise at Teanaway on Father's Day.

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Two whackedy-whack homeboys at Creation.

And their silly wives...

A crew of camping friends that we're super thankful for!

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We got to celebrate Matt's birthday in Vegas last year, we even

were participants in The Price Is Right - Vegas LIVE!

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Matt, Denise, Stephanie & Greg laughing while out on a date night.

Good Times :-)

The couple getting their Christmas pictures taken in 2007.

- Our Complete Family -

Juliana, Denise, Jenna, Matt & Jacob!

11 Years In The Making

Matt and I have been married for 11 years today! I was telling him that it's kind of a big one. It's not a 5-year, 10-year type of thing, it's more that we are officially done having children and are moving forward! A lot has happened over the last 11 years...in a nutshell: we bought our first house in Kent, got two cats, Matt started gardening, we helped start up the Newlyweds class at church, ventured on to the Young Families class, moved to Maple Valley, got more cats ;-), more elaborate gardening, we had our first child, I joined the worship team, Matt started a lifelong career at McKinstry, we had our second child, lost some cats :-( and got one more, I resigned from McKinstry, we've both taken various schooling and Matt has since finished both GRCC and the UW program (YAY!), Matt began ushering, we had our third and final child, and here we are!

We feel like we're at a more (dare I say) "settled" stage of life now, we're moving forward and are excited to see what God has in store for us next. I thank God for our marriage and all that's happened because of it. We are such a great match for each other, we balance each other out in some areas, we are replicas of each other in other areas. We're growing in our relationship, our spiritual lives, our parenting, and are so thankful to God for what's He's done in our lives.

So now I head back upstairs to continue celebrating our 11th anniversary by fixing our bathroom... :-)