Recapitulation of the last year...

Valentine's day 08... day one of our relationship.

A week later, we had our actual first date at Charleston's.
And we have been many times since...

A few weeks later, we took a trip to Sedona and Montezuma Castle.

In March we went to Disneyland!!!

In April, we went to prom at Excalibur High School. (Charter school Mark teaches at)

In May, we went to Vegas with Kevin, Andrea, Joel and Jenny to see Duran Duran!

We used to bowl a lot. Even though Mark would have rather been playing video games.

Charlie and Bella. Our dogidies. Best dogfriends.

Next, we took a trip to Utah.

(We like traveling)

On July 4th, went to Flagstaff and saw Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers!

And we went hiking.

Later in July, we went to California again! It happened to be the same weekend that my Russian host sister, Oksana, was in California for a scholarship program! I thought I'd never see her again!

Family :)

Girls dinner...

Sara invited me to Mexico. We stayed in a beautiful condo!

At some point in our relationship, we became obsessed with a PS3 game called Monsters... We beat the entire game, 100% on every single level! Haha. Can't wait for Monsters II!

And this is my paint version of the game.

In October we went to Utah again for conference.
And we rode bikes in the freezing rain...

And we went to Bryce Canyon...

Alexis' birthday - Oct 20th.

October 21st, he proposed! Mark, Charlie and I went to Papago park (one of our favorite places to bike). We went up to the hole in the rock at the top of the mountain and watched the sun set.

Mark was being extra cute and schmoozy and nervous, as Charlie was wrapping her leash around our legs over and over. By the time we realized she was doing this, she had us wrapped up in her leash and pinned together. You know, like Roger and Anita on 101 Dalmations?

So...it was really cute. The sun was setting, we were tangled up together, and... he asked me if I would marry him! I said yes of course... We kissed and hugged out, exchanged words of admiration... then I had to choose between Rubio's fish tacos or the Compass restaurant for dinner. It was honestly a hard decision. We love our fish tacos! But we decided on the Compass restaurant. It sits on top of the Hyatt in downtown Phoenix. It has windows as the walls to the outside, and it slowly spins around and overlooks the city. It was beautiful, and very romantic. :)


In November, we went to the Ben Folds concert at Gammage with Joel and Jenny.
















For Thanksgiving, we had lunch at my aunts house. Then... we left to Mexico for the Sheen's Thanksgiving! Mark's parents got few nights at a beach house in Las Conchas. It was beautiful! And so much fun!

Yep. We kayaked with dolphins! It was incredible! I saw them from the balcony with my binoculars. So me, Mark and papa C ran out to the ocean with our kayaks. We paddled sooo fast and hard for like 20 minutes and we caught up with them. They were so friendly and poking their heads up by our kayaks. It was crazy!

"No Rebase" - the theme of our Thanksgiving trip.

Bridal shower! (Thanks to Becky Rogers)

mom, amber, lexi, aunt cara, grandma, great grandma dorothy, me, aunt linda, alicia, aunt angie

Thanks family for coming!

Christmas-time!
Caroling at great gma Dorothy's.

We had a holiday dinner with Gary, Holly, Joel and Jenny. (Props to Holly for the table decorations) Mark made delicious salmon and stuffed chicken. Then we went to the zoo-lights in our sweet limo, haha.

Girls dinner...

Wilkins Family Christmas Party...

Christmas!

A few days before our wedding... this happened.

Haha, very bad timing. And even though I was screaming hysterically, Mark was really sweet and him and Jenna took me to the hospital.

And this is what it looked like the day before my wedding. Kinda gross, I know.

Finally.... on January 3rd, our wedding!!
At 12:15 pm, Mark and I were married and sealed for time and all eternity in
the Mesa Arizona temple!

Honeymoon!
We went to Bison Ranch in Heber, AZ. It was really nice and relaxing and perfect for a bum-knee honeymoon...










































And... we got stuck in the mud for a while. It was actually really funny.

Our house!! After a terribly long process and redoing the loan papers multiple times, and living in our house illegally for a few weeks... we finally got it! We're incredibly blessed to be able to move into a home together, and we love it!