California....

Jeff's family decided to do a full family vacation to San Diego. We had 2 parents, 3 brothers, 3 sister inlaws, 2 nieces, 3 nephews and ONE house. 

The house we stayed at was right on the beach and we played and played..we Disneylaned the crap out of California!

Our "children"

Jeff and I have adopted some children as our own.....

We have AMAZING friends that have shared their lives with us and have let us into their children's lives. We feel so lucky that we have our little children and helped raise them. 

This is Boston. My best friend Maria and I have been good friends since high school. I was there for his birth and he was my first born...

   Then about a month ago Maria had another baby girl named Reese. I got to be there right after she was born and got to spend the first 2 weeks with her in Spokane!

Then my other best friend Kallie had Naomi. Jeff and I have watched Naomi many many times and usually see her twice a week at least. Kallie and her husband just moved to Denver though so I don't get to see her anymore...

And then Kallie had another baby girl named Jovee! She is still just a little one too!

The newest member of our Pretend Kids Club is Mabel. She is 8 months old and we got to watch her for 4 days and fell madly in love with her.. She has down syndrome and has such a soft spot in my heart, she is literally perfect!

These 5 kids are the kids that have made the last 2.5 years due-able. We love them like they are our own and we can't wait till the day comes that we can add our own children into the mix and make this big family a whole.

Twice the Years, Twice the Fun

Year 2 has been a full year. It's been a hard year. It's been a roller coaster of a year. Year 2 has been a great year. This has been a crazy year. 

This has been the year from heaven to hell.

This year we found out that we were going to go through the adventure of infertility. It has been a true test to our relationship.

Now for the fun stuff...

We have made a yearly tradition to go skiing or snowboarding every year with all of our friends to a mountain about 2 hours away. We go for the whole weekend and all stay in one cabin and just eat and play!

 

We decided it was time for the Bleaks to grace VEGAS with their presence.. We went for 5 days and saw Phantom of the Opera while we were there to add to our Broadway shows! I love to lay out all day and so that's what we did. Lay out, eat dinner, go to a show or walk the strip and sleep! 

Summer treated us WELL! We had a great summer with great friends. 

Year #2 down.....

First Year Bliss

We started off in a one bedroom apartment. Many people that have been married know that the first year of marriage...you need more then one bedroom and a tiny family room! About 8 months in we bought our first home! It's a townhouse in Salt Lake and it's ours! 

Once we bought the house the next purchase had to be a puppy. We started talking about getting a dog and so I got on KSL and saw a picture of the cutest little Cock-a-poo. His face melted my heart, and I had to have him. We went and got him the next day. His name is Woody and he has been the pride and joy to our lives. Through the infertility he has been the void I've needed filled. Woody comforts me when no one else can. I mean look at that face, how can you not be obsessed!? 

The first summer we had together we went on a mini vacation to Spokane then to Seattle then to Canada and back to Spokane. Jeff had never been to Seattle and Canada and I've lived in both so we went on a little memory lane tour. 

We celebrated lasting a whole year by going downtown Salt Lake and at nice hotel and went back to Market Street Grill where we had our first date. 

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We decided that we didn't want to keep the top of the cake because to me that sounded gross to eat it a year later, so Jeff got all romantic and had the lady that made our cake make us a cake topper to eat for our one year! 

...then the first year was over. 

Engage to NewYork

Jeff and I got engaged the end of July. Jeff had to be out of town for the weekend for work and so we decided Sunday we would go up to the East Canyon and have a picnic by the lake. To "throw me off" Jeff picked a fight with me all the way up the canyon. By the time we got there I just wanted to go home. We laid out the picnic and then Jeff got all weird and nervous....bla bla bla and asked me to marry him! I of course said YES!

I have always wanted a fall wedding so planning got going right away!

Jeff and I got married OCTOBER.17.2009

We got married in the Salt Lake Temple. 

We decided for our honeymoon we were going to go to NEW YORK!

We had the time of our lives. We stayed at an amazing hotel, we saw Wicked and The Lion King on Broadway and there's nothing like that. We ate a million hot dogs and saw everything we could! We honestly walked for days and just saw the most amazing city on earth. Since New York we have fallen in love with Broadway shows and find the whole presentation unbelieveable! New York was a dream come true and it provided us with memories for life. Everything from Ground Zero to the Statue of Liberty and Central Park! 

Love is in the PINS..

I lived at home for a summer and met this guy named Jordan. He was from Salt Lake living in Spokane for the summer working. Him and I became good friends and hung out all the time. The time came for him for move back to Salt Lake and around the same time I got a job in Park City at a salon. We both moved to Salt Lake and kind of went separate ways for awhile until finally he invited me one night to go hang out with some of his friends considering I didn't know anyone in Salt Lake yet. We were going bowling which is not my cup of tea, but I still went and when I got to the classiest bowling ally in the world....(not) I met his friends, one being the "Jeff" guy. Whatever, he was wearing these baggy shorts (IT WAS JANUARY!) a collared church shirt with a Jazz jersey over it, ya umm no.

 To tell Jeff's side of the story, I was wearing all black, black jeans with a black tee shirt and converse so he thought I was kind gothy. 

I got to talking with the Jeff guy and he was actually kind of funny, but what really made me fall head over heels was when he said...AND I QUOTE, "one day I can wait to smack my wife on the a$$ and hand her the credit card and say baby go for it." Yup, that was it and the rest was history. That night I text our mutual friend Jordan and said I thought his friend Jeff was cute and he should give him my number. While I was doing that, Jeff also was texting Jordan saying the same thing. So matchmaker Jordan hooked us up and Jeff and I saw each other the next few days at little parties and then he asked me out on a date. 

Jeff picked me up and was going to take me to this sushi restaurant downtown. We get to the sushi place and the wait was forever so he said, "I have a gift certificate for the place next door, do you want to go?" So my cheap date took me to Market Street Grill with a gift certificate haha! During our first date though, Jeff spilled marinara sauce on my dress!!

From that date on we were together everyday. On probably our second date, I knew that this was the man I was going to marry with no doubt in my mind.

After about a month or 2 of dating all of our friends decided to book a cruise. Thats when I, as in me-Lacie, asked Jeff to be my boyfriend! Not him asking me, me asking him! The cruise was going to be a risky decision, what if we broke up!? We booked it and we had a blast...After that I knew that this was going to be forever. 

REDO...Start Over!

Many of you have probably found that I erased all my old posts. It was an emotional decision that I know somewhat regret, but what's done is done and now this blog will be about Jeff and I as a couple and what we are going through (but mostly from my side of things.)

This blog will be to get to know Jeff and I from the very beginning, so bare with me for awhile as I tell our fairy tale story...

Jeff was born and raised here in Salt Lake City, Utah. His family never moved homes from the time he was born, and still live in the same house. He went to the University of Utah and graduated with a degree in Mass Communications, which means pretty much he can go into any field and do anything. He got an internship with the company that he still works for and does the PR work for "Don't Drive Stupid" and "Zero Fatalities." He does many many many presentations to teens and even NBA players and NFL players about texting, drinking and distractive driving. 

Whoever knows my handsome 5 foot 9 husband knows that he wishes he was 6'6'' because he would die and go to heaven if he could be a professional athlete. Jeff has a major crush on sports. Football-college and pro, basketball-college and pro, baseball, now hockey and soccer. No matter the season we have a DVR full of sports games and the ESPN channel on the favorites. Jeff plays indoor and outdoor soccer on league teams and has fun pretending with his friends that they are NBA players every once in awhile. 

He is a man of many words. Most couples have once spouse that's the "out spoken" one and one that is the shy, quiet type-not here. We are both outgoing, loud, energetic people. One reason I fell in love with Jeff was that I could put him in a room full of people he's never met and instantly have 5 new friends. He can talk to whoever and people are drawn to him. Shy is not in this household's vocabulary. 

He is by far the best man I know and I would never trade him for the world...(well maybe for a killer pair of shoes, but that's it...and maybe a to die for polka dot pair of pants...but honestly that's it!)

Me, on the other hand..I was born and raised here in the US of A...I was born in Utah and then we moved to Canada to live closer to my dad's family. Then we moved all up and down the California coast, then we got transferred to Kentucky then to Georgia then to Seattle and finally to Spokane, Washington. No, I'm not an army brat, yes I am a brat but not the Army kind. My dad worked in the cell phone industry when it started to boom and so we had to move a lot for his job. I lived in Spokane from 8th grade to senior year and 12 days after high school graduation I was out at BYUIdaho. After about a semester there I still wanted to do hair for a living so I moved to Provo to Paul Mitchell The School. I've been doing hair since and have the best clients! 

As you can tell I love to shop, I love to paint my nails, I love to go to lunch or dinner with friends and I love to shop, and shop. I have an obsession with polka dots and black and white. I'm the type that I love to have any excuse to get all dolled up and go to dinner and then come home grab my sweats and big sweatshirt and cuddle up and watch a movie. I'm usually the loud one at events and get togethers. I'm not known to be shy or quiet. I will admit I love being center of attention and I'm ok with that.

Jeff and I have learned to have lots in common. We are huge Utah Utes fans. We have season tickets to the footballs games and we look forward to the games every year. It has been something we have done since we met and it's something we enjoy together and both can get into! It helps that the Utes have the best colors and Jeff can never say no if I want to buy something for the Utes games!!!

We also play on a co-ed softball team during the spring/summer with a group of our friends. Jeff is usually all into the games and is the third baseman and I just show up with a glove and hope to catch the ball as the catcher. I'm not good and barely ever hit the ball, but I show up and I chomp my gum and pretend like I know what I'm doing! 

Jeff and I both like watching movies. I'm a Redbox, stay home on my couch kind of watcher and Jeff likes to go to the theater, but since the price of a movie is a million dollars...I usually win and we stay home and watch a Redbox!

Jeff and I differ in food. I like my food to be "real" food and Jeff likes his...what's the word....fried? We go to a restaurant and Jeff orders anything dripping in grease or fried and I order a salad with the dressing on the side. 

We differ about clothes. I like to get dressed up and put a cute wedge on with a fun top and all that, Jeff would be happy to wear his shorts (year round) with his white Costco tee and Nikes. I guess opposites attract haha!

This is PRE-JEFFANDLACIE!

So this for a little tiny bit, kind of sums up Jeff and I. We are so complex, I know!