The actual start of our long road of a journey. As many of our friends and family know, we met working together at Demos' Restaurant during college. As much as Katie hates to admit, it was love at first site for her but for Christian he had to play a little hard to get because he not always easily impressed. After a few squabbles and flirty conversations, Christian finally manned up and asked Katie to a real first date to Maggiano's.

Next brings us to the trip out west to Southern California for a wedding on Christian's family side. This trip was also planned to be something special for Katie's birthday. She got to experience her first bite of an In-N-Out burger as well as a delicious Porto's pastry (big time favorite for her). She will also never forget her first trip to Disneyland which entailed walking 12+ hours around the park for the whole day (she loved every hour of it). But the memory that will forever stick out the most was the night out to a Dodgers game..

Fast forward a couple months ... we found out we were going to be having a baby boy! Huge news that would forever change our lives.

They say you will never truly be ready to be parents, and oh boy were they right.. but we did all that we could to prepare and on the early morning of St. Patrick's day of 2019, Christian and Katie welcomed the biggest and most beautiful blessing to this world... Walker Philip Shadowens-Peña.

What a first year with a new little human it was! No sleep, some arguments, poopy diapers, and lots of memories.. but no matter what the joy of being a parent made the year special for the both of us. Walker's first birthday was a memory that will forever be special to us.

Through the roller coaster of emotions that comes with being a parent, we always made sure to make every holiday extra special for our little man. As anyone could imagine, he was also always the center of attention, but can you blame him when he looks just like his dad!

The beginning of 2023 brought us new adventures in East TN and started a whole new chapter in our lives. This photo is just one of our favorites when we went furniture shopping with our little guy.

Halfway through the year with many memories made, life truly felt like being on cloud 9. Settling in, East TN really started to feel like home. We took a fun family vacation to the beach and really capped off our summer right.

After finally manning up and a long journey together, September 9th 2023 will forever be one of the best days of our lives as Christian (with the help of Walker) planned a surprise proposal and asked the woman of his dreams, Katherine Elizabeth Shadowens, to be his forever and marry him. This brings us to now, the planning and build up to our special day.