engaged we were!

I was flipping through my travel journal and realized it was 2 years ago that brad and I were engaged. I had no idea he was even going to propose so I really would have been shocked to know a short 2 years later I'd be a married mother of 2! It was so fun remembering all the little details. My parents didn't want me to go so close to starting nursing school (I missed orientation), Brad was adamant that I leave on good terms with my dad, I had no idea why...
Before he proposed I spent the day on my own exploring NYC. I was anxious to meet up with him, then he got stuck on the subway almost 2 hrs. I talked to my sister Melinda and complained "I wanted to see wicked tonight, but Brad wants to go walk across the Brooklyn bridge, ugh...oh well." haha. We got pedicures, ate pastries, and had a perfect stroll across the bridge, the sun was setting over the city skyline and it was romantic. I realized it wasn't such a bad idea after all, little did I know how great of an idea it really was! We ate yummy pizza then walked around a little park. Brad was being a little funny trying to find a private place so he could give me a kiss. Finally we found a perfect spot on some rocks by the water, we had a beautiful view of the bridge and the city all reflected in the water.

I suspected nothing because we'd never even had a serious relationship conversation let alone discussed marriage. Suddenly the conversation turned serious and brad began to get down on one knee. My initial thought was that it was some cruel joke, but then he reached into his pocket and I realized it was the real thing! It was so perfect and romantic, it was like a fairy tale. It felt so right, it was an easy yes. We both said, "What do we do now? We've never made it this far..." I asked when, he said we'll figure that out later, but I knew it'd be everyone's first question.  So we took a few pictures and called our parents and a few others, everyone was shocked!  Brad's dad welcomed me to the family and said we were a good fit. My dad said we were both fun and adventurous and needed to make sure not to do too many wild and crazy things. (we had just got back from sneaking into Cuba) My parents were anxious to find out if I'd even said yes. I was impressed Brad picked out a ring I like, I was more impressed he was so brave to propose when he wasn't certain of the answer. It was old fashioned and I loved it.

My dad gets soo excited about big news and just can't keep a secret, if I'd listened to my voicemail it would have ruined the surprise. My sister called them and he said "have you heard the big news? My mom wanted me to tell her so she grabbed the phone and said "oh, don't listen to anything dad says, he's being SO weird today." my sister bought it. Haha...
It was such a special time, I wish I could go back and relive it.
I wrote about the whole thing on my plane ride home and as I wrote I felt overwhelmed with a strong confirmation that this was the right thing for me and Brad was who Heavenly Father intended me to be with all along. Other heartaches I'd experienced suddenly meant nothing, I wish I could have seen into the future and saved myself some pain.  I began to cry with joy and probably confused my fellow passengers.
Anyways, I love trying to plan out my life even though it never goes as planned. The surprises keep it exciting!  Saying yes was definitely one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Red Poppies

I am feeling so twitterpated today!
I was driving home from a great step class at the gym when I drove by this:

My heart started racing (when it had just finally started to slow down) and I felt like this:

It made me so happy because it reminded me of this:

I guess it was about a year ago that we did our engagements because the same poppies are in bloom again! We drove by this barn when we were looking at houses, I absolutely love poppies and thought the flowers and barn would probably match the dress I was going to make. We took engagements at the barn, kinda funny since they are now our neighbors and we just snuck around there taking pics on their property..

We also went downtown:

and even took pics at our new place which we had only just put an offer on...good thing they accepted it or it would have been kinda sad pics.

To top it all off we are watching the bachelorette and they perform at the lion king, one of my favorite musicals. Its the musical Brad and I went to after he proposed, we had such samazing seats. All I can say is that I can feel the love tonight!

Seal the Deal!

We were engaged for 3 months which sometimes seemed like forever, but actually flew by pretty fast. I was living at home in Bountiful, Brad was living an hour away in Provo. He was busy with work and I was busy in my first semester of nursing school. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t too crazy of a bridezilla, but am still glad Brad and my family were understanding during a few stressful moments. Somehow we found time to plan a wedding, buy a house, and continue to help our relationship grow as we prepared for marriage. Luckily our family and friends were supportive and helpful. My brother-in-law Adam designed our invitations, my sister-in-law Wendy made my wedding dress, my parents and family all worked on our backyard and all the reception details to get ready for the reception. One morning I woke up and realized that evening was our wedding dinner and we were getting married the next day! It snuck up so fast. The dinner at Magleby’s was delicious and so fun to share with close friends and family. The next morning I had my hair done and met brad at the temple. It was an incredible experience, there were some butterflies and some of it is kind of a daze now, but it was the best day of my life. A spiritual high in the temple being sealed to my best friend, a big party afterwards with all our friends and family, and everything turned out perfect. It was such a fun day, I wish we could do it all over again. (The memories will do!)

Say Yes

Brad invited me to visit him in New York while he was there on business. He originally had no other intentions so I had no reason to suspect anything. While golfing the day before he left, he decided he wanted to propose and ran to the ring shop with his brother (who thought he was crazy) to get a ring. I flew out, still completely clueless (we had never even discussed marriage). Our second night there we went for a walk on the Brooklyn bridge, the sun was setting along the city skyline, the weather was perfect. We ate at Grimaldi’s pizza then went for a walk on the pier. We walked over to a little park and sat alone on some rocks right by the water. There was a perfect view of the Brooklyn bridge with the city in the background, all reflected in the water. In the middle of a nice conversation brad got down on his knee and proposed to me. I had no idea it was coming until he was getting on his knee pulling something out of his pocket. I was shocked, and for some unknown reason began to shake uncontrollably, but managed to say “yes” without hesitating. It was sudden, but felt right. Everything seemed to come together in that moment and made sense. In my book it was straight out of a scene from an old classic movie, so don’t cringe if it’s too cheesy for you- Brad's just that smooth. :) We called our parents, mine were expecting a call because Brad called and talked to them the night before. Brad’s parents were also shocked, and it was pretty hard to convince them it wasn’t a joke.