Engagement Story

I know this has been a long time coming but here goes. I got engaged on February 26, 2011. The story really begins a few days before. Our very good friends Brandie and Page invited us on their date night that Saturday. Tyson wasn't sure he wanted to go because they don't get one very often. When he found out other people were going he asked if I wanted to go and I said yes (even though he was planning on us going all along). A few days before the big day Brandie and I went to the mall because she wanted to buy some new clothes for the date and I needed shoes. I ended up buying 2 pairs of fabulous shoes, a nice coat, jeans and sunglasses. Yes, I know, I should be banned from the mall! Brandie said she was getting her make up done on Saturday by her friend at the MAC counter in Macy's and she invited me. I told her I was in and I wanted a pedicure too!

The Big Day

I woke up after my grave and Brandie picked me up. We got our make up done and I told the girl at the MAC counter about Tyson. After she did my make up she said "I hope he puts a ring on it soon!" Brandie saved the day and paid for my pedicure since I found out my credit card had been cancelled (I didn't realize that when I got my debit card replaced they would cancel and replace both)! I felt like a rock star and Brandie and I went back to her place. I was going to go run home with Tyson and get ready for our dinner reservations. Tyson and I left and he had to go back because he left his camera (really he forgot to give them his keys for our apartment but he told me the camera). Tyson said he wanted to go to the mall because everyone else had gotten something new to wear for our date (really he was just killing time). We wandered and he did buy a really nice button up shirt.

We got back in the car and Tyson started driving the opposite direction of home. I asked him where we were going and he said "You'll see." We drove to Layton park which is one of my favorite places in the city. It has huge trees and a river running along side it that leads to a duck pond. It was all covered in snow and I was wearing open toed stilettos. I said "No problem. I was wearing my boots earlier. I'll change back into them." I looked in Tyson's trunk and realized I'd left my boots at Brandie's when I met up with Ty earlier. Stilettos it is! We walked down the side walk and talked. Tyson had been talking about hiking up a nearby canyon all week but it snowed and we weren't able to so he said he wanted to go to the park and go on a walk instead. At this point I suspected a little because Tyson hates walking, especially in winter ha ha. We got to the end of the paved sidewalk and Tyson pointed to a clearing under some trees. "Think you can make it?" I walked in his footprints in the foot deep snow with my hands on his shoulders so that I wouldn't fall and die and we made it. We walked past two trees and stopped under a third. Now I was REALLY suspecting something because Tyson was pacing and wasn't making eye contact. He asked if I could put up with him forever and I told him of course. He asked if we would bicker and argue and I told him of course not. He said "Then I've got a question for you." He was suddenly in front of me, down on one knee and opening a ring box!! I started crying and he said "Will you marry me?" I said yes probably five times and he stood up and kissed me. He picked out the most gorgeous ring ever and he put it on my finger. It was just a teeny bit too big. He let me wear the wedding band and it was so pretty! I loved looking at it and seeing how shiny it was! We walked back to the car and I was practically floating. Typing that looks awfully cheesy but oh well. We got gas after that and Tyson caught me staring at my ring :)

We went to the apartment and I saw Page and Brandie's car. What was going on? We went up to the apartment and I opened the door. LJ, Ty's old roommate, was sticking out from behind our bookcase. Ok... Suddenly a half dozen of our friends popped out of our laundry room! They all said surprise and I was so happy I started crying again. Hopefully my makeup is still intact! LJ, Brandie, her husband Josh, Brandon, Ashley, and Jared were there and Robbie showed up late. They had decorated our apartment and we looked around. There were little clusters of tea lights in the kitchen, on our dressers and in our bathroom. There were balloons on the floor in the living room and on our bed. There were 2 bottles of sparkling cider on our bed with 2 wine glasses and a pregnancy test! There were also some cute scrapbook wedding stickers on my night stand. I hugged everyone and showed them my ring and we were off to dinner.

We went to Kobe in Ogden and it was amazing!! We had Trent, Erin, Jesse and Krista show up there. It was so much fun to have everyone there! RJ and Crystal were at Disneyland but they were sad they missed it! We had so much fun at dinner and the food was amazing. The chefs cooked it in front of us and they had a good sense of humor.

The night wasn't over yet! Tyson had made plans for everyone to go to a comedy club after. We went to Wise Guys and had cheese cake and listened to about 6 comedians. After it was over Brandie and Josh dropped us off at home. They said they'd take Tirza for the night and we could enjoy the rest of our evening. I got my shift covered and Tyson and I relaxed and watched Castle. We also went crazy and drank some of the sparkling cider. Tyson hasn't had carbonation since May 2009 and I haven't had it since last October. We were celebrating! It was wonderful to get to fall asleep with my fiance after such a wonderful day :)

The next day we went to Brandie's to pick up Tirza and hang out. We went into Kenzie's bedroom and sat with Tirza. We told her that Daddy proposed and I said yes. We asked her if that was okay and she started jumping up and down. She was clapping and she hugged both of us. I am so glad that she is as excited as we are! I also called Rachel in Ohio and told her. She found out about Marissa's engagement via Facebook so I wanted to make sure I called her. She actually knew before most everyone else! We left at noon to meet Ty's family for lunch since it was Troy's birthday. Lisa noticed first because I was showing her pictures on my phone and Troy was playing with Tirza. That night my family came up for dinner and Marissa noticed first. I had been talking with my mom and Marissa at the counter and had my hand on my face for like five minutes before she saw it! It was a lot of fun getting to tell everyone and it took 3 weeks to make all the calls before I posted it on Facebook. It was funny that it worked out that we saw both of our families the day after. It was such an amazing weekend! We are so lucky to have such awesome friends!! Brandie definitely made the night memorable by helping Tyson plan it and organizing the surprise party and helping him pick out my ring!

I'm engaged!

Tirza reading to Hannah's daughter Madelyn while we were putting pictures on my laptop. So cute!
I love my ring. Tyson couldn't have done better! These shots capture how gorgeous and shiny it is :)
I love the focus on Hannah's super up close (the official term is macro or something :)) lens and the cool effect it has on the pictures.
Bamboo is useful!




Hooray for pretty couch pillows as back drops!

Love this!!!

Pretty details :)
This is my favorite picture ever! ^
I love how the diamond is jutting out in to the middle of the shot. Awesome! Thank you Hannah!
Here are a few pictures of my ring taken by my awesome neighbor Hannah. I'll post my engagement story soon!

Tyson, the Amazing Photographer

Oooh, look at all that sparkly prettiness :)
They are so pretty!
Where icicles come from!
My awesome mom. Yeah, she is cooler than yours.

It had snowed for a while so all the structures looked like tons of jellyfish!










I am trying very hard to see..






Ah, the ice castles :)

2/14-2/20

I am so behind that I actually have to put the dates in the title. Oops! This week was really fun. Tyson and I spoiled ourselves a little. We both got our taxes filed and so we went a little crazy! We have been wanting a TV in our room for a while and we finally got a 42" Insignia flat screen and a new Blu Ray player! The new player is a touch screen which for some reason I find ridiculously entertaining. I am so excited! We also got new Bluetooth headsets because mine is so old and ready to bite the dust. Its crackly on both ends and just wasn't working. We got a really good deal on newegg.com and it was way cheaper than buying them in the store. I was so happy when I got mine! It has a shiny checker pattern on it. Now all we need is a new washer and dryer and kitchen table and we will have replaced all of the furniture in our apartment and a lot of the kitchen stuff! We are very fortunate!

Monday was Valentine's Day and my next door neighbor Hannah came over to make the lingerie cookies. We had so much fun and I was amazed that I was able to keep it a secret! We had a great time and spent hours perfecting our cookies and getting covered in gooey frosting. I cleaned the apartment so that Tyson wouldn't have to stress about it and he started laughing when he got home and I showed him the cookies! He showed up with not one but two bouquets of flowers for me! We went to Target and got season 1 of Castle which was my Valentine's present to him. He raves about it and so I had to get it and see what it was all about. We got Noodles and Company and escaped the craziness of the restaurant section of town and settled in to watch some episodes :) I absolutely love that show now! We ended up finishing the first season in 3 days! When the last episode ended it was 11:00 at night and I was totally ready to run to Wal-Mart and get the second season. We ended up buying it the next day and are still watching episodes. It is so good and Nathan Fillion is my favorite actor!

Tuesday I went to hang out with my mom and treat her to dinner and a movie. We ate at the theater and watched Gnomeo and Juliet. I loved it! There were a lot of Shakespearean jokes and it was a really cute show. We had a good time watching the movie and then chatting at her house for an hour. I wish I lived closer! That night when I got home Tyson helped me do my taxes while I was working. I'm getting $2,400 back! Yay! Now I can do a bunch of stuff that I have been putting off like replacing the timing belt in my car.

On Wednesday we picked Tirza up and Tyson loved my sugar cookies so much that he wanted me to make more because they were already gone! Tirza helped me make the dough and the frosting. She loves to help me cook and it is so much fun cooking with her! We had to decorate fast because we only had her for 3 hours and we ended up getting her home late because of that and it was snowing really bad.

Saturday I decided that I was going to surprise my family and take them to the Midway Ice Castles. We have never been and I found the article online about it. They are only going to be open one more week so we had to go soon. I told them we were going to Main Street in Park City and then were going to a surprise and they had to dress warm. We met them in Park City and looked at a really cool art gallery. The photographer is old school and does all of his stuff with film cameras and light. There are no effects or anything added. It was awesome! We went to Main Street Pizza and Noodle for dinner and it was so good! We had a good time hanging out and talking. Afterward we navigated carefully through the terrible weather to Midway. Marissa and Wesley were in my car and it was very satisfying to hear the "Ooooh" from the back seat as we pulled up. The ice castles were amazing! They were so beautiful and we got a ton of pictures. We were walking on packed snow and they provided ski poles for clumsy people like me so that we don't fall and die. I didn't think I needed one but Tyson picked one up and a few minutes later asked me to "hold" it and I had it almost the entire time. He's watching out for me! We played the dots game in the snow with the holes the ski poles made and at the end Brandon carved himself a little bubble in the snow. Tyson added a bubble on and connected them :) It was way fun! There was my mom, Gerilynn, Marissa, Wesley, Brandon, Tyson and me. I was so glad that everyone had the night free and we were able to go. It was so much fun. The castles were so beautiful and I recommend that everyone go!! We got to meet Brent, the guy who built them, and talk to him for a bit. I know from reading his blog that they make the icicles from sprinklers dripping on what look like bleachers and then they add them on to the castle. The entire structure is made out of ice. Brent was really nice and told us about the process. By the exit were pictures people had taken there and there was a wedding announcement with a picture of the couple in front of the ice! There was a ring picture of the couples wedding rings sitting on the ice. It was way cool! We had a really good time and then slid down the canyon. The weather was awful and the snow had built up on the freeway. We pretty much slid most of the way down. My mom stopped when I didn't expect her to and I was sliding right for her and I was so afraid I was going to hit her! Luckily we made it out of the canyon unscathed but I had to pull over and give my nerves a rest before driving home! It was a very fun day and I was so glad that my family enjoyed the ice castles as much as I did.

http://brentsicecastle.blogspot.com/

http://www.utahicecastles.com/

Sunday morning Marissa and Wesley came up and they helped us get the TV from Best Buy. Tyson got called into work so he headed out and we went to church. We got pizza for lunch and watched the 60th anniversary edition Blu Ray of Alice in Wonderland. After it was over Wesley looks over at me and goes "That is the weirdest movie I have ever seen!" Ah such a good show. We hung out on the couch and talked because we were all comfortable in our pajamas and didn't want to move. We headed to Best Buy to pick up the Blu Ray player that Tyson had ordered while at work. We then got ice cream at Cold Stone which is one of my favorite activities :) I was going to come to Sandy because Tyson worked all night and then had to get up early in the morning to go back but then I realized that everyone was working pretty much. We went to get Tyson's car from the car (it had gotten an oil change) and I was going to drive it home. We had to jump the battery because it was dead and I eventually made it back home. I spent the rest of the night setting up the new equipment so that Tyson wouldn't have to do it after his long shift. I watched Netflix until he got home and didn't do much because I had a migraine. He was very happy to see it set up! It was a good night and we got to spend time hanging out instead of putting it together.

Oh and one more thing- Happy Birthday Evelyn! She is the cutest 3 year old around and I miss her so much!

This week was pretty fun and we survived Tyson working the evening shift! He was scheduled Sunday through Thursday working 2 pm to 12 am. It was hard not seeing him and I was very glad when he was done for the weekend! On Sunday I went to my family's and hung out for the Super Bowl. It was pretty fun and it was nice seeing everyone. It made me very happy that everyone loved my salsa! I felt bad that Tyson had to work so I was sending him updates of the game.

On Monday I went to Sandy and visited with my mom. We went out for frozen yogurt and then went to Feng's Fine Chinese Dining. Brandon was doing the Lionhead dance and he was the Buddha! Basically the story goes that Buddha trained the lion and so they do a half hour dance where Buddha starts by waking up the lion by tapping him on the head with his fan. Buddha guides him around the restaurant and the lion 'eats' donations given by the children in colorful envelopes. There is also the lucky lettuce. There is a head of lettuce hanging from the ceiling and the lion snatches it up. He shreds it in his mouth and then throws it in 3 different directions. It is considered good luck if you are hit by the lettuce. The Lionhead dance is considered a blessing on the restaurant and they went around the outside of the restaurant and peeked in the windows. Brandon said that was the best part because he could yell directions to the lion and no one could hear! After he did the dance he ate with us and the food was really good! It was awesome to see Brandon do this and I want to go to all of his performances!

Tuesday I stayed home because Tyson was working and everyone was busy. It was okay because I got some stuff done and we figured out how to video chat so we could talk face to face while he was gone. Wednesday and Thursday I got to spend more time with my neighbor Hannah and we had so much fun! We haven't really hung out much alone and this was the perfect opportunity. On Wednesday Hannah made a delicious dinner of chicken, sweet potatoes (my first time having them in anything other than fry form) and green beans. She put Madelyn to bed and we were going to finish the Sorcerer's Apprentice that she started with me and Tirza a few weeks ago but we ended up talking for 2 hours! We talked about parenting and religion and it was a really good conversation. I've been reading Parenting with Love and Logic and so we were talking about it because she's read it too. We had so much fun and I really didn't want to work! The next day we went to the resident activity and snacked on treats with Madelyn. Not many people showed up so there were only 3 names in the drawing for the $50 gift card for dinner for 2 on Valentine's Day. I WON! I was so happy I was jumping up and down. Tyson and I were trying to save for the furniture and things that we wanted so we decided to not do much for Valentine's Day this year. Now we could go out to dinner! I couldn't wait to tell him! We went to Noodles and Company for dinner and we were talking about wanting to do more crafts. We both wanted to learn how to sew and we decided to go to Michael's and look around at what they had. While we were eating Hannah told me about a blog she saw where the person made lingerie cookies. I told her I'd seen the same one! We went to Michael's and got most of the stuff we needed for the cookies and some adorable heart and pearl sprinkles. We are going to make them on Valentine's Day while the guys are working :)

Friday was Tyson's first day off and we picked up Tirza. We hung out with Brandie and Page and actually had them come over to our place for the first time since the Christmas party! It was fun chatting with them because we haven't seen them in a while. We ended up going to their house because poor Lucas was teething and needed medicine and his bed. Brandie and I picked up ice cream for everyone and then we watched The Proposal and talked about weddings while the guys ran an errand. It was fun and I can't wait to plan my wedding and get married!

Saturday Tyson and Tirza went with his family to see his grandparents. I've had a horrible time trying to sleep in the last week and I'd only had 3 hours by the time they left. I slept and then ran a few errands until they got home. We went to Brandie's and played Last Night on Earth with Brandie, Page, Jared and Brandon. The zombie's won because they killed a lot of the heroes. Darn!

Sunday was awesome. We hung out at Brandie and Page's until we took Tirza home and then we went to Red Lobster with the gift card I'd won. We haven't gone yet because its pricey and Tyson doesn't really like seafood anyway. Brandon's wife Ashley works there so we finally got to see her and she was our waitress. She is the cutest girl ever! She was really sweet and the food was so good! I got the Seaport platter which had 2 kinds of wood grilled shrimp and 2 split lobster tails. Ashley was really nice and showed me how to get the meat out when she saw me looking at it bewilderedly. Tyson got a creamy potato soup and it was so good! I was so happy and full (and probably grinning like an idiot) and Tyson looked at me and said I was in a 'lobster coma'. It was a very nice night. We watched The A Team that we rented from redbox and it was really funny. I liked all the people in it and we had fun watching it and went to bed way too late!

We watched a few movies this week. Tyson and I finished The Departed which was awful. I'm going to ruin the ending because I hope no one ever watches it- everyone dies. There's a good guy who is a cop in with the mafia and a bad guy who is posing as a cop but he's in the mafia. They don't know who the other person is so they spend most of the movie trying to find out. It is so tense because you don't know who is going to win, the good guy or the bad guy. Well it ends up not mattering because most of the mafia people die (including the leader) and both moles die and a couple of cops and random people. In the end, only 2 main characters that they introduced (out of 15) survive. It was dumb and I hated it. Tyson thought it was ok and he's mad I ruined the ending. :) We watched a 4 episode series called Extreme Bodies on Netflix. There were episodes about dwarfism, giantism, extreme obesity and conjoined twins. It was really really cool. They did 3D scans of these people and you could see how their bodies worked. The conjoined twins one was my favorite. There was a 44 year old set of conjoined twins and they are joined at the head. There are only 6 sets of twins in the world who are connected this way and they are the oldest set of conjoined twins ever. It was so interesting! I highly recommend it. I watched Moulin Rouge which I hadn't seen since high school and I forgot how much I loved it! It is such a good show. Tyson bought Domino which I had never seen and it was really interesting. Its based on the true story of Domino Harvey, a bounty hunter played by Kiera Knightly. I loved it! I also watched The Proposal with Brandie which I've already seen but absolutely love. Its a way good chick flick and even Tyson liked it when we saw it together. That says something! It was a good week and an awesome weekend hanging out with my boy! I will post about Valentine's week in the next day or two.

Underwear Cookies!

I did these with my awesome neighbor Hannah and this is her daughter Madelyn!
My cookies!
The blue set reminds me of Superman
Close up! Hannah has a fancy camera that can do super close ups.

Hannah's cookies. She is way more creative than I am!

Her underwear sets!

SWAK!

I always have to post my pictures separately but it seems kind of silly to just post one picture. However, this picture is awesome so it is worth it.