California Lovin'

Mark and I decided to make a quick trip to California. Luckily, I was going off track and his boss let him have a couple days off of work. We enjoyed visiting with the family, the amazing weather, a baseball game, and I even had an adorable bridal shower! It was an awesome 5 days and neither one of us wanted to come back. We are looking forward to seeing everyone again in July and August for wedding fun!

While the girls headed off to the shower, the boys went to play golf and have lunch at Mike's. I think Camden was most excited to be included in the boys adventure!

 Cami & Allison were the bridal shower hosts!

 They did a fishy themed bridal shower. If you remember Mark and I have a fishy kisses thing and so they kept with that tradition. We had a chocolate fountain, cookies, Swedish fish, goldfish, chocolate molded shells, marshmallow pops, drinks, etc. It all was adorable. I had a wonderful time visiting with friends and family that I don't get to see very often.

 Allison was a genius and decided to have Carrie skype in from CHINA! She was in charge of one of the games. We all had a pretty good laugh.

 My parents took Mark and I to the Giants vs. Cubs baseball game on Monday. Mark is a huge Cubs fan so he was pretty excited. It was a beautiful day in the bay. The Cubs won which made Mark one happy camper! 

We had a blast! The kids love when we (Mark) comes home. They can't get enough of jumping on him and playing games with him. I'm lucky that my family loves him as much as I do!

45 Days and counting!

Love

Watch this video! It will bring tears to your eyes and you watch an incredible couple go through life's daily struggles in their own special way. I'm so glad I stumbled across this video because it makes me want to be a better person and a better wife (someday).

Riverton Elementary Bridal Shower

I LOVE where I work. Riverton Elementary is seriously amazing. There are currently 3 brides at our school so our sweet teams decided to throw us a little shower. We are getting married in May, June, and July so yesterday was a perfect day to fit in a fun shower!

The Brides

Brittany is a BYU Intern this year. McCall is our speech gal. McCall and I use to be in the same singles ward too!

 Presents! Everyone was so generous and creative! I loved everything I got!

 It's almost like they knew these are my favorite!

 Plinko! We had to answer questions depending on where it landed. I got put on the spot and had to share my love story, tell future baby names, and even my favorite place to kiss!

Because I am so lucky and get to have a few different showers, I wanted a way to bring them together. I decided that I wanted to make a quilt. I asked everyone to bring me a 5 inch square of fabric. It didn't matter the color or pattern. Whatever they wanted to share would be wonderful. I'm hoping in the Fall I can put them together to make a fun memory blanket of this wonderful time of my life.

Some days I feel like the wedding is forever away. This made it feel so much closer and helped get me into celebration mode! Now if only these next two months could fly by!

Girl's Night

When I first moved to Provo I lived with Claudia. We knew very few people in the area and really just picked a cheap place to live and hoped for the best. We lucked out because we made a few great friends. It's been almost 9 years since we have lived in Provo together, but with the help of Facebook and Instagram we are able to keep up with each other. 

Then:

Now:

We spent the evening catching up and talking about babies, husbands, traveling, weddings, etc. It was a perfect evening with great friends!

Blessed

I'm happy! My life seems to be pretty great right now. In no way is it perfect, but I catch myself smiling and being oh so grateful on a daily basis. I'm pretty sure being in love, planning a wedding, and spending most evenings with Mark sure does help that. 

You know how people always say don't settle! Well, my friends they aren't lying. If I can give one piece of advice, it would be just that. I look back on my past relationships and I realize why they never worked out. They were not the men that I needed to spend my life with. I'm so grateful that Mark is the man I need to spend eternity with!

Growing up with a Dad who coached was a lot of fun. I always wanted to marry a coach. I love watching Mark with his players. He is so fun, caring, and helpful.

 He is the best Uncle. My nieces and nephews love him just as much as his love him. It melts my heart to see him play with them and give them lots of love.

 Everyone seems surprised that I go to Mark's games. He doesn't play in them, but it's quality time to just be there. I love sports and we always have so much to talk about after each game. It's been a lot of fun to get to know the players and their parents as well.

 Mark LOVES cars. He does tell me he love me more than cars though, which to him is a big deal. We have spent some time washing cars lately. I love his attention to detail and how helpful he is with it. We laugh a lot during these hours and enjoy just chatting while cleaning.

 He puts up with all my pictures!

 A couple weeks ago I was really sick. 4 days of straight pain and tears. It was awful. I think the only thing that got me through it was Mark. I watched as he took care of me, loved me, was patient and understanding with me. I had one of those, "I chose well" moments. Not all guys will spend ALL day just laying next to you making sure you are okay.

 We try and go on a date night at least once a week. We love that quality time together. I got a great deal to visit the Natural History Museum in Salt Lake. We both love to be a little nerdy and learn about things together.

 We are on the hunt for a dining room table. This led us to Friday Date Night at RC Wiley. It also meant that Mark loved the entertainment section. We made homemade pizzas afterwards and watched a redbox. Another piece of advice... Date night can be CHEAP! This date cost us $5 and we loved every minute of it.

 I had the day off and couldn't pass up the chance to have lunch with Mark. Afterwards he took me back to work and showed me "the pit" where he spends a lot of time working on projects. How could we not take these beautiful selfies??

One of my most favorite things about this guy is that he is a big kid! He doesn't let me take myself too seriously and is always up for laughing. I know we will spend our life laughing with each other and I can't wait.

Yes, this post is all about Mark. He makes me happier than I have ever been. 

Counting down the days until I get to be his wife!

4 Months and a Proposal!

February 28, 2014 was a GREAT day! 
Not only was it our 4 month anniversary, but Mark asked me to marry him!!!

We have been having wonderful weather in Utah lately so Mark and I had planned on going for a hike on Friday.  Of course that day it decided to be cold, windy, and rainy. Mark told me he had gotten off early because he was suppose to have baseball, but ended up not having it. We met up at his house and headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Now I'm not going to lie, in my head I had a feeling he might propose. I had asked him how hard the hike was and if i could wear normal clothes and he assured me I should dress normal because we would probably go to dinner later. (Smart thinking!) Once we got up the canyon we stopped at Storm Mountain. The parking lot was closed because of the winter season, but we thought we would be rule breakers and hike up that way anyways. As we were walking he started going super fast. He was holding my hand as we walked through more of the parking lot and picnic areas. He started almost dragging me along. I laughed and was like um can we please slow down a little bit? he just laughed and slowed down. At one point he said REALLY?? I was super confused. He said oh nothing. You just looked like you made a face. Well come to find out I had walked right through a clue he had left for me. (He went up early to make sure we really could hike up to where he wanted).

Clearly I dropped the ball by not noticing this GIANT M + A in the parking lot. I was too busy noticing the other set of footprints off to the side and trying to see if they matched the boots he had on. Come to find out they were his footprints, but he changed shoes to throw me off!

Once we got up to the top of the mountain we had an incredible view! It really was awesome!

I was busy looking at the view and he quickly turned me around and started to get down on one knee. He got really excited and was jingling his keys a little bit. Being the joker that he is, I assumed he was trying to mess with me. I had looked for all the signs of a ring box and hadn't seen a thing. He is the type to trick me and then surprise me later, so I really thought he was just joking. He told me he loved me and wanted me to be his wife. When he said will you marry me he pulled out the ring from his pocket. My first response was REALLY? I was honestly shocked because I thought he had been joking! He said YES, of course REALLY!!! I was yes and we hugged and kissed. I was so excited to put the ring on my finger and make it official. 

It is PERFECT! I'm in love with my ring. I can't stop staring at it. We were able to sit and enjoy the view and just chat. About 10 minutes after he proposed I really started to tear up and realize this was real. I was engaged. I was just so happy to be engaged to this amazing man.

We hiked back down and decided to go call family and friends. It was very fun to be able to share the news with everyone. We had a nice dinner at Rodizio Grill and walking around City Creek. We are so excited to be able to spend eternity together and start this new adventure together. I'm so grateful I found this amazing man. I've never been happier!

Valentine's Day

I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day. Mark thinks it's really funny because it really just isn't a big deal to me. I always say that I just want someone to love me EVERY day, not just on Valentine's Day. Basically, I don't need all the big fancy stuff or expensive gifts. I just want to be with the person I love. 

With that said... I surprised Mark with 14 days of LOVE. I picked out super cheesy valentines off of pinterest and made them for him. Things like I love everything you "DEW" and You are the only fish in the sea for me (I got him a kissing fish, that lives at my house). He loves presents so it was fun for him to have a present every day. 

He surprised me good! I had texted him in the morning and never heard back. I was a little bummed and figured he was probably in a work meeting. I literally had just voiced my sadness to a friend when in walked MARK! He had taken a half day at work and surprised me with beautiful flowers. 

I have to say, this guy LISTENS! I love, love, love tulips! Plus he got me white roses at Christmas and loved them. He decided to combine the two and they were perfect!

He really is the greatest!

We didn't have dinner plans, but found a great sushi restaurant and enjoyed being just the two of us. We went home and watched the olympics and called it a night. It was easily my most favorite Valentine's Day ever!