Birthday Dinner

Last week was my birthday. It is a very difficult time to have a birthday, but Josh always makes sure that I have a special day of my own.

Earlier in the day, Josh had started to tell me that he was really busy at work, and that he wanted to get home early that day, but didn't think he would be able to. Well, I half believed him. Part of me thought he wouldn't just have me make dinner on my birthday, but the other part of me was worried that he actually did get busy at work, and really wouldn't be home to celebrate my birthday.

On my way home from work, Josh told me that he was still at work and he was really sorry. But when I got home there was a candlelight dinner waiting for me. He made meatloaf and garlic mashed potatoes (one of my favorite meals). Josh is quite the trickster!

Wedding Update - August 08, 2009

So with our wedding only 8 months away, here is a quick update on what is done (keep in mind I am super planner)

Ceremony and Reception site is booked
Food is picked
Favors are purchased
Bubbles are purchased
Wedding dress, veil, jewelry, garters,and hair piece is purchased
All bridesmaids dresses are purchased
Gifts for bridal party are purchased
Thank you notes are purchased
Invitations are picked (but still need to be made by us)
Colors are picked
Flowers are picked
Reception vases are purchased (but still need some bows added)
Limo is booked
DJ is booked
Save the dates are prepared

I am pretty sure there are a couple more things complete, but I can't remember them. So do you think I am excited?

Here is a link to our ceremony and reception site. It is gorgeous! Stay tuned for more details.

http://www.castawayrestaurant.com/sanbern/banquets.html

Christmas is Here!!!

This weekend was very productive for us. We were very excited for our first Christmas in our new home, so we wanted to make sure that we got to squeeze every day out of this holiday season. So on Friday morning, we got out all the Christmas decorations and decorated.

Saturday we had Craig and Jeremy come over and help put the Christmas lights on the house, while Valarie, Jen, and my cousin Laurie came with me to try on wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses. Happy to say that when we came home the lights were all on and looking great, and I was able to find my dress, and the dress for the bridesmaids.....it was a good day.

Sunday we got our Christmas tree! It finally felt like Christmas when we got our tree!

We Are Engaged!!!!!

Here is a picture of the ring!

A picture of us.....freshly engaged and very happy.

As many of you probably know, this proposal has been in the making for some time, so it wasn't exactly a surprise. Josh did his best to try to surprise me, but I sure made it difficult for him.

So earlier this week, Josh suggested that we go away this weekend, so I knew what that meant......proposal! I was expecting it to happen while we were at the resort. I ended up coming home from work early on Friday. That's how I found out that Josh was planning on cleaning the house, making me a candlelit dinner, and proposing to me. Josh's plan was to get all this done before I got home from work, but his day ran a lot longer than he'd hoped. So that plan was now ruined due to me leaving work early that day.

So Saturday comes, we are running late, and I am trying to get out of our house and onto our trip and to the proposal. I am outside on the porch calling Josh and telling him to hurry up and get in the car, then he tells me to come back into the house, and of course I question why. Then he got down on one knee and popped the big question. Well, I guess we all know what my answer was!

We stayed at the Marriot Palm Desert Resort the night we got engaged. This picture was taken from the balcony in our room
(I highly recommend it).

Halloween 2008

This was our first Halloween at our new home, so we decided to have a few people over and pass out candy. To our disappointment we did not have very many trick or treaters.

My favorite pictures of the night!!

Bailee and Layla were prisoners, surprisingly they didn't mind their hats.

Here we are posing with our pumpkins the night before Halloween.

We had a pumpkin carving contest - the 2 on the left are Valarie's pumpkins, the middle one is Jen's, the 2nd from the right is Josh's, and the one on the right is Heidi's. As usual Josh took first place in the contest. As most of you probably know, we do a lot of contests and Josh is usually the winner.

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Tweedle Dumb

Here's a flashback to Layla's early days.
Not so genius!



Tweedle Dumb Video

Tweedle Dee

As many of you know, our dog Bailee is a big dog trapped in a little dog's body. We bought a frisbee for Layla, but then Bailee took possession of it, and Layla has not got to use it since. Just a side note, I am pretty sure that Bailee is a genius!

Tweedle Dee Video
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Our House

As you know, Josh and I just recently bought a house in Corona. Most of you have seen our house, but here are some pictures for those of you who have not. It is 3,000 SF, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, with a huge bonus room. We have a huge backyard for our dogs to run around in. We are thrilled to have our home, but it is a lot more work than we anticipated.

The Backyard

The Front of the House

The Messy Kitchen

The Formal Living Room

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Corinna comes to visit!!!!

Friday night, my little sister Corinna came from Utah to visit. We only get to see her about once a year, so we were pretty excited to see her. She left on Sunday, it was a short visit, but we did a lot. Saturday we went to the Orange County swap meet and found some great deals. Normally Corinna is kind of picky and doesn't buy much, but she found shoes, a jacket, and some shirts (amazing)!!

Later that evening we went to Wabi Sabi for some Japenese food with Craig and Val. It was a first for everyone except for me and Josh, so it was a lot of fun. Then on Sunday we went to Brea mall and did some more shopping. We had limited time, so we had to rush through the mall since Corinna's flight was at 2:45pm. Then I had to send her back to Utah. Since she is still a minor I got to walk her all the way to the plane, and then as she boarded I started bawling. It is so hard to see her go, we hope to see her again soon, and hopefully next time my brother Gage can also join us.

During the visit Corinna got to know our new puppy Layla, and got re-acquainted with Bailee. We were not going to let her escape without taking some pictures with the dogs!

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