Happy Birthday, Lover Boy!

This past Sunday was Josh's birthday! He turned 23 (that's a relief to some of you who probably thinks he looks a little younger than that ;)) It was an amazing weekend! 

We went to Tacanos for dinner Saturday night (a Brazilian restaurant). If you haven't been there it is such a great place! But it is also very pricey. It's definitely a special occasion place (plus we had one free meal coupon. Score!) It has a salad buffet that was also filled with other Brazilian dishes and other sides such as pastas, potatoes, bread etc. Then you sit at your table and waiters come around with different meats and ask if you want that kind. you say yes or no, they give you want you want and leave. And the interesting part is that they just keep coming until you decide your full! We ate WAY too much. But it was SO good! 

 

I was in love with this one type of meat. Terriyaki beef I think it was called. I couldn't get enough of it.

 I think Josh's favorite will always be the grilled pineapple. That boy loves that stuff! I think he wished he could have used more of his Portuguese.

He tried chicken heart.... blehhh!

 I got Josh some lovely balloons on Friday. I thought they were pretty awesome. But they stopped floating by midday Saturday. Bummer! We had fun snapping a few pictures.

Cute babe. Cute.

 It was also very windy. And I was in heels. Bad combo when trying to balance.

 Look at those jumping skills!

I found out that I can't jump in 5 inch wedges...

 And the wind almost took me out.

Also, if you couldn't tell... I'm blonde now. I got highlights over the weekend as well!

So aside from Tacanos and balloons we were able to get homework done, had a great breakfast with Josh's ward Saturday morning,
we started our wedding registry, spent time with Josh's cousin (who's birthday was on Saturday and had a group of people over to hang out), bought some movies, bought a game called banana grams, had a great dinner at Josh's aunt's house, and had the best Sunday nap ever.
Couldn't have been a better weekend.

A few more lovely pics.

 
Us at our best.


I hope you had a great birthday my love!! I cannot wait to be along side you through all of the things that life will have in store for us. I am so grateful for such an amazing man that (soon) I can call my husband! You are my BEST friend, and I am so excited to witness life together. I know that you are going to accomplish many great things and I will be your number one support every step of the way. I love you so much!!

Wedding Plans Update!

Well folks, the wedding plans have been in full swing! Here is what's been figured out so far!

First things first, I found my man... well, he found me. But still. That's number one :)

• My dress (this was the first thing figured out! Thank you mom for coming to Utah to help me pick it out! And just in case you were wondering.... it is GORGEOUS.)
• Reception place (I didn't realize that this was going to be such a difficult thing to find!)
• Photographer (I was pretty picky about this because pictures are very important to me. I think my photographer will do a great job!)
• Honeymoon (cruise to Ensenada Mexico and a couple days in Huntington Beach. My baby did good :))
• Hair and make-up person (The one and only Chelsea Wilcox! I am so excited for you to be helping me look my best on a very important day!)
• Bridals and Groomal pictures before the wedding (Alyssa Paul! I. AM. SO. EXCITED.) 
• Bridesmaid's dresses (Thank you mom for going around from store to store trying to find these! She eventually found them at JCrew for a super great deal too! I love that store. And thank you JCrew for giving an extra 15% for college students. I might stay in college longer just for that...)
• Suit for Josh! (we just got this figured out yesterday and it feel so good to check another thing off of my list! And Josh looks extra handsome and spiffy in it :) Even more in love everyday.)
• My ring... (still in the process of finding his...)
• Some center piece ideas have been developed
• We have awesome chair covers
• Engagement pictures were taken! (By mom lovely mother who worked so hard for us to get us cute pictures! I love them mom!)
• Announcements designed (by yours truly and Alyssa Paul)

50 more days until our wedding people. 50!!! It is so close!

My Future In-laws

These are my future in-laws :) I get three more sisters and an amazing mother and father in law! Oh not to mention one amazingly gorgeous husband (Josh speaking here haha) This picture was taken at Christmas time in Denver. I am so excited to have such amazing people to call family!

I think I look a little bit more like Josh's family than I do my own...

(We haven't taken a family picture in a while so this will have to do...)

But I am excited for the new relationships that I will be forming. I am grateful for the Peterson's for welcoming me into their family with open arms! Sorry you're not getting any new boys in the fam yet! ;)

Where's Waldo?

I found her! Waldo apparently is a girl. Because here she is! Spotted on campus. Not sure if she just likes to wear this outfit, round glasses included, or if it is some type of a game that I am not a part of. If it is a game, I won! If not... I still won. Oh this things I see on BYU campus.

Ring Drama

I always thought that picking out a ring would be one of the most exciting parts of engagement, and I think that many times that it is. But for us, that was not the case. We went through a series of rings, stores, people, and a lot of time to finally get the perfect ring. It was a learning experience for us and we know that the Lord's hand was in it all. I think there were times where we were naive and thought one route was the best, but Heavenly Father was kind enough to show us that we were wrong by not letting the situation work out in the way we originally thought. I learned a lot through our experience with ring shopping. I learned many things about rings and diamonds (I think I could be a good ring sales person now), I learned a lot about the character of people, and I learned that the love me and Josh have for each other has nothing to do with a ring (not that I thought this before but it just made that more clear).

This is the original ring that Josh gave me when he proposed! It was so great and thoughtful, but it only lasted about 4 days :(

 

This is what the ring that we tried custom designing was SUPPOSED to look like from the top. (We originally found it at one jewelry store and we probably would have bought it if the price wasn't so high. We later found out how awful of quality the diamonds were so it was a good thing we didn't buy the ring there) I wish I would have taken a picture of how it turned out but it was an awful ring... I'd go as far as to say it was hideous. I felt so bad for Josh when he finally showed me how bad it turned out. He was so excited to give it to me and then so disappointed that it was so awful. Advice: Be careful where you try and get your ring when custom designing!!

 

Well after that ring I ended up wearing a string on my finger for a few more weeks. Well, I went through a lot of those too because they don't last very long before they completely fall apart!  This ring also brought a lot of comments about the movie The Count of Monte Cristo, if you've seen it you know what I am talking about.

 Josh and I finally found the ring that we wanted. We saw it online at Wilson's Diamond and we THOUGHT that we would really like it but we weren't sure because it is hard to tell if you like something when it is online and you can't try it on. Well Wilson's ordered it in for us to let us try it on! It got in and I decided that was the ring that I wanted! And I was so excited to finally have the ring when they informed me that they didn't realize my finger was so small so they would have to order a whole other ring. Lame! I had to wait another two weeks, but they were so nice and they lent me out this ring to wear in the meantime. It felt good to have something a little more real on my finger.

And then we finally got the call that our ring was in and ready for us to pick it up! And of course we happened to be out of Provo and in Park City when we got the call!! So we had to wait one more day to pick it up. But when I finally saw it, oh man. It was AMAZING and I was SO excited!

 

 

To me the pictures don't even do it justice. But I am absolutely in love with it! It is, in the end, exactly what I wanted. It is perfect for ME! And I think that it is more than just the looks of the ring. I think I love it so much because it shows mine and Josh's struggle for something that we really wanted, and how everything turned out even better than we thought it would. I love it because it represents the love Josh has for me, the love that I have for him and the commitment that we have made to each other. What I also love, is how much HE even looks at it and gets excited and happy. But I will never forgot when he looked at me with his serious face and told me that he loves the ring, but went on to say how he loves me so much more. It's a symbol of so many things and I am so grateful for the experiences that we had to make this such a special thing to us.

That's Shocking!

The other night when Josh was about to leave my house I put down my (amazing) blanket and walked over to him and as I went to kiss him we got a pretty big shock! Well I thought this was pretty entertaining so I ran back, got my blanket and rubbed it on my hair and then touched him on the face and saw a blue spark link my finger to his face before I even touched him! I repeated this a few times and let’s just say that this entertained us for a while! Love the small moments.

Oh and the Kid History shirt that I am wearing… have you ever watched Kid History?? (I got the shirt from the brother of one of the boys in the videos! He was going to throw it away. What a crime). It is hilarious! Watch it. Seriously. It is a video of kids telling stories but then this group of boys acts them out. That description didn’t do it justice. Just watch it.

A little bit of this and that

We like to have fun and do weird things... Enjoy a little bit of randomness of us from the past few months.

Jumping over me

I am not as adventurous as Josh.

I found out I fit into a dryer

Acting like a little kid at the little kid table.

Personal Fav

We are working on taking more pictures of our adventures. Trying people! We are trying!

Secret of the day:

I have NEVER laughed so much as I do with Josh. Every day he is able to work his magic. Even when I am in a not so great mood, he still has his ways! And the great thing is, it is just him being him. Nothing fake or forced about it.  And I LOVE it! I know that no matter how hard life might get that we will be able to laugh and smile our way through it. Thank you babe, for being my sunshine that makes me happy even when skies are gray.