I love spring!!

YAY! Spring is finally officially here. Today was beautiful. After church Lance and I went to the park and threw around the frisbee for a little while. It was soo nice. There were a ton of other people there though so it was a little crowded. Last fall, I planted a bunch of flower bulbs in the little dirt patch outside my door. The daffodils are starting to bloom! I love spring! It is totally the best season. And work is starting to get fun again instead of miserable and cold. Hopefully no more shoveling snow-I'm an optimist! And only three more weeks of classes!

The big news for us this week is that we FINALLY, after hours and hours of work, got invitations sent out! We are all done with them except for maybe 10 we need to hand deliver. What a great relief. It was stressing me out so bad. The only real big thing we have left to plan is flowers. Only 40 more days left! Oh and I think I found the centerpieces I want for the reception. They are super cute and pretty cheap.

I am excited too because we got our first Bed Bath & Beyond present from our registry from Lance's grandma, Mumsy. She is so sweet. I'm excited cause our registry is pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. She also sent me some birthday decorations and a bridal shower and wedding scrapbooks! She really is so thoughtful and generous.

Speaking of bridal showers, I am sooo excited for mine this weekend. Marissa has gone all out- she really is the best Maid of Honor a bride could ask for. She has been so great and supportive this whole time, and she has come up with some great shower ideas (some of which she wont tell me about....). This weekend is going to be awesome with my shower and then the Festival of Colors after and then next Tuesday is my birthday! I will finally be 21! Lance wont tell me anything he has planned. ugh. I hate surprises. Not really. But they are hard for me.

Last weekend was really cool. Lance and I hiked the Y (he had never done it before. 8 years of living in Provo. And he is so outdoorsy. How is this possible? He claims he just like to avoid cliche things. I guess that's a possibility.) at sunset. It was a beautiful view. On Saturday we had to go up to Salt Lake to take care of some stuff, so while we were up there, we saw the new Alice in Wonderland movie in the Imax theater in 3-D. It was really good. I would recommend it to anyone. Then we went to Tucanos for dinner because I had a free coupon for my birthday month. Tucanos is delicious. One of my favorite restaurants because it is all you can eat of like 10 different meats cooked Brazilian style, plus a salad bar. Mmmm....

This weekend was pretty low key for us. To reward ourselves for finishing invitations, we took a little break from wedding planning. On Friday night we got to babysit my niece, Chiara. She is sooo cute but unfortunately doesn't like me much (shes only 4 months. shes hasn't learned yet that i will spoil her outrageously.). So of course she cried a lot, and of course Lance was the only one who could get her to stop, so he would put her to sleep and then I would hold her. It was tiring but still fun :) Stuart and Gen are such great parents.

Church was really good today. Annie gave her farewell talk. She is leaving for her mission in England in just a couple weeks. I cant believe it. Sunday School was really good too cause we started a new marriage prep class and it was just such good discussion. The teacher had us make lists about characteristics of ourselves and our fiance(e)s. Lance put some really sweet stuff about me but I laughed out loud when he said athletic. Does he have me confused with someone else? I sure hope not. That would make things awkward on the wedding day.

Speaking of Lance, I asked him the other day if he would ever write on this blog. He said he wouldn't mind, but he didn't want Merrill to think he was wussy. Haha. He prolly has a valid point. Hi, Jamie. Please show this to Merrill. I miss you and Darci. On that note, I hope everyone has a great week! Happy Monday!

Wedding Plans

So for those of you that are not tracking my every move or are far away from me, do not worry, I will keep you updated on my totally consuming wedding plans.

Things that are done:
-temple: Denver, of course! Lucky me :)
-colors: purple and silver (if you couldn't already tell from this blog). But dark purple. Not light.
-wedding dress. It is beautiful (ivory with a ton of beading)
-engagement/bridal pictures. Genevieve did SUCH a good job with my bridals and Rebecca, Annie and Marissa were awesome to spend two hours helping me with them.
-reception (mostly) Eagle Trace Golf Club in Broomfield!
-HONEYMOON!! I am sooooo excited. We are going to St. Francis Resort in the Bahamas for a week and a half. It is sooo beautiful. I even got my first passport!
-bridesmaids (Marissa, Becca, Mindy, Laura, Maren) and their dresses. They are purple with silver jackets- super cute. And groomsmen (Shay, Sam, Arturo, Michael, Evan and Eric).
- Cake- a lady in my home ward is going to make a purple velvet cake! Mmmm....delicious. Also, we bought the most freaking awesome cake topper ever.
Totally appropriate and completely applicable.
-We have also bought some furniture for Lance's condo (dresser, bookshelf, filing cabinet). He has most everything else. I can't wait to move in there.

What we still have to do:
-flowers. Ugh. This is a big one. I have been talking to a florist in Broomfield but so far nothing concrete. This is what I'm thinking though.
-invitations: are actually almost done. Actually Lance just texted me and said they are finished being printed, and I have finally basically finished the address lists. So all we have to do is address the envelopes and send them out! Hopefully in the next few days.
-We are trying to finalize hotels and transportation and such. It's stressful. But I'm pretty excited about it.

So basically, planning a wedding is the most stressful thing I have ever done. But it's also the most fun. Lance has been so great with this whole process. He has been very involved, which is great cause I know a lot of times grooms are really apathetic. He has actually surprised me a couple times with his interest and opinions in some stuff, but the input is great. Also he makes sure that we stick to our budget, which is hard for me sometimes. He is great :) So that's where we are at in terms of planning. We have got a lot done but I know it will only get more stressful. Less than 50 days now!

How did we get to this point?

Well. I will tell you. Lance and I have a lovely love story. It all started waaay back around the middle of August. I was working on the carpet cleaning crew. We were cleaning the law school library one evening. Since it was during the summer, there were only a few people there, and I didn't pay much attention to any of them. (Although Lance will tell you differently. All lies.)The library closed at 8, so everyone was gone except us and I was having an engaging conversation with my sister-in-law when a man walked up, said "I got a love note for you" and handed me a piece of paper. He walked away before I even had a chance to look at him. The note said: Call me. Name's Lance, with him number and a smiley face. True story. I still have the note. Lance has told me since then that he was checking me out all night, and debating whether or not to give me his number. He is convinced that I was eye flirting with him all night, which is absolutely not true. Anyway, I was naturally curious about this person who handed me the note. I figured he was probably some nerdy law student (not really my type) but I thought since he was brave enough to give me the note I would give him a shot. I texted him a couple minutes later, we texted all evening and then he called and asked me out to dinner for the next day. I agreed, because I still had no idea what he looked like and wanted to find out if he was cute. We were both a little thrown off when we found out there was a 7 year age gap between us, but figured one date couldn't hurt. WE had a quick diner the next day. I was impressed by his maturity, stunning good looks, intelligence, and, of course, his money :). He could help me fulfill my lifelong dream of becoming a trophy wife! Unfortunately for Lance, I was dating/interested in several other guys at that point, so I put him on the back burner for a little bit. We went on a few more dates over the next couple weeks. I was kinda trying to figure out how to let him down easy, but my roommates and friends convinced me to give him a chance (thanks Mitch and Marissa!). Even after our first kiss (5th date maybe?)I still wasn't sure I wanted this to go anywhere, until later that night when we had one of the most intense, personal, and best conversations of my life. That was when I realized I might actually like him. I started to realize that he was actually the most amazing person I had ever met. That is also when he realized he was falling in love with me, but didn't tell me that till later. That was right at the beginning of September. We have seen each other every day since September 4th, became official September 6th, he proposed on December 4th, and we just celebrated our 6 month anniversary last week. I am happier than I have ever been. We are literally counting down the days until we get married and can be together forever!



I apologize for the length and extreme sappiness of this blog. I cannot promise it wont happen again. Read at your own risk.