I love my friends.... :)

Saturday night a group of us went to the Temple to see the lights. It's so fun cuz all the boys have been BEST FRIENDS since... oh I'd say about middle school, and all us girls have BEST FRIENDS since middle school too (not including Loraca who we've been friends with for about 2 years now but we love her just the same) and we're all DATING!! Don't ask how it all worked out... this is not the first time all my girlfriends have dated a group of guys that are way tight. I guess we're cool like that ;) Anyway, it was way fun, the Temple is always so pretty. Thanks to Mandy and her way nice camera we have some super cute pictures!

Jordan and LoracaMandy and JoshAndy and DusteeDave and Carly

Girls Christmas Party!

I love Christmas....and I love my girlfriends. It's always so much fun to visit with everyone. Especially after not seeing everyone for so long! We ate, did a gift exchange, wrestled with Jessie a bit, and then Loraca, Brinly, and myself took lots of awesome pictures while everyone else sat and gabbed. haha. Good times :) Dustee was so excited for her present! So was Mandy!!!Dustee freakin' LOVES Andy ;) haha. Great present.This is where things got interesting...."If you like it then you should have put a ring on it..."POW. POW. Such a great inside joke!

Thanksgiving break...

Thanksgiving break was so good. First, I got engaged. And it was so perfect because the next day was Thanksgiving so we were able to spend that day with both our families and share the good news :) But before that we of course went to the turkey bowl, where I hung out with Mandy and Katie and we watched our men beat each other up. It was super laid back and relaxing. Not a lot went on but I was thankful to just hang out. I went snowboarding for the first time this season with Jessie and it was way good! I'm so excited for MORE snow! Dave and I went to the Temple Saturday night to look at the lights. We had a nice Sunday at church, Dustee FINALLY colored my hair! And we played with our best friends Dustee and Andy. Good times :)These pictures are a perfect example of why I love Dave so much. He is a crazy man. Always doing something that makes me laugh. Being cute little cheerleaders :)Had to take a picture! Dave and I went over to Andy's house to watch Elf. I was in all of Dave's clothes, and when we arrived Dustee was in all of Andy's clothes. Best thing, is we were both in flannel! AND Dave is hardcore U of U fan, Andy is hardcore BYU fan. Can ya tell??? We thought it was funny.

Yep.... it's official!

I'm ENGAGED! How crazy is that? Before I tell the story I'll share a bit about me and Dave and how things came about :) We went to High School together. He was a senior when I was a sophmore. And we actually never knew one another, even though lots of my friends were friends with him. I specifically remember the first time I saw Dave. My friend Annie and I were by the senior bench at school and she pointed him out to me, told me he used to be in her ward, and how cute she thought he was. haha. Well, it was during High School that my best friend Mandy and Dave's best friend Josh started dating. They finally got married in January of 07 and that is when Dave and I started to see more of each other. The thing I find so funny is Dave and I were constantly at the same events throughout High School. Parties, hang outs, whatever... but for some reason we never knew each other! Even at Mandy and Josh's wedding I didn't speak a word to him. I love the picture below because there he is... getting in my picture with Mandy! But nope... I don't think I had ever spoken a word to him at that point.

So... after Mandy and Josh got married, Dave and I finally became familiar with one another. We saw each other here and there. We would run into each other country dancing. We finally exchanged phone #s but still nothing really happened.The next picture is also one of my favorites. A group of friends were hanging out, and somehow Jordan, Chelsea, Dave and I ended up driving in my car. Dave speaks Italian and Jordan speaks Spanish, which are very similar! So as we were driving around they were conversing and Chels and I got the feeling they were plotting! Well, we ended up at Snowbird in the parking lot. They put on some tunes, Jordan grabbed me, Dave grabbed Chels, and we danced in the parking lot. I just think it's funny cuz at this point, I still didn't really know Dave that well. I mean, he didn't even want to dance with ME! He danced with my best friend! ;)
We hung out more and more and I was starting to think Dave was really cute. He was very flirtatious when we hung out... and basically just CUTE. Well, it was the night of Dave's Birthday party that Mandy and Josh threw for him that things took more of a serious turn. That night Michelle, myself, Andy, and Dave decided to sleepover. I remember we took a mattress out of one of the bedrooms upstairs and seriously CHUCKED it off the banister to the lower level. And that is where the 4 of us slept. Well, that's the night Dave and I first kissed :) Or more like... made out. And I love the next picture cuz this is the morning after!
We started dating about a month after our little rendezvous. We dated for about 7 months with MORE than one break up during that period. He'll never admit it but Dave LOVED breaking up with me! ;) I just never let him. Bah hahaha! Things got a little crazy at some points and we actually broke up in November and it was a clean break! For 6 months we didn't really talk or see each other. Then, in May of this year through our HUGE group of mutual friends we started seeing more of each other. After lots of hesitation on Dave's side, and lots of determination on mine... we were dating again! Dave tells me I'm lucky cuz he "NEVER gets back together with ex-girlfriends!" I guess he's a wanted man, he tells me all of his ex's have wanted to get back together and he always says "NO!" Considering we got back together about 6 times... I think that means I'm the ONE! He made the exception for the one and only, yours truly :) And here we are! ENGAGED! It still feels so surreal! I keep looking at this beautiful diamond ring on my finger just to make sure it's really there! Wow... so this was totally unexpected! I had no idea Dave was going to propose when he did! haha. It was such a GOOD surprise though! Well... here's the story... I knew that Dave had been looking at rings. He told me this about a month ago. When he told me I was kinda surprised and responded.... in a way he wasn't very fond of. Which was... "You're going to buy me a ring without letting me pick it out? What if I don't like it?" haha. I really wasn't trying to come off as a brat. I've just hear horror stories about girls getting rings and not liking them, and I think it's important to like your ring! You're gonna wear it the rest of your life! So when I said that Dave responded with... "I'm gonna buy you a RING POP and you can wear that! And you better love it!" Well, from there things got better. We looked online together and I showed him what I liked, and what I didn't like. After that it was in his hands. I wasn't expecting the actual proposal until... end of December/beginning of January. I didn't even know he had acutally purchased a ring! Well, Wednesday night we had plans to go out to dinner with Dustee and Andy. But before we went he decided we'd go on a drive. We went up to his Grandpa's building on Wasatch. Cuz that's like "our spot." We go up there all the time, there is lots of grass to lay on, and a beautiful view of the city. Once we got there Dave put on a little mood music... ;) And we danced in the parking lot. For those of you who don't know Dave is WAY good at dancing. Especially slow dancing. I don't know what it is... but he's my favorite person to dance with EVER! After that he told me he had something for me. He reached into his car and pulled out a box. When I opened it up... there was a ring pop in it! haha. So I thought... haha... how funny. I seriously thought he was just kinda playing a joke on me. Well then he got down on his knee and I was like WHAT??? He asked me to marry him and I was still so confused cuz I was looking at this ring pop. Well, then he pulled out the real ring from his pocket and slipped it on my finger. It fits perfect and it's beatiful and I LOVE it! We're planning on a pretty long engagement! 9 months! People think we're insane, but I think it's perfect. I've never been a fan of doing everything fast. What's the hurry? And I've always wanted a summer wedding! I WILL stick to that! The date is August 8th :) Dave has always wanted to get married in the San Diego Temple. And I'm totally down for that. Why wouldn't I be??? ROAD TRIP! I'm thinking what we'll do is have a reception here the day before we head to San Diego. All our family and closest friends will come with. We'll get sealed in the Temple, and afterwards have a civil ceremony for all my family. And I'm thinking... ceremony on the BEACH! How sweet would that be? BAH. I'm so excited.