Peponi

This is one of my new favorite songs!  Dev found it a couple days ago and showed it to me and I have listened to it probably a 100 times since!  It is called Peponi which is the Swahili word for paradise because this is a cover of Coldplay's song Paradise!  These are "The Piano Guys" and Alex Boye singing.  We got to see John Schmidt live (the guy playing the piano in the video) when I was in Snowflake a couple months ago and he is so, so talented and a hilarious guy!  I love listening to the piano and the cello so these guys are right up my alley (relaxing Sunday music :)  And Alex Boye is a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and he is amazing as well!  Enjoy :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgovv8jWETM

He popped the question!

The Christmas season this year was one of the best so far!  As I said before, I traveled a lot for the holidays and got to spend time in Oregon and Arizona during Christmas break.  I flew home to Oregon the day after my last final which was about 10 days before Christmas.  The only downfall to the holidays this year was that I didn't get to see my sister at all.  She is working for Marshall's so the holiday season is crazy busy for them since it's a clothing store so she didn't get to come home for Christmas.  That was a bummer and we missed her a lot!  

It was so nice to be home with my parents though and wake up in my own house with my family right there.  My mom and I did a lot of baking and talking and shopping and visiting with friends.  

Christmas fell on a Sunday this year so we got to go to Sacrament meeting on Christmas morning which was so special.  There was a beautiful Christmas program and it brought the spirit so strongly to the meeting, it was wonderful!  So often people get so caught up in the gifts and parties and the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and loose sight of the reason why we celebrate it.  The Savior's birth was the beginning of his work here on earth, performing miracles and leading up to his atoning sacrifice for each and every one of us.  I am so, so grateful for that.  After church, my parents and I went home and opened presents and just spent a low key day together and it was just perfect!

Two days after Christmas, Devin flew into Oregon for the week.  We had a whole list of things we had planned to do!  We spent a couple days driving to several cities that he served in while on his mission.  He got to see and I got to meet several of the families that he knew and that I have heard a lot about so that was great!  We went to Medford and Grants Pass one day and then Eugene the next.  Medford and Grants Pass are about 3 hours from Florence so we had a lot of time to just talk on the drives.  We had the best time and laughed almost the whole drive and made some really, really fun memories together!  We really are each others best friend and we have so much fun together.  I couldn't imagine spending my life with anyone else.  

And on that note... I got the surprise of a lifetime on New Year's day when we went up to the lighthouse to watch the sunset!   Devin proposed!!!! For the past several weeks, he had been trying to throw me off so that I would have no idea when he was going to do it and it worked because I was completely caught off guard!  I really didn't expect him to do it in Oregon because of a few things that he had told me so when we went up to the lighthouse, it really didn't even cross my mind that he might be proposing!   We lucked out with a gorgeous, clear night because the previous 3 or 4 days it had been pouring rain non stop.  We took my mom's tripod with us and took a bunch of pictures down on the beach before we hiked up the hill to the lighthouse.  When we did get up to the top, the sun was just about to set so we took a few more pictures with the pretty sky and then went and sat on a bench and just talked.  After a few minutes Devin said he had a question he wanted to ask me so I said okay, what?  He said "I can't ask you right here!"  I was a little bit confused and then he stood up from the bench, turned around to face me and then got down on one knee!  He had been silly and teased me like that before so I still wasn't too sure until I looked down and noticed the ring box in his hand and the water works started when I realized it was actually happening!!  After he got down on his knee he said "But I can ask you my question right here" and then asked me to marry him!  It was so perfect and I was so shocked that he had surprised me so well!  Sneaky guy :)  We set the date that night because I was so excited and didn't want to wait!  We are getting married on May 4th, 2012 in the Snowflake Arizona LDS temple!  It seems so far away, ha but I know that it is going to fly by and be here before we know it!  And I can't wait!

We then got the opportunity to fly back to Arizona together and spend a few days with his side of the family before he drove me up to Utah to start winter semester of school.  I had a lot of fun talking with his mom and sisters about wedding plans and colors and all that fun (and semi stressful!) stuff while I was there!  Best. Christmas. Break. Ever. :)

This is typical for us.  My mini version of meals compared to his gigantic ones!

Watching the Duck game

Right after the Ducks won the Rose Bowl! Yeah buddy!

We love our Ducks!

Game night at the Johnson's.  I think Dev was over my Momma's million photos of the night. Ha

 

 

 

The beautiful night at the beach before he proposed.  Isn't this the most gorgeous place ever?  So lucky to be able to call it home :)

My favorite photo of the night! (minus the ones later with my new ring!!!:)

My camera didn't do the sunset justice.  It was really bright and colorful!

Heceta Head Lighthouse

This handsome man is my FIANCE!!

I was and am one happy, lucky girl :)

 

 

Thanksgiving 2011

The holidays this year were such a blast!  I traveled a lot to be with family since I am in Utah by myself.  For Thanksgiving, I only had 3 days off from school plus Saturday and Sunday so it wasn't really enough time for me to go home to Oregon.  The drive down to Snowflake, where Devin's family lives, is about 8 hours from Provo so I drove down there for Thanksgiving.  I adore Devin's family and always have so much fun with them.  It is such a change of pace compared to my family growing up.  It was always my mom, dad, sister, me and occasionally some distant family members for holidays.  So most of the time a total of 4 people.  Dev's immediate family has 30 people so it is a little bit different than the Flood family get-togethers! ha. But I absolutely love it!  It is so much fun to have so many little ones running around and so much going on.  

 Thanksgiving day morning Devin, Sherika, Teagan, Shayelle and I all got up early to run the Turkey Trot.  It was completely freezing and I don't think any of us had much motivation  (maybe it was just me :/)  but we went and ran and it was actually pretty fun!  Shayelle and I just ran the 1 mile race which Devin, Sherika and Teagan ran the 5K and they all did awesome!  

The day after Thanksgiving it is a tradition for Dev's family to go cut down their own Christmas tree so we went and did that.  They had told me that they always get really big trees so I was excited to go help look for one.  We went out into the woods a little ways outside Snowflake and spent about 6 hours searching for the perfect tree.   We had a lot of fun riding on the tailgates of the trucks, shooting random things with pellet guns, driving through big herds of cows, eating lots of snacks and trying to stay warm since the wind was freezing that day.  

They don't mess around with their Christmas trees! By big, they meant BIG!

The tree they found was pretty far away from the truck and we started by taking turns pulling it two at a time.  We were struggling so my strong man hauled it the rest of the way to the truck on his back! Good work, babe!

Let's give this a try!

Well, I finally decided to join the blogging world and trying to figure it out hasn't been the easiest!  But I think I am starting to get the hang of it!  We'll see ;) I wanted to start a blog so that I can document the happenings of our crazy life and keep family and friends up to date as Devin and I begin our journey together since so many of them are far away! Unfortunately, Devin and I are far away from each other too but on the plus side it is only for a 106 more days,  not that I am counting ;) Right now we are both just working hard with work and school and preparing for the big day!  Can't wait!