One Year Older...

...and hopefully wiser too! Yesterday was my 24th birthday! Wow...I am one old lady. It was a great day. First off I didn't have to work. I have been working a lot lately and this was my first day off in a long long time! I went up to SLC to do some wedding stuff in the morning. My sister Janae is in town from LA for conference weekend so she and my mom were there to help pick flowers and a cake. I think what we picked will look really good. Then my mom and all my sisters (except Suzy) went out to lunch at the Red Butte Cafe. Mmmmm...it sure was tasty!

That night a bunch of friends went to Red Robin for dinner. Then we had strawberry short cake at my apartment to top off the evening.

The best part of my birthday was my present from Brandon. Ater we got home from dinner Brandon asked me to grab my computer because he wanted to show me something. He wouldn't let me look until he had whatever it was pulled up on the screen. To my surprise it was a slideshow of pictures of our proposal! Brandon had one of his roommates hiding up near the rock where he proposed. I had no idea someone was there taking pictures. It was the best birthday present ever! I am a lucky girl to be marrying such a thoughtful guy! I put the slideshow to the side...take a look.

We're engaged!!

It's official! We are getting married! Saturday night my boyfriend, Brandon, asked me to marry him and I said yes. We are getting married in the Salt Lake Temple on June 5th and I couldn't be happier!

For the past week he had me believing he would not ask me for 3 weeks. He had an awfully busy week with school and I thought there was no possible way he had time to get a ring and plan a proposal with everything he had to get done. About two weeks ago Brandon invited me to a work dinner up in Park City and we were planning on going. We got all dressed up and headed up Provo Canyon. As we were driving Brandon made an unexpected turn towards Sundance and Aspen Grove. I was a little confused but Brandon assured me you could get through to Park City this way. Then he turned into Sundance and I knew immediately something was up. We walked through the resort by the river and waterfalls. Finally he asked me if I wanted him to end my confusion...of course I did. He had me sit down on a rock as he pulled a dozen beautiful red roses from behind a lamp post and a gorgeous ring from his pocket. He then got down on one knee (a bigger task than usual with his recent knee surgery!) and asked me to marry him. I said YES!!! and haven't been able to stop smiling since. We then ate dinner at the resort. As we drove back to Provo we called all our family to tell them the news. Then we headed back up the canyon after a quick change of clothes to have a fire. It was a perfect evening and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world!!!!

Here is a picture of the ring. Brandon did most of it on his own...I just told him what I liked and he did the rest. It is beautiful and I absolutely love it!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Sunday was my Grandpa Cannon's 88th birthday. We had a special family gathering to celebrate!!

At the celebration everyone told why grandpa was their hero. My grandpa is my hero because he always takes the time to make everyone feel important. My grandpa has a lot of kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, friends, etc that it must be hard to keep track of everything. But he is always there for you no matter what. He came to all my vocal performances, awards assemblies and graduations! Whatever I'm doing in my life he is genuinely interested and so supportive! Thanks grandpa!

Here are more pictures of the family party:

talking to grandpa

hanging out downstairs

brandon and isaac's scary faces!

Stuffed Peppers

Here is a recipe I love!! They take a little time to prepare but they are very tasty!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 cup uncooked long grain white rice
• 1 cup water
• 6 green, red, or yellow peppers
• 2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Cook rice.
3. Brown ground beef.
4. Remove tops and seeds of bell peppers. Arrange peppers in a glass baking dish. (Slice the bottoms of the peppers so that they will stand upright.)
5. In a bowl, mix browned beef, cooked rice, 1 can tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Fill each hollowed pepper.
6. Mix 1 can tomato sauce and Italian seasoning in a separate bowl and spoon over the top of the stuffed peppers.
7. Bake for 1 hour in preheated ove, basting with sauce every 15 minutes.
8. Top with grated cheese.

Try it!! You will love them!

An Update

It has now been a little over a week and a half since Brandon's ACL surgery and he is recovering very well. About a week after surgery he was only using one crutch to get around and now he is only using one crutch to help him up and down stairs. The best day ever was last Saturday when he actually wore real pants (not basketball shorts or warm-ups). He is still very good at doing his PT. Here is a picture of him doing one of the stretches they told him to do at home.

And here is a picture of how his knee looks now. The swelling has gone down a lot.

Handicap and loving it!

It is really nice having a 'handicap' boyfriend. It definietly comes with some benefits. For one thing we have been able to sit in the handicap section for the last two BYU basketball games. These seats are awesome because you can sit down for the entire game which isn't the case if you are in the student section. Another benefit is that I no longer feel guilty pushing the handicap door opener at stores. After all these buttons were made for people like us who need a little extra help getting through the heavy department store doors. When I was a little girl my mom always told me not to play with those buttons because the were there for people who really needed them. I can't say I'm happy that I've needed that kind of assistance at the age of 23. Another good thing about Brandon being 'handicap' is that everyone is more friendly. People are always coming up to talk to us and tell us their story of when they had knee surgery or were on crutches. Plus people will open the door for us and allow us to go first. Last but not least is his handicap parking pass. We have only used it a few times at the movie theater and grocery store but let me tell you it is very helpful. The pass is good through August and I can already tell I am getting attached to it. Even when I don't have Brandon in the car I check out all the handicap parking spots available. But no matter how hard I try to justify myself using it without him I can't...I would just feel too guilty without him there.

Happy Valentine's Day

Brandon's knee has somehow founds its way to be the center of attention for two holidays now. Thanksgiving morning Brandon tore his ACL playing basketball with my family. Then on Valentine's Days, Brandon finally had his surgery to repair it. Dr Kimball said everything went well and that he expects a full recovery (6-12 months). We spent several hours in the recovery room until Brandon was awake enough to take home. That night Brandon did very well and nothing too unusual happened. We ate dinner, watched a movie and he fell asleep quickly.


Friday was another story. It all started when we got up to go to Physical Therapy. The entire session Brandon felt very sick to his stomach and the nausea did not go away when we came home. The Phenergan and Percocet they had prescribed was not helping. He was sick to his stomach and in more pain. He even spiked a temperature and was so uncomfortable he was unable to sleep. It was a miserable afternoon. Luckily Brandon's brother Tyler and his wife Chelsea were in town from Rexburg. Tyler stopped by and gave him a blessing. As soon as they left Brandon was able to fall asleep for a couple hours and woke up feeling much better. The worst was over.


Saturday Brandon did very well. He is very good about doing his Phyical Therapy exercises at home. I think he has a lot of motivation to get better soon and make a full recovery to return to his pre-injury abilities. We even went to the BYU basketball game where we sat in the handicap section with all the old people in their jazzy wheelchairs. :) The Cougars continued their home winning streak as they beat UNLV 74-48 thanks to my favorite player, Lee Cummard, who had an amazing game!

Here are some more pictures of Brandon's knee: