Janelle and Bryton are engaged!! 💗

Janelle went to Lake Powell with Bryton's family and it was there that Bryton proposed! One of the evenings they were there, McKenna, Bryton's sister-in-law suggested they all go on a sunrise hike the next morning. Bryton nonchalantly acted somewhat uninterested by mentioning how early that would be. When he came to get Janelle in the morning she was still in her pajamas and he was wearing a nice, white collared shirt. The shirt tipped Janelle off a little, and Bryton tried to cover it up by saying that his mom made him bring this "rich guy boating shirt" on the trip, ha ha.  They went to a pretty overlook point and Janelle walked forward and saw the big light up letters that said, "Marry Me." Bryton proposed and she said, "Yes!" Janelle and Bryton are so great together! We are so excited for them to start this new adventure together! 

Jared and Hallie are engaged!!!! 💗

Jared was very excited to propose to Hallie (as you can imagine, ha ha!) He had written this darling book that featured their love story and had his good friend, Jake Brown, illustrate it. Jared and Hallie typically went to her house every Sunday and so he arranged to have Hallie read the story to her nieces and nephews on one of those Sundays. The story goes through how they met, dated, fell in love, and ends with Jared proposing to Hallie as she is reading this very story to her nieces and nephews! It was so creative and I cry whenever I look at the pictures!! We love Jared and Hallie and are so excited for them to start this new journey together!! 

It is always tricky trying to propose with kids around, ha ha!! 

And here are the darling illustrations! I will have to see if I can get scans of the book itself. If so, I will add that later! 

Happy Engage-i-versary!!

After we had our family scripture discussion Rick said, "Do you know what day it is today? Today is the day that Mom and I got engaged 26 years ago! We talked a little bit about that day at the Jordan River Temple when Rick proposed and later Jenna gave us this cute card that she made! She is such a sweetheart!!

Jase is Engaged!!!

Well, tonight Jase popped the question! He planned a nice dinner out with Ellen to the Cliffside restaurant. He even dressed up for the occasion (which is a big deal for Jase, ha ha!) She might have suspected it was coming, and so after the dinner in order to throw her off he said something like, "Well, I think Ky should be back. Should we call him and see if he wants to hang out?" This caused Ellen to think that he wasn't going to ask her that night after all!

She said, "Wait, aren't we at least going to go to the Cactus Gardens?" (This is what he had planned all along but acted like he had completely forgotten). He said, "Oh yeah, we can go see the lights -- you might have to remind me how to get there!" Meanwhile his friend, Ben Lords, was already at the Cactus Gardens (Red Hills Desert Garden) ready to take some pictures of the proposal.

Jase and Ellen walked around the Desert Garden to where Jase had told Ben to be when Ellen said, "Let's walk down this way." He thought, "Dang, now what am I going to do?" So he excused himself to use the restroom and texted Ben the new location. He went to a place where there were some pretty lights behind them and knelt down on one knee and asked Ellen if she would marry him! She said "YES!"

Rick and I are so excited for Ellen and Jase! They make a great couple. They haven't been dating very long -- less than three months -- but we are impressed with Ellen and feel good about their decision to get married! We are thrilled to welcome Ellen into the family!

By the way -- Rick and I didn't even know about the Red Hills Desert Garden until Jase and Ellen told us about it. It is a garden off of Red Hill Parkway and is right next to Pioneer Park. Their website states: "Red Hills Desert Garden is Utah’s first desert conservation garden. The nearly 5-acre garden features 5,000 water-efficient plants, a 1,150-foot stream stocked with native and endangered fish species, a replica slot canyon and prehistoric dinosaur tracks found onsite dating back 200 million years."

During the Christmas season the garden is decked out with thousands of Christmas lights. Rick and I stopped by on a date after hearing about it from Jase and Ellen. It was SO pretty!! We definitely need to bring our family to come experience it! 


 

Janika is Engaged!!!!

I asked Janika to write some of the details about her engagement, so here goes...

We were planning on coming down to Bountiful for Brandon's grandma's funeral. Brandon told me that his parents asked him to have us go up to Bear Lake first to grab some pictures and sand from the beach (they have a cabin and a lot of family memories there) for the funeral. Before we got to the cabin, he said that we were a few minutes ahead of time and he wanted to stop and show me this really pretty overlook looking over the lake. When we got out of the car it was super windy and cold so I kind of had the mindset "let's make this quick" haha. 

As we were looking over the lake, Brandon said that this was a place that is really special to him so he was really glad he had the opportunity to share it with me, someone who was also very special to him. He then got down on one knee and said "the reason I wanted to bring you here was so I could ask you to marry me!" I said "yes" (obviously) and then a bunch of his friends and roommates came out of their hiding places to take pictures. 

Unfortunately the actual proposal went a little too quickly so all the pictures you saw were staged...  Sorry to disappoint. That's why our smiles look so awkward haha we couldn't stop laughing. I was definitely expecting it soon, and secretly hoping for this weekend, but when we were told the funeral was this weekend I wasn't really expecting it as much! So... It was a happy surprise. :) The wedding will be June 22 in Bountiful and our Saint George reception will be July 7, so save the dates!! 

Rick and I found out about Janika's engagement right before heading out to dinner and our phone kept buzzing with comments on Janika's engagement post! We are really happy for them!