Engagement Reveal Part 1 & Dad & Skylar's Birthday!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, since my parents live about an hour away we decided to wait until we saw them in person to share the engagement news.  This was pretty difficult for me.  I am not too good with keeping secrets, especially one this big.  I did it though!  Pretty proud of myself for it too. 

We headed up to Dayton on Friday after work & on the way up, we were trying to figure out a fun way to tell them.  I thought about just waiting until they spotted the ring & could just imagine my Mom's face.  I thought about just saying we had news, & making my parents try to guess what the news was.  I knew though that the guess would be that I was pregnant.  Ummmm, wrong! 

 

Anyways, we got there and said our hellos.  My Brother, Grandpa, & Uncle were also there.  We were running late and everyone had already started eating dinner.  Salad, spaghetti & garlic bread.  Mmh!  It was kind of late, so there was no wasting time, we had to get the kids their plates.  They were pretty hungry & so was I.  So I made my plate after theirs.  I hid my hand as much as possible in my shirt sleeve, until after dinner. 

After everyone had finished their dinner, I just couldn't take hiding it anymore so I pulled Creag over & just told my parents that we had some news.  My Mom instantly got excited, & was like "Oh my God, what!?".  I just smiled, held out my hand to show the ring and told her that Creag & I were engaged!  

They.Were.Thrilled. 

My Dad's reaction was pretty funny.  The first thing he said was...."You didn't ask me!"  I thought that was kind of cute.  You don't really realize how important these little things are to your Dad, until someone skips that step.  Honestly it was a spur of the moment decision for Creag to ask on Valentine's Day, so I didn't expect him to ask my Dad & I know my Dad was fine with it anyway.  I just told my Dad I would've said yes anyway!  He was happy for us both.

Of course everyone congratulated us, we got hugs all around.  Were asked about wedding plans.  Which we really don't know yet.  We just told them that we were probably going to go away somewhere to get married. 

Our first picture as an engaged couple!!

Skylar was dying to open her gifts so the wedding talk kind-of ended there and we moved on to the birthday festivities....

My Dad's Birthday & Skylar's is about a week apart.  We had a seperate party planned for Skylar for a later date, but  my Grandpa & Uncle weren't going to be able to come down for it so we combined Skylar's birthday with my Dad's so we could celebrated it with them.

Posing for their birthday photo-op

Of course there was cake & candles

& presents of course

Me with my Dad, Skylar, & Wyatt

& what's a birthday party without ice cream sundaes?!

Wyatt enjoying his ice-cream with his Papaw :)

Creag & Sammie just hangin' out

I love nights just like this one.  Getting together with my family means the world to me & is very important.  I love that my kids are so close with my parents & that it's important to them to share these special occasions with us. 

I couldn't ask for a better family.  The fact that Creag & I will soon be making our family "official" just makes me feel so blessed!

Mmh, Mmh Good

My house smells so good right now.
Because I just made these for the kids for breakfast!

Usually,

Friday is DONUT DAY at our casa.

I figured it'd be fun to change it up a little bit.

& throw some of these in the mix....

I think muffins are a LITTLE bit healthier than donuts, right?

The kids even got their own little personalized bags too!!

I think it turned out cute, & they loved it, so we'll be doing this again!

Sweet thing #2,014

Hey there! 

I thought I'd share this cute picture of 2 of my favorite boys!!

I just love it. 

They look like they're having so much fun, don't they?!

This was taken at Hank's Kindergarten Valentine's Day party at school.

I started a new job recently & wasn't able to go to the party, so Creag volunteered to go for me.

 

And to answer your question no, I'm not really keeping track of all the sweet things he does.

I lost track a long time ago!

I wanna spill the beans!!

I have this itsy, bitsy, tiny, little secret that I am just dying to tell my family, but I can't:(

& The.wait.is.killing.me.

  Ok, not killing me, but it's hard to keep such exciting news to yourself. The news I'm speaking of is our ENGAGEMENT!!!

We don't live really close to my family. I moved to Northern Kentucky from Dayton, OH after Creag & I had been dating a year, so it's not like I can jump in the car & be at my parents in 5 minutes to share this exciting, new tid-bit of information. Man-o-man do I wish I could! My mother is going to freak when she realizes this happened on Tuesday & she didn't find out until Friday.

I just don't really think it's as personal to find something like this out over text message or a phone call, so I'm trying to hold off on telling my parents about the engagement in person. Lemme just say it's sooooooo hard!! I've almost dialed my Mom's number more than once, & I've had a picture of my ring on my phone & ready to send over in a text.

I've contained myself, thus far, with only 2 more days to go. Luckily, we were already planning on going over to their house on Friday to celebrate my Dad's birthday. I plan on just waiting to see how long it takes her & my Dad to figure it out!  We're planning on telling Creag's family on Saturday when they're all over for our 2nd annual sea food boil for mardi-gra!  (pictures to come) 

 

Valentines Day Dinner

This will be the 3rd Valentine's Day that Creag has made me a delicious dinner at home.  This year, Valentines Day fell on a Tuesday & we would have the kids on Tuesday so we decided to celebrate on the Friday before since it would be just the two of us.

He kept it as simple as he knew how because let's face it, he's pretty much a badass & goes all out for everything.  I've already admitted that he spoils me rotten! 

I had told him earlier in the day that I wanted a salad for dinner with a glass of wine.  It had been a long week & I was ready to just chill & eat something semi healthy.  He took into consideration what I had said earlier & came up with a Blackened Steak Salad, with some pretty tasty italian style bread, 2 bottles of red wine, & a dessert.

We had great conversation in the kitchen over a few glasses of wine while he cooked dinner.  I was also browsing Pinterest, because he wouldn't let me help out in with dinner.  He's a very take control kind of guy in the kitchen.  It was about 8:30 by the time we ate, so we were starving. 

This.Was.Delicious.

Followed by this deliciousness:

The dinner was excellent & it was a great night spent at home with just the two of us.  We had lots of laughs & spent some time reflecting on the past Valentine's Days that we've spent together. 

After dinner, we straightened up the kitchen & did something that we haven't done in awhile...we played VIDEO GAMES!!  It was awesome.  We finished off the night with a candle-lit bubble bath.

All in all it was a great pre Valentines Day date.  I couldn't ask for a more perfect Valentine & I'm looking forward to spending several more with him.

He asked me WHAT???!!!!!!!!!!

So last night, was just one of our typical nights. So I thought!

Let me just tell you that Tuesday nights for us are Ca-razy!!  Creag & I both work till 5, which is no different than any other night of the week.  But, on Tuesdays, the girls both have gymnastics (at two different times) fininshing at 8PM.  They do this at a rec center, so the boys wanna swim, play basketball, play in kids quest-yadda yadda. On top of all of this madness, we have to throw dinner in the mix somewhere and Creag and I like to work out. 

See, we're members at a Family Recreation Center, which is nice & allows us to do all of this in one place.   We're actually very lucky, because If we didn't have this, we'd have to seperate to keep the boys entertained, while the girls did their gymnastics. Typical Tuesdays don't always go smoothly, but we do what we gotta do!   By the end of the night, after getting the kids showers at the rec center (if they've swam), rushing to get out of there to get home to do homework & get to bed at a decent time, we're ready to pull our hair out to say the least.

Last night I was at this point.

See, on top of our crazy Tuesday it was also Valentines Day. This was our 3rd Valentines Day together as a couple.  I'm not gonna act like I'm not a hopeless romantic, so these days are important to me.  Each V-Day that we've spent together has been special in it's own way. (homeade dinners that Creag's prepared for me & flowers at work - to almost setting the house on fire last year). They've all been amazing & unforgettable!  Yesterday though, was a little different.  I don't like to admit that I'm spoiled, but it all honesty my amazing boyfriend spoils the bejeezus out of me.  I like to think that I deserve it:)  & will be the first to admit that I'm a very lucky lady! 

So, like I've said, the past two years he's sent flowers to my work. I think the first year it was a dozen, & the second was two-dozen.  Both times, beautiful-red roses.   Well yesterday, I didn't get any!  Say wha?  This kind of threw me off, but I was COMPLETELY fine with it.  I had just started a new job, maybe he was unsure of sending them there?  But another thing that was strange to me was no lunch invite, no texting throughout the day....nothing.  By the time I met him at the Rec Center, for gymnastics I was getting pretty bummed.  Why was he treating this like just a normal day?  IT'S VALENTINES DAY!!  He knows this right?!  So I'm trying not to give him the cold shoulder, but he's totally getting it.  We're working out together, I'm ignoring him. He asks me why I'm grumpy, I shrug it off & act like I'm not.  It pretty much just got worse until we got home.

After we were home, I had all of the kids in bed, & walked downstairs to start cleaning up the kitchen which was a mess!  Keep in mind this is about 10PM.  I was doing my thing, cleaning, eating candy, cleaning some more.  All of the sudden all 4 kids (two of which I already had in bed) came marching down the stairs, with Creag behind them. 

They're all grinning ear to ear.  I'm thinking ok, he didn't forget.  He has a card that he gave them to give to me?  That's cute!  Well I notice Creag is white as a ghost & has this very weird grin/deer in the headlights look on his face. What is going on?!  Voice trembling, he asks me "Are you ready for this?" & I notice this white box in his hand.  At this point I'm in complete shock. I'm thinking to myself, is he going to do what I think he's going to do?!! 

At this point, my eyes are locked w/ his. My hand is covering my mouth w/ complete anticipation of what's to come. Then, all of the sudden what I've been dreaming of, for the last year happens! 

That handsome man of mine gets down on one knee & says...

(with his voice trembling, & the kids jumping up & down with excitement)

"Will you marry me?" 

OMG!!!!!!!!!! 

I think I just looked at him for what seemed like forever & said "YES"!!!!!  I hugged him & kissed him & he was sooooo clammy & sooooo nervous I had to ask him if he was gonna be ok?!  The kids were screaming in the background at this point & so happy & it's exactly what they deserve, what we all deserve. We are in every way a family. This will just make our little-I mean big-family complete.

I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with him. He is in every way the love of my life & my best friend. This is by far the best Valentines Day EVER & one of the best days of my life. Thanks baby, for making it so special. 

I love you!!