Yes, yes, and yes again!

It's official! As of the evening of 12/12/09 Dennis and I are engaged and I could not be happier and more sure that he is the man for me!

So here's the story. After Dennis and I had finished doing Sealings at the temple, I came out to find Dennis waiting for me in the first lobby, which is unusual because I am ALWAYS ready before he is. He was sitting there looking at some of the paintings on the wall and asked me to come sit with him. As I sat down he asked me, "So how did you feel about us while we were in the temple?" To which I hesitantly responded, "uh....good".
We've been dating for 9 months, we know how we feel about one another, so I found the question a little odd.
Then he solemnly proceeds to ask if I have any reservations or concerns about us. At this point I'm starting to freak out a little, but respond with an, "uh......no, why?" He starts to tell me that there has just been so much going on lately, and that I'm the most amazing girl he's ever dated, but....this is going to be really hard for me to say. By now, my eyes are watering and I'm preparing to be crushed. Then he repeats him self and says, this is really hard for me to say, but..... then gets down on one knee and says, "Danielle, will you marry me!"
YES YES YES!!!
I burst into full on tears, "Of course I will!!!"
Now you may think this was very cruel of him to make me think he was breaking up with me, which let's me honest, it kind of was! But the only thing I asked of him for the proposal was that I be surprised. If he had taken me to some nice restaurant, or on a walk in the forest, I would have know. But this TOTALLY threw me off! I had NO idea he even had the ring yet! I loved it. And I love him.

Why I said Yes
*He has done my laundry for me for the last 5 months or so
*After the first snow, I went out to clean off my car only to find that Dennis had already done it on his way to work at 5:30am!
*He makes me laugh everyday
*He not only helps me make sugar cookies, he'll decorate them with me, and help me deliver them
*He makes scary phone calls for me and gets WAY more accomplished on one of those phone calls than I have making those same calls for over a year!
*He can drive REALLY well with one hand, leaving the other hand free to hold mine
*He plays Barbies with his nieces and will dress up like a dragon for their princess birthday party
*He is just plain kind.
*The list really goes on and on. He is the sweetest man I have ever met, and now he is officially all mine! WOohoo!

Best Sunday Ever

At the risk of sounding a little cheesy, I just have to tell you all about the most wonderfully special Sunday ever. The day started out great. I got to my meetings early and had the chance to play Christmas songs on the piano for awhile before we got started. Then Fast and Testimony meeting was incredible. I felt like everyone focused on the Atonement and it just filled my heart with happiness! And then there was our amazing Relief Society Lesson about the miracles of Christ (favorite quote from the lesson: "In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence." - Isaac Newton).
After church Dennis told me that his friend from work had some extra tickets to the Christmas Devotional in Salt Lake. I'm not usually too keen on going to the conference center because you end up sitting so far away that you end up watching it on the big screens anyway, and you have to deal with all the traffic, parking, and freezing-ness of Salt Lake in December. But we decided to go anyways.
We agreed to meet Dennis' co-worker at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building at 5:30 for the Devotional that started at 6:00. We got there at about 5:25 and found that the JSMB was closed....and it was absolutely frigid outside! I mean bitter cold. So we walked over to the Conference Center to wait outside our assigned door. I was dying to go inside, but we had to wait for our friend because he had the tickets. So we waited... and waited... 5:40pm rolled around, then 5:50pm and Dennis' friend still hadn't showed up. By this point, I can't feel my toes or ears and a positive attitude was hard to maintain. Then it was 5:51, 2, 3, 4, 5, they announce that they will be closing the doors. 5:56, the doors start closing, 5:57, all doors are closed but one, and then....our friends come running around the corner with our tickets. We quickly ran into the one door that was still open and proceeded through the metal detectors, only to get beeped and have to go get scanned again in another scanner on the side.
Since these events are first come first serve as far as seating is concerned, we figure we'd be in the very back of the balcony, and that we probably wouldn't get to sit together. Then as I was being checked in the second metal detector, one of those cute little old-man ushers, came and asked if we wanted good seats....Umm.....YES PLEASE!! We're thinking, "Yes! We won't be in the balcony!" But to our surprise, he lead us all the way down to section B. That is SEVEN, yes SEVEN rows from the prophet!! The whole first presidency was right there in front of us, they could look into our faces we were that close! We felt like a million bucks walking down to those seats.
Needless to say we were ecstatic. We spent the next hour in utter awe as we listened to the messages given and were overwhelmed with the Spirit as the choir sang the most moving songs. I just couldn't get over how amazing it was to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir live, singing Handel's Messiah, For unto us a child is born. It literally took my breath away. I got chills every time they sang, "Wonderful, Counselor!"
When the meeting was over, we all stood up, ready to start our long journey back up the stairs to the main exits, as we began to realize that we were surrounded by general authorities! There was Sister Allred, Elder Cook, the Young Women's Presidency. Some of them were even sitting BEHIND us! Again, we were in awe! Dennis' shook some of their hands and I greeted them.
And THEN... because of where we were sitting, they began ushering us out the front of the conference center into the tunnels! We kept looking at each other like, Is this for real! So there were were, walking shoulder to shoulder with ALL of the Apostles and other general authorities! It was nuts! The apostles were picked up in little golf carts and slowly drove 2 feet away from us as they were escorted out, they waved at us and smiled and said hello, but several of the other general authorities walked with us through the long winding tunnel that lead us under the conference center, under the street, then under the temple, where we finally ended up coming out at the Church Office Building.
It was the most special night ever. Dennis and I couldn't stop smiling. It was the perfect finish to a perfect day.

Tru Wuv

Normally when I leave my apartment, even though it's winter, I turn off the heat to try and save a few dollars. This means, that when I come home, my humble little abode is pretty darn cold and takes a while to warm up. Yesterday was no exception, except this time when Dennis and I got there, I had to "use the potty". Needless to say I was trying to avoid having to, because I knew the toilet seat would be FREEZING! So after awkwardly dancing around the apartment for a bit, Dennis asked what in the world I was doing and I filled him in on the frozen toilet dilemma, then when about straightening the kitchen. Moments later I came back into the other room to find Dennis blow drying my toilet seat. If that isn't love, I don't know what is!

Fall Festivities Round #4

Most of you have probably already seen these pics on my facebook page, but I just couldn't resist putting them up here too.

I've never had the chance to do the whole "dress up as a couple" thing at Halloween, so when I asked Dennis if he'd like to go out all with a costume, and he whole heartedly said yes, I was pretty excited.

This is what we came up with. We were pretty proud of how realistic they turned out. We even had several people ask to take their picture with us that night, and heard lot's of great comments like "Wow, he even has the CHIN to be popeye!". When we finally got home, we felt fully prepared for a career at Disney.

Fall Festivities Round #3

So there is this photo editing site called Picnik that I love! It has a ton of free tools that you can use, and a ton of amazingly awesome tools you can use if you pay $24 a year. I am poor, so I have just been using the free basics. But a few days ago I got a lovely email from picnik saying thank you for purchasing a year long subscription. Yes, you guessed it, Dennis bought it for me. Bless him. The following is a taste of it's Halloween Features, Bwa Ha Ha Ha!!!!!!

Fall Festivities Round #2

While in Vegas, waiting in the parking lot of In & Out Burger, I got a phone call from my mom telling me that they had decided on a date for the Infamous, Kessie Family Pumpkin Party. October 24th. A conversation about the details and my sadness at not being able to attend commenced. When I hung up the phone, I turned to Dennis, and expressed my dismay. His response to my General Hospital-ness?

We should go!

Wait....WHAT?! You wanna go to Washington to carve pumpkins?! Yes, he did. So we called Kaitlin, and asked her if she wanted to drive home that weekend too. She started crying exclaiming, YES OF COURSE I DO!!! The decision had been made. So on Oct. 22nd at 8:30pm, after work and many setbacks to our schedule, we pulled out of Salt Lake with Kaitlin, and her friend Taylor from home in the back seat. We were off, and no one in Kennewick had any idea we were coming.
Now if you are wondering if you read that whole leaving at 8:30pm thing right...you did. Dennis, like the trooper that he is, drove through the night from SLC to Kennewick. It was pure torture, but well worth it. While on the drive, I called Jared and broke the news to him while he was at work and asked him to just leave the back door unlocked so we could sneak in and fall asleep in the family room. Which at 5:00am is exactly what we did. Kaitlin snuck up to her room and fell asleep, and Dennis and I took the couch and big chair in the Family Room. Two hours later my dad came walking down the stairs, saw us and prepared to freak out. I shushed him, gave him a HUGE hug and asked him to figure out a way to get mom down stairs.
Dad: "Pat! You need to come down here! There is a HUGE stain on the carpet!"
Mom: "Steve, are you sure I need to come down"
Dad: "Yes, I don't even know what this is!"
She reluctantly came down stairs, saw us and started screaming, hugging, and screaming some more. Pure Bliss.
The rest of the weekend was filled with fun. It was so good to see the fam and be home with all of my siblings. That doesn't happen very often. Just wish I could have seen more of the cousins!

I must say, I was thoroughly impressed with Dennis Pumpkin Carving abilities. It was his first attempt and he pulled out the headless horseman.

Fall Festivities Round #1

Here are some "just for fun" pics of us. We wanted to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather we were having and the gorgeous location we found. The following is what we were able to get; a lot of pictures of exactly how the afternoon went. Laughing, being nerds, laughing some more, being even more nerdy, followed by a lot more laughing....typical.

Viva Las Vegas

This past weekend Dennis and I took a much needed trip to Vegas! And no it wasn't for the BYU vs. UNLV game. We actually went to visit his family. Yes, Dennis grew up in Sin City, Henderson to be exact. While there we spent some quality time with his parents and sister and her adorable family, watching Alexis' soccer game, playing puzzles, and rockin' out to Rock Band for several hours...

We also took a quick trip down to the strip to check out the Bellagio Gardens and watch one of these shows.


Bellagio Conservatory

I also got the chance to learn a lot about baby/adolescent Dennis. I learned that he is an Eagle Scout, that he graduated with honors from Green Valley High and that he looked like the kid from the wonder years when he was little. Needless to say I got to see a lot of pictures like these ones, and I got to hear lot's of hilarious stories. Good Times. Loved it.

Just one of the many reasons I love Dennis

Life as of late has been great, but busy to say the least and Saturdays are my only day to play catch up at home. Yesterday was no exception to this as I had a HUGE list of things I wanted to get done that was triple the size of what was humanly possible.
So Dennis and I went through the day trying to get as much done as possible but then 6:00 rolled around, which meant time for the General Relief Society Broadcast, and I still had a giant list of things I wanted to get done. But alas, some Spiritual nourishment was more important and so off I went with no hope of catching up. Less than 2 hours later I headed home on a Spiritual high to find that Dennis had...
Finished prepping and painting my door
Put together all 4 of my new IKEA boxes
Vacuumed my apartment
Washed and cleaned out the car
Done my dishes (I don't have a dishwasher either!)
AND
Washed and dried all my laundry!
He was sweaty from trying to get it all done before I got home, and I was almost moved to tears. So so so so so sweet. Thanks Dennis. You are the best (to be read with a Nacho Libre accent for emphasis).

My Casa!

So here is a little taste of what my studio apartments looks like.

This is the outside of it. Charming right? Word on the street is that it was a polygamist's house. I'm not sure if that's valid cause the dates don't seem to jive, but it would make sense structurally. It looks like a normal house from the outside, and the bottom floor is like a normal home, but the side and upstairs have little studio apartments in them with their own kitchens and bathrooms. Mine is the smallest, so I guess that makes me the newest, least preferred wife :)

So speaking of the bathroom.... Did I mention it's microscopic? Please see pic below.



I think the picture speaks for itself. Needless to say, we sit sideways.

Life Update

It's been forever since I last blogged, and a lot has happened. So I'm just going to take a moment to update you all on my life.

First of all, things with Denicito are still going absolutely marvelously. We're going on 6 months now! Love his freaking guts.


Secondly, I quit my job in the Chinese Department. Though I was loving the work I was doing there, I actually got recruited back to my old job in the athletics department. Going back to work there felt like going home. It really is so great to be working there again. So Blessed.




Third, I moved out of my apartment and into a studio apartment all by my little lonesome and I freaking love it. And it is sooooo darn cute (not to worry, there will be pictures soon). It's tiny, but I have made it into my own little haven and I adore it. Coming soon is a post about the size of the bathroom, so be prepared for shock and awe.

Fourth, I got a new calling in my ward. Yes, you guessed it, Relief Society President! I'm actually really excited and grateful for this calling. I've been feeling like I need some extra strength and guidance right now as I'm in a new phase of life trying to figure out where I'm going and then BAM! The Lord gives me this calling that is accompanied with billions of blessings. It's a win win.



So that's it for now, but I will soon be adding a post dedicated solely to the studio. Its worth the wait. I promise.

The 4th of Julio

My 4th of July cake. I need to stop taking the easy cheap way out and use butter cream frosting instead of Better Crocker, and thicker fondant so that it lays smoother on the cake. But by the time I've colored all the fondant and all that, who wants to make butter cream frosting!


And these are the wonderful people I got to spend the 4th with. Dennis' sister in law's family. They rock the house. It really was so much fun watching all the little kids get closer and closer as all the dads showed off their lighter skils. It reminded me of my favorite 4th ever when we lit all of our own fireworks in the street at the Goude's house in Grandview. Those were the days. I just sat there all night feeling like I was living a scene out of the Sandlot. Priceless.

This is Dennis right before he danced in the street for all of us with 6 sparklers between his fingers. Another Wolverine attempt? Probably.

A bit of Bear & Bloomington Lake

I can't believe it's already been over a month since I lasted posted. This month has truly been busy. I now have two jobs. I work in the Chinese Language Flagship Program at BYU AND in a crazy turn of events, I got my old job back as the Administrative Assistant in the Student Athlete Academic Center in BYU Athletics. In addition to working two jobs, I am also going to school full-time. So it has been an insane, yet awesome summer. The following is one of the many highlights of July.

Dennis' roommate Andy invited us to stay at his friends cabin up in Bear Lake, so Dennis' roommates and my roommate Mikell and I all piled into the Trailblazer and headed to Idaho. The cabin was beautiful, the weather was perfect and the company was unbeatable. We had a freaking blast. But we didn't just go to Bear Lake, no that would no suffice, we also went to Bloomington Lake which took an hour or so of us driving on an extremly rocky dirt path, then a 10 minute hike to get there. But as you can see from the pictures, our drive to the glacial lake was well worth it.


Mikell and Andy making a Sand Drip Castle

This was not meant to look this awkward... but because it did, I feel bound by my honor code of hilarium to post it.

The whole crew. At this very moment all of our skin was being crispified like Kentucky Fried Chicken. Aloe vera here we come.

Mikell braving the Rope swing

The cliff from which we jumped. The water looks kind of green in these pics, but really it was a turqouise color. gArgeous.

Yes, that is snow, and yes we swam in it, and yes, it took about 20 minutes to get used to swimming in it without feeling like you were going to hyperventilate and drown.

This is what surrounded the Lake to the east, yellow and blue wildflowers. Unreal.

We were sooooooooooo beat after a weekend in the sun, but it was well worth it.

Reoccurring Theme??

As many of you have probably noticed by now, there seems to be a reoccurring theme with my blog entries. They seem to almost always consist of me taking pictures of Dennis looking ridiculous and then posting them online for all to see. Fear not, for today will not be an exception to that rule. So this coming weekend is the very lovely Jade's 5 year old princess birthday party, for which I will be doing facing painting. I am overly excited about the whole thing to the point that I wanted to practice beforehand. And like the sport that Dennis is, he volunteered to be my palate. The whole apartment was entertained by our proceedings.

And In response to Rachael's comment:
See!!! Totally, NOT serious.