*breaking news*

i am now ready to reveal the brand new blog.
after a bit of time and construction, i am pleased to let you all know that our new blog address is:


drumroll...


daniandmikey.blogspot.com
(i encourage you to stalk us)


ps: 15 days left :)

coming soon to a blogosphere near you...

a brand new blog for a brand new relationship status

(for those of you just tuning in, the new relationship status is married).

get ready.

i know i'm trying *to.

eeeeeek!

(19 days left!)

*side note: my thousands of dollars invested in a college education have taught me at least one useful thing: ending a sentence in a preposition really is okay. these days i do it just out of spite.

vestido.

just fyi...

there is something gorgeous in this bag :)

wedding report, 46 days out...

Wedding planning is CRAZY. And I feel like I'm losing my mind a little, to be completely honest. Who would have thought that planning a wedding would be this stressful? Not me, that's for sure.

But it's good to know that 46 days from today I will be happily married to Michael and will never, ever consider bridesmaids outfits, color combinations or reception food again. At least until my own kids get married... But that is not going to be for a very, very long time.

But for those of you who are curious (ahem... Rachel) I'll let you in on the progress :)

The announcements: Printed! My dear mother is working on addressing them.

The pictures: That's a different story. We are redoing them on Friday. If you haven't already noticed, I have included a few for your viewing pleasure...

The venue: Eldredge Manor in Bountiful, UT. This place is gorgeous.

The cake: stiiill in the works... But will no longer be in the works as of this Saturday at 10am. Let's just say that it is going to be a.w.e.s.o.m.e. Just wait and see.

The dress: purchased! And I love it!

The colors: revamped. For maybe the fifth time... Originally they were shades of yellow and grey, but then I bought an ivory dress. Whoops! So the colors then became coral and grey. But I was so in love with yellows that I decided to change it back to yellows for about a day. After realizing that ivory and yellow really wouldn't work together, I settled back on coral and grey. But then! Genius in the form of my little sister Maddie (Maddie of my last post) Suggested adding turquoise. Wow. Perfect. So Tiffany Blue (not quite turquoise) was added as an accent color. And guess what, I love the combination. I have heard complaints from every female in my family and Kennan via email from California, but I think they are great.

What's next on the docket? I'm glad you asked.

REGISTERING.

I have been looking forward to doing this for weeks. Fun.

&.

Valentine's Day :)

I already hacked into Michael's laptop and made a list of my Valentine's Day expectations (they include him not working & sappy love letters). I.am.excited.

!

On Turning 14: A Blog Dedicated to M. Elizabeth Richards

On January 16, 1997 a little girl named Maddie came into the world, immediately making it a better place for at least 6 people residing in it. Almost 3 weeks ago (I know, this tribute post, like virtually every other thing I do, is late), this same little girl turned an entire 14 years old. In order to fully appreciate the recently-turned-14-year-old brain, I found a journal entry from right after my 14th birthday waaay back in 2002:

"Well, let's start from the beginning. 1-28-02. I turned 14. I got a cd, 2 pairs of pants, a shirt, a razor, a scarf, and money! On January 18, we went to Utah. It was a lot of fun! On February 9, I went to my 1st dance! For my first slow song I dance w/ Brett Smith. [Interjection: I'm going to spare you the pain of me listing off every single boy I danced with and what my little self thought of each of them...] At school, they are doing swing dancing classes. I wanna do it, I think it would be a lot of fun. I also am going out for track this year. I've got to get into shape though. I'm also gonna learn how to speak French. That would be fun! Anyways, see ya!"

Um, yeah. You could say I was deep. I remember discovering how much fun boys could be and how awesome it was to have great girlfriends. I also remember feeling like I could do anything that I wanted to do. Like learn to swing dance? Learn French? (Both of which I have yet to accomplish...) Why not? I think that 14 is when you realize that there is a lot to discover and learn from world.
So, without further ado, I would love to list my top 14 favorite things about my baby sister:

1. her blonde hair. She's the lone blonde in the family and I have always been jealous. Always.

2. The fact that she knows how to dress fashionably. Under the guidance of her older sisters, of course. Me and Jill never had an older sister to show us how to dress cute, so we ended up looking like dweebs for most of our adolescence, unlike her. Good times.

3. Teasing her about her crush: _ O _ _ E _ _ _ I _ _. Ha.

4. Her love for Taylor Swift (which i share).

5. Her sweet cheerleader moves. They're pretty impressive.

6. The fact that she is now and always will be shorter than me. Yes.

7. Her bedroom with two beds. Which=slumber parties every time I go home.

8. She can wear makeup! Hence, I can put whatever I want on her face.

9. She wears the same size shoes as me. So I get to steal and steal and steal every time I go home.

10. Her kindness. Seriously, this little girl understands the idea of forgiving and forgetting. And I for one could not be more grateful.

11. Her infectious laugh (not to be confused with an infectious disease).

12. I know that all teenagers think that they are too cool for school, but she is one of the only ones (along with me back in the day) that really is.

13. How loving she is. I think that of all of the members of our family, she has the most natural ability to love and care for others.

14. Her dance to Justin Bieber's "Eenie Meenie." It's magical.

Happy Birthday Maddles! Live it up at the stake dances :)

so about those new years resolutions...

one of mine is to do things when i plan to do them. but as evidenced by the fact that this post is already two weeks overdue, i think it's pretty clear that i'm down for the count. so. here are my 2011 resolutions:

watch every episode of this
marry him
run this
set him up with his wife
drink more of this
plant one of these
have a kinder one of these
don't eat any of this for a month
get these taken out
read this 3 times
see more of this

the promised details

Hello blogosphere. I can't believe I'm on here, writing the story of how I got engaged!

Crazy crazy crazy crazy crazy.

Here's how it all went down:

Michael and I started talking about the possibility of marriage an alarmingly short period of time after we started dating. As recorded in my journal, August 24th was the first time the word was spoken (I panicked inside but hid it well, I think). A mere four months after the beginning of Dani and Michael. It wasn't until a month ago, though, that we decided to move forward and actually make things happen. At which point commenced project: ring shopping.

(And you should know, the one that I fell in love with was the first I tried on.
It was love at first sight)

So. Friday night.

I was pretty sure he was gonna do it that night, but wasn't 100% sure. He picked me up a little before 7:00 after Rachelle's bridal shower (ps: that thing was so. much. fun. I love getting together with all of those girls!) and when I got in the car he asked, "So, what do you want to do tonight?"

Ugh. Annoyance. At this point I figured it wasn't going to happen.

But after I refused to give him any ideas he said: "Hey, I have an idea. I really want to eat at that place at Park City that we ate at last month." Suspicious, no? My hopes were up again. On the way to Park City though, he kept asking me what I wanted to do afterward.

More annoyance. Lack of planning=lack of engagement.

Turns out it was all a show. That tricky boy. After getting to Park City and finding our restaurant, Michael claimed that he felt sick and needed to go to the bathroom. After a long time in the bathroom, I texted Jill and said "There is no way this boy is proposing tonight :("

Increased levels of annoyance.

After dinner, he headed off to the bathroom for another long appointment, then we left to go back to Provo. Now, I was not dressed Park-City appropriate. Not even close. I was wearing a 3/4 length light jacket and flats. In the snow and freezing weather. In my defense, it was warmer in Provo and I wasn't anticipating snow when dressing for the evening. When we got closer to the car I started running.

But.

Michael, still holding my hand, grabbed onto me even tighter, yanked me into the nearest art gallery and said, "Let's just go in here."

Suspicious.

But I'm always down for a good art gallery, as long as it's warm. When we walked in, the couple greeting us had a bunch of balloons, congratulated us on being the 500th customers and said that everything in the art gallery was 50% off.

Even more suspicious.

So Michael led me to the back of the gallery to look at art. Or so it appeared. Because the next second, I turned around and he had vanished. When I went hunting for him, I found him facing a large floor-to-ceiling window looking out onto Main Street. When I got closer, he turned around with another balloon and a shiny ring in one hand.

Getting even more suspicious :)

Then. I love this part :) He got down on one knee and asked, "Dani, will you marry me?"

At which point I started screaming and jumping around like a maniac. I don't even think I said yes, he just slipped the ring onto my wrong finger with shaky hands, slipped it off of the wrong finger with shaky hands, and then slipped it onto the right finger with shaky hands.

Turns out that his sister Emily and her husband Alec set the whole thing up and were photographing us from across the street. They even met a real-life VH1 celebrity who ran over with Alec and Emily because they watched the whole thing with them. That part was kinda weird...

Either way. I am a very happily engaged woman :)
Wedding date? The jury's still out on that one...
It's going to be some time in March though. Stay tuned!!

Ps: I should clarify that both of his marathon bathroom trips were all to check up on the logistics of the impending engagement :)