oh the excitement!!

this week has been hugely eventful! it started with a trip to san francisco for jeff and stevie's wedding... it was awesome! i loved meeting chris' family and falling in love with all of them... i met catherine first... we met she and her boyfriend jeffery for some pizza the first night.  catherine is the sweetest and kindest person. she's cute and funny and is definitely an individual.  she and jeff are expecting a baby in october which is very exciting... that night we also met up with jeff (the twin) and his now wife stevie... jeff is a lot like chris.... and very funny.  stevie is great... she is amazingly organized (which is good cause the spillers boys need a little help sometimes) she is also the greatest mom... i loved watching her with her sweet little claire... you can really tell she loves being a mother and doing everything possible to make that child happy. she also made a beautiful bride... she was excited and glowing and happy to make their little family complete.  i am really excited for them.  saturday morning we headed out to napa valley for the rehearsal... i finally got to meet chris' mom... she is fun and bubbly and full of personality.  the kindest of people for sure... i can see where chris gets a lot of his kind gentle nature. that night was the rehearsal dinner where chris' dad came into the picture... he's a hoot.  just good humored and kind.. and really tall.  i come from such a short family that any one around 6 foot and above is tall... and he's just over 6... probablly 6'2" and always has a smile on his face.  it was amazing to meet the family and see how chris fits in with them and how much effect they have had on what kind of person he is... i know its cheesy but i totally loved him more after meeting his awesome family.  sunday was a nice day visiting a winery and helping out any way possible... chris and i helped out with claire while the bride finished getting ready... it helped that chris really looked like her dad... she was always more calm with chris holding her...

the winery.... very pretty

chris gave a really funny and sweet speech at the reception... 

of course chris and i danced the night away... we love to dance and dance we did!! haha we are really just ridiculous and have fun doing it!!

i would say the whole weekend was a success... the wedding was perfect... meeting the family was perfect... and spending so much time with chris was perfect....

the rest of the week is when things really got interesting.... i knew chris was waiting till after the wedding to propose... i didn't know he would remind me of that fact for the rest of the week... every day he would taunt me and tease me and make me think he was proposing right then! its mean!!! he would randomly get down on one knee... or get real serious and say.... "marilyn...." in the tone of i'm about to make some speech... mean mean mean.... thursday we went to a baseball game where he said.... "there may or may not be a surprise during the 7th inning stretch.." which there wasn't and i knew there wouldn't be but he didn't need to remind me... haha friday he texted me and told me to keep saturday night open cause he had plans for us.... and then wanted to just do something casual for friday night... i knew he was playing some sort of trick or game on me i just didn't know what it was... so we went out to lake las vegas... they have live music concerts on friday and saturday nights... so we stopped at mimi's cafe and had dinner then headed out there... we took our picnic blankets and just sat on the grassy hill.... we have this book we have been reading for a while... its called 1001 questions to ask before you get married... we've been having fun going through and answering all the questions about money and relationships and what not... so we went through a section or two and then chris wanted to get ice cream.  we got our ice cream and sat on a little brick wall next to the lake and when i was about half way through mine he tells me he bought me a present... and its a book.... huh?! a book?? totally confused i'm like... ok... and he pulls it out of his pocket... (i have no idea how i didn't notice this book in the bottom pocket of his cargo shorts... haha) but to my surprise its the same as the book i already had in my purse the 1001 question book... and i just sat there.... confused... it took me a minute to realize he had crossed out the 1... and put a 2 making it 1002 questions to ask before you get married...

amazingly i am still lost up to this point and chris tells me to turn to the last page... and he has written on the inside back cover: 1002: Will you marry me? ... i got it then but was in shock... with all his teasing and taunting all week he was still able to totally surprise me!!! at this point he got down on one knee and started telling me all these wonderful things but i can't remember any of them cause i was in shock... and i was thinking in my head i have to say no.... my cousin had told me to teasingly say no since he was so mean all week taunting and teasing me... so at one point i couldn't hold it in any more and i blurted out no! haha and he looked all confused and then he said will you marry me and i said yes and we kissed and at some point he had pulled the ring out of his pocket but i didn't even notice till he told me to take the ring! haha hilarious... i'm glad we were both confused and ridiculous through the whole thing cause man its just funny!! after this we walked back to our blankets and watched the rest of the concert and texted our friends and family to let them know... that was fun... its all really exciting and i'm so incredibly happy... chris is everything i have ever wanted and hoped for... he is really the greatest man i have ever met and fallen in love with... our date is set for august 28th~ woo hoo for marriage!!

 this is right after we got engaged....

sorry for my ugly little hobbitt hand... its not the greatest picture but you can get the idea... i love it... its sparkly and beautiful!! to celebrate being engaged chris took me to the paris hotel for dinner tonight... we got all dressed up and headed over there... the view is beautiful looking over the belagio fountains... and we were in our own little corner really secluded and private... it was a perfect weekend...

i couldn't be happier :)