So many requests...so here it is

I have had so many people requesting me to post how Derek purposed to me...so here it is everyone. Don't get too excited it wasn't a airplane flying over with a banner saying "will you marry me?" or anything big....which is just perfect for me. So here it is... First off, I totally knew it was coming. We had talked about getting married before then I was just waiting for it to be official. The night before we went to my parents house and talked to my parents and while we were there he asked them for permission. They of course love Derek and said they couldn't have picked anyone better. The next day Derek took work off early and we went around town looking for rings. I didn't really find anything that I absolutely loved but we were both getting hungry and decided to stop ring shopping for the day and go eat. We went to Robertos and shared a smothered burrito ( how romantic right?) After that we decided to just take a drive. Derek started to drive up Cedar mountain for our drive. He pulled off about ten minutes up the canyon to this overlook where we have both been repelling before. We climbed to the top of the overlook (which is gorgeous) and he got down on one knee and asked me if I would marry him. Of course I said yes and its history from there. Again nothing big, but just perfect for both of us. The next day we went down to St. George and went ring shopping some more. We went to Kay Jewelers and right off I picked out this gorgeous ring that I absolutely loved. I tried on about 35 other rings after that bug came back to that original ring I found at the beginning and we bought that. I guess every kiss really does begin with Kay. Ever since then we have been planning like crazy for wedding and reception, scheduling dates, looking for a place to live, etc. We are so excited and just can't wait to be married. We will be getting married August 20th and our reception is August 19th (the night before). Here is a picture of right after Derek purposed.

And this isn't the greatest picture of the ring but its the only one I've got.

Now besides getting engaged and wedding plans I have had TONS going on. I have had a ton of things in my life happen in such a short time. First... School ended. This was our last day of preschool and I miss my little preschoolers so much. Those cute kids were such a huge part of my life. We also had a end of year party the next day... there are some pictures from that as well.

Here is a picture of me and my most amazing assistance. I love them!

Me and cute little Evelyn. We got along so well. She started to cry on the last day of school saying she would miss me. I miss her too... I'm having withdrawls from this cute girl.

Antonio and me.

Girls night! Cicely, Sadie, Cassie and I had our regular as possible when we are all in town girls night. We try to get together as often as possible. We are blowing out candles because all of our birthdays are close so we did a combined birthday/girls night.

Here we are devouring our homemade "Never on a Sundae" ...so so so so good!

On May 26th my Grandma Lyman passed away. It was a bitter sweet day. She was in a lot of pain and needed to go on but we sure do miss her. What a blessing it was to help take care of my grandma in our home before she passed away. A special spirit and experience I will never forget. Her and Grandpa finally got to be reunited after 14 1/2 years. We will miss grandma.

Exactly 12 hours after Grandma Lyman passed away little Dresden LuAnn Keate was born. This is my older brother Justins little girl. She is darling.

After seeing Dresden at the hospital me and my two cousins Kelli and Karen ran the St. George midnight 5k run. Since it was the midnight 5k they gave us glow in the dark stuff to run with. It was a lot of fun. I will be doing another 5k July 15th.

A couple days later we drove up to Delta and had my Grandma Lymans viewing and funeral. My grandma looked gorgeous. She was 91 but sure didn't look it. These are all my uncles and aunts and mom around my grandmas casket at the viewing.

When we got back from Delta Derek and I went on a double date to hike Kolob Canyon with ...

... this lovely couple. Cicely and McCabe. They are getting married exactly one week before Derek and I...which is kind of funny becausue Cicely and I have been best friends all our lives and always jokingly planned a double wedding... what are the odds we would be married a week apart from each other. We have so much fun with them.

Since then we have been shopping for wedding stuff like crazy. Derek and I were taking care of my two nephews but also needed to do some shopping for the bridesmaid outfits... SO ... basically I shopped and Derek and the boys hung out patiently in the store waiting for me to be done. Good male bonding time.

Well...thats what has been happening in my life. Its been a crazy roller coaster with lots going on but its been a great ride! I'll keep you updated!

Did I tell you the news...?

I have had some pretty huge things happen in my life lately that I would share with you all if you haven't already heard. Did I tell you that...

I moved out of my parents home into a town home? Yup...here it is. It's pretty dang cute. I love it! Me and my cousin Kel are roomates and we also have two other girls that live with us. It's been a blast.

I'll give you a tour of our house... This is our front porch...

After you walk in the door you come right into our living room.

And then head into our kitchen ...

Then we head upstairs to where our room is. Me and my cousin share the master bedroom. It doesn't even feel like I'm sharing a room because it's so roomy. P.S. Kel is probably one of the funnest roommates ever. We've already had a blast.

This is my corner of the room...

The part of our room with our little desk/TV/ and walk in closet.

This is our bathroom...my all time favorite feature is how big our shower is. Sometimes I take an extra long shower just to take it all in. I love our shower.

And this is our walk in closet. I love having a walk in closet. We have tons of space between the two of us.

Now on with the other exciting news...

I turned 23! Not really all that exciting. I feel the same I did as at 22. But people say one year older and wiser too... This is me and my nephew Gavin at my party my family had for me.

Me opening presents. Derek came too and made my birthday a great day! :)

Did I tell you... I bought my very first and very own piano!?! I love love love love love it! It is cherry oak wood and looks just gorgeous in my new home. I now have my students come to my house to teach lessons. And I got a great deal on it!

I got a new job! I will be teaching FULL TIME (Yay!) out at the Three Peaks Preschool next year. I am so excited about my new job! I went and met the 3 other wonderful preschool teachers out there and they are just fantastic. I'm so excited. And its only 5 minutes away from my new apartment (we are right by the hospital).

Since I moved out of my house I also moved out of my ward (which means I am released as Relief Society President) and I also moved into the 2nd stake. It's a pretty fun ward from what I can tell.

I also am taking some classes through Utah State. Most classes are online and I will probably go up occasionally to some in person classes. I'm getting a special education degree. When I'm done with that (which will be in a year and a half) I will have earned my Masters in the duel major of Elementary Education and Special Education Early Childhood Education. Some people would find that bad news...but I don't mind still going to school while teaching

... I love to continue to learn.

And finally here are some pictures that I just haven't posted. For Easter weekend we had a big hunt and also went to the aquatic center for the first time. This is the cake I made for the Easter festivities.

I think thats all the updates so far. It's been a crazy past month and a half but I'm doing great, I'm loving life, and I'm blessed to have all these wonderful things come into my life. Til next time...

Gettin' Lucky in Kentucky

I was able to go to Lousiville, Looavul, LouEville, Luhvul, Looeyville (who knows how you really say it... we asked several people and they all gave us different answers) Louisville, Kentucky. Anyway... I was able to go therefor 5 days for a work conference. I had so much fun. My friend Cassie came and kept me company. I only went to conference for 2 days for a couple hours each day and the rest of the time was ours to explore life in Louisville. Here are a whole load of pictures of our trip.

The very first picture of our trip I made Cassie take. For those of you who love LOST... I kept talking about how us waiting to get on the plane reminded me of all the flashbacks on LOST where it shows all the individual lives of all the characters. WELL...right after saying that I looked over and saw a John Locke look alike! For those of you who don't know John Locke he is one of my favorite characters. I had to get a picture with this guy without letting him know what we were doing. You can be the judge but I thought it was a sign we were going to be the

next flight 815.

My very first taxi ride ever (Man are they expensive... Good thing the district gave me their credit card...buses are much much cheaper.)

As you all know they have the Kentucky Durby in Kentucky...therefore ALL OVER

Lousiville they have horse statues about every block. You will see several of those in this blog.

These are our cool shirts that we bought... "May the horse be with you" and "I used to be cool"

...and a couple more horse pictures

The view from our hotel was looking over the Ohio River. The river is about a mile wide and on the other side of it is Indiana. One night we went out on the open space they have to overlook the river and took a bunch of pictures. It was beautiful. They also had random statues here that we took advantage of taking several pictures with.

This is a random statue of a guy with a gun and dead ducks... they

have some pretty weird statues in Lousiville...but we liked them.

This is 4th street live. It's famous in Louisville because it "comes alive" at night. You can only get in with an ID after a certain time and they have tons of entertainment. It is a really cool street and we had a lot of fun. We went and ate at Hard Rock Cafe too... Mmmm.

This are just some random pictures taken throughout our many adventures.

If you look closely you can tell that this limo is totally blinged out. I don't think there was hardly any of it that was not covered with jewels. Southerners like style I guess...

This is me contemplating why the heck there is a random chandelier hanging at the street corner as if it were a light post.

Now this was by far my FAVORITE place in all of Kentucky. The Louisville slugger museum. The tour was amazing. It had some really cool artifacts in it and then we went on the tour and saw them make all the bats that they make for the MLB. While we were there they were doing an order for Andre Ethier. It was amazing...got me excited for baseball season.

Me and Babe Ruth. They had a really cool actual game bat of Babe Ruth's there that he made a mark on every time he hit a home run in a season. That was one of my favorite artifacts. It was an amazing museum.

Me holding Micky Mantles game bat. That was pretty cool... you have to wear special gloves so the oils on your hands don't get it dirty over time.

The giant bat outside of the Louisville slugger museum. The bat is 120 feet tall!

We went to the Louisville Science center. While there they had a HUGE Star Trek Museum that was going on that we got to tour through. They wouldn't let us take any pictures in the actual museum though because of copyright stuff. All the stuff in the museum was the original artifacts used through the filming of Star Trek. It was awesome. Beam Me up Scotty!

They also had this cool contraption at the science center. You could enclose yourself in a bubble. This is the best picture we could get.

This is Cassie and I at Church Hill Downs. We didn't get to see any horse races but it was so cool to see where they hold the Kentucky Derby. It was beautiful there!

And finally...back home in the Salt Lake City airport. It was a gr

eat trip and I have decided I LOVE the south and back east. Such nice people. We had a great trip! Bye ya'll!