The Time We Got Engaged

A year ago today, er...yesterday (I'm a little behind getting this posted), Garrett asked me to marry him. It was such a fun night! The time leading up to that night was fun too. For old times sake, I wanted to write a little blog post about the night Garrett proposed and touch on some of the events leading up to that night.

Come time that Garrett proposed, we had been "pre-engaged" if you will, for about a month. We talked about marriage for a couple of months before we really knew that it was the right time for us. Once we knew, we then knew that the engagement would be pretty short because Garrett's parents would be leaving on a mission in June, and we wanted to give them some time in between the two big events. Because of that, we already had the temple booked before a ring was even in the works. Funny, huh?

I was a little particular about the kind of ring I wanted, and Garrett was so nice about it. I gave him a picture of what I would love and he had it made. This is an important aspect to the story, because the wife of the jeweler that made the ring had a baby right in the period of time that he was making the ring. When Garrett told me that the jeweler's wife had had a baby and it would take an additional week to be done I totally believed him. Mostly because he forwarded their emails to me as an explanation, so I thought it wouldn't be done until the beginning of April. Come to find out, the story was true, but Garrett had changed the dates that him and the jeweler were talking about to get me thinking.

So here I am, mid March of 2013 when we are getting married in about two months, I wasn't going to have a ring for a few more weeks, and we desperately needed to take our engagement pictures for our invitations. So I scheduled a time to take our engagement pictures with our good friend and photographer, Kim, on March 27th knowing that I wouldn't have a ring by then and we agreed to just take a few more later when I had ring too just for fun.

March 23, 2013 was a Saturday and Garrett and I were both scheduled to work. We knew that we would do something later that night but didn't know what, but that wasn't abnormal for us. I got off work early, so I called Garrett thinking that we could do something earlier. He said that he was home helping his family with some yard work so he still wouldn't be back until later but he would call me when he was available. Later, when he was available, he said that our friend Ty needed some help for a school project so we were going to go to his apartment with some of our other friends and do this project. I told him that sounded like fun and thought nothing of it. Starting to see a pattern?

We got to our friend's apartment and everyone was already working on this art project. Ty explained that we needed to tape our names to a piece of paper and then paint over using random items to create "texture." Convincing, right? I went along with it and had a lot of fun! Garrett started taping his name on a piece of paper, and then the next thing I knew he had flipped the paper over and started taping, "ME." I just thought he didn't want to take the time to tape 7 letters on a piece of paper, so I didn't think anything of it. Again.

Everyone else was done with their artwork, but I was still taking my sweet time because I was having fun with it. Eventually I was told that we had to take a picture all together with our pictures and a couple of people had to go, so I needed to hurry. I finally finished and my paper was swept away to be held by the oven to expedite the drying. There were a few people outside taking tape off of their papers (or so I thought) while others were inside trying to get the tape off of mine.

Finally, everyone's pictures were done and we were situated to take a picture with all of our name paintings. All of our friends were standing behind us while Garrett and I were kneeling on the floor in front by ourselves. I remember turning around to make a comment that others could kneel by us to make sure everyone was in the picture (obviously not knowing what was going on...thankfully they weren't their in picture position). They brushed it off and I turned around to take the picture.

Still not knowing what in the world just happened, after this picture was taken everyone stood up and started to put their pictures in a pile. Ty had taken the picture and was making some comment about someone's face in the picture. I don't even remember what else was said really... I just remember going to look at the camera to see whoever it was in the picture making a funny face and seeing this picture

I was shocked! Completely flabbergasted! And slightly disoriented... For a second I didn't know what was going on, but then all of a sudden there were rose petals falling from the ceiling in a swirling motion (later I found out that they did this by putting the rose petals on the ceiling fan - clever!) and then Garrett was in the middle of the room on one knee. He pulled out a little box, and then he put it right back away and said, "Wait. I have a speech!" He was such a tease!

Then he said, "Jeni, after you were the one to ask me on our first date, and you were the one to hold my hand, and you were the one to kiss me... I thought that I would be the one to ask you... Will you marry me?" 

For those of you who know our history, this was so funny! It was so perfect and so fun! Of course I said yes and made him stand up and kiss me and the rest was all mushy, mushy, mushy.

Fun Fact: Ty told us to take the next picture with a serious face. It was for an assignment, so I complied. Which resulted in this picture

Another fun side note: My cute friend Krissi with Krissi Cook Films made a fun love story video for us  that we talk a little more about our story in. You can watch here of you'd like to.

The Bluffdale House: Saying Goodbye

A few months after Jake I turned 1-year-old, my family moved into our Bluffdale house. At that point, my parents had their whole family, all nine kids. Because I was so small, I don't remember the move. My Daddy tells us stories about moving in without any carpet, and eating Little Caesar's pizza while sitting on the plywood floor. 

My cute parents are on the brink of being empty nester's, but with my Daddy's blood clots and both of my parent's back pain, being in that big house and having that big yard was really hard. They sold the house and are now living in a city close by where just about everything is on one level (less need to use the stairs) and the only lawn they have is a tiny patch out front.

Unfortunately when the move started happening no one thought to take pictures before everything came down. Thank goodness we do have a few pictures of the house thanks to our cute friend Kim who took pictures when we celebrated before Jake left on his mission, and a few more from Miriam who is a family friend and my parent's realtor.

I wanted to share a few of the pictures that we have of that house

I love that wrap around porch!

I always loved that the huge bookshelf was the first thing you'd see walking in. Pictures don't do it justice!

The family room and kitchen

I love those swinging seats!

Some of my favorite details in the kitchen

I'll definitely miss this library

We've had a lot of really fun pictures that we've taken of our memories together in that house. I just wanted to share some of them that I have. They are in no particular order.

Note to my siblings: I know that some of you may not like some of these pictures  because they may seem embarrassing, but I think they're fun. So I used them anyway. :)

Getting our first cell phones from the New Year's Brownie

Our Thanksgiving replica of Brett while he was on his mission. This stayed up for a long time. Pretty creepy!

The traditional Christmas Eve Pyramid.

The ever-so-common picture in front of the fireplace :)

Before Dance Company Formal - Jakey was my date!

Ginger and the infamous finger-dinosaurs

Wait for it....

Definitely a remake of the original moment - but it was hilarious regardless!

Kari and her replica

Before a dance

The day the braces came off

We always been cool...

Cousin twins - a week apart

Darling sisters

Our little Jack-in-a-bucket :)

Michelle is the cutest and would make these signs for us and they would hang there for weeks :)

Momma's got swag ;)

I won't lie, the move was hard for all of us. It was weird watching each room be emptied. It was weird watching things be divided up to go to my siblings and me. It was even weirder to see the carpet, shelves, wood flooring and such removed while we were moving out. (My Mom was soo nice to let the new owners come in and start their remodeling before we were supposed to be out. Maybe a little too nice...)

So, in Bowman fashion, we decided to all went back to the house to "say goodbye." I know, this might seem weird, but it gave us the closure that we needed. Or maybe I should speak for myself and say that it gave me the closure that I needed.

Initially we wanted to go out the way that we came in, eating Little Caesar's pizza while sitting on the plywood floor, but it was Sunday so instead we bought Klondike bars the day before and ate them as we walked around the house. Then Dad and the boys took down the U.S. flag, as well as the U of U flag (yes, of course it was up!)

Chelsea and me proudly remembering the time we painted that bathroom by ourselves :)

We had to get one last picture in front of that fireplace!

The "Originals" after Dad and the boys took down the flags from the flagpole.

We've had some incredible memories in this house. We've learned, laughed, cried, experienced failures and triumphs; but most of all we've loved.

I know that regardless of where we're housed, our home will be wherever we are together. Although it's hard to say goodbye to memories, I am more grateful for the fact that the memories were created than I am sad to leave the place where they were created. I'm grateful to know that I have a family that loves me regardless of my weaknesses. I'm grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who allows us to love and be loved. Who has blessed us with minds that help us to keep our memories and create more. Who has blessed us with an incredible blessing of eternal life, and even more, eternal families.