as of lately...

Things have been crazy these past couple weeks! I love Summer so much but I feel since it's such a busy time of year it goes by so fast! Especially this summer as I am now planning a wedding I seriously can't believe that June's almost over.

Here's a few things I've been up to lately:
Celebrated Grandpa Garlick's 80th Birthday!

Baby Lexi's Baby blessing! I'm so lucky to have a 2nd beautiful niece. 

Went to the Tulip Festival for the first time with these lovely ladies and cute little man! It was gorgeous and was a lot different than I'd expected it would be. 



Russ got his first nephew as Raziel Belliston was Born on May 23.

Went horseback riding up American Fork Canyon. 

Working, working, and more working!! Work has been insane lately and I feel exhausted 24/7. And apparently I'm not the only one cause towards the end of a 12 hour shift I looked over and found my aide like this. Seriously, it's been rough.

Went down and played with Ash, Jake and the kids on dad's farm. We took the 4 wheeler and the kids loved it. Jax would get off and immediately start asking again "Russ you take me on ride?" He loves Russ.

Celebrated Pony Express Days in Eagle Mountain by attending the Chris Cagle concert! he was amazing live and despite the wind and my crazy allergies it was a blast! Ending the night with fireworks was an added bonus! God bless country music : )

Found our wedding venue! I'd almost given up hope on getting a barn when my mom found this beauty! So many things about this place is heaven sent. I'm so excited!!! 

Started to have the families mix as we took Russ's dad to dinner at my parents one Sunday night. Ended with a ping-pong tourney that the two "old guys" ended up dominating. Kudos Dads!







Tanner broke his foot a couple weeks ago without knowing it, walked around on it for a long time. He had surgery and hasn't been having much activity lately so I convinced him to lay out with me one afternoon while I wedding planned.

 

continued to get spoiled by Russ! His dad and him had gone for a dirt bike ride one night while I was at work and when I came out to my truck after a rough night (see previous mentioning of crazy work) I found these. He never fails to surprise me.

Finally took the boat out!! It was a beautiful day and we slacked in the sunscreen department that left me afraid to take our engagements 3 days later. luckily the sunburn faded and the peeling waited till after the photo shoot. I don't have the pictures back yet these are just pics that channy had snapped during the shoot that I've edited. But I can't wait to see the real deal. Our photographer Lindsey Orton is amazing!

This one has been a rough/sensitive spot for the week. While I was at work Sunday night Russ had to take his dog that he's had since he was 12 years old to be put down. Ruger was such a great lovable dog but had started to show signs of being sick a while ago. She would appear to be better one day then worse then next. We'd made a vet appointment for June 12 but knowing her age was afraid they were going to tell us to put her down anyways. Russ came home Sunday night to find her the worse she's been in weeks and called me to tell me he couldn't take it anymore and he was taking her to be put down. That was a rough night, I felt horrible being stuck at work as Russ had to drive his best buddy of about 14 years down by himself. We're gonna miss Ruger but it's been nice to know she's not hurting anymore and I think she's up there running around and exploring with Russ's best friend Rob.

Mission Calls! Things are very exciting in the Olsen household these days as Tanner got his mission call to Peru leaving Sept 11, while Channy got hers to San Fernado California leaving August 28! I'm so proud of both of them and I'm excited to see what each of these places hold for them 






that one time I got engaged:

I'm engaged! On May 22 Russ pulled off a huge surprise and proposed without me having any idea!

He had talked to my older sister Ashlee to scheme in with him, and then had her bait me to think that it would come earlier than it really did. For example: On May 20, 2013 Russ and I celebrated a whole year of dating (whoo!). When I saw ash that day she was being all sorts of weird hinting that I may be getting engaged that night. Well I didn't but we celebrated a great year together anyways : )

I had bought us a couples massage to celebrate our "one year anniversary" and called and scheduled them that Tuesday for the following day (may 22) after Russ got off work. Russ called me back after I told him the time and he asked if we could reschedule since it was going to be so nice outside we should go fourwheeling instead. Seeing as how I had to work the whole upcoming weekend I was all for playing outside. So I rescheduled the massages, had my family bump up the family dinner on Wednesday and had everything ready to go for that night.

Russ got off work, we loaded the 4 wheeler and picked up some subway sandwiches on our way up the canyon. Russ had suggested going up by Cascade Springs ( an area we'd been frequently), but when we took off down a random road and kept going I didn't recognize where we were. I'd ask Russ where we were going and he'd brush it off like " I dunno, we're just going". We saw some moose, stalked in on one then as we got on this rough terrain headed uphill the 4-wheel box jimmied open and I found a blanket. We have never packed a blanket four wheeling before but as it was quite windy that night I believed Russ when he said that he brought it in case I got cold. aw cute ( I fell for it).  Next thing I know we're on top of a mountain overlooking Deer Creek. We pulled out the blanket and sat down among the wildflowers to eat our Subway sandwiches. I'll be honest-the whole time we were eating I was more concerned glancing behind me watching for the moose we'd seen a ways back by the road. I was certain he would come investigate us.

It was starting to get dark so I started hinting at leaving seeing as how we now had quite the long trek back to the truck! I snuck off to find a bush and when I came back he had gotten the blanket out again and was standing in the middle of this certain spot. He called me over saying "I just realized something come here" Curious as to what had happened with the plan of going home I wandered over and he stood there and embraced me in the blanket. "I just realized this is exactly where we stood on our first date."
(Flashback: on our first date we had ended the night by offroading up a steep dirt road right off the canyon road near deer creek dam and had climbed to the top of the mountain before standing in the back of the truck wrapped up in a blanket overlooking Heber, Deer Creek, Wallsburg, etc...)
I had been so obsessed with the dag um moose that I hadn't even realized it! We were in the exact same spot as we stood over a year ago. Russ had gone around the back side of the trail so I wouldn't know where we were going. He began saying cute things and clueless me played devils advocate to his remarks teasing him etc... I held him tight and looking back now I realize he was trying to get away from me to be able to get down on one knee and I only kept pulling him closer. Until he finally wiggled away and said some amazing things about how he felt when we had stood in the exact same spot over a year ago. He started to get down on one knee and honestly that's when the tears came. I was so surprised I kept saying "what are you doing? what are you doing?"! I saw my beautiful ring and stared at him as he asked me to marry him. I said yes and then the hugging and kissing began....etc.... blah blah blah : )

We took pictures and then I swear to you I looked over and all I saw was a big head and eyes and yup there was that moose. Turns out we weren't alone for our little engagement afterall.
It was the perfect night and as we drove back down the mountain I got filled in on all the secrets I'd missed out on the past 3 weeks. For example: Russ taking my dad to dinner to ask for his blessing, Ash meeting up with him to give him ideas of what kind of rings I like, etc... Turns out he was going to propose on May 20, but Ash thought I'd be expecting it so he told her to play it up and then he wouldn't do it until Wednesday. However, most of the people he knew were expecting it on May 20th so I can only imagine how many people were thinking I'd said no when we never announced anything.
I'm so excited!! This is a crazy time in our lives and now I'm doing something I never thought I'd be doing: planning a wedding! So keep your schedules open cause I'm tying the knot with this handsome man on August 3, 2013!!!!!