Starting 2010 with a BANG!

Hello 2010! Here we are at the begining of a new decade! I myself cannot believe it! Anyways, January is now upon us, and that means, only 8 months until "I Do." So far the future Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Van Unen are on a bit of a roll. We have secured a pastor from our church to marry us on a Sunday late this Summer! :) (The date is still TBA until we confirm with the rep from our venue next week.) So watch for the blog which will announce our wedding date in the next few weeks!

Then there is my dress. Today I had my 2nd go around at David's Bridal and stepped into what very possibly is THE DRESS! I could hardly breathe! It was breathtaking, however, mom and me are still gonna hit three more shops, to see what else is out there; but I am pretty sure that my dress is the one I tried on today! Along with my dress, I am also trying to tackle the dresses for my MOHs! However, we are having a bit of an issue with color! So we shall see how that goes, as I have one MOH in SoCal and the other MOH I have here with me, is going to be leaving in March to go to Thailand for 8 weeks! So when she arrives back home in late June we will only have a few months to get last minute details in order.

In other news, the above photo of me was taken in October 2009,a few weeks after Daniel proposed. I went to the Engaged Wedding Library at Quarry Ponds located in Granite Bay! Well I just received an email today from the owner that my photo along with a few other local brides is going to be featured in a local Granite Bay magazine for the February 2010 issue! So exciting! Its not my best picture, but hey I couldn't get that goofy grin off of my newly engaged face at the time!

I love January as it is the begining of a new year, but also because it is our anniversary month! Yup! that's right, this January 12th will mark our 4 year anniversary! I am just so extremely happy, excited, in love, and over the moon to get to share my life with this amazing man!

Next week I will be on the hunt for another cake bakery, met with one baker, he was interesting...to say the least! and hopefully next week we will also announce our wedding date! Stay tuned...

Dinner's Ready...!

...well not yet anyways! So I am very excited because for Christmas we have received 2 cookbooks from our friends, to better prepare me for my adventures in domestic bliss! So far I have skimmed through each, I have looked seriously at the dessert recipes and have found some delicious soup and pasta dishes that just look out of this world. I think my first venture is going to be the Tortilla Soup. With all the cold weather it looks warm and comforting, and I <3 Tortilla Soup! Stay tuned and I will let you know how it goes!

In other news, I redid our blog, isn't it so cute! :)

Tuesday...!

One year ago today, I purchased my very first car, which I have given the name "Baby," why, I don't know! But I just know that this last year with my own pair of wheels has been amazing; and today we got the best 1st Birthday present ever: a lower insurance payment! Yay! :)

Here is our first picture together last year at the dealership!

In other news, today was my only day off, until Christmas, therefore I felt the need to give myself a bit of a pamper day which included a semi new haircut; just cleaned it up a bit added some texture and body but kept the length(I'm growing it out for my groom-to-be!). I then proceeded to celebrate my lowerd insurance payment and even went home browsing, not so much fun browsing for a future home alone, but I definitely found some amazing leads, and Daniel even agreed that they sounded amazing! So we are just going to enjoy these last few weeks of holidays and in January we are going to pound the pavement to find a place that we can make our first home together! I cannot believe that 2010 is almost here, and we all know what that means...I am getting MARRIED!!!!! OMG!!!!! Time is flying!

Cooking with Daniel

Hello all! Whew! What a fast day off, the day seriously just flew past me! However, it was super fun thanks to my other half, therefore this blog is dedicated to Daniel! :)

So while we are approximately 9 months away from newlywed bliss, today was a great lesson as to what we can expect the first few months of our new life together. I was visiting with Daniel before he went to work and he decided he was going to make us a snack. I of course was thrilled, because what girl doesn't love a guy who volunteers to make her something to eat. Anyways, we agreed on grilled cheese sandwhiches, so Daniel got out all of the ingredients and proceeded to make our snack. As I watched him I began to squirm with nerves because he was "making the grilled cheese wrong!" I asked him what he was doing and he was like making the grilled cheese, and I was like, that's not how I do it! So after showing each other how we each make grilled cheese sandwhiches, we came to the conclusion that we both "make it wrong," and we laughed over our snack as we discussed all of the things we do that are going to drive the other crazy once we are newlyweds!

Baby Steps!

Daniel and I had a fairly eventful week. On Wednesday we went to the Jeremy Camp, BeBo Norman, and Natalie Grant concert at ACC, which was AMAZING! Natalie Grant blew me away! When I won the tickets, I wasn't really familiar with any of the performers, but I must say that I quickly became a fan!

I also tackled Christmas shopping on Friday! My intention was to get it all done in that day...it so did not happen like that; I should've known better! Most of my afternoon was spent tracking down a certain item Dan really wants for Christmas, and while I am not too crazy about having it one day displayed in our home, I knew he really wanted it and I was thrilled when I finally got my hands on the last one in ALL of Sacramento! Yay!

But here is the heart of this blog post! I have been getting all kinds of advice and such about becoming a wife, and the one thing I have been yearning to do, is start cooking and baking, but my problem is finding the time! So this weekend I set aside the time after work and made my very first pie! I found the recipe on Foodnetwork's website and it is a must try for pumpkin pie lovers! It is a very simple no-bake recipe, and puts a great twist on the traditional pumpkin pie! So here is the recipe for Frozen Pumpkin Mousse Pie! http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/eating-well/frozen-pumpkin-mousse-pie-recipe/index.html

I cheated a bit and used an already made Graham Cracker Crust. I did brush an egg white on the crust and baked it for about 7 minutes to give a nice golden brown color.Bon Appetite! :)

Ain't no other Man its True...

Tonight Daniel and I spent the evening recalling the beginning of our relationship. Its so hard to believe that almost four years have gone by. But I must say that I feel like the luckiest girl in the whole world, actually, make that luckiest girl in the universe! Even though he is a sports fanatic and has an increadibly unique sense of humor, he is so amazing, and loving and a truly wonderful man, whom I love and adore and am so excited to share the rest of my life with. So this blog is for you my love...there is just something about you that caught my attention all those years ago, and to quote my favorite Christina Aguilera song..."ain't no other man but you!"

The countdown begins...!

So, its been quite a busy past few weeks! Monday marked our one month engagement anniversary! I know, one month has already snuck past us! Its nuts how quickly the time is flying by! Only 9 months to go. We have decided on August 2010, but the date is still TBA!

This week our task to tackle was deciding whether or not to create and send out engagement annoucements. We finally decided on yes, and then it came time to design them! We did a few examples, but have decided on a design and are quite pleased, so those will go out very soon. I am still very interested in making my own invitations as well and we will be creating a few rough drafts on Sunday. The plan was to do them on Wednesday, but annoucements took most of our time and attention. So Sunday will be invite creation day since the 49ers will not be playing a Sunday game! :) Finally , I get a much needed football break!

We have also gotten many best wishes and congratulations, as well as some other comments and advice. I have been given tons of interesting advice and have heard the strangest stories in regards to the first few years of being married. If being newlyweds is anything like being engaged, then its going to be full of changes and I know we are going to learn alot more about the other. Just being engaged has shown me many new facets of Daniel that I have never known before. We are so alike and so different in more ways than one, but that is what keeps us going strong. We're like peanut butter and jelly. Good on our own, but even better together! :)