Merry Christmas!
My dad passed this video onto me, and I thought I'd share it with you too. It was produced by BYU, and it's beautiful!





I also thought I would share something silly that I thought of.. but in spanish, the word "mas" means "more"... soooo, lately I have been thinking of ChristMas as meaning More Christ, or a reminder to myself to think of Christ More. I have challenged myself this Christmas to think of Christ more with this reminder. This silly little explaination has helped me remember to think of him with every 'Merry Christmas' I see and hear. If it helps you to get into the real spirit of the season too, I hope you remember ChristMore as well :) Merry ChristMore!!

A Season for Angels

Hi Everyone!
As many of you know, I am in a performance choir called Latter-Day Celebration Choir at the Orem Institute of Religion. This weekend we are performing our annual Christmas show, which is the story of Christ's birth, presented in pageant format. The music is beautiful, and the entire program is very uplifting! It is the perfect thing to get you in the spirit of Christmas!

We have two shows tonight, one at 6pm and one at 8pm, and then two tomorrow (Sunday), also at 6 & 8pm. It is located at the Orem Institute of Religion on UVU campus in Orem.

If you can, please come and share in the Christmas season with us!

WE'RE ENGAGED!!

Nathan Proposed last night!

It was so cute, He set up a gorgeous candle-lit dinner at his house (with the help of his mom and sisters, I might add.. props, guys!) When I got there, I wasn't expecting anything, but as soon as I saw the whole set up, I had a pretty good guess what he was up to! Surprisingly, I got pretty nervous when I realized that he was actually going to propose.. and so soon! However, when he didn't do it during dinner, I was getting a little bit impatient...

After dinner, he suggested we go on a walk. So, we bundled up and went for a walk up to the Timpanogos Temple. He lives about a 20-30 minute walk from the temple, and we often walk there together.

When we got to the temple, we were sitting there and talking, and I was expecting him to drop to his knee at any moment.. However, after only sitting there for maybe five minutes, he said "Well, are you ready to go?"

...at this point I'm so confused! And a little impatient!
We walked around to the north side of the temple, and he stopped me and kissed me. Then he started being goofy, putting his hat on me and taking pictures with his cell phone (I was even more confused at this point because he was acting so goofy!) But then, after a minute, he said "Katy, I have a question for you." Then he dropped to one knee, and pulled out the most GORGEOUS ring ever! I started crying (Of course, that is SO me.) And when he said "Will you marry me?" Of course I said "Yes yes yes yes!!!" Then he asked me if he could put the ring on my finger because I was just standing there blubbering. It took a couple of minutes to actually hit me that WE ARE ENGAGED!!! Ahhhhhhhh!!! We were both smiling and skipping and saying "We're getting MARRIED!!"

Nathan called the Salt Lake temple today, and we already have the date: March 13th! This happens to be Friday the thirteenth, which was absolutely a coincidence since we decided to get married on the Friday before spring break. When we opened up the calendar, low and behold.. Friday the Thirteenth. I'm not scared though. Take that, Superstition!! :)

Mark your calendars! I want you all there!

The Best Week of my Life So Far!

That's right! Nathan is home! He got home on the 28th (Tuesday), and ever since then I have been meaning to blog.. but for some strange reason I have been verrrry busy lately ;) haha!

So here is how it all happened!
Tuesday, I worked pretty late (on purpose. I needed to keep my mind occupied). When I got home, I fixed myself up cute, and waited for the phone to ring. Nathan and I had agreed that we'd see each other after he was released, and without other people around. I thought I would be embarrassed with everyone watching me get emotional, or if people had expectations and it was awkward, I didn't want to have witnesses.

But it didn't happen that way...

Nathan's mom called me around 8:30pm and said that his appointment to be released had been pushed back to 9pm, and Nate was wondering if I wanted to come to the release.. but that it would be okay if I didn't too... just whatever I felt like. I just said it was up to him (even though I was dying to just jump in the car and race over there). He said he was fine either way, but that it would be really nice if I were there... So I jumped in the car and raced over there! Haha.

When I saw him for the first time, it was everything that I thought I didn't want. He wasn't released, so I couldn't hug him, and we had an audience of probably 10 people just staring at us. However, it wasn't embarrassing and horrific like I thought it would be! It was wonderful! It was hilarious! It really helped break the ice, actually! We were just kinda standing two or three feet apart and I was smiling and crying and he was smiling and not saying anything... and everyone was laughing! Then we shook hands for a few minutes (no really, we were shaking them!) as I continued to cry a little while the Ives' family friend Eric fed us lines like "Oh Nathan, it is so good to see you!" "I am so glad you are here!" etc. It was very funny, and perfect. I am so glad it happened the way that it did.

We went over to the stake center next and he was released, and it was great. It seemed so anti-climactic though, when the stake president was just like "well, okay then... you can take off your name tag. You're now released." I felt like there should be some big ta-do.. but after ALL of that time and service, it is just like "well, there ya go! You're done!" haha.. Of course he interviewed him for a while and talked to him more besides that.. but it was nice anyway.
The stake president gave him permission to hug me as we left the office, which was pretty funny (but awesome)... and ever since it's been perfect ;)

We went and saw my parents later that night too, which was so nice. I made Nathan ride in my bug with me to try and convert him to how awesome it is. He's always said he hated bugs so much, but I couldn't resist getting one when I needed a new car! I think it is growing on him because he has never really complained, even though I've given him a hard time about it ;)

The next night we carved pumpkins at his sister Rachel's house, which was really fun. I was all but dying at work all day to see him.. and I managed to control myself to just calling him once that afternoon.

Today I took the day off of work and we spent the whole day together. I only have one class on Thursdays and he came with me. We also went shopping for some MUCH NEEDED new clothes, which he let me pick out to my liking (yes it was SO fun, and he looks SO handsome). We then went to my Latter-Day Celebration Choir Halloween Party at my choir director's house. We dressed up as Samoans with our real Samoan clothes! I wore my Puletasi that he sent me the fabric for on my birthday. He said it was the most beautiful puletasi he has seen! (Hee hee.. I think he's probably a little biased, but it did turn out REALLY great.)

I am so happy he is home! I feel like smiling at every single person I pass in the hall or on the street. Everything is so much better than I ever let myself hope they would be! I was so afraid to let my hopes get too high before I knew what would actually happen.. but I never could have dreamed it could be this good!

I really wish I had brought my camera with me the night he came home! I forgot it as I flew out the door, but I've taken several pictures since for your enjoyment!

Here we are in our traditional Samoan Clothing:

Carving pumpkins at Rachel's house:

His new instrument of choice, the Ukulele:

Some of Nate's new clothes:

Here is a cute cute video I took of Nathan playing his Ukulele for me on Wednesday night:

666.. but not the beast!

This was a tag from my Cousin Bethany. You pick the 6th pic out of your 6th file and post it. Then tag 6 of your friends to do the same!

Here's Mine:
This is Cara and Caitlin.. two sisters and my fabulous friends! Caitlin and I lived together in Provo for about 8 months. Caitlin and I drove to Santa Cruz, CA in the summer of 2007 to stay with her family for a week, and this picture was taken on Sunday, right before we went to church. That was probably one of the most fun vacations I have ever been on! Not only did we just bum around the gorgeous beaches of Santa Cruz, we also got to go up to San Francisco, which was amazing. I love these girls!

I am tagging Ellen, Beverly, Tara, Jenny, Gina, and Chelesta


In other news, Nathan comes home on Tuesday! That's four days! Ahhh!!! I am so so so giddy about it. -Don't worry, I will blog about it after ;)

So Cute!!

Okay, I absolutely LOVE this commercial. I had to post it. Enjoy!

Good Ol' Fashioned Love Song

I've been thinking a lot about love songs lately. Why are there so many of them? Why are they all so different, and yet all so very alike? I know that I have my favorite love songs, but I wanted to know what other people considered to be a 'good love song'. So, I cast my net wide on facebook, looking for lots of different recommendations for other people's favorite love songs. I was quite surprised that I got a windfall of responses! For several days, people have been sending me literally LISTS of their favorites. I decided to compile some of these into a playlist HERE on my blog!

If you look to the right, you will see my playlist ------------->
(Sorry if it is a little difficult to scroll through. You can make the list scroll by clicking on the song at the bottom of the list, thus moving it to the top and scrolling in the process!)

I took at least one or two suggestions from each person, and made what I think is a really fun selection of eclectic love songs! Have fun browsing through them, and if you would like to share your favorites too, leave me a comment and I might add them to the playlist!