Gettin' Hitched!

It was right before Kyle's 29th birthday and his older brother and I wanted to surprise him with Lucas and his fiancée Kendra joining us for dinner and a whole weekend of birthday fun! Kyle managed to find out about our surprise and tried to talk Lucas out of coming because he was planning on proposing that weekend (which also happens to be Valentine's Day) – but it didn't work. Now that Lucas was in on the plan, they still opted to continue with the trip to keep me in the dark.

*Back story – Kyle says that I'm hard to shop for (rude) so I send him gift ideas for me throughout the year, you know, just in case he wants to buy me things. I'm just thoughtful like that!

We had planned on going to Trezo Mare for dinner and my parentals were going to watch Emerson for us. I drop Emerson off at church (the one we're actually getting married at) with my sister and we start chatting. I mention to her about some of the Valentine's Day jewelry pictures I had seen on Facebook and I wondered out loud of Kyle had gotten me something like that (he was very secretive about my Valentine's Day gift, but insisted that I get it at dinner. This was the first inkling that I had that something big was going to happen that night.) SCO said that she thought that I might be a little disappointed with the gift he got me, but to keep in mind that he did try really hard. Then she hugged me. Something really was going to happen that night.

I was also giving my stepmom suggestions on when to put Emerson in her pajamas and when to feed her to make the transition of bedtime a lot easier since I wouldn't be nursing her like normal. She normally has zero issues with those types of suggestions but I felt like she was a little resistant. I remember thinking "why is it a big deal to put her in her pajamas before giving her the bottle?" She just kept saying "oh, we'll see. We'll make it work." Okay… Sure.

I went back home and Kendra and I got ready for dinner. It's not very often that I get to actually wash my hair and put product in it (thank you Emerson) so it was a very exciting affair. Once we were ready and were heading out the door, Kyle said "you look beautiful." What!? That doesn't happen unprompted very often. Something was DEFINITELY happening that night.

Over dinner (which was absolutely delicious by the way) Kyle handed me my gift box. I opened it up and it was a pull over monogrammed hoodie that I had sent him a link to several months ago – but it was monogrammed with me NEW initials KDM.

*Back story – I told him in the email that I didn't want the hoodie until we were married or at least engaged so I could wear it, without being a weirdo.

So I'm over here thinking "oh my gosh, what a perfect proposal! He's going to ask me to marry him! Nicely done babes!" Nope. I was wrong. He said "I know you can't wear this for a few years, but I wanted you to have it. I knew you really liked it." Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yes, I said okay about 10 times trying to wrap my brain around this. Okay. I LOVED the hoodie, but I was a little bummed. I totally understood what my sister meant – I was a little disappointed, but I could tell he had tried.

Fast forward to after dinner and we're heading to pick up Emerson. I was so annoyed with Kyle that I almost asked Kendra if she wanted to go with me to pick up Emerson and the boys could go home. I'm glad that I didn't. We're driving along and Kyle keeps bringing up the hoodie – "Are you sure you're not disappointed? You're really not mad?" – basically kept digging at me to get even more annoyed/upset. Salt meet wound. I'm trying so hard not to cry (I was really expecting a proposal at dinner! There were so many signs!) and I start texting one of my closest friends (Jenni) who I knew would be awake (keep in mind it's 11pm) about how disappointed I was and how upset I was getting. She said that it was the saddest thing she had ever heard and hoped that we could talk about it later.

We get to my dad's and walk downstairs. Right away I noticed was that Emerson was in her pack and play in the middle of the room – and there were CANDLES right next to her! "Why are there candles right next to my baby!?" was the first thing out of my mouth. As I'm walking over to pick her up (because she's fussing – and because there's FIRE right next to her) I notice that there is rose petals and candles lining the aisle leading up to her. I thought "oh, that's cute that my dad would do that for my stepmom!" I lean over to grab Em and I notice that she's not in her pajamas, but in an onsie that says "Mommy, will you marry my Daddy?" I turn around and Kyle is down on one knee with a ring. It was awesome. As soon as he did his proposal speech and I said yes (while crying) our song "Come to Me" by the Goo Goo Dolls starts playing on the TV and my dad pops out from the office, my stepmom out from behind the piano, and my sister comes crawling out from underneath the table! They had all been recording it. I can't imagine a better way to celebrate our love for each other and our commitment to our future. He really got me good!

*Back story – Kyle plays basketball on Monday nights. He had planned on lying to me (gasp!) to tell me that he had to stay late to ref a game after his was done, so that he could go to my dad's house and work out the kinks in the proposal plan. But, I had a last minute work obligation on the Sunday before 'Lie Day' so he was able to go then. He said that he was extremely grateful that I had to go into work because he knew that something would go wrong if he had to lie. Perfect timing.

Looking back at it, there really were a TON of hints that Kyle had dropped, in addition to all of my "feelings." We had driven by the place where he got the flowers and had said "oh wow, that looks like a good place to get flowers at." Our song was playing at Wendy's one day (totally romantic, I know) and I said "I hope you have that song playing at our proposal!" to which he responded with " oh, I totally already have that incorporated." – I thought he was joking. Turns out he wasn't. Well played.