2015 in Review

Well 2015 was an eventful year for us. I’m not even surprised that it flew by so quickly. Matt finished up his 3rd year in Dental School and started his journey towards the finish line. I started working on the Marketing Team at Missouri Star Quilt Company and hit my 5-year anniversary with the company. We spent countless hours at the gym trying to counteract my habit of cooking more food than we can eat. We went on spring break to Ikea here in KC and treated ourselves to some gardening tools; it was a party. We then used those gardening tools and planted a wildflower garden in a small patch behind our apartment. It grew much wilder than we had planned and by the end of summer we had flowers taller than us. Who knew that a wildflower mix would really grow wild? The lawn care guys weren’t too pleased with our addition to the property. We used the wedding gift from Matt’s parent’s and went on a cruise to the Eastern Caribbean where we ate too much food, swam with sting rays, zip lined through Costa Rica, went horse back riding down the beach and collected all the sand and shells we could sneak back onto the boat. 

We tested out our parenting skills and babysat like champs for some extra dough on more occasions than we can count. We parted ways as teachers for the Valiant 11 Sunday School Class and I joined the Primary Presidency after being the Assistant Girl’s Camp Director and Matt took the daunting task of Seminary Teacher for the school year. We lost Matt’s wedding band in a blow up obstacle course, prayed like crazy and retrieved it a week later. That was truly a miracle! We vacationed to Schlitterbahn and rode the world’s tallest waterslide, Verrückt and it was awesome. We got two kittens and named them Batman and Robin. They stole our hearts and continue to steal many hours of our sleep. We cheered for the Royals and bonded with the entire city over our boys in blue. We then searched relentlessly for special edition World Series Shatto Bottles and were unsuccessful.  We raced in a 5k Wipeout Run and finished strong with a kiss at the waterslide finish line. 

We hit our one year anniversary and surprised each other with roses. Bacon roses for Matt and real ones for me. Thanks to my sister, we were able to treat our selves to dinner and a movie! We made our Halloween Costumes from scratch and scared the neighborhood kids when we dressed up like Jack and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas. We’re already brainstorming for next year.

We watched all of the Star War movies in chronological order for the first time in my life. I surprised myself when I became excited for the next movie to come out!. We spent Thanksgiving at my parent’s house and ate nothing but leftovers for an entire week. My mom really knows how to cook for an army! Matt devoted most of his time to studying and passed the second set of National Dental Board Exams, leaving him with a single semester of school left before he’s officially Dr. Connell. We spent Christmas at Matt’s parent’s and played the rolls of an angel and a Shepard in the family nativity on Christmas Eve. Matt’s sister put together a whole program with narrators and music. Matt made me cry when he sang a solo, “What Child Is This?” while his sister played violin. 2015 was a great year for us. We smiled everyday. We laughed until we cried.

We learned more and grew closer together. We made new friends and spent time getting to know our family better. We helped each other accomplish goals and continued to better ourselves. Cheers to an ever better year in 2016.

The Proposal

WARNING!!!! 

This may be one of the most sappiest blog posts you've ever read. Viewer discretion advised. 

I wanted to start a blog about Matt and I so here I am... :) I'll probably change the name a million times but for now it's Sweeter than Candy. M&M  (because it's Matt and Morgan) pretty cute.

Many people have been asking about the proposal, but I wanted to backtrack a little bit first. Here is a very brief timeline. (I'll backtrack and blog about the time between us meeting and getting engaged when I find the time) If you want to skip to the proposal, go to where it says "START HERE" 

February 3rd- We met at Crown Center while ice skating. How romantic right?? This love story just starts out like a movie... :) We spent hours skating in circles until it was time to go, but we never had a quiet moment, we had a great conversation from start to finish. We were then texting nonstop that night, the next day and the days to follow. (Snow storm couldn't of been more perfect!!! He had time off school and I was snowed in). I guess after we left, he text his sister and said something to the fact that he was in love and if we didn't get married it was because I said no to him. 

February 8th- Our first date -sledding and making some amazing breakfast. He asked me if I wanted to date other people and I said no. 

February 14th- You guessed it... we said "I love you."  He doesn't know this, but that was the first time that I told someone that and it had a deeper meaning. I wasn't saying it because I liked him, I said it because I had just met him but I KNEW that there was something more and I knew that he was going to be in my life for a very very long time. I knew that I loved him and he won me over 100% after those first few weeks. He was already my best friend and we had talked more in those few weeks than I even knew was possible. I don't do long distant relationships. Well I didn't before I met him.... I had never been more excited, happy and honestly confused as to what I wanted in life than that night. Before we met, I had my priorities set on work, going back to school in Hawaii and starting my career before I even thought about a serious relationship. Well here I am, months later, not back in Hawaii and planning a wedding because i'm an engaged woman now :) What the heck? Funny how plans and priorities change when the person who you are meant to marry skates into your life.... (no pun intended)

Back to the timeline--

And then every weekend and sometimes weeknights when our schedules aren't overloaded between then and now we've been together. Our dates have included long boarding, movie night and dinner, going to a drive in, King Tut Exhibit, KC Symphony, watching White Collar until both of us are about to pass out (usually just me, but I feel bad for being such party pooper and falling asleep on dates haha), road tripping to Omaha and Lake of the Ozarks to see family, eating Sushi like it's nobodies business and the list goes on and on. 

We've made it a priority to spend every weekend together and I love that fact.

Last weekend was the best one of all though. 

***START HERE****

I was supposed to go on a Canoe trip with my church Thursday morning-Saturday. Matt was going to drive over 3 hours from his parents house (already a 3 hours trip from kc) to pick me up Friday night or Saturday morning so I could spend time with him and his family at the lake. What a babe!!! But plans changed and some things came up at work that I couldn't leave, so instead I just left a little early from work on Friday and we were lake bound. 

We spent all of Friday and Saturday in the water and having a great time. Saturday morning Matt told me that him and his sister made me an appointment to get my nails done. I didn't suspect anything of it because I didn't think that he had talked to my dad yet and he wasn't acting like something was out of the ordinary, so I was excited to get a little spoiled and be pampered. On the way to get my nails done, we passed the turn off for "Ha Ha Tonka" he said that if we had time, we could stop by on the way back to his parents house. Well after we were finished and I was smiling from ear to ear with excitement of having nice nails again, we stopped for Andy's ice cream because I had to treat him since he had just spoiled me. We both ate so much that we felt sick afterwards but he was on a mission and I didn't even know it. On the way to Ha Ha Tonka, I told him I didn't feel good at all, I was serious. I had ate so much for lunch, and then that ice cream topped it off. I felt gross. But we made it to Ha Ha Tonka where I was happy to get some fresh air and walk around. It wasn't far into the little trail that we came to a land bridge where there was music playing, white lanterns with lights in them hanging and candles lit. Me, still being oblivious to the fact that I was about to get proposed to, thought it was for someone else and told him repeatedly that we shouldn't continue and that I didn't want to ruin whatever was going on for whoever. He was determined to get me down there and he did. We danced in the surreal environment to the music that was playing until it stopped. He then tried to connect his phone to the bluetooth speaker and it was then that I realized just what was going on. He was shaking uncontrollably as he tried to connect his phone :) But instead, he turned the volume up on his phone and we danced to my favorite song, Come to Me by the Goo Goo Dolls. This is the song if you haven't heard it... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m2R6CLkvyQ

When he started playing that, I couldn't help but start to cry because I knew what was to follow.  We danced until the song was over and then he turned the volume down on his phone and talked to me about how much I meant to him. It was the sweetest thing that's ever happened to me. He then pulled out the ring, got down on one knee and used my full name. He asked if I would spend the rest of forever with him and I said yes before he even had time to put the ring on my finger, I was hugging him and making us practically fall over because of the uneven ground we were on. (And the fact that I basically tackled him) Then we laughed and I was crying like a baby and when I stood up again he put the ring on my finger and I cried even more. The whole event was captured on camera by his sisters Melissa and Mandi. (They also set up the scene) Matt asked them to join us after everything was over, so they came out from behind some trees one in a green sweatsuit and one in a brown one. Bless their hearts for being bundled up when it was super hot and super humid! Plus, Melissa is pregnant!!! But they came out and continued to take pictures of us.  After we took some pictures, we started to take everything down and pack up the area. As soon as the box was closed and we were about to head out, it started pouring!!!

So Matt and I went and danced and kissed in the downpour while Mandi and Melissa dug out the cameras for round two. :) It couldn't of been more perfect timing for everything! When we were soaked and everything was packed up again, we took off running for the cars. We started to run across the highway when Matt pulled me back and oh you know... just saved my life :) Seriously though, I wasn't paying attention and if I would of kept running, would of been hit by the car that was about to drive by. But the car slammed on it's breaks and motioned for us to cross the road so we held hands and ran like crazy to the car. When we got in, I was laughing hysterically at the fact that I was just proposed to when I didn't expect it, we were soaking wet and I almost got hit by a car within 5 minutes of getting engaged.

We went back to his parents house, I called my family, and then I made the grand announcement over social media. Simply the best weekend ever. Even after a series of unfortunate events happened. (I had tried to be cool and dive off the dock, when I ended up doing a belly flop (I now have a big bruise on my thigh from that... OUCH). Also his dad said something to the fact of "It's that serious already?" as a conversation about wedding plans were discussed the night before the proposal. (I later found out he was being ornery and said that to throw me off. Which worked.) I also felt sicker than sick just minutes before the big event. But everything turned out great and I couldn't of asked for a better way to be asked :) Matt surprised me and here I am, Wednesday night, still smiling uncontrollably over the whole thing and staring at my ring finger as I type this.

I'm beyond blessed. I love Matt and I'm so happy to spend the rest of forever with my best friend and soon to be husband.