Merry Christmas!

     Dan and I had a great Christmas together - Mass on Christmas Eve, followed by games and visiting with Dan's brother Mike, his sister Dawn and her family.  The next day we opened presents with the kids, watched "The Grinch" and had a delicious dinner - I can't stop thinking about those cheesy potatoes!

     On the way home, we visited Dan's mom's grave - Christmas was her favorite holiday, and she did it better than anyone I've ever known!  It wasn't the same without her, and it never will be, but it was comforting to remember her with some of Dan's family.  Dawn brought out the Christmas photo albums so Dan could tell me about his mom's favorite traditions.  We miss you Donna!

We have a reception site!

Our reception will be held at Frogtown Park in Cold Spring - about 20 minutes outside of St. Cloud.  It's a beautiful park with lots of trees, a pretty view of the river, and a small playground for the kids.  It also has a brand new shelter with a full kitchen so we can save money by doing the food ourselves!  Of course we'll have the traditional wedding dance - our ring bearer made it a requirement :) - but we'd also like to have lawn games like croquet and horse shoes - fun, huh?  It's exciting to have the site chosen and booked - another big item checked off the to do list!  We're looking forward to celebrating with you!

National Guard Family Christmas Party

Every year, at the December drill, Dan's National Guard unit hosts a Christmas party for the soldiers' families.  This picture is at final formation - Dan is second from the left, next to the guy in the burgundy shirt.  It was fun to get to know some of the other families and meet the head of our Family Readiness Group.  But the best part was playing Munchkin with Braaten and Jumi!

Wedding plans! What we know so far:

Date:  May 26, 2012
Time: 2pm
Place: St. Mary's Cathedral in St.Cloud, MN

Reception to follow, but we're not sure where.  We're thinking about having breakfast food because it's our favorite :)  Make your own waffle bar with lots of yummy toppings, make your own breakfast bowl bar, mimosas, etc!

Colors: Daisy yellow and sage green

Honeymoon: We'll most likely head up to the Duluth area and rent a little cabin on the shores of Lake Superior.  More details to follow!

Registry: Since we already have all the essentials for setting up a home, we're looking into creating a honeymoon registry - I just have to figure out how :)

Less than 6 months to go!

How We Met

Dan and I met on CatholicMatch.com.  He had just returned from his second deployment to Iraq, and I had recently left a discernment program with the Poor Clares.  I don't think either of us was expecting too much from the online dating thing - we each wanted to meet people who shared our beliefs and values, and Catholic Match was a way to see who was out there - but from our first conversation, we knew we had found something special.  After a month or so of emails, text massages and phone calls, we met for the first time, and we've been together ever since!

Follow the Forming of Our Family!

I thought of this name for a blog just a few days after Dan and I got engaged, and I just couldn't wait until after the wedding to use it!  So I thought I'd get started now and use the blog to keep you updated on our wedding plans - less than 200 days to go!