Janelle & Ryan Engagement

Well family, the day has finally come.

I
AM
ENGAGED

Yes folks. Its true. You want all the details? Sweet. I'm going to give them to you! You get the "engagement story" first then can keep reading for the "dating story".

Wednesday morning Dad went into work, Caidin was at school and Mom decided to go visiting teaching. We were watching Jonny Lingo and at one point he got up to go to the bathroom. Yeah... right. I was suspicious when he went all the way upstairs to go when there's a bathroom 5 feet away. Then I could hear him puttering around upstairs. Then he finally came back downstairs but went into the living room first. We finished the movie then decided to go down and look at the temple.

I got ready to go but he was at the computer so I sat down at the piano to play for a few minutes while I waited for him to be done. He finished up, came and sat next to me while I continued to play. When I was finished he said, "Ok. Now I'm going to play you a song."

So he turned on "Kiss Me" and we began dancing like we always do. And then I got thinking "Oh Wow. THIS COULD BE IT!" When the song was over he said, "Ok, are you ready to go?" and then he turned around and I just thought, "Oh shoot!"

And then he started playing "Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not". This song is the one that I'd heard the day we started talking about marriage and I'd made him look it up and listen to it. It unofficially became our song. So we started to dance once again (I LOVE DANCING WITH HIM) Before long he told me he had one of my Christmas presents. Now, I had checked the Christmas tree earlier and no new Christmas presents were to be found under the tree. But he bent down and lifted up the tree skirt and pulled out THE RING BOX! Along with the words of the song, he got down on his knee and asked,

"Janelle Cheney, Will You Marry Me?

AHHHH! YES!

I started crying. And I couldn't stop hugging him. Or kissing him for that matter. Or smiling.

I am in love with the most incredible man. He is indescribably good to me. I know I can trust him and rely on him. He is handsome, intelligent, funny, loving, spiritual, and so much more! He is respectful. He is kind and generous. He is wise with his money. He is tender. He is a teaser.
I love his family. He loves my family.
And we love each other.

When we'd been dating for not very long, I knew that we were going to get married so I started to keep track of special dates in our lives.

May 15 - The day we met for the first time.

We met at church in the hall right outside the clerk's office. I had just filled out and turned in my records sheet. Him and his friend Charlotte were standing there chatting and introduced themselves.

From here out until about the end of July, we really didn't see much of each other or hang out. We didn't date or anything like that. He later told me he would've loved to date me earlier and wanted to ask me out the first time he met me, but figured that every guy would be thinking the same thing! July and August saw a lot of swimsuits and water for our group of friends and this is where we got comfortable with each other. I learned to trust him when he helped me overcome my fear of water as he encouraged me to go beyond my comfort zone - the beach.

September By now we had a running joke that we were getting married and having 12 children. For weeks that was the talk in our little group but finally one of my friends called me out on it. I was sitting with Logan Hansen in Sunday School (Ryan was in Blackfoot for the weekend - on a blind date no less) and:

Logan: "Sooo... Ryan."
Me: "Yeah? What about Ryan?"
Logan: "You two should totally date."
Me: "Yeah, I've thought about it. And I'm still thinking about it-"
Logan: "He's thought about it too."
Me: "REALLY?!? Tell me more!"
Logan: "Nope. I already said too much. That's all you get."

And that's how I decided that it would be ok to make myself slightly more available. But let me make it clear. He took the initiative ;)

September 13 - Our 'first date'.

I invited Ryan to come on a photo shoot with me. The lighting was fabulous and I was anxious to get out and take some pictures. Why not have enjoyable company along for the ride? At the construction site where I wanted to take a few pictures the owner asked if we were dating. I hesitated yet Ryan blurted out, "Yes!". The man then commented, "You're a cute couple and will have adorable children." Later at FHE a kid asked us if we're dating because of the joke about us getting married and having 12 kids. We went to his house and while we were listening to his friend Nick play songs on his guitar he put his hand on my knee. We danced our first ever dance & told Nick he had to play that song at our wedding reception. A few days later we held hands :)

September 18 - Our First Kiss
September 23 -Flowers on my front porch for my birthday
October 1 - Feeling like telling him "I Love You" but refused to say it first.
October 14 - "I LOVE YOU"
October 25 - 6 weeks dating & mushy text
October 30 - "What if we got married?" discussion
November 17 - Ring shopping, dinner, and pre-registry looking
November 18 - We found the Ring!

December 15 - ENGAGED

RYAN & JANELLE ANDERSEN

hmm. That looks DANG GOOD.