While appearing on The Late Show on Monday, Nicole Richie announced that she was officially engaged to her baby daddy Joel Madden. A source said “Nicole and Joel are in the process of planning the wedding. She’s very involved in every detail. She’s thrilled.” Nicole even went on her Twitter to confirm the engagement saying “Yep. i’m engaged. Very happy. Yeah we’ve been engaged for a while so your all kind of late on that. But Thanks for the hooplah all the same.” I had a feeling that it wasn’t really a new thing. They must have wanted to wait on delivering the news until they were completely sure.

The couple is expecting their second baby and Joel Madden has recently issued a statement as to how big his family with Nicole Richie will become. Here’s what Joel Madden had to say: “We let love plan our babies. We said even before this one that we didn’t know how many kids we were going to have – then we got pregnant!” Or in other words, let the brooding begin and let Nicole Richie be the vessel. They let love plan their babies? What happens if love gets drunk one night and the whole plan gets screwed up… what then?

The socialite apparently threw a huge birthday party for her boyfriend, Joel Madden. A “witness” described Nicole Richie’s surprise for Joel Madden: “There was a lot of laughing and even some speeches. Nicole and Joel were nestled in the center of the big group and looked as happy as they could be to be celebrating with their friends. They were beaming in the soft terrace lighting. The highlight of the evening was when Joel was presented with a huge birthday cake, accompanied by a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday. It was so big I’m surprised it didn’t set off the fire alarms.” Either this witness has very poor description skills or there was nothing really amazing about the party Nicole Richie threw for Joel Madden. Where are the dancing monkeys, the resurrected dinosaurs and the performing wizards? I mean, it would at least take that to make a party be big enough to set off fire alarms.

Not long ago every time there was news related to Nicole Richie it was all about her trash like life and stuff like drunken driving. And then came the big turn around, she was pregnant and expecting a baby with Joel Madden. Ever since then she is seen as someone who’s got a hang of life.

They were back home from New York City where they appeared on MTV’s “Total Finale Live” and they were spotted shopping for some baby items and clothing holding their hands together. Wow, really that’s so romantic and wonderful to see. I think they have made a great statement for aspiring Hollywood couples.

And in a further testimony to their growing status as a famous couple the US fund for UNICEF has made an official announcement that Joel & Nicole shall be the host for UNICEF’s 2008 Beverly Hills Snowflake Lighting ceremony this coming Saturday (November 22).

Caryl Stern, President and Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF says “We are honored to have Joel and Nicole participate in the Beverly Hills lighting ceremony,” he further adds “With their tremendous commitment to UNICEF’s child survival mission, Joel and Nicole are the perfect people for UNICEF to share this meaningful tradition with.”