Our Apartment!!!

My Mom came to visit for the last ten days and it was AWESOME!

When we got married, she decided to make curtains for our apartment. While she was here, she finished all of them. Here are the final products:

This is the kitchen curtain:

This is one of our kitchen chairs. She made chair pads that match our kitchen curtains.

Here are our living room curtains:

And the matching couch throw pillows.

This is the valance in our bedroom.

And here is Marcus being a handyman. Even though he said hanging up curtains was a "woman's job."

And here is our bed. My mom made the pillows, bedskirt, and valance that all coordinate with the quilt my Aunt Melinda made us for our wedding. It's great having a talented family.

Thank you, Mom, for all of your hard work! We love it! And we miss you already...

Christmas time is here!

We went to Temple Square last night to see the lights turn on.

We got there early to be able to get a good parking spot. So we walked around the visitor's center while we were waiting. We also looked at the Nativity.

Then, we came home and decorated our apartment FOR CHRISTMAS! It was so much fun and made a great Friday even better.

We are pretty impressed with our tree decorating skills:

I LOVE Christmas time!

P.S.
Only 6 more days until my mom comes.
Only 9 more days of classes.
Only 21 more days until we go to Washington.
AND only 28 more days until Christmas!!! :)

Thanksgiving!!

We had a wonderful thanksgiving at our Aunt Patsy and Uncle Brett's home in Centerville. There was tons of delicious food! We are so grateful they let us spend the holiday with their family!

We offered to bring pies and we were very proud of ourselves!! Just look:

Marcus was FANTASTIC at rolling out pie crust. He says he must get it from his mom :). We are so proud of how perfect the crust looks.

We made two pumpkin pies...

and one chocolate coconut cream pie. (Which was delicious!)

Since it's Thanksgiving tradition to eat the meal at random times of the day, we were hungry later on and decided to make sandwiches with all the left over turkey! Brian was a master at making the sandwiches.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! :)

We hope yours was as fantastic as ours!

Our Best Bites

Marcus' aunt Patsy introduced me to this site called Our Best Bites. I have recently spent a lot of time on this site and want to try just about every recipe they have posted! Marcus and I are fans of Caramel Apple Cider and so their recipe sounds DELICIOUS! As well as their Pies in a Jar. I officially just want to spend an entire day making some of these recipes. Thank you Patsy for introducing me to this site. :)

Great Weekend!

We've had a good weekend. On Friday, we doubled with a friend from one of my classes and her boyfriend. We went ice skating and then got Caramel Apple Cider from Starbucks and walked around Barnes and Noble. It was lots of fun! We also found out that my mom is coming to visit for a little over a week at the beginning of December! I'm SUPER excited!!!

On Saturday, we volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. We really enjoyed it! We helped sheetrock a ceiling. I had never done that before and it took a lot of arm strength but we were proud of ourselves. We did a pretty good job, too. My arms are a little sore today, though.

Then today, Sunday, was a very relaxed day. Marcus made fajitas for dinner. They were delicious! Also, I'm really ready for it to be Christmas. But I have promised Marcus that I will not decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. So instead, I've been playing lots of Christmas music and baking. Today, I made Magic Bars. They are delicious and remind me of the Holidays.

They look better in person. And they taste great!!

Because I've been in the Christmas mood lately and playing Christmas music a lot, Marcus asked me if I would be sick of Christmas music by the time Christmas actually came around. Yeah, I don't think that could happen. This is definitely my FAVORITE time of year! I just have to hold out less than two more weeks before I can decorate...

100 DAYS!

Marcus and I have officially been married for 100 days. We feel like it's such a landmark but really it's only been a little over 3 months. Still, it's been wonderful! I debated making a list of 100 things Marcus and I have learned and love about marriage, but that is far too long of a list. So instead, here is a list of the square root of 100 things:

1. I use to sleep like a rock; now I wake up at least once a night. I feel like my Mom. However, Marcus still sleeps like a rock.
2. I have officially become obsessed with our apartment being clean at all times. (My former roommates can attested to my desire for the apartment to be clean.) Marcus is pretty good at helping me out with this. And he tells me often how much he enjoys the clean home. :)
3. School is more fun when you're married. Homework and tests still stink but it's nice to have a built in venting outlet.
4. I have become more interested in politics, much to Marcus' delight. However, writing about politics and the government is a TOTALLY different story. Thankfully, I have Marcus to help with that. Yay American Heritage! ;)
5. Parents seem to love when their kids are happily married, working, and going to school. You'd think it had never been done before. The amount of praise we get is great! (this is by no means a request for the praising to end, FYI Dad)
6. Roadtrips when you're married are like 10928575729018492175 times better! It's fun to have someone to travel with!
7. We both loved to read before we got married but now we encourage each other to read more. It's great! I am reading a lot of great books, thanks to Marcus.
8. We have discovered that we LOVE the show Psych! It's one of our favorite things of the week to take time to just relax together and laugh for an hour!
9. About a week after we moved into our ward, we were called as Gospel Doctrine Teachers. It's been so great to learn more about the church together!
10. We seem to have a never ending supply of ground beef and have no idea what to make with it. There's only so many times you can eat tacos...

Well, that's just a few things we've learned/loved about marriage. We are fully aware that 100 days is not the big of an accomplishment. But regardless, we've enjoyed it!

I have an awesome mom!

For my birthday, my Mom made me the cutest chair covers that match our kitchen curtains (which she also made). (Pictures will come once the whole apartment is decorated). In case you didn't know, my mom is amazing at a lot of things but one of her many talents is sewing. So, in addition to the chair covers, she made Marcus and I aprons and we LOVE them. So, as a tribute to her, we cooked in them the other night and took pictures. Enjoy:

This is Marcus working hard on the meatballs.
In case you can't tell, his apron is multi-colored
chili peppers with flame pockets.

It's difficult work stirring tomato sauce.
My apron is a black and white floral-type pattern
with red and black polka-dotted pockets.

Thanks Mom for everything! We love you!

Best Birthday Ever!

So today am I officially an adult! Yes folks, today I finally turned 21. My wonderful husband Marcus made my birthday so AWESOME!

It started with him taking me to see "Love Happens" on Friday night. As poor college students, we really try to save as much money as we can and so we don't go out to movies. So going to see "Love Happens" was special and really fun. We also recommend the movie, by the way.

Then on Saturday we went to Tucano's for my birthday lunch. It was delicious! And super filling! Followed by the BYU vs. Colorado State game (which we won)!

On Sunday, Bryan, Stephanie, KPAX, Derek, Kate, and Brock surprised me with a little get-together. They got me a Cherry Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory and it was AWESOME! Thank you for being such great friends!

Then today, when Marcus and I woke up, Marcus handed me a big white envelope while informing me that this was my birthday card. I opened it to find this:



What a little cutie! He even had me read it aloud before we got out of bed to get ready for work and school.

After work and school was over, we came home and made scallop fettucini alfredo. It was delicious! Even though I received a cherry cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, Marcus said he didn't feel right about me not having a cake to blow out candles. So he made me a funfetti cake with rainbow chip frosting! :) He knows me so well!



And of course, the great person that Marcus is, he got me some more presents. He also informed me that I am not allowed to spend as much on his birthday as he did on me. We'll see about that...



He got me the new Nicolas Sparks book "The Last Song," a cute apron, and a new set of scriptures!

Thank you babe, for making this the best birthday ever! I love you so much! :)

Pizza Party!

On Friday September 18th, Marcus and I had our former roommates over for a pizza party get-together. Marcus and I made homemade pizzas and our friends chipped in with sides, drinks, and desserts. We had about 17 people crowded into our little apartment. We ate, chatted, and played games. It was a good time had by all. But my goodness was it a lot of work for Marcus and me. It takes a lot of time to make pizzas, especially in a tiny apartment kitchen. And I spent the next morning washing the mound of dirty bowls and pans. But it was worth it to spend some good, quality time with close friends!

And as a little bonus to our apartment 360-371 reunion, Marcus' best friend Chase and his wife Kami came down from Rexburg for the weekend. It was lots of fun to see them, even though the only time we really had to hang out with them was late at night. And that time was spent by Chase and Marcus playing Madden on the Wii and Kami and I falling asleep on the couch/floor. But still, it was fun to see them and hopefully we'll get to see them again soon!

Games

Marcus and I have started playing a lot of card and board games since we've been married. One of my favorites growing up was Phase 10. Marcus had never really played it, or if he had he didn't really remember it.So I decided to teach him. Now, I was pretty good at winning this game growing up. My brother Jordan could give me a run for my money sometimes but for the most part, I was able to win. Then I started playing with Marcus. He won the first game and I didn't handle it the best because I am use to winning. Then the second time we played it, I won and I started feeling a littler better. Then the third time, he won. It seemed that we would be doing this constant back and forth thing. But, I am proud to announce, I have won the last five games in a row! It feels good to still be winning at this game...

P.S. I love you, Marcus :)

Marriage life has officially begun...

So between last night and this morning, we experienced our first taste of being married and having an apartment. Yesterday, Kate and Brock came over for dinner and a game. It was great fun! I made a roast with potatoes and carrots and it made me feel like a real homemaker. Well while I was preparing this meal on Sunday morning, the side of our sink with the garbage disposal got clogged. So all day we were trying to figure out if the problem was simple enough that our (and by "our" I mean Marcus') basic plumbing knowledge would be able to fix. So late last night, Marcus got under the sink and unscrewed the pipes to see if there was a clog. And sure enough, he found the right pipe and lots of nasty dish water mixed with carrot peels came pouring out. So the clog turned out to be my fault. Who knew that carrot peels wouldn't work down the disposal? They always did growing up. But then again, we are in Provo housing...

Well we thought that was the end and we were pretty proud that we were able to solve our first apartment problem with pretty little trouble. Then this morning, Marcus comes home from work and informs me that we have a "bit" of a problem in our kitchen. Apparently, the cold water valve under our sink decided it no longer wanted to function properly and preceded to completely flood the kitchen and part of the carpet in our eating area. What made it even better, was that we had two brand new red rugs in the kitchen that bled like CRAZY. A good part of our carpet and kitchen floor now has a nice red tinge to it. And it's amazing how that red water got EVERYWHERE. It got on the fridge and even on some of the walls... Well Marcus rushed off to Target to get SHAMWOW towels. He was actually very excited that he now had a reason to buy these-he's wanted them ever since he saw the commercial for the first time. And they lived up to their name. They really did work great at soaking up the water from the carpet. Unfortunately, the red tinge is still there...

But, thanks to great managers-a plumber made it out to our apartment this afternoon and fixed the problem. So it turned out to be a not-so-simple problem but one that has made us love marriage a little more...

Wedding Pictures Slideshow

Our photographer made a slide-show with some of our wedding pictures. We love, Love, LOVE our photographer. Her name is Terra Cooper and her business is Magnifique Photography. We HIGHLY recommend her! Here is the slide-show she made:

http://terracooper.myshowit.com/brittanymarcusw/index.html

WE'RE MARRIED!!!!!!

We got married on Saturday, July 11, 2009 and it was the most wonderful day ever! We were married in the Draper, Utah temple. There really is nothing better than being married in the temple! It was a little windy outside the temple but it was overcast, which was great for the pictures. We haven't gotten our pictures from our photographer back yet but here's a sneak peak of some pictures taken by family members:

Our colors were red, black, and white. We both agree that those three colors together are very classy. Everything was just so beautiful. Props to Stephanie for making my beautiful bouquet! :)

Marcus really likes this picture. He thinks it's because the angle is really cool. It does give you a feel of how big and amazing the temple is!

Who wouldn't want to get married? Seriously, I think it's the best thing I've ever done. I'm so excited to spend eternity with Marcus!

Family and Wedding

My Mom and sister came in town a couple weeks ago to help finish all the wedding plans. And then Marcus' parents came in town on July 3rd for 4th of July festivities and, of course, the wedding. So for the 4th of July, Marcus and I went to his aunt and uncle's house in Centerville. His Mom, Dad, and sister met us there. We went to a concert in the park on July 3rd. The Band was a group called the Beach Toys. I know, it sounds weird but they really weren't bad. They did cover songs of the Beach Boys (which Marcus LOVED), The Monkey's (which Marcus and I missed because we made a trip to Target so Marcus could get away from the Beach Boys songs), and The Beatles. After the band, there was a fireworks show that was really fun! Then on Saturday morning, we went down to Main Street to watch the parade. It was a really fun 4th of July weekend. Especially considering the fact that I can't even remember what I did last year for the 4th of July...

Something exciting that has happened recently is that we were able to start moving stuff into our new apartment. It's really nice to be able to get all of our stuff moved in so that after the wedding we won't have to do any unpacking. I'm really grateful for being able to do that.

Well the wedding is in 4 days. I know, CRAZY! It's weird because when I remind myself that it's only 4 days away, I can't believe it's so close. But at the same time, it feels like the wedding day will never actually come. But it will probably come sooner than I realize. Marcus and I are ready to be married. This intermediate phase is not very enjoyable...

Another exciting thing is that lots of my family comes in town tomorrow. Grandma and Grandpa Smith, Lori, Kelly, Brent, Bryce, Dad, Kendall, Tristan, and Leah all come in tomorrow and I'm SO EXCITED!! It's been months since I've seen any of these members of my family and I can't wait to see them again!

All in all, we have a very exciting week ahead. Between family coming in town, going through the temple, setting-up for the wedding, and then the actual wedding...we will be busy! YAY for getting married!! :)

19 Days and Counting...

So the wedding is in 19 days. We've been counting down for so long that sometimes it still feels like it's forever away. But when you really think about it, that's only 2 weeks and 5 days. That's not that far away at all. Plus, Mom Smith and Shelby come in town in 3 days to be here for the last few wedding preparations which makes the wedding feel even closer. And we can start moving stuff into our apartment in about a week so that'll be nice. But to be honest, we're just ready to be married. Planning a wedding is so overrated!

Engagements!

So we took engagement pictures about a week ago. It was a little awkward at first but we LOVE our photographer so it turned out to be TONS of fun! We took our pictures at La Caille in Sandy, UT. Here is a sneak peak at some of the pictures:

Our photographer is Terra Cooper. She is AMAZING! I totally recommend her. You can see her work at magnifiquephotography.com

Okay so there were all these animals at La Caille and so Terra took some pictures of them. And Marcus LOVES this picture. He just loves how it catches the rooster as it's "prancing." What I found more entertaining is that there was this peacock that followed this rooster around all morning. It was having a bit of an identity crisis...