Finals Week

18 weeks

It's finals week here in the Gilson home. Marcus and I find this week to actually be less stressful than most weeks of school. No classes- just do some studying and go take a test. Then that class is finished forever! It's one of the best feelings to finish a test and know you won't have to ever look at anything dealing with that class again *cough* Physics *cough.*

Last night we had some friends over for a little Christmas party (naturally, I don't have any pictures). I made sugar cookies, Laura and Andrew brought over some delicious peppermint cupcakes, and Kate and Brock brought over hot chocolate with candy canes- Yum! We all just chatted, played some Uno (Laura and Andrew kicked mine and Kate's trash!) and Wii, and ate way too much sugar. It was great! :)

In two days, we get to go home to Washington for the holidays! We are so excited we can barely stand it. Marcus and I are excited to spend time with all of his family, read some books we've been wanting to read but haven't because we've been doing reading for classes, and we're (of course) excited for Christmas! Then it's only one more semester of undergrad and then we have a baby! Life is good :).

A picture for two

I was reading another blog the other day and she was talking about how you could get 50 free Christmas Cards through Shutterfly. I instantly became interested. I haven't actually used Shutterfly before but have heard a lot about it. (Ellen DeGeneres talked about it on her show the other day). I went onto Shutterfly's website to browse all of their Christmas cards in hopes that I would be able to get some free Christmas cards. Marcus isn't huge into Christmas cards- especially since it's still just the two of us. But I'm working on him! I'm sure it'll be easier once we have cute kids to include in the cards.

So it's actually very simple- you just have to be a blogger, fill out a little form, write a blog post about the promotion, and then you get 50 free Christmas cards. Here some of my favorite photo Christmas cards (they have like 800 so there is plenty to choose from!):

I like the simpleness of this card. Plus, those are our wedding colors and I just love the way they look together.

Again, I like the simpleness of this one but I'm not sure it would be my first choice.

This card is also our wedding colors and another one I really like.

I like how cutsie and fun this one is.
But I'm thinking it would be a better one when we also have kids in the picture.

I love the little snowflake border!

And the great thing is that Shutterfly does so much more than just cards! On Ellen's show, she showed a photo calendar she did through Shutterfly and I LOVED it. I love photo calendars. I hope to make one soon! Another cool thing they do that I had no idea about was wall art. You can take a picture, and they'll print it onto a canvas for you! My parents did this with a picture my dad took of the Salt Lake Temple. It's such a cool idea! And then they also have birth announcements. We might be spending some money on these come May :).

Anyways- I'm super excited about this promotion. But which card is your favorite? I need help deciding. Also, if you're a blogger- go here to check out this awesome promotion before it ends! Thank you, Shutterfly.

Now who wants to take a picture of Marcus and I for our Christmas card?

Countdowns!!

I am a terrible blogger. I have decided that the main reason is only about 5 people read my blog and I talk to them on a regular basis so I feel like I have nothing to write. But alas, here is list of countdowns to very exciting events- that I know the 5 of you already know about so sorry for the repetition. :)

15 days until this semester is over!
15 days until Marcus, Brittany, and I drive to Washington for the Christmas break!
23 days until Christmas!
32 days until Marcus' birthday! :) (I love that boy.)
32 days until we (hopefully) find out the gender of our baby!!
142 days until graduation!
164 days until our baby is due! (This means I am 16.5 weeks pregnant- 2.5 weeks into the second trimester. However, I still weigh less than I did before I got pregnant and often feel sick when I try to eat. Thank goodness for anti-nausea medication but I just hope it goes away soon. Also, my doctor is getting mad at me for not gaining weight so I really hope the nausea goes away and I can eat again soon!)

What an exciting time of year! :) Marcus and I have decorated our apartment for the Christmas season and I LOVE IT! It makes finishing up this semester with my awful Physics class a little more bearable.

Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving!

This year for Thanksgiving, we had planned to go to Washington to spend it with Marcus' family. However, the blizzard of 2010 (that didn't actually affect us in the SLC area) made the roads in Idaho too iffy to risk driving. So Brittany, Sue, Marcus, and I stayed here in Utah and had Thanksgiving at the Messer's. There were 22 people at Patsy's house for Thanksgiving. It was lots of fun and the food was FANTASTIC. (Yay for not having morning sickness anymore so I could enjoy Thanksgiving.) I am very grateful for the wonderful families Marcus and I have!

Marcus and I spent the rest of the break going with Brittany to buy a new car, going to see the Harry Potter 7 movie (which was GREAT), and just relaxing. It was a great break, even though we were bummed we didn't get to go see all of our family in Washington. On the bright side, we get to see them in 3 weeks for Christmas break! :)

This photo is for my Grandma Smith,
who has been asking for a baby bump picture.
(even though the bump is barely even visible at this point.)

15 weeks

Halloween Weekend

For Halloween weekend, Marcus and I went up to Brock's family condo in Park City with Mackenzie and Beau, Oliver and Julie, Vanessa and Josh, and Kate and Brock. We got there Friday night and stayed until late Sunday night and we had so much fun! We went swimming, went shopping at the outlets, made caramel apples, played games, and just relaxed. It was a well needed weekend away from Provo and we were so glad we could go. Thank you Kate and Brock for inviting us! :)

And to end this post: Marcus and I are expecting!
I'm 12 weeks along- due May 15th. We are so excited!

Belated Birthday Post

So it's been two weeks since my 22nd birthday and I've been so busy with school/work/being lazy that I haven't actually posted about it. My birthday this year lasted for about 5 days because my parents came in town! It was so FANTASTIC to have them here!! I haven't spent a birthday with them since I turned 18, so I was very excited that they were able to come here for my birthday this year. Besides being here for my birthday and to see Marcus and me, they also came for the BYU vs. Nevada football game. Too bad we played terribly and lost, but we had AWESOME seats (thanks to my work :)). Check out our view:

We sat in some of the box seats, had tons of food, and had a great time!

While they were here, they spoiled Marcus and me. Along with all the birthday presents I received, my parents got us our big Christmas presents since we won't see them this Christmas. They gave us a Wii, a HD TiVo, and a flat screen TV:

For my birthday, my parents got me lots of clothes, an iPhone, and a new set of dishes:

Those dishes are totally me! I LOVE THEM!

Then from Marcus I received:
- Where the Wild Things Are (to keep up with our tradition of getting a children's book for each other on every birthday)
-The movie "Les Miserables"
-A cast iron skillet (I've been wanting one of these for awhile)
-A cake decorating set
-Red high heels (another thing I have been seriously wanting and mentioning constantly)

Marcus found them and picked them out on his own and they are exactly what I wanted!
He is the best!
(Did I mention I was totally spoiled??)

Here is a list of some other things we did while my parents were here:
- Went out to dinner
- Lots of shopping
- A combined birthday dinner for my Uncle Troy and me. Mom made spare ribs and a very moist chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.
- A combined birthday dinner for our cousin Brian Messer and me (our birthdays are two days apart) at Brett and Patsy's. The dinner and dessert were, of course, fantastic! Patsy made me the cutest quilt for my birthday:

And best of all, Marcus and I got to be with my parents for almost a week. We had such a wonderful time and miss them terribly. (And I don't even have a picture of all of us. Seriously?!)

Thank you Mom and Dad, for everything!

Washington and Labor Day

Marcus and I spent a week in August with his family in Washington. It was fabulous. Two of Marcus' three sisters live within 15 minutes of his parents house so that made it even better. (But we did miss Brittany who was in Utah teaching her little 1st graders). We hung out at home, went shopping for clothes for school/my early birthday presents, and took a two day trip with Mom and Dad G. to Seattle. While in Seattle we toured University of Washington to check out the Law School, ate at Iver's on the pier, and visited some family friends. It was so much fun!

picture of us at Marcus' parents house taken by his dad :)
It's one of our favorite pictures of us!

Then for Labor Day weekend, Mom and Dad G. came down to Utah for the weekend. Marcus and I met up with them at Brittany's in Salt Lake on Friday night and we all went out to dinner and a dollar movie (we saw Knight and Day- we highly recommend it). On Saturday, Marcus, his dad, and I came down to Provo for the BYU vs. Washington game (we won 23-17!). We went back up to Brittany's that night, went to Church with her the next morning, and then had to say goodbye to Mom and Dad.

On Monday (Labor Day), Marcus and I went to another dollar movie together (we saw Eclipse this time- I liked it but Marcus did not!). Then we went to Outback for dinner. It was a good break from school and work and a wonderful weekend with family!

Jake's Cake!!

Back in June, I made a cake for one of my co-workers that was graduating and moving on in life to a real job. I finally have the pictures so that I can write this post.

But first, a little background about Jake. He's a cowboy. Or at least he wants to be. He talks about rodeos, riding horses, and catching cows and he owns a lot of pairs of cowboy boots. So for his going away cake he asked for a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I obliged and then decided I would decorate it with a cowboy boot. His favorite pair (or the office's favorite pair) of cowboy boots are these red ones he owns so I tried to recreate it on the cake. Here's how it turned out:

Kind of looks like a little girl's birthday cake, huh?
(It was my boss and one of my other co-workers idea to do the pink star. It just enhanced the little girl look.)

But Jake was happy with it. In his words:
"It was awesome, hilarious, and most most importantly, delicious!"

Here's our office at his going away party.
We ordered SLAB Pizza=Delicious!

Thanks for leaving Jake so we could have an awesome party with great food and a cake.

Just kidding- really, we do miss you! :)

Summer Trip

Marcus and I got back a on July 25th from a big two week trip! We had an AMAZING time! Here is a recap of some of the things we did:

First, we went to Washington D.C. We stayed with my brother and sister-in-law. They have the most adorable one-year-old girl named Ashlynn.

Believe me, you can't help but love her!

While in D.C., we obviously did some touring. We went to Arlington Cemetery, The National Museum of American History, The Holocaust Museum, Ford Theater, The Capitol, and The Library of Congress. It was a great three days of touring (besides the humidity that I'm no longer use to and felt like it was suffocating me).

Arlington Cemetery
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery

View of the Capital

We celebrated our one year anniversary while in D.C.
My Mom made us a wonderful dinner and it was great to be with family.
Here is a picture to commemorate :)

Ashlynn and her dad

The Holocaust Museum

Grisel, Kyle, and Ashlynn

The Capitol

This is me outside the Peterson House after the Ford Theater tour.
My parents have a picture of my Mom in this exact spot when
she was pregnant with me almost 22 years ago.

Next, Mom, Dad, Marcus, Shelby, Kendall, Tristan, and I drove up to New York City. Leah met us downtown and we toured NYC for 2 days. We spent pretty much all of our time in Times Square and Central Park. We saw the Metropolitan Museum and the Guggenheim Museum as well.

From left to right: Kendall, Marcus, Brittany, Tristan, Shelby, Mom, Dad

left to right: Kendall, Marcus, Brittany, Tristan, Shelby, Leah
Times Square
The Met

Empire State Building
Bethesda Fountain in Central Park

The Guggenheim
Manhattan Temple
The pizza place we ate at in NYC.

The highlight of the trip was:

It was AMAZING! Even better than I hoped!

I want to go see it again and again and again!

After all this traveling, we drove home to North Carolina. We hung around the house for a couple days. Then we decided to do a day trip to Top Sail Beach. It got windy as the day went on but we all had an enjoyable time. And what would a beach trip be without a few people getting really sunburned? Leah, Tristan, and I took one for the team and all got pretty sunburned. (And by that I mean we didn't re-apply sunblock like we should have).

While in North Carolina, we were able to see some friends from back home! It was really nice to catch up with old friends.

After a week in NC, Marcus, Shelby, and I flew to Arizona. We were able to visit Grandma and Grandpa Smith, Aunt Lori, and Bryce. We had a great time swimming, eating, and hanging out at home.

(I have no pictures of the second half of our trip. Oops..)

In the end, it was a wonderful trip. We're glad to be done living out of suitcases but we really miss our family!

This is my favorite picture of Ashlynn and I to end the post! :)

Thank you Smith family for a fantastic trip!! :)

Battle Creek Canyon Hike

We went on a hike with several of my co-workers and it was a lot of fun!
After the hike, we roasted hot dogs and had s'mores.
It was so much fun and we are grateful to the Schellenberg's for hosting us!

A couple of waterfalls we saw during our hike

Sitting around the fire.

We had a really good time!
We want to go back and do the whole
thing one day when we have more time.

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our sister AIMEE yesterday!
We love you and hope you had a fantastic birthday!! :)

First Try

I am taking a cake class and I'm loving it! So today I decorated my first cake! :)

It's a chocolate cake with a coconut pudding filling and a white whipped frosting.


I am obviously no pro- but I'm pretty proud of my first try.

Uplifting Messages

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints puts out videos with great messages. I love them! Take a look at the newest one:

Elder Holland: Good Things to Come

And don't be surprised if you find yourself going through and watching a lot of them! :)

We're still alive.

It's been over a month since my last post but Marcus and I are still around. We've just been extremely busy with Spring classes, work, and the LSAT.

On the bright side, MARCUS TOOK THE LSAT YESTERDAY! Hallelujah- it's over! We won't find out his score for a few weeks but I'm sure he did great. And we're both just very glad that it's over. Thank you everyone for your prayers in his behalf- they are much appreciated.

Spring term ends in 9 days. We are very excited to have a 2.5 month break from school. This break will include a visit from BFF Leah, and trips to D.C., New York, North Carolina, Arizona, and Washington.

This picture is from last summer.
But we're excited for the upcoming carefree and lazy days like the one pictured :)