Happy birthday...kind of.

Last Wednesday was Taylor's 23rd birthday!

But, since I was at girls camp, we celebrated it two days early.

(How much of a bummer that I missed his first birthday as a married couple?)

I told Taylor that I would be thinking about him all day on his actual birthday.

I didn't even have phone service to wish him a happy birthday.

But I wished him happy birthday lots of times in my head. :)

To make myself feel better for missing his birthday, I told Taylor that I was going to pretend in my head that the day we celebrated was his actual birthday.

I greeted him in the morning with a "Good morning, birthday boy!"

And called him that multiple times throughout the day.

I even sang "Happy Birthday" to him over and over.

Taylor would always respond with "kind of."

For example:

Me: "Good morning, birthday boy!"

Taylor: "Kind of."

or

Me: "Happy birthday!"

Taylor: "Thanks...kind of."

or

Me: "Today is your birthday! Yay!"

Taylor: "Kind of."

or

Me: "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Taylor! Happy birthday to you!"

Taylor: "Kind of."

It kind of just became the running joke for the day. He'd put on his sly side-smile every time he'd respond with his "kind of."  Thank goodness that my sweet husband was so patient with me and my silly ways.

Here's the nerd in me: It is always so hard for me to keep gifts a secret. After buying his gifts, I would tell him over and over again how excited I was for him to open them. Then I would tell him what his presents were in a gibberish/mumbled tone so that he couldn't understand. For some reason, it made keeping the secret easier. ;) I was sooo excited for him to finally open his gifts!

Here are some pictures of our "kind of" celebration:

The "kind of" birthday boy with his presents ;)

His new spiffy sports coat :)

Keeping with tradition. Every year on his birthday, I make him a photo book of the things I'll always remember from the past year.  The first year I made it for him, he asked me to make one every year, because he loved it so much. :)

Happy birthday (kind of) to my wonderful husband, my very best friend, and the man of my dreams.
I am so lucky to be spending this life with you.
I love you!

the fourth.

And here's the video.

(call me lame, because I didn't get pictures or videos of the fireworks. the most important part!)

Happy birthday, America.

You are one beautiful country.

And we sure do love you.

Until next year...

Happy 4th!

Taylor and I had such a wonderful time celebrating the 4th of July yesterday!

So much fun. So much good food. So much family and friends.

Can't get much better than that!

Here are a few pictures from our day:

Hey look! Picture on the left=last year's 4th.
Status: dating.
Picture on the right=this year's 4th.
Status: married!
Awesome.

(p.s. we wore the same shirts on purpose ;))

More pictures AND an awesome video of the whole day (in the process of making it right now!) to come tomorrow!

Baby Wallace + Weekend

This last weekend was so jam-packed, I hardly got a second to sit down and breathe!  

On Friday night, Tay and I went to a work party for doTERRA.  We got to do fun things like this:

Yep, that's my husband....

And take fun pictures like this:

After the work party, I stayed up all night preparing for sister's baby shower--baking cakes, other goodies, and making decorations.  Marci is the best party-planner--she always has creative and cutesy ideas.  So, I really wanted to make this shower perfect for her.  She's thrown me so many different parties (surprise 16th birthday party, numerous other birthday parties, bridal shower, + more!), so it was my turn to make a great memory for her.  I finally went to sleep at around 3am on Friday night...but I could hardly sleep because my mind was racing with everything I still had to do.  So I was up again three hours later at 6am.  I was pretty pleased with how it all turned out (thank you pinterest, blogs, and other internet sites!).  A big thanks to my dearest sister-in-law, Rachel, who helped plan everything! Here are some pictures of Marci's & Baby Wallace's shower:

Treats table.  Notice...blue candy, blue PRETZELS (so proud of that find), handmade banner, marshmallow rattles, and my favorite: the cake! (Oh, and the cute little baby blocks!)

Close up of edible rattles!

Close up of shirley temples (with floating ducks that decided not to float half-way through the shower)

Food table. Yummy chicken-salad croissants, baby=fruit (look closely), and yummy shirley temples!

Close up of baby fruit! (notice binky!) Thank you, Pinterest, and Rachel for doing it ;) 

Front door.

Some of the guests!

Close up of the cake! (Three layers with blue frosting on the inside!)

Gift table...as seen from the baby blocks.

One of the games we played was a "memory" game.  If you matched the words (all pregnancy related words) then you would get a candy bar that related to the word.  Here are some of the examples:

Preemie= Runts candy

OBGYN= Butterfinger ;)

Daddy= Pop Rocks

Conception = Skor  (score!) candy bar ;)

Contractions = Whoppers

Ultrasound= Look candy bar

etc, etc, etc.

If you would like to see the whole list, let me know!

Here's what the game looked like.

The rest of the weekend consisted of: Parade of Homes with Marci (so fun!), deep-dish Chicago pizza with the Utah sibs+spouses, and of couse, Father's Day!  I was so sad that I couldn't actually talk to my Dad on Father's Day (him and Mama are on an Alaskan cruise as we speak! Lucky ducks...). Regardless, Happy Father's Day to both my wonderful daddy and my amazing Father-in-Law!

Memorial Day Weekend!

Oh, how I love holiday weekends!  This particular memorial day weekend was spent with lots of family.  There was a lot of extended family visiting Utah this weekend to welcome Seth home, so the Gilbert's had a full house!  I'm bummed that we're back to the regular grind of things, but excited to relive our fun weekend through this post.  Here we go:

Evenings were spent around a fire-pit on the patio or swimming in the pool.
The weather was a little chilly...but the pool was heated.  Hence the choice between a fire and a pool.

The cousins enjoyed a few games of Ninja (a great game!)

Not surprising, each game usually came down to Seth and Taylor as the final two.

On Monday, the whole crew embarked on a hike along the Great Western Trail (which supposedly leads all of the way to Canada!).  We decided not to go to Canada though, because we had plans in store for the rest of the day. 

 Look at these views!  Utah is such a beautiful state!

On the hike!

My silly husband in his babushka...don't ask.

Showing off the beautiful landscape! 

You better believe there was also a girls shopping trip, lots of good food (even a few batches of yummy chocolate chip cookies...my favorite!!), a trip to the movie theater to see The Avengers (love it!), and of course lots of laughter!  We loved our memorial day weekend!

Oh, and guess what? Exactly one week until Taylor and I get to see Fun in concert! We are can hardly wait!

S'more weekend would sure be nice...

Another Monday, another week!  Even though Mondays are a tad bit discouraging, Tay and I had quite a fun weekend.

On Friday, we went to support Marci's soccer team.  She coaches the cutest (and most talented!) 14 year old girls.  They received second place in the championship!  We were so proud of them!  And it was such a fun game!

On Saturday evening, Tay and I were invited by the marvelous Brody and Jenni to a park up in the canyons where we grilled hot dogs over a campfire with some good friends.  We even ended the night with some delicious s'mores (hence the blog title for today).  Even though we strongly smelled of campfire afterwards, we loved every minute of the evening!

Our lovely drive up the canyon.  Utah is such a beautiful state!

Taylor made a late night trip to Wal-Mart, and brought home Ben & Jerry's for us to share in bed.
Yum! Love this boy!

And, of course...Happy Mother's day to all mothers throughout the world.  Two special shout-outs are needed. One, to my own mother, whom I love with all of my heart.  I couldn't have asked for a better role model, exemplar, and friend.  She is truly an amazing woman, and I strive daily to emulate her many wonderful characteristics.  And now, I am lucky enough to have TWO moms.  Can life get better? I think not.  My mother-in-law is always amazing me with her many talents and skills.  I feel a little (a lot) inadequate next to her.  Her friendly and outgoing charisma is something I always admire.  She is so good to include me in everything and make me feel part of the Gilbert clan. :)  I couldn't have asked for a better mom-in-law.  I love these two women dearly!

Taylor's brother, Seth, was able to call home for Mother's day.
Just eight days until he is home!

I was spoiled this Mother's day.  Even though I'm not a mother.  Taylor surprised me with beautiful flowers when I woke up. I gave him a bit of a quizzical look, and said, "You know...I'm not a mother, right?"  Taylor smiled and said, "But you will be someday; and you're closer now than you ever have been."  Did I get butterflies a little? Mayyybe :)  I have a wonderful husband.  And THEN, my dad-in-law gave me some lovely flowers.  I guess I'm included in this wonderful little holiday now. ;) Happy Mother's day!

Life lately...

There was a good three weeks between April and May that I didn't blog.  Whoops :/  Even though Taylor constantly pestered me to blog, I never had the chance to get around to it.  So here's a quick update of what was missed:

Marci and Tom threw an awesome party a couple of weekends ago.  We played a game where each couple was given an egg and we wrapped the eggs with newspaper, tissue paper, tape, etc., in order to try to cushion it from a fall off of the balcony.  The team whose egg stayed intact won!  Mine and Taylor's egg and Ryan and Rachel's egg survived!  The four of us did an egg toss contest to determine a winner.  And the winner was...

Throwing the eggs off of the balcony!

Our baby egg lives!

We win!!!!

The next game was pretty funny too.  One spouse was blindfolded, while the rest of the crew positioned the other spouse into an odd position.  The spouse who was blindfolded had to feel their lover and try to position themselves in the same way.  Here was our attempt:

Not too shabby, right? Fun game!

Taylor and I hosted a dinner for all of the siblings (plus Camden & Etta--good friends to all) a few Sundays ago.  It partly served as a goodbye party for the Woodlands, who moved to Kansas.  Taylor was the cook of the night (and the food was so yummy), and I was in charge of the dessert (thank you, Costco chocolate cake).  ;)  So many laughs and good times around.

Too cute for words.

The Utah sibs

Oh, and we can't forget about my 21st birthday, can we?

I was actually feeling a little under the weather, so we had a last-minute relaxing evening (dinner and games) with the siblings.

It was awesome, special, and perfect! 'Nuff said.

 At the end of the night we facetimed with the rest of the fam in CA.

Hi Mama!

Me and my love on my special day :)

Well, there's a little bit about our life lately.  Now that we're caught up, how about those daily posts again, eh?  ;)