Gibson Family 2007

Since we were all together at Thanksgiving, we took advantage of a family photo. The Gibson family has expanded in 2007. We've welcomed Logan in March, Kristi-Lynn (officially) in May, and Aaron in October. We'll continue to grow in 2008 with baby Williams in July and certainly there's still opportunities to expand post July.

Our First Thanksgiving

Though Brett and I have shared a Thanksgiving together once before, this is our first Thanksgiving as the Gibsons. We took a whirlwind trip to Vegas to spend it with his entire family. We had tons of fun and wish that we could have extended the trip a bit more, but alas, there are finals to study for :) There is definitely a lot to be grateful for this year. Let me list some of those with pictures.

Baking with the family (oh how I miss this). I made pie crusts for the first time in my life (they turned out rather well if I do say so myself). Vance is the quite the baker there with his apple pie complete with an apple shaped piece of pie crust on the top.

Quiet time to relax and read with family (and pose for a picture in between). Note: Brett pointed out that his book looked harder than the kids' books...Brett, look at you all grown up and reading big kids books!
Going back to the simple life and entertaining oneself with children's toys...Brett was mesmorized by the magnetic color maze (Eve and Anna seemed to be quite into it as well).
Brett was so proud of himself he had to take a picture of his completed maze! I'm definitely grateful for a husband that has such skill :)
Persistence to not just follow through once, but a second time.
Our physical well-being that allows us to enjoy a good ole turkey bowl to work up an appetitie for the delectable dinner that awaits.

Here's the team of "young" guys planning their strategy. Brett was drawing the plays in the grass with a stick.

And here they all all ready to kick some trash after half time.

The whole gang - 1 dad, 1 son, 5 sons-in-law, 1 grandson.

Check out Brett's pass...Riley almost had him, but not quite.

For cute little girls like Tessa that just put a smile on your face every time you see them!

For all of the yummy food - especially these pies (I had a sliver of just about all of them...mmmm)! I mean really, God could have made food bland so that we would just eat to survive, but out of his love for us, he let us enjoy delicious tastes - sweet and savory.

For Angie and all the time, effort and love that she put in our Christmas tree quilt. And for Riley for letting me teach him how to tie a quilt.

Honestly, at this point in my life (just like at any other moment) I have so much to be grateful for. I definitely feel blessed that Brett and I were both raised in homes with good, loving parents who taught us well. And the fact that they created homes in which their children would want to always return and spend time with one another. I'm grateful to live in a country that affords me so much freedom. I'm so incredibly blessed with the best friends I could ask for. I cherish the memories I've shared with you whether our paths have briefly crossed or we've shared many a day together. Most of all, I'm thankful for a loving husband who is so good to me, never gives up on me, accepts me for who I am, helps me as I journey to become all that I hope, inspires me, teaches me and just plain loves me. What a beauty that we have an eternity to spend growing together!

Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving!

In 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

Showtime! So, all day today and part of yesterday the walls of my office shook from the pounding music outside. Macy's has been getting all ready for the big parade on Thanksgiving. It's quite an event and as you can imagine, at this time of year, the streets around my office are super crowded. Our building is directly across the street from Macy's and therefore has a fantastic view of the culmination point of the parade. Space is precious for the four floors of windows in our building. Many of our clients and families of co-workers have windows reserved for the morning. If anyone is around next year, let me know early and if Brett and I are here, we'll watch the parade from my office.

Here's the view from my office. Not bad, eh?

Desperate search for love...

I took this picture last year. I found it hilarious that someone would actually post a sign in the subway station to find their true love that they'd seen for mere minutes on the subway. But I guess when it's love at first sight, you'd go to any extremes to find her again!

An Abundance of Updates

So I really have no excuse for not updating this past week since I took the week off between jobs. But that's precisely a reason not to blog - no cares in the world, not even blogging!

Just for fun, here's a re-cap of the last week.

Last Monday: Worked late, as always. Ran home to finish making "Heavenly Tidibits" to give to some co-workers in appreciation for all they'd taught me in the past year. Stayed up way too late, but hey, I knew there was an end in sight. And after all, I wanted to leave a good taste in their mouths :)
Last Tuesday: Last day of work. Mixed feelings - sad to say goodbye, but was looking forward to time off and excited for the new opportunity and challenge ahead. Trained my replacement and in true Kristi-Lynn fashion left on my last day after 7pm!

This is Ladies Row! All seven us of along this row were female and came to be known as Ladies Row. Luckily my replacement is a girl, so the legacy can live on :) I am in the way back...I posted the picture with my friends more in the forefront since you all know what I look like. I miss those girls!Last Wednesday - Friday: Tried to do as little as possible - ok, that's a lie. You all know I am incapable of doing nothing. No matter how free I am, I always manage to keep myself busy enough to be stressed :) So, what did I do? Well, caught up on a few of my favorite morning talk shows, enjoyed a couple long phone calls to catch up with friends and fam, deep-cleaned the bathroom and kitchen, manicure/pedicure (awww yeah!), grocery shopping all the way down at Union Square at Trader Joes (I forget how much I love that place), wrote thank you cards (sad that I still have more to write), sent out a few long overdue packages to family with some little presents, stayed in my pj's until at least noon (you don't get to do that very often with a working life), made some meals (that's a luxury for me now considering that the only time I really have to cook is on the weekends), and I'm sure I did a ton more but can't think of it right now.

Last Saturday: Brett and I spent the day together. He found out that since Monday was Veteran's Day and the bond market was closed, he had a half day Friday and all of Monday off. So, he worked a little longer on Friday so he wouldn't have to go in again until Tuesday (though he did have to go in tonight unfortunately for a last minute thing that came up). The highlight of the day was going to the Chocolate Festival. It was a three day event here in the city where a bunch of chocolate vendors from all over the world set up booths and handed out free samples. We tried a little bit of everything and oh my were we ever chocolated out by the end of that! We tried some of the best (and worst) chocolate! To all you chocolate lovers: if you come out here for the festival next year, I'll be happy to join you (I think by then I'll like chocolate again)! Brett and I each picked our favorite thing and bought some to savor once the chocolate hangover had passed :)

This is the pure white chocolate Statue of Liberty...mmm, tasty!
Mary's Chocolates of Japan showed us how it all came to be. Talk about handmade!
So they had all these manequins with outfits made of chocolate (only in the fashion capital of the world). Here I am posing like the one to my left. The one on my right was wearing a wedding dress made of white chocolate. It was sweet (no pun intended).
Peanut Butter & Co. has some of the craziest kinds of Peanut Butter. It's in NYC so we'll have to visit when you come out. Brett found a fast friend :)
From the Chocolate Festival we went to Stake Conference and on the way home we walked through Rockefeller Center where we saw them getting the tree all ready for the lighting ceremony at the end of the month. I saw a video of them cutting down the tree a few days ago. It's huge!

Yesterday: We went to Stake Conference in the morning where we got a new Stake Presidency. It was a neat meeting. Then we went home and packed a few things before heading uptown a few blocks to pick up our rental car. We drove (I love the freedom of a car!) up to New London, CT where we stayed at the cutest little place, The Lighthouse Inn. We enjoyed a beautiful evening together (something we don't get to do often). There wasn't much traffic through the Inn, so we were well taken care of. Our romantic dinner in their dining room was all about us (since the only other guests there finished their dinner a few minutes after we sat down). :)

Our cute little room. I always wanted a canopy bed (maybe not a lace canopy, but still)!

Today was our 6 month anniversary so this was part of our celebration. Hey, six months is a pretty big mark, right? Like Patty & Vance always tell us...if you can make it six months, you can make it an eternity!

Today: We enjoyed a leisurely morning before heading out to see the fall colors and shop at some of the greatest outlets! On the way out from New London, we picked up two lobsters to enjoy tonight for dinner (part 2 of our anniversary celebration). Never cooked a lobster before, but since the nice man at the store steamed it for us, I didn't have to worry about watching the poor lobster steam to death and figure out how long to do that. All I did was heat it up and make a wonderful lemon/garlic butter to dip it in. It was pretty tasty!

The fall colors outside of our hotel.

I have been eyeing this jacket for a long time! I've seen it in the window at J. Crew and online. I've looked at it almost daily (ok, maybe more like weekly) for the past few months hoping that it would go on sale. The high price wasn't budging, so I was beginning to come to grips with the fact that I might never find it in my closet. The jacket had a different plan :) Thanks to the J. Crew outlet, my jacket and I have been united! It was on sale at the outlet plus when I paid for it there was an additional 30% off. Talk about a deal! I left that store very happy!

I had also been eyeing this headband (in a different pattern) and got a killer deal on it as well. I love you J. Crew outlet!

Just getting ready to heat up the lobsters. I really didn't think they were disgusting but had to make some kind of a face for the picture.

Marathon schmarathon!

Today is the New York City Marathon. It makes its way through all five boroughs. Well, it just happens that the part of the race through Manhattan runs right by our apartment. It wasn't a problem getting to church this morning because our leg of the race is at about mile 17, but getting home from church was a little bit of a different story! Massive amounts of people lined the streets with 1st Avenue baracaded off so that you couldn't cross. At first I was fine with it and thought I would get in the marathon spirit and watch like everyone else. Well, that can only be fun for so long (especially when you're standing there alone all dressed up beside others in sweats). After about 45 minutes and a couple of phone calls to pass the time, I decided to see if I could find a way home since it seemed as though half of the population of Manhattan was running the race. Another hour later I had finally made my way down 30 blocks to cross 1st Avenue and then head all the way back up. Blasted runners! Although, to their credit, I was semi jealous as I hope to run a marathon or two in my lifetime (just have to find the motivation to get up and train every morning)! Here are some pictures I snapped before my patience had run out.
The crowds at 86th and 1st cheering on the runners.

The runners themselves. Goodness, you would think there would be a break, but no, the whole world was out there running and very evenly spaced out.
This is looking down my street. So close and yet so far from me. Who knew it would take over an hour to get 1/2 block away. Gotta love NYC!

Last night I met Brett at work so we could share some dinner, spend some time together and organize his cubicle. Since it was pretty dead (not surprising since it was a Saturday night), I took advantage to take some pictures. It still embarrased Brett, but come on, it's better than trying to snap them while everyone is there :)

I made labels for all of the companies that he covers and organized new files for him. That's some serious dedication! It turned out mighty beautiful (I'll see if I can snap a picture next time I am there)

While I prepared the new files, Brett purged the old ones from many analysts that came before.

Gibson/Gee First Annual Family Camping Trip

Over Labor day weekend Brett and I met up with my sister and her husband and went camping in western Pennsylvania. We sure had a blast and with us both being so far away from family, it was definitely fun to spend time with them! There's just something about being with family that you can't get anywhere else. Here's a little re-cap of the trip. Enjoy the pictures!

Although we got off of work early, by the time we made it to Summit, NJ to pick up our rental car (I was finally old enough to rent one and oh how wonderful it was to drive again!), stopped at Wal-Mart to stock up and made the drive, it was well after midnight before we arrived at the campground.

Saturday morning we made baggie omelets. I found the idea on the internet and they worked surprisingly well.

Sisters...sisters...there were never such devoted sisters...

Check out the sweet leaf bug we found climbing on the kitchen box!Saturday we enjoyed an afternoon on the river in Kirsten and Kyle's little boat. The fishing wasn't too great, but at the end of the day we had all caught at least one small fish and I managed to hook a few trees (oops...although to my credit, I was the first to catch a fish!)

The boat is only big enough for three so Kyle showed us the ropes while Kirst enjoyed an afternoon to herself. I think that included a nice nap, a shower and some reading.

Check us out. I reeled this guy in not too long ago!

The worms looked quite appetizing. I thought that if the fish saw me about to bite, they might jump and take a bite themselves!

The first catch of the day...no, not me, the little fish in my hand! Although we do strike an incredible resemblance. :)

I started a chain of good luck. Check out my fine catch with his catch :)

Sunday we went into Punxsutawney, PA to attend church and get to know the little home town of our famous groundhog Phil.

Now entering Gobbler's Knob. Mom, this picture is for you. Kirst and I were showing our Groundhog Day enthusiasm excited that we finally reached the place! We felt very festive (though the day wasn't anywhere near).

This is where it all happens! On February 2nd, Phil appears right here! We even met one of the members of the Inner Circle who was there fixing the place up. He took our picture. Next year on Groundhog's Day we'll feel special knowing that we've stood on the same stage as our famous friend! Look who saw her shadow...
We found this sign outside of a church on the drive to Punxsy. In case you can't read it, it says "WARNING: Exposure to the Son may prevent burning."There are over 30 Punxsutawney Phil statues throughout the city. Each statue is of Phil dressed up as something different. We drove around and found the statues that we most identified with.

Dr. Kirsten with angel Phil outside the hospital.

Belhop Kyle outside an old historic hotel.

Tourist Kris (don't know why I got that one?) Maybe it had to do with my obsession with pictures or love of scrapbooking and the fact that Phil had the camera around his neck just like me.

Banker Brett (enough said)

Fireman Phil posing with Kirst & Kyle

How fitting...Statue of Liberty Phil with the New Yorkers themselves!

Sunday afternoon we enjoyed some game time (until the wee hours of the night in true Nicholas fashion) and of course a campfire with delicious treats. Over the course of the two days we enjoyed classic foil dinner, s'mores, banana boats, Ruthie G's brownies, Trash, kabobs, Jiffy Pop popcorn over the fire...mmm, it was all very tasty!

Brett went out to gather some more tinder and kindling.

Resident fire expert #1.

Resident fire expert #2.

Kirst and Kyle enjoying their foil dinners!Monday morning before heading back home, we went to a spot on the shore near the dam to see if we could have more luck with the catches. Though it didn't prove to be much more fruitful, we managed to catch a couple more little suckers.

Kirsten looked so serene, I had to snap the moment.Like wife, like husband...Kyle wasn't too far away on the other side of me looking quite tranquil himself.

We had to catch a peaceful (check out all of my synonyms for that word) moment as well (though this was a bit staged).
Thanks for planning the trip Kirst and Kyle! We had a blast! Let's do it again soon (or maybe as soon as the winter weather passes).