Counting down to D-Day!

Today I am officially 20 weeks pregnant - that means there are 20 more to go! I've slacked in documenting the progression in pictures, so I thought I'd start now.
I'm still able to wear most of my regular clothes (some more comfortably than others and some require a bella band to help out when I'm unable to button the pants) - but the fact that I still can wear them doesn't make me feel any smaller. How I miss the days of a flat stomach (and to think that when I had one, I didn't believe it)! Anyway, that's neither here nor there. Brett and I are just getting excited to start decorating the nursery. We sure better get a start on it since some of the larger items take at least 10 weeks for delivery (that's right, we'll be ordering everything over the internet so the delivery guys can haul it up our stairs).

Can't believe we made it half-way! Our little princess will be here in 20 short (though I'm thinking they'll start seeming long come a bigger belly and the NYC heat and humidity) weeks!

Pomp and circumstance

Look who graduated...

Congrats to my Penn Grad!

We had a fabulous time celebrating Brett's graduation with Angie, Darin, the Gav, Geff and Carol. Angie and Darin arrived late Wednesday night. We showed them around our apartment, enjoyed some New York pizza and caught up on life before going to bed. That Gavin sure is a character - I think he was just excited to be off of a plane!

Geff and Carol arrived on a redeye Thursday morning. Ang and Darin slept in while Brett went to meet the parents at Penn Station. I tagged along to say hello before going back to work. While Geff and Carol caught up on some sleep and I worked, the rest of the gang started their exploration of the city.
Exploring the mother of all Apple stores:

I think they spent some time in FAO Schwarz as well before heading to the Central Park zoo where I met up with them. I think the highlight of the zoo was the polar bear that was posing perfectly for pictures.

Gavin loved riding on the subway, but loved the busses even more! He even sang a rousing rendition of 'The Wheels on the Bus' after getting on the first bus :)

We headed back to the apartment for some dinner before making our way to Broadway to see Grease. Gavin made fast friends with Karene that night (thanks again Karene for spending the evening with him and playing catch for over an hour)! We thoroughly enjoyed the show (though I wouldn't rank it among the best Broadway shows ever) and some New York cheesecake afterward.

Friday I had to go into work yet again and unfortunately it rained most of the day. But, that didn't stop everyone from seeing more of the city. They spent most of the day in the Museum of Natural History and then we met up late in the afternoon for some Mexican at Harry's Burritos.

And of course, you can't visit NYC without an attempt to win some Wicked lottery tickets. Unfortunately, we had no luck, but I guess you can't always win. So instead we headed back to the apartment for a relaxing night of a movie, a game of Acquire and in true Gibson fashion, some ice cream.

Saturday morning Darin and I went to rent the car we were taking to Philly and then we all headed to a session at the temple. The Gav explored Central Park with Jane while we were at the temple (thanks for keeping him entertained for those few hours)! Then we enjoyed a picnic and stroll through the park.

Kath and Tim, that bubble wand sure was tons of fun...I'm sure baby girl G will love taking it to the park in the summers!

And of course, the reason for the visits was to celebrate Brett's accomplishments in the past few years at Penn. We took the LONG way to Philly thanks to Brett's incredible navigation skills :) By the time we got in, we had only enough time to pick up the cap and gown and grab a Philly cheesesteak - Brett taught us all the correct lingo to order like a true Philadelphian (wiz wit, wiz without, provolone wit, etc). They were tasty even if dinner wasn't until 10:30pm!

Sunday was an early morning since Brett had to be in line by 7:45. We got good seats at Franklin Field and were fortunate enough to have perfect weather that morning. The rain came in just as we were leaving. The commencement was fabulous and we provided a great cheering section for Brett. Afterward we went to Huntsman Hall for some drinks and hor'deurves and of course some pictures. We also made it to the bookstore to get some Penn paraphanilia - yes, even baby girl G got some :)

Do you see Brett?

This is when Brett walked across and got his diploma...I was able to capture the shot with his name up on the screen!

Have you ever been the cut-off for a name? Well, for the room assignments for hor'deurves after graduation, Brett was and we thought it was pretty cool. Not everyone gets their last name on one of those signs (and don't worry, Carol took the sign as a souvenier :))

Since the rain came in, our plans changed for the afternoon. We went back to the hotel and at Brett's request, headed next door to Baby's R Us to get acquainted with the many necessities of life that are coming up.

Brett soliciting Angie's expertise on rocking chairs.

After a couple of hours at Baby's R Us we headed to the graduation dinner at the restaurant of Brett's choice - the Melting Pot.
Delicious! Enough said!
And since it was Brett's weekend, we enjoyed yet another game of Acquire before heading to bed. Silent Geff ended up dominating, though Brett argues that it was impossible he could have won by the mere hundred or so dollars that he did!

Just like a little boy, Brett had it all set up and ready to go before the rest of us were even ready! Monday morning was the all school ceremony and again we were blessed with fantastic weather (though a bit on the chilly side). Mayor Michael Bloomberg of NYC was the commencement speaker.
We headed from there to some restaurant (I can't remember the name) so that Darin could meet up with some old co-workers. While he was with them, we ate lunch and then headed to Sam's Club to stock up and take advantage of a car and extra hands to carry everything up our stairs.

Nice expression Brett!
Then it was back to NYC. It didn't take us too long until we got outside the Lincoln tunnel and sat in 1.5 hours of traffic just to make it a mile into the city. We didn't plan too well on the gas, so while we were inching along at snail pace, we coasted with the car turned off! We were all pretty exhausted from the weekend and cute Gavin entertained himself while we all got some shut-eye. Monday night was pretty uneventful. After getting the car unloaded and something for dinner (more NY pizza), we looked through all the pictures and let Ang and Darin get ready to leave in the morning. Plus Brett and I had to go back to work the next day.

Geff and Carol were around for another day and a half (and unfortunately it rained during their day of exploration, but they had fun at the UN nonetheless) so we enjoyed spending Tuesday evening with them and just wish we could have convinced them to stay just a bit longer. We look forward to them coming again soon :)

Thanks again you guys for celebrating Brett's accomplishments - after all, Geff and Carol, he owes most of it to you!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to us!!

Yesterday was our anniversary. Since we recently went to Bermuda, we considered that our anniversary trip, but we still managed to celebrate a bit here in the city. I had a late meeting at work and didn't get off until 7:30, so our dinner reservations got pushed back a bit. The slacker that I am didn't take any pictures, but we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Blue Fin, followed by a quiet night at home exchanging gifts. In honor of the past year, I thought I'd document a few of my favorites of being married to Brett.

*How much he likes to be involved (whether it's about house decorations, paint colors, a new TV, a new restaurant, etc he just loves to research and be a part)

*Coming home (or better said, having him come home) to my best friend

*Having someone to share everything with - all about my day (and I tell all so he has to listen lots), dinner (it is so much more fun to cook for someone), the dishes (he definitely does more than I do), favorite TV shows, scripture study...

*Making decisions together - we quite often have differing opinions, but it's so fun to learn to make decisions together and then share the outcomes!

*Getting to know him on a deeper, more personal level every single day
*Loving him more tomorrow than I ever imagined I could today

I love you Brett!

Happy Birthday Kenny!

Just had to give a birthday shout out to my little (well, not so little) brother. I hope those Brasilians are treating him well for the big 22! I love you bud!

Bermuda: Day Two

Yes, there was a day two and three and I'm just getting around to posting (though to my credit, the baby news and moving chaos took some serious precedence). I think an appropriate title for day two would have to be: Pioneer children sang as they WALKED and WALKED and WALKED and WALKED! Yes, I did catch myself singing that throughout the day as my little (by little I mean long) legs were getting mighty tired. I thought NYC provided sufficient walking to prep me for any day filled with walking, but I was wrong. Anyway, we had lots of fun exploring the island.

We successfully found the church in an attempt to see the first session of conference, but to no avail. The cable company didn't switch over to the right station and the guy who knew how to do it wasn't in, so after an hour we all gave up (there were about 8 of us there) and we headed to sight-see.

Brett had seen ads for these caves and was anxious to check them out. They were conveniently located right next to the church. We toured Fantasy Cave where Brett learned the difference between stalagtites and stalagmites.
It sure was beautiful inside!
This is what they call a 'chandeleir' - can't imagine why!
I loved being among palm trees again. It reminds me of Alamo (a street in good ole Simi Valley). I particularly liked the topless tree...it gave us a good laugh. But really, where did all the leaves go?
He was so good to me and carried the bag pretty much the entire trip!
Walking to the bus stop...
Waiting for the bus...Overlooking Tobacco Bay

Looking out from Fort St. Catherine
Self portrait
Giving a little attitude outside of Fort St. Catherine after finding out that we had walked all that way only to find it was closed.
I just couldn't get enough of these views...the water is so very clear...

Saw these cute little guys on the side of the road and just wanted to take them home with me...a picture had to suffice.

The trek back to the bus. Honestly who knew that things would seem so far away on such a small island!
City Hall...what a cute building!

And that's day two for you. I didn't get any good pictures of the dinners we went to because I always forgot to bring the camera along. I actually think that for day two we ordered in and watched the semi final games of March Madness.

Day three to come...

Things to be grateful for...

1. A beautiful apartment that came through at the last minute (4pm the day before we had to move...talk about cutting it close)!

2. Bubble wrap and Mov Eze plastic wrap that made packing so much easier and left all of my things unharmed after the move (at least as of this morning there were no casualties).

3. Friends (both old and new and even my seminary kids) who sacrificed their energy and Wednesday afternoons/evenings to help us move and clean our old apartment.

4. My cute husband who has made time during his busiest season of the year to be home in the evenings and around for the move and the weekends before and after to make it all possible! He has worked tirelessly to get things unpacked and organized, even when I'm too tired to help (and subsequently slip into the bedroom for a two-hour nap while he works away)! He's been good to me and the place is looking great - finally starting to feel like a home! Thanks Brett for making the time and choosing us!

5. Fabulous girlfriends who have volunteered their time to come help me unpack, organize and decorate. Thanks Janers, you're the best! Mindy, can't wait to see you tonight!

6. Good friends (they're pretty much family) in Jersey who were ready and willing to let us stay there as long as we needed if things had fallen through. Thanks Scot and Ellen for checking up on us!

7. Delivery in NYC! I can have everything from groceries and all my purchases at Bed, Bath and Beyond (and pretty much any other store) to laundry/dry cleaning delivered right to my door so that the strong delivery guys can carry it all up the four flights of stairs and spare me the exhaustion of lugging those heavy things up the stairs. (I sound like a total wus, but really, I'm not...I lugged quite a few groceries up myself on Saturday, but when someone else can do it, why not let them have the opportunity to serve)!?!?!?

8. A kitchen to cook in again! I didn't realize how much I missed cooking until I had a kitchen back. I'm absolutely sick of ordering in after two weeks of it! This weekend once things were unpacked in the kitchen, I cooked away and boy did it feel good!

9. Doors! As much as I loved our cute studio (it really was a perfect starter apartment), I am SO glad to have more room and doors to separate the space. Now Brett can get ready in the morning without waking me up and I can stay up late to prep for seminary without hearing him say, "It's too bright in here, I can't sleep!" and then having to go finish my lesson prep in the bathroom so he can sleep.

10. Sleeping with a comforter. We previously lived right above the boiler and no matter what time of year it was, it was HOT as hay in the apartment. Now our place gets chilly and there is nothing better than snuggling up under a warm down comforter - it just provides for a better sleep.

11. Perfect HD reception. Now we get all of the network stations and then some - all for free!

12. Getting back to "the best of times" and the feeling of being on top of the world again!

*More updates on the move to come with pictures and all.