Christmas Celebrations

December

We were lucky enough to fit in some Christmas fun here in Virginia before we headed back to Utah for the Holidays. 

We started with the Grand Illumination at Colonial Williamsburg.  We enjoyed listening to the drummer and fifers as they made there way to the Governor's Place for an awesome firework show.

(Picture taken from the internet)
Christmas Town at Busch Gardens This park is awesome.  We've loved having passes this year.  They definitely know how to decorate for the holidays.  They even had "snow" falling from the sky in places and you could smell fresh pine as you walked by all the trees.  They also had a little penguin exhibit visiting from Sea World. 

White Elephant Party with the Girls
I got the first season of Friends, which I don't think is a white elephant.  I was pretty excited about it.  

And our favorite, the Live Nativity at the Richmond Zoo.   The owners of the zoo are members of the church and they put on a live nativity every year.  It was freezing cold but we enjoyed it!  

It's a GIRL!!

Wow! I haven't blogged in a long time. My family back in Utah keeps informing me of this but I haven't been able to get myself to do a post.  But before I get more behind, here it goes...

We found out on December 5th, that Baby Gilbert is a GIRL!! We were both so excited!  It was so fun to see her during the ultrasound.  Everything looked good and according to our doctor, she is measuring tall and skinny!

After our appointment, Todd and I went and enjoyed a delicious dinner downtown at Stella's to celebrate!

20 weeks

The next day when I showed up at work, my coworkers had balloons all over the unit and had made me a pink cake.  They are so sweet.  

Thanksgiving

November 21st- 24th

Sallee-Eric-Todd-Me-Lara-Derek-Luke-Mandy-Brian-Danielle-Alyse-Ben-Natalie-Matt

(and the kids... Jack, Indie, Tanner, and Emery)

This year for Thanksgiving, we rented a cabin in Etlan, Virginia with 6 other couples.  We have the greatest friends out here and they make living away from family around the holidays so much better.  We spent the weekend eating, playing games, talking, and pretty much doing nothing!

The view from the cabin- in the beautiful Virginia countryside

We all got there Wednesday evening and it didn't take long for the games to begin and the talking to start.  I don't think we went to bed before 2am this whole trip.

Thursday: The boys headed out to play frisbee golf thanks to Ben for bringing everything.  And the girls started getting dinner ready.  Todd and I were in charge of the turkey.  Todd should get most the credit since he cleaned it, stuffed it and was responsible for the recipe.  But I did buy everything for it and cut up all the vegetables to go inside of it.  I just didn't want to touch it!

Everything turned out so good.  We had some amazing cooks on this trip!

And the cabin had this awesome table that fit all 14 of us!

Friday we hiked Old Rag since it was literally in backyard of the cabin.  Some of the group didn't come prepared for hiking so we had to improvise a little.  Mandy found some awesome stuff around the cabin to wear and Todd and I helped Sallee out!

Old Rag is very popular and is apparently the 2nd most hiked peak in the US (according to Todd and all his random facts that he knows!).  And he appeared to be right when we pulled into the parking lot.  There were cars everywhere.  Since we were in our truck, they thought we could park anywhere- including over a stream.  Well we didn't quiet make it and the truck got stuck.  But thanks to some strong men, they were able to push us out.
(Indie-Luke-Mandy-Todd-Me-Sallee-Eric-Brian-Matt-Natalie)




This trip was awesome.  It was a great way to spend Thanksgiving and we are very grateful for our friends and love living in Virginia! 

Burning of the Papers

That stack of papers is everything Todd had to learn during 1st and 2nd year of medical school.  We had always talked about having a bonfire once everyone took Step 1 Boards but due to the a tornado coming through Richmond and making it so Todd and a few friends had to retake the test a couple months later, we never got around to doing it.  
However, that stack of papers continued to sit by our desk and I was getting tired of seeing it everyday.  So we planned a little dinner and campfire at Pocahontas State Park so we could finally burn all the papers.

That's just Todd's stack! Imagine 5 of those...

The guys were so happy watching their papers burn.  Lots of comments were made, as they threw in different lectures.  But us girls were just as happy to see them burn! 

 

Enjoying our tin foil dinners

There was so much ash that we only made it through Todd's papers.  Luckily there was a big recycling dumpster outside of the park that we all stopped at to get rid of the rest.

Jazz vs Wizards

Todd and I both love the Utah Jazz.  When we saw they were playing the Washington Wizards, we knew we had to go because living in Virginia limits the amount of games we get to watch!  We invited some friends and headed up to DC for the evening.  The Jazz pulled out a win even though it wasn't pretty.  

  

Sallee- Paige (Brylee)- Me

Eric- Todd- Eric-Kurt (Brylee)

Richmond Half and 16 weeks

November 10th

This year I ran the Richmond Half Marathon.  Knowing I was already pregnant and would be 16 weeks along, I was a little hesitate to sign up.  But I had already told my friend, Paige I would run with her and I'm glad I did it.  Early morning training runs are a lot easier with friends.
Paige, Heather, Mary (Heather's friend) and I all started the race together.  I assumed they would ditch me early on but they were sweet enough to run along with me.  They even waited for me with all my bathroom breaks.  They definitely made the race much easier for me.  Around mile 9, we all split up and unfortunately I didn't see Heather and Mary at the finish line so no pictures of all of us.

I felt pretty good during the race until the end.  The finish line was at the bottom of a pretty steep downhill and that didn't feel very good.  My OB said I was fine running the half as long as I made sure I stayed hydrated.  I stopped at all the drink stations and made sure I was drinking plenty of water.  However, I had to stop for multiple bathroom breaks because of it!!
My family and all my coworkers were concerned that I was going to run being pregnant, even though its totally fine!  So my coworkers insisted on me taking the doppler home from work again to listen to the heart beat after the race to make sure everything was okay.  They were all anxiously awaiting the text that the heartbeat was strong and the race went well!  

Post race: so happy to be done! 

   
Paige and I
  And thanks to our husbands for waking up early to come and support us!

Guess What...

We're expecting!

Baby Gilbert is coming in April!

We are so excited and can't wait to meet this little one!

5 weeks

I took a pregnancy test shortly after we got back from our backpacking trip in August.  We were both so happy and excited when we saw it was positive.  Todd immediately started researching baby items especially a jogging stroller.  



8 weeks 1st doctors appointment-September 20th
It was so fun to see our little baby at our first appointment. Everything looked good and measuring right on time.
Official due date is April 28th, 2013.

12 weeks
We gave this picture to our families to announce our exciting news when I was home in October!  They were all very surprised and excited.  My sister, Erika had been asking me daily if I was pregnant.  I apparently had her convinced that I wasn't so when she saw this, she started freaking out.  It was so fun to start sharing our news with our family and friends!
I had my 12 week appointment once I got back to Virginia.  I loved hearing the heart beat for the first time.  Todd couldn't make it to the appointment because of school but luckily my work has a doppler so I took it home so he could hear it too!  



14 weeks We waited till Halloween to announce to our friends in Virginia. I saw this idea online so I made these shirts for us to wear to our Halloween party.  It was fun to see everyone reaction.  Some of our friends (Lara) have been waiting for this announcement for a while now so they were beyond excited! But then some of them didn't get it right away and it took some explaining!