A rainy day wedding.

Last Saturday we packed our bags, loaded up our explorer and headed to work. It was a winery wedding, the last official one of 2012. We kinda lumped this one in with 2013 since it was so close to the new year! It was going to be an evening ceremony, in Temecula, in december, with 40% chance of rain. I made sure my attire was prepared for all of it.

It was cold and rainy most of the evening but such a fun way to end 2012. Those weddings are ones that we will remember forever. Soaking wet throughout the ceremony, ducking under strangers large umbrellas, and sipping on warm hot chocolate & coffee thru the night to keep warm. Overall 2012 wasn't a huge year of changes and accomplishments but it was still a year of success and great memories. Looking into next year I'm praying for 2 things.

1. To become a home owner 

2. A puppy to love

Happy New Year everybody!

5 Christmas' later...

Yes, 5 Christmas', pretty wild, but we made it home after a full week of holiday festivities with our families in San Diego! It was exhausting but tons of fun. I don't think I've ever slept better after getting home last night. It can be hard having to split time with families over the holidays, especially for Paul who only grew up with one. For my brother and I, it has always felt normal to attend at least 3 Christmas' (moms, dad & grandparents). With marriage comes all of those new adventures, learning the others family traditions & making some of your own too. Paul's family have tons of Christmas traditions, at first they were a little overwhelming for me because my family has always been a little on the spontaneous side each holiday season. But I've grown to love all of these Gilster traditions::

1. A day in Julian
2. Christmas cookie decorating (we don't mess around)
3. Christmas eve service + soup & broccoli night
4. Eating at the amazing Old Town Mexican Cafe
5. And last but not least, a night of singing & gift exchanging

And oh my goodness..you have to watch this clip I captured of Paul Christmas evening. He is normally a super shy guy and would totally die if he knew I shared this video of him but this is really the Paul I know and fell in love with. He makes me laugh so much.

Hey there friends. Merry Christmas!

It's no secret that I've been totally lagging on blogging..life has been a holiday blur of working.shopping.traveling.dog/house sitting.finals.baking.present wrapping. etc. Please forgive me! The Gilsters wish you a very Merry Christmas! May we all have a wonderful holiday full of love & PIE.pie.PIE. 

29 days till we cruise!!

The time is coming for that glorious day where we board our home on the sea and cruise for 7 days in the Caribbean. Our family is beyond excited, for our gift exchange this year we even made it "cruise themed!" Buy a gift for your secret santa that they will for sure use on vacation. Love it. Basically I'm asking for loads of sunscreen because this whitey is gonna burn baby burn. In light of the days left until vacation, I've upped my workout and diet regimen. I haven't been keeping up my routine on the blog or posting results because I honestly haven't been paying much attention. The scale is hidden for now because I don't want to obsess on dumb numbers. As long as I'm feeling more fit and confident, that's good enough for me! So far this change of routine each day includes..

- 20 - 30 minutes of Cardio (biking, running, stair master or elliptical)

- 1 target area of weight lifting (upper or lower body) usually 5 different types, 4 sets of 8.

- Before bed I've also been super diligent (ask Paul) about these 2 ab workouts HERE & HERE. I switch from time to time depending on what I feel like.

- Cutting out most carbs. I'm sorry but I just can't let them all go…

- Drinking as much h20 as I remember to!

Normally it's late so I can't complete the "mountain climbers" on the Burning Core Pyramid so I switch it out with another ab exercise. Our downstairs neighbors have already called the cops on us once..anndd that's a whoooole other story. Preferably told over margaritas. After our vacation there are about 1,000 different interest recipes that involve bread of some sort, here are a handful..

Martha's mac & cheese + banana-peanut butter french toast?!? Be still my heart and carb deprived belly...

CSUF Lockdown.

It started as a normal Wednesday..I stay home as Wednesday is my main work day and Paul has classes for 6 hours. As much as I love CSUF's gym, I'm sorry gym you can't keep me that occupied. Paul left for class around 3:30 and I planned for an afternoon of Christmas shopping & getting my eyebrows done (...people were mistaking me for Sasquatches wife, they had to go). I had left heaven on earth Paper Source when I got a text message from Paul. Now normally we savor our alone time so getting a text from him is rare. It was somewhat brief.."I just got an email saying that students need to stay inside, there is an armed suspect on campus." By then I was in Crate & Barrel and my mind went zombie blank. I must have looked at the same Christmas ornament for 7 minutes. I wandered around the store trying to look "serious shopper" when I probably just looked like a lost puppy. I was genuinely worried, and I'm not a worrier at all. The night before Paul and I had just talked about the shooting in Oregon and what we would do in that scenario. I felt so helpless, I mean, no one really has a course on how one should act when their husband is locked in a library and there could be a potential shooter on campus. Believe me, I would take it. I felt so mindless as I ventured out of C&B knowing nothing was going to get accomplished there and wandered into Anthropologie (priorities, I know). Texting back and forth with Paul, he reassumed me that he was safe and locked in the library. My phone was running low on battery so I cut my Christmas shopping short and "lost puppied" it out of the mall to head home. At one point I hadn't heard from Paul for an hour, which felt like 17 hours…finally my phone rang, it was Paul! He was still held in the library and wasn't sure how long he would be there but that his phone was going to die..oh perfect. Inside, I knew he was safe, there were so many armed police officers and SWAT teams that he was basically in a germ-free bubble, but you just never know! To pass the time I took a bubble bath and texted all our friends and family to keep them updated and ask for prayer. God answered because minutes later Paul let me know that he was on his way home!!!! I had never been so relieved to see this face walk thru the door.

love this guy.

makin' traditions together.

Third married Christmas. How did that happen? It seems like last month we were celebrating our first where we helplessly tried to master Pauls mom's sugar cookie recipe, which basically wanted nothing to do with us and we barely had enough money in our monthly budget to afford a tree. I now look back on those times and smile. We decided this year we should make a homemade ornament in honor of creating a new Christmas tradition. We had gone out to a friends "Chrismakkuh" party earlier that night...

Once we got home all I wanted to do is stare at this beautiful/delicious smelling tree in the corner of our room. I may have a crush on this thing…Somehow I decided that sleeping in our living room next to our tree would be a great idea (good one Kelley). I got together our extra sheets, pillows, blowup mattress and my best convincing skills to get Paul to agree. We made popcorn, played a little Mario Kart, and each got to open 1 present to each other. We made it about 3.5 hours on the air mattress until Paul nudged me and said it was time to go back to our own bed. Apparently poor air mattress just wasn't cutting it. Don't worry, we'll shoot for at least 5 hours next time.

now that Christmas cards are in the post.

Saying post is so much more fun than mail, am I right? We once had some clients from London who had their destination wedding in the states and I vividly remember their email titled, "check is in the post!" It was love right then and there. Now that our Christmas cards and in the mail post I can share the remaining of our Christmas card session turned engagement shoot (long/funny story) with our friends Troy & Aimee. I seriously adore these images that they captured. Paul is such a natural in front of a lens, although he will deny it all day long he knows it's true.

just not quite understanding the concept of twirling. 

One thing about us is that we hate and are so childish about is PDA. So this 

photo below is kind of a big deal. Our friends think it's wild when we hug or flirt 

with each other. It is..

Ok some one get this guy a glass of scotch & an Armani suit. 

Chuck Bass? Where my GG junkies at?

Outfits:

Paul - Shirt: Urban Outfitters, Cords: Urban Outfitters (of course), watch: Nixon.

Kelley - Jeans: Volcom, Top: Nordstrom, Sweater: thrifed, Boots: Target, Scarf: gift, Bracelet: F21

Last "Film Friday" of 2012.

It's been such a great year, great experiences, couples, trials & triumphs. We have both a happy/heavy heart that this year is coming to an end for 618. It's our last film friday of 2012!! We know that 2013 holds so many more experiences for us and we feel beyond blessed to call this our job. Meet Nate & Lindsey, their cuteness is not fair to the rest of us.. but we still love 'em.

when your husband is more Martha than you + great printables!

I craft from time to time..Believe me I'm no Martha, but like to pretend I am. This week I wanted to do some Christmas crafts..bake sugar cookies, hang a printable banner, take a couple trips to Michaels for craft supplies..you know the whole sha-bang. Yesterday I made time to work on creating some DIY ornaments. I planned to keep it elementary with my clear glass ornaments and gold Martha Stewart acrylic paint. Polka dots were basically my only plan. While "dotting" I nonchalantly asked Paul if he wanted to help. To my surprise he came over curiously and grabbing an ornament. Out.of.nowhere the kid totally starts showing me up, demonstrating much more skill & precision than me! Busting out chevron print, arrow patterns (the guy knows me) & a mimic of our logo. Part of me my pride was slightly crushed while the other part of me was serious impressed. I've discovered a new side of my husband. 3 years of marriage and I knew he was handy..but not crafty, Martha would be so impressed.

 On a separate note..how do you and your spouse do Christmas gifts. This will be me and Paul's third Christmas together and we havn't mastered this element of life together yet. Do you share what you want with them? Create a list? Not exchange gifts at all? Buy a joint gift together? I know there are so many ways to go about it but I'd love to hear what your traditions are. So far this is my approach for the year..

Text to Paul: "I love this! TJ-Maxx, size small" Am I subtle or what?

Oh also be sure to check out these wonderful free printables from the talented Kelli Murray (gift tags) & Kalleen from At Second Street (christmas banner) Thank you ladies for your artistic greatness so we can pretend to be crafty too! ;-)

Christmas weekend!

Dude. (I say that a lot lately) weekends off? I could so get used to you. Especially if you include Christmas tree purchasing, decorating & lighting. And for Paul? Pour him a glass of eggnog and he is totally game for just about anything.

We turned from tradition this year and got our tree at Costco for Christmas 2012. and oooohMgee Costco, you don't mess around at all..not even when it comes to your trees. But I love you for that because our tree is amaze balls. And come on now, where else can you impulsively buy 28 frozen corn dogs and a Christmas tree all in one store. Heaven I tell you! 

We drank eggnog and for a better choice of word "nogged" & listened to She & Him's Christmas album while decorating our tree. Our house now smells like "making love to a lumberjack" ..See what I did there?