Celebrating marriage!

Hello, hello. Hope this finds you all well :)

Between school and work, we are trying to fit in some fun - as always! We celebrated our 2nd Anniversary on March 10th! My, how time flies. It seriously feels like just a few months ago that we were sealed in the Seattle temple and the whirlwind of our wedding day happened... but at the same time, I can hardly imagine my life without Matt. I am so incredibly grateful for Matt and our marriage. It has been really fun to watch almost all of my friends fall in love, get engaged and tie the knot over the past few years. To think that I've now become someone who is asked for newlywed/marital advice is so hard for me to believe, but that has happened quite a few times! 

It is so amazing that I have such a strong, faithful man in my life everyday, forever. He puts up with me when I'm selfish, tired, moody, clingy, sassy or otherwise hard to live with. I really got lucky with this one and I look back on my life in gratitude to Heavenly Father for guiding me in my dating years so that I would end up in the arms of my most perfect soulmate. No one can bring out more passion in me than Matt - whether it's laughing, excitement, crying, or love. He is the BEST! 

Okay, sorry for the sappiness... cheers to marriage and many, many more years of love, laughter, growth, fights, make-ups and adventure! 

To celebrate, we spent a nice weekend at a little french-themed B&B called L'Auberge in Woodinville. We had a great time, and even got breakfast in bed! The food was to die for... our hostess was seriously the best cook ever. 

Matt's almost-finished breakfast (3rd course). We spent some time writing in a "couple's journal" that Mallory bought for us. A fun way to remember our weekend!

Nothin' better than some Martinelli's and fresh flowers on your nightstand. 

My food. Almost gone as well... I couldn't stop eating for a picture earlier, it was too good. 

The lovely bowl we found in our room. This has kind of a funny story behind it...As we checked in, the hostess told Matt, "I really hope you guys brought some champagne, or at least some wine, for dinner!" When we told her we don't drink wine, her chin hit the floor. "AT ALL?! I've never met anyone that doesn't drink wine at all!"

Guess she's never met a mormon! Haha we told her we were LDS, and she didn't really know what that meant. When we said mormon, she goes, "Oh, like Mitt Romney? Okay." She wasn't nearly as friendly to us after that, but it's okay. We found it quite humorous that she was so off-put that we choose not to drink wine! And then we found this dish in our room and our new favorite saying is, "A dinner without wine is like a day without sunshine!" :)

Speaking of marriage... my sister is getting married THIS SATURDAY! I am so, so, soooooo happy for Mall and Tyler! I will take lots of pics and post about that soon!

Otherwise, I have been thoroughly enjoying my spring break (woohoo, two quarters down!) and gearing up to start my third and final quarter this year of my DNP program! That is so good to say. 

Hope you all have a great weekend! 

2013 in review!

Hello, blogosphere! I have been MIA for a while, mostly due to family events, work and catching up on sleep whenever I can! But here I am, and 2013 is already over. I can't believe it!

New Year's has never been a favorite holiday of mine, mostly because I have a hard time staying awake past 10:30 on most nights. I like setting goals on a normal basis, so new year's resolutions don't have too much weight with me. But I love the fact that the new year prompts me to reflect on my past year in gratitude and to identify lessons along the way. Also, Matt proposed to me on New Year's Eve two years ago, so that makes it a lot more special :)

Matt and I have been so blessed this year. 

Here is our 2013 in review... mostly in pictures because those are the best! 

Matt thrived and I survived in the brutal SLC winter! It is so beautiful, but makes me grateful again for my rainy Seattle winters.

We sent off our favorite sister missionary to Toronto, CA.

Matt and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary with some snowboarding and a weekend away. 

I got into UW, the grad school of my dreams! Matt graduated from BYU with his Bachelor's in Exercise Science. Woo hoo!!

We "partied hard" with friends and did lots of camping during our last month living in Utah. I graduated with my Bachelor's in Nursing from the U of U. 

We camped some more at Matt's family property and left the first place we called home together for good. We moved to Seattle to begin our job and house hunt!

We made a quick trip back to Utah for my grandfather's funeral. We were lucky enough to also spend a lot of time with Matt's family! We miss them!!

Our little Lizzie got baptized, marking the end of an era in the Hutchings family! She's getting so old! *tear*

September was a busy month... we moved into an old, dilapidated farm house. We fixed it up and called it home, enchanted by the beauty of the fields and coyotes that came with it. I started my first quarter at the UW and we got to go to Coeur D'Alene and watch Andy play football. 

We both (finally) had jobs in October! Matt started working as a Personal Trainer at the Pro Sports Club and I started working as an RN at Pediatric Associates. We both love our jobs and are so blessed to have work. My best friend Lauren also got married (back in September) but I got to finally see her at her open house here in Seattle!!!

We spent a fantastic Thanksgiving with my family and counted our blessings many times. Also, kept up the tradition of the Turkey Trot! (we also moved out of aforementioned farmhouse, into a townhome in Bothell. We love our new place!)

We went to Matt's swanky work Christmas party where we both won some prizes - yay for Roulette! We got to spend more time with my fam for Christmas and my sister Mallory got ENGAGED! We are so excited for Tyler and Mall and can't wait to welcome him into our family officially!

Have a happy new year and a fun, safe night! Bring on 2014!!

Extracurricular activities

I have spent most of my week doing homework - a little cleaning and a little bit (or a lot) of Netflix surfing too, I admit. However, I was able to have a fun evening with my mom and I'm excited to take a break this weekend from all this studying!

My mom serves as the Young Women's President of her ward (if you are not LDS - that means she is in charge of all the teenage girls!). She is fun, caring, selfless, smart, organized, and fabulous - those girls are so lucky to have her. 

My mom and me at Young Women "Girl's Camp" this summer. 

Perks for me come when she calls me up and says, "Hey, we're going to make our own maxi skirts for an activity! Want to come?!"

I can't turn that down, now, can I?

So - now I have a maxi skirt that I made! We had a lot of help from my mom's friend and YW counselor Abby and it was so fun to make! It wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be, and now I am itching to make more. By the way, Abby has an awesome blog here about sewing - she is a crafty magician with insanely adorable kids!! I had a great time learning how to make the skirt with my mom and the other girls there. Thankfully I had grandmas to teach me basic sewing skills growing up because my mom does not know very much in that department. And there is seriously nothing comfier than a maxi skirt... bonus points if it's super cute!

Completely unrelated to maxi skirts, but related to church... I am so excited for this weekend!! It's General Conference, where we get to hear talks given by the Prophet, his apostles and others chosen to speak to the entire church. I love that we have the opportunity to hear from our present-day leaders every 6 months. If you would like to learn more about what General Conference is, go here! Anyone can watch it online, and it's a really good way to learn about what we believe. 

I might get a chance to make these this weekend. They are calling my name!! And Matt's name too... he doesn't like chocolate so I have to be really creative about making goodies that he'll actually eat. Weird, I know. But these are perfect!

Also, yesterday I watched this video of a Pentatonix cover of "Royals" by Lorde. Prepare to be mesmerized. Every time I watch one of their videos I become obsessed and I never want to hear originals of songs again. They make "Thrift Shop" and "Can't Hold Us" sound like completely new songs. AWESOMEEEE. 

Well, that's what I've been doing (or will do) with my spare time and I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. I'm going to enjoy having my sweet husband home for two days straight! Till next post :)