A growing experince

I can't belief this semester is almost over!!! when did this happen?! It's been a CRAZY semester. Lots busy, stressful moments which means lots of growing moments. I'm very grateful for this semester. I've been working on my portfolio as I've been in school and it's been very hard to do both things at the same time. I've spent LOTS of hours on one art piece and I feel like I work so slow but in reality things just take time. I've had lots of moments when I didn't know what else to do, but moments of inspiration will always come at some point. I'm been very grateful for one special professor who has been helping me this semester. I cannot even express how grateful I am for Boston. She's my Character Design professor and she just loves teaching and helping her students. Her class goes till 10pm and she would stay after class to just look over my progress and help me see how I can improve it. I really appreciate her staying extra time to just  talk to me. Also, she has to drive all the way to Salt Lake because that's where she lives. She's a great example to me. I just wanted to talk a little bit about her because she's change my life. I'm not talking just about helping me have a better portfolio, but about serving others and loving it. I can tell how excited she gets when she gets to help. She doesn't have to tell me how happy she is, I can just tell. I want to help others and do it because I love that person, even if I don't know that person very well. Going along with service, yesterday another art professor told us that art can become a selfish career and we should never let that happen. He explained that as artists we are trying to become better and better every time. He said that when we find ourselves thinking about ourselves and our talents and how to become better artist, we need to stop and think of others. He explained that we should use our talents to help others. Service is just so great! It brings blessings to our lives and to those we serve.
I usually don't post stuff online but I decided to post this piece that I've done in my character design class. I'm still working on it but I'm almost done :) Thanks Boston for all the things that you have taught me!

GOOD NEWS!!!!!!

I'm sooooo excited!!!!!! I really want to talk about this really quick because it means so much to me. Danny and I have been very blessed this morning! A few months ago, Danny applied for an internship this summer. He had some interviews and stuff with a company called GE Oil and Gas. We hadn't heard from them for a long time and I was thinking that maybe he didn't get the position. Danny emailed them Saturday hoping to hear back from them. He did! This morning, after I turned my phone back on I got a call from my husband. I thought it was weird because he was calling me during his Capstone class and he never even checks his phone during that time. He called to let me know that he got the internship position!!!!! BUT the best news is that the internship is going to be in HOUSTON, TEXAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohooooo!!!!! That's where my family is from and I couldn't be more happy about it. We are going to be in Houston during the summer. I'm sooooo excited :) :) :) Danny is also going to get paid very well which is a HUGE blessing since we need to save some money for Grad School.
Heavenly Father is aware of us. He really does know the desires of our hearts. I know that. I am so grateful for this amazing opportunity that He has given Danny and me. I'm also very grateful that I get to be with my family this summer. I love them so much <3 and I love my wonderful husband too :)

Fun moments

So life has been extremely busy lately. That's why I haven't been able to post anything for a while. Danny and I are always on campus. It's been crazy. We are only at home whenever we are done with our day and we need to sleep. We spend all day on campus. It's kind of hard because I feel like there is no free time and if we want to do something fun that means that we are going to get behind in school. It's a little frustrating. But we've been able to sacrifice a little bit of time to do fun stuff.

This week my mother-in-law came into town. On Wednesday Danny and I carved some pumpkins with her and Danny's sister and nephew. It was my first REAL time carving a pumpkin. The first time I kind of carved a pumpkin was 2 years ago for FHE when Danny and I became friends. haha. I didn't do much last time though. It was way fun :) 

Thursday was Halloween! Danny and I dressed up as Mary Poppins and Bert! We had lotsss of fun making our costumes, especially Danny's chimney sweep broom. It was legit lol. So many people told us that we were cute heheh it was funny. People were staring at us a lot. We also had over 100 likes on our picture that we put up on facebook. Success! We actually didn't do that much for Halloween. My classes got cancelled which was nice but I still went to campus with Danny to work on my portfolio. Danny and Ron had to take a test for their Neuromechanics class. They were both done by 10pm. Lame! We tried going out to eat but it was after 11pm so most places were closed. We tried going to some restaurants in Center Street but they actually closed early because they ran out of food because there was a free Halloween dance in Center Street. Our plan was to go to the dance but when we got there it was a little sketchy and I was exhausted. We ended up getting Wendy's for dinner and watching a movie at home. I was in the mood of doing something pretty chill so that worked out great. 

Mary Poppins and Bert for Halloween :)

Ron and Danny studying for their test. They were cute so I decided to take a "sneaky" picture. 

On Friday we ended up hanging out with Danny's mom. It was lots of fun. We went to Comedy Sportz. It was pretty funny. Then we went out to eat at Winger's. Ron also came with us. I love wings! but they were not the best. Maybe I just didn't get the best sauce. It was still good though.

Today, we came to campus to work on homework and stuff. Then we went to Midville to watch Ron (my brother) and Hannah (Danny's sister) compete. I only recorded one video and then my phone ran out of memory so I couldn't take pictures of anything. Lame. It was fun. I LOVE ballroom competitions. Ron competed Novice Latin and Pre Champ Latin. Hannah competed Novice Latin and Novice Ballroom (Standard). Ron made it to the semi finals on both. Hannah got 6th place on Novice Latin. Ron checked his scores and he didn't make it to the finals on Novice Latin for 1 point. So he actually got 7th place and Hannah 6th. Funny they competed against each other. It was lots of fun. But I always get to nervous when I see Ron competing. It was a little stressful haha. They both did great.
Tomorrow is Sunday. Yay!!! I LOVE Sundays! There are the BEST!!!!!! Also, my little nephew is getting blessed tomorrow at church. Can't believe he's almost 3 moths.

I'm glad we were able to do some fun stuff this week :) That probably means that we are behind in school..... oh boy... It okay. We got this!

Feeling proud

So I just wanted to talk about how proud I am about my husband. He really is a great guy with so many good qualities and great potential. I love spending time with him and learning from him. My husband helps me become a better person. He's very smart, dedicated, passionate about learning, very spiritual, etc. I could talk about him for hours, but I only have a few minutes because I have to run to class.
Anyways, I guess I wanted to talk about him because this week he's been very blessed with things related to his career and I just feel so proud of him. Yesterday, he got to do a presentation about his research that he's doing. I was very excited because I helped him create his poster. I took pictures, created some diagrams, and graphs. This is probably the only time I've been able to help him with something related to school. I usually don't understand any of his homework (mechanical engineering stuff) so this was a unique experience for me :) He did a great job during his presentation. Some of his family stopped by the Clyde to hear his presentation. This weekend Danny is going to Chicago. He got a travel scholarship to go there for the weekend. I'm not exactly sure what it actually is, but he's going to be learning about grad-schools and their engineering programs, doing some workshops, and just making connections with some important people. He's going with 2 other people who also got this scholarship. He's also being doing some interviews for internships for this summer. This is so exciting! Thinking about our future makes me very excited. I've been blessed with such a great man in my life. What else can I ask for!

Danny's presentation. Poster in the back

I love weekends!

I just want to blog about the AWESOME weekend that I had. It was greattt!!!! Way too fun :)

On Friday, Danny and I went to the formal Homecoming dance. We got to dressed up pretty fancy. I actually didn't have a dress so I had to buy one the day before. I was so lucky to get something cute and it was super cheap. Danny and I wanted to match :) Two things that I love to do: get all fancy and match with someone else. Before the dance we had some dinner at our place. I made a kind of fancy meal but I forgot to take a picture of it :(

Danny did this all by himself :)

Wearing his favorite apron lol

My brother took this picture before we left. Thank Ron!

 The dance was in Spanish Fork. The place was nice. It was funny to see ONLY couples at a dance. We actually found some of our friends there including our neighbors :) Music wasn't the best but it was way fun dancing with my loving husband. He was so funny. I don't know where he got some moves but he was showing off a little lol. They were also giving cheesecake and crepes. It was so good! Danny is a big fun of cheesecake and I'm a big fun of crepes. So yummy!! They also had carriage rides. It was so exciting. I tried taking pictures but it was dark and I only had the camera from my phone. Pictures didn't turn out very well but that's okay. I had  a blast with Danny. Super fun date <3

Cheesecake and crepes!

Pretty place

I'm so lucky

Carriage ride. Tried taking a picture of the horses but it was too dark 

Saturday morning Danny and I went to the Homecoming parade! My brother was going to be dancing with the ballroom team. They gave us blue pancakes there but this year they didn't put chocolate chips. Sad. We sat with some friends from our old ward including one of my old roommates, Alyson. It was lots of fun.

Danny and I at the Homecoming parade :)

Ron dancing at the parade

fun swing dancing

This one was funny. It was Mormon and the Book of Mormon. 

Saturday night we went to the BYU football game! My old roommate, Haylee, came to Provo to watch the game. Danny and I went with Ron, my cousin Jordan and Haylee. We got some free shirts! yay for free stuff! BYU won!!!! It was fun. By the end of the game my throat was hurting really bad. I guess that's a good thing. After the game we went to the Malt Shoppe and then we went to the Nickelcade to play some games. It was a really fun night. We were obsessed with a game that was giving us a lot of tickets. I got about 600 tickets by the end of the night lol. but then I didn't know what I wanted to get with all the tickets. I ended up getting some candy haha. I still have like 450 tickets left. It was nice to see my old roommate Haylee. She's so funny. Sadly, by the end of the football game everyones phones were dead so I didn't take pictures :(

This is the only picture that I took. Danny and I before we met with everyone.

Sunday we went to our new ward. Yep, we decided to stay in the Student married ward. I'm pretty excited. Danny already got a calling yesterday. I met a girl from Relief Society that came up to me and sat with me. She was way nice. Church was good. I was way tired from not getting enough sleep. I guess I'm not used to partying too much anymore. After church we made dinner. We had Ron (as usual) and Jordan over for dinner. Then Danny and I went to my freshman reunion. It was at my old bishop's house. Bishop Campbell has a nice house. Him and his wife have not changed a bit since I met them 4 years ago. I got to see lots of friends. Some of them are already married. Some didn't go because they are not here in Provo anymore. There were so many people, I didn't even get to talk to half of them. I probably didn't even see like half of them. We had to leave early because we had plans with some friends. It was nice to see bishop though. Him and Danny had a nice conversation about grad school right before we left.

After my freshman reunion some friends came over to make apple pie- Ron, Jordan, Alyson, and Kevin. It was fun. It took a longggg time to make that apple pie. We were just talking and having lots of fun. When the apple pie was in the oven we decided to play "Truth and Dare". It got a little intense lol. There were some funny things that we had to do, especially the boys. Ron had to update his facebook status and talk about a moment when he saw a cute girl and what he thought. Ron said he needs to married a cougarette. Ron also has to go on a date this Saturday with a girl from his ward. Kevin planned everything for him. Jordan is going on a date with a girl from his FHE group. I had to wake up early and make some breakfast for Danny. (That one didn't happend this morning lol. I couldn't wake up, maybe tomorrow). Kevin had to go out and scream really loud the name of the girl he likes. hahaha that one was super cute! I'm not allowed to say her name though. (We also almost got kevin to have a fake proposal to Alyson). Lots of dates came out of this apple pie thing hahah. It was way fun. I was exhausted by the end of the night. Pie was good too :)

Kevin wasn't very excited to do this

It's super dark, but this is Kevin in the middle of the street screaming. Alyson and I wanted to make a video of this but Kevin didn't let us lol :(

I wish I would've taken more pictures of everyone.
Anyways.. it was a fun weekend. Now is time to do lots of work. Happy Monday everyone!

It's getting coldddd....

September is almost gone and the weather is getting cold. It's been raining lots, the air feels cold and the mountains have some snow already. Danny says that it will get kind of better because that's how fall is in Utah. It's true I guess...the weather seems to be bipolar. The change in temperature is affecting me a little bit. I started feeling a little sick 2 days ago. Today I've been in bed pretty much all day. Danny has been taking care of me. He's the BEST :) He's making some delicious dinner right now :) I should get sick more often heheh jk.

I had a nice weekend though. On Friday, Danny and I got to hang out with a group of friends. We also watched the first half of the BYU football game (BYU vs. Middle Tennessee). We couldn't watch the whole game because we had lots to do, but BYU won! 37-10. Go Cougars!!! :) On Saturday I skyped with my family for a while. Then Danny took me to pick up my Machu Picchu painting! It's all ready to be hung up. I'm wayyyy excited. It looks beautiful.

I also watched the Relief Society broadcast. I really liked it. We are so blessed to have leaders that teach us and help us during hard times. The prophet, Thomas S. Monson spoke at the end :) I'm also excited for next week- General Conference is awesome.
Later that night Danny and I went to watch a movie on campus for Danny's Humanities of Latin America class. The movie was called Black Orpheus. It was interesting. I actually got some ideas for my art homework. Then I was craving some soup (because I was feeling a little sick) but it was kind of late so most places were closed. Danny ended up taking me to Olive Garden :) I love their soup.

Well.... hopefully the weather and I will better this week.

Birthday weekend

I had an amazing weekend. Lots of fun, lots of family, lots of food, not much school done. On Wednesday my Aunt and Uncle came to Utah because one of their nieces was getting married on Friday. They brought my grandma with them. It was great! I love my grandma so much. I grew up with her so she's like my second mom. She stayed in our apt for a few days. She's a wonderful cook so she helped us with some meals. Danny was sure happy to have her around haha. I really appreciate all her efforts to be here for the weekend. She wanted to be here for my birthday! Yep. I'm old. I'm 23. Anyways...I had a great birthday :) Friday night Danny and I went dancing to this Salsa party thing. Ron also went with his dance partner. [Side note: Ron got a dance partner!!! yay! She's way nice. I really like her and Ron is having lots of fun. They will be doing competitions starting next month. I'm so excited for them]. Saturday was my birthday. I went to the temple with Danny, Ron, Grandma, and aunt Pilar. It was a very special and sacred experience. I'm so grateful for Temples :) After the temple, we went out to breakfast. Then Danny took me to Provo Arts and Frame to get a painting all framed. I was way excited because Danny and I bought this painting of Machu Picchu when we were in Peru. Now is finally going to be on the wall of my apt. It's a beautiful piece. Then I went shopping with Grandma for a couple of hours. When I got back there were beautiful flowers on the table and lots of chocolate and a cute birthday card from my sweet husband :) Then we ate dinner. My grandma  made "pato" which means "duck". It may sound a little weird for people but I love pato. It's so delicious. That's what I always eat when I'm at home for my birthday. Good thing Grandma was here to make it for me. It was way good! Then we went to a dance performance (Evidance) that BYU was hosting. It was so fun. They had different kind of dances. I wish they would have had more ballroom dancing but that's just me because that's what I love to dance. The performance was only 1.5 hours so we got home early enough to have some cake made by Grandma. Then Danny and I went for a walk to the Riverwoods. I love that place. It has lots of lights around every night, reminds me of Christmas time which is my favorite season.  Well... that was my birthday. My grandma left on Sunday morning. I already miss her. I'm so glad she was able to be here :)

Sunday was bittersweet. Danny and I went to church knowing that it could be our last Sunday as Primary teachers because we are switching wards. Deep down I was hoping to get one more Sunday. We taught them about eternal families. The spirit was so strong. They were feeling the spirit and were so good. They were very reverent and asked really good questions. They listened and really understood the importance of getting married in the Temple of the Lord. We told them that we were sad because it was going to be our last sunday. One of the kids asked us why weren't we crying if we were so sad haha. Danny said he had some tears in his heart. At the end of class, each one of them gave us a huge hug. I LOVE LOVE LOVE our kids. They have been such an amazing blessing in our lives. I cannot even express how grateful I am for knowing those little angels. After church the Primary president came to tell us that they had new Primary teachers for next Sunday. I just wanted to get out and cry. Well... I did. As soon as I got into the car I couldn't stop myself from crying. I was so sad I wasn't going to see my little kids every Sunday. I remembered how happy I was when Danny and I were called to be Primary teachers. I remembered meeting each one of the kids and see how much they have changed since then. I remembered some of their silly comments that they made to make us laugh. I remembered some of the things that they taught me. Serving as a Primary teacher has been the most amazing calling ever. I really mean it. It was a calling that brought extreme happiness to my life. It was also special to be able to teach with my husband and learn so much from him and from my 5 year old kids.

After church I skyped with my siblings for a little bit. Then we had dinner with Ron and Alyson. Alyson stayed with us for a while. It was so nice to had her over. She is so good at making people feel so happy. Danny played his guitar for a little bit. He's been learning a new song call "I won't give up" by Jason Mraz. I love that song! It's so cute! :)
Then Danny and I drove to the Temple and just talked about goals that we want to work on. One of the things that he mentioned was about making each minute valuable. This was very helpful for me to hear because sometimes when things are hard I can't wait for them to be done knowing that someday it will be better. But he said that we need to value those hard/sad moments in life during the time that is happening because when we came to earth we fought to be here and have those SAD and happy moments. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. It really brings so much happiness to me.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

School, school, and more school

I started my last fall semester last week. That's crazy. I feel like I've been in school FOREVER!!!! but I guess I have. What am I going to do with myself next year?! Not sure but I'm way excited!

So I was finally able to figure out my schedule :) thank goodness! I got into the classes that I wanted to add. I'm so grateful that no matter how lost I feel with school at times I know it's going to work out. Every semester I can't add the art classes that I want so I have to go talk to professors the first week of the semester and ask for an add code. Sometimes it's very stressful to not be sure if I'm going to get into the class that I want. So far Heavenly Father has blessed me with the ability to get into the classes that I need. This semester I'm taking 5 classes. I'm very happy about most of them. Here is my schedule: 

Spanish 456: M/W/F 12-1pm

English 316: M/W/F 1-2pm

VAILL 310: M 5-7pm, W 5-9pm   (Digital Illustration 2)

VAILL 351: T/TH 4-7pm    (Illustration 2)

VAILL 358: T/TH 7-10pm   (Character Design)

Can you guess which classes I'm not so excited to take? Yep. English and Spanish. I have to take Spanish because of my minor... which I know people think it might be super easy for me because I already speak spanish but let me tell me people that in a 400 level class you don't learn how to speak spanish anymore. I don't even know what I'm supposed to be learning in that class but here we go!

English is my LAST GE ever! haha I really didn't want to take it. I'm not a big fan of English classes. I have a really fun professor which make the class a TON better. She was actually in the show Survivor twice hahah. so fun! 

The really hard thing with my schedule this semester is that I get home super late. I don't have time to make dinner. Yesterday I got out of class early and made dinner. Danny and I ate dinner at 10:30pm. How is that possible?! Ugh... at least it was good dinner :) I really need to figure things out. Danny and I had opposite schedules. His classes are in the morning/afternoon and mine are in the afternoon/evening. He also works a ton and during the time that we don't have classes, we are working on homework. School is already super busy and it's only been like a week. 

I have bad news: my computer is not working so that makes school ten times harder than it should be. Especially for my digital illustration class because I only use my computer! On a positive note, I'm really excited about my art classes. I'm learning so much already! I even have created another blog!!! This blog is just for art stuff. http://kellysmithart.blogspot.com/ I am really excited about it. I created it yesterday so I haven't been able to post too much. Check it out if you have some time :)

Another positive note! Danny and I finally posted our wedding pictures! Don't worry... we only took 9 months lol. We had like 900 pictures and we couldn't put all of them up. We ended up posting about 300 of them. Still a lot of pictures but a lot better than 900. Go us! It's so nice to read some of the comments that people say. I've gotten a couple of messages from people that I haven't talk in a while and they are just so happy for Danny and me. I'm very grateful for friends that show their support and friendship. 

And one last thing.. Danny is such a sweet husband. This week he's been writing with a marker on our bathroom mirror really cute notes for me. The first time drew a heart with our initials. Another day he wrote "I love you, gorgeous." He also wrote a quote from President Hinckley to help me feel better. I'm so grateful for having him in my life. Life is so much easier when he is around :) 

Day before school..... not feeling it

Tomorrow is my first day of class... hopefully. My schedule/life is all over the place right now. I only have 2 classes so far. I'm trying to figure out what I should take this semester. I haven't been very motivated at all. Seriously... I'm kind of ready to be done with school and just keep moving with life. Danny decided to help out and figure out my schedule for me lol. What a wonderful husband! I guess he made me be a little bit more on top of things today. Thank goodness... i was worried about myself lol.

Today was labor day. I spent all day with my Danny. I love those days. We decided to post our wedding pictures. We have sooooo many of them. It took hours to select the ones we are putting up on facebook. It took so long to select them that we didn't even get to the part where we were supposed to put them up. Yep... we are pretty slow. Oh well, I guess we can put them up this weekend. I bet it will make no difference since we've been married for a little while.

Sad news. My fish died!!!!! :( When I went to TX I bought a fish for my siblings and for myself. Of course my fish stayed at home with my family. Today my little sister called me to tell me that Speedy (my fish) had died this afternoon. I was actually sad to hear that. I guess I'll buy another one when I go home for Christmas.

Anyways... it's late and I have to sleep so I can have a good first day of class tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Nothing better than a relaxing Sunday

Yesterday was a fun day. I love Sundays. I love that I get to go to church and spend 2 of 3 hours with our wonderful 5 year-old kids from Primary. I love feeling the spirit so strong as I hear people talking about the gospel. I love that I get to chill at home for most of the day feeling very peaceful. I love that I get to spend ALL day long with my wonderful husband (it's the best). I'm so grateful for Sundays.

Danny and I go to a family ward but we are thinking about switching to the student married ward. Our next door neighbors go to that ward and they love it. They seem to have lots of activities and that's what we are looking for. Yesterday we went to the student married ward for the first hour. Danny and I knew a couple of people. It was so different. It was funny to see so many young couples. The bishop was very nice. We'll see what happens...

Anyways, yesterday was the 18th. That means that Danny and I have been married for 8 months. Crazy?! yep. It feels like I just got married last month. I guess time flies when you are having fun :) That also means that I got engaged almost a year ago and I met him almost 2 years ago. I love this boy <3 Thanks for being so wonderful babe :)
We had dinner with Ron and then we went to his ward prayer because it was bishop's birthday. I love Bishop Helean. I met him 3 years ago. He's such a wonderful leader. We got to sing happy birthday to him and sign a card. I also got to see a couple more people from my old ward. We didn't stay for too long because Danny and I had plans.
Danny took me by the canyon to look at the STARS! It was so nice :) There is this parking lot right in front of a waterfall. It's beautiful. We took camping chairs and a few blankets. We looked at the stars for like 1.5 hours. It was so fun. Danny always teaches me about the constellations. I also downloaded this app on my phone that tells me where everything is. It can even show me planets and the sun. Way cool! We just talked about how wonderful the universe is, the creation of the earth, and a few other gospel topics. It was very relaxing. We were there for so long that we even saw the earth moving. From the time we got there to the time we left, some stars had moved to the point that they were lower and were hiding behind the mountains. I had a lot of fun :)

Dreaming about the future.... :)

Danny and I have been so blessed to have family in town for a little while. One of my nephews was born a little over a week ago. (He's so cute!!!!!). Danny's family came over to Utah to meet the baby so we got to spend some time with them which was nice to see everyone. Sadly, Danny has been working a lot so we were not able to do hang out too much with them. Last Thursday we took family pictures. It was fun. This week, my grandma came from Texas and stayed with us for a few days. Thank goodness we have a 2nd room! It was so nice to have her here. Aunt Pilar and uncle Ralph also came to Utah for a baby blessing. I'm just very grateful to be able to have family that we can see once in a while. 

Our exciting news:

-We have a new nephew. Now Danny and I have 5 nephews and 3 nieces :)

-Our 2nd room which used to be our storage room for LOTS of months is now a clean study room! 

-Danny got a new job. We've been very blessed. He has 3 jobs now. Lots of work. So proud of my husband!

-Danny took the GRE yesterday. It's finally over!!!!! :)

Everything feels more real now. Danny just took the GRE and now we've been talking about where he wants to go for grad-school. It's crazy to me that we have less than a year here in Utah and then we are going somewhere else. There are so many possibilities where we could end up next year. Maybe California, Massachusetts, Maryland, Georgia, Texas, or maybe we'll stay in Utah. Who knows!. In a couple of weeks he will find out his scores and we'll be able to start all the applications. I'm REALLY excited about our future together :) I'm so grateful for my wonderful husband! 

Summer time!

I've done so much since last time I wrote in my blog. Just wanted to write something really short because I don't have lots of time. First of all, I went to PERU!!!! I LOVE Peru sooooo much <3 I've been in the States for about 10 years and it was my second time going back to my country :) Thanks to my parents we had an amazing vacation this summer. I went with my whole family which made it even better. We were a big group- 4 siblings + my husband + parents + grandma. It was the first time Danny was getting out of the country so he was super excited and didn't know what to expect. We went to Lima, Cuzco, and Trujillo. I grew up in Lima but I was born in Trujillo (even though I didn't really live there). I got to see my family that is still in Peru. Danny got to meet lots of family. He really enjoyed it. His Spanish got pretty good too. I was so proud of him :) We need to keep it up so whenever we go back again he can be completely fluent. I had never been to Cuzco before. We went for 4 days. We all go so sick lol. A lot of people get "soroche" which is an altitude sickness. It's okay...we are all still alive! We went to Machu Picchu. It was BEAUTIFUL! and I can finally say YES when somebody asks me "Have you been to Machu Picchu before? hahaha. Some people are always surprised when I tell them I'm from Peru but I've never been to Machu Picchu. Anyways, we spend the last week in Trujillo. We got to see a lot of family from my dad's side of the family. I had so much fun :) Danny also got to try lots of Peruvian food. He was very happy. I might write more details of my trip to Peru later but I don't have much time right now.

After we got back from Peru, I spent a 1.5 weeks with my family in Texas. It was so much fun. Danny and Ron had to go back to Utah. We got to do some fun stuff when I was there. My family got their first pet. We got 3 little fish. They are so cute! I wonder how big they are going to get when we go back home for Christmas break. We also went bowling. It was so fun playing with my siblings. We also went to the movies to watch Despicable me 2- such cute and fun movie. We spent time at home just chilling and doing random stuff. It was nice to have a break. I haven't taken a break from school for a few years so a vacation was very much needed. 

After a week and a half, I was missing my husband lots and lots. I got back to Utah the day before his birthday. haha. Not enough time to plan something nice for his birthday but it all worked out at the end. Danny decided that he wasn't going to work that day. We slept in till like 10am. hahah Yep. pretty weird. We went on a short run. (For those who don't know my husband very well, he is a runner and he loves running every morning. and for those who don't know this about me, I hate running. I'm the worst runner ever and I don't enjoy it yet). Danny had asked me to run with him for his birthday. How am I supposed to say no to that? yep. I went running with him. I was so tired before running and after the run. I felt like my energy for the day was gone. At least Danny was happy lol. Then I made a delicious breakfast for him and invited Ron to eat with us. It was more like a lunch since we ate it at like 11:30am. After breakfast, we went to the running store for Danny to pick his birthday present. I told Ron to come with us because I knew Ron was going to make everything more exciting for Danny. (Danny has been training Ron for a few months, so they both enjoy running). Danny was so excited to get new running shoes. He was in need of running shoes since we were engaged I think lol. Lucky for him, there were a couple of discounts for Pioneer weekend. 1st pair of shoes -30% off, 2nd -40% off, 3rd - 60% off. My plan was to get him only one pair of running shoes since they are usually $100 or +. But because they were on sale he got 2 and convinced Ron to get a pair of running shoes with the 60% off. Well... we spend like 2 hours in the running store. At least, Danny was happy. Then we went to the Temple. It was so nice :) Then we went to Nadine's house to have some cake with her and family. Nadine and Danny are siblings- 5 years apart but they share the same birthday. Then, I took Danny to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. He loves their steak. That's all we did for his birthday. But then I had a little party for him at our place on Saturday. Most people were out of town for the summer but we still got to hang out with some friends. I should have taken pictures but I forgot :( Oh well... thanks everybody who came! (Ron, Jordan, Kevin, Mike&Aleisha, Mikal, Josh&Luisa, Nadine, Miriam, Elisa and a couple other people). 

Well... summer is great! Life is fun. I'm very grateful for all the things that I've been able to do so far :)

Digital Illustration

So guess what!?!!! I ended up with an A in my Digital Illustration class. I got the highest grade 98.46% WOOHOOOOO!!!!! That never happens. I'm so happy I was able to get a good grade in my class. But I also very grateful for all the things that I learned from my professor. [Note for my mom: mom that proves that I was trying to be productive all those days that I didn't call you. Love you mom]
So I've decided to post my assignments in my blog. We had 3 assignment total during the semester.

My first assignment was to design 4 pieces for the licensing market. We had to use Illustrator. I made a ladybug design for a little girl's bedding. I also need to give some credit to my husband who helped me do the waves. His math is a lot better than mine :)

Bed Cover

Bed Sheets

Pillow Case

Rug

The second one was an editorial piece. We got a fortune cookie in class and we were supposed to illustrate our fortune in a conceptual way. We used Illustrator and Photoshop for this assignment. My fortune said "Your judgement is a little off at this time." I painted a guy fishing in  the ocean. He's sitting on a small boat with a fishing pole and he's about to catch a shark. It pretty much just says "you're doing it wrong."

"Your judgement is a little off at this time"

Our last assignment was to pick a story from Mother Goose and modernize it. It could be 2013 or a future time. I picked a nursery rhyme called Little Boy Blue. My illustration takes place in the moon. The little boy has fallen asleep. The cows and sheep are just around. Some sheep are in the background flying away. This assignment was only done in Photoshop.

Little Boy Blue

Also, I created my own website. It was technically our last assignment for our class. This is a link to it.

http://kellylopez21set.wix.com/kelly-smith

Reaching my goals

I've been meaning to write in my blog for a while. I just don't have enough time. But here we go.
Life is pretty exciting right now. I am so busy with school, but I LOVE it! This spring semester has helped me grow so much as a person and as a student... not so much as a wife though :( My loving husband is so nice to me, he doesn't even mention anything. I've been trying to focus so much on school that I feel like I don't have enough time to clean, make super delicious meals and just take care of Danny. Spring semester is almost over though. So hopefully things will change in a little. Somehow we are still able to have so much fun together. It's so nice to have him around. He is very supportive of all I do.

So right now I have one of my art pieces hanging in the 5th floor of the HFAC! So if you have a couple of minutes to stop by please do :) It's been there since last week. And I have to take it down on the  20th (last day of spring term). I was worried I wasn't going to be able to finish it because I had to go to TX for a few days so I missed class and pretty much lost like 4 or 5 days of work. I finished it though. It was a miracle! It was so fun to frame it and everything. Danny took some pictures for me yesterday.

My assignment was to pick a story from Mother Goose and make it more modern. I picked a nursery rhyme called "Little Boy Blue"

Little Boy Blue

Come blow your horn.

The sheep's in the meadow;

The cow's in the corn.

Where's the little boy who looks

after the sheep?

He's under the haystack fast asleep

  

My last day of school was on Thursday. We don't really have a final exam. We just need to redo all our assignments (it's not necessary.. only if we want a higher grade) and also we are working on creating our own website :) I'm so excited!!!! I've been working on creating my own website  to put some of my art pieces and be able to work and stuff. I've been so blessed during this semester! First of all, I was able to get into my Digital Illustration class which I think it has helped know that I don't need to wait to have a degree to work as an Illustrator. I really appreciate all the advice from my professor. She truly likes to help.
Couple of things I'm doing:
-I took some engagement pictures for Matt and Rachel! So right now I'm editing all the photos. We took them at Utah Lake. It was fun.
-I'm also going to be designing the logo for the BYU Neuromechanics lab.
-This one is not 100% sure yet but I might also be designing 2 more logos for a website. A friend that graduate from BYU a few years ago is creating 2 websites. One is about the ocean and the other one is about reading.

I love my major! I just love learning everything I can to become a better artist.

Yesterday was a wonderful Sunday. It was way fun. We only had 2 kids in primary. We taught about forgiveness. W have really good kids. We seriously have the best calling. After church we went to Ron's apt to skype with my dad for Father's day. I just want to mention that I have the BEST DAD EVER! He is a great example to me. He sacrifices so much for us. I don't tell him enough how grateful I am for everything he does. But he really is the best :) After we were done skyping, Danny and I went to the HFAC to take my pictures. Then we went to a friend's apt. to have dinner with them and play games. It was way fun! Brandon is one of Danny's friend. They were TA's together, they've taken a few classes together, and he's slept over at our apt a couple of times (working on long engineering homework). Brandon is a really fun guy. He just graduated. This is his last semester and then he is going to Pennsylvania. His girlfriend is really cool too. She planned this surprise good-bye party thing for him. She made dinner for all of us. There were probably around 10-15 people. After dinner we played a game called Wackee Six. It was so fun. I forgot how much I like playing card games. We stayed there till almost 11pm playing with them. I'm a little sad that a lot of Danny's friends are leaving after spring term. We are going to need to find new friends :)

So tomorrow is Danny and my 6th month anniversary! Can't believe we've been married for half a year already. Time flies by so fast. I'm so excited :)) Danny is taking me out to eat at Red Lobster. I love that place! I'm a big fan of sea food. I need to plan something for him too I guess :)

Anyways.... I need to go to campus and be productive.

Green everywhere :)

Life is so fun during the summer! I love how sunny it is and I just want to be outside all the time. It makes me sooo happy :) The trees are getting so green. I even have a perfect view of the mountains from my apt and they look so beautiful. Sometimes I take for granted how much beauty there is in this world. Danny has taught me to appreciate nature. He grew up in Seattle where everything is always green. He can see so much beauty in a simple flower and he loves staring at big green trees. I am starting to look at nature in a different way. It just reminds me of the love that Heavenly Father has for us. He sent us to this BEAUTIFUL world. Every plant is His own creation.

A couple of weeks ago, I told Danny that I wanted to go out and take pictures of something pretty. He thought about it for a minute and he told me he had the perfect place for me. He took me this trail called Lovers' Lane Trail. When we got there everything was just full of plants. He was so excited so see so much green there was around us. I wasn't  sure what to take pictures of because everything was seriously just green. At first I thought it was a little boring but as we went on I could see so many little things that were so beautiful. There were different kinds of leaves and little flowers. I was so excited just enjoy the moment. I'm so grateful for nature and the little things that my wonderful husband teaches me.

Lovers' Lane Trail

I love this one

Just beautiful

There was a tiny ladybug!

Scott's big day!

This morning I went through some pictures that I took months ago! I found some old ones.... I totally forgot about them! I need to find some time to edit them. Today I finished editing some graduation pictures. Since school started I haven't had a lot of time to edit photos. I just wanted to post a few though. They are photos of Scott and his family. My nephew looks soooo cute! Seriously... I was in love with all his little faces. He was so smiley in all of them (even though he wasn't really looking at the camera).

Sundblom Family

Cute Brady

Congrats Scott!

Nadine is having a baby boy in a few months :)