...that's why i love you

{ christmas eve }

2012-01-04T20:58:00.005-07:00

Here's a photo run-down of the Christmas Eve festivities:

Eating dinner with cousins - Mariah, Orva, and Elaine

Ford and Sally

Reading Christmas books from Grandpa Paul and Grandma Orva

Acting out the nativity scene - Orva and Elaine both wanted to be Mary (although Orva sort of wanted to be an angel, too - hence the tinsel on her head in place of a scarf)

The cutest little shepherd boy you ever saw - Wayne

The Holy Family - Joseph wasn't interested in his costume at this point (and no, that isn't a two-headed baby Jesus - each Mary just needed her own baby)

Sally - the fancy little angel (and she knew it!)

The final scene - somewhat chaotic, but very fun

Christmas Eve jammies (it's kind of fun to have my two little boys match)

And that's it! Altogether a very fun night!

{ our little nativity scene }

2012-01-04T20:49:00.003-07:00

Had I been together enough to send out a Christmas card this year, this is the picture I would have used.

And because he's so cute, here's a close-up of that little baby Jesus.

{ housley johnson gibb }

2011-12-06T18:19:00.006-07:00

Housley Johnson Gibb was born on Sunday, December 4th at 9:15 a.m. He weighed 7 lbs. 5 oz. (bigger than my other two) and was 19 inches long. Labor and delivery went very smoothly and we're all recovering quite nicely.

Here are some pictures of the cute little guy:

* I've been home from the hospital for less than 12 hours and I can already say having three kids is wild.

** Someday soon I'll post more details about the labor and delivery and everything...

*** When I made Ford's sheep costume for Halloween (see post below), I had just enough leftover sweater to make an extra little hat and pants for this new baby. I decided to go ahead and make a matching shirt to complete the outfit. I was so excited to put it on him when we came home from the hospital and see it actually fit! One fun detail - the buttons on the shirt and hat are from the button collection of my great grandma Orva Housley...where he gets his name.

{ little bo peep and her sheep }

2011-11-01T16:17:00.005-06:00

As much as I don't like Halloween, I do really like making my kids' costumes. Ford's is made from an old sweater I found at DI. Brad's mom was here the weekend I was working on Orva's, so she made the little pantalettes (love them) and the petticoat and I made the dress.

{on a hot, hot day in july}

2011-07-28T20:17:00.003-06:00

P.S. Bonus points to anyone who can name the song (and singer) the title of this post comes from.

{ confusion }

2011-03-14T10:09:00.003-06:00

Orva has been a bit confused about a few things lately...

- She loves to watch Angelina Ballerina and begs for it every morning at breakfast. While she's watching it, she can name all the characters: Angelina ("Anwina"), Vicki ("Bicki"), Gracie ("Gacie"), Polly ("Pawyee"), etc. But for some reason that we cannot figure out, she calls the show "Peanut Butter". When she asks to watch it, instead of calling it Angelina, which she can say, she asks to watch "Peanut Butter". Baffling.

- She's recently become very attached to my pink yoga mat. It rolls up and has a strap that goes around it so you can carry it like a bag. She came out with it the other day and this was our conversation:

Orva: this is mine blue bag.

Me: blue! it's not blue!

Orva: it's pink!

Me: yeah, silly. it's not blue.

Orva: this is mine blue bag.

Later in the day (when she's still carrying it around), we had this conversation:

Me: orva, what is that?

Orva: mine blue bag.

Me: what color is your blue bag.

Orva: it's pink!

She carries it around with her everywhere. She brings it in the car with us, sleeps with it, and tried to take it to nursery yesterday. I said no.

After trying to figure out why in the world she calls it a blue bag, we finally figured it out. She was whining for some water while I was running errands and I kept telling her I didn't have any. Finally she yelled at me that it was in my blue bag, and pointed to my diaper bag. Apparently she thinks a "blue bag" is a diaper bag. While it does explain why she calls the yoga mat a blue bag and carries it around with her, it does not explain why she thinks a diaper bag is called a "blue bag" in the first place. I have never had a blue diaper bag.

And the last bit of confusion...

- Orva brought this bucket of toys to me (note the people in the bus all upside down) and said, "They're cooking! Sshhhh!" Then she got a confused look on her face, got embarrassed, and walked away muttering, "They're not sleeping. They're cooking!"

{ favorite things party }

2011-03-14T09:49:00.003-06:00

I'm doing a favorite things party at my house on Tuesday, March 29th. If any of you locals (I live about 30 minutes north of Salt Lake) want an invitation, leave a comment with your email address and I'll send you one.

The basics:

You pick a favorite item (beauty product, treat, recipe, kitchen gadget, book, something hand-made, etc.) and bring five (5) of that one item to give away. You'll leave with five (5) new things from other people.

For the actual exchange of favorite things, everyone puts their name into a bowl five times. Everyone takes turns explaining their favorite thing and then draws five names to give their item away. It's all very exciting - you feel like you "win" something new...five times!

Anyway...anyone is welcome (that I know, at least). Let me know if you want an invite!

{ random / funny pictures never posted }

2011-02-27T20:48:00.016-07:00

I've been going through all of our pictures and trying to organize them and came across a bunch of random and funny ones that should have been posted but never were. Some of these are from a long time ago....some are pretty recent.

We went for a walk to the park and took Orva out of the stroller to look at the ducks. We parked the stroller on the grass and a few minutes later I saw this out of the corner of my eye. Brad went on a rescue mission to retrieve it and discovered that the bottom of that pond is extremely slippery and the water smells extremely nasty. We provided some good entertainment for the many on-lookers present.

I don't remember anything about these picture. I do remember those cute cheeks, though.

There was some water left in the tub at my mom's house. The bath rug was hanging over the edge and Orva leaned over to try to play in the water and fell in...taking the rug with her. She was less than thrilled about the situation.

Unfortunately, this is Ford and not Orva. He was born early and we only had one boy blanket. We had to save that for public appearances, so at home, he was wrapped in pink.

Ford used to hold his pabby like this all the time. It was actually really nice - he kept it in very well.

Orva was sick and teething and miserable. These pictures were all taken on the same day. I promise I did let her nap in her bed that day, too.

Orva loved (still does, actually) putting on Ford's pants.

And here's my mini Brad...she looks EXACTLY like him in this picture.

Orva went through a stage where she LOVED snaps or buttons. She would empty the drawer with all of Ford's onesies and un-snap every one. Yes, I snap them (just the middle one) when I fold them. That drawer was her heaven for a long time.

Ford used to put his hand on the back of his head while he slept...for some reason it was always so funny to me.

Thank you to Addie who taught Orva how to dress up. She thought she was pretty stylish in this get-up.

Ford got a hold of a cupcake at a party we went to. He ALMOST got that hand in his mouth, but not quite.

"Shaving" with mom's lotion.

Playing "peepo".

Grandma Gibb gave these shoes to her and they weren't taken off for many days. We're experiencing a similar situation with a fancy pink dancing dress right now.

Ford slept in the swing for a few months...until he started to do this.

This was right after Ford was born...

His chunky thighs do nothing to keep his pants on...he scoots right out of them all the time.

I heard him hollering and went in to find this. Orva was nowhere around, so this was self inflicted.

We didn't know that Orva could open her closet doors...but apparently she can. She went to bed with no hat, and it was put away in the closet.

This was when I was barely pregnant with Ford and so, so sick. I walked in at the end of her nap and was very alarmed to see a nakey baby. I thought, "Oh no. Now is NOT the time to be entering the stage where she takes her diaper off by herself." Upon further investigation, I found the diaper in her bed and it had clearly never been put on (the tabs were still perfectly stuck down). I, in my sick and pregnant state, had changed her diaper and not put the new one on. I felt pretty foolish, but was actually relieved that it had been my mistake and not her learning how to take her diaper off.

* She had no clothes on because at that point, it was warm enough to be in just a diaper and putting clothes on was just too much work. Apparently, just putting the diaper on was too much work. *

I guess this was better than trying to drink Yankee's water (which is what Ford does).

She loved to lounge...this is how she always sat when she was in the cart or the stroller.

{ a big stink }

2011-02-21T14:35:00.003-07:00

Orva's comment when she saw this was, "Baby Sferd did big stink!"

Yes, dear. He did indeed.

{ greener eating: redo }

2011-02-17T19:22:00.002-07:00

So sorry to everyone who tried to check out Greener Eating only to find that my link didn't work. I fixed it in the last post, and here it is again:

Greener Eating

However, both the link in this post and the last are still only working half the time (no idea why), so if neither work for you, the site is just www.greenereating.com .

Enjoy!

* Thanks for the heads up, Erica!

{ greener eating }

2011-02-16T11:20:00.005-07:00

I was looking at how out-dated my blog header and side-bar are and realized I'd never added a link to this site. My sisters, mom, and I have a food blog that we post all of our recipes on. It's nothing fancy, but very practical. It's all of the recipes we actually eat, day to day. Everything on there is vegan (no dairy, no meat) but even if you're not vegan or vegetarian the recipes are really good and very healthy. Most recipes are very low in fat or fat free.

Anyway - here it is:

Greener Eating

* You'll notice I post even less frequently on that blog than I do on this one...thank heavens for my sisters and mom who keep it up and running!

{ i forgot }

2011-02-13T20:07:00.002-07:00

I was going to post this story about Orva last week with her update and forgot:

Last week was Testimony meeting in our ward and Orva was sitting on Brad's lap just playing, as usual. Apparently she was paying attention to all the people getting up to bear their testimonies, because all of a sudden she hopped off his lap and said, "I go say prayer now" and walked right up the aisle. She made it all the way to the stairs going up to the podium before Brad got to her. It was very alarming, and very funny.

I am of the opinion that children should not get up to bear their testimonies until they can do it by themselves, so she's got a ways to go. Had she made it up there, she would have said a prayer (that's what she thought everybody was doing - she doesn't know about testimonies yet), and it would have gone something like this:

"Heavenly Father, bless this day, and bless this home, and bless this Woody, and Buzz, and other-one-buzz, and bless this Jackson, and thank you Addie, and thank you Addie's house..." and on and on and on and on. She usually keeps praying half-way through our meals, about everything in sight. And she has the typical up-and-down praying inflection down perfectly. It's great.

Also to add to Ford's update, he's now pulling himself to standing and very pleased with himself about it. He also sounds exactly like Gus-Gus from Cinderella when he talks. It's hysterical.

And now, a couple videos just for fun (the Happy Birthday one is from a few months ago):

{ update: ford }

2011-02-06T21:43:00.004-07:00

- 10 months old and very active

- Very mobile...but refuses to crawl. He does a very fast army crawl, pulls himself up to his knees (close to pulling up to standing), loves to scoot/crawl to a cabinet and then pull himself up and stay there and play on his knees.

- Thinks he's skinnier than he is and tries to fit in little tiny places and gets stuck. He often tries to retrieve a pabby or a toy that has gone under the couch or is in the back of a cabinet and then hollers loudly when he gets wedged. I usually laugh and take a picture before rescuing him.

- Growls all the time. Very loudly. During church.

- Loves to show off his tricks while he's eating. It makes for a wild time, trying to get spoonfuls of food in amongst all the clapping and growling and doing "so big!" and head ducking (being shy). It is very cute, though.

- Very wild dancer. He just rocks back and forth, but quite vigorously. He, of course, loves to dance while I'm trying to feed him and it shakes the whole chair. He'll dance any time he feels like showing off, but if he hears music, he'll stop mid-cry and start dancing.

- Loves Orva and follows her around all day. She spends her life either freaking out and melting down about it, or being smart and putting all of her things up on the table. It's either one or the other - never a nice in between of sharing.

- Definitely a momma's boy and very snuggly. I love it. He's very content and happy most of the time and when he does want to be held, I can just put him in our hiking backpack we have and he's thrilled to be packed around in that while I cook/clean/etc.

- Horrible sleeper - still wakes up at least once or twice a night just because (he's not hungry - I never have to feed him until morning). When he's sick at all, it's more like every hour all night long. Miserable. During his naps, he spends about an hour and a half playing, then twenty minutes crying, then thirty minutes sleeping. Thankfully, he's pretty cheerful despite his lack of sleep. His mother is not.

- So squishy and cute, but thinning out some. This is right when Orva started to thin out, too. I'm going to miss his squishiness.

- Loves the bath. He spent the first six months of his life absolutely hating it, but now he thinks it's great. We have this one little round guy that is a bath toy and he just loves it. He goes nuts over it every night (lots of growling and yelling and clapping and frantic waving of arms when he sees it). It gets dangerous, though, because he is perfectly willing to drown himself to get to the little guy. It's funny - we have a blue one and a yellow one that are exactly the same. He only likes the blue. Orva tries to switch it out for the yellow one and he'll have none of it.

- Grabs at things and lunges for things way more than Orva ever did. He has to have everything he sees. I almost drop him all the time because he tries to leap for things.

- Happily wanders all over our house. Our new house is much bigger than our old house so he gets lost all the time.

- Knows where all the cords are in our house and gets tangled in them daily, no matter how much I try to keep them safely tucked away.

- Love, love, loves his pabby. When I nurse him in bed in the mornings, I always have his pabby right there and without fail, he reaches for it behind his head and grabs it and puts it in his mouth. He'll take that over nursing any day. If he has two, he'll sit there and just rotate back and forth - putting one in, then spitting it out and putting the next one in.

And now, for some pictures of my squishy beast:

P.S. Coming soon: update on our house. Stay tuned, but don't hold your breath. You know how I am with blogging.

{ update: orva }

2011-02-06T20:33:00.005-07:00

- 2 1/2 and getting cuter all the time

- Loves all things Toy Story - has a complete obsession with Woody, Jessie, Buzz, Other-One-Buzz (referring to the imposter Buzz in Toy Story 2), and Bullseye. They get prayed for daily.

- Loves Mary Poppins - we sing lots of songs about "Meery Poppims", "Burp", and "the babies" (Michael and Jane)

- Loves coloring - I print off pictures for her using various clip-art and she keeps a drawer full of all "mine pictures". I used to have to draw pictures for her, but it was getting difficult to draw all of her requests (Mary Poppins! Buzz! Horse! Owl! Again! More! A baby one!). She especially loves watching her pictures come out of the printer - "Here it comes! Off we go!"

- Talks nonstop. Really. No idea where she gets it from.

- Some of my favorite things she says - "mmm...delicious!", "that will be fun", "hmm...I can't find it", "no thanks, mommy", "I'll be right back" (I realize that none of these sayings seem particularly cute, but when she says them in her little tiny voice they're all pretty fabulous)

- Sings all the time...her favorites are "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", "I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home", "I Am a Child of God", "ABC". She knows all the words to them and although she doesn't always sing them in tune, she does have a very special singing voice she uses.

- Loves Ford, but he also torments her. He chases after her in his army crawl and she runs away screaming. The other day I heard her yelling and found her in the corner of my closet with Ford right there at her feet. She was saying, "No baby guy! Don't hurt me, baby guy! Don't hurt me!"

- In our new house we hear planes from the air force base fly overhead all the time. I've had to explain to her that they're nice airplanes, they won't get her, they're too far away, they're up in the sky, she can't hold them, etc. We have the same conversation every time she hears one (several times a day).

- Loves animals and always tells me what they say. Her pigs say a funny, throaty "honk" instead of "oink". Her butterflies say "Oui, Oui, Oui" (thank you, Fancy Nancy). Her donkeys say "Yee-haw!"

- Loves her jammies. We gave her some on Christmas Eve and since then that's all she wants to wear. Really - we wear jammies to the library, the store, everywhere but church. We've had to buy more so that I can keep up with the laundry. When we bought the new ones,she carried them around the store and told everyone they were her new jammies, but she couldn't wear them yet - "not until we get home!" When we had to give them to the checker, she laid down on the floor and sobbed. If I'm not careful, she'll pull them out of the dirty laundry (either her's or Ford's) and put them on. When I have to wash them, she says to herself, "You're okay. They be clean in a minute." (Side-note: when we go out, I put a clip in her hair and put shoes on and everything, hoping that people will know I do take care of her and keep her clean and clothed...she just prefers jammies and I'm not willing to fight her on it. But now I wonder if that's worse - if now people think I actually think her jammies are outfits. Oh well.)

- Loves her babies, and loves to put them in their little chairs. They don't stay on by themselves so I finally used rubberbands to secure them - hence the "hostage" situation (see picture below)

- If Ford is crying, she says, "Shh, shh, shhhh...you're okay. Mommy be right back."

- Loves to build towers...out of anything! Dishes/cups/pans, blocks, duplos, shoes, etc.

- Fractured her collarbone (fell off a chair in our kitchen...not a big fall, just landed wrong) about a month ago. We spent a lot of time laying low and watching movies, but she (thankfully) was a really good sport and healed pretty fast. She did not like her "big band-aid" and kept asking me, "where are mine other-one ningers (fingers)?" Even though she's better, she still likes to tell people about it. "I hurt mine shoulder. Don't like it coctors (doctors). Don't want to lay on table. Don't want it picture of mine arms. We be almost done." Needless to say, the doctors experience was pretty traumatic.

- Loves her daddy - spends her days saying, "Where's daddy? He come right back?"

And now (if you made it this far...), some pictures:

{ halloween cuteness }

2010-10-31T17:17:00.007-06:00

I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, but I do really enjoy making my kids' costumes. This year we went for a sock monkey (made entirely out of actual socks) and a kitty cat (with a ruffly cape because I didn't want to join the tutu craze).

Much to my dismay, Orva wasn't thrilled with her costume. She loved it when I painted her face, but within five minutes of having her costume on she started taking it off piece by piece. I tried to be a good mom and not care, but it was very hard (I spent a lot of time on it, darn it). Luckily one of my little cousins fell in love with it and wore it around at our family party. I was secretly hoping the jealousy would kick in and seeing it on someone else would make Orva want it back, but no - she was completely uninterested. Oh well - at least someone enjoyed it!

And because it may never happen again, here's a picture of Brad and I dressed up (as Tony Stark and Pepper Pots). We got invited to a costume party and so we were forced into the Halloween spirit. Since the party was at my old boss's house, we thought it would be fitting if I went as some sort of "assistant".

* Note the Arc Reactor under Brad's shirt...it's hard to see in this picture.

** We got so many compliments on our hair that I might just dye my hair red and Brad might go black. What do you think?

{ orva likes to ride her red strider bike }

2010-09-15T14:38:00.006-06:00

We got Orva a strider bike for her birthday (we highly recommend it). When we first gave it to her, she was very excited about it but only wanted to push it around and around in circles - she did not like the idea of actually getting on it.

To even get her on it, we had to sing, "Orva likes to ride her red strider bike" to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus" (a common motivating technique in our house). She got on, but still wasn't pleased about it.

She pretty quickly got to the point where she would get on and walk around with it between her legs, but she was more interested in the cargo carrying than the actual riding.

We ended up attaching a basket so she could carry everything (the little foot rests just weren't sufficient for her carrying needs). It ended up being very fun but she spent all her time loading and unloading, with no riding whatsoever, so we took it off again.

She also likes to make fashion statements with her bike - plain onesie, just a diaper, or a backwards princess crown with heels (and no pants).

Her favorite part of riding now is looking for big bumps to go over. She rides along saying, "Find it, big bump!" then goes over one and says, "I did it, big bump!"

She also thinks it is very fun to carry it around with her. She picks it up and carries it all around the house, grunting and saying, "Ah ceggy it! Ah ceggy it!" (translation - "I'm carrying it!")

Overall, the strider bike has been a big hit!

{ here's what we've been doing }

2010-09-12T21:50:00.005-06:00

...since the last time I posted.

- bar b ranch 4th of july (read: insanely busy)
- 4th of july recovery (i don't think i unpacked or did laundry for at least a week after we got home)
- johnson family reunion in yosemite (40 of us - lots of fun)
- bought a lot and started building a house (it's almost done!)
- gibb family reunion in washington
- orva turned 2 (and got a new strider bike)
- ford developed some seriously hefty thighs (that are very ticklish)
- a million other random things that somehow turn out to be very time consuming and leave me feeling very busy

...hopefully someday I'll go back and document our lives in more detail.

In the meantime, some pictures:

{ update: ford }

2010-05-19T18:43:00.005-06:00

Here's an update on Ford:

- So, so, so cute!

- Still tiny, but finally starting to fill out.

- Seven weeks old.

- Has serious tummy issues (I spend my life burping him and helping him do stinks and I'm seriously down to eating nothing...sticking to the blandest foods I can think of).

- Somewhat fussy (see above).

- Loves to be on his tummy.

- Loves to sleep in his bed (he's going six to seven hours at nights now).

- Love, love, loves his pabby.

And here are some pictures...

{ update : orva }

2010-05-19T15:37:00.007-06:00

Here's an update on Orva (more for me than anyone else - she's in such a fun stage right now and this is the only documenting I do).

- Talking like crazy and putting two and three words together. She talks VERY loudly (another mom in her Little Gym class put it nicely - she has a great outdoor voice) and repeats everything several times.

- Loves to be dramatic. She has a love/hate relationship with messes. She secretly loves them because then she can dramatically hate them. "Oh no! No, no, no! Mess, mess, mess, mess, mess! Oh no!" (she really does say "mess" that many times in a row).

- Says "okay" all the time. She'll say something she wants, like drink, eat, book, etc. and then when I say, "You want a _____?" she nods her head and says, "okay".

- Loves prayers. If she sees anyone standing with their arms folded, she demands to say a prayer. You'd be surprised at how often she spots people folding their arms.

- Loves hats. Everything can be a hat. There's a bald man in our ward with a fringe of hair around the edges and she thinks the bald part on top is a hat. Hopefully he doesn't realize why she's yelling "At, at, at" over and over during sacrament meeting. There's also a water tower off the freeway by our house. She thinks it's a hat (it's a large cylinder basin on top of stilt-looking legs) and never misses it. She always spots pizza delivery cars with the advertisement signs on top and thinks they're hats, too.

- Loves shoes almost as much as hats.

- Loves stars. She gets a stamp at the end of her Little Gym class and she always demands that they're stars (not matter what they are). Since Little Gym is only once a week, we have to draw stars on her hands (two!) every other day.

- Loves to count to ten, but only says her favorites - three, five, six, seven, ten. She used to say them all. Oh well.

- Loves the color blue. In fact, she thinks it's the only color. She used to know several colors but now everything is blue. Here's a typical conversation, repeated about everything she comes in contact with:

Orva: blue! (pronounced "boo")
Me: actually that's yellow (or whatever color the item is)
Orva: blue! blue! blue!
Me: do you just need it to be blue?
Orva: okay

- Gets really confused about questions. She's at the age where we ask her things all the time...how old are you, what's your name, who's that, what's that, what color is it, how many are there, etc. Since her obsession with blue, that's become her answer for all of the above questions. I'm sure people get confused when they ask her how old she is and she says "blue", and then they ask who the baby is and she says "blue" again. They could ask her any question they wanted and her answer would always be "blue". I guess her little mind is just all consumed with blue.

- Loves her stroller and pushes it around like crazy. Loves her babies, too (including Ford). Especially when they're "gakie" ("nakie").

- Loves singing. I sing to her all day, every day. Really.

- The only thing she likes more than singing is swinging. She can spot a swing from a mile away - even in people's backyards as we drive by. She calls them "weengs" and yells it at the top of her lungs (over and over again) every time she sees one. I think the record for the longest I've pushed her in the swing is an hour. Believe me...that's a REALLY long time to stand there and push a swing.

- Her grandma taught her to yell, "hooray" and it's about the cutest thing ever. She yells it when she swings and also loves to sing, "If you're happy and you know it shout hooray". She even yells it from her bed when she wants to get up (I think she knows it's the cutest thing she does and thinks we'll come get her if she yells it loud enough).

And now, if you made it this far, here are LOTS of pictures. They were all too cute so I had to post them all.

* Note: as I'm finishing this she's waking up from her nap...and I can hear her in there very enthusiastically yelling "blue!" *

{ aj and lindy's wedding }

2010-05-19T15:05:00.005-06:00

Although I don't recommend going to a wedding two days after giving birth, it was actually really fun to be there and see everyone.

Brad had to work right up until the reception, so my sister Laura stayed with me at our house and helped me gather everything and get myself and my two children out the door. She was barely pregnant and recovering from a very long and very late flight. Between the two of us we made quite a pair but managed to get ourselves showered and dressed and both kids bathed and dressed. We also packed up two suitcases full of my clothes and shoes for some of my other sisters to wear. We made it to my mom's house in time for family pictures and the reception. I'm sure I never would have made it without her (thanks, Laura).

The sealing was the next day and it was actually really nice for Brad and I to sit in the sealing room and think of our own little growing family. Thankfully, the temple staff allowed my cousin to watch Ford in a room all by themselves (I didn't want him in the main waiting room with all the other kids). They let me wait with him until the last minute and then came and got me to go up to the sealing room. It worked out really well.

Enough rambling...here are some pictures, in no particular order:

* I'm one who usually enjoys getting dressed up - this was one time that I had absolutely no desire to do so and wasted NO time changing back into pajamas *

{ raeford johnson gibb }

2010-04-11T12:56:00.009-06:00

Instead of posting pictures of my 39-week pregnant belly, why don't I post pictures of my almost 2-week old baby?

On March 30th, we welcomed our sweet baby boy into the world - three weeks early! It was rather unexpected, but we're thrilled he's here. He weighed in at 6 pounds, 8 ounces and was 19 inches long.

It ended up being the best possible timing and the worst possible timing.

Worst...My younger brother got married on April 2nd, so we attended his reception when Ford was 2 days old and his sealing and luncheon when Ford was 3 days old. Fun!

Best...Because he was born far enough in advance of the tax and audit deadline (April 15th), Brad was actually able to take some time off work. It was heaven!

Another disadvantage - my mom was all wrapped up in wedding stuff and was there for the actual birth but didn't get to come help out until several days later. I was supposed to be all wrapped up in wedding stuff, but was in recovery mode instead. She missed me and I missed her!

Another advantage - my sisters were all in town for the wedding and got to see him.

The actual labor and delivery went phenomenally well. I woke Brad up at 2:00 in the morning and he tried to talk me into going back to bed. I convinced him that wasn't such a good idea and we went to the hospital at about 3:00. Ford was born at 4:45. Brad was glad he hadn't made me go back to bed. *Someday I'll post the whole story - so that I'll remember it all - but for now, those are the basics*

As happy as we are to have him, we weren't at all ready for the little man to come. His crib is half-way sanded down to be refinished...his crib bedding is half-way made...all of his clothes were still in boxes in the basement...we had almost no boy blankets (I'll admit - he's been wrapped in pink a few times) ... my baby shower ended up being when he was a week old rather than two weeks before he was born. Oh well?

Aside from just his stuff not being at all ready, I was in the middle of a million projects - a complete living room make-over with all new furniture...the old furniture going downstairs...a new playroom going downstairs...old furniture downstairs going out...loose ends to tie up in the nursery. All of those projects are still up in the air - and probably will be for a while. Again, oh well? I'm sure it's good for me!

Overall, we're doing great. Ford's been a great baby and Orva seems to be adjusting well (mostly). I'm feeling great and loving being a mother of two! I'm sure Brad will be a lot happier when work slows down and he can actually come home once in a while!

*Sorry for the picture over-load...I figure I post so rarely that I may as well make this one very worth-while*

{ grandma orva dress }

2010-01-10T20:24:00.005-07:00

This dress belonged to my mom as a child - it's so fun to have Orva wearing it now! I would love to have a nice, classy picture of her in it but she was much too wild during our photo shoot. We'll try again another time.

{ bubble bath }

2010-01-10T20:02:00.003-07:00

* Sorry for the sideways video...I don't have a program on my computer that will rotate it and I always forget to turn the camera while I'm actually shooting the video. *

[ announcing ]

2010-01-10T19:46:00.005-07:00

I tried to post these pictures six weeks ago when I was actually 20 weeks along, but had some glitches getting the pictures off my camera and have not made another attempt until now. So, these pictures are now entirely inaccurate (I'm much bigger now at 26 weeks) but I'll post them anyway.

Baby BOY Gibb is due on April 19th.

* Also, I know (hope) most of you already know about this pregnancy, but I feel more official posting it on the blog. Don't ask why - first, if things had to be posted to my blog to be official, nothing in my life would be official. Second, I've been sick enough to be very officially pregnant (feeling better now). Third, my belly is very big and quite officially pregnant-looking. *

{ halloween }

2009-11-02T15:55:00.003-07:00

I'm pretty sure I have the cutest bumblebee ever...

She doesn't walk by herself yet, so we had her trick-or-treat with her wagon. She loved all the walking around but was so busy pushing her wagon that she just walked right by all the people with treats.

This last picture is of her taking a break in our trunk at the ward Trunk-or-Treat. I do love this smile, but wish we could document her real smile at least once in a while...she flashes this gem every time she sees a camera. Lovely.

{ alive }

2009-07-20T10:08:00.003-06:00

We are alive. And well.

A complete computer crash in March and April, extreme busy-ness in May and June, and laziness in between can account for the lack of blogging.

I'm pretty sure I have now forgotten how to post.

I'll try to remember.

Oh, and until I can pull myself together and do a real live post, with lots of pictures and such (first on the list - 4th of July), here's one picture of my cutest baby ever.

Okay - that wasn't so bad. Consider me back on board with blogging.

{ eating: take II }

2009-03-24T21:38:00.004-06:00

Orva's mealtime tactics thus far:

- Rice Cereal: close mouth as tightly as possible - do not take any more than three bites.

- Oatmeal: shudder and gag and throw up.

- Green Beans: keep mouth open as long as possible so that nothing is tasted or swallowed.

* In the beginning of the video, she's opening her mouth not because she wants another bite but because she doesn't want to taste the previous bite...

{ eating }

2009-03-21T14:26:00.004-06:00

Orva has been eating rice puffs (just plain, as a finger food) for a couple weeks now but I've totally been putting off feeding her other solid foods. It's just so much easier to nurse her. I finally gave in, though, and we started rice cereal the other night. She's pretty sure she doesn't like it.

She puts her hands up by her ears like that when she's sad about things (or tired, or mad, or frustrated, or bored...)

She did, however, love the bib...

...and the spoon...

...and the sippy cup!

The actual food? No thanks.

{ yes i let my child be seen with this bunch }

2009-03-13T22:17:00.002-06:00

My little brother and his friends had a day activity for a highschool dance. The boys got dressed up in disguise and went to the mall and walked around while the girls tried to find them. I was at my mom's house before they left and we came up with the idea of dressing Vic and Kyle up as a couple with a baby...a live baby...my baby. Not only did I give my baby to the cause, Kyle wore my jeans. Yes, he fit into them.

I went with them and followed them around to watch people's reactions. It was hysterical.

*Note: when we got to the mall, one of the boys (the one with the dark curly hair) didn't have a disguise. I had been staying at my mom's and had a suitcase full of clothes, so he is wearing my jeans, my shirt, my jacket, my headband, my sunglasses, and my purse. He's the one that got the wildest reaction out of people - it was awesome.

{ picture update }

2009-03-13T21:29:00.004-06:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

{ we've recovered }

2009-03-05T16:23:00.002-07:00

Moms and babies should never be sick at the same time...especially when the dad/husband is out of town.

After a very long week (+) of r.s.v. and double ear infections for the bub and nasty cold, sinus infection, and achiness for the mom, we're feeling much better.

I will be doing more posting soon.

{ this is how we keep orva quiet at church }

2009-02-15T20:52:00.003-07:00

As long as Orva has free reign with her dress, she's quiet at church. She's happy, we're happy, but her poor dresses end up a soggy mess.

I always want to take pictures of Orva in her Sunday finery, but if we don't do it within 30 seconds of her having her dress on, it doesn't work.

{ my house }

2009-02-13T12:49:00.008-07:00

Almost four months after moving in, here are pictures of our new house. We're really enjoying it and have gotten things to a "live-able" point. However, there are a lot of projects I want to do - so for fun, I'll list all the ideas and plans for each room below the pictures.

* I'd love to completely re-landscape (lots of aspen trees and tulips), paint all the trim black, build a new overhang for the porch (wooden posts with wooden slats above), and REMOVE the ugly half circle that is currently over the front door.

* Paint the walls a dark, dark blue (almost navy with a touch of grayish-green), re-do the tile around the fireplace, put in darkish (but still lighter than my bookshelf and chairs) wood floors, paint the coffee table a brighter red, re-cover the ottoman with a zebra print fabric, get new throw pillows (some multi-colored ones in bold oranges, reds, yellows, and greens), pull more silver in (the vases and globes on the bookshelf and the vases on the side table have big plans to become silver), put in some mirrors or glass blocks behind the statues on the bookshelf that you can't see at all, get some glitzy silver and glass lamps, get some mirrored side tables (or somehow mirror the one I have and make it a little taller), paint the fireplace screen silver (or maybe black), and get lots and lots more funky colored vases to go on my mantle (I want the whole thing full, overlapping with the mirror). There. That's all.

* Replace the current light fixture with a funky glitzy crystal chandelier, paint the walls the same blue as the family room, and do something different for the centerpiece, maybe an assortment of small funky clear glass bottles and vases on a bright silver tray with bright green and white flowers in them (a similar look to what I have now, but on a WAY smaller scale, because yes, I know those vases are too large but I just can't bring myself to part with them - I may put some on top of Francisco and then I could maybe live with putting the rest away).

* Yes, that is my whole kitchen. This room will be completely gutted and re-done at some point. We'll be pushing the wall with the stove and fridge back about three feet and then including the little hallway as kitchen space rather than a hallway to our hall. I want a darker slate looking tile, white cabinets, stained concrete countertops (gray-green), a milky see-through green glass tiny tile backsplash, and stainless steel appliances. A dishwasher, garbage disposal, and more than one electrical outlet would be nice, too.

* All I want to do here is paint the walls a chocolate brown, replace the mirror with a smaller framed one, and replace the light fixture with a silvery (small) chandelier. I also am working on finding a cream shower curtain and cream towels that I like (harder than you'd think). Brad wants to completely gut the whole thing and get rid of the pink tile, but I like it - it's vintage and I'm positive I can make it look good with all the chocolate brown, silver, and cream.

* I happen to like the bedroom the way it is and am pretty happy leaving it alone. I am, however, debating painting the walls a mustardy yellowy gold (that sounds awful, I know - but I'm picturing a prettier color than I can describe).

* Orva's room still needs a lot of work...I want to paint the walls a light golden green (the same color our master bedroom was at our old house), paint the changing table cream with a brown antique glaze, paint the baskets brown, fix the changing table shelves (you can't see them in the picture, but there's going to be a roll-out shelf underneath and another shelf on the top right) so that the baskets all have places, finish a cover for a changing pad that will match the rocking chair cover, finish her bedding (I have brown, red, yellow, blue, and green ribbon for the bottom of her dust ruffle and for the pillows in the red basket), paint the dresser (I'm going to leave the top and sides cream, but paint each drawer a different color - blue, green, red, yellow - and then put a brown antique glaze over the whole thing), hang the mirror and plate above the dresser (currently sitting on top of it) so that they balance the height of the mirror next to the dresser, and finish the wall above her crib (with pictures of her, my mom (Orva), and my great grandma (also Orva), along with a really cool letter "O" I have).

Okay, that ended up much longer and much more detailed than I had anticipated. As you can see, my brain is quite full of all the random ideas I have for my poor little house.

And, after typing this post, I'm pretty sure I need more time and more money.

{ rock - a - rock - a }

2009-02-10T17:32:00.003-07:00

Orva LOVES rocking in her rocking chair. She usually giggles while she's rocking, but of course, with the camera in sight there was none of that. She did smile a lot for the video, though. It's sort of a funny new smile that she does. She also did a bunch of crazy faces while she was rocking, so I tried to catch some of those on camera, too.

Make a Smilebox photobook

{ parties }

2009-02-05T12:07:00.002-07:00

The following five people have commented on the { cents of style } post and are the winners of the extra free pair of shoes!

1. Jill
2. Megan
3. Melissa
4. Chelsea
5. Rebekah

So, you five ladies, go ahead and email me at { tine.gibb@gmail.com } and we'll book your party!

For the rest of you, I'd still love to book more parties. Even though you won't get the extra free pair of shoes, you do still get one free necklace set (along with the other great hostess bonuses). Our new spring line of product comes out at the end of February, so it's a great time to host a party. I'm willing to go anywhere from Payson to Ogden if you'd like me to.

Go ahead and leave me a comment or email me if you'd still like to do a party!

{ cents of style }

2009-02-03T17:45:00.005-07:00

Hey Everyone!

Most of you know this (and some have hosted parties before) but for those who don't, this will be a quick intro to a really fun evening. I am a "stylist" for Cents of Style and do parties for people where we sell really fun and funky boots, shoes, purses, jewelry, headbands, and belts - all for $20.00 or less (jewelry is less than $10.00). You book a party to be held at your house and then we bring the inventory to you. Your friends and family then have the evening to shop and buy whatever they'd like.

We're trying to get some parties booked, so if you'd like to host a party at your house, please let me know! For booking a party (it can be for any time - as far in advance as you'd like), you'll get a free necklace and earring set. At your actual party, you'll receive an 8% product credit from the sales of your party, plus one free item if over 20 adults attend.

Also, as a promotion for booking parties right now, Cents of Style will give ONE FREE $10.00 PAIR OF SHOES TO THE FIRST FIVE PEOPLE WHO BOOK PARTIES. Just leave a comment here if you'd like to book a party, and the first five people that do so will get one free pair of shoes in addition to the other hostess bonuses.

So, leave me a comment and we'll set up a date to have a really fun, easy, no pressure party at your house. Who doesn't like to shop for inexpensive fashion accessories?

* Okay, I realize that this sounds totally MLM-ish, but it's really not. There's no pressure to buy, there's no signing up, and there's no official "shpeel" or meeting. I just bring really fun product to your house and let you and your friends shop! *

I took these pictures of items I've bought from Cents of Style to send to my sister when she wanted to book a party. It's a good sampling of what we sell. If you want to check out some more of our stuff, you can click here .

{ tagged: 25 random things about ME }

2009-02-03T09:13:00.002-07:00

My sister did this on her blog and two of my other sisters commented that they love reading these tags about other people but hate doing them themselves. I, on the other hand, must be a very self-centered person because I love doing them as much as I love reading them.

So here goes...25 things about me (and if any of you are as self-centered as I am, feel free to join in and do it yourself).

1. I absolutely love being a mother.

2. I have an obsession with organizing things into bins.

3. I can barely stand brushing my own teeth, but I really can't stand seeing or hearing anyone else brush their teeth (gag).

4. I've always wanted to be a dolphin trainer...and still wonder if it could ever be a real possibility.

5. Someday I want to buy several different shops and completely re-work them so that they're the best shop of their kind. I want each one to have a little twist - something like a little cafe that has cement walls and cans of spray paint and markers on the table so that people can "graffiti" the walls while they wait for their food or a clothing shop that's organized by body type and in your section there would only be clothes available that would actually look good on you or an electronics store that you drive through in specialized carts that allow you to experience the products as you go (with a system that allows you to play the wii in your cart as you go through the gaming section or listen to various stereo systems through your cart as you drive through that section). Random, I know, but it's something I really want to do.

6. I really, really like cars. When my husband wants to put exhaust and intake on my 4-runner, I do not provide any sort of balance to the equation because I want it just as much as he does.

7. I love off-roading, camping, and shooting but we somehow never manage to go.

8. I read a lot and find myself getting completely hooked on cheesy romance mysteries (terribly embarrassing but true).

9. I wish I could play the organ and regret not learning when I was a teenager and we actually had an organ in our home.

10. I really want to build a house that resembles an eclectic art gallery - exposed brick walls, exposed copper duct work and piping, big open spaces, funky flooring changes, wide open staircases leading to lofts, amazing artwork and color everywhere, eclectic furniture (francisco), awesome lighting, etc. Brad says it couldn't possibly feel like a home and we'd be the "crazy house" on the block. I'm trying to convince him otherwise.

11. I'm very squeamish about spiderwebs. Spiders don't alarm me because I can see them and squish them. A spider's web means he's just hiding around somewhere not getting squished.

12. I love fashion and clothing, but it's not necessarily because I'm obsessed with how I look or how nice my clothes are. It's somehow artistic to me and that's why I enjoy it so much. I don't know if that even makes sense.

13. I'm pretty sure I could live on avocados and pineapple for the rest of my life. And maybe a tiny bit of chocolate soymilk, too.

14. I love, love, love playing games. Screeble and Ticket to Ride are current favorites, but I'll always love A to Z, Pit, and Mille Bornes. Much to my husband's chagrin, the Farming Game will never make it to my top favorites.

15. I find myself actually enjoying my conversations with Brad regarding politics and economics. I used to get bored and frustrated, but now I get (almost) as involved as he does. I guess that's what happens when the political and economic situations in our country get worrisome.

16. I worry about sending my kids through public schools because I don't feel like they'll get a very solid education. I don't think I even got a very valuable education before college and I know things have gone downhill since I was in school. I'm trying to figure out what sort of private school / home school / charter school system I want to do. Thank heavens I have five years to figure it out.

17. I'm a bit obsessive compulsive about organization, order, matching, even-ness, and the like. When Brad turns the stereo volume up in the car, I have to make sure it lands on an even number. He thinks I'm crazy when I reach over and turn it from "17" to "18". I'm working on it.

18. I've recently finished a household task schedule that I've been thinking about for years. I've now been following the schedule for over a month and it has changed my life. I'm in organizational heaven.

19. Few things are more enjoyable to me than hearing Orva giggle. She's pretty stingy about it, so I find myself doing just about anything to get her little giggles out.

20. Orva's birth went so well and I loved it so much that I actually get jealous when I hear about other people about to have a baby. I do not, however, get jealous when I hear about other people being pregnant. I need a system where I can birth the baby without actually having to be pregnant with it.

21. As self-centered as I may be, I suppose I'm not twenty-five-things-self-centered. This is hard.

22. I'm pretty much all the way vegan. It's so satisfying to be eating so healthy. I've been working on creating a grocery list and eight-week meal plan and it's been very fulfilling to see that I can cook that many delicious and healthy meals.

23. On a not-so-healthy note, I've really struggled getting back on track with doing my Bikram Yoga since Orva was born. I did really well before and during my pregnancy and have failed miserably ever since. Maybe now that I've confessed that to the world, I'll pull myself together and get back on track.

24. I'm afraid I can't really claim to be a grown-up housewife, in charge of a real live house, because I don't own any of the following: a vacuum (we only have a mini shop vac), a strainer/colander, a garlic press, or a table cloth. It's amazing we can even function around here.

25. I happen to be crazy about my husband.

{ unfortunate events }

2009-01-29T15:17:00.003-07:00

Completely unrelated to each other, these two unfortunate events occured this week.

#1 - For our date night, Brad and I went to a Toyota dealership to test drive a tacoma. We do this every once in a while just for fun, with no intention of actually buying the vehicles we drive. When we were dating, we would pretend we were engaged and say that our parents were buying us a car for our wedding. Now, we always say that Brad has started a new job and we want to upgrade. We don't do it all that often, but yes, this is a horrible thing to do to poor car salesmen. Anyway, this last time of test driving may have cured us of our habit. We were looking at the Tacomas and on a whim, asked the salesman if we could take a look at the new 4-Runners. He went to the other side of the lot to drive one over for us and while doing so, backed the 4-runner into a Tundra. Both vehicles were damaged. We felt AWFUL. He proceeded to tell us that if we were to buy the 4-Runner (damaged) he would give us a really good deal. He quoted us a price and it was, indeed, a really good deal. We nearly bought it just to make his day a bit better and to relieve some of our guilt in being the cause of his trouble in the first place.

We didn't buy it. We still feel guilty.

#2 - Orva was sitting (very happily) in her bouncer while I was taking a shower. She suddenly went from talking and babbling to WAILING and I glanced out to see her on her back in front of the bouncer...on the tile floor. No, I did not strap her in. She wiggled her way right out and even managed to hit the corner of the vanity on the way down. Surprisingly, she recovered quite quickly and I put her back in her bouncer, buckled her tightly, and got back in the shower. After my shower, I was getting ready with her still (happy again) in her bouncer. I tipped my face toner off the side of the counter and it sprayed her right in the eye. We went the rest of the day with a very red side of the face due to direct contact with the side of the vanity and the tile floor and a very red eye due to direct contact with my toner.

This, too, caused much guilt on my part. Hopefully we'll have a better week next week, with less guilt involved.

{ pictures }

2009-01-19T12:24:00.004-07:00

Here are some recent pictures (very cute ones) of the bub. She's getting better at smiling.

{ francisco and carlos }

2009-01-11T17:58:00.004-07:00

My new loves:

Francisco

and Carlos

We were out and about yesterday and passed some signs advertising a furniture sale. The signs directed us to a sketchy warehouse on a little side street, but we went in and found these gems (I found many many many more gems, but only these two came home with me). It turned out that the sale brought the prices down to only twice our budget rather than four times our budget. I, however, am very good at bartering and talked them WAY down on these two items. The sales lady came back to me three different times with progressively lower price quotes, but I told her I needed it to be even lower so we finally settled on her giving them to me at cost. I couldn't be more pleased. I think the she probably caved when I told her that my house would forever revolve around the one piece (the green) if I could just have it. Or maybe it was when I told her that it would be my Valentine's Day, Birthday, Mother's Day, Anniversary, and Christmas gift for 2009 (it really will be). Or maybe she decided to sell it to me at cost because we were in our Saturday-going-to-Home-Depot-working-on-the-house-no-shower sort of clothes. The store was full of much better paying (and looking) customers and she probably needed to get us out of there. Needless to say, we bought them and I've been sitting on my couch staring at my dear Francisco ever since. I love Carlos, too, but who can compete with this?

* Don't ask about the naming of the furniture. Brad randomly names furniture like that - it all started with Betsy. It's actually quite handy, though. Instead of saying, "go put this away in that one really cool antique Indian lime green table thing in our front room by the window" you can say "go put this way in Francisco". I guess we could call it a sideboard (I think that's what it really is) but Francisco works for me. *

* Francisco really is made from antique Indian doors (200 years old) and Carlos is an antique from China (between 100 and 200 years old). They got Spanish names, though, because Brad did the naming (and because we don't know any Indian or Chinese names). *

* Yes, I will someday post pictures of my whole house and not just snippets. I will even do it before I am "finished" with everything - just not today. *

* So sorry for the plethora of parting notes. *

{ christmas }

2009-01-01T20:51:00.002-07:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

{ beginning traditions }

2009-01-01T20:49:00.002-07:00

Reading Christmas stories beneath the lights on the Christmas tree...

{ the christmas trees of past and present }

2008-12-29T14:24:00.003-07:00

On our fifth Christmas together, Brad and I finally pulled off an official Christmas tree.

Now, a bit of Christmas tree history:

1st Christmas - we decided not to get one (didn't want to spend the money on a tree, plus a stand, lights, and ornaments). One of our neighbors saw we didn't have one and left one on our doorstep on Christmas Eve. It was a lovely fake tree - about a foot and a half tall. We tried to hang the one ornament we owned on it, but it was too heavy and the tree tipped over. We wound a few pieces of ribbon through the branches and called it good.

2nd Christmas - used the same tree as last year, with the same ribbon.

3rd Christmas - we finally bought a live Christmas tree. It was very small, but pretty. We had no lights and didn't want to buy any...and no ornaments either. I did upgrade our ribbon to some fancier pieces, but that's all it had. It smelled delicious, though - we were happy enough.

*Note - with our 3rd Christmas tree, we needed a tree stand. To be frugal, I found one for free on Freecycle and went to pick it up. The woman had told me she would leave it on her front doorstep for me. I took it home and cleaned it all up (it was a very nice stand, but dirty and full of spiderwebs). A few hours AFTER picking the tree stand up I got a phone call from the Freecycle woman asking me if I was going to come pick up the stand. I informed her that I already had it. She was silent for a moment and then told me that her tree stand was still on her front porch...she proceeded to describe her house to me and it was NOT the house I had gotten the tree stand from. We discovered that I had stolen a tree stand off her neighbor's front porch (apparently they were just storing it out there). I quickly got back in the car and drove back to the house and sneakily put the newly cleaned tree stand back on the front porch. I then went next door and picked up the tree stand I was supposed to have gotten in the first place.

4th Christmas - I was determined to do better this year, so I purchased all new ornaments and trimmings and got some lights from my mom. We got a beautiful live tree, brought it home, cut off the bottom, hauled it up three flights of stairs, and set it up in the stand. The next morning we realized we had not watered it. We hauled it back downstaiirs, cut the bottom off again, hauled it back upstairs, and put it back in the stand - with water! We then got so busy we did not take the time to light and decorate it right away. I then got so sick (pregnant) that by Christmas it was lit about a foot from the bottom and a foot from the top - no lights in the middle and no ornaments. It stayed in our house that way (very dead) until March. I'm sure many people would have been willing to help us take it down, but Brad was too busy and I was too sick to even go so far as to ask for help.

5th Christmas - this year's tree involved the following:

- getting very lost trying to find the christmas tree lot
- falling in love with an expensive tree, but bartering with the guy running the lot and getting 15 dollars knocked off the price
- six different trips to different stores to purchase, return, and purchase lights again
- having to take (large) sections of lights off the tree four different times because they stopped working (after having worked when tested)
- finally having the tree fully lit and ready for decorations a week after bringing it home
- only being able to keep the lights on for five minutes at a time because they would trip the power cord and turn off (they're serious when they say not to hook more than five strands together...)
- a lot of work and money, but a fantastic result (for five minutes at a time)

{ new game }

2008-12-28T20:16:00.003-07:00

This is Orva's favorite new game. For a few weeks she would try really hard to make this noise (pphhhhbbbttttt) but couldn't do it. She would press her lips together really hard and stick them out, but no noise would come out (only drool). She was very pleased when she finally learned how to do it.

* There are still a few times in the video where the noise doesn't come out, but if you look really closely at her lips, you can tell she's trying very hard.

This is what her face looked like when she was learning how to make the noise.

{ random pictures }

2008-12-28T19:39:00.000-07:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

{ bumbo }

2008-12-28T19:34:00.003-07:00

* Pardon the poor picture quality - they were taken on Brad's iPhone. I thought they were still cute enough to post.

{ grandma orva's dress }

2008-12-28T19:12:00.003-07:00

Grandma Orva (my mom) wore this dress when she was a baby. It's been so fun to have my Orva wear it now.

{ lights at temple square and swimming }

2008-12-23T12:25:00.007-07:00

My mom and dad and two of my younger brothers spent a weekend at a hotel up here in Salt Lake. We joined them for an evening to see the lights on temple square.

Orva loved looking around at all the lights and stayed awake for a very long time. Toward the end, though, she just couldn't keep her eyes open any longer so we turned the pack around and let her sleep.

* By the way, she's wearing a "popover". It's a cozy suit that has a hole in the back so it fits over her in a carseat, in the pack, or in a stroller. The hood is reversable so she can face in or out in the pack. We love it!

The next morning we went and joined them at their hotel to go swimming.

Orva loved the water.

She loved "kick-kick-kicking".

She didn't mind floating on her back.

She loved swimming back and forth between mom and grandpa.

She loved the splashing and being passed around.

She did not like being dunked.

{ kitty }

2008-12-23T12:05:00.003-07:00

Brad's family has this cat who doesn't even have a name...we just call it "kitty" or "the cat". Kitty is known for his charming personality:

- If you are sitting on the couch reading a book, he will swat the book out of your hand and demand to be petted.

- He will stalk you.

- He will sit by the door and scratch it, wanting to go outside. If you walk by and do NOT let him out, he will chase you down and pounce.

- He sleeps in your bed (welcome or not) and not just at the foot of the bed - right in the middle (and cannot be moved).

- He has the meanest glare I've ever seen.

- He weighs close to 20 pounds.

- He is bigger than my child.

I consider myself lucky that he did not climb into Orva's crib and squish her while we were there.

{ brett + kye }

2008-12-23T11:31:00.004-07:00

Brad's brother, Brett, got married just before Thanksgiving. Brad was able to take a whole week off work, so we flew up to Washington to spend time with his family before and after the wedding. We had a fabulous time!

* I was very glad Brad was going to be with us on the flights to and from Washington because I was worried we were going to have a repeat of our last flight. However, Orva was an angel and didn't make a peep on either flight. Lovely.

{ smiles }

2008-12-23T11:00:00.004-07:00

Hooray! We finally got some smiles on camera...

* Note...this is how she started out...

{ halloween }

2008-12-21T21:33:00.005-07:00

I figured I better post about Halloween before we hit Christmas...

We moved the morning after Halloween so I was packing that whole week. I kept trying to think of something for Orva to dress up in for her first Halloween and couldn't come up with anything. I didn't see anything I liked in stores (picky me) so thought maybe I would make something. I ended up with no time...but did manage to pull something together.

Halloween timeline:

3:30 p.m. Pull into the Wal-mart parking lot
3:50 p.m. Leave Wal-mart parking lot with fabric in hand
4:05 p.m. Arrive at my mom's house to begin sewing the costume
5:00 p.m. My mom leaves for a family Halloween party with half of the costume and works on it on the drive to the party
5:40 p.m. I leave for the family party with the rest of the costume
6:25 p.m. Arrive at family party and combine two costume parts - finished!

Please don't look too closely - the costume lasted the night and was cute enough for me! Also, she's SUPPOSED to be a fish. I don't mind if you think she looks like a mermaid, but please don't tell me she looks like a dragon or a butterfly (apparently the hat doesn't look at all fish-like).

Brad and I went so far as to wear Halloween-ish colors, but no more dressing up for us! Why would we now that we have a child to dress up?

The baby fish with her grandma hula girl.

Talking with her grandpa cowboy. He claims she demanded to hold his "piece".

{ orva's blessing }

2008-12-21T20:48:00.004-07:00

We blessed Orva in October when my sisters were all in town. Brad's parents and sister and her family were also able to come down. It was nice to have so much family there! Brad gave a beautiful blessing - it was so neat to give her the name of "Orva". My mom was there and I'm sure Great Grandma Orva was listening in as well. It was such a special day!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

{ fall colors }

2008-12-21T19:08:00.003-07:00

I love driving through Provo canyon during the fall when the trees are so beautiful. We took a Sunday drive just as the leaves were getting ready to fall - and it was so pretty we had to stop and take some pictures. We were a little late and past the prime, but it was still gorgeous.

* I'm glad I'm so behind in blogging because I would much rather talk about fall colors than winter snow. Maybe I'll just stay behind and catch up when it's time to post about spring flowers.

{ sisters }

2008-12-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

Clear back in October (yes, I'm still catching up - and I'm determined to post about everything we've been doing) my sisters and my mom all got together for our annual "Sisters Weekend". We gathered at my mom's house in Orem this year - with sisters coming from Provo, England, Virginia, Pleasant Grove, and Texas. We have such a good time. It's my favorite thing we do!

Make a Smilebox photobook

{ squishiness }

2008-12-20T12:50:00.002-07:00

We think our bub is filling out quite nicely.

{ there were ten in the bed and the little one said ... }

2008-12-20T12:34:00.002-07:00

Roll Over!

Orva learned to roll over when she was barely two months old...and did it pretty consistently for about a week. After that, she decided it was much too surprising to roll over and started spreading out her arms and lifting up her legs to stabilize herself (picture the "full locust" yoga pose). She hasn't rolled over since and gets very alarmed when we try to help her do it.

{ i cannot smile because i'm too busy staring }

2008-12-05T21:07:00.008-07:00

Orva really is a happy baby...I promise. However, we have cannot prove this because we have yet to document any of her smiles. When we pull out the camera, this is what happens:

She becomes very solemn and either stares down the camera, or avoids looking at it at all costs.

All of these pictures were taken while trying desperately to get a smile out of her...

{ randomness }

2008-12-05T11:49:00.018-07:00

Here are a few pictures from a while ago.

First Haircut
(at six weeks old - we were approaching the mullet look which, of course, cannot be tolerated)

Before

After

Watching Football with Dad

Brad's 27th Birthday

Boppy Time

Bundled Up for Cold Weather Walks

Sleeping

I'm pretty sure I'll always be in catch-up mode...but at least I'm trying to get current.

{ my sweet little tiny }

2008-12-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

Make a Smilebox photobook

{ i dream of eating }

2008-12-05T11:08:00.004-07:00

I know all babies do this, but somehow it's still my favorite thing Orva does.

* sorry for the sideways viewing...and for the background noise (we were on a ferry in New York)

{ all diapers are not created equal }

2008-12-03T16:45:00.008-07:00

We ran out of diapers right before we came home from New York so we went to a little market down the street to buy more. I didn't want to buy very many because I didn't want to pack them home, but all they had was a huge pack of generic diapers for sizes 6 lbs. to 14 lbs. They ended up being the most awful diapers - thin, stiff, rough, scratchy, not at all absorbant, leaky, poorly sized - not exactly good qualities in something made to wrap around the soft squishiness of a baby's bottom and HOLD liquids there. Despite their poor performance, they did provide some good entertainment. They looked pretty funny on our poor tiny bub.

I saved enough to get us home and threw the rest away.

{ terrible horrible no good very bad day }

2008-11-26T13:05:00.004-07:00

leaving husband behind in New York and going home by yourself with one baby

+

one WAY longer taxi trip than expected

+

one very hungry baby (see above)

+

arriving at the airport 30 minutes before flight leaves (also see above)

+

carting one diaper bag, one carseat, one carry-on suitcase, one very large suitcase, and one baby through the airport

+

finding out you must re-pack your bags because they weigh too much

+

panic because you don't have TIME to re-pack your bags

+

one very sad child all through baggage check and security (you still have not fed her and she's still very hungry)

+

finding out your flight is delayed an hour

+

sitting on the runway for an hour after finally boarding plane

+

one SCREAMING child (she's now been fed and is screaming for no apparent reason)

+

staying in seat because seatbelt light is turned on while sitting on the runway

+

one STILL SCREAMING child

+

sitting between two men who have never been married and do not have children (nor do they ever want children - see above)

+

having one of these men LEAVE to go sit in the front with the flight attendants because of your STILL SCREAMING child

+

sitting in front of a couple with two-month old twins that are being angels and hearing everyone LOUDLY comment on how lovely THOSE babies are being

+

one STILL SCREAMING child

+

not being able to go to the bathroom because you can't possibly leave this screaming child with any of the people around you (see above)

+

one STILL SCREAMING child

+

one crying mother (we've now been in the air for two hours and child screamed the whole hour we were on the ground - yes, that's now been three hours of SCREAMING)

+

carting one diaper bag, one carseat, one carry-on suitcase, one very large suitcase, plus the addition of one large box (due to re-packing) and one baby through the airport by oneself again

+

getting to baggage claim and calling your ride for pick-up and finding out he's nowhere near the airport (even thought your flight came in late)

+

finding out the reason he's nowhere near the airport is the car he's driving broke down while coming to get you

+

realizing the car he was driving to come to get you is YOUR car

+

realizing that means YOUR car broke down

+

waiting for thirty minutes for new car to come get you

+

pinching your finally sleeping child's fingers in her carset buckle when putting her in the finally arrived car

=

one VERY terrible horrible no good very bad day

*That screaming child did finally fall asleep for the last two hours of the flight - I only documented that part of this lovely day.

She somehow looks very innocent after all of that, doesn't she?

*Note - there was one fabulous part of this whole experience. When I had to re-pack my bags, the sky-cap man saw me juggling my many bags and trying to pack everything and came and got me a box to re-pack it all into. He then ended up repacking my luggage for me and waiting in line with me to carry it all up to the baggage check counter. He wouldn't accept a tip for all of this (which probably took him about ten minutes). It was all I could do not to hug him but I settled for shaking his hand and telling him he'd just made my day. Thank you to that dear sky-cap man, whoever you are!

*Note #2 - my flight TO New York was nothing like this. Orva slept the entire way and was an absolute angel. A man sitting behind me offered to take my carry-on suitcase and carseat all the way to baggage claim. He then waited at baggage claim with me (even though he had not checked any bags himself) and proceeded to carry all of my luggage out to the curb. He then somehow got me moved to the front of a very long line of cab waiters, waited with me until a cab came, loaded my luggage into the cab, told the cab driver where I was going, and then said, "This is Christine. She has a brand new baby and it's her first time in New York. Please take very good care of her." He then helped me buckle Orva in and waved to me as we pulled away. So thank you to Jim (I at least found out his name), wherever you are!

{ new york - part six }

2008-11-26T12:05:00.010-07:00

Since this is the last post I'll be doing on New York (and then I can finally move on), I'm left with a bunch of randomness and there's not much order to it.

Here are all the leftovers:

The "ORVA" Store

When people would ask us our baby's name and we'd tell them "Orva" they'd comment on the fact that she was named after a store. We had no idea what they were talking about until someone finally told us the location of a shoe store called "Orva". Of course, we had to go find it and take pictures. We couldn't believe it!

The people in the store did not understand why I thought it was so cool to have a store with the same name as my child (especially when that name is Orva!) and thought I was crazy when I asked for a bag to take home. They glared at me when I asked for another for my mom. A girl shopping heard the conversation though, and thought it was just as cool as i did. She followed me outside and offered to take pictures of us in front of the store.

Music Video

This group was playing outside the Metropolitan Museum. I stayed outside for a long time just listening to them - it was really fun and felt very New York-ish.

Public Transportation

For some reason, I feel like I can actually claim to be an adult now that I've ridden a subway and taken a taxi. I hadn't done either of these before we went to New York and I'm proud to say that by the end of our trip, I was feeling pretty comfortable with both.

*One advantage to Public Transportation - when you're not driving and there aren't seatbelts, you can nurse! Orva has nursed on a subway, in a taxi, on a ferry, and on a double decker bus.

Longest Escalator

This is a picture of an escalator coming up out of one of the PATH stations. I happen to be somewhat squeamish about escalators. I wouldn't say I'm exactly terrified of them, but I do get butterflies everytime I get on one. It always takes me a minute to get on because I feel like I'm trying to jump into an already-turning jumprope (I was never good at that as a child - too scary). Anyway, I came to the bottom of this one and about died. It's incredibly long - I'm positive it took at least five minutes to get to the top. I was so anxious I almost just had to close my eyes.

The picture really doesn't do it justice, so please look at it over and over again and then REALLY look at it and then imagine the actual escalator being ten times longer. That should do it.

{ new york - part five }

2008-11-26T09:47:00.012-07:00

Sundays in New York were really fun. We went to church with the local ward and it was very neat to see what the church is like out there (still true).

On our first Sunday there, we rode the subway and then walked a few blocks. We weren't positive where we were going, so we were quite proud when we found the building and were even five minutes early. Unfortunately, as we were about to walk in the door, Orva did a big stink. Brad was packing her and reached down to hold her leg and came up with quite a mess on his hand. We realized her stink was dripping onto the sidewalk...and here we are trying to walk into church. People were in front of us and behind us and the missionaries were standing at the door shaking hands. I started laughing and frantically trying to find some wipes to make it stop dripping and to at least get it off of Brad's hand. We scurried into the church and found a bathroom. Brad didn't think he could clean both himself and Orva up, and I didn't want to take Orva and get it all over me. The three of us ended up going into the men's bathroom together to take care of the situation. Yes, several men came in to use the bathroom during the process of cleaning up - we sent them away. You can see pretty well in the picture how bad the blowout really was. It took us so long to get all cleaned up that we walked into the chapel just as the sacrament was being passed. We kept to ourselves in the back so that nobody would smell us and then notice that Brad's shirt had turned yellow and Orva was only in a onesie instead of her fancy Sunday clo. The pack was in such bad shape that we couldn't even carry her home in it. I managed to come through the ordeal unscathed.

My boss's penthouse was within walking distance of the temple. The local ward there meets in a chapel at the temple, so the Sunday we were staying there, we walked along the border of Central Park to get to the temple and go to church. It was really beautiful. When we got there, however, there was a sign on the door saying that the chapel was under construction and church was not being held there. The other locations were too far away to get to in time, so we decided to take a long walk home through Central Park (and of course we were not pleased about the fact that we didn't have to go to church, but still got the benefit of trying). While we were outside the temple, we did take a few pictures.

The Allens (my sister and her family) had come up to join us for some sight-seeing and they came to church (tried to, anyway) with us. Loren went far away across the street to try to get the picture of us with the whole temple. We realized while he was taking the picture that the rest of us must look quite silly. We were standing there on the street corner with quite a group (Brad, Orva, and I along with Laura and her five kids) posing and smiling. Anybody walking by would not have realized that we were posing for the photographer across the street. We laughed very hard at how ridiculous we must have looked.

*While we were looking ridiculous posing for the picture, Brad set our diaper bag down behind us. An hour later, as we were walking through the park, we realized we didn't have it. Brad remembered where he set it so he RAN back to try and find it. The whole time he was gone, I started to realize just how bad it would be if he lost it. My phone was in it and BOTH of our wallets were in it. Brad even had a lot of cash in the money clip on the outside of his wallet (sitting in an outside pocket of the bag...pretty much in plain view). I was flying home the next day...but all my ID and our credit cards were in the bag. I was already planning on having to miss my flight and just go home with Laura until we figured it all out. Then I started to think about losing the actual bag (my coveted giraffe print) and got REALLY sad. However, Brad rejoined us about an hour later with incredible news. He'd gone back to the temple and the bag was not there. He'd walked up and down the street trying to find it - looking in garbage cans and such. Finally he realized my phone had been in it so he just started calling it over and over again. After several tries, a police officer answered. Someone had turned the bag into him and he'd already sent it in to the police station. Brad caught a subway, went to pick it up, and came home with the diaper bag intact and full of all its contents - including the cash in the outside pocket. Amazing! I was so grateful...

Our Sunday Walk in Central Park

The Allen Family Visit

Make a Smilebox photobook

{ new york - part four }

2008-11-26T09:11:00.008-07:00

While we were in New York, my boss was there staying at her apartment. She was hosting a work event one of the days, so I went over for the afternoon and evening to help out. I'd never seen her apartment before, so it was really fun. Brad came and joined me for the actual event and while we were there, my boss offered to let us stay there after she went home. We could hardly pass up an offer like that! We packed up all of our stuff and stayed there for the last week we were in New York.

Her apartment is the whole top floor of one of the AOL Time Warner towers, right on the corner of Central Park. It's a HUGE penthouse and all the outside walls are floor to ceiling glass. From the 80th floor, you get an amazing 360 degree view. The inside, of course, is just as incredible.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The studio apartment we'd been in was nice, but SO tiny. We felt very spoiled staying in this huge, amazing penthouse. It was just fabulous! Brad even said he'd live in New York if he could live in a place like that (we're not planning on it).

The concierge brought up a crib for Orva to sleep in and in it were all sorts of fancy goodies (stuffed animal, "princess" bib, fancy lotions and shampoos...). We had to document the only time she'll ever be spoiled like that.

While we were staying there, we had a few people on Brad's work team come play Rockband for an evening. We had a great time. I must admit - even though it wasn't mine, I thoroughly enjoyed hosting in such an incredible place.

{ new york - part three }

2008-11-25T12:32:00.014-07:00

Since Orva and I were sitting around by ourselves most of the days we were in New York, we had a lot of time to just hang out (and take pictures).

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I know she looks scared in this photo, but she's just looking really hard. This is actually how she looks most of the time...VERY alert.

Aside from just hanging out, I spent a lot of time on the phone with my mom and sisters getting advice and did a bit of a "baby boot camp" to get Orva on a good napping schedule. She started out not being able to fall asleep by herself at all, so I started putting her down in her crib awake and then 5-5-5-ing her (letting her cry for five minutes, patting her, letting her cry for five more minutes...) until she fell asleep. Very sad, but she learned quickly (sort of - it took the whole two and a half weeks we were in New York) and does great now. She's even fully recovered and still likes me.

She did lots of kicking when she was trying to fall asleep.

Notice the sweaty hair...

*Disclaimer - I know this sounds brutal, but she really didn't end up crying that much. It usually only took a few times of patting her and she was asleep...I say "baby boot camp" only in jest, of course.

When we weren't home hanging out and working on napping, we were out and about doing all sorts of fun things:

Yankees Game (Orva slept through most of it)

Metropolitan Museum

Wicked (I thought it was incredible, Brad said it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be...)

One of my very favorite things we did was our own "dine around". We didn't get any pictures of it (bummer), but we rode the subway to Greenwich Village and then just started to walk around. We decided to choose three different restaurants - one for drinks and appetizers, one for our main course, and one for dessert. We just walked around until we saw a restaurant that looked good and then went in. We kept thinking that we'd probably end up with at least one of the restaurants being horrible, but amazingly enough, all three choices were absolutely delicious! We went to a little Mexican restaurant and had some incredible chips and guacamole with some sort of mango lime drink and one with pineapple and cilantro in it. It was so good. Then we went to a really fancy restaurant for the main course - Brad had a really good steak with some incredible mashed potatoes and I had salmon with some really good veggies. Their bread was also really delicious. For dessert, we found this little frozen yogurt shop. It was so fun! If you're every traveling in a new city and have some time, I highly reccommend this method of finding dinner.

*I know you probably weren't dying for a play-by-play of our menu, but that really was one of my favorite things we did, and with no pictures, I wanted to make sure I remember it!

( new york - part two )

2008-11-25T09:51:00.002-07:00

Make a Smilebox photobook

Make a Smilebox slideshow

{ and finally (!), new york - part one }

2008-11-25T09:00:00.013-07:00

Everyone, be very proud. Two months after returning home from the trip, I have finally gathered and organized our pictures from New York. There are a lot of them - in fact, I have decided it will take me six posts to put them all up. When I expressed concern about the abundance of pictures left to post (after a lot of narrowing down) Brad told me not to worry about it - it's my blog and I can do whatever I want with it. And so I shall!

New York

Brad got a new job with Goldman Sachs in August and after working for two weeks in Salt Lake, flew to New York for the whole month of September to train in their offices there. Since he left when Orva was barely two weeks old, we decided that he'd miss too much of her little life if we didn't join him. So we did! Orva and I waited until she was three weeks old and then flew out to join him for a few weeks. Goldman put us up in a little (tiny) studio apartment in the middle of Manhattan. We were in a great location, so while Brad was at work, Orva and I went wandering on long walks in different directions every day. We bought fresh fruit and vegetables from the corner street vendor every time we went out, visited many, many fun little shops, and spent a lot of time just watching people walk by. In the evenings and on the weekends, Brad joined us for the major sightseeing. We decided we will never live in New York but will definitely go back to visit!

Goldman Sachs building in Jersey City

Visiting Brad at Work

Since Brad's office was across the water from the apartment we were staying in, I had to take quite the subway trip to get there...all by myself with a three week old baby. I ended up doing this quite a bit, actually, and really enjoyed it. Orva definitely drew a lot of attention - we got stopped everywhere we went. It was really fun to see so many tough New Yorkers get all soft over a tiny baby.

We ended up being in New York on September 11th, which was really neat. We went to a couple different memorials on that day and got as close as we could to Ground Zero (we went back later so we could really see it). Two huge spotlights were shining up from the ground in the location of the twin towers - you could see them from all over and it was so incredible to imagine those beams of light as actual buildings. I felt like we were able to experience a tiny bit of how awful that day must have been for everyone close by. Seeing all the memorials and all the people out paying tribute that night made the whole thing much more real. It was very sad, but also very awe inspiring.

{ falling behind }

2008-11-11T20:57:00.003-07:00

I'd just like to apologize for the lack of posts lately. The next posting I need to do is from our New York trip and I'm still waiting on pictures from my sister (and she's waiting on pictures from me). I just can't bring myself to move forward and go back to that post later, so I'm stalling.

In the meantime, I'll go against all organization and jump ahead to post a current picture of Orva so you'll know that she's not three weeks old anymore.

I'll be back to posting soon and will then update you on everything we've been doing - in order, of course!

{ tagged }

2008-11-11T20:28:00.004-07:00

Woo-yahoo! Thank you, Marian, for tagging all the sisters. I have secretly always wanted to do a tag and I was positive that by the time I started blogging nobody would be tagging anymore. I'm pleased as punch.

Here I go:

I am: a happy wife/mom/daughter
I know: the Church is true
I want: to paint my new living room a really dark rich blue with a touch of green
I have: a great husband and a really cute bub
I dislike: un-organized anything
I miss: my wide open condo floorplan (I'm still liking my tiny house, though)
I feel: busy
I hear: the wood burning stove at my in-law's house
I smell: the delicious chili we just ate
I crave: soy ice cream - chocolate velvet, to be exact
I cry: rarely
I search: for an inexpensive mirrored side table for my living room
I wonder: what people think of me
I regret: not hosting more events - I really want to be someone who plans and pulls off great get-togethers and I'm just not
I love: fabulous shoes
I care: about design, fashion, and the way things look (more than I should)
I worry: that I'm missing something I'm supposed to be doing as a mother
I remember: how dad used to hate our "grand puttering"
I believe: in the gospel of Jesus Christ
I dance: only when my husband pulls me away from my cooking/cleaning and dips me in the kitchen
I argue: with Brad when he wants to disagree for the sake of a good discussion
I write: lists and lists and more lists
I win: never (except once when I guessed the right amount of jelly beans in the jar at the orthodontist's office)
I lose: very few things, actually - but I did lose a polka dot shirt in 3rd grade and never figured out where it went (it still bothers me)
I wish: I was better at being gracious and making people feel comfortable in various situations
I listen: to KOSY 106.5 and FM 100 Christmas music starting the day after Halloween (very loudly, too - "You don't have to be an angel, on bended knee...")
I can usually be found: at home
I am scared: of bad men behind my shower curtain (I'm always convinced there's one there and HATE having to check for them)
I need: some really great clear/glass/silver/fancy lamps for my living room
I forget: to return library books (without fail - I rack up fines like nobody's business)
I am happy: being at home with my baby
I tag: anyone else out there who secretly wants to be tagged

{ week three }

2008-10-09T20:35:00.005-06:00

It appears that all Orva did during her third week of life was laze around. Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy!

{ photo shoot }

2008-10-09T18:50:00.012-06:00

My uncle Charles is a photographer and did this amazing photo shoot for us.

* WARNING: this post is very picture-heavy...and believe me, I really narrowed it down! *

* Did I mention there might be an over-abundance of pictures in this post? *

Make a Smilebox photobook

The out-takes...some of these ended up being my favorites!

Make a Smilebox photobook

* Side note: after this photo shoot, we now understand why her diapers are always extremely wet and every stink is a blow-out. We are also satisfied her lungs are healthy. *

{ byu vs. northern iowa }

2008-09-29T20:00:00.005-06:00

At two weeks and one day old, Orva went to her first BYU football game. We're pretty sure she was the youngest fan in the stadium. She's not a true-blue fan yet, though - she only lasted until the 3rd quarter and then it was too hot and she was too tired to be very cheerful about the Cougars' success.

* Confession: the pictures with Brad and I in them were taken the morning AFTER the game...we realized we hadn't taken any pictures with us at the actual event and tried to re-create it. I'm pretty sure the dark circles and sleepy looks are a dead give-away, though, so I guess it was pointless to take them at all. whoops. *

{ week two }

2008-09-29T19:33:00.005-06:00

More cute pictures of the bub.

{ grandma gibb comes to visit }

2008-09-29T19:06:00.003-06:00

Brad's mom came to visit Orva just after she was born. She was able to stay with us for a few days and Orva has already decided that grandmas are just wonderful.

{ orva and her tiny cousin laney }

2008-09-28T15:27:00.004-06:00

Laney came for a visit and we had to get pictures of the twinner dresses. These outfits came from Laura's twins, Gwyneth and Liesel, who are now nine.

Make a Smilebox postcard

* Elaine (Laney) is five weeks older than Orva...we're not sure if Orva will ever catch up to her in weight or hair-do. *

* Elaine is not usually a sad baby at all...she was just very tired and not wanting to be put down for a photo shoot. I think her sad face is just about as cute as her happy face, though. *

{ sunday finery }

2008-09-28T15:08:00.007-06:00

Orva wanted to be fancy for her first Sunday at church (her mom had nothing to do with it).

{ week one }

2008-09-28T13:59:00.001-06:00

Pictures from week one that have been deemed blog-worthy...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

{ cousins }

2008-09-27T20:45:00.004-06:00

Orva has two cousins that were born just before she was.

Elaine Johnson George

10 July 2008
2nd child of Mike and Bekah
16th Johnson grandchild

Henry Johnson Mott

30 July 2008
5th child of Daniel and Joanne
17th Johnson grandchild

* Post idea and pictures shamelessly stolen from Liza. *

{ flashback: pregnancy }

2008-09-27T15:52:00.009-06:00

Pre-blogging pictures...

As you can see, the belly got very large very fast. It was rather alarming.

13 weeks

16 weeks

21 weeks

26 weeks

29 weeks

34 weeks

38 weeks

Brad emailed this gem to many friends and family when I was 17 weeks along. Unfortunately, some had heard (but not seen) that I was quite large for how far along I was and actually wondered if this was real...

"Here is the latest photo of the belly...I really don't think I am showing as abnormally as I was before...although, I can't see my toes, can't wear any of my prego clothes (even the 7-9 months ones) so maybe I'm just getting used to it? Both Brad and I keep getting this funny feeling that it's twins (or quadruplets or even sixtuplets or 15-tuplets for that matter)."

He sent it from MY email account, making it somewhat believable. Hilarious.

Mobile Much Too Soon

2008-09-27T15:42:00.004-06:00

At three days old, I put Orva on a blanket on the floor in a patch of sunlight to help with her mild jaundice. In the two minutes I was out of the room, she went from this:

To this:

Needless to say, there has been no laying her down by herself on any un-contained surface since.

{ firsts }

2008-09-27T15:19:00.007-06:00

First Diaper Change
(dad's first change, not hers - brad had never changed a daiper in his life up to this point)

First Pabby

First Sponge Bath
(she hated it)

First Sink Bath
(she loved it)

* Orva now takes showers with me every day and LOVES it...however, fortunately for all of you, we have no pictures of this. *

First Night at Home

First Time Sitting in Her Boppy

{ birthing process }

2008-09-19T07:40:00.008-06:00

* WARNING: this post is being published solely for my sake so that I can remember everything about giving birth to my baby. Feel free to either read on or skip this post entirely - just consider yourself warned *

A week before Orva was born, I had a doctor's appointment and found out I was dilated to a four and eighty percent effaced. I had not had any contractions up to that point, so I was happy to see that I was at least doing something. I tried very hard not to get my hopes up and just kept going about my normal business, knowing that I could easily stay at a four for two weeks. I did a great job being patient until the next Sunday when I started to have regular contractions that lasted for about four hours and were consistent whether I was standing up, walking around, or laying down. We were somewhat hopeful and got the diaper bag and hospital bag all packed and ready to go, just in case. By 9:00 that night, though, I decided to just go to bed and see what happened. The next thing I knew it was Monday morning - no more contractions. That whole next week, Brad and I did a LOT of walking. We walked around our house every morning and then around the mall every afternoon or evening. Almost every time we walked, contractions would start up again but they'd also stop again as soon as I sat down. We were very impatient, but decided not to do anything besides walking to try to start labor. I kept the house very clean, kept up on laundry, and went to bed early every night just to be ready whenever she decided to come.

Thursday night, Brad and I sat down to go over some of our birthing class materials and write out more of a plan for the birth. We'd talked a lot about it all, but wanted to write some of it down. We ended up watching the Olympics instead...and even joked that since we didn't get our planning done, she'd probably be born that night. We also talked about how glad we would be if she was born that night that we had spent time together just relaxing. It was actually very nice to just be together and stop thinking about trying to get labor going. We went to bed after a few hours of watching Olympics.

At 2:30 a.m. (now Friday), I woke up to go to the bathroom and my water broke. I went and woke Brad up, but I still wasn't having any contractions so we decided to go back to bed. I really wanted to go back to sleep, but within fifteen minutes of laying down again, contractions started to pick up. By about 3:30 a.m. I could tell they were pretty serious. I got in a hot bath and things still kept progressing. By about 4:30 a.m., contractions were pretty intense. We called my mom to have her come over. At about 5:00 a.m., I told Brad to call her back and tell her to hurry. She got there at about 5:15 a.m. and by then things were steadily progressing and getting more and more intense. This whole time I was able to really feel the contractions progressing and it was not at all easy, but I was really able to stay relaxed and I felt really good about how things were going. At about 6:30 a.m. we left for the hospital (about one minute away). When we got there, I was dilated to a seven and in transition - hurray! Obviously the contractions were long and hard (they were double-peaking at this point and I really wasn't getting much time in between), but I was still able to stay very relaxed and work with the contractions. We had a couple issues with a nurse who was not used to dealing with mothers in labor without medication and didn't understand why I couldn't just lay flat on my back to be monitored. Luckily, the midwife came in soon after that and started monitoring me with a hand-held monitor so that I could move around with the contractions as I needed to (which I was definitely needing at this point). By 8:00 a.m., I was dilated to a ten and fully effaced. I was on my knees on the bed with my arms over a birthing ball, which felt wonderful. My mom was squeezing my hips to relieve pressure, and my doula was rubbing my lower back with tennis balls - which also felt wonderful. Brad was talking me through contractions and helping me stay very relaxed. Things were going so well and I was really feeling great about the whole process.

The midwife suggested that, with my hip problems, delivery may be easier for me on my hands and knees. I stayed in that position and pushed very gradually and slowly for the next twenty minutes. At that point, I was feeling so relaxed and refreshed - my contractions seemed so easy and so far apart. I felt like I could push forever if I had to. After about ten minutes of pushing, I asked how close we were (I was picturing maybe having to push for an hour more or something) and the midwife said, "Oh, honey. Reach down here and feel!" I was able to reach down and feel Orva's head already crowning - it was amazing! The midwife also tricked Brad into helping deliver at this point...she had him supporting Orva's head while she held the monitor on my stomach. When she was ready to actually deliver, she just let Brad stay right there and do it all. It was very fun to have him so involved. One thing I remember about this part is just wanting to take it very slow and really ease up on the pushing so that I wouldn't tear - I'm so glad I did this because it really paid off! I also remember Orva still being very active during pushing. As I was pushing, she was still kicking. The midwife even stopped monitoring her because we could all see her moving from the outside. I was not expecting that and I kept thinking, "Come on, child. I'm trying to focus here - please hold still!"

After about twenty minutes of pushing, Orva was born! They passed her to me through my legs and I just sat down and held her for a long time right there. The nurses and midwife were so good about letting us take our time with her before they cut the cord or anything. We held her for about 45 minutes and I got to nurse her and everything before they took her to weigh her. It was heavenly! The atmosphere during the whole process was very calm and relaxed and peaceful...it was exactly how I wanted it to be.

Things could not have gone better - we feel so lucky!

For those of you who made it this far (if anyone did), here's a little comic relief...

* Brad played these videos for me at the hospital after I told him I didn't like how often the nurses asked me to rate my pain on a level of 1 to 10 (I've never liked that system). The second video is the one that applies to this, but the first video leads into it and is pretty funny as well. *

Brian Regan - Emergency Room, Part I

Brian Regan - Emergency Room, Part II

{ coming home ]

2008-09-18T11:57:00.007-06:00

All dressed up and ready to go home!

We're stuck with her now (but we don't mind too much)!

{ visitors }

2008-09-17T12:04:00.003-06:00

We had a lot of fun visitors at the hospital, but only took pictures of some (we're still getting used to actually using our camera now that we have a child - sorry to those of you who came to visit but did not get pictured).

Uncle Davie and Uncle Vic

Grandma Orva

Ellie

Visitors not pictured:

Ann and Jane West
Bekah, Mariah, and Elaine George
Wade and Melissa Brown (Ellie's parents)
Abbie Hulme

{ namesake }

2008-09-17T11:38:00.000-06:00

Orva is named after her grandma, who is named after HER grandma.

* Orva's cousin Bradshaw has gotten a little confused with a new Orva in the family. My sister (his mom) told him they were going to call Grandma Orva for her birthday. Bradshaw said, "The baby grandma?" Apparently he knows our baby is named after Grandma Orva but he's not sure which name we used - the Grandma part or the Orva part. It looks like a nickname has been coined..."Baby Grandma" *

{ orva johnson gibb }

2008-09-17T08:35:00.014-06:00

Since she's the reason we now have enough pictures to even start a blog (and nobody wants to see a blog without pictures), we thought we'd start this whole thing off by announcing her birth.

Here she is!

Orva was born on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 8:26 a.m. She weighed in at 6 lbs. 14 oz. and measured 18 1/2 inches long. The whole birthing process went amazingly well and we couldn't be happier!

* don't worry - if this post didn't contain enough pictures for you, many more will follow soon *

{ tell me why }

2008-09-16T06:39:00.001-06:00

tell me why the stars do shine
tell me why the ivy twines
tell me why the sky's so blue
and i will tell you just why i love you

because god made the stars to shine
because god made the ivy twine
because god made the sky so blue
because god made you...

...that's why i love you