{ brett + kye }

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 }

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







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

{ halloween }

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 }

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 }

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 }

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 }

We think our bub is filling out quite nicely.

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

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 }

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 }

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 }

Make a Smilebox photobook

{ i dream of eating }

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 }

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.