{ 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.

{ terrible horrible no good very bad day }

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 }

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 }

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 }

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.