Video Update of Eva
Saving the best for last:
Instagram Update
40% off of clearance prices at Baby Gap. Loaded up on baby gifts.
Eva loves dressing herself. Well, she picks out the clothes and insists I put them on her.
First time out in the city without Eva. I saw a movie and got gelato at Eatily with a girlfriend.
Hamilton Park is the best!
An afternoon in the city. My friend and I walked around Central Park, saw the temple, and walked past Barbara Walters eating Lunch.
This is how Eva eats Hummus.
Primary Activity with Diva Eva
Our new TV!
Cute!
Night Night!
Eva’s room is coming along!
Gotta get down on Friday!
What a good week! Last week I was in a slump after my parents left, so I was determined to make this one much better! Every day we’ve done something fun and gotten out of the house. It’s made all the difference.
Sunday
T.J. and I walked on the river path for a while. It was such a pleasant night and fun to see all the families out together.
Monday
I was going to head in the city, but as soon as I walked outside, the intense heat got to me, so Eva and I just walked around the mall and hit the sale section at H&M. It literally takes me 3 minutes to walk to H&M. Once I travelled to Vegas to get to H&M! For FHE, T.J. and packed up dinner and had a picnic in Hoboken and then explored.
Tuesday
On Tuesday, I tried to meet up with a friend near the WTC for a play date but I was crazy late (I’m blaming it on the train schedule, ok!) and so it didn’t work out. But Eva and I still had fun on a date together. We played at a splash park and had lunch right on the river-on the other side of the Hudson than usual.
Wednesday
My new friend from the ward, who moved in the same time as we did, met me at Roosevelt Park which is just a couple blocks away. We watched Eva play in the splash park, looked through the farmer’s market (it was quite lame) but we enjoyed homemade lemonade and a hamburger.
Thursday
I joined several other families in our ward and went swimming. That was probably the highlight of the week. It was almost 100 degrees yesterday, so the pool felt amazing. I also made no bake cookies and had to hide them so I wouldn’t eat all of them in one sitting.
Friday
Our plans for today? Probably another splash pad because of this intense heat!
How was your week?
Instagrams In-Between
Eva and I on the way to Chincoteague!
The amazing sunset that welcomed us when we arrived.
Not the best BBQ we’ve ever had but pretty fun decorations.
Eva would fall asleep within minutes of leaving the beach each day.
Eva and Amelia eating breakfast together
My Dad with Claire
Mark, Mary Beth, and Claire enjoying the beach even with the wind.
Taken after I braved the waves for the first time.
A bird went to the bathroom on my dad’s head.
Taken at the NASA center nearby
On the boat ride
Claire at the Sandbar
Shots from our walk around Chincoteague.
Our Week
This week went so quickly. And considering it rained for the majority of the time, Eva and I still got out and had a lot of fun. On Tuesday, we had a couple of hours without rain, so Eva and I went on a little walk/jog on the river path to Hoboken. We then made our way up to Washington Street which is where all the cute restaurants and shops are in Hoboken, including Carlo’s Bake Shop from The Cake Boss.
My heart was literally pounding out of excitement as we walked into the bakery. I even started laughing because it was so funny to me how excited I was. It’s not that I really even care about the show too much, I watch it on occasion. But it was still really neat to be in there and try it out in real life. Buddy’s sister was in there running the place and I tried to take a picture of her like a stalker, but they all came out too blurry since I was trying to be nonchalant about it. We took home a nutella butter cookie and a cannoli. Oh, they were so good.
On Wednesday, we had a picnic at the beach (there’s a park near us with sand and beach chairs right on the Hudson). Eva loved the sand… a little too much. She started throwing it EVERYWHERE, so we went over the splash pad and park where Eva had a blast. She was laughing and screaming out of excitement. It was awesome. Almost as awesome as the ridiculously long nap she took when we got home. I can’t wait for more warm, sunny days!
Other than that, we’ve just filled our week by coloring, walking around the mall, going to a Relief Society activity, and reading lots of books. “Buh buh buh buh!” Eva says.
And just for kicks, I threw in a picture of my shopping cart that I take with me to get groceries. When Eva goes with me, I push her stroller with one hand, and pull this thing behind me with my other hand. There are times where I definitely miss our car, but I’m sure I’ll look back on these days and laugh about it. It’s a pretty good workout too…
An Afternoon in the City
I grew up in a suburb of Cincinnati. We lived just about ten minutes from the city and whenever we were going there, we would say something like, “We’re going downtown.” Well, I’ve realized here in the NYC area, when you say you’re going “downtown,” you are referring to the financial district or the more southern part of the island. I keep having to catch myself talking to people from around here because to me, it’s just a phrase but to them it’s an actual location and then it gets confusing. Almost as confusing as writing it down here in this paragraph.
Anyway, that was kind of besides the point. But last Saturday, we went downtown… as in, just into the city for the day. Through T.J.’s work, we get to see a lot of museums and events at a discount or at no price at all. One of which is the Museum of Modern Art. And as Roy from The Office would say, that art is the best art of all the art. But really. It is my favorite.
We only spent an hour or two there because Eva was wanting to get out of her stroller by the end, but we did get to see some of my favorites including works by Andy Warhol and Ellsworth Kelly. And no, we didn’t get to see the rain room exhibit yet. But we will go back!
After the MoMa, we went into the Knoll furniture store which is basically like another modern art museum. Their pieces are beautiful and if I had a couple hundred thousand dollars to throw around, I’d buy a couch and kitchen table from there.
We ended the night off downtown (this time I’m talking about the location) right by the new World Trade Center buildings and ate dinner at Edward’s. This restaurant has food from Cincinnati, such as Skyline, Larosas, and Graeter’s, which is why I picked this place to eat at in the first place. Turns out they only serve it once a month and Saturday was not that day… Dang it. It was still good, but we will have to go back again to have some Skyline chili and black raspberry chip ice-cream.
It was a great day and we didn’t get on any wrong subways-we’re finally getting the hang of it!
NYC: Week 2 & 3
I promise I’m not going to label each of my blog posts from on now by weeks, but I’m playing catchup with all of my photos and so this seemed the best way to do it.
Eva (focused on coloring) and her daddy
Our apartment before our stuff came.
Eva eating popcorn at the hotel, living a charmed life.
That girl…
Half of our stuff still packed up…
Before our internet came, I would work at the local Starbucks since they had free wi-fi. This was my view. Amazing. You can see the new WTC buildings in the background.
Oh, that’s just my newly assembled book shelf crashing down on me. 
We’re going out of order here. But this is when all of our stuff was moved in and all I wanted to do was curl up and sleep because I had no idea how I’d go through it all.
The First Week in NYC
On the flight to JFK
A sunrise and happy baby
If you know Eva, you know how rarely she settles down and will take a nap in places other than her crib. Although she was heavy to carry through the streets of NYC, I loved every second of her cute snuggles!
For our 3rd Anniversary (the day we arrived), we ate at Grimaldi’s. It definitely lived up to its hype. Delicious!
Although NYC doesn’t have beautiful mountains, it does have hidden beauty if you look for it. Here’s one example.
Uniqlo flagship store. I love this place and can’t wait until we have a little extra money to get some clothes here!
A gorgeous church in Brooklyn
I love subway art!
Our second hotel was just blocks away from Carnegie Hall!
A crazy baby with post-pigtail hair and the new documentary series North America on Discovery channel. Please tell me you guys are watching it!? It’s amazing.
We stayed in three hotels while trying to find our apartment-we didn’t want to book them for too long just in case we found a place and we kept moving to get cheap last minute deals. The second hotel (Holiday Inn on 57th) was by far our favorite and had SO much space compared to the other two!
An amazing staircase entryway at the apartment complex we applied to on Roosevelt Island.
Lunch in Bryant Park
Eva relaxing in the stroller protected from the rain.
Central Park
Last of Utah
Erin and Laura stopped by to say goodbye!
Packed up our U-Boxes
Sweetie Pie Eva sleeping in the car.
Just corn-dogging it up in Cedar City
Taking over my smoothie
Very sad about The Office ending
Cupcake hat!
Cafe Rio, Hokulia Snowcones, and Danica saying bye on the last full day in Utah.
Just hours before we left for the airport with my in-laws at our favorite JCW’s
Although these photos were just from 2-3 weeks ago, it feels like forever! We have gone through a lot these past couple weeks… I miss all of you guys!
Instagram Update
I feel like I haven’t been blogging too much recently. Once or twice a week feels like nothing when I used to write one or two posts a day. I’ve been pretty busy trying to figure out our move to New York (which is happening on the 21st of May… ah!) and have just been hanging out in American Fork with my in-laws. Other than that, we have had a couple of BBQs and outings with friends to say bye. Also, we finally got to go on a date to see Iron Man 3. We hadn’t been on a real date for a verrrrrrry long time. But anyway. Life is good. Here’s some instagram photos for those of you not on IG.
Eva devoured a popsicle on Mother’s Day and freaked out when it was gone.
Got this adorable outfit for Eva for only $7!
Grandma spoils Eva with popcorn and Mickey… she’s never going to want to leave 🙂
Eva playing “night night” in the middle of the afternoon.
I had to take the slide away from Eva for a while because she kept rocking it back and forth. I discouraged her from using it by putting the scary toys all over it.
The highlight of our week is when Grandma came home with this slide.
Cohen and Eva loveeeee sweeping.
We went to my friend’s baby’s 1st birthday party… it was gorgeous!
I told Dairy Queen to put, “Happy Graduation, TJ!” on his cake. This is what I got instead.
I am a firm believer in this little mantra, too. Three kids...April 30, 2017 - 9:00 pm by Carlee
We do all have those days! After sleeping through the night...April 23, 2017 - 11:16 pm by Nichole S
Lucas is the textbook definition of the "Terrible twos"....April 23, 2017 - 9:39 pm by Luisa Elton
Listen, you need to listen to Janet Lansbury's Podcast....April 23, 2017 - 9:29 pm by Melanie McGrath
I love the calendar! Great work, TJ.March 30, 2017 - 8:47 pm by Jeanette