A New York Christmas...just the beginning

Tyler got home from working in Las Vegas today! He helped me wrap all of our Christmas presents (something I had on my list to do before he got back) I love having the house decorated for Christmas, there is nothing better than a room light by Christmas lights.

I love seeing the random scenes of "normalcy" in NYC. This snowman was built in between parked cars on the side of the street. I guess you squeeze it in where you can. Our first snow storm was on Friday and it was amazing. The flakes were so big and it fell so slowly. I don't know if it was windy or if it was the height at which I watched the snow fall but the flakes weren't just falling down they were dancing every which way. It was beautiful and once again reminded me how lucky we are to be living here and experiencing all that this amazing city has to offer.

Workaholic

You know work and life become too intermingled when you chat through instant messenger with a vendor and report in staff meeting that you are now friends with a client on facebook.

So has been the story of my life for the last month. I have been working like crazy. We were approached by a couple from Paris 4 weeks ago. They just bought a two bedroom apartment in the Manhattan House and want to spend the holidays in NYC in their new apartment. They hired Drake Design to design, order and install their space in 4 weeks. IMPOSSIBLE! ..or is it.

Another designer named Darrin and I were given this project and we have been working like mad men (women?) ever since. We designed the space and sent our presentation to the clients through email because they were still in Paris. That same day Darrin went to Florida to install another project. The next morning we got the response that the clients didnt like anything we proposed. So I get a call from Jamie (who is conviently out of town as well) saying that I need to re-design the whole scheme and propose it to them asap. So I spent the next 48 hours making selections, emailing them to Jamie for approval and then on to the clients. It was crazy doing it all by myself. Fortunately they approved the second scheme and I proceeded with placing orders (begging and dropping Jamie's good name to get this stuff in weeks when regularly it would take months) Long story short (long story long) we have given them a furnished apartment including a custom sectional sofa in just 4 weeks! The clients landed today at 3:45 and I didnt leave the apartment until 4:30. (yes i worked an 8 hour day on a Saturday) Thanks to NYC traffic I was out before they came. whew

It was crazy and stressful and I'm exhausted but it is also so rewarding to basically have my own project and to see it though the whole process down to placing the roses on the table.

I love my job and am so grateful for the opportunity that we have to be out here experiencing all that we are.

(sorry so long and lame pics, but I had to please the mother by posting something)

South Street Seaport Tree Lighting

This weekend Tyler and I went to the tree lighting at the South Street Seaport. It is such a fun part of town. There is a pier that over looks the Brooklyn Bridge and across to Brooklyn. There are fun shops and restaurants with cobblestone roads. The beautifully light 50' tree, the Big Apple Chorus singing carols and New York City’s most acclaimed Santa (in his 18th season) made this night so much fun! It totally put us into the Christmas spirit. So naturally, we went home and put out all of our Christmas stuff. We are so excited for the Christmas season here in New York!

An NYC Thanksgiving

Our first Thanksgiving in New York City was amazing! On Thanksgiving "eve" we went downtown and did some parade attire shopping for the big event the next day. The Empire State Building was light up with Thanksgiving colors, love it!

Thanksgiving morning Tyler met up with some guys from our ward at 6:00 am to save our spot for the parade. The girls and I came later. The guys did great and got us right up front. The parade was so much fun! The weather was beautiful and not even that cold! The news said that 10,000 people were in the parade and that 3.5 million attend!

The balloons were my favoriteMile Cyrus, David Archuleta, Kristin Chenoweth, Trace Adkins
The celebrities were fun too! I have tried really hard to find famous people in NY but this is as close as i've come (so far)

The briefcase drill team was so awesome! I loved them! Another group that we liked was the "second time arounders" They had a huge marching band with dancers and color guard and everything and they were all older people. I loved the "out of the norm" acts.

And more fun balloons!

Utah Trip

This weekend Tyler and I flew to Utah for my friend, Katie's wedding. I must start describing this eventful day and the very beginning. It was 4:45 am and I was driving to the airport. The roads in New York are terrible so it didn't concern me when the car was driving all lopsided. Well I did get concerned when the car went out of control and was smoking. I was able to pull over to the shoulder (not all freeways even have a shoulder, blessing!). I got out and realized that one of my tires blew up! Since I didn't pull over right away there was only like 6 more inches that it was even attached to the wheel. I started panicing for many reasons, 1-Tyler was in California 2-I had a flight to catch 3-I was too freaked out to attempt to change the tire myself. So what do you do when you are stuck on the side of a New York freeway all alone at 4:45 in the morning...? I prayed obviously. Then I called the road side service that our insurance provides. As they were in the middle of telling me that I was on a restricted highway that only allows certain companies to bring towing vehicles, a tow truck was backing up to me. I stared in atonishment at the miracle and told the insurance guy i would call him back. I got out and the guy said that someone had called and said that I was in danger. The nice guy changed my tire for me and i was in and out in less than a half hour and I made my flight with a little time to spare. It was such a miracle and I truely had my prayer answered!

Tyler and I attended Katie and Zach's luncheon and reception later that night. It was so fun to see them and all of my friends. I have missed my studio friends a lot and loved seeing them all again!

We were able to spend time with both of our familes as well which is always fun. Thank you everyone for such a fun trip!

23rd Birthday!

I celebrated my 23rd birthday this weekend. It was such a great day. Tyler and I had a pre-party early in the morning so that I could open his present to me which was a super cute coat! He was so cute with the wrapping of it, we didn't have any wrapping paper and I guess buying some at the store is not as fun so he went to the subway where an old man hands out the AM New York every morning. He cut out words and letters from the paper to make my card, so cleaver.
At work, Darrin, a designer I work with, gave me Happy Birthday flowers. It was so thoughtful of him. They were so fun to have on my desk all day, so bright and cheerful! Then the office suprised me with tons of different little pastries with a candle in one for me, a sweet card, wine (woo hoo! :)) and they even sang to me! It was a great day, I love the people that I work with.
Then when I got home, my sweet husband was waiting for me with a beautiful bouquet! He made reservations for us at this little Italian Restaurant near our apartment called Bella Via. The food was really good and my company was even better :) Props to Ty for making my first birthday away from family so great! He made me feel special all day long. Thank you Tyler!

Halloween pt. 2

Tyler made it home from California just in time for our ward Halloween party. I was so glad to have him back and all dressed up with me! The ward had a chili cook off so we had lots of different kinds of chili (there was a chocolate chili even) and the best part....cornbread! Someone made this cornbread that tasted just like cake! There was a trunk-n-treat in the parking lot for the kids, even some karaoke.! We had a good time! We love our ward!

Isn't he a great pirate!! :)

Me and my nursery kids!

Tyler and I were just called as Nursery leaders in our ward. We are so excited to serve and teach the cute kids in our ward.

These are some of my favorite costumes at the party. The family of the cute "flower" baby were bees, they were my favorite family costume!

Halloween pt. 1

Alpha Workshops puts on an amazing Halloween party every year at the New York Design Center called the Alpha Workshops Masquerade Ball. Tyler was out of town still so I went to the party with a group from work. We started the party at about 5:00 when we turned the office into a zoo. We were all running around putting on make up and spraying hairspray, we got pizza and turned up the music! The pre-party was so fun!! Then we all hopped in cabs and went to the party. The tickets to the party were $125, kindly Jamie paid for all of us and our guests, we took a group of 48 Drake-ers! The catering was amazing! There were three open bars so I had all the white grape juice I wanted!! :) There were lots of people carrying around trays with super fancy versions of mac-n-cheese, mini hamburgers, grilled cheese sandwiches and fries, etc. There was cotton candy, popcorn, and pretzle machines. It was way fun! Our Drake Crew staked our our spot on the dance floor (taking up half of the room) and danced the night away! I was way bummed that Tyler couldn't be there but it was fun to bond with my coworkers!

Kira's Visit

Tyler went to California this week for work but fortunately I didnt have to be home alone the whole time, my sister-in-law, Kira, came to the city with some girls from her Salon to take hair cutting classes. After her classes and after I got off work we would meet up and play!

On Tuesday I met up with the group at Serendipity for dinner. Kira and I shared a half chicken which was way good and then the frozen hot chocolates! Kira had a peanut butter one, it was really good too. Then we went to Times Square and played in all the stores. In Sephora, Kira and I tried on a mood changing lip gloss, it kept changing shades of pink and red.

On Wednesday we met up and went to Dinner in the village at a mexican restaurant. Then I took her to my favorite gelato place L'Arte Del Gelato. After that we went to H&M and got a lot of cute baby clothes! It was so fun, I have been sad to not be there with her for this exciting time of being preganat so I was so glad we could baby shop together! I was so grateful for the chance to see Kira and spend time with her this week. We had a lot of fun!

New York Lynch Home: round 2

Tyler and I moved once again this past weekend. Pinnacle's lease was up, long story but now we are in our own place and will be here for a while. This is the 6th apartment we have lived in the year! We are very excited to stay put for a while.

As you enter the apartment, you walk into the kitchen. We have a lot more kitchen storage in this apartment than the last.

This is our living room, pretty tight on space but I love the light the windows bring in. We are on the 36th floor so we don't ever have to close the blinds and i love it!

This is the other side of the living room. This weekend i turned that chair around and sat and watched the lightening storm for like an hour. It was so awesome (and kind of scary)

This is our bedroom, just the right size for us. We even have a walk in closet!

This is the view of Manhattan outside of our window. It has been so fun to see the city at different times, morning, night, sunset, stormy, etc.

And this is the view of Queens from our window. Not as striking but we have Queens pride.
I heart queens
It kind of makes Tyler sick looking out of our windows but I could sit are stare for hours.

Last but not least, (ok maybe it is least) our bathroom! :)

We are very happy with our little apartment and feel very blessed to be here.

Bit of Randomness

We have had all of the keys to the apartments that Pinnacle had leased until October and since no one is living in them we went on a hunt for the one with the best view. This one was one of the few with a balcony, we loved just sitting and looking out the windows at this beautiful view. So one night this week we had take out delivered to this apartment so we ate and played cards. It was way fun, we had to take advantage of this apartment one last time before we turned the keys in :(

I had to lighten this picture a lot since night pictures are the hardest to take, sorry for the quality.

I walk past this little park on my way to the D&D all the time and I always thought that this was a phone booth until the other day the word "prayer" caught my eye. I think its awesome there is a place to pull down a stool and say a little prayer. I love the difference in culture here, so many different ways to look at things.

Tyler & Whitney Through the Years

So I was really bummed out that we didn't really have anything to blog this week, so we got creative and came up with a killer post!

Tyler and I when we met in high school 1952

This was when Tyler graduated college

Here we are enjoying the 80s, DJ Tanner better watch out

Here we are today, haven't changed a bit :)

Weekend Out in the City

We have been busy the last couple weekends with getting settled in so we were excited to go out and explore this weekend. On Friday we went to dinner in Times Square which was fun, then we watched some sweet subway entertainers.

On Saturday we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, it was a beautiful day!View of Manhattan from the bridge

The bridge makes for cool industrial pictures
The New York City Waterfalls are four man-made, electrically-powered waterfalls along the harbor, one even rising as high as the Statue of Liberty. They are up until mid October so I'm glad we were able to see this amazing public art project.

Once in Brooklyn we went to Grimaldi's Pizzaria, super famous for their wonderful pizza and painfully long line! But we had to do it. We were in line for an hour and once we were seated we had to share a table with another couple, akward, and I swear the amount of people in that restaurant was not legal. But the food was great!

By this point we were sick of asking people to take our picture so we just took some separate

We had to hurry to get to our ward's annual cake auction. They auction off amazing cakes to earn money for girl's camp. They went for like $30 each. It was fun, we're excited to be making friends in our ward.