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!