Blessing

On December 2nd (my birthday!) we blessed Molly at our church in San Angelo. It was beautiful and special. It was too bad we couldn't have more family there with us, but we were lucky enough to be able to do it while Jay and Millie were visiting us. My dear friend Lori Barton (the principal at Fort Concho Elementary where I have done a lot of dance outreach) and her husband were also sweet enough to come, which meant a lot to me. So with Grandma and Grandpa Wardle and both of her "aunt" Lori's, plus our wonderful ward of people we truly love, we felt surrounded by family on this special day.

Molly was a little fussy before and after church (plus we were in a bit of a rush to leave the house) so I didn't get very good pictures. I keep intending on putting her back in the dress and taking more, but it hasn't happened yet.

The blessing was beautiful. I always feel a special love and appreciation for Bret when I get to see him exercise the Priestood. He is such a good husband and father. He is my best friend and I look up to him in so many ways. It was wonderful to watch him hold our sweet Molly and give her a blessing through the power and authority of God. 

I couldn't find a blessing dress in San Angelo and all the online dresses my mom and I looked at were kind of pricey, so I used that as an excuse to sew her dress (something I had secretly wanted to do but wasn't sure I was capable of). I already had the material for the bottom of the dress - something I got out of a remnants box at the fabric store for super cheap - so all I had to buy was a little bit of white cotton and some buttons! I found a tutorial online that was helpful, but it still meant I had to create my own pattern. It definitely quadrupled production time, but it was fun and I learned a lot in the process. 

My mom gave her these cute white shoes when she was born and they went perfectly with her dress. (Side note - baby shoes are so cute but it is so hard to keep them on!)

We love our girl.

Thanksgiving with the Jeppsons

The past two years for Thanksgiving we have gone to a potluck type celebration at the church. This year our "Texas family" invited us to a more intimate Thanksgiving at their home. Just two families. Best friends. In a home. Low key. Good food. Hanging out. Lovely. 

Now that we have moved away from San Angelo we are more thankful than ever for the Jeppsons who truly became the closest thing to family outside of family that we have ever known. We love them.

Lori - if you read this, my sister-in-law just walked by and saw this picture and said,
"Who is that? She's cute!" Couldn't agree more. You're awesome.

Little Miss Molly

I can't believe it has been a month and a half since I blogged last. Oops. Since then Bret's parents have been out to visit, I organized our ward party (which was super fun), my dad came to visit, we moved from San Angelo to Georgetown (20 minutes north of Austin) and we came home to Utah and now Idaho for Christmas. Talk about a whirlwind of a month. Whenever Molly fusses someone will say, "Oh I'm sure traveling has been hard on her. She'll be happy to get back to normal." This child has never experienced normal.

Molly is fabulous. She is growing like crazy and I think she'll be too big for her 0-3 month clothes pretty soon... she's not really a chunk, she's just long!

She is a fantastic sleeper and is usually going about 7 hours a night (the record is 8.5 hours!). She takes awesome (and many) naps too.

She is a good at eating, but she's a terrible eater. Let me explain... she can eat. In fact, she's a really fast eater with a good latch and suck, but she throws a giant fit during or after each feeding and acts really uncomfortable. Is been like this since Thanksgiving and we've been trying to figure out what's up, but no luck.

She's also starting to spit up a lot more, sometimes regular spits but often big gigantic, almost projectile spits. Yuck. I wonder if that has anything to do with the feeding issues.

The one other thing she HATES is tummy time. You'd think she was being tortured. Sometimes when she's on her belly she'll do little mini-push-ups, repeatedly smashing her nose into the ground. She's really strong but she just does NOT like it.

But to make amends for the food fights and tummy tantrums, she has learned how to smile at us and it absolutely melts our hearts. Once she's calmed down from an eating episode she's all smiles (and sleep) until the next battle.

She loves being held on her side with an arm along her tummy. She's starting to drool. She loves her dad. Tub time = happy time. Her changing pad is a mysterious place where she always gets happy and starts talking to us. 

She still loves being swaddled. Her blankets have magical calming powers. She loves her binkie too, but if she can't find it she'll gnaw on her hand instead. She comes dangerously close to getting her entire fist stuck in her mouth but she just can't seem to find her thumb. 

We love being parents. We love our baby. We love life. And just look at the girl... can you blame us?