Presenting... Megan and Alex Crawford

My sister got MARRIED! And we couldn't be happier for her. She and Alex were best friends in high school and dated for a while during their first year of college. I think they decided they were better at being friends then "special friends" so they quit dating, Alex left on his mission, Meg dated other guys, Alex came back and tried to dater her again, Megan made him wait a while... and then they fell in love and they plan to live happily ever after. (Hope that story is close enough, Meg!)

Meg and Alex are way cool. No really, they are. They ski, snow-shoe, hike, camp, mountain climb, bike, run marathons, fish, and do all sorts of other awesome things together. I think their personalities complement each other well and know that they have a great foundation of good communication, mutual respect, and determination that will be a huge asset in their marriage.

We were so lucky to be able to fly home for their wedding. It was such a fantastic event. I feel bad that I didn't take any pictures of the wedding dinner they had the night before. It was at this great little restaurant in Holiday, Utah called the Flora Restaurant. Our party were the only ones there and it was the perfect, cozy venue, complete with fireplace (which actually made it a little too cozy so we had to kill the fire) and classy vintage-style decor. The food was so awesome... I'm literally salivating right now thinking of my steak. (Maybe because it's 7pm right now and I haven't made dinner yet! Bret is sick and asleep so I have no motivation to cook anything... but steak sure sounds lovely.) Both of the fathers gave very sweet speeches and then we watched a slideshow with pictures from Meg and Alex's lives. It was just perfect.

Their wedding was held on the most beautiful spring day in Utah - warm and sunny (unlike our overcast and somewhat rainy wedding day). The ceremony in the Salt Lake Temple was performed by my grandpa, Charles Elliott Richards. He was also our sealer, so it was special to hear a message very similar to the one he shared with us and to be reminded of the wonderful eternal ordinance that a temple sealing is. (On a side note, Megan held it together perfectly and didn't cry at all. I probably had leaky eyes through our entire sealing - a trait I believe I inherited from my mom.)

After the temple, Meg and Alex stayed to take pictures while the wedding party went over to the "Blue Lemon" restaurant at City Creek mall. Then we got to go home and relax (and chop incredible amounts of lettuce) until going to the reception for pictures and set-up.

Megan's reception was held at "This is the Place" state park in a beautiful reception center there. I have never seen such beautiful flowers before in my life. Major kudos to her florist. The food included pizzas baked in a pizza oven out back (that was actually made for my parents and transported to their house the next day!), caesar salad, cheese and tomato kabobs (that have a much fancier Italian name that I'm totally blanking on), cookies and gelato. There was even a place outside where you could roast s'mores, and of course there was delicious wedding cake. (I'm salivating again!)  There was a band, a dance floor, popcorn favors for people to take home... it was fabulous. Meg and my parents should be so proud for creating such a perfect event.  I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

5 Month Molly

Warning: This is one of those long-winded, trying-to-preserve-memories-for-myself posts. Read it if you want, but the pictures are the best part!

I'm starting to hate it when people ask how old Molly is. Its like I have to verbally confirm that she is growing up. In two days she will be 5 months old. What is happening to my teeny-tiny baby? I'll tell you what's happening... she's growing like a weed, smiling like crazy, getting super strong, and is more fun (and easy!) than ever. I love it. (But hate it... slow down child!)

So here are some things that typify life with Molly at 5 months...

1) Toys

She has like them for a while, but now she loves them. She is very coordinated and can grab them from us or off of the floor. They inevitably go to her mouth. Poor, slobber-covered toys. This zebra is too cute so I don't let her grab and chew him... how mean of me.

Mr. Beetle is still her favorite but the blue and orange jingle creatures (we're not sure if they're supposed to be mice, rabbits, or dogs) give him a run for his money. She also loves Mr. Giraffe (we're real creative with names, aren't we) and Georgia-raffe. 

The more she enjoys her toys, the more we can get done without having to constantly entertain her. In fact, sometimes I realize she does better if I just buzz off and let her do her thing. 

 2) Mirrors

Maybe the reason she loves Mr. Beetle is because he has a mirror on his belly. She is becoming more and more fascinated with herself and spends more time looking when we put her in front of a mirror. We can't blame her... we can't stop looking at her either. :)

3) Sitting

She's been able to support her own head for a while now, making it much easier for her to sit up. Now when she goes in her swing she doesn't need it to be reclined... instead she sits up and looks at the toys on the tray... and eventually starts crying because she can't lean forward quite far enough to get the plastic steering wheel inside her mouth. 

She likes sitting in her Johnny Jump-up. She doesn't jump yet, but she likes to sit in it and drool all over as she gnaws on the cushy edges. She even does great in her Bumbo, which we mostly just use to feed her. But her favorite place to be on the couch. Yes, we have a real couch-potato in the making. (No, we aren't turning on TV shows for her... she just likes sitting up there with us.)

4) Chewing/Slobbering/Sucking

Her fingers. Our fingers. Toys. Binkies. Blankets. Her own toes. Her dresses. Dad's face. You name it.

5) Solids

Molly started eating oatmeal cereal just over a week ago. She's awesome. She loves it and does a really good job eating it. The only problem is that she gets so eager to eat it that she chomps down on the spoon before I can get all the food into her mouth... thus the mush gets all over her face. 

I grew up babysitting for my siblings and neighbors. Even though I don't remember specific situations or experiences, something about feeding a kid baby food gives me that deja vu feeling of extreme familiarity. So feeding time is fun for us.

6) Walks

We have been trying to go on more walks together. The pediatrician recommended getting some sun glasses and a big hat for Molly... and if shopping is doctor recommended, you just can't say no! So we got her this adorable yellow hat with a big floppy brim and some polka dot sunglasses and now we're walkin' in style. I've only taken pictures on my phone so I need to figure out how to get them onto the computer. They are SO SO cute.

Sometimes I push Molly in the stroller and other times I put her in the front pack. Earlier this week I drove over to a walking path by the San Gabriel River that runs through town. She cried the whole way there and I figured she was too upset to go in the stroller, so I pulled her out an held her for a minute in the parking lot. She zonked out. Um, awkward. I didn't want to drive home, but it feels kind of weird to  put a sleeping baby in a baby carrier, strap on a hat, squeeze on some sunglasses, and then go walking. I decided to do it anyway. She woke up and enjoyed it for a while until she fell asleep and snuggled against me as I meandered my way back, walking slowly so as not to wake her up. It was a strange but sweet walk together... one of those times you hope you never forget.

7) Rollie-Pollie

This girl is a roller! She started rolling front to back right at three months and then started rolling back to front just after 4 months. Sometimes we think she's forgotten how to do the easy one and gets stuck on her tummy. Maybe part of the reason is that she pushes through her arms so much now when she's on her tummy and lifts her head so much higher.

She's not trying to army crawl or anything, but when she lays on her back she frequently tries to do crunches - big, legit crunches.

8) Teething

She is. For real now. We can see them about to poke through. She's taking it like a champ.

9) Sleeping

We love reading stories together before nap time. Our favorites are "Snowmen at Night", "Room on the Broom", and "Harriet Dancing". She still isn't on much of a schedule, but its getting there. This month has been pretty unpredictable as far as how long she'd sleep at night and that would then throw off and affect the rest of the day. But this week she's been pretty consistent at sleeping from around 8:30 at night until 7:00 or so in the morning. Sometimes she'll wake up earlier so I'll feed her and put her back in bed which has been working great. This has led to more consistent morning naps, but we're still trying to establish a more regular afternoon nap.

Earlier in the month she would get really upset when she was tired... not just fussy, but big tears streaming down her cheeks, screaming, etc. All I could do was walk around with her until she finally zonked out. Things are SO much better now. Putting her to sleep is one of my favorite things to do now because she's just calm and snuggly most of the time.

10) Talking and Singing

Molly's usually pretty quiet, but she does like to talk to us and to herself sometimes. I like to call it the dying cat sound. She was pretty congested with a cold for a couple weeks and her little voice was hoarse so the sounds she made were extra funny.

Molly laughs, but they're usually silent, smiley laughs. Do those count? She has let out legitimate giggles a handful of times... sometimes we can get her giggling for a few minutes at a time, other times we'll get a tiny giggle and then spend minutes trying to get another one out but to no avail. When she does it we get giddy - it is so cute!



That's out little girl right now. Molly, we love you so stinkin' much!

Georgetown Friends

We love Georgetown for its size, proximity to Austin (a 20 minute drive), accessibility to everything, community feeling, charming downtown square, and some beautiful neighborhoods (not necessarily our neighborhood). I think it is the ideal size for us - feels like a smaller town, but is 20 minutes from a big city, yet doesn't feel like cookie-cutter suburbia with major traffic and excessive retail. It is clean. It is pretty. It fits us well.

However. 

Making friends in Georgetown has been a huge challenge. I know it takes a while to become acclimatized to any new area, but this just isn't working and the bummer part is that we don't feel a lot of potential for making friends. Georgetown has a large older/retired population (which I don't mind - it makes me feel like a superstar when I take Molly to HEB and have all the old ladies oohing and aahing over her!) and our ward is a reflection of that. There are also a lot of families with teens and older kids, but there aren't many people in our stage of life. The hardest part is that there just doesn't seek to be anyone that we really click with or anyone else who is really seeking friendship. In San Angelo, most people were living away from family and were eager to hang out, have dinner, or socialize at church; this feels quite different. Aside from church, we have very few places to meet people... I talk to some older ladies at the gym... the apartment staff when we have maintenance issues... the cash register lady at Walmart... slim pickins.

But.

We have become friends with the Richisons. The missionaries met Meghan and Colt while knocking on doors one day and started teaching them. The Elders asked us to come along for a lesson and we got along really well. The Richisons were just married and they have a baby a couple months younger than Molly named Kinley. Colt works really late so we've just been to a couple lessons and had them over a couple times but even though we don't see that much of them we are so so glad to have them as friends.

These pictures are from when Meghan and I got together for lunch one afternoon and then tried to make some baby headbands we'd seen on pinterest. Ummm... not such a success. In fact I think I threw mine away after we took this picture. But we tried. Meghan and I are pretty different, but I really enjoy her company and hope we can keep hanging out with them every now and then.

 I don't think they ever realized that they were laying next to someone. They just stared in opposite directions... Kinley just chill as can be, Molly eating her hands and looking at the camera. Cute girls!