Wishing I was in The Outer Banks

It's snowing outside today and it took me about 30 minutes to clean off my windshield this morning after our heavy snow storm two days ago (lesson learned: don't wait two days to clean the wet snow off your car in January because it will freeze and turn to ice). So I have been cold all day long.

Since I am trying to blog a little bit more ;-), I have been going through our photos from the few previous months. I happened upon these ones from Labor Day weekend and the memory of the warm sand on my feet is helping me thaw out a bit.

We were able to rent a house for half a week with three other families and had an amazing time. Oh what I would give to sit on the beach in the company of good friends right now...

photos taken by Jon and Melissa Smith (second family from the left in the top photo).

Put A Bird On It

I saw this on Design*Sponge this morning and laughed hard. If you fell as hard for the bird trend as I did, you will too :-).

New York outfit #2

Simple knit maxi dresses and skirts are my new favorite trend. I wore one a few Sundays ago and was more comfortable than I have ever been at church. This is a good thing since my new job at church is the nursery song leader. I am serious. Best calling ever... but it requires a lot of sitting on the ground and getting up and down - "Wheels on the Bus" style. So long skirts are a must for me. Those kids should be thanking me.

I used this latest must-have in my second outfit idea for a trip to New York. I thought this would be a cute and comfy day outfit. And the dress is from Forever21 so it is really inexpensive! There are some at Anthropologie that are nice but cost quite a bit more. I would choose to spend less on the dress so I could spend more on my accesssories (hello, Marc by Marc Jacobs bag and Anthropologie booties). I love a big cocoon sweater on top like this one from Piperlime. You could wear the skinny belt on the outside for a more put together look, but I would choose to belt it inside of the sweater for a more youthful look (lack of sleep is really starting to age me :-).

If I had somewhere cool to go...

My girlfriend, Lindi, has been in New York City all week, as a guest of Martha Stewart. I am not kidding. She was invited as one of 50 small business owners to attend a little conference, a taping of the show and meet the homemaking queen herself. Lindi has had so much success with her new business, Love The Day, and she is such a talented, hardworking woman.

In preparation for her trip, Lindi asked me to come up with ideas for what she should wear. In true Megan fashion, I put this task off and I ended up not getting any ideas to her before she went shopping. But I came up with what I would wear to a cocktail party anyway :-). I started with the Urban Outfitters skirt. I saw this in early December and wished that I had somewhere nice to wear it. I love the soft, gold overlay. And it's on sale right now! I would top it with a velvet fitted blazer, like this one from Zara, belted by something blingy, like this belt from J.Crew. I like a small, hard clutch with a long shoulder chain (not sure where I found that) and a pink/lilacish shoe with a little bling from Anthropologie.

As Mormon girls, we have to wear something that reaches our knees and with at least a cap sleeve, so sometimes dressing for a semi-formal event is difficult. There are some modest dress options out there at Mormon-based businesses, but sometimes those cute little short-sleeved dresses make me feel like a little girl. And an LBD wanders into funeral attire territory when it is long and has sleeves. It's a lot of black and not so little anymore. So, I think the blazer (with a deep-V... well as deep as us Molly Mormons can get) helps the playful skirt feel mature, while adding layers to make a complete look.

My six full nights of sleep

About a week and a half after our move in August, Ryan and I took off. We were in need of a break... and some sleep. I hate to admit this, but Ruby is 15 months old now and still wakes up several times a night. We don't feed her or anything, but she is in a rotten habit of waking up and crying back to sleep isn't possible at the moment (this deserves its own whiny post). So anyway, we needed to get away and decided to go to Puerto Rico. And we loved it!


There were lots of historic sites to see, like old Spanish forts

And these fabulous blue cobblestone streets surrounded by colorful buildings. We enjoyed the beauty of El Yunque, the rainforest

and we had our own little "Lost" moment when we took the wrong path and ended up a couple hours off-schedule and down the wrong side of the mountain. We even stumbled upon a little Dharma Initiative-esque establishment. The best part is that we were lost and we knew it, but we just laughed about it the entire time. There was no one counting on us and we were on our own schedule. That was the theme of the entire trip. We did whatever we wanted! Only parents will understand how amazingly insane that is. We ended up finding civilization again... and our rental car. So we made our way down to a waterfall. We had hoped to hike to another waterfall and actually swim, but we were too pooped after spending hours on our feet trying to find our way.Overall, not a bad trip ;-). We went to two movies (and developed strong opinions about the Puerto Rican movie-going crowd) and swam around but mainly just slept and relaxed ate really good food. I strongly encourage anyone with kids to do this!

Special shout-out to my Mom, who dropped all that she had on her plate at home in Utah to watch the kids all week. We will always be in her debt. :-)