To All The Mac Users Out There

Do you ever find yourself using Photobooth as a mirror?

The Good Life

I wasn't able to attend our church's annual women's broadcast this past Saturday. I was watching excerpts of it tonight while I was on the treadmill. President Uchtdorf's talk seemed to be directed at me, especially the part about waiting for your "golden ticket." He was talking about how a lot of us say things like, "I'll be happy when. I am definitely guilty of this. After listening to the inspired words of President Uchtdorf, I'm going to try and work on this. Because I really do have a beautiful life.

I've Got to Stop Hanging Around in My Undies.

It is still hot here in Arizona. So hot that I generally rip off my clothes as soon as the kids and I return from our morning errands. I did just that the other day, and was walking around in just my shirt and undies when Sam asked that I go to the car to rescue his Buzz Lightyear toy that he had left in there.

As soon as I had shut the door from the house to the garage I heard a little click and knew that Sam had just locked me out of the house. After trying to explain to him how to unlock it (why is it that kids can never grasp the concept that they can just do what they just did to unlock the darn door?!), I said a prayer and tried to figure out how I was going to get out of this one. I was trapped in the garage in just my shirt and underwear.

I looked around and thankfully found a blanket to wrap myself in. I opened the garage and very coolly ran over to my neighbor Shauna's house. How amazing is this: I had just given her a spare key the day before just in case I ever ran into a situation like this. Yep, Heavenly Father loves me.

Thanks be to God, Shauna, and my now favorite blanket.

Mollie's 1 Year Video

One.

Our girl turned a year old today.

How happy I am that Mollie is ours. Mollie is sweet. She is sensitive and dramatic. She loves snacks. When she's naked, she loves to crawl as fast as her chubby legs can take her. She loves her brother unconditionally. I am happy to report that they are becoming friends!

Mollie loves me and only me. Though this is hard, I secretly love it. With Devin's constant work schedule and Sam's constant activity, Mollie and I need each other. We don't necessarily have to be interacting, but we like to know what each other is doing and just be in the same room.

She's a great gal.



Here's how we spent her special day:



At the doctor. I told Sam to comfort Mollie because she was about to get "bad owies." Mollie was more upset over the doctor touching her rather than getting her shots.






Getting her ears pierced. Becca gave Mollie ear piercing as her birthday gift! I was a little on the fence about whether or not to do it, but now that it's done I am so happy. She looks so precious with them, and like with the doctor, Mollie was more mad about being touched rather than the actual piercing.





Happy Meal.The good thing about having small kids is that they can share one Happy Meal.





You are loved, dear Mollie. Happy Birthday.

Workaholic

Devin on Saturday night after a long week at work



Devin is a machine. He is working so hard to be able to earn enough money to support us. We are blessed to have him.



P.S.
Mollie's 1st birthday is tomorrow. I'm pretty excited to help her eat her cake.

Stubborn

Behold Mollie.

She is the most easy-going baby on the face of the planet. Until bedtime. She only likes me to put her to bed. If Devin tries to, she freaks out and arches her back and refuses to take her bottle. As you can imagine the scene is much worse when a babysitter tries to put her down.

Last month Scottee watched Mollie and Sam for us while Devin and I went to the temple. Mollie cried for hours on end. Even sweet Gogo came to help (which is a huge deal...Scottee is the baby whisperer), and still made no progress. Mollie was unhappy until Devin and I walked in the door to pick her up.

Tonight we had our beloved babysitter, Rachel, over to watch the kids. I warned her that Mollie would act like she is dying around bedtime. I told her she wouldn't give in. Brave Rachel accepted the challenge and sent us on our way.

When we arrived home an hour ago, we came to find Rachel and her mom here, trying so hard to coax Mollie into sleeping. That baby cried for over 3 hours, refusing to take her bottle and refusing to give in to sleep. Just as Rachel and her mom were about to go home, Gina (R's mom), decided to give Mollie one more try. Lo and behold, Mollie finally took her bottle and quieted down.


What can I say...she loves me.

Getting a Feel For It

I hate trying to figure out new haircuts and getting used to them. Today I tried the curling-under method for my new short hair.


I ended up feeling like I had "stewardess hair."


Or even worse, early 90's Hillary Clinton hair.



Hopefully I will be figuring out a cute way to do it soon.

I Cut My Hair.

Becca cut my hair for my birthday present (Are you tired of hearing about my birthday yet?).




Me taking one last picture of my long hair in all its beastly glory





That's about 5 lbs. of hair right there







Becky came too. All we could talk her into was getting a trim.




I tried about 5 pictures and this one shows the haircut best.




How blessed am I to have a sister who does hair? Well, I actually have 3 sisters (Treslee and Mindy) who do hair. Somehow we manage to look presentable in the end with their help.

The Tides Have Turned

Devin and I came to the realization yesterday that Mollie has now become the "hard one."

Mollie wrestled with me all during sacrament meeting on Sunday while Sam sat quietly next to Devin enjoying Skittles.

I now have to keep all doors closed and trap Mollie in the hallways and kitchen or else she takes out all of her pent-up Sam anger out on the bathrooms.


Mollie is my darling.

My 26th Year.

I turned 27 yesterday. As tradition goes, here is my little post about the last year of my life.

The past 12 months have been eventful and hard. We had our special girl Mollie. We moved to Flagstaff. We moved back from Flagstaff. I lost most of my baby weight (Those lingering 4-6 lbs. are driving me crazy). Devin started a new job. Financial hardship is the norm, yet we have people who help us and a Heavenly Father who always manages to make sure we are housed and fed. I have my small circle of friends that I love (thanks to walking group...yes we're lame). Now that my parents have joined Whitney and Brad on the east coast, Becca and I are the lone King family members still in Arizona. I don't think their absence has really hit us yet, but come Christmas and even Mollie's 1st birthday I know we will be feeling it.

If I had one lesson learned this past year it is that attitude is everything. Despite whatever trials I may be experiencing, I can make all the difference by the way I choose to handle each day and each situation. I definitely have not perfected being positive in the least, but this year has taught me to be aware of the power of hopeful, prayerful, faith-filled thinking.


Growing up, if your birthday fell on any day between Thursday and Saturday you had what was called a "birthday weekend." My birthday was Saturday, and a birthday weekend I had!

Thursday night Becky, Selena, Leigh Ann and I went to dinner. They (and also our friend Mollie) all pitched in and got me a way-too-generous gift card to go get some new clothes. Since it has been a long time since I've gone shopping, I needed major help. Becky and Selena took me to Kohl's where they picked me out some very cute things. We spent every cent of that gift card!



Friday night Devin and I went out on a date.
I'm wearing my new outfit! No need to comment on how skinny Devin is. He's well aware.



Yesterday Devin had a lot of carpet jobs to catch up on, so the kids and I drove up to Prescott to escape the heat and so that I didn't have just another stay-at-home day on my birthday.


Last night we partied at Brooklynn's sweet 16th party! It was quite an event. Here is the video I made for her. Youtube isn't allowing me to upload it so blogger will have to do.


It was a great birthday. I felt loved.