Andrew's Birthday and Other Happenings

Andrew turned 28 a few weeks ago! His coworkers were kind enough to not make him be on call on his birthday, so we were able to get rid of the kid for the evening and go out to dinner. We went to a really nice Thai place downtown that was yummy but expensive--definitely for special occasions only!

Then that weekend, we had dinner and cake at my parents' house with my sister and brother-in-law. We had a good time!


Such a good-looking family we are.


I made a tres leches cake for Andrew. It was so good! Oh, man. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I have been craving that cake since then.


Holly was fascinated with the candles. I am always horrified at how I look in pictures. I looked in the mirror at least one time that day; how can I look like this?! Does anyone else feel this way?

Andrew also had a little bit of fun with Holly (as he usually does). My brother-in-law Josh has many puzzling possessions, one of which is this Joe Dirt mullet wig.




Practicing for her mug shots. Poor Holly--we are always getting a laugh at her expense!


And that was just because I think she's cute. Yes, this picture was taken in Wal Mart. That's because we're awesome like that.

Please forgive the quality of these pictures--they were taken with Andrew's new phone. Yes, an iPhone. I am so jealous! He got it the day after his birthday and calls it his "real" birthday present. Someday soon I too will have an iPhone. Until then, I just steal his when he's not looking.

Quick Update

This post is in response to a comment I received in one of my recent posts.

Do you remember how I was using cloth diapers on my baby? I started this craziness when Holly was about 2 months old; I was excited about it and convinced I needed to become a "granola mom" for my baby's health and safety. Well, I wanted to like cloth diapers. I wanted to LOVE them. So, so badly. I talked about it. I blogged about it. I read articles and went to websites. But a little part of me died inside whenever my dear child had a poopy cloth diaper. I would dread changing the thing, not to mention swishing it in the toilet and then washing it. Sound gross? It was. Ugh.

Finally, I couldn't take it any longer. A few months ago (Holly was maybe about five months old), I had to throw in the towel. Andrew was confused. But I thought you liked cloth diapers, he said.

Well, I was pretending to like them so maybe I really would like them. How dumb does that sound? All the time I spent and ahem, money I spent now sits on the lowest shelf of the changing table, useless to me. Member's Mark diapers, here I come!

On the bright side, isn't my baby precious in this picture? She was only four months old. It melts my heart. By the way, cloth diapers are SO much cuter than disposables. There is no comparison. But I still couldn't continue with them. It was too much for my well-being.

*By the way, Holly is actually 3 months old in this picture. It was taken in September, and she was born in June. He-llo!

A Day in the Life of Me

Things have changed quite a bit around the King house since our little bundle of joy joined us last summer. For one thing, we used to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. Obviously that's a problem because we are no longer the bosses around here. Miss Holly's the boss and she lets us know it.

Andrew gets up and leaves for work at the awful hour of 6:30 a.m. If I am extremely lucky, Holly wakes up around 6:00 to nurse and then goes straight back to sleep. Most of the time, I'm not extremely lucky and she is ready to start the day. If this is the case, I bring her out into the living room and we play for awhile (or rather, she plays while I eat breakfast and get my GMA fix).

Then, if I am lucky, she goes down for a nap within a couple of hours. I use this time to clean the house if I'm feeling ambitious, shower and make myself look like a human if I'm feeling desperate, or blog/read/surf the Internet if I'm feeling lazy. Then when Holly wakes up, she eats breakfast.


This kid likes to eat. The other day I gave her quite a bit of baby cereal and then cut up some banana for her to eat with her fingers. She ate half of a banana! It amazes me how much she can pack down sometimes. Other times, she spits her food out and gags and won't eat anything.

After breakfast, I set Holly loose to play while I clean or...something. Can I be honest? I'm really not sure what I do during the day sometimes. Often a whole day passes and I think, What on earth did I do today? That happens less and less, though.


Holly's new trick is to pull up on everything and try to cruise to get to naughty things she shouldn't have. Her slacker parents are too lazy to baby-proof entirely, so they put up some gates and called it good.

Holly plays and checks in with me once in awhile, just to make sure I'm paying adequate attention to her. She takes an afternoon nap whenever she gets around to it, usually between 12:00 and 2:00 p.m. Then Daddy comes home around 3:00 p.m. (give or take two hours--literally) and they play for awhile.

When I get dinner ready, things usually look a lot like this in our house:


My two babies, conked out wherever they are. Couch, floor--it doesn't matter. But I get some nice quiet time and that's all that matters.

When we eat dinner, I have Andrew feed Holly because in the time it takes me to eat dinner, he feeds the both of them. Holly is not a fan of Daddy feeding her because he thinks it's funny when she makes faces about food, so he gives her more to see what she'll do.


This is the form it usually takes. (She looks rough in this picture because she's sick...again. Poor kid.)

Then after dinner, bath and bedtime! Luckily, this little girl usually goes to bed between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m., so her parents have time to breathe and have some baby-free time before they go to bed. Whew! Just thinking about this tires me out. I think it's time for a nap.

Wedding Bells

I realize that I am pretty far behind in the posts, and it all comes down to...this. My little sister got married last month! Very exciting, but very busy. Life has finally settled down and is back to normal, so I can do "normal" things like catching up on blog posts.

My sister Emily and her fiance Josh were married in the San Antonio temple last month. Unfortunately, they were married on the coldest day of winter down here in south Texas! I don't have any pictures from that day because I was too busy trying to keep myself and poor Holly warm. The next weekend, they had a reception in Minnesota which Holly and I (along with my mom) went to.


This pretty much describes the first two days of our trip. Poor Holly and I did not get too much sleep because she had a cold and a really bad cough, so it was tiring just to function.

But by the time the reception rolled around, we were both feeling better! We had a fun time.


Don't we look like we're having a great time?


Isn't Emily's dress beautiful? I secretly hate her because she always looks so much better than I do.



Holly and her new best friend--Josh's brother, Kyle.

Although it was cold (highs around 30), it could have been so much worse. For that I was extremely grateful. We had a good time!