Books Read 2010

I just finished a book, and I think it will be the last before 2011 begins, so here are the books I read this year and my reviews.  I read a grand total of 20 this year.  For reviews on the first 6 that I read this year, see this post.

Mockingjay: If you haven't read the Hunger Games series, please do, and do it soon.  It is only behind Harry Potter in my favorite series.  This was the final book, and it did not disappoint.  Just wonderful.

The Book Thief: This book takes place in Nazi Germany and is about a little girl who is an innocent bystander and how the war affects her.  I was not as impressed by this book as others have seemed to be.  I thought the writing style was annoying, not innovative.  That being said, there were some nice moments, and the story as a whole was moving, but it was rather slow in parts.  I would still recommend it, but I wouldn't get my hopes up for it being the best book you've ever read.

The Talented Mr. Ripley: A book about a man who has some psychological issues.  It was written in the 50s, and it's really obvious.  There are some serious cultural differences between then and today which were really interesting.  It was a fast read because it was short, slightly interesting, but all in all I didn't feel that it was worth my time.

The Maze Runner & The Scorch Trials: These are the first two books in a trilogy about a boy named Thomas who can't remember who he is and awakes to find himself in a dangerous maze with no way out.  Awesome.  Creative.  Fast reads that had me turning the pages like no other.  I loved them and can't wait for the third book to come out so that I can figure out exactly what's going on!

Uglies, Pretties & Specials: This was a trilogy (which actually does have a 4th book that I haven't read) that I had heard a lot about.  It's about a world where everyone has an operation at 16 to make them extremely beautiful.  I was not impressed.  I actually really enjoyed Uglies, but it went way downhill from there.  Pretties was just filler and it felt like almost nothing happened.  Specials was a complete and total let down.  On top of that, I felt like the author was trying to make some political statements through all the books, but he kept contradicting himself, so I wasn't really sure where he was trying to go.  I wouldn't recommend the series.

Vixen: I got an advanced copy of this book through the Barnes & Noble First Look program.  I read it an participated in online discussions with the other readers, the author, and the editor.  It takes place in the 20s and is written in the point of view of 3 teenage girls.  It was interesting enough, but I'm not holding my breath for the sequel.  I also thought that the themes were a little bit too adult for it to be billed as YA.

Mere Christianity: Classic CS Lewis.  I enjoyed most of the insights, but didn't agree with everything he had to say.

The Tao of Pooh: A cute little book that uses Winnie-the-Pooh to make the explanation of Taoism accessible to Westerners.  I thought it was helpful, but didn't appreciate how the author seemed to put his own viewpoints into the religion.

Incarceron: The beginning of another dystopian, YA series. (Are you seeing a pattern?  I'm actually starting another dystopian novel right now, although it's not YA and not a series.)  This one is written from the point of view of 2 people - a boy who is inside a prison so vast it seems as though there is no outside world, and a girl who lives on the outside and is the warden's daughter.  I loved this one.  Once again, quite creative.  The end seemed a little bit rushed, but there is a sequel, so we'll see what happens.

The Twin's Daughter: A girl opens the door one day to see her mother's identical twin who she didn't know existed and her life changes forever.  Excellent.  I fell for all the traps, and I even knew that there were traps before I started reading.  My heart actually sped up while I was reading at one point.

I am Number Four: This is the one I finished today.  It's about 9 aliens who came to Earth as their own planet was being destroyed.  They have super powers and are waiting until they develop so that they can fight the race that destryed their planet.  I thought it was awesome.  Good characters, good relationship building, and good action that kept the storyline moving.

Kennedy Wennedy

Kennedy in the dryer with Rosie

Kennedy is getting to be such a big girl.  It's crazy how much she can learn and all of the things she can do.  Here's a rundown.

She can sing her alphabet (perfectly in tune) and recognize all the letters in upper and lower case.

She is finally learning to share her toys, sometimes, with Noah.

In Eugene with her beloved umbrella.

She counts up to 10 perfectly.  When she tries to go to 20, it sounds something like this: ten, twelve, firteen, eighteen, nineteen, twelve....

She tried to clean her room by snapping her fingers, just like Mary Poppins. (I'm not kidding.)

She hasn't had a potty accident for I don't know how long.  She gets everything in the potty and is completely night trained.

In her tutu and crown watching over the kitchen.

She loves to help mommy in the kitchen.

She loves to dress like a princess and has been asking for ballet lessons.

She loves to read and has many of her books memorized word for word.

Scrunchy Nose

Please excuse my horribly long absence from the blogging world.  To make it up to you, here's a rather cute video of Noah's new favorite thing to do.  Sometimes he's so cute I can't stand it.



With a Grateful Prayer and a Thankful Heart

Today, I am grateful for...

a wonderful husband who I love so much and we got to have a great Thanksgiving dinner with at the Coast Guard station.

two beautiful children who make me laugh and smile all the time and always make me happy that I'm a mother.

 a great family of moms, dads, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and everyone else who support us and help to keep us going.

the knowledge of the gospel and of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for all of us.

the beautiful place that we live in and the good friends we have.

the amazing life that I get to live everyday.

Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful

Dear Weather,
Thank you so much for finally deciding to be like fall!  With 95% of the trees being evergreens and the mild ocean front climate, I was starting to worry that we might not get a fall Thanksgiving.  Not to mention a cold Christmas!  So rain, clouds and 45 degrees, thank you for finally showing up.
Cold Weather Girl

Dear Coast Guard,
You have been very good to us, so I feel like I shouldn't complain.  But at the same time, why do you feel it necessary to take my husband away for entire weekends?  It's really not very fun.  Especially when I have to teach Sunday School and have no one to hold my baby.
Frustrated Substitute

Dear Noah,
I love you, but you're driving me crazy.  Can you please learn to sleep sometime soon?  I would be much obliged.
Tired Mommy

Dear Thanksgiving,
I'm excited to have you at my house this year!  Although it will be much smaller than usual, I am grateful for Brett's sister Jamie who will be coming to spend the holiday with us.  I'm also grateful for the opportunity to cook a whole meal (minus the turkey, that's Brett's specialty) this year.  Wish me luck!
Thankful Eater

Dear Self,
I'm proud of you!  You have finally discovered the secret to keeping the house clean on a regular basis!  Why did it take 25 years, a husband and 2 kids to figure it out?  At least you have.  Now if only I could figure out what the secret actually is so I could share it with everyone else...
Clean Freak (sort of...)

Random iPhone Pictures

I just uploaded my phone pictures to the computer, and although some of them are old, I think they are worth seeing.  So for your enjoyment, random pictures.

One of Kennedy's favorite things to do when I'm in the kitchen is wait around until the beater stops and then say, "I want that one!"  So, what can I do?  I give it to her.  She usually doesn't eat much of it, but she manages to make a huge mess in the process.

We went to a birthday party.  Noah definitely needed a hat.

Noah is taking big boy baths now, but before we put his bath away, Kennedy loved to play in it.  She gave Rosie baths in it, and she loved to sit in it herself.

I know this one is a little hard to see, but when Noah sleeps in his pack n play, he often squishes his face up against the mesh, and it looks hilarious.

One day I found Kennedy like this when I came in to get her from her "nap".  I have no idea how she got up there.  But as you can see, the contents of the entire dresser and the top of it ended up on the floor in the process.

Noah wearing his cute "My daddy's in the Coast Guard" shirt.

A hilarious potato that Kennedy made.  I smile every time I see it.

Kennedy looking very sophisticated despite the fact that she has no pants on.  She's watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse couch.  Can you guess what her favorite Playhouse Disney show is?

Halloween 2010

This year we celebrated Halloween by going to a trunk-or-treat and Halloween carnival at our church on Saturday night.  It was a lot of fun, and Kennedy in particular had a blast.  She dressed up as a ladybug this year.  Here's the costume as it should be.

Way cute.  And here's the really cute shot after she decided to start posing that I couldn't resist putting up here.



Unfortunately, it was chilly and slightly rainy on Saturday, so we had to add a little bit to her costume to make sure that she was warm enough.  It turned out pretty cute too though.

We volunteered to use our trunk to pass out candy.  Brett devised a system where he could keep his hand in the bottom of the candy bag and grab kids when they tried to pick a piece.  They had fun with that, and Kennedy would laugh hysterically when the kids got scared.  Noah was a trooper, staying out past his bedtime dressed in an outfit that was slightly tight and that he didn't like very much.



The carnival at the church had some fun games set up for the kids, but Kennedy's favorite was the cake walk.  It was actually just musical chairs and you won a cupcake just for playing, but Kennedy couldn't get enough.  She played 4 times (she only got a cupcake twice though) and was laughing so hard about running around in a circle and Brett throwing her into chairs.  We got rained out from passing out candy, so we went home earlier than expected, but the kids had a great time and we enjoyed watching them have so much fun.

Annual Pumpkin Carving Party

We were sad this year that we live so far away from the Waddoups because for the last 4 years we had invited them over to carve pumpkins, eat dinner and watch a scary movie.  We had our party just with our family this year though, and we had a good time.  We ate pizza and watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown with Kennedy.  Our pumpkins turned out wonderfully too!  I'm really proud of mine.  Usually I just do your typial triangle eyes and smile, but I opted for something a little different this time and it turned out great!



Brett's is always extremely intricate and takes him hours and hours to clean and carve.  This year it was just as intricate, but I think he's speeded up a little bit, which is good, because we had time to watch a movie afterward too.  Here's his rendition of Frankenstein's monster.



Kennedy picked out the ugliest pumpkin in the whole bunch when we bought them.  It looked dirty because it's skin was more like a cantaloupe than a pumpkin.  She requested that a ghost be carved into hers, so Brett freestyled one.

The best part about her pumpkin though was that we let her color it with Sharpies.  She used purple and green, and somehow managed to color it for probably 30 minutes straight without getting a fume headache.  She is very proud of the end result and had a great time carving pumpkins.

I'm a Big Boy Now

You know, moving targets are hard to shoot.  As I was attempting to take a picture of Noah's new haircut, he kept moving, which meant that this is the only picture that wasn't of the top of his head or blurry.  But I'll take what I can get.  This boy is getting big way too fast.  Both of his bottom teeth have popped through.  He sits up so well and never falls down.  He army crawls.  Brett cut off all of his long baby hair into a little boy haircut.  And worst of all, he pulled himself up to standing yesterday.  He'll be 7 months old tomorrow, and he's already trying to walk.  He's growing up too fast.

Although he might still be a baby.  As I type he is chasing a bottle of Italian dressing around the kitchen.

Ocean World

We went to Ocean World this morning to have a fun day with our kids.  I know that Kennedy looks terrified in this picture, but I assure you she had a blast.  This aquarium in Crescent City, CA is small, but for how little it had, it was pretty cool stuff.  Our first stop (after the gigantic gift shop where Kennedy stuffed toys in the stroller while we weren't looking) was the tide pool where we could pet the animals in the water.

Kennedy loved petting the starfish.  She was even brave enough to touch an anenome!  The other little girl on the tour screamed every time she saw anything, so I was pretty proud of Kennedy.  Although Noah didn't pet anything, he did try to eat a starfish.

Then our guide asked for a brave volunteer.  After seeing what this guy had to do, I'm really glad it wasn't me.  He was asked to feel the sting of an anenome, but because they can't sting through our skin, he had to put his tongue on it.  And he did.

Yuck.  And just so we could take his word for it that his tongue got tingly.  Do you know how many people's tongues have been on that thing?  I'm sure it's clean, but I won't be licking an sea creatures any time soon.  Just so you have a better idea, he licked one of these.

Once again, yuck.  We went to see the actual aquarium part of the place next, which was definitely limited.  They had some fish, and a bunch of manta rays, including a baby which was really cute.  They did however have TONS of sharks.

There are 7 in this picture, and that wasn't anywhere near all the ones they had.  We even got to pet a couple of sharks after looking at them in the tanks.

I caught the fin on this one, and it was a lot harder than I expected.  They didn't feel very slippery either like you would expect.

Even though Kennedy had no problem touching starfish and anenomes, she wanted nothing to do with the sharks.  I think her face sums it up pretty well.

We had to take the obligatory picture in the shark's mouth.

There were also two harbor seals and a sea lion who did tricks.  She impersonated a shark and a dolphin, went down slides, jumped really high, and did double back flips.  Afterward, Kennedy wanted to ride on the jet ski ride out front, and she actually let Noah sit with her.

And of course we couldn't leave without getting a picture of Noah surfing.

Already?!

He's sitting up by himself.  Can you believe it?  Because I sure can't.  He's getting big way too fast.

He's talking quite a bit lately too.  He loves his sister and smiles every time he sees her, although she just screams when he tries to touch her.  That's probably why when we told her to go sit by him for pictures she made sure there was plenty of space between them.

And of course she had to be chewing on something too.  Kennedy has been pretty funny lately.  She is coming up with so many phrases that I never knew she knew.  She tells me she's proud of me all the time, which makes me feel good, but I have no idea what for.  She shoos flies away by waving her hands and saying, "Whoopa, whoopa, whoopa!"  She has already learned to make fun of me too.  The other night she asked me to sing a song, but I started singing the wrong one.  She started laughing so hard she couldn't breathe, and then kept saying, "Not Shule la Rue!" over and over again.  Lovely.  She's two and a half and already pointing out my mistakes.  But the biggest thing happening around here is this.

That's right.  6 months old and he's almost full on crawling.  He can get anywhere he wants to go, and he's fast.  Here's to life with a mobile child who doesn't understand the word "no".  Wish me luck!

Time Flies

This one turned 6 months old yesterday.  I can't believe it.

He's trying to crawl already.  He gets up an all fours, rocks back and forth, then falls on his face.  I'm hoping that he'll learn to sit up first.

He loves to eat and is actually pretty clean about it.

He loves his daddy.  Whenever Brett comes home from being at work for a few days, Noah goes crazy with excitement until Brett picks him up.

He's already on the downhill slope to 1 year old!  We love our sweet boy so much!

We Just Got a Letter! Wonder Who It's From!

Yes, those are stickers on Noah's head.  One guess who the culprit of the above picture was.

Yep, you guessed right.  Kennedy got some Disney stickers in the mail and put them on EVERYTHING.  Including her brother.

A Thief Once Again

Today I am...

Wishing that I was going to be HERE the first of October

Loving THIS cute stuff that my cousin makes

Contemplating gaining many pounds by eating THIS with dinner this weekend

Hoping that the latest season of THIS show gets on Netflix instant watch soon so I can get my fix

Excited to go to THIS place tomorrow

(It's been way too long!)

Stealing the idea for this post from THIS post by my cute friend Jana

(I hope you don't mind!  Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery.)

Geeking Out

I am reconciled to the fact that most of my favorite TV shows make me dorky.  I am willing to admit it.  So I thought I would share with you what some of those shows are.  In no particular order, some of the best shows out there.

Frasier - I have been told that this makes me a nerd, although I'm not entirely sure why.  The show is clever and hilarious.  Not many shows make me laugh out loud on a regular basis, and this one does consistently.

Lost - This one is a given.  I know very few people who have actually given Lost a chance and haven't liked it.  Because it's awesome.

X-Files - Yes.  I will admit to watching this show every Sunday night when it was still on the air.  I still have a special place in my heart for this nerdiest of nerd shows.  Some of the episodes are a little bit boring, but a lot of them have great storylines and are really funny.

Father Ted - A British comedy about 3 priests who share a house in a small town in Ireland.  It is so funny!  I absolutely love British TV, especially the comedies.  For more British priestly comedy try The Vicar of Dibley.  Also hilarious: Blackadder, Monty Python's Flying Circus, and the ever popular The Office, which did in fact start in Britain with Ricky Gervais.  You can try some other oldies but goodies like Keeping Up Appearances and Are You Being Served.

Doctor Who - Once again, I laugh out loud at this show all the time.  It's like mostly about aliens about to destroy the earth (hence the dorky part) and the Doctor saves the world.  It's also British and is infinitely better than any other show about aliens you've ever seen.  You should really give it a try.

The New Calvin and Hobbes

Kennedy has a best friend.  She also happens to have a baby and a sister too.  Her name is Rosie, and she is absolutely indispensible.  It is disastrous if we leave her anywhere.  It's a drama if we left her in the other room for bedtime.  Rosie, in short, is very real to Kennedy.  Mostly, she is slept with - or on.

But she gets other treatments too.  She goes to the beach (pretend, of course) and she gets brought along when we go out of town.  She gets baths too.

She gets fed bottles, as well as a number of other foods including bananas, milk, muffin soup, and cream cheese and armadillo.

She has conversations with Rosie, plays ring-around-the-rosie with her, and pretty much can't leave her side.  Every once in a while, her other neglected stuffed animals get some attention, but pretty much, Rosie takes the cake.

Books By Request

My friend Stephanie requested that I do some book reviews of the ones I've recently read.  I usually do this at the end of the year, but since it was requested, I'll do one now and another at the end of the year with the books I've read between now and then.  I haven't read nearly as many books this year as I generally get around to, so I only have 6 for you right now.

1. Stop Acting Rich and Start Living Like a Real Millionaire - I liked this book, but it was highly repetitive.  He made his point in the first chapter, and then just went over stats for the rest of the book.  I would recommend finding a chair in a bookstore and reading the first chapter before you decide to read the rest.  You'll get the main message of the book by doing so.  That being said, it does give some really great advice.
2. The Lovely Bones - I read this book when it first came out and decided to re-read it before I saw the movie (which I still haven't seen).  I enjoyed the story, but was not completely satisfied with the ending.  There are a few parts that are a little bit hard to read because they are boring, and a few parts that are hard to read because they are very violent.
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Once again, a re-read before the movie comes out.  I'm glad I did because I had forgotten a lot of it.  Most of you have probably read this one already, so I won't go into detail.
4. Storm Front: Dresden Files #1 - This book was a little bit hard to get into.  It took a while for it to get going, and you have to get over the crime that was committed (a little bit graphic) and the fact that it's about a wizard named Harry.  After the first 100 pages though, I did enjoy it - enough to read the second in the series.
5. 1776 - I've been meaning to read this book for some time, and I finally got around to it.  I'm glad that I did, because I certainly didn't know very much about the American revolution at all.  It did take me a while to get through, but I suspect that that has more to do with the fact that I'm not used to reading non-fiction than anything else.
6. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers - This has been my favorite new book that I read this year so far.  I just finished it tonight.  It was very interesting, informative and , surprisingly, very funny.  I laughed out loud quite a bit and learned a ton.  I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is extremely squeamish because she does go into some detail about what happens to bodies once they are dead, but I found it fascinating.  If you can handle crime shows on TV, you can handle this book.  And you should.

Noah Got His Mother's Eyesight

As you might have noticed from pictures I've posted up here, our sweet baby Noah has been cross eyed a little bit longer than is normal for a baby.  It usually goes away by the time they are 3 months old, but at Noah's 4 month appointment it wasn't even a little bit better.  Our doctor referred us to a pediatric optometrist who we went and saw last week.  It turns out that Noah is very farsighted and that his right eye is doing all of the work.  We have some glasses on special order for him (they should be here in a few days) and we'll see what they do to help correct the problem.  It sounds like, in all liklihood, he will have to have surgery to help relax his eye muscle in a couple of years.  He's happy as could be though, and taking this problem in stride.  We'll see if that keeps up once the glasses come.