{December in the Books}

I did it!  I made my reading goal for the year...plus a couple extra to boot!

Here are the 13 books I finished this month:




Christmas on Mill Street, Joseph Walker
This was a cute short book I found at the library on the Christmas display.  I always enjoy reading a couple Christmasy books in the month of December.  It was a fun story about a boy from Arizona who moves to Utah and wants a sled for Christmas. It was cute and made me laugh out loud at parts.



Mile Markers, Kristin Armstrong
I read a running blog and the girl who writes it is always talking about how this is one of her favorite running books.  I thought it was ok, not my favorite running book though at all.  I just didn't relate to it.  This is Lance Armstrong's ex-wife, which I didn't know until after I read the book either.  Just a little fact.  It's also a book made up of blogs entries.



Sophia, Paula, Kremer
This is a fun, clean regency romance book.  It might have been a little bit predictable but I am always a sucker for a good regency romance.



The Year of Reading Dangerously, Andy Miller
I found this at the library and was inquired by the idea.  The authors talks about 52 books that changed his life.  I thought the idea behind the book was really good.  I just didn't really like a lot of the reviews.  I know some people have loved this book, so it's just my opinion.  I do think it's such a good concept.  I'm not sure if I'll read 100 books again next year, but I wouldn't mind reading 52, and maybe picking 52 different books...something more than, say, regency romance :)



Lady Emma's Campaign, Jennifer Moore
I am not sure if this is a series, but this book has some of the same characters from Jennifer Moore's first book, Becoming Lady Lockwood.  I have really enjoyed both of her books.  This one had some action and was fast-paced.  I'm not sure I could pick between the two books which one I like the best, but they are both great books and I am hoping there might be more coming from Jennifer Moore soon!



How to Meal Plan, Crystal VanTassel
This was a free book on my kindle and I am always looking for new ideas for dinner.  I thought it would have some good ideas.  I love to meal plan, and maybe she would offer some different advice.  I wasn't crazy about the book in the end.  It did list a lot of resources, but other than that I wasn't a huge fan.  The recipe section I was disappointed in, because really...do I need a recipe for BBQ chicken legs when the entire recipe is chicken legs, and BBQ sauce?




21 Days to a More Disciplined Life, Crystal Paine
I love, love, love, Crystal Paine and the Money Saving Mom blog.  I have read some of her other books and really loved them.  She can always inspire me, but at the same time I don't feel overwhelmed.  I loved this book.  It's got lots of printable resources too, which I like.  If you haven't read her blog or her books, look her up!



Sky Raiders, Brandon Mull
We love Brandon Mull at our house.  I read Fablehaven a few years ago and then Wade read them to the boys.  They are always talking about how good these books are.  We were pretty excited this year when we found out Brandon Mull had a new series coming out.  Wade has already read Sky Raiders to the kids, but I hadn't read it yet.  I thought since they are now almost done with the second Five Kingdoms book that I should get on the bandwagon and read the series too.  I have to admit, I half skimmed-half read the book.  I really love Brandon Mull and I think these are great books, but I wasn't in the mood for a fantasy book.  I will be reading the second book soon though.


God Rest Ye Grumpy Scroogeymen, Laura Jensen Walker
I found this book on the Christmas display at the library and thought it might be a fun little book to pick up.  I have a grumpy-scroogey man in my house (wade!) and so I thought this book would have some good ideas.  I wasn't that impressed.  I was actually pretty happy I had got it at the library and could return it!  It wasn't a bad book, but didn't offer me any new ideas and I had a hard time following the authors writing too.



The Rent Collector, Camron Wright
This was by far one of my favorite books I read this month.  Maybe even this year.  It will make my top ten books of this year for sure.  I am so glad I read it.  The story is about a family who lives in the dump in Cambodia and what happens when they are given the gift of literacy.  It is an amazing story, and so hard to describe.  I tried to describe it to Wade and he couldn't figure out why he would want to read a book like this, but he would like it.  I highly recommend this book!  It's so thought provoking.


Letters for Emily, Camron Wright
After reading The Rent Collector I quickly looked for another book by Camron Wright.  This was another amazing book.  I loved it, maybe not has much as The Rent Collector, but it was an interesting story that had me laughing and crying.



The Lady of Bolton Hill, Elizabeth Camden
I found Elizabeth Camden's book this year thanks to amazon and free kindle books.  I have really enjoyed them and found this one just as interesting as her other books.  This book has some of the same characters as her other book, Against the Tide, and I didn't know that and read them out of order, but I was able to sort it all out in my head. I love that these are a little bit more of a romance book, but a historical book as well.



The Forgotten Garden, Kate Morton
My sister loaned  me this book and I wasn't sure I would be able to finish it this year, but it was a story I could not put down.  I read another book by Morton in the fall, The Secret Keeper.  I loved the ending to Secret Keeper, but found the first half pretty hard to get into.  I was worried about that with this book and wondered if it would be the same...and if it would how I would ever finish it, since it had 549 pages.  This book drew me in from the very first chapter.  It was such a good mystery! It was told from three different women and spanned through three different times in history.  I couldn't put it down and loved the ending.  Such a great book...I guess I will be looking for more books by Kate Morton in the future.

~~~

So I did it!
Total books read in 2014:
106


Honestly, I am not sure I will make the 100 books goal again for next year.  I am still debating that.  It was a very good goal to have and I am glad that I did it..and even more glad I accomplished it.  But when I made the goal I didn't know I would be working part time at two jobs and that we would be opening a practice.  It was so hard some months.  Life is just super busy.  I learned a lot about myself...like I really don't miss my tv shows, haha, and that I really can't listen to books either.  I really enjoying sitting down with a good book and a blanket and reading.  I am not someone who can stay up late reading.  I fall asleep.  But I can wake up at 5am and read while the house is quiet. I love that.  I still am thinking about what goal I would like to make for next year...maybe just 52 books.  I think I'll keep a growing list of books I read in 2015 and post them though.  It's been interesting to keep track and see my list on my blog.  (there is a tab for the entire list at the top of the page if you haven't looked) I log my books on GoodReads, but I must log them wrong, because a few days ago I got an email from GoodReads that was "the books you've read in 2014"...it showed I read 6 total books. hahahaha.  Even Wade got a good laugh about that.

In January I'll post about my reading goals for 2015.  I'll also post my top 10 books from 2014...that is going to be tough...narrowing my favorites down to 10.

{December}

It goes without saying - December is always a busy month.  This month flew by, I was a little sad we didn't get to everything on our Christmas to-do list, but it wasn't for lack of trying - we still managed to stay super busy.

Here is the monthly review post:

I took the older three kids to the ward Christmas party.  Eli and Lucy stayed home with Wade, we had so many different coughs/colds/sniffles/fevers going around our family/school/church this month.  They were actually ok the day of the party, but they aren't as good as washing their hands as the older ones and you never know what everyone else is bringing to the party too....I sound like a germ-a-phobe, but with Noah going off his meds I really wished we could lock ourselves in our house for a month or two until everything passed. 

I made a bazillion of these tiny charm hand outs for a Relief Society special Christmas lesson.  Ok...maybe 120, not a bazillion.  But once my hand started to cramp, it felt like a lot more than 120.

I am so thankful for Relief Society though it gives me an opportunity to grow, to serve and to be stretched in a good way...the program was good and we have such talented sisters in our ward.

My favorite thing to do in December - get up early when the house is super quiet and read by the Christmas tree.

I mentioned it before, but December was the month....we took Noah off his meds!  It was such a hard thing to decide to do, but we have to try it sometime. If we did it in the summer we would have to follow him around at the pool since he wouldn't be allowed to swim by himself...so we decided to taper him this month so he would be completely off it during Christmas break, when he is home with us all the time.  It's been 3 weeks Keppra free now and we are still going strong!

Avery had her first dance recital this month.  She is in a little dance/gymnastics combo class that meets once a week.  It's 3-5 year olds so she is one of the oldest girls.  She has such a fun time with her friends and loves it.  I apparently really need to figure out how to curl her hair.  I could never be a dance mom.

Gage had his school choir concert. (he's on the front row in red) It was amazing.  Seriously, such a great program considering these are elementary kids.  They have to go to school at 7:30 in the morning on choir days.  Talk about sacrifice!

We saw Santa...and a couple Star Wars guys at Walmart one Saturday.  

Eli thought this was AWESOME.

We held our first annual office Christmas party.  Don't laugh, it's a small party.  We have one awesome employee.  We couldn't do anything without her.  She is priceless to us.  And it might sound cheesy, but she really is an answer to our prayers, because we were praying and praying about finding the right employee.  Susan was my visiting teacher during our challenging year, and at the time and I had no idea she as an RN, and looking for a job using her medical background.  Then I told her we decided to open a practice and everything fell into place.   Who knew if you did your visiting teaching it would lead you to a job or an employee?  Heavenly Father has a hand in everything, I know this.  I can't say enough good things about her.

We hope to have many, many more office parties with these great people!

Our favorite thing to do during the month is to drive around a look at Christmas lights.  We found some really great displays this year. One house had a display that played the BYU fight song and the lights turned blue.  Another one we found had 12 million lights and such a great display to music.

Our good friend Santa Bear came to visit. He is our version of Elf on a Shelf.

He would occasionally bring us treats to share and move around.  Sometimes he would get into trouble.

And every year this sneaky bear decorates the tree with underwear and we always find him wearing some.  Silly bear.  

Lucy wearing my glasses.

The kids got out Wade's old record player one night and listened to stories on record by the Christmas tree.

The kids Christmas-sing at school was fun...and crowded.  Noah made silly-funny faces like he was an opera singer the entire time.  What a nut!

We made gingerbread houses with our cousin Charlotte.

And another sick little bug.  Poor Lucy.  I hate fevers.  I know some people don't worry about fevers, some people send kids out to activities and school with fevers.  But 2 of the kids have had numerous febrile seizures from fevers.  We don't mess with fevers at this house.

We had a Christmas party on the 23 with my sister's family.  We ate scones and chili and played the candy bar game and had the coke challenge.  Eli drank every coke, wrote some random numbers down on his paper and then rolled around on the ground saying his tummy hurt.

Lucy was feeling good enough to join the candy bar game...by eating candy and watching Bubble Guppies.

Christmas Eve was a packed day...we did Santa cookies, took naps, got a run in, did some cooking, did some grocery shopping and then headed to the Christiansen Christmas Party.

Chandra won the coke challenge at the Christiansen party.  She and Shamae tied and we had a tie breaker cup - they had to decide what it was without any choices.  She guess Pepsi for the win.

Avery decided the white elephant game was a pooper this year.

But Lucy thought it might be a good idea to keep around....

Then presents from grandpa...jammies for everyone!

And then Eli crashed on the floor so I decided to take all the kids home.  Besides, it was 10:30 and Santa was on his way!

Christmas day was a relaxing day, but my sister and I decided we still needed a "morning after" breakfast since we survived Christmas.

One of Wade's favorite mission companions and his family were in town and they stopped by for a visit.  It was so great to see them.  There are 12 kids between our families and everyone got along great.  It was fun to catch up and hear some funny mission stories about Wade.

And last, but not least, Lucy got this funny toy in her stocking.  

She thinks it's a good idea to take it to bed with her every night.

Crazy kids.

We are spending our last day of 2014 relaxing at home and taking naps, and helping some best friends move in....all while gearing up for the big New Year's Eve- AKA-silly string party of the year.

We are looking forward to 2015.

It's going to be a great one!

{Christmas Day 2014}

We had a simple Christmas this year.  

We were all surprised to wake up Christmas morning and find snow!  The kids were so excited!

I think it was the first time in 6 years we had no big lego sets! (there were a couple small mixel sets)  This is probably the first year in 16-17 years that Wade hasn't spent the afternoon putting together legos for his kids or nephews.  Despite the lack of bricks, everyone was super surprised and super happy.  It was pretty quiet and relaxing.

Christmas morning everyone slept in.  Everyone but me!  My sister in law texted me at 5 in the morning (She'll never live that one down!) asking for some pictures I had taken the night before at the Christmas party.  Of course I was half awake, but then I was really awake.  And I figured everyone would be waking up soon anyway. So I got up and read a book.  And I read some magazines. And I made breakfast.  And I walked around the house. And I checked facebook.  And Instagram.  And checked them again.  And read my book some more.  And I got dressed.  And I kept checking to make sure everyone was breathing.  Because it's rare when my kids sleep past 6:30am...but of course, they pick Christmas morning to sleep until 8!

finally...FINALLY, everyone woke up.

Avery got a new bear.  She has asked for nothing else for the last couple months.  Every time we saw Santa, or wrote letters she would say one simple request:  A new teddy bear.

Gage got a Kindle Fire. (that Santa got on a super good deal)  I am now super jealous that he has a better kindle than me!  Gage has said since this summer he wanted his own tablet.  I guess he is getting older.

Noah's wildest dreams came true!  He got his very own blue Xbox controller and a new game.  This silly kid.  I am pretty sure he would sleep with the controller if we let him.

This picture of Eli cracks me up.  He is such a funny boy.  He really loves this silly show Paw Patrol where the dogs are the heros.  He was super excited to find this Paw Patrol toy waiting for him Christmas morning.  Then Lucy saw it and pushed Eli out of the way and said "MINE!"  

Lucy got a big bear like Avery.  But she pretty much spent the morning running around taking everyone's gifts and yelling "mine"

Yep.  She's a two year old.

Her favorite gift this year is one my Aunt sent her.  It's a fisher price puppy that walks behind her on a string. Wade had one just like it when he was a kid.  She LOVES her puppy. She is always saying "puppy, puppy, puppy" and walking the dog around the house.

And last, but not least, I got this shirt for Dr. Wade.  

Just because I thought it was too good to pass up.

We spent the afternoon playing video games, watching movies and working on our puzzle.  We went to our cousins's house and played nerf guns with them.  We ate a lot of snacks and had a good relaxing day.

 It was a quiet Christmas and perfect.  We've had so many activities and had such a busy month it was nice to finally have a relaxing day.