book review: Silenced

PG-13

There isn't a lot of language, but there are graphic scenes. Over all the book was really good. I liked the characters (this is an additional book in a series that I haven't read) even though some of the back-stories were lost on me. However, the book did drag on a bit and could have been shorter. I was surprised at the ending of who the real killer was. 

baby beck #3

Joe and I packed up the family one weekend and went to The Price is Right for a special baby shower show. We had gone to our five month appointment and had the results sealed, which we revealed on stage at the show. We weren't contestants, but we did get to go on stage, meet Drew, and find out that we are having another girl! 

Joe's face makes it look like he's disappointed and I'm excited. Watch this video to find out if this picture is accurate: 

(We come on stage right after this couple around 1:17).

visiting Utah part II

In my last post, I mentioned we went to Utah for the month of March. I was 7 months pregnant and drove the entire 18 hours by myself with two kids. Crazy? Yes. Desperate for adult company. Yes. Worth it? YES!

Three miracles happened on this particular trip.

1. When we travel to see family we usually go through Las Vegas where Joe has a brother who lives there. The plan was for me and the kids to drive there, take a day to recuperate and then drive the rest of the way to Logan. Right as I am pulling into Las Vegas, my check engine light came on. Yikes. I got it checked out at Auto Zone (did you know they do FREE diagnostics?!) and it was only a little part replacement problem that my fantastic BIL, Alyn, fixed for me that night.

2. We were about two hours away from Las Vegas when my cruise control went out. Seriously?! This baby of mine is sitting so low there is an incredible amount of pressure and pain in my pelvis and back region. Having to use my foot to actually push the pedal was a little torturous. I would periodically check the cruise control to see if it would work occasionally and it never turned back on. I still had 8 hours to go! When I left Las Vegas I remembered the story of the lepers that Jesus Christ healed by telling them to wash seven times. They did, and they were healed. I thought, if seven times is a good number for them, it's a good number for me. I pushed the cruise control button seven times AND IT TURNED BACK ON!

3. My kids are busy. They love to move. And they love to pick on each other. I put Corban in the third row of our car and Jovi in the second row and they were kiddy-corner to each other so they still couldn't touch each other. I had movies, books, treats, and we stopped every two hours to stretch our legs and use the bathroom (remember, I was seven months pregnant). They were absolute GEMS on the ride to Utah. There were some minor fights and arguments, but it was AMAZING at how well they did.

I had a great trip, but am so glad to be home!

visiting Utah

Joe is in the worst and hardest year of pharmacy school (I've also heard rumors that the first semester of the third year isn't all that great either. Hooray!) so the kids and I packed up the car and we headed to Utah.

I got to see my new niece for the first time and she got blessed too! Too bad she won't really let anyone else beside her mom hold her. We played outside and Jovi did NOT like it! She was always complaining about it being too cold. It was in the 40s and 50s. Heaven! My parents recently returned home from their 18 month mission so they and my kids got reacquainted for the three weeks we were there. We also got some library story time in at the local library.

I celebrated my 32 birthday! Jovi had to sample the cake before we sang Happy Birthday. Chris and Vickie and their families came over. We went to The Jump Zone where the kids jumped, swung, and played on tramps and foam pits. Having Uncle Eric and Uncle Chris and grandpa throw them in the foam pit was heaven for my kids. We've been in Arizona for about two years now and I have been going through some withdrawals with some local companies in Cache Valley. I went to The Pepperidge Farm outlet store and stocked up on toffee covered milanos and gold fish crackers. We've already ate through 2 bags!

It was good to be around other adults, see family, and have help. Did I mention I was seven months pregnant?

book review: Caught in the Middle

PG

I was really surprised at how much I really really really liked this book! I loved the writing, I loved the story, I loved characters, I loved that the heroine made a really tough choice at the end that I 100% agreed with and cried and cheered because she made it and followed through.

book review: A Draw of Kings

PG - a little more violence in this book.

I have mixed feelings about this review because I have loved this series and was uber excited to get the third and final book. And for free nonetheless (I received a copy from Bethany Publishers)! See my review of Book 1 here and my review of Book 2 here. I am pregnant and had a lot of down time (I'm getting huge in my 3rd trimester) so I was able to quickly read this book.

Of course, our hero has to go on ANOTHER quest to save the people who have detested him this entire time. I'm getting to the juicy part where I find out who is going to be crowned king and sacrifice himself for the kingdom when PLOT TWIST and things change and there is hope. At page 431 I'm thinking I'm gonna like this ending when I turn the page and ....

nothing.

The book ended at page 432 when there are 464 pages! Are you kidding me?! I felt like the characters in "Monty Python's: The Search for the Holy Grail" when they're in the caves and reading from the walls:

MAYNARD:  It reads, 'Here may be found the last words of Joseph of Arimathea.
    He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the Holy Grail in the Castle
    of uuggggggh'.
ARTHUR:  What?
MAYNARD: '... the Castle of uuggggggh'.
BEDEVERE:  What is that?
MAYNARD:  He must have died while carving it.

I'm hoping that Mr. Carr did not, in fact, die before writing this ending because that would be awful. I do, however, hope that you read this trilogy because it is fantastic! Just make sure your copy isn't missing the last 32 pages.

activity cubes

I saw this idea from a child blog I follow and they are also all over Pinterst, of course. I have very active kids. They are constantly moving, playing, teasing each other, and being kids. They are also really good at pushing each other's buttons, including my own. This art of button-pushing would usually end up with one or both crying and one or both in their rooms for a time-out. But timeouts weren't working. I saw these activity cubes and inspiration struck! 

What if these helped my kids get a long better? What if I could use these instead of timeouts? Doesn't that sound wonderful? 

Epic fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. 

My kids love these dice so much that they love playing with them, but they cannot seem to grasp the concept of sharing and end up fighting over the dice. I tried to referee and got smacked in the head with a corner of one of the die.

My version of this activity cube is as follows:

I used two dice instead of just one. This way the number dice tells how many of the activity they need to do. My activities included:

Flap like a bird.

Spin in a circle.

Run from the front door to the back door.

P.E. (This one has more detail to it that I'll explain in a bit).

Dance Party!

Hop on one foot.

There were so many activities that sounded fun to me, so I cheated and made the P.E. have 6 additional activities. They include:

1. wall sit

2. somersaults

3. jump

4. sit ups

5. push ups

6. jumping jacks

So, the number dice tells the kids which sub-activity they do and how many/long they do that activity. It has been so much fun watching my 5 year-old do these activities. The jumping jacks and push ups are my favorite to watch! 

So, this obviously isn't taking the place of timeouts but this is a fun thing that my kids like doing. What do you do for those "timeout" times?