Books read in April

This was a bit of a slow reading month for me. I actually spent the first three weeks not reading anything, I can't believe I did that. I did have family in town for a while and I had a new video game (Lego Batman) that I had to beat. But I did manage to read three book series in the last ten days, so I guess overall I did well.

Fablehaven
Brandon Mull - 368
Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star
Mull - 456
Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague
Mull - 480
Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary
Mull - 528

I have loved the Fablehaven series ever since the first book came out. I have bough each book the day that it was released and read it that day, except for the last one. I waited a couple of weeks to read it. I also love to reread all previous books in a series when a new one comes out. If you are looking for a great series to read I highly recommend this one.

The Secret Circle: The Initiation and The Captive Part I
L.J. Smith - 416
The Secret Circle: The Captive Part II and The Power
Smith - 400

I had previously read The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith and while I enjoyed them I didn't find them to be excellent, so I had actually held out on reading this series, and now I am sad that I did. The books are not the best for writing style, but the story was really enjoyable. The story is about a group of kids who are witches and find themselves having to save the world, a general plot in teen based stories, but fun none-the-less.

Midnighters #1: The Secret Hour
Scott Westerfield - 304
Midnighters #2: Touching Darkness
Westerfield - 336
Midnighters #3: Blue Moon
Westerfield - 384

A friend had given me the second book in this series to read last summer and I had enjoyed it. I really enjoyed reading the whole series this time though as I was able to see the development of the story and how the characters came together. The story again involves a group of kids coming together to save the world, in fact all three series that I read this month had the same type of theme, maybe I need to branch out more this next month. Again the stories are enjoyable and worth reading. The last book did leave you wanting a bit more at the end. The story seemed to wrap up very quickly and left a few things open.

*Edit - I forgot to add in the reading I had done in the online story Breaking the Silence so 205 pages for that one

Page count for April : 3877
Total for 2009 thus far: 12879

9th Ward Cartoon

I thought this one was awesome!

Messy dinner...poor little Bella

One of my favorite dinners to feed to kids when they are old enough to start feeding themselves is spaghetti. I love how it gets all over them, and I love watching them play with the noodles. I also love the wonderful pictures that their first spaghetti dinners make.
MacKayla April 2004 - 14 months (I love the coy smile she has here)Annika August 2005 - 10 1/2 months (she had a mouthful of teeth already and ate everything)
Arabella April 2009 - 14 1/2 months (She was loving playing in the noodles)

As for the title of poor Bella, she has been taking asthma medication for a while but was lucky enough to be able to take a pill. Well now she is having to use the nebulizer and she does not like it. We have to swaddle her in order to give it to her or she fights her way away from us. As all of the children have had to use the nebulizer at one time or another we have masks for each of them, and the older girls thought they would help Bella by wearing their masks as well. So here are my poor little girls.
You gotta feel sorry for that pathetic little face.Such hams.

Funny site to check out

I found this site of a father and son who draw cartoons of LDS humor and I was cracking up through most of them. If you need a good laugh take a look and enjoy here.

Here is the most recent cartoon to whet your appetite.

Milestones

This is my 100th post and I thought that as such I would highlight the various milestones that have been reached in our family lately.

James: On Sunday James will be 30, while he is getting older, he still had a Star Wars birthday party and received Lego's. James has also been very successful in his attempts at losing weight and has now lost 50 lbs, way to go James!
He is secure enough in his masculinity to not worry about his candles being pink :)La Tisha: I have been planning on getting a large part of my backyard that was nothing but weeds ready for a garden, and thanks to my wonderful father-in-law I was able to get that done last week. We are hoping to be able to do a large garden this year. I also started several of my plants in the house last week and most of them have started to sprout already. I have never grown anything from seed before so I am excited to be able to plant them in the garden and follow them all the way to the dinner table.
MacKayla: While her grandparents were here MacKayla had Grandpa teach her how to ride a bike and she is now a pro at zipping down the street on her bike. MacKayla was also lucky enough to win an Easter basket at the city egg hunt.

Annika: At the Easter egg hunt put on by the city Annika won a bike and was able to get on and ride away with the best of them. She is very excited because it is the same bike as MacKayla's.
Arabella: I was hoping to be able to post that she was walking by now, but alas the little stinker refuses to do so. She has gotten pretty good at getting to a standing position in the middle of the room, so walking should be coming soon. She has also figured out how to climb onto her bouncing horse and get it to bounce by herself, I will get a picture of that soon. Bella is also learning how to crawl up and down the stairs on her own. She has been a pro at going up for a while, but only recently has she been willing to go down them.
So there you have it, the big events of our lives.
The girls with the eggs they found in the house.
A great reminder that at the end of all of the bad, there is always something good. I love double rainbows.