Books Read in 2013

2013 was a good year for books, I found that I didn't have as much time to read this year, but I was lucky to still find some great books. By the end of the year I had read 56 books. I will list the books based on stars I gave them on Goodreads. If you are interested, I usually write a basic review, and why I did, or did not, like the books on Goodreads. The 5's and 4's are worth reading as are many of the 3's, the 2's, well they were okay, but would not be the first ones that I would recommend. If you want more details about anything let me know.

***** - It Was Amazing
**** - Really Like It
*** - Liked It
** - It Was Okay

*****
The Queens Army (Lunar Chronicles #1.5)
What's Left of Me (The Hybrid Chronicles #1)
Earth Afire (The First Formic Wars #2)
Ender's Game
The Son of Somek
Secret Histories (Lorien Legacies: The Lost Files #4-6)
Dad is Fat
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The Fall of Five (Lorien Legacies #4)
Son (Giver #4)
Moloka'i
Allegiant (Divergent #3)

****
Set Me Free (Tomorrow Girls #4)
Ashes of Twilight (Ashes Trilogy #1)
Eve & Adam (Eve & Adam #1)
Beta (Annex #1)
The Name of the Star (Shades of London #1)
Glitches (Lunar Chronicles #0.5)
Beautiful Redemption (Caster Chronicles #4)
The Racketeer Under the Never Sky (Under the Never Sky #1)
Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles #2)
Shades of Earth (Across the Universe #3)
Dread Locks (Dark Fusion #1)
 Prodigy (Legend #2)
Eden (Eden #1)
Earth Unaware (The First Formic Wars #1)
Orphan Train
The Eden Project: Humanity's Last Chance
Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables #1)
Night Without End Vampire University (Vampire University #1)
The Last Leprechaun (Vampire Univeristy #2)
Fear (Gone #5)
The House of Hades (The Heroes of Olympus #4)
The Fault in Our Stars

***
Adaptation (Adaptation #1)
Promised (Birthmarked #3)
Breathe (Breathe #1)
BZRK (BZRK #1)
Another Life (When I Was Joe #3)
Wonder Inferno (Robert Langdon #4)
Every Day
Anne of Avonlea (Anne of Green Gables #2)
The Chosen of Gaia
With Malice Toward None: A Life of Abraham Lincoln
The Rent Collector
Tortured (Birthmarked #1.5)
Nanny for the Millionaire's Twins
Drops of Gold (The Jonquil Brothers #2)
Toby Tyler
Born (Born #1)
Born to Fight (Born #2)

**
Never Too Far

January

It seems that every time I think that I am caught up and that I will stay on top of blogging that I fail again. Oh well, I guess I will start again, and try to stay on top of the blog.

January was one of the coldest months that we have ever had here. We didn't get a lot of snow, but it was so cold that we had some day where the high never hit positive numbers. In fact for the first time the girls had a day off of school because it was too cold.

 Once it had "warmed up" to -1, the girls wanted to go play in the snow. It was so cold that they couldn't get the snow to stick together, so here is their laying down snowman.

 Making snow angels in the cold. I think they were most excited about getting really cold and then coming in for some yummy cocoa.

 MacKayla was invited to a birthday party at the skating rink, it was fun to watch her and remember being her age and going to parties at the skating rink.

 Annika being a diva.

 Arabella helped me make her cake for her fifth birthday. As I took this picture of her showing off her cake, I realized that her eye was doing funny things. After noticing it here, I went back through old photos and realize that she had been doing it for at least a year, but we hadn't really noticed it. Worst parents of the year award went to us.

 A normal smile showing off her Big Top Cupcake filled with strawberries and decorated with strawberries and lots of sprinkles.

 Isn't she a cutie.

 Admiring her candles.

 Ready to blow!

And she did it! Arabella is such a fun kid and it has been a blast watching her grow up. At 5 she is still sweet and innocent and still looks to us as all knowing, I hope it lasts for a few more years. 

Lemon Raspberry White Chocolate Mousse Cake

Lemon Raspberry White Chocolate Mousse Cake

Ingredients

1 Package lemon cake mix (plus ingredients to make it)
1 C Raspberries
1 T Sugar
2 T Cornstarch
8 Oz White chocolate
1 Small box white chocolate pudding mix
3 C Heavy cream
1 t Vanilla
1/2 C Raspberries (for garnish)

Directions

1. Prepare cake mix as directed in two 9" cake pans. Cool cake completely and then cut each cake in two, you will then have four layers.

2. Puree the 1 C raspberries until smooth. Heat the raspberries in a saucepan until boiling. Once boiling add in 1 T (plus or minus depending on how sweet your raspberries are ) sugar. Mix the cornstarch with a small amount of water and add into the raspberries. Heat until thickened, about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Set aside to cool.

3. In a double broiler, heat the white chocolate chips and 1 C of heavy cream, stirring frequently until the mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool to lukewarm.

4. In a separate bowl beat the remaining 2 cups of heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Add in the vanilla and the pudding mix, stir gently. Mix in the cooled white chocolate mixture. Stir gently until it is all incorporated.

5. Place one layer of cake on serving platter and add a small amount of the raspberry mixture. Spread a thin layer of the raspberry mixture and then add a layer of the white chocolate mousse. Next add another layer of cake. Add the majority of the raspberry mixture and then a small layer of mousse. Repeat with another layer of cake and a small amount of raspberry sauce, then a large layer of mousse. Add the last layer of cake and frost top and sides with the remaining mousse. Garnish the top with fresh raspberries.

* The lemon flavor was a bit weak from the cake mix, I think next time I would add in a small amount of lemon juice and zest for more of a lemon kick.

Baby Benjamin

We are excited to announce that Benjamin Roscoe Wammack has joined our family. He was born on Thursday, April 18th at 8:12 am. He was 8 lbs 2 oz and 20 3/4 in. He is healthy and is already such a wonderful addition to the family.

His siblings love him, and they love to hold and cuddle him. Jonathan is even taking it really well so far. Every morning he asks "where baby Benjamin go?" He loves to know where his brother is and he already will tell him that he loves him. The girls of course love to rock him and want to touch him so much, that eventually we have to remind them that he is not a puppy, you don't have to pet him all of the time.

Now for the photo bomb. Be kind to mom, remember that I had just had the baby and I am scary looking :)

 First time I got to hold him, he was about 30 minutes old.

 Isn't he a perfect baby!

He nursed like a champ his very first time on, and he hasn't stopped since!

 All snuggled up.

 Stretching out.

 The peaceful sleep of a new baby.

 In every ultrasound and any time he has his hands free they are always at his face.

 Eating his hand.

 Crossed eyed.

Feed me more mom!

 Getting ready for his first bath at the hospital, he wasn't too happy to be naked.

 I  love that the hospital is trying to make it so that mom can be more involved in everything when the baby is born. I have never been able to be a part of the first bath, but here they did it in my room so that I could watch. I was also able to be there while he had his first shot, as well as his hearing screening  I am glad that I was able to be a part of all of his firsts.

He really didn't like his first bath and he made sure that we knew that.

 Grandma Wammack came up to be with us while Ben was born and to help take care of all of the kids. This was her first chance to meet the baby.

 The girls excited to meet their new brother.

 Annika got to be the first to hold him and she did not want to let him go.

 MacKayla was loving snuggling with her newest brother.

 I love how happy Arabella looks here, even with a mask on you can see the smile in her eyes.

 Jonathan was very excited to hold his brother for the first time.

 He wouldn't let me take him until he had given loves to his brother.

Grandma looks so happy to be here with Benjamin.

 Daddy helping out with a late night hungry baby. He wanted to eat every hour his second day and after a while mom was tapped out, so he cuddled with dad for a bit.

 Getting dressed to come home.

 Very angry at mom for getting him dressed.

 Mom was so mean that she even put shoes on him.

 He fell asleep on the car ride home. He looks so tiny.

Annika excited to hold him at home.

 Second night home.

 Love sweet little faces while sleeping.

 First bath with mom at home. Still didn't like it, but did better than at the hospital.

 One week old already. He is fitting into the family quite well and is such a sweet kid. He is sleeping fairly well at night, 2-3 hours at a time.

My favorite picture from today. Love ya lots Benjamin!