Top 5 Books in 2011

This year I challenged myself to read 90 books and I exceeded my goal by 6. This year was a year of fantastic books and total flops. I will actually do a separate post on the awful (and by awful I mean mind numbing, want to erase memory from ever reading certain books). But these are not those books, these are the books I was really impressed with, my go to recommendations when people ask me for a good book to read.

My ultimate favorite this year was These Is My Words. This book is FANTASTIC! I actually read this in the first week of 2011 and was so thoroughly impressed by it. My mother in law had actually told me about this book years ago and when I finally got around to researching it and seeing if it would be something I'd be interested in I found how beloved this book is. People LOVE this book. If you don't think historical fiction is your thing and you write off this book, you'll be missing out on one of the best books I've ever read, and that's saying something. There is something so magical in this book that just works. Please, take my word for it, this book is fantastic. Who knows, you might even be receiving this as a gift this year! Ok, I love Stephanie Perkins and her books. I fell in love with Anna and the French Kiss and read her second novel entitled Lola and the Boy Next Door. These books are realistic fiction with a love story. But they are more than that. The characters are well developed and three dimensional. Perkins knows how to write a leading man that would make any girl swoon, but not because he's perfect but because he's real and he's what every girl wants. Perkins whisked me away and let me sample a world that is not mine but I wholeheartedly would love to have lived. She has another book coming out in 2012 and I just can't wait to get my hands on it. I will say these books are fairly clean so they're pretty suitable for teen girls (older teen girls). I think about this book often, especially of the leading man. This is a sequel to "If I Stay" which is fantastic too. But I felt that this book was better and more heart-wrenching. Forman knows how to write a flawed but incredibly lovable leading man. It was so interesting to read what had happened since the last book, to see where the characters had gone and where they were headed. I think I read this in about a day, I just couldn't get enough of her writing. You do need to read "If I Stay" first to understand the complicated past the main characters have, but be prepared you will probably cry. Who doesn't love a good Zombie book? I think this is the year of the zombies in my life. I read quite a few zombie books as well as some zombie shows (man, who else just LOVES The Walking Dead?). I received this book as a Christmas gift last year from a fellow zombie lover and couldn't put it down. It's just enough gore, action, back story and heart to make you love it. I actually received the prequel this year for Christmas, so back to the zombies I go. I had to add this one. As some know I work part time at Deseret Book. With that job I read a lot of the books we receive, so that I can confidently recommend books. There are some books I come across that are ok, some that are downright awful and some that are so remarkable that I can't contain my enthusiasm for them (Increase in Learning by Elder Bednar is one of those books, go pick it up!). "Letters in the Jade Dragon Box" stood out to me as one of the best fiction books we carry. I loved every minute I spent in this book. The writing is exquisite, the story line is enthralling and the imagery is beautiful. I was transported to 1970's Hong Kong rich with history, food and a beautiful story. This book doesn't have too much of the church in it but it does have incredible heart.

Here are some notable titles that didn't quite make the list but were quite great: Divergent by Veronica Roth (umm... Number 4, you are dreamy), The False Princess by Eilise O'Neal, Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson.

So did you read anything this year that you can't stop gushing about?

Magical

There is something so magical about this picture.

Joe Norby, PE

Joe has hit a huge milestone in his career and we couldn't wait to tell you all about it. Joe recently took the Professional Engineers exam in October. He studied every night for months preparing for this test. We found out yesterday that he passed. I couldn't be more proud of Joe and his accomplishments. There was never any doubt in my mind that he would pass, he's just an incredibly smart man.

I asked him last night what the pass rate is and he told me that it's about 60% pass, that's not too much. I am oh so very proud of my husband.

In May he'll be able to apply to be a professional engineer (he can't apply until he's been graduated for four years). We can't wait to see what the future holds for us. Thank you all for your support and prayers in our behalf, we sure felt that extra strength in our lives!

Snow Days

Today we are celebrating our third snow day in a row. Sunday night the snows started coming and I told Joe I would give anything to have a snow day with the kids. Low and behold the phone rang at 5 am to let us know there was going to be a 2 hour delay of school; then 30 minutes later the phone rang again letting us know that school had been cancelled. We got between 6-8 inches of snow and it was glorious. I figured Tuesday we wouldn't have school either since the roads were complete sheets of ice so I got excited about that. But another surprise happened, we got the call Tuesday night that we had one more snow day as some of the back roads are still icy and some schools are having heating issues and the highs were in the teens. So Blake is home for his 3rd snow day in a row. We've been loving every minute and I'm a little sad to see Blake go back tomorrow. We've been trying to occupy ourselves:

There's been lots of playing in the snow. The kids have loved this part, but mostly Blake. Kalli would brave the outside for a few minutes at a time. She hates being cold and she's cold a lot. Blake's been playing with his sisters and they've all gotten along so well. It really has been a wonderful 3 days. We made sugar cookies and loved it. The kids are getting so big. In years past they help for a few minutes and are done but they lasted the entire time. Blake has been asking to write a letter to Santa so we also did that. I am impressed with how well he is doing with writing since being in school.

These last 3 days have been a tender mercy for me. I am working quite a few nights a week; Blake gets off the bus at 4:15 and we immediately leave so I can get to work. So most days I only see Blake for about 2 hours and that's been tough, especially during the Christmas season. I had been lamenting to myself that Christmas is going by way too fast and I hadn't had time to do anything with my children together. I think that this snow storm was a tender mercy for me to spend time with my children and get some of those precious moments in that I needed. I am very grateful this time of the year to be reminded how much our Heavenly Father loves us and knows what we need.

Crawling to the music

Lexie loved music and she especially loves when her daddy gets home from work and starts playing the piano. No matter where she is, she'll crawl over to his feet on the pedals and start playing with him. She just loves when he plays. If she's lucky enough Joe will sit her on his lap and let her play her own song and that brings a certain amount of joy to this little girl.

Because she loves the piano and Joe's playing so much, he's dedicated a certain song to her. Lexie knows her song and as soon as Joe starts playing it she crawls as fast as she can to the piano. Her song is the Jaws theme and our kids think it's so funny that it's Lexie's song. But there is no denying that this little girl loves music, her daddy and especially the Jaw's theme song.

My (and Joe's) addiction to Pinterest

Have you heard of pinterest? Have you used pinterest? I got an invite a couple months ago and am in love with this site. I have found that I only like to pin those things I actually think I'll make or get around to doing, otherwise I find it a little too overwhelming. Joe got in on the action when he found how cool it is. I assigned him his own board that I pin things to so that he gets an idea of the things I want him to make for our house, you know because he builds furniture for me and all. Recently I actually accomplished some pins I had my eye on and it felt quite good finishing them.

I had seen this cute shirt all over pinterest and figured it would be pretty simple to make. I actually had dreams of making this for all the nieces, even bought all the shirts for it, but then the dirty looks from Joe and my incredibly busy schedule told me I probably bit off too much. So instead I made them for my girls. They turned out super cute and can't wait for them to start wearing them next month. These are just made from ribbon that I sewed onto the shirt. One of the other pins was this Phineas pumpkin that I fell in love with. Because this show is popular in our house with not only the children we knew we had to make it. I printed it out for Joe to carve and I was able to mark off yet another item I had pinned on pinterest.

I also find quite a few recipes I would like to try and that I have tried. If you've never heard of pinterest and would like an invitation to join, just leave me your email and I'll send an invite your way. If you're on pinterest, I'd love to follow you, it's so fun to see what inspires people.

Have you accomplished your pins yet?

What we've been up to...

My power cord for my Mac snapped three weeks ago. I ordered a replacement 3 weeks ago and it finally came. It's amazing how much I missed my computer and felt lost without it. Joe recently took his PE exam (professional engineering exam). This test is crucial for his career, so pray that he passed! We'll know the results in January. These are all the books Joe took with him as it was an open book test. But really, why would you want to take a test with all those books, yikes! They all fit nicely into a rolling suitcase. Joe has been studying for this exam every night for at least four months. It's nice to have him back! Joe went out of town for five days for work. He was here, Woodward, OK. All he said about it was that it was very green. We've never lived anywhere green, so that was a huge change for him. Plus, while he was out of town he ate so much better than me. We missed him terribly and are happy he's home again! We went trick or treating three times with these guys. Now we have way TOO much candy. Halloween I was on my own as Joe was out of town. I think I handled it pretty well, especially because Joe hardly ever goes out of town so I haven't had a chance to get good at doing it all by myself. We did our yearly tradition of carving pumpkins, and once again Joe and I did everything. I thought our two were terrific, I won't show you the other two we did.