2012's books

In looking back at 2012, I feel like I didn't get to read as much as I would have liked. And in compiling this year's book list (26), I found it shorter than last years' list (29), so that confirms that feeling. (And I had really hoped to read at least 30 books this year; I wanted to do more, not less.) Nonetheless, since I always get asked about book recommendations, here's the list of books I read in 2012:

How to be a Best Friend Forever: Making and Keeping Lifetime Relationships  John Townsend
*Heaven is For Real  Todd Burpo

*The Front Porch Prophet  Raymond Atkins

*The Hunger Games (#1)  Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire (#2)  Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay (#3)  Suzanne Collins

*The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks  Rebecca Skloot

*7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess  Jen Hatmaker

*A Voice in the Wind (Mark of the Lion Series, #1)  Francine Rivers
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Stay-at-Home Moms  Jack Canfield
Interrupted: An Adventure in Relearning the Essentials of Faith  Jen Hatmaker

*An Echo in the Darkness (#2)  Francine Rivers
On Becoming Toddlerwise: From First Steps to Potty Training  Gary Ezzo

*As Sure As the Dawn (#3)  Francine Rivers
Bossypants  Tina Fey
Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus  Elyse M. Fitzpatrick
Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to say No, to Take Control of Your life  Henry Cloud

*Uncle Tom’s Cabin  Harriet Beecher Stowe

*Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother  Amy Chua

*Bringing Up Bebe  Pamela Druckerman

*The Light Between Oceans  M. L. Stedman

Her Ladyship's Guide to Modern Manners  Lucy Gray
*From Ruby Ridge to Freedom  Sara Weaver
Bah, Humbug!  Heather Horrocks  
The Last Noel  Michael Malone
From Notting Hill with Love... Actually  Ali McNamara

My favorites from 2012 are: How to be a Best Friend, 7, Bossypants, Boundaries, Battle Hymn, Bringing up Bebe, and From Notting Hill.

The best thing I learned about this year is that Barnes and Noble offers a free book every Friday for the Nook. I have the Nook app on my phone and our new iPad mini, so I got the last two books that way. I signed up to the follow the blog so I get notification each week (you could also just set a reminder to look for it each Friday). I then did a search on Amazon for free books for the Kindle app (which I also have on my phone and the iPad) and came across the Bah, Humbug! novella. I very much enjoyed those last three books and given that they were free makes them even better!

What's your favorite book you read in 2012? Any other neat tips to share (free books and the like)?

*books: Books I read with Chapters, my book club of the last 3.5 years.

Homeless Helpfulness

For the past three years or so, our Bible Community (aka Sunday School class) at church (Irving Bible Church) has gone downtown on Christmas Eve morning to help/minister to the homeless population. Since we have such young children, we've never joined them though we hope to someday. And because we're not able to attend, we send stuff with those who do go. Last year, we went through our coats, jackets, and other warm things and donated everything we didn't use anymore. This year we bought toiletries and made hygiene kits. Austin had a good time "helping" me put them together.

I blame myself for this. Austin has been with me while shopping for Seth's deodorant. (I sniff them all before deciding.)

We put the soaps in snack sized bags so they can keep their soaps separate from their other things.

Everything went into a quart sized bag.

Very helpful!

Delivering Christmas Cookies

Every December since moving into this house, we've been doing a new Christmas tradition: we bake cookies and deliver them to the neighbors on our street. This year was the first year that Austin was aware enough and able enough to really help and it made the experience much more meaningful and enjoyable for all of us.

Our own miniature Santa. (The hat didn't last long.)

I love this picture! (I'm finally in front of the camera!)

We told him "Knock and say 'Merry Christmas' and hand them the cookies." He was great at knocking, but we can't get him to say "Merry Christmas." Maybe next year.

If they didn't answer the door, we just left them on the doorstep.

He was great about pulling a bag out of the basket and then taking it up to the door and knocking.

We had an extra bag, so we gave him a cookie after the last house/on the way home.

LOVE these pictures!

We love being generous and neighborly to our neighbors. We always get such wonderful comments and feedback from them. I love our street!

Trees Trimmed

On a cold, crisp December day, we had our trees trimmed. It is really something, watching those guys climb the trees like monkeys. Really quite amazing! We're not sure how often you have to have this done, but hopefully not more than like every 5 years, right?

Seth cut some bamboo while they were here and could shred it in their machine. And someone got a hold of the clippers! Oops!

Brother Look-a-Like Contest?

There's probably a better, fast way to share this, but I can't figure it out if there is. (I went about this the only way I knew how, but it was a rabbit trail of a method.) Maybe I should take some classes on this kind of thing..

Anyways, I have had a lot of people tell me recently that they think Austin and Graham look similar to one another, and I agree. I wasn't sure at first because Graham has so much more hair than Austin did at that age, but then recently I took a picture of Graham and I swore I had seen that face before. And it turns out I was right!

And Graham's hair is barely visible in this picture, so I think that helps them look a like to me.

What do you think?

Graham's Progression Photos -- 2 Months

Here is a selection of pictures from Graham's 2 month Progression Photo session. 

While Graham had some head control last month, it's really taken off in the last 4 weeks--he chooses to lift his head up even when being cradled in your arms! He coos all the time and has gotten better about his afternoons (they were quite rough for awhile there!). He is constantly smiling at us and seems to be quite the happy little man. His growth spurts have always come exactly on schedule--3 weeks, 6 weeks, and 9 weeks, and I'm really ready for this next break--until his 3 month spurt. 

He's recently been diagnosed with a minor case of Plagiocephaly so we're doing exercises (some of which involve simply holding his head to that side and some that involve forcing his head to that side--those are my least favorite) and we're working extra hard to generally make him start looking more to the left (holding him in certain ways, standing on that side of him, etc). We're really hoping that by catching it early and working hard right now, we can prevent him having to wear the helmet (not only because it draws such attention--as we all know how much I love being the center of strangers' inquisitions!, but also because Dr. McColm said it isn't covered by insurance and can cost upwards of $3000!). 

It's a little frustrating, this diagnosis, because we'd been rotating him in the crib (like we're supposed to do), doing tummy time (like we're supposed to do), and keeping him up and off his head as much as possible (like we're supposed to do). So, in short, it feels like a slap in the face when you've been doing all the "right" things and then still encounter this problem. But there's nothing we can do about it now but work with him on it and pray that we don't get to the helmet stage. And we'd love your prayers for that as well.

Click here to compare to 1 Month.

Click here to compare to 1 Week.

Frontiers of Flight museum

I bought a Groupon for half-priced admission to the Frontiers of Flight Museum because 1)  it's about 10 minutes from our house, 2) Austin seems to be more aware of/enjoy pointing out airplanes, and 3) I thought it would be a nice family outing for some cold Saturday afternoon this winter (as we'd be inside). But, since it appears we might not get any cold Saturday afternoons, we decided to just pick a Saturday and go. We had fun for about an hour when it was time for us to go home (I'm not sure you could spend a whole lot more time there). 

While we were there, I bought tickets for my parents to go the next time they come down and sent them up for Christmas. I had thought at the time that my parents would be coming down for Christmas and they've decided not to, but nonetheless, I think my dad would love it. It's really a place for people who know something about/have a thing for the history of planes to go.

It was a very warm day!

They had full-sized planes hanging from the ceiling!

lol

This was the craziest looking thing. Called the flying pancake or something like that.

:-)

We didn't have any coins, so he got to sit on it, but not really ride it.

Graham thought the whole thing was a snooze fest. ;-)