Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am going to give this 5 stars for pure enjoyment value.   I am not a gamer or a sci-fi fan but I had a lot of fun listening to this book.  (Read by Will Wheaton by the way.)  Tons of great 80's references.  Likeable characters.  SUPER fun plot.  When I finished, I found myself thinking about the book constantly.  Always the sign of a good read.

Content note: Beware of some occasional strong language, the narrator is a teenage boy after all.

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Christmas Day, Church edition

After my posting about Christmas Dresses, I thought it only fair and proper to add pictures of the the dresses with us in them.  

We had one hour church on Christmas day, a real treat for us Normally-Three-Hour-Long-Sunday-Services-Mormons.  It was lovely, I think Christmas and Church are a great pairing, so it was fun to have Christmas actually on a Sunday.  

(I even made the boys take a pic.  Some were more compliant than others.)

P.S. I just may be posting more.  I happened to get a very fancy computer under the tree this year. 

Search for Christmas Dresses 2011

One of my favorite Christmas traditions from childhood is having a Christmas Dress.  Every year my sisters and I would get Christmas dresses to wear the first Sunday before Christmas. When we were young, they were matching. (Awesome.)  I have particular memories of turquoise Gunny Sax-esque little numbers that we all looked pretty spiffy in.  When we were older we picked them out ourselves. I have carried that tradition with my girls but have had very little luck finding Christmas dresses for myself.

This year's selections:

I found this sweet lace dress for my youngest at H&M.

It was only $10. (Did I mention Kansas City got it's first H&M?  Hooray!)

I spotted this skirt, also at H&M, for my oldest.  I haven't picked it up yet (I wanted to run it by her before I purchased.)  I hope they still have it!  This would look super cute paired with this cardigan from Target.



I was happily surprised to find this dress for me at Forever 21 of all places.  Combining two of my latest favorites: lace and pleats.

The Night Circus

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Finally. I have been waiting for a really good read for quite some time. This book has a phenomenal plot, one of the most interesting and unique plots I've read in that last few years. The writing was beautiful, very descriptive but not overly so. The characters were engaging and charming. The story unfolded in an unusual way, following various people involved with the circus until all the storylines came together in the end.

Highly, highly Recommended.

I must add that I listened to this book on CD. It was read by the incomparable Jim Dale (of Harry Potter fame.) This may be why I loved the book so.

Content note: Super clean, one swear word in the entire book.

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Freshman Homecoming, A little shameless bragging

My daughter was Freshman Homecoming Royalty this year. Which where we live is a pretty darn big deal.

This may seem like all kinds of shameless bragging in some ways it came as a surprise.

As you may know, our church is pretty important to us.  Raising lovely, well adjusted, successful kids is pretty important to us.  Because those two things are our top priorities, we don't worry so much about the popularity thing or being cool.   We have set our standards high and make no apologies for it.

But sometimes, as a parent, you worry about how your kids will be accepted at school and among their peers.  You absolutely want them to live to values and standards, but you also want them to have a positive social experience through the school years and not be some social pariah.

When Hailey was voted Homecoming Royalty, we decided we didn't need to worry about the social pariah thing so much anymore.  (I guess it doesn't hurt that she sort of looks like a barbie doll, albeit with braces.)

Like I mentioned, turns out Homecoming is a big deal.  This being our first foray into High School, we had no idea what to expect. The homecoming experience started out with an all school assembly:

 She had to choose escorts (and supply their matching outfits):

 

And walk out front of the entire school:

My dad was in town and got to witness the festivities:

Next event, parade through downtown.

She rode in a parade with her good buddy, who is like a brother to her, another member of the Freshman Homecoming Court. 

 

Later that night, Half Time at the football game, escorted by Mark and I:

Next night?  Attending her first High School Dance. 

We are quite proud of our daughter and how she willingly chooses to live her life.

P.S. Did you happen to notice her Homecoming dress?  The most adorable thing you've ever seen, is it not?  She looked amazing in it.  A-MAZ-ING.  She got compliments everywhere we went.  No one seemed to notice that it actually had straps, (sleeves even!) and a modest length.  Score one for high standards.

A Weight Off My Shoulders

Guess what? I got my hair cut.

Ever since I saw this picture on pinterest, I knew it had to happen.

I waited until after my Half Marathon and at the next appointment, went for it.

These are self portraits taken with my phone (then instagram-ed of course.) 

I think it's a winner. 

The day I got it done, I was stopped in Target by a lady asking me to be a model for her make up line. I KID YOU NOT.   Turns out she sells Mary Kay and was most likely just trying to sell me product.  I said no.  But still worth mentioning, I think.

Halloween Festivites

 This year Halloween arrived on the heels of our return from a lovely week long vacation in Mexico.  We had no time for costume hunting or buying, so we made due with what we had from home.

A flight attendant:

A biker:

(I am not sure what it says about us as a family that we have the makings for such a convincing biker on hand.  Look closely, even fake leather chaps.)

A BYU Soccer Player:

And Alice:

Carving the pumpkins is a low key, low tech, free for all.  We have yet to splurge for the fancy $5 pumpkin carving sets and choose instead to dull the blades of my kitchen knives.  The kids pick their own designs and do all the scooping and carving themselves.  Except the youngest,.she is not quite old enough to wield a knife.

Hot chocolate may or not been involved, replete with your choice of "marshmallow" or "mint" syrup.  We may not take our pumpkin carving very seriously but we go all out for drinking of the chocolate.

The pumpkins turned out like fine works of art.

 

The night glow only enhanced their beauty/scariness.

 

And, last but not least, an exceptionally large amount of candy was procured.

(As you can see D decided to ditch the biker costume and trick or treat as a BYU soccer player. Yes, we have the means to provide for two BYU soccer players from our own private stash.)

Happy Halloween

Hello all.  It's been awhile.  You want the lame excuse?  My (less-than-two-year-old) Dell laptop is freaking out.  I just may have to break down and pay the money for a real computer, a Mac.  Sigh.

For now, how about some Halloween decor pictures? (Courtesy of my favorite app Instagram.)