Someone is 4!

My not so little Deacon is 4 years old! I'm really having trouble with this one, because he was always my little guy. But now he is a big dude, going to preschool and totally into collecting Pokemon cards! We just love this happy, independent, smart, and silly guy so much!

9 Books

Heeeyyyy
I have about 8 weeks left until the end of the year and I'm determined to read 8 books, 9 if I can be productive.
The problem is, I've jumped on the Gilmore Girls bandwagon. I've never watched and it's not really my favorite show ever, but now I'm sucked in.  This puts a slight glitch in my reading plan, but I'll dedicate time each night to reading. Promise.

1. Today Will be Different, Maria Semple

2. To the Bright Edge of the World, Eowyn Ivey

3. This was Not the Plan, Christina Alger

4. The Light Between Oceans, M.L. Stedman

5. The One-in-a-Million Boy, Monica Wood

6. The Wangs Vs. The World, Jade Chang

7. Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood

8. The Mothers, Brit Bennett

9. Love Warrior, Glennon Doyle Melton

I already have three books lined up that I'm going to read after the New Year.

Commonwealth, Ann Patchett
The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead
A Good Time for Truth: Race in Minnesota

plus the other 200+ book on my Kindle and in my book bin.

Summer Reading List

I know I don't blog any more. I'm just not into it as much as I used to be. But in the effort to be productive in writing on my blog and talk about books and reading, I'm compiling my list of summer reading.

I have so many books to read, and so little time. July is almost here and I have two months to get through this list.

The Veins of the Ocean
Before the Fall
& Sons
Tell the Wolves I'm Home
The Girls
The Forgotten Garden
The Assistants
Truly Madly Guilty
LaRose
The Knockoff
The Weekenders
Vinegar Girl
Simply Tuesday
Eligible
Starvation Heights
All the Light We Cannot See
The Shoemaker's Wife
Small Great Things
The Beach House
Saving Abby
About the Night
Falling Together
Heir to the Glimmering World
Inside the O'Briens
At the Water's Edge
The Boston Girl
If You Left
Results May Vary
Miller's Valley
Before I Go to Sleep
The Book of Speculation
Everybody Rise
Barkskins (This is a really long epic novel, so this might turn into an Autumn book)

So there you go. I'm hoping to read each one, but I'm not holding my breath either. I just love books and wish I could read a book a day.

Easter

Another fun and celebrated Easter came and went. The day before Easter we went to our town's annual Easter Egg hunt. Not only did we dominate in the egg collecting, Finnley won a trike! We went home and dyed eggs and got ready for our Sunday guests. Easter Sunday we had lots of family over and enjoyed some delicious food. All in all a successful weekend.

I'm dyeing over how cute they are.

You want some candy?

My favorite dudes

Winner Finner

We are ready to dominate your Easter egg hunt!

The one where I take three kids to Florida... by myself

So back in November my mom calls me and asks if I want to bring the boys to Florida for a visit. My parents bought a place there for the Winter and my mom found some cheap flights for all of us. Of course, my husband could take zero time off of work, so crazy Sabrina decided that it would be fun to take three boys under the age of  five on an airplane. Thankfully my mom came back to Minnesota the week before and flew down to Florida with us. (Although, she bought a ticket up in the front and stranded us in the back) (Actually, we were 4 seats behind her, but she was drinking G&T's while I was drinking backwash water.)
When you take three small children on an airplane, one being a lap child too, you have to obsessively plan ahead. So I went on Amazon and ordered a bunch of fun little toys, I also packed 2 tablets to watch movies and tons of snacks. Overall, they did a pretty good job with a small meltdown by Finn.
We had a fun four days in Florida, going to the beach, the Shell Factory and Zoo, and hanging out with Grandma.

When it was time to go back, it was just me and the boys. alone. in an airport\airplane. But thankfully, they all did really well and I was super proud of them. Would I travel alone with them again, NO.

Grandma on a dino

I need more Spring!

Today was a record breaking 70 degree day in Minnesota! Bless El Nino's heart! Spring is coming!!!

oldies...

I randomly came across a folder of old photos. Nothing too exciting, so I decided to post my favorites.

I think this was in an old issue of Domino. I so badly wanted to recreate this tree!

French Pear Tart, AKA, the tart that gets you a husband.

I painted a wall in my dining room hot pink!!! Totally the wrong paint and the wrong color I wanted, but it was fun. who cares!

Back when everything was so pretty and girly...

T

Napoleon!

Noir, the Wonder Cat!

I'm Chuck Bass

My House!!! The house I bought as a single lady. Thanks Beyoncé.

My peonies!

My Grandma on her wedding day

We weren't even dating yet!!!

My glorious patio

The hammock!

Sia!!  Before she hid her face! Awesome concert.

Meeting Everett... On Mother's Day!

Happy Family

My little elf

Books I've Read in 2015

Hello... It's Me.... I was wondering if you ever read my blog? It's been over for months, but I thought I'd write my annual book review for you. (I hope you sang that to Adele's Hello)

Typically I set my reading goal to 52 books for the year. I have yet to reach that goal. And after doing some soul searching, I realized that with three small children, I should set my sights a little lower. So my goal for 2015 was to read 25 books. I read 16.  A little disappointing, but I'm cutting myself some slack.

With only reading 16 books, I was pretty selective, and I ended up reading all very good books. All the books I read got 4 and 5 stars. (Out of 5 stars)

Here are the books I read in the order that I read them...

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

by Gabrielle Zevin  (Hermit bookstore owner adopts a little girl, changes his life)

Landline

by Rainbow Rowell (Over worked, career obsessed wife and mom, finds phone in childhood room and can call her husband in the past when he was her boyfriend)

The Girl on the Train

by Paula Hawkins  (Divorced and alcoholic woman,  loves riding a train and spying on people. Sees something bad happening at a house and become obsessed with solving the crime)

Still Alice

by Lisa Genova (Harvard professor gets early onset Alzheimer's and works to keep as much as her memory and dignity intact)

Aquarium

by David Vann (Single mom has a daughter and loves her and then freaks out when her own long lost father tries to come back into her and her daughters life)

First Frost (Waverly Family #2)

by Sarah Addison Allen (Waverly family is back with more magic and special recipes; follow up to Garden Spells)

Replacement Child

by Judy Mandel (True story of a sister who was born after a family tragedy to "replace" the daughter that was lost.)

Seating Arrangements

by Maggie Shipstead (A dad, a family, and a wedding. Chaos ensues.)

The Martian

by Andy Weir (Man gets stuck on Mars, has to find his way back to earth.) (P.S. This was probably my favorite book of 2015. It's a little slow at first and there is some science stuff that almost lost me, but once you get past that, you really start to root for this guy!)

The Heart Goes Last (Positron 0)

by Margaret Atwood (Man and woman living in a post apocalyptic world, find a better life in a special commune... but is it worth it?)

Summer Secrets

by Jane Green (Recovering Alcoholic woman tries to right the wrongs from her past; on Nantucket Island)

Eight Hundred Grapes

by Laura Dave (Girl runs to her family's winery after she sees fiancé with another woman. But her whole family is falling apart and the winery is in jeopardy.)

Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story

by Jewel  (Singer, Jewel Kilcher, writes about her life growing up in Alaska, her bad parents, and how she made it into the music industry)

Did You Ever Have a Family

by Bill Clegg (Woman loses her whole family in a house fire. But every chapter is written by someone who had ties to this family.)

Brooklyn

by Colm Toibin (Young girl from Ireland moves to Brooklyn to start a new life, meets an Italian boy and then suddenly has to go back to Ireland because of a death in the family. She meets an Irish lad while there. Who does she choose?)

Why Not Me?

by Mindy Kaling (More hilarious words of wisdom from Mindy Kaling. I love her)