Riding Bikes & Playing on the Playground

Playing hide and seek!

Handsome husband!

Loving the swing!

Luke swinging by himself!

Hannah swinging.

Hannah and Daddy...she looks so little!


Me and my big boy!

Sweet baby.

Luke and his hero.

Climbing...as always!

Best Daddy Ever.

Hannah.

Speed Racer!

Super cute.

Luke and Faith playing "follow the leader."

Luke is 5!!!

I can't believe it, but Luke turned 5 last week! I would have blogged about it sooner, but we were in San Antonio all week and just got back today, so I'm a little behind. However, I can honestly say that 5 years has FLOWN by. That old saying "The days are long, but the years are short." is definitely true!

I remember being pregnant with Luke like it was yesterday. I was so SCARED. After 2 miscarriages, you just don't take anything for granted. My pregnancy was complicated and peppered with many hospital stays. It was probably the scariest time in my life. The Lord took care of us though, and Luke was born at 33.5 weeks. He was TINY! I had never been so thankful and relieved to see someone in my whole life! When I finally got to hold him for the first time (10 hours after he was born.) I was completely changed as a person.

Luke was a difficult baby for the first 6 months or so, but he was precious at the same time. He has brought us more joy that any family has any right to have. Luke has grown into a sweet, brilliant, curious, loving, caring, responsible, and fun little boy!

Luke's favorite things are:

Basketball (hands down), Nintendo Wii, golf, holding me, dogs, playing with his sisters, Coburn, his new basketball shoes he got from Scotty, laughing, holding me, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pizza, apples, cheese, Phineus and Ferb, and going to his Sunday School class.

We are beyond blessed. God is so good! He has given me way, way more than I will ever deserve. Luke is such a ray of sunshine and love. I can't wait to see how he will grow and change over the next year. It just keeps getting better!

Book Series Review: The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries

The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries by Charlaine Harris

Click to go Charlaine Harris' website.

Charlaine Harris is most famous for the Sookie Stackhouse Novels that the HBO series Trueblood is based on.

Book 1: Real Murders

Though a small town at heart, Lawrenceton, Georgia, has its dark side-and crime buffs. One of whom is librarian Aurora "Roe" Teagarden, a member of the Real Murders Club, which meets once a month to analyze famous cases. It's a harmless pastime-until the night she finds a member killed in a manner that eerily resembles the crime the club was about to discuss. And as other brutal "copycat" killings follow, Roe will have to uncover the person behind the terrifying game, one that casts all the members of Real Murders, herself included, as prime suspects-or potential victims.

This was a book series that I loved. For a million reasons. I'll try to keep it to a reasonable synopsis though. The above synopsis is only for Book 1: Real Murders because it would take forever to write a synopsis and review for each of the 8 books.

Aurora Teagarden, daughter of a very wealthy real estate tycoon mother, is a librarian. Aurora is complex and a little misunderstood by her family and friends. She loves books and lives what looks like a very nondescript life until she meets 10 or so other people from her hometown who share a "True Crime" fascination with her. Aurora and these 10 other people found a club called Real Murders where the members get together and discuss old murder cases. After a while, members of Real Murders start being murdered one by one, and each member of Real Murders is at some point a suspect in the nasty murders of it's members.

The series has 8 books. In each book you learn a little more about Aurora Teagarden as a character, and you also get plenty of suspense and mystery. She goes through a lot of triumph, trials, near death, and tragedy. Harris makes Roe Teagarden as real as any character can get. Roe doesn't always get what she wants and it changes her view on the world and the town she lives in. The books in this series don't always wrap up in a neat little package which will just bring you back for more. As people, we want our happy ending, but these books tend to be based on a character that actually has to really live a life. The series is wrapped up nicely (but not perfectly) in the end, but Harris makes sure that Roe Teagarden does some living, growing, and maturing in the process.

All in all, these books are quick, easy, and suspenseful reads that aren't easy to figure out. Each book has an undercurrent of romance in them as well, but it's not overwhelming. You find yourself wanting her to find a boyfriend, but it's not the main story of each book. If you want a fast read that has major plot and character development, these are a great start. Aurora Teagarden is a protagonist that I think many women can relate to on some level, and each antagonist in each book is different but challenging to Roe. These books all have great rising action and conflict that make you keep turning pages. The plot climax is also strong in each book. While the resolution/falling action will bring each book to a close, it will also open up a whole new can of worms that makes a great segue into the next book.

On a sidenote, I've read pretty much everything Charlaine Harris has written. You can't go wrong with her books. Happy reading!

Attention Book Readers

In case you didn't know, I am a major bookworm. I love books. I love the way they smell. I love when you crack open a new book and the bindings are super tight. I love getting into a plot and trying to figure out what will happen next. Books may be my absolute favorite luxury in life. I love the silence. I love books stores, new or second-hand.

I spend a lot of time reading. Probably more than 90% of the population of the United States. In the past month I have read 7, 184 pages. That is the literal number. Yes, I ready very, very fast, and I read every single word. My husband makes the remark that I should teach a speed reading class, but I am not a true speed reader. I just have a lot of focus...

Those things being said, I will preface with these things:

1. My children are not neglected. I mainly read while they are asleep. They are however instilled with a knowledge that reading is good for you and your soul. My almost 5 year old knows that if we don't know what a word means, we look it up in a Dictionary. All 3 of my kids love reading. I think that seeing me read has something to do with that.
2. Yes, sometimes reading is more important than sleeping. I have insomnia a lot of the time anyway, so who cares, right?
3. No, everything I read is not what you would call wholesome. It's also not the provocative romance trash either. I tend to really like dark, sort of violent, books...hopefully that doesn't say something about my personality. That being said I also really like Christian fiction...especially if it's written by Francine Rivers. If you've never read "Redeeming Love" by Francine Rives, I HIGHLY recommend it. It may be the best book I've ever read.

Those things being said, I'll tell you what kind of books I read. My favorite? Mystery. Without a doubt. If it's not dark and intense with some humor thrown in for good measure, I will not read it. I also love books about the unknown. I've been on a vampire kick the last 6 months or so, but I am not reading exclusively vampires either. I love books who have very strong, decisive, yet vulnerable female leads. I like when the lead is confident in herself, yet knows that she is not a man. Does that even make sense? I hate with a passion fluffy romance novels. I have met my Prince Charming, married him, and have a very happy marriage, so I don't feel like I need to supplement that relationship with the men written into romance novels. I do like when there is a hint of a romantic subplot that adds to the tension in a book though.

If I find an author that I like, I tend to read everything that author has ever written before I move on to someone else. Here are just a few of my favorite authors that I have recently read: Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse Novels -aka- Trueblood, The Aurora Teagarden Series, The Harper Connelly Series, and the Shakespeare's Landlord Series: All of them are FANTASTIC.), Elaine Viets (The Dead End Job Series), Stephanie Meyer (Twilight Saga and The Host.), Mary Higgins-Clark (too many to list), and P.C. Cast (House of Night Series - I love everything I have read by P.C. even though sometimes she is a little more provocative in her books.).

So, here I am spilling my nerdy guts to say this: Internet, I am going to start a book review on this blog. Every once in a while I will sit down and give my thoughts on books I have recently read. I am also working on being a librarian. For real. Have I said that I am too old to be sitting in a classroom yet? I digress, another post for another time. It's about time someone put the "cool" back into being a reader and librarian, so I took the challenge. Doing a book review will give me a chance to practice recommending books and stuff. :-)

So my first book review will come later this week. Be there, or be square! ;-)