Read any good books lately?

I realize I haven't put any book reviews on here as of late so thought I would update you on a few books our book club read over the past few months and Its my turn soon to pick the book for my book club so please let me know of any good books you've read lately.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter Sweet: This was a pretty average read, I didn't find myself turning the pages just wanting to know what happens with this story. The main character is pretty lovable, covers world war II time frame, which I like reading fictional stories set in real historical settings. It goes back and forth between current day and his childhood. Books that go back and forth like that have to be exceptionally well done usually as the reader I find myself interested in one story line rather than the other. So I give this one an average rating of 5 out of 10.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: This one was also a fictional story set in a real historical setting. This one was one of my favorites we've read! I stayed up many late nights when I just could put it down. It makes you thankful to be a women in our time and culture. I give this one a 9 out of 10.

Still Alice: Just finished this and read it in less than a week. Its a fictional story but very sad that it is many people's real life experience. The author has a PHD in nuero-science from Harvard and wrote this, her first novel about a women who has early on-set Alzheimer's and her experience with family, work, etc as it takes over her life. I give this one a 9 out of 10 also.

I just realized I'm not real loyal to reading the same author again and again most books I have loved are often people's first novel or book: Time Traveler's wife, Still Alice, comeback, Twilight...Sometimes you get it right the first time.

don't forget, I need book suggestions!

A pool day of firsts

Well Ava had her first dip in the pool this weekend at my parent's neighborhood pool. Its a pretty special pool for such an occasion as this. They didn't live in this neighborhood when I was growing up but I spent many summer days at this pool with Amy and Ryan and other family friends that lived in the neighborhood, its the pool I learned to swim in, took swim lessons in, did my first dive at and did swim for the heart at age 8 in which my dad mistakenly sponsored me per lap instead of a one time donation and I swam 75 lengths of the pool, they made me get out at the end when time was up, I would just casually swim on back and side and just kept going and going. My dad owed the red cross quite a bit of money, we still laugh about that. So this weekend it was fitting that Ava make her first pool trip here. She seemed to have a confused look on her face most of the time but was just perfectly content the whole time we were there. The water was nice and warm and at this time of day there was tons of shade so it was perfect! There's few places I'd rather be then pool side on a summer day, was nice to enjoy that with our baby girl. (I have a video but its not cooperating so here's some pics).

we started her off in the wading pool

Other firsts today, Chloe did her first flip off the diving board!

Then we went to the big pool to watch the Uncle Matt and the cousins on the diving board:

Me and My brown eyed girl

I realized the other day I hadn't taken hardly any pics of me and Ava since her birth so here's a few from the last week, Me and my brown eyed girl...

Loves when she falls asleep on my chest. So cuddly!

first father's day.

We celebrated Ryan's first father's day today! He even won a gift card at church for being the newest dad there. We celebrated with just spending the day together. Ava gave him some golfing gifts and I cooked him chicken spaghetti for dinner. I didn't snap a picture of these two together today but love this one from the night before (actually it was almost father's day at the time of this picture.) Not sure who was putting who to sleep but both were out when I came to check on them.

Ryan's a great dad, Case in point: Most of you that know him real well are aware of his VERY sensitive gag reflex. Most mornings I used to wake up to gaging noises just when he was brushing his teeth, now I often wake up to gaging noises when he's trying his hardest to change her diaper. He will often get her out of her bassinet when she wakes up and he is getting ready for work so that I can sleep just a bit longer. Many men wouldn't even try with his gaging issues with the diapers but I so appreciate him still changing diapers despite this and even if its just 20 or 30 more minutes of snooze time it means the world to me!

Too soon to be excited?

Guess who slept through the night two nights in a row!! I am hoping this may be the start of a pattern but that may be too soon to be excited about. Through the night is about 11:30 to 6:00am this wouldn't be that exciting to me in my pre-baby days when I regularly slept on average 10 hours a night but baby world has re-defined a good night's sleep in my book. The bottom picture is her smiles in the morning after sleeping all night, I'm pretty sure my face looked about the same.

a crazy morning.

Well we had an exciting morning yesterday along with the rest of the metro area. Edmond was hit with 9 inches in 13 hours. Here's some pics several are of "the valley" and that is the neighborhood adjacent to ours in which they rescued residents by boat, Ryan saw a giant sheriffs truck and some sort of hover/craft type boat driving through our neighborhood to get there. We had no flooding at our house, thankfully:

http://newsok.com/multimedia/photos/gallery/600917

There was also a man they rescued out of tree when he had to leave his vehicle just a few miles from our house.

Ryan stayed home till 12:00 as most of the roads were closed around us. Ava and I had a real red-neck day and doing laundry and watching all the live rescues on the news all day.

Ryan and his mini-me

Well you can't deny that Ava looks a lot like her dad. Here's some pics from the weekend of the two of them hanging out, Ryan and his mini-me.

watching the world cup game together:

Ava's first concert, she seemed to enjoy it. She loves being outside and seems to love music so the combination was perfect for her:

Notice anything different?

Notice anything different in these pictures??

Besides the random flying butterfly toy, The answer is this weekend we had to take the new born head-ring out of her car seat because she out grew it and we also had to move the straps up. I felt a little sad but so glad she is healthy, thriving and growing.

6 changes at 6 weeks.

I do love doing lists on my blog so here's 6 changes at 6 weeks:

1. She is awake and more alert, loves to look around and check things out. She loves to look at our faces, her mobile and a black and white book her friend Quinn sent her (thanks guys!).


2. She grew! She's now 9lbs. She has graduated to her 0-3 month clothes instead of just newborn outfits. This makes the morning so much fun to get her ready so many cute little outfits to pick from. We also survived our first growth spurt which included her first episodes of inconsolable crying.

3. She took a bottle for the first time. I was so glad this turned out that we only had to work with her a little bit to get her to take it. This even gave me one night of some solid sleep when Ryan did the middle of the night feeding. Pumping is going well so starting her supply to have for when I return to work.

4. She is so content during the day time. She gets a bit fussy before bed but still a great baby!

5. She can be seen sticking out her tongue a lot as she loves to have something to suck on when she's getting sleepy or hungry.

6. Someone else has been still adjusting to all these changes in our family. One day Rory was in the Boppie just hanging out: