birthday boy

Today is my sweet hubby's birthday. Today he turns 28. Today I think about how lucky I am to be married to him...I get to talk to him every day (about everything), I get to snuggle with him at night, and I get to kiss him whenever I want. It doesn't get any better than that.

I am looking forward to him coming home from work today, so that he can open his presents, then we can eat his traditional birthday dinner: lasagna. Then some friends are coming over for cake and ice cream. Only it's not going to be plain old cake. No, Bart requested the peanut butter chocolate cheesecake that I made for him last year, and I must say it looks delicious cooling in the fridge.

I love you Bart. Hope you have a wonderful birthday!

baby rush

I have 5 blogging friends who are expecting a baby very soon. From any day now to just a couple weeks from now. Some of these friends I haven't seen for years, but it is fun to stay caught up through their blogs and wait for the arrival of their little ones with them. A few months ago, I think I counted 10 people from my blog list that were pregnant at the same time. Some of them have had their baby already, and now we are coming to the end of the baby rush. So, good luck Heidi, Natalie, Charise, Emily and Whitney. I can't wait to meet the new little ones, even if it is only through cyberspace.

enjoying the season

There is a park just a few minutes away from our house. The boys love to play on the slides and swings. They also love to run around on the baseball field and pretend they are playing a real game. We recently discovered that there is a great path that winds through the trees that line the park. The trees right now are such beautiful colors, it makes the walk that much more fun. It's so fun to watch the boys hiking through the fallen leaves, watching out for large tree roots and they can even hike up and down the steep parts with ease. It really reminds me that they are little boys now, and not toddlers.

Ky throwing an acorn into the woods. They could do this for hours.My boys and the bright, colorful leaves
Hiking up the path
Say "cheese"

book review

I finished reading The Host last night. I started it a few weeks ago when Bart brought it home for me when he knew I had had a bad day (isn't he the sweetest?)

Anyway, I have had several people ask me to let them know what I thought of it when I was done so here goes. (Don't worry, I won't give away anything in the book. I hate when people do that. In fact, I don't even watch movie previews any more. If I already know I want to watch a certain movie, I don't want to know anything that is going to happen, or any of the jokes, etc. I want to be totally surprised. So I will show the same courtesy here.

First I have to say, that for the first while I had to remind myself about every other chapter that while, yes, this was a Stephenie Meyer book, no, Edward was not going to be in it. Of course I knew that, but I think somewhere deep down I was waiting for him to make an appearance.

The first few days I was reading it, whenever Bart would ask how it was, I would tell him it was weird. Not bad weird, but I'm not really a sci-fi person, and the story concept was a bit out there. I wasn't sure I was ever going to be okay with the concept--not in a moral way or anything like that, it was just out there.

Then one day, I was telling Bart about it, and I realized that I already believed in the characters and the plot line like the author wanted me to. After I reached that point, I really liked the book and always wanted to find out what was going to happen next.

There were a few slow parts, and a few of the "twists" that I saw coming, but most of the story was really interesting. I'm amazed at how Stephenie Meyer can take characters and concepts that are so unbelievable and make them so believable. Also, she makes all the pieces of the story work together in a way that always surprises me.

It wasn't as good as the Twilight series, but I'm definitely sad that it's over and I'm back to thinking, "Now what am I going to read?"

photographer

This is what happens when two two-year-olds learn how to use a camera. It's funny the things they want to take pictures of. It's so nice having a digital camera, because it doesn't cost anything to let them snap away to their little hearts' content.

fun, fun weekend

We had a great weekend and did lots of fun stuff. The weather here has suddenly turned quite chilly, but we managed to have some great outdoor fun anyway. Thursday, the boys and I went to the local zoo. It was much smaller than the zoos I'm used to going to, but it had some fun animals, and it was in a gorgeous setting.

A lot of the zoo looked like this: lots of trees, with colorful leaves
The boys' favorite animal was this moose. It kept pacing and grunting. The boys have been making moose sounds all weekend.
I had to get a picture of the boys with this bright red bush.
The giraffe exhibit was awesome, they sold giraffe crackers on this platform to feed the giraffes. The boys got scared when they saw the long purple tongue, but they still thought the giraffes were pretty neat.
This smile only lasted until Kade turned around and realized that the giraffe was trying to "eat him."Friday evening we were invited to have dinner at the home of one of the doctors Bart works with. Yes, it is October in Wisconsin, and yes the boys were in the pool. Don't worry, the water was very warm and the boys only shivered when they got out. The boys were so excited to swim. When we lived in Florida, we would go swimming several times per week, and we haven't gone since June, so it was great to see them back in the pool again.

It was great to visit with Dr. Block and his family. They are such a neat family and Bart and I thought it was exciting to be in a home with teenagers leaving for Friday night activities again. Bart is lucky to work with such great people.

Saturday morning we went to a local wildlife preserve. This was the bird area, where the boys loved feeding the ducks and geese. They also had a lot of other birds on display.

Bart got to feed this deer. It was neat to see the dear so close and watch the boys watch the deer.

Kade and the deer

The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying General Conference. It was nice to be inspired and uplifted as we are every six months.

playin'

Saturday we decided to take advantage of the warm weather while it lasts. We went to a fun park in the area with lots of fun rides, nice picnic areas and playgrounds. The boys had a blast on the rides, the weather was perfect, and we enjoyed being together.

Ky giving the thumbs up before the big race

Their favorite ride: the choo-er airplanes. (In our family, they are called choo-ers, not guns, because of the sound they make.)

Riding the bugs

Ky loved the bell on this ride

The best part was the boys' first pony ride. They loved it. Kade was on the biggest one, and Ky was on the smallest one. They were so cute, and kept telling me that they were cowboys!

Ky and his tiny pony

Kade and mom stopping to have a bite to eat

The view from the little train that goes around the park. It's a really pretty area.