July Reading

Okay so I was a complete and total slacker last month, of course between redoing the kids' rooms and all the traveling, I guess I can allow myself a bit of a break, but I figured I had better get to it this month.

So I finished up The Last Apprentice Series, but cannot wait for the new one that is coming out next month.

The Last Apprentice: Night of the Soul Stealer - pgs. 498
The Last Apprentice: Attack of the Fiend - pgs. 543
The Last Apprentice: The Wrath of the Bloodeye - pgs. 516

**I absolutely LOVED this series!!! It was so much fun to read and just got better as I went along, I can't wait to see how the story continues to develop.

Then I hit a series I had heard alot about and I can tell you I LOVED it too!!! I LOVE mythology so this whole new upsurge of juvenile literature that pulls from it has just been an absolute feast for me!!

Percy Jackson and the Olympians--
The Lightening Thief - pgs. 376
The Sea of Monsters - pgs. 279
The Titan's Curse - pgs. 312
The Battle of the Labyrinth - pgs. 361
The Last Olympian - pgs. 381

Then I hit up a series I fell in love with a while back, and figured I would re-read it.

Inkheart - pgs 534
Inkspell - pgs. 635
Inkdeath - pgs. 663

If you consume books the way that I do, you can't help but love this series. I so know what it feels like to want so much to become a part of the story I am reading, no matter what that life may bring. Anyway, I just love everything I got to read this month, and I can't wait to see what I can dig up for this next month.

Total for July: 5098 pgs.
Total for 2009: 21,578 pgs.

The Merkley Family

Took this picture on the 4th of July and I just love it.

Washington

This is from our trip like two weeks ago. I know, it's been a while and I'm just getting to it. Honestly this is hard for me to blog about because I didn't have the best of times. I felt very left out on this trip but it is such a beautiful place that deep down I loved it anyway.
Proof that I actually went on the trip. This is the only picture I really made it into, and it was actually on our way home. We stopped at Shoshone Falls on our way back. Dan loved the "fish" as he now wants to call all water in the hopes that it has some.
We went to the Zoo/Aquarium in Tacoma. Danny LOVED it. He has a real thing for animals but he really loved the fish. He was jumping up and down and banging on the glass at the big tank. The sharks would come really close to the glass and he would get so excited (my other kids still don't like it when they get really close).
Dan thought Great Grandpa was real interesting.
And of course Dad slept. No, actually Joe was just resting for like a couple of minutes, but Dan's grin added to daddy resting was too cute.
At one point, Dan became pretty quite. Now Danny isn't always being naughty when he's quite, but Joe and Grandpa were watching him and wondered where he had gone. Well, this is what they found. He decided to ride the deer.
We went to this Bavarian village which was so much fun for me. We walked all over and Danny found the swings.
And the puddles. . .

The other kids were having fun in Illinois while we were up there so Danny was the star of all our pictures. Next time we go they will definitely be there and then I think it will be a lot more fun for me.

A New Nephew

We would like to welcome Joshua Douglas Cotti to the family!!! Way to go Morgan!! (and Geoff too)
Born the 17 July 2009. 8 lbs 13.5 oz, 20.5 inches long. One big boy.
We love you all!!

Dan Sure Makes Us Laugh

This fourth of July there were only two little kids to run around Grandma and Grandpa's, Dan and Reid. They had a lot of fun together. Dan did everything Reid did, which wasn't always a good thing but at least they were having fun. The best was when they got up on the couch and decided that it made a much better trampoline than a couch. They were so cute.


Then, this is just for laughs. Please ignore me in the video. I told Joe to make sure I wasn't in it because I looked horrible, but he didn't listen.

Dan learned "cut the pickle". He's so funny with it, especially when he does it himself. He usually says it too but I don't think we got that lucky with the video. However, he's pretty funny when he does it and then tickles himself instead of you.


All my kids can make me laugh, which gets me through most days. I am so thankful for laughter.

A "Friends" Moment

For the 4th of July we headed over to Joe's parents' house for dinner. It was mainly a farewell dinner for Joe's brother Rod who is off to Iraq for a while. For dessert we had cheesecake. All of us sitting there eating and talking. Joe was eating while standing, and one moment he was happily enjoying his cheesecake, the next it was on the ground. Blueberry cheesecake on carpet. My pictures weren't the best because I was laughing so hard.
Especially when he started eating the cheesecake off the floor.
We all had major flashbacks to the episode of "Friends" when Rachel and Chandler have all the cheesecakes and knock the one on the floor and proceed to eat it, and Joey joins the group with fork in hand. It was just too funny!!

The Bedroom Project

Well since the three oldest children are gone, I decided to undertake a project that I wasn't going to get to until the new year. It's so nice that it's done. Joe's a little apprehensive about them all sleeping in the same room, but I can't stand the whining of them all wanting to have a "sleep over" and sleep in each others' room anymore. This will cut that out because they will already be together. At least for the next 2 or 3 years, hopefully.
I converted Hyrum and Porter's old room in to their new playroom. Now they can go crazy and hopefully KEEP IT OUT OF MY LIVING ROOM!!!!! Sorry I really hate mess, so the new rule, you bring it down, it better go back up quickly or else mom is throwing it away!!

Here's a close up of Emma and Hyrum's new bunkbed. You can also sort of see the new color I painted the room. Had to repaint the pale blue, because Hyrum had decorated the whole room in drawings of the states and continents. Now although that was cute, it was a mess.
The closet. Hyrum has the dresser, all the rest are in the plastic drawers. I love those things. They have more room in them then most dressers!!! Also, I took the doors off the closet so that the kids wouldn't be able to play with them. They would always bang them against the wall and the wall was chipping.
Here's the bed arrangement. I really like the way it turned out. I just hope that the kids do too. Oh, and I'm hopefully going to go get Porter a new bedset so that he can be special and have a whole set for himself. We'll see.

June Reading

Well June has been I.N.S.A.N.E. so as a result my reading really took a nose dive this month. I read a little of this and a little of that, but I just gave up after having to plan a trip out to Illinois, just me and the kids; then with the three oldest left there with Oma and Opa for a bit, I drove back with Dan and set to totally redoing the kids' bedroom (I'll blog about that as soon as I'm actually home), and once that was done, I had to pack up Joe and me and Dan and up to Washington we went to visit with his Grandpa. So, I won't be including all those failed attempts.

However, I found a great little series to take on my trip. Well, I only bought the first two because I didn't want to get them all in case I didn't like them. However, I loved them so much, I read the two I had in two days and spent a week trying to find a bookstore so that I could get the following three.

The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch-- pgs. 358
The Last Apprentice: Curse of the Bane-- pgs. 468

These books are by Joseph Delaney, and I just love them!! I am so excited to finish the series.

Total for June: 826
Total for 2009: 16,480