The Beggar King

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15776904-the-beggar-king" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Beggar King (The Hangman's Daughter, #3)" border="0" src="https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1346669999m/15776904.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15776904-the-beggar-king">The Beggar King</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2783820.Oliver_P_tzsch">Oliver Pötzsch</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/768327506">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I love the Hangman's Daughter series.  I loved this book and I really enjoyed the entire story line.  I liked having Jakob in "danger" the whole time and the daughter having to come to the rescue.  It was a great change of pace using the same characters as the last two books.  <br>I liked the villain in this story a LOT!  I didn't see it coming, although I probably should have.  <br>The climax of the story was magnificent, maybe a little long, but still wonderful.<br>The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars was because it didn't captivate me as much as I would have liked.  Even though the story was wonderful it was easy for me to stop in the middle of a chapter.  I didn't feel a real urgency to keep reading to the next page and to the next chapter.  <br>No sex and no swearing.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2251204-kelly">View all my reviews</a>

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has turned out to be quite interesting this year.  We always spend the holiday with extended family.  Since we have moved away we have either gone to family or family has come to us.  This year however, we are alone.  

We contemplated boycotting the traditional dinner and going out to eat for Thanksgiving dinner.  We really did consider it, but for the kids' sake we are going to keep it traditional.  

I tried to find a widow or elderly couple who would appreciate a Thanksgiving meal, but I didn't have much success.  

I have so much to be grateful for that I can't possibly put it all down into a single post.  I have attempted to put a list of gratitude together over the course of the entire month of November, yet I still don't feel like I can cover it all.  

However, this year I feel like everything in my life boils down to one simple truth and that is:

 I believe in Christ.

It is through Christ that I find hope, courage, joy, peace, and faith.  Characteristics I need to be a mom, a wife, a friend, and a daughter of God.

I believe that all of my blessings including my family, my children, my shelter, my life, my health, and everything else are all a result of Christ loving me and blessing me.

I am thankful for this simple and profound knowledge.

Hand Towel Bibs

Celeste started eating cereal and baby food about two months ago.  I pulled out my old bibs and they were nasty.  I needed new ones.  I decided to make some awesome hand towel bibs.

When Grant was a baby my Aunt Carol made some bibs out of hand towels.  They were some of my favorite bibs.  My mom and I have since perfected the art of hand towel bibs.  We made three major changes.  One, we added sleeves; two, we made the bibs longer; and third, we added ribbons instead of velcro.

It is really to make a hand towel bib.  You need a hand towel, some ribbon, and ribbed knitted fabric.

1. On one side of the bib you are going to cut a 6 inches into the towel.  Then make a "t" by cutting 1.5 inches on either side of the cut.  This will make the sleeves and neck.  If you have a chubby necked baby you may want to go a little bit bigger than 1.5 inches.  

2.  Fold over the rough edges and sew together.  Leave the neck open. We will sew that next.  I recommend using a zig zag stitch, a surger, or sew over twice.  The terry cloth of the towel has the tendency to fray. 

3.  You are going to take a 10 inch strip of ribbed knit.  The strip will be 2 inches wide and the ribbing run parallel to the 2 inch sides so that the neck will look like a t-shirt neck.  I used an iron on stabilizer because the knit is stretchy and I don't want it to move when I sew it.

4.  Fold the knit in half and pin on to the towel.  Rough edges together.  Use a lot of pins especially around the corners.

5.  Once you have the neck and back edges sewn together fold so the neck is at top.  You are now going to make a small one inch seem on the outside edges to make arm holes.  

6.  You are going to pin 8-10 inches of ribbon on each side of the neck.  I like my ribbons a little longer because I think it is easier to tie.  I also like thiner ribbon verses thick ribbon.

The first bib took me about 40 minutes to make.  Then I decided to make a whole bunch more and I made about 5 bibs in an hour.

Cupcake bib

Owl bib

Pink stripe

Frog bib

Monkey bib

I watch for Target or Wal Mart to have hand towels on clearance.   They often change their coordinated bathroom sets and will have towels for cheap. I didn't spend more than 4 dollars on any of the bibs.  I like the thicker terry cloth because it is more absorbent and washes up better.  

The Art Wall

School produces a truck load of papers and art work.  Our art wall is full again!  All of these papers have been created between September and the end of October.  We didn't have room for all the awesome Halloween projects Grant made.  

I am very impressed with Grant's writing.  His penmanship is really coming along.  He can write on the lines.  His letters are even and controlled.

Top row: A counting caterpillar; numbers 7 and 8; a picture of a flying gecko; a math sheet

Middle row:  tissue paper art; numbers and counting; a yarn threaded apple; a crayon he colored and wrote "to mom from Grant" on 

Bottom row: Name practice, Grant as a paper doll; math dot sheet; hands making a sun

Saving CeeCee Honeycut

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6617928-saving-ceecee-honeycutt" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Saving CeeCee Honeycutt" border="0" src="https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348364490m/6617928.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6617928-saving-ceecee-honeycutt">Saving CeeCee Honeycutt</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/63630.Beth_Hoffman">Beth Hoffman</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/756790960">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I debated for a good five minutes whether to give this book three stars or four stars.  I am feeling generous today so the book gets four. It was a very great story and I really enjoyed it a ton, but there were parts when I thought, "will this book ever end?"  <br>I felt so sorry for CeeCee throughout most of the book.  She had been through so much with her crazy mother and neglectful father.  I loved hearing her inner dialogue. Her thoughts reminded me more of an adult than a 14 year old girl.  CeeCee has some skewed perspectives and does some childish things that are more typical of a child her age. <br>Overall, CeeCee is a wonderful character and it is hard not to fall in love with her.  I also loved the Southern hospitality that welcomed her.  <br>No sex scenes.  A few mentions of nudity and one affair scene.  Mild swearing.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2251204-kelly">View all my reviews</a>

Working

I have been a stay at home mom now for just over 8 months.  It isn't always easy, but I love it.  I love being able to read the Book of Mormon every morning with the kids.  I love being able to talk and play with my sweet children.  I love taking Grant to school every day.  We often talk about creatures and all the features we like about different animals.

I also love being able to cook healthy meals for my family.  We have saved a lot of money by not going out to eat.  We are eating a lot healthier too.

Today I start covering for a SLP at a long term care hospital.  I will be there until December 13th.  I have had so much anxiety about going back to work.  I love being a SLP and I have loved working in the past.  I am just so nervous about trying to balance it all.

I feel like being a mom is a full time job and I am not sure how I am going to manage working full time too.  I have stocked the freezer with freezer meals to try and prepare for the next few weeks.

I have a very nice woman watching the kids and I know she will take good care of the kids.  I will just really miss them.  I hope the next few weeks go smoothly, I earn enough money to make it worth it, and my children have a good time with Brandi.  I am also hoping it will renew my decision to be a stay at home mom.

6 Month Comparison

Celeste at birth.

1 month

2 months

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

I can't believe this girl is 6 months old!  We sure do love her!

6 Months Old

 I went to take Celeste's picture on the 1st of November and she just started eating up the attention.  She started striking little poses are her arm, she talked, she laughed, and she was just being cute.  I got so many cute pictures I couldn't decide what ones to post so I decided to post a whole bunch.  

Celeste loves baby food.  Her favorite is sweet potatoes.  She also really likes blue berries and peas.  Celeste loves her Dad and brother!  If she hears their voices she will look all around the room trying to find them.  She loves to play tickle and anticipation games.  Celeste babbles, squeals, and coos.

  

Celeste weight 15 lbs and 13 ounces and in the 50th percentile for her weight.  She is 26 1/2 inches tall and in the 82nd percentile for height.  Considering the weight struggle we have been through I was shocked to figure out she weighs 9 more ounces than Grant did at 6 months.  They were both 26 1/2 inches tall.  

Halloween 2013

We had a wonderful Halloween this year!  Before I got onto the events of Halloween Day I need to mention that the weekend before Halloween Grant and I went to his school's Halloween Carnival.  He didn't want to go at all!  I had to nearly drag him there, but I told him that we had already paid for him to go and so we were going.  (Come to find out later we actually never paid because Grant left his money in his back pack.  I feel really guilty about going when we didn't pay and so I am making a $5 donation to the PTA.)

Any way... we had a great time at the carnival.  Grant saw a ton of his friends from church and school.  We ended up staying almost the whole time. 

Now on to Halloween.  Grant complained since the carnival about having to go trick-or-treating.  He said that we had enough candy at home.  He didn't need to go out and get more.  When I told him that we were giving most of our candy away he was kind of bummed, but still not motivated enough to go.  

Once again Kyle and I knew he would have fun if he just went.  Kyle and I decided to get dressed up ourselves and see if that motivated him.  Kyle dressed up like Wolverine (or if you are the stupid lady in Toys R Us you would call him Edward Scissorhands).  I got my Black Widow outfit on and Celeste got her costume on and then Grant started to get excited.  

By the time the first trick-or-treater showed up Grant was binging off the walls with excitement.  He couldn't wait to go.

I wanted some pictures of all of us, but we didn't get one.  Oh well!  

I love my "super boys"  they are awesome!  I never have to worry about bad guys because we always have a strong hero around the house.

It took me a couple of tries to get one of the kids together that I liked.  None of them turned out perfect, but I love Hulk's hand over Celeste' face and Celeste just grinning.  So I am happy!

Celeste was a sweet little kitty!  She even took a cat nap in her costume while I was handing out candy.

And here are the amazing pumpkins:

Grant's is the ghost, Celeste the Hello Kitty witch, and Kyle's is Darth Maul.  I really tried to get a good picture of it, but it is really hard to take a picture in the dark.  My flash kept wanting to come on and I couldn't hold still to make it not blurry.

Grant wanted to see how much candy he got.  He was so excited when he counted 14 Kit Kat candy bars.  One was even a full size.  He had a great time and was glad he went.

Happy Halloween!

Maybury Halloween Family Party

In the past we have carved pumpkins with our immediate and extended families. Since we have moved away we get to have our own family party.  It is bittersweet! 

We started out with a delicious cheese potato soup in honor of my grandma and called it "witches brew."  I made my mom's famous rolls and Grant called them "skeleton pillows."  I made homemade jam the day before and we called it "vampire blood."  I made candy corn cookies for dessert.  Yes, I was cooking all day and was completely exhausted that night. 

We carved our pumpkins.  We had spent the night before picking out our designs.  I got my pumpkin and Grant's pumpkin gutted.  I got half of mine carved, but then I went visiting teaching and Kyle had to carve all the pumpkins including finishing mine.   

I will post pictures of our finished pumpkins.  Kyle's pumpkin was amazing!  He was up until 1 AM finishing his pumpkin.  

We had lots of fun getting ready for Halloween!

Leaf Raking

We love having mature trees in our yard until fall hits.  Right now we are hating it! We have a horrible Locust tree that has confetti for leaves. The tree is right next to the house and is probably getting chopped down soon.  For a number of reasons.  Right now the big reason is that the leaves are everywhere!  Luckily we also have some other nice trees.  Grant thought it was so much fun raking leaves.  Kyle took the leaf blower and shot it up into the trees so most of the leaves fell off and we only had to rake once.  Genius!

Celeste enjoyed the warm fall weather in her carseat.  She was pretty happy for almost an hour just watching us and being outside.

Grant wanted to jump in the leaves.  He thought it was so fun.  I love the picture with his feet straight in the air.  He is so much fun!

Other neighbors were out doing a little yard work too!  It was a great day and the last really nice warm day of the year.  Grant, Elleigh, and Hudson had a blast driving the motorized cars around the col de sac.  They were chasing each other until one car hit into the other car.  They were laughing and having a grand time.  I wish I could have video taped it.  I thought it was truly priceless.