Lone Wolf

Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors.  She writes well, always makes you think over the ethical or moral dilemmas she presents, and usually throws a twist at the end of the book that makes you second guess your decision.

Lone Wolf is her newest release and while it was a good read, it was not her best work.  The writing was great, as always, but I wasn't as torn as I usually am, and I was not as shocked at the end, either.  I think this has to do with 2 major reasons.  1) I knew exactly where I stood on life support issues so I didn't feel the emotional tug like I usually do, and 2) The "twist" wasn't profound for me becasue of my first point.  I don't want to say too much in case you read it. 

As in a lot of her books, you will come away with a new appreciation for her subject matter, in this case, wolves.  I learned so much about them thanks to her research.

Over all, I would recommend this book.  If you haven't thought about end of life/life support issues, you should, and this book may spark some thought provoking points you never considered.  From a Biblical perspective, I know where I stand, but there are a lot of different takes on the matter and I felt the book covered a lot of them.

Reads on the horizon:

Hotel On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Escape
The River of Doubt
Unbroken


What are you reading right now?

Cowboy fun

 We had some friends over last week and the boys had a ton of fun playing the chivalrous cowboys, rescuing the damsel in distress and riding off with her into safety.  It was quite fun to watch.

It was especially fun to hear little Gracie in her little Belle skirt saying "ok honey" to Drew and trying to ride on the back of his horse, purple purse and all.

They all had fun in their fort.  And what's a fort under the dining room table without a fun snack after a long journey?

popsicle fun

When it gets even the slightest bit warm, we pull out the Popsicles! 

my three men

My #1 man!  He's been having a great time playing with his childhood micro machines and creating new memories with the boys.  And they, of course, think it's the coolest thing to play with all these mini wheeled toys!  Such fun times.

 

Dear sweet Evan is still my child who is all over the place when he sleeps.  We walked in the other night to this sight.  Not really sure how he ended up out of bed, backwards, and with his feet up, but oh well.  He is turning into a full fledged boy and losing his little boyness every day.  His logic is also hilarious.  Just today he told me if we ran outside a lot we would turn brown.  When I questioned him, he said "Well, grammy runs a lot a lot a lot outside and she is very brown."

Oh Drew, this little guy loves stripes.  Scot let him choose his shirt and pants over the weekend and this is what he picked.  Go figure.  I'm glad no one had a seizure looking at the combination.  His newest development is making mini sentences:  "Mom!? W'are you?"  "Eyan, come 'ere!  Jump!"  "I shoes on.  Rea'y go walk."  It's been a lot of fun.

a 2nd try

And we're trying again...meet Mango and Tango!

Picture Catch-up

Happy Easter! (a day late)  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  

We did!!

It was Easter, and Drew turned 2!!

It's been a blast and I don't have time to write in detail all the fun things we've been up to.  Hopefully I'll get to that in a week or so.

But in the meantime, here are pictures to satiate!  Have fun!

Happy Birthday, Drew!

Drew.

Drew-boy.

Drew Ariel.

Drewey Drew (by only one precious little girl)

Drew-man-chu.

Drewster.

For choosing a name that [we thought] had no nicknames....he has a lot.  And we love it.

 2 years ago, we welcomed him into our family.  He made our family complete.

We were totally unaware of the joy he would bring.

A year ago, we couldn't imagine a life without his contagious smile greeting us each morning.

This past year, we're seen him grown up.  We've seen him able to exhibit self control.  We've seen him able to express himself with words and not just sounds.  We've seen him love on his brother (and others) and be loved on by a multitude of people in return.

We feel immensely blessed the Lord chose us to raise this sweet boy and nurture him.

Happy birthday, Drew-boy!  We love you!


2 year stats:  34in and 26 lbs
(Exactly what Evan was at 2 yrs.... )

Spring-ing Up

When it comes to holiday decoration, I don't do much.  Especially for one-day holidays like Easter and Valentines and St Patrick's Day.  I can do heart here or there for Valentine's Day, but otherwise, I'm not into decorating. 

Seasons, though, I like sprucing the house up a bit. Autum decor can double for Thanksgiving and Winter deco can have Christmas-time items here or there, but Spring has always been hard for me. Everyone wants to put up bunnies and eggs and flowers and Easter-type things and I'm not really into that.  So this year, I chose to highlight Spring-y things: flowers and birds, and have a few Easter items. 

This is what I did. 

On the cheap. 

 Little birdies in some flowers

A little birdie garland (more on that in the next post!)

 I had the boys do a cross craft to bring the true meaning of Easter into the house

I took some spring-y ribbon and wrapped it around spring colored candles and added some felt roses

 More fun ribbon and some twine around little candles I already had

 And not ribbon this time, but some cute scrap fabric I just folded!  I took some some yellow yarn, wrapped it, and then added a single small felt rose

Bird Garland

I saw an idea on Pinterest for an Easter Egg Garland made out of paint "chips".

I liked the idea of using the paint chips, but didn't quite like the idea of the eggs.

What do eggs have to do with Easter anyway if you don't do the Easter bunny? And since when do rabbits have eggs?

Dying eggs, yes.  They're a practical decoration.  Right?  But eggs all over my house.  Not a fan.

But I like the idea of little birds, so this is what I did.

 I took a cut out of a little bird silhouette and placed it on 2 of the colors - and I cut the wing shape out of the other color.  And then I cut and paste:

 And voila!

 I put a few in some flowers around the house to "Spring Up" the house

And then I punched holes for the eyes and one in the tail for string.

And this is how it turned out!  I really like it.

(This is also only half the garland)

Brotherly Love

They sure do love each other!

This last one sure reminds me of.... 

this one!! 

Evan was just 2 (Drew's current age -- almost) and Drew was only 4 months old.

The hair's a little different, and neither one smiling, but overall, it's the same 2 boys loving each other.