Baby Mason: Eight Months

It seems like the months are just flying by. This little guy is not so little and the milestones have really come in like a hurricane over the last month. He is now standing. Last month he was barely able to crawl.

Sleeping on his big Bubba *AWW* // Cheesing it up while I put Matt's old hat on him.

Books I Read in September

Sugar & Spice by Lauren Conrad - 3.5 stars (finished 9/7)
This is the third book in the L.A. Candy trilogy.

Not that this is like some high class quality reading or anything, but I did expect more from the ending than what was given. It was like all of a sudden, it was done. There wasn't as much closure to the characters as I had expected and that kind of stinks. It wasn't a terrible ending, but definitely bad enough for me to dock a star. I especially WTF'd to Jane and [spoiler: Braden].

Paper Towns by John Green - 3.5 stars (finished 9/14)
I really love John Green's style of writing. It makes it quite easy to read and connect with the story. I really loved Q and the entire journey of finding Margo. Radar and Ben were great supporting characters, although I do lean more towards Radar :) My only "problem" is that I don't quite get the ending. It may be a herpderp moment for me, but it went over my head, nonetheless. Am I supposed to make up my own ending? Is there a metaphor? Is it an implied ending? *shrugs* For that, I knocked off half a star. I still enjoyed the book, but I don't know that I would read it again. Now I just need to see the movie :) I really think Cara was a perfect fit for Margo. She was very easy to imagine as Margo.

Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon - 5 stars (finished 9/17)
7/20/15: Read an excerpt from Buzz Books: The main character in this story is literally deathly allergic to everything in the outside world. So that already makes it a very fascinating premise. I really enjoyed Maddy and her perspective in the excerpt and have high hopes for this one. I love the cover too!

Update: 9/16/15
My grandma sent me a Target gift card for my birthday, so I picked this up today and I'm super excited to start it!

----

I haven't finished a book this quickly in I-don't-know how long! From pretty early on, I figured two things that would happen, but that didn't spoil the book at all [spoiler: her leaving the house and having an attack - and her mom lying about her having SCID - I figured the attack would be because of her upbringing]. Madeline is one of the most interesting, delightful characters that I've come across in a while. Olly is just as quirky as Madeline and a gentleman. I just can't express enough how much love I have for this book. Throw in Nicola Yoon's husband's illustrations and seriously, the most perfect book ever, guys! You MUST read it!

September Photo-a-Day: my month in pictures

I missed August's Photo-a-day and honestly, we were so busy that I didn't do very well anyways. I'm aware we're a third of the way through October, but I'm just glad that I'm even getting around to posting. My blogs have been suffering lately as we just have been entirely too busy! So here's what we did in the month of September...


1: I discovered my new favorite ice cream. Like legitimately the best ever. It hasn't been stocked lately, so I've tried Breyer's and Edy's - they aren't nearly as good. // 2: Octoberfest hit the shelves and that means it goes into everything, like soup!

3: Cami had her first Girl Scout meeting and was so excited. It's her first year to do scouts. // 4: Nick had to take a final exam, so the kids and I went to Walmart (and then I surprised them with ice cream at a local shop)...and we spotted the PDub kitchen products! YASSSSS.

2015 Series "Challenge" - Update #3

In my last update, I had 2 series down, 15 books read. Not really making much of a dent in those three months. But this go-around, I think I've done pretty well considering I'm not reading as much as I'd like. I've finished 1 more series and 5 more books for a total of 3 series and 20 books. 

In these final three months of 2015 (what???), I hope to knock off some of these series that I only have one book left to read. My 8 year old recently fell in love with Rick Riordan books and so far this school year has read all of the Heroes of Olympus books, having just finished Blood of Olympus and teased me mercilessly that he beat me. For my benefit, I will be highlighting in blue the books I want to read before the year is done!

My October TBR List + Upcoming Releases

I read 3 books in September - 1 off of my possible read, 1 brand new one, and 1 series. So that was a pretty good month! I finally got close to what I'm supposed to do :) This month my list is small, so let's hope I can get around to reading most of them and some others too.

Possible October Reads: 

• The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien [reread]
• Naked in Death by J.D. Robb [new series]
• The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
• Unhinged by A.G. Howard

What books do you hope to read this month?

What releases are you excited for?