Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Book Review: The Girl Who Played with Fire


This is the second book in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Series (its also called the Milennium Series) by Stieg Larsson. If you read my review of the first book, it was lukewarm. But the end of the first book was the best part and it left you on a little bit of a cliff hanger. Since I already had access to this book on my kindle, I figured why not keep reading it. Well, I am so glad that I did!

The second book of the series is so much better than the first in my opinion. It was very exciting from start to finish. I literally could not put it down. I think I read the entire book in a week! That is very fast for me with work and Steven.

The second book goes into more detail about the main characters, Lisbeth and Mikael from the first book. Their relationship has changed and you learn a little bit about that. You finally get some background on Lisbeth, which has been so mysterious until now. Then you find out that Mikael is onto another big story with his magazine. But in the middle of researching this story, there is a triple murder and Lisbeth is the main suspect! At that same moment her narration of the story drops off so you are left wondering, where did she go? Did she do it? Is she ok?

It was a very exciting book and I really enjoyed reading it. I would definitely recommend it to anyone. You don't even have to read the first book to understand this one, I think. Its a great read.  I hope they make a movie of this one too!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

January Fav Raves

I'm going to feature a "favorite things" post every month on my blog. I wish I could be like Oprah and give all my favorite things out free to my blog readers...but unfortunately I'm not that cool. I'm going to try to do 5 each month but who knows, it may be more or may be less. So here's what I'm loving this month:


Skinny jeans and boots! I am in love with this look! I have been wearing them a lot this winter and just love how they look. Its a look I didn't think I would be able to pull off but I tried it on a few times and loved it! I have 2 pairs of boots I wear this winter and 3 pairs of skinny jeans! Woot!


Steve and I had a date night a few weekends ago and this is what I wore. He said I looked hot. Thanks, hubby. Don't mind the weird eyes, its a phone picture.



I am looooooving my new Coach purse this month! Steve got me a gift card to coach for my birthday, back in August. At first I was a little confused because even though I am a total fashonista, I have never really asked for a Coach purse and never really carried a designer handbag (knockoffs of designers, yes, but never the real thing!) So when he got me a big gift card to the Coach store, I was very surprised and also a little perplexed. I could tell he was trying to be thoughtful but I was more than a little worried about spending that much money on a purse!

So we went to the mall to pick one out but I really couldn't find anything that I LOVED (and for that money you better believe I'm not getting something that is eh). So I've been holding onto the gift card forever! Last weekend I was at the mall with my mom and found my new love. Isn't she beautiful? That purse was meant for me. Its sparkly, shiny and in purple! Thanks again, hubby.


I'm loving all these new babies being born and all my prego friends! I have a ton of friends who are prego right now and one that just had a baby last week! I'm so excited for all of them. Of course, every time I talk to one of them or hear about their life it makes me think back to when I was prego with Steven or when I just had him. That's one of the best times in my life! So special. Good luck all you ladies having babies...you'll need it! ;)


Since Steve and I don't have cable anymore I am having to be creative in the shows that I watch. We have Hulu Plus now which has a ton of shows on it, just not necessarily the ones that I'm used to watching. Well I found a gem on there that I am really loving....Mercy. Has anyone else seen this show? Its really great. Its like ER with lots of love and sex so I guess that makes it like Grey's Anatomy? Its about a Veteran too which makes me happy. Totally recommend it.


The last thing I've been loving this month is my mom's hand-me-down Kindle 2. She actually gave it to Steve for Christmas but I stole it (he never uses it!). Its great! I really wasn't sold on the whole E Reader thing but I really am enjoying the Kindle. Its an older model so no touch screen or apps or anything cool like that but I really enjoy reading books on it. It keeps your place, which is really useful and also fits neatly in my purse.  Also, it came with all 3 of the books on the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series loaded on it and I was already reading those, so its been great. Thanks again hubby!



I guess I should put Steve as one of my favs this month since he's gotten a mention in almost all of them! ha ha!! What are you guys loving this month? I guess January's almost over so I'll try to be more punctual with my February Fav Rave.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Pursuit of the Perfect Playlist

Anyone who knows me knows that I love music. I am always listening to it at work, at home, in the car, everywhere! I love to make new playlists for my Ipod too. I thought I would share the songs/CDs I'm digging right now and that have been on repeat in my Ipod lately.


Christina Perri Arms is one of my favorite albums right now. Its a great CD from start to finish. Lots of good songs, happy ones, angry ones, sad ones. I really love it. Arms is one of my favorite songs on there. Hope you enjoy the video!

I love Matt Nathanson. I've loved him since college. He's such a great singer and lyrcist. His new CD Modern Love is awesome. After I got it I listened to it back to back for a week probably! This is a live performance of a song on his CD that he does with Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland. Great song, great CD, great artist!


I really like this song by The Band Perry. Its a great song. Its upbeat and happy, my favorite. I liked their first single too. Its easy to listen to and sing to.


My last new favorite songs is by one of my favorite bands of all time, Foo Fighters. They are great. They have always been a great rock 'n roll band but they also have great lyrics. I got their new CD with my Itunes GC for Christmas and its great! This is the first single and it rocks!

Well those are the songs I'm digging right now. What about you? Any new music that you love? What are you jamming to in the car? In the shower? Happy singing! :)

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Book Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo


I finally took the plunge and read this book. Its been all over in the past year, and everyone says how great it is. They made a movie, of course. So when the book went on sale at Target I picked it up and thought I'd see how it was.

I thought this book was surprisingly hard to get into at first. It was very dense and confusing and written in a Swedish dialetc with Swedish names that were not easy to remember. It really took me by surprise how hard this book was to get into since it was so mainstream. After the first 3 chapters I thought about quitting but kept going because everyone I talked to said it was a good story. I did end up liking the book but getting past the beginning was brutal!

I thought overall the story was pretty disturbing. It was a mystery that had a very eerie feeling to it the entire time. I kept feeling like something was about to happen. All the characters were so creepy, you just knew one of them was up to something!

I would say that I enjoyed the book overall. I am going to read the next 2 in the series just because I have them, I probably wouldn't purchase them to read. It was an enjoyable book but again, I like happy endings :) I wouldn't necessarily recommend it as much as everyone I talked to did. I think it was a pretty good story, but the book was really hard to get into and pretty creepy overall. I think it probably makes for a great movie though, we'll add that one to the list to see still!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Dot DIY Painting

Earlier I mentioned my obsession with an awesome website Pinterest. You can find such amazing ideas! While I was "pinning" one night I came across this idea for do it yourself painting.


I had seen something similar before in a store like Bed, Bath and Beyond or maybe it was Gordman's. Anyways, I'd seen something like this in stores before and I'd liked it. So I thought, how great would it be to be able to make it for cheap instead of paying the $30+ to buy it? We need some art for our living room, since I have one completely blank wall so I thought I might be able to make this work for that room.

First I read over the tutorial a couple times and got an idea of whether I really thought I could do this. I've attempted some artsy projects before wtih mixed results...ha! But this one really involves a minimal amount of actual "painting" so I thought, I probably couldn't mess it up too badly.

So I went to my local craft store and picked out some paint colors that I thought would coordinate with the living room, a canvas, some spray paint and a paint pen. I was good to go after that trip and pretty excited. The one hiccup was that I couldn't find the round sponge brushes you need to make the flowers. I had to go to a couple other places but eventually found those. So now, I was in business!

The first step on the tutorial is to spray paint the canvas. I didn't expect that step really but it totally makes a differnece in the end product. The canvas comes in a very bright white color and I was going for more of an antiquey look. I used a beige spray paint color and had to do it a couple times to get the color even (lesson learned: do not spray paint directly above a canvas or the excess spray paint will drip and make big globs on your canvas :) but eventually I got to a great beigey colored canvas and I was ready to start the fun part of this project.

So the tutorial says to use a paint pen to draw the branches since that is easier than trying to paint them. Well I couldn't find a brown paint pen, so I got black, which I already was not super happy with. Then when I started using the paint pen it was turning out to be a big hassle. It was covering unevenly (possibly because of the spray paint) and was just really hard to work with. I had some brown paint leftover from another project so I decided to go ahead and paint the branches.

Well that was a huge pain! and took forever! ha ha! But I think it really paid off because I love the way the branches turned out. I got a little obsessive with painting them and trying to make them look "pefect", but whatever. I let those dry for a day and then got into the fun part of doing the sponge flowers. I originally had chosen those colors: light blue, lavendar, a burnt orange/red, dark blue and dark purple. I did the painting with those colors and after letting it dry, decided they really didn't go together super well. So I experimented with some other colors I had and ended up covering up the light blue with a sage green and a few others.


I also had to redo over the dark purple because the paint (I guess because it was older, from anther project) dried all funny and globby. It didn't look good. So I painted over those as well.


So after a few hiccups, I came up with this finished product. I am actually really happy with the way it turned out! I'm also very proud of myself for making this artsy-ish painting. Steve was kind of enough to hang it up in the living room for me and I'm pretty happy with how the colors I chose go in that room.


What do you think? Easy peasy DIY painting! More DIY to come :)

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Baby Steven's First Year...Eight Months


8 months already, baby boy! You are getting so big! Its amazing to watch you growing up right before our eyes. You are mastering so many things so quickly. I wish you would slow down a little!


Your father and I agree, this month is the most fun we've had together. You are so interactive and have such a big personality, you are so fun to be around. You go crazy with screaming/giggling fits and squeeze your fists together or flail your arms around. Occasionally you will go in for a play bite on our shoulder or leg if we are sitting on the ground. Too funny!!


You are developing a strong attachment and preference for people you know this month. You've even started to go through a "mommy phase" where you will whine if I give you to someone else. But you are generally good with other people that you know after a while.


When you play by yourself now you like to play a game of fetch. LOL You will get an object within your reach and play with it for a few seconds then randomly throw it somewhere and then spend the next few minutes reaching, stretching and scooting (!!!) to try to get it. And...you are persistent!! Oh boy! If its slightly out of your reach you will try and try to get it. I think you got some of daddy's (and mommy's) stubbornness in you!



Like I said above, when you are motivated you will scoot a little on your bottom. On your belly you've figured out how to push yourself backwards, which usually just frustrates you more. But you are so cute and getting moving this month. I think crawling is probably in our near future.


You have started helping us turn pages in books we read this month. You also love to knock over stacks of blocks we make for you when we are playing.



You learned how to play peekaboo this month and its is ADORABLE. So cute! You will hide your little face under a blanket and then pull it down and smile from ear to ear. You are such a ham!



Speaking of being a ham, you love, love showing off for the camera. As soon as you see someone getting their camera out you know exactly what to do. You grin and coo and smile so big. Hilarious!


This month we got to celebrate our first Christmas together. It was so much fun and such a special time. You had a little bit of a hard time with schedule changes, staying up late and tons of new people around. You were a little crabby and wanted everyone to leave you alone! You slept through most of your opening presents on Christmas day with family. But oh well! We were so glad you were there for Christmas and cannot wait to celebrate more Christmases with you.


This month you are eating like a champ! You have really been adventurous in trying new foods. We started you off with fruits and veggies and you do great with those. Your favorites right now seem to be asparagus, broccoli, apples and pears.You also are good at eating eggs, toast, waffles and sausage for breakfasts. You love to eat meats, so far you've had chicken, turkey, ham and pork! And you've loved them all. You love to eat whatever mommy and daddy are eating and think its pretty fun. You'll usually take a package of fruit/veggie puree at a meal too. Mommy started cooking you a few things and so far you love them too!


With all this eating, you have cut way back on drinking breast milk. You used to take 4-5 bottles while mommy is at work and now you usually only take 3. You are getting so big! We even tried the sippy cup with you this month with some mixed results. You liked it but are still getting the hang of it. Part of that could be that you are teething big time this month. We felt a few teeth trying to break through on your bottom gums but so far nothing. You have been drooling and chewing on everything in sight though so we expect to see teeth any day now!


So 8 months old already, baby boy. Time has flown by and daddy and I are just loving watching you grow up everyday. You have a bubbly, friendly, silly personality and you love to give kisses and play, especially with people you know. You like to knock down your blocks, play fetch and scoot to reach things around you. You're playing peekaboo and turning pages in books this month. You're also eating like a champ and growing like a weed! We love you so much, Steven!


Monday, January 9, 2012

2011 Year in Review

Can you believe its already the last week of the 2011? (oops this is a little late ;) This year has flown! Its time for the annual end of year wrap-up post. I enjoy writing these because it makes me take a look back at the entire year's events. That's always fun remembering what you did and thinking about what you want to do in the future. Obviously 2011 was a huge year for us! We were blessed with the most wonderful baby boy! But I'm going to try to go chronologically so here we go....

Here I am in Dec 2010. I think...


In January 2011 I was 6 months pregnant and sent on a (impromptu) trip for work to Salt Lake City. I remember that the weather was so bad and I was scared the flights back would be cancelled and I'd have my baby in another state! ha! Pregnancy paranoia....During that trip I did get a chance to see my baby kick which was awesome! Steve and I also took another impromptu trip to Indianapolis to see a Colt's playoff game! That was a lot of fun!


Also in January, Steve and I were hard at work on the nursery, getting ready for our bambino. I made Steve paint the walls 3 times, poor guy. He's such a good hubby.


In February I was getting into the 3rd trimester of my pregnancy and getting a lot of pain, symptoms and general yuckiness. I also had a pre term labor scare....and that was no fun. I had to cancel any future work plans for travel and we started to really worry.




In March I had 3 baby showers! One given by my girlfriends, one by my mom and aunt and one by Steve's mom and sister in law, Meghan. I was overwhelmed by the generosity of our friends and families and I also ate a lot of cake! ha ha!

By April, I was very uncomfortable in my pregnancy and really ready to have this baby!! April was also when those crazy tornadoes went through St. Louis and did a lot of damage very close to our house. We were without power for a whole weekend but didn't have any damage. We were so lucky. This was one time when I was sort of glad our baby was still in my belly because it would have been a lot harder to handle if he'd been a newborn.


In May we had a baby!!! That was the most amazing, crazy, happy experience of my entire life for sure. Steven was born on May 4th and after that for the rest of may we were just surviving...basically! It is crazy business having a newborn. I was breast feeding constantly, sleeping not much and trying my best to figure out what this screaming baby wanted!! ha ha! At the every end of May Steve and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary. It was our first outing without baby and it was scary for mommy but I was so glad we did it. I have a wonderful husband and its important to celebrate our relationship.

In June we celebrated Steve's first Father's Day and also the 1 month birthday of our baby boy. I think we had Mother's Day in there somewhere too but I didn't blog about it so..moving on! ha ha I also had some struggles with breast feeding. It was really hard getting started and getting comfortable. But we are on a great track now. I'm so so glad I stuck it out!


July was the end of my wonderful maternity leave. After being home for 3 whole months and having my life completely changed, I really didn't want to go back to work at all. I didn't mind the job I do and I love the people I work with but it just didn't seem to matter one bit when compared with staying home with my baby. Believe me if we had the financial means, I would have never gone back! It was so hard in the beginning, but we have amazing childcare (love you guys!) and that made it much easier. And eventually I got used to it.

In August and July I started with new hobbies. I started doing more DIY stuff, mostly inspired by Pinterest. I also started couponing, which is so much fun but also so time consuming. I also started reading books at work during my pumping time and I've really enjoyed that hobby. It was nice to get back into reading for pleasure. I have read 5 books since that time and my favorite by far was The Hunger Games. I cannot wait for the movie!


In September things started getting crazy with my cousin's wedding preparations. I helped to plan her bridal shower. That was so much fun and she seemed to really have a great time. That same weekend was the bachelorette party here in St. Louis. Craziness! But Kris had a great time.



In October we had a 5 month old baby already! Can you believe that? He started rolling over this month. So big! We had amazing weather in October and got to do a lot of fun things with Steven. We took his first trip to the zoo, went apple picking and also to a pumpkin patch! We also celebrated Steven's first Halloween! What a busy (and super fun) month!

In October and November we had a great time cheering on our St. Louis Cardinals as they won the World Series! It was a crazy ride and we were so glad to be a part of (watching) it. Super cool that they won the year I was born and the year Steven was born too! Also during this time we started Steven on Baby Led Weaning and had some difficulties. But we quickly learned from our mistakes and adjusted our techniques and now Steven is eating and feeding himself like a champ!


During this time Kris and Zach got married too! We stayed up in Springfield for the weekend so I could be in the wedding. That was our first "road trip" with Steven and it went really well! The wedding was gorgeous and fun too!

Also, in November we had Steven's first Thanksgiving as part of our family. It was so nice to celebrate the holiday with him even if he did sleep through dinner on Thanksgiving day. ha ha!


This December has been nuts! Our baby is no longer an itty bitty baby (sniffle). He is growing up right before our eyes and will very soon be crawling, talking, teething and leaving for college.... ;)


We got to share Christmas with you this year and that was great!

Whew! That was certainly an eventful year. Seems like time is flying by now at rapid speed...hope we can keep up in 2012. Happy New Year, everyone!

Friday, January 6, 2012

Christmas2011 Part 2

Ready for the second round of Christmas pictures???

On Wednesday evening after Christmas we met up with my cousin, his wife and their three girls at my parents house. It was a lot of fun. Those girls are nuts! They have so much energy. I was exhausted after we left. But they sure did love Steven.


I didn't take any other good pictures...man I suck!

Then that weekend we saw two other sides of our family. Lots and lots of family!

On Friday we saw all of Steve's siblings, his parents and our niece, Willow. That was a lot of fun!


After a yummy breakfast, Willow opened her presents...


Then helped everyone else open theirs. So cute.



Steven didn't need any help with his gift bag...


Meghan made us santa hats! Aren't they the cutest?



Seriously, how darn cute is he?


Yum, wrapping paper...






Next up, we visited with my brother, Steve, his wife, Amy and my nieces Hannah and Megan.



This picture below is actually from the Sunday after Christmas with my mom's extended family. I didn't take any pictures, and this is one from my mom...oops!


Hope everyone had a great Christmas! We sure did! But we are also glad its over. :)