2015 Reading List Update 4

1. The Defector
2. The Secret Servant
3. Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief
4. Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters
5. Percy Jackson: The Titan's Curse
6. Percy Jackson: The Battle of the Labyrinth
7. Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian
8. Dark World (Zak Bagans)
9. Chasing Spirits (Nick Groff)
10. Divergent
11. Insurgent
12. Allegiant (reading)
13. Four
14. All By My Selves (Jeff Dunham) (listened on Spotify)
15. The Clock Struck One: Helen Deakin
16. Particle Man: Deric McNish
17. The Wanderers: Jessica Miller
18. Sparked: Lily Cahill
19. Crowning Fantasy
20. Against Authority
21. Knight in Distress ( Swoonreads)
22. The Rotunda ( Swoonreads) 
23. How to Get Internet Famous: Trisha Paytas (kindle)
24. Slasher Girls and Monster Boys (audio)
25. Trusting a Sheikh

The books listed after Crowning Fantasy, some were read before the clock struck one and some were read after Crowning Fantasy. The Swoonreads labeled ones were manuscripts and these two were amazing. I can't wait until they are published. Trusting a Sheikh is a review copy that I have to review soon. I will not be posting my review on here, it will be on Goodreads and Amazon.

School Week 20 Recap

The first half of our school year is officially OVER!!!! This week did seem to drag on forever though. We did some errands on Monday, so it was an easy school day. We got some more computer work done on Tuesday and Wednesday and it was a productive week. I am planning to do easy work for them tomorrow and on Friday, but those won't be school days. I have to plan the rest of this school year during the next four days.

Monday: It was an easy day. They started with their morning work and quiet time. My mom gave them a new puzzle, so they are now working on that.

After they worked on the puzzle for an hour, we left to go do some shopping. We went to Hobby Lobby and Dollar Tree. I don't have any pictures because we were in an out because of the traffic and the weather. Sammy did help pay for my new planner from Hobby Lobby and Ariana helped pay for my items at Dollar Tree. That was the end of the day for us.

Tuesday: Today was productive. I don't know why days like yesterday feel like we didn't do anything and I am a horrible person. But anyways, after their morning work, they went straight to work on their new puzzle. They are excited and can't wait to show the finished product off to my mom.

After the puzzle, I split up their quiet times. Samantha did hers first and Ariana got to work on her computer work.

Ariana started on the letter L today

Sammy doing her quiet time

My refrigerator is decorated again

Samantha got done with her quiet time while Ariana was still doing computer work, so I printed off some math pages for Sammy to work on. She is getting really good on her addition. Then I sent Airy off to write words in her book. Her handwriting is get great, but if she doesn't write every day, then it doesn't look that good. Sammy then started her computer work and it was a very good day. She reviewed odd and even numbers, and learned another roman numeral.

That's how we ended the day, and it was a very good day and it made me feel better about Monday.

Wednesday: Sammy started earlier than Airy today because she finished her breakfast first and she wanted to start early so she could finish early. Well, that didn't go as planned because they still finished at the same time today. They did quiet time together and then puzzle again. They are loving that puzzle but it is very colorful and it is throwing them off somewhat.

working on their puzzle

Ariana's school planner

After they did puzzle, they wanted to work with their new Doc McStuffins lace activity thing that they got for Christmas.

they started with lambie

working together

they were unraveling the purple and also working with the brown yarn for the hair.

it came with three different types of yarn and a headband sticker and a 3-D bow and flower sticker for the headband. 

They finished the day with computer work. Sammy started her computer learning and she has some vocab words to learn. They were desktop, program and window. While I was explaining those things to her, she was very attentive and answered my questions. I know that she will love this part of her school work.

Lowe's Workshop: Holiday Train

This workshop was on December 12th. The girls do these holiday train workshops every year, and this year, I decided to start displaying them because we don't have the much Christmas decor.

Anways, Cayce took some pretty amazing pictures today and also after they left the workshop, they had to go by Wal-Mart to pick some things up and they got their picture taken with Santa. They are gorgeous in the pic, but Santa blinked and you can see past the display into the store, so #minorfail.

If you want to see pictures of the trains, go to my Christmas day post and you will see them along with the rest of my decor.

working on their own trains

Sammy hard at work

I love this pic of Ariana looking over the instructions

The colors of the instruction booklet and badges are just so vibrant and eye catching. It is so pretty.

these badges are so cute.

This was their last workshop of 2015. They will be starting workshop again in February. They were going to a workshop on January 2nd, but Cayce forgot and picked up some hours at work. So the first one they will be going to is another Lowe's workshop in February and Adalyn will be tagging along and going to her first one. Super excited about that.

Sparked Review

New review. This may sound a bit harsh to readers, but it's an honest review and I did what was asked of me. If the author doesn't like what I have to say, then they are in the wrong business because no story will receive all positive reviews. As you know, this is posted on my Goodreads page.

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**Goodreads Review**

I received a copy for an honest review. When I first downloaded my copy, I read the summary and I wasn't impressed. It sounded like a contemporary romance and I don't really enjoy reading books set in the 1950's. I just don't understand that decade what so ever. I enjoyed the book. It reminded me of the Hatfields and McCoys with a mix of Romeo and Juliet. I don't think this book should be classified as a superhero just because the characters have powers. They shouldn't have the superhero label because they haven't stopped any crime. Cora helped herself away from Ralph with her water power and also to keep Clayton from taking his energy and turning Ralph into a vegetable.

I am hesitant, but willing to read the rest of the books in the series because they are based on different characters in the town. I want to know if Cora and Clayton will make an appearance in the rest of the series and team up with the others who present their powers to eventually become "superheroes". I enjoyed the book, but the time period and the wrong category for this novel is just a big disappointment. The ladies who wrote this have an amazing imagination, but not the type of story I enjoy.

Freebie Haul 12/21- 12/26

Monday: I got a handful or I should say and armful of freebies today. It was awesome for my birthday!

December 15, 2015 issue of Wine Spectator

December 2015 issue of Men's Health

got this for Cayce so we can start getting healthy again

January/ February 2016 issue of Saveur

December 28, 2015 issue of Us Weekly

Curel body wash and lotion

boppy bloom stretch mark cream

Palais des Thes green tea

birthday gift from Marlboro.

Tuesday: I only got two freebies in the mail along with an package for my laptop. The freebies aren't that great, but they will definitely be used.

elli quark yogurt coupons

Orlando travel guide

Wednesday: I got two goodies today. I love this bowl. I had to buy a certain kind of cereal and upload my receipt to Kelloggs.com and it automatically offered it.

Glow in the dark bowl from Kellogg's

January 4, 2016 issue of Us Weekly

Thursday: I got so many goodies today and I am calling a few of them Christmas presents.

I finally got my jingle voxbox from Influenster

Alpo meal helpers that I will be giving to Cayce's grandma

more grizzly coupons

the items inside my Jingle voxbox

Goodreads giveaway win

I won this book back in November

Garnier skin care crowdkit from crowdtap.

I got so much product. It's amazing. Can't wait to host the party,

Friday: NO Mail!!!   MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Saturday: I got 3 freebies delivered today. It came very late, and I don't know if there is any mail in my box because these boxes were delivered to my porch. If there is any freebies in my mailbox, I will post them in the next haul. The next haul will have two week's worth of freebies.

Kids First Multi-vitamin Target sample

I was expecting a little satchet containing like one or two, not a full size bottle. Very impressed!!

Cayce's pinchme box

Purell wipes, wine voucher, breathe right strips, and sinful shine nail polish and top coat

My pinchme box

purell wipes, wine voucher, olay body wash & coupon, breathe right strips and sinful shine nail polish and top coat. I got the same color in the nail polish. 

I am still missing items from my pinchme box. I am missing a bag of cat food, and a can of cat food. Hopefully, I will be getting those soon, for my kitties. Maybe they are in the mailbox.

Christmas 2015

Our Christmas this year was amazing. Cayce and I had our gift wrap date night this week and it was so much fun to watch the girls tear into their presents. I know it will be better as the years go on. We woke up around 8 and the girls were already awake and waiting for their alarm to go off, but instead we went ahead a got them. We had to wake Addy up though and she was not happy until she saw the presents.

Cayce took one girl at a time and made them cover their eyes and they had to face the kitchen with their backs turned to the Christmas tree. It was so fun to count to three and have them all turn at once.

Sammy

Ariana

Their faces seeing the tree

They immediately ran to the tree. The first thing Sammy picked up was the frog, Addy picked up the duck and Ariana got one of the white bears and then she spotted the pink one. Those were free reign to whoever.

Sammy got to play Santa this year and she handed out the presents. She picked out some that were for al three of them first and then she went and picked individually. I have so many pics but I am only going to post a few.

unwrapping the first present of Christmas 2015

Samantha's first present. 

I am going to have so much fun teaching her how to do these

Ariana opening her first present

look at her face

Addy opening up a present

she said "WOW"

we wrapped the elf on a shelf that Cayce won at work. 

We will be doing this next year.

Addy got a doctor's kit.

her sisters are playing with it too.

sammy got these in her second stocking

holding a new book

Ariana opening another present

This is what Cayce got them.

This is what I got for Christmas along with my other gifts.

I made Cayce two music playlists that he can listen to. One is Smallville season 1, and the other is Smallville season 2. I found a website that has all the songs listed from every episode and I went to Spotify and got to work making those playlist for him and he listens to it every chance he gets.

Sammy got her Ariel doll.

Addy got candy

Addy got a Frozen Elsa dress.

This chick LOVES Frozen

got some gloves in their stockings that will hopefully be used sometime this winter.

this was in her stocking

the little Olaf came from my Influenster voxbox. 

Since she loves Frozen and mainly Olaf, I gave it to her

my sweet girl.

Samantha and Ariana also got a new TV for their room

Christmas Favorites 2015.

After all the present were unwrapped and the girls were occupied. Cayce decided to nap in his chair and I got started on breakfast. This was around 10am. I saw a recipe last month that I had to make for Christmas morning. It is Biscuit and Gravy casserole. It is so delicious.

After breakfast, the girls played and watched the minions again, while Cayce and I slept for about another 3 hours. The girls were surprisingly occupied and we got a very good nap in that rarely happens. When we woke up, we started cooking our Christmas dinner and then we went outside to play with some of the new toys. Now, in the pictures my kids are wearing summer clothes. That's because it was close to 80 degrees outside. It didn't feel like winter at all, especially since I got bit by mosquitoes.

A few hours later, we had our Christmas dinner. It was ham, homemade mac and cheese, green bean casserole and deviled eggs. It was so damn delicious.

After dinner, we got ready for bed. Addy made it to the couch before she knocked-out.

It was a successful and awesome Christmas. The girls were happy and that made Cayce and I happy. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas. Now let's end the year 2015 on a positive note.