Books read 2015

A couple of awesome ladies I know keep track of the books they read each year which I've always thought is a fun idea. So last year I did as well, pulling a couple from both of their lists for some fun inspiration.

Here's what I read in 2015:
(favorites bolded)

January:
Summer Moonshine, by PG Wodehouse
A Week in Winter, by Mauve Binchey.  This author was pulled from my friend's list and what a great find! Really liked all of her books that I read this year, will definitely read more.
The Gift my Mother Gave me, edited by Elizabeth Benedict

February:
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,by Rebecca Skloot
Quentins,by Mauve Binchey

March:
Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi
The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns, by Margaret Dilloway
Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquila

April:
Whitethorn Woods, by Mauve Binchey
Friday Night Knitting Club, by Kate Jacobs

May:
Gap Creek, by Robert Morgan
Every Living Thing, by James Herriot A surprisingly great read. I was skeptical, it was the choice of an older lady in our book club at church. But the author is such a fun and witty writer, loved this one.
History of Love, by Nicole Krauss

June:
Little Beach Street Bakery, by Jenny Colgan
Women at Church, by Neylan McBaine. Great book! She has some wonderful, simple ideas on how women's role in the Mormon church can be increased
Wonder, by RJ Palacio
For One More Day, by Mitch Albom

July:
Saving Fish from Drowning, by Amy Tan
The Polygamous Wives Writing Club, by Paula Kelly Harline.  Hoped this one would help me come to a peaceful place with my problems with the history of polygamy. But although I thought it was a wonderful book, it did not help me achieve that aim. And really, it's not a place I ever really expect to get to.
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.
Counting by 7's, by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Say Goodnight Gracie, by Julie Reece Deaver

August:
The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Orczy. Always a good read
The Counterfeit Lady, by Kate Parker
The American Heiress, by Daisy Goodwin. Found this one in the 'Little Library' in the neighborhood (does anyone else's neighborhoods do this? It's a small box that people can take and leave books in, probably a third of my books this year came from this box) and was surprisingly very good. Made me think of Cora in Downton Abby.

September:
The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. This was the One Book, One San Diego book for 2015. Really good.

December:
Essentialism, by Greg McKeown. It took me October through December to finally push my way through this book. I really liked it and it inspired me to change, but I guess I like me a good story better. :)
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya- Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells
The Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
The Language of Flowers, by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. Probably one of my favorites for this year. It really drew me in emotionally, I think mostly due to my being a mother and relating to some of her emotions as she enters new motherhood. Also very eye-opening into the foster system.

Rain, puddle jumping

Abby, like any other kids, loves jumping in puddles. And since we've had some good rain days this past month, she has had some great chances to puddle jump her heart out. Well, I probably never let her go as long as she'd like, she could go for quite a long time. 

Abby, first day of Primary

And my little girl is growing up!  Abby has now had three full Sundays in Primary but here is her picture from that first Sunday. She was so excited and absolutely loved it. She really likes her class and teacher and also thought 'the big Primary room' was a lot of fun. 

Our Primary is teeny-tiny so it is just Abby and two little boys in her Sunbeam class, part of a total maybe ten-ish kids in all of Primary. I just got called as Primary pianist so I'm excited that I'll get a bit of a sneak peek into her Primary time.

Her last Sunday in nursery I subbed and it was a really fun time, so thought I'd include these cute Abby-Rudolph pictures.

And Rua too:

Christmas break - Cowles mountain hike

Over Christmas break, we decided to hike Cowles Mountain as a family. We've lived her over 5 years and to this point had not done the most hiked spot in SD. Abby was even game to try hiking on her own. It was about 3 miles round trip. We hiked up the back of the mountain to try to avoid the crowds and that was definitely a good choice because when we got to the top it was suddenly super crowded. Glad we didn't have those crowds while hiking. 

Some pics from our break up on top:

At the summit!

Made it to the top!

The hike back down was a little slow going as Abby started to tire. But she impressed all of us with actually finishing without us having to carry her.

Abby starting to get really tired. But she kept going!

A tired, but triumphant hiker! 

Christmas break - Rose and desert gardens

One of our favorite spots in SD is Balboa Park, which really is lots of spots. One of which are the Desert and Rose gardens. They are beautiful and it had been a while since we'd been. So we went for a day after Christmas stroll. Note to selves - while Christmas Eve may be a great day to visit Balboa as it was super empty, apparently the day after Christmas is one of the busiest, so don't go that day again! It took forever to find a place to park. 

But the gardens, as I already said, were beautiful. As was this little girl:

Abby loves rocks

Found another big rock

Christmas 2015

*Very unfortunate, but Eric, who took most of our Christmas pictures, inexplicably decided to delete all the pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. So we have very few pictures. 

Christmas Eve was pretty quiet for us, spent the day at home before going out in the afternoon to take a family walk through Balboa Park and walk through the life size Nativity display they have there. It is a series of statues depicting the Christmas story, very nice. Of course, we also stopped by the ducks for the girls.

When we got home we had our simple Christmas Eve dinner of homemade mac and cheese, corn, and pigs in a blanket. In case anyone thinks of attempting it, don't use hot dogs you find in the freezer left over from the summer. Yuck. Can you tell we hardly eat hot dogs?

The girls acted out the nativity with help from us. Rua was Mary and Abby was a few things I think. They had a lot of fun with that. We left cookies for Santa for the first time this year.  Abby this time around has really gotten into everything Christmas and was very excited about it all. 

Christmas day was so much fun. Eric and I had stayed up til about 1:00 am the night before trying to finish our big Christmas project for this year - refurbishing a vintage rocking horse for Rua. It was a headache, especially since this is the first time either of us have tackled a diy project like this, and we almost gave up. But I'm glad we didn't because we both love how it turned out! I'll have to look around for a before picture and post that to highlight the difference.

Rua is holding the other big project for this year. I made big-ish cloth dolls for both Rua and Abby. It took a lot of time, but I've had it on my to-make list ever since Abby was tiny so I'm glad I finally did it. They are customized to look kind of like Rua and Abby (really, just short hair for Rua's, long hair for Abby's). I used this tutorial pretty much to a T.

A view of Abby's doll 

The few pictures we have from Christmas morning of playing with toys:

Christmas was very quite as we stayed in SD with no family visiting. And really, it was wonderful. The next week, we did have visitors - my parents and sisters Celestia and Lilly came to visit on New Years Eve. So that was fun getting to do our New Years Eve food and fun with them.

The girls got some grandma time:

We spent the day at Old Town since Lilly had never been. And Abby was excited for all the wagons to climb in.