NEWS!!!

I'm pretty sure that those of you who "follow" our blog already know, but I want to make sure that EVERYONE knows :)
Mike and I are expecting a baby on December 1st! We are so excited to be parents!! I'm about 3-4 weeks along and plan on going to see the "real" doctor (as opposed to the "unreal" doctor... :p haha I've just been to the campus one to get the pregnancy test) within the next week. We are going to CA to visit family at the end of semester which is next week...so we're hoping we can get the appointment soon before we leave for CA.
Anyways...we are super excited and can't wait for this child to be apart of our family! :)

P.S. We will keep you updated throughout the pregnancy. No need to worry! :)

Franklin's New Friend Book Summary

Franklin's New Friend
By: Paulette Bourgeois/Brenda Clark
Publisher: Scholastic
Reading Level: 6-8 years
Number of Pages: 30
Genre: Animal Fantasy
Summary: Franklin notices a new family moving in down the road and notices how ginormous their furniture is. He soon finds out that it is a moose family. Franklin hurries home to tell his mother what he saw. The next day at school, the moose kid is there and the teacher asks Franklin to be his buddy. Franklin was intimidated of Moose's size. When it was time to go play outside, Franklin asked if Moose wanted to play and he shook his his no. While Franklin and his other friends played soccer, Moose stood alone. But then Fox kicked the ball into a tree and the others complain about having to go get Mr. Owl, their teacher, but Moose comes over and says, "I've got it!" and he knocked it out of the tree. After recess Mr. Owl tells Franklin that Moose is going to help him make the bake sale sign. With some coaxing from Mr. Owl, Franklin agrees to let Moose help him. They spend the rest of the day drawing and making the sign for the bake sale. they soon become friends and Franklin shows Moose around the school some more and helps him with all sorts of things. At lunch Franklin invites Moose to sit with him and the others. When he gets home from school, Franklin tells his mother about his day. She pulls some cookies out of the oven and suggests that he take some to Moose. Franklin takes him the cookies. They talk and get to know more about each other and become new friends! :) 
Reaction: I loved this show growing up and loved the books as well. I enjoyed reading this book again. The illustrations are beautiful and the message being taught is so worth while. I love this book!
Recommendation: Definitely for younger audiences, but I think it could be read to children as they got older to help emphasis the importance of friendship and being kind to everyone.
Problems: The only problems I saw in this book was the judgmental attitudes in the beginning that fade in the end.

The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig Book Summary

The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig
By: Eugene Trivizas
Publisher: Scholastic
Reading Level: 7-11
Number of Pages: 30
Genre: Animal Fantasy/Fairy Tale Remake
Summary: There are three little wolves that live with their mother, and one day she tells them that it is time for them to go and live on their own. So when they leave home they decide that they need to build a house to live in. they see a kangaroo with some bricks. They ask the kangaroo is they can have some bricks to build their home. The kangaroo agrees to give them some bricks and they build themselves a nice house out of bricks. But the next day the Big Bad Pig comes and tries to blow their house down. But luckily it didn't cause any damage. "But the pig wasn't called big and bad for nothing." And he got a sledgehammer and knocked the house down. The wolves escaped and decided to build an even stronger house. They see a beaver with some concrete and they borrow some concrete from him to build their new and improved house. But then the pig came along again and this time he used a pneumatic drill to smash the house. Once again the wolves escape and see a rhinoceros with chains, sheet metal, padlocks, and all manner of heavy metal. They borrow some supplies from the rhinoceros and build an even stronger house. But the pig returned and blew up the house with dynamite. The wolves escape once again and decide that they need to try something different. Just then they see a flamingo with a wheelbarrow full of flowers. So the wolves decide to build their new home out of flowers. But this time when the pig came he took a deep breath to blow down the house and smelled the wonderful smell of all the flowers and started dancing. The pig had lost his big and bad disposition and became friends with the three little wolves.
Reaction: I found this book really fun. It is a fun twist on the original story. It was just a really fun read.
Recommendation: I would recommend this book to younger audiences to teach about friendship.
Problems: The pig is quite mean and there is one place where there is a bomb.

Dear Mr. Henshaw Book Summary

Dear Mr. Henshaw
By: Beverly Cleary
Publisher: HaperCollins
Reading Level: 7-11 years
Number of pages: 144
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Summary: Leigh Botts is a young boy (second grade) whose parents are divorced. As an assignment in school he is to write to his favorite author so he write to Boyd Henshaw. In response to his letter, Mr. Henshaw writes Leigh back with a list of questions. As Leigh continues to write to Mr. Henshaw, you learn a lot about his home life and what kind of person Leigh is. (The book is written in letter/journal form). After Leigh has written several letters to Mr. Henshaw, Mr. Henshaw suggests that Leigh keep and write all these things in a journal. Leigh does so, but occasionally will write Mr. Henshaw. through his journal entries we continue to learn about Leigh's life and about his nemesis "the lunch box thief" who steals his delicious snacks from his lunch almost everyday. After a few months of this, Leigh and a friend build an alarm for his lunch box that is never actually triggered by the thief.
Reaction: I thought this book was a little sad, but I suppose it is the life of a child living with a single parent. But overall I thought it was a good book and very well written. It was also a pretty quick read for me which I didn't expect.
Recommendation: I would recommend this book probably to fifth graders, maybe fourth graders. I do think that there are some more mature themes like divorce and unfulfilled promises, but depending on the audience and their maturity you might find it appropriate.
Problems: Like I said, the problems with this book would be the divorce, the mother is always out of the home working, the father never coming through on his promises to call, and Leigh being an outcast basically.

Fantastic Mr. Fox Book Summary

Fantastic Mr. Fox
By: Roald Dahl
Publisher: Penguin Books
Reading Level: 7-10 years
Number of Pages: 96
Genre: Animal Fantasy
Summary: There are three farmers Bunce and Botts and Bean. And they are all rather mean. Mr. Fox and his family live in a hole near a tree. Mr. Fox steals food for his family from the farmers. Once the farmers realize what is going on they  plan to kill Mr. Fox and his family. So to save their lives they do what foxes do best, they dig and dig and dig as long and as far as they can to escape the farmers and their many contraptions for finding them. Mrs. Fox gets too tired to move on, and the rest of the family is basically dieing from starvation. So Mr. Fox devises a plan to get food for his family and call all the children to come with him. while the farmers are camped outside the hole waiting for the foxes to come out a get food, the foxes dig their way to the farms and their storehouses to steal food from the unknowing farmers. In the process of doing this, they run into all the other animals that are now forced to run and hide from the farmers because of Mr. Fox. Once they steal all the food they need for everyone, they all return to the place where Mrs. Fox was resting and they have a feast with all the other animal families. And as far as we know, the farmers are still sitting outside the hole waiting.
Reaction: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found the illustrations hilarious and the characters lovable. Not to mention that I love the movie!
Recommendation: I would recommend this book to third or fourth graders. And also for parents to read to their younger children. I think this is a great tool to use to help teach accountability and providing for one's family.
Problems: Obviously there is a lot of stealing in this book. But whether or not you find it justified or not is up to you.

The Story of Ruby Bridges Book Summary

The Story of Ruby Bridges
By: Robert Coles
Publisher: Scholastic
Reading Level: 4-6 years
Number of Pages: 26
Genre: Informational
Summary: The Story of Ruby Bridges is the true story of a six-year old girl named Ruby Bridges. She is chosen to be the first African-American integrated into a New Orleans elementary school. She walks to school everyday with the U.S. Marshals because there is always a big crowd of angry white protesters outside her school that chant and yell mean things to her everyday. She is the only child that attends school at this time and the only child in her class. Her teacher tries to get information from her about how she feels about all the mean people outside, but Ruby never really had anything bad or mean to say about them. The book ends with Ruby walking to school when she suddenly stops in the middle of the crowd. The Marshals are worried and so is her teacher who watches from the window. When Ruby enters the classroom, her teacher asked what the problem was. And Ruby told her that she had forgotten to say her prayer that morning and stopped to say her routine prayer. Her prayer reads: "Please, God, try to forgive those people. Because even if they say those bad things, they don't know what they're doing. So you could forgive them, just like You did those folks a long time ago when they said terrible things about You."
Reaction: I cannot believe the faith and courage this little girl had to go through and survive all this. I really enjoyed reading it and looking at the illustrations, the emotional, heart-wrenching illustrations.
Recommendation: I would recommend this book to younger audiences to help teach the importance of faith and courage. And to help keep the memories of the civil rights movement alive as well.
Problems: The only problems in this book would be the yelling and meanness of the mob outside the school.

BYU

So I'm not very good at this whole blog thing...
Anyways now that it's been about a month, I guess it's time to update the world. Mike and I will be graduating with our Associates Degrees in General Studies (Mike=Communications emphasis Aubrey=Art emphasis) in July and will most likely be moving to Provo, UT so Mike can go to school at BYU. He wants to go into food science, and they don't offer that here at BYUI, so off we go (hopefully) to BYU. I am contemplating going to Beauty School once we get to Utah. I'm not sure if this something we can afford after the move, if it is even worth my time (which I'm starting to think yes), or if i should just stay home and have babies...haha yeah so anyways...even though a lot of decisions have been made, there are still a million and a half more to make.
We are also considering going to live in Virginia with Mike's parents for a few months to work and save up money, but this basically depends on when school for Mike would start and housing and a ton of other things that we just don't know anything about yet...
We are pretty excited about going to BYU (if we get in). Especially to get to go to sporting events.
P.S. We are so stoked about BYU and march madness. Oh yeah baby!!!