Maw Books » photos of my family

When I’m Not Reading . . .

Natasha Maw — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 07:09:12 +0000

. . . I am not home.

First, there was Christmas spent in California at my in-laws home. We had a great time. Erica Perl, author of Chicken Butt!, sent my boys a talking chicken. They loved it so much that they stole my camera to take many photos of it.

I also think we watched this show probably about twenty times:

After our Christmas vacation, we promptly set off for the funeral of my husband’s grandfather. And at the age of 92, he had lived a life that we all were proud of. My fondest memory of Grandpa is his marrying me and my husband. I will always remember how proud I was that he was able to do that for us.

My husband’s family is from Hawaii and the best part about attending the funeral was seeing Grandma, Aunties, Uncles, cousins, and new babies that we haven’t seen in years in addition to more time with Taylor’s parents and sisters. Because we don’t often get the chance to travel to Hawaii, we made the most of it and stayed for 11 days. We also ate out every meal. Mmmm . . . yummy.

The wonderful sunny break from our Utah winter weather made me want to never come home.

And people, I seriously have the cutest kids ever.

See what I’m talking about?

Sad to leave Hawaii and on our way to the airport, we realized that we left this at Grandma’s house and my oldest boy cried:

I think I have read a total of about 20 pages so far into January. But honestly? Who cares!

Now that I am back home to an empty fridge I have my sights on the grocery store to pick up Mexican food and snacks for tomorrow’s Bloggiesta. Can you believe it’s tomorrow? Must make up for all of my time offline and get this fiesta started!

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Merry Christmas!

Natasha Maw — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 09:30:20 +0000

The gift of love. The gift of peace. The gift of happiness. The gift of good reading. May all these be yours this holiday season and the entire new year.

Wishing you a very merry Christmas from my family to yours!

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When I’m Not Reading . . .

Natasha Maw — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 22:41:27 +0000

. . . I am obviously not blogging. Breaks are good even when they are unannounced and no reasons nor apologies given. That blogging rule that goes: “you should always post regularly and consistently?” So not me this past month.

We’ve had a great fall and with all the snow on the ground we are well into winter around here.

We had pho (our favorite!) on Thanksgiving day.

Not to worry though, we did have the traditional dinner later that weekend with 3 of my 5 siblings, my in-laws, my parents, and a myriad of nieces and nephews.

And while it was outside doing this:

We stayed inside and put up our Christmas tree:

(Notice our box of holiday picture books underneath?)

We have also been hosting out of state family for the past two weeks. It’s been a blast!

I might add though, that I have in fact also been doing a lot of reading, particularly picture books for the Cybils. Thus far 232 books read out of 264. So. Much. Fun.

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The Big Halloween Costume Reveal

Natasha Maw — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 20:24:48 +0000

Happy Halloween!

If your Halloween was anything like our Halloween then you have been BUSY BUSY with all kinds of fun, fall activities and running around from one fantastic event to the next. And if it’s anything like ours than you also go all out on costumes. My husband has created quite the reputation for himself and he, again, did not disappoint with both his and the boys’ costumes. And might I add that the only thing I had to do for my costume was put it on? Yep, Taylor also takes care of everything for me as well.

Our boys:

My own Madhatter:

And the whole family:

Now that the costumes are done and Halloween festivities have come to a close, what are we going to do with our nights now?

We had a great Halloween this year. You?

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When I’m Not Reading . . .

Natasha Maw — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 06:05:58 +0000

. . . we had our family photos professionally taken for the FIRST TIME (I know kind of crazy considering my BFA is in photography)!

Aren’t they gorgeous? I’m so excited!

If you are in Utah check out Suzette Anderson Photography. She did a great job with our little family.

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Not Your Ordinary Trip to the Library

Natasha Maw — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 03:21:35 +0000

Why, yes, that’s a hissing cockroach. And yes, my four-year-old is holding it.

Kudos to fantastic library programs!

(I think.)

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When I’m Not Reading . . .

Natasha Maw — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:00:33 +0000

. . . I can be found playing basketball on Thursday nights.

Well, it would have been nice if I had a picture of myself with the ball, but such is life.

I loved playing basketball in junior high and high school (I was never on any teams except for church) and it’s always been my sport of choice. Too bad I’ve only made like 5 points in our 5 games thus far and we haven’t won a game yet. But it’s fun.

I also feel like I’m going to die whenever I play.

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When I’m Not Reading . . .

Natasha Maw — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:47:34 +0000

. . . I can be found hanging out with these two adorable little guys!

I have often wondered these past couple months what I could be doing to relay some of those random bits of life and let my blog readers get to know the “real” me a little bit more. So be on the lookout for more “When I’m Not Reading . . . ” posts (I don’t know 3-4 a month?) because who knows what I might be doing when I don’t have my nose in a book!

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The Halloween Pics! (A Day and a Half Later)

Natasha Maw — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:07:29 +0000

Halloween has been a month long event here at our house. We got dressed in our costumes no less than a billion times and attended at least half a dozen parties as well as hosting one for all of my little guy’s friends. I’m now raiding the boys candy stash and recovering by convincing my husband that I need to take long naps.

We’ve been reading a lot of Halloween picture books about monsters and other spooky things this month. I reviewed Jeremy Draws a Monster, Goodnight Goon, Leonardo the Terrible Monster, Where’s My Mummy, Dear Vampa, and A Very Hairy Scary Story. I had many more books in my pile that I thought for sure I would also review this month including Billy Bones: The Road to Nevermore, Frankenstein Takes the Cake, There Was An Old Monster!, Gris Grimly’s Wicked Nursery Rhymes, Thirteen O’Clock, Three Little Ghosties, and Spooky ABC. There’s always next Halloween right? I’m also halfway through Frankenstein by Mary Shelley which I didn’t finish for my face-to-face book club and Heather’s Dueling Monster’s Read-a-long. I’m still planning a review of that one.

As many of you know from the past photos of my husband that he’s a bit crazy about Halloween costumes. The past few years he’s dressed up as Edward Scissorhands, Willy Wonka, and the Joker. He pulls them all off and looks great! Normally he works on the costume all year but everything changed this time around when Michael Jackson died. So yes, we succumbed to one of the most popular costumes this year and each of us dressed up as a different era in Michael Jackson’s life.

I know many of you have asked if Taylor won his office Halloween costume contest this year after winning two years in a row. In the morning he arrived as the black Thriller Michael Jackson and then at lunch time he changed to the white Billy Jean Michael Jackson (as seen in the pics above). It was hilarious because he came out dancing.

But did he win? Well, he got second place. Just take a look at the following photo and take a wild guess at who won (my husband even spent two nights helping his friend out with the winning costume – I swear I want to borrow it one day, it’s so cool).

I’d love to share some video with you of my husband dancing because he danced a ton! We are putting one together and I’ll add it in here and tweet the link as well when it goes up. It was really nuts. He really pulled off the look!

And well, to make the post a bit more bookish, guess who we ran into during our Halloween activities? Brandon Mull:

It was a fun time with the Jackson Four at our house!

What’s your favorite Michael Jackson look? Favorite song? So many kids didn’t know who we were! Luckily, we brainwashed our kids. They loved it. And know quite a few dance moves themselves.

*ahem* Can I just mention that my husband lost 40 lbs for this role! He looks fantastic! Now I need tips on how to convince him to get rid of that ponytail . . .

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Natasha Maw — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:59:09 +0000

I grew up not reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl but rather watching the Gene Wilder movie. I loved it! I watched it over and over. When they announced the new movie directed by Tim Burton and starring Johny Depp you can’t imagine the kind of excitement (and nervousness – will they do it right?) that was created in our house. To say that my husband is both a Burton and a Depp fan is putting it mildly. They are both highly influential artists for my husband. And we are happy to say that we were not disappointed.

So I decided that it was high time that I actually read the book. And I must admit that there was no way that I could read the book without the movies influencing me. I was constantly comparing them to each other and taking note of how both movies adapted the book to screen. So I feel like I have now come full circle and finally discovered the words that inspired both movies.

Do I even need to summarize? The infamous Willy Wonka hasn’t shown his face in years and is opening his factory to five lucky children for a tour and a promise of something grand and wonderful to one of them. Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde, Mike Teavee and Charlie Bucket (how could you forget those names?) all get more than they bargained for in Wonka’s wild and crazy factory.

I found Charlie and the Chocolate Factory delightful. Dahl is a master storyteller and the book was fun to read. I did find that although the book was short, I found myself unable to read it straight through. Not sure why I needed little breaks from the narration. It’s a perfect book to read-a-loud as a family or one-on-one with younger kids. It’s fast paced and funny. A story for everybody of all ages to enjoy.

As soon as I finished, I had to put in the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Johnny Depp version) movie and and have it playing now. This review is taking me forever because I keep watching the movie instead. I’m not going to go into a movie critique at all. Suffice it to say that there are noticeable differences in both movies from the book which I think make both stories better. It’s fun to see which dialogue they’ve changed and what they’ve kept especially has I have the book fresh in my mind.

And to prove just how influential this story is in our household, check out these family photos from about three years ago:

Can I just mention that I sewed that vest? Because I don’t sew. So I was impressed with myself. And for those who will ask (because they always do) – yes, that is my husband’s real hair.

I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl as part of Banned Books Week. In 1988, a Colorado librarian placed the book in a locked vault because she thought that it espoused a poor philosophy of life. I would highly recommend reading this essay entitled Charlie and the Political Correctness Factory which I found very enlightening about how Dahl changed some of his text after it was printed and the changes made in the movie.

Links of interest: Roald Dahl website. Other Maw Books reviews: James and the Giant Peach (which I reviewed last year for Banned Books Week), The Witches and yesterday’s post about the Mike Teavee song lyrics (where I ask which movie you liked better).
Genre: Juvenile Fiction. Approx ages 9-12.
Publisher: Puffin. June 1998. Originally published 1964.
Paperback, 176 pages. ISBN 0141301155
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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