• personal

    2010’s reading list recap

    This is the pile of Kindles we have in Florida. Everyone has one in this apartment, except for John.(now even including Timmy since he inherited Patrick’s 1st generation when Grandma upgraded Patrick to a 2nd generation Kindle. He’s starting to really read on his own, I figure he’ll grow into it.) Jack’s 1st generation Kindle died this year so Amazon sent us a replacement 2nd generation Kindle. I guess Grandma felt bad for Patrick and thought he should have the same as Jack. At any rate, these boys read like CRAZY so they can have whatever Kindle they’d like!!

    The boys reading list for 2010:

    1. Ark Angel (Alex Rider series) by Anthony Horowitz

    2. Snake Head (Alex Rider series)

    3. Crocodile Tears (Alex Rider series)

    4. Scorpia (Alex Rider series)

    5. Skeleton Key (Alex Rider series)

    6. Storm Breaker (Alex Rider)

    7. Point Blank (Alex Rider)

    8. Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

    9. Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

    10. The Journals of Lewis and Clark 1804-06 by Lewis and Clark

    11. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

    12. Catching Fire by SC

    13. Mockingjay by SC

    14. The Life of Honorable William F. Cody (aka Buffalo Bill) by William F. Cody

    15-22. A Series of Unfortunate Events- the entire series

    23. Al Capone Shines my Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko

    24. Al Capole Does my Shirts

    25. Lawn Boy by Gary Paulson

    26-27. Choose your own Adventure by RA Montgomery

    28. Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt

    29. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

    30. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

    31. The Watsons go to Birmingham 1963 by Christopher Curtis

    32. The Odyssey by Homer

    33. The Giver by Lois Lowry

    34. The River by Gary Paulson

    35. Calvin Coconut Trouble Magnet by Graham Salisbury

    36. Percy Jackson The DemiGod Files by Rick Riordan

    37. Mud Shark by Gary Paulson

    38. Hatchet by Gary Paulson

    39. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

    40. The Blind Side by Michael Lewis

    41. Eagle Strike (Alex Rider) by Anthony Horowtiz

    42. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

    43. The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer

    44. The Art of War by Sun Tzu

    45. I, Robot by Issac Asimov

    46. Master of War- The Life of General George Thomas by Benson Borbrick

    47. The Wednesday Wars by Gary something

    48. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid- Dog Days by Jeff Kinney

    49. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid- The Ugly Truth

    50. The Cay (had to read for school and did NOT like it!!)

    51. Million Dollar Throw by Mike Lupica

    52. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

    53. Foootball Hero by Tim Greene

    54. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

    Pretty impressive, huh? Especially the books that I couldn’t get thru!! If any of you have suggestions for them for 2011, please leave me a comment and let me know what you recommend. Obviously, they burn thru them super quick and we are always looking for something new for them to start.

    So, another good year in books for me but I didn’t quite make the 43 total I read in 2009.

    1. Breathless by Dean Koontz

    2. The Help by Kathryn Stockett*

    3. Alex Cross’s Trial by James Patterson

    4. Under the Dome by Stephen King*

    5. Nanny Returns by Emma McLaughlin

    6. I, Alex Cross by James Patterson

    7. A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick*

    8. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane*

    9. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

    10. Horns by Joe Hill*

    11. The Perfect Husband by Lisa Gardner

    12 A Dark Matter by Peter Straub

    13. The Blind Side by Michael Lewis

    14. Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen

    15. Little Bee by Chris Cleave

    16. The Host by Stephenie Meyer

    17. The 9th Judgement by James Patterson

    18. Worst Case by James Patterson

    19. The Last Child by John Hart*

    20. The Other Daughter by Lisa Gardner

    21. The Passage by Justin Cronin*

    22. Deception (An Alex Deleware Novel) by Jonathan Kellerman

    23. Blockade Billy by Stephen King

    24. Deeper than the Dead by Tami Hoag

    25. Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner

    26. Private by James Patterson

    27. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese*

    28. Room by Emma Donoghue*

    29. The Long Walk by Stephen King

    30. The Partner by John Grisham

    31. A Special Place: The Heart of a Dark Matter by Peter Straub

    32. Who Loves you Best by Tess Stimson

    33. Sh*t my Dad Says by Justin Halper*

    34. Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

    35. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

    36. Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King*

    ** edited to add the last book i finished at 11:43pm on 12/31/10** 37. CrossFire by James Patterson.

    The *’d ones were my favorites this year that I’d highly recommend.

    While I had all these great ideas for an end of the year bsquared recap for today’s post, everything I’d need for it is on the external HD that is not here with me. But I am still wishing all of you, my faithful and fantastic blog stalkers, wonderful clients, lovely friends and family (and some of you fall into all the categories!) the best 2011 ever, with lots of love and health and happiness (and good books!!)

  • elf on the shelf,  personal,  travel

    the christmas that was 2010

    Finally got around to editing and posting these (sorry for the delay if you were waiting for them but they aren’t all that exciting or anything so hopefully you won’t be terribly disappointed!). Christmas was fantastic this year and Santa was very good to all of us. Maybe that Bob had something to do with it, putting in an extra good word for the Beyrer family when he met up with Santa.

    I snuck downstairs after Santa came but before the boys were up to take some pictures of all the loot. And loot there was!

    Everyone left Santa notes, cookies, milk, some chocolate kisses for good measure, and carrots for the reindeer. Oh, and Timmy made a candy cane just for Santa. But that was after him saying that we couldn’t leave the Oreos out for Santa cause those are Timmy’s favorite cookie. Guess he isn’t willing to share, not even with Santa.

    Of course Bob was on call. He’s decide to stay with us instead of heading back to the North Pole just yet. We’re happy he’s hanging around. 

    Someone was happy with his Galactic Heroes. All 9,000 of them.

    After much debating, we picked up some macbooks for the boys. They use the desktop PC often for homework but it’s old and tired and filled with viruses. I’m hoping that these will last them a while and they are definitely enjoying them so far. 

    Some catchers gear for Patrick.

    The aftermath of weeks of shopping, hours of wrapping, lists for Santa and maybe 15 minutes of opening. Santa brought the big boys the Xbox with extra controllers and a few games including Call of Duty (with instructions that they just cannot play it when Timmy’s around), he brought us all an ipad to share, and he brought Timmy a new DS and a few games for that. Not to mention the tons of jerseys, sporting goods, shirts, slippers, clothes for me and books (for John-we all have Kindles) that were opened. It was a very good Christmas and we were so happy to spend it together. The look of disbelief on the big boys faces when they opened the Xbox was the best!!

    After a crazy morning of opening, sorting, eating and packing we got on the plane to Florida. As it turns out, we got out of dodge just in time before the blizzard of 2010 hit, closing the airports, roads and dumping a ton of snow all over NY. So glad we missed that. That was the biggest Christmas miracle of all!!

  • babies,  children & families

    the owen family

    While I had great aspirations for some kind of year end wrap up or something today I’m being so lazy and vacationy that I didn’t get around to it. Maybe tomorrow. Or the day after that. My new tag line- Vacation. It doesn’t suck.

    Another shoot lost in the holiday shuffle. A quick mini session at home for these delicious kids who have appeared here on the bsquared blog more times than I can count. Their mom was basically the starting point of my business- sending many (and I do mean MANY- like in almost all) of my first clients. I adore photographing them and am so happy that they now have a whole new baby for me to take pictures of!

    Love the face on the right- please get him offfffff me!! There’s droooooool!!! Hi, I’m K….welcome to my Christmas village. He is the happiest baby. Ever.  Something entirely MadMen about this picture. Don’t know if it’s the lighting, the look he’s giving me or what. But I adore it.  Thanks for another fantastic shoot! Can’t wait for the christening!!!

    Oh, and I can’t leave this out. When B was born, Jerry from Fade to Black Video came over (on crutches no less) to film their shoot and make it into a whole ‘video your shoot’ experience for the family. I challenge you not to cry- especially at the ‘brand new brother’ part. He presented the video at the christening (pictures from the christening soon). It’s really a must watch!

    OwBaby1 from Jerry Silecchia on Vimeo.

    If you are interested in adding the ‘video your shoot’ experience to your 2011 bsquared shoot, please see the page here for more details.

  • children & families

    the arle family

    Oh, deeeeer. Except there was no deer this year (c’mon, you’ve gotta remember this family from last year!). Mom still brought the fun props, but totally scaled it back this year (I think dad was pretty pleased about not having to carry the huge decapitated deer thru the park!) And the santa hat was the biggest hit with the boys.

    The one on the left has suddenly turned into the biggest ham EVER. He used to be so shy and hate having his picture taken, but now it’s like a whole new kid! It wouldn’t be the arle family without a few lollipops! Props, schmops– right Jenn? Thanks for another fantastic shoot!!

  • children & families

    the lerh family

    Is she or is she not the prettiest little christmas baby you have ever seen? Last time I photographed her she was brand new (less than 2 weeks old) and now just look at her- sitting up, crawling, smiling- all of it! I think they are all going to have the merriest of christmases!