The Coolest Family Ever!

Last week my friend Brooke asked me to take her family's pictures. They are moving away and wanted to get some pictures taken in good old AZ before they split.

I am so sad that they are moving! I thought of telling her that I would only take her pictures if she would stay. But unfortunately, my photography skills aren't good enough to be that persuasive.

On a positive note, I got to spend some time having a ball while taking their pictures.

Twirl Girl

A secondhand Minnie Mouse dress can make a 3 year old's day. Thanks Aunt Magi!
You are a pretty princess! Wild hair, bare feet and all! I love you sweet Ella Rose!

My Mom Is An Artist!

Oh you poor blog, you! You have been sorely neglected! I have been up to my eyeballs in headbands and I will try to do better!

I'm sure you all have been just dying for another blog post, right? If I had a sarcasm font, I would have just typed that sentence with it.

Anyway, I've missed so much it would be a bore to me and you to try and catch up on all of it so let's just pick up right here, shall we? Here we go:

Did you know that my mom is an artist? I have been wanting to post about her for awhile and today is the day!

My mom has a master's degree from BYU in art. She has used everything from oil paints, pencils, pastels, to stained glass.

Her styles have been landscapes, abstract, impressionism, you name it.

Her latest is photography. Well sort of...

I will be honest. I have a hard time explaining what she does now to people. I will just let her super cool pictures do the talking.

What Happens At Night:
Interview:
Self Critic:
Delivering Peace:
Movement Is Not Progress:

Pretty cool, huh? If you like her stuff, please go to her Flickr page and leave her some friendly comments. You can see lots of her other work there too!

Another Milestone

Gunn Boy is growing like a weed. He's started to move around so much more and he loves that he is getting mobile. I, on the other hand, am sorta bummed because it means I'm going to have to sweep and vacuum my floors a lot more and he's getting less chubby due to all the effort he puts into dragging his hefty body across the floor. I love his fatness and I will be sad to see it go!

Here are some funny videos of his attempts to crawl. Cuteness!


A little better this time:

Giveaway!

For those of you that like giveaways, my headbands are being featured here today and it's a giveaway. Visit this link to enter!

Farm Window Re Do

Years ago, I ordered an old farm window off of ebay. Since then it's served many purposes and has been in many places of the old house that we lived in. It came painted white and I put old photographs in it. Then I painted it brown and put it on the plant ledges we had in our old house. I decided the brown looked like doo doo brown and so I painted it black and hung it in the foyer near our front door and put a picture of Dale and I on it. It also looked great for Halloween.
Then we moved to the house we are in now. Poor thing had to go upstairs because I couldn't find a spot for it downstairs. I hung it in a hallway that leads from the loft to my office and there it has hung sad, lonely, and sorely neglected.

You will have to excuse my horrible pictures. I left my "nice" camera at my parent's house and so I used my pocket digital. Not the same.
I tried hanging a sign on it to cheer it up but it still looked bleak and boring.

So I began thinking of what the heck I could do to it to spruce it up and I thought of numbers on the panes. Apparently, putting numbers on things is hot right now and I decided to participate in the trend.

Visually, I think putting numbers on things looks really pretty but if I really think about it I say to myself, "Do I really need the number of window panes that I have counted out for me?" Then I decided I don't care because it looks cute.
You may notice the lack of number 7. It's because the window came without that pane. It's vintage and authentic, you know. Either that or the seller busted it and claimed it was found that way. Whatever, I think it gives it charm. I think to fill in that gap, I will find something cool and hang it in that spot.

Anyway, if you have a desire to put numbers on something in your home that you could easily count out yourself but want to add visual enhancement to it here's how I did it:

First I printed each number in the size I wanted it to be on the panes.
Then I put carbonite paper with the carbonite side facing the glass under each number.
And I taped the paper to the glass to keep it from moving around and I traced the outline of the number onto the glass using a stylus.
The carbonite paper left on the glas what I had traced and I then filled the numbers in with black acrylic paint using itty bitty paintbrushes.
It took awhile using these brushes but if you use bigger ones, you won't be able to paint very detailed numbers. It was kind of painstaking and I had to do a couple of coats but I think the result was worth it.
I'll post another picture when I find something cool for that empty spot.
I realize I could have ordered vinyl numbers but that would have cost money and I had the paint, paintbrushes, and carbonite paper left over from another project. Free is much better.

I think numbers would also look great on plates, on picture frames, above doors, bins for organizing, etc.

Anyone else have any fun ideas for numbers?

It's Awesome To Be Five

Rex-a-saurus turned the big 5! The morning of his birthday he was running back and forth across our loft to see if he could run any faster and punching Dale to see if he could hit any harder. I told him I had never seen him run that fast or hit that hard and he said "Mom, I love being five."

Rex really is a cool little dude. He always gives me compliments and hugs and smooches. He can read short words and write his name. He's awesome on his bike and rides like the devil on his Razor. He loves loves loves his little bro. He has to know where Gunner is at all times. I can tell he's itchin' for Gun boy to get bigger so they can play together. He has a kindness for others that always amazes me and makes my heart melt at times. And I hate to admit it but sometimes he beats me at Mario Kart. Sometimes.

Because of his birthday, he got to fill out a poster about all about him for preschool. We had it up on our fridge for a few days before he got to take it to class and I would catch him staring for a really long time at it. He asked me a couple of times if he could take it in the van with him when we ran some errands and if he could sleep with it. Finally he got to take it in and show it off. He couldn't have been prouder.
I had to take a close up of it to show you his family portrait.
I love how he draws people. And the figure on the far right is baby Gunner. So awesome.

For his party, Rex told me he wanted a Transformer theme. We invited some friends over and had an easy low-key party. It turned out to be great fun!
This Optimus Prime was soon blown to smithereens:
My sis Magi made yet another great looking and great tasting cake! I'm digging the mosaic theme on it!
Check out the transformer face:
So I thought it would be cool to have some blue and red (transformer colors) food for the kiddos to munch on. I attempted to make blue and red rice krispie treats and this was the result:
More like a pink and turquoise. Really odd looking, huh? Not quite Optimus Prime colors. Although I'm pretty sure I replicated the exact colors of most weddings in the late 80's and early 90's.

My blue Energon Cubes turned out great though!
Rex had a great time blowing out his candles and opening his gifts:

Then it was time to head over to the park for an epic water balloon battle! I handed out masks for the kids to wear to help them feel more like super cool Transformers but all it did was block their vision and make their throwing horribly inaccurate.

My girlies can still look cute in boy masks though:
The battle begins! Autobots roll out!
I love this shot of Ella trying to get Tabby:
Dale said "You better run boy!" and then launched a balloon at Rex:
Dale with a rather mischievous grin on his face:
After the battle, the kids spent the rest of the time playing at the park while the grown ups hung out. That's my kind of party!
I love this boy so much and I'm so happy he's my rad little dude! Rex, you are the coolest 5 year old I know!