family art!

Friends, checking out the three art piece that Kaemon Ze, my Whimsy Guy, and I are showing in a local art gallery (so exciting for us!).

The three artists!

(The orange painting is not ours).
The large painting behind me is my Whimsy Guy's; the small brown painting is Kaemon Ze's "Dinosaurs Fighting"; and mine is the horizontal blue piece.

Dragging his best friend around the gallery. :)

Lunch with our wonderful friends.

Auntie Laura with Baby Zoe.

In bloom!

happy birthday celebrations!

 Kaemon Ze and his Grandma. Love.

Watching Kaemon Ze's wish paper take flight.

I love the look of delight on their faces.

 Grandpa lights his wish paper.

 The special paper burns fast, and pretty...then, at the last moment, it takes flight!

Watching Daddy's wish paper float back down.

 

Will blowing it make it stay up longer? :)
A happy JoyBoy caught the ash in his hands.

 

thank yous for gifts that just keep on giving

 For J&A - he loves the "Where the Wild Things Are" book you got him when he was born, along with his Max and Wild Guy toys. :)

For Uncle Ben - JoyBoy is finding lots of creative ways to use his (incredibly tacky - can I say that?) Sponge Bob snuggie. :)

playdate with best buddies

Kaemon Ze built this whole thing...pretty impressive, eh? :)

misc. photos (mostly) from daddy

Flying high!

Playing with buddies.

Tribute to JoyBoy. :)

Letter "G" onion ring. :)

Helping Gumpapa blow out his candles.

Whimsy's habanero simple syrup.
Can you say, "H O T"?

Giddy-up, horsey!

The finished painting Kaemon Ze gave to his best friend. :)

A fun find at the Great-Grand Parent's home. :)

Climbing at Great-Grandpa's house.

Whimsy spies beauty.

Whimsy's wedding ring, making an infinity symbol
(he has a strong connection to the infinity symbol).

Too cool.

(Tony Bennett!)

my life is full (and oh so good)

Hello out there. :)

I'll be catching up with my blog this week as I can. Been busy solid, it seems from when I last left off back in January. 

The big news is that the three of us are each showing a painting at a local gallery - we're pretty excited about that! The curator sent me a text to say, they hung our three paintings together, "..in a little family at the gallery." So sweet! Can you believe we've yet to see the show? It opened last weekend, but we were out of town. We're hoping to see them this weekend with a group of friends. :)

It was such a huge push for us (me and my Whimsy Guy) to finish our pieces; when the invite to show arrived, we didn't have much time (esp. as we both work). I finished one hour before the deadline...and we still had to get the paintings to the gallery. It was intense, but we had tremendous flow, and our three-year-old son was in the flow right there with us and we made it to the gallery. 

I've had a few other self-imposed deadlines - to put together two photo books (the kind that are printed) before the coupons expired. I had several late nights and very early mornings, but I finished! I'm looking forward to seeing them as one is our wedding album and the other is of our honeymoon. It only took me 4 1/2 years to get albums made. :) Now...if I can finish Kaemon Ze's One Year Baby Book this year, I'll be "ahead" of schedule, right?

We got in a few date nights; hosted a play date with our friends from Iowa and JoyBoy's Auntie Katie stayed with us for a night! 

Around that time, Kaemon Ze got a cold from his Grandpa, who shared it with Grandma, who gave it to Kaemon Ze, who then finally shared it with us. For a while it looked like us parents dodged the bullet, but no. The first week JoyBoy was sick, he went through 10 boxes of tissues (yes, really). I've never seen so much snot in my life. It was astonishing. We missed a birthday party, two playdates, and postponed our monthly Sunday Waffles due to "the cold." After four weeks...we are through with it. Thank you Jesus. And oh yea...I've had a birthday. We celebrated with Waffles and friends, my birthday twin (Annie) and Sweet Lee sang "Happy Birthday" to me. It was wonderful.


I was thinking I'd chill out as much as possible this week (you know...when I'm not at work, not cooking, cleaning, playing, reading, etc.), but then I remembered I'm rather behind on the blog and...I have walls and trim that I need to finish painting (good thing I have a ~very~ patient husband). As a favorite minister of mine would say, "Life is Good...and there is more!"

I got my daily e-mail from Neale Donald Walsh who wrote, "it is time for you to give your mind a respite, a retreat from all the illusions of your Every Day." Amen to that.

Stay tuned...and thanks for your patience, too. :) I'll back-post from January 11th til I'm caught up again.

my s.i.l. (sister-in-law) is funny

a day for love

 Giving Laura a kiss for the special chocolate heart.

 "Tank Chew Laura."

birthday waffles, cake, and paint

Annie is my birthday-twin. :)
Happy Birthday, Girl!

a sculpture for me

My JoyBoy said he built this sculpture for me.
Awww! :) :) I LOVE it!