Finished Painting

I have recently finished this painting of Emily. My paintings usually take time to be completed because I put them away, pull them back out, put them away again, start a new one. My creative juices don't always go the way I would have them. I can't finish a painting if I am not feeling creative enough to do it. Plus being a mom of two kids and having so many daily tasks take up my time it is hard to get a chance to paint. I do it mostly when the kids are in bed, but even then I end up with dishes that have to get done or laundry up to my ears that has to be folded. Our place is also unbelievably small. It is driving me batty to have every corner stashed with something. Perhaps that is another reason I don't paint as much as I want to or should. I have NO room! My paintings are tucked away in a closet and I have no studio to paint in. I paint in my front room, using my coffee table. I had to get rid of my art table because... you guessed it NO ROOM! I can't wait to move into something bigger in a year.

The paintings I am currently trying to work on are: A watercolor of children's blocks. Just something for me and it will look cute in my kids room. An oil on canvas of my daughter and her cousin as flower girls at my sister-in-law's wedding. I love the painting, but because of my limited space I have no where to paint and the fumes are bad for me and my kids. I need a circulating fan, but that costs money and in the winter... someday it will get done. I itch to paint it. :( I am painting a picture of the Salt Lake Temple, my favorite temple. The problem with this painting is people are much easier for me than buildings. They drive me crazy! So many straight lines I could die. So when that one gets to me, I put it away. And another oil painting of my brother and my nephew. See, that is a lot of in the stages paintings. Sometimes I have so many I forget what I have and what I was previously working on.

In a few years I want to get my portfolio filled up and start advertising to art galleries. I want to find a way to make prints of my paintings and sell those as well. My dream is to become a free-lance artist and have my work and my name known in the art community. (sigh) I paint because I love it and I am truly artistic in thought. I want to do the things I love to do and find what other people love as well. I am always a work in progress in everything.

So I thought I would add some things about myself that my sister Rachel started. So here they are:

What I Was Doing Ten Years Ago:
Humm... 10 years ago I was 14 and I was going to art lessons and piano. I had my group of friends that I hung out with all the time. I remember this age being a very confusing time for me though. I was trying to figure out just who I was and who I wanted to be.

What I Was Doing Five Years Ago:
Five years ago I was a newlywed to my sweety. We got married in July of 2002. I was also working and going to school. It seems like ages ago when I was married and didn't have children.

One Year Ago:
I was pregnant with Lindsey and so happy! I was just glowing. We had wanted another baby for awhile and it was such a good pregnancy, I hope my next is that good.

Yesterday:
Was Sunday so we were at church in the morning, then we came home and relaxed most of the day. That is until I couldn't stand being in a very dirty house anymore and went crazy cleaning.

Five Snacks I enjoy:
Hormel sandwich ham
Potato chips
Prunes
Cereal
Chocolate anything

Five Things I Would Do With a Million Dollars:
Invest it and make it grow into two million
Put a down payment for a house
Go on a family vacation to Disneyland or Disneyworld
Buy a bigger car
Go to Italy

Five Places I Would Love to Go:
Italy to see the Sistine Chapel
France to see the Lourve
Ireland and
Sweden
Travel the country going to historical and church historical places

Five TV Shows I Like:
What Not to Wear
Star Trek
The Office
Anything on HGTV
Flip That House

Five Things I Hate Doing:
Laundry, laundry and more laundry, probably because there is ALWAYS laundry to do
Dishes, though it is better than laundry
Scrubbing the tub
Changing the sheets on the bed
Organizing the filing cabinet

Five Biggest Joys of the Moment:
My two beautiful kids
Nice sunny days
My supportive, wonderful husband
The holidays
Life in general

Halloween Party

We had 3 Halloween parties. Lots of fun and both girls were so cute I had to get their pictures! This was for a trunck-er-treat party and chili cook-off. I wasn't able to go because I had an appointment I couldn't cancel, but Robert took them and they had a great time. He said Emily over stuffed herself. Every time he looked he found she had swiped a piece of candy or a dough nut. Robert has to miss Halloween because his school professor won't let anyone off that night. Sad. So at least he got to do something with his girls. Emily was so sick the next day she hardly ate and was exhausted. She doesn't nap any more, but she put herself down for a nap and told me she didn't want to play outside! What is up with that? She ALWAYS wants to play outside. That usually means she is pretty tired. So she took a nap on the couch with mommy. It was so nice to be cuddled, she never does that.

Halloween Cookies

YUMMY! Emily is helping mommy make cookies. Cats, Frankenstein, pumpkins and ghost cookies with green, white and orange frosting. They were fun to make and tasted great too. Lindsey couldn't help, but sat in her chair munching on her carrot. It was so much fun and boy did they taste good too!

The Band

Robert's job has days where they try and boost moral during the busy times in the company. Well, he had a friend and other co-workers who put a band together and Robert was the one on the keyboard. The pictures are poor because of bad lighting, but he wore shades and I sprayed his hair up and crazy and then sprayed it with temporary white dye. It was pretty cool looking! He did awesome! They played about 8 songs and he did really well. It was fun and I took the kids and his parents came to watch. Lots of fun!

Pumpkin Soup

My sister-in-law gave me a wonderful pumpkin soup recipe. I made it tonight and yummy is it good! It is like a pumpkin chowder with onions and garlic. So delicious! If anyone is looking for something new to eat this fall and wants a warm soup that is perfect for fall, give this a try.

Pumpkin Soup
3 Cups Chicken Stock
1/2 stick butter
1/2 pint of wipping cream
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 tsp parsley
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 tsp thyme
1 apple chopped
1/2 tsp salt
3- 3 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
pepper to taste
1 minced garlic clove

Saute' onions, chopped onion, celery, garlic and apple in 1/2 stick of butter until soft. Take and blend in food processor or blender until a little smaller, but not pureed. Mix chicken stock, wipping cream and pumpkin puree in pot with spices. Heat on medium high until nice and hot, stir often so it won't burn on the bottom. Serve with any other fall foods, corn bread or biscuits would be really good. Enjoy!

Lindsey and her cousins

Lindsey and Lilly


Lindsey had two cousins born right around the same time. Lilly was born 5 weeks before and her cousin Sienna was born two weeks after her. It is so great to have been pregnant with both my sister Rachel and my sister-in-law Lori. Now she has two cousins close to her age. All the girls are so adorable and cute and all so different in personality. Wonder what they will be like as they get older. We just love our baby!

Ballerina Emily

Emily has started ballet this year. It is one day a week and she loves it. She has three friends that are in her class. This is part of her homeschool to take a class at a time and see what she likes and she can learn something new. Her ballet has a performance coming up in June and she is so excited for it. She shows me all the new things she has learned. She learned the hop, to pounce like a kitty and to be a flamingo. She is really cute when she does it. In the summer I think we will try gymnastics. It will be nice to give her a taste of many things until she knows where her interests lie. It is wonderful to search together to see just what her passions in life will be. I am such a happy and excited mommy!

Fall leaves and happy girls

The girls were so cute playing on the playground and jumping in the leaves. Lindsey keeps sucking on sticks and peeling the fallen leaves apart. Aren't they cute!

Grandparents

I painted a portrait of Robert's Grandparents for his mother's birthday one year. His grandpa had been dead for a little over a year and I really wanted to paint it for her. I have taken about 10 years of private lessons and for 3 of those years I studied watercolor. That is really the one I am better at. I have never actually taken an oil class, but I have kind of figured it out a little. This painting is an oil on canvas.

His Grandparents were married almost 60 years before his Grandpa died. He was almost 93 years old and died about a month after Emily was born. They were blessed with only one child, Robert's mom and they were always kind, loving and sweet to others.

How we met

I thought I would give a little background about how we met each other. I saw Robert for the first time in my English class. I remember looking across the room and seeing this really handsome guy smiling and thinking how cute he was. I thought to myself that I could see myself married to a guy like that. I saw a picture in my mind of us walking arm in arm together and it made me a little nervous to be thinking that way. He looked much older than me and I thought that perhaps he was married, so I checked to see if there was a ring on his finger. Huh, no ring. :) I didn't actually meet him for another month.

The weekend after September 11th we went hiking with friends to watch the sunrise. Robert even brought his camera so we now have a picture of me the day we met. He remembers looking over at me and thinking that he didn't doubt he could marry me. He was drawn to talk to me and we became fast friends. We started dating and in fact our two very good friends started dating after we did also. They got engaged quicker and the day after their wedding, Robert proposed to me in a special place for both of us. We were married 3 1/2 months later and a few days after our one year anniversary we learned we were expecting our first child.

It has been a marvelous ride and we both can say we love one another more now than we ever could have imagined we could on our wedding day.

Lindsey Brooke

This is Lindsey Brooke. She likes to climb up to her mommy's shoulder and bite it. She slobbers all over herself and those holding her. She sucks on her two middle fingers on her right hand. She hates mooshed peas and anything that doesn't taste just a little sweet (Hummm...). She jabbers away and kicks her feet. She loves her big sister and hates to be on her belly. She is a mommy's baby and would be quite content to have only her mommy hold her. She is dainty and petite and very squishable. She has an infectious laugh and the softest cheeks you could ever kiss. She is the love and joy of her family. Everyone was so happy when they found out she was coming that we still can't contain how happy we are to have her around. She is a blessing, sugar from heaven and we couldn't be happier than to have her with us. We love you Lindsey!

Emily the Princess and Lindsey

Emily loves to dress up. Especially as a princess. She wears her Halloween costume all day long and little crowns and dress up play shoes. She tells me that she has a prince she is going to marry named Toxin. She wears her church shoes for her dress up and she dances and sings at the top of her lungs. She is a beautiful girl with a very vivid imagination.

Lindsey and Emily "play" all day and Emily asks to help feed her sister and hold her. The feeding usually results in food in the babies eye, but she feels like she is a big sister helping.

Swing fun!

Emily and Lindsey both love the swings. Emily loved them so much that when I was pregnant and it was a hot summer she would beg me to push her over and over again. I just couldn't do it in the hot sun. So she taught herself how to get into both the little swing and the big swing and pump her legs. Sometimes when we play outside, all the other kids will run and play together, but Emily wants to swing, over and over again. Her friends start off swinging with her, but they can't do it by themselves and they eventually get bored and leave her there.



Lindsey just started enjoying the swings. I put her in and grab her baby toes. She laughs and giggles. It is so much fun to see her get excited about it. Emily loves seeing her sister enjoy something she likes also. She is always asking me to put Lindsey in the swing.

Meet Emily and Lindsey

Emily and Lindsey, peas in a pod

Emily and Lindsey are two very sweet and beautiful girls.

We were so excited to find out we were expecting our first baby. And though I thought for sure it was going to be a boy, Daddy felt right away that it was a little girl. Pregnancy was kind of rough, but new and exciting. We couldn't agree on a name for the longest time and finally narrowed it down to Alice and Emily. When Emily was born with a sweet little cry and that dark black hair, we knew she was our Emmy. Emily Jean. She weighed 7 lbs 2 oz and was 19 inches long. We had such a great time with her for 3 wonderful years it was 3 peas in a pod. Then we found out that we were blessed once again with another baby on the way-

It had taken some time getting her to come, but Lindsey was on her way. This time mommy knew it was a girl, thanks to two vivid dreams of a girl 3 years younger than Emily. Lindsey was different from her sister, in that she was so content to just be squished inside her mommy. And she was too. Lindsey came very suddenly in the middle of the night when my water broke. She had a fast birth starting from 2 a.m to 4:04 a.m. I guess when she decided she was ready she wanted to come right then! We also had two names to take to the hospital, Lindsey and Ariana. We decided on Lindsey because it seemed to fit her more. Lindsey Brooke. She was 8 lbs 13 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. She has been so sweet ever since.


Lindsey little baby


Emily age 2

It has been wonderful having two of the sweetest joys a family could ever be blessed with. They are happy and giggly and bring sunshine into our hearts and our home. We thank the Lord daily for the blessing of rearing and guiding these precious children.