you + me = US

Friday, August 13, 2010

21 Day Challenge - Day 4

Sorry it's so late at night. We left the house @ 8:00 a.m. and didn't get home til 9:30 p.m. From Layton, Salt Lake, to Park City, it was a busy, fun day! As I tried to think of what I'd draw today, I kept thinking of a little worm on a wall, crying. Strange I know.

Day 4 - The Day They Cut Down the Apple Tree

It's nice to have a good friend nearby when you're feeling down. Even if it is your natural enemy :) I used colored pencil and bristol paper. From sketch to finish, 40 minutes.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

21 Day Challenge - Day 3

Drawing this picture was a great outlet today, very therapeutic. I don't know how long it took to complete because I was multi-tasking in a major way. Interruptions include, but not limited to, tending neighbor kids, cooking ramen, passing out popsicles, entertaining "the bored", cleaning the kitchen, rotating laundry (of course), refereeing fights, not peeing my pants, and enjoying a delectable tangerine. :) I love my job!

Day 3 - Surrender

I used color pencils, computer paper, and a magic marker.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

21 Day Challenge - Day 2

Day 2, Me Want Butterfly

If she was just a few inches taller, she'd have it. 1 Hour from sketch to finish. I used a magic marker, pastels, and computer paper (I'm out of the good kind).

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

21 Day Challenge - Day 1

I recently found a great new blog called A Knack For Art. Check out his stuff, it's so entertaining! In it, artist and blog author Mike R. Baker, decides to take on a fellow artist Gina Perry's, 21 Day Challenge. For more info about this challenge, click here . The concept behind the challenge is, if you do something consistantly for 21 days, even for just 15 minutes, it will become a habit. Mike and Gina (both professional artists and illustrators) used this challenge to create new works of art each day using new mediums and techniques. I've decided to keep it simple and just create a new work of art each day.

Day 1, The Friendly Octopus

Talk about Mr. poplular. From sketch to finish it took me about 2 hours, using a magic marker, cold press paper, and watercolors. Hopefully I'll get better @ scanning :)

p.s. This challenge is not just limited to artwork. Imagine ANY hobby, exercise, housecleaning, yardwork, dancing, playing with your pet, calling a long lost friend each day, the possibilities are endless. However, if any of you decide to take on the challenge, let me know. We can help each other stay on track. Wish me luck and visit here tomorrow to see what I come up with.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Nesting

Lately I've had an uncontrollable urge to do something. But timing and circumstances are not in compliance. At least I can blog about it. Thanks to Mike R. Baker, here's a glimpse into my one track brain. . .

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Time To Think Pink!

After visiting the Dr. yesterday, we found that our little baby is growing healthy and strong. I'm 17 weeks along. And our due date is December 28th (it keeps moving closer with each visit). We are so humbled that Heavenly Father is sending a baby to us and that all is going well so far. We also discovered that "it" is a "she"!!!! We are so incredibly excited. I love my boys, but this is truly a dream come true for me. Hair, bows, princesses, drama, tears, stretchy tights and shiny shoes. Bring it on!!!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

What do you think?

Boy

or

Girl?

Friday, July 9, 2010

Adventure In Our Own Backyard

The Pow-Wow @ Soldier Hollow was so much fun! The guys even got to go out and dance! Incredible regalia!

The two headed man.

Spencer takes it all in.

Ben and Alfonso out in the action.

Each year our library has a huge (COMPLETELY FREE) party, picnic, entertainment, the works. It's something not to miss! Ben got his face painted to look like the Joker!

Spencer's lightning bolt.

Will got a skeleton hand!

Scales and Tails was also there. Making things veHEHhery interesting! Check out that boa!!!

Twinkle-toes the tortoise.

Slice the ball python.

I'm TERRIFIED OF SPIDERS. One of the things on my "bucket list" is to let a live spider crawl on my hand before I die. Well, I was feeling brave, there was a tarantula nearby, so took the plunge. It was so scary, but I'm proud of myself for doing it! Thanks Scales and Tails!

Playing dress-up with the rock star.

I had a wonderful 31st birthday thanks to my family! Here's my birthday breakfast deliciously topped off with CAKE! What a way to start the day!

Spencer(The king of birthdays) dressed me up :)

Mom and I got manis and pedis at Happy Nails, downtown SLC. It was divine!

Afterwards, we enjoyed the incredible food @ The Gourmandise Bakery. That raspberry tart has a special place in my heart :)

Later on we partied at my house. Thanks everybody for a wonderful day!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Let me put on a baker's hat.

12 weeks along! Baby growing healthy & strong! We are so happy. So hopeful. If you remember to, send up a prayer.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Men in Training

One sunny Saturday.
One patient Dad.
Three reluctant boys.
One proud and extremely annoying mom with a camera.

At first they were groaning, but after a while they were seriously having fun. My heart was swelling with pride. :) My favorite thing was seeing Spence push that massive lawn mower. Grrr. Build those muscles!! This was one of those days that I'm reminded, despite the urine sprinkled on the toilet, that I'm so lucky to have boys!

Kids Say The Darndest Things

9/8/14 After a massive pillow fight with Spence and Will, Mia fell to the floor and exclaimed, "I'm soaking tired!"

5/15/14 We were watching a Baby Einstein movie featuring a rhino puppet. Mia said, "Mom, that rhinoceros is a genius."

5/13/14 Mia just told me some disturbing news about her imaginary friend. "Squella, not like you, so her is hiding." I even offered Squella a popsicle to bribe her into liking me and she wouldn't budge.
5 minutes later:
No wait, Mia just informed me, "Her likes you now. Her gets a pop-is-cle."

5/02/14 Mia has been coming up with some unique names for her imaginary friends, Squilla, Quinley, Tortilla are just a few. Well today she was talking to her friend Celia and said,
"What's your Cat's name, Celia?
"Tiddley-Dee"
"Oh!!! GREAT name!!!"
Later, I asked her later about the cat and found out that there are TWO! One cat's name is "Tilly-Tina" and the other's name is "Tiddley-Dee."

4/21/14 Mia was shouting at me from the bathroom in a bossy way. I said, "Mia, don't talk to me like that." She said. "I YELLING at you." I needed to leave the room and she shouted again and said, "Mommy come here, right now. I gon count and you gon go in time-out!!!" Sweet swirling onion rings, I'm in for it.

4/4/14 While enjoying a chocolate chip cookie together, I asked, "Mia, why is chocolate soooooo good?" To which she naturally replied, "Cuz we gon' eat it."
Best reason ever.

1/07/14 At the store, at the top of her lungs, in attempt to tell me that she's going to "crack me up" Mia shouted, "Mom, I go a crap you up!"

12/11/13 Today at story time Miss Sally was teaching the kids about the color red. She was pointing out those with red hair. She said, "This little boy has red hair, and look, this mommy has red hair. And this mommy has red hair!" There was a pause and Mia shouted out, "I HAVE TWO MOMMIES!" All the parents looked around, Miss Sally bewildered, looked at me. Appalled I laughed and said loudly, "I have NO IDEA what she's talking about." Everyone started laughing. . . hard! For the life of me I couldn't figure out why she'd say that. So afterwards I asked Mia, and she pointed to the two mommies with red hair and said, "See? Two mommies!" Ohhhhhh, now I get it. Two mommies with red hair.

12/14/13 The dinner table was busy with multiple conversations occurring at once when Mia said, "Hey Will, this song my favorite: (in sing-song)
Hello Kitty, Hello Kitty,
I like Hello Kitty"

12/03/13 Ben was teasing Mia on the couch. When she angrily yelled, "Ben, DON'T BLOW ME! I NOT a bubble!!!"

11/13/13 Today I was crying and couldn't stop. Mia dropped what she was doing and ran up and said, "Hold me, you feel better!" I hugged her tight and put her down. A few seconds later she came up and said, "Here Mom, a have a Kleenex."

Lately, Whenever we are having a nice snuggle moment as a family, Mia will come up and say, "All To-ah-gedder."

10/13/13 I need to preface this by saying, Mia's word for "girl" is "grill." After church Mia got very upset and ran to her room. Alfonso went up to try to comfort her and said, "Don't cry, Mia." To which she responded, "But grills like to cry."

09/25/13 Mia and I were playing with pretend snakes. In their "conversation", they made a deal and so I told her, "Let's shake on it." she immediately began to violently shake the snake.

08/24/13 Once again, Pandora displayed the album cover (One World's Acoustic) of Justin Bieber on the screen. Mia looked at it again and said, "Mom, look! A doggie. Doggie wif guitar."

08/21/13 Pandora displayed an album cover of Justin Bieber on the t.v. Mia, startled a little by the music, looked up at the screen, studied for a minute and said, "Cute doggie!"

08/19/13 As we were all getting ready to go swimming, Mia was excitedly showing everyone her "swimming soup."

08/17/12 A day after I taught Will about the Star of David, Will was playing with a couple of triangle magnets. When he had overlapped them just right he held them up and said, "Look, it's Jared's star!"

08/16/12 After taking off Ben's newly acquired football gear, Will sat next to me, sighed, and said, "It's nice to have a football player in the house."

07/24/12 I was looking at my wedding ring while tucking Will in to bed. Will noticed and said, "That's a pretty fancy ring." I said, "It is. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever owned. But I love it mostly for what it stands for." Will surprised me when he responded, "You love it because it reminds you of the day you got married. Even if it was made of wood, it would be a still be a great treasure."

07/23/12 After a run to Dairy Keen, Will shared the following insight: "The most humblest flavor of ice cream in the whole entire world is vanilla." When I asked why, he said, "Because it's simple, it's plain, and it's always there. "

07/05/12 Fearing that Mia might ruin his pillow fort, Will asked, "Mom, can we put her to sleep?"

06/28/12 As we were setting the table for breakfast, Will (7)said, "I'm a simple man." I couldn't help but smile. "I'm a simple man with complex thoughts." Did I mention, he's 7???

06/25/12 While I was looking for a rubber band, Spencer handed a large one to me and proudly said, "I wear 5 rubber bands on my wrist at all times."

06/22/12 For the second time, Spencer said, "I don't believe in sarcasm." I argued that sarcasm does exsist and gave him an example. His response, "I call that oppositism."

06/03/12 While we were driving, Spencer spotted a slowly oncoming tractor and car and said, " 'Wow, tractors drive slow!' thought the lady in the green car."

06/03/12 We had watched a bunch of old footage of Beatles performing some of their hits, when Will yelled out, "Can we PLEASE stop listening to classical music?"

05/12/12 Trying to explain to our sick kids why we couldn't have friends come play, I said, "We need to get this virus out of our house." Will said, "Lets give it to someone else!"

03/03/12 Will just said, "I have a faculty butt."

03/01/12 Will told Ben that from now on he wants to be called Bethica, queen of the sea.

03/01/12 Will came inside from shoveling snow with cold hands. After explaining to me that the problem was his gloves, he asked,"Can I have an upgrade?"

11/29/11 Me: "Will, what do you want the person you marry to be like?" Will: "Hot and sexy." Room fills with shock & stifled laughter. Me: "Will. . . what does it mean to be hot?" Will: "That you just came out of the desert."

11/28/11 When it's time for oracion/prayer, Mia oftentimes will fold her arms and talk quietly while the prayer is said. At the end we say "amen." She loudly says, "BOB!"

11/26/11 Alfonso swatted at the pesky fly once again. "It's taunting me." He said. Will exclaims, "It's taunting you??" Mutters to self, "I hate taunting flies."

11/10/11 Will walked in the door and when he saw his friend Annie sitting on the couch said, "I knew this day had something special in it." "What?" Annie asked. "You! I knew you were coming over. You make today special."

11/10/11 In the car, Annie (a girl I'm tending) said, "Jesus is so lucky! He gets to be born on Christmas, huh!"

09-09-11 Alfonso and I went on a date for our anniversary and left the kids with family. After we picked up the kids, Will politely asked, "Were there a lot of people at the anniversary?"

09-08-11 At the breakfast table, I was telling the kids that tomorrow would be Alfonso and my anniversary. Will lowered his head and said, "I'm glad I don't have to see that."

09-07-11 At a restaurant, we were all joking back and forth and Will said, "You gotta be pushing my leg!"

08-20-11 At our moving sale, my 3-year-old neice, Nicole held up a shiny quarter and said, "Look, I have a quenny."

08-20-11 5 minutes later, Nicole was whining. Her Mom, D.D. said, "I'm not going to talk to you until you use a big girl voice." Nicole gave her a mean look and said, "But you just talked to me."

08-19-11 Will, sitting at the table kept singing, "Can't you see, I love my pancreas, look at me, I love my pancreas." Over and over. Thank you, Wierd Al.

08-19-11 Quite proud of himself and giggling a little, Spencer announced, "Faster than a speeding two-year-old, able to leap a towering pile of laundry, it's SUPERMOM!!!"

04-29-11 We had just finished a large meal at Chick's Cafe when Spencer leaned back in his chair and energetcally patted his stomach saying, "Now I know what Santa feels like."

04-28-11 Will was helping me pull our huge new stroller out of its box. His job was to pull the box down as I held the stroller up off the ground. It wouldn't budge. He paused and said, "Wait, should I go drink some milk, to make my muscles stronger?"

About Us

Our blended family is many years and obstacles in the making. We two were raised in separate countries, different cultures and upbringings. For each of us, God's blessed broken road weaved through marraige, the birth of a child (or two) and a painful divorce, in the end, leaving a himless her and a herless him. We met on a blind date in 2008 and haven't been able to stay away from each other since. Married for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple, we and our four children are determined to BE a forever family. This blog is an account of our daily lives, our ups and downs, and our journey to become "one."