you + me = US

Friday, August 27, 2010

21 Day Challenge - Day 18

I had chicks in mind tonight. They're mighty hungry.

Day 18 Peep

Sketch to finish, 45 minutes. I used cold press paper, watercolors and (big mistake) a leaky ball point pen.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

It's getting difficult to think of things to draw. With so many good suggestions, I get these elaborate ideas in my head of how to accomplish them. Sometimes they are too elaborate so I end up ditching them and doing somthing like this:

Day 17 5 Cents

This is the ice cream cone that should have been. We were making plans to go celebrate the survival of their first day of school with an ocean commotion ice cream cone, when the kids began to act like crazy people. Sometimes I truly feel like I live in a mad house. Anyhoo, ice cream rights were revoked and this poor little thing never made it past the page. Sketch to finish about 45 minutes. I used bristol paper and colored pencils. I tried to go retro. Why the bubbles? I don't know.

Do you have a favorite so far? Are you getting bored of all this? Sometimes I wonder if I am too. On the down side, this process has been a bit tedious at times. However, on the plus side, I am becoming reacquainted with the solace I feel when creating something. It is remarkably therapeutic. I just wish I had something more interesting for ya'll to look at. But don't worry, only 4 more days left :)

First Day

My 5th Grader

My 4th Grader

My 1st Grader

I have to admit I've been looking forward to this day. It's been a long summer break. But as this new school year has approached, I've begun to have mixed feelings. It's like I want to shout, "Wait! Don't grow up! Let's just stay this way a little longer." But time has a way of ticking on, whether or not you want it to. After dropping them off at school today, I felt so empty handed. It just drives home the fact that I love these boys and cannot imagine life without each one of them. Happy new (school) year guys! I know it's going to be a great one!!!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

21 Day Challenge - Day 16

Today was long. Not much to say except, trick or treat?

Day 16 El diablito, la brujita y el fantasma

From sketch to finish about 1 hour 30 minutes. Cold press paper and watercolors. So tired.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

21 Day Challenge - Day 15

It took a while to finally decide what to draw today. Once again the kids suggested something a little wacky; stick figure aliens abducting the animals on a farm. Wierd! I started drawing a farm and didn't have the heart to finish. Then a lemon came to mind. A lemon and a lime, no a lemon and a strawberry.

Day 15 Sweet & Sour

They're surprisingly good friends, despite having totally opposite tastes. I love the strawberry's mary janes. Suddenly I'm thinking a strawberry lemonade is in order. :) Sketch to finish 45 minutes. I used colored pencils and bristol paper. And this time, I finally remembered to sign it!

Monday, August 23, 2010

21 Day Challenge - Day 14

Guess what movie Ben and I watched this morning. . . it starts with "Little," and ends with, "Shop of Horrors." So I have killer plants on the brain, whatcha gonna do?

Day 14 Wrong Place, Wrong Time

This little girl needs to pay serious attention to her surroundings or she'll quickly become someone elses snack. Sketch to finish, 94 minutes (the exact length of the movie). I used bristol paper and colored pencils.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

21 Day Challenge - Day 13

Today I taught a class about the importance of life. My mind kept thinking of that board game. Metaphorically speaking, we are all players in the game of life. I love my little carload. Every twist and turn, every drawback and payday, is more enjoyable with my family. I love this game!

Day 13 The Game of Life

Sketch to finish it took 2 hours. Bristol paper, colored pencils. Click on the picture if you'd like a closer look. :)

Saturday, August 21, 2010

21 Day Challenge - Day 12

If you've been following along, you'll know that we went to Lagoon, a local theme park, recently. Alfonso won a lion and a monkey for me and Ben won an Ugly Doll named Domo. When trying to decide what to draw the other day, Ben came up with this idea and Spencer not only caught on but did a mock up for me. I love it!

Day 12 Lagoon Friends

From sketch to finish it took 45 minutes. I used watercolor paper and watercolors. Thanks for the help boys!!! :) I couldn't have done it without you!!!

Friday, August 20, 2010

21 Day Challenge - Day 11

I was going to draw a monkey, but didn't have time. This will have to do.

Day 11 - Superstar

Sketch to finish, 30 minutes. I used watercolor paper and watercolors. Hoooo rah!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

21 Day Challenge - Day 10

My grandma Lottie had Alzheimer's Disease. I remember as a kid having to tell her my name repeatedly. She spent hours seated in front of her large front window, smoothing her hands along the creases of her dress, staring at the sky. One day I sat next to her smoothing my hands along my jeans, trying to see what she saw in the clouds. I was thinking about that day recently and thought how I'd like to capture it somehow. She wasn't wearing a white dress, but I didn't have the heart to paint it any color. White seemed just right. This is just a draft, but you kind of get the idea.

Day 10 Remember Me? Draft 1

From sketch to finish, 70 minutes. I used watercolor paper, pencil, and watercolors.

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."