Baby #2

Rosalie is going to be a big sister in July and we are super excited! Rosalie loves to give the baby kisses by kissing my belly, several times she has tried to feed the baby things by putting them up to my belly. Haha she cracks me up! She's going to be a great big sister! She is convinced and almost has me convinced that this baby is going to be a baby girl, she keeps telling me randomly that she has a baby sister, so I guess we'll see. I find out in a month so I'll keep you posted:)

Pintrest gone bad

I loved this wreath from Pintrest

so I decided to make it, It turned out so cute.... I put it on my front door and the next morning this is what I found....



Yes I am a genius and didn't follow all the instructions, like when she said that she highly recommends shellacking the candy if you are going to hang it up outside... yep, genius! Now I need to go scrub it off my front door and porch...

Fall Festivities

We had a great Halloween and are getting ready for Thanksgiving and I'm trying to hold back my excitement for the Christmas season to be in full swing. I'll admit I have a red and green paper chain hanging in my dining room and I did spend my afternoon threading foam snowflakes on string to hang up outside... but before we get to the Christmas season I wanted to catch up on Halloween and the fall festivities, so here we go. At the beginning of October I wanted to get an early start on making Halloween costumes so I wouldn't be so pressed for time making them the week before, well my good intentions didn't go as planned and I ended up making our costumes a few days before halloween... maybe next year. This year I made a Snow White dress for my niece (which I didn't get a picture of :(), a princess Peach outfit for me, a Mario outfit for Paul and a toad outfit for Rosalie

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(all our fun hats!)


(can you tell that Paul's pumpkin is Big boo from Mario? mine is the owl)

Rosalie went trick or treating for the first time this year and man did she catch on fast. She tried to open doors and would be the first one to get candy and then would wait at the door to until each child got some then go in for more, it worked at about 90% of the houses, we went with her cousins and she got double what they did. Needless to say she loved it and me and Paul got a big kick out of watching her be such a candy monster.

(Seriously she racked up the candy!)


(Rosalie was OUT after Trick or treating)

This year I decided to paint on my windows so I did 2 pictures for Halloween and I loved doing them and I decided I am going to do some for each holiday. The first one I used a window marker (I found at the dollar store) and some of my watercolor paints (undiluted) then I decided I didn't want to use up all of my professional paints so I went to joanns and got some water based craft paint that washes off with soap and water and did my Thanksgiving one. I can't wait to do Christmas ones, I have a few ideas in mind but I think for sure one will be of the Nativity and I'm super excited to try it.

(I had a witch on the other window but forgot to get a picture before I washed it off)




Here's a recipe I tried tonight, I found it on Pintest and gave it a try, here's a link to the recipe http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/2009/02/vegetable-tian.html




( I used the powdered Parmesan cheese because I didn't have the fresh, so it didn't turn out as pretty as the lady's did but it still tasted good)



I paired it with pan seared Tilapia and it made for a yummy and filling meal, not to mention pretty healthy. Here's the recipe I used for the Tilapia, http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pan-seared-tilapia/detail.aspx
I made some adjustments and didn't use the olive oil, I just used a little Pam spray, cut back the flour and just lightly dusted it and used about 1/2 teaspoon of butter for both fillets of fish and it was plenty, and I sprinkled a little Parmesan on top. (I know fish and cheese is a no no but it worked pretty good in this case)

The other day Rosalie woke up and I found her in her crib trying to put this jewel on her forehead but it wouldn't stick, so I put tape on it and she LOVED it! She wore it all morning until the tape wore off.

Blast from the past, old art work

Here are some old painting and drawings that I have laying around my house, they are from high school, college, one from 4 years ago and one from a year ago. I always have ideas for new artwork but never put the effort into finding the time to produce them, I keep thinking, "I will show people my artwork when I have some good ones to show, ones that I have had sufficient time to put into, that turn out like I envision in my head". (isn't that why they call artist tortured because they can never reach the perfection they envision in their head, haha) Anyways, I figured these pictures I've posted are just laying around my house so I might as well share them. For a while I was embarrassed to show people because Paul thought some were creepy ( I admit some are) and I just didn't think they were my best or good enough to share. My style has shifted a little since these, so I will work on some more and post them when they are done. I love Photo Realism (chuck close is awesome!) and Surrealism (I adore Salvador Dali). I have so many ideas of paintings I want to produce it keeps me up at night! I think my mind learns through pictures I create in my head that teach a certain principle and I want to turn those into something everyone else can see. The pictures I uploaded are mostly abstract art and random stuff. :) I hope you enjoy!


Here is a pencil sketch from my sketch pad of Rosalie when she was 3 months old, I didn't take very good care of it and it got torn out of my book and has been trampled on and thrown around my house for the past year, (as you can tell) I also never finished it completely, the hands are just lightly sketched.


I started this picture when I was in college as puzzle pieces out of chalk and charcoal to experiment with shading variations and then Paul gave me some acrylic paints for our first Christmas of marriage and I played around with them on here, then I would randomly pull it out every time I needed an artistic release that wasn't super time consuming. I used marker on some parts of it and eventually finished it with some watercolor.


Here is a Acrylic painting that I did in High School. This picture means a lot to me and represents a life and the journey of faith it is.. I know... so deep :) If you want more explanation, ask me about it.


No I didn't just decide to draw a skull on a log with a rope coming out, this was a drawing drill that was set up in one of my college art classes, it's done in charcoal.


I started this picture after about a year of marriage and intended to incorporate a picture of the Savior into it to celebrate the Easter season but I never got around to it, someday I'll finish it. It's done with colored pencil.


I took a picture of my pen sketch and when I took the picture the lighting was off so I went to edit it and ended up lowering the levels on the picture and loved what it looked like so I decided to save a picture of it and share. The actual drawing is done on white paper.


Here is another picture from high school that I did in pen, I must say I love this form of art and secretly think I could make a good living being a tattoo artist, haha.


Here is a picture I did in high school, It's one of my first watercolor pictures.


I think this might have been my first experiment with Acrylic from high school. :)

Update

Paul graduated at the beginning of May with his Bachelors degree in Computer Science and an IT Emphasis. I am so proud of him! We have been in transition mode, as i'm sure alot of you have been through. we've been looking for new jobs since January and 2 weeks ago Paul got one for a local company doing their IT stuff. We feel very blessed to have found a job here in town. Life is crazy! isn't it? You seriously never know where it's going to take you or how things will turn out but they always seem to turn out for the best, even if they are hard and no direct plan is in sight. Letting go of the control can be hard and I am realizing more and more that faith really does sustain me.



Oh yeah, we also celebrated our 4 year anniversary! I love Paul more now then I did when we first tied the knot, we have grown up together in these past four years and I love the memories we have made. :) I am excited to embark on another year with my best friend and continue creating our lifetime (and beyond) of memories.




This weekend we went up north to see my Brother Jamin who just got home from his mission to Oaxaca, Mexico. He has a thick Mexican accent! He is such a sweet guy and still "guy smiley" like we used to call him, I'm happy he's my brother. We had a fiesta for him, complete with roasted pork, chile verde, goat, sausage, burrito's, salsa, horchata, pina colata, and more. There was soccer and I made a pinata that looked like "Elder Seegrist". It's great to have Jamin home!

Birthday

So a few weeks ago we celebrated Rosalie's 1st birthday! We had a party with family, cake, icecream, a pinata and presents. I made strawberry and chocolate yogurt cakes, and they were so yummy! I ate WAY too much cake for about a week after her birthday. I had these cute napkins that had a carebare on them that said "happy 1st birthday" so I used them as an inspiration for her cake, I made it into a bear.

One of Rosalie's favorite youtube movies is "twinkle twinkle little star" so I made a Pinata that looked like a star. The kids had fun hitting it and it worked out perfect, all the kids got a chance to hit it and it broke open on the last kid.

(singing Happy Birthday)

(Eatting her cake)

(me and Rosalie after she finished her cake)

(opening presents)

(Rosalie wearing the cute headband my aunt made for her)

Some of the fun presents rosalie got were, a baby doll, hair bows, a princess piano, a squealing monkey, a cute outfit and a stuffed bunny. She carries around the baby doll and loves that it has a pacifier just like her, she loves to play the piano and wraps the monkey's arms around her neck and carries it around with her. We had a fun time celebrating!

(did I mention that the men were bouncing off the walls with excitement? lol)

Ok, now let me get nostalgic...

I can't believe she is 1, but yet she seems like she is getting so big, she definately has her own personality. She loves to flip the switches on the power cords behind our computer and when you craw underneath the table to get her she laughs and runs away. She is such a little rascal! It's so funny for me to see her just walking around the house with her own agenda and just doing her own thing, she is super independent! She won't let me feed her anything, she has to feed herself and if I look at her like i'm trying to get her to eat it, she won't even touch it. I thought the independent stage came along later but it has been a consistant characteristic of her since she was a few months old. I think it's just part of her personality and it can be frusturating but good all at the same time. She is a very nurturing little girl and loves to give daddy and mommy and all of her "dolly's" and "ducks" kisses. She likes to help me clean up, she throws things away in the garbage, helps me pick up the dirty laundry and puts away her toys. Granted, she really loves to make messes. She is so much fun to play with and loves it when we craw on the ground and chase her. We play hid and seek with her and she LOVES it. I feel so blessed to have her!

Family Pictures!

Hooray for Anne! She did a fabulous job taking our family pictures! Here's a few of my favorites.










It was freezing outside, her little nose got so red.





I think she makes this face because of teething and I love it! I'm glad Anne captured it! :)

The ducks at the pond were so photogenic!









Doesn't she look like Paul in this picture!

Okay so that was a little more then a few, but I loved them all! Thanks again Anne!