leprechauns!

last night doug came over and the boys and i watched a movie. dan and doug have trouble staying awake for movies. sure enough, halfway through the movie they settle back on the couch and their eyes close. i hear a bit of heavy breathing. andy is still awake. i take a deep breath.... and yell, "LEPRECHAUNS!!!!!!". it was stinkin' hilarious. they didn't move a muscle, though. they must be getting used to my little trick. i just can't resist.

trick my treat

boo hiss, halloween is a cruddy holiday. let's dress up our precious children as vampires and devils and send them out to get abducted in the dark, or to fill their sacks with poisoned and/or razor blade filled candy. please, i have been waiting for a holiday where sickos steal and kill my kitty just because it's black! (sarcasm)

i love costumes. i love candy. i love children having fun. i love parties. i love decorations. i love pumpkins (and have 5 right now). etc. etc. that's why i find halloween so frustrating. i guess it's the time of year when my "new nature" gets reeeeeally frustrated with the "old nature" of the world. "even so come Lord Jesus". amen.

let me just say, if a little child shows up here looking for candy i will definitely have some on hand for them and more power to them. i just hope that they don't get hurt this halloween.

to prove i love a costume, here i am at my niece elerene's birthday party. it was a princess theme. i was obviously a fairy princess. jack? he was prince charming. it is hard to tell, but that is a black velvet jacket he is wearing.

green bean

lauren has inspired me to start some still lives. this is after the fact that i believe recently God has inspired me to take up being an artist again. this is also after the fact that my wonderful husband bought me a french easel.

i have in fact finished my green bean painting. that was last week. i have yet to photograph it. so, i have yet to post the photo. you are not missing out on the mona lisa or anything. i am not saying that the green bean is a masterpiece. i am saying that it is a finished painting. that is cause for celebration. it is a start.

my painting isn't quite what i had in my vision. yet, i am really digging on it. i would classify it as folk art. i have never really tried to make folk art and i really enjoyed it. it is watercolor and acrylic. it has a soft side... and it has a dark side. dreamy pastel watercolor is layered with black acrylic swirls. there is an element of norwegian rosmaling. there is an element of asian brush strokes. there is an element of a painterly style, and there is an element of an illustrative style. and i think it looks a bit french, too. if i was going to paint one painting i sure put a lot into it.:)

i won't tell you what my husband thinks of it. he's a bit of a money grubber.:) he does not feel the immense satisfaction of making art for arts sake. i can say that at this point in time... I DO!

habit forming

jack has some new habits. he has started fussing and wailing when he gets tired. my little sunshine can turn into a shrieking machine. i usually end up running for the pacifier and the rocking chair. he'll start sucking away to beat the band. then his eyelids droop and the iris's sort of roll back and you can almost palpably feel his little body go "ahhhhh". then, he raises his pudgy arm and lays the back of his hand against his face! like a southern belle saying, "whatever shall i do?". then he falls asleep. he's been doing this in his crib, too. what in the world! what comfort he can possibly derive from laying his hand over his face?

jack's first haircut

looking back on jack's baby pictures yesterday... i noticed how much less hair is on his little head! wow. i see him everyday. i never realized all his lovely little baby hair was disappearing. soooo... i cut the last long lock off the top of his head. i waited until after the sear's portraits saturday in case i massacred it.:) i took the scissors yesterday and snipped it off. it looks nice! that's a blessing. i taped the lock in jack's baby book. i would say it looks exactly like the baby hair my mom saved in an envelop from my first haircut.

i do so love these stripey pants.

andy's beautiful

andy is very handsome. i think he looks really great when he's just serious. i tried to tell the photographers this, but of course it came out all wrong. i said, "could we do some where andy's serious? he's beautiful when he's serious.". it's so goofy to call a boy "beautiful" that i made andy smile, thus ruining the serious vibe. as you can see, andy got the vibe back for this shot and it is indeed beautiful.

sears portrait cont. -- "just jack!"

the sound effect that should accompany this shot is
"ta-daaaaaaa!".

sears portraits cont. -- cousins

here is the group shot. nole and eme had issues, at seperate times. this shot was as good as it got. still, not half bad. i would have liked a smile from jack... but you can't win them all.

sears portraits

today my sis and i went to sears portraits to have our kids pictures taken. they turned out fab. i am so pleased.

aren't these the most handsome brothers ever?

moose boy

i just picked up 4 packages of photos. be prepared for a lot of picture-y blogging!:) it is either feast or famine with me.

this is jack in his moose hat that lauren sent him when he was born. i love it! it looks especially canadian when i put him in his buffalo plaid jacket. nice hat, eh?

jack still has blue eyes. his long wispy hair is falling out and coming in underneath very thick and sort of a reddish brown like mine.

i am taking jack to sears photography today to get his photo taken with andy and with my sister's girls. i am so excited. jack will be wearing stripe-y pants. i love him in stripes.

behind jack is the crazy quilt his great gram made him. it's precious.

baby sterling

last friday my cousin stacy had a little baby boy. they named him sterling robert. he is so cute. he looks just like stacy's father.:)

i can't wait for jack to play with his new cousin!

elerene becomes a "woman"

my mom told me a funny story about my sister's oldest girl, elerene. ele was in the back seat of the minivan with a friend from school who was coming over to play. the little boy had some extra clothes with him. ele asked him what he had. he said he had some pants "in case i poop my pants". ele says, "oh, i don't do that. i'm a woman."

barbie as the island princess

anyone seen "barbie as the island princess"? (i kept forgetting the "as" and claire kept correcting me.) my niece brought it over and we watched it together. confession: i almost cried when rosella (barbie in disguise) was reunited with her mother. sap! i guess it's the mother thing. i scorn myself.

what crappy animation! they must know that the audience is young and will gobble up any garbage they can dish out. the philistines!

i have "ro"'s opening song stuck in my head now. i keep modifying it. "here on my island the sea says hello!" has become, "here in my kitchen the fridge says hello!" and "here in my bathroom the tub says hello!". claire thought it was hilarious.

confession

confession. i went shopping last night at 8pm with my baby and 6 year old niece. claire pushed the stroller at khol's as i pulled clothes off the racks. claire pushed a cart whilst i pushed my own cart with jack in it at cub foods. cub was having an excellent 10-for-$10 sale and i couldn't tear myself away. we arrived home at 10:30 to a frantic dan. oops. guess next time i will leave a note or use my cell phone to give him the heads up. well, i guess that's karma. but, i didn't mean to teach him a lesson, really!

mustachio alert

mustache in the house. my step-son turns 13 in december and the mustache is coming in nicely. i can't believe it won't be long now before he's shaving! our little peanut! it seems like just yesterday he was a lamb in the Church Christmas Program.

i told him today he should grow a handlebar mustache and we all had a little chuckle.

bath & body works... for me!

others may have lost their love, but i still adore bath & body works. they send me the loveliest coupons. today i stocked up on anti-bacterial pump soaps (3 for $10) (i got 6.) and got a "scent port" for free. i chose the sandalwood-vanilla scent. i plugged it into an outlet in the kitchen near the plastic garbage (where jack's used diapers are deposited). within 15 minutes there was a very pleasant aroma! unlike the very unpleasant aroma that has been detected lately.

"yeah, bob!", "glory be!" and, "shake that bush!". cleanliness is next to Godliness.

bonus? when i paid for my stuff, i got more coupons! hooray! Christmas is coming and i always like to augment my gifts with b&b stuff.

a spritz from jack

i gave jack a bath last friday morn. i looked away for only a second and when i turned my head back he was doing his best trevi fountain impression. it was hilarious. why are peeing babies so funny?

a bit about jack

yesterday i took jack in for a check up. he is almost 4 1/2 months if you go by weeks, which i do. so, he weighed in at 16 lbs. 11.1 oz. he is 27 in. long. he is in the 97th percentile for height, which i could have guessed. he is only 87 percentile for weight. hmmm, i thought that maybe he didn't have as many rolls as some babies i have seen. yet, he does have a cute chubby tummy and he was born with him mom's big-ole-thighs. poor dear.

in case you are wondering (mom's ask me about this all the time), no, jack is not taking cereal yet. we are still nursing exclusively -- except for the occasional bit of formula while i am at work at night. and jack's doing great. obviously.

jack is already interested in food, though. when i am short on time before work i usually eat my dinner while i feed him. i try not to drop too much food on him.:) last night it was impossible to feed jack. he kept turning to watch me eat. hello! focus on the task at hand, boy! i ended up having to make him a bottle at five minutes before i had to leave. that was frustrating.

sigh. jack is just tearing through the precious clothes in his armoir! wait! stop! i want to snuggle you in that one more time! no deal. jack was stretched into a 6 months carter's sleeper yesterday. after i found out his stats, i checked out the tag. apparently the 6 months size is good for babies up to 16.5 lbs. so, that's 16 lbs 8 oz. hey, that's the extra nudge i needed to put that sleeper away. the thing is, he has extra tummy room, but no leg room! i am terrorized by visions of my 1 year old needing 24 month sizes. help! i'm going to have to hit the garage sales right away in the spring or else poor jackers will be running around naked. cute, but a tad trashy.

dan's little chat in his sleep

the other night dan and i had a little chat -- at about 1am. i was awake. all of a sudden dan faces me, props himself up on an elbow, clasps my shoulder with his hand and says, "i didn't know you had a project going on!". i am dumbfounded. "what?", i say. "i didn't know you had a project going on!". he sounds so pleased with me. i cannot imagine what he is talking about. maybe i had a project going on and i had forgotten about it? it is one in the morning you may recall, i am a bit fuzzy. i ask him, "where?". "in the kitchen!", he happily proclaims. ok, i know for certain i have no projects in the kitchen. i say, "dan, you're dreaming. go to sleep.". -- the end.

green bean painting

just wanted everyone to know that i am not just all talk. i started that green bean painting.:) i know, what a weirdo. it is just that the vision came to me of this painting and i thought i should be painting my visions because i don't ever get them. who knows, this could be greatness. in all probability it will just be something i hang up reeeeally high on my kitchen wall.:) i don't really care. i just want to capture something that is in my mind and let others see.

it is only the beginning.

the background is pretty much done. just a simple swirly pattern. no greatness. just nice.

by the way. by reading my friend lauren's blog i realized what i have is called a "french easel". ooh la la.