My Artists

Elijah does most of his art fresh out of his head.  He has an amazing imagination.  I'm constantly coming across something he drew and saying "Wow!".  I found a couple more pictures of his that I had set aside:

This one I just came across and was wow-ed.  When I caught him later and asked what it was he said it was a puzzle.  You were supposed to look at the picture and the items in the circles and check the one that was missing in the picture.  The circles are: bones (with the check), heart, blood (notice it is blue and red), and brain.  I don't know where he came up with that.  He's seen it in some of our books but those have been packed away for months.  Yeah, I don't know... it just blows me away.

This one is a picture of a Chickadee (as written up top) that Elijah copied the features from a photo online.  Elijah came to me one morning and said we should go outside and look for chickadees in our trees.  I asked him what a chickadee looked like, he didn't know so we looked it up online.  We ended up on a cool website that had photos and recordings of their sounds.  Elijah then trotted off and decided to draw a chickadee picture and then wrote about it underneath.  "Small blackcapped with black bib.  Habitat is trees and shurbs"

Meanwhile, I'm writting this post and Sam has cozied up on the chair and fell asleep.  I guess he aproves.

Art Show

I mentioned earlier that the boys have been doing A LOT of coloring.  I've taken pictures of some of my favorites that they did while we were in our temporary apartment.  There are many more floating around the house that I'll have to snap pictures of.

Sam holding hands with Grammie and Papa by Sam

(he put the first letters of their names under each.  Sam's "S" until recently was a scribble)

Sam holding hands with Grandma and Grandpa by Sam

Spring picture by Elijah

Sonic flying through the air by Elijah

Olympic rings and flags by Elijah

Lilly flower and Bird by Elijah

Look what I've got!

FLOWERS!

Spring is popping up all over here.  Many of the trees are starting to bloom and there are flowers blooming all over including in MY yard!  I've never been able to say that before.  The yard in general is a BIG mess.  There are sticks, nuts, bricks and glass all over the place not to mention the entire thing is mud.  But we do have one bright spot, there's a group of dafadils blooming outside my window.

Today I also welcomed so new friends into my house.  They plan on staying a good long while and I think they will make our house a lot more cozy. 

They are actually our FIRST ever furniture purchase from an actual furniture store.  Up until now all of our furniture has been from garage sales, friends, family or purchased from Walmart and Target.  It also means that these cost a lot more that any things else we've ever bought (house and cars excluded).  The room needs a little (lot) of tweeking still but I like them a lot!  As you can see they are red.  The fabric is a textured striped microfiber fabric and the sofa is a queen sleeper.  Hear that?!? We now have a bed for GUESTS!  Any takers?  The rest of the house is a mess but I have somewhere for you to sleep.  The only cost is to unpack a few boxes while you're here. :)

We've (well actually it has almost all been Josh) have also been painting the boys bedroom.  The boys picked out an "apple" green which is technically called asparagus.  I really like the color and can't wait until we can get their room pulled together.  We're looking for a bunk bed to go in there along with an Ikea Expedit bookshelf and a dresser. 

Okay, the picture doesn't do the paint color justice.  It's an almost electric green.  There is a lot of intensity to it.  The boys love it and I'm very happy with the color.  Now that we've gotten our feet wet with the painting we are getting ready to tackle the big main floor room and the family room down stairs (with the couches). Oh boy oh boy!

Drowning

I'm drowning in a lot of things right now one of them being GUILT for not blogging in a while so here I am having avoided it for long enough. 

A lot has been going on in the past month.  The big thing is we closed on our house on February 26th and moved in March 1st.  The move went very smoothly, Josh and Elijah supervised the movers while I was at the apartment trying to get our suitcases packed and the apartment cleaned.  Keep in mind that all of this was happening while I was drowning in NAUSEA which really just complicated everything on my part.  On top of all that I came down with bronchitis our first week in the house.  Not a great mix with the nausea -- at all. 

We are very happy to be in our house.  Josh has been drowning with little IMPROVEMENTS around the house like door stops, toilet paper holders, curtain rods, blinds, etc.  He's got a list to keep him busy for months.  Oh the joy of home ownership!   The big thing for us to attack is the yard.  Right now it's a muddy mess. (Thankfully we aren't drowning in actual water with that one)  We might need to call in professional reinforcements for that project.  It feels a bit over our head.

I'm also drowning in PREGNANCY HORMONES.  You heard me right.  The nausea is "morning sickness" and though it isn't fun there will eventually be a positive outcome from it. (I'm finally starting to feel a bit better) The hormones are also making me very scatter brained, I have a hard time concentrating and remembering things.  The hormones, resulting nausea, and bronchitis have sucked away all motivation to unpack thus I am drowning in BOXES, still even three weeks later.  And the boxes I have managed to unpack, out of pure necessity mind you, have me drowing in pounds of PAPER that the movers used to wrap every item we own.

I'm drowning in LONELINESS missing my family and friends out West.  Our ward here is massive and has made getting to know people difficult and slow.  I imagine once we get settled a bit more the loneliness will receed a bit.  I hope.

I'm also drowning in the POSSIBILITIES for our house.  We came here with little furniture so I am pretty much starting from scratch.  Not only do I get to actually paint my walls (!) I get to actually spend money on furniture (!!).  I'm feeling overwhelmed by the possibilities and decisions that I have to back up with a good chunk of change.  It is all exciting though and I think I'm getting it figured out.  At least we have started looking at furniture and I have found some stuff I like... now I just have to committ.

Well, that seems like a pretty good list.  Things are going well.  The boys are happy and have kept themselves occupied with a ream of paper, markers, and a paper airplane book (most of the toys are still packed.  I'm hopeful to go through them and weed them down while they are off the boys radar.)  Thus I'm drowning in ART WORK and paper planes.  Elijah is reading more and more and Sam is constantly asking about letters and their sounds.  Josh is enjoying his job and goes off happily to work every day.  He's been the one holding us all together (and feeding us for a while there) and I am drowning in LOVE for that wonderful man who has put up with a lot these last few months.

I guess overall I'm just drowning in CHANGE, a lot of change.  I look forward to the dust settling because these are a lot of exciting changes and I'm ready to sit back and enjoy them.