Envelope Drawings

Another fun goal for the year was to draw more and I was inspired by this post which showed envelope drawings.

I started by illustrating the envelopes of thank you notes we were sending out, along with some random "letters" that Lucy insisted on mailing. Then I posted the finished products on my Instagram.

Then I decided to decorate all the envelopes that went with my visiting teaching letter route. Which ended up being seventeen?

I really enjoyed this project! It can be hard to find suitable photo references, especially when looking for so many! I like the first batch of realistic black and white flower drawings best, but I think I might need to get a flower book for future drawings.

Hers and Mine Artwork

Two of the fun things I wanted to do this year was draw more, and share more art.

I decided to start a series of drawing with Lucy called "Hers and Mine" and posted the results on Instagram.

Here are the results so far!

The start: Lucy not really grasping my vision of matching drawings yet.
Photo reference from an Google Image search.

One of my favorites! Matching Anchorage Alaska Temples.

A mother baboon and her baby: Photo reference from Reed Miller

Butterfly: Photo reference from kids book.

Tractor: Photo reference from kids book.

Piglet: Photo reference from a kids book.

The woodland kingfisher: Image reference from Reed Miller.

Lucy loves looking through animal pictures on my computer to pick out our next subject matter for these drawings.

This was a great opportunity to teach Lucy some drawing skills, and was a fun drawing exercise to do together. Hopefully Lucy will be interested in continuing it in the future!

Baby Mystery #1

Sometimes you are just so upset, not even a sideways pacifier can console you.

Or is it that you are so upset because you have a sideways pacifier stuck in your mouth?

One of the baby mysteries of life.

The Secret to A Happy Marriage

I was listening to the radio a couple of weeks ago and I heard a clip about a woman who answered a question posed by a magazine that she read. The question was: What is the secret to a happy marriage?

She immediately knew what the secret was and sent in her answer. She kept it as a surprise for her husband and showed it to him when it was actually published.

Can you guess what their secret was?

NPR! (National Public Radio) She went on to explain that as busy parents with jobs and hectic lives, they have found a way to reconnect by listening to NPR. It gives them something to talk about, and share with each other, besides work and kids.

Sometimes they both hear the same segments and talk about their thoughts and reactions together, other times one of them might have missed part of the episode and the other will be able to fill them in.

I love this!

Via.

Since moving to a new town, all my preset radio stations are all messed up by living in a new area. Usually when driving in the car I listen to any oldies station I can find and that is pretty much it. Once I borrowed Zach's car to run errands and discovered that he had the radio tuned to the NPR station. I hadn't ever listened to it before, and quickly discovered that I loved it!

Now whenever I drive I have the radio in my car tuned to the local NPR station as the default. Sometimes I am so fascinated by the stories that I don't want to get out of the car when I reach my destination.

Zach and I enjoy listening to NPR so much that he subscribes to the This American Life podcast and we listen to it together for mini date nights.

Even on our way to church on Sunday mornings A Way With Words is on, and it always gets me thinking. I love all the interesting ideas and stories they share about words and language.

Another great program that is part of NPR is Story Corps. If you haven't already seen the Youtube videos that Story Corps puts together, you are missing out! They are so good, and always touch my heart.



I completely agree that NPR is a great secret to a happy marriage. It gives us something new and interesting to discuss and share with each other. I love talking about the ideas and stories we hear, and love the questions and discussions they prompt.

If you haven't already tuned in, I highly recommend it!




Does anyone else listen to NPR and love it? Any particular segments/shows I should check out?

On the other hand, does anyone else have any other secrets to a happy marriage that they want to share?







Here is some of my NPR favorites to get you started:

The town where everyone talks about death: Here and here
The seven things you're not supposed to talk about: Here
Story Corps: Here
A Way With Words: Here

Family Pictures Spring 2014

After the success of the sister photo shoot our friend did with Lucy and Clara, I immediately tried to schedule a time to take family pictures with all of us. Just after squaring all the details away, our talented photographer found out that she was moving! She graciously agreed to still take them, but with the disclaimer that it might take awhile to get the final product.

I did not mind one bit! I was just so grateful that she was willing, and able, to take them at all!

Here they are! They were so worth the wait!

The only way this could be any better is if there was a little Peter-boy right in the middle of this love-fest.

So in love. 

Sweethearts for life.

Sister love.

I can't say thank you enough, Kimberly!

I can't wait to print and hang some of these amazing photographs in our new home. It feels amazing to have another goal for the year almost accomplished!

Bluebonnets 2014

When we first moved to our new home I started asking around for a good photographer for family pictures. I was quickly recommended to a lovely lady from our new church congregation. I made it a point to meet her and we briefly discussed my desire to have her take pictures for us, but since it was the busy winter holiday season, I let her know that I wasn't in a hurry, and would gladly wait until the spring or whenever she had more time.

Fast forward to April of this year when I saw her post some adorable pictures of her daughter frolicking in a field of bluebonnets. I had to jump on that! She graciously agreed to take pictures of our girls with the flowers before they disappeared.

Here are the glorious results!

Sister Love.

The light was gorgeous.

Sharing a sniff of a flower.

Loving that bead necklace.

A behind the scenes shot.

Oh, I just love that toothy smile.

So, so lovely.

I was beyond happy with how lovely they turned out. A mother's dream! I only wish I could hire her every spring for bluebonnet pictures. Thank you a million times over, Kimberly!