May's events - in no particular order!

I loved your May 28th blog post Jaylene! Well said! It lifted my spirits and helped me find extra push to get this post done....so here's to you, literally. This photo is from the Families Supporting Adoption organization's Birthmother's Day celebration. They had some games, treats, roses for the birthmoms who attended, and these signs to show support for the many special birthmoms around. It actually was fanstastic to hopefully help the boys understand there are others with similar life stories to theirs. We love you J! Our lives have never been so blessed!

A quick update on the lambs, they are all alive and doing well (I was concerned about the littlest one at first but now it's hard to tell her apart). The bottle feeding is almost over, probably by the end of the week they'll just be grazing on the alfalfa and the grain they occasionally get. It has been fun to invite many neighborhood kids and friends to see them and help feed them. Props to Jared for the experience.

Our oldest is now a kindergarten graduate. Here he is performing one of several songs they sang at the ceremony. He loves school, is a little sad it's over but takes comfort knowing he'll be back for 1st grade.

This was Paxton's teacher. I thought she was great; enthusiastic about teaching but firm with class rules and expectations. Paxton did very well in the classroom, when I volunteered several times I noticed he was much more quiet for the most part, except at recess of course! We love that he takes pride in his ability to read well. Paxton is generally a great big brother and best friend to Bennett.

Bennett is a lot of fun these days. And stubborn at times! Here's a few quotes from him, which all often revolve around food:
"I LOVE cheese. I could eat cheese all day."
"Can I have some maple syrup without any pancakes?"
When I asked him if he wanted one waffle or two he said, "No, I want them all."
We were talking about birthmoms this month and he said he "climbed out of his birthmom's stomach" and that's how he got here.
He frequently wears his Superman costume that one of his grandmas made so he can "save the day".

 I thought I'd show some photos of some oil paintings I did that took much longer than expected, but turned out to be really enjoyable. These were commissioned by Jackie Brady, who is someone I adore, and happens to be my grandmother. She has memories of this small home in Monroe, Utah (the home isn't there any longer) and through photos and discussions we put together this representation.

I so enjoyed the other photos she had to share that I talked her into doing the following three small ones too.  All of them were interesting and challenging to do.  They have various family members of hers at and around the home depicted in the large painting.

And my gardening hobby is producing lettuce, spinach, peas (soon) and broccoli if it doesn't have worms that gross us out. I speak from experience.

Lastly, just a few pictures from the Tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point. This year was amazing, they seemed taller and even more packed in than usual. I chose some non-tulip images too so you could see what else they have to offer, which is actually a lot even while the tulips are on display.

April

We have added 4 four-legged members to the family. Jared and a neighbor wanted to raise sheep this year on the empty lot so Jared & Paxton went to Spring City and picked up four little lambs, all are around 10 days old. I am not a huge fan of this, but am not really opposed to it either. I have helped in some ways. Jared and the boys feed them except when Jared is at work; me and the boys will do the lunchtime bottles. The boys are enjoying it and Jared frequently lets me indulge in my gardening hobby. The lambs have taken over the boys hideout under our deck, temporarily, until the weather is a touch warmer and we get the fencing up on the lot. Then they'll be fine there with the dogloo to climb in at night, they seem to like it. Our spoiled dog sleeps in the house anyway.

Thanks to my very part time employment, we had a chance to go to a college level baseball game against the Utes. The boys got into the free kids club and they received t-shirts, baseballs, and lanyards. And there's a fun little playground next to the ball field. We got to see a home run and my team won in the end, although we left early because of overpowering winds. The gray sky behind the playground was full of dust but it's amazing how kids don't let anything get in their way of having a good time.

My aunt throws a great Easter egg hunt every year for all the little ones in the extended family...a couple dozen were able to attend this year. In the background here is the little log cabin that is over 100 years old where my Dad grew up; it is very sentimental to me. Between this place and my aunt's house, there's plenty of open space for the kids to run around finding goodies with their names on them.

Bennett turned 3 this month! Wow, it sounds so cliche but it is so very true that kids grow up incredibly fast. Every time I asked Bennett what kind of cake he wanted, he would say "a cake that looks like me". Since I am a two-dimensional artist, I attempted his likeness in a frosting line drawing.

One of Bennett's gifts was a sand/dirt sifter, a very popular toy that Jared's parents have when we go camping. I find it amusing that the little patch of dirt under our deck is able to keep the boys' interest. There is a sandbox there and construction toys that look like the real thing.

 Yes, he got his finger stuck in the funnel : )

Bennett's cousin Emmerson is just a week younger than he is, so we had a combined 3rd birthday party with the cousins. Neither one really knew how to blow out the candles but Bennett tried after getting an assist from big bro.

To me, the cutest part of the whole thing was how Bennett was with Emmerson; he took her hand and helped her onto the trampoline and was anxious to get her present to her. He is not a super-sharer yet so this was a good sign.

March

We don't have any major events to tell about, but the boys are finally over (let's hope) getting a cold every other week and they are loving going outside more often. They make up games on the trampoline and so far no one has been seriously injured. So all is well! I love the warm days here and there, anything above 50 degrees and I find a way to get outside.











The purple flowers are rock cress (aubretia). And of course the yellow flower surrounded by frost is a pansy.  I planted them last fall for the first time and I like how they liven up the yard before everything else. The other blooms in the yard are the forsythia bush, the daffodils and hyacinths. Before long the flowering pear, chokecherry, and crab apple trees will bloom too.

There was one major wind storm that seemed to blow our remaining mulch on many of our flower beds away so we decided to pile on new stuff. Jared has a kind co-worker who lent us his hydraulic dump trailer so we were able to get 13 yards of mulch in two trips. It put our truck to the test. And our wheelbarrow and backs. Some areas of our yard still look like a scene from the movie "Holes". The two main reasons we use the mulch is that it prevents moisture from evaporating from the soil as quickly and because it helps smother the weeds. It really only improves the soil into the first couple of inches but it does look nice.

For lack of anything else to post, I'll show the progression of a 6'x4' painting that I hope to hang on our living room wall soon. It is from a photo I took at Bryce Canyon. Picture number one here is just establishing important lines and separating areas of the image.

Step two I start to make lines more individual and shapes more specific with a few patches of middle value added in. The drawing stage is done with type of vine charcoal that looks like, well, a piece of burnt vine.

This photo shows the beginning of figuring out the darkest and lightest areas so that the middle values can be judged more accurately.

This is the finished drawing stage before I added any color. The previous photos looked more brownish because of the lights I had on but this one shows the color of the charcoal more truly.

Here I added some thin washes of color to separate warmer foreground color from background. Then a few of the more intense oranges were painted in. Although I usually use oil paint, this painting is acrylic because I didn't want all the fumes from thinner/cleanup. That's been nice.

And here is a fairly recent photo. The painting is still not done (easily the longest I have ever taken on a painting due to many things) but is 85% there.  Hope you weren't bored out of your gourd with this post but next month will be more fun with Bennett's birthday and Easter.

Potty training, pots, and plant propagation

Yes, this IS a pirate ship which Paxton built with his "sliding Legos" which are actually called Tikestix.  He loves them and Bennett is starting to learn how to use them too. Paxton continues to love school and reading. Bennett continues to say silly things. In his car seat the other day he said, "Hey, my head can move alright but my body can't move!".

And we are now past the point of no return with teaching this one how to sit in the oval office. He has LOVED the big kid underwear, but not the idea of doing his duty if you know what I mean. But it's going pretty well overall. We hope this parenting challenge is nearing its end!













This is one of the latest of Jared's bowls to come out of the old kiln. This close-up shows chatter, a technique that creates a pattern you see here.

The more brown bowl on the left is a store glaze (coating on the bowl) I purchased for Jared as a Christmas gift. The previous glazes have all been home made. It still needs some more testing to see how thick it should be.

These are test tiles to show how different glazes overlapping each other would look.  The triangular shaped marks Jared pressed into them are to show how texture on a piece would be affected by the glaze.

 These are my favorite type that Jared has done so far. They are made using a dark and light clay which he combines to a certain degree then throws a pot out of it. They remind me of marbled cheesecake or a chocolate sundae.

Thanks to my mom and Jared watching the boys, I have been able to take a greenhouse class and plant propagation class at Thanksgiving Point. They were both fun with a good instructor and others who share my obsession with plants. These are thyme, romaine lettuce, and some perennials started in the class. I learned that I'm not ready for a greenhouse (good news for Jared) but I have "just enough grafting knowledge to be dangerous" according to the instructor.