Inspired by Aunt Kat

My sister sent me a picture of Abigail this morning. I looked at it and had to smile. She was so little. Who knew that her love of art would grow to be such an important part of her life.

Look at them...both very artistic. Thanks for the pic Kat!


Looking back at her first watercolor. She was barely 6.


Then she did this one for Miss Linda as a good-bye gift when we moved to Alley Bammy.


Now she can do this....First she put random watercolors on paper. Then she thought it looked like a duck. So she outlined what she saw. She amazes me.


First Grade drawing contest during Dr. Seuss week. Six elementary schools participated. She was thrilled to take first place!


On to pastels. She has decided she really likes using them.


Miss Bobbi likes her pastel work too. So when Miss Bobbi and her family left Alabama and moved back home Miss Bobbi left with this...her favorite color is green. We miss you guys!


She even did pastel Dobies for me!


And per request of her Aunt Jet, she did this one. It looks simple but this was done with a white piece of paper and a sharpie pen. It took a LONG time.


She did this one this Christmas with a pencil and markers.


And one of my all time favorites....

Wordless Wednesday

Always renew the home warranty

We bought the house a little over 2 years ago.

It came with this.






Yeah, you saw it right...rolling clock.





The thing actually still worked..mostly. The lower oven couldn't figure out how to maintain temperature. We lived with it until it burnt the croissants this Thanksgiving. One call to the home warranty folks and the thing was condemned. YAY! Of course it took some time for the new stove to come in but once it did


They had the old one out in no time at all!




Bye bye now.





And there it was...




Korduroy even noticed. Maybe now that I have a real oven he'll realize I can feed myself and stop bringing me dead things.



Did I mention how pretty it is?

Back to School

Little Miss made an announcement recently that she was ready to go back to school....so we signed her up. Her first day back was yesterday.

Getting those shoes on.


Never mind the squint...it was dark in the garage and the flash was blinding her.


The "Welcome Frog"


OOOHHHHH Dinosaurs!


Oh, other little girls.


We only had one little issue of her telling the teacher "No" and hiding under the desk. From what I understand she wanted to go outside and the teacher thought 20* was too cold for outside play. They figured it out and she got on with her work. Here are a couple samples.

Wordless Wednesday

Oregon Beavers

Sitting around the dinner table tonight we had a little "issue" with Elizabeth and corn....

"I don't eat corn..."


"I said I don't EAT corn..."


So here's where having a husband from Corvallis, Oregon (Home of the OSU Beavers) comes in handy.


It even worked on the 9 year old.


Go Beavers!!

Through her eyes

Elizabeth sees me and Abigail and of course Mrs. Megan running around taking pictures...all the time. This morning I handed her the little digital camera and turned her loose. I navigated myself through 126 pictures and found a few I wanted to share.

It took me a minute to figure out what this was. I really had to study it. It's our back door as seen from the perspective of a four year old. A real reminder of how small she is...


I see you.


Sweet little feet.


Photographer in the making.

Wordless Wednesday

The Back Yard Bowl

Layla came over this morning for a play date armed with her football. She was soooooo excited to head out back with Elizabeth and "toss the ball around"

"You hold it like this."


They tossed.


They chased.


And they tackled.


They had a blast!


Then they got confused....


And started playing soccer.

Best Buddies

When Abigail was two years old she met her best friend, Anneke. She and Anneke were inseparable...and it was great!

This is them at or around age 4.



Can you feel the love??


Anneke has a wonderful little brother, Grant. This is the three of us when I was a million months pregnant with Elizabeth.



This is one of my favorite pictures. Linda, Anneke and Grant's mom, with Grant and Abigail. Linda is one of the nicest people I have ever met...we miss you!

Fast forward to age nine and they still talk on the phone (for sometimes hours at a time) in spite of the 3000 miles that separate them. This is one special friendship!

Paint"ball"

These two have so much fun together. They both enjoy watching Abigail work on art projects. On this particular afternoon Abigail put them in t-shirts and turned them loose...



Recognize the shirt Kathy?


So proud...


So silly...


So inspiring. This is Abigail's first watercolor (done in Dec 2006)