Piggy Bank

This is a piggy bank.

Lilly made it for Max.

Max broke his a LONG time ago and I've just never gotten around to buying him a new one.

Max also broke Lilly's Piggy Bank.

But Lilly came out of her Captain Planet 4H club today carrying this contraption.

It was a "free" day and they could make whatever they wanted out of what was leftover.

She made a piggy bank for Max.

It's so sweet.

My first thought:

What is that hunk of junk? And where am I going to put it?

 Max loves it! 

He carried it all the way home, examining it all the way.
Before he went to bed, he said "I love that Piggy bank.  It's awesome!"

Lilly likes to leave her school stuff in the middle of floor when she comes home.

I count at least 5 things.

Good thing Max's silly face distracts your eye from it.

He refuses to not make a funny face.  In every picture.

Jarrett's pictures from the same age are exactly the same. Ha ha!

 It comes apart too.

Lilly is sweet.

Backyard Project

I apologize for not being able to see this all from a distance, but we have a swing set in the way.  Maybe when we've moved the swing set, and the trees and bushes and flowers have got leaves I'll post some pic again.  When we rented the sod cutter  for the front yard planting area ,we cut a big long (70 ft) planting area in the backyard.   I have worked on this project 8+ hours a day all week.  My back hurts, my hands have callouses and my face is sun and wind burned, but dang!  It looks good!  I can't wait to one day finish it off!  Only about 12 more phases (years) to go.  But hopefully now we can start enjoying some shade, or at least be on our way to have some!

That's it.  All 70 feet of it.    No painting or sewing or anything this week.  But that's okay, cause this is another way I enjoy creating!  There is something very satisfying about gardening.  I love to be outside and taking care of my yard.

Phase 5 of our Yard

Since we moved into our house 5 years ago, I've had our yard plans drawn up.  Each year we have done a section.  We got another one done this weekend and I am so happy with it.  It has haunted my dreams for the last 5 years and now it is a reality.

We rented this beast from Home Depot.

(I'm glad Jarrett ran this thing and not me)

The kids helped too.

This is a worm family.  Courtesy of the kids.

We've got a couple aspen trees, an american redbud tree, a forsythia bush, 2 spirea and 2 other bushes that the names have escaped me.  We moved our mailbox over 3 feet so we don't have to worry about hitting it every time we pull out of the driveway.  Anyways I am happy.  Two more phases and the front yard will be done.  We've got one more planting area and we want to widen our driveway so that we can park side by side.

Come on spring!

Sleepy Boy

One morning this week, Max decided to wake up at 3:45am.  And stay up.  He finally crashed around 3:30pm and I found him in a chair in the living room like this.

Puppies

My sister's dog had puppies

They are adorable!

 Max LOVES them!

But we aren't getting one.

I'm not even going to sit here and write all the reasons I don't want a dog.  Sure it would be fun and cute.......for about 5 minutes.

The Good Old Days ...When We Were Young

 Sometimes I miss the good ol' days.  Not all of it.  I would never want to go back and re-live it.  I only miss parts of it.  The good times.  Summer breaks from school, that were never quite long enough.  Spending entire days outside playing baseball with my cousins, riding my bike, hiking, fishing with my dad.
Then I got older and the good times were still be had.  I was out on my own and going to shows (that is punk rock terminology for a concert.  We don't call them concerts, because that is for sell-outs... at least that's what we told ourselves,) 3 or 4 nights a week.  I was working at Arby's at the time and honestly it was pretty fun most of time.  I worked with all my best friends and we had a good time at least after the managers left.  Ha ha!  We were good kids.  We thought we were pretty "bad" but we really weren't.

The next 2 pictures are of a short lived band called The Pirates.  It was all the members from I'm with Stupid, plus Jeremy O and my Jarrett on bass.  Funny thing about the location of these photos.

It's was a 24 hour access storage unit.  They used to "practice" after everyone got off work usually starting around 12:30 or 1 in the morning.

  

This little guy is now 13??? Or will be this year.  Jarrett and I used to go down to St. George all the time to visit Jarrett's sister and her kids.  We also usually made a trip to Las Vegas.  We always visited a Record Store that had "cooler" stuff than what was in Orem.  

Anyways I'll probably do some more "Good Ol Days" posts with some more "old" pictures.

More Watercolors

I've been busy painting up a storm.  I've never really had anyone ask me to paint them a picture (except for art teachers) and so even though it's my aunt, I've still been nervous about the whole thing.  Probably unnecessarily, but I always get nervous to give people things that I've made, especially if they've offered to pay, cause I guess I feel like I'm not that good.  I need stop comparing myself to my father and grandmother (who were amazing artists and Watercolorist)  everyone has their own style and although mine is similar, it's not like theirs and I suppose I see that as a flaw.  Anyways these paintings in this post are what I've done so far.  She wanted something similar to the one my Dad had done and in the red, orange and yellow color family.  

Here is the one my Dad did:

Here are mine:

Watercolor Wednesday Week 51

I've been asked by my Aunt Kristy to paint a picture for her to display with one that my father did for her years ago.  So I've been practicing.   Here's what I've come up with so far:

I'm going to do a few with rice paper and then I'll see where I'm at.  Both pieces are 5"X 7".
See my other work HERE.

Sneak Peek at Lilly's Easter Dress

I can't wait!  I hope it turns out like the picture in my head!