Artsy

Budding Talent
I'm thinking of starting something newwith the blog highlighting or linking to any artsy things (perceived or real) that the kids do. Typically a few times a month, Henners like to paint and he's always drawing something too. I'll try to be good about posting them for you all.

Be sure and check out the blogs that I've set up for both new artists. I've added a link on the right side of the blog just below the blog archive. I'll typically post their art there and occasionally post it on this site as well.

The Artist (Henry) starts his creation with his preferred canvas, scrap sheets 24x36 drawings from Daddy's past projects at work.



Here, the Artist prepares for his upcoming commission by ridding himself of restrictive clothing as it hampers his creative energy. Next, he engages in a ritualistic series of stretches and crouches to get momentum flowing through his body.


Let the art show begin. The Artist opts for the lesser-known "hand painting" technique as opposed to the much over celebrated "finger painting" one. There was a time the Artist only worked in finger paints, but he's since moved on to what will some day be known as the "hand phase" of his brilliant career. Notice the skilled application of palm-on-paper movements. This can take up to minutes to master.


The Artist takes a short break to put on a mini live performance art piece titled Look How My Hand is Blue, Mom. As a mother and also a lover of art, I have never seen anything quite this inspired.


Never content, the Artist now demonstrates a stunning amount of control and skill with his color palette as he now shows me It's Green Too. Truly, there are no words.


Always the pioneer, the Artist now puts down his claim in the lesser recognized world of foot painting. Notice the broad strokes in yellow his right foot makes as if to say, yellow stands alone. The Artist delicately captures the solitary loneliness of yellow. The left foot demonstrates the beauty of cooperation in color, symbolizing the Artist's views on society's multi-cultural diversity and unity. Together these stark differences both in color and direction compliment the free forms the Artist has created.


It was around this point that the Artist turned to me an expressed his sorrow in having to confine his creativity to the paper canvas. His little hands reached out without asking permission and he began his work on the dishwasher. Puzzled, I continued to observe him. What was the Artist trying to say? Was this his commentary on a dislike of traditional roles within the household? Was he simply looking to find his favorite drinking cup? One can never be sure. The Artist's mind is a mystery.

Here's the final piece. The Artist called this We're Out of Orange. I asked the Artist what he felt as he created a piece with so much movement, so much emotion, so much messiness. The Artist looked at me, shrugged then said, "I done." Indeed his is.

For more information about the Artist, be sure to click here.

A Triple Threat and Excellent Floor Work

Multi-Talented Tike
Sunday I noticed that Henry has skills. His first skill? The 4-wheeler. Here he is demonstrating his prowess on his mega machine.

Jeremy showed Henners how to use the throttle on the thing and Henry's been doing doughnuts on our lawn ever since.

Skill number two? Mad soccer ball skills. Here's Henners showing off his footwork.

Here's Henners showing his lounging with the ball skills.

I'm not sure what type of skill this is.


Here's Reese and I watching Henry's skills.


Here's Henry showing his holding the ball skills.


Here's Henry showing his skill and gaining sympathy.


The third skill? Art.


Compulsory Floor Exercises
So, if you check the right hand column of our blog that talks about each of our interests, likes and so on, you'll notice in the "Dislikes" area under Henry that he doesn't much care for naps. This is because he is the busiest person ever and he's so afraid that he'll miss something if he naps. I usually comfort him by insisting that he won't miss a thing. However, on this particular day, while he slept upstairs in his room, he missed this...

Total cuteness of Reese.


He even missed more cuteness.


He missed flirting.



And a staring contest.

Twas the Week Before Christmas

I’m With the Band
On December 19th, the four of us went to the Junior High School Band Christmas Concert held at the High School down the street. Our neighbor’s daughter, Amanda, was playing her saxophone and clarinet for the event. During the concert, Henners went through three packages of Scooby Snacks, although he offered half of them to his crush, Michelle (Amanda’s mom). After about 3 songs, Henry exclaimed “We done!” and kept this ritual up whenever a song would finish. I had to break it to him that no, in fact, we had 7 songs to go. As I mentioned before the “We done!” went on for the rest of the concert. Although, he did love to clap his hands whenever they finished the numbers. His favorite was the percussion pieces that featured the big drums. Reesie just chilled and watched the stage, struck by the noise and the shiny instruments. She also liked the red and green soft spotlights on the ceiling. She had a great time just being held and people watching.

Nudie Pics
Little Reese loves to have her clothes off. She kicks and grins whenever she gets her diaper changed. She gets this really intent and serious look on her face like kicking is her only purpose and she's got a job to do! She really lets loose once she figures she’s taking a bath. She looks all around at everything she can possibly see in the tub. Afterwards, I like to just hold her for a while in her warm towel. I’ve posted some pics of her below during her bath. I also told her that these are the only nude or semi-nude photos of her to ever be on the internet.

Cute Kids

Friday, December 21st, Henners had a Christmas party at school. They watched a movie, sang songs and broke a piñata! When I picked him up from school and got him in the car, the first thing he said to me was, “Mom, I had a good day.” Aww…I was so happy! Here’s his Christmas card to us. The teacher asked him to tell her what his favorite thing about his Mom and Dad were. He just told her his favorite things….period.

When I got home, Reesie and I played on the bed for a while. I made noises with her and imitated her the best I could. She loved the interaction. When I stuck my tongue out at her, she got a big smile and let out the loudest “Hoo, hoo” that I’ve heard her make to date! It brought tears to my eyes!

Art Attack
What do you do when it’s too snowy to go out and your three year old is feeling creative? Well, I don’t know what you do, but we decided to finger paint! Here’s the evidence.


Do Not Attempt at Home
Every eight years or so, I get this feeling that somehow I know how to cut hair. Don’t ask me why. I should know better. For me, cutting anyone’s hair with the exception of Henry’s has always gone horribly wrong. So I guess the last time I got busy with the clippers was 1999 because Saturday (Dec 22) when Jeremy said he was feelings scruffy I told him I would be happy to trim his hair.

So…… I started....and it didn’t end pretty. Jeremy’s eyes were getting pretty wide about two minutes into my handiwork, which, by the way, wasn’t too handy. I cut him a little close and fairly uneven. I urged him to go to the “Quick Cuts” or whatever it was called up the street. After we both had a good laugh and cry (from laughing so hard) by looking at him in the mirror, he was on his way to the stylist. Before he left Jeremy asked me with a wink, “What did I ever do to you to deserve this?!” Oh, by the way, the stylist said that Jeremy was the second guy in that morning that had attempted an at-home hair cut. I'll never do that again (well, not until 2015 at least)

Tumblin', Trains and Two Months

“Nastics”
So, Wednesday, Henry had his “Winter Show” at gymnastics. He’s only been enrolled a month, but I thought he would really like to show off what he’d been learning to all the Grandparents.

Oh, my. Show off is right. Let me preface by saying that Henry is the smallest one in his class (most of them average 4 years going on 5 years of age). He may not be the best listener, but he tries so hard during class and more importantly, he has so much fun. He definitely brought the house down with his “gymnastic antics”! He did everything so well, including a few tricks he had never even tried before. When it came time to finish a trick, all the children were instructed to hold their hands high above their head and say “Ta-da!” Well, Henry did one better. After his “Ta-da!” he would then place his hands on his hips and bow for everyone. People were roaring! On the video that Jeremy shot, you can barely hear the cheering over Jeremy’s laughing. Oh, Henners, you are a crack up!


Polar “Not So Much” Express
Thursday was Henry’s birthday. He was so excited that he was finally three! That night the four of us trekked up to Heber City to ride the “Polar Express”. First of all, Henry was so excited he could hardly contain himself on the way there. Once we got there and he saw all the train cars lined up outside, he just had to be outside (in the snow) running up and down the platform dragging Dad along. Reese and I were much more patiently waiting inside where it was warm. We had Reese all bundled up in a winter snow suit that was red and white. Henry thought she was dressed like Santa Claus.

When the conductor shouted “All Aboard”, Henry pulled at us to get up to the train steps to get on the train. The only issue was that we were about 20th in line and had to wait our turn. This concept was totally lost on Henners. After what must have seemed like forever to Henry, we were on board and in our seats. We were visited by elves and hot chocolate chefs and Mrs. Claus. After that, Henry wanted off the train. We still had 45 minutes to go. Henry willed the train to go faster out loud. They call it the Heber Creeper for a reason, Folks. All this time, Reesie was enjoying her bottle and the hanging Christmas Lights. She spent a good deal of the ride looking over my shoulder at all the events going on around her. She loved it!

Finally, after I kid you not, 3 songs of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” (Santa was kind of tardy), Santa entered our train car. Henry got immediately reverent and angelic. He was so excited when Santa got to our row. He handed both Reesie and Henry a jingle bell. The rest of the way Henry shook his jingle bell and sang “Jingle Bells” to anyone that would listen.


Well Baby Check-up
Friday, Reesie had her two month check-up. Of course the nursing staff cooed over her the entire time. She measured 22.5 inches long and 12.25 lbs (wow!). For height she’s in the 60th percentile, for weight the 90th. Good girl. The doctor commented on how pretty she is and what a well dispositioned baby she is too. When it came time for her shots, I was upset, because Reese never cries hard and I knew that she would. She did pretty well, I think she was startled more than in discomfort. She stopped crying immediately once I picked her up. What a brave little girl! I brought her home and gave her a warm bath and massaged her little legs. She was pretty awake so she exercised her legs with her kicking ball that she loves so much. Then she zonked out completely. She slept a good deal of Friday and Saturday, but was in good spirits when she was awake. We think she is amazing!

Bruiser is a Loser
Saturday, the four of us headed to “Salt City” as Henry calls it to see an art exhibition at our friend Scott Buckner’s house. He just graduated from the U as an art major and is extremely talented in contemporary art. He works in our office and is a good friend of mine. Once we arrived, Henry recognized him and immediately started calling him Buckner like we do at work. He remembered that Buckner has a betta fish named Killer that he keeps at his desk at work. Henry asked Scott several times if he could see his fish. Scott told him that his fish wasn’t there, but that he had a better animal for him to play with. We all went upstairs and Scott’s wife brought out their Chihuahua named Brusier. Henry loved Brusier! He held him and petted him so gently. When Bruiser ran downstairs, Henry chased after him calling, “Loser! Loser, where are you?” Scott and his wife thought it was hilarious. For the brief 30 minutes we were there, you could hear Henry calling for their dog “Loser” throughout their house. As we left I thanked them for the food, the art and for letting my 3-year old insult their dog.

Zoorific!

Beasty Boy
Friday the 27th, Henry and I loaded up and went to the Hogle Zoo with my friend Sara and her daughter Madeleine (9 mos). When I told Henry we were going to meet Sara at her house, he immediately got excited. Then he began talking about dinosaurs and named every character from The Land Before Time (LBT) series. It then dawned on me that he thought we were going to visit CERA, the Tirceratops, from the LBT series. I had to quickly correct him, but he insisted that we were off to see a dinosaur. Imagine his disapointment when we arrived and Sara, not CERA, answered the door! Henry's disappointment quickly faded when he discovered Sara has two dogs (a huge Malamute who Henry called a "Woof" and a black lab mix who Henry dubbed "Max"- after our Max). As a matter of fact, for future reference, Henry insists that all black dogs are "Maxes". Next, off to the Zoo where Hank knows his way around quite well. We ran, not walked, to the elephant exhibit, the bears and the zebras. Henry's favorite was the very, very humid and stinky Reptile Room with all the snakes and crocodiles. He ran back and forth for about 20 minutes to each window that held any snake. After my hair had completely frizzed out and Henry was drenched in sweat, we called it quits and went to visit the African animals.

Artsy-Fartsy
Here is one of Hank's latest creations. We fingerpainted this week and practiced our colors. Busy, Busy, Busy
On Saturday, Henry and I made the trek up to visit Grandma JoAnn and Grandpa Brent. Grandma had just cleaned the house in time for Henry to wreck it completely! He played at the park, chased bubbles, watched movies, hung out in the dog run and threw decorative rocks in the creek. (sorry, Mom!)

Fun at the park

The dog run

Hot
Sunday was hot. There's no other way to describe it. It set a record for the month of April. True it was only 86 degrees, but still, when you're not used to that weather so early, you must take the necessary precautions...swim trunks, swimming pool and popcicles (in that order).

"Look at me!"

Water baby

"Do I have something on my face?

Un-lucky Charms