Art with Mommy

I had the cutest art assistant today - Clara! She sat in her bouncer watching me set up my canvas and prep this airplane spread I'm making for the boys' room. Clara was a little upset that she didn't have my undivided attention at times, but it was nice to have some time to sketch while the boys were playing outside. Awesome!

 She's our pretty pretty princess!

 Close up of the airplane art. It's going to span four 16 x 20 canvases. Whew!

I really need an art studio.

My Funny, Funny Boy

"Mom, look! I'm an ankylosaur!"

Little Bits of Joy

We've been hanging out at home most of this week, so there really hasn't been much to blog about, apart from the sweet little moments. Here are a few I got on camera.

 Watch out, she's starting to push up! Our sweet princess turned six months old a few days ago. She dropped to the 2nd percentile in weight, put on only 11 ounces in 2 months and didn't grow a single smidge of an inch. Hopefully solid foods will help her bulk up. She's happy and healthy though, even if she's a teeny tiny princess.

 Contemplating the workings of the washer

 Fascinated

 I love seeing these two interact. Derek loves his two younger siblings so much.

 So cute!

This kid loves jumping off the stairs onto beanbags

Picnic Party, Clara's Finished Mobile and Switching Trees

 Derek insisted on having a picnic breakfast with Bryce

I think they enjoyed it


 This is the "cool" way to drink milk. :)

I've had Clara's mobile hanging in the garage and I finally decided to finish it last night. I had to hot glue the flowers to the wire wreath which was problematic til I sacrificed my Riverdance shirt to provide something for the glue on the flowers to stick to. So, I glued the shirt scraps to the wire wreath, and the flowers to the shirt and it turned out better than I expected. Well worth the time, effort and money. Now, Clara has something that I hope she'll keep in her room til she has her own little girl to pass it on to. :)

 I loved having some quiet time to work on this pretty thing

 ...Ta-Da! It's more gorgeous than I anticipated. Can't wait to hang it up!

Tammy had a couple trees that she wanted the boys to move, so they spent an hour this evening digging up and replanting two of the trees in the backyard. Derek and Bryce darted outside to alternate between watching them work in fascination and happily playing in the golden sunshine. Clara was content to sit in her bouncer and watch from the patio while I took some pictures.

 Replanting the spruce tree where the maple was

What to play with first?

 No filter. Love my oldest boy!

 Derek and Bryce were excited about the mud hole Uncle Colton was making

 I caught Derek and Bryce trying to drink from a leak in the hose, so...

... I helped. Behold, Derek's first drink from a hose

 Mitchell and Colton had to dig up the sod to place the maple

 Batter up!

 Bryce loves playing with bouncy balls

 Replanting the maple

We love this backyard. The space, the view, everything.

Gardening Experiment

As the adults were outside talking about where to put the garden, the kids had fun exploring and helping to place the garden boxes.

Derek found a baby slug

I love that he shows me everything he catches. :)

Bryce helped Mitchell and Colton place the garden boxes in just the right spot

Starting Clara's Mobile

My mom and sisters came over to hang out with us for a while. Mom surprised us with Whataburger for lunch (she knows us...well, me... too well!) and Derek proceeded to tell Nana all about Bigfoot: what he looks like, sounds like and the reindeer he hunts to build his sleigh. He doesn't eat the deer, he just uses them to build his sleigh. What pulls the sleigh, you ask? Dragons. Uh-huh. After lunch, we pulled out Clara's mobile so we could tell Clara that Aunt Kelly, Amy, Val and Nana helped make her mobile. While Clara was passed around between people, we measured, cut and strung fishing line with crystals. Bryce wandered over to reach up and grab crystals and Amy started saying, "Wee Woo! Wee Woo!" really loudly to try to distract him. I got a great picture but she's forbidden me from putting it on the blog, so it will have to make the yearbook edition. :) After we strung all the crystals we wanted onto the fishing line (most had three crystals at varying lenghts along the string), we then tied these lengths of fishing line to a wire wreath that I hung in the garage. I'll hot glue flowers on it and then we'll hang it in Clara's room! Thanks to Nana, Aunt Kelly, Aunt Amy, Aunt Val, Rob and Mitchell for working on the mobile. It's going to look awesome!

Nana recorded some of Derek's Bigfoot stories. This kid...

Aunt Bella gets some Clara time

Stringing crystals is intense...

...and can even make you a little crazy. :)

Concentration

Aunt Val gets some Clara time, too

Clara's First Solid Food and Meeting Ivan the Boxer Puppy

Back to Keller we go! Mom had a surprise for Clara - solid food! We usually start the kids on solids at six months, and I think Clara was more than ready. Applesauce was her first taste and she LOVED it! Nana was thrilled to give her her first bites and the two of them made for quite the entertainment. Clara demanded food almost as fast as Nana could shovel it and then she tried to grab at the spoon to make it go even faster. After a while, Aunt Jenn and Uncle Tim arrived and brought a surprise with them - their new puppy, Ivan! Derek and Bryce were instantly fascinated. Bryce was, again, more content to watch, but Derek was obsessed. Ivan is only five weeks old, so he wasn't too interested in being played with, but he was pretty happy to be held comfortably. When we started heading home, Derek started begging for a puppy and I'm pretty sure he won't stop for at least a week.

 Yum! Apples!

 Keep it coming, Nana!

 "Ooooo..." says Bryce. He thought Ivan was pretty cool.

 Ivan wasn't so sure about Bryce

Ivan the Adorable! He's a reverse brindle boxer which means he's black and white. Pretty neat.

 Mitchell was pretty smitten, too

 Aunt Bella and Aunt Amy helped Clara fill her need for cuddles

 Derek didn't even want to leave Ivan alone so he could eat

 Looking at Ivan through a pair of binoculars

Aunt Bella, Nana, and Bryce

Aunt Bella loves her Brycie Bryce!

Liz's Baby Shower

It's getting closer! Liz's fourth baby is almost here! One of the wonderful sisters in the ward opened her home and threw a baby shower for Liz. Tammy made this adorable cake and several sisters in the ward brought cute baby clothes and blankets for little girls. I didn't get a chance to take any other pictures, but Liz got so many cute things, I can't wait to see them on her littlest girl. Congratulations Liz and massive thanks to Holly for hosting and setting everything in motion.

 Everyone loved this sweet peachy-pink cake - and it tasted even better than it looked! Vanilla cake and raspberry filling on bottom with lemon cake and raspberry filling on top.

Mommy-to-be (again!)

Curiosity

He wanted to watch the microwave work 

Forget Curious George - Curious Derek gets into more trouble