Reading With Grandpa

Is the Best!

Aris just found these board books from Japan that I had bought a while back at a thrift store. Erik made up a story for each of them since none of us can read Japanese. He was so animated and Dean & I just giggled. She never sits and listens to books for very long. I think she just adores her grandpa ;)

We are having a wonderful weekend with family. I am hoping to take a ton of pictures today. Didn't get many yesterday because we looked at houses almost all morning & afternoon. We went out for a yummy lunch at Red Robin & ended the day with a dinner of grilled tri tip, homemade mashed potatoes, oven roasted asparagus, & corn. Finished off the night with a homemade apple pie & some Bryers ice cream. Really and truly it was a yummy day ;)

Why did we look at so many homes? Well, we wanted Cindy & Erik to have a good idea of what there was offered in our area. At the end of the day they felt really good about the home we are hoping to get. We all do. Today we are going to go look at the house one more time. We should know by the end of the week a little more about when & if the home will be ours. I'm still praying that if it's the right home for us all will go through.

Hope you all are having a great & yummy weekend too!

San Diego or A Much Needed Break

Dean worked almost the whole time we were down in San Diego. He still tried to make it home before dinner every night. I love this picture of him & Zoe. She is still such a daddies girl. Can you tell?

Little Miss Merris waiting for the fried chicken to finish cooking. I'm so sad I didn't get more pictures while we were visiting. Cindy & Eric have an amazing group of friends that are more like an extended family. Allen is one of those wonderful friends. He and his sweet wife came over and showed us all how to make fried chicken. I won't be making it very often due to the yummy/unhealthy factor, however it is so nice to finally know how to make it. Boy was it delicious! I adore Allen & his wife. Thanks Allen for sharing your mad kitchen skills!

I had some major food cravings that I needed to pamper (yes we ate a lot of yumminess on this trip) What trip would be complete without a visit to ::here:: Seriously yummy food & a fun atmosphere.

More daddy time

Sloan with Grandma Cindy

These last three photos are of the girls making fruit salad with grandma. Sloan said she wanted to make breakfast for dinner the last night we were there & Cindy gladly went and got all the ingredients from the store. She is so good to my girls. They love there Grandma Cindy sooo much. We all do ;)

Only wish we could have stayed a little longer. We had to cut our trip short so Dean could come home and get back to work here in town. I'm not complaining though. We are grateful he has work & he takes it wherever it presents itself. We have been very blessed. The other thing that made leaving not quite as hard this time is the fact that Deans mom & dad are heading our way tonight for the weekend. I'm so excited! I really miss not having family close by. The girls do too. Cindy & Eric are coming to see the house we put an offer on & to see some of the other properties we have looked at. I'm sure there will be lots of photos taken & yes, more yummy food eaten. What can I say its just that time in my life where I'm allowing my craving to rule ;)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Hugs to you all!

Paint With Me Thursday

Doodle

Just got back from Sunny San Diego & needless to say it will take me a few days to get back into the swing of things. I did however make time to sketch while I was down there. Felt good to doodle just for the heck of it. Doodles don't have to be perfect or finished. I enjoyed just goofing around. I also worked on next months card while catching up on Chuck episodes with Dean. Hopefully next week I can actually post on Thursday night & not Friday morning ;)

You can find more fun doodles ::here::

Paint With Me Thursday

Hooray! I made it!

Last night I worked on my next card for ::here::

A sneak peek at some of the possible color choices

I have been so tired with this pregnancy. After a day of cleaning up the house (a never ending battle around here) & then getting the kids into bed I am ready to go to bed myself. I'm glad to have this challenge to be a part of. A good friend of mine is an amazing artist. He commented on Facebook yesterday how he had gone to work all day long & a list of other things he worked on in the afternoon at home with his family. At the end of his status update he said how he was heading to his studio to work on art. It gave me that jolt of creative energy I needed. I sometimes forget I'm not the only parent/artist who works and helps out all day only to find myself ready to sleep at the end of the day. Surrounding myself with other creative people is a huge motivator. His little reminder gave me the nudge I needed to get something accomplished. I should be self motivated however sometimes I think it's okay to gather that extra bit of creative energy from other until you are back in the game again.

Although I won't be able to show you the finished card until next month, I take comfort in the fact that I worked on art last night. Can't wait to work on the card tonight. Look forward to seeing what everyone else has done for their

Paint with me Thursday.

Hopeful!

Our new home?

We got the call today that the bank counter offered & we counter offered back. They accepted our counter offer!!!!!! Now we are waiting for the next step in this process. It should take about 10 days. The bank will have to sign a whole bunch of papers and then make sure their are no liens on the property. If everything checks out okay we can move on to the next step, the inspection. It's not officially our home but the whole process is moving in the right direction from what our agent tells me. I am so very excited.

I will show more photos once we know for sure but I thought I'd give you an idea of how cute this home is. Yes it has a 3 car garage. That 4th garage that has been added on the the house has rocks for flooring. Dean already told me that if we get the house he will pour a concrete floor in there, insulate and add drywall, texture & paint,

IT WILL BECOME MY STUDIO!!!!!!!!!

The garage is as deep as the house. He also said he would frame in a small area at the front of the space so I could store all of my Rubbermaid containers of decorations & such. There is enough room for me to set up a space for sewing & painting & then some. I could work on projects and leave them unfinished for a day if I needed. I wouldn't have to worry about cleaning them up so we could eat at the dining room table. Nope just close a door & come back to it when able. I envision a whole lot of art getting accomplished in that little studio.

The 3 car garage is perfect for all of Deans tools & projects. He joked that all someone had to say is the house had a 3 car garage & he was sold....didn't matter what the rest of the house looked like ;) What guy doesn't want a large garage?

I'm so hopeful!