Can I just say how much these girls mean to me? I have never been closer to a group of women and it completes me. They're my family.

 It was Shauna's (girl on far right) birthday and I was determined to paint her something in less than 3 days.

 Believe it or not, this was the longest part... trying to figure out chevrons and also trying to draw straight lines on curved surfaces.

 Ahh, success.

 And then Ethan came along, with dry brush in hand and made me cry like a baby. Luckily I was able to turpentine the birds off and start them over without damaging the chevron background.

The finish product, done by 3pm and then given to her at 8pm... just in the nick of time. :)

P.S. The inspiration for the painting came from one of my favorite scriptures, Pslams 84:3.

Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.

Under Construction

I'm in the middle of changing up the blog background and headers...

Aren't my kids cute soaking up some Vitamin D?

I've finally finished our dining room table and chairs! Back around Christmas, I bought a table a chairs from two different garage sales. After many months of stripping, sanding and painting, they're finally done. Here's what I've learned from this experience, for those of you thinking about refinishing furniture: It's going to cost A LOT more then you think, it's going to be a lot more labor then you think and it's going to take a lot longer than a weekend. ;)

I've been crossing off projects left and right, I think I've found a great way to make my days more productive. I've been using the 3-tasks-a-day method. So besides my base line, normal daily chores* I give myself 3 things to accomplish. For instance, today's were 1. Send CDs (walk to the post office and send out photo cds from a photo shoot I took), 2. fold laundry (3 loads and put them away), and 3. Budge painting (I'm doing a Portland temple painting for a friend).

*my daily chores, you ask? One load of dishes, sanitize countertops, vacuum entire house, sweep (sometimes 2 or 3 times), make all 3 meals, shower myself and bathe kids, dress me and kids, spend time outside, read to kids, pick up endless messes, and nap (hopefully) with the kids.

 Jon grew a beard, per my request. He hated it, I loved it. It was a love hate relationship. I finally told him he could shave it off today and of course it had a little fun shaving it off in stages.