January - The Month Of...

Sculpture!

 

 

Jon and I have both always wanted to try sculpture. After looking into the different materials and forms, we decided to go with 3-dimensional round sculpture style using clay.

 

At first we decided to each sculpt animals... then it turned out that we were basically planning to make the same thing - and oh yeah I HATE CLAY.

 

I just didn't feel like it really did what I wanted it to. It was all together too soft and too firm at the same time. What I decided I really wanted to use was play-doh. HAHA

 

 

After abandoning the animal plan, I decided to make something that would make me happy... snack foods :) So I modeled a triscuit with tomato, lettuce and cheese toppings, a fig newton (dang, I love those!) and some fruit snacks. It turns out I found my calling in clay sculpture world = snack foods.

 

Jon was having a great time with his clay and actually did really well with his animal plan!

 

 

There's his little sleeping fox behind my triscuit creation.

 

 

We still have a TON of clay left, so we will probably be making more things. One thing's for sure - sculpture is not my favorite art form. At least this kind. Maybe someday we will take a class or try for metal or glass sculptures. I could see that being fun. This is the year of exploration after all!

 

***

 

In the middle of January I also took a spontaneous trip to Utah to visit my best cousin, Megan. Kate came with me for the short weekend. We had a lot of fun, but were literally in Utah for less than 48 hours! Short short trip.

 

Here is Kate sleeping in my arms on our first flight together, which had a layover in Portland.

 

 

She is such an amazing baby. She was cooperative the whole trip. 4 flights total in a 3 day period!

 

I got sick on Friday after we landed, so after lunch at Cafe Rio I slept the rest of the afternoon and evening.

 

On Saturday we went out to lunch at Zupa's with my Grandma Andersen. Afterward we spent some time at her home visiting and looking through some family history. Kate napped on the couch and was happy enough to sit for a couple pictures with me and Great Grandma!

 

 

Saturday night we went to dinner with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins Chelsey and Megan at Rumbi Island Grill. It was the closest thing I could get to a Teriyaki Chicken Bowl since Hogi Yogi no longer exists. HAHA I am so happy to say that, although I miss their food a little :)

 

Chelsey and Kate:

 

Andersen & Nielson families with Kate:

 

Sunday morning we left really early for the airport. We had connecting flights from SLC to LAX and then SMF.

 

Me, Megan and Kate:

 

 

Kate and I got a window seat from LAX to Sacramento:

 

It was totally adorable to watch her in wonder looking out of the plane window:

 

I also let her try a little orange juice on the flight. She definitely LOVES it!

 

We had a great time seeing some snow, visiting cousins and relaxing in Utah, but we are so happy to be back home in California where it is warmer! Here is Kate with the blanket and burp cloth set that Great Grandma made for her. We love the puppy dogs! It is so cozy.

 

 January has definitely been adventurous.

Bring it on, February!



The Bloopers

Jon here. Don't worry, I'll make this quick. I'm not nearly as enjoyable to read as the wife. Anyway, I figured it isn't enough to just tell you about our theme for the year, and post pictures of what we do. You need to see what happens when things don't quite work out.

 

Now, from what I can tell from Facebook, blog comments, and pretty much every single person mentioning it to me in person, our photo for this year's blog is freakin' awesome. I'm not gunna lie, it's pretty amazing. There are, however, several other photos that were taken before that precious gold made it's way into our camera. So, here we go, some bloopers:

It started out with just the wife and Katherine, get a feel for things:

For some reason we thought binoculars would work, but of course these are WAY too nice and new and facny looking to make any kind of sense:

 

But, of course, we got it all worked out how it should be, it was all just a matter of whether or not Margo and the Katherine would cooperate (which obviously they finally did)

. . . And then things got a little out of control

So yah, we are crazy people. Enough said.

 

 

Our Chubs

Katherine Anora - The Chubs - The Katherine - Chubtastic - Kate - Alora Dannon - Baby Girl - Baby Chubs - Roly Poly - Chubernathy - Chubfish - My Girl - Chubsworth - My Love

5 months old

She loves to babble and hear the sound of her own voice.

She smiles constantly and thinks Jon making fart noises is funny.

She is extra curious and puts everything she can into her mouth.

She loves making eye contact with us and coos as I sing primary songs to her.

She still eats and sleeps like a champ. We started rice cereal this week. She loves having bananas and peaches mashed up in it. She does NOT like cauliflower.

Kate has toys named Mr. Jheri Curls, Sir Hops-a-Lot, Honey Boo Boo and Barky Von Shnauzer.

Kate and Margo play together. Kate will be on the floor and reach for Margo while Margo dances and rolls around licking the baby's hand. Kate gets a kick out of this. They are quite the gentle pair :)

Margo on the other hand thinks Kate's baby play gym is a fantastic obstacle course.

Kate is very proud of herself when she rolls over. She still gets grumpy on her tummy at first, but she figures it out faster and faster every day.

She loves sitting in the bumbo chair nearby us so that we can talk to her when we are on the computer or eating breakfast.

Just now she coughed a little when she breathed in some spit, so I asked her if she was ok and she looked at me and laughed :) I'll take that as a yes.

Kate is starting to recognize people more and more. She is slow to light up for strangers, but immediately smiles and talks to me and Jon, or her grandparents. I am so glad we are closeby both our parents so that she can have a relationship with them!

Kate is fine wearing headbands, although she is so wiggly that if they are a little loose they will quickly slip down over her eyes. We joke that she wishes she were Levar Burton.

She does not like wearing hats (at first). She will leave them on most of the time, but always makes a grumpy face when we first put them on her head. She especially does not like them covering her ears. She will reach up and pull them down on one side, sometimes over her eyes. Function over fashion, baby girl :)

She loves to grab at her toes and can ALMOST get them in her mouth.

Katherine is healthy, happy, and growing so much! We love her to pieces! Especially when she laughs through her crying and naps in our arms. What an incredible blessing it is to be a parent and watch a little human grow right before your eyes.



2013 - The Year Of...

Happy New Year!

 

As you may have discovered by now, we pick a theme for every year. Jon and I were talking about this last night and we're pretty sure this started in 2009; it was the year of chocolate. 2010 was the year of awesome. 2011 was the year of creation. 2012 was the year of pictures.

 

Every year we have taken the theme a little more seriously and gotten a little more into it.

 

This year was Jon's turn to decide. Right after Christmas he put a gift bag filled with tissue paper on our bed and said I would have to wait until New Year's day to open it! *grumpy face* I am terribly impatient.

 

So last night we got home at about 1am and it was time to reveal the theme!

 

Inside the bag I found these:

 

 

2013 - The Year of Exploration!

 

The way it will work is this: each month we will plan to try something new that we have never done before, but have always wanted to try. To kick it off, Jon got these books for 99 cents each online :) He has always wanted to try making his own paper and getting more into book printing, so these books will help with that.

 

I told Jon that "the year of exploration" made me think of traveling or a scavenger hunt or cooking! He said it can encompass all of these ideas. Trying something new each month is just the beginning.

 

Can't wait to see where this year will take us :)