Monday, September 26, 2011

I came into the kitchen and saw this:



Which led to this


Sunday, September 25, 2011

I started to make dinner tonight and realized how much of our girls' "vocabulary" has crept into our own. I told Eric I was going to check if we had the "gredients" for dessert. That was one of Heidi's.

Right now Becca says:

nunnerwear (underwear)
nanks (thanks)

"I'm drive" (I'm dry!)

Saturday, September 24, 2011

"We are the muses. 
Goddesses of the arts
and proclaimers of heroes.
Heroes like Hercules.
Honey, you mean Hunkules!"

I have loved this movie from the first time I saw it (you knew I was talking about Hercules, right?) And with four sisters of my own, it was only natural that we would assign each of us to one of the muses in the story. Five muses, five sisters - how could we resist?

This planted a seed though. I asked Qait (short for Kathryn, Isaac's inventive spelling) if she'd be willing to draw a muse for each of us, basing the drawings on our interests. Someday, when she's finished them in pen (and color?) I'll frame them and hang them in my house! I'm including Qait's and my notes too.

Me: I think you should do a doodle of the five of us as muses! Not as look-alikes to the Hercules ones, but in a way that made it clear we were muses, but us, and included things that made it clear who was who? I don't know...but it seems like such a fun idea. And I don't have a drawing bone in my body. :) 


Q: I have been sketching! JUST sketches, although I think they look pretty cool for being starter sketches. Abby, tell me how close/far I am from what you had in mind. I could do more cartoony, but I figured I have at least a little artistic license. ;) So I decided on a style sort of based on the Hercules muses, but more detailed and individualized.
 
To all of you--tell me if you are unhappy with the characteristics I put with your muse. It was sort of hard. I did some research and sifted through the nine typical muses --a lot of them are just for a specific kind of poetry, you know?
 
Now! In the drawings, things are not necessarily how they'll look finally. You might be able to read my notes jotted on the pages. There are lots of pictures (I had fun), but hopefully they're not too repetitive. I kept adding even after taking pictures, especially on Rae's muse. And Liz, sorry you look rather Pocahontasesque. :) Umm... I don't know if you want to hear my commentaries on each one, but I'm excited about them, and this is how I'd tell you about the picture if I were sitting with you.

LIZ:




LIZ: I present you as the muse of romance and poetry. You have always seemed like such a romantic in the best of ways, and I love your passion for writing poems! There's a heart-shaped tip to your arrow and a feather pen tucked in your sash. Are you satisfied with that? I meant to make you look like you're concentrating, but instead it's an angry face. Oops! And the feet...everybody's feet need work.



ABBY:



ABBY: Music and history. It was hard to pick for you--please give me ideas? I put you with a flute because--even though we are all musical--you have such a talent for music, especially having played a number of instruments. You have a book because that just seemed really suitable. :) I put you as the muse of history simply because you have an incredible mind for detail and events, and when combined with your love of reading, it worked.

RAE:




RAE: I already told you I think of you as artful (not artsy--that's fartsy). Your "props" are kind of difficult, though. You are the muse of writing and art. To represent art, you have a double scroll tucked under one arm. You are also holding items of decoration, a string of beads and a sash. At your feet is a vase or pitcher, also a decoration. But that area of your artistic talent, though wonderful, is not as strong as your talent with photography. I couldn't decide how to portray that. So you can see in my notes I added a portrait in the folds of fabric and sketched an old-fashioned camera. Thoughts?

 KATHRYN:



ME (QAIT): I'm least happy with the drawing of myself--not for quality--because it diverts from the style I was heading for. I have myself as the muse of music (like Abby, though maybe I'll define it as lullaby music or something of the sort) and of astronomy. That one surprised Michael, but I really do love the stars. I have a star map and a telescope at my side, and I'm holding a lyre. The straight hair is not staying.

MADELYN:




MADDIE: I think yours might be my favorite...maybe. I like them all. Maddie, you're the muse of comedy and tragedy (or drama, humor) because you have the most delectable sense of humor. I think drama came to mind because you are quite a passionate soul. Your muse is depicted holding a dagger hardly hidden behind her back for irony and tragedy. In the hand resting on your knee, you hold the ribbon of an actor's mask. Your foot is resting on a miniature Greek stage with two tiny actors expressing joy and grief.




ALL: With the final pictures, I want to have a drawing for each muse separately and one drawing combining all of us. The various levels of glamor from sketch to sketch happened just with the fluctuation of my ideas and mood. Rae looks fancy, Maddie's cute, Liz looks fierce, Abby's 50s-relaxed, and I look like Barbie. That was just all kind of how it happened. :)







Friday, September 23, 2011

So two.

We all enjoy Becca so much. This is a fun age.

Apparently this is the best way to watch Mickey Mouse. On a bucket. I love how she's the only one in the family who could get away with this. Noone else's feet would fit! Oh, to be two.


Thursday, September 22, 2011

We had no idea that we'd be starting a tradition when took our first picture here in 2007. I guess we'll need to come back in four years and take another.

It felt like it took a good hour to get this shot but it actually only took about fifteen minutes...

We have so many bloopers of this picture, it's hilarious! One kid ready, that kid gone and another in it's place, someone's back, someone screaming....family pictures with kids are always an adventure.


Autumn, Heidi, and Esther on one of our last family walks on campus before Eric graduated!


Wednesday, September 21, 2011

This summer we dubbed our Fridays as "Family Fun Fridays". One week we went to the Los Angeles Temple and Visitor's Center. I love how they've redone the Visitor's Center to be more interactive. The girls loved it too.


Eric's Mom & Dad have a picture on their wall of Eric and Anna standing in front of the temple, arms crossed, looking so serious (they were supposed to be looking reverent). 

We just had to make our own but I don't think they look very serious (or reverent)...but they sure look cute!



Tuesday, September 20, 2011

I love how each of the girls' personalities comes out in this shot of all four of them.






Monday, September 19, 2011

I guess I won't wait for the six-month mark to revive my blog. It's starting to reflect how I really journal....


Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

But really, I'm ready to write again.