Cullan's Art

This is a drawing Cullan did. He always amazes me at the things he comes up with. This was a little violent but the humor is what got me. I had to laugh a little. 

My little Man

He loves to draw. 

I know someday I will miss seeing him always doodling. 

He will grow up and do great things.

But right now I am going to enjoy my view!

A gift.

there was  a visiting artist at NIU and she did a print while she was here. she ended up leaving the block and so they used it to do a demonstration. Garran thought that I would like one and brought it home for me. Sorry the bottom is blurry. Ayla started to grab it just as i snapped the picture. 

now i will just have to frame it and figure out where to put it!

budding artist

Cullan has been drawing like crazy lately. We even bought him his own sketch book. He has almost filled the whole thing, with actual pictures. Not just scribbles. Anyways he drew this today. He told me it is a birthday card for his next birthday that I am supposed to save and give to him. 

I know that every mom thinks their kid is great, but I love his drawings, and i am so impressed with how well he is doing with writing his name. I did not help him at all. His name on here is all his own. Now we are starting to work on his last name. It is a little bit longer so it is taking a little time! 

water colors.

we decided to do a little decorating for the month of "LOVE"!

plus i was getting a little stir crazy and so were the kids. so i got some white paper, cut out a bunch of hearts and brought out the water colors!! 

the kids had a blast and Garran and i also had fun painting some of the hearts. i did not get any pictures of the actual process. only because it was all i could do to keep all three of the older ones from mixing all the colors, spilling water, and Breia from licking the paint brushes. i think she thought it was some new form of make up!

i made the one that i got most of them smiling as our new header, but this is our fun one. we always have to take a fun one. anyways, you can see our creations behind the kids. they are really proud of them and i have to admit the look pretty cute in the window. so hope everyone is getting ready to feel a little extra love this month!!

graduation...everything after

right after garran graduated we tried to get a few family shots together.here he is "the graduate"!!of course one with our family....the kids look so excited don't they? they did so great though. they sat through waiting, the entire ceremony with no complaints.. i was so thankful for that.here is garran and his mom. she was pretty excited.another shot of garran and his parents.this is our niece katie sporting uncle garran's graduation cap.
after graduation we all went out to lunch. i had a ton of pictures from that also, so I just had to pick and choose.this pictures cracks me up. cullan was really enjoying the chips and salsa. i was amazed that he was eating the salsa because it was pretty hot. however i would see him eat some chips and then chug some water... it was cute.i just thought this was a sweet picture of kael. he is such a cutie.i tried to get a picture of my mom and george with the kids, so i took this. however i like this one much better. i just love that it is them, being silly. (and that briea is sitting there just being a cute mess)this is my sister and a picture of her fiance.
after lunch some of the family had not seen the show yet, so we took them back to the gallery.
here is my aunt bridget, garran, my grandma pat, my dad, and uncle brad outside the gallery. they stopped by to check out garrans work.the kids with garran, my grandmother and my dad.one last group shot before we headed out the door. however the kids were being cute, so i snapped these of the kids playing!!it was such a fun day, but i am glad we are done...now on to grad school apps and waiting to see what the future holds!!

website.

here is a link to a website that talks a little about garrans bfa show. just click on garran's name and it will take you there.
(i know this is over kill, but i am pretty excited for him)
GARRAN

BFA sucess!!

well even though it looked like this outside the day of the show, it was a complete success! we got to the gallery around 6:00 to start setting stuff up. then everyone started arriving and the show was opened.here are just a few people in the gallery. i walked in and snapped a few shots after thing had slowed down a little.here is the show announcement outside the gallery. it was so much fun. the gallery director said it was attended well. we had 193 show, just one day after a blizzard!!!this picture makes me smile. it is garran with his two professors Tim and Aaron. I just think it is funny how Tim and Garran have their hands on their faces looking into the gallery at Garrans work. two of the youngest guest last night. briea and her buddy Finn!it was so nice of our friends and family to come out. here is my friend stacy and myself. she just had a baby like a week ago. she was a trooper.we had family come out as well. my mom, step dad, and sister drove up for it and garrans parents and sister came as well. here is garran with his dad, not sure what cullan is doing??last but not least. one happy family. happy because the big night is over, much less stress. also though, because it was such a hit. i could not believe the turnout and garran even sold a piece on opening night. we were so excited!! it is still up till the 19th so if you live in the area, feel free to stop by!! congratulations honey on your big night, it was great

good news.

good news. finally. after some very stressful days, we got some good news. garrans show has been postponed due to weather. so now instead of Wednesday night it will be Thursday the 10th @ 7:00pm. we hope that any of you who were planning on attending on Wednesday will still come out on Thursday. it should be a lot of fun! hopefully this means our family will still come to. it will make traveling a lot easier!

staying positive.

i am trying really hard to stay positive with this lurking over us.i am trying to think that it will pass quickly and that everything will be fine by tomorrow afternoon-evening. the show is still going strong. no canceling from the university. so if nothing else tomorrow night, garran, myself, and the gallery director will be standing there admiring all his hard work. it is so frustrating to see something that someone you love work so hard for, fall apart. argg. im still praying this will pass. i'm just going to keep hoping for the best!

cullan's first art show...

i guess he might just follow in his daddy's footsteps.
tonight at cullan's preschool, they had an art show. it was supposed to be decorated like a gallery. the hall's were lined with all of the kid's art work. it was fun but super busy. i tried to snap some shots of cullan's work. some came out kind of blurry due to getting bumped in the overcrowded hallways. so here is what i got to see..a mask that cullan painted and added decoration to.
they also had a silent auction. this was one of the things they auctioned. it is everyone in the preschool. cullans hand print is the second row third in. it's blue.here is a sheep. a very cute sheep.this one made me giggle. it just seems to tell so much about cullans personality. he is so matter of fact sometimes. just so straight to the point. the kids read the book "it looked like spilt milk". all of the other kids pictures said, "it looks like a butterfly", "it looks like a monster". i could just see in my mind, cullans teachers, after reading the book asking, what does it look like and cullan looking up at her in a very matter of fact way and saying "it looks like spilled milk." as you can see it is written in the corner. oh my cullan boy.i am not sure exactly what this is but i took a picture anyway.here is cullans family portrait. i think he did a great job.last but not least. they did fall trees. i loved these. i think i am going to have to steal the idea. cullans is right up front, just right of center sitting kind of sideways.
he was so excited to show me his art. i can not believe that he is becoming such a big kid. i guess i better enjoy ever minute.

WOO HOO~

ok friends.. the good news keeps rolling in. today garran was checking his email and found a wonderful little surprise. the man that runs the gallery that garrans piece is in right now sent him an email saying that a woman had contacted the gallery director about purchasing the piece that garran has in the show!!!!!

WOOOOO HOOOO!!!

we love when garran sells art work. im so excited for him. so garran emailed the woman today and we are just waiting to hear back from her to firm up the details.

just thought i would share some good news!

celebrate~

ok so i have known for a long time how talented garran is. i know some people hear artist and think "what is he going to do with that" or who knows what else. however i know he is going to do great things and i think he will be an even better professor. today however we got a wonderful surprise. there was an art show at the school garran attends and garran submitted an etching that he had done. we thought that the award ceremony was tonight, however we were wrong. it was last night. very sad about missing it because garran won an award!!!!

he received the Douglas Lindseth Art Award: (the award stated)

This award is given to a current art major who has consistently proven to be an extraordinary student, a person who is hardworking, capable and unusually committed to the serious study and practice of art.

it goes on to state how the award was started and the family that created it. it also came along with a cash prize, which we were both very surprised by!

hopefully this blog doesn't come off the wrong way, but i am so happy for garran. i know that he is super talented and when things like this happen, i just get so excited for him!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS GARRAN! WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH =)

snow day~

today we woke up to frozen roads and a white snowy wonderland. well since everyone has been sick i opted out of letting the kids play outside in the snow for a little while. so we have been busy trying to find fun things to do inside today.

(especially since mom school was also canceled today)

here is what we have come up with so far..... first we painted some pictures.

painting in our house is second nature.

if we can't think of something to do, there is always painting.

while the boys were working on their pictures, this is what garran and i were doing.
each year we get the boys a special ornament.
this year i found a wooden train and plain.
i thought it would be fun to paint them and give them to the boys.
my hope is by the time they grow up and get married, they will have a small collection of memory filled ornaments to start their own family with!

later cullan found this santa hat.

he came and found me and wanted me to take his picture.

this is some pose huh?

know what i like best about it.

no binkies-no diapers!!

of course when kael saw the action, he wanted in on it.

who does not have time for some silliness, right?

so now its almost two, and we are trying to think up some more fun things to do.

right now we are watching polar express.

my kids favorite.

(i had to rent it because cullan has been asking to watch it non stop)

his two favorite things 1)trains 2) christmas

crazy pun-kins~

today we finally got around to painting our pumpkins. we painted them this year because we just did not feel like carving them, but we also don't really have a good place to put them. So we just painted them and put them on our table. of course i took pictures because there is hardly any time that we do something fun and i don't document it by taking pictures!

so we started off with the boys each painting a small pumpkin that they picked out themselves!

they were really having fun. they love anything that has to do with painting (does it surprise anyone really, i mean their dad is an artist after all=)

cullan was really impressed with the progress he was making. every time he used a new color he would say something like "mommy, i paint green." or "mommy, i paint my pumpkin red!"

kael too was very into the whole painting fun. he was trying the double brush approach! he really likes to live on the edge.

the following show just how weird we are. their are few times when we paint that it does not turn into body art. garran is usually the one who starts it. this time he started by painting on cullans back and then the boys thought it was hilarious. they started painting each other, themselves, i know we are strange folks!

(daddy painting cullan)
(cullan painting cullan)

(cullan painting kael...notice the paint in kaels hair. everything seems to end up there)

of course their are always well.....

MISHAPS!

good thing the paint is harmless. a quick wipe and a little water, we were good as new!

and finally ....

the finished product!

pretty talented kids, if i do say so myself!