Tulip Field

Today we went with some family to go see the Tulip field. The kids were wondering where were the eggs, I think they are a little excited for Easter. 

It was a beautiful day and perfect weather, we might go again when more tulips are in bloom and pick some Tulips to bring home. 

The Dallas Zoo....Again

We went to the Dallas zoo... again. But it's hard to beat those $5 days and plus we had family in town. And this time we were able to feed the giraffes! Which I thought was great since that is my favorite animal.

Putting Easter Up and Everyday Life

Since Easter is early this year I decided to put Easter up. My boys always get excited when I put up holiday decorations. While I was unloading the decorations the boys found the egg shaped candy containers that I grew up with and put them on their faces like Astronauts like I did with my siblings when I was a kid.

It's nice to have a fire place mantel to decorate.

Also the last little bit I have been better at keeping up with pre-school again. The kids really like it.

Anyway I'm excited about Easter and the Easter candy like the sour gummy bunnies, and the Starburst Jelly beans!

Being an Artist is Hard, Being a Mother is Hard

(This is a post I started last week but never really finished so I'm posting now)

This week I was really bad at taking pictures of the boys and our daily lives, so I thought maybe this would be a great opportunity to flush out some thoughts I have in my head lately, so this posts in mainly for me and probably will be random.

I don't know where I want to begin with this post...

Being an artist is hard, it's emotionally draining sometimes. Being a mother can be hard, and emotionally draining as well, so when you combine the two, well, it's emotionally draining.

I love art, it's such a big part of my life, and I honestly feel like it's my calling in life.

Speaking of calling in life.... This year I really have felt like I need to push my art, which has been a scary and frustrating thing. It's scary to put yourself out there and get rejected or have the fear of getting rejected. I don't think people know how much soul one puts in their artwork and it's hard when people don't appreciate it.  It's frustrating when I plan to paint that night and I end up having to take care of sick children. But I try to put all the negative thoughts my head and keep going.

This past Saturday our Stake had a Relief Society conference. And the theme was "women who know" and women who create. And they wanted sisters to bring something to display what they like to  "create" so I brought over some framed prints.
In the conference they talked about all the women in the scriptures. Then afterwards they had some workshops and one of the workshops the speaker did a wonderful presentation about the Female Mormon artist Minerva Teichert. I'm pretty sure I was teary-eyed most of the presentation because I felt like I could really relate to the artist. She gave up a lot art opportunities to be a mother and for her children, and that she would paint between chores and late at night when the kids were in bed. She was rejected a lot in her career but at the same time had a lot of success. She painted huge murals in her living room, it made me feel better about my studio in the corner of our bedroom:

And it was something I need to hear and I'm so grateful that I went. Anyway, I have more thoughts, but one is busy. Anyway here is some homework that I have been working on this past week. It's been hard but I'm learning loads.

Also this past week I helped a friend with a photo shoot for a bunch etsy shops to show their produts. I said I would only do it if I can put one of my prints in the shoot ;) anyway it was a lot of fun, since I love staging things and taking pictures of it.

Valentine's day and Zoo

This week has been packed full with fun activities.
We had a Valentine's day party so the boys and I, mostly me, made Valentine boxes for our Preschool activity. Then the following day we went to the party. The boys weren't sure how it all worked at first but they got the hang of it and were excited to see all their valentine's cards they got.

We also went to the zoo for playgroup because this month the zoo had $5 days. The weather was perfect. They also had a Lego exhibit that the boys enjoyed.

And a picture of Oliver, he has been obsessed with playing with blankets and pillows. He will make houses, playgrounds, water parks, and sometimes a Hulk Buster suit, what a cutie.

Snap Shots

Well it's that time again to try and catch up on this blog here.
The past few weeks have been crazy as usual, and all three kids have been sick, that I haven't been to church the full three hours for a while that I'm starting to feel like I'm inactive and I have been missing the weekly spiritual uplift that church does for me.

Some things we have done beside being sick:

*Since we have been home a lot we have been playing and making all kinds of messes.
*The kids love playing on the bunk beds and they are so good at playing make-believe. I love it!
*We also have been playing a lot of games as a family. I love how my kids are getting that age where they like playing card and board games.
*The two older boys got hair cuts, I let Dustin buzz the boys' hair once a year, because I personally like them to have longer hair, and I'm always sad when he does it. Why am I attached to my boys' hair?
*I also opened my Etsy shop "officially" and so far no sales besides kind family members. So I didn't make my first 1k the first week... ha ha but still, I can't wait for that first sale.
*Also the past couple weeks I did my painting class for the Relief Society activity, I had Dustin do one of the samples before that way I had three samples for everyone to see, He's a lot better painter than I. It comes more natural for him.
The painting class was a success, and I might have cried a little in the beginning when I was telling them my journey as an artist, I don't know why I have been so emotional lately, I blame the lack of sleep from sick kids, but being an artist is hard ( I might blog about that later if I find the time). But I felt like the ladies had a blast that night, still today people have come up to me and told me how fun they had. It was a little crazy that night, and I learned a lot and there would be a few changes I would do  if I do a class that large again.  We are planning on doing another one for Super Saturday but I told them we might have to do two smaller classes vs one big one.
*What's also new is Dustin and I are taking another online art class, just when I thought things would slow down ha ha. One day Dustin came to me and said " I signed us up for that class we talked about doing and it starts in two days!" I don't think he realized when I said I wanted to take that class I didn't  mean right now ha ha. Oh well, so far it's going good, we are more working on how to see the subject matter that we are painting vs having a finished product so I don't know how much "artwork" from that class I will post on social media, but I am excited to learn more about art.

Anyway, here's to having hopefully a more healthy, less sick kids week.