check it out

I thought I'd show a few small paintings that I have up on eBay right now for artist Karl Thomas. Karl is my uncle and I have been brokering his art on eBay for about four years. I also get him into art shows and competitions, and get him publicity in magazines.

Take a look and please spread the word if you know any art collectors. Thanks! Click on any image to see it larger.

Click here to visit our eBay store.

"Alpine Loop" 16x16

"Aspens" 20x12

"Hollyhock Field" 20x16

"Hollyhock Wonder" 16x12

"Midway Landscape" 10x14

"Winter Morning" 9x12

Here are a couple huge paintings that I am selling outside of eBay. Sometimes when Karl is commissioned he has to do a couple paintings to get what the customer had in mind. Both of these paintings were the first tries...no less amazing than what the customer ended up with.

"Midway Summer" 30x40 $2500, normally $5000-6000

"Midway Summer" 36x48 $3000, normally $5000-6000

valentine's

I love Valentines! And I just realized something. Justin has been my valentine every year since I was 17. Even when I was dating other guys in college I would make up excuses to get out of a Valentine date with them because when it came down to it, I always loved Justin the most. The only date a remember though was when we got Chinese takeout, and then after dinner we did landscape paintings with oils. We had so much fun but I also remember that I gave the painting I did I gave to the other guy I was dating the next day. Wow, I was not a very nice girl.

Anyway. This year was pretty simple. We were in St. George for Valentines Day and I got the flu that night so not too romantic. Justin bought me heart wrapping paper from Target which I LOVED! I am easy to please. I didn't get him anything but some smooches.


Ellie and I made these cute matchbox valentines for her friends, the idea was from inchmark. I love this blog, everything this girl does is exactly my style. My favorites are Molly's with the glasses and Taj's who I guess reminds Ellie of Spongebob.



You can see on the table some fabric birds I tried to make but the heads looked scary. Birds can easily looks scary and so I only made two, I'm not sure what I was going to do with them anyway.


My only decorations. Three pictures of Ellie and Cody fromt the last 3 years. I love that the pinks and blues on the table match the pinks and blues in the painting.


Jessica, my cousin in law, did an amazing Valentine craft night at her house. I kept everything I made because it was too cute to give away!

cody is two cute!

Feb. 4 was little Code's birthday. I didn't plan anything...we kind of wanted to take the kids skiing but then Justin got a side job framing so we postponed. At the last minute I called up Emily and her kids to meet us at Jump On It. It was pretty fun and next time I may have to join the "extreme mom aerobic jumping class" they have. Seriously, they really have that. It actually looks kind of fun.





After, I found out my dad and uncle Karl were at Ripples eating lunch so we met up with them. All in all, a pretty great day for a 2 year old!





Cody's loves:
Telling me to "Get" things; Get Ball, Get Toast, Get BaBa, Get Shoes, etc.
Playing basketball.
Sucking on his finger.
His lambie and duck.
Exploring outside while holding either a toy broom or a ski pole so that he can stick things.
Trying on his sister's shoes, especially her pink and purple moon boots.
The book, There's a Mouse About the House.

And here is a cute little clip of Cody's latest success. I have been trying to teach him how to climb out of his crib for a week or so, and on this morning Ellie was a sweetie and helped him. Now, instead of having to get up at the crack of dawn (8:00 am), get Cody out of his crib, and climb back into bed (so hard!), he can get himself out and I can finish my 10 hrs of sleepy time. Haha, no I don't always sleep in like that, just some/most days - it's just so dark and cold out there!

nitsuj turns 30

So for Justin's 30th birthday I asked him if he wanted to go skiing or have a party. His answer illustrates the biggest way we are different. He wanted a party. I would have chosen skiing, to a remote yurt in Montana, where the nearest person is 100 miles away. I'm glad we differ in this way, because we keep eachother balanced, but the social/antisocial battle occurs almost daily.



This was the 5th of 6 Panini Parties we have had since Christmas. We love it! It makes hosting so easy for me because I don't worry about whether the food will turn out. We just set up a bar with yummy ciabatta bread, cheeses, grilled chicken, pesto, sundried tomatoes, spinach, humus, onion, avocado, mustard, etc. Everyone makes up their own sandwich and grills it in the press (really just a glorified George Forman).


Clockwise from left: Sam, Megan, Ashley, Dustin, Jess, Johnny, Kara


Clockwise from left: Matt, Alice, Justin, Randy, Jesse, Unbi, Britton


Will and Rachel. They live below us and make the BEST sugar cookies EVER! I tell them to pay rent with cookies but they don't believe me. They made Justin a mountain biker out of cookies - it was a hit!


Brit, Ellie and Brett

Thanks for coming also Ryan and Mandy, and Tim and Liz - tragically, there are no pictures of them. :( After the movie we went to the movie Valkyrie with Ryan and Mandy - it was really good. My mom and dad had a sleepover with the kids and the next morning we went over there and had breakfast. Happy Birthday lover!

me likey this

mexico adventures

The adventures of a Mormom mom without her kids:

First, scuba diving in Cozumel - looked kind of like this:


Eating breakfast at Papa Hogs:


And this is aparantly what a Baracuda looks like, an important thing to know when scuba diving:


Adventures also included a high speed car chase in our compact rental to retreive John and Kara's dive computers and regulators and also a Treasure Dive the next day to retrieve Kara's entire scuba "outfit" (not sure what to call it, BCD maybe?).

After Cozumel, we ferried over to Cancun to meet up with tons of people from APX. This part of the trip was Free Ninety Free thanks to Justin tearin it up this summer. We stayed at the Fiestamericana and here was the awesome room:


With an awesomer view:

We hung out on the beach,


swam,


went on a sweet snorkel tour on modified?! waverunners,




yoga,


and ate some crazy life-sized monster shrimp:




We partied in the street,


back for more!


And what would a trip to Cancun be without...

CocoBongo!

Yet still notice how I deftly maintained my standards and wore knee length shorts and a fun bright long sleeve T to the dance club! Yep, I felt super cool.



And that's how a Mormom mom lives it up.

UGGGH.

We have a lot of uggs at our house. 56 to be exact. Will someone please buy some from us?
We just want to get rid of the rest and are selling them for $56...exactly what we paid. These are $139 at Nordstrom. All the boots are the same and are the UGG CARDY in BLACK size 8. We'll ship for an extra $5 or you can pick up at our home. Text or Call my husband Justin at 801-318-4818 in interested. We have already sold about 50 before all this on eBay for a lot more and everyone has loved them. In fact, most people that come pick them up come for one pair and end up buying 3-4 pairs! Note: UGGS have been made in China for the last 5 years. These boots are made in the same factory as "real" UGGS but they are knockoffs. You litterally cannot tell the difference.

breakthrough!

Cody drives me nuts for lots of reasons. First, his cheeks are so squishy and tempting but I can't eat them. Also he pulls out the pebbles from the fireplace and scatters them throughout the house multiple times a day. He also thinks he can survive on milk, cookies and crackers. So in an attempt to fix the last problem, I've replaced milk with soy and then a couple days ago I magically came upon this girls post which I belive has saved us. One of the best things about blogs and "mommy blogs" in particular is that we can share what works and help eachother out. It's like a big virtual support group.


Ellie's tray. She is a good eater anyway but she just died over this.


Cody also gets to eat this in the barstool which he thinks is pretty cool. Usually he eats in a little booster on the floor (sad for him but less messy).

Another great idea on this girls blog is to blend up spinach with a little water and then freeze it in cubes. I threw a couple green cubes in our berry/yogurt shake this morning and you would never know.

Well, I must be pretty excited about this because we just got back from Cancun but I'd rather post about snack trays than the beach!

ellie is four!

Decorating for a birthday breakfast.


The party favors that I forgot to hand out....arghhh!


Ellie, Molly, Taj, Ethan/Cody, Courage, Levi, Eli/Grace/Kaiya, Max, Marley


Our gourmet cake...I see all these theme cakes that moms make and I just can't do it! It totally overwhelms me.


It was also our cousin Eli's 3rd birthday so he got a dirty snowball too. Ellie and Eli - sounds like a cute childrens boutique...maybe someday.


That night we met my parents and Justin's family at Maestro's in Provo.


Justins mom got Ellie this darling scripture bag with a tiny sized Book of Mormom with her name on it, a tiny Childrens Hymnbook and colored pencils. Since Ellie's birthday is in Jan, she is just barley going into Sunbeams...my most emotional Sunday in a long time. She was spotlighted for her birthday and we watched from the back in Sharing Time. If I can barely get through her being a Sunbeam, then I am really in trouble.


Ellie's latest look, "hummm...thinking, thinking."

Some of Ellie's favorites: spelling, polly pockets, pretending, making cards, helping cody, playing on starfall.com, doing chores all by herself!

Almost all of Ellie's presents were crafty type things, perfect to get us through these snowy days! Thanks everyone!

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