homeofthebudds

question for you: on the landscape orientation pictures can you see the whole thing? if you have a minute scroll down in the post below to where ellen's watching a movie - can you see the movie?

christmas in our house included lots of...

drawing

scavenger hunting

reading

dispensing chicken presents (worms!)

train table playing

face painting

new movie watching

family chatting

wii fitting

And Blazer cheering.

Merry Christmas everybody!!

Zoo days.

We met up with our friends the Smith's at the zoo today. It was freezing. And foggy. Just the way the mountain goats like it apparently. This was the first time I've seen them out. Ever.

The beauty of going to the zoo in the freezing winter is that no one else seems to be as crazy as you. There is almost no one there and tons of the animals are either wandering about their exhibits or else sleeping right next to the glass. Winter makes for some good animal viewing.

Brennan kissed some ducks,

Ellen and Isaiah rode the horses,

And the Smith boys drove the tractor.

(Sorry I know that edit is sorta out of place, but I liked it that way. So I left it. So there. :)

Dave and the kids found some drums to play,

(you get lots of these cause I love the bundled crazy freezing kids juxtaposed with the African drums)

<(Bleh. I was going to insert a video of the drumming fun here, but vimeo is being lame. When it's decided to cooperate with me I'll update the post. Until then imagine a running drumming circle.)

And we were thrilled when the indoors (heated!) Africa exhibit was open. I love how everything on Howie and Dave's faces are warm except their noses (and glasses).

Isaiah had a run in with the concrete steps. Later Brennan did too, but his battle wounds are on his forehead.

It was pretty super fun. Even if it was freezing.

oops

I was on the blog looking for a picture of the crib to put up on craiglist (cause Brennan has become one of the big kids sleeping without walls) and realized it's been a very very long time since i've posted anything.

oops.

I haven't taken any pictures since that last post. Holy moly. I've been knitting and watching old Magnum PI reruns. I've been feeling too crowded and looking for stuff to craigslist. I've been playing go fish and bejeweled and connect four and knitting some more. I've been researching christmas presents.

The kids have been knitting too. and playing games and watching movies and playing with friends and being on vacation. Dave is off until the new year and we are catching up on that whole cozy low-key life we forgot we liked so much. There's been lots of sleeping in and hanging with friends and just being.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Once I finish some more knitting, visit the post office for the last time and finish some photo editing I promise to pick that camera back up and let you catch up with the kids.

So that's what I've been up to. How've you been?

A late night of goodness.

Last night I got to go to my favorite local musician's (Annie Bethancourt) album release party. We were in this cute little former church (hmm actually a former funeral parlor - somehow cute seems out of place...) turned concert venue (The Woods) filled with funky antique-ish couches and chairs and candles and wine and...possibly nachos. I think that's what I saw but it was dark and didn't seem like it really fit the vibe of the place. But I digress.

All the prime stage front seats were occupied when Emily and I got there so we scored some off to the side. I say that only so you know I wasn't a total nerd walking around the concert snapping pics. These few were stealthily acquired from my seat. Promise.

I love Annie's music. LOVE it. This was an album relase/last concert in Portland for a good long while sort of event. Apparently Annie is in Portland half of the year living the musician life style and then when it gets cold packs it up to be a surf instructor in Costa Rica. Seriously who knew that life was available?

So not only was it a (late) night of good music, but I also got to hang out with Emily. I like Emily. Our kids are the same, our homeschools are the same, and our thoughts are frequently the same (especially when discussing fashion). It's just nice. :)

Ellen's interest in the chickens has been renewed. Rather surprisingly, at least to me. She's been going out to take them fresh water in the mornings, and to bring back the frozen bowl from the day before. This morning she came back to tell me she was going to sit by Chocolate (her same favorite chicken with a new special name) while she was laying, because she (Chocolate) wanted someone near her and no one else was. So she bundled up properly and informed me "it might be an hour or so" before she returns.

I sincerely hope Chocolate is appreciating her (Ellen's) new found dedication.

*updated: Ellen just let me in on the new wintertime nickname for her beloved Chocolate Chip: Hot Chocolate.

Hair design by Ellen.

Ellen had a hair salon for a bit this morning.

Isaiah wanted to document his new look.

Brennan was just thrilled to be so stylish.

The haps.

*I've become rather sporadic over here. Sorry about that. But I am showing up everyday over at the photography blog. Today plastic snowflakes, pumpkin flowers and Emily Dickinson were all present. The kids don't show up though. But it's still a fun blog! At least I think so. Let me know if you want a link - I really do blog daily there.

*Photography stuff is going well. I'm learning all kinds of things, I have shoots lined up, I have a website up and going...I've always had in my head I was going to take this into a career (not just a hobby) but this week it was all vocalized and the plans are coming together. It's interesting to find a balance with where my time gets invested. We're still very much homeschooling and I have no plans to quit that. That, plus photography, plus house stuff gets to be a little much some days. So usually house stuff goes out the window and the floor stays a little dirty, we wear the same jeans over again and eat some Papa Murphy's. That's one of my biggest frustrations - I haven't done much raw at all since it got cold and I got distracted by shiny cameras. Soon it will all balance out. I hope.

*The kids and I and our friend Lynette made terrariums today. Pictures are coming.

*This has been a big coupla weeks around here with DIY, and Help-Portrait and some shoots and a few other projects I can't quite talk about yet (seriously. isn't that weird?). Usually by now I have Christmas present plans in full effect and they might even be ready to ship. It hasn't happened that way this year. Sorry, family. We really do love you, promise. Even if our gift to you this year isn't the most creative. We really do.

*Last week Dave had the entire week off and we roadtripped it to San Jose. (Did I mention that already? Or was that facebook?) It was great fun. Everyone had a good time - walking the dog (Ellen), playing wii (Isaiah), avoiding the dog (Brennan), among tons of other goodness. Ohh I totally mentioned that cause I know I put up a Big Trees post. Right. Apparently I'm tired.

*Ellen's been doing fun school stuff lately - learning about nouns and proper nouns and she even had her first spelling test. Is that weird I think that's fun? She made up her very own board game which will probably have its own post coming soon. Isaiah's been booking through his workbooks. He sits down and just goes for it and will spend a couple hours coloring and counting and writing and drawing. He loves them. He's a pretty great reader too. They're pretty impressive students.

*Brennan has really taken to caring for his babies. He gets all the dolls out, puts them to bed (in Isaiah's bed - always), reads them stories, helps them brush their teeth, puts them in trouble chair when they make bad choices, changes their diapers and clothes...He's a really caring little guy. And he's loooving to sing. It's funny to hear him sing the lyrics for random songs he's heard that I had no idea he knew. I can't think of which songs they are right now (I'm tired, remember?) but when I do, I'll let you know. Really what I should do is get a video. That'd be smart. Alright, I'm on it.

*Alright. It's off to Lightroom for some photo editing and to sleep I go. Talk to you later.

in which we experience zoo lights for the first time ever

We went to Zoo Lights last night. We'd never been before so we weren't exactly sure what to expect.

(photo by Dave)

Basically, its the zoo decorated with tons and tons of lights. So many tons that you wonder about the electricity bill.

The lights are actually really cool - there's tons of light fences like this, but there are also dragons, monkeys, and birds hiding in the trees, there are fields of elephants and hippos and crocodiles hanging by the water, there's fish swimming in the sea...there are all kinds of super cool light scenes.

There's a lot to see.

And a lot to photograph. Assuming you can figure out how to press those tiny buttons with mittens on.

Dave had some fun playing with an extended shutter speed.

And after that good fun we were all pretty frozen and ready to head home. But since our zoo membership lets us in free, we're totally planning to go back again.

Redwoods at Felton

Yesterday we went for a walk in the redwoods.They're pretty big.

Some of us were a little exhausted.

Running through the tree hollows was super fun.

As was just running in general.

I took a few pictures.

We took a few rests (and I tried to get my white balance figured out...)

There's a little town right next to the redwoods that has these fun cutouts. Isaiah was totally into hamming up the convict role.

Brennan thought hardabout what a horse actually feels like.

It was pretty fun. :)