jonah comes to life

finished two more illustrations. this is the part of the story where jonah's balloon fills with rain and he sinks down to some place in southern africa and meets a giraffe. jonah's "appearance" is modeled after my nephew jonah... fancy that! that's all i got.

crawling

amber is now a speedy little crawler and getting into all kinds of fun things. she especially likes to chew on power cords. I might have to break her of this habit since she does have her first tooth coming in. she also finds a lot of old crumbs on the floor... now i know how dirty our house really is. She is also pulling herself up on different things. it is cute to find her standing up in her crib when she wakes up from a nap. recently we were in ocean isle, nc on arnold family vacation. it was fun watching her eat sand and play in the shallow waves. one day nick took her out into the ocean (when i told him not to) and then promptly got knocked over my a huge wave and was holding amber above his head while she got hit in the face by waves. i was a little angry, but everyone survived and now i have a story out of it. here are some pictures from the beach. she is just too cute... it makes me and nick sick to our stomachs how cute she is.

more illustrations

i've almost finished two more illustrations... the pictures aren't so good b/c i took photos of them instead of scanning them. maybe next i'll try tackling painting the main character, Jonah.

amber time

Time to post some more pictures of Amber. She is getting so big! Here we go:


she likes to take naps on mom and dad's tempur-pedic mattress. so luxurious.

this is from the time she played with an empty skittle bag for half an hour. (check out the rolls on the arm!)

chillin' (literally) at the river place pool.

Cheeks!

Sitting up with a little help.

paint paint paint

here i am working on more illustrations, that i hope will be done soon.

illustrations

my first two completed illustrations! i should put an asterisk next to "completed" b/c i may go back and change something. but for now i'm ready to move forward. only forty-something left to do! woo hoo!

more of the trip...

Sunrise, sunset. The view from our balcony.

Nick and I killed some time playing with his super reflective glasses. woo hoo.
(I think my picture is better... despite the smudge marks).

Whispering sweet nothings in Amber's ear. I don't know if she liked it.

The plants in Jamaica remind me of home...

I just like this picture.

and this one.

Montego Bay

We are back from Jamaica and it was fabulous. The weather was great, the food was great, the people were great... what more can you ask for? Here are some pictures of what we did!
Amber's first time in a pool and the ocean!

The resort had a snack shop where you could get soft ice cream, chips, soda and popcorn. Needless to say, I was there often. Here I am angrily enjoying some chips.

Buying souvenirs from a little oceanside stand.

We went paddle boating and then Amber threw up. (I'm looking disapprovingly at it).


We also went on a glass bottom boat and kayaking... so many water activities!
Okay, more pictures and captions to follow later!

4 months

So it's been about 4 months since I last wrote in my blog. I guess that is what happens when you have a little baby. (and when you don't sit at a front desk for 8 hours a day). Amber was born on January 20th and she is pretty much the best baby ever. We fill our days with eating, sleeping, watching tv and running errands. Having a baby around makes mundane everyday things much more fun. This blog will probably be consumed with what new things she is doing. Here are some recent pics of her.

well, this is just her foot. but who can resist little baby feet?

amber strongly dislikes pacifiers, but on this rare occasion she took one. (and yes she lives in her bouncy chair).

here we are taking in the magnificent cherry blossoms.

and here is amber excelling at tummy time. more exciting amber news to follow.
we leave for jamaica in 7 days, so i'm sure some fabulous photos will also follow.