Finnanigans

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Me: Do you think you would like to be an architect and build houses when you grow up?

Finn: Well, I don’t know how. I only have toy tools.

Me: Well, when you get older you can learn how to build.

Finn: I don’t want to get old.

Me: You don’t?

Finn: No. Six is old.

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I only like Daddy suns.

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Finn: I don’t like dolls.

Me: Why not?

Finn: Dolls are for girls. Audrie has a doll.

ME: Well, what do you like to play with?

Finn: Toys.

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Jon: We should all become pilots.

Finn: Yeah, and we should all be pirates, too.

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Mom, do you know what my hungry’s comin’ on for? It’s comin’ on for animal crackers!

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Premise: Finn and I were discussing colors of things to which he was naming each color correctly. Because I have colorblindness in my family that passes from the mothers to their sons, Jonathan made this statement:

Do you think my genes defeated the colorblindness?

Finn: No, do you know what your jeans defeated? Your jeans defeated ants!

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MiMi, we saw the U.S.S Lexington and do you know what was on top of it? Angels that were blue.

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Referring to a man with a prosthetic leg…

Mom, look that man has a robot leg!!

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Finn: Mom, why didn’t your friend grow any hair?

Me: Well, some people lose their hair when they’re older and it doesn’t grow back.

Finn: Maybe his hair grew back into his brain.

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Finn: Mom, do you want to see somethin’ credible?

Me: Sure, what’s so incredible?

Finn: My poop.

Boys.

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Dad, maybe we can watch The Circus Robot again another day, and then we can watch The Karate Boy.

Translation: Maybe we can watch Short Circuit again and then watch The Karate Kid.

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Keep Five alive!

nessa dee

Lego Aquarium

I guess our little trip inspired a little bit of creativity in my daughter.

At least we didn’t get attacked by dinosaurs when we visited the aquarium.

And the price of creativity? Well…

xo

nessa dee

The Aquarium in Pictures

Shark:

Shark face:

Thank you, Jen, for such a wonderful trip! We had a blast.

xo

nessa dee

Sea Creatures

Well, we’re off to the coast for a couple of days where we’ll be sure to see lots of sea life at the Texas State Aquarium.

[Art by Audrie]

We’ll be back soon with a ton of pictures, I’m sure.

xo

nessa dee

IF: Breakfast

Another repeat.

xo

nessa dee

Golden Arches Required

I never go to McDonald’s. Never. Never. Ever. Except…when family comes into town.

It’s usually the breakfast of choice when my in-laws or dad come into town. It’s kind of become an unspoken requirement of any visit. I’m not sure why, but it probably has to do with the fact that I’m never prepared to make a nice breakfast for everybody. So, off to those golden arches it is.

Now, when my dad’s in town, I find this little venture to be quite silly and strange. My dad setting foot in a Mickey D’s is an oxymoron, if you will.

You see, growing up, we weren’t allowed to eat at McDonald’s. One reason being that we didn’t have a McDonald’s in our town until I was almost out of high school. But the other reason having to do with my dad’s occupation. Being a cowboy/rancher/feed salesman, my dad provides quality feed to produce quality beef, and well, in his opinion, McDonald’s “quality beef” was not up to par. No matter how much we begged, if he was there for dinner, you could be sure that McDonald’s was not on the menu.

My how times have changed, though. Now I’m the one refusing to go to McDonald’s because in my opinion, their healthy options are not up to par, but if my dad’s here for breakfast, you can be sure that McDonald’s is on the menu.

xo

nessa dee

Summer fun

There’s no better way to beat the scorching Texas heat than this…

xo

nessa dee

Silence is Golden…

…at least when the kids are gone. But when silence and kids are present at the same time, it usually means some sort of mischief is taking place.

It’s never a good sign when the noise that fills a child occupied house suddenly disappears. That’s when I take notice. I’m able to tune out screaming and crying and pleading and poking, but oh the silence is deafening. So after hearing Finn play the same song from a game over and over and over again, it went silent and I perked up. But I was momentarily distracted and went back to work. Before I knew it, 20 minutes went by and noise had not resumed. I pictured paint strewn across my white carpet or candy stashes depleted, but when I finally went to catch mischief in action, this is what I found:

There’s no sweeter silence in the world.

xo

nessa dee

A caffeine kind of week

This week’s going to be pretty hectic. I’ll try my best to post some stuff, but my schedule might get the best of me and I just might be absent from this blog a bit. I also just might be needing a lot of this…

except in forms other than coffee. Chocolate, perhaps? Yes, I think caffeine infused chocolate will definitely do the trick.

xo

nessa dee

I Heart Chalkboards

I don’t know if I’ve shared this before, but I have a thing for chalkboards. I have at least 3 or 4 various sized chalkboards in my house, including a chalkboard table. I have to fight hard against the urge to turn every surface in my house into a chalkboard…really. I have way too many walls marked for future chalkboards, but I know that too much of a good thing is just that…too much. So I suppress the urge and move on to picking paint swatches.

Why all the sudden talk of my love for chalkboards? Well, I finally erased the birthday note I made for my husband, the note that required transforming a prominent wall in our house into a chalkboard [it had been there for a month]. When I painted this wall, I was super duper excited about the prospect of ever changing wall art. I had visions of daily masterpieces gracing the wall and written words of wisdom greeting us each morning at breakfast. I pictured utilizing the wall for school lessons and little notes to each other. And the just the thought of being able to draw on the wall without consequence was somewhat scandalous.

When I finally erased the wall, no sooner did I announce the clean chalkboard than my kids started drawing on it; and all of the excitement of this board’s potential came flooding back in.

And so, the always evolving art display begins…

as does the constant cleaning of hands…

[And if you’re wondering why my son’s in a coat in Texas in the middle of summer, well, he’s dressed as a cowboy, and for some reason this required a coat.]

xo

nessa dee

At the moment…

You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t been a good blogger lately. My postings are sporadic and hastily put together, and there’s been a lack of art in this [art + life] blog. The thing is that life has been quite hectic at the moment. I have never been a very organized blogger, but I usually had a bit more time to think things through and I was taking a lot more pictures that prompted post ideas. Right now, though my life has been consumed with trying to get the house put together and trying to mark things off of my ever-growing home improvement to-do list. Plus, I’m working on a big illustration project…at the moment. So if you really want to know what my life has looked like for the last few or five or eight weeks, take a gander at these lovely photos…

See, not too lovely. In fact, pretty messy. But I know with all of the chaos there are lights at the end of each tunnel, and the more I work at each project, slowly but surely the brighter the lights become. Take Audrie’s room for example. Hers is the first picture in the chaotic ensemble above. Although we’re not quite done with all of the details, we have now managed to get it to a point where she can actually sleep in it. [The first time since the first night in our house!]

Want a sneak peek? Sure you do…

Quite cheery if I do say so myself! I love how bright the room is now. It looks like spring. And I promise, when we get all of the details done, I’ll share pictures of the whole room. But for now, it’s back to the chaos.

xo

nessa dee

IF: Giant

A hastily executed thought…

xo

nessa dee