'twas the night before christmas

"...the children were nestled all snug in their beds,

while visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads..."

Merry Christmas.

love, me

little artist

I've been looking through photos from this past summer.  My niece came for a visit and we painted together.  Here she is working on her first masterpiece on canvas.

Isn't that a brilliant sunset?

She was loving the gold metallic paint.

Really concentrating here. 

So adorable.

6 yeas old!

My beautiful niece turned 6 years old yesterday!  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PEIGHTON!!  I LOVE YOU!!!

She also just graduated from kindergarten and a few weeks ago, while looking at pictures from her  graduation, we had the following conversation...

Me: Peighton, I can't believe how fast you're growing.  You don't look like a kindergartner.

Peighton: I'm not.  I'm a first grader.

Me: Oh - duh. Good point.

Hey, I'm not too old to remember the days when every 1/2 or 3/4 closer to your birthday or next grade level mattered.

1 yr old

2 yrs old

3 yrs old

4 3/4 yrs old

5 yrs old

Love you P.  Can't wait to see your smiling face again!

Tell your mom I'm waiting for the first picture of you at 6 years old.

p.s. There will be something coming to you in the mail soon!

don't forget

It is, like, totally cold in my house right now and my fingers are frozen and I am having trouble typing.  But I do have a little something to share.  I discovered a band called 'Smoke Fairies' this week.  They are rad and make for great art-making music or just turned-up-really-loud driving music.  Check them out here.

This past weekend was spent in Kansas City with my family celebrating my dad's birthday.  Good times.  And my nieces are both so much fun and so adorably gorgeous.  I love them so much (and yes, I do tend to use the word "so" a lot).  If you could only hear the way Raghen says "Aunt Dana".  It's awesome.

Peighton (the most sensitive little girl - which I love - with the biggest heart, who is obsessed with Transformers) and Raghen (who is currently loving jumping and likes to copy whatever big sissy is doing/saying)

  

And speaking of awesome, I came across this today...

Kerry Doyle / Super Swoon

Great advice and people everywhere will appreciate that about you.

mad for transformers

My five year old niece, Peighton, is obsessed with Transformers.  She loves Sam because he's "serious".

Me:  You like Sam because you think he's cute, huh?

P:  (annoyed brow furling) No, because he's serious.

Me:  Cute and serious?

P:  No!  Just serious.

Me:  Ok.  Geez.

Her favorite transformer is Bumblebee.  I watched both Transformer movies this weekend (ugh), only so I can keep up with Peighton and her obsessions.  We had the following phone conversation...

Me:  Peighton, guess what?  I watched both Transformer movies this weekend.

P:  Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! (very whiny as in “no fair”)

Peighton then proceeds to tell me the plot of both movies as if I've never seen them before.  There was a lot of “autobots” and “decepticons” rapidly flinging out of her mouth in run on sentences.  Finally she had to take a breath so I jumped back in to the conversation.

Me:  Totally.  Yeah, the movies were pretty good.

P:  Did they say a little bit of bad words?

Me:  Yeah, they said some bad words.

P:  Which ones?

Me:  What do you mean “which ones”?  I'm not going to repeat them for you.

P:  Why not?

Me:  (changing the subject) I know you love Bumblebee but I think my favorite Transformer is Optimus Prime.

P:  (shocked and a little testy) Why?!!  You don't like Bumblebee??? (as in, seriously what is wrong with you?)

Me:  No, I like Bumblebee too, but I just think that Optimus is wise and besides that, he's the hero.

P:  No he isn't (getting really annoyed now).  Optimus is dead.  Sam's the hero.

Me:  Yes, but Optimus came back to life and destroyed the Sun Harvester and killed The Fallen.

P:  Yeah but Sam was the one who brought Optimus back to life. (good point)

Me:  Well, that's true.  Ok.  You're right.  Sam is the hero.

So there you have it.  Sam is the hero.  Get it straight.  And don't argue about it.