Caricatures

At Aaron's company party they also had artists doing caricatures. I have always felt nervous about getting mine done because I didn't want to see my defining features exaggerated. Well I was feeling brave and we had fun laughing at the pictures. Here they are.

Talmage looking smug.

Anya looking more like a doll than my silly girl.

And scary Aaron and Brandon! Aaron's scariness makes me feel better about my prominent cheeks. I'm not sure if they are more like Cher or Yzma (scary beyond all reason--Emperor's New Groove).

You may wonder why they are so wrinkled. Well Aaron, at my suggestion, went to cross a "dry" riverbed to put them in the car for safe keeping. Well the riverbed was dry till about the half way point, at which there was a few feet of secretly soft mud. Aaron stepped into it and went down. He sunk in just above his knee. Both leggs ended up caked with foul smelling mud. Poor guy. And the party was only half over. Talmage's sunglasses were lost, the pictures wrinkled, and his pride deflated. He claims it is the most embarrasing moment of his life-- and he's had some doosies. I wish I had a picture of it!

Company Family Picnic

Last Saturday we spent an adventurous evening at the annual family picnic Aaron's work puts on. Here are some pictures of the the fun things we did.

Talmage tried out the climbing wall after watching Aaron go up. He went up about six or seven feet and then came down. It was amazing that he even tried-- he doesn't like heights.

Aaron, of course, went all the way up and rang the bell before descending.

Anya was fearless and loved feeding the long horns. Talmage, after watching Anya feed several long horns (and after much daddy pressure) finally fed one and felt so brave.

Anya also liked feeding the goats. She is getting so much braver these days.

Silly faces by the pony rides.

Talmage riding a pony. He has done this the past two years also, so he feels like a pro.

The past two years Anya wanted nothing to do with the ponies but this year she was ready. She warmed up even more than this and took another ride later in the day with out me standing so close. What a big girl.



We had a lot of fun. Not included in these pictures is the giant inflatable bouncers, the live band (which Talmage was a quite miffed about because he thought he'd get a chance to try their instuments), the hay ride and all the carnival rides, and of course lots of food.
Anya's favorite part of all was the Ferris Wheel. She rode around and around with her arms up while her poor mom held onto her shirt with one hand, so she wouldn't fall out, and onto the bar with the other because those things go higher than I remember ( I think I'm getting old!).

Talmage's Second Piano Lesson

Today Talmage had his second piano lesson. He had practiced all the songs he was supposed to and then went one song further. So he is forcing his teacher to allow him to progress faster. She went right along with him and passed off his extra song because he knew it so well. She complemented him on his hand positioning and timing. Later he told me that "Miss Tammy (his piano teacher) doesn't use enough pronouns." He said she calls herself "Miss Tammy" rather than "I".

Every Sunday

Aaron has meetings that start a few hours before church every Sunday, so the kids and I get ready after he leaves. And every Sunday when Talmage is getting dressed he runs into my room to ask me, "What color socks does Dad have on?". Every Sunday I tell him black sock. Aaron still has a pile of "bullet proof" mission socks that are all black and his suit is dark so he only wears black socks to church. Yet every Sunday Talmage asks. Forget matching with his pants (which are black) he wants to match with Dad. If Talmage had it his way, he would have a suit that matched Aaron's, complete with a cool pen in the inside breast pocket, and a matching tie to go along with there matching socks.

Anya's Birthday

For a few weeks now Anya has been telling me that she is getting a cow for her birthday. I don't know where she got that idea from or if she was really serious about it. She is such a funny girl. Well we couldn't disappoint her. So here is her cow.

It looks more like mad cow. She saw the eyeballs at the store and loved them so we thought putting them on the cow would make it even better. She liked the cake.


Here's her blowing out the candles. She didn't want to get anywhere near the FIRE. I think my kids need to go camping and see a real fire so they aren't so afraid of birthday candles.

She's not sad, she's just making faces.

Again with the faces. All I wanted was a smiling happy birthday picture, and I ended up with five different faces. Luckily later in the day we get some smiley ones.

Anya loves her new purse from HoneyGram. As you can see she has already enjoyed the lip gloss.

She is very excited about her Elmo shirt from Stephanie. She slept in it that night and wore it to the park the next day even after spilling breakfast on it. It is now in the wash. Below is a video of her opening it.