My Little Artist (i.e. Mama Brag Post!)

Charlie (4.5) loves art. He will sit for hours if you give him unlimited access to printer paper and crayons and markers! His drawing are getting pretty good, if I do say so myself. I'm going to start doing some structured art projects with him that I think he will really enjoy.
On one of our hike's this summer I gave Charlie an older digital camera and told him he could take pictures on our hike. He was so excited!

At first we got this gem.

Then some very pretty shots straight up

Then he started taking pictures of his sister. This is my favorite one:

And some others:

Today, at his cousins birthday party he was watching everyone. When I asked him what was wrong he said, "I wish I had my camera so I could take some pictures too" I smiled and told him I actually had his camera in the car. That got a very excited "let's go get it!" Here's some he got:

He told Camber to say "cheese!" and this was her response:

He said he wanted a picture of me and my mom

I hope that he will continue to take his camera on outings! I think photography is something that we will work on too.
I love my little budding artist!!!

Welcome 2015!

The end of 2014 left our family recovering from illness and loss.
The little one contracted pertussis in November. Luckily we conquered it quickly and she is finally back to normal. The whole family then ended up with the flu and I am the last to get over it. With any luck I'll be back to 100% by this weekend.
We also lost a family friend to the horrible event of suicide. That's another post, for another day, on another blog. For this blog however, I will add that I finished a quilt top last night that I am very happy I was able to create. After the memorial service I went to our friend's house and collected t-shirts of his to make a quilt for his mom. I hope to get it finished and shipped out this weekend.

 Isn't my assistant just the cutest?!
A few days after he passed I went to his house and got his beloved cat, Cheyenne. She now lives with us. She is about 13 years old and somewhere between 16-18 pounds. She is NOT a fan of the children but she has never seen a kid before. She's a night owl like me so she comes and cuddles with me late at night when it's quiet. I'm enjoying having her here.

I am participating in the Project of Doom Quilt Along this year hosted by Fandom in Stitches! This is a 30 week project that will result in a beautiful Harry Potter inspired bookcase quilt.
We'll be getting back into the swing of school next week. Charlie has been begging to "do school" so hopefully everyone is feeling healthy enough to jump back in. Be looking for new homeschool posts next week!
I hope 2015 will be an amazing year full of joy, peace, and learning!