I finally finished the portrait of Grandma Aileen I've been working on. I was originally going to document it through the whole process of painting but I only took a photo of the original sketch painting and then the finished one. It didn't quite turn out how I was hoping but it's o.k. It is hard painting someone you know so well because you can tell if it just isn't quite right. :) A fun thing about painting a portrait for me is the complete study of the person you are painting. You never look at the person the same way because when you see them you know every plane change and every detail of their face. The hand was especially dificult because in the reference photograph it is in soft focus, which means you have very little detail to go off of. I actually had to make Tom pose his hand for me for the painting.

Christmas day walk

Went for a little Christmas day walk around Black Mountain. Ran into a herd of cows and Daisy chased and caught her first rabbit. Luckily it got away in the end, at least that's what I'm hoping. :) Emma was hilarious to watch because the snow was deeper than she was so she just had to throw her body into the air and land in the next foot print.

The First Day of Christmas

Well we decided to put our Christmas tree up last night and listen to some Christmas music. I must say it is starting to feel like Christmas! I was nervous about putting up the tree because I figured the dogs would destroy it but so far they haven't shown any interest in it at all. We have no snow here in Cedar City this year but we are on our way to EskDale today where they have almost two feet of snow!!

Merry Christmas everyone...

Sledding (Navajo Lake Area)

Tom and I spent today out sledding. The weather was perfect with no wind and it was quite warm. Emma loved running behind the sled but Daisy wasn't quite sure what she thought of what was going on. Half the time she was chasing you down the hill and the other half she was attacking you down the hill. It seemed like she was frantically trying to pull us off the sled, desperately trying to save our lives (or kill us, I wasn't sure) :). This made it quite an interesting sledding experience! Trying not to crash, trying not to flip over and then fighting Daisy off the whole time. All in all a great Sunday afternoon!

Three Peaks

Wednesday Hike

I had the day off today!! The dogs were driving me crazy so I thought I would take them up the mountain and go for a little hike. The trail that use to be there has been completely washed away, lots of boulders and ripped up trees. Beautiful hike though.

Story

I was digging through some old papers that I have kept and came across this story. I am leaving the spelling as I wrote it. I think it is kind of funny. :)

February 7, 1994

Once upon a time there was a boy named Teddy and a girl named Aleen. They were walking and fell in a hole, but Teddy got out and Aleen fell further down, down into the hole. Teddy was scared but Teddy was going to get someone to help when a monster came after Teddy. The monster ran ten times faster and had helpers. Suddenly a flying horse picked up Teddy and asked what was the matter. Teddy said my sister is down in that hole. The horse put Teddy in a tree and flew down into the hole. The horse was gone a long time. Finally the horse came out with Teddy's sister. Teddy was so glad to see his sister.

The end.

by Bethany

Christmas Tree Shopping

Tom, Aaron and I went out into the mountains to find a Christmas tree! I had never been snow skiing before so it was a new adventure for me. (I only fell down three times!:)) The dogs had a blast playing in the snow and we were grateful for our ski's because the snow was about four feet deep.