ugh

I should also mention that part of the reason for our severe lag in posting is due to a run of sickness which we experienced at  the end of November: Linus contracted pneumonia (in Texas!), Casper had a hacking cough for several weeks, and Greta caught the croup.  The rest of us got the flu and passed it around for a while.  If I didn't have the benefit of perspective, I would say that it was the worst family pandemic we've ever had.

That, my friends, is known in the biz as "foreshadowing."

Image of memento mori woodblock by Barbara Whitehead courtesy of Cushing Memorial Library.

perspective

Just to provide another vantage on yesterday's photos, here's a shot of everyone in the tree just after I got those shots.

Texas monkeys

formal shot

All I wanted was to get a nice portrait of the kids before Christmas.  All they wanted was a picture where they looked like speedy ghosts.

block print day

Today we invited a group of twelve 8-12 year old children to our home for a linocut Christmas card class.  We had told friends that we were working on festive cards, and after hearing the interest, we decided to make an afternoon of it.  If an assortment of great designs and a minimum of injuries can determine success, this certainly qualifies.  For anyone who may have missed the fun, we also used the process to produce an online tutorial.

the architect

Thanksgiving dinner

Gwendolyn produced this delicious-looking feast on Thanksgiving morning.  The best part of the holiday, of course, is that even enemies can come together to enjoy a pleasant meal -- Hermione sitting next to Snape, Harry and Draco.  Cowboys and construction workers.  I even think Voldemort is sitting somewhere around that table somewhere.  Tuck in.

group portrait

couple of tramps

'ib

Gwennie called her crib "pib," and whimpered lamentably when we moved her into a little girl bed.  Casper  called his "frib."  I'm not sure how Greta will refer to her Night Cage, but she's already pretty attached.

fortified

The children started constructing this fort at Bee Creek Park after meeting a number of friends for a play date and discovering a suitable bank of trees with a nice gap underneath.  They have been collecting limbs to create a privacy wall -- we'll have to see what other amenities they come up with.

park-our

transform

mustaches

This is the advantage of long hair: it makes it easier to get into costume as an eighteenth-century Austrian officer.

where feet can take you

As we'd predicted, once Margaret started walking in earnest, she didn't stop.  While she had taken a handful of steps over the previous weeks, she didn't seem to consider it any real accomplishment.  She would look dismissively at her siblings' excitement, then crawl off to continue her explorations.  Yesterday, not only did she beat her personal record by walking over twenty steps, but she seemed to realize the potential of this new trick.  In fact, it's kept us all up at night, since she now wants to get more practice in whenever she can.  

We've got love locked up.

It may be common knowledge to the few who visit this site, but the reason that we've gotten so late in providing updates on our family blog (four months and counting -- but who's counting?) is that we've devoted most of our time during this period to creating and building our letterpress business, Anise Press.  I'm trying to catch up (in between designing and printing new cards, posters, and other fun additions) by adding all the pictures we've taken in the interim.  We hope that no one's felt abandoned!

the book arts

Of course, Linus was the actual hand model of the dos-a-dos binding tutorial.  He also helped to select the offprints from the pressroom to use as decorative covers for his own pamphlet, then filled the book with pictures of robots.  It's hard to top that.  

comforts of home

do-si-do

We spent quite a bit of time last month setting up a tutorial on a simple bookbinding structure, the dos-a-dos, for the Anise Press blog.  The boys were highly interested in helping with the guide, but may have really been interested in being poster children.  Well, that might not be entirely fair -- Casper might have  only wanted to get a fancy book to draw in.

gaming

This shot commemorates Linus throwing matching numbers with his two dice six times in a row while we were having a family game day.  It's quite a parlor trick.

cozy clan

Gwendolyn was recently playing a game of Warriors Battle when she was joined by the ever-ferocious Spatsfoot.  Watch out for those two.

stressless

There's nothing like the placid expression of a sleeping infant -- I don't think that there's any point in my life, conscious or not, at which I can appear so peaceful.