Nathan at 4 weeks

One of the many faces of Nathan!

Always wants to see what is going on around him.

He ususally likes being in the sling. Love his little butt sticking out!

What a cutie!

Some loving from Aunt Christa!

Grandma, could you hold me more?

Some papa time beside the Christmas tree.

Can't get enough of the holding time

Pondering. . .

Four generations

Cousin Dean holding Nathan

Cousin Jenna's turn

Look how big I am already!

Smiling in my sleep
You would laugh too if you knew how many pictures have been taken already, trying to catch my smile!

Sleeping in the bassinet that grandma slept in in 1954

MS art

Chuck Close is an artist who has done many portraits using squares.
The middle school students tried to use this technique to do self portraits.

They had fun with it.
Jill DB put them on the wall with a guessing game to see how many we can recognize.

Chuck Close is featured at Akron Art Museum until Jan. 3.
Christa and I plan to go over Thanksgiving.
Anyone want to join us?
Do I hear you asking to come Donna?

Middle School art

Baby Nathan

Welcome, Baby Nathan Connor Petitte!
Born November 2, 2009
About 45 min old

We call him our little burrito!

The new family the first evening after Nathan's arrival.
Laura is trying to stay awake.
Ron is trying to keep his eyes open after 30+ hours of no sleep.

Nana & Papa Taylor

Ron brought Nathan out for us to see soon after birth--he is on the way to the nursery.
Ron couldn't stop smiling!

I can watch him sleep for hours. All his expressions and smiles!

Nathan showing he has a good set of lungs and dad happy to hear it!

Aunt Christa talking with him, allowing him to stretch and exercise his arms and legs.

Snuggle bug!

Papa teaching him computer skills early!
Papa proving he can work and babysit!

Second day

Little Pterodactyl!

Aunt Crystal

Aunt Christa

Aunt Angela

Uncle Joe
As you can tell, Nathan wasn't alone much at all this weekend!

What a yawn!
Nathan says "that's enough pictures already"!
I think he is bored.
We are enjoying our time with him and the family. So glad they are close by!

art work

This is one of the kids favorite projects. We paint a fern frond then make prints with it.

I try to teach them how to show depth with color and position.

Looks like a forest on the wall.

Fall is a great time to study insects.

The students are given a picture of an insect and they have to enlarge it and make it look real by using color and proportions.

I also showed them several techniques to shade to look more three dimensional.

Grades 1 & 2 painting fall trees.

I've done more painting this fall than I usually do. I usually am asking "why?" about 10 minutes after we begin class! They love it, but self-control is not always in abundance!

These butterfly projects teach symmetry.

They have to draw one side then trace the other side so they are the same.

I let them choose their own colors this time. Being realistic isn't a lot of fun at this age!

Next time we will show our leaf projects.