9 Years Today

Nine years ago we came home from Japan for a 2-week whirlwind of Christmas, wedding, honeymoon, New Years, back to Japan. Our first apartment in Japan was smaller than a single hotel room where we shared a twin bed and cooked meals on a single burner stove.
Thanks for nine crazy, sweet, hard, beautiful, adventurous years and 3 handsome sons, Daniel : ) You are a very, very, VERY good husband.

Love.
Arian : )

Print Sale!

The folks at Relevant Magazine are running an after Christmas sale in their online store and you can get a good number of my prints for $12+shipping.

Hope your Christmas was wonderful! We are hanging out in our new pajamas well past noon, sipping coffee and enjoying time with family! It's a good day : )

Arian

The Evolution of Santa Claus

Daniel heads up the animation team at Epipheo. And a couple weeks ago I got to record background vocals on their first ever music video. Check it out!

The song (which you won't be able to get out of your head----you're welcome.) is available for free download!


 

Merry Christmas!

Arian

Snippets of Christmas

We've been neck deep in Christmas prep and celebrations.

There's been no shortage of handmade decorations and presents. Our house has been covered in a fine layer of paper scraps, yarn bits, and glitter.

We've been enjoying advent stories and Christmas movies by the light of the tree. This year we used this Jesus Storybook Bible advent plan. I'm a pretty big fan of the Storybook Bible.

And, in the midst of the busyness, we've been trying to keep in mind why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.

The candle light service---one of my very favorite Christmas traditions.

And yesterday we hosted our second (perhaps annual?) Christmas brunch.

Lots of delicious food, hot coffee, good conversation, and beautiful worship.

It's been fun, but I have to say I'm more than ready to just sit and soak it in. Which is precisely what I plan on doing for the next couple days....just sitting riiiiiight here.

Merry Christmas : )

Arian

Perfect Love print

I just added this print to the shop! It's based on 1 John 4:18. I've had this verse floating around in my head for months and have made several attempts at a print that adequately illustrates it. But without success. So I brought it up to Daniel and he came up with this idea for an image. I love it! It seems to have the same heart as the Good Knight print. It's just another example of how being married to Daniel makes me a better artist : )

I'll be adding it to my Society 6 shop soon too!

Hope you're having a great week!

Arian

Simple Portraits 2012

It's that time again! Our 4th annual Simple Portraits by our good friend Jon Willis. (2011's, 2010's, 2009's). This year we have TWO additions to the Armstrong family. Eli who is awesome and chubby. And Jason who is also awesome but far less chubby. Jason is our friend/co-worker/unofficially adopted  adult son. Adult sons are way handier than little ones : ) Apparently you're not allowed to officially adopt a 25 year old, especially one who already has nice parents. But we keep him in our basement and he hangs out with us as part of the family nonetheless! : )

I LOVE how they turned out. It was so fun to get a little more dressy this year. And this picture of Daniel and Eli is just amazing.

This week operation "Finish Christmas Decorations" is in full swing. I want to make our home feel magical : )

Have a good one!
Arian

Crazy Full

It's a crazy full day today with lots of regular and irregular things all jammed together. I thought it'd be fun to do a "my day according to Instagram" blog post. So here goes: 

8:26am 
iced Starbucks Via and re-routing my schedule to make up for all the to-dos that were lost to sick kids, printer failures, and schedule changes from the last couple days.


8:54am
kids #2 and #3 wake up. Quiet over. It's go time.


10:22am
 Finally getting around to making breakfast. Jude's request: a grilled mustard, butter, and jelly sandwich.


11:50am
 Brushing my teeth in the bathtub because the bathroom sink is a sea filled with Lego ships and the kitchen sink is filled with dirty dishes. And wondering if I can still fit in my trip to Krogers before 12:30.


12:10pm
 Grocery shopping for a few more ingredients our friend Alex needs for her weekly three hour meal prepping she does for us. She's like the secret sauce in the Armstrong family diet. (pic by Jude)


12:35pm
 Already late for our 12:30. Lunch=pumpkin bread from Starbucks. Mom of the year.


12:36pm
 My lunch is an egg nog latte. It tastes like a delicate blend of wet cardboard and old milk factory. Maybe spoiled? I can't even drink it. #firstworldproblems


12:49pm
 Just a hair under 20 minutes late. : ) Prayer time with a few lovely ladies.


3:07pm Wardrobe failure. 3 holes in my new tights. First my bad latte and now this?! Why God why?! : ) Home for a quick change.

3:09pm
There she is! Alex (@wendyb1rd) making delicious food magically appear while we're gone!


3:35pm
Doh.


4:15pm
Recording some background vocals for an Epipheo video. Pretty fun!


5:45pm
Getting my hair dids courtesy of a mothers day gift card from Mariah (@acordmr) . Thanks woman!


8:00pm
Dinner. Finally. Spinach tortellini soup.


8:45pm
Hudson also getting a trim. Family portraits are tomorrow and we're going all out!


9:35pm
Think something's been getting into our bananas.

10:35pm 

Laundry

12:25am
Bed. Shew. Gooooood night.