Halloween!!!!

More Fun Than That Barrel of Monkeys!

Well, it's back to normal life after the Dreyer Family Overdub Vacation where Craig, Finley and I opened our home and studio to the vocal stylings and fabulous song creations of the West Coast Dreyers for 12 fabulous fall days. 18 songs later we have a real record. Some final fixes, mixing, mastering and printing should produce an actual product to have and to hold. Keep checking back on how to get YOUR copy! Check more photos over at The Plump Otter.
This is a shot from the cover try day.... A bit smiley but isn't that good? I can't decide.


Here is Finley singing along to one of her favorites...

Happy Birthday Silas Loyal!!!

He's TWO and we can't wait to see him for the last three hours of his actual birthday when they all swoop down from the sky later tonight!

Five minutes ago...

I went upstairs to see what was taking Craig so long with putting the baby to bed. This is how I found them... Turn it up - audio only - too dark. See if you can tell who is who, betcha can't!

Taxi To The Dark Side

Forget any other documentary I have every recommended on this blog and go get this. NOW! It won best documentary 2007 and in my opinion should be required viewing for all Americans.

The Last Few Days...

I didn't have my regular phone so no video and no photos at all from the night we went to see "Wicked" (which was unbelievable I don't know how we could squeeze it Annie, but OMG would this be ridiculous to take the kids to!!!!) because I lost my phone temporarily right before the show. But these are a few of the moments captured of Nana's visit (all the West Coast "Nanas" are here in the city!)

On the way back from the Guggenheim - isn't she is totally fabulous?

Even more fabulous than her appearance is the fact that she does things like sit in the baby stroller in the middle of my agency.

And here she is making a balloon gobbstopper to entertain Finley

Stroller abuse

Fall leaves on my stroller make me happy! (sung to the tune of Sunshine on My Shoulders by John Denver)

Blurry iphone photo that I LOVE

And yes, sidewalk chalk is in her bag of goodies. I never see New York like I do when she is here. Until our next adventure.... Adieu Nana - we LOVE YOUUUUUUUU! (BCFF - Best Cousin Friends Forever!!!)

Summer of The Babe 2....

Is almost Over! The air has changed and is crispy - tomorrow is the official first day of fall. The leaves are FINALLY starting to change - late this year due to the late warm days (um, global warming - ALL the days may be summer someday - eek). I post this farewell because my cousin Nana sent me this poem this morning and it is just too good. See you next year, glorious Summer!

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

-- Mary Oliver

Dreyer Family Record Tracking Days

Here are the photos to accompany the videos from the recording session. It was a blast and we are all looking forward to finishing it up in October when we all lay down our vocal tracks. This whole thing is so much fun for me personally that I can hardly stand it. We are making some fierce memories here. Stay tuned and all will be revealed!

Wynand (Whynot) getting down on his turkey samich (dig the stroller)

The Board

Craig on the ivories

I love this picture of Matt even though it's blurry (I always love blurry pics)

Jordan, Craig's assistant intern who worked his patootey off.

I love pictures of charts, I don't know why

Craig, Matt and Boo working it out

A whole MESS of guitars (yet another stroller in the background)

Jason Pharr!

Cracklin Chicken by Bongo Bruno out back

The actual chicken crackling

A portrait of Matt and Craig

Some hillbilly behavior

The only group shot though we are missing WhyNot, Jason and Jordan

Uncle Matt!

We miss you...

Tiniest of Taste

Bongo Bruno!!!!!!!

Hope You Like It Day!

This took way too long to blog - sorry for the torture!
A little tasty taste of YouGetWhatYouGet... We laid a vocal track so you could see what it was like - SO fricken funny!

Appalachia Comes To Wilkenson Hollow

Guess which one this is....

This is a genius clip, I am sure you will agreeeeeeeeee!

And Away We GO!!

Here go some bare bones... check your email too Annie

Fideo (finley video)

By request! Stay tuned - I have another, longer one for tomorrow...

They Are 40!!

Craig and his twin brother Matt turn the big 40 today!! Matt is flying in from San Diego this afternoon and we are all partying it up NYC style!!!

Aren't they too much?

His very grown-up present "The Sea Monster" by our friend William Quigley.

Fupdates (finley updates)

running, dancing, impersonating babies.. she knows lots of colors, we count to ten (mostly saying "two" with different inflections for the other numbers:) - counting to ten is absolutely one of the best tools I use - it lets her know we are almost done or "there" or whatever. she tells you when she is hot or cold. very exciting news is that is she is starting to make full sentences. "Papa read book!" (though it was Uncle Jim reading that book - sorry Craig) She also curiously scrunches up her face and says a lot of things in what I think will be her real speaking voice though even I have no idea what she's saying. she says "please" which is VERY cute. she also grabs as many fingers of your hand that she can in a death grip and takes you for a Walk! - you go if you want to keep those fingers. what seems to be on her mind a lot of the time is what Murray is up to and Elmo who I am still kind of on the fence about but am grateful for when I need him so I can make dinner or whatever. Craig has been gone for a few days and is back today, yay!!! My grammar suck in this post and I don't care!

Colorado Craziness

To start things off we have my brother Scott and his lovely bride-to-be Debbie who we will see again in a couple months at their WEDDING! So cool... Thanks to these guys for all the airport pickups and drop-off, we would have had a much more complicated time without you!!

My father and his two sisters Liz and Anne in Dillon at Anne's condo - our first stop.

I love the group photo before everyone thinks the photo is happening - don't you? Craig, Finley, Jim, Liz, Anne and Nana!

My brother Chris cheesing it up for me!

His wife Lucy and my nephew Christoper!

Aunt Liz getting my parents (and everyone else) to do ART!

My little (HA!) brother Shawn and his wife Kristen, my niece Sabrina and nephew Evan. They couldn't make it to Dillon, but we saw them in Colorado Springs though briefly:(

My good friend from junior high, Cheryl and our girls... Her girl, Kendall is exactly the age we were when we met. Bizarre!

Finley and her fairy godmother.

Look very closely and you can see Craig running down the road (at 9,000 feet above sea level.) Impressive.

The condo had a play pen from the 70's - she wouldn't sleep in it but liked to throw herself around dramatically.

Finley and her "Mamaw"

No offense to the family, but the most relaxing place has to be, hands down, Gracie and Lori's fabulous new house in Monument. I can't say enough good things about it. Here we are watching some Sesame Street and doing some hair.

Gracie's backyard - wowza!

A view in Dillon - one of the most beautiful places in Colorado. Thanks to Aunt Anne, my family has great memories there.

I love this video with Anne though I wonder if babies ever get tired of being performing monkeys for adults!