Road Trip (part 2)

October 5th, 2009

IMG_8905Casey and I took a 30-hours-of-driving-in-less-than-a-week roadtrip to Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania at the beginning of October. Beautiful time for driving and being 6 months pregnant was fine for a roadtrip. Baby Valiant did great!

iPhones are really cool too! We were listening to an audio book and were so engrossed in it that we missed our exit by 15 miles. So we fired up our iPhones and took backroads to get to our destination.

Fall Trees

Fall Trees

Got any food (Aflac)?

Got any food (Aflac)?

Fall trees reflected in the water

Fall trees reflected in the water

Highlights Magazine Illustrators Party 2009

October 4th, 2009

Highlights throws an incredible Illustrator’s Party Weekend every year. They invited us out to their beautiful headquarters in eastern Pennsylvania and wined and dined us (well, I didn’t get any wine because of the baby). They had activities all weekend long including a bbq, square dance, lamb roast, hayride, pumpkin painting, portfolio time, and so on. Super fun to meet so many wonderful illustrators and their families, and especially the art director that I work with from Highlights.

Sharon Vargo and Lost Sock Day

Sharon Vargo and Lost Sock Day

Brad Harris as Emmett Kelly

Brad Harris as Emmett Kelly

One of the activities was a costume party where we were supposed to dress up as our favorite day of the year. I chose World Tourism Day and piled on stuff from all over the world. Casey chose National Kick Butt Day and wore his taekwondo uniform with a butt-shaped sign pinned to his butt that said, "Kick here!" Only one guy attempted to kick him. Sharon Vargo here is Lost Sock Day, and Brad Harris made a perfectly sad Emmet Kelly Clown Day.

Back Roads
Near Highlights and Boyds Mills offices. We took the back roads thanks to our handy iPhones.

Beautiful scenery at the Highlights magazine illustrators party
This is the lake next to our cabin at the Highlights weekend. Gorgeous!
We took a paddle boat out for a bit and got our butts wet due to a broken rudder.

Road Trip (part 1)

October 3rd, 2009


One of our stops along the roadtrip – somewhere in southern New York state.


On our way to the Highights weekend we stopped and saw friends. It was so fun to get to see Alyn’s new little blessing, baby Elsie, and to help Alyn and Matthew unpack at their new house – they live in the US now – yay!!!


At some falls near Alyn’s house in western New York.


We also saw Katrina and her fam on our roadtrip. I love the whole talking in person thing. Wished we lived closer.


Mom and Dad came to visit and brought us a whole bunch of my baby clothes from when I was little as well as some new clothes. Katrina had also given me a couple bags of baby girl clothes, so Mom and I sorted everything, lined the drawers in our new baby dresser, and got some of the baby stuff from around the house put away. Casey and I also took Mom and Dad to the Fall Festival, a crazy food fest. Should’ve gotten some pics there, but didn’t.

September 2009 Events

September 30th, 2009


Showing my baby belly at the Midsouth SCBWI conference in Nashville in Sept.


I won the Illustration Contest at the children’s book writers and illustrators conference in Nashville – yay! Here’s my entry. The art director had given us a couple picture book manuscripts, and we had to choose one spread to illustrate using the text he provided.


Labor Day weekend is a great time to blow bubbles and see family.


Drew is pile of laughs – even snapping beans is funny.

Ultrasound – It’s a girl!

September 2nd, 2009

We’re having a girl!

Yay! Doesn’t she have the most beautiful profile? That’s our little sweetie.

Baby Valiant Baby Valiant

Book Signing – Cora Cooks Pancit

July 25th, 2009

I had a book signing at Barnes & Noble for the picture book I illustrated called Cora Cooks Pancit, and it was a blast!!!
Barnes & Noble sold out of the books they ordered for the signing, and then they sold 12 of my own copies that I brought in as backup. There was a line when I began the book signing and different people there the whole two hours. How fun is that!

We brought a big pot of pancit and Casey handed out samples while I signed. The recipe for pancit is in the book. It’s a Filipino noodle dish with chicken, veggies, shiitake mushrooms, garlic, soy sauce, and ginger – quite yummy.

The story is about a lil’ girl named Cora who wants to help her mom cook but is always given the little kid jobs like licking the spoon. One day when her older brother and sisters are out, she gets to be Mama’s assistant chef and help with all the important cooking jobs. She wears her grandpa’s red apron and uses his pancit recipe. At dinner that night, she anxiously waits to see if her family likes her cooking. It’s a warm and family-oriented picture book. It’s available at bookstores and on Amazon. Hope you check it out!

Kristi Valiant Book signing - Cora Cooks Pancit

Kristi Valiant Book signing - Cora Cooks Pancit

Kristi Valiant Book signing - Cora Cooks Pancit

Kristi Valiant Book signing - Cora Cooks Pancit
Amiah, our friend’s daughter, wanted to spell her name for me. What a cutie.

Kristi Valiant Book signing - Cora Cooks Pancit

Vegas, Baby!

July 20th, 2009

Casey had a conference in Vegas for Sign-A-Rama, and he and I stayed a couple extra nights to celebrate our anniversary.

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to go to Vegas because I had basically been on bedrest for about 2 months. I was throwing up twice a day with morning sickness, but far worse was the crazy dizziness I had. If I would stand up, or look at my computer, or basically do anything besides stare at the wall, the room would spin and spin and spin…

My first trimester ended the week before our Vegas trip, and the dizziness mostly let up – yay! The nausea and throwing up was still around somewhat, but it’s much easier to handle that when the room’s not spinning in circles. (The severity of the dizziness I had was rare for pregnant women, most don’t even get dizzy, so those of you not pregnant yet, don’t worry – you probably won’t have it). We’re so thankful that the baby is healthy. Next Monday is another doctor’s appointment and I can’t wait to hear the heartbeat again.

So here’s our fun week in Vegas:


My pregnant belly is starting to show, at least I can tell it’s popping out there. We stayed at Caesar’s Palace for the conference. Quite a beautiful place!


Casey’s parents at the Sign-A-Rama awards banquet. Yes, Casey gets his goofiness from his dad.


I like palm trees.


The Venetian is so gorgeous! This is around 8 am. Apparently the only time Vegas sleeps.


This is still all indoors. Casey’s showing off his muscles on the bridge.


Here I’m trying to convince Casey that my baby belly is showing.


Casey’s looking like a total tourist at this nightclub.


In front of the Mirage.


The Chihuly ceiling exhibit in the Bellagio


The Bellagio gardens


The Mexican restaurant where we had lunch inside the Miracle Mile Shops – yes, that’s a painted ceiling, Mom.


My uncle and aunt, Ed and Lynn, were also in Vegas, and they took us out to Paris for linner… or dunch… or whatever it’s called between lunch and dinner. Yum.


So during dinner, Ed convinced us that the greatest game in all of Vegas isn’t poker, or blackjack, or a slot machine… no, it’s a game in the kid’s area of Excalibur called Pitch a Witch!!! You position a stuffed, ugly witch on a launchpad and then whack the release lever with a mallet. You have to get the witch to land in a cauldren in order to win a prize.


My witch is positioned, but I never made it in the cauldren. Casey, Ed, and Tom all did. What’s with the guys winning Pitch a Witch? Well, afterwards we played a dragon racing game, and I won that one!


We went home with 3 adorable teddies – the first toys for our baby!


Outside of Luxor. That’s the real sky, Mom, not painted.


For our anniversary, we splurged and stayed at the Wynn – a 5 star hotel (we got a deal on Hotwire). We went to a cirque du soleil show at the Wynn, Le Reve. It was fabulous! Of course we weren’t allowed to take photos at it though. We also spent some quality time in the pools – both at Caesar’s Palace where we stayed for the conference and at the Wynn. Didn’t take the camera in the pool.


The Wynn even made their casino elegant.

Kristi Book Signing Announcement

June 30th, 2009

Saturday, July 25, 2009
Barnes & Noble, Evansville, Indiana
2 pm

The book: Cora Cooks Pancit (multicultural hardcover picture book for ages 4-8)
Written by Dorina Lazo Gilmore, Illustrated by Kristi Valiant

I have my first book signing at a store coming up for a picture book that I’ve illustrated. I’ve done book signings at schools and conferences before, but a store seems a bit more scary because I don’t know if anyone will come. I’ll be bringing a pot of pancit to give out samples. Pancit is a Filipino noodle dish with chicken and veggies – the recipe is in the book and it’s delicious! I’ll also be wearing my red apron just like Cora does in the book.
I hope to see you there!
Cora Cooks Pancit - Illustrated by Kristi Valiant

See more of my illustrations from Cora Cooks Pancit on my illustration website: www.kristivaliant.com
The book is available at bookstores or from Amazon.com (it’s gotten great reviews on Amazon and some other sites).

We’re pregnant

June 12th, 2009

We’re pregnant!

Due Date: January 13, 2010
Current Length (6/12/2009): 2.5cm ~1 inch
Midichlorian count: off the charts
Heartbeats: ~172 bpm

Pictures (click to see bigger):

Baby V with lightsaber Baby V with lightsaber Baby V with lightsaber Baby V with lightsaber

I totally knew his midichlorian was going to be extraordinary. Yeah, that’s right… I said ‘his’. I have absolutely no proof just a rather strong hunch. And I do have good hunches. You can also see how much his tail/legs are moving between shots. He was jumping around and moving his stubby arms and tail/legs like crazy. He’s like a T-rex with those stubby little arms. And did you see his gigantic Obama-ear in frame 1? We could also see (and hear) the heart. Pretty neat stuff. (BTW, Casey wrote this.)

Fall 2008 – March 2009

March 16th, 2009

It’s been a lot of months since I’ve had a chance to update this, so here’s a long visual update starting in fall and going to March.

International World Tour Dinner
International World Tour Dinner

International World Tour Dinner
International World Tour Dinner

Carving Pumpkins
Carving Pumpkins

Huge Bonfire
Huge Bonfire!

Caramel Apples with Mom and Dad Gerner
Caramel Apples with Mom and Dad

Evansville

Evansville in the Fall
Evansville in the fall

Jeremy, Tama, Kristi and Casey
Jeremy, Tama, me and Casey

Barn Dancing!
Barn dancing y’all!

Bible Study Friends
Friends we meet with once a week to study the Bible and hang out

Whoo-hoo
Whoo-hoo

Thanksgiving Turkey
Casey made our Thanksgiving turkey

Thanksgiving with friends
Thanksgiving at our house with friends

All smiles
All smiles

Casey and brothers at Walt's MBA graduation
Casey and brothers at Walt’s graduation

Uncle Monkey and the nephews
Grant and Jakey love playing with Uncle Monkey

Valiant family is all boys
The Valiants are a family full of boys!

Don't let go
"We’ll never let go of Uncle Casey"

The Valiants
The Valiants

Kristi and Grandma Schneider
Kristi and Grandma

The Gerner Fam
The Gerner side

Gerners - three generations
Three generations

Lake Winnebago
Playing on Lake Winnebago

Snowball fight in Fond du Lac
Snowball fight in Fondy

Snow in Wisconsin... not in Evansville
We don’t get snow like this in Evansville

Kristi and JiYeon
Me and Ji Yeon and our new friend – he’s a little stiff though

New Year's Eve in New Harmony, IN
New Year’s Eve in New Harmony, IN

Romance
We had a romantic weekend in New Harmony

Casey at TaeKwonDo testing
Casey at Tae Kwon Do testing

Casey sparring
Casey’s sparring the instructor

Hippos at the Nashville zoo
A hippo friend at the zoo in Nashville, TN

Creation Museum
Shuang, me, and Ji Yeon at the Creation Museum in Cincinnati

Petting a piggie
Petting a piggie