Monday, August 31

My little princess - how cute is she!

Hello All!!

Hope all is well out there. I can't believe how quickly my time keeps flying by - can you believe I started this blog over a year ago after we made our big decision to move to Germany???? For us at this point the time has flown by - case in point - Brenna's first day of Kindergarten is tomorrow (it is basically preschool). It will be so different here in the morning without her - much more quiet. I can't believe how fast my little princess (see pictures above, lol) is growing up!

Brenna and I started our day with a little cleaning after I finished my project from yesterday - ME - I hope you will like this apron - I think I'm going to have to make one for myself now - I really like the way it turned out (it is an Amy Butler pattern - I think it was a good purchase as I really like the two I have made so far)! I was going to wait to post that picture - but the apron may not make it back to the US until Christmas (but by then maybe I will have a matching apron made for Brenna - I would love to get a picture of that :-)

I was able to get some laundry done - I should have started earlier - I needed to hang some outside and it didn't get dry before I brought it back in. Brenna and I had a chance to play tea party after bath time today - she is such a good server. I really hope she plays well tomorrow - I couldn't imagine going to "school" in German every day.

Well - wish us luck for tomorrow (and every day of Brenna's school for the next year!). Take Care!

Sunday, August 30

Hello All!!

Hope all is well out there. Things we fairly quiet here this weekend. We ran to Baden-Baden twice on Saturday to get me a pay-as-you go cellphone. We felt this may be a really good idea while Brenna is in Kindergarten this year to let me have some freedom out of the apartment (I can't believe how easy it was to not have a cell phone this last year. There were only a handful of occasions where I felt that it would have been nice to have one.) It will be interesting to see if the minutes go as far as I think they should (that basically the phone won't be used, but just carried around as decoration, lol).

Brenna found her first "chicken truck" since we were back here in Germany already, lol. She loves getting the chicken and fries there so that was lunch on Saturday (although they didn't have any fries so Dustin went into town and ordered Donor and fries - what a nice dad!). We did more running around with going grocery shopping and a few last minute items for Brenna's first day of Kindergarten (I can't believe how quickly my little girl is growing up, sniffle, sniffle!). I was able to get Justice out for his walks this weekend - I wonder if he is feeling sore like I am!!

Today, I tried to make it project day - I have all these ideas in my head and can't wait to get some more things finished, but my speed just doesn't accomplish everything that I want it to (I didn't even finish the one project that I had mosting cut out already and just needed sewn together)! I spent time this morning cutting out some fabric, but I changed projects when I ran out of fabric for my bag lining (this wasn't a big deal, but I felt like I better get one of the projects I had already cut out at that point sewn together today). So, I ended up working on the apron that my mother-in-law picked out - it is a really cool looking Amy Butler pattern. The one I made for my sister turned out so cute, that I really want to see how this pattern looks when done (plus, I needed to cut out the apron to make sure I had plenty of fabric for the bag!). I finally had to quit for today at 10:20 pm - and bummer, my project isn't quiet completed :-( (lots of steps in making darts to this pattern - but I am pretty sure it will turn out very nice when done). I am pretty much to all the finishing steps and some more ironing (where are you Renee and mom- it was so much fun to work on projects together??) - but alas, no picture of my project from today. Hopefully, I will get a chance to finish it this week with having some time in the mornings free!

Well, I better pack things up for tonight! Take Care!

Friday, August 28

Brenna working on her cards above :-) She was having lots of fun standing them up (not as much fun writing in them though, lol)! Below - she had to try to eat the bubbles - Yum??!

Hello All!!

Hope all is well out there. We are still not adjusted to right time yet - boy is next week going to be hard! Brenna and I slept till about 9:30 today - I set my alarm, but didn't hear it either time it went off (have I become my mother on that one??).

I will try to make today our last bubble pictures for a while (Brenna just looks so cute when she is playing with the bubbles - and it has modeled some of her new clothes that way). Anyway, yesterday, I wasn't motivated at all so the day was not so great for Brenna (probably pretty boring). We did do some bubble blowing (obviously), drawing on cards (hopefully, we will get some things in the mail soon), and playing with Brenna's new dolls. We also colored in one of Brenna's new Color wonder books - she likes just putting a little bit of color on the page and moving on... Our proofs for our family pictures are back - they look great - can't wait to actually get the pics (although my husband likes to point out that the last pics we had done aren't up on the wall - there isn't any wall space here :-(

We found out yesterday that Dustin is in England on Brenna's first day of kindergarten next week - what a bummer there...

Well, I think that is about it for today - I'm getting itchy to make a new craft soon - can't wait to see which one I make next! Take Care!

Thursday, August 27

Here are the last picture posts from our trip. Above is Brenna on the merry-go-round in Mansfield. I love her face expression! Below is Brenna showing Rusty and Steven how to be dogs - sorry guys - I love the pic and so did Brenna!! She loves you both lots and lots!!

Brenna and Mikayla - I love their faces, just wish they were looking up!

At the Ft. Wayne zoo below.

A person can feed the giraffes at the Ft. Wayne zoo (a piece of lettuce). Brenna looked at the picture below and said he tried to eat her lettuce (she threw a fit that he did too, because she wanted to eat it!)

Below are the bubble pictures from yesterday - don't you love her looking at the bubbles!!!

My favorite picture with the bubbles yesterday - she loves that thing (I was pretty sure she would - they had one at daycare that the kids all loved).

Hello All!!

Hope all is well out there! We are still getting time adjusted here - we are all having trouble sleeping at night right now :-( Brenna and I woke up this morning at 9:15 (although not really happily, lol). I had a dream that the weather was going to get super hot - so I hope that one doesn't come true!!

Yesterday we had fairly nice weather (although we stayed inside for most of the day). We played with bubbles (gee - could you tell that from our pictures yesterday, lol), painted (Brenna ended up with some on her stomach - good thing she was only wearing her underware!), had some ice cream, and played dolls. I gave Brenna a snack for Justice's walk yesterday so we were able to go a little further than the day before, but not much. I really want to get him out for his walks again soon. The weather for the next few days looks like it will be a good time to get back into it.

Well, I think that about covers yesterday! Take Care!

Wednesday, August 26

We all missed Justice for the last month being in the US (I think Brenna missed him the most - but I did miss him too - I'm glad that the last time we will have to leave him for a long time in Christmas). Justice is following Brenna and I around very closely - I don't think he will let us leave him anytime soon. He does have a hot spot that we will need to get resolved - it does seem that he is only getting the hot spots with his anxiety (he has only had them when we were back in the US both times). Debbie - we miss you - can't wait until we are back in the US so that he can stay where he is well loved again! We were outside with bubbles yesterday (Rusty - she really loves her new bubble machine - I made some video for you too - I will try to get it to you soon! She also got a chance to play with her new princess cards this morning - I made a carrier for them - see picture below). Brenna with some of her bubbles yesterday. She was moving so much it was hard to get a picture of her with lots of bubbles!

Brenna with her new purse and dress - she was such the little model (she is not wanting to have her picture done this morning though!)

Below are all my project pictures from my trip back to the US. There are only a couple projects missing - a skirt that I made - I can't believe that we didn't have any pictures of it and I didn't want to take a picture of how wrinkled it was this morning and a couple baby blankets I made for friends!! Mom - thank you for all your help with these projects - it was lots of fun working together with you on these (I never thought as I teenager that I would want to do sewing projects like these - thank you so much for teaching me how to do these things!!). First up is the dress that Brenna wore for our family pictures - the pink is a ribbon that was tied around - the dress didn't actually have any color to it. I can't wait to see the photographer's pictures (Jill thanks for putting your pictures up on shutterfly - I didn't have any pictures of Brenna in her dress with my camera! - I ordered the one of Brenna and Mikayla together in a 4x6 so that we could put it in Brenna's room :-) Luckily it came right before we left so that we could take it back with us :-)

My shirt that I made - I was very happy with how it turned out and the color - love, love the fabric (I can't believe that I only have a few scraps left). Mom - thank you so much for making the amount of fabric I had work - you are the best fabric cutter ever!

A couple card holders I made for Brenna - both boxes ripped - plus these should make it easier for Brenna to get the cards out and put them away. Her princess cards in a pink holder and her Care Bear cards in a blue one :-) Thanks for letting me steal some of your fabric Mom and Renee :-)

Her carrier for her new princess cards from Uncle Rusty - I couldn't believe when we opened the box how much empty space the box had - we had to downsize for our trip back - I think this worked fairly well! It is a pretty similar design as the crayon wallet - only bigger.

Crayon wallet that I made for Mikayla - can you tell she was enjoying it already :-)

I embroidered her name on it twice (once in white and once in black) - the fabric is pretty busy so it is hard to see that!

The apron that I made for Renee - can't wait to see the picture of her using it :-) Renee let me know if you want me to email you this picture so that you can put it on your apron website :-)

Ally with her crayon wallet - she is such a good "cheeser" :-)

Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there. Well, today I have a ton of pictures to post, so probably not alot of things to say, lol!!! I'm putting up all my project pictures from the trip - thank you so much mom for all your help!!

Yesterday, Brenna and I had a pretty busy day - we played with her bubble machine out on the balcony, we painted with her new "paint brushes", we played with her new dolls (M.E. - our dolls fit the shoes you bought - I am missing one shoe - one of the high heeled ones, let me know if it is there :-), read some of her new books (she loves them all!), and we watched a movie (The Bridge to Teribithia - I cried for the last 30 minutes of the movie - Brenna didn't really understand it and I wouldn't say it is really a good movie for her age group with some of the animals in it - I may look for the book though for myself).

Well, I have delayed Brenna on her play time enough!! We are going to play with some of her new cards this morning - she is really loving "discovering" a new toy each day right now (or several as we did yesterday)!

Take Care

Tuesday, August 25

The top three pictures were taken with my long arm method!! I think they look pretty good - although we all did start to get the giggles at the end! Thanks for sharing your camera pics Renee - they looked so good, I had to post them today! The girls had lots of fun with Brenna riding the bike below - we had a great photo series of them pushing and riding and the falling off - all with lots of giggles and grins!

On Brenna's b-day we went to the Carousel in Mansfield (followed by Chuck-E-Cheese). Can you see how much Brenna loved it? She thought it was pretty neat to ride with Gammy, Papa, and Mommy!

Brenna lined up all the veggies - I just thought it was too funny not to get a silly picture!

The princess falling off her seat above (it was her throne chair) and below in the tents at the zoo with my mom.

More pictures from our travels. We are still working through our time adjustment here - I thought yesterday went well, but we all had trouble sleeping last night and that resulted in Brenna and I way oversleeping today - uh, oh!

Today looks like rain, but I haven't seen any yet since we woke up.

Well, enjoy the pictures and take care!

Monday, August 24

I loved Brenna's surprise birthday room (she did know she was having a party, but I don't think she expected all the balloons and princess stuff - she was so cute passing out the balloons to everyone!!).

Brenna and I above - before the party (for the Carpenter side - I was still getting ready - boy did I need the makeup on - I look tired!). After Brenna blew out the candle below. You can't see much of our outfits here - but my mom made Brenna's dress and jumper (it had Ballons on it) that was in the picture with the cakes. In the picture above - my sister made the dress for Brenna and it was a birthday gift. Bummer that we didn't get the girls in there matching dresses together. Maybe we can try at Christmas with some leggings under and something for their arms?? The shirt I was wearing I mostly made (my mom helped too - thanks!!) - it was so great doing projects with you!

My best picture of Brenna with the cake for the Heath side - Alexis had such a great smile on - sorry I didn't have the focus set up better to catch her too!

The kids all loved the frosting - they were all sitting around waiting to dig in once I stacked the cakes and piped on the last of the pink frosting! All the girls wanted the bottom pink layer though!!

Brenna's name was a little smashed, but you can almost still read it! Mom and I made so much frosting, but I could have used just a little more pink and white to make it perfect, oh well!! The cakes all tasted good, that is the most important thing! Mom - thanks for all your help on these!! Maybe next year I will do something easier! I loved all the colors that the cakes turned out - I thought they looked pretty good for my inexperienced attempt. I'm going to have to beg one of my more expert cake makers to make the cakes next year!!

I think this cake turned out cuter than my wonderland one - good choice on cakes M.E.!! I loved that the cake was all pink - we did a stawberry cake here - my favorite!

Hello All!!!

Well, we are adjusting to life back in Germany today. Brenna and I slept in - I woke up around 9 and then woke her up at 9:45 (I know I shouldn't have let her sleep so late, but she was so sleep deprived yesterday - it was hard to wake her up). We have been working on apartment cleaning this morning. I vaccumed and cleaned the potty (can you tell I have a child that is using the "potty" with that statement!) - it is amazing how quickly Justice's hair adds up (btw - Dustin, did you vaccum at all while we were gone??? I couldn't believe how much hair there was on the rugs - yuck!). I cleaned off all the pictures on the camera - so hopefully you will enjoy Brenna's birthday cake pictures today. I'm going to include a link to the picture of the wonderland inspiration cake http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=52124 - it was supposed to look like it did (although I could have used a little bit more pink icing on my second layer bottom - oh well! - the kids all loved how it looked).

We did walk up to the store today - got some milk and ice cream (what can I say - it is warm and I knew that Brenna would love some!). We really need to go to the store tonight - our kitchen is bare of most food (I think that is a good thing though - makes it seem like it won't be too bad to clear out the kitchen when we move back to the states for good next year!). It is warm here today, but supposed to be rainy and somewhat cooler tomorrow. At least Brenna will get to wear some of her summer clothes for a little while longer (it was much cooler last year when we came here - although that was the 1st week in September).

Well, I will get more pictures up tomorrow! I already took one here today that I want to post, but I'm going to work on getting all the trip and project pictures up first! Take Care!