Saturday, October 15

o.k. - I have been a pretty bad blogger lately, but life here at my house has been very crazy. My pictures aren't in order, but here is some of our life since the last blog post. Above, Brenna at a birthday party from last week for our friends' daughter from Germany - I did face painting (I only got one picture of the kids with the face painting - this one of Brenna, so if anyone has any pictures they would like to share, I would really enjoy seeing them. Below, we made an art display wall in our breakfast room - the wire curtain hangers are from IKEA (Dustin goes by there weekly unless he is traveling to elsewhere - like Germany - he is scheduled to go again on Monday - this is like the 3rd or 4th time since my last blog post - at least it seems that way...) Anyway, Brenna loves her art wall - these were for the month of September - we cleared it all off after these pictures for October and our wall is almost full already!

Brenna with two of her jelly fish (or maybe one was an octopus) - anyway, our new kitten, Frankie, was right there hoping to catch one :-)

Since my last blog post, we have adopted two new kittens from an animal shelter close by our house. We have a brother and sister who look almost identical - Brenna likes them to have their collars on so that she can tell them apart (although if one is causing trouble - it is bound to be Frankie, and if one is hiding under the bed, it is bound to be our little girl - Marshmallow (also called Sissie here at home).

Last week with the really warm weather, I took Brenna to the zoo - we had a very enjoyable afternoon there.

my little penguin...

a trip to the Akron zoo isn't complete without sitting on the lion...

pics after our time at the zoo...

Our new little kittens - Marshmallow and Frankie

Brenna decided to be a rock star for Halloween. (Brenna actually wanted to dress up as Hannah Montana's best friend Lily/Lola). So, we bought this great blue wig at Target - she modeled it for me and let me paint a star on her eye - too cute!! (although for the Boo at the Zoo today at the zoo, she wasn't interested in the wig - and with the wind, it probably wasn't a bad idea to skip it).

Frankie at rest - so sweet then...(Marshmallow went and hid under the bed when I got the camera out)

Brenna modeling her new hat that she bought with her birthday money.

My little fashionista...

strike a pose

Brenna dressed up for Boo at the Zoo today. I was going to do face paint, but she asked for make-up instead (as she said, like she had for the dance stage) - I think she looked adorable - although it does make me think that she is growing way too fast!!

what a little model...

Brenna is starting practices for her little dance company - this is one of her new moves from the dance..

another move from the new dance - oh, my - what a face!

sleeping beauty...(only pretending here - she is a good pretend sleeper!!) (and since this is the first picture of her whole costume - I can say that I made the leggings, the pink top, and the white and silver polka dotted top too. She had a feather hair clip in her hair that looked so cute with it (and the clip stays in her hair very well too).

Brenna with Buck - a mascot for Acme supermarket at the zoo

On the Carousel

Brenna with our friends' daughter from Germany (who had the birthday last week) - such little cuties!

oh, boy, Brenna found a bubble maker...

I loved the expression below...

Boo

Modeling the costume (before the make-up) - she wore the costume all day, so I think I made a winner in comfort :-)

of course, Brenna wanted to dress up the pets for Halloween - Frankie as a pirate...

Justice modeling the same pirate hat ...

After the birthday party this week, Brenna wanted her face painted for school the next day - i think she looked very cute for the 5 minutes that we had to paint her face :-)

Hello All,

Hope everyone hasn't given up on me - life has been pretty crazy here. Dustin has been traveling to Germany a lot lately (and he goes again next week - yikes!) and my new job has really started to be very demanding (like life wasn't crazy enough before all of this!).

Anyway, I think I put most of the highlights of life recently with the pictures above - Brenna's most exciting news is the new kittens we adopted about a month ago. Brenna loves holding them and petting them. I finished Brenna's Halloween costume today just in time for Boo at the zoo - now just to get 2 other costumes done before Halloween and I may take a long break from sewing while I am working on this contract job...

Well, I gotta get some other work done! Hope everyone enjoys the pictures - I think the only pictures from between posts that didn't go up was our day at the pumpkin farm from a couple weekends ago.

Take Care!

Tuesday, August 23

so, in case anyone noticed the black mark on Brenna's hand in her 5 year pics, it originally was a lemur stamp at the zoo - it had a lot of ink and smeared pretty quickly, but looked good at the start...Brenna has now ridden an animal on the zoo carousel from every continent (we picked up the paper last year about riding an animal from each continent, so it only too us about a year to complete...)

One of Brenna's birthday gifts - bubble guns. These are super cool and we found them at Cracker Barrel (just be sure to buy batteries :-)

wow, look at all those bubbles

hmm - where did she learn to be so super spy like??

hmm - maybe I need to reload...

awesome cake made by Divine Miss Gammy :-)

Brenna and Uncle Steven... they played very hard all afternoon.

Brenna and Papa

Brenna got some amazing new gifts - including some new clothes - here she is having a fashion show for Dustin and I with all her new outfits...

Brenna also got a new doll named Nicholas - he along with Mr. Poppers (her new penguin friend) have visited preschool this week.

Brenna wore this cute outfit below to school on Monday - she looked so cute with her tennis shoes and hair bow - Brenna decided she looked like a cheerleader - very cute!

such a cute little model

Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there! Just thought I would take a quick minute and add some pictures from Brenna's birthday to the blog. Brenna had loads of fun at her party and received some amazing new gifts - clothes, Barbie clothes, Barbie and Nicholas dolls, a stuffed animal, books (which we have read all of them now - my personal favorite is a book from Dustin's parents called I Had a Favorite Dress - love, love this book :-), a puzzle, and some other goodies :-) (I will send out the thank you cards after I get her new pictures back on the 2nd of Sept. just in case anyone wonders :-)

It will be another crazy week here - my work is picking up a little bit and Dustin flys off today for Germany again. Hopefully, the week will go by quickly and Brenna and I will find plenty to occupy ourselves. Brenna is ready for dance and acro classes to start up again - I think she was glad to have one week off, but 3 is getting a little long for her - only 2 more weeks until classes start again...

Well, that is about all I have time for today!

Take Care!

Sunday, August 21

So, Brenna had some special pictures done at Kiddie Kandids for her fifth birthday. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do :-)

Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there! We have had some very enjoyable days here celebrating Brenna's birthday. I can't believe my little girl is already 5 - where did the time go??? Well, our time over the last few days included a trip to the zoo, a birthday meal at Buca de Beppo (which Brenna loved - especially when they sang to her), cookies at preschool, Chuck-E-Cheese, and a great birthday party :-) I think with all the celebrating of her birthday, she can really say that it was one of the best ever :-)

Brenna has developed a sore throat over the last few days, so hopefully that will go away soon and she will be feeling like herself again.

Well, I know there is a lot more I should be blogging about, but my computer time is up for now!

Take Care!

PS - I ordered a ton of these pictures, so if you have a favorite - let me know and I will get one to you :-)

Wednesday, August 17

we've been making bows here lately (some as gifts - we gave some to her preschool and dance teachers last week - although I think the ones I made yesterday were more fancy ones). I thought I would get to keep this "Browns" bow for my winter hat this year, but looks like someone else loves it and looks adorable in it. Brenna wore the Browns outfit to school today and looked super cute in it :-) Anyway, Brenna did some bow "modeling" for me yesterday - she loved playing model and me having a different voice to be the photographer... For the Browns outfit -she decided to make it even more sporty with some "gum" in her mouth (that is what is between her teeth below)

hmm - this is usually how daddy feels by mid-season with the Browns... (below)

the picture below just says Brenna to me - what a little star :-)

not sure where these looks all came from, but she was sure having fun with it

such a little diva

Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there. It has been a crazy August here so far. I started a new contract job this month and while the hours haven't been highly demanding yet, it is still an adjustment after not working for 3 years. I really hope this opportunity goes well as I will be working from home and working for the boss I worked for before we moved to Germany (and I always really enjoyed reporting to him :-).

Anyway, Brenna is counting down to her birthday - she can not wait to be 5. Although she said this morning she is also ready to be 10 - I do think she is 5 going onto a teenager...I tried to tell her all the fun things to do with being 5 - hopefully she will think of those, but I'm sure she is going to grow up quickly...

Brenna's summer dance classes have come to an end (they finished last week). Brenna said last week she was ready for the break, but then yesterday evening she was sad that she doesn't have class tonight. Hopefully, when classes start again, she will have fun with both of her classes, but I do think the acro class will be her favorite for the year. She was tumbling around in the basement all evening on Monday. We made her teachers some rice heating pads (or I these are also great in the freezer too) - I added lavender for the first time to the bags, so hopefully they work great for them (I kept the first one I made for now - it is in the freezer and is great to put over my eyes at the end of a long day).

Brenna and I went to her school Carnival over the weekend - she had loads of fun and was very excited that she won the door prize and brought 2 goldfish home (although one is already no longer with us - uh, oh). I am so bummed that I forgot my camera - Brenna sat in the firetruck, sprayed the fireman hose, and got to put a fireman hat and coat on - so cute. Hopefully, I can get the pictures from her teacher.

Dustin competed in the Vermilion tri http://youtu.be/C7m5bBud4v4

The swim was in Lake Erie and they had some major waves, so I am very glad that he finished the swim safely.

Well, that is about all I can think of for now!

Take Care!