Saturday, June 23

Hello All!!

Hope all is well out there!  I am going to try to play some catch-up on what has been going on around here, but may have to do more than one post today for it :-)
First up - Preschool graduation :-)  Brenna graduated from Preschool on my birthday and can't wait for Kindergarten in the fall!

 With her teacher (and the preschool director) Ms. Megan

 Brenna's new dance pose for the year - I love it :-)  She has on her new eye mask that Daddy bought for her.

 We had a chance to go see her cousin Ally's dance recital.  Brenna really enjoyed seeing her perform on stage. 

 Brenna at dress rehersal for Tea at the Ballet Barre

 Brenna was very excited when the family showed up to see her dance recital, but she was the most excited for her cousin Mikayla to be there :-)  She had to have Mikayla with her in the bathroom while she got ready so they both had some beautiful red lipstick on after :-)  Thank you to all the family for coming - Brenna was so excited to have you attend her second dance recital.

 For the evening performance, both girls got in costumes.  Brenna was pretty sad that the family was staying home while she went off to the stage, but she did great in her evening acts.

 What a little diva...

 after the Friday night performance.  I wish I could say I was totally relaxed about her performing on stage and all the practices that lead up to it, but I was a wreck the week of the recital...

Saturday, May 26

Hello all!!!

Hope all is well out there!   Things have been so busy here with Brenna's dance recital (and our work schedules).  Here are a couple quick pics I snapped of Brenna in her make-up and dance recital outfits.  We purchased the bun sponge from Amazon for her hair - what a wonderful device!  It did a great job in her hair (and in my short hair) - I would highly recommend to anyone who wants a beautiful bun.  I'm still not looking forward to doing her hair for the recital with all her costume changes on Saturday (she has four), but hopefully, it will look just as nice then as it does in these pictures.  Brenna has been busy playing in her splash pool on these hot days and performing some cartwheels (she is getting really good with these).  We got some much needed rain her last night - the weather has been so hot and dry (and we are looking at a very hot weekend).  Dustin is doing his first triathalon this morning - hopefully that will go very well. 
Brenna's preschool is moving buildings in a week - I think Brenna is excited about the move.  But before they move, Brenna has preschool graduation on Wednesday - she mentioned that she may even get a graduation hat :-)
Well, that is about all for now.
Take Care!

Friday, May 18

Frankie has been a very good photo subject this week....

Things have been very busy here with getting prepared for Brenna's dance recital in June (by the way - they sold out the Saturday afternoon performance - if anyone would like to go, they added a evening performance on Saturday as well).  Tomorrow is her pictures for her classes - it will also be the first time she lets me see her in the ballet costume - wish me luck in styling her hair in the morning.  Hopefully she will let me take at least one picture here in her costume, but she hasn't been very cooperative with me lately.  Our bathroom projects are almost done with the painting (other than some touchups), and then just to wait for the new flooring to go in.  (Not sure if I mentioned anything about our house projects, but we have finally decided to replace the vinyl flooring in the house with ceramic tile - this also led to the replacement of the sink in Brenna's bathroom and the main floor bathroom). 

Other than that, work is still keeping both Dustin and I very busy, but Brenna and I have tried to enjoy our nice May weather with some afternoons at the local park.

Well, hope you enjoy these new pictures!
Take Care!

Wednesday, May 2

Hello All!!

Hope all is well out there - Here are a few new pictures of our "kids" and Brenna. 
Brenna had exciting news this week as she counted to 100 by herself at preschool.  Also, tickets for her dance recital are now on sale - let my know if you are interested - the dates are Friday, June 8th and Saturday, June 9th (I am going to buy them tomorrow night at her dance class).  Most of her dances will be on Saturday (she will only be performing her company number and the finale on Friday night, but on Saturday she will do her ballet class, tumbling class, company number, and the finale - boy will she be tired by the end!).  I am hopeful that she will let me see her in the costume before her pictures this month, but currently she said I would have to wait since I missed her trying it on last night at dance class....Guess I better go tomorrow night to see if she gets her tumbling costume and find out how her hair will need to be done for the recital.
Well, that is all for now!
Take Care!

 Can you see that one cat has the other in a headlock here (below)? 

 so sweet...

 aw, bright eyes..

Wednesday, April 25th

 So, today I have some craft pics (the top Barbie wedding dress my mom made for Brenna in Feb.) and lots of cat pictures.  They haven't made many appearances on the blog, so I thought I would give you some new pics of what Brenna refers to as her "kids" (and she really does carry them around like her babies and she can not wait every day to come home and cuddle them).

 Of course, they get to be dressed up - Here is Frankie with his crown

Our little girl looking like a slug...

 Frankie (below)

 He is the vocal one and also the one who likes to wake you up in the morning.

 Frankie

 I made this top for Brenna this weekend for Alphabet day today at preschool (it has a letter B on it).  The top is super easy to make, hopefully she will get some wear out of it this summer.

Hello all,

Hope all is well.  Just thought I would share some quick pictures of our cats today and also some crafts that had been made (one by my mom and one by me).  The top above was really easy to make - not sure how Brenna will like the one shoulder top over all, but at least it was easy to make.

My work has been slowing down some, hopefully we will be able to get to even more of part-time schedule soon. 

Well, that is about all for now!
Take Care!

Wednesday, April 18 - Brenna's Gotcha Day

O.k. - I'm going to start with a picture from earlier this week before we get into the family gotcha day pics. Brenna and I fell in love with these glitter stickers at Hobby Lobby (by the way, the glitter and glue items are not a cool, these stickers you get to pick where the glitter and rhinestones go - and they look pretty cool (and a 5 year old can help with them)). She wore a couple different ones to school last week (they don't stay on the best, but sometimes that is better with the changing mind of my child). The one above she wore on Monday (we did the glue and glitter on Tuesday and she wanted it off right away - bummer!).

Brenna's Ice Cream Barbie Cake - she loved it. We asked her if she wanted an ice cream cake for her birthday and she said absolutely - then she could have another Barbie picture (a different one of course :-) Below - these are our annual gotcha day family pictures. I was just going to do these with my camera, but Dustin said as far as pictures go it is less "painful" for him if we just go somewhere. So, we went to the Portrait Innovations in town and I am very happy with the great pictures they got. Of course, Brenna always looks great in pictures, but the photographer really did a great job getting her relaxed and smiling right from the beginning.

Sweet (below) and Sassy (above)

Brenna really wanted to wear the wings - doesn't she look like a sweet little angel :-)

Our silly family picture (although you can only see Brenna's wing behind Dustin's head)

I just love Brenna's smile below - we love you girl - you are one awesome kid!

Hello All,

I'm not going to say much in today's post, but thought I would share Brenna's gotcha day pictures (Dustin has let me make this part of our annual celebration - I think it will be great to look back on all these pics taken a year apart).

We really enjoyed the afternoon as a family - Brenna finally got a chance to do some of her chalk outside and then we did our pictures, got Brenna a new bead for her bracelet (she picked an awesome sparkly one this year - just her style), went out to eat, a nice little walk and then home again. Brenna treated the class to frosted cookie (I went for the full size one that you cut into pieces - she picked out a baseball one - not sure why, but it was tasty) and then we enjoyed her ice cream cake in the evening. She loved the picture of Barbie on it :-)

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

Take Care!

Saturday, April 14th - Brenna's 1st Dance Competition

Girls on the stage at the competition (btw - these are the costumes that I made :-) the owner put some fabulouse sparkle on the top - I think they looked pretty good)

Girls before their 1st competition

Girls below with their dance teacher, Ms. Lindsay

Pics below are from my camera during the competition - pretty good for no flash :-)

After the dance - the girls did great!

wow - these girls had some facial expressions below

such a little photo bug :-)

the older teen girls came out to support the mini's today - they even gave the girls a treat bag after - thanks girls!

the awards - the girls won gold and a 1st place trophy and a plaque. Can you tell how tired they were all getting by then??? (and shortly after all the girls had their meltdowns...)

Hello All!!

Wow - I took a major blogging break didn't I??? Well, things have been staying busy here, although my work is showing signs of slowing down (I hope). I haven't been doing much other than working here (which Brenna will tell you that she doesn't love), but hopefully, we will start a better balance in the afternoons here. We finally even got the paints out again last week in the afternoons (this winter we spent a lot of time making friends at the McDonald's play area locally - Brenna is an easy bargin there - if I took her right after school she would play for a apple juice and ice cream cone and I was able to get some work done). Brenna is really looking forward to summer - she loved the early summer days we had in March (although we really "enjoyed" the hot weather then as we found out the AC unit needed to be replaced...now, it has been replaced and the weather has all turned cooler...)

Anyway, back to Brenna - she competed in her first dance competition this morning. For the early morning, she did great and actually was so excited when we got there and saw her friends - she said she just couldn't stop smiling. The girls all did great on the stage today and were very excited that they won a trophey and plaque (of course, some drama did follow when they found out that the trophey and plaque were going to be staying at the Dance House and not staying at their house, but I think the ribbon and medallion she has now will happily replace them).

Well, anyway - hope you enjoy the pics - these are the costumes that I made in December. The owner of the Dance House added some sparkle this week - so cute...

Well, that is all for now!

Take Care!