Monday, April 25th

Brenna modeling her new white dress and purple flower headband. (My sister made the great headband and I made the dress)

so, I have been planning this dress above since Feb. - I bought the pattern and couldn't wait to try it out (and I even made a dress from this pattern for a gift) - the pattern is pretty easy, but it does take a ton of fabric for a little girl's dress - I'm not sure what Brenna doesn't like about the dress, but I had to bribe her with chocolate for this photo shoot, and she hasn't wanted to wear the dress now that it is done. I'm crossing my fingers when the weather warms up that she will want to wear it (apparently, I made the waist too high for her style - at least that was her one complaint on the dress). But she sure did give me some great pics on the day she wore it for me :-)

Isn't that headband the cutest thing??? It really makes me wish that I looked as good in headbands as Brenna does....

I also decided this week to make some bags up. I thought this was going to be a fairly quick project, but with the embroideries I put on, they did take a lot longer than I expected (in fact, I planned to make 3 or 4 bags, but only got two done). The mice below are on a bag for my niece, Ally. They are little ballerinas - aren't they too cute???

front of the bag - I love the shoes with the name here (and it only works with 4 letters, so I'm really happy that I put on Ally instead of Allyson :-)

the two bags that I finished. Instead of buying an Easter basket for Brenna this year, I made the bag and we set it out for the Easter bunny to fill. This was the first year that Brenna really got stuff from the Easter Bunny at our house - the last two years we did some trips (hard to imagine that we went to Ireland last year and Italy the year before), so we never really did more than a small chocolate bunny at home.

Brenna helped with the choices for Ally's bag - of course, this meant once she liked everything on Ally's bag, she wanted things to be pretty much the same. The only regret that I have on Ally's bag is the white bottom. In hindsight, I would have liked to do a color on the bottom like I added to Brenna's, but I changed my plans after I already started Ally's bag. Karen - if it gets too dirty, we can use some soft fabric paints on the bottom (the bag is only surface washable with the fabric I used and all of the interfacing - so sorry!).

(oh, this bag will be Brenna's new dance bag - I have wanted to make a new bag since September when I found out she needed a dance bag, but haven't gotten around to it). Guess since I finally finished Brenna's curtains and the bag, I can move on to my wish list of projects from October, lol.

Brenna posing with some of the items from Divine Miss Gammy and Uncle Steven. She loved, loved everything she got from all the family that came up yesterday. Brenna has been drooling over these squishy ball things (the item in her hand) at the store, so she is so excited to finally have one - thank you so much to Divine Miss Gammy - what a cool Easter basket!!! I'm not sure how Brenna will be using her new bag (I may have to copy the design of this bag - it is pretty cute!), but so far the strap has already been used as a dog leash (not sure how much I have talked about this, but Brenna loves to use Justice's leashes for her stuffed animals and will also leash up Justice as well, so this "floral" leash will be used often (and I'm sure the bag too)). (Don't you all just love Brenna's "at home" clothes choice today - she wanted to look like a princess today :-)

One of my 2 favorite flowers - thank you so much for the flower Rusty!! I am so sad that I bought a hydrangea from the boy scouts and it died the day after I got it. I never even got a pretty picture of it :-( Hopefully, I can have more success with this pretty flower... Anyone have any words of advice for me on it???

Hello All!!

Hope all is well out there! We had a great Easter weekend here despite the poor weather (lots of rain here). Last week I was busy making some crafts (I was hoping it would clean up my craft room some, but I have quite a few more projects started than I should). I made some cute tote bags - one for my niece Ally and one for Brenna (we used the bag instead of an Easter basket). We have traveled over Easter the last two years (Dustin always had a good amount of vacation time around Easter in Germany), so this was the 1st year in a while that we could really do an Easter celebration with Brenna. I'm really glad that she attends a Christian preschool right now, as she came home several times this week to remind me that Easter isn't about the bunny and candy, but about Jesus and God.

Anyway, we all did enjoy some outside time on Saturday when we had a break from all the rain (seriously, a flood warning here now with all the rain - and more rain is called for all week - boo!!!). Brenna enjoyed having Dustin home for the long weekend too - they went up to the bike shop in Akron and also to the pool here in town. We really enjoyed having Dustin's family up for Easter lunch (Brenna was so sad that everyone left her house - she could have played until the sun went down with everyone there) and then we went over to friends in town for a great Easter egg hunt. Brenna had such a good day - I told her that I think we will have Easter candy in the house until July 4th now :-)

With all my crafting my week sure flew by! We had a pretty quiet day here today - worked on the letter G and H with Brenna and sorted out the candy that remained here from Halloween and then Brenna and I took a nice nap this afternoon :-) (we had to try to recover from all our partying yesterday).

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

Monday, April 18th

Happy day to our special little girl Brenna - we love you so dearly!!! Brenna helped with the cake decorating :-) We decided a rainbow would be a great decoration and I think it turned out awesome (way better than the frosting job that I did on the cake, oh, well!).

Our cake has 4 layers and is a checkerboard - isn't it pretty???

Brenna being cheesy...

Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there. Things are good here - just finished celebrating Brenna's gotcha "day" weekend :-) I can't describe how special and lucky we are to have Brenna in our lives every day - you are one special little girl and we love you!!!!

Brenna and I stayed busy today doing some fun stuff too - we painted Easter eggs this morning and then went out to the scrapbooking store. We found lots of neat stuff at the scrapbooking store, and we had fun cutting out some shapes (mainly stars - that is what Brenna wanted today). This afternoon, we tried out a recipe for homemade marshmallows - I hope they set up well overnight. Last time I tried to make the marshmallows was in Germany and it was a failure, so I'm hopeful that this time we will be able to cut out some cute shapes :-)

So, that is about all - we had a very good family weekend - nice and relaxing for everyone :-) I wish the weather was nicer, but I'm sure we will have some nice days soon (please - Brenna can't wait to wear her flip flops :-)

Take Care!

Saturday, April 16

we are celebrating Brenna's gotcha day all weekend - so, to start off the weekend, we tried to get a new family picture (my goal for each gotcha day has been just to spend time as a family, hopefully make Brenna feel special and get a new family picture). So, Brenn and I ganged up on Daddy and got one really good picture (can you belive this was the first picture taken below??). Brenna and I both got our hair cut and styled yesterday - I didn't realize until we left how expensive a morning at the salon would be (oops), but Brenna felt very pampered after having her hair done and her nails too (she had her first salon pedicure :-)

I loved Brenna's smile in the picture below - can you tell I was trying to tell her to move the flower down in the picture??

thought I would try a picture with a book (I've seen this on the photographer's website who took our family pictures in August). I love this one of Dustin and Brenna together (we didn't get one of all of us that turned out like I would like). With the book that I chose - it might have to be on our Christmas cards this year....

Brenna of course, really wanted to take pictures of Dustin and I - with the camera on the tripod it really makes it easy for her to be our photographer :-) I also love that he is holding one of her stuffed animals in the picture - I thought about cropping it out, but I think I like the picture more with him holding her toy :-)

Brenna and I stopped by Hobby Lobby yesterday afternoon for some paint supplies - we got some new canvas to paint on. I've been wanting to paint this horse (he is a very popular character in Germany - part of the Diddlina) on a canvas - I think I did a pretty good job (even if I did use the wrong type of paint for my canvas - it looks good right now ;-)

When Dustin was gone, Brenna, Divine Miss Gammy and I enjoyed an afternoon at Miss Molly's Tea Room followed by some pottery painting. We all painted the cupcake cookie jar below - it is so cute! Now, I just need to figure out what to store in it... I bought some of the vanilla oreos, but it turns out that Brenna only wants those frozen now when she eats them (which I have to give kudos to my mother-in-law there - it really does make the cookies taste better that way).

oh, I was working on Brenna's curtains this week. (under my cupcake cookie jar is the unfinished panel). I finished one panel for her room. I used black out lining for the curtain, but I still am disappointed how much light comes in the room - but Brenna seems to really like the one that is finished (in fact, she told me that she really only wants one now - hopefully, I can get the other curtain finished and hung up in her room still).

Brenna's Gnome that she painted - he is so cute! If anyone has seen the movie Gnomeo and Juliet - Brenna obviously sided with both the red and the blue :-) (and now she would really love some lawn art - she really wants some Gnomes and Flamingos for the back yard - anyone seen any cute ones???)

I finally finished my sister's purse - I love the fabric she donated for the bag - I hope the purse works well for you ;-)

the two new bags :-)

Brenna showing Divine Miss Gammy her favorite picture pose...

Our first tea afternoon :-)

With the weather finally having some nice days, I took Brenna out of preschool early on Thursday and we drove up to the Akron zoo. Brenna loved walking around the zoo, seeing the new baby penguins (I think the one right in front with the yellow band is the boy penguin), riding the Carousel, and feeding the animals at Farmland for the 1st time. I think she could have fed the sheep and goats all day. She also loved time at the rock climbing wall in the Jelly Fish area (that is her favorite part). If anyone wants to go up on a nice afternoon - just left me know - we love spending time at the zoo and Brenna is on a mission to ride every animal on the Carousel :-)

I swear I have a picture so similar to this from the London zoo (below)....

Brenna riding the polar bear (she wanted to ride the dog again, but then decided she would rather have an animal that went up and down - so she just picked an animal close by)

Brenna loves to pose with the statues...

The Easter Bunny is visiting the Akron Zoo - I think Brenna was just as happy to sit in the sparkly chair - hmm - wonder if we could do one like that for her room???

Hello All!!!

Can you believe that I let half of April go by with no posts??? I'm surprised no one has emailed or called to remind me that I need to post something (usually I hear something from my dad - did he stop reading me???).

Anyway, Dustin was gone for 2 weeks in Germany (he went for work and stayed at the hotel I looked out my windows at every day (and walked by on the way to the store/school everyday as well)). Brenna and I were very sad that Daddy was gone for so long. We tried to leave the house as much as possible. I was glad both sets of Grandparents were available for some much needed distraction. On a positive note, we finally got a chance to see my mom, dad, sister, and niece (who we hadn't seen since Christmas). Brenna really enjoyed our time with family - but we were bummed that Justice was sick the 1st weekend that Daddy was gone (at least he never had an accident in my parents' house - but it made it so we were ready to come home and go to the vet so Justice could get better). We never found out why Justice got sick - but he seems to be fine now (other than the tumor on his head that needs removed and the cyst on his rump - poor guy - it is tough getting old!).

We really enjoyed Dustin's mom's visit - we got a chance to enjoy Miss Molly's Tea Room and then painting pottery afterwards. Brenna loved it and I know she is looking forward to our next trip to the tea room :-) Brenna also got a really cool new jewelry box filled with treasures from Divine Miss Gammy - come back soon - Brenna loved playing with you with them :-)

We took a spring break the 1st full week of April (my niece was on spring break that week and so was Brenna's dance class). It was nice being able to see my family, but it would have been nice to have some warmer nicer weather to enjoy. (Oh, and I was so jealous since Dustin was in Germany with sunshine and warm weather). Can you believe I didn't take any pictures while I was at my mom's???

We had a nice family weekend last weekend after missing Dustin so much. He brought home wonderful gifts for us - Brenna loved her chocolate eggs from Germany :-)

This week has gone by fast - I started working (finally) on Brenna's room curtains - I finished one, just one more to go :-) Brenna and I enjoyed having our hair cut on Friday (she also had the special treat of getting a pedicure). We did some painting in the afternoon on Friday as well. I modeled with my picture - wonder if I can get Brenna to hold up her's or sit by it? This afternoon we went out to them movies and saw Rio. Brenna really enjoyed it and the birds were great to see in 3D.

Oh, I almost forgot - Brenna won most Spirited Dancer at her dance studio :-) We were both very excited!!!

Well, that is about all for now!