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!