Sunday, February 24

 Brenna has been really working on her splits here lately - they are really improving all the time!  I can't believe how flexible she is now and how unflexible I am.

 Brenna's dance studio had Spirit Week this week - can you tell the colors are green, purple, and black??? I was impressed that she let me put some face paint on her - she was originally against it.

 I modified Dustin's t-shirt from the recital last year that I shrank - perfect use for this :-)

 (Brenna got her ears pierced last weekend - sorry it didn't make it on the blog, but I did put an update on facebook about it, lol).  She is ready to change earrings already (who isn't when they first get them done).  She is doing a really good job cleaning them so far.

 She looks good with purple Easter eggs on her face - don't you think?!??

 working on her splits again

 1st Dance Competition of 2013.   Brenna's group did a really good job.  She was exhausted at the end of the day and slept all the way home...

Hello All!!

Hope all is well out there!!  Things have been very busy here getting ready for Brenna's first dance competition.   Brenna's dance group did very well - it will be exciting to see if they improve in their next two competitions they have this year.  I need to learn how to be calmer on these dance days - they stress me out! 
Brenna's dance studio also had spirit week this past week - Brenna looked great in Dustin's redesigned t-shirt from the dance recital last year.  I think she was the most excited about this years spirit day outfit - guess I will need to keep that in mind next year!!
Brenna is really enjoying her gymnastic and dance classes this year.  They moved her up in the gymnastics so that was really exciting for her - she loves that they actually have went on the "real" balance beam now.  I can't believe my living room has become such a "practice gym" for her!  She loves to practice her hand stands, cart wheels, and splits every day.
Brenna loves to write the words - mom, dad, and love right now - I will probably look back on these papers some day and treasure them - she also likes to add Mickey mouse ears to the 'o' in mom and love - super cute!!
Well, that is about all for this evening - Take Care!

Catch-up Post 1 - Mikayla's Birthday

Wow - my summer has flown by here!  Brenna had her first day of Kindergarten yesterday - she was so excited to leave the house we were at the bus stop 20 minutes early :-)  She asked this morning if she had to go to school again, but after she got moving, she was ready to go :-)

First up - Mikayla's 7th birthday.  Mikayla had an owl theme this year - my very talented sister did cupcakes and a cute cake. 

 self pics of Brenna and I and my mom and I :-)

 I brought my face painting supplies - Brenna, my mom, Renee, and I all had our face painted, but Mikayla decided she wasn't interested.

 so cute!!

 My sister, mom, and grandma

Friday, October 28

so, above - Brenna before school yesterday - she was dressed up as Holiday Barbie (and no, they didn't have dress-up day at school yesterday - that is scheduled for Monday - it will be interesting to see what she choses that day!!!) Below - Brenna modeling the new Carpenter Creation (I am having a very difficult time focusing this week - so I took a break from work and finally sewed this project that has been sitting in my craft room - very happy with the short time it took from start to finish - only about 4 hours).

Dress-up day on Tuesday at dance class

Hello all,

Hope all is well out there! Things are good here (other than the fact that I can't hear anything right now - so frustrating). Brenna's dance studio is having dress-up week - she was holiday barbie yesterday (and she wore that outfit to school too). Brenna enjoyed having some pink around her eyes with a little bit of glitter (although last night at dance she wore eye shadow instead - she loves the kind of make-up that she gets to wear on the stage (including the red lipstick in some of the pics above).

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

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!