Happy Birthday Brenna!!! 1 Year Old!

My goodness! Is my little princess already 1? I just can't believe the time has gone by so fast. Can't she stay a baby for a little longer..... Oh how cute she is. She is my dark eyed beauty! She looks like Mike. But where did the brown eyes come from? Mikes are green and mine are blue. I never took genetics so I'm at a loss. She has been such a blessing to our family this past year. Times have been tuff but my "little Brenna" has kept me going! Alway happy. Such a good baby. Never fussy. Loving to learn and explore. I know Heavenly Father sent her to us at this time in our lives for a special purpose. I am so happy to be her mother! She is not yet walking but crawling everywhere. She can say "Hi" and waves when we go "bye bye". Mike thinks she can say Da Da, but she says that all day long for almost everything. She just yells it excitedly when he comes home. So she is half way there with the Dad thing. We planned a birthday celebration with our family, however, now we are sick, so the party is moved to next Saturday. Good thing she has absolutely no clue about anything. Here are some pics of her life the past year and how much she has changed.

Its a Sick Day!!!

This is my life. The weather chills and the kids immediately get colds. Colton is famous for getting croup about 4 times each winter. It is horrible. Last year he almost ended up in the hospital. We have taken him to the emergency room over the years. I sure hope he is growing out of it. I fear it is because of his food allergies although there is never proof. We keep him away from peanuts, but who knows if he comes into contact with the oils at school....with friends.... It will always be a mystery.
So this morning at 3:00 AM when the coughing began I thought "Ok, he's home from school. This is more that a sniffle." Of course now that its the afternoon he seems fine. School is out for him so he wants to go play. "No way, Buddy, not today.

Brenna has a runny nose now too. Great. Two miserable kids.

Here are some photo highlights of our day, so far. Just be lucky that I am taking the pictures as I am still in my PJ's too.
So much fun!

Our Big Pumpkin!!!!

Mike loves to garden. Even though our yard is small he finds places here and there to plant herbs and vegetables. He even dries a lot of his own seeds each year. So this spring he put pumpkin seeds in our raised planter bed. Only one pumpkin actually looked like it would make it so we clipped the rest off the vine to let it get big. It really took off through the month of September. Everyday he would come home and measure the circumferance with my sewing tape measure. It was amazing to me that the pumpkin would sometimes grow up to 2 inches overnight! It was getting so big and almost turned completely orange when the first freeze hit us Friday night. So this morning as the snow was falling Mike picked the pumpkin. It now resides in the front yard until it is time for Mike to carve one of his extravagant designs. I can't wait to see what it will become. It is about 30° F, Colton is shivering for the photo! Love the winter!

"Mom, Look at this Spider Web!"

For years every Halloween I find a disgusting tarantula hidden in my bed or on my pillow. Every time I gasp and my heart almost stops and Colton is hiding nearby just waiting to laugh at my complete phobia of anything that crawls. Even though they are plasitic I cannot even bear to touch them. Each year after Halloween I am so happy to put them away and sometimes I have been known to throw them away. However, Colton and Mike manage to find more each year and yesterday Colton begged us all day to put up the spiderwebs that Aunt April gave us in her yearly basket of gourds and seasonal goodies. Thanks April!

Finally Mike and I conceded and put up the webbing. Colton found all kinds of bugs and spiders to fill it and it takes up our whole front room. Did I say I can't wait for this holiday to be over!

Coltons Decorating for Halloween!

When Colton helps me decorate for a holiday he really gets into it. Everyday he asks me, "Mom, are you sure these are all our decorations? Don't we have more? Can't we have more. " Now if you've been to our home you know that we have quite alot of fall decor inside. I love Fall and Thanksgiving, but, I am not a fan of the gross, scary, spooky, dead stuff. I like "cute". So I have no desire to expand our Halloween collection. Colton saw a black pumpkin as we were in Walmart today. In order to avoid the hysterics I consented to buy it if he pays me back with his golf ball money. Oh how happy he is. He immediately plugged it in at home to test it and when Brenna threw it like a ball, Colton panicked! Sorry Colton, but the light bulb is already out and I don't know how to break it to you....

Daddy Come and Get Me!!!!!

Brenna's latest thing is to crawl up to Mike with a little giggle and scream and start to crawl away-which means... Daddy has to crawl after her. She tries to crawl frantically away all the while she is screaming or gigling so hard she sounds like she might be crying. She is so silly. I have called her my "Silly Baby" since she was born. She constantly keeps us laughing. She will be 1 on the 25th. I can not believe it! She has grown so fast and has such a sweet personality. She never has been fussy. Just a little cry here or there when she needed something. I have to say she has been my easiest baby. And now that we've got the sleeping all night down she is just a joy!!

My Husband the Handyman

Several weeks ago we got the bug to finish our downstairs 1/2 bathroom remodel. It is a project we started about 3 months ago. Mike is always so "gung ho" when he starts something. Which makes me love him all the more! He started it at about 7 Pm on a Saturday night.... We had purchased several new vanities (1 for the basement that we are working on, and one for the 1/2 bath next to our laundry)

He began by trying to remove the old ugly oak vanity WITHOUT removing the marble sink top. As you can guess, this turned into one problem after another. After finally removing it and with the sink/counter suspended with a wooden stake I helped him carry the new vanity in. The idea was to "slide" the new one in under the existing sink- without having to undo any plumbing! What a thought-it would've worked. Except for the fact that we did not measure the height of the new vanity!!!!!! It was about 2 inches taller! We were so sure a 30" wide vanity would fit that we didn't think to measure how tall it was. We stood there stupefied for a few minutes. Then Mike went to work dismantling the pluming and ripping the sink/counter away from the wall.(Oh if we had only planned)

Unfortunately, the marble sink was heavy and Mike lifted it by himself. This upset his back. (he had surgery last January to fix a herniated disc) He was laid up for several days and still is not the same. At least the plumbing got reconnected and the new vanity looks great.

So last week we finally finished painting the walls and framing the mirror. It does look good.

Our next project.....will be well planned out, whatever it is!

I Crocheted a Rag Rug!

Brenna has her own room now. As I am trying to get ideas for decorating I love to look at Pottary Barn and The Land of Nod magazines. I wanted a large round rug to brighten up her room. But money is tight and a rug is not my priority. Then I saw a very creative friend who had croched a rag rug for her boys room. So cute! "I can do that" I thought. So, I commenced getting the material torn into long lenths and planning my color scheme. I worked like a mad woman for 4 days and then it was done! I used no pattern as you can see. I am not much for crochet and it was by trial and error that my rug lays pretty flat. It is so cute and for only about $30 in supplies I have a 5 foot round rug. I have to say I am proud.

I like this Blog Thing!

Ok, As you can see I am addicted. I have been thinking about starting a blog for a long time. In fact, last February Mike started one for me. Silly me just thought "I don't have the time". I have decided to make the time. Thank you Kahea, Shelley and many others who have invited me to theirs so I have finally decided to convert.

Haley

Oh how I miss my Haley. She moved out of our house on August 2. At first I was so sad. After taking care of her for 17 years I was a little distraught at just letting her go. But now I think I am OK. She is living with her grandparents on the Vanderwel side. She changed from Lehi High to Pleasant Grove High for her senior year. I thought she was crazy. Yet, As I have seen and talked to her, I now think she is happy. She is on their dance company. As long as she dances I think she will be fine. She is such a good dancer. I have not yet seen her perform. Hopefully soon. She has only visited a couple of times and Brenna has forgotten who she is. Colton misses her too. We need to change that. I have her senior pictures in which she is just beautiful. I guess time will tell......

New website!

For a long time now, Mike and I have been "entrepreneurs". (mostly Mike) We have a Noteholder website where people can get information about the mortgage note industry. http://www.notedocs.com/ In 2006 we did very well with it. However, with todays current economical outlook, these site doesn't perform as it used to. It is more of a "hobby" for Mike.
Several months ago, Mike and I were brainstorming to find some products that would sell on eBay. We purchased large lots of Electronics returns. We quickly were plunged into the world of Auctions, selling, shipping, packaging, and Power Selling! Yes, we made Power sellers after just 3 months! Mike did most of the testing and going through the product. I helped with getting the auctions up and shipping the product.
In the back of our minds however, was a little idea we were toying with.....I can't remember if I suggested it as a joke or what? But Mike started working on our new website, http://www.littlefairywings.com/. Why? Because we have the cutest little baby girl, Brenna, and we wanted to do something "girly". She is our little Fairy Princess. The site still has some bugs and we will be always adding new stuff. But it is a start. It has not really gone "live" yet as we have not done any marketing. We have some of the product listed on eBay as well under the sellername Mylittefairywings.

Fall Colors

Today was rainy and cold. We listened to conference and I had no plans whatsoever! Mike made the decision to go for a drive. Even with the downpour as we entered American Fork Canyon the Colors were amazing! I was so glad we went. Another week and we would have missed the leaves all together. Colton decided right away that he had to collect the leaves. We stopped several times and he brought a wet handful of leaves into our new van. Its "OK" I told myself. Mike had to stop every few minutes to take pictures. At first I was annoyed, but after I saw them, I was glad he did. Brenna missed her nap and always has a hard time in the car. She doesn't like to sleep anywhere but her crib. She cried alot until Mike pulled her out and walked around in the rain with her. She loved the rain! Who would of thought?.... After about an hour we headed for home. I found myself wishing we had started earlier and could stay forever. I always love the mountains and each time I return I forget about the stresses of "My Life" and just breath in the beauty. I definitely need to do this more often.