katie and padre

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wordless wednesday

brennas little birthday party was this past sunday afternoon. we had a lollipops and pinwheels party.
i set up a little "candy shoppe" for the decorations

i found this really cool, make your own pinwheel kit, on oriental trading's website
made a fun fondant cake

brenna looked cute as can be in her polka dots and adidas shoes
showing off her fancy pinwheel

working hard making another one. she loves to color right now and asks to do it all day long

blowing out the candles
getting tired out
one more lollipop

brenna has been so cute this week. she really understood better that it was her birthday. she would sing "happy birthday to brenna" all day for the past week. she makes us laugh everyday.

two year pictures

i loaded up the kids the other afternoon and took them to a spot to take some photos. i got a new lens and have been wanting to practice all the time. i wanted to get some good 2 year old pictures of brenna. the kids did pretty good. half way through i put garret and rae back in the car with a movie and snacks while i finished up with brenna. it is really hard to keep track of everyone with my head in the viewfinder. the leaves were so beautiful, the wind was blowing like crazy and the sun was warm... it was a great afternoon.

she loved throwing the leaves over the fence
then we changed our clothes and put on a new dress from gram. you can check out more of her stuff here.


it got really windy for a few minutes, i dont think she liked it very much but it made for some really cute expressions.

it is hard to believe my "baby" is two. she just seems so grown up all of a sudden.

more pics here.

i never want to forget...

how when she smiles her eyes disappear ...
how her feet are always turned in...
those boots! they have been a must here at the widmaier house for 5 years now...
her infectious little giggle...
and how she loves animals of all kinds...

and how she is always (well most of the time) so willing to help mommy "practice" with her camera.

Love you baby doll.

(more pics at bwidphoto blog)

girls day

a sweet friend came to visit today with her amazingly beautiful girls. all 6 of us girls had a wonderful time.

"baby it's cold out side"

more new pictures here

here we go....

click here!

dining room redo

here is a picture of the before... this is right after we moved in the house over two years ago, so nothing is on the walls yet, but you can see the color.  i really like the color but we had been really rough on it.  holes in the walls, crayons, food.... the walls were a mess.  
after!  i decided to go with a blueish gray...  i loved how everything looked so clean and fresh but i felt like it looked so cold after having the orange for so long.  
i also felt like it looked a little to contemporary,  i was trying to think of ways to bring some more "old farm house" style.  we had these black and white pictures on the walls before but i remembered we had these old white window frames, so dave helped me hang them and then i put the black frames inside of them.  i really like how it turned out and it adds a little "old" character back in the dining room.  

the best part of all...... all i spent was $9 for a gallon of paint and $5 for a set of black sheets on clearance for the curtains.  yeah.  

apple butter

friday we made apple butter out at the camp.  they have a huge copper kettle and we all take turns stirring the butter.   it always tastes so yummy!  

grand pop taking a turn
mary jo... kay and george's neighbors always come over to make apple butter each year with us too.  they are the apple butter pros. 
time to fill the jars

fenders farm

last tuesday garret had a field trip out at a pumpkin patch.  rae was in school that day so brenna and i headed out there to meet him.  the kids had a great time and of course i snapped a few pics. garret scooped brenna right up and had her playing with him and all the "big" kids on the play ground.  he is such a good big brother and i think he was pretty proud of his little sister as well.