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I've posted a couple of things so make sure you scroll down! :)

New Look & Garden

When I was a teenager I used to dye my hair (usually brown) and end up with all different colors (green, orange, pink...).

I haven't done anything crazy like that for a while, but now that I'm older, my hair is turning an ugly dirty dishwater color. So I thought I'd do something crazy and fun. I have gained wisdom through the years so at least I won't have purple hair (or pink, or green...)!

I decided to go dark! I dyed my hair brown, got a haircut and put some highlights in it!

Here is the back!

Anyway, it's kind of fun to do somthing different!

This is a totally different subject... Right now is the time to plant gardens in Arizona. I am not a green thumb and usually kill everything I try to grow-- but I'm determined. I decided to start slow and just have a little plot. If that works out well, I'll expand.

I figured if I planted all healthy transplants, they will have a better chance to live (instead of seed planting). So I have a border of marigolds and pansies (I heard marigolds keep the insects away. I don't know if that is true or not, but I thought I'd give it a shot).

On the inside I have 3 tomato plants (they're the early bird variety so hopefully they will bear fruit before it gets too hot), a green, red and yellow pepper plant and 2 strawberry plants (one already had flowers on it. I hope that's a good start).

So... it's been a week and they are still thriving. I have to remind myself to water them-- but yesterday it rained a lot, which is good because I hadn't watered them for a couple of days.

Anyway, hopefully it will be a great thing and soon I'll have some yummy fruit and veggies from my own garden! :)

2010 Olympics

I changed my background and playlist in honor of the 2010 Winter Olympics!

I love the Olympics!!

The Summer ones are fun, but my favorite are the Winter Olympics!!

I love the underdog stories and the amazing moments! My favorite sport of course is Ice Skating. I've never been into Ice Dancing, but this year at the US Nationals, I watched the Ice Dancing and really enjoyed it!

Anyway, I have enjoyed all of the events, but my favorite things so far have been Ice Skating, Speed Skating and the Womens and Mens Moguls! I loved seeing the Canadian, Alexandre, win!! I really liked the stories they told of his older brother who had Cerebral Palsy. It's fun to see the families cheer on their athletes!!

Apollo Ohno made history and it was fun to watch JR Celski win the bronze in speed skating after his horrible accident. He had a great story too. And his older brother was back from Iraq (in between deployments) watching him compete for the first time. He was so excited!

And of course my absolute favorite was watching Evan Lysecek win the Gold in Figure Skating! WooHoo!! I was on the edge of my seat, biting my nails watching the scores come in! What a great thing!

Anyway, after next Sunday life can get back to normal! But until then...

GO TEAM USA!!!

Happy Birthday Hanna!

Hanna's birthday was this past week. She has waited for this birthday for a long time. She's kept on saying, "When I'm twelve..." or "Only 2 more years until I'm twelve...". So now the big day has come and Hanna is very excited to be grown up!!


In our church 12 is a very big birthday. You graduate from Primary (the class for children) into Young Women (the class for youth 12-18). She has been so excited to enter Young Women.

She got her Faith in God award (a program for the children to develop faith, talents and service). She's the first one in our ward to recieve it and we were very proud of her hard work.

Hanna loves the temple. She loves the peaceful feeling there and has waited several years to go inside. When you turn twelve, you can go into the temple and do baptisms for the dead. Hanna already has her recommend and is so excited to go!

This is the Salt Lake Temple. It's Hanna's favorite because it looks like a castle!

Another thing that happened this week is that Hanna started her period (I'm telling you this with permission from Hanna). She's a lot different than me-- I was embarrased, but she is very excited to start this stage of her life. As for me, I'm starting to feel "old". It doesn't seem that long ago that I was at this stage-- Hence the songs on my playlist reflet growing up. Because my little girl is growing up!

Hanna loves flowers! When she woke up in the morning of her birthday, she found a vase of fresh tulips.

She has been waiting to open her present from Grandma & Grandpa Wheeler for over a month (It's been sitting up on my book shelf).

She got a fairy watercolor art kit. She really liked it! She also got a lot of other presents, I just didn't take pictures of them. She got movies, books, a puzzle and craft projects.

She had an eclectic birthday dinner: crab, shrimp, lasagna, corn on the cob and watermelon

Part of having Autism, is that they will fixate on things. Hanna's fixations change. For a couple of months she'll have to get the mail every day and she'll write several (4 or so) letters to her relatives a week. That will stop and another fixation will start. Her fixations though almost always involve movies. She has to watch a movie every day or she gets upset. She'll watch the movie, print pictures from the movie off the internet, listen to the soundtrack and songs from the movie and paint the characters from the movie.

Her latest fixation-- The Incredible Hulk. So she wanted an Incredible Hulk cake. We found an edible picture to stick on the cake. She was very excited about that.

The cake

Lighting the candles

I was trying to get her blowing out the candles, but the flash kept delaying.

Cutting the cake

This is the piece Hanna cut for herself! One of The Hulk's face!

Hanna is a great artist and amazes everyone! It's her favorite activity! Here are some of her latest projects.

Hanna hard at work.

Snow White and Cinderella

I think this is Gingersnap from Strawberry Shortcake

And of course-- The Hulk. Which is hanging in her bedroom!

Now she's working on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, but it's not done yet.

We are very happy that Hanna is in our family! She is a happy, delightful girl who loves the world around her. She is very gracious and loves to help others. She struggles with Epilepsy and Autism. She struggles with the side effects of medication and the social aspects of Autism, but is learning patience while still having a zest for life. She is growing spiritually and developing faith! It's really fun to watch. We love Hanna!!

Fun Facts:

Favorite Color: Red
Favorite Movie: The Incredible Hulk (for now)
Favorite Book: The Deltora Quest Series
Favorite Food: Seafood
Favorite Song: Disney Music
Favorite Activity: Painting
Other Fun Activities: Go to the Zoo, Gardening, Crafts, Travel, Sports, Puzzles
Favorite Scripture Story: The Birth of Jesus
When She Grows Up: She wants to be an Explorer and to Study Animals, collecting them for the zoo.
Other Talents: Art, writing in cursive, she's really good with animals (we call her our bee charmer), she has a kind heart, she really tries to make good choices and choose the right, she's very helpful, putting her testimony into words, and writing.