These are a few of my favorite things

JOSH IS FINISHED WITH HIS FIRST SEMESTER OF LAW SCHOOL!!!

Those of you who know our marriage well are aware of the fact that I'm only allowed one exclamation point per blog post...at most. All caps is an absolute no-no. There was just no other way to kick of this happiest of posts. Josh survived (and I'm sure kicked some major booty on) his first round of law school finals.

These are some things I am loving about the end of those pesky tests:

1. I woke up next to my hubby this morning
2. Ava gives a hearty belly laugh every time he enters our room and comes back out without a hefty book
3. His hair doesn't have twisted spots from 'twiddling' (although there is one adorable silver-colored one that sprouted this semester)
4. Two parent parenting is just SO much easier

Our sweet friends, the Browns, invited Ava and I over to make gingerbread houses on one of Josh's last nights of studying. Here are the silly girls working hard on their houses.

Getting down to buisness

The finished product

Playing a vintage Raggedy Ann board game

The Browns also treated us to some fancy desserts to celebrate the end of the semester.

We'd discussed our favorite desserts in Sunday school a few weeks ago.
Tiramisu for me
Turtle Cheesecake for Josh
Adorable sugar cookies for Ava

Amazing friends, thank you so much.

Since we will be leaving on Sunday for a whirlwind driving tour of Texas we decided to have our little family Christmas early. Here are each of our favorites:

A pink whistling tea kettle, love it

Josh has listened to me talk about New York City forever. It's a place I've never been but am extremely homesick to go to. I call it homesick because I don't know how else to describe my feelings. Perhaps Jay Z and Alicia Keys say it best, "The streets will make you feel brand new, Big lights will inspire you".
My sweet hubby gave me a trio of NYC themed gifts along with a promise to take me someday. He even addressed one of the gifts
To: BK from Texas
From: your Jay Z.
Those of you who know the song will understand the romance in the gesture.
Precious, and one of my favorite gifts ever.

My gifts for Josh were all about relaxing for the month. Some new Malcolm Gladwell books, a new Zelda game for his Nintendo DS, and some fun lawyer-themed cards (because to buy the print of this favorite The New Yorker cartoon was crazy expensive). I matted and framed one of the cards at Hobby Lobby. It works for now. The card reads, "You have a pretty good case, Mr. Pitkin, How much justice can you afford?"

Some yummy gifts for all three of us.

One of Ava's favorites - a laundry room for her dollhouse. Josh and I are extremely jealous of the Loving family these days.

She also got her first 'big girl' Legos and a Mrs. Potato Head.

I close this post with one of the best parenting tips I've ever heard. Some of you may have seen this before, and if you have I'm very mad at you for not sharing it with me. On Sunday morning at church our precious childrens minister, JJ, saw Ava and I struggling to put on her coat. She took a few moments to show us 'the flip'. After a few lessons from Grace, Ava is a pro at putting on her own coat. No frustrating 'I want to do it alone, but my arm is stuck' or 'No, this arm in this hole, no that arm, no your left one, no the other left one'.

The Flip
1st - You just lay the coat on the floor in front of your kiddo.
2nd - Have the kid stand at the end with the hood (or top if there is no hood).
3rd - Stick arms through the sleeves from the inside.
4th - Flip the coat over and on, the hood will automatically cover the head.
5th - Hit the road Jack 'cause you're ready

Still confused? Observe:

Merry Christmas from The Three 'Law'ketts!
(Oops, I used another exclamation point. Deal with it.)

100!

Welcome to my 100th blog post!

I got a little nostalgic when I saw that this would be my 100th post so I peeked back at my first one.

Oh so much has happened since I was preparing this little angel's nursery.

My sweet boss invited Ava and I to see The Nutcracker with some fun girls on Saturday afternoon. Luckily Baba and Pops recently outfitted Ms. Well (the doll formerly known as Noel) and Ava James in perfect Christmas ballet clothes.

Thanks to Little Einsteins Ava has been humming Tchaikovsky for weeks.

Ready to go with our 'up to something' faces.

Still trying to get a good shot of both of us

We need smile-at-the-same-time classes.

Almost an okay picture, strange height difference angle

Our pretty girls at The Nutcracker

Where should we look?

The little girls discussing plot lines in the ballet.

A little dramatic flare

Have you noticed someone missing from this 100th post?
Poor HLS. No rest (or fun) for the weary.

Three finals down, one to go.
Think of us on Friday at 1:00 when we celebrate the end of Josh's first semester of law school!

Gingerbaby

Since Josh's finals started on Tuesday Ava and I headed out of town for the weekend. He had the cozy castle all to himself and we were pampered in Clifton.

I've found that when we are with either set of Ava's grandparents I come out with less pictures than I plan. I'm not sure if it's because we are so relaxed, or just having so much fun that I don't grab my camera to snap along the way. Or maybe it's because this blog is 80% to give the grandparents an Ava fix when we're gone and I figure they know what happened while we were home. Whatever the real reason is, know that we had many unphotographed fun times with Baba and Pops.

On Saturday morning I headed to brunch with teacher friends and then to meet sweet baby Jack Arnold. Ava stayed to help Baba make gingerbread cookies.

Other than one who turned out looking like a close-up version of a fruit fly the cookies were adorable. Not many people in our family enjoy gingerbread, but my mom loves them enough for all of us. She bakes batches and batches. She even decorates the house with them. Long before there was a grandchild she would tell us that someday her grandkids would love gingerbread too. Well, I guess God heard Mom's desperate pleas for gingerbread-lovin' grandbabies. Ava LOVES the spicy little cookies.

I'm still not sure what all the fuss is about. What's a cookie without chocolate?

After experiencing some of the Norwegian Christmas Festival in Clifton we went on a country drive. Here are Ava and Pops at the waterfall.

Ava and I were a welcome study break for HLS when we returned on Sunday evening.

One final down, three more to go...then we're on vacation for a month!

Ava's Secret...Move Over Victoria

I had some enticing coupons to Victoria's Secret so Ava and I headed to the mall. After trying on about five bras I turned around in the dressing room and saw this -

Checking from another angle

She also informed me, "Mommy, I like your bops in that one."

So glad I had a girl.
All this mommy-and-me time could have led to a very confused son.

Many of you have already seen this picture, but here's my winter princess...sans bra.

I apologize to the few males who read this blog (grandpas mostly). I'll try to limit the 'bop' talk in future posts.

From Tornado Shelters to Smoked Turkeys

What's the difference between a mall in Texas and a mall in Oklahoma?

Yep, there's a tornado shelter AT the mall. Fancy, huh?

This week J and J.K. were out of state. Ava and I spent the first part of the week preparing for Thanksgiving and relaxing together. There's a local grocery store that has kid-sized carts. We don't normally shop there because it's more expensive than Target or Walmart. On Monday, however, I only needed a few things so we stopped in for a quick grocery run. Ava was in charge of the cart, grocery picking, and payment. I took care of the photos.

Ready to shop.

Picking carrots
I think she selected three different bags before she settled on this one.

Headed to the check-out counter

Excited to pay with Mommy's card
I even let her punch in the PIN number.

On Tuesday we headed to Ava's favorite spot for after gymnastics lunch - Chic Fil A.

A surprise guest joined us!

On Wednesday morning Ava drew a picture of me. I was impressed with the details she included: two eyes, a nose, a mouth, a (sort of) body, arms, legs, hands, and even my purse. PLUS, great fine motor control with that tricky magnet pen. Hooray for Ava!

Our sweet friends, the Wilsons, invited us to Susie's swearing-in ceremony for the Maryland bar. Susie went to law school at George Washington, but they moved back to Oklahoma soon after graduation so that she could be the recruiter for the law school at OU. Because of the quick move she was never officially sworn in to the Maryland bar. She has also passed the Oklahoma bar...we like to say she's 'double barred'. Susie is one of the main reasons we decided to come to OU, that's right grandparents,send your hate mail her way. She cared about our little family from the first, and now she and Geoff are two of our closest Oklahoma friends. It was such an honor to be present at this important event.
I can't wait until my HLS is the one raising his right hand!

A Pooh Thanksgiving card from Baba and Pops

Thanksgiving is the 'lost holiday' to law students. It falls so close to finals that going out of town is not an option. We were so blessed to have Josh's family come and spend the holiday in Norman with us.

Happy girl with the Lockett men

Remember how I said that J and J.K. were out of state for the week? Well, their hospitable and gracious parents offered us their house for the Thanksgiving holiday! Not only did Mimi, Coach, and Jaryn get to stay there, but instead of cooking Thanksgiving dinner here:

we cooked here:

And instead of eating Thanksgiving dinner here:

we ate here:

All the Locketts, ready to eat

This was my first time to ever 'host' Thanksgiving. The crazy breakouts on my chin will tell you that I was stressed. However, it could not have gone any smoother. Beene Beene prepared the dressing parts, and Gordon assembled them. I had the turkey smoked by a local BBQ joint. Jaryn and Judy helped with the side items. A real team effort produces this spread -

"Can we eat lunch already?"

Warming tootsies with Aunt Jaryn

My thank you gift to J and JK's parents for letting us use their house.
(Click back up on the kitchen pictures to see what was hanging on these doors before my curtains.)

I even had enough fabric leftover to make some place mats.

I'm not a huge fan of portrait studios, but they fit the budget this year. I needed Christmas card pictures of Ava. Luckily, she's a pretty easy target. These were my favorite shots.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Love,
Autumn

Faux Siblings and Such

Since I'm a nanny in the afternoons for two kiddos Ava is getting to experience a little taste of siblings. From 1:30 until around 5:30 Ava is in the company of a 9-year-old boy (J) and a 6-year-old girl (JK). The first few months J and JK couldn't get past the "cute" factor of Ms. AJ. Now that we are approaching the end of our third month the honeymoon is over. The kids have settled into our routine together and this mommy/nanny finds herself depending more and more on the portable DVD player in the backseat. The ironic thing is that the spacing of the three children is almost exactly the spacing between my siblings and me...spooky. (And yes, I have called and apologized to my mother.) Throw in the fact that Ava's nap generally begins around 5:31 and you'll understand that the situation is sometimes quite dicey. Luckily, I have the strange ability to step back from the situation and laugh (inside my head) at most of the shenanigans.

The first Faux Sibling influence I noticed was Ava picking up words and phrases from J and JK, only she didn't get the context. Example 1: "Mommy, these orange jelly beans are so yummy. That's not fair!" She said this with a huge smile on her face, as if to say "See what a big girl I am with my big kid jargon?" Example 2: "Really" Throw it into any sentence for emphasis, especially if you are asking for something. Thank goodness J and JK are nice children, who don't use ugly words.

The next stage of F.S. was begging. Ava had never been the child to continue requests after the first 'no'.

Pre F.S. Ava conversation:

"Mommy, can I have some apple juice?" Ava.

"Not tonight Ava. It's too close to bedtime. I'll pour you a glass tomorrow for breakfast," me.

"Thanks," Ava.

Post F.S. Ava conversation:

"Mommy, can I have some apple juice?" Ava.

"Not tonight Ava. It's too close to bedtime. I'll pour you a glass tomorrow for breakfast," me.

"Please?" Ava.

"In the morning," me.

"Please, really please?" Ava.

"In the morning, Ava," me.

"Please, please, please can I really have some apple juice right NOW?" Ava.
(This request is whine/shrieky with a very staccato,shrill last word.)

"Ava do not ask again. You can have your apple juice with breakfast," me.

Fun, huh? And sometimes this conversation is compounded by the very 16-year-old look in her eyes. Not sure if I can blame F.S. for that part. She's got spunk of her own. J and JK are usually very respectful in their bargaining. The children of two lawyers have learned that they'll catch more flies with honey.

Now, don't get me wrong. There are many positive aspects of having Faux Siblings. She has learned to sing with the radio, and sweetly asks me to 'turn up' her favorite songs. Her vocabulary has increased like crazy. Have I mentioned J and JK are genius kids? They use words like 'thwarted' and 'suitable'. Ava tries to compete with them in their genius.

Example:

*I'm reading a book to Ava and JK at the library. It's an Olivia book, where some of the pages are black-and-white and some have splashes of color. The pages with color are more desirable. Oh, and it's a counting book so I was having the girls interact with the simple print.

"One - what's that word JK?" I say.

"Ball" says JK.

"No, I want to say the word," shrieks Ava.

"Okay Ava this page, two - what's that first letter Ava?" I say.

"No, I want a good page to read," Ava demands. Her page had no color.

"The first letter is 'b' and the word is 'bows'," JK answers.

"No, that's my page!" Ava shouts.

After this Ava squirms out of my lap and stands in the floor. She crosses her arms very dramatically across her chest. The arms are so crossed that her elbows are both pointing at me at the front of her chest. Her bottom lip is all the way out. She stomps her foot once and says, "This is just TERRIBLE!"

Yep, sometimes sharing mommy is terrible.

But Ava is getting valuable socialization that I can't give her here at home. She's learning to stick up for herself at the park, and has two emphatic bouncers if anyone questions her. In true sibling fashion, although they bicker to no end, they've got each others' back. Ava loves her time with J and JK. She asks me throughout the day, "Is it time to pick up J and JK yet?" And the best part of Faux Siblings is that they stay at their house and you get to go home. At the end of the day she still has mommy and daddy all to herself.

On Friday Ava and I were J's guests at his Christian school's Thanksgiving feast, (both parents teach a class at noon). We were thrilled to spend the special time with J. Unfortunately we had a severely rude encounter at the feast. So rude, in fact, that I almost felt like I was the spouse of someone on staff at a church again. Yikes! I'm happy to report that Ava, J, and I reacted gracefully. As a reward for our tolerance of hateful people we headed to Starbucks for hot chocolate.

How could you be rude to this little face?

Seriously?

Potent Potables

I had no idea what to call this post, so I just went with this famous SNL Celebrity Jeopardy category.

What could these little hoodlums be doing?

Watching band practice of course.
The OU marching band had to practice extra hard since the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band was coming to town. I'm pleased to announce that despite what ESPN scores may have shown, the Ags swept halftime!

Our budding artist's newest studio

Watercolors are wonderful, and so easy to clean.

One of the best things about being married to someone who has a birthday 13 days before yours is that you can combine the celebrations and do fantastic things.
I pried HLS out of his textbooks and we headed to Texas for a weekend of fun.

Ava and Coach catchin' up like old pals.

Earning her keep

Of course a wardrobe change was required not too long after this shot.

On Saturday night Josh and I headed to the majestic Bass Hall in Fort Worth

to see the sublime Rufus Wainwright.

The view straight up from our seats

Happy after the concert, wishing Rufus would come back for a second encore.

At the backstage door, using our sexy pose to try to convince R.W. to come our way.
Sadly, it did not work.

Too bad we didn't have this little mug with us.
Who could say no?

When your Mimi teaches Pre K you will be decorated for each holiday.

Our little turkey in the straw, and yes she's sober.

Hamming it up poultry-style

Peace out

Birthday pumpkin pie

and fajitas.

I have felt so loved on my 27th birthday:
homemade too-cute pajama pants
fall decorations
pumpkin-shaped baking pan
gift cards
thoughtful messages and phone calls
a fabulous concert and dinner
a pit-stop in the pasture
lunch and dessert

and this sweet song -

What more could a girl ask for?

Thanks everyone!

*************************

Anyone who reads our blog consistently knows that we are early decorators. Halloween, Christmas...whatever, we're equal opportunity early birds.
Hate us if you must, but it makes us happy. Unfortunately our old Christmas tree is about two feet too tall for our new abode. We were so lucky to catch Garden Ridge when they put their Christmas trees on sale 50% off.
Here's Ava with our new tree.

Proud of our bargain

Look who showed up in time to assemble?!

All done

No pretty mantle, hopefully Santa will find our stockings

Ava's stuffed manger scene

A Christmas table and wall

THE manger scene
Funny story, the night Josh proposed to me Beene Beene gave us this Willow Tree manger scene. She let us know in a very serious tone that if "it" (being our marriage) didn't work out she wanted the nativity back. I've grown to understand her humor now, but I remember being terrified at the time. I'm thrilled to say that the manger is still with us.

Shelf above the buffet in the kitchen

Over the stove area

Can you tell what our favorite Christmas movie is?

Josh painted this for me last year. Could he BE any more talented? (Chandler this question.)

Of course the princess has her own tree.

Tonight we are enjoying the frigid temperatures in our warm PJs.
Sometimes when you decorate early the weather cooperates.
Does life get any better than daddy-daughter hot chocolates?
Not to worry, mommy's chai is almost finished steaming...

How's that workin' for ya'?

The dramatic fall colors are even richer at the beginning of November.

Our makeshift art studio

First experience with watercolors

A little help from Daddy

Silly face

Trying a different approach

Trying out the orange hot chocolate from her Halloween bag. Yummy!

Ava runs through this huge leaf pile every day. On Saturday we finally took the time to take pictures.

Sitting in the leaves

Playing possum

Darling profile

How's that workin' for ya'?

When we first moved into this small space I knew that organization was key. I arranged my nice-sized pantry carefully. However, as we settled in and real life happened the system wasn't working. Each time I opened the door, whether I was cooking or putting away groceries, it was a hassle. We've lived here since July. It's November. That's four months of struggle. I wasted precious minutes each time I opened the door.

On Friday night I had ENOUGH. Josh took over bedtime routine with Ava, and I put Fiddler on the Roof on my laptop. Everything came out of the pantry and was then meticulously moved back inside. As I sang along with Tradition, If I Were a Rich Man, and Tevia's Dream (in true, "whistle while you work" fashion) my pantry was transformed.
It finally makes sense. It's efficient, my very favorite word in the whole world.

Take a gander:

So here's my challenge to you. Find your 'cluttered pantry' and fix it. Dig in your heels, duck your chin to your chest, and make it yours. You'll be amazed how much easier your life will be once you've slayed your inefficiency dragon. Put on your favorite musical and sing through the task you've been dreading. You can do it!

Comment here with your own efficient success. I'd love to hear about it.

A Very Buzzy Halloween

A package from Mimi kicked off our Halloween week.

Yay for warm gloves!

Gymnastics class (actually two classes together for the picture)
Some of us didn't get the email about wearing costumes.

Ava dressed up as the Pensive Gymnast

New hair and happy smiles

We celebrated at church on Wednesday with a chili cook off, cake contest, and moon bounces.

Like Tigger

Blurry fun

Bouncing too close

Smooching Daddy through the net

It was chilly and wet outside, so we headed to the indoor bounce.

Ready for some fun

On Friday Ava and I headed back to the elementary school where I've taught fourth grade the past three years. One of my favorite lessons to teach is Spooky Adjectives. I was thrilled to be back in the classroom to teach two lessons and read a book to the whole grade level. Ava was a great sidekick.

Thanks for a great day Tam!

We stayed with Baba and Pops for the first part of the weekend. Ava hugged her old pal Coco.

Pops and Ava

Shaking hands

Wagon rides with Baba

Happy to see her Mamaw

and her Papa

Entertaining us all with her 'monica skills

Crank the volume for this one.

Making smores

Sleepy snuggles with Papa. We're thankful he's doing so well after heart surgery!

I was lucky enough to catch the Broaddus family for lunch on Saturday. They sent a sweet gift for Ava.

Thanks for the fun magnetic doll house!

Jamming with Pops in the "dog room"
(this is what Ava calls the game room). We're not exactly sure why.

Ready to Trick-or-Treat

We assembled quite a group for our trip on Main Street.

Buzz

"I'm not going to sting you," Ava assured everyone.

Candy!

Look familiar?

Main Street Trick-or-Treat last year, thanks for the fun tradition Nate!

Fire trucks giving candy

We ran into the cutest Batman and hot mama!
Leah and I have been friends since I was 5. We have pictures of Leah, Sarah and I in the bathtub together. I'm hunting those pictures to post soon, maybe for your birthday Leah;)

The whole gang

The next best thing to flying like a bee

See her scary stinger?

We ended our weekend with a quick overnight at Mimi and Coach's house. Ava enjoyed a long walk before the car ride back to Oklahoma. Thanks to all of our family and friends for a relaxing and fun weekend.

Experiencing Fall

We are loving the fall colors that accompany this changing season. I once heard Louie Giglio describe fall in Texas as "fell". As in, one night (sometimes as late as December) the night time temperature finally drops below freezing and when you wake up the leaves are all brown and on the ground. Fell. Well, the Locketts are enjoying their first fall!
Observe:

Brilliant oranges

Yellows

Reds

Amazing

Purple, this tree didn't photograph very well. It's an eggplant purple.

This is on the way home from J's school. The kiddos call it the Tunnel of Flames.

Some of the trees are changing very slowly, almost one branch at a time.

And some are like proud peacocks.

Ms. Ava got some boots that fit.

With her friend Pooh Bear at B&N

Thanks to Aunt Jaryn for the sweet Halloween greetings. You made our day!

On a freezing Friday evening we headed back to Orr Family Farm. Ava took a quick nap on our way there. She was pretty somber for the first part of our trip.

Oh so cold

Sweet Daddy shared his coat.

Almost time for a hayride

Petting a chicken

Riding a horse for the first time!

Very focused

Round and round

Our new favorite family shot.

On Saturday we headed to Noah's 4th birthday party. They had Ava-sized bowling!

Daddy helps her get started.

Sure the ball rolled backwards sometimes, but she had fun.

Smashing sharks

Cake and pizza with some law orphans

First time to play Putt-Putt as a family.

Lessons

Trying it her own way

Intervention

Success!

Okay, so maybe she threw it in.

Walking the ridge like a balance beam

Mommy takes a swing

Gone with the wind

Living without a dishwasher is not as bad as it sounds. I've found a soap I love and keep a fresh supply of scrubbers nearby. However, my hands were another story. I have chronically dry skin and my fingertips were cracked and raw. When I saw these darling gloves in the house cleaning aisle it was love at first sight.

On Sunday evening we headed to Grace's 3rd birthday party. The most exciting part was when the birthday girl's special Dora balloon escaped the chair and soared to the ceiling.

A grandpa and a manager saved the day. The kids were captivated.

Happy party kids

Grace's new brother Owen was also overcome with relief.

The best $5 I ever spent.
Every little girl needs a full-length mirror.

We love her

to the moon and back.