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