All I Can Say Is That My Life Is Pretty Plain

I like watching the puddles gather rain

Welcome rain showers arrived this week

See the spider web in the background? I didn't see it until I looked at these pictures.
I LOVE this camera.

Sprinkles

This hibiscus won't last much longer. I'm hoping for a freeze very soon.

Sometimes Mommy and Daddy have a glass of wine with dinner for special occasions. (To quote our preacher from today, "...not that kind of Baptist.") Anyway, it feels selfish to give Ava apple juice in a sippy cup when we have fun 'mommy juice' in nice glasses. For these times we bought ingredients to make Shirley Temples.

Stemless wine glass, fun straw, cherries, 7-Up (not Sprite, ick), and Grenadine

Delicious
What were we celebrating?
We have a contract on our house in Texas! Please join us in praying that it all goes through.

Saturday night we were invited to a pumpkin carving party.

Loved this sign, the host was a fellow law student

The kiddos

Ava helping Daddy carve our Funkin

G and Ava scooped out the guts from a real pumpkin.

Game face

Sugar crazed glaze

Ewwwww

Some of the finished pumpkins

Our theme this year was Wicked.

Kind of hard to see, but Josh did an amazing job.

When we arrived home from the party Ava had a special piece of mail.


Her passport!
Josh is very interested in international law, so we need to be ready if an opportunity arrives.

Sunday school fun with G

Stacy 'Poppins' planned a super fun lesson for our class this morning. The kids made rubbings of coins and we talked about the widow who gave, though she had nothing.

On Sunday afternoon we headed to G's 4th birthday party at the park.

We were so excited to have a test run on Ava's Halloween costume.

G and her little brother O

This was O at G's party last year, just days old.


Elphaba in the sunshine

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate, so to speak

We did not plan this seating arrangement.
Elphaba (Wicked Witch of the West), Cowardly Lion, and Dorothy just naturally gravitated to one another.

G's mom organized a fall-themed scavenger hunt.

The kids ran all over the park trying to find each item on the list.

Ava and I could not find an acorn.
She called out, "Acorn, acorn, come out come out wherever you are!"

Hunting

and hunting

Do you think this counts as an acorn?
Notice the leaves are beginning to turn.

Eventually we gave up, and Ava ran to enjoy some cake and presents.

First ever best friends necklace

To quote Elphaba and Glenda:

Just two friends
two best friends
sharing one wonderful,
one short day

Almost Topless in Cowtown

I know you're crazy curious about the title of this post, and I'll get there eventually.

Somehow this group of pictures missed the last post. We met up with the Browns at the Farmers Market a few Wednesdays ago. Ava and G each selected a pumpkin.

Next the girls picked out honey sticks.

Baby O was just happy to be along for the ride.

The farmers are always so friendly. On this particular trip the girls scored free pears and pumpkins. I'm so sad this will be our last month of farmers market until April.

Ava is a girl who loves anything with sea salt - avocados, tomatoes, and especially popcorn. One lonely, law-filled night we decided to make some popcorn on the stove and watch a Tinkerbell movie.

Curious about the first few pops

Love this face

Turns out one cup of kernels was way too much. We had a popcorn-splosion!

Popcorn all over everthing

But it was so delicious

This weekend we had the privilege of participating in the wedding of one of our bestest friends in the whole world. Our Cam. Cam and Josh met at Truett and he instantly became a Lockett. He scrubbed floors with a toothbrush at our new house in the dark, welcomed Ava into the world the night she was born, helped us immensely with youth group and church work, introduced us to The Office, drove to Norman and stayed until we felt 'at home', and more than anything showed us what real unconditional love in a friendship means. Cam is one of our favorite people on this earth and we're so glad he's found a girl worthy of his amazingness. We love you too Michelle!

Just to catch you up, here are a few shots of Ava and Cam -

Ava was honored to be one of the flower girls in Cam and Michelle's wedding.

We traveled to Fort Worth and scored an amazing deal on priceline.com. Ava was amazed at our view from the 7th floor. I was fine with the 7th floor too, until we were peacefully slumbering in the wee morning hours and heard "FIRE EMERGENCY, FIRE EMERGENCY, EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY, EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!" First of all, I am blind and Josh is more blind. Images of smoke pouring from windows, and towering infernos filled my groggy brain. I eventually found my glasses and screamed at Josh to hurry. He put on a shirt, grabbed his law books and laptop and then Ava - in that order. I wouldn't let him put on shoes, and didn't stop to grab mine either. We flew down the 7 flights of stairs as I calmly made monklike 'oohm' sounds. Not! I was freaking out. Freaking out because Josh wouldn't come faster, freaking out because we were all going to burn, freaking out because the stairwell was echoing and scary. Freaking out so much that the classy business ladies ahead of us on the trudge down began calming me. It was embarrassing. They announced, "We see daylight, we're all okay," and I could not have been more relieved. As we stepped out onto the streets of downtown Fort Worth, the chilly October wind brought two things to the forefront of my mind. #1 - my baby would be cold in her pajamas and I needed to find something to wrap around her, and #2 - I was definitely NOT wearing a bra under my very thin pajamas. Everyone around us was wearing business suits and carrying briefcases. At that point the towering inferno was sounding better and better. Thankfully the hotel manager quickly announced that it was just a false alarm and we raced back up to our room, humbled and thankful to be alive.

Waiting for the rehearsal to begin

The flower girls were too busy holding hands to practice tossing petals.

Isn't it funny how little kids are instant friends?

The beautiful couple

Still enjoying the view

Watching the city pigeons

The flower girl 'Before' shot

Curled with a curling iron and immediately put into sponge rollers

Petticoat fun

The dress

Curlers out

I just love this one.

Hair pulled back and flower crown added

All the beautiful girls

Ava and sweet baby Jack

She could not keep her lips to herself.

Ava and precious Sarah

Flower girl and groomsman daddy

Just the three of us

So happy together

Mr. and Mrs. Cam

Ava and Jack all dressed up

Kristyn and Sarah are former Truett widows. We all three live in different states now, but always pick right back up where we left off. These girls definitely make me Sparkle.

Ray and Josh had some catching up to do too.

Caleb, Cam's identical twin brother, showed the flower girls a good time on the dance floor.

Cam and Ava watching the Father/Daughter dance

Cutting a rug with Daddy

Breaking it down

Ryan and Josh dancing with their babies

Flower girling is hard work.

A much-needed calm Sunday at Mimi and Coach's house, just a swingin'...