Ordinary Days

Ordinary Days....that seems to be the title I choose when I don't know what to put...lol!

Here are what some of our days have looked like lately....

I love this time of year!

I have been busy putting up fruit, freezing vegetables and I may have drove out to Caldwell a few more times than usual getting fresh produce straight from the farm. 

This year, a dear friend shared her location for concord grapes with us!!!

We all went down and picked them and made grape juice and jelly.

Mmmmm....my house smelled so good! 

It was fun and I would do it again!

However  I am so done... and I believe Aaron is also done with me preserving food.

 It really puts a strain on the flow of ordinary days..;)

Still going on my morning walks down by the river.  It is colder and so I've been bundling up Olivia.  She usually falls asleep which means I just have to keep walking and walking and we count it as her morning nap :)

I may or may not have sat for a long time....looking at this precious face....knowing she's not going to fall asleep on our walks much longer.  Just look at those rose petal lips!

She crawled for a week and then started to walk.  I don't have a picture of her walking that isn't just a blurr going across the screen...lol!  She's into everything now!

 She is going to have curly hair like Emily and I am soooo excited about that :)

Yesterday, I put a real barrett in her hair.

I had my camera when I came across Alec and I had to laugh....he was practicing the drums while reading a book surrounded by LEGOS....pretty much sums up Alec...lol!

He tried out for the Jazz Band and made it!  That is pretty cool for a 7th grader!

He plays the piano (not the drums) for Jazz Band and I think it is going to be a good challenge for him.  So proud of him for trying and putting himself out there.

Emily was selected out of 100's of girls to model for the American Girl Fashion Show which is held  at the Grove Hotel in Downtown Boise.  She has always wanted to go. Well... she showed me!  She'll just be in it instead...lol!  If you have this years' catalog, she modeled the Cream Brocade Holiday Dress on page 7 ;) I was not allowed to go behind stage with her...nobody was getting near those American Girl clothes and believe me...some of those crazy model moms tried...LOL!  She got her hair and make up done by the American Girl Fashion Show team and you would not believe how perfect those girls looked when they stepped out on that runway...they looked just like the dolls!!!! 

It was a chance of a lifetime! Emily can always say she was an offical American Girl :)

 American Girl wouldn't allow for any picture taking so I don't have any pictures of her on the runway :(  I hurried and snapped this picture of the table where I sat....#14.  That lady had bought a ticket for 8 girls to come for her daughters' birthday...yeah, I did the math...$400.  So..it was me and the birthday girls :)  I told them if they would give me their cookie, I could get an autograph from one of the American Girls after the show ;)

 I would be lying if I said I didn't get choked up watching my Emmy catch her dream out on that runway. She looked beautiful and did a fantastic job.

It was a proud mama moment:)

I realized Carter's Fedora hat had not made the blog!!!!  How did that happen???

He wore this hat all summer long and don't think nobody said anything....we couldn't hardly get through the crowds without an older lady telling him how handsome he looked.  He wears it well.

What a guy!

I've decided I need to start a colum called "Conversations with Carter" because this kid makes me laugh every day and that is the truth!  Here are a couple conversations that I want to remember...

Carter:  Mom.  Guess what?

Me:  What?

Carter:  There are these girls at school and they tell me and my friend Jacob that we are cute and then they chase us around the playground BUT we use our backpacks for defense.

Me:  Do we need to get you a bigger backpack?

Carter:  I think so.

Carter had been home sick one day and was still wearing his pajamas when we dropped Alec off at swimming.  Trying to decide what we were going to do to kill some time, the following conversation took place.... 

Me:  Maybe we could go and walk around the dollar store.  It looks like they have gotten their Halloween stuff out.  OH...NEVER MIND...you still have your pajamas on...you can't go in the store.

Carter:  Well...what do you know?  I'm a kid who doesn't care about that.

Me:  You don't care if people give you weird looks for wearing your pajamas inside the store.

Carter:  Nope.  I don't care if people give me funny looks.  I think it will be funny!

Me:  Well...off we go then!

Once inside, Carter found it hilarious when we would pass people.  He would wait to see what they were going to do and once we had passed them, his shoulders would raise up to ears and he would slap his hands over his mouth trying not to laugh.

In all honesty,  I don't think anyboday cared....lol!  But it was funny to watch Carter.

Do they look like they could be on the Brady Bunch? 

Good.  That's what we were going for.  It was 70's day at school.  I remembered Peggy had given me Aaron's suit from when he was little and once Carter put it on, that was it! 

He would say "this suit is from the acutal 70's"....and it was!

I couldn't get the song "Stay'in Alive" out of my head all morning!

Which leads me to the end of this post....it seems life has been so crazy the past few months but we just keep "Stay'in Alive"....so that's good :)