Dress up

I had to capture some of Sophie's awesome looks...

{not a cold day btw...}

"I am Prince"

Sure do love this crazy little thing.

Books

I do have other "loves" than just crafting.  I'm an avid reader.  Have been since I was a kid.  And I absolutely LOVE going into someone else's world, and loosing myself.  I wouldn't even know where to begin on narrowing down my favorites list.  It's like asking me what my favorite song is....(music being another "love") there are too many generes, to name just one as a favorite.  I want to start cataloging the books I read, as motivation to keep reading, and I bet it will be fun to look back on.  So for the month of September...

Final Theory by Mark Alpert.
Definitely WOULD NOT recommend this.   I lost count of how many F words there were (among others) and it was no longer important enough to finish.  I got to a point where I could easily skip over them with certain characters, and the previous content.  But it became too much work, and just not worth it for me.  Interesting plot...but I had to stop.  I got to page 238 of 356.

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare
LOVED it.  Another great one by her...and of course HUGE cliffhanger at the end.  I have a love hate relationship with those...but thankfully the next book comes out in November, so I don't have to wait too long. (j/k, May of next year! Not cool.)

The Confession by John Grisham
We've been going to the Library for family night recently and I discovered that there are A LOT of John Grisham books I haven't read (at one point I had read them all...but he kept writing :) So I grabbed a few.  This was very thought provoking for me, I cried at one point, and throughly enjoyed it.

A Painted House by John Grisham
VERY different from his usual style.  Kind of like when he wrote "Finding Christmas".  This was very interesting to me, and really opened my eyes as to what hard labor is...It's a period novel set in the early 1950's in Arkansas.  There are things appealing about that life, and at the same time, I'm very grateful to live now.

Ford County by John Grisham
I'm only on page 141 of 308.  So far so good.  Kind of sad..but enjoyable.  It's a collection of short stories based on the lives of (fictional) characters living in Ford County.  Ford County is the setting of his first novel "A Time to Kill".  It's been a LONG time since I've read that, but I think I recognized a name in the last story....I'm sure I'll end up liking it as well.

On the agenda for October:
finish Ford County
The Testament by John Grisham
And I'm going to start a 5 book series called "Hearts of the Children"  which is the sequel to the 5 book series "Children of the Promise" (Which I LOVED!!!)

HAPPY READING!

Barnum and Bailey Present....

The CIRCUS.   Aubree and I went with our friends Nicole and Adelyn.  Our seats were nosebleeds...but for the most part, we could see everything, and the kids didn't seem to mind :)  The opening act had all the performers, doing various things.  It was loud, bright, crazy, chaotic...and Aubree was enthralled.  They had her from the beginning. We got up a few times, for the bathroom..and treats.  But she did awesome.  She loved the Elephants, the "butterfly ladies", and the horses in the first half.  

This was the treat she picked.  A snow-cone filled tiger.

 

At intermission they turned the lights on, so we snapped a few pics'.  These two are so cute together.  They we're having so much fun..and it was fun just to watch them.

I had to snap this....throughout the show Aubree would look behind us, point, and smile.  She LOVED the clown faced boy.  She thought it was so funny....

These are blurry, but so cute...I couldn't bring myself to delete them.

The second half started....it was fun to see the acts that she liked and didn't like.  All of the clown ones bored her...she liked all of the animals, and the really cool acts.  She has good taste.  Her favorites of this half were the Tigers, the tumblers (SO cool), and probably her favorite of the evening was the bow and arrow.  It's basically the 'cannon' stunt.  But they have spruced it up a bit.  There is a whole production building up to shooting this guy through the air.  Songs, fire, fire works, crazy dancing people everywhere...and then the act.  They put a guy on a big bow, point it up (it looked like he was going to be shot straight up into the ceiling...) LIGHT HIM ON FIRE, and shoot him to the other side of the room.  He of course had to do a little flipity flip as he was flying.  Aubree was very concerned that they lit him on fire, until I explained that he was in a special suit, and then they put him out with about 6 extinguishers...it was what she talked about the rest of the evening.

We had to stop at the inside park, to get their wiggles out.

And then we headed home.  We walked to Nicole's car, and she drove us to our car.

(The date stamp is my birthday, last year!  Had to take a picture!) 

It was really fun to take Aubree, and go with the Coles.  It was 2.5 hours, and except for about 20 minuets, Aubree was mesmerized. I definitely want to take Sophie.  She probably would've been old enough to go this year, but for sure next time.  I'm grateful that we can have experiences like this.  And provide our kids with a fun,  but not spoiled, childhood. 

My Best Friend's Wedding

Didn't I already do a "best friend wedding" post this year?   It's funny because we moved around when I was little, so I have a lot of "best friends" that represent a different time/place in my life.  This is Sheena. She was my best friend toward the end of Jr. High and High School.  We we're inseparable. Joined at the hip...and it's so fun to still be friends.  She got married on Saturday, and I was able to go and enjoy it.  It was fun to see her family which feel like my second family.  It had been a LONG time.

She had the ceremony and reception in her back yard.     It was simple, but beautiful.

Her son Brodi, (from her first marriage) the ring bearer.

Eric's daughter, Brody (no, I'm not kidding...and she is also my niece!)

Sheena and her Dad.  (I love him!  And he looks EXACTLY the same 10 years later!)
Sheena was just BEAUTIFUL....stunning.

The ceremony was sweet.

Immediately after, was the reception. I kept trying to get a cute picture of Brody....but she wouldn't let me.  I think she was a little weirded out that I was in this part of her life.  I was taking funny pictures and showing her...

So she finally posed, (for about two seconds...) and I got a half-way decent picture.

I'm never good at this...and is there a trick with the I phone?  It seems so much harder?!

Her bridals were so pretty.

Eric took this of us....I would've immediately deleted it...but it's the only one I got of us.  So ignore my gomer face.

The newly-weds.

So cute!

An old friend from High School, Mark.

Two friends from High School who got married...Dallas and Jessica, and their cute kids.

Again, great shot of me :)

A few of their cute, new, litte family.

Who would've guessed that 10 years later, Sheena would be the step Mom to my niece?  It's amazing the way things work out sometimes.  We will now be forever linked.  I am very okay with that :) 

Princess Party

Aubree got invited to her first princess party.  She was SO excited.  I decided it would be fun to have the birthday girl (and siblings) over so that her Mom could have some time to prepare.  We went on a walk and to the park.  We FULLY utilized the double stroller!  And Aubs and Braden walked.  It was a pretty good set up.

Then we came home and got ready.  She has a really nice Rapunzle dress, and wanted to go all out.  We did her hair in a couple of braids, and added LOTS of flowers. 

She felt so pretty, and was ready to play with all the other Princesses.

A real :) princess was at the party, and she did makes up on each girl.  Aubree got purpley eye shadow and pink lip gloss.  So was very into it.

Such fun! And so beautiful.