These were supposed to be “Friday Night Photos”, and then Saturday, and then Sunday… so now I’m just calling them photos. I’ve actually been working on another post (or more likely, a series of posts) of all of my favorite things. I like to do that once a year around this time. And this year, I’m not just including the things that are “giftable”; I’ve been taking pictures of things that I use every day (or close to it) and that I love. Then I’ll put them in a series of posts.

Anyway, here are some photos from the past week or so…

One evening I was kind of bored and I wanted a project to work on, but nothing that would take me hours to complete. I like to look at repurposed denim jeans on Pinterest to get some ideas of things to make (I love repurposing jeans!).

Jerry and I love quoting movies randomly into pretty much every conversation, and one of them them is “You completely me”–not from Jerry McGuire, but rather from Austin Powers! So, thought it would be cute (and super cheesy) to make matching keychains–I gave Jerry the one with the button and me the one with the hole, because it just seemed right, Haha!

They were super fast and easy to make–I just used the waistband of a pair of jeans that was too big. (I really wished I had a pair of Lucky Brand jeans, because I thought the button saying “Lucky” would be cute.)

I’ve started another habit that Joey loves. As soon as I’m done eating dinner, we go for a walk around the neighborhood (and then he gets dinner when we get home). Now that he’s used to the morning runs, he’s getting used to this evening walk. He learns quickly!

Eli and Ava went to pick out pumpkins to carve, and (as I do as a worried mom sometimes) looked at his location to make sure he got there okay. I was so surprised to see this on Google Maps! This is the pumpkin patch/apple orchard they went to, and obviously, that is the corn maze. How cool is that?! I’m always SO amazed at how people make these things. And I get really excited when I happen to see them from an airplane.

Ignoring my suggestion to buy a cheap “gun” from a dollar store, this is Eli’s last-minute Han Solo costume. For having no time and a small budget using thrift store items, I’m pretty proud of what I came up with. Ava looks adorable as Princess Leia (it was very cold, so they layered up a bit). 

This was on Halloween when Eli got home and Jerry and I were still in the garage waiting for trick-or-treaters. We made asked Eli to sit with us for a few.

Jerry was SO EXCITED to wear his Ghostbusters costume (he’s seriously obsessed with his proton pack) and then hugely disappointed because we only had TWO trick-or-treaters! We were both super bummed. I love to see the kids’ Halloween costumes while they come get candy. Also, I like that I get to meet neighbors that I am unfamiliar with.

Even worse, we had all of this candy left over! I wanted to buy vegan candy this year, and we thought it would be fun to be the “cool house” by handing out the big movie-theater size boxes.

After a little while, I set up the skeletons and told Jerry that it was us, next Halloween, still waiting for trick-or-treaters to come.

This mess below is hardly recognizable. This is the car of my friend’s son. Can you believe it?! He’s okay; he had to get surgery on his hip, but is otherwise fine. He also had two friends in the car with him, and those two walked away without a scratch! My friend Amber and I were pregnant at the same time with Noah and her son, Kaden, and we spent a ton of time together when the boys were growing up. The boys lost touch throughout the years, but this completely stunned me when I heard what happened. After seeing what had happened to my boys’ cars and being horrified, I cannot imagine poor Amber (or Joe, Kaden’s dad) when they saw this!

Riley went over to my mom’s house a couple of days ago–Luke and Riley were in town for the weekend and Riley had a special “girls morning” with my mom. I went over to see her, and my mom asked me to do Riley’s hair. (Brian has no idea how to do it, so it’s usually my job when Riley is here.) I wanted to do something different than her usual braids, so I channeled 1998-me and did mini buns all over. I thought it looked super cute!

And that’s all I’ve got. Depending on how long it takes me to work on the post(s) of my favorite things, I may or may not get that started tomorrow.