Willie Day '13 (and More)

Just what is Willie Day? Well, it's a long story. Someday, Rich will need to pop on here and give the full story because I will only slaughter it. For now, the following quote from Rich will have to do:

"It's so difficult to just sum up Willie Day. Stumbled upon (blessed) in 2002 and first celebrated in 2003, this BYUXC-created holiday celebrates forgiveness and all-around joy in life. Traditions include peach consumption and respect towards Willie Nelson. Miracles are astoundingly abundant."

Willie Day kicked off a little early this year with this amazing postcard from the Durhams a few days before the actual day:

Then, on Willie Day Eve, I made a peach crisp (although, unfortunately the peaches were canned since we're past fresh peach season here).

Since Willie Day fell on a mutual/scouts night but we still needed our peach offering, we hit up Zip's on our way home for the shake of the month - Peachy Peach - to close out our celebrations.

And, since Willie Day, it's been a busy week for the Nellys, full of quite a few decisions. One of the biggest is that Rich has decided to put in more hours volunteering at Gonzaga to get him some more face time and to help him get to know the office side of coaching better. And around that he still needs to fit work and school.

And, last night, rather suddenly, we bought a car! We traded in the old Dodge Stratus for a Nissan Altima. We've been getting a little worried about the Stratus for a while now, and then a couple days ago the check engine light came on. That was the last straw. If there was anything seriously wrong with it, we did not want to spend the money on repairs.

A good friend of Rich's parents works at a dealership, and they and their children have bought probably 10 cars from him over the years (not exaggerating). So, we drove out to the Valley last night, just thinking we'd look and maybe come home with a couple options. Instead, we ended up leaving the Stratus there and bringing home our new Altima.

I feel like I want to name her, but I'm terrible at that kind of thing. Any suggestions?

I'm excited for the new car, and we both feel it was the right choice. And we are not sorry to see the Stratus go. It was sad to see Vince and even my old Blazer go, but I really felt no attachment whatsoever to the Stratus. I only wish we could somehow have ended up with two cars, but I guess we'll keep making one car work.

And, of course through all of this Norah has been adorable as always. I'll end with some of my favorite pictures of her from the past week.

 She doesn't eat the crust anymore. I can't blame her, but I didn't realize that this started so young.

 She has an uneven mullet in the back, and some of her bangs almost reach to her eyes. Yeah, I have no idea what to do with it. Good thing she's adorable and can pull off anything. My sister and I have this joke that all you need to do is put a bow in a toddler's hair, and, ta da, it's done! That is definitely my theory right now (not that the clip lasts for more than three seconds).

One of her favorite ways to play is to dump out the blocks and then instantly move on to something else.

 She absolutely loves these Minnie jammies, and I have no idea why because I don't know how she would know who Minnie is. But she always fishes them out of the dirty clothes and carries them around the apartment.

We're finally getting the bump on her cheek checked out by a dermatologist next week. After Lake Powell this summer, it did this weird thing where it turned into a blister, and then went back to normal (well, what it looked like before). The doctor said to keep an eye on it, and if that happened again he'd get us in to a dermatologist. Well, it happened again on Sunday, so I called as soon as I could for an appointment. Now it just looks like a scab. I hope we get answers. In fact, I just want it removed so we don't have to worry about it anymore.

I cannot get over how adorable and old she looks in her jeans. She really isn't a baby anymore. I mean, I'm shopping in the toddler section for her now! Time is flying by so fast.

 These pants are supposed to be skinny jeans (if only skinny jeans fit me like this). You can't really tell, but I tried to capture her sag here. Size 12-18 month clothes are still way too big on her, but she's too long for a smaller size. It looks like we're going to be pulling up her pants all winter.

 I finished this dress I started for Norah over the summer, afraid it would be too small by now. Nope, way too big. Maybe it will fit her next summer.