little escape to Florida

We spent a few brief days in Florida right before Thanksgiving with our friends Tim and Andrea for someone's 30th birthday. Fun times. I didn't realize how much I needed this little break from reality. I also did not realize how much I would love (& hate) Twilight once I began reading it. We had a blast and here are my favorite pics from the trip:

Tim and Andrea


the four on our sunset cruise for the birthday boy


our special celebration dinner


in-shore fishing, thanks to Josh, and here I am with our (camera greedy) guide and my first tunny fish!


Tim's tunny


here we are with our double: two groupers. I won. (Not that I'm competitive....)


Nin's Holy Mackerel!!!!


beach boys


sunset over the gulf


The four, tanned (well.....except for you-know-who) and happy. Thanks for an excellent trip, you guys. We so enjoyed our time.

the pioneer woman!

Have you heard of The Pioneer Woman? If you haven't looked at her blog yet, you must start. She's amazing. She looks like super woman from observing her blog. My friend, Alyssa and I had the opportunity to hear her speak in mid-November and then we met her after standing in line for two hours to get our books signed! I've never been to a book signing before, but I so enjoyed Pioneer Woman because she was far from pretentious, she claimed to not be an expert on many things, and she was sincerely joyful even after having signed books for more than two hours. I like her a lot because she's real. It's almost as though Pioneer Woman is her alter ego.

Here's the PW's older son, Bryce, who came around signing books as we waited for his momma. Too stinking cute.


Alyssa, with Marlboro Man, the PW's hubby. That's how she refers to him.


Meeting the PW. After all the waiting, it was short and sweet. But I did really like her.

ducky times

Once again, we've entered another duck season and since it took me so long to post these pictures, we are actually close to exiting the season, as well. I love the first picture of Josh because he's looking at his (camo-covered) phone on his way out to the blind. Nice touch, there, Hager.

Kate, so anxiously and patiently waiting for a directive from Josh. What a good dog she is.


Sunset over the water. Here's to another great duck season.

shaggy

This child and her hair. It is always in her eyes and she just deals with it. Sometimes she does this little swooping motion with her hands to move it out of her way, but it only lasts for a few seconds. Fly-away fine baby hair. She only tolerates pig tails maybe ever other day. Oh, what to do?!

ilovermont

The day after we packed up Scott's moving truck, he picked me up bright and early at 6 a.m. and we spent the day driving our way northeast. We found simple joys in checking out the goods at rest stops, we talked about our childhood, we laughed about our parents' idiosyncrasies, we played the alphabet game (and I won...but I'm not competitive), we researched states as we drove through them (we're not nerds, we're just addicted to information), we got slaphappy and laughed our way straight through several miles, we ate plenty of fast food and we got in to Albany, New York at 11:30 p.m. I don't even remember the last time I spent 16 1/2 straight hours on the road. Scott proceeded to drive up to his apartment in Vermont and I spent the night in Albany which gave me the opportunity to drive around some old stomping grounds the next morning. When I was 14, my family moved from Saint Louis to a small little town outside of Albany where we lived for 7 years. I finished high school there and then went on to college, but have very fond memories of our home and our life there. It was very surreal to drive around our small town and drive past our old house and to breathe that fresh upstate air and soak up old memories. I can't wait to bring Josh and our kiddos to this place that has really become so foundational to who I am today.

This was the end of the road where we lived, one of my most favorite and peaceful places in NY.


I continued on in the truck to Stowe, Vermont, a beautiful drive from Albany, and enjoyed the time alone to soak up more of the northeast and the quiet. Stowe is a quaint little ski village where Scott found a great job and a sweet homey apartment and it's pretty darn near to Ben & Jerry's factory, which I stopped by while I was there. Scott and I were able to spend some time in the evenings in Burlington and we ate some excellent food at some awesome restaurants. Burlington is a small city burgeoning with culture and beauty. It's also where Phish got their start.

Scott at American Flatbread, an awesome pizza joint


The sunset over Lake Champlain.


It's pretty wild that in the same year, in the span of just four months, really, I moved two of my favorite people, my friend Shannon and my brother Scott, to two opposite ends of the United States. I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to do both and to have closure that way, but there is a sadness that comes with closing those chapters, as well. I love my brother so much and miss his being able to just stop by and hang out. But Vermont holds a lot of exciting new adventures for him and I'm glad for this opportunity for him. We love you, Scott.

goodbyes.

My brother moved to Vermont in early November. We spent our last weekend together in Saint Louis as a family at Blueberry Hill and then helping load up the truck to get him ready to move away. It was both a sweet and sad time, but I'm glad we were all together as a family for the weekend.

My parents, Scott and his girlfriend Jaime, me and Josh at Blueberry Hill

I really like this picture of me and Josh.


Josh and Huntleigh picking up the moving truck bright and early the next morning.


Hunts helped Papa with packing....or just distracted him by playing tag.


Lucy helped by staying in her carseat most of the time to watch Toy Story 2.


Sweet goodbyes. We love Uncle Scott.

the big 4.

So, even though this was nearly 2 months ago and Christmas is just a few days away, I am not giving up on this blog and I am documenting these events for the sake of my children and our family. We had a blast celebrating Huntleigh's birthday and even though at the very last minute ALL plans had to be rearranged, we pulled through and had a fun party. I got an incredible deal on a petting zoo which included a pony and the kids loved it. The pony was a hit. The Chinese chicken, not so much. He was probably the least petted. But he's a chicken, so bok, bok. Also, many thanks to our friends, the Reeves, for photographing our event. It was nice to be camera-free!

Lucy could not get enough of the balloons.


Nin and Lucy


Our sweet friends Corey and his son Drew, who just moved to Indianapolis.


Hunts loving the pony!


Zach with Hunts and the biggest bunny I have ever seen.


Manna with the Chinese chicken.


My mother-in-law Debbie with Lu.


Kudos to little Hampton for being the youngest kiddo to ride the pony!


My cute hubby with his good friend and business coach, Jim. I love this picture.


Abby with Hunts at the craft table, also a great hit!


Happy Birthday, sweet four year old. We love you.

December

Hello. I'm here. This is just a post to say that I do belong to the land of the living. In November I bounced from Vermont to Florida to Chicago and I gave up on attempting a blog post. I've taken more than 500 pictures, but I will spare you. I promise to give you a little glimpse into our November, if you care to know. I'm also confessing to having fallen into the Twilight Saga. Soon, soon, I will emerge. In the meantime, here's a picture of the four of us on Thanksgiving. Seriously, what does it take to get just one good picture where everyone is looking and smiling and doing something normal all at the same time? It's called Photoshop, I assume. I love this picture because of what it represents of each one of us: Huntleigh's enthusiasm, Lucy's cheekiness, my, well whatever it is I do, and Josh's stability.

koi fascination at the botanical gardens on a perfect fall day in november

Petunia!

I just love it when my mom reads with my girls. It is always such a sweet moment. Does anyone remember the book Petunia from childhood? It's a fun book.

the birthday girl

I have a four year old. She turned four on Monday and I could not be more proud of her. Huntleigh is an amazing little girl: very tender, extremely perceptive, a big personality yet somewhat of an introvert, a thinker. Her mind comes alive especially at night when the world has quieted down and she has time to process her thoughts. She is a delicate, complex little character and I have really seen her blossom even more in these last couple months. We had planned a fun big Harvest party for her at Raccoon Ranch to celebrate her birthday, but at the last minute, all things had to be rearranged due to flooding at the farm and we had to move it into the city. It ended up being just perfect, but I did not take a single picture at the event. Our good friends and photographers took pictures of her party, so I'll post some of those when we get them. (No pressure, Alyssa!)

Huntleigh was the star on her birthday. In 3K this means that you get to have the mystery bag and bring a favorite thing from home with three clues. Hunts loves working on the clues. She becomes so animated and so excited to share with the class. It was so fun to watch her on her birthday. She brought one of her new birthday gifts and then 4 ponies. Because she was 4.

Giving the clues. What a super way to expose children to public speaking.


Rocco, waiting patiently to guess the clues. Sweet Rocco. He gave Huntleigh green sparkly nail polish for her birthday present. Too cute.


Peeking in to get the mystery!


Discussing the ponies. 3 of them were mine from when I was little and 1 was new. The vintage ponies are a bit less sparkly than the new ones. They have to have sparkles just to keep it interesting. Being vintage rocks.


Birthday girl having lunch and cupcakes with her sister in her big girl classroom.

kids halloween

Halloween night we headed over to our friends' house in Kirkwood and did a little trick-or-treating over there. Typically we do the trick-or-treating in our neighborhood and have a low key chili party at our house, but I was a bit overwhelmed with parties this year, so we took a break. It was nice to not have to do anything, but still have a fun reason to dress up the kiddos. Huntleigh had decided on this peacock costume sometime in September and I decided to go with it. I kind of felt bad that I didn't spend any time on her outfit other than the time it took to order it, but she loved it. I really like the homemade variety of costumes....ones that require scrounging and scrapping together things and the hunt to find just the perfect item to complete an outfit. Kind of like what I did for Lucy's outfit....Anyway, here's my happy peacock. She looks so great in blue.

Cheeky peacock.


Peacock with blue-haired momma. When we lived in Hong Kong, I used to walk through these open-air markets everyday with tons of junk and fun stuff and I always loved stopping at the wig booth. Finally, I cracked down and bought a few wigs. Having blue hair is just so much fun. I love it. In fact, I love it so much, that I might wear it sometimes just for the heck of it. Don't be surprised to see me walking around in my blue wig.


Pebbles. Check out that face. She looks just like Josh.


This was the best pic I got of her outfit. I had some fabric that I originally bought to have some pillows made and I bought the cording, too, so I just threw it all together and wrapped the cording around her and woila.....Pebbles. And the plastic bone in her hair.....it was sticking out of her muffin at the City Coffee House the day before. Perfect.


Overhead view. Had to get a complete picture of the bone.


Hampton, the lion, with cupcake on his face. He was just too cute. And the token little boy.


And Lily. She was Elmo. Just too precious. Such tender eyes.

costume party

It's been years since Josh and I have dressed up for Halloween. We had a costume party when we lived in Hong Kong in our tiny little apartment and that was October of 2003. So we were ready to have some fun with our costumes this year. We figured that since the party would be in a German hunting lodge (i.e. Raccoon Ranch) that we would dress like "ze Germans dress." (Say that with your best German accent.) All this to say, when we were at Oktoberfest downtown, we came across a booth with the motherload of outifits and we had ourselves a heyday.

Tim and Andrea were our fun fellow Germans. Would they not make the most perfect Hansel and Gretel?!


Michelle wore this outfit with some serious attitude. I think out of everyone there that night, she and her husband Billy had the best costumes, because they totally played their parts. Billy is one of the preppiest guys we know. This costume had to be his alter ego.



Proud to be German.


Redneck Ryan, with the German twins


German-Redneck sandwich. That was one sweet wig, Janey.


David, subtly costumed for the evening, ended up sporting Michelle's pink hat.

play date

I had to include this cute shot of Huntleigh with her new friend Mallory from our play date last week-ish. October kind of runs together for me. I think I'm glad we've moved into November. Mallory's younger brother Hampton is the same age as Lucy...well, they're two days apart. It's sweet to see them interact, as well, but there wasn't a great picture of them, so I'll get to work on that.

it's seriously almost November.

Here's just a little sneak peek back at what we've been doing:

At the beginning of October, Josh and I took a quick weekend up to Chicago with some friends to just hang out and eat yummy food and shop and all those fun things. It was so great to be in that city. I love Chicago. We stopped by the Merchandise Mart International Antiques Fair where I picked up an awesome lizard skin belt with a superb duck buckle. I later convinced Josh to run into the American Girl Place store with me and, being the excellent husband that he is, he willingly went. I had no motive other than to show him the production that the place really is and what his future holds for him with two little girls. So when he said, "Let's get Hunts a doll for her birthday," I started crying, to then which he said, "They really should serve beer here." I am such a sap. I cannot wait to give it to her.

The view of Millennium Park from our hotel.


Josh with his espresso at the Merchandise Mart. Remember the espresso?! Well, it stuck. I'm so proud. I think he's at Starbucks more than I am. There's a feat.


Here's the boys (my hubby and my brother) at Oktoberfest right before the Cardinals lost their third game in the Division playoffs. Boy, was that game a major disappointment. We found our Halloween costumes that day, though. That made the trip downtown worth it....more to come on that.


Huntleigh had her first Grandparents Day at Central. I was so proud that my parents could see her and enter into the world of 3K. I am so impressed at how Central really seeks to honor the grandparents of the student body. I gave my camera to my dad to get a few pictures of the morning's activities so at least I could get a glimpse into their time together. There is such limited space on Central's campus and there are so many participants in grandparents day that they make very clear that parents have to stay away for the morning. Here my mom and Hunts are at their activity center.


Huntleigh had her first field trip, which I was able to join, and it was just perfect. Look at this one. She is so scrumptious. We took a little walk from her school across Wydown to Acorn Park and had a little nature treasure hunt and then ate a picnic lunch together. I love that Hunts is in school. I am just so proud of her and can see how she is growing and maturing.


Do you see that look? I couldn't resist putting it on the blog.


This is Mark and his daughter Mallory, one of Huntleigh's new friends, who happens to be the daughter of an old and good friend of mine, Mollie. I've been so thankful for school and the new community of friendships it has brought, some new and some re-newed!


I mean, doesn't this picture just take you right back to your childhood? The parachute was my favorite P.E. activity.


And the treasure hunt bag with the treasure hunter. Good work, my sweet pea.