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.

life is good

with these three babes in my life.

And along another train of thought:

You know you've really given in to motherhood when your little child has diarrhea while she's sitting in your lap and a little soaks through her pants to your jeans, and then you momentarily think that you should change out of those jeans, but then you forget and wear them all day long instead. Awesome.

life

This is my sticker babe. I seem to find stickers all over the house in funny locations. I notice they are most often stuck to my shirt in obvious and embarrassing places...especially when I step out in public. Oh well. This is life.



We've been busy. We've been out of town. And then we've been sick. Does anyone even read this blog anymore?! I have become the most boring blogger. I do want to try to post more regularly. I'm even boring myself. Could the Cardinals have performed worse in the Division playoffs? Seriously. At least we can rest easy for the remainder of the season. I'm a bit tired of hot dogs.

More random thoughts:

I can neither confirm nor deny that this picture of my husband and our friend Tim was taken during the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy in our livingroom on Thursday, September 24th at 8:22 p.m. But man, does my husband look sheepishly cute in this picture.


I felt like I was living in Seattle this past week with all the rain that fell here in Saint Louis. It was too much rain for me for this time of year. I'm ready for some more typical autumn weather before winter decides to settle in.

Huntleigh loves school. Every morning when she wakes up, she asks, "Is today school day, mommy?" I'm both happy and sad when she asks that question. I love that child so much. She is both my greatest challenge and my greatest reward. The Lord knew I needed her to make me more like Him. The truth is, she is really just a. lot. like. me. (Thanks Dad, for the insight.)

I am not complaining, but it is really difficult to be laid waste with a cold and to have two young children who have a lot of genuine needs that keep you from being able to lay down on the couch to watch movies & sleep all day. It makes recovering from sickness that much harder. So this is what it means to die to yourself. Shannon, you know that ten (thousand) times more than I do.

NyQuil is really great.

My house is totally trashed right now. Please do not come over. I would be completely mortified. I'm a perfectionist. But I want to be honest about my weaknesses. Oh....just come over. It would be good for me. It's good to be humbled. Just don't judge me.

Kentucky

So we had a blast in Kentucky. Jessi drove from West Virginia while I made our trek from the Lou to meet Julianne in Louisville. It was super fun to be all together and to just feel free to be girls without any husbands around. Let's just say that the mommies survived on caffeine, Cheetos, and champagne. The perfect trio....at different times of the day, of course. There was no documentation of the three of us, so our kids are going to have to do the representing.

Karsten. Maren. Hudson. Bennett. Katelyn. Lucy. Huntleigh.
3 Halvorsons + 2 Cooks + 2 Hagers = a very fun handful


Check out those curls on Bennett's head. Just too sweet. I'm so glad that Huntleigh had the chance to hang out with Bennett again. This was the last time they were together.


Little buns. I look forward to sharing this with them when they're older and "wiser." What I look most forward to is that these kids are going to be friends throughout their lives because their dads all committed to being in one another's lives, despite distance, time, and differences.


Karsten and Huntleigh working on the USA puzzle together. They were a good little team. I remember when Karsten did this puzzle by himself as a 2-year old. He is the puzzle master.


The three jumping supermen. It was a whirlwind weekend, but super rewarding. Love you Jessi and Julianne!