chilly day picnic

This simple little picture took a lot of effort. If you're a mom, you could probably guess why. Shannon and I took the kiddos to Tilles Park (finally!) for a little picnic and play time on Friday. The weather was quite a bit cooler than we thought it was and so we weren't there very long before we headed to Starbucks for some hot chocolate. But Tilles is a fun park for playing. It is going to be even better when we have some warm days. And the light display is up and running for the season. It's $9 per car. On Saturday nights I believe it is carriage rides only.

come stay with us.

This is our guest bedroom. I decided that I just couldn't put the kiddos in different bedrooms, because that would mean giving up the guest bedroom. So, they're sharing and we'll see how that goes. I must confess that I tend to be very discontent with bedding and am constantly changing bedspeads, duvets or sheets. Since Josh and I have been married, I have bought new bedding for our bed at least six times. The bedding that I found for the guest bedroom, however, has been my favorite for a long time. My guilty pleasure is ironing the sheets after I wash them. I mean, who has time to iron their own sheets?! You want to come stay in this room. It is very cozy and the bed is remarkably comfortable. You're welcome to come any time.





My parents brought us these hand-painted prints from their trip to Tuscany this summer. They are just beautiful and were the perfect gift.


This table is one of the understated favorites in my house. It's my "pi" table that I had made when we lived in Hong Kong.

babes' bedroom

This is what I had been working on for so long when I was gone from blogging. I am so proud of the ABC's and it took me several weeks of seeing it in my head and then working it out onto the wall. Huntleigh was so excited when we finally got all the letters up. She would wake up every morning and exclaim "abc's!" Josh and I made the "F" and the "T" from a big Aspen limb I brought home from Colorado (that he made so much fun of, but he caught on once he understood my plan). As for the rest of the letters, they came from places like Anthropologie, Target, online companies, Ebay, and the like.  


This little chair was the best purchase ever.  I got the last one at the store for a great price because it was the floor model.  So exciting.  

This blue cabinet was my other favorite purchase for the girls' room.  I wanted a piece that would stand out because of its color.  It's actually a Chinese wedding cabinet.  

The "big girl bed" awaiting to be slept in.  Huntleigh likes to play on it for now.  


This is a picture of Josh's paternal grandmother holding his father very soon after he was born.  And that picture of Josh is from when he lived in Alabama when he was little.  He is sitting on his little John Deere tractor.  


This is the cradle my dad built Huntleigh for her birthday.  I had it painted by an extremely talented woman who does remarkable work.  

sweet pig tails

baby ami affection

This is my sweet girl after a late nap. The following pictures show precisely why it would be impossible to replace baby Ami. She has this long hat that Huntleigh loves to place between her fingers, her toes, and in her nose.









For those of you who are the internet surfing type, this is what baby Ami used to look like. Look at the beautiful little face she used to have. I would gladly pay anyone $100 to find this doll for me. My mom originally got it for Huntleigh (before she was even born) at Garnet Hill. Ami is a priceless item in this household. She would be the one thing I would grab, were we running out the door with a fire on our heels.


This is how well Ami has been loved over the past two years. I'm sorry if you have a fear of dolls as it is. I hope this image doesn't haunt your dreams.

shopping on...

After Abby's shop, we went to check out Scott's shop and his new sign and all the changes on the inside. There have been so many changes even in just a few short weeks. His sign looks awesome (it's all his design) and there is so much more merchandise out and ready to be purchased!


Huntleigh, checking out daddy's new skis.


Hunts trying out some Roxy skis that are a bit closer to her little size. The polka dots are awesome! Josh is already planning to buy some for her next year.

Saturday shop-seeing

We headed out to Eureka today to see Abby's shop and her pink Christmas tree and to just play for a little while. Fun times in Eureka. Abby has a lot of fun stuff for your holiday decorating, if you make it out there.

peek-a-boo

I yuv Christmas trees!

I yuv this one.

8 1/2 feet

Every year, Josh and I have the slightest argument about how big of a tree we are going to get. This year, when he asked me if we could get a smaller tree than last year, I just said "We'll see." I really don't think 8 1/2 feet is too much to ask, especially since you have to cut a bit off the top and the bottom to make it work with the tree stand and the star and all. Anyways, we spent the morning driving out to Washington to this place where we have traditionally gone for four years now (minus maybe one year?). It's a much longer drive than I remembered, especially when you stop at the Kolache Factory, Lamar's Donuts, Kohl's (where I paid a woman $10 to cut in line in front of her and she willingly accepted), the BP, and Wal-Mart in between and then make a wrong turn somewhere along the way. But we finally got out there with a very excited Huntleigh and found our tree in record time. I highly recommend this place. They grow beautiful Canaan Firs.


Josh and Huntleigh running out to the trees.



Me and the babe, modeling the tree for the camera.


My beautiful babe.

Happy Birthday Dad.

You'(we)re cool. Oh, is that a cigarette?!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is becoming one of those holidays that is somewhere on the calendar in between Halloween and Christmas. It's obvious that it's not a big money-making holiday for companies, because you can go into any store after Halloween and feel like you've stepped into the middle of December. I think this is quite unfortunate because it is such a wonderful day to have the opportunity to be corporately thankful for the country in which we live (and to recall the historical reasons why we actually celebrate this day) and individually thankful for the many blessings that were showered upon us over the course of the year. I don't want Thanksgiving to become a blur at the end of November. It's more than just "Turkey Day," isn't it?! We did have a wonderful day, however, first at Raccoon Ranch with a humongous group of people and then a nice quiet event at our house with my parents and Scott (Sock, as Huntleigh likes to call him) and Abby.

These were our awesome table arrangements at Raccoon Ranch.


This is my sweet child in the middle of watching the Macy's Day Parade. She fell in love with the Scooby Doo balloon. "I yuv Scooby Doo!" is what we heard for the rest of the day.


Here I am looking more and more pregnant. My torso is just full of baby, so I have to swell up in other places: like my face, my hands and my feet, and my ankles, and my legs, and my neck...and anywhere else that my body can hold water. I'm beginning to have significantly less definable shape anywhere on my body. Six more weeks, baby.


This is Josh's cousin Brooke, who is getting married in three weeks and Huntleigh is going to be her little flower girl! I can't believe that she was asked to be a flower girl for two weddings this fall! The wedding is at Raccoon Ranch and she'll be walking from the kitchen to the fire place...we'll see how it goes.

'tis the season of ducks

For Scott's birthday, he just wanted to hang out at the farm and relax for the evening. Well, we did all relax, and the hunting was excellent, but Scott got violently ill in the middle of the afternoon. He was sick for a couple hours and then his body was able to miraculously pull itself back together and hang out with us for dinner and the remainder of the evening. We had a roaring fire in the fire place and lots of good laughs. Good times.

Zach and Josh with all the ducks. Zach is holding a prized red-head drake in his hand.


Hannah, Huntleigh and Zach posing with glee : )


The Hunts helping me crush ramen noodles in the kitchen for one of Scott's favorite salads (crunchy ramen noodle salad....very yummy) which Scott did get to enjoy a little bit of after he was feeling better!


This is my cute sister-in-law, Rebekah. There is no one in the world who changes her hair color more than she does. But then again, there is no one who could look as stinking cute with hair that is this fun pink/purple color...Huntleigh was so fascinated by it. I was too.


Crazy Josh with his shotgun shell belt around his head. (I love incriminating my husband with pictures like this.)


"Apparently, wireless routers are the only predators for bobcats." Thanks for making me laugh, Zach.

the threat of famine

This is what my refrigerator looks like right now. There is so much food in it, it really is funny. Josh and I laughed at it for 10 minutes tonight. He had me crying, I thought it was so funny. (And then I dropped my nice camera off of the kitchen counter. That wasn't so funny. But it's all okay.) If you would like some yummy leftovers, please call me and come over for some meal, any meal. And I have cake hiding in my oven. I'm baking two quiches and monkey bread for breakfast. And I bought 6 pork tenderloins (that's about 9 pounds) for 10 people for dinner tomorrow night. And 8 cornish game hens for dinner on Sunday. And a 17 pound turkey for Thanksgiving. So seriously, we'll be eating leftovers until well after Thanksgiving. And.....I think this next week is where I am going to start gaining all that weight in my pregnancy.

Oh, and this stuff. I cannot get enough of it. It's all this baby wants. Seemingly, neither can Huntleigh. We go through this half gallon every day. It's crazy.

happy birthday scott

I'm glad it was your best day this week. Welcome to your later 20s. We love you!