oh boise.

good friends. we know you had to move to idaho, but boy, we really miss you erkmanns. thanks for stopping in for a visit that was not nearly long enough. we can't wait to meet that little bun in the oven! we'll see you in march!

hide and seek

I think it's just great once in awhile to have a margarita with lunch. My friend Lisa and I gave ourselves a time out while our children ran around the house and pulled every toy out of every box. Hide and seek was their last effort at entertaining themselves. It's Friday.

little crawler

7 1/2 months

three amigos

Lucy, Will and Huntleigh at True Ladue on Thursday afternoon. The sun seemed to disappear as we got to the pool to swim. But it was super fun anyway. Oh yeah. This little roaring fair-skinned child came with us, too.

old-fashioned water fountain fun

little girl

when did you grow up so quickly?!

chocolate bar

sweet hat

happy morning bather

thirty one.

So I'm officially into my thirties. I somehow feel like 31 is different from 30. I just want to send out a big thank you to everyone who made my birthday exceptionally special this year. There were so many people who were so thoughtful and loving. My day was full of phone calls and emails and messages and visits and special yummy treats and flowers and gifts. Thank you.

susan

Here is the last of my Chicago photos. This is Susan. She is awesome. We met on Lookout Mountain, when I was in college and she was in high school. If there is anyone I want Huntleigh to grow up and be like, it would be Susan. I think Huntleigh has a lot of Susan in her, even as an almost three year old. Susan is not comfortable with the status quo in anything. Her heart is big and longs for justice and mercy to be fleshed out in the world. She challenges all things in order to get to the truth of the matter and I appreciate that, because it's honest. She gets the brokenness of the world and knows that the only remedy is Jesus incarnate. And she lives it. She'll soon be living it in Malawi and then, perhaps, Nepal. Susan, you're always a breath of fresh air and new thought. Thanks for sharing an expensive steak with me at midnight in a random suburban restaurant. It was so good to see you.

north fairview

One of the best parts of going to Chicago is seeing my Uncle Chris and Aunt Carrie, my mom's younger sister. Their home is always a very familiar and relaxing place for us to be. (Their kids are Kevin and Lauren.) When we got to their house, my aunt had hidden Lauren's old American Girl dolls in the living room for Hunts to play with. There were two dolls sleeping in bunk beds and then in another room there was a plethora of other accessories and such that Huntleigh enjoyed for the afternoon. To my great surprise, my aunt said that she was giving it all to us and loaded our car up with the goodies as we left their house. Big score. I have put them in a place for safe keeping until Huntleigh is a little bit older, but I secretly play with them after she goes to sleep. I love both of these pictures of Hunts because you can see how much fun she had with Chris and Carrie. And you know Lucy...she was just chillin'.

that's mossy

One of the motivations for taking this road trip when we did was to see our friends, the Mosses, since they are in Chicago for six weeks. They reside outside of London, but spend their summer holiday stateside with Rebecca's family. They've met Huntleigh before, but it was our first time to meet their son Finley and for them to meet little Lu.

Lucy kept crawling up to Fin and sitting on his lap. I got quite a kick out of it. He sat there unsure of what to do. I guess that's a typical woman for you: pushy.

IKEA!

Ikea is one of those highlights of traveling up to the Chicagoland area. Um, or is it? I always think it is going to be this amazing experience and then after I've been in there for about 25 minutes I get overwhelmed and then bored and then claustrophobic. I know there are others out there that feel this way about Ikea. Since Hunts is potty-trained, she was able to go in the free childcare/play area, which was a first for her. Everyone was a stranger to her in the play area, but she went in like a pro, shy at first, but when I came back to pick her up, I watched her for a minute from the window and saw that she had made friends and was coloring with some of them. I was so proud of her. Lucy did pretty well in the cart. I think she's doing some interpretive Swedish hand dance about the origin of Ikea in this picture.

just cuz

This was actually one of our many stops north to Chi-town. My cousins Lauren and Kevin both go to Illinois State and we pulled right off the highway to hang out with them for an hour or so. Lauren belongs to a sorority, so we hung out in her awesome house with the rest of the Zeta Tau Alpha gang. Huntleigh fit right in with her long blond hair and her blue eyes. She just ate up all the attention. It was fun for Lauren to meet Lucy for the first time.

road trip

Well, I've been berated (in the most loving and nice kind of way) to update the blog from several people. Once again, sorry that I have been too busy to provide you, faithful viewers, with some form of entertainment or excitement from a new rss feed. Seriously, though, I love you all. We girls took a road trip to Chicago last weekend and it set me back for almost a whole week. I guess it didn't help that my social calendar was all booked up for the week upon our return. So here I sit trying to get pictures to upload. For you. You know who you are. You across the ocean over there. Or you on that mountain where you can See Rock City. Or wherever.

I love Chicago. I spent years 3-10 of my life there in a suburb north of the city. We took a trip to see family and friends and have some Potbelly sandwiches. Let's just say that it's probably a good thing I didn't know how much work the weekend was going to be, otherwise I wouldn't have taken the trip. It was the first road trip we've taken since babe #1 got potty-trained and since babe #2 was born. As I was packing the car to leave, I just kept thinking, "You have got to be kidding me. This is so much stuff just for 48 hours." Really, though, I'm glad we went. It was good to see people and a fun experience. I'm always up for travel. Even when it seems like a crazy thing to do. My mom went with me, so I was not without adult help. Babe #1 did great. No accidents. We did have several stops, though. So what I thought would be a 4 1/2 hour trip became a 7 hour trip, maybe? There was that 2-hour detour at Ikea.

Poop break. If you have just potty-trained your kiddo, put one of these in your car. It's an incredible resource at times.

nakey baby

girl time

Huntleigh saw her first movie yesterday with our friends Lisa & Mya and yia yia. Wherenberg Theaters show a children's movie twice on Wednesdays for FREE during summer months. So we watched "Horton Hears a Who" at the Des Peres Cinema and the girls did pretty well for their first full-length feature: all the bathroom and snack trips helped us get through 90 minutes of Dr. Seuss-isms with our almost 3 year-olds. Let's be honest...the highlight for them was the kids' snack pack, which included popcorn, fruit snacks and a small soda. It's just a shame that this was the first movie I've seen in the theaters since Juno.





And then afterwards, we headed to Chick-fil-A for lunch and a run around the playground at the mall. Did you know that if you return the toy from your kids' meal that you can get a free ice cream cone? Very smart.

just like yia yia

So, smiley faces continue to be one of Huntleigh's favorite things to draw. This is just a sampling of one of the many smiley face nations she'll draw on a daily basis. Most of the "smiley" faces actually have more of a grimace like the orange one in the bottom right corner of her easel. I love it. I think I love it so much because these smiley faces are very reminiscent of how my mom draws them. Just for an example, this pin was an art project that she made in high school. I took it from my mom's jewelry box years ago because I loved it so much. Like yia yia, like granddaughter.

for just a bit of daily humor

There are so many hilarious things that come out of the mouth of my child (the verbal one) that I wish I had a memory of steel. Alas, I do not, and so many of those amazing words have been forgotten. This is my attempt at keeping them in a consolidated place. You make me laugh everyday, Hunts. I think you're amazing. And Lucy, I can't wait for you to enter into the dialogue. I know you've got things to say, baby.

for a beautiful monday

very cool

This is awesome. Thanks to my friend, Margaret, who originally sent it my way. Someday, I'm going to make my own version.

child(ren)

big girl

"where's Huntee?"

goodbye Useppa

Well, overall our vacation was great. It was a much-needed break from the very busy life we lead. I suppose it was a good sign that we were ready to get home. Is it bad that now as I am posting these pictures I wish we were back on that island? It's good to be home, though. Oh yeah, except for the heat. This weather is precisely why I would like to live in the northwest.

the girls and the babes




the island, escaping from view