these are the stairs that Bill built.

Just a preview of the playroom. My brother-in-law, Bill, built these stairs for us to get up to our third floor. Have I mentioned that he's pretty awesome? I highly recommend him and am happy to promote his work. It's a bit difficult to show you all the progress that has been made since the beginning of this project since I haven't been photographing it all along, but the bottom picture represents so much work. If I were three, I would love to play in this space. Hunts is so excited about this playroom!

friendship bread

We made friendship bread a little over a week ago now. Hunts calls it "cake bread." If you have never made friendship bread in your life, just wait. You will someday. I have no idea how it gets around, but it does, and it is the bane of your existence until you bake it and then you are so glad that you mushed that bag for ten days because the result is so worth it.

living in change

I've really felt a lack of motivation to blog lately. Maybe it's because my house (and my life) has/have been in a constant state of change and that is not an easy thing for me. I want to think that I am a person who likes change, but I think I only like change when I can look back upon it and assess it. I really like things that are predictable. I like things in their place. If you've ever been to my house when it's perfect and in order, that is when I function best. I like to be able to walk around my house when it's dark and know exactly where everything is. That can be a comforting thing, but I think it can also be crippling. Let's just say that I'm in the midst of being stretched and it is really good for me. I'm so grateful that we are able to build a playroom in our house right now, but it's been really hard for me to keep order during this time. I like to go upstairs every night when my brother-in-law is gone and dream about how I'm going to decorate and beautify the space. I can't wait to take a picture of the completed project because I have this vision for it, and I want to see it come to fruition. I can see the color on the wall and the order in the room and the inviting environment I want it to be for everyone who plays there, but the waiting part is really a challenge for me. I know this project is good for me, but it's hard. I haven't even picked up my camera in over a week. That's crazy for me. It's time to pick it up again. In the meantime, here's a few old photos of the end of our time at the farm. I can't even begin to express my gratefulness for Raccoon Ranch. We had a great time while we were there. And for all the other pictures I didn't post, you can always check out my flickr stream.







Seriously. It's not posed. This is just Josh.

getting out of town

We're having some work done on our house (we're building a playroom on our third floor!) and while our brother-in-law is doing the most difficult part, we decided to move up to Raccoon Ranch. It's definitely added to all of our driving, but it has been a most wonderful and unexpected retreat for us. The weather has been quite delightful and we've shared our time up here with many a guest. Check out the color of the lake right now. It doesn't even look this way in the summer!

I post this picture because Huntleigh asked me to take this of her in front of her Pop's Polaris and I'm glad to have memories of her like this. She's my dramatic tomboy and I hope that someday, she'll be driving the Polaris with her own shotgun in tow. We've enjoyed our time to explore the farm together.
I love this one.

picnicking

This was how I found Hunts occupying herself during a lengthy phone conversation of mine the other day. I turned around from doing the dishes and saw this spread. She was so proud of herself and I was so proud of her for being creatively productive! I am loving watching this little one's imagination just explode. I love Hunts so much. She is one awesome kid.

zoomaginary fun

When the Halvorsons were in town, we tried out the Zoomagination Station for the first time. The kids loved it. It's free and orderly and not over-crowded. Just perfect. Karsten and Lucy were the most pictured children during our time there. Kudos to Josh for Lucy's dress which he picked up while he was in Peru. That's my fashionable husband!

time with the Halvorsons

I suppose it's about time for me to get this posted. I'll explain why I've been off the blog in my next post....for now, here's the rest of our weekend with the Halvorson kiddos:

Maren and Lucy.

the three musketeers

five is fun!

Cabin Boys

While these boys (Anthony. Stephen. Andrew. Josh. Scott. Kurt.) got together this past weekend and did their boy thing at Raccoon Ranch all weekend, this momma and her kiddos drove up to hang out with us so we could do our momma thing together. It was a crazy weekend at our house, but we had a bunch of fun. Huntleigh loves to play with Karsten and Katelyn and Lucy and Maren are becoming friends.

Hannah and Zach brought us scones from Kaldi's and the kids went crazy for them. Here's Hannah feeding the masses of hungry children.

Huntleigh and Katelyn in their little chef's hats.