in the not so distant past

Life has literally been flying by. I am sometimes overwhelmed, but truthfully, my heart is full and happy. I love that the Lord gave us Polly. She is such an amazing addition to our family. These are the pictorial memories from our life lately: This was her baptism at 6 weeks. It was important to me to keep in the tradition of baptizing Polly at 6 weeks, seeing as we did the same with both Hunts and Lucy. I love watching my children be baptized. Those are precious, precious memories to me.

Pop and B took a little princess and a cowgirl to get some fun new cowboy boots. They came home with 4 new pairs. Such a fun day for all of them!

We took a zoo trip with Poppa and Yia Yia. The penguin house was super stinky as always.

We celebrated Valentine's Day in Palm Desert, California. It was such a great family trip!

While in California, we took a day trip to Joshua Tree National Park. I'm so glad we carved out time to experience the place. Just fascinating.

I am ashamed to admit that this is the very outfit Huntleigh wore into the Park. I guess I really didn't know what to expect, and I certainly did not expect it to be as cold of a day as it was. We made a quick detour to an odd little souvenir shop where I bought this ridiculous purple Yucca tree sweatshirt and hippie hat. The aviator sunglasses really pull the outfit together, though. I'm just going to blame these choices on sleep deprivation. I had a 2-month old baby.

I love these two. Lucy's outfit was equally as ridiculous, albeit slightly more subtle in its coloration.

Here's the littlest babe, back in Saint Louis, going on 3 1/2 months old. I purchased this flowery little sleeper at Target after her blowout poop while I was shopping there. I literally had to carry her around the store naked (in a diaper, of course) while searching for an outfit in which to put her. I just pretended like no one was watching me, even though I am confident I was receiving glares from strangers. I am an underprepared mom. So what?! At least I had one diaper left for her.

In March, we took an unexpected trip to Florida during the girls' spring break. It was so much fun. This picture was taken on the girls' first fishing trip in a flats boat. There is little my husband loves more than fishing in a Florida flats boat.

By the end of our fishing day, Hunts had gotten brave enough to touch the bait fish with her bare hands. We caught a couple snook, a lizard fish, and some sea trout and ate some of our own fish for dinner. I love how rewarding that was for Huntleigh!

Love this picture of Lu.

And our family pic, right before leaving the island to go home.

Oh my gosh. I love this picture of Lucy and her special friend, Winnie. They are such sweet buddies from school. This was before their special date for Winnie's 4th birthday when she took Lucy with her to get a little manicure and pedicure. Too, too cute.

Easter 2012. He is Risen!

Scrumptrulescent Polly with Yia Yia and Poppa. I love this picture.

Hunts with her sweet friend, Ava Grace, at AG's 6th birthday party. These girls are two peas in a pod and get along just swimmingly.

At 4 months, we like to go on a special trip with our baby. We did that with Huntleigh when we went to Cologne, Germany and with Lucy when we went to Dubai. With Polly, it wasn't as far of a trip, but we had our special time with her in Portland, Oregon. And I love that Polly found her feet in Portland, just like how Lucy found her feet while we were in Dubai.

So we stayed at the super cool and hip Hotel Monaco. I have to admit that we did see COLDPLAY while we were in Portland, since I am clearly obsessed with them. It was an incredible concert. We found out right before the concert that Coldplay was also staying at Hotel Monaco. We never ran into them, which is probably for the best since I would have freaked out if I were standing within arm's reach of Chris Martin.

First Daddy Daughter Dance at our school.

And first tooth loss for my first baby. These are the days!