Nana and Papaw Come to SC

Nana and Papaw came to visit is at the beginning of September. They came and helped with a lot of things around the house. Nana stripped wallpaper and Papaw did so many projects I cannot even remember what all he did. Most notably he changed the weather stripping on the door to keep the delightful bugs out of my house! Along with projects around the house, we had a lot of great time to play together. We went out to dinner downtown Charleston on the water and then Mike and his parents explored the battery. Along with that, they took Emma out for a birthday celebration to the Aquarium. She loved her day alone with them and enjoyed the aquarium. We also made it to the pool and beach on the days the weather was nice. We miss them already!

Charleston

We have now been in Charleston for a little more than three weeks. Life has been CRAZY getting settled and it feels like we have just been here a few days. The move was relatively smooth and we got unpacked and settled pretty quickly. We were thankful to have Grammy's help that first week. Now we are learning our way around and looking for a church. Last week Nana and Papaw came to visit and we are gearing up for Emma's birthday celebration and a visit from Grammy and Poppa. We are really enjoying Charleston and really looking forward to the amazing fall weather that is about to bless us. I have really been enjoying the weather and the pool and beach. This week Emma starts her Jumpnastic class and the kids and I will begin attending BSF. That will keep us busy two days of the week, leaving the rest of the week to explore and continue to make the house our own. We still have to visit the library and there are a lot of parks and walking trails to experience.

We had our entry way and living room painted last week. I cannot explain the scuff marks and beating the walls had taken. We are loving the new colors and it helped make it feel more like home. (I would love to include a before picture, but I did not take any pictures when we moved in. Mom did and I will get those from her when she comes to visit.) We are just loving the house. It feels like home and is cozy and comforting. It is such a blessing to be in our OWN space and have more room for the kids to play and a yard. We are SO thankful for the way the Lord has blessed us through this house.

The first week here I had a follow up ultrasound to check on the baby and the clot. The clot is still there, but the baby is healthy and strong and even measuring a week and a half ahead of schedule. We will have another ultrasound at the beginning of October to check on everything.

We went out to eat downtown, on the water. Emma LOVED it! Nana and Papaw came to visit for a week and went with us (another post to follow with pics from our time with them).

Emma has developed quite a love for the beach. On her first visit she was pretty scared and the sand moving out from below her feet made her pretty nervous. The next trip was much better and she played in the waves with Daddy. I was excited because the waves were bigger and so much fun, until I realized that was because of the hurricane Katia off the coast...I learned that checking for rip tide warnings during hurricane season is a good idea before taking little ones to the beach! It is a huge gift to have the beach ten minutes from our house and be able to go whenever we feel like it. Emma and I have plans next weekend to go at sunrise and enjoy the beach like I did growing up looking for shells and dolphins while watching the sun rise.

Emma has been loving the pool! Jonah screams the entire time - he is pretty much miserable no matter what we are doing, so we just suck it up and deal with it as long as we can. Here is a pic of them in the baby pool, although Emma much prefers the big pool and is loving "swimming" on her own!

Jonah is into EVERYTHING. He terrorizes the blinds - he likes the sounds the wooden blinds make when he smacks them into the window. He swings the broom around like a sword. He has learned to climb on the furniture. He carries the picture frames all over the house. He likes to hit things against the dryer and hear the noise it makes. He throws his food. He likes to balance his milk cup on his head until it falls and makes a loud noise. He likes to go through any drawer he can get into and empty its contents. He most recently has figured out that he can climb on top of his car garage. He is EXHAUSTING. I cannot take my eyes off of him for a moment! He is a lot of fun though.

We have a lot of "friends" in our yard. This is one of the birds that frequents our back yard. Our neighborhood is surrounded by marshes so we get a lot of water foul. Along with the birds, we have lizards. We have a green lizard that lives on our porch and Emma has named Lizzie. We have skinks (brown chunky lizards) that we don't much like but they don't hurt anything. Mike has taken care of the fire ants in our yard and we have only seen one Palmetto bugs so far (aka ROACH). One of my favorite memories of the week we moved in was taking the kids for a walk and seeing a sign on the pond one house away warning about Alligators. Oh how life has changed!

Emma is LOVING South Carolina. What is not to love? She has her own room. She gets to play outside. She rides her bike every day and goes to the pool several times a week. She is having so much fun and it is exciting to see her grow in her abilities. She did not know how to "Swim" or ride a bike before we got here. Here are some videos to show how she is doing now. We go for walks most days and I push Jonah in his car and she rides her bike for 45 minutes to an hour. I love her giggle of joy in the swimming video. Enjoy!

The Past Two Months

We have had lots of fun time with Nana and Papaw these past few months.

Love this cheesy grin!

He can't have many treats, but corn on the cob is his favorite!

Love his sweet smile!

Daddy styled Jonah's hair

The kids love the laundry basket

Emma has a new love for dress up. She and Sarhea enjoyed playing dress up together.

Flowers from my sweet husband on our anniversary

With one of Daddy's day's off we went and met Papaw for lunch downtown. Emma loved walking around and looking at the buildings and Jonah loved the busy streets!

Emma's pretty painted toes

Emma eats corn on the cob like candy. She loves it!

Jonah sporting his red's hat from Uncle Ben and Aunt Erin

Changes

So, it has been almost two months since I last updated either blog. It has been a crazy two months. The quick version is that Mike accepted a job in Charleston, SC at Blackbaud as a Solutions Consultant. The same week we found out that baby #3 was on his/her way. We have spent the past two months finding and buying our first house, dealing with the challenges that I have faced with this pregnancy, and preparing to leave Cincinnati behind and move 10 hours away. Mike started the new job on August 1 and went ahead of us, leaving me in Cincinnati with the two little ones, all of the moving preparations, and the drama of this pregnancy. Today the movers are here packing and tomorrow they will load the truck. On Wednesday the kids and I will head to South Carolina. We have been overwhelmed by the Lord's blessing and guidance in this whole process. We are excited to see what Charleston has in store for us...along with alligators, fire ants, sharks, jellyfish, huge roaches, extreme heat...It promises to be exciting!

St. Louis

Jonah got a hold of this roll of paper towel. It was so cute that mom and I did not have the heart to stop him. He had so much fun.

Uncle Ben and Aunt Erin had Emma over for dinner and to play. She was so excited to go see their house and spend time with them!

Emma enjoying her cone from Fritz's

Jonah playing in the church nursery.

Enjoying time playing in the pool

Lots of Playtime!

Jonah enjoyed the train and wooden cars.

Jonah wasn't so sure about the pool. He finally figured out that he could splash and that seemed to change his mind.

Mike had a business trip to Hawaii so the kids and I went to St. Louis for a change of scenery. Here are a few highlights from the trip. My personal highlight was having the time to play with Jonah. We were grateful for the opportunity to be loved on by Grammy and Poppa and spend some time with Uncle Ben and Aunt Erin. At the end of the trip Mike flew into St. Louis and the following morning he and I flew out to Charleston and left the kids with Grammy and Poppa for three days.


Jonah playing with the paper towel roll

Learning to Write

Emma has been essentially NOT INTERESTED in learning her letters. She knows E. I know she has the capacity to learn them, but I have made myself the promise that I would not allow my teacher side to push her and steal her love of learning by forcing it on her. She asked me last week to teach her to write her name. Here are the Es that she did on her own two days latter. Nice. It has been a week...no more interest in learning anymore. I am proud of her E though!

Baby Leah

Emma and I had the opportunity to go to Chicago to meet Leah! Jonah stayed home with Daddy and Emma and I left from church to make the five hour drive to Uncle Andrew and Aunt Abby's...or should I say it should take five hours. The trip started out well until Emma insisted on going potty. I knew she didn't need to but we stopped anyway at a Wendy's. I had packed lunch so we didn't need to stop to order food, but as soon as we opened the door I realized that someone had vomited and they literally had taken a hose to the bathroom. Every surface was dripping with water and it smelled like vomit. And, you guessed it, Emma announced that she didn't need to go. Ok, I took a deep breath and acted like it was no big deal. We got back in the car and kept driving. Emma took a 20 minute nap and then we hit traffic. We sat in traffic, going a maximum of five miles an hour for about 40 minutes when Emma needed to go potty. Thankfully, there was a rest stop just ahead. We made it in time and got back in the car to continue sitting in traffic. I was no more than a tenth of a mile from the rest stop when a truck driver yelled in my window that I had a flat tire. I pulled over and sure enough, it was flat. Not just flat, but shredded...going one mile an hour for 100 yards...I really would love to know what happened. As I was getting my phone out to call AAA, a van pulled over to help. A sweet man traveling with his wife and two small kids helped change the tire. The spare was flat, but he had a pump and got it filled. Then he noticed the spare had a patch on it and was not comfortable with me driving the rest of the way to Chicago on that tire. He got us going and stayed with us for another 45 minutes of traffic until we got to an exit. From there, Mike found a Sam's that was still open with the tire we needed. A half hour later we were back in the car and got to Chicago only to sit in another hour of traffic there. By the time we got to Andrew and Abby's, I was an emotional wreck. I looked at Leah and went to go to the bathroom and wash my hands. It was then that I realized I had gotten ticks on the side of the road while changing the tire and they were crawling on and attaching to me. There was one in my hair, one on my neck, and one on my leg. Andrew carefully removed them for me. Finally, I got to hold my sweet little niece I had been waiting two months to hold - worth every second of the drive!

We had a wonderful visit and left the next morning to come home. Emma was AMAZING on the way up. She was a champ and didn't cry or whine with the traffic or the tire ordeal. She made up for it on the way home. She screamed and cried for me to hold her the majority of the way home. Along with that, we hit another hour of construction and an hour of traffic in Indianapolis. Seven hours home...

Amidst the craziness, I only snapped a few pictures. Abby took more. Emma was so happy to hold Leah and help feed her. She had a great time with Sam and they invented "Kaboom Hugs" - essentially body slam hugs! I wish we lived closer!

I was so thankful for the MANY ways the Lord protected and provided for us on the trip and enjoyed every second of my time with Andrew, Abby, Sam, and Leah! We can't wait to see them again, but we can wait to make that drive again!