Emma's Birthday

Emma had a wonderful birthday! She was blessed to celebrate it with Grammy and Poppa and Ms. Miller and Mariela. She had a special breakfast followed by a trip to the beach and a special dinner party. She was showered with gifts and has genuinely played with each of them just about every day. We are so thankful for our little girl!

Grammy made Emma elephant, lion, and monkey chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast

So Cute!

Birthday Breakfast

Jonah was obsessed with the birthday balloon. Emma was very sweet and just let him play with it all day...until it had a run in with the ceiling fan and lost

She finally got her kitchen!

Playing Birthday with her Babies

Poppa played in the waves with her

She and Jonah enjoyed playing in the sand

We were so thankful to have Ms. Miller and Mariela join us to celebrate. That took away a little of the sting that she could not have a girl party with all of her friends in Cincinnati.

Mariela and Emma enjoying her birthday dinner

Emma wanted a yellow and pink cake. Beside the fact that the colors were vibrant to say the least, the icing was a disaster (I have made the icing so many times before) and the cake split in half (they were the most perfect cakes I have ever made so I don't know why it cracked). I had no more energy to redo the cake and since she helped make it and was excited about it, we enjoyed the unique cake Emma had!

Oh yes, the icing was falling off of the cake - it was horrible

Happy Birthday to you, Emma Kate!

She enjoyed her cake

After her birthday we rearranged her room to make a "house" in the cove where her bed had been. She is so excited to have her own house and plays up there all the time.

Grammy and Poppa in SC

Grammy and Poppa just left after spending a week with us. They came for Emma's birthday and to help us get some projects done on the house. While they were here we had some awful weather and a lot of rain along with incredible humidity and heat. Poppa did help get the front and back porches painted as well as the kitchen painted in addition to a bunch of other tasks. Grammy scrubbed the wallpaper paste off of the walls in the kitchen and helped strip the wallpaper in Jonah's room as well as made many meals and treats for us. We did make it to the beach twice and enjoyed the beautiful weather when we had it. We are so thankful for the time we had with them!

Celebrating Emma's birthday at the beach

On the Waterfront

Emma was so excited to show Grammy and Poppa how she can ride her bike. I was excited to have someone else take them for a walk!

Jonah entertained himself by building a tower out of cans from the pantry.

We went to dinner at the Crab House. Emma has been fascinated by this restaurant since Grammy's first visit, so we took her there for some seafood.

Jonah had Poppa read this book dozens of times. Poppa made the best truck noises and Jonah would giggle and try to imitate Poppa.

We were able to use our pass to the Aquarium to take Grammy and Poppa. It wasn't very crowded so Jonah was able to run around and he had the best time! Emma enjoyed watching all of the fish in the huge tank.

Emma worked up enough courage to touch a horseshoe crab.

New House

Our New Home

Yes, we have already been here just about 6 weeks. I am finally uploading those pictures from the move. We have made a lot of progress on the house and my goal is to take those pictures and get them up in the next few weeks. For now, here is a look at the first few days of life settling into South Carolina.

The Truck

Lots of boxes to unpack

Emma played in the garage all day. She talked with the movers and played with her toys while they unloaded. She was dripping with sweat but happy as can be!

Unloading the truck

Jonah was excited to put together and finally play with some of his birthday toys

Jonah really enjoyed the water

Emma was not sure about the sand moving under her feet. Overall the experience overwhelmed her and freaked her out a little bit.

Jonah took a huge handful of sand and shoved it into his mouth. He has not done that again.

He loves splashing!

Dining Room

Living Room into the Kitchen

Our Bedroom

Guest Room

Living Room

Emma's Room

Backyard and Screened in porch - most of the screens had holes or were torn and it was filthy

The kitchen

Our Eat-in-Kitchen area complete with our fancy folding table and chairs

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!