Going to Carolina

Well, actually, we are coming from Carolina. We are officially Alabamians, and our beach cottage is now just a fond memory. Living in South Carolina will always be one of the most treasured times of our lives. There were so many special memories there, most importantly, the birth of our daughter. There are some things that I don't miss: Bike Weeks, 11 hours from grandparents, 9 hours from most of our friends, cut-off t-shirts, overweight women in string bikinis, "the strip", horrible BBQ...BUT, below are some pictures of the things that I do miss and will always miss of my Carolina home.

Family walks on the beach..........

My family away from home.... Lindsey (above) and Brooke (below). I first met Brooke after about 3 weeks of living in South Carolina. Her husband worked in the athletic dept at CCU, so we automatically hit it off. Brooke was my lifesaver in so many instances, and I don't know what I would have done without her the first few months of our move. Lindsey moved to Myrtle Beach the end of the summer last year, and we met her and her husband and son through church. Ironically, her husband also works at CCU as a stat professor. All 3 of us shared similar stories in that we were far away from family and had to learn to do things on our own. I shared many many "growing" moments with them and a lot of "venting" sessions with them when I was worn out from all of Scott's travels and lonely with a 1-2 year old. Girls--- You will always be considered family to me, and I look forward to many adventures with you. Even though I am a few miles away from you momentarily, you are super duper close in my heart. I look forward to the day when Brooke's husband, Patrick, is the Athletic Director at Auburn and can give me all the free tickets to football & basketball games that I want (with free food of course) and also to the day that Nick, Lindsey's husband, can be the Stat professor at Vanderbilt and give my children all A's in their stat classes. (And of course, most importantly the fact that you would be just a hop skip and a jump from us :o))

The Marsh of Murrells Inlet (our sweet town)

Thank you God for all of the precious memories, and we hope that we will be "Going to Carolina" again very soon.

Let's Talk about Six.... and Seven

I forget how much I love the 6 month and 7 month old baby stages. They have so much personality, but they can't go anywhere! Right now, her personality most resembles that of a black bear. She's laid back, extremely cuddly, and quite fun to look at... but watch out, because if this little bear gets hungry, you better take cover immediately (and buy some earplugs). I love the fact that she has some fiestiness in her.

Caroline, at 6 months you were sitting up on your own and babbling "da-da". You LOVE to dance, and Eli has dedicated the song "I Like em Big and Chunky" from Madagascar 2 to you. Now I never want you to be self-conscious about your body, but if your thighs remain their same consistency 2 years from now, I'll be forced into signing you up for Toddler Weight Watchers. You're up on all fours all day long, but haven't quite figured out how to quite move those chunky thighs. You kind of have a bear crawl thing going, which again, fits your personality. I'm really ok with you waiting a bit to crawl, if it's at 25 months, just know that I am TOTALLY fine with that.

We love you with all of our hearts Caroline Bear.

A hungry bear who loves to suck her toe- gross I know-- but what can you do?

Watch out.... she's growling........