this was one of mom's gifts to dad - very subtle!

my precious baby girl!

having some help blowing out the candles

the b'day boys' cake

the three amigas, abigail, caroline and kaitlin at "kangaroo bob's" jumpy place

baby david and his gorgeous momma, garrett

david frasure hunter, III

grandma drying caroline and kaitlin off after a dip in the lake

the beautiful b'day girl...inside and out!

bekah's two very eager helpers!

blowing out her candles

Rebekah's 10th Birthday

this is what caroline looks like with a 104 temp

the fortney family - minus daddy who had to work

the shaw family - #3 will make his debut october 12th!

daddy/uncle david swimming with the kids

the kids checking out the horse before the carriage ride

papa, lauren, caroline and sarah's sand castle

what is so funny, caroline?

playing in the sand

caroline

luke in swim googles

caroline and luke

sarah enjoying one of her very favorite things in life, chocolate ice cream

john reading to the little ones before naptime

caroline and john on the cole family vacation

caroline and john strking a pose on the bike

the view while biking

we've had a great weekend! yesterday, we went out to folly beach and ate at one our favorites, the lost dog cafe, and then went biking on the beach. i've been wanting to get a bike so we rented some for me to try and it was a blast! my thighs felt like they were going to explode when we were going against the wind, haven't worked those muscles in a long while. caroline loved it and looked especially cool in her helmet, hot pink with bunny rabbits on the front. we worked up a sweat and then played in the ocean for a while. this is the life!
we visited an awesome church for the second time this morning. it's really close to us and the praise and worship is awesome! our first visit last week i knew i would like it when i could hear the music from the parking lot. the pastor is really good and very easy to understand. he's from boston and i love the way he talks! it's diverse and we love that. last week, after the service, i felt a tap on my shoulder and there was our neighbor susan. she's been going for about a month. we sat with her today and worshipped together. we signed up for a small group, which we're excited about. john and i have missed having that deeper connection with other believers consistently on a weekly basis. i think this might be where the Lord wants us, but we'll see.
oh, on another note, one of our very favorite restaurants, anchor line, has moved from it's location on the river at folly. our families will be sad. we drove by last week and they were putting up a sign about it. this past saturday, we drove by and it was completley deserted. no sign, no tables on the screened porch area and the big wall near the parking area with the fish on it is no more. apparently, they're moving farther inland on james island. not sure if we will still love it as much. it won't be the same for sure!
caroline has been struggling with a urinary tract infection for a month. she was diagnosed at the end of our vacation in august after a trip to the pediatric er with a high fever and being cathed to get a urine sample...no fun! well, she went on antibiotic and it seemed to go away, but last week she started showing symptoms again. i took her to the pediatrician and they had to cath her again and sure enough, it was a uti. they've started her on antibiotic again so pray it works well this time. she's a trooper and has been great through it all. the nurse at the pediatrician's office said it was the easiest cath she's ever done on a child. that's my girl!!
i'm attaching a few pixs from biking and a ton of random pixs from vaction with my family in august and my trip home to ga in august, which included lots of b'days. enjoy!!

Caroline's First Day of School

i'm ready!

can you tell which kid doesn't like to smile???

okay, we've had enough posing......

don't even think about getting a smile out of me!

caroline started her new "preschool" yesterday and had a great time! she went last year in b'ham 1 day/week and this year she's going 2 days/week. when we walked in, there were kids crying and she looked a little scared and said "mommy coming with me?". i was much sadder than i expected to be when i left her. i thought i was already a pro at this thing, but i still had to fight tears pulling out of the parking lot. her two buddies, owen and rafe, are in her class, which is a blessing. when i picked her up, she said she'd had a good time and yesterday after her nap she asked me when she was going back to school. i'm attaching some pixs...note how caroline is not smiling in any of them. this girl is definitely NOT into posing for pictures much to my dismay!!

Happy Birthday Abigail Marie!!

one of my favorite pixs of the b'day girl from our beach trip in july!

abigail marie, 1 day old

happy 2nd birthday to abby!!! we're so thankful for you and hope you have had a wonderful birthday weekend. caroline has been saying "happy birthday, abby" all day...lots of love to you, sweet girl!

Happy Birthday David and Happy Party to Abby!

how cute am I? and, i can already read!

i'm getting me some of this today, except it will be blue's clues!

wow, lauren, this book you gave me that i already have is awesome!

i call this dave's "zoolander" pose!

dave slightly enthusiastic about blowing out the candles!

happy birthday to our brother-in-law, david!!! you're an awesome hubby and father and we're so thankful God put you in our family. we hope you have an awesome day today. i'll never forget the first time i met you, the night before my merit chemistry final and i thought, man, this guy is funny and i really hoped you would be "the one" for my sis. above are some pixs of when we celebrated dave and dad's b'day when i was in georgia. a few are particularly good of you, dave!
also, happy party day to our niece, abigail! she will officially turn 2 on monday, but her party is today. we're so sad that we're going to miss it. i was telling caroline about it yesterday and this morning she woke up and said "we're going to abby's party and i'm going to wear a party hat". somehow, it got lost in translation that we weren't going to actually be there! sad! these are the times we really don't like being away from family...it's no fun to miss out on celebrating these special days with them! i've attached a few pixs of precious abby, too.

ernesto who?

shannon and caroline having a blast bouncing in the crib!

taking care of their baby dolls

caroline and shannon, best buds!

ernesto was a dud...we got lots of rain, but that was about it. have to be honest, i was kind of disappointed in a way. but, i have water that will last for days!! on the other hand, john was at home so we watched a movie when caroline napped. we had to keep stopping it when john got paged so it took us forever. "crash" is a great movie and very thought provoking, it slaps you in the face.
also, i changed the comments setting so that anyone can post a comment, not just people who register with blogger. so post away...i love reading them!!!
i'm attaching some pixs of our neighbor shannon and caroline playing together. we hang out with them usually once a week or so. we've been gone lots lately so they were missing each other. shannon loves dora and lord knows we have enough dora stuff around here!

this is how you would look if you biked 20 miles today....

daddy, how does this thing work again? i'm thinking of biking to mother's morning out next week.

are you kidding me? i'm not tired at all!

john, the biking machine!!

ernesto is headed our way!

owen and caroline sitting in the hole we dug for them

you talking to me, mommy?

owen and caroline

my camera was a little cold!

i guess we will officially be christened as lowcountry residents tomorrow when ernesto comes to town. whether he will be a tropical storm or hurricane is yet to be seen, but i'm sure it will be interesting. john's dept is closed tomorrow so he'll be home with us. i've stocked up on water, canned goods, batteries, candles, etc. and made a big pot of soup today so we should be good to go. a friend and i took our kids to the beach today and she said they wouldn't evacuate even if it was a category 1 or 2 and she lives much farther inland than me. she's "experienced" with this kind of thing unlike myself. one time, they evacuated for one and spent 18 hours on the interstate trying to get to columbia. keep in mind, columbia is maybe 100 miles away!! talk about insanity. so, we'll let you know how it goes tomorrow with 'ole ernesto!
on a different note, john biked to work today. it's about 10 miles one way and he said he wasn't sure if it was worth it until he went over the bridge to downtown and saw dolphins playing in the water below. how many people get to see that on the way to work? he's going to be wiped out tonight after 20 miles of biking. only john!!! that's why i love him so much!
i've posted some pixs of our trip to the beach today with allison and owen...they're so much fun to hang out with!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!!

papa reading to sarah, luke and caroline

Happy Birthday to my dad!! Thanks for being the most wonderful father and papa in the world. We are so blessed by you, old man!!!

quotes of the week

we've had lots going on the past 2 weeks so i'm going to post about all of it with pixs sometime in the next few days. in the meantime, here are 2 quotes from my 4 year old niece, sarah....

aunt lauren: sarah, do you need to go poopy?
sarah: no, i only go on saturdays and its....(can't remember what day it is)
aunt lauren: it's wednesday
sarah: oh, well, i only go on sundays

the following conversation took place while me, my sister and our mom were getting the kids ready for bed and we thought somebody had a poopy diaper...

kristen (smelling luke): it's not a poopy, but it is.....
lauren: gaseous?
sarah: gaseous? that's a funny name! i think i'll name my baby gaseous

caroline's quote of the day

(getting a hot dog ready for dinner)

grammie: i know someone who likes ketchup!?
caroline: baby jesus

caroline's quote of the day

(the following was overhead while caroline was supposed to be taking a nap)

caroline: we did it, yea! lo hicimos, we did it! yea!

love and don't love

john and caroline at splash zone on james island
picture courtesy of allison and her awesome camera!

ten things i love about charleston...
1) being close to the beach
2) people are so nice
3) awesome restaurants - will take all 4 yrs to try them
4) fun stuff for kids - beach, children's museum, water parks, etc..
5) all the history of the city
6) our neighbors
7) wonderful new friends
8) water, water everywhere
9) my husband loves his job
10) beautiful weather

ten things i don't love about charleston...
1) being 6 hrs from our family
2) housing market - EXPENSIVE!
3) traffic
can't think of anything else!!!

fun weekend!

anthony, anna and emily dragun

musc radiation oncology (l-r) james, anthony, john and john

caroline and anna dragun

caroline and rafe aren't ready to leave

caroline, corey and rafe at the beach

caroline at kindermusik

we had such a fun weekend! friday, caroline finished up her week long kindermusik class and we went to lunch with emily, mandi (moms) and their kids, anna and rafe. that night, we ate at anchor line, the best and cheapest seafood in charleston, with mandi, hubby corey and rafe. after dinner, we drove down to folly beach and walked on the beach. rafe and caroline had a blast getting sand all over themselves and running around on the beach. it was awesome! caroline wanted to swim in the ocean, but we didn't have a bathing suit. she was confused why we would come and not swim!

saturday, we went to splash zone on james island (think white water scaled down very small) and ran into our friends allison and rob and their little boy owen. allison and i met at the water park and have hung out with the kids several times, but our husbands had never met. we enjoyed hanging out with them so much. they're a great family and owen is such a cutie pie. he and caroline held hands walking to and from lunch...so sweet! they will be in the same preschool together in the fall along with rafe so that's awesome for caroline.
saturday night, emily and anthony dragun (the chief resident in the radiational oncology dept) hosted a welcome party for us at their beautiful home on james island. they have got to be the sweetest people in the world! emily and anna were in kindermusik with us all last week so caroline and anna were already little friends. anthony blessed us with his barbecue skills, which are very impressive. the food was delicious along with emily's cornbread casserole, greens, apple slaw and peach trifle for dessert. yummy! i got to meet the other residens, james and john and get to know them better. we were just blessed by all the trouble anthony and emily went to and it made us again feel so thankful that the Lord has placed us here.
sunday, we visited another church, which we will not be going back to again. nothing awful about it, just not where we feel led. seemed a little too televangelist for us. ate at moe's at caroline's request and then went over to john's island and explored a little bit. we love just driving around here. it's so beautiful! tomorrow, caroline and i are meeting allison, owen, mandi and rafe at the children's museum, which is so cool. i'm so thankful for all the friends the Lord has already given me. He has been so faithful in that area.....

still love our ugandan neighbors

yesterday, susan (neighbor from uganda) came over while caroline was napping. we had such a great time talking and visiting. 2 more things that i think are great about uganda/africa...
1) fat women are considered beautiful (fat was susan's word of choice, not mine)
2) gaps in your teeth are considered beautiful
the teeth thing came up when susan saw that caroline has a gap in her front teeth from sucking her thumb. susan said she used to try to put her finger in between her front teeth to make a gap. how funny! she is so easy to talk to and so fun to be around. later, after john came home from work and we ate dinner, we decided to go swim in our neighborhood pool for the first time. we knocked on susan and raymond's door on our way and asked if they wanted to join us. raymond was tired from work so he took a nap, but susan and shannon came a little later. caroline was so cute. as soon as she saw shannon, she yelled "my friend, my friend!". shannon is such a beautiful little girl. she has gorgeous big brown eyes and is tall and skinny. i need to get a picture of all of them to post. it took a few minutes for shannon to warm up to the water, but after a while, she was having a blast. she's still working on her english so she didn't say a lot, but her smile spoke volumes. we played for a long time until it started getting dark and then walked back. caroline and shannon gave each other kisses goodbye. how sweet!!! can't wait to hang out with them again....

caroline's quote of the day

#1 - walking out of a very chilly barnes and noble

caroline: it's so hot, mommy!
mommy: it is hot, isn't it!
caroline: mommy, can you pease turn the air on?

#2 - standing outside on our screened porch looking at the pond

caroline: there's our riber, mommy
mommy: there it is, it never moves
caroline: we need a boat, mommy
mommy: you're right, we do
caroline: i'll tell daddy

**she may not look like daddy, but she thinks like him when it comes to water...loves anything and everything to do with it!

caroline's quote of the day

(the following was overhead while daddy was giving caroline a bath)

caroline: i pooted (giggling)
daddy: you did (said with pride)

**daddy and caroline's favorite and funniest conversations usually revolve around the word "poot" and "poopy"... i know you're shocked!

quote of the day

(in the car riding home as the sun is setting)

caroline: look mommy, there's the sun!
mommy: yeah, you're right, it is the sun
caroline: it's so petty
mommy: it is pretty
caroline: it's pink and lellow
mommy: yes it is
caroline: it goes round n' round like circle