our little bunny rabbit

the fortneys and the whites after trick or treating

caroline and rafe outside the aquarium, "fish or treat"

okay, enough pictures, can we please go get some candy?

the fam

checking out the fish

caroline loves the snakes...seriously, she really does!!!

the "monster mash" party at the aquarium...she did actually dance some!

let's go trick or treating!

there is no way i'm going up to that house...it had a dancing skeleton!

hmmmm....so many choices!

come on rafe...so many houses, so little time

we're exhausted

caroline (love the face) and daddy

we had such a fun halloween this year! 2 seems to be the perfect age to trick or treat. caroline really understood how to do it all. loved getting dressed up, loved saying "trick or treat" and loved getting candy! our friends mandi, cory, rafe and gram (mandi's mom) came over to trick or treat with us and we had a blast. it was about 75 degrees so the bunny costume was perfect and no jacket needed. another benefit of living on the coast :) caroline and rafe walked their little legs off. the only thing caroline did not like were the 2 houses with dancing skeletons. she was s-c-a-r-e-d and nothing, not even candy, convinced her to venture up to them. she did, however, love the houses that had puppy dogs. it's so funny b/c she hasn't even cared about eating the candy today. she just likes to look at all of it and ask me what each one is. she kept calling the lollipops popsicles!

on monday night, we went to the aquarium where they had "fish or treat". it was so fun, definitely something to do again. they had the aquarium decked out and candy was being handed out everywhere. there was a monster mash party in one section where rafe and caroline got to dance. rafe is quite the dancer and way out shines caroline on the dance floor. he'll be every girl's favorite party date in the future :) caroline was terrified by 2 dads who were dressed up as wolves...think michael j. fox in "teen wolf". she literally screamed and shook when she spotted the first one. i have literally never seen her like that. i thought she was hurt or something. when it was time to trick or treat last night, she asked me several times if there would any wolf, wolfs. i assured her she would be protected. it was a reminder to me, though, how some of the images on this day are not good. why on earth a dad (2 of them) would dress up like that with a million little kids around is beyond me. on the other hand, it is another opportunity for us to teach and remind caroline that God protects her and watches over her all the time.

i'm hoping to post more pictures in the next few days of our trip home to georgia. i've got a million!!!

i'm alive!!

caroline at burt's pumpkin farm in north georgia

just wanted everyone to know i'm alive!!! i've been out of town for the last week and have lots of things to blog about and pictures to post, but i'm having trouble finding the time. i'm going to get through halloween tomorrow and then i promise to catch everyone up on what we've been doing...the picture above is a preview!!

caroline's quote of the day (we drove by our house that's being built yesterday)
caroline: that's our house?
mommy: that's it!
caroline: are they going to have toys for me in it? (not sure who "they" is)
mommy: yes, all of your toys will live in the house, too.
caroline: oh, okay, just checking!

last caroline uti update...at least for now :)

we spent 2 hours at the pediatric urologist today and basically, they can't explain why she got the uti. i really wasn't expecting a reason. the doctor was very friendly (grandfatherly with a british accent) and was really good with caroline. side note, one thing that bothers me about almost all doctors though, including my husband at times, is they way they speak to you. i mean, really, do you think i understand the 50 medical terms all packed into one sentence in about thirty seconds?? i didn't go to medical school (thank god!). john has done this to me, too, and i have asked him to please not speak to his patients that way. it's confusing and it just makes you feel stupid. the doctor today had a resident and 2 med students with him and he was "pimping" them (john's term) the whole time. that lovely term means asking them questions and putting them in the hot seat about caroline's case. i felt proud that i knew the answer to his first question before either of the med students did. don't worry, i didn't pipe up with my answer :) anyway, long story short, they're puzzled by the fact that she had 2 separate infections (2 different bacteria) and doesn't have any physical anomalies in her kidneys or bladder. he is going to keep her on a low dose of antibiotic for 3 more months just to be on the safe side. he didn't feel comfortable totally letting us go without any medical measures so that's what we'll do. he also kept saying it would be good to get her potty trained....no joke i wanted to say! kind of hard to potty train when she's had a uti for 2 months, don't you think? i've been kicking myself that we didn't potty train her before we moved b/c maybe none of this would have happend. we thought she might regress with all the change and transition. oh well, live and learn. needless to say, we'll be focusing on that in the very near future :) thanks for all your prayers for caroline...we appreciate them more than you know :)

**funny quote of the day (i went into the bathroom while daddy was going potty)
caroline: mommy, don't go in there!
mommy: why not?
caroline: you might fall into daddy's poopy!

doctor caroline fortney

caroline checking daddy's blood pressure

giving daddy some medicine

checking out the ears

chekcing out his throat...this is the worst b/c she thinks it has to touch your tongue

daddy's temp looks normal...all done and time to start over!

caroline and abby trying to talk to chessy (the dog) through the window

getting a closer look

caroline and papa relaxing together after a busy weekend

caroline is obsessed with "doctoring". there is a little girl at church who doctored her one night in the nursery during our small group and she is now hooked. there is no money in the budget for a new doctor's kit so i dropped by the local children's consignment shop and found a sesame street one for $2. after a good disinfecting bath, it was ready to go. caroline wants to doctor us or have us doctor her constantly. seriously, it's getting old. at night, before bed, she'll say "1 more time" one million times before we finally put a stop to it. above are a few pixs of caroline doctoring daddy. he was a very good patient :)

on a different note, caroline had her final uti test this morning at the hospital. all things considered, she did really well. they laid her on the big table with the xray machine over her and she didn't even whimper. even when they cathed her to empty her bladder and fill her bladder back up with dye, she only shed a few tears. however, when it was time to pee the dye out, she wasn't having it. she just kept saying "i don't want to". she's gotten so used to holding her pee in b/c of the pain. anyway, after what seemed like an eternity and lots of bribes from me (lollipops, stickers, ice cream, etc..) she finally went. praise the Lord, the test showed no reflux at all. i'm so thankful. we go tomorrow to the ped urologist for our follow up so i'm sure he'll explain to me some of the reasons why she's been getting these. we'll keep you posted, but for now, we give God all the praise and glory for healing her body. and, we'll be heading out tonight with daddy to get ice cream :)

**also above are a few more pixs of our trip to marietta...i particularly like the one of caroline laying on her papa as he slept. that's what 3 grandkids 4 and under will do to a guy!!

what a weekend!!!

andrew, day 2

love this pix, he looks so small all curled up on papa

caroline and grammie

let's check out those fingers

this is my favorite baby doll yet!

andrew and grammie

almost looks like a tiny smile

dave thinks andrew's new outfit from us is "so sweet"!

caroline trying to get as close as humanly possible

big sis sarah patting andrew's head

i love newborn feet and toes!

i could just eat him up!

daddy and luke getting some much needed loving from each other

proud big bro and big sis

they had the best door on the hall

the official stats

the three musketeers watching dora at grammie and papa's house

papa taking the kids on their morning wagon ride

not much room left for little andrew!

mimi, sarah, caroline, luke and grandbob
(their great-grandparents)

caroline and grandbob holding hands...love this pix!!

me with the gang

caroline, katie and bekah

bekah and caroline, 2 angels!

be careful...if you take pixs with my camera, they will make it on the blog :)

caroline is in love!

caroline giving some love to cousin andrew...can you tell this girl wants to be a big sis??

we are back in charleston and are just a little tired from such an awesome time at home. we literally didn't stop at all the entire time. we never even had time for caroline to take a nap. yes, that's right, 4 days with no nap. we didn't get back until 9pm last night and we are feeling it today. poor girl almost fell asleep during kindermusik this morning, which is very unusual for her. i have to say, we were very, very happy to see daddy. we missed him lots :) i think he might have missed us, too! lots more pixs above of our trip home...