In My Mind I'm Going to Carolina

The week before Thanksgiving, we listed our house on the market:

(my instagram post :)

Coming Soon

While I was at the beach with my small group of women, we received an offer on our house the first day, and we accepted it with minimal negotiations. The Lord completely provided for us, as I was feeling very overwhelmed getting our home ready to put on the market (and to show it) with 2 young children and a dog.  And the buyers were in our same situation, relocating from Connecticut, away from all their friends and family, to sweet Birmingham, Alabama.

Andy came up to Charlotte several times, and finally narrowed down the wild home search to one, literally one, house that worked for our family. There isn't much on the market around the winter holidays, and couple in the high price market in Charlotte, required a great deal of trust on my part that the Lord was truly in charge of every single detail in our moving journey.

Here it is!

Andy (and dog)  moved up on New Year's Eve and was invited to the neighborhood party that night and met so many nice people.  I stayed at my parents' house a few days, and then headed up with the kids. We amazingly got the majority of the boxes unpacked in the first 30ish hours, and then my mom stayed that week to help hang, straighten, watch kids, etc.

Our address number is 710, and God revealed an amazing verse to me, with our house address (yet another  affirmation of His sovereign plan over every.single.detail.)

2 Samuel 7:10-11  "And I (God) will provide a place for my people...and will plant them so they can have a home of their own...The Lord himself will establish a house for you."

So here we are, and while I have certainly had my melancholy days of missing family and my best best friends back in Birmingham, I know (that I know, that I know) that God has us here, not only for Andy's job, but to minister to our neighbors, to raise our children here, and I am excited to see everything He has in store for us.

 Helping mommy unpack in mommy's closet

 Thank you, random Easter eggs, for entertaining Ellie so I could unpack the kitchen

 Just chillin' at the Fort Mill dinner hot spot

 Our first overnight visitors!  (GiGi was taking the picture)

First date night in Fort Mill at the Fish Market

 Does this stress anyone else out? Moving Day

 

 2 days later...making progress

 Moving Day

2 days later

GiGi relaxing by the fire on our outdoor porch

Christmas 2013

A Christmas update in pictures.  We had fun celebrating Christmas at home, and then headed over to my parents' house to open gifts with my family and grandparents.  Merry Christmas!

 Zoolight Safari

 Classic

 Our Christmas card 2013

 (back of card)

 Christmas Eve service

Uncle JJ is in town!

(check out his band, The Roosevelts, if you're in Austin)

 Checking out his new choo-choo from Papaw...a huge hit

 Ellie's first gift to open

 Playdate with our friend Ford

Ellie is ONE

Our sweet  Ellie girl is ONE!  She is such a delight in our lives, so full of personality, and I think she'll hold her own with big brother just fine. We had a small "Pretty in Pink" family birthday party for her this past weekend.  An easy and delicious brunch, and we were grateful for the family we got to spend time with during this busy holiday season.

At the pediatrician today, Ellie weighed: 21.8 lbs (75-90%); height 29 inches (50%); HC 17 3/4
(And Jackson weighed 29.2 lbs 25-50%; 36 inches 25%)

She loved the Hummingbird Cake I made her.  But it's a Southern Living recipe, so what is not to love?

Ellie will eat pretty much anything now, and loves crackers, the soft crust of pizza, chicken fingers, baby purees, Puffs, Cheerios.  She still nurses every 3-4 hours, goes to sleep around 5:30/6 pm, and sleeps until the 4-6 am range.  2 naps/day. Always babbling, loves to "squawk" at Jackson, loves the dog, waves to everyone, claps all the time, crawls so fast and is into everything.  Love her so!

Ellie 11 Months

One more month until my baby turns ONE!  Happy 11 months sweet girl. 

 War Eagle Baby!

 Sweet big brother, always lookin' out for sissy

You constantly have us laughing at your antics, the flapping of your arms, and the quick way you crawl from one place to another, helping mommy to "clean" and "reorganize."

This month you've tried, and LOVED, chicken fingers, mama's pumpkin bread, finally starting to like banana, Puffs are still your favorite.

Bottom left pic: Ellie is upset we told her NO when she tried to touch the Christmas tree

Napping 2 times a day, sleeps from 5:45ish pm until around 5 am.  Pulling up on everything, getting into brother's toys.  He shares with you, for the most part, and is really really sweet with you.