Living among the lizards.

This little guy was on our window yesterday. You cannot tell from this picture but he is actually missing a foot. These little boogers are resilient. There was a huge one on the playground the other day that had no tail at all. We are just not used to having lizards everywhere. Where we live kind of reminds me of a rainforest...there are critters everywhere. Something I cannot get used to -- palmetto bugs. I'm sorry but let's call a spade a spade... they are roaches, that can fly none the less! Eek. 

This very sweet girl is growing up right before our very eyes. She is so much fun. 

  A few of her most recent happenings:

- She is going peepee and poopoo in the potty! Not every time, but she is getting close. Yeah SJ! 

- She talks so clearly and in sentences. She still jumbles words up a little and it makes us smile. A few of her favorites... "You come with a me?"  "I help mommy."  "I miss you really much." "God is able. Jesus loves (yuvs) me." "I big girl, mommy." "You a nut." Oh and she loves so say her full name when we ask her... "Scarlett Jean Owen."

Just today I heard her telling her little monkey pull toy that rolls on the floor, "God is able, Jesus "yuvs" you, monk-ney." I had a moment in the kitchen as I was loading the dishwasher... Melt my heart. 

- She lacks nothing in the department of expressiveness. The girl has no future in the game of poker, that is for sure :) 

 - She plays so well just on her own. I try very hard to make sure she can help me with whatever I am doing either in the kitchen or laundry room, but I do think it is a learned skill to play on your own. I am so thankful she can do that. 

 - She is my little shadow these days. Mommy must be present and accounted for at all times. That's why I was so proud of her for going to Sunday School at church. I recognize that our move was a very big adjustment for her and it may take a couple months before things start to feel normal. I feel the same way sometimes! 

My BIG girl. She and I have this little song that we sing that just says "baby girl...baby girl...." Today I was singing it to her and she stopped me and said, "No mommy, I not baby girl anymore." Well! That is another one of her favorite phrases -- "I anything she normally does doing dat anymore." Ha! 

Every evening we take a walk to "see the crabbies." It's a little tradition we have already set. Scarlett loves it. She has not held one on her own yet, but it took me a couple days to work up the courage too! 

 Here are the cute, tiny, brown crabs we hunt for each evening. Daddy is now a pro at finding them and holding them. They are quick! But at first glance they look like spiders... that's why I had to work up the nerve to hold one. But I did it... Mitch said I should so Scarlett wouldn't be afraid. Ah, what motherhood will make you do :) 

Here is the sunset over the marsh in our neighborhood. 

We went down to the boat dock at sunset and it was breathtaking. 

Gorgeous Carolina sky over the river....

The outer-part of the marsh. 

Scarlett is so right...God is able... just look at His creation. 

wonderful weekend.

We have had a wonderful weekend here and I hope you have had the same too! 

Friday night is always pizza night at our house. I am especially loving it lately because there is a little spot in town where you can buy whole wheat pizza dough for $2. You cannot beat that! So, we have been making homemade pizza and I will be honest, I don't think we will ever be able to go back to store bought. 

Miss Scarlett is quite the pizza chef... Here she is rolling out the dough...

Giving it a little pat...

And spreading around the tomato sauce....

Finally our pizza was done and she was ready for a little taste of the crust...

Magnifico!!! 

Saturday morning we were up early to work in the yard. SJ said she needed her sun hat. 

Daddy and Scarlett :) 

We had to invest in an electric hedge trimmer because there is so much vegetation around our house. It took Mitch close to 3 hours to get it all trimmed! Whew. 

SJ needed a shady spot to do some reading with Bitty baby... she was a little bummed that her picnic table, which is what this umbrella is supposed to go with, did not make the trip. There were several items that unfortunately just didn't make the cut. Oh well.

Here is our pretty girl before church this morning. She was so excited to wear her backpack and go to "Bible School." 

 She did so well! I totally balled my way through the first 30 minutes of the service because I was worried about her. It was like everything hit me at once... we are in a new place, we don't know anyone in the church yet, SJ was in a new room where she knew no one.... all of that to music, you know what I mean? Sometimes worship time at church just causes my tears to flow! But God continues to be so near to us during this transition. I am so thankful. 

Now everyone is napping and the house is quiet... sweet Sunday afternoon :) 

Callie ate a bug. A big one.

I wasn't kidding when I said the bugs here in SC are BIG. Even Scarlett says they are :) 

And apparently we have our own little resident Pumba... don't you see the resemblance? 

From my front porch looking in...

Welcome to our new "South Carolina house" as Scarlett calls it. We are now accepting visitors (by application only, ha!). We already have our first bookings for October and November...yeah!! 

Here is our new home on the range... We are just stationed here for a year (as far as we know) so we are renting this house for the amount of time we call SC home. We really like this house. There is only one thing that we are not happy about and that is that they started building right next door to us the week after we moved in. It's not a huge deal, but it is pretty loud. Hopefully it will only last a few months. (Please excuse any boxes and or general messiness you might notice. As Mitch always says, our house is very lived in and there is nothing wrong with that!) 

Front porch 

(one side, the other side is awaiting our porch swing to be hung and had some construction guys standing right by it so I left out the shirtless, very tattooed men :) 

From looking out front door...

Just a nice empty "park" area in front of us. 

Foyer. 

 From foyer looking into kitchen. 

Laundry room off kitchen. (It is SO nice to have something with cabinets that is bigger than a coat closet!!) 

Dining. 

From dining looking into kitchen. 

From dining looking into family room. 

Family room. 

From bottom of stairs looking into dining and kitchen. 

Front hallway. 

Half bath in front hallway. 

Our bedroom. (We splurged and bought a new bed frame and bedding. Same mattress we had before. Our 1980's metal bedframe which was a hand-me-down from my parents was just not cutting it anymore. We are loving our new sleigh bed! Thank you, Mitch!)

This bolster pillow was a labor of love... made by my own 2 hands out of a pottery barn monogrammed shower curtain we were no longer using. Ha! It was a fun project to complete while Mitch was away, but I am glad it is complete. 

Our closet... I think a window in a closet is genius! Clearly I need to do some organizing though...

Master bath (please excuse the messiness...) 

 ----- UPSTAIRS -----

The landing at the top of the stairs.

Scarlett's bathroom (shared in hallway with guest room)

Guest bedroom.

Back porch (which wraps around house). Potting shed and patio in backyard. 

 One side of back porch (other side looks similar).

Screened in porch off of dining room... looking forward to enjoying this little spot 

in the cooler months :) 

Scarlett's room is not included in these pics.... She was napping so I will have to post those another time... never wake a sleeping babe, you know what I am saying?!?

Have a wonderful weekend!