Kitchen pics

No, this is not my new kitchen. This is however the kitchen I've been using for the last 3 weeks. There are 3 frigs, one being a walkin and one big freezer. There's a grill, gas stove, griddle, 2 ovens, a deep fryer, and a pizza oven. It's fun to cook with all these toys! And dishes aren't so bad when they only take 3 minutes to wash in the dishwasher. We've been staying with some people at church on their horse ranch. Someone comes in everyday and makes lunch for the ranch hands. They also have a little conference center where they've just started letting people have retreats. It's all very cool. We daily visit the horses and ponies and go down to the boathouse on the lake and feed the fish. Jackson's favorite horse is Chief. We did close on our house yesterday, though we still don't have keys, and we are moving on Saturday. We hope to get in some this week and do some painting.

 

The new swing set

thanks to ebay, this will soon be in the backyard of our new house! 

Just Having Fun!

Jackson loves to "help" Jonah walk.





















Clay and Jackson having batting practice. If you want to see him knock it out of the park, visit Clay's website for the video.

















Jonah loves the swings!

Party #1

We had a little party with my parents a week early. Jonah opened one present and then didn't care about the rest. Jackson was glad to open them for him.

















The shock and awe of fire!











The before picture.












The after picture!

this kid will eat anything :)

Our Beautiful One-Year Old!

Jonah turned one on September 5th. It's been a long and interesting year. It's funny how much you search and search for God's will and then look back and see how evident He really was. He was there all the time, answering prayers, but you just don't always see it at the time.

Happy Birthday, Jonah!
 

So we HAD to move again!

No, this one was not planned. Don't ask too many questions b/c I don't even understand it. I've learned to quit asking God why too. Anyway, for the next 3 weeks we are living on a horse ranch in the middle of nowhere :) It's actually a very cool house. We have our own side of the house, but we share a kitchen with the owners who live on the other side of the house. The word kitchen doesn't quite do it justly. It is a commercial kitchen! Complete with Hobart dishwasher and 3 frigs including a walk-in. You may ask why again? This one I can answer. They feed all the staff everyday at lunch. That's anywhere from 6-18 people, so the kitchen is needed. The people that own the house and horses go to the church and are letting us live here until we move into OUR house on October 2nd. Yes, to answer another question, I do have 2 very confused children, but they're troopers. Anyway, if you need to reach us we have another new number. It's 843-815-3215. I would challenge anyone (other than Fiona) who has moved more times and more interestingly than us!! :)
Btw, this all happened on Jonah's 1st Birthday!

I'll never get tired...

of driving down the road and looking out my window and seeing dolphins! Just today on our way to the mall, I looked out as we crossed the bridge and there was one swimming along. (This picture was actually taken during our sunset dolphin cruise.) Thank you God! 

More of the Cartwrights

If this blog isn't enough for you to get your fill of the Cartwrights, then you can check out Clay's new website at http://web.mac.com/claycartwright/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html
Since he has a mac, he gets a free website that is significantly better than this blog :) He can put videos up and do all sorts of cool stuff. WHY didn't I get a mac?! Anyway, check it out. It's got a cute video of Jonah walking!

Add to the list

My friends and I have a running list of questions that we want to ask God when we get to heaven. There are just things that aren't explained in the Bible and our lowly human minds can't grasp. Well here's one that is quickly rising to the top of my list... Why cockroaches? Seriously! I can't think of any reason for them. No animal eats them that I'm aware of and I can't think of anything that they eat that would benefit us. As I daily find one in the apartment, I have to wonder what God's plan was for them.
Any thoughts?

Jackson's other language

While we're working on potty training, Jackson gets an M&M if he uses the potty. The other day as he was running to the kitchen to get his M&M, Clay asked him what color he wanted. His response was "amarillo" (yellow for those of you who don't know). He now only uses Spanish to tell us what colors are!

And He's Off!

Jonah is walking! He's finally taking more than 2 steps at a time. He will let go of the couch and walk to us or to another piece of furniture! He still can't quite change directions, but he's close. Another week and he'll be running right behind Jackson. When he falls, he sits up and claps for himself. It is sooo cute!

































Wipeout!!

Hangin' with Granginny

Jackson loves jumping over the waves. I think Granginny got a good arm workout!

















Just Jonah and Granginny (again for the scrapbook)


















Jackson flexes his muscles in front of the huge Neptune statue. Neptune is in the center of an area called Shelter Cove. This area consists of a large marina, shopping, outdoor dining, and live music. You will hear that description of pretty much everywhere on Hilton Head Island (HHI).














I'm not sure what Granginny is teaching Jackson here. Maybe they're practicing an act for America's Got Talent??

Hangin' with Granpop

Granpop and Granginny were here to visit. We did lots of fun stuff, but as usual the best part is just hangin' on the back patio. Here in SC the views are much better! For example, here we're in the shade looking at a lagoon.







Just Jonah and Granpop! (done intentionally for the scrapbook)











This was taken at Harbour Town which is complete with its own lighthouse. Jackson climbed all 114 steps to the top! There is lots of shopping, outdoor dining, and live music in Harbour Town, plus you can check out all the huge boats.






We ate outside one night at a Mexican restaurant. As you can see the nice ocean breeze didn't quite make it to us!

The Sandbox- local museum

Captain Jack on the pirate ship looking for ships to pillage.


















The construction dudes are hard at work!



















Jonah enjoys the toddler area.



















Our future musician plays the sax.

It's Official

We sold the house! Woohoo! We will close on the 11th, but they won't take possession until the 14th, so we have time to move out. For those of you in KC, we get there on Wednesday the 9th and are there until Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, we will not be bringing the boys with us. I know that's who everyone wants to see! Our plan here is to rent a house for the next 6-7 months while we build a house. We just haven't found any houses we're crazy about and they're all expensive. It's going to end up cheaper for us to build. We went today and looked at a 3 bedroom rental house. It's great! They've just redone everything in the house... new paint, new carpet, new appliances. It's a great neighborhood with a pool and a playground. There are also lots of church families close by. We will be able to store what doesn't fit in the house in the garage, so we won't have to pay for storage too. Anyway, that's the latest from us. We'd love to hear from anyone. If you leave a comment, it emails it to me!

Jonah's first steps

Jonah took his first step this weekend. He was standing up at a chair and then let go with both hands and took a step towards me. Then he realized what was happening and grabbed the chair again. He took one other step by himself later on. Granpop and Granginny get here this week and I have a feeling they're going to get to witness the real thing!

The continuing Cartwright saga

So Jackson got the stomach flu last week and in his typical fashion, it lasted for 3 days. During his 3rd day Clay decided to get it and spent the better part of the weekend in the bathroom. By Sunday morning he was completely dehydrated, so I had to take him to the hospital. That's right, his 2nd Sunday here and he had to call in sick. They were very understanding. So he got 2 bags of IV fluid and some nausea meds, and came home a different person. I had to call up almost complete strangers at 8am on Sunday morning to come babysit the boys but it worked out b/c the boys are so tired of me and Clay, they were excited for the new face! Anyway, I have yet to get it, so I thank all of you out there that I know were praying for me! Leave it to us to have to visit the hospital within 3 weeks of getting here.

More later...

more beach pics

We bought this boat for the boys to ride the waves. They wear their lifejackets, of course. Jonah loved it so much that he fell asleep. Jackson, however, was not so impressed.

Jackson quote: "before we go to the beach, we have to get our swimsoups on" :)

The Fourth of July

Here are some family pics we took on the Fourth. We went in the morning to Beauford, SC about 20 miles north of us. We took a horse drawn carriage ride tour of the town. There are lots of pre-civil war homes. Most of the movie Forrest Gump was also filmed there, so we heard some stories on that. We ate lunch at Friendly's which made some of our former east coast friends very jealous. If you don't know, Friendly's is famous for their ice cream. We didn't stay up for the fireworks though some in our neighborhood woke up Jackson. He was screaming at the top of his lungs, so he got to stay up until they were over. That was about the extent of our day. Hope you all enjoyed your holiday!
 

Beach Bums

The boys enjoyed a snack on the beach. Jackson eats crackers and peanut butter. Jonah eats sand. No kidding, he loved it!
We had lots of fun on our first beach trip and everyday since then Jackson asks if we're going to the beach. The pool seems to satisfy him on most days.
We spent most of the morning in the water jumping over the waves. We also collected some seashells for all of Jackson's girl friends back home.