Easter in Augusta 2011

We enjoyed a wonderful Easter weekend with friends and family this year. My parents came to stay with us Friday-Sunday. We had a very busy weekend with our 20 month old. Charlie is always busy, all the adults were just trying to keep up. One thing that was not captured on our camera was our egg dying adventure. Yes, that is right, we tried to dye Easter eggs with a 20 month old. It began with him trying to eat one of the dye capsules and ended with him trying to crack the colored eggs. It was a pretty funny event. I will have to share pics of this later when I get those pics from my dad. Here are a few pics of all the fun we had:) We are very thankful to the Lord for conquering death and sin in our place on the cross that we might have his righteousness and eternal life. He is Risen!

Charlie's new watering can from Aunt Linda

She also equipped him with gloves and a shovel to help in the yard:)

It is always fun to play in the shed, especially with Grandpa!

Charlie's 1st Easter egg hunt did not go as planned, but was very funny!

He really enjoyed the fake grass more than the hunt:)

Easter Lunch: Shrimp & grits, Apricot glazed ham, green bean casserole, biscuits, and chocolate pie (not pictured here)

It has been a while!

Hello world! It has been a long time since my last post and I am regretting not documenting Charlie's progress through life as well as Charles and mine's journey through this pregnancy. This post will probably be a paragraph of rambling but I just felt like writing some things down while I had a minute.

He loves to play hide n' seek in the shed

It has felt like a long 8 months. Some of you know that I had a kidney stone recently that has made this pregnancy a little less than pleasant. Thankfully I have had no other problems since passing the stone a few weeks ago. I am happy to say we only have a little over 4 weeks until D-day. I am much more tired this trimester and can feel it daily. I try to take the bursts of energy I receive to "prepare" the nest (or repair it). Life with 2 boys +Jackson has kept me busy and I am sure Daniel (yes that is officially his name...it only took us 7 months to name him) will only contribute to the disasters in this house:) (side note: most of you know that we named him Daniel after our sweet friends and mentors, Mark and Rachel Daniel. His middle name is our only secret and will be revealed on his birthday). Charlie is starting to really be a helper when it comes to clean up time. Maybe he will take after me:) Our babysitter said that he initiated clean up time the other night prior to bedtime, yay! What a proud mom I was when she mentioned that. I have so much to be thankful for in regard to Charlie and Charles. They both have such a sweet loving spirit that is a perfect balance for my easily frustrated heart (esp. during pregnancy). Charlie is so fun to be with each day. Every morning he greets me with a happy smile and his blanket. He immediately starts off the day talking about the lawn-mower, blower, trains, milk, or the trucks on his new sheets. Just one example of how he lives life...taking off full speed wherever he goes. He is starting to say more and more and has recently been learning his colors. He is stuck on saying yellow and green even though he doesn't seem to quite know which one is which. He can also say blue, red, ball, truck, go, bubbles, "hi", "bye", lawn-mower, blower, car, please, up, down, TV, choo-choo train, book, "ouch-ie", duck, and other words only a mother would know. Today he said "I'm sorry" or a variation of that. He hit me and we talked though it and I told him he needed to say sorry, which he did very well then when I told him that I forgave him he started pretend crying. I am pretty sure he didn't understand it but it was so good for my heart to see him go through the motions of forgiveness. I know God is using Charlie and Charles to help my heart not hold on to resentment and unforgiveness (which has been a huge struggle of mine). How can you withhold forgiveness from your child when you want them to learn how to forgive quickly and completely just as Christ does for us? I am sure I will struggle more with this as Charlie gets older and shows more disobedience, but for now I am enjoying this sweet stage of learning.

He loves daddy's lawn-mower...

...and blower!

Charles has also been instrumental in helping me through so much this pregnancy and the last 3 1/2 years of marriage. I would not be the mother I am today without him. He is so different from me in so many ways, which oftentimes I resent him for. But God knew best to put someone so demanding and hardheaded (me) together with someone so agreeable and loving (Charles). I am thankful he is the father to my 2 sweet boys!

We are excited to say that we will be staying in Augusta for the next chapter in our lives. Charles is looking forward to starting a pediatric practice in South Augusta with Josh Lane in July of 2012. We have already seen God's hand in the preparations for this and are excited to see all the ways he will use and teach us through this experience.
We are all a little anxious for Daniel's arrival. He is expected to arrive during a busy NICU month. But we are thankful God is in control of when we meet the newest member of our family. And I am becoming more and more excited to see what he will look like and how he and Charlie are similar and different. I am also anxious and excited to see how Charlie does with all the new changes once his brother arrives. We are praying for a smooth transition for all of us, and we know that it will only come through God's grace. I am thankful for a sovereign God who does not treat me as my sins deserve but is faithful to his promises and loving towards all he has made. I now hear the cries of my almost 20 month old. I will post this along with some pics later tonight when all is quiet again:)

Charlie's current bed (with the truck sheets that he loves to talk about after naps)

The boys new room

Charlie's future big boy bed!

It 's a BOY!

Take 1

Take 2:

Charles looks a little doped up, this is not from a lack of excitement but from pure exhaustion on night shift

Happy New Year! We are so proud to announce that our newest addition to the Scarborough family will be a baby boy! We are so excited for Charlie to have a baby brother and best friend. Although, I do have to admit that I was a little sad that it wasn't a girl. Hopefully in God's timing we will have a little girl one day, but until then bring on the boy stuff! Now I feel like I can dive in and embrace the fact that I will be living with 3 boys in May:) Charlie has been such a joy these past 16 months I can't imagine how much fun we will have with another boy in the family. Charles is so excited and keeps asking me how his "little man" is doing each day. For some reason, knowing that it is a boy made this pregnancy seem more real. I guess that could also be attributed to the fact that I am starting to show a more pronounced baby bump. We are working on names for our little fella, but I have a feeling this is going to be a lot harder than naming Charlie after Charles:)

Charlie is 16 months old and starting to become a real talker. That is, he makes a lot of noises but nothing is really understandable. It is super entertaining to listen to, and he starts the minute he wakes up each day, what a sweet blessing! He runs most everywhere he goes and is quite the busy bee. His gross motor skills are improving each day, I noticed that after he crawled up in a chair in the kitchen the other day all by himself, scary! He is becoming more of a picky eater these days and I think things are going to have to change before his baby brother arrives:) Charlie is enjoying playing with Jackson again now that he is somewhat healed (we get an x-ray next week to see how his femur is healing 6 weeks after he broke it). Charlie has been acting like it is Christmas morning every morning when he wakes up because he has so many toys to play with! He had a wonderful Christmas (well he had "Christmas", the present part, about 4 times) with family and we all enjoyed having Charles with us to celebrate (thanks Chris McKinney!). And now on to the new year. 2011 looks very exciting as I look back on all the blessings the Lord has given us this past year. We are so thankful for our family and friends and are excited to spend the next year with you all!

Our little guy showing off:)

11 Months Old!

Well its been 11 months since Charlie was born and about that long since I wrote on Rikki's Blog. I am going to be a man of few words and let the videos do the writing.


The first clip is him learning to walk with Uncle Hugh and Aunt Morgan and yes that is a PBR tallboy on the counter.



Charlie has loved to chew on the harmonica for the past month or so; finally today, after rikki consistently blew in his face when chewed on it, he figured it out! Now he loves it. I guess I need to learn more songs in B flat, since that is the only key harmonica we have. Enjoy.



It has been an incredible 11 months(crazy at times during internship) and I cannot express how much joy God has given me through Charlie; I have learned more about God's love for me in the past 11 months 3 days than I have in the past 27 years of my short life. Hope you enjoyed the videos.

Spring Happenings

This post is a tad bit late, considering all of the "happenings" are things I failed to post in the last 2 months of Charlie's life. And considering it is now MAY and I have an 8 MONTH OLD! He seemed to blossom with activity these last 2 weeks or so just as our Azalea blossoms began to wilt;) It actually seem like it all happened in one day.

Charlie has 3 new teeth! (2 upper and a 3rd tooth on the bottom...kinda funny lookin')

He began to crawl!

He can pull up on just about any furniture, which is scary!

And he started cruising from toys to furniture like a champ! (and climbing)


He is growing so fast but still loves to snuggle!

Charles just finished with his last vacation month of his intern year:( We have 2 months left until Charles becomes a second year! I can't believe we've almost made it. This year has definitely had it's struggles but I think it has become the new "normal". I am so thankful that we have had Charlie this year, in many ways having him in our family has made our marriage stronger, though we have to work harder for things that were once a little easier. The Lord has been so gracious to us in helping us remain patient with one another with less sleep than we were used to. It has been so great to walk through this time with so much community support. I would have gone crazy this year without our Bible studies and other mom's to help me feel like I am not insane:) Thanks so much to all of you!

Monday morning wakeup!

If anyone wants a homemade cinnamon roll that will knock your socks off you should try this recipe my husband got from a medical student. Sorry if you are one of those people that want to make your own dough because this recipe is for those that don't have the time to make homemade dough. (If anyone wants to share an easy dough recipe with the rest of us, that would be great:) Also, you should know this makes a large pan-ful so get ready to share with the neighbors or someone, otherwise you might need to buy a larger pant size:)

THE CINNAMON ROLLS

3 1 lb loaves frozen bread dough
1/2 stick butter (melted)
1/2 C white sugar
3/4 C brown sugar
1-2 T cinnamon
1/2 C raisins (optional)
1/2 C walnuts or pecans, chopped (optional)
1/4 C flour (for rolling out dough)

Let dough thaw overnight in fridge or in covered bowl on counter until doubled in size and at room tempurature. Roll dough out into a 10" x 16" rectangle of even thickness.

Pour melted butter onto dough and spread evenly. Sprinkle both sugars and rub into dough so evenly distributed. Sprinkle with cinnamon, raisins, and nuts out to all edges.

Carefully roll dough into a 16" long log. Pinch the ending egdge together to seal the log. Slice into 1" slices (half log then continue to halving until all slices are even thickness- should be 9-12 rolls)

Spray 13x9 inch pan or lasagna pan with Pam. Place rolls into pan so edges are just touching each other. Allow to rise in refrigerator overnight or on counter for 1 hour, covered.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-35 minutes (our 12 rolls in a glass dish baked for about 30 mins) or until golden brown on top and sound hollow when tapped with a spoon. Remove from oven and top with icing. Enjoy!

CREAM CHEESE ICING

1 stick butter (softened)
1 8oz block cream cheese (softened)
1 Tbsp vanilla
4 C powdered sugar

Combine butter and cream cheese until there are no lumps and it is well blended. Add vanilla. Add sugar slowly until well incorporated. Add more sugar if too soft or milk if too thick. Spread on warm cinnamon rolls.

ENJOY! (we did)

In the misted of our bakery endeavor our little man is getting ready to crawl! He is in "crawling position" here but cannot move from it yet:) So he grunts until we help him reposition himself. What a sweetie! I think the sugar from the cinnamon rolls transferred into the breast milk and gave him lots of energy today!

6th Month Day

Our little man has been with us now for 6 months! I can't believe what our lives would look like without him. Charlie is such a joy. His personality is exploding with each passing day. He is sitting up now all by himself, which is so fun to watch. He also loves to make fart noises with his mouth (that is the only way I know to describe it). He keeps drooling like crazy, but no new teeth yet. He likes squealing and talking throughout the day. He has the sweetest voice I have ever heard. Charlie still does not like rolling over so he does it rarely, usually assisted:) But it's not like the pediatrician in the house is worried, so why should I be? We purchased a new large rug for our living room in hopes that it will give Charlie some extra room to roll around and crawl when he feels ready. Charlie is learning to enjoy foods. He is eating fruits, veggies, and cereal. We will give his stats after his 6 month check up on Tuesday. We enjoy every moment the Lord gives us with this precious gift.

Playing in the toy basket

He loves to cross his legs...he does it constantly just like his daddy:)

He loves playing piano with his daddy!

6 month "birthday cake"

He loves fire...probably more than the carrots themselves.
He puts everything in his mouth, even the glass jar.
And the candle (we are going to have to watch him like a hawk esp. once he is mobile!)

Ready for bath time! Once he hears the water running he starts smiling:)

Scrub a dub dub! Happy 6 months Charlie!