What's going on now?

Good question!  :-)  Well, we are in full swing around here.

After school tutoring officially started back this week.  Stephen's glad to be actually implementing all the planning he has been doing the past month.  There is tutoring at Oak Pointe, a local housing project again this year on Monday and Wednesday afternoons.  This year there is also tutoring at East Augusta Commons, another local housing project (one of the ones we did Bible club at this summer) on Tuesday afternoons.  Monday and Wednesday during lunch, Stephen tutors some high school boys at a nearby school. Tuesday during lunch, Stephen, Rick and Andrew (a new co-worker) lead a Bible study at the same school with the same boys.  Monday nights Stephen and John, our brother in law, have their Bible study with some of the junior high boys.

New Town, the neighborhood kids Bible study is still on Thursday nights.  This year Stephen is helping more with the junior high and high school group.  The girls and I are still apart of the youngest group (1st grade and under). Caileigh still loves it and is really taking the initiative to make friends on her own!  She even participated this week  in a large group game with the 5th grade and under group - huge step for her! Emma has good nights and not so good nights.  She still gets overwhelmed by how many kids are running around and especially does not like it when they try to pick her up.  Most of the time she clings to me on my hip.  She will occasionally show her true colors and be ornery.  We're working on keeping her clothes on at New Town. :-)

Stephen is also taking two seminary classes during this semester.  We are thankful that First Pres has partnered with Erskine and is offering them here at First Pres during the week so Stephen doesn't have to travel.  He is very excited and is learning a lot already!

Mary Stewart, now almost 7 months old still comes and spends the day with us during the week.  She is crawling and wanting to play with everything the girls are.  She is a happy baby and therefore makes our job easy and a joy! :-)

Emma will be 2 in a couple weeks!!!  Instead of a party we are taking her to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia.  We're excited about that!  I'm sure we will celebrate with grandparents at different times as well.  Emma is a talker just like her big sister.  She is really trying to form sentences.  Her way is by adding it on slowly until she gets it all out the way she wants to. An example from this week  at New Town, "Hold me... You hold me... Mommy, you hold me... Mommy, you hold me, Emma... Please!"  She is also potty training. She is wearing big girl panties at home and becoming much more successful at telling us and and actually making it to the potty on a regular basis!  It's a work in progress but it is progress.  She is excited about it and so we are certainly encouraging it!  She enjoys doing some preschool stuff in the mornings with Caileigh and I while Mary Stewart takes a nap.

Caileigh and I have been doing more preschool stuff while the little girls nap in the afternoon.  She is a sponge!  I am constantly amazed at what she can learn and at how quickly she learns! This past week she has accomplished writing her name in the correct order and from memory.  She is so excited about it and every room in our house has a paper with her name written on it at least ten times! :-)  I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to help her learn.  She is also such a big helper around the house, wanting to help with chores and even wants to learn skills like cooking and sewing. She is becoming much more bold in making friends and is willing to try new things without Mommy, Daddy or Emma -which has been a big step for our introvert.  She LOVES her Sunday school class at church and looks forward to going each week!

Our family will be moving into a house just a block away from where we live now by October 1st.  This house is one way God has provided for our family beyond what we could imagine.  We looked at this house not really expecting to be able to afford it, but thought we would at least "check into it."  The owner was asking way more than our budget would allow.  We loved it but both walked away saying, "Lord, if this is something You want for us to have we trust You will work it out, if not we trust that You have something better and in Your timing for us."  We were suppose to call the owner back in 4 weeks to see if he had had any other offers - he knew what we could afford.  Within 2 weeks he called us - offering if for what we could afford!  God certainly does provide for our family!  We are probably most excited about the yard, although small - it is a yard! :-)  We look forward to not having to load everyone up to seek a patch of grass to just run some energy off. So thankful! The house will also be much more flexible for having Stephen's office at home as well as for our family to grow.  We do have the opportunity to buy this home if we decide to, but can rent it for as long as we want until we make that decision, if we ever do.  Please pray for wisdom for us in this.

Speaking of growing, we recently found out that we will be adding a new little Pittman to our family early May 2013!  We are all very excited about the new addition.  At this point in time I am feeling great!  We are praying that it will stay that way at least until we get moved out of here and into our new place.

Please pray for our family as we prepare for these upcoming transitions. Please also pray for the girls and I as we hold down the fort the last week of September while Stephen attends a CCDA (Christian Community Development Association) conference in Minnesota.  We are thankful he can go to this conference but he won't return home until late on the 30th and then we  move the next day.  Thankfully it is just 10 houses down and we have had lots of offers to help!

August - 1 year in Augusta

August 1st marked one year of us being here in Augusta.  What a year it has been!  The past 3 months in particular have flown by!  Looking back on the year we are so thankful for all that God has provided for our family and honestly are very humbled!

We have all grown so much.   I'd like to think just the girls have grown, but I may or may not tell you after I weigh myself or try on my fall clothes... :-)

As a family we have changed.  We all are much more physically active then we were a year ago because of our love for walking a lot downtown and all the fun parks we have close by to visit.  Recently looking back at pictures it is amazing to see how much they have grown in one year. Both have gotten more hair! :-)  The girls have new interests, new vocabularly, new friends, new classes at church from just a year ago.

So much has changed in a year.  We have been stretched, challenged and encouraged in ways we have never been before.  At times it has been hard and at others it has been an absolute joy.  God has blessed us so much this past year!  We are so thankful for the opportunity we have to serve our God here in Augusta and we look forward to the next year(s) He has us here.  There are some BIG changes coming our way in the next year... I'll blog on that soon, but for now enjoy a couple pictures documenting how much the girls have changed in one year!

1st Pres Church house - August 2011
Emma - 10 months, Caileigh - 3 years

Girls at Riverwalk - August 2011

Our home - August 2012
Caileigh - 4 years, Emma 23 months

Girls at Riverwalk - August 2012
All they wanted to do that day were silly faces 

Beach Camping Trip

Let's just say our trip started with rain and ended with rain....

We got our tent up just in time for the bottom to drop and thankfully grabbed some frisbees and balls just in time to all pile in to the empty tent!  We waited the rain out throwing balls and listening to a very vivid imagination of our 4 year old as she entertained us with stories.

You may have a paci addiction if....
Perhaps it's all the traveling?
This girl keeps life interesting! :-)

The rain did stop and we were able to get everything set up, cooked and ate dinner and then made it to the beach!  Emma loved the beach especially the sand. This was her first trip to the beach.  Caileigh loved riding the waves on the boogie board - such a daredevil!  :-)

Please excuse the hair - she wanted it down and
 I figured we were on vacation just let it be!  :-)
We'll just say she's going for the "beach hair" look...

Fascination

One day we rented bikes and enjoyed riding around the island and visiting the historic parts. Caileigh loved seeing all the "nature that God created." It did get a little hot and Emma didn't particularly love falling asleep at the end in the bike seat. We did all love our ice cream stop at the local Dairy Queen, however! :-)

We also explored the driftwood beach, saw lots of crabs, swam in a tidal pool, built sandcastles and played putt-putt.

Driftwood beach

Loving life

My parents and Aunt Katie (whom we hadn't seen since Easter) joined us.  We sure enjoyed having them with us!  We swam some more, watched a dolphin swim right in front of us, built some more castles, made s'more's, and heard all about beach project that Katie went on. :-)

We love Aunt Katie!

She hates baths but somehow one by the campfire was fun....

Aunt Katie and her "mini-me's"

Sleeping like a baby

As if the ocean wasn't enough water...

Aunt Laura and Uncle John later joined us and we enjoyed swimming some more with them but did not enjoy playing football along the beach as it ended up in Stephen loosing his wedding ring... :-(  We searched for most of the day with no luck and were pretty disappointed. We ended the day by taking  the typical white/khaki family beach pictures for my Grandparents 60th anniversary collaberated family gift.  Caileigh made my day as I had made the girls pillowcase dresses for the pictures and she thanked me over and over for making her a beautiful dress. She's so easy to please. :-) Perhaps I should start sewing more for them! :-)

Pittmans

Oberts

The Family

We attempted to play putt-putt with the whole group, however the rain came, power on the island went out and we went to bed early!  It rained all night and thankfully our tent leaked very minimally, however, we had to pack up camp in the pouring rain!  Truth be told our tent is still trying to dry out on our back porch as it has rained on average every other day since returning to Augusta.... It's been a month and it won't stay dry long enough for the whole thing to dry out and I am not packing it up wet to mold in my house!

Despite the rain and the lost wedding ring we really did enjoy some time as a family at the beach and time with my family when they joined us!

July...

June ended and July began while we were in Kansas visiting family.  Fourth of July was spent swimming at my aunt and uncle's house, eating good food, playing with cousins, making a couple new friends and of course fireworks!

These cookies must have been good! :-)

We returned to Augusta and life did not slow down.  We missed playing with our sweet little friend and eagerly welcomed her back into our home.

Emma and "Stewie," as Emma calls her.

Mary Stewart, Caileigh, our friend, Abby and Emma

 Stephen spent his days with the middle school youth group from our church painting former drug houses here in Olde Town one week.

 In the evenings we as a family would meet the youth at two nearby housing projects and hold a Backyard Bible Club.  Many relationships were formed and we hope to continue to go back into one housing project in particular to build more relationships.  I loved watching my girls running around hand in hand with their new friends!  Caileigh in particular made a sweet friend, a girl after her own heart.  What did they spend the majority of playground time doing? Pretending the playground was their castle and they were princesses of course! :-)

Friday night Hope for Augusta hosted a Trip Lee concert at May Park.

The next week, Stephen went back down to Camp Grace.  The girls and I stayed in Augusta this time and enjoyed re-connecting with some of our dear friends here as well as packing to go back out of town! :-)  Stephen returned home after a week and we left the next day for Charlotte, NC.  We enjoyed some time with his parents and were thankful his dad had TWO days off of work!  We enjoyed a day at the Children's Museum, a visit to IKEA and putt-putt with them!

While in Charlotte, we were also able to visit with some dear friends who are attending RTS.  Our girls and their sweet girls always play so well together when we see them.  Such fun!

Lots of girls!

We made a quick stop in Toccoa Falls on our way to Carrollton and showed the girls where Daddy went to school.

At the Falls

While in Carrollton we were able to visit with so many dear friends, family and supporters.  I think we had a meeting or two and a playdate everyday.  So much fun! :-)  We did find time to care for my parent's elderly cat and give him lots of love while they were out of town.  The girls are very fond of Paka, can't say as much for Stephen and I. :-)

My, these two sure have grown!
They had so much fun playing together again.

Even their siblings had fun together.

The girls with Charlotte and Silas  We sure miss them!

We finally got to meet Jake's little sister Callie.  So good to catch up.

We had a good visit with Gunnar, Lydia and their parents.


We were able to catch up with friends from college and meet Peighton's baby sister, Baylee.  Too cute!

Sure wish I had taken pictures at our supporter's dessert gathering.  The girls had so much fun playing with Julianne, Meka, Madison, Bethany and Anna on the BIG waterslide! :-)  Thanks for the wonderful fellowship and desserts.  I also forgot to take pictures at a fun dinner picnic we had with some of our friends.  Caileigh still talks about playing with Amelia, Anna, Aliyah, Asher, Kaleb, Charlotte and Silas at the "Park with the sprinklers!"  We also enjoyed meeting sweet baby Micah Clarke and catching up with his big brother Calvin and his parents and grandparents (briefly). Again, no camera!  It was good to see many of our dear friends at KCP for worship on Sunday.  Hate we missed some - maybe next time! We enjoyed Sunday lunch catching up with the Teems and seeing some other family friends. The Teem's kids sure have grown since I used to babysit weekly!  It was pretty neat to watch them playing and entertaining my own children.  :-)

We spent one evening with Stephen's Nana and Papa.

We were able to visit Grandpa Pittman at his new place.

4 generations of Pittmans

My Grandpa and Grandma Dent stopped by my parents for a visit.

 We were also able to spend some time with some of the former CYI youth!  We have known most of these kids for 4-6 years.  They have changed so much - definitely gotten taller. :-)

Caileigh playing a game with some of the girls.  These girls have loved on her and played with her since she was a brand new baby.  I think they enjoyed seeing how much she has grown.

Stephen with the guys from his discipleship group.

The group that we were able to get together with.  Sure miss these guys.

So thankful for the time we were allowed to visit, catch up, and share what God is doing in our lives and hear what He is doing in our friends and families lives as well.

We left Carrollton, arrived in Augusta - looked at another house to possibly rent (more on that later), unpacked, washed clothes and repacked, then headed for a family camping trip at the beach on Jekyll Island.