Contentment....and overdue pictures.

I am reading a book called "The Secret of Contentment" by Dr. Barcley, the pastor at my parent's church. It is a great book and has challenged me already to get a better life-perspective. I believe this is one of Satan's best tricks, to lure us into pity parties over what's not perfect in our lives, which leads to grumbling, bitterness, and the sin of discontent. Thankfully the Lord gave me a husband who lovingly corrects my attitude when the complaining flares up again. Look at these boys, they look pretty content! Eli had a blast his little buddies, the Hendley boys.

And here is an overdue pregnancy picture, one of the only ones I think I've taken this time. I'm good if I can remember which week I'm in, much less remember to chronicle the pregnancy with pictures. Poor little 3rd child. He's hard to ignore though, he's quite the mover and making me feel quite wimpy these days as I huff and puff up the stairs. We haven't been as good about going to the gym lately except for the mistake of trying "Boot Camp" last week. Probably too hard of a class when I'm not pregnant, my calf muscles felt like they were in a constant cramp for a week! Another short-lived item....my bangs. They lasted not quite 2 months and I've officially began growing them out again. I didn't mind the way they looked I just felt like I was in hair prison, when I lifted them up I felt freedom and just couldn't go back. Maybe when I'm 40 I'll finally find a hairstyle I like on myself.

In preparing for our whirlwind weekend last weekend I did some baking (we drove to SC on Friday for a family reunion on Saturday, then Steven and I drove 5 hours to Richmond, VA, for him to speak on Sunday). After the kids "helped me" make the chocolate cake, they willingly cleaned the bowl, too. Needless to say another quick load of laundry had to be done that morning. By the time I made a jello fruit salad, chocolate cake, and banana bread, packed and loaded the car, and cleaned up the house I was pooped. But it turned out to be a nice weekend. Steven's stress level has been maximum the past couple of weeks due to work stress so it was nice to get away from it all, especially for me!

My parents talked us into leaving the kids with them in SC which saved them about 7 hours of car time. A GREAT decision, I missed them but it was nice for Steven and I to have time together and the kids had a blast with my parents.
This little rascal learned how to climb out of the crib this weekend. It started with the pack-n-play while we were in SC, he apparently climbed out and went running through the house waking up his cousins....at 6:40am. Sorry Byron and Mandy! I'm not used to my kids being the early risers.

I thought for sure Eli wouldn't be able to get out of the crib at home, there is nothing to grip your feet on and the railing comes up to eye-level on him. However, this morning I heard him talking and was waiting to see if he would go back to sleep, until I heard the doorknob rattling. Sure enough, I opened his door and he was calmly standing on the other side. He's officially not my baby anymore! So sad. I dragged the extra mattress in at naptime and had to do a little threatening but.....amazingly....he fell asleep! We'll see how tonight goes.

In case you looked closely, please don't tell him he's sleeping on pink sheets. He looks pretty content to me. And, with the good Lord's help, I am too!

Goodnight, sleep tight!

Bedtime prayers

"Thank you God for our wonderful day, for Daddy's stress (that's just how she prays for everything), for me and Mommy and Eli, thank you God that God doesn't do anything wrong and that the snakes wont get us because they're on the ark, and the mean bears, thank you God for our families, Amen. "
There was more but of course I can't remember it all. It doesn't help that I worked last night and even though I had a relatively "good night" at work, we went to Charlotte and had a busy day so I am hitting a wall about now. Or maybe it's pregnancy brain. Thankfully with little kids their books are pretty easy to read so you can hide your exhaustion fairly well. It was a busy January, despite the yucky weather. Last weekend we had a great Harrell family get together which included 20 adults and 9 kids, 7 of those were 3 and under (from 5 original siblings!). It was a great time, it is fun to see families grow. If Steven's aunt BJ could have come with her family it would have been perfect attendance. As we were wrapping up the party Sadie was talking to one of Steven's aunts about her Daddy, she said he couldn't help us clean up much because he had to work hard, so he could make money to pay for preschool and skittles. A beginning level on economics, I guess you could say. Eli is hammin' it up, as well. He loves to sing "Jesus Loves Me" and even though you can only understand "Jesus" "Bible" and "strong" somehow it is obvious what he's singing. He definitely has a language, I'm not sure if Sadie or I understand him better. "Mon, Dadie" = "Come on, Sadie"...."deenk!" = "drink"...."ov u mommy" = "love you Mommy". And his all time favorite is when he is getting in trouble he immediately puts on a smile and waves and says "Hey Mommy". The name changes for whoever is fussing at him at the time, he thinks he's a smooth operator. Ok, enough about the kiddos, although they are kind of all consuming at this time in life. And pretty darn funny. Last one, then I'll close this disconnected post.....the other day Sadie and Eli were playing together and Sadie couldn't get Eli to stay still, I heard her say "Eli, I'm going to tie you up", in the very next breath she said "Mommy, can I have some tape?".
Hopefully I'll be able to collect my thoughts a little better next time, thanks for hanging in with me.
Sallie :)