Fall Wrap Up

I have been a slack blogger lately, mostly because every time I open this laptop my 2 year old just cannot keep her hands off the buttons. She is pushing many buttons these days, as a matter of fact, and I'm not sure what happened to my seemingly innocent baby girl. Now she screams like we're strangling her simply because I wont let her lift the toilet seat and sit directly on the bowl to pee. Or because I buckle her in the car seat when she wanted to do it "myself!". The battle of the wills has begun, and though I am exhausted at the end of the day, I WILL PREVAIL!. Even though I know my little girl is a sinner, I didn't realize just how evident it would be this soon. I'm sure the Lord looks at me the same way as I look at her sometimes and it humbles me and makes me thankful for His mercy!
To make up for her current issues, she does have a few sweet moments, too. The other day my parents were here for a visit and we were all eating dinner. She climbed up in a chair between Steven and my Mom, putting her hand on both of their shoulders, and said "I love all ya'll". What a great little moment.
Eli is getting huge and sweeter every day. He can do pat-a-cake and is quite proud of himself. He's sitting up and army crawling, too. Too fast!! Here are some pictures of the last few weeks...


Sadie and little B, Doc Hendley's little boy.


Would my Dad have crawled in my dollhouse to pretend play? Oh we love Papas.

A fun family visit to the corn maze, we spent quite a lot of time in here since it was off and on raining.

How do you get them to both sit still, look at the camera, and smile?

Oh the fun.

Hand-me-down (free) Halloween costumes = a great night!

Friends make it so much more fun!

Cute little pumpkin!

Becoming quite the Daddy's girl.

And to top it off, a pony ride at a friend's birthday party.

I will try and be a more faithful blogger....

goodnight!

The game of Life

When I was in the 4th grade I was invited to AWANA Bible Club by Julie L. What developed from that was a true BFF friendship, including lots of diary reading, chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, and Friday night sleepovers. On these famous sleepovers Julie and I often pulled out her game, called Life, which is quite a fun little game. We played our own version, however, and would often plan out our own lives. We would start with the current crush, that we were sure we would marry one day. Then we proceeded to name our many children, pick their spouses (from each other's list), and name our grandchildren. Obviously, and thankfully, this is not the way life works. High school, college, husbands, and children later we are still best friends. Though it is still too early to tell if our children might possibly ever marry, it is delightful to get together and watch our children befriend each other.





Here is a picture of Sadie and Anna Grace, Julie's oldest, walking to see the cows.







Having a fun breakfast on the most recent trip Julie and the girls made to Pleasant Garden. Julie has come 3 times now since we moved. The first time she rolled up her sleeves and helped me finish painting closets in my 8 1/2 month pregnant and frazzled stage. After Eli was born she came again and brought food, lots of yummy food, and helped me immensely as I adjusted to 2 kids. This last time I had it a little more together and was able to actually host appropriately.

Hopefully our girls are also making friendships for life. Sadie is 21 months younger than Anna Grace and 3 months older than Abbey.

It is such a blessing to rest in the comfortable presence of good friends.

Love you Jules!

-Sallie

Top five reasons to live in the South.

Top 5 reasons to live in the South....

5. Street names actually have names.

4. Sweet tea (with lots of ice).

3. Car ownership.

2. Backyards.

1. It's cheap and friendly.

That being said, we actually had a very enjoyable time north of the Mason-Dixon line this weekend. We brought Sadie to Charlotte on Thursday morning where she proceeded to spend 3 very fun days with my parents. Eli, Steven, and I then boarded a plane and headed to New York City. Eli enjoyed his first plane ride, as you can see.

Once arriving in NY, we successfully hailed a cab and arrived at my cousin's apartment in Manhattan (a very cool place on the Upper West Side with a 3rd floor rooftop view). Steven then ditched us and dabbled in some public transportation in order to meet up with his friends for the bachelor party. We borrowed a stroller and went for a great walk to Central Park with my cousin, his wife, and their 13 month old. Here is Eli and his cousin in Central Park and a NY skyline! He is a little distracted by the blanket he's chewing on, I think.

Steven (thankfully) made it back safely to the apartment and the next morning we headed out again, via the subway, to meet his buddies and take a train into New Jersey, where we spent the rest of the weekend. While New York was beautiful and unique, it was nice to arrive at the small town of Montvale, NJ, where the wedding would take place. Here is Steven and Eli in his favorite mode of transportation, the Bjorn.

The rehearsal dinner and truly the entire weekend were lovely, even with Eli in tow. Amber, pictured below, also brought her offspring but she wisely brought a babysitter, as well. Eli and Beattie are still a little young to pay much attention to each other but in time we feel they will be great friends, as their fathers are. I just hope they don't get into near the amount of mischief that Steven and Dickson did....

Obviously, the reason for the trip was a wedding, our friends Bobby and Larissa. She is from NJ, he grew up with Steven and was part of the infamous 4 pictured above (the first picture). From the left; Kyle, Dickson, Bobby, and Steven. Kyle is the only one left, ladies, so you better act fast! :) Steven appears to travel back in time with his buddies, not only do they reminisce constantly but he seems to think he can live on 3 hours of sleep for 3 nights straight. However, he is 30 now and that is way harder than it was when he was 16. All that said, these are great friends and ones for life, I do believe.

Speaking of friends for life, I am overdue a post on a sweet visit with my bff from childhood and her 2 sweet girls. That, and some more pictures, are soon to come. I'm still struggling a bit with the pictures (the first picture was supposed to be the last, but oh well...). I don't think super famous blogger is in my future, and that's ok. It is good to be home. Goodnight!

Waitin' on pee pee

It is amazing what is exciting to you after you become a Mom. We are currently potty-training Sadie (of course she picks the weekend we go out of town to decide to start wearing her panties, as if my Mom didn't have enough on her hands with Sadie, Eli, and my 92 year old Grandma to take care of). Despite a few accidents (one doesn't count, she was stuck in Eli's closet and couldn't get out in time), Sadie is doing quite well with using the potty. Anyone that knows Sadie knows she can't sit still for long, so I had to make up a song for those times that the pee pee doesn't come immediately. "Waitin' on pee pee" is the name of the song, the lyrics vary with the mood of the day. Sadie seems to like it. She also seems to like big girl panties, although they don't make them small enough to really fit her. She also would prefer "deer panties" to little mermaid, but they don't make those either. The picture above (in case you're looking at the date), was actually taken several weeks ago, when it was just fun to sit on the potty and read magazines. Now she's so quick I don't have time to take pictures!

Steven and I went away to Baltimore, Maryland this weekend for Todd's wedding. Todd and Steven were roomates at NC State all 4 years, and had been high school buddies since the 9th grade. I will not tell you how they became friends, it is only funny in a 9th grade boy sort of way. We got to hang out with our "NC State friends", including Matt and Jenn (on the left), Maegan and Lee (on our right), and Scott and Katie (not pictured as they didn't quite make it to the wedding). Jenn, Maegan, and I left 5 babies 2 and under (between the 3 of us) so it was quite a night to be out without them. The wedding was beautiful and it was a quick but fun get-away for Steven and I. Eli began chanting "Mamamama" this weekend and one time Sadie looked at him and said "Mama is on a TRIP!" Their first conversation? Maybe. Thank you Mom for being Super Nana this weekend and taking care of my kids! They loved it and we love YOU. Ok it is way past my bedtime so I am out!

Sadie-isms

The children are asleep and I assume Steven is too since he never resurfaced after putting Sadie to bed. I will eventually go get him but he must be exhausted to have fallen asleep in his normal prime working time. Now I'm siting in his quiet office and spent way too much time on Facebook, so I decided to write a quick blog and then go to bed. No pictures tonight but I thought I'd record some of Sadie's latest funnies.
-We were driving in the car when she told one of our friends that "Sometimes, cows poop and dey don't wipe themselves" (an observation she made with her Grandpa, I believe).
-She has learned to "blow like a deer" as she and her Daddy crawl around the floor pretending to be "sawn deers and doe deers and buck deers" ("S" for "F" in Sadie language). I dread the day when she discovers what hunting is all about and why Daddy is always looking for them in the fields.
-"Go to da left and go to da right" whenever we are driving, the first time was on a beltline around Atlanta when Steven and I were trying to get to Hilton Head, Sadie pipes in with her directions. It's always the same.
-I asked Sadie if she heard Eli crying on the monitor while he was napping in his crib. A few minutes went by and I couldn't find her. I went upstairs and she is sitting IN his crib. She's answers "Eli's awake!" I couldn't fuss at her for waking him up because he was having a ball with her in the crib. Just hope it doesn't happen in the middle of the night!
-Steven as since corrected her (much to my dismay) but for a while she would ask for "Lucky Arms" for breakfast, this is also revealing my bad parenting I realize....
This is all I can think of for now. Thank the Lord for children and the many laughs they provide!
Goodnight!

Happy Labor Day!

This post is way overdue, but we have finished our summer with a bang and a lot of traveling. We went to Hilton Head last week with my parents for a few days and after coming home and working we seemed to take all week to get the house back in order. Vacations didn't seem to be that much work when I was a kid, I'm not sure what happened to change that, I guess I grew up. Here is a picture of Eli and my Dad at Hilton Head.

This long weekend has been great, Friday night we went to dinner with some friends and my parents came up from Charlotte. My brother and his family joined us Saturday for a great family day of swimming, riding the four wheeler, and going to see the cows in the back of the truck (www.armoredsquirrel.com for a picture). Sadie faked her nap so was quite tired by the time her cousins left and actually fell asleep in my Mom's arms (she didn't mind a bit). Yesterday was Steven's parents 40th anniversary (Congratulations Benne and Carolyn!) and we spent the day with them as well as Leslie's oldest 3 kids so Sadie had yet another fun cousin day. Today we went to Mountain Top for the annual Labor Day Picnic and enjoyed the day up there. I was a little embarrased, however, because the brochure said "bring a picnic lunch, drinks will be provided" So I got up this morning and made sandwiches, threw an open bag of chips and some grapes in the cooler, and we were off. I was dismayed to find out it actually was a PotLuck lunch and there was a beautiful spread of food that I couldn't contribute to (I wasn't about to cut up my boring ham and cheese sandwiches and put an open bag of chips on the table). So we sat in the corner and quietly ate our sandwiches, if anyone asked I was tempted to tell them we were "gluten-free" or something but thankfully no one noticed. I did hit the dessert table though, I couldn't resist. Oh well, live and learn.




Tonight we got home and enoyed a few hours outside, coloring, playing with play-dough, and working in the yard. As usual our little tomboy ended up shirtless, thankfully no peeing in the grass tonight, and had a blast helping Daddy with the yardwork.

You can see the famous cows that Sadie loves across the street here, as she carries dirt to the bush that apparently needed some.

And finally, my sweet Eli, who hit 5 months the other day! Such a happy baby.

I am thankful for this life that the good Lord has provided for us, thankful most of all for His salvation and His love for us. Goodnight!

A new way to shop.

I took the kids shopping with me today (which I rarely do these days) and we went to Babies R Us for a gift. I was standing in front of the strollers, holding Eli, trying to figure out what to do with him while I put the box in the shopping cart. I decided to let Sadie hold him on her lap for just a minute, but it worked out so well that we finished our shopping trip that way, all the way out to the car! I might just venture out again tomorrow, who says a 2 year old can't be a helpful big sister?

We are having a good week here on Legacy Fare. Sadie took a special trip with Daddy yesterday to Charlotte to spend the night with Nana and Papa while he took a short business trip to Atlanta. Eli stayed in Greensboro and Steven's parents kept him while I worked overnight at the hospital. Oddly enough, my brother came to crash at our empty house on his way to a job in Raleigh today, so we were just all over the state of NC last night. Sadie got to see her Nana on her birthday as well as 3 of her cousins and 2 friends this morning. She had a blast, but I did miss her. I'm so thankful we have such wonderful parents that take such great care of our children for us when we need them to! Apparently though my parents did something to offend Blackie, Sadie's stuffed dog that she took with her to Charlotte, because Sadie told me twice tonight that "Blackie doesn't like Nana and Papa". Interesting.

We took a short trip to Pinehurst to see the Kirbys and meet their new little one, Claire. She's precious, as expected. I have been reading Jenn's blog for quite a while now (I am so proud of myself, I think I figured out how to change the color and make a link!) and she is a big reason I do this now. Matt and Steven went to NC State together and since college they have become some of our favorite couple friends.

As I said before I did work last night and I have spent way too much time trying to upload the picture above so I think I'll call it a night. The kids are sleeping and so must I! Goodnight!