UNbelievable Fun on a Farm

Today we spent some time on a beautiful farm in the Foothills of SC. Dear friends of Donald, whom I had never met, invited us up, and it was wonderful. We spent some time in the pool, which was surrounded by the most beautiful, lush garden that belonged in a magazine. We took a ride on a mule (four wheeler, not donkey), picked vegetables out of a garden that was filled to the brim, and visited with a few ponies...one still a baby. The air was fresh and the views gorgeous. God's creation at its finest. We all sweat enough to fill a bucket, but it was so worth it. My mom grew up on a farm like this, but it's in Maryland and was sold many years ago. For my children to be able to experience a little of what she did means so much to me. We were blessed by a sweet family today, and we pray that we can pass it on, in some sort of fashion...even if it's just sharing the veggies we were sent home with! Enjoy the pictures from our day. Of course they don't do it justice...

Overlooking part of the farm.

"Here horsey, horsey."
She was so proud that she could climb up there by herself!

Our curly-head boy checking out the ponies.

Riding the Mule.

Eli wanted in on the tomato-picking action

Amazing!! And we didn't even make a dent!

So fun! And now I am bleaching the shirt that has tomato stain all over it. At least it was white!

Just out of the pool! This is now my FB profile pic. Because he is just so stinking cute.

Hotness. And the Crazy Storm.

Last night our family spent a few minutes in the only room in our house that doesn't have a window or share an outside wall: Our tiny closet. The four of us and Sadie. It had been storming for at least an hour when we were finishing up dinner and Donald notice that rain had picked up and was falling horizontally. The wind was so strong that the huge pine trees in our yard were bending significantly, and all we could see out the window was sideways rain and leaves and debris flying everywhere. We grabbed the kids and went to the closet. We only stayed in there a few minutes, because the wind subsided pretty quickly. Our yard was littered with pine needles and branches and a bazillion pine cones. Our nice outdoor umbrella was across the yard and was snapped in half (serious bummer). My neighbor said her wrought-iron bench slid across the entire length of her deck. Four trees fell in our neighborhood...one completely up-rooted. The weirdness of it all is that I left home after the storm, and just a few blocks away, there was really no signs of wind damage. Weird. We still don't know what it was. We are used to storms and winds and branches in our yard, but this was different. Way different. And scary for a few moments!
Moving on...

So, our summer has been good. But as someone who isn't in school or whose children aren't in school, the definition of summer is just hotness. So we have enjoyed our hotness, although the last couple of weeks have been a little extreme. You gotta love a nice hot breeze and 90 degrees at 10pm. But one thing hotness brings that I do love: ice cream! Every Wednesday we go get ice cream cones (waffle ones, to be precise), and eat them in the yard. I then hose Charley down. Lots of fun and yumminess!
We've spent more time indoors the past month because of the heat, but the kids have fun and are playing really well together. Eli is now 10 months (can you believe it?!) and Charley is 2 years 2 months. Here are a few pics from the last couple of months...

Just a cute bath pic.

I just love smiling. It's my hobby.

"I just know my lipstick is in here somewhere!"
Charley has enjoyed playing dress up with some stuff some dear friends let us borrow.

This is a daily occurrence. However, Eli is the one who LOVES the piano.

Eli takin' it all it at the beach several weeks ago.

Frog on Me

The other day we got in the car, and before pulling off, Charley said, "Frog on me." Well, we know she knows what a frog is, and she is just learning what "on me" means. However, we would have never guessed that there was an actual frog on her.... until.... we saw something jump clear across the back seat. Sure enough, there was a frog on Eli's carseat... And apparently it had been on Charley's lap...or foot....or something. Donald got the frog out of the car, and I explained that the frog had to go home to its mommy. Charley wouldn't put her feet down the entire ride home (imagine stirrups, ladies). She kept repeating, "Frog. Home with Mommy." Who would have guessed there would be a frog in our car.
SO, that very evening, I was leaving somewhere with both kids in the car and as soon as we got on the road, Charley said, "Ant, Mommy. Ant. I want DOWN." Oh no. Normally, I wouldn't think much of this, but considering our frog encounter earlier that day, I decided to pull over. I opened her door, to find her with both feet in the air (like earlier). I asked if she saw an ant, to which she replied, "MmmHmm" and pointed to the ginormous SPIDER on the back of my headrest!! I totally froze. My first instinct was to call Donald and have him come rescue us, but then I realized it might jump on one of my kids. The thing was looking at me and drooling. SO, I grabbed something out of the diaper bag and swiped the spider out of the car. It took everything in me. I thought it was going to eat my hand off, and the thought of it getting in my hair while I was driving was just awful. Thank goodness Charley can talk! I'm hoping that's the end of our wildlife adventures in the minivan. I couldn't believe it happened twice in one day. Crazy. Sorry...no pictures of these experiences. :)

Beach Week

I have a serious problem with saying I'm gonna go to bed "early" and then I somehow get distracted and "early" turns into really late (really late for me). Tonight's distraction is this post...But, it's been awhile, and I've got some cute pics.
We spent the last week at the beach with my family. 17 people under one roof... I felt like a Duggar. Our kids are the babies of the group and love being doted on by their older cousins for seven days. In fact, they love it so much that returning to the Upstate, back into reality, has proven difficult. Eli thinks that being in someones arms 24/7 is the new norm, and Charley's reaction to not being entertained by fun people all the time has been having meltdowns over...nothing. "Mom...Clearly you are not fun people," she is thinking. But, we will get back into our routine, and beachtime with family is def worth it. I'm already ready for next year.

Let's see...the Salley Family trip to the beach every year can pretty much be summed up in three words: ocean, sand, food. Yep, that's pretty much it. If given a fourth word, of course there's good conversation too. I like that part too, but I think food wins out. And ocean and sand... There's just so much of it.
This was Eli's first time at the beach. He is a fan. He loved sitting in the sand and playing. I thought he would be crawling all over the place, but he wasn't, which was kinda nice. The poor kid had diarrhea for five straight days while we were there, which needless to say was AWFUL, but he was a trooper and remained in a decent mood. He got the worst diaper rash of all times, and I won't even try to describe it b/c whatever I write will not do its horribleness justice. But he is better now, and I will try to never take for granted the fact that my children, as a general rule, have normal poops.

Charley loved the beach and even braved the waves in her daddy's arms later in the week. There was a time when all 17 of us got in the water. The waves were perfect and the water warm. And there were no jellyfish. Very important to me.

Dude. It's hot!

Our Big Boy

Well, Eli is eight-months-old already. He's a joy. He's a handful. Here are some quick things about him...

• Still scooting around on his belly by pulling with his arms and pushing with his right leg. His left leg is always up in the air, like a periscope.
• He's pulling up on toys now to get on his knees. Kinda cute.
• He's working on FOUR teeth right now. All at once. Ouch.
• His hair starting getting longer, just in the last month or so. You can see in some of the pics below the curly "wings" on the side of his head.
• Eli LOVES water. He "swims" around the bathtub like a fish. We broke out the baby pool a few weekends ago, and he was lovin' it. I can't wait to get him in a real pool, although I'm not sure he'll be okay with just sitting peacefully in a baby float!
• He is very inquisitive and likes to see how things work. Instead of playing with a push toy, he will turn it over and examine the wheels and the battery compartment. Instead of playing with the things in a drawer, he will open and close the drawer a million times. He will crawl over to a door and swing it open and closed, open and closed and just laugh b/c it's "so funny."
• Changing his diapers and/or clothes is like a WWF match. He is a strong little booger and does not laying still.

Looking back at the list above, it's funny, because all of those things are complete opposite of Charley! It's amazing how God made us all so unique, and it just stands out more when you have siblings so close in age, from the same parents, and they are so different! And a lot of things are "physical" things....it will be interesting to see how different their personalities are. Here are some pics of the sweet-heart boy!

Our Big Girl

Charley turned two last week, which is just nuts! We can remember the day she was born like it was yesterday, and now she is a walking, talking little girl. I'm trying to the think of ALL the things that have changed since a year ago. Well, for one, she was just learning to CRAWL a year ago. She was much shorter. As was her hair! Check out these pics for a comparison! Where'd all the baby fat go?!

Charley still LOVES Eli and actually calls him "Eli" now. It sounds like "E-yie," which of course is super cute, and a step beyond calling him "baby." He still pulls her hair (all the time), and although it majorly hurts, she doesn't seem to resent him for it (yet).
Charley's working on about FIVE teeth right now..Painful! Three of the two-year molars and the two upper canines. Once these guys are in, that should be it for a long time. Yay!
Well... we certainly do love and cherish our Charlotte Rose and hope and pray that the Lord will do wonders in her heart, that she may serve others and love Him one day!!
Stay tuned for Eli's eight-month update!

Let's Give'em Somethin' to Blog About

I really have nothing to blog about. Well, that's not exactly true. Maybe I just don't feel like blogging. I have a really long story I could share with you regarding my flight back from Chicago last weekend, but I really don't feel like recounting it. Let's just say, never fly into Charlotte late at night, amongst tornadoes and a gum-smacking middle school basketball team, and expect to make your connection back to Greenville. I guess I can't blame the delay on the basketball team, but they sure made the flight seem ten times longer.

I could also blog about how we totally "went there" and bought a minivan. Oh yes we did. I can now drive entirely too fast through neighborhoods and think it's okay because I'm a soccer mom and have places to be.

I could also blog about how my six-month-old is basically crawling, and I am not cool with it. Charley didn't crawl until 11 months (actually, an exact year ago), so I had four GLORIOUS months of her just sitting there and playing contently. Eli is skipping that stage, and I am IN FOR IT. Homeboy is already getting in to stuff he shouldn't, and we need to majorly baby proof. Ug. [P.S. Even though I may sound like a whiny ungrateful person, I am ALWAYS thinking about how the Lord has been so gracious and the fact that our children are here and healthy is a beautiful miracle. I don't ever want to take for granted that they are here and that they can walk (or crawl) and talk and sing and whine etc etc etc. I love them and they are a gift. Okay. End of disclaimer.]

What else? D is heading back to Kenya soon. I will post more about that another time.

Hmm...what else? Oh. Charley is talking more and more each day and is becoming more and more in tune with the world around her. For example, she had a splinter in her hand the other day, and I was telling D about it at the dinner table. Charley, on cue, stuck out her hand and showed Donald the splinter and said, "Oh no!" Yes, that seems majorly insignificant, but we are used to having babies who just sit there and aren't used to having them contribute to the conversation. And thus it begins...

Here are the kids on Easter Sunday...

Happy Easter! "As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died."
Galatians 6:14