Surprise! More pics of Eli! ;)

Decided to take a few pics of Eli in between changing his outfit cause he was being such a happy baby! :) Didn't get a full smile, but he was definitely happy. Hope you enjoy!

More fun photos...

First Recorded Smiles!! :)

Well, folks, today, July 27, 2007, Elijah Luke has decided to start smiling for real! :) He smiled at Mom and I at my Doctor appointment this morning and then this afternoon after his lunch I had him on my knees while I snapped a few photos and I just thought I'd try to get him to smile and he actually did! :) He then proceeded to smile for Grandpa and Haylee while I was in the potty! :( That's okay, I'm sure there will be many more smiles to come! I took about a million pics today, but I only have time to post the smile ones. Hopefully tonight will bring more time to post the others. :)

Hope you enjoy...

Looks like he's trying to hold the laughter in! :)

Mommy is just so funny!

Fun for my friends...

Had about five minutes to myself tonight when Eli went to bed, so I thought I would try something else with Photoshop. :) I know it is pretty similar to the last thing, but I will branch out next time, I promise! ;) These are a few pics I took at Sam and Heather's wedding, and I thought this would look nice.

Haircut fun

Just a few photos of my new haircut! :) I go to a fabulous hair salon, Eden Hair Salon in Shelby! She is really nice and always makes me feel comfortable and makes sure I actually LIKE my haircut and style. :) I also got my color touched up as I am trying to get my hair back to my "natural" color. I got my eyebrows waxed as well cause they have been crazy overgrown since I got really lazy during and after the pregnancy!

Anyways, It is really hard to take pics of yourself, so here are a few that I think don't look too horrible. Let me know what you think!

Some Park Pics with the Fam...

Just a little fun with Photoshop...

Just had a little fun with Photoshop, so hope you enjoy. :)

The love of Cousins...

I'm not talking about creepy "Kissin' Cousins", but rather, Eli's cousin's, Haylee and Jared constantly loving on him. :) He doesn't really comprehend their many kisses and hugs at this point, but they sure do love to give them! It's good practice too for them considering both are soon to be Big Sisters and Brothers. They aren't always as gentle and easy as we'd like, but they mean well and seem to love Eli to death.

I unfortunately didn't have a close relationship with my many cousins when we were young, but I really hope that Eli has a lot more contact and dare I say friendship with his cousins. :)

Here are a few pictures of Haylee and Jared "holding" Eli. :)

Here's Haylee holding Eli a few minutes after he was born...

Haylee holding Eli at about 2 weeks... (Look at all that hair!) :(

Jared holding Eli at 5 weeks 5 days old... (We still love our balding baby!) :)

I really need more sleep!

Well, this morning was the beginning of Triple Coupons at Lowes Foods, and if you are familiar with my Mom, you know this means panic, planning, and pleading me to go with her! :) Her original idea was to leave at 5:30 AM to get there as the doors opened at 6:00 AM!! Yes, I said 6:00 AM!! My Mother is crazy! Well, in agreement to leave at that awful hour, I said she was on Eli duty for the night! After like 45 minutes, she came down with him and said that Dad will have to take her tomorrow cause he was really fussy and she needed to sleep! He ended up being fine after I snuggled with him and calmed him down. He only woke up once last night and then at 15 minutes to 5, he woke up to eat and I took him up to Mom to see what the plan was about Lowes. She said she changed her mind and she wanted to leave after the list came out on the Grocery Game at around 8:00 AM. I said, fine, he is all yours until then, I'm gonna go back and rest. I then checked my email and Ryan had written, so I wrote him a quick note and climbed back in bed. It couldn't have been about 20 minutes and Mom came back down and said that Dad needed her to go with him to drop the car off and so she was giving me Eli back! :) I think she just likes to trick me into thinking I am going to get extra sleep and then likes to wake me up just as I have begun to fall asleep! :) He ended up being fine and slept next to me in his sleep positioner. Well, she got back early and the list was up, so she woke Eli and I up at around 7:30 AM eager to go shop! Eli and I were NOT happy about being woken up, but I threw on a shirt and capris, brushed my hair and teeth and we headed to Lowes. Mom and I shopped off the list and ended up with 2 full orders and had paid for them and while she took the groceries to the car, I went to the bathroom to fix Eli's bottle. It was as I was getting the water hot, that I looked up in horror to realize that I had walked around shopping for nearly an hour with my shirt completely inside out!!! It was ridiculously obvious and it was a collared shirt, so there really was no hiding it! I could NOT believe that Mom had ridden with me to the store, walked around talking to me, and had not noticed it! I guess that is what happens when you are in Triple Coupon mode! I quickly switched my shirt around and ran out to give Mom some grief that she is so unbelievably NOT observant! :) We laughed uncontrollably for a couple minutes at my expense!

Thankfully, I have lost all pride since joining the Army and becoming a Mom, so it really wasn't too big of a deal! If I was still a teenager, I probably would have just died and never shopped there again!

Anyways, Mom saved a ridiculous amount of money, I think $203.00 worth of groceries for $15.00, so I guess it was worth it!

I think the moral of the story is I need to get a little more sleep if I can't even figure out how to put my shirt on correctly! Good grief I am losing it!

Pics of Mommy and Eli

Here are the pictures you've been asking for...

Well, a bunch of y'all have been asking for copies of the pictures, so I just decided that I was gonna post the pictures on Shutterfly, so y'all can view them and print them yourselves if you want. :) You can have them sent to your house or you can have them sent to Target and you can pick them up there. I was going to do it through walmart.com, but Shutterfly lets you store your pictures for free and doesn't ever delete them.

Anyways, there is a web address specifically for his pictures, so check it out...

http://www.thestrouds.shutterfly.com/

I'll be adding more pics as I take them. :)

love y'all,
bette anne

4th of July fun...

Well, Last night Mom, Eli, and I went to Emmanuel's annual Patriotic Service at the Kings Mountain gazebo. We were unsure of how he would react to all the festivities combined with the heat, but he really did extraordinarily well. They said they were having a 21 gun salute, but if I remember correctly they each only fired 3 times (There were 4 guys) and I thought that that was only done at funerals, but whatever. It was still ridiculously loud as I nearly smothered Eli trying to protect his little ears! :) I hate those parade rifles cause they are A LOT louder than any rifle I fired in the Army. Anyways, we had a good time showing Eli off to people that hadn't gotten a chance to meet him, and only had one or two shady people ask to hold him.

Here are a few pictures of him in his "My First 4th of July" outfit that his Gramma Leigh-Leigh got for him, so I hope you enjoy them! :)

"Look at the cute doggy"

"Doggy doesn't do much, does he?""Yo, what up, homie?"

"Seriously dog, what's your problem"

"Forget it, let's just take a nap!"