Spring Clothes Time!

Since it is birthday week, I thought I would update the blog to reflect that! : )

By the title you might think I mean time to wear spring clothes but not yet. It is still pretty cold out there! I mean it is time to get them out and assess and buy! It is no secret that I love to get a great bargain! I got that from my mom. I found found that kids clothes are a great opportunity for bargains! You do have to work for it though. At the end of every season I hit the stores buying up clothes for the next year. It has always been pretty easy to project what size Ben is going to be. He has pretty much been right on what he is supposed to be (although now his sort little legs are throwing me a little since he is still wearing 18 months pants). The past week I have been to Belk, Dillards and Old Navy buying up winter clothes and shoes. I got some great deals. I got 7 things at Old Navy for $18 which was awesome! Along with this comes pulling out all the spring/summer clothes that I bought last year at the end of the summer. So here is what our guest room looked like this weekend...
I did pretty good overall with the clothes. I have a few more things that I need but I have a great head start on the summer. The only thing I overbought was bathing suits. Do you think the little guy needs 8?

Now starts the fun of the consignment sales!! There are 2 this weekend (MOMS and Kids Kloset). I always try to go to them all especially on 1/2 off days. I am excited because tonight I got tickets to the early sale at Kids Kloset so Jennifer and I will be heading out to get some great bargains! I love doing this and trying to get deals as well as awesome clothes for my little guy.

Fun Family Friday

Matt had to work this weekend so he had off Friday and today. We are thankful he doesn't have to work weekends very often but when he does things are a little different. We had a really fun family day on Friday. We went to Early Works (a children's museum here is town). Ben loves to play in Biscuit's playroom and since we went on a Friday it wasn't very crowded. Here are some pics from Friday!

Playing with the fun water stuff!

This cracked us up - He was playing store and had play money. He took the play money and ran it through like it was a credit card (you can see him swiping below!) He doesn't know what you do with real money. He only sees mommy and daddy use credit cards! A sign of the times!

Riding a cow!

A fun time was had by all! We had a good weekend even with Matt working. We got to hang out with a bunch of friends all weekend and then had church yesterday! Today we are back at it getting ready for a big week - BIRTHDAY!!!! I can't believe my little baby is going to be 2 on Sunday! We are having a big party on Saturday so this week will be spent getting ready!

Sleeping

I would have thought that by the time Ben was 2 he would be sleeping great. Boy was I wrong! The little guy is so special! He just won't sleep through the night. We had gone about a month with him sleeping through the night pretty much every night which was a huge deal for us! But then he started waking up. And he just wasn't waking up randomly - he was waking up at 2:56 every morning. It was so strange. The exact same time 5 nights in a row. Now that I am used to getting more sleep I am having a hard time adjusting to less sleep. So last night was used a little Benadryl to try to get him to sleep past 2:56 and it worked! He slept until 5:45!! YEA!!! Don't let it get out that we drug our child to get him to sleep.

Here are some pictures of the little guy sleeping. I can't believe how big he looks in his crib! It won't be long until he is in a big bed. You will note all of the must haves for sleeping - froggy pillow, a million stuffed animals (which are actually on the floor in the picture because he likes to throw them out of the crib when he wakes up), Mickey Mouse blanket and of course Brown Puppy!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Do Kids Ever Forget?

Today Ben and I were playing and he found an old ring toy that months ago I was goofing around with and put on my nose like a nose ring. When he found it today he immediately said nose and tried to put it on his nose. I couldn't believe that he remembered. Kids must have a mind like a steel trap!!

The Big Reveal!!!!

So it is time to reveal the new playroom/bonus room!! After 3 weeks of work it is almost done! I hate I don't have any before pictures but just imagine an empty room with a window. We knew when we built the house we wanted to put in built in cabinets with a window seat to overlook the lake. It is a great view out the window! I imagined kids up there reading and enjoying it. A mere 2 years later we finally get around to this project. We were going to hire someone to do it but Matt said he could. And boy did he ever! He did an awesome job. His dad came over and they spent hours and hours designing and building. It turned out better than I ever imagined! We are loving hanging out upstairs. We spend so much time up there! So without further ado, here it is...

Ben sure did enjoy the building! Here he is in the bookshelves. He thought they were a train!

We also had to sing the "Bob the Builder" song a million times while working!

My dinning room was used a painting central - hence why I didn't blog for so long because the dinning room table was in front of the computer in the study!

Ben the painter!

Here it is! This is the shot as you walk up the stairs!


I love how the red wall turned out!! I love love love the pictures on the wall too!

Sorry for the bad picture but here are all the cabinets!

The left side - this is for the Wii. Note I do need to get more stuff to put on the shelves. It holds a lot!!
The left side! - Matt and Mike did an amazing job!!!!

The window seat!! I actually helped to make the curtains!! We are having a cushion and some pillows made so that should be added soon.

Super fun chalkboard wall. Hopefully we can teach Ben to only write on this wall!

My favorite part - all the storage! There is so much room for toys and books. I haven't even filled it up yet!

The art area! Don't you love the giant paint brush and palate (Pottery Barn - my favorite store!) We have ordered 4 little chairs to go with the table so they should be in soon. I am also working on a way to display art above the table with frames and clotheslines.

Ben loves his new playroom!!!!

Long Overdue Post

I know I know it has been forever. For the 4 of you that actually read the blog you are probably thinking I fell off the face of the earth (or the 6 of you that have called and left messages that I have not returned). I am so sorry. Things have been crazy busy around the Eckley household the last few weeks. It has just been one thing after another. I looked on my camera today and I have not taken a picture in over 3 weeks. That is a record for me. We have been too busy for pictures! So I will try to catch you up...

We have been busy hanging out with lots of great friends lately! That has been lots of fun!

Ben has been sick for about the last 3 weeks. We just assumed it was allergy stuff that he gets all the time but last week on day 15 of being sick I finally took him to the doctor (yep 15 days. I don't like to go to the doctor and put it off as long as possible) So we finally went and the doctor took one listen to his chest and said he was super junky and wheezy. So he had to get breathing treatments and started on stuff for home. He is doing better but now everyone else is sick!!

This past weekend we had a missions conference at church. It was awesome. We had a missionary couple stay at our house which was great fun!

We have also been working on the "big project!!" We are finally finished so over the next few days I will post some long asked for photos!!

So I finally took a photo today. I had a small plate of cookies sitting on the counter this morning. I gave Ben a cookie as a snack and thought he was taking a really long time to eat it because everytime I saw him he had a cookie in his hand. When I went back and looked at the plate all the cookies were gone. Yep he is now tall enough to reach up and get things off the counter and I had no idea! So here he is with cookie face (after eating 3 cookies!)