Sunday, January 31, 2010

Matching Outfits

Hope you guys all had a wonderful weekend! We did. It was a super relaxing weekend. It is the first time in forever that I can remember us not doing a ton of stuff. It was great!!! Although I am sure I will pay for it this week since I didn't get anything done this weekend (and I am starting back to work this week!!). We had a great time last night with friends (more on that to come) and then a wonderful day at church! The weekends go by too quickly!

Today Kate wore the outfit that I had planned for her to wear home from the hospital. Note I said planned. It was way to big for her so she wore something else. It is the matching girl outfit to the one that Ben wore home from the hospital when he was born. I was so excited about it. Now over 2 months later it is finally fitting her!! It came from the store Janie and Jack. I love that store but can't afford much from there. I got Ben's as a gift so I knew I wanted the matching one for Kate. My mom got it for Kate which was awesome!! I love them because they are a soft velour and have such a pretty cut. All the Janie and Jack clothes have such awesome detail. So here are the matching outfits...



Ben (sorry I didn't have a great picture of him in the outfit)



Kate - look at that smile!




I got out the Bumbo today to let Kate try it. She did good in it. She wore out quickly but liked it. This is not something we had with Ben so it is a new adventure for us. I think I like it!!

Ben started playing "This Little Piggy" with Kate! It was super cute. He really love his sister. He calls her batgirl. Tonight as he was going to bed he said "Night night Batgirl, love you!" How sweet!

He of course had to get in on the bumbo action!

Friday, January 29, 2010

Fun Friday Family Night

Once again the "winter weather" has hit Alabama (and I use the term loosely). It sleeted some today so of course the panic was on. I had to pick Ben up early from school for no real good reason. Oh well. The good thing about it was that my Girl's Night Out was cancelled so we stayed home and hung out as a family. Our life has been so busy lately that it was really nice to just hang together. I cooked a big pot of soup (even though it didn't snow it is still cold!). Then we played some Wii together and did some baking.

Ben played the Wii for the first time. He did awesome and really enjoyed it. I love that we can now involve him in some fun things that we can all do. Here he is bowling.


On his very first game by himself he bowled over 100 and almost beat mommy if you notice. Daddy and Ben did some boxing!

Check out those boxing moves!


Kate enjoyed taking it all in. I have so been wanting to get a picture of her smiling. I came really close tonight...

Then we did some cookie baking. Matt and I have been doing awesome all month eating healthy and working out. We have both lost over 10 pounds so we thought we would "reward" ourselves with some cookies. They were low fat oatmeal cookies so we didn't do too bad. Ben loves to help with the baking. Or actually the cookie dough tasting.


Note he is covered from head to toe in dough and flour.

Sneaking some dough!

It was a great night together for the 4 of us. I am glad for the winter weather so we could have this time!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Good News from the Surgeons

We made the visit to both of the surgeons today. It was good news because they were both very quickly able to say that they are 99% sure the knot is just a cyst (a sebaceous cyst not the more common eye cyst - dermoid). So that was great news. And they both thought that it should be removed just because of where it is and how it is growing. So we are facing surgery with our little guy. It should be a fairly easy surgery. He will have general anesthesia but it will just be a day surgery. The recovery shouldn't be bad at all (although keeping a 3 year old from messing with his eye maybe the problem). We now have to decide which of the surgeons to go with (our insurance company may make the decision for us). We are looking at surgery sometime around the first of April.

Ben did great at both of the appointments. He really enjoys going to the doctor. I actually think he will enjoy the surgery experience because he loves new things (I say that now). Thank you all for praying for us today! It is nice to know what we are facing.

Here are the best pictures I could get of the place - did I mention that Ben does not like his picture taken (although they took pictures of it at one of the surgeons office and he loved those pictures. I guess it is just me he doesn't like taking his picture).

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

A New View

We have a new view out the back of our house...

Finally after three years of living in our house they are building a house behind us. When we moved into our house we were the first ones in the neighborhood. So we have watched lots of houses go up all around us. There was one last empty lot right behind us. It was so nice to have an open view of the mountain. But in the last couple of weeks they have started building a house (and a tall one at that). It is sort of sad to see our nice open backyard closed in but we knew it would happen sometime.

This couldn't have happened at a better time (other than the constant banging that keeps kids from napping - but this should be it for the banging which will be wonderful). Ben is into construction these days and we are planning a big construction party for his 3rd birthday (I know you are surprised it is not a Batman party but I talked him into construction although he really wants a football party)! You all know how much I love to plan parties so I have been working hard the last couple of weeks to plan a great party. I am so excited about it. Here is my little guy out at the construction site.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Prayer

My heart has been burdened lately for so many people and circumstances. We have had a couple of people that we know loose their newborn babies over the last few weeks. It has been heartbreaking to see. We also have friends with serious illnesses. But the amazing thing to watch has been how God has worked through all the circumstances. I have seen the power of prayer at work in a mighty way over the last few weeks. I praise God daily for my healthy children and family.

Having said all that I feel sort of funny asking all you blog readers to pray for Ben but I know prayer is what we need right now. About 2 months ago a "knot" came up over his eye. At first we thought he had hit his head on something, so we didn't worry to much about it. But after 4 weeks of it being there we realized it was not an injury. We took him to the pediatrician at the end of December and he was a little puzzled as to what it might be. It is very hard and has very defined edges. It has continued to grow over the past couple of months and drop down from his eyebrow area to more his eye socket area. We are scheduled to see a plastic surgeon on Thursday. Our wonderful friend who is an eye doctor (Dr. Jennifer), also got us in with a pediatric eye surgeon who comes to town once a month (we were very lucky to get in). We will also be seeing him on Thursday. Everyone is fairly certain it is cyst and that is what we feel it is as well but you just never know. And the bigger question is do we just leave it or remove it. Removing it would be surgery and in a very scary place. So if you could just pray for us this week that on Thursday we will know for sure what it is (hopefully without biopsies and scans but that maybe what we have to have) and that we will know exactly what we need to do about it. Thank you all for your prayers!!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Great Sunday

We had another wonderful weekend - family time Friday night along with some fun time with friends on Saturday (it is so nice to be getting back out and hanging out with friends!!). But the highlight of our weekend was Sunday!

We took Kate to church for the first time on a Sunday (she had been for a couple of meetings with me but not on a Sunday). It was such a fun thing to do. We waited much longer with her than we did with Ben and we were planning on waiting even longer but we were just ready to get back to going to church as a family. It was fun to get her all dressed up and ready for church. She did great at church. I am not big on taking kids with you to Sunday School and church but she can't go to the nursery yet so she had to come with us (she will go to the nursery in a few weeks). She slept through SS and 1/2 of church and then I went and fed her and watched the rest of the service in the nursing mother's room. It worked out great. It was so fun to show her off. There were so many people that hadn't gotten to see her yet. All of our friends and church members that prayed for her so much when she was first born finally getting to meet her was very special. We feel very blessed to have a church family that loves us so and has prayed for us!

We all went back to church on Sunday night for a special service. Matt was ordained as a deacon in our church. I am so very proud of him. It is a big responsibility and honor to be chosen as a deacon. At first we were both not sure about it but after getting some wise counsel and praying, he accepted the position. They had a very special ordination service last night for him and another guy. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful, Godly husband!

We go to a church with 8,000 members and we worried so much about getting "lost" in such a large church but God has been so faithful. We have a LIFE group that we love where we learn and are challenged on a weekly basis. We have also both found great places to serve. We have taught preschool Sunday School in the past. I am on the Women's Ministry Committee and now Matt is serving as a deacon. We feel so very blessed to be involved in the work that God is doing at Whitesburg.

It was a great Sunday!!

Mommy and Kate ready for church!

Ben does not like having his picture made these days. I cannot get a good picture of him. This was the best one. He does like to take pictures. Here is one of mommy, daddy and Kate by Ben.

Daddy and Kate


Saturday, January 23, 2010

It's a Jungle Out There

Right before Kate was born, I decided that I wanted to redo the jack-and-jill bath that connects Kate and Ben's rooms. I had never really done much in the bathroom. I was using the shower curtain I had in college (yep Jamye the one we used for a couple of years). Ben was still just using his baby towels. I wanted to update the bathroom to a fun kid design that would work for both boys and girls and I wanted something that would grow with them.

Pottery Barn Kids had an awesome set that had the colors I wanted and would work for both. Yes I know this is part of my quest to turn my entire house into the Pottery Barn catalog. In Sunday School a few weeks ago, our teacher was talking about your rewards in heaven and my friend Jessica said my mansion was going to be the Pottery Barn catalog. Sounds good to me!! So I ordered the shower curtain and towels from Pottery Barn Kids and have been working over the last couple of weeks to get it all put together. I think it turned out pretty cute. I was also trying to find something that would look good with the blue walls.

Here it is... It is a fun jungle themed room. I still can't decide on the bath mats. I really want the ones from Pottery Barn but they are expensive so I am waiting until they go on sale.
Their cute towels with their names on them. These will probably just be for display. I added a cute wall saying I got at Hobby Lobby!

I found these super cute accessories at Target online but of course they were sold out so I ended up getting them on ebay! Love them!
I got these super cute pictures to match on ebay as well. I then mounted them onto canvas and added ribbon! They turned out cute and perfect for the small bathroom.

I got 2 sets of towels for the kiddos to use at Target. I love the pink and blue and how well it works together.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

A Fun Playdate

We got out today for a super fun playdate with some of our really good friends. God has really blessed me over the past year with 2 totally awesome friends - Jessica and Candace. The three of us have come together (and don't ask me how - we are as different as can be but also so much alike) and forged a very special friendship. These gals have been there for me over the last year and it has been wonderful. We have had so much fun together and also have been an encouragement to each other. We used to get together every week but Candace recently moved and with Kate being born we haven't seen each other as much as we would like. So today we had a very special playdate planned at Jessica's house.


It was great to catch up with the girls while the kiddos played. They both have little girls who are 18 months old (Kylie and Genevieve). It is so much fun to watch Ben interact with the 2 girls. He actually has a really good time with them. He was having a tea party with them both (he is a ladies man!) Kate hung out and watched it all. It was a fun morning! Now Ben is napping (3 days in a row!!!!) and yes Kate slept through the night again (9:30-4!!). Life is good. Thanks girls for a fun morning!

Miss Kate ready to go to her first playdate. She is wearing a day gown my grandmother made for me when I was a baby. It has been to cold for her to wear it much but today it is 70 degrees so she could wear it. But you know what the warm weather means - tornados later tonight!


Jessica holding Kate.
Ben and his girls!

Candace, Jessica & I at my baby shower. We didn't have a picture of the 3 of us from today (we didn't think Ben could take one of us).

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Ahhh! Sweet Rest!

Well, sweet baby Kate has done it again. She has proven how she is the most wonderful baby ever! Last night she slept "through the night." I can't believe it!! She ate around 9:30 and went down around 10 and slept until 5 this morning!! I couldn't believe it. I woke up around 2 am and checked on her to see if she was ok. I had to go stick her paci back in her mouth a couple of times because she was a little fussy but she made it that long with no food!! A big night at our house. I got some good rest. I noticed the last couple of nights that at her 2 am feeding she wasn't eating as much and was also having a hard time going back to sleep so I thought she was about ready to give it up and it looks like it worked! I am sure tonight she will be back up every 3 hours but I will take what I can get.

Ben did the same thing at 2 months but then didn't sleep through the night again until he was 2 years old so maybe she will be a little different. I have been doing really good with the lack of sleep but it sure is nice to think about getting a little more!

Here she is the most wonderful baby in the world!!
Today she was sitting with me in her room folding some clothes. Matt called and we were talking and she was making her "talking noises." I held the phone up to her ear and she got the biggest smile on her face when she heard Matt's voice. It was so sweet! She is a daddy's girl already.

She wore shoes for the first time today. I thought it was so cute so of course I had to take a picture...

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Naptime Follow Up

Today as I was getting Ben ready for his nap he informed me that he was not going to take a nap but his "friends" were. He carefully lined up BP, EE & Palin to take a nap in his place. Bless him!!!

UPDATE: He actually took a 2 hour nap today!! I guess he just needed his friends to go down first!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Is it Arthur Time?

We had a great weekend this past weekend. We didn't do too much but it was full and fun. There was lots of family time but we also spent some fun time with some of our good friends. It is always nice to get re energized over the weekend for the week. And it looks like this week we will need that extra energy - a busy full week ahead!!

I thought I would share something that was going on with Ben these days. He has pretty much stopped taking naps. It is a very sad day!!! He has slowly been cutting them out over the past few months and last week he only took a nap one day. He does have "rest time" in his room for 1 1/2 hours or so. But even that has been cut short lately. He loves to watch Arthur on TV and he knows it comes on at 3 pm which is what time he can leave his room after rest time. So now he has started coming out of his room every 5 minutes and asking "Is it Arthur Time?" I say "No Ben go back to your room." We do this about 20 times each day. Oh so much fun!! The little guy still needs to be taking naps so he has not been pleasant at night! We have adjusted his schedule so he now goes to bed around 8 pm instead of 9 pm. I am hoping this is just a phase and that he will go back to taking a nap soon. Until then we will just have rest time until Arthur.

Ben chilling on the floor watching Arthur.

Sweet Kate who loves to nap! Ben needs to take a nap so she and I can have some time together each day. Poor Kate has a bad cold right now. It has gotten into her lungs (her not so good lungs). So far she is doing ok but pray that she continues to do well and gets better soon!!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

2 Months Old

Our sweet baby Kate is 2 months old today!!! Time is flying. She truly is a blessing and our lives are so much more full with her. Here are a few things about Miss Kate now that she is 2 months old:

  • You are growing like a weed! Each day it seems that you fill out more and more. I love how your little face has gotten so full. Your little thighs also are getting some meat on them! You weigh around 10 pounds 7 ounces.

  • You are still wearing some of your newborn clothes but we have also moved into the 0-3 month clothes. They are a little big but it won't be too much longer and they will fit great.

  • You continue to be a super happy baby. You have started crying some. You let us know what you need but still overall are a wonderful baby. You love to lay in your bouncy seat and watch Ben run around. Swinging is also something you really enjoy.

  • You are a paci girl to the core! As long as you have that in your mouth you are happy.

  • You are getting some good head control. Tummy time is not your favorite but you put up with it. You can really hold your head up and look around when you want to. You are also working on straightening out your legs. Such a big girl.

  • Your eyes are still blue which is awesome. Maybe they will stay that way. You still have tons of hair (it is the thing we get the most comments on when we go out!)

  • We are still working on establishing a schedule (not that you need to be on one). You are still nursing about every 3 hours during the day. At night, you will go 4-5 hours at times (up to 6 1/2 one night). You are usually awake from about 8 am - 10 am in the morning (we call it playtime) and then again most evenings from about 5 pm - 8 pm. You are still a great sleeper at night which is a huge blessing.

  • Some of your nicknames include Miss Kate, Kate the Great, Sweet Baby Kate, and Angel.

  • You are getting better hand control. You love to try to reach out and grab things. Some of your favorite things to hold onto are shirts and blankets. You are a snugler!

  • Your second month of life was full of fun new adventures. You got out more. You like to ride in the car so we take you on errands and such. You got to meet 2 great-grandmothers over the month. You also had your first Christmas. Such fun times.

  • You are starting to smile some. You are a very contemplative baby so you are not as expressive but we know you are thinking some big things!! You are also a very vocal little girl these days. You like to try to make new and different sounds that are super cute.

Happy 2 month birthday Kate!!!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

It's the Little Things

It's the little things that make being a parent so wonderful. And so many of those things I had forgotten from when Ben was a baby.

I had forgotten how they aren't born with eyelashes and over the first couple of months you get to watch them grow on a daily basis. They are so pretty and long now.
I had also forgotten how snugly babies are. At all times they just want to be snuggled up. I captured this cute picture of Kate the other day gripping her blanket trying to get it all snuggled around her. So precious.
It is these little things that I want to remember forever!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Pull Kate's Paci!

Today is a better day! Ben is still running a slight fever but I had enough of being stuck in the house so we headed out. We met Matt for lunch and ran a few errands. Getting out was a good thing!

I wanted to share a few Ben funnies that have happened as of late. He has a new thing that he is doing. He gets this funny look in his eye and walks up to Kate and pulls out her paci. He then says "Pull Kate's Paci?" Like he is surprised! It is funny. He then laughs when she starts to cry. It is sort of sad for her but funny. He does it several times a day. I guess it is a fun game for him.

A couple of funny things he has said lately...

Matt was replacing the batteries in his Batman car and Ben said "Thank you Daddy!! You are Handy Manny!"

Ben was playing with something and it missed him and he said " Missed me, missed me. Now you have to kiss me!" That cracked us up. We don't know where he learned it!

He was slow to talk but now he is catching up and really talking all the time. Not always understandable but we are learning Ben language more and more everyday! And boy what he says keeps us laughing!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Yesterday vs. Today

Yesterday was a great day for me. Ben has been sick the last couple of days with a cough and fever so we haven't gone anywhere but I got tons done yesterday.

I washed, dried and put away 7 loads of laundry...
I cleaned 5 bathrooms (yes we have 5 bathrooms. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to build a house with that many bathrooms. It just means you have to clean 5 bathrooms!)...
I managed to keep the house straight, get some things done for work and even cook dinner. After dinner I was able to go to the gym and workout for 45 minutes. I felt like supermom! I was exhausted but it felt good.
Then today hit! So far today I have managed to do nothing. I have 2 whinny kiddos that I have been tending to. Ben still has a fever today so that has been trying. And Kate just wants some attention.
It is amazing to me how different a day can be. It was stressing me out some that I wasn't accomplishing anything but then I realized that I was accomplishing something. I was keeping these 2 beautiful children happy...
So it doesn't matter if I look back at the end of today and don't get anything on my to do list done (and everyone who knows me knows I keep a detailed to do list!) I have kept my kids dry, fed and happy. That in and of itself is a big job! I will just hope for another day like yesterday tomorrow!

Monday, January 11, 2010

Kate's Newborn Pictures

You can check out Kate's newborn pictures if you would like on our photographer's website. www.simplicitybychristy.com. Click on client proofing and enter password: ben They turned out great. Let me know what you think! It is going to be hard deciding which ones to get so I am going to need some help!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

A Busy Saturday - A Baby Shower & A Hockey Game

Yesterday was a busy but really fun day for the Eckleys! The whole weekend was going to be really busy but a couple of things got cancelled because of the snow but that was a good thing so we could focus on what we had to do!

Saturday morning I helped host a baby shower for my best friend LeeAnn! We are so excited that baby Paige is going to be here in a few short weeks. When Brad and LeeAnn told us they were pregnant way back in June the first thing I started thinking about was planning the baby shower!!! I started planning in August. It was great to work with all LeeAnn's friends to plan the best shower ever. Everything looked so pretty and the snow provided a great backdrop for the shower. LeeAnn got some awesome gifts. Baby Paige is ready to come now!! I hope LeeAnn had as much fun at the shower as we did planning and putting it all together. Here are a few pictures from the shower...

LeeAnn and the hostesses
Some of the food and decorations
LeeAnn opening gifts!


Saturday night Ben and Matt went to the Havoc hockey game. It was a game that supported the NICU at HH. During the week Kate was in the NICU, we would stand in the hall waiting to go back to the unit to see her and look at the hockey jerseys that hang on the wall. Matt and I said that we would go to the game this year and start attending the events that support the NICU after our wonderful experience there. So Saturday was the big day. It was too cold to take Miss Kate so I stayed home but Ben and Matt went with Opa and Mema. Ben had been looking forward to it all week. Every morning he would wake up and ask "hockey game today?" He had a blast at the game. He loves to watch sports so we knew he would love it!
Here is Ben with his Havoc lunch box he got for bringing and item for the NICU.


The game - the players wore special jerseys that were auctioned off after the game to support the NICU.

Mema keeping Ben warm during the game. It was tons of fun for them!

As you can see it was a busy day for us but full of fun times and good memories!! Now on to the week! Hopefully it is going to warm up some.