Question for Boy Mommies

Ok after I typed that title it sounds funny but I will just leave it. I have a question for all you mothers of boys. Are your boys as rough on pants as Ben is? I noticed yesterday that we have ruined 4 pairs of jeans and 1 pair of Sunday pants (yes I picked him up from church and he had torn a hole in his pants!!!). Here is the carnage...

And these are not bad pants. They are Old Navy, Gymboree and Osh Kosh pants. Ok so I bought them all second hand and didn't pay over $3 for them so it is not a big deal. It is just baffling to me how one little boy can be so hard on pants. Any suggestions on how to keep them from tearing? He is just an active crazy boy these days!!

We Start Them Out Early...

I thought this was hilarious!! She did it all on her own. Gotta love a girl that drinks those diet sodas!!

A Wonderful Pit Stop On Our Way...

On the way down to New Orleans we made a super special pit stop!! We got to go see our best friends Brad and LeeAnn in Mobile for the night on Monday. It was awesome because we got to meet Miss Paige!!! As soon as we planned our trip, I knew that we would be making this pit stop to see the Wrights. It was a very quick visit (wish it could have been longer) but it was great. We got to visit and hold babies which was wonderful. It is always great to see Brad and LeeAnn and now their wonderfully sweet little girl. And sweet she was. LeeAnn had been warning us that she could be fussy at times. I don't even think she cried once the whole time we were there. Paige was so sweet and cuddly! Thanks for letting us spend the night with you guys!! It was so much fun. I hate we don't get to see them as much as we would like but I know we will be making lots more trips down there very soon!

Best friends already!!! LeeAnn and I have been friends since we were so very little. She is my friend in life that no matter what is going on she is always there! It is so awesome that we now have 2 beautiful little girls that are so close in age. They enjoyed their first slumber party!

All the kids. Don't you love how everyone is looking a different way?

Ben playing with his fun birthday toys from Brad and LeeAnn. Last night during prayers he said "Thank you God for Brad and LeeAnn." So sweet. He is always so excited to see them.
This is the picture I have been waiting for. LeeAnn Wright holding Katherine LeeAnn Eckley and Emily Eckley holding Emily Paige Wright. Yes, we named our little girls after each other. Ok so they really aren't named after each other because they aren't. I promise we didn't have some sort of pact since we were 10 that we were going to name our girls after each other. It just happened. Before we decided on the name LeeAnn for Kate I had to call LeeAnn to make sure it was ok to use it and she had to do the same for us. It cracked us up that we were both naming the girls "after" each other. But at least for us it is special that Kate does share her name with someone so great!

"Aunt" LeeAnn and Kate

Kate loved Paige's swing! She actually loved all of Paige's toys.

"Uncle" Matt and Paige. Paige was just so happy and smiled so much for us!! It was great.

One Year Ago Today...

We found out Sweet Baby Kate was on her way!!! Little did we know then what a wonderful blessing was headed our way in 7 1/2 months!!! I can't believe it has been a whole year that she has been apart of our lives. I remember Matt and I laying in bed that night talking about what all this meant for our family. We were super excited. We prayed that night for God's richest blessings to be on our new baby and He truly has blessed her!!!

New Orleans

WARNING - Super long post ahead - proceed with caution!!!!

We just got back from an amazing trip down to New Orleans!! I was so nervous about going down there with 2 kids. But it was great. Matt had his annual HOPA convention that we like to try to go to with him. It is a good excuse to go on a trip. We left last Monday and just got back tonight. It was a full week of so much fun stuff!! The kids did awesome. I was so nervous about how they were going to do. Not a problem. Everyone was super flexible (even Kate who loves her routine). Ben was on his best behavior. If only we could be on vacation at all times!! Here is our week in pictures.

Kate excited about hitting the streets of New Orleans

So are the boys

The first thing that we did was ride the St. Charles Streetcar. It was a fun ride through the Garden District down to Audubon Park.

Chilling in the park. Look at the beautiful huge tree!!

Taking a break from the fun. Ben had a blast playing on the playground.
Kate and Daddy

The streetcar. I didn't realize how big a thing they were. It was lots of fun and of course Ben thought it was fun to ride the "train."

Wednesday morning started with breakfast at Cafe Dumonde.

Sharing some chocolate milk

Just to make all of you jealous!! They are so good. Ben called them "Ben - yays" When we were eating them he said "it is snowing" because the powered sugar would go everywhere!!

Kate at Cafe Dumonde

Jackson Square! Ben kept saying "this on the Amazing Race." We love the Amazing Race and he thought it looked like something on the show. We thought that was hilarious.

I love Jackson Square and all the wonderful art vendors all around it. I got a caricature done of the kiddos that turned out super cute.

We took a walk down to Bourbon Street just to say we had been there. I had been joking about cruising down Bourbon with the double stroller. Matt told me not to post this picture because he will get kicked out of the Southern Baptist deacon ministry! We didn't even walk down the street. Just took the picture!!

We did go to Preservation Hall which Matt was super excited about because it is the birthplace of jazz. He loves jazz music!

Walking down the riverwalk by the Mississippi River

Wednesday morning was our last time with Matt before he headed off to his convention. From this point on I was on my own with the kiddos in the city. I was so nervous. But we did it!!! And survived to tell about it. Our first adventure was to the aquarium. Kate was very intent on looking at the fish.

Ben had a blast. He loved seeing all the fish and asking a million questions about them. I am so excited that he is asking questions these days. He loves to learn and experience new things.

Cool fish picture

Ben the starfish

They had a fun play area for kids. Ben played for about an hour. He had a blast jumping and climbing!

Kate napped. This was the only meltdown we had. I timed it so we would be heading back when she got hungry only she got hungry a little early so there was lots of crying. When we got to our hotel the room key didn't work so we had to go back down to the lobby and get another one. Poor thing was beside herself. And the poor people in the hotel heard how upset she was!!

The kiddos and daddy chilling in the hotel. We enjoyed him getting to join us for dinner in the evenings. Both of them slept awesome the whole week!

This was our view from the hotel. We were staying at the Sheraton in downtown. We were on the 45th floor. Beautiful views of the city. The only other time I have been to New Orleans was when I was a freshman in high school on a band trip. The city has really changed since Katrina. There are so many abandoned buildings. The population just has not returned. The downtown area looks about the same but when you get out of that you can really see the changes. The streets and sidewalks are also a mess! We were thankful for our "Jeep" stroller.

We ate some GREAT food!! My friend Lisa went to seminary in New Orleans so she gave us lots of great suggestions! Thanks Lisa they were all awesome!! This is some good ole Red Beans and Rice (for you dad)!

At dinner - the whole family. Only picture of the 4 of us!

Thursday - Day 2 on our own the kids and I walked to the Louisiana Children's Museum. It was lots of fun. Ben loved playing and checking everything out.

Kate chilled in her stroller (what she did most of the trip).

They had a neat exhibit on boats that Ben loved.

"Driving" a streetcar

They were so worn out! They fell asleep on the way back to the hotel. I just let them both sleep in the stroller.

Thursday night we went and ate at the Camilla Grill. It was an old fashioned counter diner. So much fun!

Friday the 3 of us headed out to the zoo. Ben loves zoos so this was a huge treat for him. He loved the monkeys!!

They had some really fun play areas as well. I thought the city had some wonderful things for kids! Highly recommend it for kiddos!
Kate loved the sunshine. The weather was great for the whole trip! So glad spring is finally here!!

As you can tell we had a great time. It was a busy few weeks and we are tired but it was great!! I love travelling and so far so do both of the kids which I am so thankful for. I am so excited about all the future trips we are going to go on as a family. Next year's conference is in Salt Lake City. That sounds fun!!!!