Holiday Weekend???

I can't believe it has been almost 4 days since I posted. That is the longest I have gone this year without a post. I think I just needed a break. Or actually we have just been so busy I haven't had time to sit at the computer.

Hope you all are having a wonderful Memorial Day. Such a great holiday to remember all of those who have given their lives for our freedom. Around the Eckley house we sometimes forget it is a holiday. Matt works just about all holidays so they are just any other day (hence the questions marks on the title of the post). We have had a busy fun weekend!

Friday Ben went and played golf with my dad. They had a good time. Ben was not a fan of the hot weather. More of a cool weather kind of golfer. Friday night the 4 of us went out to dinner at Outback. It was so yummy!! It was the first time we had been out to eat in several weeks (a record for us).

Saturday morning was super busy. We headed out for our normal bagel run at Panera. We then made several stops including at Kidspace, the library, Earth Fare (a new earthy type grocery store in town - I was not very impressed) and Old Navy (got some good clothing deals for Kate and Matt). It was a fun time of being together as a family getting some things done! We then went to dinner at our neighbor's house. We are so blessed to have some of the most awesome neighbors! It was a great time of fun food and fellowship.

Sunday morning was church which is always great. We went to lunch with a group of friends which was super fun! Then we went over to Kelly and Andrew's house for dinner. My grandmother (GG) and Aunt Lisa were in town visiting. It was great to spend the evening catching up with them. Ben loves being around them so much!

Today Matt worked and then kids and I had a busy day. We went and had breakfast at my parent's house with GG and Aunt Lisa. We then went swimming at Kelly and Andrew's neighborhood pool. It is an awesome pool and we were the only ones there!! Then we did some painting projects. Matt just got home and we are hanging out as a family! Fun times!!! It has been a busy 4 days!!

Public Service Announcements from the Eckleys

Happy Thursday! When I was in college Thursday was always our favorite night of the week. It was almost Friday and we would always have a girls night and get together to watch Thursday night TV. Fun times! Anyways - we had a good day today. A fun play date with some new friends and then some family time tonight. Always good!

Just thought I would share some good reminders with everyone...

Make sure you bolt your furniture to the wall! I walked into Ben's room yesterday and found him doing this. So glad his dresser is bolted to the wall!!
And a reminder to all those boys out there from Kate...

Following "the Rules"

After 2 days of being stuck in the house potty training, we finally left the house today. Not for anything exciting mind you. It was for Kate's 6 month doctor's appointment. It went great. She weighed 13 pound 15 ounces (yes that is down from 2 weeks ago when I weighed her - not sure why. We are praying it is not a problem) and was 25.5 inches long. Weight was 10th%ile and height was 35%ile. She is meeting all her milestones plus some. The doctor said her sitting up was that of a 7 and a half month old. I think they just make that stuff up. Really what is different in how a 6 month old sits up and how a 7 month old sits up? He said she looked awesome and to keep doing what we were doing. We then went to visit Matt at work for lunch. That was fun. It was Kate's first trip to daddy's work. He loved showing her off to all the nurses and pharmacists. Both kiddos loved the attention!

So the doctor's visit today brought up and interesting thought for me... following "the rules." I have had this conversation with several friends lately. When it comes to babies do you do what the doctors and the books tell you or do you do your own thing. I have always considered myself a rule follower but I have found as a parent I am not. I sort of do my own thing. Like today the doctor said not to give Kate table foods until she was 9 months old. Well we have already been giving her some really soft table foods and will continue to. Is it bad that I don't follow "the rules"? Are you a rule follower? Do I care that I don't follow all the rules out there? Deep thoughts for a Wednesday night!

Here is Kate eating her table food at 6 months as I totally break the rules!

Oh - I just have to share. Matt showed me the funniest blog today. http://stuffchristianslike.net/

We have been laughing all night at so many of the posts. You have to check it out!

Summer To Do List

I am a compulsive list maker. I admit it I have a problem!! I still think about the fact that on my "to do" list before Kate was born so many things didn't get done because she came early. I get such satisfaction out of marking things off my list. That being said I have a list of things that I want to get done this summer. Here they are in no particular order...
1. The first and foremost thing is POTTY TRAINING. If you have been reading the blog for long you will remember that was also on last summer's list. Yep in July we will hit the 1 year mark at this wonderful potty training adventure. I think I might possibly lose my mind over this. I really don't think there is anything harder in the world than training a strong willed 3 year old boy who has no interest in the potty how to go to the potty. We have literally tried everything "in the book" - rewards (no interest - he says he has everything and needs nothing), punishment (he now has all of his toys put up and is not allowed to watch TV). Nothing is working. We are almost there but still have a little ways to go. The next 2 weeks I have devoted to nothing but this. Today I thought I was going to kill the little guy but we made it through. And I WILL win!!! The above picture is what our bathroom looks like right now. We literally spend hours in there each day!

2. I want to "redo" my bedroom and bathroom. Not change too much but I do want to hang some new pictures and remove my old dresser. This will mean I need to change up some things in the room. I am excited to rearrange and try out some new things.
3. Swimming!! We will be spending most of our days at the pool this summer I am sure! So exciting!! Ben is going to take swimming lessons this summer as well. He really has no fear in the water so we hope that he can easily learn some basics.

4. This is our guest bedroom. Or as I like to call it the "I don't know what to do with this so I will just throw it in there" room. Over the last few months everything that doesn't have a home has just gotten thrown in there. I want to clean it out and make it usable again.

5. Work on Kate's baby book. Poor girl not a word has been written in it! I have done so good keeping up with the blog that it won't be too hard to just transfer it but I do need to do it and soon! I also want to work on turning the blog into a book as well!

6. I am almost embarrassed to post this picture. These are my baseboards. They are awful!!! We got our wood floors replaced a couple of years ago and the quarter molding was never repainted. The baseboards don't match the molding and they are soooooo dirty. I am going to take a room at a time and clean and repaint the baseboards!

7. This is my lovely portfolio that I have to keep in order to keep my Registered Dietitian status. I have to keep up with all my continuing education hours. I have not done anything with it in the last year. Since my registration is up next year I better get working on updating and doing some CEs!!

8. Lastly and most importantly we will be having LOTS OF FUN!!!! We are looking forward to playing outside, VBS, playdates and all sorts of other fun activities this summer. It is going to be awesome! This will actually be what we do most of the time. The rest of the stuff is just extra if I get around to it. Anyone think I can actually get it all done?????

Happy Summer!!!!!

High Temp Weekend

We had another great weekend around the Eckley house. It was full of high temps! Yesterday there was a new record high temperature outside of 95 degrees. I think we are in for along hot summer!! Kate also ran a temp on Saturday of 102 (not a record for her that would be 104 a couple of months ago). Poor thing has the worst allergies. Anytime we go outside she starts sneezing and gets red eyes. Then the next day she is all stuffy and snotty. Then she gets a cough. I don't know why she ran the fever Saturday but I am sure it has to do with the allergies. Does anyone have any good suggestions on how to deal with the baby allergies?

Friday night we hung out with my family at Kelly and Andrew's new house. Kelly fixed an awesome dinner with asparagus chicken! Yummy!!! Matt had to work on Saturday (booo!!). So the kids and I got up early (well we get up early everyday) and joined my mom for some yard sales. It was Kate's first yard saleing adventure. We got some awesome clothes for me and a few fun things for the kids along the way. I love yard sales! Saturday afternoon is when Kate came down with the fever so we had to cancel our plans with the Mobleys (sorry guys we hate we had to miss dinner). Sunday Kate and I stayed home from church since she had the fever the day before (although she was fever free except for 2 hours on Saturday). I got lots done while the boys were at church. Then I went to a wedding shower. When I got home it was 95 degrees outside so we thought it was time to bust out the baby pool! The kids had a blast playing in it for a couple of hours. Kate loved standing in the water. She wasn't too excited about sitting because it was really cold. Ben loved every minute of it. Our neighborhood pool opens on Friday and we are so excited!! We are planning on spending most of the summer swimming! We had a great weekend even with the high temps.

Schools Out for the Summer!!

Today was Ben's last day of school for the year. SAD!!! Ben LOVES school and is going to miss it so much (and so is mommy). He has had a wonderful year in his 2 year old class. He has learned learned so many wonderful things. He will just start singing a song and I will ask him where he learned it and he will say " at school." They did art projects everyday and learned letters and numbers. So great! And he had so many wonderful friends at school. His best buddy that he talked about everyday was Derek (although they must have had a falling out today because I asked him if he wanted to see Derek some over the summer and he said "No we are not friends any more. I am now friends with Turner." Don't know what that was about). I am so glad he has had the opportunity to go to "school." Now to just survive the summer. We will be looking forward to the 2nd week in August when school starts back. He will be going to preschool (if we can finish potty training). This summer we are lining up baby sitters to help us out so I can still work. It will be a fun summer.

Here he is with his teachers Miss Judy and Miss Carrie. They loved him and he loved them!

Kate and I enjoyed our last day alone as well. She has been coming with me to work every couple of weeks when I have needed to catch up on paper work. She is happy to sit and play in her seat while I work which is awesome. It gives me a couple of hours to get caught up at work. So we did that today. She is going to be starting school in the fall. She will be going 1 day a week. I have been slow to start her for some reason. Ben started when he was 5 months old and she will be 10 months old. I guess I am a little overprotective of her.

Here she is helping me at work today.

TGIF!!!!! We are looking forward to a low key weekend. Matt has to work so it will just be life as usual around here.

A Couple of Crazy Kids!!

Just wanted to share a few pictures of my wonderful kiddos just being themselves. They are awesome (I don't think I could ever say that enough). Sure there are days when it is rough being a mom but they make it all worth it!!

My sweet Batman loving little man!!

Enjoying the golf cart on a sunny day! I thought he looked like such a little golfer in his plaid shorts.
We were having fun with an alphabet game. I wrote out the alphabet in chalk on the driveway and daddy would call out a letter. Then he and I would race to the letter. It was a great way for him to work on his letters. He loves anything that involves a race. Such a competitive little boy!
Messy Kate!! She loves to eat but also loves to make a mess. She is great at eating but moves around so much while eating that it just gets all over her. She also loves to make mouth noises so the food sprays all over herself!

Such a sweet girl. She can sleep anywhere. I had just laid her on the floor to play and she rolled over and got in her "happy position." She was out like a light in the middle of the family room with noise all around her.

Mother's Day Gifts

Happy Wednesday to everyone!! Hard to believe the week is half over already. It is flying by. I am working 3 days this week so that is probably why it is going so fast. We also spent an hour and a half waiting at the surgeon's office yesterday for a follow up appointment for Ben. That will make a mom go crazy quickly! Not a child friendly office so it was a long day for a 2 minute appointment. Anyway - Ben is at school today enjoying his last Wednesday for the year so Kate and I are at home enjoying the quiet for the last time.

I thought I would share my wonderful Mother's Day gifts that I got and just finished putting up. I have had a plan for a while of some things that I wanted to get to update my entryway and living room so Mother's Day was a good excuse to get them...

My new favorite place on the Internet is etsy.com. I got this amazing verse for our foyer for super cheap and I got to custom design it. We love this verse and had been wanting to get it for a couple of years now. I am so excited!!

I also got started on Miss Kate's hallway display. It will have her newborn, 3 month, 6 month and 1 year pictures just like Ben.
I had also been wanting to put up some more pictures in the family room. With an open floor plan there isn't much wall space and we don't have much table space for setting up photos. So I decided to do some shelves with lots of pictures on them. I think they turned out awesome!!!

Moving

We have spent the last couple of evenings helping Kelly and Andrew get moved into their new house!! Super exciting to have them back around. Sunday night we helped to load up a few more things in the moving truck and then last night we helped to unpack some boxes at the new house and get some things settled. It is starting to look good. Here are some pictures from "the move."

We discovered a box of Andrew's old Legos and of course Ben was ecstatic. He could spend hours playing at their house now!