Silly Mommy

Today was a big day! I am the women's ministry coordinator of the women's Bible studies for our church. Today was the big kick off day for our studies. I have been working for about the last 6 months towards this day and it finally arrived!! Lots of hard work in organizing the teachers, studies and materials but it paid off big time. We had over 120 ladies that were at the studies this morning. I am super excited to see what God is going to do in the lives of the ladies. I was busy running around all morning so I didn't get to sit too long in the study I am going to do but hopefully I can next week. I am doing our Mom's study and we are doing James Dobson's Essentials of Discipline. It should be great.

We got up really early this morning so we could make it to church on time. I was so excited when we were ready to walk out the door at 7:30. We walked outside and it was pouring down rain! We needed the rain so it was good to see but not today. Oh well. We loaded up and I figured we could be at church a little before 8. We finally made it there around 8:40. The roads were crazy!!! Accidents everywhere and tons of traffic. You would think people didn't know how to drive in the rain. I say that sarcastically because I myself almost hydroplaned once. It was the longest drive to church ever. But we finally made it.

I say all that just to tell you a Ben funny that occurred during the middle of all this. We are sitting at the red light and watching it change from red to green about 6 times without moving. Ben yells from the backseat "Silly Mommy - The light is green GO!!" That just cracked me up. I informed him that believe me I would go if I could!

Speaking of a "Ben funny," he has been cracking me up lately with the things he says. He is all the time asking me if "I am happy." It is his way of asking me if I am mad at him when he does something wrong. Today he asked me if I was happy. I told him yes. He said, "if you are happy then tell your face because you look sad." How sweet!! And what a good reminder of how I need to make sure I am displaying to my kiddos how I am feeling!

Just to brighten your day - 2 sweet faces.

9 Months Old!!!!!!

Sweet baby Kate is 9 months old today. She is quickly moving out of the baby phase. I can't believe how much she has changed in the last month.

• Kate, you are growing so fast!!! Today at the doctor's office you weighed 17 pounds 8 oz!!!! You gained almost 2 pounds in one month. I knew it was going to happen at some point!! Your weight is at the 21st%ile. You are only 26 1/4 inches long (8th%ile). So you are a short little girl much like your mommy! Your weight and height switched this month so I bet you are about to grow in length here soon! Dr. Patz said you look awesome and are growing great. You are ahead on your milestones so he said keep doing what we are doing! You are wearing size 3 diapers and 6-9 month clothes.
• If I had to describe you in one word it would be BUSY!!!! I thought your brother was busy until you came along. Girl you are into everything. You are crawling so good. You are a slow crawler (you don't move fast) but you get where you want to go. Your goal in life it to pull up on everything you see. You are a determined little thing! Just in the past week you have started doing some cruising so I bet it won't be too much longer until you are starting to take some steps on your own! You get into everything!! We can't turn our backs for one minute before you will be into something new. Everything in sight goes straight to your mouth!!! I mean everything!!! You won't sit still to save your life. Taking your pictures today was a nightmare. You wanted no part of it! You also hate getting dressed and getting your hair "done."
  
• Even with your busyness you are still very sweet natured. You love to snuggle when you wake up from naps. You love your family. Daddy can always make you smile and Ben can make you laugh. Mama is who you want at all times. You are in a "hold me" phase right now. You can play on your own great at times but sometimes you just want to be held. That is ok with me! There is nothing more beautiful than your smile! It just lights up a room. You smile with your whole body!
• You continue to be super flexible which you have to be in our family. You like to take 2 naps but there are a lot of days you don't get your morning nap and you adjust. You will just take a longer afternoon nap. You nurse 3 times a day or so. Sometimes you get a bottle and do great with that as well. You love to eat!!!! You are pretty much done with baby foods. Table foods only for you. I think you have tried just about everything now and you like it all. You eat whatever we are eating. You just have your 2 bottom teeth but somehow you get that food down. You have even eaten steak with just 2 teeth! Oh and you only want to feed yourself!
• You love to be around other people. You are doing great in the church nursery these days. You started school last week and love that as well. I am so glad you are a well adjusted little girl. Your hair is getting so long. I have had to start pulling it back in a half ponytail everyday. You like it like that because it stays out of you face and you aren't tempted to pull out the bows!

I can't believe how big and grown up my baby is looking. She has come so far in the past 9 months. We are so blessed!! Happy Birthday sweet angel!

Where Is August Going?

August is halfway over!! Am I the only one that doesn't think that seems possible. I feel like I just blinked and we are now here. Wow!! It was another fun but low key evening around the Eckley house. Friday night we went out to visit my brother Andrew at work. He is a pharmacist at CVS in Madison so it is about 30 minutes from our house and we don't go out there much. It was our first time to go see him in action. Ben was excited to see where Uncle Andrew worked and I was excited to finish up my CVS shopping for the week. I love shopping at CVS. I paid $6 and got over $50 worth of stuff including diapers, wipes and formula!!

Saturday during the day was low key. Matt did some yard work and I hung out with my family for a little bit. We worked on some projects around the house and relaxed some. Then we went to a fun birthday party! We have gotten to know some new friends in the last month. The Pociasks just moved here from Texas. We met them at church and "clicked" right away. We have enjoyed getting to have them to our house and doing some fun things with them. Saturday was their little girl Abigail's 2nd birthday party so it was fun to celebrate with them. Here are some pictures from the party!

I love how sad Ben looks in this picture waiting for his cupcake!

Miss Kate loved the party! She ate an entire piece of pizza and crawled around playing with her buddy Isaac.
Abigail the birthday girl!
My cupcake cutie

Loved the cupcake theme (it is going to be Kate's party theme so I enjoyed getting some fun ideas).

The dads hanging out (Justin, Matt and Steve). I love that I can include Steve in the dad group now!! Steve and Krissy told us at the party they are expecting their first baby!!!! I am so excited for them!!! They are going to be awesome parents.

The birthday girl with the little ones!

Abigail loving on Kate. I watched Abigail the other day for Anna and her and Kate had a blast together. Abigail hugged on Kate the whole time and of course Kate loved the attention.

Today we had a great time at church. Ben is off right now at his first night of Cubbies. He learned his verse and motto for the week and is ready to say them. I am so excited for him! Also I big note - this morning at Panera we had to break down and get Kate her own bagel. We got tired of her eating most of ours. So it was a big day for her. She got her very own cheese bagel!

Looking forward to a fun week ahead! Another week of birthday parties for adults and kids (I told you August was a birthday month). There is a big birthday coming up next week that we will be celebrating some this week!!

Some New Things Around Our House

It's Friday!!!! YEA!!! The week has flown by. We are starting to settle into our new fall/school schedule. It is going to be busy but fun. I feel like the weeks are going to go by so fast since we are going to stay so busy. Next week will get even busier with the start of Bible Studies. Today Ben had school and I had tons of work to catch up on so Kate and I trekked up to my office. She had a blast playing while I worked. She just crawled around my office and had a great time. She is awesome at playing with toys and entertaining herself. What a blessing to not have to do all the entertaining!

This week out of necessity a new rule was born in our house. Ben is only allowed to watch 1 hour of TV in the afternoons. He LOVES to watch TV and would do it all day everyday. He was watching a couple hours in the morning and a couple in the afternoon. With school starting and us needing to get going we have started a no TV in the morning rule. It is going really well. We are listening to music instead as we get ready and every ones attitude is much improved! He does get to watch his 2 favorite shows in the afternoon - Arthur and Word Girl. I am loving our new my quieter house! Here is my little man lounging enjoying his hour of TV.
I am so excited to how off Kate's 6 month picture that I got this week. I absolutely love this one of Ben that hangs in our stairway. I couldn't wait to get one of Kate. It came in this week and I am in love!!! I just have to get it hung (along with all of the others that I ordered).

So Miss Kate is crawling everywhere. She is also pulling up on everything and starting to cruise around. She is such a big girl! We were having major issues with her dresses and her being able to crawl so I fixed that problem. See I told you she was an '80's child. Don't you all remember doing your shirts like this in the 80's? It works great to help her crawl and not get caught up in those dresses.

I finished up a project I had been working on. You all know I am working on Kate's first birthday already. I saw this awesome idea to use a wooden high chair painted in party colors for the first birthday. I know I am going to do pink and green as part of the theme. So I found a great wooden high chair and have been working on painting it limey green. It is the green of our dining room. I had planned on using it everyday but it is not very practical. The plastic one is great. So this one will be for special occasions. I love the way it turned out though. The pictures don't show how green it is!

Finally this week I have been working on the kiddos fall clothes. Once again I WAY overbought for them. They both have tons of clothes for this fall. I get such great deals that it is hard not to go overboard. I was gearing up for the start of the consignment sales this weekend but I don't think I need anything. I will go just for fun and to look for some Christmas presents. Ben was helping me out going through the clothes I got for him.

So that is what is new around here. It has been a good week. We are looking forward to a fun weekend.

Pool Time

We spent a wonderful morning at the pool today. Since "big" school started back this week the pool is open but with no lifeguards and no crowds!! Usually there are around 100 people at the pool when we go (it is a huge pool don't worry - biggest in the state I heard one time). Today there was a grand total of about 6 people there. It was wonderful! Our friends Jennifer and Caroline came along and we had a blast. We hung out mostly in the baby pool because the little ones could get around in there and Ben was having fun. Us moms laid down in the baby pool to keep cool and the kids played for over 2 hours. It was heaven. Needless to say we will be going back again soon when school is in session. I haven't gotten many pictures from the pool this summer because it is not really safe to leave the kids alone in the water to grab the camera but I did manage to get a couple today.

I learned something new - Ben can push Kate's stroller all by himself!!! YEA!!! He pushed it from the parking lot all the way to the pool (it is pretty far and uphill). He has a new job! The played together so well today. I wish I could have gotten some pictures of them together. Ben was holding her in the water. At one point they were both in the whale float together laughing and splashing. It made me smile so big to see them enjoying each other and having fun together. I left the pool with a heart full of joy. Thankful for the opportunity to spend some quality time with my kids.

Kate's 1st Day of School!!!

Today with Miss Kate's first day of school. I can't believe she is old enough to go. I was wondering if I was going to have a hard time with her going but I didn't. She is my baby but she will have a blast this year and I know it is good for her. She had an awesome first day...

Started off the day with a good breakfast. She enjoyed an entire Eggo waffle and banana. Have I mentioned she loves to eat?

Packed her lunch with some of her favorites.Tried to get the first day of school picture in the green chair. She was not having it at all!! She fell out of the chair (she crawled off the edge) and that was it. This was the best I could do. Yes Jessica she does have a big bow in her hair and it is monogrammed (I had to throw that in for you). It is the South and it is a must on the first day of school.

We were ready to go! I got both of the kids ready, lunches packed and out the door by 8! We were on time. Something to be proud of. Kate did great with me dropping her off. She went right to the teachers and was ready to start the day. I stayed at the church for a little while to work on some Bible study stuff and I saw them on their morning buggy ride. I actually heard them coming because I heard Kate squealing. She was having fun! I then ran some errands (long bad story of locking my keys in my car so needless to say my first day with no kids was not that much fun).
When I went to pick her up they were on the afternoon buggy ride. Kate looked up at me and smiled then looked back at the teacher like "We are still going to finish our ride right?" She had a great time. The teacher said she did great. She ate all her food, took her bottle and took an hour and a half nap. Sounds good to me! She got a great "baby gram" report.

So it was a great first day for Miss Kate! I love the fact that she had fun.

Just Some Pictures

It has been a long day. I have lots to say but don't have the energy to say it so it will have to wait until another day. I did want to post some pictures I took today.