Shepherds Walk

Yesterday at Ben's school they had the annual shepherds walk. This is where all the kids dress up like shepherds and walk through the scenes of the nativity. It is so neat. I love that Ben is able to go to a preschool where they reinforce the principles that we are teaching at home. This year they have the most amazing Bible story teacher. She comes every Monday and tells a Bible story. It is Ben's absolute favorite thing about school. Every day he asks if it is Bible story day. It is allowing the Bible to come alive to him. So yesterday the story teller came and told the story as they walked through the nativity!

I was able to slip away from work and go watch the walk. It was so much fun. It was my first time to really see Ben in action at school other than just when I pick him up. They did a great job with the shepherds walk!!

My little shepherd. Doesn't he look cute!

Listening closely as the story of Jesus' birth is told (sorry I only had my camera phone so the pictures are a little blurry).
Ben sitting on the front row engrossed in the story. He sat so still and soaked in every word.
All the shepherds worshiping baby Jesus.

My little guy praying!

Such a great way to reinforce the true meaning of Christmas. If any of you parents out there are looking for some ways to teach the true meaning of Christmas, my friend Lisa wrote a great article about this. You can check it out here. She has some great ideas. And yes the friend with the son who brought the superheros to the manger is us! Will never forget Batman saving baby Jesus last year! Today I walked in and Superman, Spiderman, 3 Batmans, Krypto and Green Lantern were all surrounding Jesus. He was one safe baby!!!

Behold the Lamb

The holiday season can now officially begin!! Last night we got to go to the "Behold the Lamb" concert put on by Andrew Peterson and friends! It has become a yearly tradition for us. We have been 5 out of the past 6 years. It is the most amazing show you can go see at Christmas time if you ask me!

We met our friends Krissy and Steve at Chilis for dinner before the concert. They have been going with us for the past few years. Always fun to catch up with them. Hey it is just fun to be out on a date!

Then it was off to the concert. I cannot say enough about how wonderful this concert is. It has all of our favorite singers - Andrew Peterson, Jill Phillips, Andrew Osenga and Andy Gullahorn! I think over the years we have probably given just about everyone that reads this blog a copy of the CD of the music to the show! It is just amazing. I think I have the entire thing memorized but still it speaks to me each and every time! I highly recommend that you go and get the CD if you don't have it or have never heard it. It will totally rock your world!

What it is is the telling of the Christmas story from the perspective of the entire Bible. It shows how much we needed a redemptive Savior. Then how Jesus totally humbled Himself to become that redemption for us. It is just amazing!!!!!

Each year a different line of one of the songs gets me and last night it was from the song "Deliver Us." It says "Our sins they are more numerous than all the lambs we slay." It takes me back to when just to come before the Lord they had to provide an atonement for their sins. But Praise God he provided a once and for all atonement!! The musical ends up with the song "Behold the Lamb." The song says "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away our sins." How awesome!! That perfect Lamb that was provided to take away all our sins. Just amazing. Don't you want to go get a copy of the CD now. If you want to preview the CD before you buy you can listen to it here. I can't even tell you which are my favorite songs but I do love Labor of Love and Behold the Lamb of God.

It was an awesome night!!

So Proud

I just want to brag on my little guy for a minute. He is doing so many new and great things these days. He just loves school and loves to go learn new things. I am so proud of him!!! Last week I asked him if he knew how to write. He said no but would like to learn how to write his name. So I showed him one time how to do it and he has been practicing like crazy. This is big for him. He hates to color and really has no interest in doing anything that involves sitting and concentrating. I figure he is 3 and we are in no hurry for him to grow up and do big things so he can just play while he can. But it is awesome that he is beginning to show interest in learning "big kid" things. I just had to share his beautiful name. Pretty good if you ask me. He is so proud as am I!
He also wanted me to take a picture of his chipmunk wearing an Auburn football helmet (it is an ornament off the tree). He has the best imagination and for days he has been pulling ornaments down and playing with them like crazy. He can find anything and turn it into something else and play for hours! Just had to share a picture of sweet Kate too! She is getting so close to walking. She really hasn't shown an interest until lately. She can stand on her own and take about 1/2 a step but then she sits down. She can walk all over just holding onto one hand. I figure it will be really soon and she will be off!

While Moms Away...

When I left on Friday, it was the first time that Matt had been alone with both of the kids overnight. He was so sweet to let me have some "time off." He wasn't nervous at all!! A big thanks to my dad that helped out with the kids while Matt had to work and on Friday night so that Matt could go to his brother's graduation. Once again Matt tweeted their experience so I will let that be the commentary on the blog. I will add in some of my own commentary at the end as well.

Excited for another day without mommy. Should be an action packed day!

DWM stop 1: @wbccares for a Bethlehem breakfast. Like a Disney character meal, but with the Nativity characters. Sounds like @jonacuff

Ben and Mary and baby Jesus

DWM stop 2: picking up a Christmas present for mommy. Remembered the stroller this time! #trialanderror

DWM stop 3: graduation party for my little bro, Brett. So proud of the hard work he put toward his Master's (on top of full time work and fam)!

While mom's away, the kids will...eat blue cupcakes.

Have enjoyed watching the first half with 2 napping kids. I doubt the second half will be as quiet around here.

I like to see the Twitter commentary to know what is going on with the kids! Sounds like they had a blast. It was a busy day for them so they didn't miss me too much. This was the first year our church did the Bethlehem breakfast. It was really neat. They had the characters roaming around and the kids got to interact with them. Ben loved it. He was telling me all about it when I got home. Each character gave them something special.
They also had a great time at the party for Uncle Brett. Kate got to meet Joanna's nephew Asher who is just a little younger than her. They had a good time playing together.

I got home at the start of the 4th quarter of the football game! How awesome!!!!!! 13-0!!! SEC Champs!!!!! We are going Duck hunting January 10th!!!! Can't wait!!!!

So it was a successful and fun weekend for everyone. I sure did miss those kids. I don't know how I am going to do 5 days without them coming up soon!!

Deeper Still

WOW!!! That is really all I can say about this past weekend. I had the awesome privilege of going to the Deeper Still conference in Birmingham. Us and 14,000 of our closest friends got together to hear from God. It was an amazing time. Today I was talking with some of my friends that went and we were talking about who we are still trying to "digest" it all. I mean we got to listen to Kay Arthur, Priscilla Shirer and Beth Moore. That in and of itself is a little overwhelming. It was awesome to just get to sit and listen to them speak. I don't think I was able to take in but about 1/4 of what they said. But even that was life changing.

I am still working through it all and I am sure I will be for quite a while but I think the big theme that came out of the weekend for me was obedience. I have a lot of knowledge. I have a lot of stuff. But I don't have a lot of obedience. I want to do things my way. I have got to begin to lay it all down and allow God to take what little I can give and do amazing and wonderful things!!! I pray that I can have an obedient heart that is open to doing what He calls me to do.

Whenever you to go conferences one of the best parts is hanging with your girlfriends. And I had a blast with my gals this weekend...My awesome mom and amazing SIL Kelly. It was a great time for us to just be together. Life gets so busy that we don't get much time to just hang out as girls so it was great. We laughed a lot, ate a lot and learned a lot. Thanks girls for going with me!!

Another highlight was getting to be on the same floor and share an elevator with Travis Cottrell!! He is the worship leader and is amazing. We tried not to gawk too much. I have actually never been to a conference like this before. It has just never worked out so it was a new and wonderful experience for me. After 12 years of doing Beth Moore studies I finally got to see her in person and it was worth the wait!!!!

This post just doesn't do the weekend justice but for now that is all I have to share! Be on the look out for what the other Eckleys did this weekend while mommy was away. They had a great time too.

Ho Ho Ho!!!!

So I am being really cheap this year. First we went to Santa's village on the free night with no Santa. Then today I took the kids to the local consignment shop where they had a Santa and you could get free pictures made with Santa. I figure why pay when you can see him for free. We are not all that big on Santa anyway. It is something fun to do around Christmas but it is not what Christmas is all about.

So we get there and no one else is there (I am liking that for all of our Santa experiences this year). Ben goes right up and sits on Santa's lap. We get a couple of cute pictures...
Then it is Kate's turn...

Utter terror...
My little girl that will go to anyone does not like Santa...

So for the group shot I ended up in the picture. And can I just say I was a little disturbed when Santa asked me to sit on his knee. Good thing we didn't pay. But it was still a fun time. Quick and easy. Kate probably wouldn't say painless.

I am so excited about this weekend. I am heading down to Birmingham to the Deeper Still conference with Beth Moore, Priscilla Shier and Kay Arthur! It is going to be awesome!! I am really excited about spending some quality time with my mom and Kelly and 14,000 of our closest friends!! Can't wait. Pray for Matt! He will be home with both kiddos. He is going to do great. It is just a busy time of year so he has a lot of things to do with them.

Fashionista

I just had to share these photos of Kate from today. The girl loves to dress up like a girly girl! She got to wear a fun furry vest today and she loved it!! I could tell she felt like big stuff. She did not want me taking it off. I thought she looked so cute. This afternoon she was wearing my sunglasses and she looked like such a little diva. What do you think - Are we going to be in trouble in about 12 years???

No photos please!