Don't Miss It!

Merry almost Christmas everyone! It is hard to believe that Christmas day is almost here. Time goes by so quickly when you aren't an 8 year old with a patience problem!

After Feddy and Kemo left Lily, Mommy and Daddy had some time together. Unfortunately, we spent the time dealing with a stomach bug. Yeah, AWEFUL. Poor Bob spent all day last Thursday throwing up and I ended up with a fever. Yucky! I kept on praying that Lily would dodge the worst and she did for the most part. I think she ended up with some stomach troubles though because she was so fussy and looked so uncomfortable. For two nights Lily and I spent pretty much the whole night together either crying or headed to the bathroom. Thankfully, Grandma Hill came for a visit so I was able to give Lily to her in the morning and get some sleep. It was exhausting and so sad. It is so hard to have a sick kid that doesn't want to sleep and not get frustrated. With Jill here and the lack of sleep it started to feel like I just got to have Lily to eat and scream at night. How demoralizing!


At my last MOPS meeting one of the Moms told me that one day Lily will want to hear stories of when she was a baby and so it is important to remember the good times. During this new mom time it is sometimes hard to stay focused on the precious moments when you seem lost in an endless round of feeding, burping, changing, sleeping, crying, fussing, changing and repeat. Just a couple of days ago I decided to stay home when Jill took Rocky to the lake and hold my baby. She just curled up on my chest and slept soundly.


There is nothing more precious than a tiny sleeping infant on your chest. Those moments won't last forever and I want to be sure I remember them.




Just a word to all those Moms out there, don't miss the special moments! They are here one minute and gone the next.

Feddy and Kemo Come to Town!

Okay so let me explain the Feddy and Kemo part because I am sure everyone is a bit confused. The Lord has blessed us so incredibly with boatloads of family. Lily Grace has so many grandparents that we started to think that we may have to have some special names in order to keep them all separate.


Since we live so far away from all of them it is so important that she has a special relationship with each set. So my parents came down to visit and we were all sitting around chatting about the grandparent conundrum. My dear friend Anna suggested that I give each of the grandparents the opportunity to choose what they want to be called, ie Nana, Mooma, Mamaw or something more creative. So there we were chatting about names and I asked mom and dad if they had any opinion. Dad piped up and told us that when he was a bomber pilot all of his crew used to call him "Kemo" short for Kemosabe (Kee-mow-saw-bee). Perfect name for a little one!


Mom then piped up and said that her younger sister Jayne used to call her Feddy. Love it!


So there you go, Grandma and Grandpa Eckel are now Feddy and Kemo.


I am so glad that mom and dad were able to come down before Christmas. Lily changes so much and boy is she active! She is starting to follow things with her eyes and really starting to engage with us.



Her little legs move and move and she is already starting to try to roll over. I am in trouble! Her Grandpa Longmire bought her this awesome mat.




It is so super fancy with a jungle theme. It has music, toys, mirrors, a palm tree, butterflies and lots of stimulation. Just this morning she reached for the toy with the mirror and just stared at herself. She is just so cute!

Bob went down to Charlotte to run in the Thunder Mountain Half Marathon with his sister Darcie on Saturday morning. He rode the train down on Friday. Dad and Rocky hung up the Christmas lights on our back patio.



and Mom and I hung out with the baby.


On Saturday morning, Feddy, Kemo, Lily and I decided take a walk around the lake with a very under-exercised Rocky.


Once we got home, we started a new tradition and did a Gingerbread House! Oh what fun! I bought this little kit at Target and figured between the three adults we could make a memory!


Dad worked on the Santa Claus and I handled a fussy baby while attempting to add candy.



Mom really did all of the work.


Halfway through the project we noticed that our roof was sliding off. We quickly grabbed on and mom held it for about 5 minutes. The icing was like concrete so you would have thought that it would hold. Anyways, here is the finished product. Lily's first gingerbread house. We really did have a good time!



On Sunday we headed off to church and then in the pouring rain headed down to Winterville to see Great Aunt Bev (great-great Aunt to Lily) and the slew of second cousins. We had an awesome dinner and Bev made Sweet Potato Pie, YUMMMY! Apparently, North Carolina is the cream of the crop for sweet potatoes.




Sandy (Bev's daughter and my mom's cousin) just loved Lily and told me that she is going to be the one who paints her fingernails blue, gets tattoos with her and feeds her oreos.



Blue fingernails and oreos would be okay, but tattoos? I might have to draw the mommy line.

Today is frigid outside! BURRRRR. We wanted to take another walk around the lake but it is just too cold for the baby (aka. me!). So we headed down to the fancy Crabtree Mall to look at the decorations and get some exercise in. This mall goes all out for Christmas and the Santa area is awesome!



The trip was wonderful and Lily loved seeing her Feddy and Kemo. As you can see, we completely pooped her out......