Swimmin'

Last week was warm {hot} enough for some swimming!! Kale loves bath time so it wasn't a big surprise that he loves his little pool :). He basically just sits & splashes, but laughs and jabbers the whole time. I think we will be spending a lot of time outside and in the pool this summer!

Trying it out inside

he got a little excited and fell out

but crawled right back in

Fruity Boy

Kale loves fruit and I took some pictures the other night...I kept getting this cheesy {ornery} smirk/smile!

Happy Birthday Andi Re!!

Another big event last weekend was Andi's 4th birthday party. We had a great time and got to visit with more friends & family that we don't get to see very often :) Andi got lots of cute gifts and made a big {exciting} announcement! Kale did pretty good for no nap, but the first part of the ride home wasn't a lot of fun. He crashed on the way home and didn't wake up until Monday morning!

The birthday girl blowing out her candles

Opening gifts

Kale hanging out in the wagon watching

Gretchen & Justin

Last weekend we were able to attend a beautiful wedding! Gretchen looked stunning {as did Justin :)} and everything was amazing. They had a great band at the reception and we got to visit with some family we don't get to see very often.

Justin & Gretchen Rimel

Pollard Family at the reception

Kyle's Graduation

Kyle graduated college!!! We had an exciting {long} day in Columbia for Kyle's graduation. Honors Graduation {way to go Kyle} was at 9am so we left home at 5am. After Honors Graduation the whole Eckler family had lunch at Flat Branch {yum!}. After hanging out at the mall & a nap in Bass Pro's parking lot, we headed back to the Hearnes Center and met up with the rest of the fam for the College of Agriculture, Food, & Natural Resources graduation. After a few pictures and a little time at the reception we all headed to Lone Star! Even though we didn't leave Columbia until after 11pm we had a great day! Congratulations Kyle- we are so proud of you!! And we can't wait to visit you in Wisconsin :) the graduate {He's all grown up}

the last child to graduate :)

Kyle with the Pollard Family...Kale did good, but his socks and shoes did not last very long!

Uncle Kyle & Kale

Kyle with his big sisters

The "Eckler" family

Update

Kale is almost 11 months old and is growing up so fast! He is standing up on his own and tries to take a few steps sometimes. Most times he gets excited and falls forward though. He likes to push his Tonka trunk and walk behind it. When he hits the wall he just walks to the other side of the truck and pushes it backwards back to where he started.

He is talking up a storm and tonight he was the most vocal ever. It was like he was having a conversation with us even though we couldn't understand anything he was saying :) He eats almost any table food we put in front of him and doesn't get baby food anymore. And he is drinking out of a sippy cup and doing great with it.

He is currently on antibiotics for his fourth ear infection since January so we are going to an ENT doctor the end of next month. The speculation is he will be getting tubes put in since the "normal" threshold (according to our pediatrician) is 3 in 6 months so he has exceeded that.

Kale had his first road trip last weekend when we traveled to Ohio (a 5 hour drive) for the Ohio Southdown Classic Show & Sale. He did great- better than I expected! We drove out Friday night on the way out so he slept most of the way, but the drive home was a different story. He was in a stroller most of Saturday at the sale and then in the car seat the rest of the day for the drive home. He took a couple of naps on the way home and was pretty good until the last hour or so. Thanks for putting up with us Dad & Kyle :) Kale must have been exhausted from the big trip because he went to bed early Saturday night, took two big naps on Sunday and went to bed early. I think he has recovered now though!

Kale loves being outside and is a daddy's boy for sure. He will leave me anytime Jason is around and gets super excited when Jason gets home from work. We wondered what he would be like when Jason held baby Jack when we were visiting our friends, but he didn't even seem to notice. Which is good news since he is going to be a big brother this fall.

That's right Kale is going to be a big brother this fall. We are very excited for a couple of big changes happening in our family this year. I am leaving Monsanto this summer to stay at home and the due date for the new little one is November 1st so I'm sure I will be busy at home this fall/winter with 2 little ones.

We have a lot happening this summer so our posts should be more frequent and more pictures will be included. I have been waiting on posting for a while until we told our families and my work about our big life changes.

Baby Jack!

We finally made it to Springfield to meet Baby Jack & visit with his amazing mom & dad! We are soo sad they are leaving us soon, but glad we got to hang out with them so much this past year!

Kale cheesing it up while I hold Baby Jack

another picture of me with the two boys Jason holding Baby Jack

What a precious baby! It is so crazy to think Kale was once that small...well not quite that small- Jack weighed less than 7 lbs at our visit.

2nd MO Bird

Jason tagged out this year for spring turkey season! Not bad for not being sure he was even going to be able to hunt at all :) Kale was taking a nap during this "photo shoot" so he didn't get in any of this bird's pictures. I think there will plenty of dead animal photo ops in the future though :)