Les Miserables and Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is my dad's 57th birthday. He and mom are on their way to Illinois to visit my grandparents and then to Stevens Point to see Mandi and Bryan. I hope they have a great trip and a wonderful time together. Happy Birthday, Dad!

Tonight we saw Les Miserables at Chanhassen Dinner Theatre with our friends Bill and Stephanie. We won the tickets at our youth group's silent auction in May and we finally got to use them. It was outstanding and all 4 of us had such a good time. One of the things I enjoyed most was just the opportunity to have an evening out of the house with my husband. :)

Bill, Stephanie, Dawn and Andy

Happy Birthday, Andy!

Today is my husband's 28th birthday. He had the day off (Thanks Ed!) so we went to the MOA for our annual Custom College Shop sweatshirt purchases and had lunch with my parents at Ruby Tuesday. On the way there Lily threw up in the car when we were about ten minutes from the Mall. Our first order of business was to get her a new outfit so we ran into Old Navy and changed her quickly. Her new duds can be seen in the photo below. She was pretty pale and didn't eat much of her lunch, but she took a good nap in the car on the trip home and seemed fine the rest of the day. We aren't sure what made her sick.

We had a surprise showing at our house! At about 3:30 in the afternoon a realtor showed up with his clients and realized he had forgotten to notify anyone that they were coming. Oops! They gave us about 5 minutes to clean the house and we ran around like crazy people picking up, stashing junk and vacuuming. These people ended up making an offer the next day and then retracting it. Very long story! Maybe another time...

We had dinner in St. Joe with Andy's folks at the Stonehouse Tavern and Eatery. It's our new favorite place. And you better believe we celebrated with a slice of their Turtle Cheesecake! It's a little slice of heaven. Seriously.

Andy's brother Mark and friend Jon came over to hang out. They played a little Madden and then 3 games of Settlers.

I hope Andy had a delightful day. I sure am grateful he was born 28 years ago. Thanks, Lord, for the birth and life of my precious husband Andrew Edward Becker!

Lunch at the new and improved Ruby Tuesday at the MOA

Our new sweatshirts: Michigan and Penn State

5 Fabulous Years of Marriage

Today is our 5th anniversary. It's hard to believe five years have gone by. In some ways it's gone super fast. And it's hard to believe everything that's happened in that time. Our proudest

"accomplishment" is for sure our daughter Lily Elaine. She's such a blessing to us and we're grateful for a healthy, beautiful, funny, precious girl.

We're also grateful for each other. :) Andy is God's perfect provision for me. I continue to be amazed at the ways Andy demonstrates love to me. And it's humbling to try to be as good a wife to him and love him in ways he needs to be loved. I fall short very often.

God has been faithful to us in so many ways. He has blessed us with this marriage and is refining us through this marriage. It's an adventure for sure. I look forward to spending the rest of my life with Andy and seeing what God has in store for us!

5 years ago today we made these promises to each other:

Our Covenant Vows

I, Andy, take you, Dawn, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, to love you as myself, to cherish you and honor you, to lead you and nurture you, to be a faithful husband to you, bringing you happiness all your life, to be entirely devoted to the cross and to you, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, for better for worse, for the glory of His name and for the joy of our souls. Where you dwell, I will dwell. Your people will be my people and your God, my God. May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.

I, Dawn, take you, Andy, to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, to love you as myself, to cherish you and honor you, to help you and encourage you, to be a faithful wife to you, bringing you happiness all your life, to be entirely devoted to the cross and to you, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, for better for worse, for the glory of His name and for the joy of our souls. Where you dwell, I will dwell. Your people will be my people and your God, my God. May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.

The Mom Song Sung to William Tell Overture by Anita Renfroe

This is so fun! She's a genius.