My Precious

She is not a snuggler and never really has been. But every once in awhile I can get her to just sit with me awhile and I LOVE it. Lots of times I'm filled with emotion as various memories of the last three and a half years come to mind. Gosh, where does the time go?

She is a sweet, smart, stubborn, funny, adorable, curious, opinionated, independent 'lil stinker-of-a-kid, so fearfully, wonderfully, and undoubtedly made by her Creator, and so precious to me.

She likes coloring, playing in the snow, swings, slides, chocolate chips, Honeycomb cereal, the colors blue, green, purple and pink, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Max and Ruby, BOZ, marshmallows, ice water, listening to CDs in the car, going to church, when daddy comes home from work, Care Bears, boxes and putting things in boxes, her little brother, going to parks, frosting, wearing dresses, cinnamon or jelly toast, it's a small world, laffy taffy, broccoli and ranch, getting letters from her grandpa, yogurt, helping in the kitchen, cottage cheese, having friends over, and granola bars.

She does not like raisins, Monsters, Inc., oatmeal, milk, pooping, SpongeBob, listening to mommy's CDs in the car, going home after church, wearing jeans, oranges, getting her hair combed, lotion, and cucumbers.

I could not have imagined the little person that she is and I feel blown away by the privilege of being her mommy. I get that "job" and no one else. It's rather incredible to me.

The other day she and I sat on our big chair in the living room. The camera was right there so I snapped a few pics of us together. It was fun! My Precious.

Wordless Wednesday

Top Chef

Lily and I made mini pizzas for lunch yesterday. It was our first time trying this particular recipe and it turned out so well that I thought I'd share it with you. You can really do about a million variations of homemade pizza so the sky is the limit here, friends. We used the following ingredients:

Ezekiel 4:9 Prophet's Pocket Bread (pita style bread)
Ragu Pizza Sauce
Turkey Pepperoni
Sliced Black Olives
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.

And here are the photo highlights! Such fun!

She's wearing an apron that I made when I was a little girl! =)

Voila! Our finished and very tasty mini pizzas!

SIDS and fans

I've always had a little bit of a fear of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). It stems from the fact that when I was in junior high the four month old daughter of a family in our church passed away while taking a nap at her daycare. I will never forget attending her funeral and seeing that tiny little girl in her coffin. It was really emotional and a little traumatic for me and has stayed with me.

When Lily was born I remember being really paranoid and checking on her OFTEN while she slept. And praying numerous times throughout the day for God to protect her and "keep her alive." It took until her first birthday for me to feel like we were "out of the woods" and to relax a little. While it is still a concern with Baby #2, I am much more relaxed the second time around. That's not to say that I don't take all the necessary precautions!

There are no extra blankets or stuffed animals in Taylor's crib. He wears a HALO sleep sack (I LOVE that thing) which keeps him warm (absolutely necessary in Minnesota) without needing to cover him with blankets. And we put him to sleep on his back.

I recently heard that you can reduce the possibility of SIDS by more than 70% by having a fan going in your child's room. 70%!!! I find that really remarkable. I don't remember the source, but if you google "SIDS and fans" you can find lots of information. It has to do with keeping the air circulating and reducing the possibility of your baby rebreathing their own exhaled carbon dioxide.

I've always had a fan going in my kids' rooms just to filter the noise being made in the rest of the house. But I was really encouraged to know that it can also help reduce the potential for SIDS.

From what I understand, nobody is saying that this is the Answer, just another simple precaution to take. In my opinion it's an easy thing to do, inexpensive, and helps my babies sleep better anyway, so why not?

Out of the mouths of babes...

You go, girl!

Google doesn't know me very well

My friend Missy at Grasp the Love shared this idea and I tried it and am sharing it with you!

Type your name into Google in quotes like this, "Dawn needs" and hit search. Be sure to include the quotation marks!

These are my results (I left out duplicates):

Dawn needs a tripod

Dawn needs a headcount before Thursday of this week

Dawn needs an energetic and fun style to suit her personality

Dawn needs money (amen!)

Dawn needs to be as mature as Buffy once she started slaying (s'cuse me?)

Dawn needs to get over herself (ouch!)

Dawn needs to be on TV Land

Dawn needs a vocalist

Dawn needs prayers desperately

Dawn needs concept artists

Dawn needs a drummer

Dawn needs a break

Dawn needs no rescue

Dawn needs to go!

Dawn needs our help in heartbreaking struggle

Dawn needs guitarist

Dawn needs a better name

Dawn needs you

Dawn needs all the healing energy she can get on her side

Dawn needs 3 more reservations

Dawn needs better agents

Dawn needs partner for Worlds

Dawn needs to firm up her group's flex time options


I love that it appears that I'm having a major health crisis of some kind at this time and that I'm also putting a band together. It made me laugh out loud! Do it!

Also, I tried my hubby's name for fun. And oh boy, was it fun! Check this out:

• Andy needs a bad girl to find his focus and replace Mandy
• Andy needs a new guitar (he could be my guitarist!!!)
• Andy needs to pee
• Andy needs a reality check
• Andy needs help video
• Andy needs a toothbrush
• Andy needs new guy friends
• Andy needs a home
• Andy needs help!
  
  Hilarious!

7 months

***UPDATE*** I can't believe I forgot the most important announcement of all. Taylor said his first word!!! I kid you not. He's said it several times in past weeks but I've always heard it by myself and had no witness to corroborate my story. However, on Monday evening Andy and I were standing in the kitchen and Taylor was in his Bumbo chair on the counter and clear as day he said, "Momma." It wasn't somewhere in the middle of a bunch of mumbling. It was one word. Crystal clear. The best part is that Andy was there and he heard it too! I'm just a little bit excited. As if I could be wrapped any tighter around his little finger!

So I'm a little behind with baby updates. But my baby was 7 months old on Sunday so I thought I should let you know what he's been up to lately. Can you believe he's 7 months old already???

First of all, Taylor and Lily absolutely love each other. They are so sweet with each other. Lily can make him laugh like nobody else and she thinks he's pretty funny too. It's going to be so fun to watch them grow up together. I hope they'll be great buddies.

He's doing well with food but he is not a fan of green beans. He gets very annoyed and has started to gag if I try to sneak beans in. I made my first batch of baby food and I'm so proud of myself. I made green beans (oh well), sweet potatoes, peas, peachs and pears. I never even tried to make my own food with Lily and I have no idea why. It was very easy so hopefully I can make the time to keep up with his appetite.

He's getting his first tooth!!! He's not very happy about it though. The past couple nights have been rough. I can feel the sharp little tooth coming in on the bottom. Poor little guy. He also has a cold, so between the pain of the new tooth, coughing, and struggling to breathe it's been hard for him to get restful sleep! And momma too. =)

He's still a momma's boy and is such a little lovey.

He's trying to pull himself up on the furniture. He hasn't been successful yet, but it won't be long. Can't believe how fast they learn to do stuff like that!

At his six month well child exam they did blood work to test for allergies and found out that he's allergic to egg whites. We're meeting with an allergist in March to do the back prick test so I'm curious how that's gonna go. His skin/eczema can still be pretty bad depending on the day. I find it hard to believe that it could only be because of egg whites in my diet (he obviously isn't consuming any egg whites on his own yet).

He's still getting up at least once or twice each night (eating once). And the past couple nights have been hard but hopefully he'll be back to normal soon.

Lily Bear does not want to poop on the potty. It's as simple as that. She doesn't want to. She knows when she needs to go and tries to hold it. It's SO frustrating! The other night Andy and I sat in the bathroom with her for a long time because it had been a week and we were determined to get her to go. We were encouraging her in any way we could think to do so. I told her to tell the poopies to come out. And she told me that her poopies were busy doing other things! I almost laughed out loud but told her she needed to interrupt them and tell them to come out. It was so funny.

We're probably gonna quit dance. Toward the end of every class they have to change into their tap shoes, and last night at that point she asked me if she was done. She didn't want to go back in for the rest of the class. And when we got home she told me she doesn't want to go to dance anymore. Her class is a gymnastics/dance combo and I think if it was just gymnastics she'd probably like it more. But we have no interest in making her go.

I did sign up her for swimming lessons yesterday and she seems excited about that. It's a lot less expensive and it's a skill she can use the rest of her life. It's a mommy and me class on Saturday mornings starting the 28th. Should be fun!

Such a happy baby. We're so mean though - we put Lily's headband on him. He couldn't have cared less.

Giggling together

Such a handsome 7-month old boy

Still loves to yank on those socks

Lunging for the camera!

Coordinating sweaters!

Before we knew that Taylor was a boy I thought that having another girl would be fun so that I could dress them alike. I would NOT trade my boy in!!! But I found a way to coordinate them. =)

My babies

Each day I fall more and more in love with them. I didn't know it was possible to love two little people SO much! What blessings they are to me and Andy. I am deeply grateful to the Lord for giving us two such precious children.

Mittens

I forgot to tell you that they have a little gift shop at Trout Lake and I got these awesome mittens! They are handmade from recycled wool sweaters and are lined with organic fleece. I fell in love with them when I saw them and had to have them. =) They've very warm and they make me happy. Aren't they such a wonderful idea? I wish I'd taken a picture of the other sets - so cute.

Couples Retreat 09

Call us crazy, but less than 24 hours after returning from Florida we left for our church's weekend Couples Retreat! This was our sixth time attending the retreat and we both love it so much. Especially now that we have kids, it's been so important for us to get away for a weekend. My parents have made that possible by staying with Lily and now Taylor so that we can go. Have I ever mentioned how much my parents do for us?!?!

This was my first time away from Taylor overnight and I definitely missed him. My arms just ached for him while we were gone but I only got teary eyed a couple times. People at Retreat would testify that I did much better this time than I did my first time away from Lily. But I really missed our kids and was itching to get back to them on Sunday. =)

It's become sort of a tradition for some of our friends to meet at our house to carpool up to the retreat. This year a total of six couples left from our house. It's also a tradition to stop at the Quizno's in Little Falls for dinner. It's just so much fun.

Another treat this year is that Lucas and Eir came up from Worthington for the retreat. They are good friends of ours and moved from St. Cloud about a year and a half ago. We miss them terribly. They were a huge part of Calvary and started the Young Couples Ministry (God BLESS them for that!). Anyway, we loved having them there and it felt like old times. They are a blast.

Another special highlight is that all of the "young" husbands surprised their brides with flowers when we got to Shalom House. I got a dozen gorgeous red roses. We girls were definitely feeling romanced. =)

And my dear dad had mailed a little Valentine gift for me and had it waiting in our room when I got there. I burst into tears when I saw it sitting there and I recognized his handwriting. I am so blessed to have two such wonderful men in my life.

So here are a few photo highlights of our weekend away!

Unfortunately, the tubing hill was closed this year due to ice. I had to try the rock wall instead. This is me gearing up to try the wall. The guy on the left is supervising. =)

Scaling the wall like a pro. =)

My honey and I

My precious friend Eir

Andy and Lucas

Playing Settlers, what else???

The whole group

Alex and Diane Kroska, Fred Tuma, John and Steph Rammel, Jude and Pat Mueller, Keith and Lisa Nelson, Lucas and Eir GarciaSilva, Andy and Dawn Becker, Bruce and Bev Hahn, Jon and Lacey Oettel, Jeremy and Michelle Hilden, Roy and Marlys Hohmann, Steve and Barb Avery, Jon and Emily Weaver, Brent and Amy Peterson, Bill and Steph Gardner, and Len and Sandi Carlson

A Valentine's Day Smooch!!!

Home Sweet Home

We're home! We had the best time. Our first family vacation was a total success and we will definitely do it again!

• Thursday: Flew from Mpls to Orlando around 3:30 in the afternoon. The flight went very well and the kids did great. Except that Lily threw up toward the end. She's had some motion sickness before. Getting our rental car was a total fiasco and took several hours! We finally got to our resort at about 10:00 pm. I threw myself across our bed and shouted with joy, "We're on vacation!"
  
• Friday: Slept in a little and went for a walk around the resort. Andy, Taylor and I went to a place called Holy Land Experience and we highly recommend it! They do a Passion Play that is absolutely wonderful. The disciples run through the streets shouting, "He's alive!" It gave me goosebumps and I was bawling. That night after we put the kids to bed, my dad stayed with them in our room so that Andy and I could have a little dinner date and we ate at Uno Pizzeria.
• Saturday: Magic Kingdom!!! We left Taylor with my parents and took Lily to the MK for the day. It was so much fun! We went on lots of rides and had breakfast with the princesses at Cinderella's Royal Table. Her favorite things that day were Mickey's Philharmagic (3D) and It's a Small World. Lily was pooped by late afternoon so we took her back to the resort so that my parents could put her to bed. And then Andy and I went back to the Magic Kingdom just the two of us which was AWESOME! We felt like kids and we had a great time.
  
• Sunday: The six of us went to church at Celebration Community Church, had lunch and then drove to Cocoa Beach for the afternoon. It was Lily and Taylor's first trip to the ocean and it was beautiful.
• Monday: The four of us did Sea World. I was most looking forward to seeing Shamu. However, Taylor (perfect baby who never melts down) had a meltdown with a capital M and I missed most of the show. I was not pleased! I caught the tail end of the show.
• Tuesday: The four of us went to the Animal Kingdom. I loved it! We had breakfast at Tusker House and got to meet Donald, Daisy, Mickey and Goofey. They have a wonderful breakfast buffet and the characters come to your table to take pictures. It was very fun and was a Top 5 event for all of us! If you're gonna be at Disney you must eat at Tusker House! We went on the Kilimanjaro Safari and it was fabulous! We also saw the Lion King and Finding Nemo musicals, both of which were great. Nemo was Lily's favorite. We were done at AK by late afternoon so we took Taylor back to the resort and my parents kept him while we took Lily back to MK. She loved it even more the second time! It wasn't very busy and we went on lots of rides. She got to see Philharmagic again and ride It's a Small World. We ended the day with the fireworks extravaganza called Wishes. It was magical!
• Wednesday: This was our free day and we didn't have anything specific planned. We swam in the resort pools, went down the water slide, laid in the sun, played in the sand and truly enjoyed our last day of vacation. It was fabulous. That night, again, my parents took care of our kids so that Andy and I could go on a date. We mini golfed at Pirate's Cove and it was such a blast.
• Thursday: We packed up our stuff and loaded the car. We took the kids to the park at the resort and went for a walk around the lake. My parents were done with their conference around Noon so we picked them up, drove to the airport and flew home about 3:15 in the afternoon. This flight was the longest flight ever and I hope I never fly with that pilot again. (Shouldn't be a problem since I go on vacation once every six years!!!) I can't even describe how awful the descension was. And on top of that I had a migraine so I was terribly nauseous. I ended up getting sick and felt yucky the remainder of the night. Nice finish to the vacation, huh? Despite that, it was truly fabulous and we definitely hope to vacation more frequently in the future, Lord willing. =)

I just need to add that going on this trip with my parents was such a treat. They were so good to us and gave my hubby and I several opportunities to get away together. We are so thankful for them and their servant hearts. My mom and dad are such a blessing and I can't say enough about them.

So here are some photo highlights. If you're friends with me on facebook I've posted lots of pics there. Enjoy!

We're on vacation!!! Coronado Springs Resort

The Passion Play at Holy Land Experience

The Magic Kingdom

Lily and Belle

Lily and Aurora

Lily and Snow White (We also met Cinderella and Jasmine. Lily did not want her picture taken with Jasmine for some reason.)

Lily's first visit to the Atlantic Ocean

Our family at Cocoa Beach

Grandpa and Taylor

My kids and their beloved Grandma and Grandpa

Lily at Sea World

Sitting in Shamu Stadium right before T's meltdown

The star of the show!

Disney's Animal Kingdom

Donald

Mickey

Daisy

Goofey

Best Buds =)

An elephant on the Kilimanjaro Safari

Two Ostrich

Lunch at Pizzafari

Back at The Magic Kingdom

It was nice to have a chance to take Lily by herself. We enjoyed being alone with her.

Dumbo!

Mad Tea Party

Taylor was such a trooper on our trip and was a pretty happy guy most of the time.

Playing in one of the sand boxes at our resort

The Mayan Pyramid

The kids playing together - so cute!

On the flight home - what a wonderful week! You can see the sun on her nose and her cheeks! =)