Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday, Mandi!

It's my sister's 29th birthday today. I called and sang to her this morning and she laughed at me. That's pretty normal for us 'cuz she thinks I'm funny.

My sister is seriously one of the most amazing women I know. I often say that I want to be like her when I grow up. I have admired her relationship with God and her devotion to her Savior. She is so thoughtful and is really good at loving the "unlovable." She befriends people that are sometimes on the fringes and makes them feel so loved. You know when you are loved by Mandi.

She is a fantastic aunt to my kids and is the next best thing to their mommy as far as they're concerned. She is great with them and they love her. Even Taylor. Really. You should see him look at her - it's like he's thinking, "Hmm. You look like my mom, but you're not my mom. You sound like my mom, but you're not my mom. I feel safe with you like I feel with my mom. You're actually a really good substitute for my mom. Wanna play?"

She and I are opposite in so many ways. And even though we differ on lots of things we have always been best friends and I hope we always will be.

A few fun facts you might not know about Mandi: She LOVES to bake and makes a mean cupcake! She LOVES to organize and sometimes empties closets on purpose in order to put it all back in a more orderly way - just for the fun of it. She likes to do dishes. She lived with me and Andy during her first semester at SCSU. She likes John Wayne movies. She's a good hugger. She can palm a basketball. She has a beautiful voice. She is great with babies. She was in the delivery room for the Lily's birth. She likes pickles. She takes immaculate care of her teeth. She loves to laugh. She and Bryan have been married for 2 years and have the cutest little dog Samson.

Happy Birthday, Mandi! I love you!

9 months

Taylor celebrated his 9 month birthday on Wednesday. It's so hard to believe. He's now been outside of my body longer (by a few days) than he was inside my body. It's so nice having him on the outside!

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He is such a nice baby. He's an absolute delight. He brings me unbelievable joy and I can hardly explain how much I love him. He has a charming personality and is pretty easy going. He's definitely a momma's boy and has me wrapped tightly around his little finger.

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He had his 9 month well child visit on Wednesday and it went just swell. His doctor had all good things to say about him and I just love to hear from her that my kids are doing great! He weighed in at 20 pounds 12 ounces and is 28 1/2 inches tall. So that means he's put on 4 pounds 8 ounces since his six month check up! And he's grown 2 1/2 inches!

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I am still nursing. Can't believe it, really. But he's a good nurser and fast too. So it's pretty easy for me and saves a boatload of money on formula. Plus it's good for him. And I feel really proud that a major part of his nutrition has come from my body. Absolutely amazing.

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This has been a big month for Taylor. So many new little developments. I've talked about how he pulls himself up on furniture and in his crib. It's big stuff for him. He also started crawling!This has changed his life. =) I think he feels so independent and loves his mobility. Most of the time he crawls with one knee and one foot - it's pretty cute. Occasionally he gets it all coordinated and crawls on both knees, but he usually prefers to use that foot. =)

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He tried Cheerios for the first time last week and is loving those. He gets so excited when he sees me pull the box out of the pantry! I think he likes that he can feed them to himself and doesn't have to wait for anybody to do it for him. And I enjoy that it keeps him occupied while I'm getting his "real" food ready.

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He still gets up at least once every night, and sometimes more than once. I've given up trying to figure out why and I just try to remind myself that I'll never regret cuddling with my baby boy these many, many nights. In reality this phase will be over before I know it and when I look back it'll seem so brief. Right now I am exhausted many days, but a long time from now I'll be glad I had this time with him.

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So here are some of the newest pictures of my 9 month old baby. Can you even believe the sweetness of him?

Already loves football =)

Here he is using that left foot to crawl

Crawling around his room - he thinks he's big stuff getting around on his own

Sweet baby

One of his favorite cheesy grins

What a doll baby! Can you see him smiling behind his paci?

Easter

It's been a crazy week! I'm totally pooped and need to get to bed. But I finally had a spare moment to put up the pictures from Easter. So here they are!

The Family Photo

Could NOT get a good shot of the two of them together - this is as good as it got. Her mouth is full - probably candy.

Can you see his two little bottom teeth??? Cute!

Isn't he adorable?!?!

A very serious Easter Bunny

Daddy got in on the bunny ear action

Our friends Neil and Lorelie and their precious 2 month old son.

We didn't see either of our families today and instead celebrated Easter by attending our own church in our NEW SANCTUARY!!! and having lunch with our friends. It was a great day.

Taylor and his little buddy in very dapper coordinating sweater vests!

Lily got paints in her Easter basket and had a blast painting that afternoon

Just checking in

Hey, everybody! Sorry it's been awhile since you've heard from me! I didn't intend to be away this long but the past few days have been pretty busy. And today our internet wasn't working. My hubby got it fixed tonight and I'm just now on the computer for the first time in more than 24 hours. That's gotta be some kind of record for me. =)

Anyway, hopefully I'll be back into the swing of things soon with lots of interesting stuff to post! Just as a teaser I'll let you know that we're trying to get our house ready to put on the market and it's been a large undertaking!!! SO much to do. Some of you may remember that we tried to sell our house almost two years ago and nothing came of it. GOD WAS PROTECTING US! I believe it with my entire being. He knew what the economy was going to be like. I'm so glad He knows the big picture when we don't! But the time seems right to us and we're going to try again. I'll share more about that later.

I hope you all had a marvelous, glorious Easter! We had a fabulous Resurrection Day and I have pics to post as well.

Blessings!

Wordless Wednesday

American Idol, Top 8, Two Word Edition

I've never done an American Idol recap before, but I just felt like it tonight. And I'm gonna almost copy my friend Missy's one word edition from last week with my two word edition. Original, I know. Anyway, here goes...

Danny Gokey - 1980 - “Stand By Me” - Love him

Kris Allen - 1985 - “All She Wants To Do Is Dance” - Interesting, Mediocre

Lil Rounds - 1984 - “What’s Love Got To Do With It” - Not awesome

Anoop Desai - 1986 - “True Colors” - Really enjoyed

Scott McIntyre - 1985 - “The Search Is Over” - Goodbye sweetheart

Allison Iraheta - 1992 - “I Can’t Make You Love Me” - Voice. Love.

Matt Giraud - 1985 - “Part-Time Lover” - Favorite tonight (And just a side note, we did that same "Angels Aware" Christmas program that Matt was in at our church when I was in junior high!!! I was the Angel Gabriel and pretended to play the trumpet! Yes. I did. And I think Jason Miller had Matt's part. Hee hee. Good times.)

Adam Lambert - 1982 -"Mad World" - Simon stood

Head over to Boo Mama for more Idol recaps!

Public Service Announcement

Head over to Never Pay Retail Again and read Jodi's post about the American Academy of Pediatrics new recommendation about extending the use of rearfacing carseats for kids under 2. REALLY important and interesting stuff!

the same until its different

Any of you moms with little ones should head over to chatting at the sky and read this post. It's brief and SO good. It really sums up the way I've been feeling these days. Lily is off to preschool in the fall and I've been feeling so nostalgic and emotional! I can hardly believe we're here. And that a year from now we'll be taking her to Kindergarten Round Up. What?!

I have truly loved being home with her and it's hard to imagine not spending every waking moment with her. And letting somebody else be with her as she learns new things. I have so enjoyed being the one who gets to see her face when she discovers something for the first time.

My baby is going to preschool. Where does the time go?

7 Brides for 7 Brothers

I am SO excited! Have any of you ever seen the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers??? I watched it numerous times growing up and it's a definite favorite. I haven't seen it for years and years, but it is playing right now at Chanhassen Dinner Theatre and I'm going to see it tonight with some girlfriends!

I can hardly wait to sing along with Goin' Courtin', Sobbin' Women, When You're in Love, and Bless Yore Beautiful Hide!!! This is going to be seriously fun!

Taylor and Great Grandma

Taylor and Great Grandma from Dawn Becker on Vimeo.

Here's the video that wasn't working the other day! Treasured moments!!!

Scrapping again

Many of you know that I really enjoy scrapbooking. I started scrapping when I was pregnant with Lily and it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. =) I set a VERY high standard with Lily's scrapbooks and when I think about doing the same thing with all the pictures of Taylor I start to feel a little dizzy. It's going to be a big job and I might not get it done before he graduates from high school. But I am determined to do it.

Last Saturday there was a women's craft day at church. It was so much fun! I didn't actually get a ton of scrapping done, but it felt good to get back into it a little. And I came home and set up my card table in the living room so that if I ever have a spare minute I can plop myself down at the table and work on it a little. It's not ideal and it makes the living room look crowded and cluttered but I don't care! I'm really hoping it'll help me keep on top of my projects.

Another exciting thing that happend as a result of Craft Day is that my hubby bought a Cricut Expression for me on Ebay!!! Any of you who scrap or craft know what a wonderful thing the Cricut is. I showed Andy some of the things I was able to do with it and he thought it was very cool. I am very much looking forward to the day it shows up in the mail! And I can't wait to have some gals over so we can play with the new toy!


So here are a couple layouts that I did this weekend. Yay! You can see letters that I cut out using my friend Chelie's Cricut on Saturday. Neato, huh?

Lily's book - her friend Brianna's birthday party

Summer 2007

Taylor's book - his third day of life

July 2008

Wordless Wednesday

(A few words: I have a video from our visit to my grandma today, but it isn't working for some reason. I'll post it if I ever get it figured out.)