I have been hit with a case of writers block/busy-ness! I cannot believe I skipped over the entire month of February! So a very belated Happy Birthday to Tristan-who turned 7 of February 8th.

Tristan made it very easy on me this year as far as party planning-i'm usually not a big fan of cartoon character themed parties but he felt very strongly about helping me pick everything out-and since he spared me from a huge party, i obliged. Tristan decided he just wanted to have 3 friends over for a slumber party on Friday night (after a long day at school and a cub scout meeting after school!) His friends-Sam, Owen and Drew came over around 6 pm and Tristan decided he wanted us to take them to Burger King for dinner(they had pink panther2 toys in the kids meal-funny how the toy decides the dinner place). After dinner we headed back to our house for a little batman cake,present opening and lego building! The 4 boys we snuggled into their sleeping bags by 9:30! Lainie and I headed back to my room to watch Girls Just Wanna Have Fun-remember that movie...sarah jessica parker, helen hunt and shannon daugherty!-and I made Chris sleep on the couch to make sure the wild beasts were tamed! We had Tristan's family party on Sunday evening-we celebrated with a dinner from Imo's (T's absolute fave) and he requested no cake or ice cream-he just wanted me to make my yummy brownies-according to T-and he even helped me make them and put a ton of mini m&m's on them! Since he had graduated from the beginner fencing class and has now moved up to intermediate, we bought him all of his equipment for one of his presents(these sports get expensive!) He actuallt has his first tournament this evening-he's very excited!

So February breezed by and now we are into March! It has been a little hectic! I have really been concentrating on becoming a runner...I have never had the endurance, nor the enjoyment of running, but I've always wanted to. My workout routine needed a little changing up-I can get on the elliptical and go for an hour no problem, do some weights and I was enjoying going to a great kick butt class at 6 am on tuesdays and thursdays, but I wanted a little change and maybe even run a 5k or eventually a half marathon. So I went to the running center to invest in a good pair of shoes-no cute ones- but comfortable! I was going on my 3rd week of running (trying to do 2-3 miles each run) and got hit hard with a stomach bug/or food poisoning-this has set me back-now i'm struggling with a problem in my left knee-this is very frustrating but i'm trying to stay on top of it!

My mom is conquering her breast cancer diagnosis! She completed her chemotherapy and had her double masectomy this past Wednesday. The surgery was a little more brutal and painful than any of us imagined-I stayed in the surgery center with her the first night and then she was released the next morning(thursday). She struggled with her pain and being uncomfortable, but we had her propped up in a recliner(she can't lay on her back-or use her arms for 2 weeks). Her pain pump went out on Friday afternoon-so the doctor had to increase her pain meds-but as of this morning, she was able to get up (with the help of aunt Patty) and go to see Dr. Nathan-who took 2 of her drains out (she will have the other 2 taken out on Friday) and said her incisions look good and are healing well. She also got a call from Dr. O who said all of her lymph nodes and chest wall tissues came back negative! YAY! no more cancer! I think the news was a great relief and made her feel even better! Nichole and I are going to take her to Arizona March 26th-29th for a celebratory trip. We are staying at The Biltmore in Pheonix and hoping it will be sunny and warm and we can just relax and bask by the pool for a few days!

Chris made his official reservations for his Mt. Rainier climb. He wanted to go this summer but the guide service he is using was booked, so he is going in September. I am very excited for him. He was able to go on a mini climb in December to Colorado-he had a great time and got to climb a 150 ft frozen waterfall! I have pics saved in my email but need to figure out how to get them here! He is also getting ready for another climbing weekend in Red Rocks, Nevada. He's going with my dad for the weekend-there are going to be world class climbers from all over the world and they can sign up to participate in different climbing clinics. He is very excited about it-he's actually going the weekend before I head to Arizona.

That brings us pretty much up to date on the happenings around here. We've got a busy month of March. Every Monday Lainie has dance, every Tuesday Tristan has fencing, and every Friday night Bradley has baseball practice from 7-9. With a few PTO meetings thrown in here and there and school board meetings for Chris. Lainie is also playing for an indoor soccer team-so her games are either on Saturday or Sunday into May. She will also end dance with her recital in May. Tristan signed up for baseball-so his practices will probably be starting in late April followed by games starting in May, and Bradley's first season game is this sunday-right now the forecast calls for upper 40's....brrrrr! Lainie decided not to play softball this season and I'm not complaining! We do have a couple fun events coming up-Lainie is performing in the school talent show next friday-there is a big group of her friends and classmates doing the cha cha slide-it promises to be very cute-tristan was goiong to participate, however he has his blue and gold banquet that night (his crossing over ceremony from tiger cubs to cub scouts). Lainie is also singing Taylor Swift's 'Love Story' in the church talent show and Chris is playing the guitar to accompany her-next Saturday night. Exciting updates to come......

so now about christmas....

just trying to catch up on everything....i have soooo many pictures! Christmas Eve dinner was spent at King Doh (the best chinese ever) as it is our tradition. We met my mom, mark, grandma, molly and brian (yay! they were in town for xmas) and settled in for a wonderful early dinner. we were finished and back at our house by 6pm so everyone could see our christmas lights display and tune into the radio station Chris created. (we've already hit the after christmas sales to purchase additional lights-next year even bigger!). We have a tradition of letting the kids open one present on xmas eve (its always xmas jammies) and up until this year the kids always guessed it was something else....they finally caught on and all day had talked about how they knew they were jammies! Tristan in his new jammie pants with his christmas list that he left under the tree for santa (do you love how long it is?-its a keeper for the scrapbook!)

Amazingly we had all of the kids in bed by 7pm and Lainie and Tristan asleep by 7:30-they were very anxious for santa to make a stop! Bradley unfortunately didn't eat anything at the restaurant except for a scoop of white rice and was starving, so he had to get up and make something to eat...this in turn woke L & T up. (we make them all sleep in our room on the aerobed-i just don't trust that they won't get up in the middle of the night or wee hours of morn ing and open their gifts). So l & t thought they took a nap and at midnight as Chris and I were awaiting Sant's visit-the kids were wide awake watching A Christmas Story-Chris finally went to bed and I waited up for Santa. I guess he thought the kids were good....

Santa leaves each kiddo a pile of gifts and fills stockings at our house. Lainie was so excited to get Nelly (American Girl doll) before she is retired into the archives. After cleaning up the massive pile of wrapping paper, we all showered and headed to Chris' parents house (Kathy & Keaton's) for Christmas breakfast and gift exchange with all of his family.

Matt, Jamie and Alayna
Nathaniel
the kids and Alayna with their Great Grandma Dolan
After we were stuffed and the kids were spoiled rotten with presents, we headed out around noon to my mom's house for Christmas with ALL of my family... Sarah, Taylor and Lainie
Bradley and his Great Grandma Becker
Bradley and Nichole (aunt choe)

Bradley and Ben
Every year since Sam passed away we decorate a tree for him on Christmas-this is the first tree that we decorated for him-my mom displays them in her house throughout the year...all of his good friends gather at my mom's on christmas day and bring ornaments that are signifigant to their relationship with sam...it has been a tradition that means so much to us.

this is his tree from this year (we have 3 trees now)-for some reason i couldn't upload a apicture of the 2nd tree. This year it was a much smaller tree and my mom surrounded it with picture of Sam of Christmases past.
These are 2 of Sam's good friends-Jason and Shannon-Jason has been Sam's friend forever (and I always refer to him as Eddie-its hard to call him Jason)such a small world-my friend Lisa-from youth group days-used to date a guy named matt edmiston:well. this is his younger bro! and Shannon actually used to be Sam's girlfriend (she visited me in the hospital when Lainie was born) anyway-they are together now and I'm sure will be marrying soon! We love them!

This was a very cool gift that my aunt patty made for my mom for Christmas-she took alot of sam's ties and sewed them together and framed them for a very cool memorial for my mom that i know she cherishes!
This blog is getting VERY long and I am tired and trying to get over a very bad cold, so I am going to have to finish the rest of the becker xmas pics at a later time! i think the couch and a little gossip girl are the perfect remedy for my cold!.....

i'm back!

wow! it has been a really long time since i have even attempted my blog! First and foremost I have to wish my now 8 year old daughter a belated Happy Birthday! We had a weekend of celebrations! Friday night was Lainie's good friend Maggie's 8th b-day and she went to her slumber party. Saturday morning Chris went and picked her up and took her for a special morning with daddy-they went to the Galleria and went to build-a-bear (i made her promise that if she "made" another stuffed animal she would have to come home and choose 2 from her collection to give away to a child who is not so fortunate to have a gagillion stuffed build-a-bears...she agreed and came home with a pink monkey. When she walked in the door we surprised her! We had planned a family surprise brunch for her-she was a little overwhelmed, but later she told me it was the best day of her life!Her old mp3 player bit the dust so we got her an ipod shuffle, but her big gift was given to her over Christmas break when we completely transformed her pastel toddler room into a big girl room....

sorry, the color in that 2nd to last pic is not so good....anyway she loves it and i actually took these pics before we had everything up on the walls (as you can see tucked behind the dresser) and her laundry put away- will you look at her doorknob on her closet...yep...a coach purse...a very generous xmas/bday gift given to her by her aunt choe (nichole)...i am still trying to get over it, considering I don't even have a coach purse! So, her actual birthday was on the 18th-sunday, and since monday was MLK day and there was no school-we talked her out of a huge party like she usually has and into a quaint slumber party. although I'm not so sure how quaint it was...there ended up being 9 giggly girls at ourhouse from 5 pm-10 am.

Since Lainie and her friend Ella are vegetarians-Lainie thought it would be a good idea to have a build your own sub sandwich bar for dinner-veggie subs and meat subs, along with lots of fruits and veggies and dip...and kiddie cocktails were the beverage of choice...although when 2 of lainie's friends showed up late-maggie told them that I served martinis with dinner!For her surprise brunch I ordered the most delicious cupcakes (the chocolate buttercream and pink polka dot) from the cakery and decided that I would order the princess crown cookies (since I had never tried them) for her slumber party-they were just about as delicious as the cupcakes!-molly thank you for introducing us to The Cakery! I thought it only appropriate to surround her princess crown cookie on her tier with faux diamond rings! I had them change into jammies before singing happy birthday and then had them retire to sleeping bags for a viewing of Mamma Mia-requested by Lainie-in the end it turned into a giant dance party!

Ella (here with Lainie) gave Lainie a recyclable grocery bag with a vegetarian cookbook and the ingredients for a recipe for her birthday and Lainie was so excited to get to cooking! This was her first creation-sunrise lemonade_thank you ella for the cookbook-we hope it will expand our menus!
And last but not least....Lainie now has glasses! I think they're pretty cute! Very chic!

Happy Birthday to our sweet Lainie-girl! You are growing up way too fast! You are such a little lady now and we love you so much!

And now that I have made this blog all about you, I'll have to work my way back to the holidays in my next blog-I want to go and see what dress Michelle Obamam chose for the Inaugural Ball!

the holidays...sing,b-days, charity, and cheetahs!

Happy late birthday mom! She turned the ripe old age of 51 on friday and we celebrated with a small dinner at Chris and Tim Payne's house. I made a lasagna and bread, Chris Payne made a great salad and Bob and Mona made a great peach and blackberry cobbler for dessert. We ended the night with Chris cutting my mom's hair (as it is expected to fall out this week). Her before shot...and the final look-I was quite surprised and thrilled with what a great job Chris did!

Now to back up a day, on Thursday, Lainie and Tristan had their holiday sing at school...this is always a very big deal-the show starts at 7 and people start taking their seats at 6:15-to get the best seats-we arrived at 6:30 and were halfway back in the gym..so pics aren't that great.. and hopefully I can learn how to post video soon so I can post a clip of each of their songs-they are so cute! I did take a couple pics at home before the show. The night was great and all of the kids sounded fabulous.

Saturday morning, Lainie and I attended the Big Bear Brunch at the Ritz Carlton. My good friend Christy was on the board for the event that is sponsored by WINGS a charity that supports children with cancer and their families-it was a beautiful event and lots of fun. Christy invited us and we were so glad we were able to attend. Mandy Murphy from Fox 2 news was the MC and she and her step mother and her 2 daughters sat at our table with us. There were all kinds of characters Snow White, Belle, Cinderella, Fredbird, Captain Jack Sparrow, Mr. Incredible, Batman and Superman were all there for the kids to meet. Then we had a fabulous breakfast that was very fancy. There were lots of craft tables for the kids to make tote bags, candy wands, cinnamon bears and then there were ballon artists that made amazing balloon creations. The whole event was great-thanks Christy for inviting us! We had such a wonderful time!

Can you find Lainie in this picture? Isn't this a riot? After she got dressed today and put on her coat (zebra) I realized how much she would blend in with our shower curtain-this is kinda like a Where's Waldo pic!

Our friend Ted invited us to go to the Cheetah Girls concert today (sunday) with he and his daughter Emme. Ted is actually a co-worker of Chris' and he actually asked Chris if he would like to take Lainie to the concert with he and Emme (Chris failed to mention to me that he was invited first)-he just asked if lainie and I would like to go and I said sure and Ted had an extra ticket, so Lainie invited Ella to go with us. Lainie was very concerned that she was wearing zebra print and not cheetah print-I told her she looked cute anyway. Ella, Lainie, and EmmeSo we had pretty great seats and THe Clique Girlz opened up for the Cheetah girlz (I have no idea who they are, but they are played on radio disney alot and now Laine, Ella, and Emme have added their cd to theor xmas list-they loved them!) The Cheetah Girls put on a pretty good performance-nothing compared to hannah montana and the jonas brothers last fall!-but the girls had a great time and we had to buy a few momentos on the way out...then this story will crack you up..Ted ran into a friend of his-who is also a police officer who was on duty at the Scotttrade Center-as we were leaving. He tells us how lucky we were to see their concert tonight as it is their last...i was thinking last on their leg of the tour and further inquired about his statement....he corrected me and said "No, they have like 2 more shows, but then they are breaking up-so this will be their last performance in St. Louis ever!"....You should have seen the girls faces-Lainie shrieked and said "WHAT? THEY"RE BREAKING UP?" Ted went on to congratulate his friend on his statement and told them that the 3 girls now were crying! It was pretty funny and now I guess we'll find out in months to come if that statement is a rumor or true......