What's in a Name?

Benj and I are anxious to agree on a name for our little one. Ella was Ella Jane from the beginning, and I think it helped me bond with her in the womb because I was able to call her by name. Becker Baby #2 has been a little different; maybe we just have to wait until she gets here to name her. One thing we are sure of is that we like to use family names.
Here are the top contenders:
1. Anne Katherine (Benj's grandma Becker's middle name is Anne and she passed away the day after we found out we were expecting. Katherine is my grandma's middle name). We would either call her Anne or Anna Kate.
2. Sara Anne (Benj's sister's name is Sara- it means princess and is just a great name).
3. Sara Katherine ( we could call her Sara or Sara Kate).
4. Sara Jane (Jane is a family name on Benj's mom side, Ella's middle name -which could be cute, or not, to have two little girls with the same middle name- and a name we both love).
5. Katherine Anne (call her Kate).

Memorial Day 2008

We spent the afternoon at Pompinio beach: great food, games, kites and great dutch oven desserts, Mississippi Mud Pie and Apple Crisp.

Ella loves the sand.

I love spending the day together at the beach.

This is getting dangerously fun!

So cute! I can't wait to bring the girls to church in matching dresses.

First of all, this is not my fault... Betty Jo Wade unknowingly put me up to it. She gave me the darling white and yellow lamb dress for our expectant baby girl last week, and I thought it was so cute that I wanted to see if they had a 24-month dress in the same style for Ella.

Well, they did, and then I found a 3-month and 24-month matching blue-polka-dot dress set that I couldn't pass up. Do we need baby clothes you may wonder?

'Need' and 'clothes' in the same sentence is relative. But I can safely say we have more kid clothes than we know what to do with- literally. The 8 giant zip-lock bags full in our garage don't include the 0-3 and 24 month clothes in the dressers and closets. We may not have room for food storage, but rest assured, in case of disaster we will be able to clothe the little ones around town.

Matching outfits, however, now there is something we can definitely make room for.

One day older and wiser too... happy birthday to BENJ!

A new decade: 30.

Good thing Sara King has done a great job convincing us all that 30 is the new 20, otherwise I would think we are getting old. And, truth be told, we aren't the young BYU college couple we once were... we basically have two kids, go to bed early, wake up early and do grownup stuff (like work, church and family) in between.

Yep, like it or not, we are climbing our way into a different demographic and social circle. Gone are the 10 pm Wednesday night phone calls from another couple suggesting we go to the movies ~ a movie trip these days takes advance notice, planning and a baby sitter. Don't get me wrong, having a family is the best thing and really rewarding, but it does limit our ability to 'hang out' like we used to.

Back to birthdays... this is one point where Benj and I differ: I love when people know about and celebrate mine and he prefers to let the day pass quietly. But, I figured for the big 3-0 it was worth doing something special regardless. So, here's how Benj's surprise birthday celebration went down (he would have never allowed a party for himself otherwise):

Treasure hunt starting at work, to the Burlingame Cakery for the next clue, our old neighbors and then Ruth's Chris for dinner in the city.

The BIG surprise: Benj's Mom and Dad flew in to help us celebrate.


After the fantastic steak, we went home to the surprise brownie dessert bar that Debbie Grewal decadently prepared while we were away

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The pictures don't do it justice~ the display was really great: complete with little candy scoops for each of the toppings. Paul Conley won the trivia game: He knows his 1978 facts.
A big thank you to Debbie for watching Ella and taking care of all the home details.
Benj was really surprised, and the party was a success.

Don't worry, Ella stayed up WAY past her bedtime to help us celebrate.

The next day we went for a walk,

fixed stuff, opened presents,and had a KFC picnic on the Pacifica beach.

Fortunately, our church meetings were combined with the Spanish ward today, so Benj didn't have bishopric meetings until 11:15 am~ which meant we were able to have a Sunday morning family breakfast together, a real family treat. I went out on a limb and bought the lobster tails I've been eyeing at Costco for his Sunday birthday dinner- they were delicious (if you like lobster).