Tis' the season to be....fussy? falalalalalalala

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We did in between all the fussing and crying from our little Christmas Diva! My goodness, who was this little baby! Asher wasn't exactly his smiling goofy self either, but not like Miss Priss! We went to my Aunt Debbie's house for a big family gathering to eat and open gifts from Santa. My mom is one of 7 brothers and sisters so our family is quite big. I think some one counted about 60 people! So we dressed the babies all up, Lilly in a fancy Christmas dress and Asher in khaki's and a sweater vest (hehe) excited for them to meet new family members and have their first experience of a big family Christmas. They didn't have an afternoon nap that day, first mistake! Lilly fell asleep on the ride there which was a whole 10 min. drive. My sister Shelly got her out of the car and I got Asher and in we went. The minute we walked in and some one else wanted to hold her the crying started. Anytime anyone talked to her or held her other then Shelly, she cried. Asher wasn't too sure about the new faces either. We are contributing it to being overwhelmed with the amount of people and teething?? Lilly is getting her whole top row of teeth in all at once. She usually loves people and lots of attention and will go to anyone that wants to hold her so needless to say Brad and I were scratching our heads. Daddy even went over to get her from Shelly and as soon as he did she started crying and gave her back to Shelly and she stopped! I looked at her and said "Lilly, that is not your mommy!", Shelly just laughed. Oh and she really hated sitting on Santa's lap to get her gift as you can see in the picture! They did love all their toys though and got better as the week went on. They must also be going thru some phase because as soon as we got home, they were both very excited to get back and see the dogs. So to all my family that was at Aunt Debbie's and saw our Little Christmas Diva in action, I'm so sorry she didn't want to be held and wasn't in the best mood. She is usually a sweet attention loving baby!

A bitter sweet announcement...

Hey friends and family...IT'S OFFICIAL! We have shared this possibility with most of you and have had lots of people praying for us regarding this, which we greatly appreciate and greatly needed! For about 5 months now we have been talking with the Pastor of Hope Church in Carmel Indiana (outside of Indianapolis) about bringing Brad on as the worship leader of the church. He has felt God calling him into this type of ministryfor a while now and we feel this is where He is leading us. We know that God is working all of this out in His perfect timing and He will continue to take care of all the details and things that need to be done to make this happen. We just received the official offer a couple of days ago which is why we were waiting to send out an email! The church is flexible, but would like to have us there pretty quickly if possible, around the 1st of February which means lots of work for us! We are going to start packing right away and try and clear out as much as possible to be able to have room to do some work that needs to be done to the house. It would be a huge blessing to have anyone willing to help us get the house in order in the month of January. I know this is a busy busy time of year for everyone and we are wondering ourselves just what God has in store for our house in such a short amount of time! If you have any free time in the month of January to help us out with various needs with the house, we would be so incredibly grateful for your willingness! Think of it as a going away present to us! hehe. Also, if you know of anyone that wants to buy or possibly rent a cute house in a convenient area please get the word out that we need to do this quickly! (Brad and I have said for years "if Smyrna would just get a Target, we would never have to leave", and wouldn't you know it, they are opening one soon!) Maybe you know a young married couple living in an apartment that is thinking of buying a house or a small family or single person. It has 3 bedrooms and two baths and a fenced in backyard!! It has been a great little house for us. Again, we have no idea what God's plans are for this house, but we are trusting in Him to work out the details of that so we are trying not to stress over it. About the church in Indiana...It's a smaller church of about 200-250 people located on the outskirts of Carmel Indiana which is a very nice, cute little town. The Pastor is great! We clicked with him right away and felt at home. We visited the church last in October and Brad led worship for Sunday morning service and received lots of positive welcoming feedback. We are excited to be a part of this ministryand Brad already has ideas of what He would like to bring to the church. The church is providing a house for us as well which is right around the corner so Brad could even walk to work! We are excited about and ready for the change God has in store for us. The house is 20-25 miles away from all of my family, which means babysitters whenever we want! haha. It will also put us about 3.5 to 4 hours away from Brad's parents instead of the current 9 hours. We are sad to be leaving Nashville and leaving our friends we have here, but at the same time we are excited. Please continue to keep us in your prayers and let us know if you would like to help us out in anyway with fixing up the house! Oh and remember to let everyone know it's for sale or possibly rent?? We will miss all of you and I'm sure we'll be back to visit as often as we can.

With much love,

Brad, Amy, Lilly and Asher

My favorite childhood memories...

The smell of Strawberry Shortcakes dolls.
Eating spaghettios.
Riding in the basket on my grandma Lois' bike while she peddled us up to the store.
Watching my grandma Daisy "put on her face" (makeup!) at the kitchen table with her big lighted mirror.
Watching my grandpa Spanky make his Christmas cookies.
Singing to Olivia Newton-John albums at the top of my lungs with my friend Jenny.
Thinking I could dance exactly like Michael Jackson.
Spending the weekends at my grandma Daisy's campground with my cousins.
Slumber parties.
Staying home sick from school at my grandma Lois' and watching the price is right with her.
Riding my bike everywhere.
Spending as much time as I could at our small town roller skating rink with Lisa and Jessica and we were some good skaters! It makes me sad that it isn't there anymore...
Going to Kings Island amusement park every summer.
Learning how to ride a bike and crashing into a big oak tree. (The big scar on the top of my foot is a good reminder!)
Watching my older sisters fix their hair and put makeup on and thinking they were so cool!
Spending the night with my cousin Carrie.
How no matter where we lived, even if it wasn't very nice looking on the outside, my mom could make it look so good on the inside.

Tis' the season...

This picture was taken last week....happy healthy babies....this week...not so much! My poor babies have a stomach virus. It started with Lilly two days ago. She woke up at 3am and had gotten sick all over her bed. I cleaned her up, changed her and put her in bed with us and Brad and I spent the rest of the night sitting her up to get sick in a little pan he kept on his night stand :( I could always tell when she was getting ready to be sick because she would start crying right before. The next day she acted a little better, only getting sick two more times and drinking half of her bottles at each feeding, she didn't want food at all. Asher peacefully slept thru all of this both at night time and for naps...until this morning. He was acting just fine so I gave them both a bottle, Lilly drank half again and Asher gulped his down fast as usual, then I heard something and looked and up it all came! He was covered, the floor was covered, it was coming out of his nose...poor guy! I was being so careful not to feed them from the same spoons, dishes, etc....but he still got it. So that was Asher's day today...he spent the day getting sick and rocking with mommy. He was able to keep the last bottle and some oatmeal down. Lilly didn't get sick today but is still not quite acting like herself and doesn't want to eat still. Oh and it's not over....the little angels passed their little virus on to daddy so he has been in bed all day today as well with the same virus. Mommy hasn't gotten it .....yet, but is battling a different virus with a sore throat and coughing. Anyway.....lift up a little prayer for the Beckey home!