Weaned, Walking, One & Washington by Nicole

Ila is now a weaned, walking, one year old who lives in Washington. It's pretty exciting to say the least. She is the cutest little walker! She is also a waver and pretty wild and her parents are weird. She has 6 teeth and will probably have 7 by the end of this week at the latest. She seems to be able to eat everything without problems, although we have yet to introduce peanut butter and honey. Washington is the 3rd state Ila has lived in since she was born. We live in her 4th

house and if you consider that she was conceived in Korea and spent 7 months in utero there, it's technically her 2nd country and 5th house

she's ever lived in.

Happy 1st birthday to our little girl! Being one sure is fun! We had an awesome birthday celebration for Ila on Friday night. My parents got to come celebrate with us and Trent's parents joined us via skype! We ate lasagna and had tasty butterfly cinnamon rolls that I made just for my girl. We opened lots of presents and played. We also measured Ila and compared them to her newborn measurements. Boy howdy has she grown a lot! Trent and I got her a drum with fun shakers and other musical instruments. She loves it, but mostly chews on the drumsticks.

Ila is a very social baby. She is always trying to strike up conversations with strangers at the store. She doesn't mind being held by unfamiliar people and she has a smile for anyone. She says "hi dada" to pretty much everyone, which can make me a little uncomfortable, and also the person she is calling "dada." She does however call her daddy "dada" and it soun

ds different then regular "dada." The words I clearly understand her saying are: Hi, dada, fish & that. She likes to point to things and say "that."

Ila's personality has sure blossomed a lot in the last

year as well. I remember wondering what kind of girl she would be when I was pregnant. Most people call her an "easy baby." Well, I'd have to agree that she seems to be a pretty easy baby in comparison to some I've been around. These days she keeps me on my toes 24/7. The days of "easy baby" left when Ila became

mobile, and now even more since she is walking and tumbling a lot more! She is very passionate about eating/drinking, playing and sleeping. Most of her crying is in direct relation to one of those things. She doesn't really cry much though, and she is getting so much better at communicating in other ways. For example just 2 days ago she was getting a little tetchy and got into something she shouldn't have. I said "Ila, no!" and she protested. It seemed to be a bigger protest then usual so I said "Whats

wrong Ila? Do you need something?" She signed drink & eat. So I got her some

food and drink and she was as happy as could be. It was a pretty big moment for us! Anyway, she is strong willed (which is no surprise with Trent and me as her parents) but she seems to listen pretty well. She is getting more and more mischievous though, and reminds me of her daddy lots more. She is a quick learner, but likes to see how far she can push the boundaries in the house of rules. She often knows when she is doing something she shouldn't be, because she usually looks at me first and smiles, then goes ahead and does it until

I say "Ila..." in my special tone. She has lots of freedom to roam and explore the house and loves the tupperware cupboard in the kitchen. She can play in it all she wants, a

s long as she stays out of the glassware cupboard!

Ila mimics her daddy more then anyone. She

is fascinated by his sounds, movements & facial

expression. She even favors her left hand. She is also built like him, with broad shoulders and a small waist. I'm very thankful for that. Oh, and she pretty much has a 6-pack like her daddy too! When he comes home from work, she races to the door and they say "hi' back and forth while Trent takes his boots off. They are pretty inseparable until bedtime after that!

Ila has blessed us and taught us so much in the last year and we look forward to more years to come! Thanks for the great times Ila, we love you!

Rat-a-tat-tat by Nicole

We live in the middle of nowhere and I actually mean that! The closet towns are Prosser and Mabton which are about 30 miles north of our little place. We live on a ranch, 8.5 miles away from Mercer Canyons farm, where Trent works, A LOT since harvest is coming to a close. I can see our neighbor's (the ranch owners) trees, which surround their house about 1 mile away. That's the only house I can see from ours.

It's really nice out here, peaceful & beautiful, a wonderful place to raise kids. The obvious downside is of course having to drive 45-60 minutes to get back into "civilization." It hasn't bothered me one little bit though, the drive is quite beautiful, mostly along the Columbia river and it goes pretty quickly. There are other downsides though, not nearly so noticeable, but downsides nonetheless....

Trent noticed it right away, strange droppings on our front deck. Not your run of the mill mouse droppings, quite common on ranches and farms, but no, much bigger then mouse droppings. "It's must be a gopher" he convinced himself of one day, "but I don't see any gopher holes." This went on for days, he would ponder what on earth was living under our deck, and pooping on our front step. I pretended not to notice, and always stepped over the little droppings on my way in and out. Mostly I stayed inside though. See, I'm not much of a bug, insect, rodent, small wild animal fan. I pretty much despise those sorts of things and avoid them at all cost. But my curiosity got the best of me.

One afternoon the ranch owner, Doris, called me to check how things were going. I updated her then I started explaining the droppings on the deck and telling her that Trent thinks it's a gopher and what not. She listened, and then when I finally stopped babbaling she said "I think it's a rat. We get them in the barn sometimes and I saw the droppings the other day and it looks just like a rat to me."

"A rat? Like a rat, rat?" I asked, very unhappy and disgusted to be receiving such terrible news.

"Yeah, so make sure you get some poison out right away, because they can get in your car and cause a lot of damage."

"In my car? like inside?!?!"

"No, not inside, but under the hood."

That night when Trent got home, I had him put out poison right away. The next morning it was pretty much gone. Trent and I were shocked to say the least and put out more. Apparently to kill a rat, it needs to eat poison for about a week straight. But we were committed to getting rid of this thing.

One day I was out in the van with Ila, coming home from a shopping trip, and I though I heard something near the hood of the van. I was pretty freakout, and will admit that i jumped back into the van and slammed the door. I had a terrible feeling that that rat was scoping out the van or something, or worse, in it. I kept telling myself I was hearing things, but the sounds didn't stop. Trent said he had heard something out there too one night, but didn't think too much of it.

On Tuesday Doris (and her 4 dogs, 2 or which are skilled rat hunters) came over with her son and his friend to get some stuff out of the spare room they had stored here. She asked how the rat hunt was going after seeing the droppings on the deck. I told her we had been poisoning it for about 5 days and her son said it takes at least a week and to keep on it. A few minutes later, one of the dogs went missing and Doris went around the side of the house to find him. On her way back, she passed by the van, and one of her rat hunting dogs was pacing back and forth in front of the van. "Um, Nicole, the rat is in your van!" she said.

"What?! It's in the van?!" I yelled.

Then the son (I can't remember his name) and Patrick (the friend) came over. "If you pop the hood we can check and see if it's really in there." her son said. So, I popped the hood. He opened it as the three of them stood over it, and all at once they jumped back! "Huuooo! I saw it! Did you see it? Where did he go?" Doris cried. "It's down in there, I can see his tail!" said Patrick excitedly! Meanwhile, the son reached his hand into the engine area and pulled out a huge (the size of a deflated basketball) rats nest.

I ran inside with Ila and called Trent "It's in the van, the rat is in the van! It's in the van! there was a nest in there and everything!"

"What?!" Trent said. "It's in the van?!"

"Yes, Doris' son and friend are over here and they are going to try and kill it and get it out, I'll call you back later!"

I'll skip the yucky and lengthy details here and tell you that they did kill the rat, and got him out. It was a big rat, with big teeth. It was pretty nasty, but I did manage to snap a picture of him with my phone so Trent could see it. They disposed of it somewhere for me.

So, our grounds and our van's engine are rat free now, and we'll do everything in our power to keep it that way! I have a lot to learn about farm like, but one thing I will NOT learn to do is put up with rodents! If they want to eat poison and die they can come on over, but hopefully they'll just keep away! Also, we finally found the perfect name for our van! Remy. Some of you may know where we got that name, and others, you'll just have to brush up on your Pixar.

Mercer Canyons by Nicole

When we moved to Idaho from Baton Rough back in March Trent began the job search of a lifetime. As every one knows, it was about the worst time imaginable to be looking for a job in our lifetime. Again and again we seems to strike out and we realized that getting a job where Trent could use his farm life experience and agriculture education was not in the cards for us. He interviewed for a job in Prosser Washington that was basically his dream job and when he didn't get it we found that the Lord was pulling us in another direction.

Becker Bros. LLC was established and Trent and his father started a business doing tree work and home repairs/renovations. Trent and Daniel have been enjoying spending their days together working hard and making a living. Self employment is hard, rewarding and a bit nerve racking all at the same time. Never sure of exactly how much you'll bring home and the end of the month has grown us in our faith and reliance on God. I seem to be constantly reminded of God's love for us and have enjoyed watching Him provide again and again business and finances to pay the bills every month!

Last week Trent received a call from his dream job interview place I mentioned above. Mercer Canyon Inc. is a VERY large farm (about 10000 acres) in Prosser Washington. The call Trent received was a job offer, and a good one at that! He came home and told me he was offered a job and I was in SHOCK! We discussed it together and with our business partners and we all agreed that it seemed like a great opportunity and that if all the things were right (job description, salary, insurance, housing etc) we should take the job and move out to the farm. The next day before Trent even had the chance to figure out the logistics Mercer Canyons called and offered Trent ANOTHER job. So now we had 2 job offers in 24 hours!

We went to Prosser last Friday and got all the logistics worked out and all our questions answered and Trent decided to be a farmer (his other choice was a logistics person, more like desk work and what not)!

So, sometime this month we'll be relocating to Prosser Washington, moving onto the farm and starting Trent's life long dream of being a farmer. We couldn't be more shocked & excited for this new development in our lives and are looking forward to starting this new, and hopefully long chapter of our lives.

11 months by NIcole

Our little Ila is not so little anymore but still pretty little in the grand scheme of things. She is still whistling, still crawling and still super cute. She has the ability and coordination to walk but apparently not the confidence.

We've been exploring food more and more, sleeping 11-12 hours through the night and only nurses 2 times a day now. It looks like we"ll have a weened baby by Ila's first birthday! These days Ila's favorite food seems to be scrambled eggs and she enjoys a cup or two of rice milk throughout the day.

Ila has been communicating quite a bit these days as well. She says "uh oh" every time something falls, she drops something, or hears someone else say it. If you say "oh no!" she'll put her hands on her head (by her ears) and makes the "oh no" face. When sh eplays by herself she usually talks to her stuffed animals (and chews on them!) and "read" books outloud. She knows who her daddy is and points at him and says "Dada." She mimics pretty much everything her daddy does but not so much her mommy. I guess she is used to being around me all day, so I'm not so exciting to mimic!

Today we had Ila's baby dedication and we got to share it with out church family and also her Marma & Poppy, Grandpa & Grandma, Granny, GG, Great Aunt Carol Lea and Uncle Jon & Aunt Telcia/ Ila's Godparents. It was a lovely day and we finished off the celebration with a great meal at Marma and Poppy's (Trent' parents) house!