Who's In?

For all you gals out there, who I'm sure are the only ones reading this, are you up for a challenge? I love challenges. Especially if I can drag some buddies along with me. I just received my new Turbo Jam DVD set that I won on ebay. And my great friend Jessica got me two more for Christmas! Thanks, Jess.

Do you want to get fit with me? Rachel, your TaeBo DVDs are on the way, they're in the car ready to go, I just have to pop them in the mail tomorrow. Wouldn't it feel great to be lighter and tighter by summer?? Sounds good to me! I worked out yesterday and today, and my goal is to exercise 4 days a week at least. Ya in? Choose a workout you like such as videos, gym, running, etc... and get at it!

I love Turbo Jam, it so fun. I'm pretty sore today, and it feels great!

I took my measurements and weight and wrote them down. And I'm going to (GULP) take a picture of myself in a bikini from olden days. (No, I won't be posting that one!) And then redo the picture in a few months, etc...

I was thinking we'd email each other (everyone who's "in") once a week on a Saturday or Sunday and report how we did that week, and our goals, etc... And then if you'd like, once every month or two report any weight loss! It's a no pressure way to get us moving and losing. Just email me and I'll add you to the list, so far there are 8 of us!

I lost 20 lbs after having Morgan by doing TaeBo 4 days a week and eating better, but in the last year I've stayed at the same weight and it's time for a change. I have no excuse now... she's two years old!

Join me, friends! Okay, gonna go dig out that bikini!

Christmas Eve...

Well... the first two pics were not taken today.. but two weeks ago. But I have the same shirt on today, so same diff. And the one of Miss Morgan showing her lovely bottom teeth is from this afternoon. And of course the lovely Auntie Heather at her best. We're having a great Christmas Eve out in Willow. Jeremy's two sisters Heather and Jen are up with their hubbys Gerry and Jimmy. We love our time together as a family of crazy people. But we're missing Aaron, who couldn't be here for Christmas. He's spending it with some more Bacons in California, then heading to Europe on a trip with Talbot Seminary where he goes to school.

Jen, Jimmy, Heather, and Gerry spent the night Friday night with us. And the entire time Morgan called her two uncles "Uncle Kris." It was so cute. She sees Uncle Kris all the time... and it's stuck in her brain. Kris said it mayde his day. Jen and Jimmy were sleeping down in the basement on the futon by the boy's room and when the boys woke up. Drew instantly went out to wake Uncle Jimmy to see if he wanted to play with them. Gavin followed suit and walked to Jen's side and said, "Uncle Gerry, do you want to come play too???" Funny funny. We got a good laugh out of that one. Here's our Gavin after he opened some piano books of his own from Grandma Bacon. He's chomping at the bit to start lessons like Drew. He was so adorable pretending to read the notes and play.

Well, I'm off to play a mean game of UNO. As you all know, I can be quite the competitive game player.

Auntie Heather being her lovely self.

Breathin' Easier

Early this morning we trekked into Anchorage in all this snow for Morgan's long awaited appointment with the Pediatric Neurologist. And... he thinks she is having migraines! I say that with an exclamation because that is exciting! Crazy, right? But with all the looming thoughts of tumors, heart defects, etc... headaches are great! Of course there is no way to diagnose migraines in little ones. But he thinks that the pain lasts just a minute or so, but it is painful enough to make her pass out like she has been doing. And the blue lips, he said, could be caused by her blood pooling in a different part of her body when she passes out (falls asleep.)

Our next step is to get her in for an EEG (while she's sleeping) scan of her brain. With all of these crazy electrode things stuck to her head. We had to do one with Drew a couple years ago.. no biggie. Except you have to try to keep them up all night so they'll sleep at the crack of o'thirty when you bring them in for the test. That part, I remember, was brutal on the Moms and Dads.

He wants to make sure that there isn't something we've missed because her brain hasn't been checked out yet. Only her heart. I told the Dr. I can deal with headaches, then stopped and said, actually I can deal with anything. He said he was surprised I was holding up so well with all of the stress of not knowing what was wrong with her. Not any credit to myself, on my own power I'm a worry wart. So hooray God!

Thanks to all of you that have been checking on Morgan and praying for her. We really appreciate your concern. She's such a blessing. Tonight on the way home from Anchorage, she kept copying Drew in the car saying, "Daaee, I'm so dursty." Translation: Daddy, I'm so thirsty. I'm not sure she knew what it meant, but she sure was adamant. She repeated it for a good couple minutes.

So goodnight, sleep tight. I'm gonna get working on some more Christmas presents I'm making. And watch White Christmas. Haven't done that yet this year. I LOVE White Christmas. I love old movies. Bing Crosby rocks.

Progressive Dinner

If you read my pal Anita's blog, this will be a rerun for you... Thanks, friend for the pictures! Last night we had a progressive dinner with our Seniors. It was a normal Tuesday youth group night, but it was our chance to pick what we wanted to do instead of having normal youth group at church. So... we picked this! Appetizers at the Greenstreets, Main dish at the Ellers, and Dessert at our place! We had root beer floats and watched a goofy Christmasy movie on the big screen. We borrowed a projector from church and watched Jingle All the Way.

It was a dress-up night, but we also wore crazy socks to make our dresses more fabulous. I got my dress at a thrift store a few years ago. I actually love it, it's my "I Love Lucy" dress. It has pockets and everything.

Our girls (and guys) are getting to be so grown up! It was a blast....

One more Drew story...

I say that, but I'm sure there will be many more Drew stories to come! We just went out for dinner because today has been an especially trying day for this Mama... and after we finished eating Drew announced that he was going to get a lot of money. I asked him how he was planning to get a lot of money, and he said he was going to sell milk!

I asked him where he was going to get the milk and he said, "I'm going to play a song to make some money, then buy some milk and sell it!"

That seriously tickled my funny bone in the restaurant while Jeremy was up paying. He is such a goofball. I don't know WHERE he inherited that from. tee hee

Our Early Morning Encyclopedia

At 4am this morning, I woke to footsteps and crying. It was Drew, he had a nightmare and wanted to sleep with us. His nightmare was about a ghost made out of paper plates and paper spiders by the way! So he slept with us until morning. At 8am, his eyes popped open and he got out of bed and walked to the living room.

He came back into the room and said, "Where are you Mom?"

"I'm right here, in bed."

"Oh, I thought you were in the living room! Why do they call it a living room? Why don't they call it a sitting room?"

"Some people do."

Without missing a beat he said, "You know those helicopter toys with a stick that you rub your hands together on to make them fly?"

"Yes..."

"Did you know they are Made in China?"

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, they don't have regular toy helicopters over there. Did you know that if you get too close to a Panda they will be rough?"

"Yes, I did know that. You sure talk alot in the morning."

"I know, I just have a lot to say!"

DON'T WE KNOW IT!!! So that is an early morning conversation in the life of Drew's Mom.

Hooray!

I finally got a call back from the Pediatric Neurologist this morning and they've moved her appointment up from Jan. 25 to Jan. 4! And the Dr. has some openings early next week for urgent appointments and Morgan may get one! So they're having me call next Monday to try to get her in Tues. or Wed.

My good friend Shelly was over this morning to work on a photo slide show because she's speaking at a MOPS group this week... and a verse she placed at the end of the song is Psalm 139:16b. It reads: "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

Wow, we can insert any name into that one... be it Morgan, you, or myself. What an awesome God, just think... the God of the universe has everything taken care of already. Phew, that takes a load off, huh?

MOPS Christmas Brunch

Today was our annual Christmas Brunch at MOPS! What a fun morning that was. We had lots of special music, a fun gift wrap game , of course great food, and a wonderful speaker on keeping Christmas simple and focusing on the celebration of Jesus' birth. We always have a good time at MOPS, but this one seemed to have some extra warm fuzzies thrown in.

We had 72 ladies attend which is the norm this year. We love our new church building and the room it provides for our ever growing program for Mother of Preschoolers. I have a burden for each and every one that walks through our doors. I told Jeremy that as I'm driving through town, if I see a Mom about my age I think.. She doesn't know about MOPS yet! I think we could fill the entire gymnasium twice a month if we had enough precious souls to keep our cute kiddos.

Our leadership team is amazingly talented. They sing, play the piano, bake like nothing else, and are so willing to help. I'm so honored to be serving with these friends of mine.

Isn't that button wreath so cute? If I had the time or energy, I'd make them to cover my tree.

I also found this cream puff wreath... If you make it, I'll eat it for you, okay?

I was planning on doing this fun slide show of unique wreaths at MOPS today... but technology did not allow it.

My Dad took our Christmas pictures last weekend out on our snowy hammock.. Here's a fave of mine, but it's not the one we're sending so you won't see it anywhere else. hee hee

Well, I've got to get busy getting all of my Christmas tubs out of the living room becuase I'm hosting Bunko tomorrow night!

It's Pajama Night.. plus we're having a sock exchange after a few rounds of Bunko. Can't wait.

Cutie on the Grand Piano

Drewy had his first ever piano recital this afternoon! And he was 1st up out of twenty other kids that were performing! He has been practicing his three songs that he plays with his wonderful, amazingly talented, Mary Poppinsish teacher, Grandma Anita. He practiced up this morning, but had a brief time out on his bed for sighing and whining his way through his practice time. Which is like 5 minutes long. So after he decided it was better just to get the practicing out of the way, he was amazing!

On the way to the recital, he said... "I'm a little nervous about playing my songs in front of all those people!" We prayed for him in the car and reminded him that he'd be playing with Grandma and we'd be right in the front row to cheer him on.

Let me tell you it was ADORABLE! After each song that he played perfectly, by the way... he smiled and waved at the audience. It was so cute it brought a tear to this proud Mama's eye.

We ended up with a missing tape for our camcorder once we arrived... and my camera battery died as he started his first song, imagine that! But Grandma Marla Kay saved us with some picture taking of her own. I'll never forget his adorable closed lip smile that he spread across his face between each song. He seemed quite at ease, our boy has never been afraid to be in the spotlight. I would have been TERRIFIED at age six, or any age to play 3 songs in front of a room of strangers. What a little man.

Thanks God for our Drewy.

Well, that was fast!

5 little Thanksgiving
turkeys vying for a
chance in the spotlight
after our Thanksgiving
finger puppet show!
I just posted last night about the fact that Morgan's appointment with the Ped. Neurologist would be 8 weeks away. So I decided to get ahold of the Cardiologist and see if her symptoms would bump her up in priority... and I just got an answer!

He said he would call the Neurologist's office for us and get her bumped up and that they will be calling us for an appointment! Thank you God!!! In our eyes, anything closer is better than 8 weeks away!

Thanks for caring.

Say It Isn't so!

A Morgan update... I called the Pediatric Neurologist that we are to visit next and the next available appointment is the end of January or early February! So please, my friends, keep praying for a timely appointment for our girl.

The office hadn't yet received the referral from the Cardiologist we saw yesterday. And the Dr. wanted her to see the Neurologist immediately. SO... hopefully he can get his fellow Dr. (they're buddies) to bump her up due to her symptoms.

If we do end up waiting that long, we'll push to get some of the testing like an MRI out of the way before we see the Neurologist. So we don't have to wait another couple months to see him again. Yucky Poo.

Today I just lost it after I got off the phone with the receptionist that told me it would be 8 weeks away. And then I chilled out and remembered who has this all worked out already. No need to worry. It's tempting, but there's no need. Today has enough worries of it's own, why dig into tomorrow's?

Look Alikes

Don't we look alike?

I think I was 2 as well in the picture.

Kinda repetitious because I just posted this picture of her.. but I got looking at it and realized that I had a similar picture of myself!

Our day at the Dr.

Well I'll start with a Drew funny... As we were getting ready to head out to Morgan's appointment this afternoon and drop the boys off at Auntie Jenny's house, Drew was singing this little ditty on the couch. "Captain Underpants, Captain Underpants, Captain Underpants.. will make you want to laugh..." I said, "Drew we don't sing about underpants.." And he replied, "But Mom, it's a classic!" Oh Dear. That's our boy.

We met with Dr. Brauner who is a Ped. Cardiologist at Providence Hospital. He is such a kind man that is GREAT with children. So he performed a echo cardiogram (ultrasound of her heart) and it checked out the anatomy of her heart, it checked out perfect! So that was the first step. Next we are being FedEx'd a CardioMemo device that we put on her chest and press record if she has another episode and call in the results.. etc...

Dr. Brauner said her symtoms are abnormal. Which surprised me, I thought he'd say he sees this everyday! He thought it was her brain or her heart. So we're making an appointment to see Dr. Smith, the same Ped. Neurologist we saw with Drew's seizures. And they will probably order an MRI and and EEG (brain waves sleep test). SO... in a nutshell. The only thing we know for sure is that her heart is formed normally and everything is the right size and in the right position.

The rhythmic or electric workings of her heart will be recorded on the CardioMemo if it happens again. So if they find that her heart is beating normally during an episode we can rule out her heart.

We'll make her appointment tomorrow morning and hopefully it will be soon. With Drew's last seizure, we had to wait 6 weeks to get him in. Please pray for a timely appointment! But God knows exactly when she should be seen, so we'll just wait and trust.

Thanks for all of the care and concern for Miss Morgan. She is an absolute joy and delight to our family.

I'll keep you posted, literally.

Random Fun

This is totally random, but our little
family has had fun today finding
wallpaper for our computer desktop
at www.disney.go.com/desktopstop !

We put a Cinderella (Morgan's choice) wallpaper on my area of the laptop and this one from Robin Hood on Jeremy's. It was a favorite of his growing up. We love the old Disney movies, not so crazy about some of the newer ones... but there are tons of movies to choose from.

Happy wallpapering!

My Girls

Now that my blog is allowing me to post pictures.. I have some catching up to do! My lovely and fun Senior youth group girls deserve some space on here! Here are some fun pics of us out and about and being goofy. Which is usually what we do best.

e picture of Natalie and I with the fabulous teeth is at Coldstone Creamery where we spent our winnings from the "Rock Star" competition at our annual youth group retreat earlier this month, where we took first place in the "Silly" category. And wore those beautiful (wink wink) dance uniforms. Aren't Anita and I setting a good example for our girls about being mature adults?? We thought so.

The Beautiful Bride and the Cutie Pie

Morgan spent the day after Thanksgiving as a flower girl for Ben and Rachel's wedding. She has been waiting for months to finally wear her "Sincess" dress that has been up in her closet. It was a long day for her, but we snuck in a catnap in between pictures and the ceremony.

Rachel was a dazzling bride and her sparkly personality made her all the more beautiful.

I think this is the start of a flower girl career for our girl. hee hee

She made a pretty cute one at that.

Thanksgiving in the ER

I kept saying this week, that it just doesn't seem like Thanksgiving is coming up! And yesterday was an extremely strange Thanksgiving. We had a scary thing happen with Morgan. Yesterday morning after breakfast, she was playing in the living room sitting down and all of the sudden she said, "Owie..." Jeremy rushed over and picked her up, and she kept saying "Owie, Daddy, Owie." She was trying to fall asleep, her head was hot and sweaty, and she turned a pasty off-white color and her lips turned blue. She was completely fine up to that point in the day. We gave her ibuprofen, thinking that a sudden fever made her feel weak. She drank it and we were able to talk to her and she would respond, but was so sleepy. She slept in my arms for a bit, then woke up and was ready to play. I called the ER, and they wanted to see her. I called her Dr. and he wanted us to take her in. So Jen went with me and they did some blood work (came out perfect), EKG on her heart (perfect), and an x-ray of her chest. Everything came back fine. But the Dr. thinks it could be her heart or a circulation issue that caused her lips to turn blue. That is their biggest concern. SO..... we see a Pediatric Cardiologist on Monday afternoon.

She has done this two other times in the last six months, but I never tied them together until yesterday. The last two times, she suddenly got warm and really sleepy and limp. So I put her to bed thinking that she was getting a cold or something.. and was tired. But her lips never turned blue before yesterday. Yuck. Jeremy and I were fine, and didn't freak out or anything. We were even not sure if we should take her in... But I'm SO glad we did.

We've unfortunately had to deal with this kind of stuff before with Drew. I think we were able to handle this one better because of dealing with Drew during his seizures in the past. But it is never fun or easy to see your precious child losing consciousness or turning blue.

The ER Dr. said they will probably run an echo test on her and put on a monitor to try to catch it happening. In a nutshell that's what is going on with our sweet girl. Today she was a flower girl in her first wedding. She was a doll. I'll post a picture tomorrow of her in her beautiful dress.

Please keep our Morgan in your prayers. We'd love to know what is causing these episodes. Please pray that fear wouldn't creep in and keep us from trusting God for her life.

Birthday Boy

We celebrated Drew's 6th birthday 2 weeks ago! He has been excited about turning six since the day after his 5th birthday. I think we talked about it nearly every day in this last year...

So he decided he wanted to have a Pirate party, and of course Legos were involved. Drew created his cake decorations all by himself! He is incredible with a box of Legos.

He was very "excited" if that is the right word, when opening presents. After he opened every present he exclaimed, "It's my favorite (fill in the blank)!!!!!!" It was pretty hilarious.

He received some birthday cash in some cards that totaled $37. Which is very fun for a 6 year old! (or any of us!) And so we made the trek to our favorite local toy store, which the boys affectionately call "Miss Mary's Toy Store." And he had in his mind that he was giving Gavin $5 of his money because Gavin gave him $5 from his money in July. But after shopping around for a bit, he found the perfect Playmobil set that was just $17. He said, "Mom, I don't need anything else, Gavin can have the rest of the money!" After I picked up my jaw, I said, "Really? Wow, Drew that is really kind of you!" So a thrilled 4 year old picked out his own set for $17 and Drew gave the remaining 3 dollars to Miss Morgan... She picked out a Playmobil figure that she calls "Cinderella." Or as she says it, "Re-wa."

It is very fun to see glimpses of selflessness in our Drew. Sometimes it feels like he is the most selfish boy on the planet! We told him how proud we are of him and how we can see that Jesus lives in his heart by his actions. He just kept saying, "Yeah, I just wanted Gavin to have a Playmobil set, it's not fair that they're all mine." Precious boy.

Jeremy and I commented that we would have NEVER given up our birthday money as kids. Honestly I think it would be hard for me now! I guess I should take a lesson from my son. Ouch.

Can't forget him!

After scrolling through this blog of ours.. I was realizing that I've neglected to post some pictures of Jeremy! He is a wonderful husband, Daddy, and tickle monster. Well, the kids love the tickle monster in their Dad, but he knows that this wife of his will cheetah chop him if he goes there with her. Thanks Jen and Sean for the tickle torture growing up.. I'm ruined.

Here's to my husband that we love so much. Plus he's super brave. He had 4 stitches put in his finger this week... his finger and a meat saw at work had a meeting Tuesday morning. Yuck.

Bunko Babes

Last Thursday, we had our latest Bunko night! Ya gotta love the first Thursday of each month!!! The end of last year, we started theme nights. This month was just plain old "dress-up/costume" night. (We've had Prom night, Luau, School Spirit, etc..) So my sister Jen, my good pal Anita, and I were a dance team! We borrowed some drill team uniforms from Colony high school for a skit we're doing this weekend at the High School youth retreat. Too funny. They had these crazy long skirts, that we had to do something with, so we tied them around our waists. Don't we look snazzy? Next month, it's pajama night at my house. Complete with a Sock exchange, a Christmas movie, food, and OH two rounds of Bunko squeezed in. It's really just an excuse for us to get together and chit chat. There are 12 of us in our nutty group! Carrie, you could have been one of us. You look smashing in fuschia!

I've been trying to load this picture for days! But I think it's worth the wait, right Rachel?

You can dress 'em up, but you can't take 'em out!

I thought I'd add a few of my favorite goofy pictures from my trip to Nashville at the end of September. Eight of us from our MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) Leadership Team traveled to the MOPS International Convention. We had such a great time! It was refreshing and encouraging. And not just as MOPS leaders, but more importantly as a woman who is seeking God's best. The general session speakers were incredible! Ever heard of Priscilla Shirer? Loved her. Ken Davis? He's a nutty, funny guy. Those were my favorites. Then the Nichole Nordeman concert was a highlight for me as well. There was LOTS more, but those were my favorites. One major think I took from my time there was that for women like me, prayer has GOT to be a priority. It's not an "if", it's a "when."

So.. these are my two favorite goofy pictures of my buddies. Anne-Renee will, I'm sure, love that I'm posting her at her loveliest. We were stuck in Dallas for an 8 hour layover on the way home. And needless to say we were a bit silly. We were running on 2 hours of sleep from the night before. And we rode the sky train thingie a BUNCH. The one of Laura, Rachel, and I (which won't load at this time!) was supposed to be of us posing like we were caught by paparazzi, but it turned out so funny. We laughed and laughed over that picture until there were tears. Sweet memories!

We counted up the sleep from the entire 5 nights we were having "girl time" and it equaled a whopping 16 hours! It was a much needed breath of fresh air for myself and my team. We bonded, shopped, cried, laughed, and came home viewing our gifts in the form of children and husbands as just that.

Did I mention that our trip for all 8 of us was paid 100%? The only money we spent was for our food and shopping habits. God completely took care of us. We knew that each one of us had a place in Nashville and that it was God who placed us there. Love the way He does that!

Well, goodnight for now. The house it quiet, imagine that! We had a pizza and movie night tonight.. I love those families that do that together every Friday night. We were trying to be one of those families tonight. We even made our own pizza.

Stay tuned, we had BUNKO last night and wowzers.. you'll love the getups we were wearing! It was costume night. (Each month has a theme!) You'll just have to check back and see!

Nighty Noodle, as I say to the kids.

Princess Fever

I think a love for princesses is something little girls are born with. Just like we didn't have to teach the boys to love trucks, loudness, and Legos. Morgan is seriously on a princess kick, and we've never mentioned them! Every time she sees a Disney Princess she says, "Sincess!" Maybe she's trying to tell us something with that one.

This picture is from our California vacation last May. Morgan could have cared less about princesses at that point. It was Gavin that LOVED them! He was the only one that wanted to wait in line with me to meet Sleeping Beauty. As you can tell by the grin on his cute little face, he was starstruck. A couple of months ago, he was sick with the stomach flu, so I rented him a movie to make him feel better. And what was that movie you might ask? Cinderella, of course. When I unveiled the movie I rented him, he gasped, "Thank you, Mommy! She's SO beautiful."

He had us worried for a time when he said he wanted to be a "grill" (girl) when he grew up! But now he says he wants to be big like Daddy. Phew! There are so many times when I think that it will be so much easier when they get a bit older. But I just don't think they can get much cuter and more precious than they are right now. I was reading something today that struck me, it said: If you're mopping up spilled milk today, take a close look at the baby faces around your table, because neither spilled milk nor baby faces last forever.

Kindergarten Cop

We are in full swing Kindergarten mode!












The homeschooling adventure has begun and we are loving it. Mr. Drew is a sponge that soaks up anything you say and never forgets it! Unless it's, "Don't chase your brother!" He is reading small books with about 4 words on each page. His favorite time is read-aloud time. Currently we are reading the chapter book, "My Father's Dragon." He hangs on every word and is way into adventure stories.

Gavin is right in there with us and loves vowels for some reason (maybe he'll be a star on The Wheel of Fortune someday) and is a crack-up learning our weekly Bible verses. I'll get back with you on some of his verse "funnies." We are going through the Gospel Alphabet and are now on the letter G. "God so loved the world..." It is such an honor to be teaching that kind of truth in SCHOOL!

we've folded...

Okay, so lately I've been checking friend's blogs on a daily basis and decided that it's time to get our own up and running. We have a lot going on with us and our kiddos, so I'm sure I can find a few things that are worth posting. I hope you enjoy your stops and I hope you stop by often!

To get us started, here is a picture of Jen and I when we were wee little girls. My Mom sent me this pic the other day, she and I both agree that I look like a certain 2 year old daughter of mine! Thanks, Mom. And thanks for the ride, Sis.