super hike and loads of kids!

The other day, when the clouds parted and sun shone down... it was hike time!  We had planned another hike, but Jessica called and invited us to join in on theirs...  it is a super gentle kid-friendly hike that is GORGEOUS!! I would highly recommend it up at Hatcher Pass.  You park at the mine, then walk up the road a bit to the trailhead right on the right side of the road. 

Off we go with 11 kids in tow!

Jess and I have been best buds for 19 years!  Wowsers!

Thanks for inviting us on this great expedition.

Baby's first hike = happy baby

The trail itself was amazing and easy to follow, in many spots, there were perfectly crafted stone steps!

We made it to the top!  The lake was beautiful, the kiddos enjoying playing out on the rocks so much.

Our little friend...

Love this photo!!!

the whole crew

My 5 and Jessica's 5 (including the little peanut growing in her belly due to appear Jan. '11)

Who knew we'd both end up being the mothers to a gaggle of kiddos?? 

I love this shot, because throughout the hike, Jeremy had all the kids coralled to stop and wait for us mamas toting babies!  He was the Ranger Rick of the hike...  here I think he was giving an educational lesson of some sort. 

The historic Lynch cabin, that Gavin adorably and mistakenly called the "Lunch" cabin and thought we were supposed to stop and have lunch there. 

...ready to walk down the home stretch...

some randomness

The other night I was dishing out din din and laid the baby on the floor to kick and play for a few minutes...

I walked back over and saw her completely sacked out asleep!  She didn't make a peep as she drifted off!  I've never had a baby fall asleep just playing or in their high chair like so many others do... so this was a sweet moment!  She's such an easy, sweet baby. 

And this bit of randomness is just for fun...  After Jeremy had been gone all day last weekend helping a friend, he called on the way home to say he was stopping by the store and asked if I needed anything.  I told him a treat for he and I sounded good for after the kiddos went to bed.  He brought Cool Ranch Doritos and this yummy ice cream.  Treats are a rarity in our house unless we bake it.  I thought it was so funny as I was reading this container, that in the bottom left corner it feels the need to state:  NOT A LIGHT FOOD.  Well, thank you very much for rubbing it in.  Bummer, I thought this food equaled the calories of a cup of cucumber.  Now that I'm educated, I'll be sure not to eat too much.  hee hee 

video loading day!

So today on Bacon TidBits it is video day!  The little button to add a video has been missing from my compose mode lately, and it's back today... so it's video time!  EnJoY!

You may want to scroll down to the bottom of the page and pause the green music player too.

Audrey & Annie

These 2 year old buddies were so silly last night that we had to snap some video!  Notice in the first video, they are in their normal clothes... then in the next two they're are in full dress-up, and Annika actually cried when Audrey wanted to take off her beautiful dress!  Audrey is the daughter of my long-time best bud Jessica... Between the two of us, we'll have 10 kids come January, when Jess gives birth to their newest cutie!  Our children are perfect stairsteps, starting with mine, then one of hers, etc....  The ages right now are:  9, 8, 8, 6, 5, 4, 2, 2, 2 months, and 15 weeks pregnant!  craziness... 

sweet baby video!

In the last few days, she has been cooing and talking away... 

This clip was taken on June 26th on our way to pick her up and bring

her home for the first time! 

And finally, Gotcha Day!  This is the raw, unedited clip of

the kids seeing her for the first time and us getting ready to take her home!!!  It was totally staged, so the initial excitement had already happened a few minutes earlier... and we couldn't quite figure out how to record and stop, but we hope you enjoy nevertheless!!

the happy apple meets the happy baby

 

A few months back, I posted here about Fisher Price's Happy Apple toy that I had as a child.  I remember loving the lovely chiming sound it made, and of course it's RED my favorite color.  I set out to find one on ebay, and lost every auction I bid on.  Just after losing those auctions, my pal Elizabeth who had just moved out of state found one when she was out antiquing!  We received it in the mail a couple months ago... and I am so thankful and SO excited to have one again.  Thank you, Elizabeth!!!  I do have to mention though, that while I was at a garage sale with my buddy Shannon this summer, guess what I found in a free box??  Another Happy Apple!!  I guess some folks don't see them as valuable as yours truly.  So I gave it to Shannon for her baby, and am so glad it also found a home.  So here is my baby girl meeting Happy Apple for the first time.  I know, who cares, right???  I do!!  Two much-awaited ones come home!

I kept shaking it, and she was intrigued by the chime.

get that apple off my shoulder!!

See?  She loves it.

passionate

Last night, I laid in bed thinking about what I'm passionate about.  If I really stop and think about it, I can come up with loads of things I'm passionate about.  But we can be passionate about many, many things without actually acting on them, you know what I mean?  I want to be a woman who moves and acts and makes a difference in the areas God has given me a passion for.  My passions will be different than your passions.  I can't judge you for not having the same passion I have, and vice versa.  And I'm not a megaphone type of person who rants to all who will listen about my passions... and expects everyone else to agree. God gives us different abilities, gifts, and passions.   What're yours??  I'd love for you to share them in the comments if you would!

The things I am passionate about, that I can think of right now as I'm sitting here are, and can totally bandwagon on and post several blog post about are:

(in no particular order.. hee hee)

putting an end to the worldwide sex-traffiking industry

my marriage, and marriages in general

raising children to love the Lord and seek Him with all their hearts

that women are in safe homes and relationships

orphans

the every child has a loving, safe family

adoption

that those considering adoption would take a leap of faith and dive in

foster children and foster care

teaching our kids at home

that the termination of pregnancies would end

that everyone on the planet would know the love and saving grace of Jesus Christ

that humans would respect other humans

that our nation would fall on it's knees before God in worship and obedience

moms ~ that women would see the priviledge and honor of being a mother

men/fathers ~ that men would see the responsibility of being a dad/husband as something to be cherished

making people feel welcomed

being honest/transparent with friends

all humans would only speak things that are kind/necessary/true... (we're teaching our kids this)

unmarried teens/adults would see the importance of waiting until marriage to have sex

pornography ~ I wish it would vanish into thin air

modesty

Christians looking beyond themselves and their own family to the needs around us

clean water and food for all
that I would not view my life as "my own" that I would view it as God's to do with as he desires

Wow, that's a lot of things to be passionate about... I'm sure there are many more!!  And those are just the "issues" I'm passionate about, that doesn't even include the things I like to do that generate passion in me. And yes, some of these seem "unrealistic" because of sin in our world, but that doesn't stop me from making a difference where I am.

Now the question is, what am I to do with all of this passion?  Why has God placed these things on my heart?  Time will tell, but for now... all I can do is act on them as God gives opportunities.  And he continues to do just that. 

beautiful girl

We are on Day 9 with our new baby girl, she is such a joy

 and fits so well into our family! 

I know a lot of you are dying to know her name, but we're just waiting on the paperwork end of things to get taken care of to share that with everyone!  Hopefully soon!  We're hoping that consents will be signed by both birthparents soon, and that she will be legally our daughter 10 days later!  Just having her here with us, makes all of the issues that can come with an non-agency adoption that much easier to handle.  We know that God has brought us all this far, and He has amazing things in store for everyone involved.  Keep praying for things to proceed swiftly and that God would strengthen our family and the others involved in this. 

We are just simply in awe of how God has moved.  It is impossible to leave God out of her story, it has been the most clear demonstration of His love for His children that we have ever experienced and know it will continue to be.

Here are some new pictures of our cutie pie from this weekend...

... evidence of many curls to come...

We love her smiles and intense eye contact with us.. she follows me around the room with her eyes, and we are so happy she is attaching to us so quickly!

birthday boy

Gavin's 8th birthday party was last night and it was rainy, so the park party we had planned was a no go... but we had a blast being at home with some friends, grandparents, and fun!

Gavin is the most enthusiastic gift opener I've ever laid eyes on.. he makes everyone smile with his whoops and hollers, and gives big hugs to the gift givers!

the party crowd...

`

Grandma and Grandpa Bacon

the party princess and her cake

two grandmas and a sweetie pie!! aren't they cute?

Happy Birthday GAVIN!  Everyday is a party with you!

8 is gReAt!!!

Gavin Nathaniel is 8 today!

Since his party is in a few days, we thought

we'd celebrate his special day with a stop at the donut shop with friends and the park! 

mama ducks and baby ducks abound at our favorite local park...

the last few times we've come, we've brought some saltines to make the duckies our kid's best friends.

Well, she enjoyed her day at the park too!  All snuggled up

and sleepy...  this was my first outing alone with all 5 kids, and

I'm happy to report it was awesome.  We even hit the grocery store after... but boy was I zooming around with that cart!

Birthday lunch on the lawn...  and for tonight's dinner, Gavin chose

cheeseburgers on the grill and french fries.
(like Carl's Jr.'s fries, he said)

Happy Birthday, buddy!  Can't believe you're 8... We all

laugh more because you're around, and love your sweet spirit too. 

lots of sweet snuggly time around here

All of the kids are just enthralled with their new baby sister.  She is very happy to see their faces crowded around hers.  Morgan got in some snuggles this morning just as the baby (sorry no full name yet..) was up for the day and waiting for her bottle to be made. 

Meeting her baby friend Lincoln for the first time!  There's a special story here - my good friend Allison and I now have 3 kids that are 3 weeks apart!  During Allison's pregnancy this last winter/spring, we were dreaming about what it would be like to have a 3rd set of kids that were 3 weeks apart!  Morgan & Megan, Nathan & Annika... and now these two!!!  When Lincoln was born in May, we both were bummed that our baby was nowhere to be found, and the possibility that our baby would be born so soon seemed impossible!  But... God already knew that our baby was the one who was already born - exactly 3 weeks earlier!  Can you believe that????  Such a sweet extra special touch from our loving God.

Is she cuteness or what??

Big brother Gavin happily feeding and burping. 

Annika loves "baby sissy" and she also loves all the equipment that comes with having her here!!  She sat in this swing for probably 45 minutes this morning.. happily swinging back and forth. 

Surprise!!

It is really surreal for me to be writing this post right now...  here we are at the end of Day 2 with the sweet new baby girl sleeping in the next room who we are in the process of adopting.  It has been a whirlwind these past 3 weeks, and we can't believe we actually have her in our arms and in our home in just 3 weeks after we heard she was being placed for adoption. 

Here's the quick version of the story and how it all came together:

(but follow closely... it gets confusing!)

A few weeks ago, a friend of ours, told another friend of ours who didn't know we were adopting, that our family was looking to adopt and would be a good family for this sweet baby girl they knew about that may be being placed for adoption soon...  they asked us if we'd be interested in adopting this baby girl if that indeed happened.  Our friends told the baby's birthfamily about us, and the ball starting rolling from there...

Her birthfamily decided that we were the best placement for her, and here we sit with a sweet and beautiful 2 month old baby girl who is adored by our whole family.  She was born April 24th, weighing 6 lbs. 1oz.  and is still a tiny little bit weighing  9 and a half pounds.  She was given a beautiful name by her birthfamilies, which we will announce soon hopefully, after we have decided on what her full name will look like after we add a name of our own!

She is not legally "ours" yet, and we are hoping things go smoothly and that God will guide the steps of all involved these next couple weeks as we get everything signed and taken care of.  Please be praying, friends, for this along with us... thank you so much.    We have seen God move mountains these past couple weeks and move in obvious ways that have humbled and amazed the socks off of us.  We can't wait to see what He does next in the life of this little one. 

Here is the day we met her last Tuesday... it was LOVE at first sight. 

I held her tight the whole time and cried my eyes out to let her go. 

Her first nap at home yesterday... snooze away, sweet baby!

I was loving trying her on for size in the Moby wrap my buddy Sarah let me borrow... she thought it was pretty cozy ~ I can forsee her spending lots of time in this when Jeremy goes back to work... hands free is a great thing when we're wanting to keep her close, but also take care of 4 other children! 

The first time I fed her a bottle yesterday,  she's a great eater and gets really excited when that bottle comes near!  She is a great sleeper too ~ (insert Halleluia chorus) ~ our first night, last night, she slept a 6.5 hour stretch, then a 2.5 hour one before I had to wake her up to go to church this morning and show her off!  We held on tight to her today, and didn't pass her around at all... she slept through the whole thing and had no idea how loved and long-awaited she has been. 

Welcome home!  The moment we brought her home, I snapped this picture... 

She seemed happy to be here, don't you think?

Gotcha Day!  Yesterday, as you can see, Jeremy and I were just beaming as we got ready to load her up and bring her HOME!  Her birthfamily is just a dear family who are simply amazing people who have taken amazingly loving care of her, and we are excited to have them in our lives. 

Meeting her sisters for the first time. 

Any time she is out of our arms, there are usually 4 little faces peering in at her...  they love to be by her... Annika calls her "baby sissy" and the first thing out of her mouth this morning when I picked her up out of her crib was, "baby still here?"  Yes, sweet daughter, we're hoping she's here FOR GOOD. 

Getting ready for her first bath, while her adoring fans look on.

First bath in our home finished!  She loved it...  we heard she loved bathtime.

If you think you're shocked about how quickly God brought us together,

you're not alone.  We are still spinning! 

We look forward to giving you more updates, and hopefully downloading some video soon!

Thank you for all your love and support... we have dear friends and we are so thankful for each of you. 

almost recovered

Hi friends... sorry about the long break in blogging... I'm now on day 10 of the worst sickness I've ever experienced!  I somehow got Fifth Disease, and seriously suffered through it.  I had the fever/chills for 5 days and ZERO energy, then got a lovely hot, burning rash for a couple days along with zero energy, and now the joint pain has been my biggest issue these past 3 days, it has NOT been fun.  Today is the most I've spent out of bed in a week and a half, but I'm on pain medication to help with this awful joint pain that is the worst in my shoulders.   So my bed has been my life, not much else to blog about!  But I can see the end and am praying it settles in soon and this joint pain says goodbye forever! 

I've questioned so many times the timing of this for more reasons than one, but the one thing God has shown me is that HE KNOWS and He's got it covered.  He's got me covered.  So hopefully I'll be blogging again about life and kiddos soon!  Thanks for all of your prayer, practical help, and words of comfort during this awful past week,  I'm so thankful. 

lovin' this article..

This entire post was copied from this blog... I like the article so much I have to share it:


I came across this article yesterday and I just thought it was so well written. Although from a different religous viewpoint, I could not agree more....



A funny thing happened to me the other day when my wife and I had, thank God, another baby (a boy). Many of my friends didn't seem all that happy for me. Sure, they went through the motions of smiles and congratulations. But it was evident that many thought me insane. Why would a young man and his wife ruin their lives with eight children? Who could afford the Jewish day-school bills? Didn't we want to live life a little, and not just be burdened with kids?



It got downright surreal when a European film company, pressed me, while my wife was in labor, to finish shooting a segment that had an urgent deadline (I obviously told them they were insane). And the next day, I was mildly criticized by a Jewish organization which was supposed to be hosting me for a lecture for having to cancel on them because the lecture clashed with the baby's bris.


I don't mind that the world doesn't really love babies, just that it pretends to. It's time we got honest about our priorities. Most people get a new car every two or three years, but one or two babies through the life of their marriage is plenty. You can get drunk on an airplane, laugh hysterically with your mates, and still not really anger people. But if you dare bring a crying baby on board you will be given malicious looks as if the little thing is a package that ticks. If you walk your dog along the street, people will stop you to tell you how cute he is. If you walk down the street with a baby, you might find a woman or two who coos, but for the most part, you'll be utterly ignored.




Indeed, the contempt shown to parents of many children is the last acceptable prejudice in our society. As a father of a large family, I find myself apologizing wherever I go, as if I committed a crime. The frequent and loaded stares from scornful onlookers imply that the famine in Africa was caused by my selfish insistence on overpopulating the earth. Long ago my wife and I discovered that few hotels were prepared to accommodate so many children, even if we took three of four rooms, which is why we bought an RV for travel.


How strange to live in a world where loving children casts one in infamy. Having a family with many children implies a backwardness and primitivism that is deemed unbecoming in the developed countries of the West. Large families, it is thought, exist only among religious weirdoes or the teeming hovels of the Third World.


Rich countries, by contrast, prefer to increase their standard of living rather than the number of the living. Looking at Western birth rates for the year 2001, the United States averaged only 14.2 births for every thousand Americans, and the birthrate among white Americans is so low that the United States will soon lose its white majority. Indeed, one can go for days in a wealthy city like Manhattan without encountering a single pregnant woman. Riches and children have become inversely proportional such that the more of the former, the less of the latter.


Hence, the high birth rates of extremely poor African nations like Uganda – at 47.52 births per 1,000 – or Niger with 50.68 births per 1,000, are deemed to be prime causes and indicators of their penury. The abundant fertility and unconstrained sexuality of these countries confirms the unspoken Western mindset of these country's inhabitants as being just one step above savages. Contraception has become a synonym for civilization.


A Christian mother of six once wrote to me, "I find it troubling to worry about getting pregnant again ... because I don't want to face the criticism of friends and family. Why do people not see children as a blessing?" A fair question which deserves a fair response.


Why is it that even many synagogues today are not children friendly? Why are people impressed that Jay Leno owns 20 motorcycles, but disgusted that some religious families choose to have 10 children?


Let's not finesse the response. We all know why. A world that has lost its innocence has trouble appreciating beings who are innocent. A world that has become selfish has soured to the idea of leading a life of selflessness. A world that has become grossly materialistic is turned off to the idea of more dependents who consume resources. And a world that mistakenly believes that freedom means a lack of responsibility is opposed to the idea of needy creatures who "tie you down."


They can go fly a kite.


By just looking at my children, I become more innocent. By loving them, I become more noble. By spending my money on them rather than myself, I find transcendence. And by being a father and liberating all of the love in my heart, my spirit soars free. I work hard to support a large family and I give up no pleasures in doing so because my children are my foremost pleasure.


I am often asked by women dating men how to tell whether they are marriage material. I tell them, "See if he enjoys children." A man who loves children is playful. He will spend his life joking with his wife because he loves to see her laugh, and will flirt with her because he loves to see her smile.

 

There was a time when husbands and wives worked hard to ensure they could afford the blessings of a large family. Today, the higher your earning bracket the fewer children you have, but then we always knew that many turn money from a blessing into a curse.



Before he died, the Lubavitcher Rebbe launched a campaign asking parents to have one more child than they originally planned. It is a campaign that a dwindling Jewish community should revive as it continues to disappear.






Posted: March 02, 2006
1:00 am Eastern
By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
© 2010 WorldNetDaily.com

Adoption Yard Sale!

We are now recovered from last weekend's yard sale to fundraise for our future adoption!

We have amazing friends and family (35 families to be exact) who donated all their "junk" for us to sell!  Well, apparently they have really good junk because we raked in nearly $3,000 in two days...  we are SO thankful to all of you who took the time to go through your things so we could have a really HUGE sale.   Adoption as a way for a child to enter a family is so different in our eyes than a child entering our family through pregnancy...meaning that the whole community can be involved in bring this child home, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Helping orphans (and widows) is not really a command from God, it's simply a description of something Christians do... adoption isn't always the way each person should help... but your involvement in our adoption story and those of others is definitely making a difference!!!

The kids had so much fun manning the bake shoppe stand ~ thank you to all of you who baked or brought goodies for them to sell!  Gavin's line he repeated all day long was, "Donate here at the bake shoppe, donate here!"  He'd say it over and over again.. I had to keep reminding him to only say it once to each customer! 

Thank you to all of you who came by to see us, some of you drove a long way to come visit.  We so appreciate you!  We had such fun talking with members of our community and hearing about their experiences with adoption.  We also loved educating folks about adoption and about what kind of adoption we're feeling pulled toward. 

It poured down rain during the whole set-up day... I wish you all could have seen Mary M. and I setting up that huge tarp tent for 2 hours in the pouring rain!  We did it, and were proud of it!  We had pretty great weather the 2 days of the sale, minus a bit of rain the first day.  Thank you to Sandra F. who so graciously hosted our family and all of our junk at her house for 3 LONG days last week.  Thank you also to my set-up crew and selling/organizing help:  Jenn H., Rachel K., Carly G., Sandra F., Tasha B., Jessica C., Mary M., Sarah N., and Kiana & Kaylyn.   There is no way we could have pulled this one off without all of you!  We are praising God with His provision and were so encouraged by the generosity of others both monetarily and with their time.  We want this money to be used to glorify His name through the adoption of the next little one to join our family. 

the music returns and more

I removed the music player a few weeks back because it cussed out a friend of mine!  Yikes, hope that hasn't happened to anyone else that I don't know about.  Ha ha.. 

I love the music player, it really is for me... but I hope you enjoy it too!  It's all of my favorite songs right now as we are getting closer (hopefully) to bringing our baby home.  My hope is in the Lord and His timing and I know it will be PERFECT when the time comes, no earlier - no later - than it is supposed to happen.  These songs bring me hope and help me to remember God's plan is SO much bigger than mine. 

I thought add on a couple pics onto this post, cuz I hate posts without pics!

This is the girls a few nights ago right outta the bath... aren't they sweet sisters?

And I'm sure most of you know about Gavin's accident 2 weeks ago...

but if you don't here's the short version:  He flew off the swingset after colliding with his sister, backflipped and landed on his stomach on a fallen tree like 5 feet behind the swingset.  He fractured his right kidney and it hemmoraged.  He's fine, taking it easy and feels perfect now.  We're so thankful for God's loving hand protecting our boy, it could have been a LOT worse.  The Dr.'s said that had he landed lower, it would have been a MUCH worse injury to the kidney.  I took this picture of us waiting after the CT scan, because he wanted to be sure that Drew and Morgan saw the contraption on his arm.  It was his IV port, or whatever it's called...  he was such a trooper that day.