The Celebration Continues.. December 26

I have the best family! Today is my birthday not yesterday like my previous post reads. Sorry Conway. The weather outside was frightful so I really didn't want to get out into it. My children all wished me Happy Birthday with hugs. Shoshannah sang her version of Happy Birthday Mommy. For dinner the entire crew headed out to Paradocks to eat. It was fun to have everyone together. Then Craig surprised me with 2 tickets to see Celtic Woman in March. YEAH! I love having my family around. I am a blessed woman to have such a best friend and husband as Craig. And I must say I have the best children.Thank you Craig Ellis, Andrew, Arielle, Danielle and Shoshannah for making my life so beautiful!
I love you all

The Celebration Continues.. Christmas Day

Well, I thought since the children were older and Shoshannah had no clue about the gifts that we would get to sleep in until at least 6:30am. But alas at 4:00am two of the children started making treks to the bathroom. Arielle couldn't sleep so she sat up to read at 4:00am. Finally at 6 I heard voices whispering. You know that whisper that reaches across the entire up stairs. So I woke Shoshannah and Craig up and the other children woke up Craig Ellis(after all he is an adult now). The children had a great time opening gifts. I think each of them was pleased. Shoshannah loves her kitchen and Craig hates the mess it makes with all those little pieces.After gifts were opened and the trash picked up, Ellis headed back to bed and the rest of the crew played or read. It was a very relaxing day.
The celebrating continues today with my birthday. Then we are birthday free until Saturday when Arielle will turn 13. On Friday night Gina will join us so the family will be complete for this year.

My Beautiful Children

Before we left for Christmas Eve Service my children dressed up, well almost all of them did. And we are missing Gina. She will be here the end of the week and we will take more photos then.
Merry Christmas to all our friends and family. We love you all

The Celebration Continues.. Christmas Eve

These are just some pictures of how we spent more of our day. The girls made sugar cookies,the boys watched several episodes of The Muppet Show, Craig took several naps. There was even a few games of Uno played. Then we had lunch and got ready for Christmas Eve service. We went to the 3pm service and Shoshannah sat through the entire service:)YEAH. Then we came home and cooked our traditional Christmas Eve dinner.. Grilled steak, baked potatoes, salad, and popcorn shrimp. It is wonderful.
We will end our night reading the Christmas Story from the book of Luke.
And of course tracking Santa for my older children! Shoshannah has no idea who he is.

The Celebration Continues... Christmas Eve

One of our family traditions is that we open a family gift on Christmas Eve Day. Usually it is a game and or movie. This year we opened three gifts. One being a new Ono game, Pictionary on DVD,Disney Version, and Pirates of the Caribbean 3. We will be watching the movie tonight. And playing the game when Shoshannah goes to sleep.

The Celebration Continues..Christmas Eve

For her birthday, Danielle wanted to go to Chick Fil A for dinner. Well, her birthday fell on a Sunday so we said we would go on Saturday. Alas, she was sick on Saturday. Bright and early this morning we piled into the van and headed to Chick Fil A for breakfast. I am thinking we should add this to our traditions.

Let the Celebrations Begin... Happy 11th Birthday Danielle

Eleven years ago in Bremerton,WA, I gave birth to our fourth child. A beautiful baby girl we call Danielle.She is so lively and easy going and brings much love and joy to those who know her. We thank you Lord, for giving us the gift of Danielle. Happy Birthday baby girl. We love you!

The Outfit can make the woman or in this case the girl

Notice the presents under the tree? We snuck a few in to see if she would notice..So far so good.

These pictures just show a side of our classy, sassy little girl. She wore this outfit to church this morning and was the hit of the toddler department. Even her Sunday School teacher said she was more sassy acting. Hmmm was that a good thing??

A Christmas Gift for Shoshannah's Sisters

In honor of Annalee, Ava Brackett, Ava Bogen, Gracie, Anna Grace and Marie we made a donation today to World Vision. Since most of our girls came home with Giardia we know how important clean water is. So here is the gift..

Water sources at Angolan and Kenyan schools are often contaminated, causing frequent diarrheal infections that keep children out of class and can endanger their lives. Your gift will deliver enough water treatment tablets to provide safe drinking water for up to 250 children for one year.

May God bless each of you in a special way this Christmas Season.

With love,
The Bacon Family

www.worldvision.org

Our family is Growing Again!

It is with Happy Hearts that we announce the engagement of our oldest son, Craig Ellis to Gina Marie. They will be married July of 2008. We thank God for the addition of Gina to our family. Please pray for them as they plan their lives together.

A First....

Well, this Sunday is the first time Shoshannah made it through the morning leaving the bows in her hair!. These pictures were taken 10 minutes after I put the bows in her hair. She tried pulling one out on the ride to church, we put that one back in. When I picked her up from her Sunday School class she still had them in. But alas, on the way home she pulled them out. But I am so happy with her progress! Maybe I will have a girly girl after all...

Ah... To Be Young Again

Do you remember the days when you were first making your way in the world? Here is Craig Ellis making dinner for some friends at school. Then Ellis with Gina. Dressing up, eating dinner with friends, laughing, have a great time! Great memories. May they create many more.

More Photos

Here are some more photos

A Day in the Gardens

I wanted to share some of our photos from our venture to the Gardens yesterday. All the photos are taken by Arielle, except for the one of her! Hope you enjoy. She took over 200 photos yesterday.

What Do You Get When You Kiss A Frog

The Norfolk Botanical Gardens has a wonderful Children's area. Shoshannah had a great time today. She was playing in an area with these 5 frogs and they spurt water at different times. This is her reaction to kissing her first frog...

PUT THE EDITOR ON THE PHONE

We are teaching our children that they are never to young to try and change the world around them. Looks like Shoshannah has read a cartoon she doesn't agree with and is calling the Editor of the paper! If he saw that face he would cave in and give her whatever she wanted:)

New Words

Why do we teach our children new words or phrases and then complain when they use them too much? It all started when the girls would be playing with Shoshannah and she would become frustrated and start screaming. So we taught her to say"Please Stop". Well, now everytime they come near her she says "Please stop". And now she is using it on everyone. "Please stop" changing my diaper, Please stop, telling me what to do. PLEASE STOP, PLEASE STOP. We are tired of those words. And now she has added GO AWAY all on her own! OH the power of words.

Then and Now

Who would have known that one year ago this little girl would be placed in our arms and change our family forever. This has been a week of reflection. One year ago on September 17, 2006 we left our hotel for the long ride to the Chongqing Children's Home. There we walked up three flights of stairs to where our baby girl awaited us.It was the end of one journey and beginning of another. We waited around until they called our names, then we walked up to the gate to be handed this baby who became our 5th child. Precious child, her world, the only one known to her was about to be rocked. This is a time of celebration. Shoshannah has brought so much joy and love into our family. It seems as if she has always been with us. We are looking forward to many more years of celebrations.