Okay, so who doesn't love bacon, chicken, ranch and pasta? I mean, if there could be a title for my favorite meal - THIS would be it. And this crockpot dish is so simple and easy, it has become one of my favorite "go-to" meals. >>> The original recipe can be found here.

Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 3 hours

What you need:

• 1 lb Boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 2 Tablespoons Real bacon bits (or 4 pieces of cooked bacon)
• 1 Teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 Package Ranch dressing mix
• 1 Can Cream of chicken soup
• 1 Cup Sour cream
• 3 cups of Medium egg noodles

Prepare:

1) Clean chicken and place in crockpot.

2) Combine bacon, garlic, ranch dressing mix, cream of chicken soup and sour cream in a bowl. Mix well.

3) Pour over chicken in crockpot. And cook on high for 3 hours.

4) About 30 minutes before serving, prepare egg noodles. While they are cooking, shred chicken with a fork in the pot (it should fall apart very easily).

5) Mix cooked egg noodles in with chicken mixture and serve!

Makes enough for 4 people. 

Hope you enjoy!

One of my worst nightmares happened the other day. After making breakfast and seeing Josh off to work, I brought Micah back to our room to play on the bed for a little while. He is quite the little roller right now, so I specifically laid him parallel to our headboard and footboard so that if he started to roll he would have a long ways to go before reaching the edge.

And of course, I wasn't going anywhere. I was sitting right beside him reading a few emails on my phone.

It was only a couple minutes, when I heard an excited shrill and looked over to see what my little boy was doing. All I saw were his two little feet and butt in the air going head first over the side of the bed.

My heart dropped.

I leaped off the bed, panicking. When I stood over him he was laying completely flat on his back, staring up at me. When he saw my face (and the scream probably didn't help) he started crying. I picked him up so fast. Shaking and holding him close, I carried him across the house to his room and sat in the rocker cradling him until he calmed down. 

After stripping his clothes off to examine every little part of his precious body, he began laughing and kicking like nothing had just happened. There were no bumps, bruises, not even a scratch. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and thanked God for protecting our little boy.

This was probably my first big lesson as a mom - mistakes are going to happen.

No matter how hard I tried to protect him from falling. He still fell. And the scary truth is, he will probably fall down again eventually. And again. And one day he is going to get hurt. Because life is full of mistakes and wrongs and sin.

There is a bit of freedom in realizing that I will never be the perfect mom. No one can ever be the perfect anything.

Only God is capable of being that perfect, loving Father to Micah. He has entrusted us to care for him and you can bet that I will do the very best I know how with my limited ability. But He has already numbered his days. He already knows the plans He has for Micah. God is ultimately the one protecting and watching over our son.

Whew. That takes a load off of me.

Though I pray that I will never have to endure a heart wrenching moment like that again for awhile, when the time comes (and it will, he's a boy after all) I am thankful that I have a Heavenly Father to trust in.

I don't see how any parent could ever survive the pressure without Him. 

It is here. Half a year. Wow, that flew by so incredibly fast!

Every time I sit down to write one of these monthly updates, I go over and over in my head how I want to go about it. Do I keep it short? Pictures-only? Video-only? But the truth is, I write them for myself. I love to look back at how much Micah has grown. How he is changing and developing each month. I am sure these will matter one day, when I can't remember when he started to laugh or started to roll over or sit up. So I don't want to leave out these details. I don't want to skim over them. I don't want to forget.

This month has probably been my favorite yet. I've heard it only gets better and better, and so far I can see why! Micah is so much more interactive with us. He laughs all. the. time. I love it. Sometimes he laughs for no apparent reason. Other things that are making him laugh these days::  peek-a-boo, funny faces (he had his first "photo booth" experience in the mall and he cracked up!!), funny noises, "pretend" falling, hearing himself laugh on video (such a CUTE moment!), and our dog, Heidi. The last one just happened this past week! Every time our dog Heidi comes around, he gets the giggles! It is adorable. He even reaches out his hand to try and pet her. I think they have officially bonded. :)

Micah is a great little sleeper! He has been since birth, but something happened around 3-4 months where he was waking every two hours for a couple weeks (no joke), thankfully that has passed. He is now sleeping a good 9 hours straight, then wakes to feed before sleeping 2-3 more hours. I'm loving it. But trying not to get too comfortable in case he decides to go through another growth spurt, or something.

I love singing to him at night. Some of my favorites songs to sing are, "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" and "You are So Beautiful." I've even created a pretty good mash-up of the two. The way he looks at me when I sing... it gives me enough confidence for a life time, let me tell you. I think I've found my biggest fan. :)

I am going to start being more intentional with baby food this next month. I've been easing into, frankly, because he just doesn't seem to be that interested in actually eating the food (he'd rather blow bubbles with it). But he loves watching me eat! He stares at everything I put in my mouth. I think he'll get the hang of it soon.

Also, his favorite toy right now is a water bottle. Not even joking! He likes to put his mouth on them when they're cold (soothes his teething gums) and he loves to hear it crinkle when it's empty. Convenient when we're on-the- go.

I'm still not over being a mom. It's still the most rewarding thing I've ever experienced. Crazy, emotional and overwhelming at times? Yes. But that's life. And I wouldn't trade the past 6 months for anything.

And... he's over the sticker. :)