Grandpa Don picking a fight.

Sitting in the shade by the tree before lunch.

This is what Noah is doing when you say, "Smile!" What a goof. He also took a dive into the gravel the day before and scraped up his nose and forehead. Poor guy.

Griffy's newest discovery... his thumb!!! What a lifesaver, and it is so darn cute.

12 Weeks Old

Here is our big boy- 12 weeks old today! He is soooo darn much fun! He is laughing and smiling all the time. He found his left thumb last night too! He has been sucking on his hands like crazy, but can only get the knuckle of his pointer finger in his mouth. Last night when he was done nursing, he got his thumb in his mouth!
Smiley boy! I got back to work on Monday and I can't tell you how much I am dreading it. I'm not anxious about his daycare, I just haven't been away from him for more than 4 hours and that is PLENTY. I'm very ready to be with him after 4 hours of being away. So I'm really axious about going to work all day. When people ask when I' m going back to work, I get all teary-eyed
when I talk about it. Uh.

The last three months have been such a joy. Being home with Griff has been the biggest blessing to me.

Griff talking

Griffin Smiling

VACATION!! July 31- August 9

Griffin was ticked he had to wear this polka dot jacket with bear ears on it. It was chilly and we were going for a walk. Too bad!
Ben's walley! Three pounds!

Dad cleaning fish.

Noah reading to Casey.

Kissing cousins.

Katie Ann getting a wet kiss from Nogi. He hasn't learned the art of a closed-mouth kiss.
Chubs.

Noah thinks it's very fun to wear to boppy, and even more fun to suck on Griff's pasifier when he finds it lying around.

Distress?

Watching a movie. I cried throughout the whole thing. I think I was hormonal.

A cuddley evening at the cabin.
Going for a pontoon ride! Gordy let us borrow his pontoon for the evening. This was taken shortly before Naoh cut our boat ride short by breaking out into a rash, uncontrolable runny nose and leaky diaper. It was fun anyway.

Grandpa Steve and Noah.

Good thing Griffy doesn't know how dorky that hat is.

Playing with my camera.

Tired Noah.

Trying to take a nice picture of the grandsons.. worked out well.

Noah kept making this face when the flash would shine before I took the picture. What a goof.

Catch- up

My "boys" were taking an afternoon nap at the end of July. They looked really cute together.
It's official! The middle of July, Ben and I put our house up for sale. We haven't had many bites on our house, but it's only been a month. Hopefully it sells soon because I hate always having the possibility of a showing hanging over my head. It's impossible to keep a perfectly clean house all the time.

July 24, my best friend from nursing school got married in Rochester. She looked beautiful!

On July 27, the ladies of the church hosted a double shower for me, Griff, Tanya and Teagan. I was so prepared and bought them a gift nice and early!! Well, Teagan Lynn is a GIRL. I'm and idot and bought Teagan Lynn three cute boy outfits. We arrive at the church and "he" has on a pink dress. My heart sunk into my stomach and I felt like crying when I had to tell her why her gift had to come at a later time! Luckily she understood, and we had a good laugh.

2 Months Old Today!!

Griff turns two months old today!!! Well, on the 28th will be two months, he's 8 weeks old today. Holy cows. What a busy two months this has been! I'm still surprised how long it takes us to get ready to go somewhere- even just for a walk!!!! We have to nurse, then change my bra, change his diaper, make sure he's dressed for the weather, put on my socks and shoes, get a water bottle filled, brush my teeth and/or wash my face (because it's after noon and that should be done before we go into public), put sunscreen on myself, strap him in his car seat, lug the stroller out of the car, latch him in and finally away we go!!! Oh but wait- I forgot my sunglasses. Uh.

Don't get me wrong, I love this new little boy more than I could ever explain! It just really takes a long time now that he's arrived.

He had his two month well baby visit yesterday (Wednesday) and as of now... he is growing like a stump. Short and wide. At 21 5/8 inches, he is in the 17th percentile for height. And at a whopping 13.4 pounds- the 87th percentile for weight! HA! Hopefully he'll elongate and catch up to himself.

On other news- we are selling our house!!! On Monday, our house went on the market! We have been working feverishly to finish the never-ending remodel and we are nearly done. God bless our family for all their work the past few weeks. We appreciate their help soooo much because we never would have finished as quickly as we did. We had our first showing yesterday, and it sounded like they might come back for a second showing with their parents! Good news! Ben and I put an offer in on another house in Wanamingo that would be just perfect for us. It's huge and doesn't need a lot of work. So we are keeping our fingers crossed and doing a lot of praying that we could sell our home and buy the other one!! We'll just have to wait and see. God knows the plan for us, we just have to be patient.

Enjoy the nice weather this weekend everyone!! The Bakkens

Work day!!

Ben's cousin Louie re-roofing our garage. Only took him a few hours!! He's awesome.

Ben cutting shingles and just loving it!

The babysitter Sally, Louie's wife. She's due at the end of July.

Dad and Ben figuring out how to patch the duct work holes in the floor.

Grandma Val and Griff. He always falls asleep on her chest. She's pretty cozy!! A big thank you to mom and dad this weekend. You were such a big help and we love you.

4th of July

We had a full yard for the parade!! Always fun, and the weather was awesome!!!!

His 4th of July outfit from Auntie Casey and Katie.

Katie and Noah. Kate was so disappointed because Noah HATED the parade. Way too loud for him. He cried through the entire parade.

Didn't have any naked pics yet, so before the parade we gave him a bath. We love when he's naked. He's got the cutest butt in the world.

Birth Story

Katie thought it would be fun for me to tell my birth story, since we don't get to see all of the family on a regular basis. So here it is:

Thursday May 28, 2009
I arrived at work at 6:30 AM and my contractions began at 7:00. They were 5 minutes apart all day at work, but I was able to function through them. By 3:00 came- my shift was over and my contractions were stronger and closer together. Now it was much harder to fake a smile, and pretend nothing was happening in front of my patients. The fun part was, I was down to having only one patient at the end of my shift, and she was a mom of 4- so we were able to "talk baby." But I was still very happy to be going home. So one of my friends at work offered to bring me home instead of taking the bus home. Ahh- great idea. So as we are walking to her car, my contractions were about 1 1/2 minutes apart. She said, "Are you sure you want to go home?? Should I just bring you over to Methodist instead?" Oh no- I needed to take a shower, my bag was fully packed, Ben wasn't home from work, he didn't have his bag packed. So I went home, had a bowl of cereal and sat on the exercise ball for a little while. Now my contractions were slowing down to 4-6 minutes apart, but still painful.

So every Thursday, Ben and I play co-ed softball in Cannon Falls. Stupid me thought, "of course we can still go to softball. I'm not playing, just keeping book. I'll be fine, I'll just breathe through my contractions. The car is packed so we'll go to the hospital when the game is done."

I'm an idot.

Ben doesn't even get his shoes on when we get to the ball fields, and WE NEEDED TO GO. I had two contractions when we arrived, and they sucked. This was not the place I wanted to be laboring. Too many people around and I wanted to go.

So instead of rushing to the hospital, we stop at his parent's house so Ben can shower and changed his clothes. He couldn't go fast enough. Then we make a stop at Subway so Ben can get supper. I'll tell you- the drive to Rochester was miserable. Every bump hurt, and my contractions were intense. I felt trapped in the car- all I wanted to do was stand up, and I couldn't.

We arrive at Methodist at 9:45PM, the resident checked me at 10:00 and I was dilated to 8cm. Ummm what? 8 cm!?!?! No way. (I was hoping for a 4 so I could be admitted. I really didn't want to be sent home.) So they asked if I wanted an epidural because I was so far along, it was now or never. I looked at Ben and said, "If I can labor to 8cm with no medication, I can totally finish it. I don't want this to slow down, I just want it to be over." So all-natural it was! They wheeled me in to the labor room, I started pushing at 10:40 and he was born at 11:00pm!! "It's a boy!!" they yelled. I couldn't believe it!! Ben was so right! He thought it was a boy the whole time, and I had no idea. I went back and forth between thinking it was a boy, then a girl. I didn't have a clue.

It took a while for them to finish working on me after he was delivered, so Ben got to hold Griff for nearly an hour after he was born. He was wide awake. What a blessing this little boy is. I just kept saying, "I can't believe it. I just had a baby. He's here. I can't believe it!" What a wierd feeling. Undescribable.

Now he's nearly 5 weeks old and runs my life. I love him more than I can explain and am so grateful for him. Life is good.

June

Griff's first parade at Covered Bridge Days in Zumbrota. He LOVED it.
Ben's first Father's Day!! It was a fun day of kind-of relaxing.

Ben and his buddy.

Griff was just staring at Dad. I thought it was so cute. We celebrated Father's Day the following Monday at Mom and Dad's. We grilled- it was great!

Four generations of boys!! So cool.
Wide awake!!!

Justin, Mandy and Annabelle Jo came to visit last week. She is getting sooo big!! It was fun to see them- especially since they brought our most favorite supper in the planet... CHIPOTLE! Thanks Norstads!

I'm a month old!!

Too cute.