Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family. We love you all so much! Thanks for all the prayers and support that you have given us lately!

We just got back our Christmas pictures, they really turned out great! Emma had such a good time getting her picture taken, she didn't stop laughing.

This year has definately been a memorable year! Emma started "school" (daycare) this summer after she turned 2. She had a rough start and cried every day for 2 weeks when we left. Plus she had a horrible intestinal infection that took about 2 months to cure. However, now she LOVES school. She has so much fun there and talks about her friends and her teachers all of the time! She has learned so much and is talking so much more now. Her vocabulary is growing every day and can pronounce any new word. She started potty training this year. She just recently started to wear training underwear and is doing a good job at keeping dry. Just today she told me that she had to go potty, which is such an accomplishment! (It surprised me so much I just about fell over!) Emma is starting to use her imagination now. She loves to pretend play. Her favorite things to pretend to do is swimming/splashing on a blanket, which she pretends is her swimming pool and she also likes to pretend cook. Another favorite is walking on Daddy's back, she has really good balance. Sometimes she pretends that Daddy is a car or an airplane, she puts wheels and wings on him and then climbs on for a ride. She is becoming such a big girl and wants to do almost everything herself. She gets very angry with us when we forget to let her do it herself. The other day she even put on her coat by herself. Sometimes it's really painful for us to sit by and watch because it usually takes her forever to do it herself and we could do it SO MUCH faster. But it is important that we let her do it and in the end she does a great job, it just takes longer!

Jerrod started a new job this year, after searching for a job for over 6 months. We are now co-workers, as he works now at Mennonite Mutual Aid as well. However, his occupation is nothing like mine! He started out in the IT department and quickly moved into the marketing department. He is working as a web graphic designer. He really enjoys it and is learning a lot about marketing. He is loving being a Daddy of a 2 year old, they have so much fun playing. He does all the stuff with Emma that I can't do right now because I'm pregnant. Emma loves spending time with her Daddy.

As for me, I have worked now as an actuary for 3 years and I still really enjoy it. I love the people in my department, EVERYONE gets along in my department, which makes it a wonderful place to work. I am feeling very pregnant now, much larger the second time around. It's starting to get harder to bend down, put on my shoes, get up off the floor, etc. Thanks to Prilosec OTC I have kept heartburn free. It works so much better than Tums, and the dr. says it's safe it take during pregnancy. So, I'm feeling pretty good so far. The baby is kicking and moving and grooving. We are praying that everything turns out healthy with our baby boy. We have decided on a name: Jacob Christopher. Our due date is March 13th.


We also took a couple of great vacations this year. In May we went to Sarasota with Papa and Grandma Crum. We had a great time playing on the beach and collecting sea shells. Grandma almost got swept away by the waves trying to get the perfect sea shell! In July we took a quick weekend vacation to go to Kyle and Sarah's wedding in San Diego. It was a great time to reconnect with old friends. In November we went to San Diego and Las Vegas with the Merrill's. We really enjoyed Disneyland for the first time with Emma. It was also great to see our friends in Cali twice in one year! One of our favorite parts in Las Vegas was the Mermaid swimming in the aquarium.

We pray that each one of you has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Please pray for us

It's always really difficult for us to ask for prayer, but regardless, we are asking. Please pray for our baby boy. We went for our routine checkup at the doctor yesterday. The doctor heard an irregular heartbeat. She is sending us to specialists in South Bend, where they will do an ultrasound and look very closely at his heart. The doctor is 90% sure that everything is fine, but is sending us there just to be sure. Please pray that there will be nothing wrong with our baby boy's heart. Also pray for our patience, the soonest appointment we could get is next Friday. We are so thankful for all of our friends, we know we can count on your earnest prayers.

It's been a long time...

Wow! It’s been a long time! We have been really busy with trips and being sick! I’ve had 2 horrible colds in the last month. I think that pregnancy magnifies the cold and makes it absolutely terrible to live with! We took a trip to California and Las Vegas in November. It was our last vacation before the baby is born! We had tons of fun! We went to Disneyland and had breakfast with all of the characters. Emma still talks about it! We also went to the Wild Animal park and had a great time and saw some back parts of the Wild Animal Park that we had not seen
















before thanks to our “tour guide” Nichole! Las Vegas was a great time with the Merrill’s. Emma had a really good time playing with Jeremiah, she still talks about him. We saw the Dolphin habitat with a baby dolphin and the Secret Garden of Siegfried and Roy with the white tigers and lions. We also saw a mermaid swimming in a fish tank at the Silverton (a casino off the strip). I think this was one of Emma’s favorite things. And of course, we gambled a little and won, which is always better than losing!

This last week Jerrod went to a conference in Chicago at the Hilton. Emma and I joined him on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday. The Hilton is a very old and VERY nice hotel! It was decorated for Christmas and was BEAUTIFUL! There was a life size gingerbread house that Emma really enjoyed playing in. She found a playmate to play with and they both had a great time! Emma enjoyed riding in the cabs with no car seat, I know, real safe huh? Parking is outrageous in Chicago, so it’s cheaper just to park at the hotel and take cabs everywhere. On Thursday we went to the Aquarium, which was another fun adventure. I’m not too much into fish, but Emma really likes them and had a great time! She really liked the dolphins and picked out a stuffed dolphin to take home with her. She really surprises me sometimes what she remembers. We went to the coral reef exhibit and felt some coral, some smooth and some rough. When we got home, one of her cups has the little mermaid on it with some coral. I pointed it out to her and asked her if she remembered the coral at the aquarium. She began telling me about how she felt it and it was smooth and rough! The child amazes me sometimes!