Some pictures

Emma, my baby girl isn't a baby anymore!

Jacob, he's still my baby boy


Emma and Jacob playing

Emma being a dinasaur at the Children's museum

Emma under a black light at the Children's museum

Emma driving an Indy car

Say cheese!

It was cold at the zoo and I wasn't prepared so Jacob had to wear Emma's sweatshirt!

Mmmm! Yummy!

Emma got a new car. She's a pretty good driver, but she did almost run me over!

Long overdue update

So I decided to opt out of putting away clothes and instead write this. I'll post some pictures later, but I thought it might be good to just write an update. The last month and half has seemed to fly by. Jacob had his six month appointment on 9-11. He has had a tough month. He came down with Hand, Foot, Mouth disease. Which caught us off guard when the Dr. told us what it was. Jerrod called it mad cow disease because it sounds like hoof and mouth disease. It causes very painful sores in the throat and sometimes on the feet and hands. In Jacob's case he had sores in his throat, a couple of sores on his big toes, and a very bad rash all over his body. It affects babies more than older children and adults. I think Emma might have brought it home from school, but all she had was a mystery fever with no symptoms. The Dr. declared him healed from that and he looked nice and healthy. He slimmed down a bit, the Dr. seems to think it was because he was sick. He's now in the 50th percentile in height and weight. He still needs some support while sitting up so he won't fall and hit his head. He's rolling over REALLY well and somehow rolls and pushes himself to get toys that are out of arms reach. He has super grabby hands and I have to make sure nothing is in front of him if he sits on my lap at the dinner table. He's sitting in a highchair now, so he can join us at the table while we eat. I have to make sure he has plenty of toys in front of him when we start. Somehow they all end up on the floor. Jacob has started eating rice cereal. He really likes it and lunges into the spoon, which makes it quite challenging to feed him.

Emma is getting to be such a big girl. Today I was thinking that maybe, just maybe the terrible two attitudes and fits were mostly over. She is so smart and witty and she keeps us laughing. She teases us all the time now, which tells me that she has quite the sense of humor. She's getting really good (3 yr old good) at coloring. She is getting closer at coloring inside the lines. She changed classrooms and teachers in August, which we were a bit worried about because of how shy she is. She didn't have nearly as hard of a time as we thought she would. She loves her new teacher and classroom. At school, she is doing some really cool projects. She did a book of her family, which was way cool. She is so loving toward Jacob and hardly ever shows any kind of jealousy. She loves sharing her toys with him and she also really likes playing with his toys. She has learned that she has to trade him toys if she wants to play with the one that he is playing with. This last weekend we went to Indianapolis for Jerrod's Dr. appointment. We got to stay at the "duckie hotel" (Homewood suites--a duck is their mascot). Their pool was pretty warm and Jacob got to go swimming too. We got to go to the zoo and the Children's Museum. The zoo was a bonus because the Children's Museum is closed on Mondays, which we didn't know until we got there. Major disapointment! She cried and cried. I cried too. So we went to the zoo instead. So on Tuesday morning we had to make a quick trip to the Children's Museum because she was sooo looking forward to it. Jerrod's appointment wasn't until early afternoon, so it worked out great. The zoo was a bit cold, but still fun. And the Children's museum was way cool, lots of hands on stuff for Emma to do. It was really fun!

Jerrod's Dr. appointment did not bring great news. He is not progressing as well as expected. Here's how Jerrod described what the Dr. has to do now:
We met with the Doctor yesterday in Indianapolis and he slated an outpatient surgery for the near future (still awaiting call for date). They will put me to sleep, place a 3 day paralyzing block on my right arm and wrench on it for 30 minutes, breaking up scar tissue to gain almost FULL movement. It has been described as "breaking chicken bones" This is a blessing in that I might get tremendous amounts of motion, but it's going to hurt, really bad, despite pain meds after that block wears off. Immediatly after surgery, I go on a 24/7 machine that keeps my arm in motion with therapy daily. The doc believes that my elbow shows sufficient qualifications for me to have lost less than 10% - 20% range (Thats incredible) when we're done, but nothing is final until after the surgery
So, please join us and pray for Jerrod's elbow that he will regain more range of motion after all of this is over.

As for me, I'm hanging in there. In the last month I've had two bacterial infections that act a bit like strep, but the strep test came back negative. I'm done with my antibiotic and I can still feel it in my lymphnodes. I'm praying that my body will fight it instead of having to take more antibiotics. But if it gets worse again, I will definately get a blood test this time to figure out what it is! I'm really enjoying my family right now and I had a great time with just our immediate family in Indianapolis. It's still weird sometimes to think that I have 2 children and Jerrod and I are responsible for these two little lives!

Happy Birthday, Emma! 3 years old!

Ok, like usual life got in the way and I'm a bit late with this!

Wow! I can't believe she's already 3! Jerrod and I have said several times over the past month that we can't believe we have 2 kids, let alone that one of them is 3! We had a birthday party for Emma and her cousin, Jackson on Saturday. Emma's birthday is on the 18th and Jackson's is on the 19th. Jerrod made the cakes and did a GREAT job! Our house was full of princess decorations and balloons. She was so excited when she saw the princesses on the wall! She got all kinds of cool presents from everyone. A new big girl princess bike, a doctor's kit, an outfit for her dolly, princess placemats, a tinker bell dress up dress, books, the Little Einstein's Rocket & characters, and I'm probably missing a few others! We had a great time at her birthday party and it went perfectly (except it rained and we were planning on having it outside).

She loves going to new places and doing "special" stuff. She gets so excited when we tell her that we are doing something special. She loves the zoo and she loves to go to hotels and swim. (We've been doing a lot of that lately because of all our trips to Indy). Her favorite characters are the Little Einsteins, princesses, and Mickey Mouse clubhouse and she still likes Calliou alot. She's starting to get a sense of humor and she loves to be funny and tease!

Emma is getting to be such a big girl. She has relinquished the stroller to Jacob and walks now. She's really good at staying close to us (which I thought would never happen). Her obedience issues are getting so much better. She sometimes has tough days when she's not feeling well, but other than that she's really good at doing what we ask. She's at such a fun age and she makes us laugh all of the time. She loves her friends at school and her teachers too. She has a posse at school that includes two other girls. They are best of friends and they act just alike! Who knew at three she could have such good friends! She is completely potty trained. I still keep a pull up on her at night because when we tried a couple weeks without one she had a few accidents. But for the most part she keeps it dry at night. She loves singing songs by herself. Her favorite songs are Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Jesus Loves Me, The B-I-B-L-E, Old MacDonald, the ABC's, B-I-N-G-O, and she also loves to make up songs (she gets this from her Dad!) She also likes it when we make up songs, she asks us to sing the wall song or the door song, etc, where we have to make it up as we go.

In Jacob news, he's five months old now. He is rolling over! Not just onto his belly, but back onto his back as well. He does it really quick! I'm not sure that Jerrod has seen it yet because I say, "look, he rolled over!" and as soon as Jerrod looks he's back onto his back. This happened about 3 times the other day :) He sounds like an Ewok when he talks, it is very funny! Emma and Jacob really love eachother. Emma loves to talk to him and Jacob talks and smiles back. We're trying really hard to teach Emma to always treat her brother nicely because she loves him. Can you teach them not to be rivals and instead always be friends? We're certainly going to try! Tonight is Jacob's first night in his own room. We set up his crib yesterday and he is sleeping in it tonight. He loves the mobile above him and before he went to sleep tonight he was trying to grab the animals on the sheets.

Jacob is 4 months old!

Jacob had his 4 month checkup today and 3 yucky shots. He didn't get horribly upset though, he just cried for a bit. He is 26 inches (90th percentile), 16 lbs 10 oz (85th percentile), 16 inch head circumference (10th percentile). So it looks like he is growing consistently. He just recently started to show some interest in trying to turn over. No success yet though. He actually fell asleep tonight on his side while he was trying to turn over. He plays really well with toys now, he'll reach out and grab the toy from my hand. He loves his play mat with the toys above him. He can also switch the toy from one hand to the other. He loves to just sit and watch all the activity going on around him. He loves his sister very much and I'm pretty sure he finds her very entertaining. He'll be sitting up very soon unsupported. He can sit up now very well supported. He's finally starting to stand up on my lap, he's a little behind when Emma started standing. I think Emma was about a month old when she started standing. Jacob loves to talk and smiles a lot when someone talks to him. He loves when Daddy talks to him! He still loves to suck his thumb and now he can get his whole fist in his mouth. He also has a bad habit of sucking on his arm and has actually left a line like bruise where he sucks on his arm.

Jerrod is doing pretty well. We are traveling to Elkhart 3 times a week in the morning for therapy. There are only 4 hand and arm therapist specialists in this area. 2 in South Bend and 2 in Elkhart. So we opted for the closer of the two cities. I am soooo thankful that I have the most awesome bosses in the whole world! I am taking a laptop and working during his therapy sessions. I am so blessed to have such flexibility in my job! They ordered a dynamic splint for Jerrod and we picked it up today. It cranks his arm up or out and holds it there. The point of it is to help his range of motion. In his last therapy session he got to 12 degrees out and 92 degrees up. The therapist is very happy with the 12 degrees. Of course when he gets home he can't replicate it.

Last week Jerrod had a Dr.'s appointment in Indy. I took an extra day off and we went to the zoo. We had a great time. Emma got to pet an elephant! Then she looked for the elephants the rest of the day. We finally found them, they were taking a bath in the river :) Emma loved the zoo and keeps asking to go back. We also saw the dolphin show and she got to ride a pony twice. She picked out small mini animals to take home with her.

This last Sunday the Merrill's came to visit for the morning. It was short, but a great time. Jeremiah and Emma love playing together. Jeremiah really liked Emma's truck.

Jacob is 3.5 months old and Jerrod is doing well

We went down yesterday to Indy to get Jerrod's staples out and see the Dr. and therapist. It was also our anniversary, the cool thing was that we got to go to the Cheesecake Factory between seeing the Dr. and the therapist. They told Jerrod to start moving his arm. The therapist gave him several excercises to do over the next 2 weeks until we see them again. Right now his arm is very week and it is a bit painful to do his excercises. The therapist said his degree of extension was 55 degrees. Please continue to pray for him that he will be able to get full extension and inflection back in his arm. We know it will be a long road, Jerrod is a bit impatient though. So please pray for his patience too. (The picture is of Emma wearing Daddy's splint) Also please pray for our financial situation. Jerrod will not be able to go back to work for about 3 months, so we are opting for the disability insurance that we have through work. However, the waiting period is 40 working days before compensation starts, so that is not until July 16th. And then it will probably be another week to 2 weeks before we see a paycheck.

Jacob is now 3.5 months old. He is growing so quickly! He's well into 3-6 month clothing. He's now talking, smiling, and laughing. He loves to play peekabooh. He thinks that it is sooo funny! He's sitting up really well with support. He really has shown no desire to start turning over. He's pretty content on his back. And the other day I put him on his tummy for tummy time (which I haven't really done because he has good head control) and instead of getting fussy, he fell asleep! He loves sucking on his fingers and likes his fingers more than he likes a pacifier. This is quite the opposite than Emma was. He's a pretty laid back little boy. His fussiness in the evening has subsided. He loves his sister and his sister loves him. She's really sweet to him. He is so cute and a complete joy!

Emma has been taking Daddy's injury pretty well. She's really careful and gentle. The other day she patted and kissed Daddy's "boo boo". She's had lots of fun hanging out with family. She got to go to Grandma and Grandpa's and play with her other cousins and Aunt Louisa yesterday. That was fun for her. The picture is of Emma with Curious George at the Children's Museum. The video is of Emma at Uncle Andrew and Aunt Lesley's a couple of weeks ago, the morning of Jerrod's surgery.

God is good!

Sorry it took me so long to do this update! I didn't have internet access in the hospital and got home very late last night and went back to the hospital early this morning. I got to come back to my brother's house before Emma went to bed tonight. It was nice to spend some time with her.

Jerrod's surgery was a complete success. Go God! The surgeon didn't have to guess where any piece went, the pieces lined up perfectly and they could save enough of the bone that he didn't have to have a bone graft. The surgeon moved Jerrod's arm while he was still out, he had FULL range of motion. This is such a HUGE answer to prayer! The surgeons in Goshen told him that he would not have even close to full range. And the surgeon in Indy thought he will have some limitations. Yay God!

Last night and this morning was really rough for Jerrod. His drip that went into his arm to keep it numb quit working last night. The anesthesiologist was not sure that it was in there correctly and it obviously was not. So they put him on a morphine drip through his IV that didn't really help with the pain until about 11am. He rated his pain this morning at a 10. That's probably a 20 for me! Jerrod has a pretty high tolerance for pain. Most of the pain was coming from his splint. It was squeezing his arm. The therapist came in about noon and redid the whole thing. He redressed it, put an ace bandage around it, and then molded a splint around his arm. It was sooo much more comfortable for Jerrod and it took away a lot of Jerrod's pain. His pain level was still at a range of 3 to 5 this evening, so they decided to keep him another night to try to get his pain under control. The dr. changed his pain meds to the highest he could give him. When I left, he was off his morphine drip and only on pain pills. So, hopefully all will go well overnight and he will get to come home tomorrow.

Emma has had a great time hanging out with her aunt and uncle and cousins. They went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum today and she had a great time! Tomorrow morning she gets to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house, she's pretty excited about that. Jacob has been hanging out with me at the hospital and has been no problem at all. My mom came down yesterday to keep me company and help take care of Jacob. I was very thankful that she was there! All the nurses ewwwed and ahhhed over him all day today.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers. We can definately see God working! It's still a long rode to recovery, but I think we're over the hump. The dr. said today that it would be about 3 months until Jerrod could return to work full time.

Update on Jerrod--surgery on Monday

Sorry this update is so late! We saw a specialist in Indianapolis on Tuesday afternoon. He said that Jerrod needed a bone graft to fill the gap that is basically just powder right now. They will take a bone from his wrist and put it in his elbow. Then they will put a plate with locking screws in his elbow. His wrist will heal in 8 weeks. He will be in a cast straight out for 2 weeks, then a sling for about 8 more weeks, and then rehab for about 20 more weeks. He will go into surgery Monday afternoon at 2pm. We have to be there at 12pm. Jerrod has to stay overnight in the hospital and will get to go home hopefully on Tuesday if everything goes well. Emma gets to spend some time with my brother and his family. She's pretty excited about that. She loves to play with them.

Please be in prayer for Jerrod's surgery that everything goes smoothly. Also pray that our travel to and from Indy is safe (we are leaving Sunday afternoon and will hopefully return Tuesday evening). Thanks so much for all of your prayers! I will try to update after his surgery.

We survived another day!

That's how we are feeling right now. I am definately in survival mode and Jerrod is just trying to control the pain. Thank you so much for all of the prayers that you all have said for us this week! Jerrod injured his right elbow last Tuesday, actually it's crushed into tiny pieces. We bought a Segway as our second mode of transportation to ride back and forth to work, we were pretty excited that it was saving us money in gas. Last Tuesday a retaining wall jumped out and stopped that Segway and threw Jerrod to the ground. Jerrod is actually pretty lucky that he just broke his elbow and the rest is scrapes and bruises. He was on the ground and tried to get up and stumbled back down, he said he felt like a war movie :) But then he got up again and rode it home! He got home, I looked at his elbow and said we're going to the Hospital right now! We spent all evening in the emergency room and they admitted him overnight to control the pain. Both kids were SUPER good at the hospital. Emma did everything that I expected her to. I was very proud of her. She sat in a chair and did not move or talk while the dr. was talking to us, which was a very long time. The rest of the week has been full of dr. appointments. We have two conflicting views from two different dr.'s in Goshen on what kind of surgery he will need. The orthopedic surgeon who saw him in the ER sent his CT scan down to a dr. in Indy to look at. We won't hear until Tues. whether we are doing surgery in Goshen or going to Indy. I think we have decided just to trust what the dr. in Indy says. The dr. put a cast on him for the weekend, which seems to be driving him batzode! Plus it's a lot heavier than the ACE bandages. The pain is greater now too, probably because the swelling is starting to go down. We are hoping that Jerrod will have surgery on Wed and not have to wait until Thur. We are hoping and praying that he will get full range of motion back. The dr. seems to think that he will have limited mobility, this thought really depresses Jerrod.

As for me, I now know how a single mom feels. I am sooo happy that this is only temporary. I'm surviving one day at a time. Both kids have been pretty good. And despite Emma having another cold, she seems not to be too clingy and winy this time. Praise Jesus! It takes all of Jerrod's energy to just get up off the couch, so he stays there with his arm up, unless he has to go to the bathroom. I'm hoping it will be a lot better after his surgery. After Jacob was born, I really relied on Jerrod to take care of Emma. He was doing almost all of the cooking and did everything for Emma. Tuesday this all stopped abruptly, I'm just really thankful that I am fully recovered from having Jacob! I don't get any time to sit down and rest. The only time I sit is when I feed Jacob or when Jacob is falling asleep. I went to Sam's club the other day and got all of the meals I could that I can just pop in the Microwave or oven without much prep. It's working out pretty well and it's really easy to fix dinner. It's been really nice out this weekend, so I put Jacob in the stroller and we've been spending a lot of time outside playing in the yard and riding Emma's tricycle in the street. She's really good at it and I think it's almost time for a real bike! We went and bought a helmet and elbow pads (Daddy seemed to think she should wear them on her elbows instead of her knees :) ) She picked out a Dora helmet.


Jacob is doing really well now. He is over his fussy period in the evening time. So thankfully I don't have to deal with that! I bought him a new play mat, he loves it! He's smiling a lot lately when he is talked to. He's also sitting up really well with support. He can be pulled up to a sitting position from a laying position by holding his hands and without supporting his head. Here's a video of him talking. It was taken a little over a week ago, and he talks even more now. Very cute!

2 months old!

Yesterday we went to Jacob's 2 month appointment. He weighs 14 pounds and is 24 inches long. Those are both in the 95th percentile. He's a big boy! His head however is 15 inches, which is only in the 10th percentile. He is starting to cooh and smile a lot. He also loves to watch fans and Emma and Daddy playing. We found out yesterday that Jacob has thrush, just in case you don't know what thrush is--it is a fungus/yeast infection in the mouth. I suspected it, and actually called the dr. about it, but they advised we just wait to see at his dr. appointment. I was on antibiotics that ended a couple of weeks ago and I think that is what made him get it. It spread to me and it has been very painful to nurse for a little under a week now. The dr. gave us both medicine, so hopefully we'll both be back to normal in a couple of weeks. On top of this I have a cold and Emma came down with a fever today and Jacob got 4 shots yesterday that made him feel pretty bad today.

On a happier note, we had a great time on our vacation to Florida. We spent three days at Disneyworld. Emma dressed up as a princess and got to eat breakfast with the princesses. She also got to eat breakfast the second day with Leo and June from the Little Einsteins. She loves this cartoon and was thrilled! We also went to the Clubhouse Disney live on stage at Hollywood Studios. This was very cool. It featured Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, My Friends Tigger and Pooh, and Handy Manny. Emma loved it! Then we headed down to Marco Island where our vacation home was huge! We shared our vacation with Jerrod's mom, my parents, and the Merrills. It was a very relaxing time spent around the pool and at the beach. Jacob hung out in my wrap the whole time we were out of the house. He really loved it and calmed him during his fussy time in the evening. In fact, now he's not fussy as much in the evening since we have gotten back. Here's some pics.

Emma with Bell

In front of Castle

Emma and Grandma riding Dumbo

Emma and Leo

Emma and June

Emma blasting off with Rocket

Emma wiped out after a long day

Jeremiah and Emma playing at the beach

Daddy threw me REALLY high!

6 weeks old!

Has it already been a 6 weeks? He is growing, he's over 12 lbs now...he is out of his newborn clothing, and the 3 months clothing is perfect on him. He's so much chunkier than Emma was. We're thinking of moving him into size 2 diapers already! Jacob had lots of baby acne on his face, but it is starting to clear up, I guess it's normal, but Emma didn't have it. He is doing great, still sleeping through the night, sometimes 6 hours, sometimes 8 or 9 hours. We've noticed that he does have a fussy time between about 7 pm and 9 pm, but it is getting better. He wants to nurse a lot during that time. We've found that he loves his swing, this usually gets us through dinner.

We're starting to get adjusted to having two children. It's amazing how much easier one seems to be! Emma loves her baby brother, lots of kisses and hugs. We're still working on being gentle. Since Jacob has arrived, Emma seemed to be disobeying until a couple of weeks ago. We are worked very hard on trying to give her lots of positive attention and trying to get her to obey. It was quite a struggle, but it has gotten significantly better. I think it is partly just a two year old thing and also that her schedule was disrupted with baby brother. Early this week she had 103 degree fever and was wiped out. She took a 4 hour nap and slept 1.5 more in the morning than usual. We went to the dr. and the dr. thought that Emma had a bacterial infection, so she's on antibiotics now and is feeling so much better now. So far Jacob has not gotten it, in fact she's been sick 3 times since he's been born and thankfully he hasn't gotten any of it. I'm trying to be very careful and washing my hands a lot. Emma is still going to school three days a week, which gives me a break. Last month her class got to go on a field trip to build-a-bear. Each child got to build their own bear, Daddy went with her and they all had lots of fun. We went to the mall on Good Friday and Emma wanted to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap. So, we paid the outrageous amount for the picture and let her sit on his lap. It was very surprising to me because at Christmastime she didn't want anything to do with Santa.


Jacob went to church the first time on Easter Sunday. Since then we've been back to church twice. He did great in the nursery, pretty much slept the whole time. Emma didn't go in the nursery at church until she was one! However, I feel a bit more at ease that we go to a church now that has such an awesome children's area and I know he is in excellent hands! Plus, the music in church would have been way too loud for him if he stayed with us!

My recovery seems to be a lot easier this time. I'm feeling really well. I have lost a total of 40 lbs so far. 20 lbs of that was baby, placenta, and fluid, then another 10 was extra fluid retention. I still have 30 more lbs that I want to lose. I really hate this time period that I have to go buy fat jeans in a size that I have never worn before and I can't fit into any of my clothes yet. It really sucks. I went back to work part time starting at the beginning of April. I'm working from home and occasionally going into the office just to print stuff out. It's been a little hard to do, but I am getting my work done, so I guess I find the time somewhere. However, I don't have time for stuff like updating this blog!

One week old already!

This week just flew by! Jacob is doing great! We are truly feeling blessed on how good of a baby he is. He has consistently slept 6-7 hours all night all week (no waking up). Most people don't believe us when we tell them this! So it hasn't been too hard to catch up on our sleep.

I missed posting anything about Jerrod's 30th birthday. We had a small family party with cake and party hats. Here's a pic.

So here's the birth story:

For three days I had been having contractions. Each day I was in the Dr's office (except for Wed when she wasn't in so we went to the hospital instead). Each day I was told that the contractions were not strong enough to be doing anything, however they were consitent and I was exhausted from having them. On Friday, we really were trying to convince the Dr. to send us to the hospital, she agreed when I dilated at 3 cm, by Friday afternoon I was. We were excited and relieved.
By 5:30pm I was on a pitocin drip and by 7:00pm I had an epidural. The epidural was very nice because I could rest while the pitocin was working. I was not progressing like the Dr. hoped and she was started to have second thoughts about sending me to the hospital. Finally by 3:00am I was ready to push. And by 4:39am we had a little chunk of a boy. He gave us a little scare when his shoulders got stuck and he wasn't breathing at first. We were super surprised about how large he was, especially since I was 2 weeks early according to my ultrasound due date. After he was born, the doctor was really glad that she sent me to the hospital, I would rather not think about how much larger he would have been if he stayed in there longer!

He is a super laid back boy. We truly are super blessed! Emma was such a great baby, we were sure we were in for a high maintenance baby! He does get the hiccups every time he is awake, but they don't seem to bother him too much. He looks like Daddy, however he does have Mommy's chin. He has a red tone to his skin color, not sure where he got this, there is some Native American blood on Jerrod's side.

Emma loves her baby brother. We've called him baby brother for so long that she still calls him that. She loves to sit and hold him on Mommy or Daddy's lap. We are working on being gentle.

Mommy is doing great too. The birth seemed to be easier this time around, maybe because I had a good epidural early on. I did tear thanks to the Football player shoulders! I am getting around very well and can walk pretty well now.

My parents came and stayed all week. They were a huge help, fixing meals and doing laundry. Today my sister and the girls came to visit. We had a great time.

So, we also got a puppy. We were walking the mall on Thur, trying to get this child out of me. Pass Pets was going out of business and everything was 50% off.
Emma has been asking for a puppy like Sophie (my brother's dog), but black. We saw a Cocker Spaniel that stole our heart and was black :) He is a very good puppy, but does need lots of attention. We are very thankful that Jerrod's mom has volunteered to take care of Tigo (that's his name).

Welcome to the family Jacob Christopher Furlong!

This morning, March 1st 2008 at 4:39 am, Jacob Christopher was born. A whopping 9 pounds 11oz, 21 inches long, we're glad he was early!

He was healthy, mom is healthy, Emma's excited, the new puppy's (story later) happy, and dad is well, proud..

We'll be in hospital till Monday morning...

Still pregnant...

We went to the hospital this morning, thinking it was "time". They sent us home. Blaah! They said to come back when the contractions were stronger. So I've been waiting out these contractions that have been about 5 minutes apart all day now. They have increasingly gotten stronger, but probably not strong enough. Hopefully baby Jacob may make an appearance within the next couple of days! Thanks in advance for all your prayers!

37 weeks

Three or less weeks to go! Emma was a week early and I'm hoping for the same with this one. I'm having several mild contractions a day, sometimes consistently 3-5 minutes apart for a while. Here's a couple of belly shots for those of you that wanted to see how huge I look. I've dropped over the past few weeks, so I think I actually look a little smaller than I did. I have been 1 cm dialated now for 2 weeks. I am so ready! Everything is in order and we are just playing the waiting game now. Waiting to meet baby Jacob.

So can I still say Happy New Year?!

I know We're SUPER overdue for an update! So this one might be really long!

We had a great Christmas, for the first time since we have been married we got to spend it in our own home. Emma got way too much for Christmas (especially from Grandma), but she loves all of it! She had so much fun opening all of the presents. The picture is of Emma's Christmas program. They sang 2 songs, Away in a Manger and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Each s0ng had hand motions. She completely froze, she stayed in the same position the WHOLE time (as you see in the picture). She didn't sing or do any of the hand motions even though she knew them well. Oh well! Maybe next year! Despite all of that, it was a very cute Christmas program.

We ended the year by attending my uncle's funeral. It was a shocker to all of us. We are sad not to have him with us anymore, but happy to know he is heaven with our Lord Jesus Christ. It was good to see my Aunt and cousins that I had not seen for several years. I wanted to include his obituary on our blog to remember him:

"Howard L. Crum, 70 years of Peebles, died Monday, December 24, 2007 at his residence.He was born in Carroll County, Indiana on May 28, 1937 the son of the late Floyd and Emma (Eaton) Crum.

He was a member of the Peebles Baptist Church and had worked as a steel worker for Penn Dixie.

He is survived by his wife Alice (Longfellow) Crum whom he married on January 18, 1959, two sons and daughters/law, Steve and Terri Crum of Newport, Michigan, Dan and Kim Crum of Martins Ferry, Ohio, one daughter/law, Amy McSorley of Cincinnati, Ohio, one brother, Louis Crum of Kokomo, Indiana, seven grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Graveside services will be held on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 11:00 A.M. at the Freeland Hollow Cemetery with Paul Conn officiating.Friends may call on Friday from 9:00 A.M. till 10:30 A.M. at the Wallace-Thompson Funeral Home in Peebles.

Memorials may be made to the Adams County Christian School, 187 Willow Drive, West Union, Ohio "

On our way back from the funeral, we stopped in Dayton and stayed at the holiday inn with an indoor swimming pool. Emma swam for the first time by herself with swimmies on her arm. She was so proud! We had no idea that swimmies worked so well!

We started the new year with a huge snow storm, over a foot of snow. Emma had a great time playing in it and helping Daddy shovel the snow. We have an awesome neighbor, he snow blowed our drive way after both snow storms. We are super blessed! Since then we've had 2 other huge snow storms.

We also started out the new year in a new car. We upgraded to the family vehicle, yes...we are now mini van owners! It really is an awesome vehicle. Thanks to my father being a Chrysler worker for 40 years, we once again got to take advantage of the employee price on a Chrysler Town and Country. And of course for Jerrod to keep his manly ego...we had to go with Black instead of baby blue :) Emma is really enjoying the DVD player, she gets to watch Caillou, Mickey Mouse Club House, and Little Einsteins all the time. And it's not as bad in the snow as we had thought it might be. Although it is not the Jeep on the snow. It's extra roomy and will fit 2 car seats without a problem.

We've been extra busy trying to get ready for the arrival of Jacob. I'm 34 weeks and huge! People are starting to look at me and Jerrod overhears them say "whoa, she's huge!"

The baby is very healthy, we were at the dr's the other day and she was trying to hear the heartbeat and he kicked her very hard. He kicked clear across my stomach and raised it up way high. I couldn't stop laughing, which made my stomach look like it was a torpedo raising up in the air! All of us found it quite humorous. I do have to say that this pregnancy is much easier than the first. It's kindof nice that my stomach is already stretched and I haven't had any new itchy stretch marks. I'm not near as miserable this time around. I'm actually kind of enjoying it.

We went shopping at Target yesterday, it was fun to get all kinds of baby stuff. I called it our baby shower, since we aren't having one. We still need to get a toddler bed for Emma, I think we're doing that this week. Baby brother is getting her bed. Grandma got us the whole bedding set--very cute--zoo animals. And we found all kinds of stuff to match it at Target. We're set with newborn clothing, but may need more 3+ month clothing. We still want to go tour the hospital with Emma and Grandma so they both know what to expect when Jacob is born. Emma is super excited for Jacob to get here, she knows she gets a present when Jacob arrives. We have a new baby doll for her and the whole fisher price set of play swing, basinet, stroller, and mat for the baby doll. So she can do everything with her baby that Mommy does with Jacob. We're hoping that helps, we've been told that it will.