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.

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!

It's a boy!

We had our ultrasound yesterday. It was very obvious that it is definately a boy! Jerrod is sooo excited. He just can't wait to start playing with army men and big trucks. He could hardly control himself when the ultrasound tech said it was a boy. He almost jumped straight out of his seat. We feel very blessed to be able to have one of each :) Everything looked great on the ultrasound. Baby boy is very healthy and measured perfectly at 19 weeks, 4 days.

The apple orchard

I'm a bit late in posting this. Last week, Emma and Daddy got to go on a fieldtrip with Emma's school to the apple orchard. Each child got to pick 3 apples on their own from the tree. She also got a gourd, an apple sippy cup with apple cider in it, and a coloring book. They got to go on a hayride too. Both Emma and Daddy had a great time.

Emma is really enjoying school. This month is fire safety month at her school. The other day a fire truck came to school. She thought that was way cool. She's now taking a nap at school. She loves this! I think she would be upset if she didn't get to take a nap there now. I was a bit scared that she wouldn't sleep, but she falls right to sleep and sleeps for the whole 2 hours most of the time.

I am so thankful for such a wonderful daycare to take Emma to. I hear so many aweful things on the news about daycare centers. I am super thankful that Emma's is really good and God centered.

It's gone, It's gone!

Sooo happy! The C. Difficile infection is gone! Praise Jesus! The Dr.'s office called this afternoon. No signs of it at all. We're praying it doesn't come back! Yay! No more medicine! Yay!

The pumpkin patch

We went to the pumpkin patch this weekend. Emma really enjoyed going out to the pumpkin patch and being able to pick out her very own pumpkin. She picked one that was just her size. It was a little heavy for her to lift, but she managed it. They had wiener dogs there that Emma loved petting. She especially enjoyed helping push the wagon with the pumpkins in it.






Emma is really starting to communicate very well with sentences. She cracks us up sometimes with things that she says. She's getting to be such a big girl. We went to Petco yesterday, they have small carts for kids to push around. She pushed the cart around the store with my purse in it very well. She went around all of the obstacles and did a great job steering it. So, yesterday was an aha moment for me. My baby girl is growing up! Today she got her hair cut and sat in the salon chair all by herself for the first time. She did a great job being still and loved looking at herself in the mirror while the lady cut her hair. She can do several things by herself and insists on doing it herself. We hear often, "No, myself!" She's also getting very tall. She can now reach her light switch in her rooom. So every morning when she wakes up she turns her light switch on right away so she can see to play. Thank goodness she doesn't wake up in the middle of the night and think it is morning! Her favorite things to play with right now are her babies, her stroller, her bears, her cars, playdough, and she loves to sing songs and dance. She knows the words pretty well and will sing along with any familiar song. It is so cute!

Pedal!

Emma can pedal her tricycle now. We are sooo excited! She can't really go uphill and sometimes needs a push to get it going, but she's actually pedalling. We are sooo excited!Forever she would just push it with one foot and have the other foot on the pedal. The other night two neighbor boys were out riding their bikes on the road, so of course Emma wanted to go outside and ride her bike. She got her tricycle last Christmas and couldn't even hardly reach the pedals. Oh how she's grown! I was hoping that she would learn how to pedal by the end of the summer and was starting to get disapointed that she hadn't learned yet. The video is a bit fuzzy because something is set wrong on our camera and I can't figure out what is wrong with it. I think I might have to get the manual out. But it's still cute!

Is this Fall?

I think it's suppose to get a little cooler this week, but Emma has swam in her pool 3 days in a row because it has been so warm. She has really loved it! Today she wanted to go swimming again, but it was a little cooler today, so she didn't get to. It's so hard to tell her no because she asks so nicely and really has her heart set on it. We went to Target instead. Emma is getting better, despite the cold that she has now. She is taking another kind of medicine that seems to be helping a little more than the other kind. It's liquid, so it's easier to give to her...and she likes it, which makes all the difference. I have to put a plug in for CVS, they called us and told us if they made the medicine it would be really bitter, but if we had a pharmacy in Elkhart make it, it would taste better because they make it from a powder base instead of a tablet. Thank goodness that the pharmacist cared enough about Emma, because it makes it a whole lot easier when it tastes good! We have to wake her up in the middle of the night to give it to her, she doesn't mind near as much as I do! She's at the point now that she doesn't even open her eyes, she just opens her mouth and drinks it up!

I'm feeling the baby now. It's so cool to think that there is a human being moving around in my body. We get to find out what it is in about 4 or 5 more weeks, if the baby cooperates :) It seems like there are a ton of people pregnant around me. Maybe I'm just super aware of it because I'm pregnant. There are 3 other ladies at work, a friend, and the director at Emma's daycare, and tons around me whenever we go somewhere.

It's back...

I know I'm a bit late in posting this, but baby Ella is here! Congratulations Jamie and Betsy! Please be praying for them, baby Ella is back in the hospital for a urinary tract infection. I know this has to be tough on the whole family.

Emma's infection is still hanging around. It seems

like it's getting worse rather than better, even though she's on the second round of antibiotics. Please pray for our little girl. It's not fun for her, sometimes she's really happy and then sometimes she's really grumpy because she doesn't feel good. It's not as bad as when she started the first round, but I would have thought it would be close to normal by now and it's not. She still has about 4 days left of antibiotic and then I'm not sure what the next step is.

She's still going to school and loving it! Last week she didn't cry once when I left. Yay! She's starting to grow an attachment to both of her teachers, I think she really likes them. Last Thursday, Grandma got to go to school with her for Grandparent's day. She really liked that and she's still talking about it! We went to the early service at church yesterday and then we went to the mall and didn't realize that it didn't open until 11:00 on Sundays, so Emma got to play at the kid's play area. That's where all these pictures were taken. It was all about Emma at the mall, we got her 2 pair of jeans from The Children's Place and Grandma got her a really cool jumper outfit and top from Gymboree and nice brown shoes from Stride Rite. She really made out!

We had a baby Dr. appointment on Friday. The heartbeat was lower this time, around 140. The dr. said that as the baby gets older, the heartbeat lowers a bit. Everything looked great to her. Let me say, I really love our dr. She remembered that Emma was sick (she's not Emma's dr., but she saw her and diagnosed her because Emma's dr. wasn't in the office that day) and she asked how she was doing. Way awesome! Plus she's really caring and personable. She's just really awesome!

13 weeks! Hooray!

We Planted a Tree and Emma had lots of fun helping! She even had her own shovel.

Our Movie Star /Princess

Emma is doing much better now. Her mood is better. She's our sweet little girl again. She only gets whiny around nap time now, which is much better than all day long! She got through all of her antibiotics and I'm hoping that there won't be a relapse. She does occasionally still ask for "jelly time". For 10 days she had "jelly time" 4 times a day. We would ask what it was time for and she would shout "jelly time"! She started back at school this week. She's having a hard time leaving Mom and Dad. Today was better than all the other days. We actually got inside the classroom and I was almost out the door before she started crying. And she only cried for 30 seconds. So hopefully as time goes on she'll realize that she has a great time at school and it's ok when Mom or Dad leaves! She's been bringing home all kinds of really cool crafts. She loves finger painting and markers!

In baby news, I'm now 13 weeks! I'm through the 1st trimester and the chances for a miscarriage reduces dramatically now. Hooray! I think I'm huge! I'm about as big as I was when I was 5 or 6 months pregnant with Emma! My muscles are definitely not as toned now! We had an ultrasound a couple of weeks ago and everything looked great! It is just so awesome to see the baby moving around. It's little feet are so cute! The heartbeat, in my opinion, is super fast. 167 beats per minute. Emma was always study at around 140 beats per minute. So I'm hoping this is not a wild child!

Just a spoon full of sugar...

Emma is recovering from a horrible intestinal infection called Clostridium difficile colitis. We are not sure how she got it. The spores are only passed through the stool, and even then your body should take care of it, but in Emma's body it took over. I think she got it at the water park we went to 3 weeks ago. (Which was tons of fun at the time) At first we thought it was just a virus, but it just kept hanging on. Finally we had to take stool samples to the hospital and that is when they found this thing that I can't even pronounce. The dr. prescribed an antibiotic that is the best antibiotic to heal her, but is SUPER expensive. I about had a heart attack at the pharmacy. It was $744 without insurance. Thank goodness for insurance! But even then, I still had a heart attack. It is a brand drug and does not come in generic, so we have to pay 30%. But we didn't have a choice, our baby girl has to take this medicine to get better! And guess what? It doesn't come in liquid form! They suggested that we dissolve the pill in hot water and add orange or apple juice. Yeah Right! That didn't go over well. It was still really yucky and we were fighting her to take it. So, we tried crushing it up and putting it in jelly. It worked and is still working. Praise Jesus! A spoon full of sugar does help the medicine go down! She is doing much better now, her fever is gone and she only has 1 or 2 dirty diapers a day. And her mood is much better! She's stayed home from day care for 2 weeks now, hopefully next week she'll get to go back to school.

Summer is almost over already??

It is already time to head back to school next week! Emma will be among the many attending "school" this year. Last night we went to an open house at her daycare. It think she is really going to have a great time! It's a little bitter-sweet because we have to say goodbye to Brittany who has been watching her all summer. It is time for Brittany also to return to school next week. She will be a senior! Her and Emma had a super great time this summer playing together. Emma just adores Brittany. Here is a video that Brittany took of Emma. We thank God for Brittany, she is such an awesome babysitter and a wonderful young lady!



Last week we got to get together with the Merrill's and the Zile's. We had a great time catching up. We have so many kids now! And there is two more on the way! It's just crazy! Here's a picture of all of our kids.



We also went recently to the fair. We saw all of the animals, but I think Emma's favorite was the horses. Here's a picture of her riding the pony ride. She had a great time! She's such the dare devil, she wouldn't hold on with both hands, she had to wave!

Emma is Two!

Wow! What another jam packed month! It's so hard to keep up sometimes! We now have a two year old on our hands. Emma turned two last week. She got to have two birthday parties, one on her birthday and one on Saturday with my family. She got lots of cool stuff. Today we went to the Dr. for her two year appointment and all is well. She is in the 50% percentile for weight, 40% percentile for head circumference, and 85% for height. So her height has slowed down a bit from her 18 months checkup. I guess if you double the height at age two, then you will get their height as an adult. So, if this is true, then she will end up being 5'10" So I guess that isn't super tall (I was hoping for under 6'!)

Emma took her first trip to California this month. We flew out for Kyle and Sarah's wedding. We are super glad that we decided to do this last minute. The wedding was beautiful and we had so much fun hanging out with everyone. It almost felt as if we had never left. It was great to have some extra time to hang out with Kyle and Sarah on Sunday after the wedding. Emma did great with the time change and it didn't take long at all to get her back on schedule after we came back.

In other news, Emma is going to be a big sister! I am 8 weeks pregnant and due March 1st. We are praying all goes well this time. I am feeling a little sick, but not horribly bad. Everytime I feel bad, I just think: This is good and healthy for the baby! There are several other friends that are pregnant the same time I am, so it's great to have partners in pregnancy!

Fun weekend at the Zile's

We went to see the Zile family this last weekend. We had a great time. We went to the Indy zoo on Saturday. It was really fun to see Emma’s reaction to all the animals. I think she spent more time out of her stroller than in her stroller. She wanted to get as close as she could to see everything. They have a great dolphin show and it was pretty cool to go down under the dolphin tank and see them swimming around us.
I think that seeing the giraffes or the elephants was Emma’s favorite part. She picked out a stuffed elephant to take home with her as a souvenir. Emma had lots of fun playing with Kate and Micah. They all shared the toys very well. The kids swam in the baby pool after we got back from the zoo. The water was freezing cold, but they didn’t seem to mind. Emma and Kate loved scooping the water up and putting it into cups. Micah loved jumping in and splashing. Afterwards, Emma was pretty cold for the rest of the night. She was bundled up in a sweater and jeans while Kate ran around with just her diaper on. It’s always nice to go there and be able to let Emma play with the kids without worrying that she will get into something she’s not suppose to. It was really nice to be able to hang out with Jamie and Betsy. We had a great time.

Emma did great on the potty this weekend too. Potty training is going a lot better than I expected it to. On Saturday night she wouldn’t go to sleep, she just kept yelling “potty, potty”. I didn’t realize what she was yelling until I went upstairs to check on her. So we went downstairs to go potty and she did have to go! So now she’s telling us when she needs to go. Yay! She prefers to just go on the toilet rather than on the potty seat or the potty chair. I guess this is good, because it makes it easier when we go places. I came home this afternoon and found out that she went for Grandma and stayed dry all morning! Yay Emma!