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.

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!