Emma Update

We received an update on Emma Wednesday evening. She is growing! Emma is now weighing in at 19 pounds, 30 inches long and her foot is 4 1/4 inches long. Needless to say has already grown out of her clothes we have bought!

Late Wednesday evening we measured all of her clothes and many of them were too short. I said "she will just have lots of Capri's" and Scott said "take them back". So we packed everything up and returned and bought new clothes on Thursday. We bought 12 month clothes and size 4 shoes.

I am not sure who is having more fun shopping Scott or myself. The way I see it, Scott is definitely having more fun.

Early New Year's Resolution

In early December we joined the YMCA. If you have not been out to the new building on 21st St. you should. It is awesome. We go 3-4 times a week, except for when we were down with colds. Jake is working on mastering the Rock Wall. I am working out with a friend from work. It sure has been nice to have someone hold you accountable. Scott is still running. He is working towards running the 1/2 marathon in September. If you are a member, let us know Jake is always looking for someone to go with us. It is so much more fun with a friend.

We have all really enjoyed going to the gym together as a family.

Travel Dates

We have our travel dates. We leave on January 31st and arrive in Beijing on February 1st. We will fly to Chicago and then directly to Beijing. About 13 hours in the air. What on earth will we do? We will do some site seeing in Beijing. Those plans are still being worked out. We meet with our group on February 3rd and we get Emma February 5th! On Valentine's Day Emma gets her Visa and then we get to come home on February 16th. (no open seats on Feb. 15th) We will fly out of Hong Kong to Chicago and then home. We are counting down the days.

January 2nd...

It's been 10 days since Jake started feeling bad. We thought he was on the road to recovery and then he took a turn for the worst. Dr. Barker wanted to see him, she thought his sore throat was from the drainage, no, strep throat. So now he is on antibiotics for 10 days and has to miss his first day back to school after break.

New Year's Eve

We headed up to the Lamunyon's home (Jake was with Grandpa and Grandma) for Poker Night. Shelley and Maurice joined us. We had Mort's Bloody Marys and many other drink concoctions plus several yummy dishes. I think we gained 5 pound in one night alone. We played Texas Hold 'em and shuffle board. (not the kind on a cruise ship) Scott and I were awesome partners. We figured out what we had to do to keep the puck on the board. This usually involved swinging your hips one way or another. We had a blast!

Thanks for a great time Derek and Karen!!

Christmas Day

Ever since Jake was born, Scott and I are committed to being at our home on Christmas morning. We get up before Jake, shower and get ready for the day. This Christmas Day, Jake was still is not feeling well. He always opens Santa gifts first and then we worked on all the others. Would you believe Santa even brought a gift for Emma. A beautiful pearl and pink crystal bracelet with her name. Jake thought Santa did a really good job. Thanks Santa!

We went to Mom and Dad's for brunch. Of course we have a traditional meal then too. Mom's famous egg casserole, cinnamon rolls, sausage, Mimosa's and coffee. (the kids have hot chocolate)

Jake was really feeling bad by then. The poor guy stayed on the couch for the entire day. His favorite thing about the day was that we allowed him to play his Gameboy all day long.

Not feeling well...

It was Saturday before Christmas Jake and Scott went to the mall to visit Santa. When they got home Jake was asking if he could go lay down. I knew something was wrong. He said he did not feel well. The next morning he was in bad shape. He laid around all day while we put the finishing touches on our house. i.e. picking up, dusting, vacuuming (sounded better than cleaning) We were fighting with a fever for most of the day. Poor guy, he really did not feel well. He is such a trooper. This picture is of him sleeping on Christmas Eve.
Would you believe he was up at 1:15am Christmas morning? Santa had already been to our house. I did not think we (oops, ME) would ever get him back to sleep.