Update on Brooke

Brooke seems to be getting a little better. She has been eating and drinking enough to stay out of the hospital and the diarrhea seems to be slowing somewhat. Our parents have been very helpful by providing food and the occasional break.

We were also very fortunate that we had just begun potty training two days before all of this happened. Believe it or not, Brooke has been able to tell us beforehand a couple of times and we made it to the potty!!! Little things like that help tremendously when she has a sore behind.

Now, my biggest concern is Holly. She has had a low-grade fever and her stomach is a little uneasy. Oh no! The pharmacist told us that we could very easily contract Salmonella from Brooke. Please pray that Holly doesn't get it!!!

Pray for Brooke

Pleas pray for us! Brooke has been running a fever and she has had diarrhea since Wednesday. We just found out that she has Salmonella. As you can imagine, we are very worried.

So far, she is drinking fluids and eating. When the fever is down, she is in a great mood. We just want to be sure that it doesn't get worse. In 4 days she has had about 40 diarrhea diapers. Not a fun thing to hear about, but now you know how serious this is.

From what we've read on the internet, it can turn deadly if blood shows up in her stool. I think she'll be ok, but we are anxiously awaiting the doctor's opinion. So far, we have only heard from the nurse that she tested positive.

Your prayers are appreciated.

UPDATE: Nerves got the best of my so I called a friend, Dr. Eric Spann. He said based on what we've been through thus far and Brooke's health that we shouldn't have anything to worry about. His guess is that we're already past the worst part. The overprotective daddy feels better!

ABC's of our Trip

Today I made a video for Brooke. I put the pictures from our family trip to music using the Alphabet Song. She can already sing through her ABC's but I thought this would help with enunciation and letter recognition. I got a little desperate at times for pictures to go with letters so I had to get creative! Sorry for the scaled down quality. If only you could see it in its full high definition glory...

2008 Family Vacation

Whoa! What a great vacation! We visited with friends in Wynne, went to the zoo, Grant's Farm, and the botanical gardens in St. Louis, and had a blast at Silver Dollar City in Branson! Since there are so many pictures, I split them up into sections.

Weekend with the Stewarts


St. Louis Zoo


St. Louis Botanical Gardens


Grant's Farm


Silver Dollar City

A day with the new swingset

We bought Brooke one of those nice wooden swing set / fort things. The nice people who wrote the directions warned me that it would take two people about 6 hours to put the set together. Liars!!! My brother, father-in-law, and I spent 13 hours putting that thing together before we ran out of sunlight! I have to admit, though, it was all worthwhile when Brooke started swinging and was cheering, "I happy! I happy!"

Some audio clips of Brooke

Brooke picked up the microphone I use to record my radio shows and began singing!

Trip to the Branson Worldview Weekend

We just got back from the 2008 Branson Worldview Weekend. Dad and I set up a booth and worked most of the time while the women shopped. We had a great time! As usual, I took a few pictures.

Two Easter Bunnies

As you might already know, Brooke is big on accessories (sunglasses, hats, etc). In this picture, she had just thrown on her bunny ears and yelled out, "Ta-da!"

Museum of Discovery

We took the family to the Little Rock Museum of Discovery on Friday.

Brooke Plays Basketball

Brooke got to play her first game of basketball recently when we had some nice weather. By the time we were done, my back was killing me! Amazing how things like that don't get old to her, but they sure do to the rest of us!