The best gift of all!

We received an early gift this year just in time for Christmas...
Mia Lauren Wilbur was born December 23, 2008 at 5:44 p.m. and was by far the best gift under the Christmas tree! She weighed in at 7 lbs 3.8 oz and thankfully we were able to get her home to meet her big brother on Christmas Eve. We should have known she would make an early appearance, who just like her brother made his early debut the day before Easter. Apparently, our kiddos don't want to miss out on any special holidays! Her birth was very amazing and attended by Greg, my sister Becky and our awesome Doula, Candy Mueller. After about 7 hours of drug-free labor, our baby girl was born. We had such a hard time deciding on a name, the list went from 30+ possibilities down to two, which we slept on and named her Mia (meaning blessed and my girl) Lauren (after my sister) the next day. She is so sweet, sleeping well and is nursing like a champ. She has already grown an inch and has gained over a pound and a half in three weeks! My apologies for not getting pictures out sooner, but it is just amazing how many hours can be spent gazing at and loving on a newborn.

Click here to see more pictures of Mia's birth and homecoming:

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/st6nI5AU

Carson is doing so well in his new role as "big brother." He likes to tickle Mia and tells everyone, "She's so cute!" He is convinced that her belly button is made of chocolate (remnants of her umbilical cord.) Yes, I am keeping a journal! In the last few weeks, Carson has hit some milestones in the spirit of being the big brother. He has graduated to his big boy bed and now rides around the neighborhood on his new big boy bike.

We had an awesome Christmas season, including our annual "girl Christmas party." The theme this year was to give gifts to each other that were either "homemade or hand-me-downs from the heart." It was a very special time for the girls to get together and share good food and holiday time together. We are always amazed at how each year seems more special and fun than the last. Andi and Becky brought hand sewn pillows that they made for each of us out of fabrics, trims and accessories that were special and sentimental in some way. They could have a budding business on their hands!

The next week was a mad race to the finish line getting ready for Christmas and the birth of our baby. On Christmas morning, Becky and Greg's Dad and Marsha came over and we opened gifts and shared our sweet Mia with her Grandparents.

Later that day, we packed up the kiddos and headed over to my Mom and Dad's house for Christmas with my family and another debut for our little Mia. She was met with lots of love and fun at the Sadock house.

Then we celebrated with Greg's Mom over New Year's weekend ~ Carson was very excited about his new watch and his remote control car!

Click here to see more photos from Christmas time.
http://www.photoshow.com/watch/rI5vy6ZD

Sip & See Tea Party

Last Saturday we celebrated the upcoming arrival of our sweet baby girl with a "Sip & See" tea party. Surrounded by family and girlfriends, we nibbled on scones and sipped tea as the baby made her debut with a 3-D ultrasound from the comfort of our own couch.

It was difficult at first to get a clear view of her face because of her positioning and her "talk to the hand" posture. After sending down some sugar (a cupcake) and a little belly massage from Aunt Andi, we finally got a good shot.

Greg and I think she has her mommy's nose and those full, pouty Sadock lips. She looks so peaceful, doesn't she? Don't be fooled ~ she is quite a kicker...shapeshifting my belly all day long!

Three happy Grandmas!

My love and thanks to everyone who made the day so awesome.

Visit our photoshow of this special day by clicking the link below:

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/uM9xq2Wf

Team Wilbur ~ Halloween 2008

What a fun time we had this Halloween. We dressed up as a family (the littlest Wilbur included) as members of the Orlando Magic NBA team with Greg as the official. Angie Delaplane, an extremely talented artist who has been transforming our home over the last few months, transformed my belly into an incredibly realistic basketball with body paint. At 30 weeks along, my proportions were remarkably on target.

Grandpa Larry let us borrow his official whistle from when he was a basketball referee. Carson used it more than Greg did, I'm sure!

Only 10 weeks away from her debut, our baby girl was a slam dunk in the NBABY Finals!

Aunt Becky was Tippi Hedren from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and she won first prize in her office costume contest! Yea! She spent the evening with us from our neighborhood Halloween potluck to John & Angie's, to Grandma & Grandpa's then to Uncle Mark & Aunt Bonnie's house. It was a long, fun night and Carson was a trooper till the very end. Two words...SUGAR RUSH.


That was a BAD call, ref! Click here to see a photoshow of our Halloween fun and a visit to the pumpkin patch. Turn on your speakers and enjoy:

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/TG6ag7ai

Check out Angie's website at http://www.delaplanestudios.com/ her work is phenomenal!!!

Yikes...IKE!

I wanted to send along an update on how Greg is doing in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Last Thursday, he headed back to Houson three days early to prepare the business for the storm. At the office, he was able to deal with issues first hand, shut systems down, back up data and retrieve important paperwork well ahead of the storm. Unfortunately, he had to spend his birthday away with a dude named Ike (poor baby!)

He stayed in the condo 18 floors up, with hurricane supplies and a video camera, ready for the big storm. According to Greg, it was quite horrible. The wind blew so hard that it seemed that the building was breathing with each gust. Water came in under the huge sliding doors in the living room and he spent two hours sopping it up as the wind continued to blast the rain directly at the doors. He felt like the glass would explode at any moment and he spent most of the night in the closet with no power.

In the morning, he was able to see surrounding streets of the Galleria were under water and wind damage was visible everywhere. By Sunday, his power was restored and on Monday, he went to the office to check on power and water. He arrived to discover that the roof of the building was half torn off and many of the surrounding office areas had severe water damage. In fact, the business next door had over two inches of water in their space. No doubt, there was some heavenly sandbagging going on, because the water quite literally stopped at the doors of ROI Staffing. Greg is hoping to have power restored by the end of the week, so folks can get back to work. Quite amazingly, some of the contractors were back in the saddle as early as the day after the storm. You just can't keep those programmers from pounding out code!

Our friend Melissa who lived next door to us in Cypress sent some photos of the damage on our old street. Most of the problems were due to those darned pine trees...

Our old house...

On our old street...

Many many thanks to friends and family who covered us in prayer. The more Greg has seen over the days following the storm, the more we realize how blessed we are. Compared to so many who still have no power, water and major cleanup ahead, we were relatively unscathed. We continue to keep all of our friends in the Houston area in our thoughts and prayers...can't wait to hear from you ~ hope all is well!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

I should have known when all I have wanted to wear lately is pink and the only names I can think of for our new little one are of the girlie variety. Greg was unscientifically 100% certain that it was a girl. Well, now we can say that our intuition was correct...After the ultrasound, we giddily went back into the jam packed OB waiting room to lovingly gaze at the black and white blur our baby girl's snapshots. I squinted in wonder at how they really know what they are looking at and how sure they really can be on gender. Greg said, "It's easy to see...the baby is on its side with both legs staight out and there are no nuggets in between!" I looked up to see ten pairs of eyes looking at us (trying not to laugh.) Just in case, Greg got the ultrasound tech to agree to re-paint the baby's room if she was not accurate in her gender determination. Here's a sweet little profile of BW2 ~ she looks so cozy and I'm sure she's smiling!
We are officially at our half-way point in the pregnancy...20 weeks and counting. My baby bump is well defined and it's kind of nice to finally look pregnant. Until now, I've just looked like I really love beer.

A Guy Weekend

Recently Brian asked, "Why do the girls always get to have all of the fun?" Good question...so Greg set up a fun fulled guy weekend with his brother. They went fishing, golfing and had a good time visiting with the whole family. Cheryl and her boys even came in for the weekend and stayed with us. While the boys went golfing, we took the kids to the Children's Hands On Museum. Very cool. Carson still asks for his cousins every day.



Click the link below to see a photoshow of our fun weekend:

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/pi6Ny9Mm

Swimming update

Carson has been working so hard in swimming classes and is making alot of progress. He can swim across the short length of the pool with one breath, slides down the big slide by himself and can dive to the botton of the shallow end and grab dive sticks. You can see from these pics how happy he is in the water...




We think he has been inspired by Michael Phelps along with his cute swim instructor, Natalie and his new swim buddy, Bella.






Click below to see a video clip of the little man in action...

Daddy's Home!

What a fun week we had with Daddy at home for 10 whole days! We're trying out a new schedule where Greg is in Houston for 12 days then home for 10...it sure was nice having him here for a long stretch. Here's a picture of Carson waking up to find his Daddy at home.

Daddy got to take Carson to school, play at the park, take bike rides, visit with all of the grandparents and of course, he was very impressed with Carson's new swimming skills. We went to Largo Park on Sunday. Not only is it one of our favorite playgrounds, but once a month, they offer miniature train rides that wind through the beautifully landscaped park. I don't know what it is about kids and trains, but they sure do dig them! Click the play button to see the train in action...

Playing soccer in the park...

A fun weekend

Carson and I had a treat this past weekend...a house full of company! Gayle and Joy's neice Vallie came for a visit to Florida from Odessa, Texas with her husband and two boys. Andrea and Elise also joined us in showing our Texas friends some good Florida fun. We enjoyed Vallie's awesome culinary skills, had a day at the beach, swam in the pool and enjoyed some good food at Molly Goodhead's Seafood restaurant. Click on the photoshow below to see more...

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/CY3RA9Pc

Our little swimmer

We have been playing with Carson in our own pool all summer and he was starting to get really confident with himself in the water ~ I have to give Greg all the credit for helping him learn to hold his breath under water, choo-choo along the edge and jump in off the wall. We decided it was time to make sure he was really safe in the pool with swimming lessons. We found a private instructor who had real success with our neighbor's twins. He began with 30 minute lessons every day and despite his love of the water, was extremely reluctant to be passed into the hands of strangers while Mommy waits in hiding (parents in view are too distracting.) He now looks forward to his time in training even if it is only for the big treat bin of sweets he gets to dive into after his lesson..."pops" (lolipops) are his fave. He has also taken a shine to his instructor's daughter Natalie who has worked with him several times. After only five lessons, Carson is actually swimming! Amazing how fast they were able to get him to hold his breath, put his face into the water and kick his way through the water several feet to the steps! They also managed to help him float on his back without freaking out and melting down in tears (something we have been working on for a year now.) Way to go Carson!