He's Here!!!

Lil Bit was born on December 30th at 4:16 PM. He weighed 8 lbs, 10 oz and is 20 inches long.

Here is a picture of Sydney with her new little brother!

40 Weeks and Counting

We hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We had a very nice Christmas.
We forgot to explain the Christmas rules to Sydney about how when you wake up on Christmas morning you are supposed to come and get mom and dad and see what Santa brought. Instead, Sydney was found downstairs quietly playing with the princess castle that Santa brought her.

Yesterday, Steve's sister, Lori, came from Illinois to stay a few days too. Sydney could not have been more excited to see her aunt! Then we got to open more presents with Lori last night.

Did you notice how I haven't mentioned anything about a new born baby? That's right, Lil Bit still has not made an appearance. Now, I have tried to get him out. I have been taking a walk or two a day, doing yoga, talking to him, willing him to come out…but nothing. So we are at 40 weeks and a day and still counting.

Although I don't have any pictures of Lil Bit just yet, here are some pictures of Sydney at her gymnastics finale and on Christmas morning.

Now I am going to go back to wishing for contractions…

Not quite yet...

Lil Bit is still not here. That's okay because his due date is not until the 26th. He has officially "dropped" in my pelvis for about 2 weeks now. If he doesn't get here by the 29th, we will induce that evening. I really don't want to be induced so hopefully he will cooperate. That being said, now he needs to hold off for a couple of days so that I can be home Christmas morning to see Sydney open her presents.

Two weekends ago, Steve donated his time/car to a Toys for Tots fundraiser. He left his car inside the mall on display for the weekend. Out of all the cars on display, his car received the most "votes" (donations to Toys for Tots). Sydney got to ride through the mall when they were driving out. Pictures of the event are located at http://vetswithvettes.us/Gallery/Toys-for-Tots-2008?page=1 .

Yesterday Linda and Gene came down. Aunt Lori should be heading this way on the 26th and my mom and dad will be coming at the first of the New Year. Sydney is trilled to have family coming this way for Christmas and is already working out her own little plan to go back to Illinois with someone so that she can play in the snow. I don’t think that her plans include out how she will get back to Alabama so the plans don’t have Mom’s stamp of approval just yet.

She had her Christmas recital for school on Thursday and then her Gymnastics finally on Saturday. She did a great job and I will try to post pictures later. Now she is getting ready for Santa to visit the house and could not be more excited. She has told me that Santa wants chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate so we might make the cookies tonight. Steve said that Santa should have sugar cookies so those might have to wait until tomorrow night.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Hopefully the next post or two will be about Lil Bit’s arrival.
- Ang

Everyone loves Santa Clause

I mentioned in my previous post that Sydney's class went to a tree lighting ceremony, sang Christmas carols, and had the chance to meet Santa Clause. Here is a picture of when Santa came up to meet the class. I know that I am Sydney's mom, therefore a little biased, but isn't Sydney the cutest! (She is in the bottom of the picture in a pink coat looking up at Santa.) She was so excited that she could barely sit still!

This weekend we are planning on taking a 30 minute train ride with Santa. We haven't told her yet so that she won't get too worked up.


The NASA photographer that took this picture has also blown it up poster size and put it in the lobby of my building.


Today there was a surprise baby shower for me at work. It was very nice and I got a lot of stuff that is getting me closer to actually believing that there is a little person coming soon. My next doctor visit is this Wednesday. During my appointment last week, the doctor said that Lil Bit's head is down but he hasn't dropped yet. That should give me a little more time to get things ready.

That's all for now...
- Ang

HUGE!

I am officially huge now. I can see the guys at work cringe when I come into a meeting or get in the elevator. The fear in their eyes tells me that they think I am going to go into labor and they might have to witness it.

Its not too much longer until Lil Bit greets the world and I am starting to run out of room. You would think that means that I am ready for him to get here but that isn't the case. I have the basics at the house (diapers, wet wipes, etc.) but I still can't say that everything is set up. I am mostly relying on what I already had for Sydney (like the cradle, crib, and car seat) and what Tiffany or Mom has sent down from the triplet's collection. Of course, I am not really sure what all Tiffany so generously sent me because I have only unpacked one box so far. I am sure the nesting instinct will kick in soon and I can knock everything out in a day...right? My next visit to the doctor is this Wednesday. So far we have been growing right on schedule.

Today Sydney went to the NASA Christmas tree lighting ceremony and her class sang Christmas carols. Santa was even nice enough to stop by and give her a cookie.

That reminds me of the other big item on my list of things to do...get ready for Christmas. I did get our Christmas lists out over the weekend. Pretty much everything that I need is on our Babies R Us registry (#76187981).

We were able to clean out Sydney's special room (play room) this weekend and get that organized. It is so clean now that I worry about having her going in there and messing it up. I seriously have a problem.

Since this seems have been a blog full of scattered thoughts, the sentence above reminded me of something. I found a brownie in my coat pocket the other day and proceeded to eat it. Again - I think I have a problem.

Ang

Game over

We are back in D-town from the Bears game. It was cold up there but Chris was kind enough to lend me his coat. The coat along with the new boots Steve got me and the heaters on my hands, feet, and back kept me very comfortable. Our seats were right on the 50 yard line on the third deck (directly over the second deck) and in the first row. The view couldn't have been better. There was even a special family bathroom right up the stairs that they let preggos use so I never had to wait in line. Our set up was great!....And then the Bears lost. My mojo this year is not very good. It used to be that every game I attended, the team I was cheering for won. This year I am 0-2. Today Mom and I are going to get pedicures. Someone will have to tell me if they do a good job because I can no longer see my feet. Then this evening we are having chili at Mom and Dad's house. Everyone is invited! - Ang

Illinois time

We made it to Illinois last night. We had a good ride up here. Sydney only slept 30 minutes but was very well behaved the rest of the way. Today Sydney and I are going to Bloomington to see Tiffany, Adam, and the boys. We will have lunch with Dad to celebrate his birthday too. Tomorrow is game day. Steve, Chris, and I will drive up to Chicago to watch the Bears play the Titans. I still need to find a coat today though because someone (I won't name names) won't hook a girl up with a toasty Bears coat to wear. Sydney will also be spending Sunday with the Williams side and going to Tuscany's for brunch and a birthday party for Papa B. That evening she will go over to the Wise house to get even more family time in. Go Bears! - Ang

Halloween and Back to Illinois

Sydney had a great time trick or treating this year. We go over to our friends’ neighborhood since we live out in the country. We only went to half as many houses this year as we did last year (because I wasn’t going to pull 3 kids in a wagon again) but they still got the same amount of candy. I am not quite sure how that happened. Sydney went as a witch but only kept her hat on for about the first three houses. People would ask what she was and she would reply “Sydney.”

The Wise family left to go back to Illinois on Sunday. We really enjoyed their visit. Gene even scrubbed my range top and vacuumed all of the spiders out of my garage. Steve said that he completely cleaned the basement too. That is a handy man to have around! The girls spent one day shopping. I was told that Sydney picked the shoes that were on sale (that’s her Mama’s girl) and they all took Sydney to the pumpkin patch the day before Halloween. The day after Halloween Linda and Lori got to see Sydney at gymnastics but Sydney was still pretty tired from her trick and treating adventures the night before.

Steve bought us tickets to the Bears/Titans game in Chicago this weekend so it looks like we are heading to Illinois! My current plan is to drive up on Friday night, go to Dad’s birthday party on Saturday, football game on Sunday, and drive back home on Tuesday. Now I just need to see if one of the guys has a Bears coat that is large enough to fit over Lil Bit for the game.

That’s all for now.
- Ang

Family Time

In the past couple of weeks we have been able to get a lot of family time in! Earlier in the month, Mom, Dad, Grandma Kreher, and Aunt Barb all got to come down and visit us in Alabama. Grandma had a Navy reunion near by. It was great to see everyone!
Steve and I didn’t get to visit with them too long because we took the opportunity to have babysitters for Sydney and went to the Bears/Falcons game in Atlanta. Before we went into the game we tailgated for a while with a great family from Chicago. They were kind enough to take that picture of me and Steve in front of the stadium.

As we were driving home from Atlanta, Mom and Dad were taking Sydney up to Illinois for a week. She loves going up there and has been doing great in the car ride. She even got to celebrate her cousins’ 1st birthday while she was there! (Happy Birthday Alex, Logan and Nick!) She also went to the Children’s museum and Boo at the Zoo. I met Mom and Barb half way up on the weekend and brought her home. It turns out I don’t know what to do with myself when she isn’t home.

When Sydney got back from Illinois, she went back to school and they took a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch.

This week the Wise family is visiting us (Linda, Gene, and Lori). Sydney loves all of the attention. I have to say I really enjoy having visitors. It allows me to take a break without actually having Sydney too far away. Sydney is going over to our friends’ house tonight to go trick or treating. She is going to be a witch.

As for Lil Bit (don’t ask, Steve and I do not have agreement on a name yet), he is growing right on schedule to be another 8 pound baby. To look at me, you would be surprised that I have 2 more months to go. I am running out of room. It is good that he is very active but has been getting the hiccups a lot recently. It is driving me crazy!

That’s all for now. Hopefully my next post will include pictures from trick or treating tonight.
- Ang

I am back from a quick trip to Texas. Steve, Sydney, and Ruger did great while I was out of town. They even took a hike up the mountain out back. Give Sydney a call and she will tell you all about it.

This weekend we have some visitors coming down including Grandma Carol, Papa B., Grandma Kreher, and Aunt Barb. I still haven’t decided if Sydney will be going back up to Illinois with them when they go home. That would mean she would be away from home for two full weeks before the Wise Family comes down for a visit. I am not sure if she (or if I) am up for a trip that long. While our visitors are here, Steve and I are going to run over to Atlanta to watch the Bears game. Thanks in advance to Grandma and Papa for watching Sydney while we are out of the house!

Our last visitor was Uncle Brandon in September. Here is the picture of him and Sydney working away on their laptops.

For those of you that are interested, here are some quick notes about what is going on at NASA:

- The Shuttle is planned to be retired with the last flights scheduled for 2010
- NASA is developing a new program, called the Constellation Program, to build new vehicles to take humans up to the International Space Station (ISS) and eventually to the moon and Mars.
- The first test flight of the Constellation program is called Ares I-X and will launch next year. This is one of the tasks I work on. The test flight objectives are focused on first-stage flight dynamics, controllability, separation of the first and upper stages, ground operations, and first stage recovery. The test flight will also verify the performance and dynamics of the shuttle’s solid rocket booster in “single stick” arrangement. (The usual shuttle configuration is two rocket boosters with one external fuel tank.) This flight will only last about 2 minutes and does not reach orbit.
- The first manned flight of the Constellation Program is scheduled to occur in 2014. This flight will go to the ISS.
- The first flight to take humans back to the moon is scheduled to occur in 2019.

Lil bit’s next visit to the doctor is Wednesday morning. That’s all for now.
- Ang

Welcome!

Welcome to the Wise Family Blog! Steve, Sydney, Lil Bit, and I plan on using this to keep you guys updated on what's going on down here in Alabama.

I went to the doctor this week and Lil Bit is growing right on schedule. He is kicking and squirming everyday and has even jabbed his big sister a few times. My next doctor appointment is in two weeks. His due date is December 26th.

Sydney is a bright little girl. She is still going to the NASA daycare and went on her first field trip this week. Her whole class piled into a bus (her first bus ride) and went to the Scarecrow Trail. She is already looking forward to their next field trip to the pumpkin patch next month. She is also excited to see more of her family next month during their visits to Alabama and maybe even a trip up to Illinois. Every Saturday she takes gymnastics class and seems to enjoy it a lot.

Steve is working at NASA again. He is the requirement lead for the Ares Project (Ares is the vehicle being designed to take us back to the moon). The picture posted is of his new baby, which he likes to drive around on nice weekend days.

I am still working at NASA too. I have to travel again this week to Texas. Daddy and Sydney will be running the house!

That's all for now. Lots of cleaning and ironing to do before I head out of town.

- Ang