New Baby! - click here to see pictures!

It's been a great week!   Starting off your week Sunday morning with having a new baby is definitely the way to go!  After an incredibly long past 5 weeks, more to come on that in a minute, Samuel Christopher Wee was born into the world healthy as can be.  He was a bit bigger than Cole since he came out at 38 weeks instead of 36 - 7lb 5oz, 18.5 inches long, and has a head fully covered with blonde peach fuzz.

The past 5 weeks have been a bit trying for us.  In the middle of January, the squadron left for the Road Show (Red Flag/Green Flag) and left me in charge of everything.  I elected to stay home because of the proximity of the new baby's due date, and our previous history with Cole being 4 weeks early - so it seemed prudent to stick at home.  Boy was I glad that I did...the weekend after everyone left Jen and I were in the hospital at 33 weeks with labor starting.  33 weeks is a bit early for babies, so the doctors decided to use drugs to try to stop the labor using a sort of muscle relaxant.  Good news was that it worked, the bad news was the side-effects...Jen's blood pressure dropped really low in the meanwhile, and made the whole process pretty stressful.  We spent 3 days in the hospital, and then back home for the week although contractions never really went away from that point on.  Doctors said to come in when we "felt things were changing," but wanted the baby to stay in there to bake longer.  The unfortunate part about it all was that Jen was pretty much in labor the whole time, to varying degrees, for the next 5 weeks.  The following weekend, at 34 weeks, we had to go into the hospital again, and the doctors elected to use drugs one more time to try to keep Sammy in there longer.  It worked again, they shipped us off to Bury St Edmunds again (the Lakenheath hospital really really doesn't like to have premature babies since they don't have a NICU), and after a few more days in the hospital we were back home again playing the waiting game.  For the next 3 weeks, we were in and out of the hospital because there was never any real good way to tell when we were in labor.  The appointments said she was 5cm dilated, but contractions just kept coming with no baby until this past weekend.  Lots of waiting, but overall keeping Sammy in there an additional 5 weeks is way more than we could have hoped for when we were in the hospital that first time.

In the mean time, after the 2nd hospital visit, Kathy broke away from her vacation in Florida to come over to not so sunny England to help us out.  We really thought things were imminent, each day waiting for Sammy to come visit us, but as the weeks went on we all laughed about how ironic it was for Kathy to come over and then not to have the baby when we thought we would.  Regardless, the help that she has provided is really indescribable.  Unfortunately I had a lot of commitments at work to keep things running there, so Kathy was able to fill in for me and keep Jen resting as much as possible while we waited.  Having her here makes us wish so much that we could be closer to family in times of need or not.  We wish the rest of the grandparents could come help and be able to see Sammy for themselves, but hopefully soon!

The labor went pretty well Sunday...about 4-5 hours and Jen was amazing.  The only low point was that the doctor "on call" decided he would take his time coming in while Jen was transitioning and pleading for them to break the water, causing much unneeded pain in my opinion.  Once he showed up things progressed quite quickly and we had Sammy about 20 minutes later.  It was great to be able to say, "It's a boy," when he came out and we're again glad that we waited on finding out what his sex would be.  It was a fun surprise that you only really get to have a couple times (depending on how many kids you have!) in your life.

Now we're just hanging out at home trying to find the new version of normal in our life and getting Sammy on a schedule.  Cole has been taking to him quite well and we're hoping that he continues to allow Sam to merge into our life without pause.  The nice thing about the closeness is that Cole really wont remember not having a brother, and we're excited to see them grow together.  For now, though, we'll just be happy to get a few hours of sleep here and there at night.

We thank the Lord for being so blessed.  The fortune of having two healthy babies in a row is not lost on us.  We feel very grateful.  "Behold, children are a gift from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.  Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth.  How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;" Psalm 127:3-5.

Been a while...

Wow! Long time, no posting. After we left for SOS keeping up with posting just wasn't a priority for us! So here's what we've been up to...the latter part of 2009 for us was mostly spent away from England. I got the opportunity mid-October to go to Squadron Officer School (SOS) in Montgomery, Alabama for November through mid-December. SOS is basically a 5-week Air Force leadership school that all Captains have to go to a couple of years after pinning on Capt. We decided that we would all go - it is the perfect opportunity to spend time with the family since the pace is much slower than a fighter squadron - so we packed up the family and flew back to the states. Jen, Cole, and the dog headed to Chicago a few days before I departed to Montgomery, and Jen and Cole drove down with Dave so we could have a car. The time down in Montgomery was great as many days were very short and we were able to spend a lot of quality time together. Over the 6 weeks we were able to do a little exploring around Montgomery, went to the Aquarium in Atlanta, and went to Charlotte Spaulding's baptism in Birmingham as well. That makes 2 Spaulding baptisms that I've been lucky enough to make!

Our humble Maxwell billeting room.

Cole taking a play-break in his favorite window seat.

Filterhead eating breakfast with daddy.

How do I look?

The fam at Maxwell's Santa pancake breakfast.

Thanksgiving at the Hollon's in Prattville.

No snow, but we made do.

Cole's first experience with Santa - I think Santa wants out just as much as Cole.

That's just a few of our pictures from our time in Alabama.  We really had a great time there, met a lot of people, and even got to hang out with our friends the Fogle's.  Turns out they're going to the Aggressors too so we were really excited to see them there too.  All in all it was a great 6 week stint down south!

Videos of Cole

Just a couple recent videos!

New Post!

Wow, really been a while since we posted last...seems like we say that every time but things just keep getting in the way of our blogging.  Lots of stuff going on - visit from Jen's parents, Cole's 1st birthday, Cole started walking, Jen's belly getting bigger.  It's been a great August and September, and here we are already halfway through October! 

We're headed to Montgomery, AL, for Squadron Officer School for November, so our next post will likely be from the states! 

Here's some pictures from our recent exploits!

We took Cole to the beach for the first time - not quite a "beach" day but fun nonetheless.

Mommy and Cole taking a stroll.

Cole tried to eat all the rocks.

Daddy telling Cole how he's going to go kite boarding some day.

After some coaxing, he decided he liked the sand.

More sand.

Well hello!

Out for a hike.  Apparently Cole hates hikes.

That's what you get when you put us together just after waking up.

Go Badgers!

Our friend Elizabeth made Cole this great cake!

Mmmm...

Grammy gave me a bath.

Cole is trying to drown Elmo.

Thanks for the book!

Let me take a look...

Cole's not sure he likes the grass yet.

Cheese!

Just some pics and videos...

We've come to realize that we are terrible at keeping up at writing on this thing. Sometimes it feels like the best we can do is just add a few pictures and that's about it! So, in light of our lack of posting, I figured I'd at least add a few recent pictures and videos. Everything here is going well - Jen is almost out of her 1st trimester and we go to get our next ultrasound this week. Cole is doing great and learned to clap, wave, and standup just in the past week! He's almost walking...we can't believe it. Chris is just keeping up with work stuff too instructing most days of the week and flying a lot. We're looking forward to Kathy and Dave coming soon in September for a bit of time off. Well, we hope to hear from you all soon!

We're Pregnant!!! (again)

Well...it's that time again!  We just got back from our first OB appointment and Jen is 8 weeks pregnant!  Our due date is March 6!  We are exceptionally excited to be pregnant so quick again - Cole and his next sibling will be only 1 1/2 years apart!  Yep, it'll be busy around our house next year, but the joy of having two little ones running around will make it all worthwhile!  Jen is feeling great so far, but the normal 1st trimester ailments are here again (it's like de ja vu).  We are looking forward to the second trimester when some of the symptoms subside.

We borrowed our friend's daughter Eve to see what it would be like with two kids...



And we had to try out our new double stroller in preparation for all the walks we like to take.


Cole is thinking about studying classical guitar here soon. Maybe uncle Ryan can teach him a few things.


Cole likes to wakeup every day at 6AM.  Mommy and Daddy survive on copious amounts of coffee.


"Hey everybody...come see how good I look!" - Cole taking after Ron Burgundy


That's all for now - hope everyone up at Namakogen had a great time this week!  Wish we could have been there!

Summer, Summer, Summer Time (Yes, I know DJ Jazzy Jeff is out!)

We have been busy this summer, enjoying the great weather (for England!), working hard (Chris finished his instructor upgrade program, I am on to my next class working towards my masters, and most importantly eating up every moment we can with Smoochie Pants!), celebrating the 4th with a big BBQ with great friends and doing our best to have quality family time too! It is hard to choose just a few pics to post, but we will add more to our Picassa web album soon.















It has actually gotten hot enough to run around in diapers! Cole loves being naked, or near naked, so he was happy to enjoy the freedom!




One thing that I enjoy about living in England is the public footpaths. We like to walk the trails near our house, especially for Tess who gets to run free! Cole is a good sport about riding in the backpack too! He is able to look around to see what is going on!





We got Cole a swing for our yard, which he LOVES!!! He seems to completely relax EVERY time he is in it and he falls asleep! He will be laughing and kicking his feet while I push him, and then all of a sudden he will have his eyes closed and will be dozing!

Tess and Us

So we just finished watching the movie "Marley and Me." I read the book and cried like most, but watching the movie reiterated the loyalty that we take for granted every day from our fabulous four legged friend...or should I say kiddo!

Who could resist this face...yes, Chris's too! This post is about Tess, and all of those other wonderful furry friends who selflessly love us every day, no matter what! I imagine that you all are thinking of your special dog or pet ...I know I thought of Barney, our old Dachshund, while watching the movie, and Chris thought of Cody, his old Golden, as well!

Don't you wish that every animal could enjoy the lap of luxury!

Look at her! What a beautiful, great girl! WE LOVE YOU TESS!

Videos Should Work Now

Sorry, we had the videos set to Private on Youtube, so nobody could see them. They're public now, so they should be working.

Hope all is well with everyone!

Picasa Web Albums and Videos

Okay, so we finally added the rest of our Germany pictures up on our Web Albums site and also added some pictures from the past week or so. My friends from high school Blake and his brother Rob came out to visit and we have been having a great time. Dover one day, Cambridge the next, and all the while we've had the best weather I've seen here in a long, long time.

Here's the link to our Picasa Web Albums:

Blake/Rob Visit -http://picasaweb.google.com/airwee/2009_06_01LateMayBlakeRobVisit#

Germany Trip - http://picasaweb.google.com/airwee/2009_05_15GarmischGermany#

And some videos to top it off:

Hah, how's that for a post? Pictures, videos, we got it all....enjoy.