WALKER IS HERE!

Walker Oliver Wilbanks was born by caesarian section at 6:20 pm on September 24th.  He is 8 lb 9 oz, 21 3/4 inches long and has a head full of blonde hair.  Mom and baby are both doing well.  Walker is a tough little guy as he was born with a right pneumothorax (collapsed lung) which landed him directly in the NICU but the issue seems to be resolving itself on its own.  He is improving daily and will stay in the NICU until Sunday or Monday at which time Jamie and Matt can bring him HOME.  YAY! Mom and Dad make visits down to the NICU every 3 hours to nurse, encourage and sing silly little songs to Walkman.  Thank you so much for all of your prayers.  We are all in love already and can't wait for you all to meet Walker!

Mei-mei's New Look

We waited forever to get Mei-mei groomed this time, and as a result she looked like a small, adorable black ewok from Star Wars. Her eyebrows were so long that she couldn't see past them any more, so we knew it was time to get her cut!
Here she is after her day at the groomer's. She looks about 10 lb. lighter and you can actually see her eyes! But she does look kinda funny now. Her beard is gone and she looks like a boy dog, but she's still cute as ever and the sweetest dog around.
Here she has resumed her favorite place in the house (besides the front window where she barks at families with their strollers walking by and the mailman, of course), the couch. She especially loves to snuggle in between Matt and me when we are both on the couch. She's the best lap dog ever.
NO WALKER YET!
Here I am on Sept. 17 (now 39 weeks), the day I was really hoping Walker would arrive! This is me giving him a little pep talk about how much we want to meet him (and how much my knees are hurting these days!). I had a doctor appointment that morning and there was no news to report. The only thing she could tell me was that she wouldn't let me go more than a week past my due date, which would be Oct. 3. We're still hoping he will be here sooner than that, though!

I took this cue from Julie's blog and wanted to include at least one of the beautiful photos from Ashley and Kyle's engagement pics. Aren't they just the cutest?! We are so excited that they are getting married in just four months, on January 24. They have been together since high school (following in the Wilbanks family footsteps) and we are all looking forward to the big day. We hope Walker will get to wear a tiny white tux! It's going to be such a fun and special day for the whole family.This was another funny day this week when Matt was cleaning up the debries leftover from Matt and my dad putting a new roof on our garage. Matt called to have Chris help, but since he was still at work, Julie and Ashley volunteered to come shovel the old shingles. Julie and Ash would do anything for us...we are truly blessed with great sisters! I was laughing so hard because they came over, wearing the cutest little dresses and sandals, and shoveled like little worker bees until they were finished. What good sports! They prove that even the most adorable girly girls can work as hard as construction men any day!

Blast From the Past

I was so excited when just a couple days ago Jenn and Mayling (friends from high school!) came over to hang out at our house...it was so much fun! We ate thai food and I finally got to meet Mayling's husband, Allan. I'm so happy that we have reconnected! Poor Matt was at a meeting, so he wasn't able to see the girls (for the second time), so he is looking forward to getting to hang out with them soon too.

As you can see, Jenn and Mei-mei bonded instantly. Jenn was laughing because Mei-mei means "little sister" in Chinese, and sometimes her family calls her that name too!
We (Mayling, me and Jenn) actually ate at the dining room table, which Matt and I never do! It was the perfect place to talk and catch up.
The girls could not believe how big my belly had grown since they last saw me in July.
Mayling and Allan have been married for almost three years now...they are so cute! Allan seems like a very sweet guy. I'm so happy for them!

Rewind a few months to back to July when I got together with a group of special friends from high school. One of my friends, Khyati, who I've known since the 7th grade, I think, was moving to Chicago, so she had a little going away party and invited a bunch of Wolfson peeps. It was so fun to see all the girls (and one guy too, Sachin)! We had a blast catching up with each other on the last 10 years. It was a fun teaser before our 10-year reunion, which was in August.

Zohra, Leslie, me, Jennifer and Mayling

Leslie, Zohra, Sachin, Jennifer, me, Mayling and Khyati

Eternal Cankles

Please don't be too alarmed... these are just my cankles that never seem to go away these days! If you know me very well, you know that I normally have the smallest feet. My friend Laura calls them "Disney feet" because she says they look like Belle's or Ariel's feet. It's true that we women are always self conscious about our bodies, but dang it, my feet are cute! As you can see, that's not the case right now. All the swelling and fluid from being preggers has made them huge (I have had to buy two pairs of flops in a larger size) and I no longer have ankles. Oh, and I can ONLY wear flops because my feet won't fit into anything else...sweet! Thank heavens I live in Florida.



I try to stay home more now (I know, it's hard to believe!) to rest and prop these babies up, but it's not always possible. I don't think my tiny feet like carrying around all the extra weight right now. The swelling doesn't seem to go away any more, no matter how much I prop them up. But staying off them does help with the soreness that occurs on the bottom of my feet in the middle of the night when I wake up to go to the bathroom. The things that happen to your body during pregnancy are just so funny! It's just amazing to think that God made us so we could grow another person inside us and bring that person into the world. Pretty cool if you ask me!

One Fish Two Fish

We are so excited that the nursery is pretty much complete. Our families have really blessed us by helping us to get the furniture and get everything ready...we just love it! This week our little green rug finally arrived and it looks great.



We decided to include Matthew 4:19, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men," above the crib. It's definitely our prayer for Walker, that we will be good examples for him, that we can guide him to follow Christ in his life, and that he will be faithful to share Christ's love with others too. It's scary to think that we are going to be responsible for rearing another little person and teaching him about his heavenly Father and the importance of having a relationship with Christ. WOW!



I already love to go and sit in the nursery to read or just relax in the glider...it is serioulsy the most comfortable seat in the house!





We love this little sailboat painting that Ashley gave us for the nursery--it's adorable and the colors are perfect for the room. My sister, Wendi, painted the waves and the fish (and I helped!) and got us the "WOW" initials for the shelf...so cute!



Everything is ready...we have about 1,228 diapers, hundreds of wipes, and lots of tiny, adorable outfits waiting. And we are, of course, SO EXCITED...now all we need is for little Walker to come out to meet us!

Preggers Pics

My dear friend Jill came over a couple days ago and took some really cool preggers pics. I was a little hesitant at first because it seems like everything on my whole body is enlarged at the moment (I'm wondering who's nose and lips these are!), but I really like some of them. I was really glad that Matt participated in the photo shoot as well.

As you can see, Walker will be here any day! He is officially almost 38 weeks, and we are hoping that he is here SOON. I have been blessed with a great pregnancy. If I can make it through my feet and hands swelling so much each day, I'll be good to go. I feel a little confined because I mostly have to sit home now with my feet propped up, but it's definitely worth it knowing Walker's on his way. I'm secretly praying for Sept. 17 to be the date (instead of the 26th, which we know is just a gestimate). I hope you'll join me in praying for that too!

Hurricane Season in FL

Wow, we haven't experienced hurricane season in two years, so it's been interesting with all the days where you aren't sure whether work or school is canceled and whether you should be out driving...it definitely keeps you guessing.


During Fay (only a tropical storm, not fully a hurricane), we lost power for a while with all the winds and rain, so we hung out at the Wilbanks' for a while. At one point, all of the dogs (our two, plus Janet's and Julie's) needed to go outside for potty time. And of course that would be the time when it was raining like crazy. So Matt was kind enough to volunteer to go out in a poncho (note that it's from Janet and John's trip to Niagara Falls) with each dog individually.

The best part was when we put Livy's (Janet and John's bulldog) raincoat on the other dogs--hysterical! Howard (Julie and Chris' bulldog) was miserable because it was too small for him. Mei-mei (our schnauzer) was terrified because she's never worn a raincoat before, and Belle (our Jack Russell mix) was way too small for it, so she had to settle for a sweater. The whole situation definitely kept us entertained during the storm!

More Shower Fun!

We had a "luau" shower with our family, which was really fun! Matt was able to make it to the shower (because there was a special gift waiting for him). Our friends Laura, Maria, Michelle and Becky hosted it for us. These pictures made me realize how HUGE I am getting. :) We have so many cute things for Walker...we are so excited! Today is officially 37 weeks, so he is full term. We're hoping to meet him very soon!

The adorable little girl is my niece, Kirra. She's three and full of so much personality, as you can probably tell. There's also a pic of me and Casey and Laura and all of our sweet hostesses. And Matt is with my niece, Kenzi, and then I'm with Kenzi and Sydney, who are sisters. Syd is only 13 but is way taller than me! I have a feeling several of my nieces are going to outgrow me soon. It's so cool because they are all so excited about Walker. Kirra is always asking, "When you baby get out?" She thought the shower meant he was coming that day, which cracked us up!









We now have some pics from our first shower (on Aug. 7), which was given by our dear friends at Southside, Gwen, Cindy and Sandy. It was so nice to see so many friends we had not had a chance to reconnect with yet. We had a great time being with everyone! At this point, I was still looking very pregnant but cute (without all the swelling!!).