The Start of Our New Year

So far for us it's been a crazy start to a new year! We've been traveling a lot, as well as spending a lot of time with family. Our crazy little kids are getting BIG!! Emma is 18 1/2 lbs. now. Never would have been able to tell she was a preemie.

Girlie is always on the move and wants to eat everything she's the apple of our eye! She has such a great personality! She must get it from her dad because we all know i'm not the happiest at times. It's weird to think that it was only 7 months ago that I delivered her. Wow the time is really flying i just can't believe it.

Then we have our "Presto Change-o" He is definitely giving me a run for my money. Always, always on the move. He loves to be with mommy and daddy and loves to play with all his toys! He is smarter then I ever even realized he would be. He's learning so much every day, I'm not sure i'll ever be able to stay on his level. He just turned 3!!! It's so wild to me to think i'm now a mother of two, one of which never has enough time in the day to get out all that he needs to say.

He Is definitely mommie's bestest bud, and biggest help. I thought it was going to be a huge struggle to get him to realize he isn't the only baby in need of attention, but he has definitely proved that he is a "BIG" brother and not just a baby! He's so helpful, and loves his "Emmy Poo" so much. He pretty much entertains himself throughout the day, but of course loves to play with us and be super silly at times. He is especially Papa's little bucco. He just can't get enough of going to Nana and Papa's house. We are still constantly going through the struggle at keeping the bad influences out of his life, as he is to the point he repeats everything he sees and hears! Too smart for my own good. Mom always said I would get one just likke me or hopefully worse, and i'm pretty sure it's him. Can't help but love my little Cuddle bug.

This year for Preston's Birthday we decided to have an addition to the family. We have our little Lily who is the sweestest but most high-strung dog i've ever had. She is Preston's little buddy. They have so much fun together. We still have to remind him she can get hurt too. We thought she needed a playmate who can relate to her, on her level so we adopted another dog from the humane society. Everyone meet Diesel!!!

We initially went to get a kitty for his birthday, and then we heard someone say there was a Boxer in the kennels, and we just had to check it out. We instantly fell in love with his sweet, fun-loving personality. He is just a big teddy bear. He is amazing with the kids, but Lily, and him are still trying to determine who is boss. He has definitely been a great addition to our family.

Our "Willie Dog" , as Preston calls her, has been getting better. We're starting to solve her aggression issues towards people. Now if we could just get her and Diesel to decide neither one has to be dominant then we'd have no problems at all. We have now had her for almost two years, and has just been a joy, as well as a great guard dog!

We definitely love her spirit, as well as her keen sense of when someone is down. She is great to cuddle with sometimes. She has made our king size bed, her bed as well. Thank goodness Diesel doesn't think he needs to sleep up there too! We get so many compliments on how beautiful she is, but don't let her looks fool you, she will rip you to shreds defending her family!

It's been a long time coming this past year, but my Chris has worked trimendously hard on his Melchezidic Priesthood, and finally all the hard work has paid off. He was ordained an Elder on January 31st, by his Dad! It was such an amazing experience to watch thte love of my life receive something so priceless. He is an amazing man, and a great Father. He is so cute with the kids. Anytime I need a moment he is more than willing to give it to me. I love him so much!

Unfortunately he was laid off by Alder at the beginning of the year. He hasn't let that slow him down though. He is in full-time training to go to the Dew Tour qualifiers in a few months. He's so excited, and I just couldn't be more proud of him for chasing his dream. He has such a great spirit, and I fall in love with him again and again every morning! His birthday will be coming up at the end of the month, which I'm still unsure of what i'll be getting him! Not sure of how i'm going to top last years trip through California.! He'll be working this Spring, Summer, and Fall at Woodward West coaching kids that want to be BMX'ers. He loves to help the kids in something he is so passionnate about. He is such a great Dad, and I couldn't have asked for a better Husband! He'll be blessing our little Emma in a few weeks and he is so excited to! I'm so impressed with his willingness to stay close to the Lord, and be a devoted follower of our religion!

Well as for myself, I haven't been doing much besides being a stay at home mom, and occasionally working at the VA Hospital as a CNA which i love. I'm hoping to start school soon for my R.N. It's been a long time coming but i'm so excited!! I've been doing my best at supporting Chris in his dreams of becoming "Big time" in the BMX community, and it seems like it's starting to pay off. I've also been helping my Aunt Suzane teach Jazz Dance for the past few months, and it's been great. I love every minute of it, and the girls I get to teach. It really has been an amazing experience.

I'm totally in love with being a mommy of two beautiful kids. Not quite sure if i want anymore though. These two are such a handfull! Chris, and I have been working so hard on having our family sealed together for time and all eternity, and we are finally here! Hopefully by the first of March we will be sealed together as a family, and I couldn't be happier! It's funny how it takes one man to change your outlook on a religion, plus the past years experiences that have just added to our reasonings! We've been seeing our missionaries every week for a year now, and have grown so fond of them. Thank you so much Lynn and Helen for being our guiding light.

Wow, it's just been such an amazing year, full of happiness, sorrow, excitement, and pure love for one another. We wouldn't have been at this place in our life if it wasn't for loving each other, and having the amazing people in our lives. We want to thank all of you who have helped us on our journey, and who have helped us keep on our path to redemtion! We love you all! We hope you all are blessed with amazing things in your lives as we have been, and always remember you either do or you don't there is NO try! Love and kisses. The Westlund's

DELIVERY!!!!

Emma after a long hard day

She goes cross-eyed all the time looking at her nose

In the N.I.C.U. with just the feeding tube left

Her first outfit

Right after I had her when they rushed her to the N.I.C.U. and got her all hooked up

It all started June 18th, it was about 11:00 a.m. I had been having quite a bit of low back pain that morning, and it didn't help little tootie bug thought he needed to be a wild man. About 4:30 p.m. I was starting to realize that this low back pain, was actually contractions because of the baby dropping and engaging even more into my pelvis. So i decided it would be a great time to take some Castor Oil since i was no longer in the danger zone for delivery seeing as i was now officially 34 weeks, and Dr. Ponder said she felt confident that Emma would be fine if she came. Well contractions came on pretty strong and heavy so we decided to go for a walk instead of just sitting around. Well that really started to do the trick. At about 10:00 p.m. we decided finally we should head to the hospital. We spent 14 hours in L&D and I only dilated to a 4+!!!! They said if I had gotten to a 5 they would rupture my water. Well that never happened. Exactly 24 hours later my water broke! So i had gotten all my things together, and called Chris who happened to be in Manti doing a show. We headed to the hospital which it took us 1 1/2 hours because of traffic, and food stops. Well at the hospital I still measured a 4+. After a few hours of contractions they finally started me on Oxytocin. It took me 9 hours to go from a 4+ to a 6+. I was planning on going as natural as possible, but the contractions were getting to be quite much to handle, so I asked for the Epidural. They came in almost immediately to give it to me. At the same time the nurses were rushing in because Emma was showing signs of possible cardiac arrest. They started what's called an Amniotic Flush, well as she's doing this she checks me again, and tells me I'm a 10 + 2 so that means the baby was almost crowning. I still could feel everything so they has the anesthesiologist come give me another bolis of Epidural. By the time I was ready to push I still had feeling in every part of my body, and just a little tingly in my toes, and my sides. Well after 10 minutes of pushing, and intense burning sensations I delivered Emma at 12:03 a.m. June 21 Father's Day she weighed 4 pounds 10 ounces, and was 18 1/2 inches long. She was having some major issues breathing so they rushed her to the N.I.C.U. where they monitored her, and she seemed to be doing really well. After a few hours they moved her to Oxygen, and was over exerting herself to breath so the next morning they decided to put her onto a C PAP machine which blows air pressure into her lungs to help them from collapsing. She did not like this machine covering her whole face so they had to give her Ativan to calm her. 24 hours after that she was doing great, and was taken off the C PAP machine. She's been doing so well, better, and better every day. She's feeding like a hungry little pig. It's so cute. They tell us that we should be home by this upcoming weekend unless she has any non-resolving issues which I hope, and pray that she doesn't. This whole time we've not been allowed any visitors since I exposed them to the swine flu even though other mothers in our unit have similar situations, and they are allowed visitors!! But that's a whole other story. Love you all, and please keep us in your prayers! (Pictures will be up as soon as I can get to my own computer)

Mother's Day at the Zoo

So for Mother's Day my wonderful mom decided it would be fun to take us all to the Hogle Zoo, which by the way was so packed, this would be the first time Preston would have gone or that he would remember I should say. It was so much fun. My oh so cute hubby decided he wanted to dress up as a white trash guy, since it's Mustache May, and he was already sporting his handlebar mustache. So we got a pic of him, and Preston on the Bike in front of the Tiger exhibit, and on of them on the Wolf on the Carosel (spelling?). Then My sister, and I, who is only 7 weeks and 4 days due behind me took a cute belly shot. Then the one of my mom, and sister with Preston in front of the Pregnant elephant. My mom, and Preston were checking out the monjeys ahead of everyone else, because "We crasy mommy!" He's so funny when he says that because he sounds like he has a Spanish accent. Then Preston , and my dad took a picture in front of the waterfall out front, he wanted to throw his "MONIES!!!" in it. Then one of the whole family out front, whew such a long day!

Wedding photos finally

So I decided to add some photos of our wedding FINALLY! We decided we wanted an out of the ordinary wedding since we're out of the ordinary, and we love Halloween so we decided on an early 1900's theme for the actual wedding, and then we had Halloween colore black, and orange. For our Reception we decided on letting our guests choose the option of wearing costume or not. Almost every person that came had a costume on!This is our first dance. I cried through the whole thing of course.
My father, daughter dance! Yep both cried there too.

So this first picture is our actual sealing of our ceremony. Which we had at The Woods on Ninth in Midvale, UT.
This is one of our many pics that we took the day before the wedding in order for us to fully enjoy our day. They were taken at Memory Grove in Salt Lake. This on is me and Preston, giving his Mommy a kiss

My sister, and I the day of my wedding. She was my maid of honor. I let all the girls choose their own dresses. I didn't care as long as they were all black, and didn't look better than me, no just kidding.

Our cute little family! You can only get a 1 1/2 year old to do so much. But he did really well for not having a nap, and it being freezing cold that day. We luckily had warm weather the day of our wedding i was so excited.

And Baby makes 4!

The pictures are top left: profile of Emma at 20 weeks
top right: My belly at 22 1/2 weeks
bottom left: Preston loving on baby Emma, he loves to pull my shirt up and lay on my tummy, he says "shhh baby Emma seepin"
bottom right: My star tattoo on my side that's stretching just a little bit, it won't do damage i don't think.
Yep yall guessed it! We got ourselves a honeymoon baby! We just found out that it is going to be a girl. We decided on naming her Emma Kay after her great great aunt, and me! Chris, and I had talked about starting a family soon, because we didn't want our kids to be too far apart, and the Lord obviously thought this was the right time for us. I found out that we were pregnant on November 29th. Shortly there after I became intensely ill, and was on bedrest, with I.V. fluids twice a day for two months straight. I have now been I.V. free for almost 4 weeks. It's great to not be attatched to a pole any longer. With these complications and more, my doctor is inducing my labor when I am at 36 weeks which puts my due date around the end of June instead of the initial due date of July 29th. We are so excited for Emma to get here. We are taking the necessary steps to become worthy to be sealed in the Temple as a family by the end of the year!

In a nutshell.

So we met for the official first time two years ago at Brit and Vern's wedding. We even decorated their car together but don't really remember each other. Well need less to say we finally met up again at Port-O-Call on a Friday night with a huge group of our friends. Well we hit it off really well and spent the night talking to each other after i had noticed Chris had been watching me all night. Well the rest is pretty much history. We fell in love instantly and haven't been separated ever since, and we decided to get hitched on October 25th, 2008. I have a little boy named Preston who is almost 2 that Chris is just in love with. He's been the perfect dad, and we can't wait to have more.