Tender Mercy

This is just what I needed today...I was looking through some old pictures and came across this one. These men sure do hold a LARGE sweet spot in my heart! They're my heroes! I'm so glad they knew each other, even if it was only for a little while. What I would give to go back to that day.

Life as we Willards know it!

Well, since I've been SO bad at updating my blog I figured I could never play catch up and still enjoy blogging. Ha ha. So here is a bunch of random pictures from the past few months. Wesley obviously has us wrapped around his little finger, he is the happiest baby around.
Lately Wes's best friend is my mom's dog, Bella. He gets so excited when she comes around and he pets her as much as she will let him.

His smile is changing into what my mom calls a Cydney smile. His cute little nose scrunches up and it's hilarious.

Wes sure does love his grandmas! They can laugh and play all day long.
We miss Shayden and Shelly SO MUCH! Those "Southerners" only like to come home around Christmas and for weddings...luckily we have one coming up in JUNE!!! Those tall people in the picture below (Tawny and Ken) are happily engaged and are so perfect for each other.
Our little guy started crawling a week before he turned 6 months and a few days later he was standing up to couches, chairs, and tables. When his head hits the bottom of the table like it is doing in this picture he freezes and starts to cry because he is STUCK.

Me and my hottie of a husband. He is going to school at the University of Utah now and works so hard at his jobs. We're lucky to see him around 6:00 every night and then it's study time for him. He's SO busy and works dang hard. Love that guy!
Our little angel under the Christmas tree. Check out my "professional picture taking skills"
Unfortunately football season didn't go as we thought it would this year. Drew broke his hand during camp and kinda got replaced in the meantime. Then, with all his family watching at the game at Weber State he was tackled funny and blew his knee out :( he had surgery later on in November and is STILL recovering from that dang injury. Tough guy!
The Bert girls in our footie hoodies on Christmas Eve. SO comfortable.
My littlest sister, Whitney turned 13 on New Year's Eve this year. She is officially taller than me and better than me at playing the piano and playing volleyball. She's so cute and so much fun! She and Wesley have a great time together.
We had to steal a Halloween picture on the Garcia's porch this year. We weren't very festive and didn't carve pumpkins or anything.
Such handsome boys! Wow I am so lucky to have such a fun/adorable/loving/cute little family.
Kailee and Wesser at that dreaded Weber State football game. Kailee cries when she thinks about how bad she misses her little nephew. You'd think she would come see us more.

We have such a cutie. And look how much he already loves chocolate! He's his mama's child FOR SURE!! A few other things that are going on that we haven't taken any pictures of/are looking forward to are:

~I got a part-time job working at LDS Family Services in Layton.
~Drew is looking forward to doing the tough mudder in October (he's crazy)
~The HUNGER GAMES MOVIE (which deserves its own post) was simply amazing. I loved it and can't wait to go see it again.
~Wesley is trying to stand on his own...he's only 7 months, why is he so fearless!?!?
~Going to Tuacahn in June, can't wait to see some Cedar friends and take the little mover SWIMMING!!

So hopefully my next post will happen a lot quicker than every 6 months. Thanks to those who are still following the blog, let me know if you are reading so this is worth it to me. Ha ha just kidding...but seriously.

I vow to be a better blogger!

I have been the worst blogger, I admit it. But I am going to be better. My sweetheart Wesley is doing new things everyday and I can't believe I haven't written anything down. I need to do better and I will!!

Wesley James is here...

Well here goes the story of Wesley's birth!! My due date was Sunday, Aug. 21st and it came and went. Monday morning I woke up at 6:30 to my first contraction and they came every 15 minutes for about 2 hours after that so I called my mom and she was on her way down. Of course the minute she got through Salt Lake the contractions had almost stopped all together. I had about 1 every hour...suckie! So Drew and I went to wal-mart to see if walking around would get things going a little faster. Got yelled at in the parking lot by a girl that felt we took her parking spot. She said, "are you kidding me, I'm 9 months pregnant." right to Drew's face. I then got out of the car and said, "I'm having my baby today (pointing to my big belly), I think I got you beat." That sure shut her right up. Ha ha. Drew's mom decided to come down after the contractions were coming a little more frequently. We went to see The Help at 10:00 that night and they were coming 7 minutes apart the whole movie and by the time we got home they were every 5 minutes. Drew and I waited about an hour then decided to go to the hospital. When they checked me I was a 3 and 80% effaced. They kept me for an hour to see if I would progress, which I didn't, but when they called my doc he said to keep me and start pitocin-probably cuz I was overdue. This was around 4:00 a.m. I asked for the epidural at 6:00 and let me tell you, OUCHY! It didn't work the first time and it was the worst pain I've ever felt. At around 10:30 I started to really feel my contractions on the left side and a few minutes later could lift my whole left leg. How do people go natural!?!?!? They rolled me around and it still didn't help. I was in so much pain and was delirious by this point. They decided to give me a mega-dose and I could actually relax after that. It took me 8 hours to go from a 5 to an 8, which was a little frustrating, but then I hit a 10 about 45 minutes later. I pushed for a half hour and little (or big) Wesley was born at 4:43 p.m. on Tuesday, August 23rd weighing in at 8 pounds 7 oz, and was 20 inches long. He's been such a good baby! I can't believe how fast these last 6 weeks have gone by and how much he has changed in that short amount of time. We are in love and couldn't be happier!!
To see his newborn pictures go to saraursuaphotography.com :) she does amazing work!!

Our Lil' Man's Room

Well, the room isn't quite finished yet, but I've had more than one person say they needed to see pictures. Here they are! I was thinking really outside the box when I bought the fabric for his bedding, but I can honestly say it is one of a kind!! Honestly, pictures don't do the quilt justice though. My mom did the best job quilting it. We love how it turned out!

My amazingly talented husband made the changing table/dresser. Even when he had a broken hand. I had to help change out the drill bit a time or two but he did it ALL on his own. I'm so proud of him, it turned out SO good! Wesley stares at his giraffe friend the whole time he is laying on his changing pad. I love it!Like I said, it is still a work in progress but I'm not in a hurry to finish because the day I do I will just have to pack it all up for the big MOVE! For those of you that don't know, we're moving after this semester is over (and the crowd goes wild!!!!) Ha ha we're excited. We have loved our time in Cedar, but especially now that Wesley is here, we're ready to be closer to family. Drew will be transferring to U of U to finish his degree. And no, he won't be playing football there. He'll be done with that phase of his life (or our lives) after this season. Go T-Birds!

Get Him Out!!

I'm starting to get the feeling that I might be the first person that stays pregnant for the rest of their life! Don't get me wrong, I cannot complain, I've had the best pregnancy ever, but there comes a time when you just want to be DONE. I am due this Sunday and feel like since he hasn't come by now he just never will. I haven't progressed for 3 weeks! He must be stuck and completely comfortable, right? Ugh! Ok, no more complaints...just had to get it off my chest! Ha!

Here's to a spontaneous water breakage!! (cheers)

5 Women and A Man!

Well, Drew survived being on a trip with the 5 crazy Bertagnolli girls, and my feet survived 5 days of walking through San Diego! I only had to move my wedding ring to my pinky one day :) This trip was much needed! I LOVED having a whole week off of work, and I re-energized my family battery!! I love being around my mom and sisters, we feed off of each other's energy so much. I wish I could see them more than a weekend every month or so. Poor Drew was such a trooper through it all, he had a great time being the designated navigator, protector from the bums once it got dark, and representative of the men in our family.

We spent as much time as we could just going, GOING, and going. Our days were spent at Sea World, the beach and pier, the HUGE Zoo, then the temple and a Padre's game. Yes, there was plenty of eating, sun burning, and calorie burning (WALKING) in between.




The day we went to the beach I just could NOT get comfortable laying on a towel on the flat, hard sand. I tried not to get frustrated or be a downer but I ended up getting a little frazzled and my emotions started to take over. Luckily it was about this time that Drew was coming back from boogie boarding. He decided we should venture out and find a chair. Wait, back up, he offered to build one out of sand first. Ha ha. Anyways, we found one in a not so likely place and he was my super hero once again! I love him to death and I'm so SO glad he is my partner for life... and a little longer too ;) I can't wait for him to learn about and experience more from this sweet little baby that is on his way. I have a feeling he's going to be just like Daddy. Ha ha yikes!

Only 9 1/2 weeks or so to go! We're hoping for a little less though.

What I've learned...

So far I have learned/observed a few things that go along with being pregnant...here goes...

• (I'm still in the "is she fat or pregnant" stage) When I am approached by someone they look at my face, at my belly, then back at my face. Without fail!
  
• Heartburn phased me before I got pregnant...didn't know it could get SO MUCH WORSE!!
• Zantac doesn't work as well as Prilosec :) Love me some prilosec.
• Sometimes when little LB moves I laugh out loud because it tickles! And I'm not even ticklish.
  
• Pregnant skin is 10 x's more sensitive to the sun than normal...found that out the hard way...let the peeling begin!
• If I only had a brain...holy crap dumb blonde should be changed to dumb prego!
• Even though I know I'm supposed to gain weight it doesn't make it any easier to see the numbers on the scale go up so fast! Yikes!
  
• Baby shoes have gotta be the cutest things ever...and they don't even need shoes.
  
• If all these "parts" on the front of me keep growing won't I fall over?
• I went to see Brian Regan's comedy show at SUU the other day...guarantee I was the ONLY one in that whole building to have to go to the bathroom twice!
• Sitting on bleachers is probably one of the most uncomfortable things EVER!!
• I still get nervous butterflies when I go to my doc appointments.
• Choosing a name for our little guy may just kill us both. Seriously.
  
• I panic a bit when I don't feel him move around 9 a.m. That's when he's at his wildest.
• It cracks me up when Drew has only seen me in scrubs for a few days, and then when I'm in normal clothes, sees how much my belly has grown...priceless!
• Now that I think about it, baby FEET are probably the cutest thing ever, rather than the shoes.
  

Well I guess that's all for now. I think of about ten a day but now that I'm sitting here to type it I've got that prego brain again. Happy Easter!

We've got a little BOY on the way!! I'll admit it, all along I thought I was carrying a girl but I couldn't have been any more wrong. When we went into our ultrasound we weren't hoping for a certain one, just VERY curious as to what he was! This little video of him is so precious. It's the most still he was the whole appointment, maybe he was asleep? I love his cute little mouth looking like its chewing some gum/sucking an invisible binky. Not to mention his little heart working hard. We love him! Drew calls him his little LB...(linebacker).



Let's admit it, this little GUY won me over a long time ago! But I loved that the day he decided to show me he has kicking legs was my BIRTHDAY! It was the coolest feeling ever! My whole body knew that it hadn't felt something like that before. Ever since then I've been feeling him like crazy. The ultrasound tech said he is a wiggler, she even showed me his feet bouncing on my bladder :) I'm so grateful that everything looks good and healthy! The day we found out what he was I was 18 weeks, 1 day and he was measuring 18 weeks, 5 days. Lucky for us, he's already bigger than expected. Ha ha, I guess that's "lucky."

Now the tricky part is finding a name for him! We agreed on a girl name a few weeks ago, but never even considered what we would name a boy...guess we have a few months left to figure it out...ha! Any suggestions would be great...I found one that I LOVE but can't seem to talk Drew into it. Anybody had to do that before? And did it work?

Needless to say, this has already been such an awesome experience, I don't know if I deserve these blessings but I will take them. We're almost halfway! Lots of work to do and I can't wait to get started :)