Cullen Family!

Caythan is 2 months old today!!!

2010-01-18T16:16:00.001-05:00

I can hardly believe that Caythan is 2 months old already - and yet there are days that it seems as though he has always been here!.. So much has happened in the last 2 months that I don't even know where to begin... Caythan is cooing like crazy and will respond when someone talks to him - it's like he's holding his own little conversation with you and it's adorable! He is also smiling as you can see in the pic taken just this morning - it's so rewarding to see him smile back at me or to see him smile when he sees me if someone else has him! It's such an amazing bond that is already formed even for him it seems! Also this week he has found himself in the mirror on his play mat - or atleast sees a face there and lays and talks to it forever most mornings! He gets so excited and gets his little arms going and his legs kicking and gets so loud! :)
Dustin has returned to work - I hate it!! But am so very grateful that his job gives him overtime so that he can make up some income and allow me to continue to be home with Caythan until the end of March!! We have truly been blessed and I thank God everyday for the continuous blessings we are given!... Dustin works nights so pretty much the days when he works he has to sleep so that leaves a lot of time for Caythan and mommy to spend together - and by the way I haven't left him yet and Dustin says it's time :)... so we are thinking about maybe a Valentine's Day date just Daddy and Mommy and I am SO scared and nervous and he will be with Granny and PaPaw ... But I suppose it is healthy to leave him every now and then for a few hours - but seriously we have never been out of eye sight of each other and certainly never out of the same building!
He continues to grow everyday and Wed is his 2 month check-up with vaccinations... I am guessing he is 13.5 lbs but we will see - by any means he has certainly put on the weight and is completely out of newborn clothes and into his 0-3 months clothes!
Well he's waking up from his nap now so off to play some more! Miss you guys and Love you!! *Viki & Caythan & Dustin

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Caythan is born!!

2009-12-01T19:33:00.000-05:00

Caythan is finally born! :) After 36 hours of labor and finally an emergency c-section Caythan Ray Davis Cullen is born on Nov. 18th, 2009 at 4pm exactly! He was 7lbs 13 oz and 19 1/2 " long. He shares his birthday with his uncle John also - John's actually super excited about that!

Monday night/Tuesday morning I called Dustin at work and told him I thought my water had broke (or atleast was leaking) and we needed to head to the hospital... We headed that way around 7am on Tues. morning for tests to see if indeed my water was leaking - after about 2 hours of tests they decided it was my amniotic fluid and it was time to admit me to a birthing suite! We spent the next SEVERAL hours walking and trying to speed up contractions... After 31 hours of labor at the hospital and then another hour and a half of pushing the doctor came in and said Caythan was stuck and that there was no way I was going to be able to deliver him vaginally... So the only safe decision was an emergency c-section. Within 30 minutes they had me in the operating room and were bringing in Dustin for the birth of our baby boy! I was totally against a c-section going in thinking I wouldn't feel the same experience but honestly after it is all said and done I'm so glad that he was safe and I was able to stay awake the whole time and see him be born that I know God had His plan for us all along!

We spent the next 3 days in the hospital recovering and celebrating Caythan's birth. We had lots of visitors and learned quickly how to live on little sleep :)... I did love having my food delivered to me in bed, all my meds brought to me, and everything handled by the nurses. Caythan spent all his time in the room with Dustin and I which I feel so grateful that he was able to do and it really helped the 3 of us bond together and learn how to be a family!

Now that we are home Dustin has taken over the house stuff and I have quickly adjusted to being a new mommy. Caythan and I were stuck upstairs in bed for the 1st week because he had jaundice and had to be hooked up to the light machines and I was not allowed to go up and down the stairs anyways. So Dustin did the laundry, cooked all the meals, and truly stepped in as Mr. Mom :)!!! Now Caythan is over the jaundice and I am allowed downstairs so we feel like a true family! We took Caythan to the Christmas tree farm and cut down our first Cullen family Christmas tree and have spent the last 2 days decorating the house for Christmas!... We love our new house and the fact that we have a fireplace where our stockings are hung!

Well I'm going to try to post some pictures but I will keep adding more and keep you updated! Miss you guys and can't wait til Caythan can meet you!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

2009-10-24T13:56:00.001-04:00

Only 1 more month!!!

2009-10-20T18:49:00.003-04:00

It's finally all beginning to feel so real! It is a month away now and I can not wait :)... Caythan has already taken over our entire house - with his swings and toys and baby items... We are truly blessed to have such amazing families and friends that we have been fortunate enough to not have to buy anything on our own yet!

I am getting to the point in the pregnancy where I am starting to feel uncomfortable. I have gained 45 lbs (and still counting) and my belly is enormous! It's getting harder and harder everyday to carry this huge belly around as I teach PE and try to demonstrate soccer or whatever the skill we are doing is :)... We start our baby delivery classes on Thurs and I can't wait!!! I am super excited about delivery but really nervous about the epidural. We will be having him at Memorial Hospital and I am so excited about that since it has such an amazing labor and delivery department!

Mindy threw me a baby shower for family the last weekend of September and it was great!! The theme was rubber duckies and she had an adorable cake and lots of great food and of course the baby shower games :)... Then the teachers at work threw me another baby shower just last week and again we had lots of food and games and absolutely adorable little outfits for Caythan - (I'm just hopeful that he will be small enough to fit in the little things)... Next week Dustin's work is throwing us our final baby shower and I can hardly wait!! I love having everyone celebrate Caythan and being able to see how much people support us.

I am going to try to attach some pictures of his nursery onto here - We have chosen a sports theme (he is going to be ALL boy) and I even painted his name above his crib in sports letters!! Dawn and Francis (Dustin's grandma) bought all the nursery accesories so we didn't even have to do that :)!!!

Well I will post again really soon as we start going to the dr weekly and as progress continues. At this point though there is no dialating and we are still waiting on him to come :) - although I have had contractions for the past 5 days (Braxton Hicks ones).

School has started and we are in our 3rd trimester!

2009-08-30T10:39:00.002-04:00

Alright so school is underway and fall sports have started - which means working 11 to 17 hours a day!!! Talk about a bit of a change from the summer vacation where I worked 4 hours a day and then had the last month or so off from any work :)...

Dustin and I are anxiously awaiting Caythan - it's so amazing to feel him move around and kick and be able to see him continue to grow! I love being pregnant ... I am starting to get a little nervous about the delivery process now that it is all so close and so real :)

We have the first 2 stories of our house finished and are moving up to the 2nd floor now! Just gotta finish up some cosmetic things up there and then we should be done... Dustin's goal was to be finished by the end of Sept and I think we should be VERY close to reaching that goal - I would like to be completely done by the time we have Caythan :)

I don't have any just belly shots to put up but these are the most recent pictures of me - I think I grow an inch a day though so the belly just keeps getting bigger! This picture is of our anniversary day where we snuck away for a little while to Saugatuck Michigan and enjoyed the dunes, the beaches, and an evening boat ride! It was great :)

been gone forever!

2009-07-10T10:52:00.003-04:00

Hey... so I've been gone forever!... it's been crazy and hectic and still is - We don't have internet at home so I can't keep up with this like I should and I don't have any pictures to post because I'm at work - but I'll try to explain everything :)
Well I'm on summer "vacation" now - but I'm actually working more it seems... Teaching swim lessons 5 days a week and then waiting tables on Wed, Sat, and Sunday evenings - with 2 house payments and a baby on the way it's hard to skip any oppurtunities for money! Dustin and I are almost all moved into the new house - it's amazing how long it takes to unpack boxes... Plus I hate doing it so that doesn't help - but we have most of the upstairs done and the basement just working on the main level and the formal living area... Paint is almost done!!! 1 last coat needed in the master bedroom and on the outside doors then we can put the brushes away for awhile!!!...
We've had an emotional month - Dustin's father passed away on June 24th from an aortic anorism - he was only 53 years old!!! Talk about an eye opener... but the good news is we have been able to get in contact with many lost family members and are hopefully building a lifetime of relationships!...
We also found out last week that we lost one of our twins - they say it's pretty common but still came as a HUGE shock to us... They think I must have lost him way back around week 9 because there is no damage from him or sign of him still being around - which was the good news at the end of the day because if it would have been any later he could have caused major harm to the living baby! Which by the way is a VERY healthy baby BOY!!!... We are so excited and finally agreed on a name - we decided that night that we were going to name him for meaning and not for the name so we went through a name book and found Caythan Ray Cullen- which means "a gift from God" and he certainly is!!... We are busy now deciding how to decorate the nursery and getting things ready for him - I'm sure time will just fly by and before we know it it will be Nov. 30th!
I've slowed down on the belly growing now since my body appears to be adjusting to one baby instead of two but there is a bump there that boy oh boy is it in the way :)... Caythan moves around all evening - particularly when it's bed time and nothing fits except maternity clothes! Which I'm actually learning to love - elastic waisted pants and loose fitting tops!!! Seriously not sure why any one with a little belly pouch doesn't just wear maternity pants!
Alright so enough for now but I will post belly pics as soon as I get internet at home!

About to buy our house!!!

2009-03-22T18:19:00.003-04:00

It's so hard for me to believe that in about 1 week we will be closing on our new house... We put in the offer so many months ago and always said "Oh when we close on the other house" and now it's finally here - but with that comes the fear of 2 mortgages, SO much work to do on the house since it is a foreclosure house, and of course the moving!...

I am so excited though - this house is truly going to be the house we raise our children in!! It is on an acre lot with so much room but still in a housing addition to allow for other children and the safety that comes with house additions, it has 3200 sq ft of living space with the most gorgeous fireplace and finished basement!! The kitchen is amazing and the front porch is to die for - but every wall in the entire house has to painted, there is no carpet anywhere and the windows have children stickers stuck to them!! - seriously these kids that lived here needed some serious parents around...

We have also started trying to get pregnant so along with that comes the anticipation every month for "that time of the month" and I can honestly say I never thought I would be waiting for the day that my period is suppose to start :)...

Anyways, I hadn't been on here in awhile so I figured I'd catch everyone up a bit... Miss you all!

2008-12-20T21:27:00.002-05:00

Wow... it's so hard to believe Christmas is only a few days away - we are finally ready! I finished up all of our Christmas shopping today - and although the stores were chaotic I got amazing deals! One of my favorite things of Christmas is giving the gifts to family - cause I love seeing them open the gifts and seeing their reactions... It's awesome!

This year, as always, we went out and cut down our Christmas tree on Thanksgiving weekend - and this has got to be the best one we have ever had! It is the perfect height for our living room and it turned out amazing with the lights and ornaments! And finally after tonight all the presents are wrapped and the tree is in the Christmas spirit!...

Our week is packed full - we have my dad's birthday on Tues and then Christmas Eve church services and Christmas with Dustin's mom on Wed and then Thursday we squeeze both of our families in - I love the holidays but sure am glad they fall in the first week of vacation so I get an entire week afterwards to recover before school starts back up :)

Thanksgiving...

2008-11-28T11:02:00.004-05:00

What an amazing day!! I love spending any day with family but especially holidays... We started the day at my family's house - we headed over there to watch the parade and stuck around until after the first football game of the day :)... Then we headed to his family's house to catch a late dinner and play euchre all night :) - we also found out that his cousin and his girlfriend are engaged!!! I LOVE weddings and am so excited for them and can't wait to see another wedding!!!
Thanksgiving is a great holiday to be around those who you love and those who love you so that you can truly see what you have in your life and sit back and take it all in :)... I am so thankful for our families - we are so lucky to be super close to both sides of our in-laws and have the ability to be with everyone on the holidays... My goal though is to eventually own a big enough house so that we can host Thanksgiving at our place and allow both sides to come together instead of having to run from house to house throughout the day. I am also thankful for the relationship Dustin and I have - we are so lucky to have found each other and marry our best friend... As I sit here and type this up I also realize how lucky we are to have a beautiful home that we own, families that we love and 2 jobs that are secure... I thank God for all that he has given to us and pray that those who need are able to find Him and follow His desires.

TWILIGHT!!!

2008-11-21T07:44:00.000-05:00

Ok - so I've been counting down the days to the release of Twilight the movie, and it's finally here!!! I can hardly wait - we are all going tonight at 7pm and it's going to be the best thing ever! I have already finished the entire 4 book series - actually I finished them in a little over 2 weeks - and would HIGHLY reccommend it to everyone... Stephanie Meyer (the auther) is amazing and she can truly keep you up reading all night!
I will repost this weekend as to how the movie is but until then - you should all go out and get this book so that you don't miss out on what is promised to be the best movie of the year!!

sitting around the house...

2008-11-17T20:39:00.001-05:00

Ok so this is my first blog - and we'll see how this goes... I'm not sure of information to pass on or even what would be note worthy!

Currently I am teaching PE at a residential facility for at-risk kids - and I LOVE IT!!! I couldn't have asked for a better place to work and a more rewarding group of kids to work with... Everyday after I teach I go to Mishawaka High School where I work several more hours as the athletic trainer there. It's exciting and always something new but those hours can be exhausting...

Dustin and I just got married July 26th, 2008 and it was the best day of my entire life! I can not imagine anything more amazing then our wedding and marrying the man of my dreams... We own a house in Mishawaka and have a dog :). We will be trying to get pregnant pretty soon and then who knows what's up after that!?!? We are always looking for reconnection with old friends and meeting new people and love playing cards or anything outdoors!

Dustin is at work right now so I have the house just for Morgan (our dog) and me to enjoy Monday night tv - not really sure there is a better night of half hour segment shows! This week appears to be like any other week - something planned every night! Sometimes I wish that we could get home at 5pm and then have all night to enjoy each other - but we pack our evenings full of games, family and friends, or special events that have to be done which means that we spend less time awake in our house then we do out of our house ... And boy do I miss our house!

Ok so I hope to actually put up more new information for people cause I know you guys know all of this but it's a start and I'll try to get back here often so that people can know what's going on in our lives!