read 'em and weep

a tutorial :: skinny snowmen

2012-02-13T21:15:00.004-08:00

so, for sammy's winter one-derland party, i wanted to make some snowmen out of bottles. i had seen this and thought "oh, the kids would love this!" BUT i don't drink frappacinos and i didn't want to waste $6 on some bottles. so, my friend runs a coffee shop here in town and she gave me some old syrup bottles. so, i made skinny snowmen! they are very simple, and i love them so much, i still have them displayed in my kitchen.

here's the toot.

materials:

white paper

medium sized styrofoam balls

felt

construction paper

permanent marker

1. wash the bottles with warm water and let them air dry

2. wrap the bottles with white paper and hot glue so it adheres well

3. fold up the top kind of like you're wrapping a present. it will look a little more like snow this way and you can cover the whole bottle.

4. cut a 2 in. strip of white paper and wrap it around the neck of the bottle.

5. press the ball into the top of the bottle, but not too hard because you don't want to break the ball. there's no need for glueing the head since it will be pressed into the top of the bottle.

6. draw eyes and a mouth on to the ball with your marker.

7. cut a 2 in. wide strip of felt and wrap around the neck of the bottle, glueing every so often. snip the ends to make a scarf.

8. cut out an orange triangle (or a mustache!) and glue on for the nose.

9. cut out a hat shape of any kind and glue on the top.

10. add buttons to the bottle

VOILA!

sammy's birthday

2012-02-13T20:53:00.004-08:00

i can not believe my baby boy is one! i'm sure every mom says that at some point in her life, but i feel it. i mean, i really feel it. anyway, the day that sammy was born, jackson got about 4 inches of snow. what should have taken a 7-8 minute drive to the hospital took us 25-30 minutes. it's a good thing sammy waited to come! ha! anyway, the idea entered my head that we should have a winter one-derland party. i had seen a few pictures on pinterest and other blogs, and my head just went into high gear. we invited family to come celebrate sammy and his wonderful joy. anyway, here's some pictures and i'll post some tutorials soon about some of the decorations.

with sweet marie

hot chocolate bar

the spread

frosty the snowman cake

snowmen banana kabobs

chocolate covered oreo penguins

the snowmen centerpiece (tutorial here)

the birthday boy!!!

birthday donut

happy birthday, little buddy!!!!

it's amazing what a few pillows can do

2011-06-11T06:38:00.001-07:00

before

and after

a little summertime fun

2011-06-11T06:23:00.000-07:00

there's nothing like a good sunny day and an elmo sprinkler. seriously.

my first tutorial::a table runner

2011-05-23T08:41:00.000-07:00

well, i am slowly being inspired by all these other blogs that i read (like this one and this one mostly) about sewing and even with lots of boys, enjoying my girliness. i have also realized that a blog post does not have to be a novel. it's way too overwhelming when i think about that.

anyway, tomorrow i'm having a baby shower for a friend of mine. she's obsessed with strawberries right now, so we decided to have a strawberry shower! also, i think it's fun because she has two older boys (about dillon and isaac's ages) and this is a girl :). so, i made a girly table runner for the shower. here's the tutorial.

you need some muslin or linen fabric, and then a contrasting color for the ruffles, thread, and scissors. i like to rip my fabric to the right size because i am a horrible cutter. also, i don't know definite dimensions, because i totally eyeballed it. my table is about 4 feet long though and the runner just barely hangs off the side. i believe i got a yard and a half, and it's about 12 inches wide. if you like a more finished look, you can iron down hems and sew them so that it's a little cleaner. i just stitched a seam down the sides so it wouldn't fray anymore.

next, i used this tutorial for making ruffles. you basically start a stitch down the middle of your fabric and don't backstitch to secure it.

then, when you have stitched all the way down, you pull one of the pieces of the thread (the top thread or bobbin thread, whichever has a little more give) and ruffle. ruffle away.

after i had ruffled both of my pieces of red fabric, i sewed them, using my ruffle stitch as a guide, onto my muslin. easy peasy.

then, i used this tutorial to make a few fabric flowers (did i mention i liked this blog). my fabric wasn't solid, but i really like how it turned out. after i made my flowers, i hand-stitched them onto the runner.

there you have it! a nice, girly table runner!

sorry about the bad picture...it was taken with my phone

did i mention we had a baby ;)

2011-05-19T19:36:00.001-07:00

three months ago! i am so HORRIBLE at blogging!!! i am really going to try to be better. like the slinky post and i'm going to make a table runner this weekend that i think is blog worthy. we shall see what happens. i always think it's a good idea, but yadda yadda yadda.

so, we had a baby!!! samuel evan was born on february 7, 2011, at about 2:15 pm, weighing in at 7 lb 10 oz, and 20 inches long. the labor was a little crazy. the short story is that i was up from 1:30 am for the rest of the night with contractions that were nowhere near normal. we went to the doctor at about 10 that morning and i was already more than halfway there!!! we drove to the hospital in the pouring down snow (made a 20 minute drive what should've been an 8 minute drive) and was still having irregular contractions when we got there. long about 12:00, the nurses asked me if i wanted an epidural or anything else for pain. they told me if i didn't have anything, then i'd probably have sammy in just a couple hours, but if i did have something, it could be at least 3 hours, if not longer. well, my dream team (ben and my mom) and i decided it was time to just do it! by a little after 2:00 i was ready to start pushing and the doctor wasn't even in the room! they started paging the doctor over the intercom. he finally got in there an sammy was here about 10 minutes later!! it was so great to finally meet our beautiful, dark headed, screaming baby boy. he has been nothing but joy and is such a laid back baby. you can check out all the pictures of sammy here. enjoy!!!

everyone loves a slinky

2011-05-19T19:28:00.001-07:00

the boys both received slinkies from grandpa and granny when they stopped through on a trip to missouri. last time we got a slinky, it ended up all twisted up and we wondered if the slinky would ever survive the williams house. well, i can tell you truthfully that a slinky is a lot of fun, and i can show you through pictures of my boys ;)

reflections

2011-02-01T19:23:00.000-08:00

when i think about what all has happened since february of 2010, i'm blown away. seriously. i'm sitting here and 9 days away from my due date with little sammy. what in the world?!? anyway, i just want to list some things that i've walked through and been thankful for over the past 12 months. ok, here goes:

this time last year, my granny was on her death bed. i summed my thoughts about granny here. even though it's been a year, it's amazing how much i still think about granny (daily, i think) and how much i want to run by her house, call her and hear her sweet voice on the other end. to hear her tell me how much she's praying for my whole family and how much she loved our little boys. the thing i miss the most is her unconditional love for me...not just me but for my whole family. i hope i'm becoming more like her every day.
the month of may consisted of going to florida with ben's family and having a FABULOUS time. right before we left, we put our old house that we loved on the market. it was shown several times, but it wasn't time for us to move just yet.
june - i called ben about the second week of june and said "well, the boys are either going to have to move upstairs to the tower (in our old house) or we're going to have to move before we sell our house." he was confused and didn't get it. so, i said "we're PREGNANT!" mercy, can we have another blessing for this year?!
the summer was filled with the boys swimming with friends, mimi and papa, visits with grammy and pawpaw, fun with friends, and playing outside. did i mention is was the hottest summer EVER!? and we completely re-landscaped our yard, with the help of grandpa and pawpaw, and totally kept all of our plants alive during the whole summer. for those of you that know us, that is a HUGE accomplishment!
in september, ben and i celebrated our 5 year anniversary in nashville! it was SO wonderful. it was the longest we had been away from the boys ever, but it was so worth it! two weeks before we went to nashville for vaca, we got a contract on our house! let's talk about things happening all at one time!! so, we go to nashville, leave boxes all over our house, and enjoy staying in a hotel for a few nights. then, we get home, have an amazing yard sale, close on our house, find out baby #3 is indeed another boy, and move...BAM, BAM, BAM! really, those last three things happened in three days. oh my!
since september, we have been settling into our wonderful home. izi turned two (with a monster party) and dillon is our big 3 year old (complete with a mr. mets birthday party bash). in the middle of their birthday parties, i turned the BIG 3-0 and my AMAZING husband threw me an AMAZING surprise party! one of my bffs, glenna, came in for the party, i got to skype with my friend, jackie, and she gave everyone a wonderful memory of us. my mom, dad, and sister were there with memories in tow. then, i got to chat with my other bff, hannah. it.was.the.best.EVER!!! not to mention that all of my friends were there, too. anyway, it was wonderful. then, we had Christmas for two weeks straight, celebrated ben's birthday (he's 33 now), celebrated new year's (did we make it to midnight), and now are just waiting on sammy to get here!
oh yeah, WE'RE HAVING A BABY ANY DAY NOW!!!!

i can't wait to meet sammy and see how much hair he has and just to hold him and love him. it's going to be interesting to be a family of 5, but i think we're all ready for him to get here. i like reflecting. it's so good to be thankful for what you've been given and for allowing the Lord and others to impact your life. i'm thankful for that.

Happy December GIVEAWAY!

2010-12-01T07:19:00.000-08:00

check out this wonderful giveaway at it's almost naptime. she really has great ideas and why a mom is a mom ;)

Happy December GIVEAWAY!

so much to be thankful for

2010-11-24T20:18:00.000-08:00

well, i am officially the world's worst blogger. if anyone still reads, thank you! if anyone still cares, thank you!!

now, on to new things ;)

i was reflecting today on things i'm thankful for. there are so many! and so many that i know i haven't even thought of! so, i'm going to list them as they come to my mind.

my amazing husband who works so hard to keep me happy, keep our boys happy, provide for our family so i can stay home with the kids, and who is an amazing man of God, who leads our body of Christ in worship every week and loves it
my 2 (soon-to-be-3) boys. what a JOY! they are the epitome of wonderful. they happen to both be 2 at the time (this happens two weeks our of every year), and they are wonderful. i love the way they play together, how they don't sleep well in separate rooms, how they love me and have squeezed me more in the past two days than every before.
my family, who is about to welcome our 10th baby into the myatt/williams/tankersley family. lee and lili are adopting from russia and officially have a son! they passed court!!!! he will be here in time for Christmas, and i'm sure that it will be a Christmas that we will ALWAYS remember.
my church family, who love me despite who i am, who walk through this life with me, and teach me how to be a better woman of God, wife, and mother.
the williams' family, who loves me like i've always been a williams. they could hang out with me and not ben and all would be well and we would feel like it's always been this way.
our new house. have i mentioned the size of our backyard? and the fact that i have a music room and we have a playroom? and the fact that ben works from home now, so we get to see him throughout the day?! i love it!
my bffs, hannah, and glenna. i love the way they know me better than anyone else does (besides ben, and let's face it, he's my real bff ;)), love me just the same, and can quote you've got mail with me over and over and over again.
my friends who are here and abroad. my "new" mommy friends at ccc, and my "old" mommy friends who live in texas, arizona, and alabama.
i'm so thankful that at nights, ben and i relax, turn on the tv, and watch another rerun of scrubs because we love it so much.
above everything else, i'm so thankful for a God who loves me, who died for me, and who continues to show me the gospel every day...sometimes in a new way. a God who is my first love and who calls me His daughter. a God who my boys ask about everyday. wow. so thankful.

so, without further adieu, i will leave you with a couple pictures of the things i'm thankful for. happy thanksgiving everyone.

"The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine on you

and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26

right now...

2010-09-13T17:05:00.000-07:00

ben is singing a new song on his guitar, and trying to teach the boys how to shout in it.

the little people airplane is singing "high and low. high and low. up in the sky and away we go..."

dillon's big tonka trunk is making honking noises and he is pushing it on the hard wood making a lot of noise.

petey is sitting very quietly beside me (surprise surprise).

i'm in heaven.

the boys have had fun putting shoes on lately and have surprised me with some pretty fun outfits.

NEW HAIRCUTS!!!!!

not too shabby

2010-08-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

well, it's only been 3 weeks since i updated instead of 2 months! i call that progress!! since my last post, we have had a contract put on our house, we have put a contract on another house, and we are in the midst of LOTS of boxes that need to have more things in them instead of outside of them! ha! if you know me at all, you know i like to be organized in a certain kind of way. i like to do things on the fly for sure, and i really don't mind a messy house at all, but, when it comes to planning something, i get a high on having things organized. so, needless to say, i have a schedule for when each room should be packed and if i stay on this schedule, we will have everything packed before mine and ben's 5th anniversary getaway!!! yes, you heard me right! ben and i are leaving the boys for 4 nights and 5 days with grammy and pawpaw to get away for awhile! we're headed to nashville, are spending a couple nights at aloft. then, on saturday and sunday, we are going to be involved in our friends' wedding! ben is going to be leading worship and i am going to be coordinating (see, a planner at heart!). then, ben has something up his sleeve for sunday night and no one knows what it is! i'm not even sure if he knows what it is, to be honest with you. haha!

we also had an ultrasound of baby #3 a week ago. this baby is measuring a few days ahead of schedule, which is ok right now...just as long as he/she comes early or stops growing before he/she decides to join us in the world! we were able to count fingers and toes, saw the backbone, face, and jawbone, and saw that little thing squirm all around!!! it never ceases to amaze me that there is a BABY (aka HUMAN BEING) inside of me! i love it!

also, my sister and brother-in-law have been in the adoption process with russia for almost a year. after receiving one referral and never being able to meet the baby, they have received another referral and are going to meet sweet little baby boy on tuesday! my eyes are filling with tears as i type this. we have prayed and prayed for the next baby that will be a tankersley and it is evident that God wanted "nic" (he doesn't have a name yet) to be a tankersley! please join with us in praying that everything goes well when they meet him. lili told me that a union student came over to help them learn some russian the other day. one of the things she taught lili to say was "i'm your momma!" oh the joy!!!!! i can't wait to share in the joy of this little boy and to be a part of his family!! he is almost exactly 6 months between the boys, so i foresee LOTS of adventures between the williams and tankersley boys!! with the craziness of moving, i haven't taken many recent pictures, but i will post some that are my favorites.

to august resolutions!!!!

2010-07-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

i was looking at our blog and realized that i used to update our blog a lot more than i do now. i mean, dillon's birthday pictures (which, his birthday, is in DECEMBER!) are still on the home page! they're not archived! that means that i probably have updated, oh, 5 times since then. and while some of you may say "well, janie, that is almost once a month", to that, i say LAME-O!!!!

so, i am making an august resolution that i will update the blog more frequently, even if it's just so i have a record of how wonderful my growing family is, and even if nobody reads it anymore.

july has been extremely extremely busy! we started the month with my family coming in from chicago. it's always so much fun to see how these cousins don't skip a beat when they're apart for awhile, then back together! and it only keeps getting better!! we were able to spend a lot of time with the myatts. mimi always has so much planned for us when the myatts come in, that it's a stay-cation for us!! while they were here, ben's sister, lindsey, came in from oklahoma. while she was here, we headed to tennessee safari park. let me just say, i had no idea what we were getting ourselves into! the park itself is great, i just wasn't sure that sally (the swagger wagon) was going to make it through! those ostriches were out for blood!!! we started the tour by the man at the gate telling us how to hold our feeding bowls. then, after our first turn, a deer came right up to the van! and he wasn't blinded by my headlights. he was so calm and friendly. anyway, we saw deer, llamas, wildebeests, monkeys, giraffes (that we also fed by hand), camels, gazelles, ostriches, water buffalo, bison, and peacocks, to name a few. dillon and isaac loved it and i'm pretty sure that all the adults had a great time too!

since then, i have been trying to not feel horrible (i am 11 1/2 weeks along, and i can barely believe that my first trimester is almost over!), find fun things for the boys to do while it is BLAZING hot here. i think we've had 2 solid weeks of highs in the 90s, with heat indices of over 100*. not fun. so, we've made several trips to the train museum, played in the water a lot, dressed up like cows to get free chick-fil-a, and really have had a great summer.

at church, we're about to start a parenting class that ben is kinda going to be helping teach. i say kinda because: a. we really know nothing about parenting; and b. we have been on the administrative side more than anything of the class. anyway, we're going through shepherding a child's heart and i am so very excited about this study. so many times with parenting, i just get so frustrated, i don't know what to do. i know that every parent feels like this and has many days like this. i guess i have just had more frustrating days lately than encouraging ones. i know i'm complaining/ranting/complaining about my kids. i don't mean to do that, and i really hope i'm not. i think i am very excited to know what to do better on and what to do instead of doing what i'm doing now (that's a lot of doing...). anyway, i am excited to be encouraged by other moms at our church and to form an even bigger camaraderie with our friends. we are also praying about where God will have us soon. our house is still on the market (go here to see a video of it) and we really just don't know what is going to come in our life. we covet your prayers. our desire is to be in full time ministry. ben is so blessed by the Holy Spirit for leading worship, and possibly even pastoring. you can go to southernorthodoxy to see his resume and to hear music he's written and worship services he has lead.

thanks for listening to me banter tonight! here's some photos of the williams lately. i know you love it!

summer time is here!

2010-06-13T19:55:00.000-07:00

wow! a lot has happened since my last post! oh my goodness!
first of all, we are expecting our THIRD child!!!! YEA!!!! we are due february 10 and are so thrilled!!!! we are just praying the Lord blesses this little one like He has our other two. our quiver is definitely full. praise be to God!
we also made a trip to florida with ben's side of the fam (minus aunt chewey :( ) and had a BLAST! you can go here to see pictures of florida. we had such a great time and are really hoping that the oil doesn't get to our loved st. george island.
also, we have been doing a lot of work on the outside of the house. you can go here to see pics of that.
everything else is steady as it can be. our house is currently on the market. we are staying in jackson (Lord willing) but just need something a little bigger for our sweet growing family. if you know of anyone needing to buy, it has brand new landscaping in front ;) other than that, ben is staying busy with bw-creative, i'm staying busy with the boys, and the boys are just busy themselves!! they are so much fun recently!! here's a video to show you a little bit of what our day is like...

we hope everyone is doing well and can't wait to hear from you!!

a tisket, a tasket

2010-03-28T14:49:00.001-07:00

what is a tasket? please feel free to let me know.

well, spring is definitely in the air at the williams house. we are busy busy busy. i love spring-time however. everyone is in a better mood, i'm outside with my neighbors until 8:00 (because that's when the sun is officially gone), great consignment sales abound (and yard sales) more houses go on the market, and flowers and trees are in full bloom everywhere. as of late, when we have been getting in the car, i'm sure to here "WOAH!!!!" out of isaac's mouth (because of pretty flowers) and "there's some pink ones, momma" from dillon. i love how in tune they are with the changing of the seasons. also, i would love to hear who still reads our blog. please comment, or email, or facebook me and let me know who you are!!!

this week is Holy Week. Palm sunday is today and we are very busy with our church. ben is still leading worship here part-time, and honestly, we just love how they focus so much on Christ's life, and how all of scripture points to Christ. i have been looking forward to Holy Week because we do a huge feast called the Jesus feast on Maundy Thursday (thursday before easter). this is the end of the lenten season, the beginning of Eastertide. my heart overflowed this morning at church as i sat and thought about the people that actually saw Christ's face as he rode in on a donkey, down a narrow alley, with palmbranches laid before him. at CCC, we march around the church waving palms. well, this year, dillon really got to enjoy the palms. as he played with his branch all through church (and even got into trouble with it a little), it reminded me of childlike faith. i want to have faith like a child. that everything is great. that i can trust the Lord with everything because He is going to take care of it all. these are things i am processing right now this week. as we approach Good Friday, i know my heard is going to be super heavy. i can hear the gonging of the bell that one of the guthries rings on our Good Friday service now, and my heart fills with pain to know that Christ was in SO much agony for me alone. He is the reason we have Easter. so many people think that "Jesus is the reason for the season." don't get me wrong, i agree with this statement, but i think it should be more like "Jesus is why we have any season at all." (even though that doesn't really rhyme)

anyway, these are just things i have been thinking about lately. dillon and isaac continue to amaze us everyday. God has truly blessed us with wonderful children, who love other people, who love scripture (already), and who obey. i take this for granted way too much. they are growing so much daily and are such a joy. here's a few pics from the previous month and a half. enjoy.

hanging out with baby eli

playing on the stairs at grandpa's and granny's

always a blast with aunt jen jen!! @stone mountain

"who me?"

big boy hair!!

two peas in a pod

reading with grandpa

oh my word

this is what happens when you have a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old and you let them play on the hill ;)

first time with a spoon by himself. there was more oatmeal on him than in his belly ;)

His mercies are new every morning...

2010-02-11T08:04:00.000-08:00

my granny, jane myatt, went to be with the Lord on monday night around 5:55. i haven't been wanting to write this post. not because i'm scared or not because i don't want the world to know what an amazing woman she was, but because with writing it, it becomes so much more real.
we knew that her time was drawing near. on sunday, i went to newbern, tn, to get some medicine for her with my mom. we had such great conversation, and occasionally, we would look at each other and say "granny sure is great" and just burst into tears. however, even though we are sad, there was some joy in our tears. here are some words to describe granny:
loving
caring
unconditional
proverbs 31 woman
selfless
faithful
never giving up
prayer warrior
christian
submissive
these are just the first ones that come to mind. if i had more time, i would write many more. when granny passed away, we were all gathered around her bed, telling old stories and laughing really hard. then, she slowly took her final breaths and went to be with the Lord. i'm so encouraged to live a much better life because granny was such a big part of my life. my aunt and all of us cousins have said "if i can be half the person granny was, i'll accomplish a lot." even though that's true, i want her life to encourage me to be all that she was, to live life to the fullest and have the abundant life. that's what she did and, boy, did she reap the benefits! granny was so blessed, and she gave ALL the glory to God.
in her last days, i remember sitting on her bed with her, holding her little head up, and singing hymns with her, telling her things i loved about her, "tickling" her face as she used to do mine so much, remembering old pets that she hated and i loved, listening to her say "those boys are SOOOO cute (in a sing songy voice)" and "ben...he's a good good man, janie. you take care of him." what an encouragement to live out the life that God has called me to.
i love you SOOOO much, granny, and you will be missed. however, i praise the Lord for your life and that you are worshiping God face-to-face now.
praise God from whom all blessings flow
praise Him all creatures here below
praise Him above the heavenly hosts
praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Amen.

my sweet granny

2010-01-27T08:14:00.000-08:00

this is a post to ask for prayer. we are all doing well, but my granny is not. granny is 89 years old and one of the most amazing people i have ever met. she loves the Lord more than life itself. she gives of her time and energy and is one of the most powerful prayer warriors i have ever known. however, her health is failing her. she continues to get worse, is worn out, and her oxygen levels are really bad just from getting up and going to the bathroom. i love this woman so much and i covet your prayers right now for her and for her life to be pain free, to not suffer, and to enjoy every bit of it. thanks. God bless you guys.

...and the celebrations continue...

2009-12-13T12:54:00.000-08:00

we have been SO incredibly busy since before thanksgiving!!!! as some of you know, the four members of our family all have birthdays within 4 weeks of each other, 3 of those being within 2 weeks of each other!!! it all started with isaac turning one. let me tell you, that boy is so happy!! we celebrated his birthday "bulldozer style" because he IS our little bulldozer. that kid can mess up a room faster than you can "what'd you do?!?!" he is crawling on all fours, pulling up on everything and beginning to talk. he signs "more please", "love you", "bye bye", and he even says "amen" at the end of a prayer. he weighs about 21 pounds, and is about 29 inches long (i think). he is not starving, that's for sure!!! he loves to eat, loves cars, and is ALL boy!

isaac's birthday cake

hmmmm....

i think he likes it!!!

favorite pic so far!!!!

celebrating at mimi's house!

i had a birthday a week and a half after isaac did. ben took me to sakura (our favorite sushi place in town) with some of our best friends, the guthries and the denkers. it was such a wonderful night of no kids, coffee, sushi, a fire, and a LOT of laughs (don't forget what the most common city in the nation is named!). i am so blessed with an amazing husband and friends. thanks to everyone who called and sent cards and presents. i truly am loved. (and just in case you're wondering, i still have one year left before i hit the big 3-0.)

friday, was dillon's birthday (our birthday banner really should just stay up for the whole 4 weeks!!!). we, of course, had to have a train party! dillon is such a BIG boy, now. i feel like i officially have a boy and not a baby anymore. he talks CONSTANTLY. seriously, his verbal skills are amazing. one of his favorite things to say is "LOOK, momma! LOOK!" he is putting sentences together, can count to almost 20 (with a little help) and we are working on his colors. it's so much fun to have a little sponge that soaks up everything you say. he has a very sensitive heart. whenever isaac is crying, he looks up at me and says "isaac crying, momma. no like isaac crying." he's such a great big brother and both of the boys have a blast playing together. i think dillon weighs about 26 pounds, and is about 34 inches tall. he also will tell you that he is two when you ask him. he's so big.

i still can't believe he's TWO!!!!

of course, a thomas cake ;)

we will celebrate ben's birthday on the 29th and following days (and probably some preceeding days) with family. we have been very blessed lately with ben's work. he is officially THE graphic designer for an upscale magazine in memphis called VIPMemphis. after a lot of prayers and begging of God, BWCreative is doing well, making money, and providing us with enough money to live on. it has been a huge struggle, but we have grown so much in our faith through this time. we thank all of you who have prayed for us over the last couple of years. God is faithful, even when we aren't. i'm so thankful for that.

we are gearing up for ben's family and my family all coming in next week. the myatts will be here on the 19th, aunt jen jen and aunt lindsey will get here on the 20th, then, we will celebrate Christmas with my family the first part of the week and the Williamses the second part of the week. grandpa and granny will be coming on the 26 and then, most of those people will be leaving on the 29th :( it will be a lot of fun to be able to see everyone at Christmas...especially for the boys to get to hang out with cousins, aunts, and uncles that they don't get to see that often. we pray God's blessings on you this holiday season! Merry Christmas to all!!!

these two were from the day we went to get our Christmas tree. it was a hot december day, but we had a great time ;) thanks, ward's!!!

giveaway!!

2009-10-20T20:48:00.000-07:00

check out this great giveaway at the urban hen!! go here and enter the one that you would like! it's pretty simple, you see ;)

fall

2009-10-03T14:43:00.001-07:00

oh, how i love fall. our windows have been open now for a solid week. it has only rained once, and i planted some catalillies today, along with enjoying a pumpkin spice latte. yes!! obviously, we love fall!!! the boys are getting so big. as i type this, they are laughing hysterically at each other, playing by themselves in their room. their favorite thing to do is crawl under isaac's bed, one at one end, one at the other, and laugh hysterically at each other! now, they are playing the harmonica with each other. dillon is holding it up to isaac's mouth and blowing in and out for him. oh my word, they are SO MUCH FUN!!!! just wanted to update you on some new things. i'll timeline the pictures as they go, so you don't have to guess ;)

on another note, isaac is having tubes put in on wednesday. the poor guy. he has had an ear infection is whole life except for about a month and a half since the time he was 6 weeks old. we're so glad that he won't be in anymore pain, and we loved the e.n.t that we went to. it isn't a long procedure. the doc said that if he was under for 15 minutes, that was a long time. i felt better about that statement :) please pray for us on wednesday morning about 8:00. i will let everyone know how everything goes.

now onto the pictures ;)

isaac is only taking 2 bottles/day (praise Jesus). this was his first attempt at spaghetti. i think he liked it. sadly, we did not get an after picture; however, he did go straight to the tub ;)

these are two of isaac's friends. all these guys' birthdays are within 7 weeks of each other. these girls are so much fun. we have to save this one for the wedding slideshow ;)

today, we went to the pumpkin patch in milan. dillon has been FASCINATED with pumpkins since we got him a little bitty one at the farmer's market a couple of weeks ago. then, nette nette took him to get one and he would sit on the front porch and HUG his pumpkin! ha! we decided he needed a few more, but don't worry, we only ended up with 4, one of which is a gourd :)

daddy and his boys

sweet isaac. how can you resist that face?

brothers. it was really hard getting them to smile at the same time. isaac will smile at just about anything; dillon, on the other hand, only wants to smile when he wants to.

there's a good "CHEEEESE!"

and another one. my little boy is getting SO big!! can you believe he will be TWO in just two short months!?!?! i CAN'T!!!!

i want this one, momma!! (we didn't get that one, though).

LOVE it!!! daddy and izzi (long i at the beginning, long e sound at the end) bear

what a great way to finish out a great day!?!?! i hope you can enjoy fall as much as we have today! love to all!!

soooo...

2009-09-17T11:58:00.000-07:00

look who decided to update the world on the williamses!! we have been so so busy that i have not even had a chance to really take any pictures! we have gotten some video, which i'll upload in another post (i'm on the 'ol imac right now...too slow) and some cell phone pics. sadly, our camera is broken right now and is hard to handle to get the pictures. maybe santa will be nice to us this year! i'm sitting in my sewing room/guest room right now. i have been enjoying our sun room on most days, but today, i'm realizing how much i love this tower, as we like to call it. there are 7, count them, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 windows in this room! it's so nice with all the natural light, you really don't even need a lamp on. this used to be ben's office, but since he moved on up, to the east side (a little jefferson's for ya), i've definitely taken advantage of this room! also, we had our first guests to sleep up here, joe and leah sulateskee!! yea! anyway, the boys are getting so big. dillon has more words than i can even count, isaac has started crawling, and eating real people food. sadly, we have been to the doctor several times in the past month. we started out with a horrible cold/something after we had gotten back from georgia. (did i mention we went to atlanta to see pop pop, granny, and aunt jen jen?) both boys had ear infections, isaac's almost bad enough for his eardrum to rupture. well, this past week, his eardrum did rupture. we now have an appointment with the ent at the end of the month to set up an appointment for tubes. dillon also still had fluid on his ears. it's so sad when your children are so happy...wait a second, let me explain. the boys are so content and rarely cry or fuss...at least not out of the ordinary. so, we never know if they really are sick or not. that's what is so sad. ben says the have the janie myatt syndrome, which is "suck it up! you'll be fine!" as sometimes the janie myatt syndrome is a good thing, for little boys whose ears are hurting, it's probably not the best thing. we will see what the ent says and when the appointment will be made for.

also, the boys are weighing in at: dillon: 26 pounds (he's big enough to just get on the scales now) and isaac: 21ish pounds. they are so so much fun. they are playing together so well and they love each other. dillon will wake up in the morning or from a nap and dillon will say "hi, brudder! hi, brudder!" and, as i'm typing this, he's yelling, "ISAAC, ISAAC!!!!!!" he is sleeping. now, dillon is saying "shhh shhh shhh!" anyway, they just keep getting better and better!!

we did go to atlanta to hang out with family. while we were there, we enjoyed a get together with old friends, going to church with the people that were fundamental in ben's discipleship, went to ikea and a movie, went to the aquarium, and to the zoo, and the list goes on and on! it was so much fun and a much needed break from the norm for me. pop pop and granny kept the boys all day one day for ben and i to go out for our anniversary (four blissful years!). we fell in love with ikea and made our christmas wish list as well ;)

just recently, i had the opportunity to coordinate trista and charlie havner's wedding. i've known these kids since they were in high school, which is when they started dating. so, it was such a joy to see this relationship come to fruition in marriage! God was glorified at the ceremony and a great time was had by all.

me with the bride. she looked beautiful!!!

at the rehearsal dinner

next month, we have the women's retreat for Christ Community coming up, saturday night pookie (the big birthday bash for brian denker) and a great night of worship at church that ben has been working on so hard. it's nice to have a break from being so busy. today, we're sitting on the couch, not doing a whole lot of anything. it's so nice! we love and miss you all!! here's some pictures of atlanta for you to enjoy!

LOVING the aquarium!!

looking at and loving the jellyfish with pop pop

same expressions :)

lovin' some turkey!

fun in the pool!

and playing with the train

riding the train with pop pop. this was the beginning of dillon's horrible ear infection :(

aunt jen jen and isaac. he LOVES her so much!!

micah

2009-09-14T13:03:00.000-07:00

well, i know i haven't updated about our family in a very long time. we have been crazy busy. i hope to do that tonight. as for now, i wanted you to be aware of something to pray for. our friends, thomas and tina varughese had a horrible accident with their son who is 11 years old. you can read about it here and read his updates here. it is such a blessing to have children. it's even more of a blessing when God has an amazing path for them. i'm very excited to see what God is going to do with micah and how He is going to use him in his life.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
Amen.

summer, 2009!

2009-07-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

at lake erie. it was beautful!

well, we have definitely had a VERY busy summer! it has been so much fun, but it's been a little more busy than we like it to be ;)

however, we have gotten to see several of you, and for that we are very grateful. our bus-i-ness isn't going to subside at all anytime soon. once august 8 gets here, we have something going on every weekend until the end of september! AUGHHH! i'm sure that i will probably post little updates, especially on the boys, but if i don't, don't hate me ;) haha

the boys are getting bigger everyday and so much more fun everyday! this past week, some kind of yuckiness has hit janie, so there's been a little more aggrivation on her part, but i'm sure that will subside once i am feeling better. we did take a trip to ohio for a williams family reunion of sorts. ben's aunt sandy turned 60 and had a big blow out of a party! needless to say, everyone loves aunt san and you could definitely tell at her party. i think there was a total of about 80 people there! and only 19 of us were family! ha! also, ben has moved into his office space! we have yet to post pictures, because, well, it needs some work done to it. however, we're hoping for a trip to ikea in the near future to get a conference table and some other things to spiff it up a bit. so, pictures of the office will have to come later. he is LOVING it though! and God is really blessing his work. he has been SO busy since we got home, and in the meantime, he has found time to treat me like a queen since i have been sick. (even bringing me soup for two meals in a row). ♥

now on to the good stuff. here's some new photos. i'll timeline it as they appear so you don't have to scroll back and forth ;)

night, night, mr. brother (isaac)

dave is amazing and has finished painting 1/4 of our house!

what usually happens in the evening. everyone on the couch! petey was at ben's feet ;) all my boys [love it!]

being silly at bathtime. it's an adventure and lately, i think i have ended up wetter than both boys put together.

CHEEEEESE!!!!!

a little light reading!

one of isaac's bffs, audrey jones. she is almost exactly one month younger than him! she already loves him!

one of the BEST summer toys! (thank you, mimi!!!!)

first diamond jaxx game of the season! there will be more of those to come!!
with our friends, landon and stacy preston! they're expecting baby #1 in january and we CAN'T WAIT!!!!

one happy baby!

dillon got his first haircut given by his granny.

big boy. (very bittersweet by the way)

snapping grass with aunt jen jen. he thinks she's really cool...oh wait, she is really cool!

playing with mommy. i love my boys!
on the way to and from ohio, we stayed with my bff and fer family, hannah (and the rest of the fields!) we had five kids all 3 and under in a four bedroom house. it was fun, but c-r-a-z-y!! florida, here we come!!!

and when we got home, our friend grayson may was in town for a visit. grayson is one week older than dillon. needless to say, dillon would rather be playing with grayson than taking pictures with grayson!
and there's a happy boy!!!

that's a lot that went on in a month! sadly, i got almost no pictures from ohio! i need to get better at that! here's the whole family!!

well, well, well...

2009-06-17T13:39:00.000-07:00

look who decided to blog again? ha ha! i have been so busy with bug-a-roo and family coming into town, i have had no time to blog! but, the moment you've all been waiting for is finally here! a new post! (i'm totally kidding, by the way)

anyway, the boys are growing SO much and, to be honest, i have been playing and playing with them, that i haven't gotten any video or pictures lately of either one! they are both at such a fun age right now...a somewhat trying age, but fun! isaac is rolling over and doesn't quite know what to do after he rolls, but he'll figure it out soon! and dillon is saying so many words, i can't even count them all! it is just SO MUCH FUN!!! at isaac's 6 month check up, he weighed just under 18 pounds and he is eating baby food 3 times a day now. sometimes dillon thinks he needs to show isaac how it's done, but i tell him to save that for ball throwing and slip and sliding ;) dillon hasn't had to go to the doc since his last check up at 15 months! he is 18 months old already!!! this time next year, he will just be a 2 year old! not a ___ month old!! he is running everywhere, into everything, and wants to help me with everything as well! i asked him to get me a burp cloth this morning and he came back with TWO wipes (i'll settle for wipes!). he's going to be such a big brother to isaac! he already is!! they both light up when they see each other! we have also had the elmo splash pad out a time or two and dillon LOVES it. the water was a little cold for isaac, but we have a baby pool that will be making it's debut next week! dillon LOVES the water and isaac LOVES the bath and pool, so i don't know why he wouldn't like the baby pool!

a couple of weeks ago, ben's mom and step dad and step sister came to visit and paint the outside of our house! it looks SO good! (again, sorry there's no pics of it right now...i need to get on that this afternoon!) they also have decided to move to jackson!! they have a contract on a house here and we are SO thankful that they're going to be closer to us! they also have a contract on their house in oklahoma...they will be here in just about a month! how fun!!

also, my brother and his family have been here this week! it's been a fun-filled week at mimi and papa's house! all the cousins are loving playing together and my boys LOVE hanging out with mimi and papa! i will post some pictures of those guys after they leave. we have a few more adventures to take while they're here, so that should be fun ;)

ben and i are looking forward to going to see wicked, the musical, at the orpheum next friday night! mom and dad have been gracious enough to give us tickets to go see wicked and keep the boys for the night! we (janie) are SO excited!! i can't wait!!!!!! we are also going to cleveland, oh, for a williams family reunion of sorts. ben's aunt sandy is turning 60 so we're all going out to wish her many happy returns! we can't wait to see all those people and for most of them to meet the boys! it will be a blast! then, in august, we'll be headed to atlanta to see grandpa and granny (and hopefully aunt jen jen and auntie lindsey!).

ben and i have been so blessed as of late! bwcreative is doing so well right now! ben is about to move into his own office space that is only about a mile or so away from the house. God is really doing some great things for us and we don't really understand it. bug-a-roo is also doing very very well! between raising a family and these two businesses, we have been so busy, but God is so faithful. He's really teaching us about discipline right now in every area of life. although it's hard, it's also very good knowing that we are in His will and being SO sure of that for the first time in two years. God is so good.

i want to leave you with the most recent photos i have of the boys. i love them so much!

i have a love/hate relationship with spring

2009-04-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

the new arrangement at the williams's house! isaac IS in the high chair...i promise!

the reason for that is we LOVE being outside...however, outside does NOT like me around this time of year. however, we are SO glad that it's so much nicer outside. it has been a busy few weeks for us! i did get some pictures of all the visitors that we had over the past few weeks (thanks, grammy and aunt hopie and auntie lindsey!) we also had isaac's 4 month pictures made. they turned out SO good! heather, the owner of cedarway, is a good friend of mine. she does GREAT work and we recommend her to anyone! and these boys have just kept us SO busy! they are SO much fun! there are definitely days where i am not sure that i will make it through, or get a shower for that matter, but those days are few and far between. also, my side bizz, bug-a-roo, is truckin right along! i did free fridays in march, and had four fantastic winners, and have been SO busy since then! i'm so thankful for that! ben has also been pretty busy graphic design, and, by God's good grace, we FINISHED OUR TAXES TONIGHT!!!! WOO HOO!!!!!! we are so thankful that God has provided for us over the past year. doing taxes is a bit crazy, but it really shows how dependent we are on the Lord to provide for us. and He does everytime. we are very thankful.

now, onto what you really want to know about, dillon and isaac! they both continue to be a joy! between chasing (and i mean chasing) dillon around the house and making isaac laugh, there's rarely a dull moment in our house. dillon is just about running every where by now! for those family members that haven't seen him in even a couple of weeks, you are going to be blown away next time you see him! and he is talking up a storm, repeating sounds that we make. tonight, brian and cindy had dinner with us. while they were leaving, i said "dillon, are you ready to take a bath?" and he went straight to the bathroom knocking on the door saying "bath, bath, bath, bath, bath..." the kid LOVES the water! anyway, we have had great playdates with friends at the park and dillon loves the slide and climbing all over the playground. we have a fantastic playground here in jackson that is made for all children, no matter what ability they have. it's great because he doesn't have to climb up too many stairs to play and he walks around the whole time! we haven't taken pictures yet (i claim mommy brain) but we will soon. i foresee a playdate sometime this week!

CHEESE!!!!

look! it's my feet!!

isaac is also making us fall more in love with him every day! his laugh is VERY contagious and it's VERY easy to make him laugh! he is so bubbly and ticklish every where! he rolled over from back to front for the first time today. sadly, he was in his room and i was doing something in my room so, all i heard was a muffled cry, i.e. a very mad baby who couldn't figure out what just happened. he is getting SO big! we go for his 4 month check up on wednesday. i know he's bigger than dillon was at this age. it's crazy that he's 4 months old!! it seems like yesterday, we were driving to the hospital to have him! besides laughing, he is cooing all the time, bearing weight on his legs, and sitting in his bumbo seat. he also loves dillon and just GLOWS when dillon walks in the room. i know that they are going to be such good friends! well, here are some pictures and a video to let you know the insides of what goes on in our house. i can't believe i'm posting this video...oh well! these boys love to dance!!

happy baby!

a little update is needed

2009-03-23T07:28:00.000-07:00

well, this has been one fun-filled march, thus far! we have had visits from grandpa, grammy, pawpaw, aunt nette, uncle jim, aunt jen jen, auntie lindsey, aunt hopey, and also mimi and papa! mercy!!! that's our entire family just about! anyway, i did not get many pictures of any of these visits, so if you have some, please send them to me as i need to document this most amazing month ;)
on other notes, let's start with dillon. he is now 15 months old and i CANNOT believe it! we are still trying to just have room time in the morning, although most mornings, it turns into a little nap for the big guy. but, our lunches are a little nicer even if he sleeps for 20 minutes. i'm sure that you other moms of 15 month olds know what i'm talking about! he is getting more and more fun everyday. he's officially walking as long as he is already standing up. he hasn't quite figured out how to stand from sitting, but i know it just takes time. however, this kid is talking up a storm!!! saturday, mimi and papa kept the boys for ben and me so that we could go to dinner and a movie (YES!) and when we drove up to mimi and papa's gate, he said "papa!" i think he loves his papa! he continues to love melmo (elmo) and talks about him and says his name anytime he sees him...in a book, on tv, as a stuffed animal...whatever! he also says "cool", "whoa", "ball", "balloon", just to name a few. i'm attaching a little video of some of his fave words he likes to say right now. we are so blessed to have dillon in our life!!

ok, now for isaac! there is a reason we named him isaac. it means "son of laughter" and he has been smiling and making us laugh for his entire life! well, now HE is laughing SO much and it's SO much fun! he is also down to 5 feedings a day (yes, this is what we talk about with a 4 month old!!) and it makes mommy's life a little bit easier. he has also started drooling quite a bit (dillon drooled for 7 solid months before he cut his first tooth, so i'm not expecting anything too soon) and he's in the beginning stages of putting things in his mouth. he's rolled from his stomach to back a few times and he's rolled up on his sides making us think he's about to roll completely over. it will be soon, i'm sure ;) here's a video of daddy's favorite thing to do with isaac right now. only this was taken a couple weeks ago and he is laughing even more now! at least you get the idea. we are also SO blessed to have this amazing little boy in our life!! God has truly given us two of the best kids in the WHOLE ENTIRE world!

as for me and ben, we're doing well. we continue to LOVE our community we are in and are just praying for God's leading right now with what will be next in our life. my side bizz has kept me busy this month, which we are VERY thankful for, and ben has been quite busy as well with his business. if you ever need anything for a new baby or some design, you know who to call!! also, a little plug for my sister. she has started a new business as well with REALLY cute wall decor for kids! here is her site. we hope everyone is doing well! thanks for checking in with us! we'd love to hear from you soon!

plugging a give away!

2009-03-06T06:21:00.000-08:00

check out my side bizz blog for a free give away this weekend! happy babying!

typical breakfast

2009-03-04T07:14:00.000-08:00

we just wanted to share with you what a typical breakfast consists of at the williams's house. watch all the way to the end. if you're a jacksonian, and you watch wbbj, you will understand why we tell dillon to dance like gary pickens and how HILARIOUS that is!! we hope you enjoy!

the month in review

2009-02-22T20:42:00.000-08:00

well, this month has been crazy, obviously! i have not blogged in forever! we are having a great time here and are sleeping well for the time being ;) ben has been working like a dog the past few days, which we're very thankful for, but i'm ready for the long days to be over. so, let's start at the beginning of february! dillon is getting so big and is walking better and better everyday. today, he climbed in and out of his little chair that his great great grandpa made for our grandpa (tom) and he LOVES it! we have been playing playing playing, occassionally getting things done around the house, and all around just having a good time. dillon will say ball, dada, bubba (which i really hope will change to isaac soon), mama, bye bye (instead of dye dye), no, more, help, and, of course, he says "please" in sign language all the time. that's a lot of words!

all dillon wanted one morning was his car and teddy bear! it was the cutest thing in the world!

we are also trying to come out of our morning naps. so, instead of naps, we are having room time for 30-45 minutes. room time is putting dillon in his crib with about 20 books. the other morning, it got really quiet in dillon's room. i went in to check on him and this is what i found...

we will continue to see how room time goes ;)

isaac is doing so well, too! he is sleeping through the night (praise Jesus) and we are feeling ok. we have battled an ear infection of some sort for the past 6 weeks. he was on amoxicillon, then changed to augmenton, then came off of it because his belly was so disturbed by it, and now i think that we are doing well, finally! he is smiling, cooing, and "talking" all the time, and even laughs every now and then. his favorite thing to do is to lay on his play gym and grab for his rabbit and mirror and talk and play.

dillon and isaac have also been playing together recently. this is so much fun! it makes me so happy to see these boys have a good time together already! i can't wait for the next few years to come!!!

hi, mommy!

the weather has been nice, then really cold, then nice, then really cold, and as i type this it's actually snowing outside. it was 63* yesterday, and there's already an inch on the ground! well, while it was nice, we did get out for a stroll. the car was dillon's birthday present from grammy and pawpaw and he LOVES it! plus, it IS super easy to cart both boys for a quick stroll.

valentine's day, 2009. this was the best pic i could get of the boys together. dillon's shirt says "be mine" and isaac's says "mommy's little love bandit". haha. our boys are our little valentines ;)

i just can't resist isaac's precious cheeks and his smile and coos! he is such a happy, content little boy! the Lord has truly blessed us with amazing children. if they're all like this, we could have a house full in about 10 years.

isaac james, 3 months old

and finally, another great picture from a good walk. only this time, dillon ended up in my arms, too. at this rate, i don't need to go to the gym!

everything else is going exceptionally well. we love each of you! sorry it was such an informative post and not very thought provoking! but with boys like these, you don't need very much more :)

so much to be so thankful for

2009-02-09T14:30:00.000-08:00

i just spent a while crying for this family. (i will preface this with "if you're pregnant, you might not want to read that family's blog right now"). rebekah (the mom) was a friend of mine from high school. i ache so badly for them. please be praying for this sweet family as they mourn the loss of their precious child. that brings me to tears. i am so thankful for my boys. i am queen bee in our house and i'm so proud of it! isaac is so precious. he smiles every time i try to talk to him! he is a blast! and dillon is one of THE cutest kids i've ever seen! his joy RADIATES and is so contagious! at church yesterday, he was crawling all around the floor running into people's legs with one shoe on and one shoe off. then, he pulled himself up against the wall and just cackled so loudly! he is SO happy!! God has truly blessed us with bouncing, healthy, growing baby boys. i know that sometimes i get so bogged down by the day itself, wanting more nap time or a chance to just go somewhere by myself and not have to get the boys out. however, i love getting them out of their carseats and going places. i love how everyone talks to them in stores and how isaac will coo and gaze at whomever looks his way, and dillon will act bashful and smile and wave bye bye to whomever tells him bye bye. i have so much to be thankful for.

snow, and steps, and snot, oh my!!

2009-01-28T13:40:00.001-08:00

all i have to say is i'm so glad last week is over. we started out the weekend to last week going to jackson, ms, for a business trip for ben. the boys were FANTASTIC on the road...seriously, if i knew they would be this good on every trip, we would travel all the time and whenever we thought about it! so, 10 bags and one day later, we came home with a coughing, stuffed up dillon. it was so sad. he got very hoarse and was so snotty, we were just surviving. on top of that, we tried to move isaac into their bedroom to sleep at night as well. needless to say, nobody was sleeping much. isaac wouldn't wake dillon up and dillon didn't wake isaac up, but i was up almost every hour for a couple of nights in a row with both of them. finally on thursday, i took dillon to the doc. double ear infection. double wammy. he gave us some amoxicillin and dillon was feeling better by saturday. however, then isaac started feeling bad and coughing a lot and not eating very well. we were going in on monday for his two month check up (yes, he's TWO MONTHS OLD!!!) anyway, so i didn't worry too much about him. well, poor guy has an ear infection as well! so, another trip to target pharmacy and we are all feeling much better! isaac is still very hoarse and breathing deep, but he's not nearly as snotty as poor dillon was. this is was dillon looked like. his poor face was so chapped from us wiping it 5,000 times a day. so sad.

so, since this week we haven't gotten out much either, we've had time to work on some walking, and guess who's walking?!?!?! DILLON THOMAS IS!!!!! that's right! he is walking and is getting really good at it. even today, i just held one hand while we walked to the car from jason's deli (so through the whole restaurant out to the sidewalk). he is so big and i feel like we have a little boy and not just a baby anymore. you might get pretty dizzy from watching this video, but it's SO worth it. the last segment is the best!

we also had one 65 degree day last week (i think it was friday). dillon, isaac and i spent about an hour and a half outside eating lunch and just hanging out. this was dillon's most fascinating discovery ;) my poor pansies are dead now, but it was still just as fascinating to him.

then, to our surprise, we woke up to about an inch of snow this morning! they were calling for ice, but it was much better! it just snowed instead of an ice storm! i LOVE it when it snows and this is probably the only time it will snow this year in jackson. so, it's a pretty big deal. with the boys being sick, we didn't get out in it too much, but dillon felt it and said "ohhhh". then he didn't want anything else to do with it! i love the way our house looks in the snow.

also, isaac is getting so big! at his two month check up, he weighed 12 lb 6 oz and is 23.75 inches long. he is the 75%ile for both height and weight!! we have a BIG BOY on our hands!! dillon weighed that much when he was four months old. i have a feeling i might be buying them the same size clothes pretty soon. he is so much fun, too. he smiles all the time and is trying to coo and talk a lot. i'll be making dinner and all the sudden hear "ohhh" and it's little isaac, just reminding me that he's there. i LOVE him so much and LOVE being the mommy to these two precious boys. i've realized just how priceless they are lately. it's such a dream come true.

accidents

2009-01-13T13:46:00.000-08:00

well, you might wonder what this post is going to be about. i just spent 47 minutes catching up on my friends' blogs (all listed to the right) and realized that the last time i blogged was on december 27! holy cow! i don't even know what today's date is, but i DO know that it's january 12, 13, or 14. that's not too bad for a mom of two kids under 1! i also know that dillon is 13 months old and is as great as ever, and that isaac is about to be 2 months old! what in the world?!?!?! we have spent the last couple of weeks just trying to get back in the swing of things. my friends have apparently all been doing the same after some long-winded Christmas trips and new babies and such. so, i guess i'm just one of the many who feel guilty for not blogging. honestly, this is my first accident. why do i really care about how many times i post in a month? i really WANT to be one of those cool moms who puts up sewing patterns that i've tried, and recipes (but since it just took me 4 times to spell it right, i should probably steer clear of that), and things i want my children to do, i'm realizing that i have too little time in a day to feed two growing boys (real food for one, mommy's food for another) tidy a house, take a dog out, try and not leave isaac in his bouncy seat all day, AND love on my husband, for crying out loud. i'm not going on a rant against people who have time to do that, i really with i was you. i'm really ranting that i need to NOT worry about that and focus on those things that evidently are happening one way or another because it's been 3 weeks since i've blogged! anyway, there's my first accident...
the second accident is one that we were actually in. it's so funny, because it seems that it never even happened. i think i've told 3 people about this, my sister, mom, and my friend, stacy. so, for those relatives who are reading this who don't know about it, sorry. it really seems like it didn't happen...so for the story. ben and i wanted to get out of the house last week. i needed to make a return to best buy and we had chick-fil-a coupons. so, we were exiting to get on vann drive, waiting for a car to pass, when we were rear-ended! both boys screamed, ben and i didn't really know what had happened, except that we had been hit. so, ben pulled out of traffic onto the shoulder and the girl that hit us TOOK OFF! little did we know, our car was hardly damaged at all (praise Jesus), but we didn't know what to do, so i called the cops while trying to calm down dillon. they were keeping up with where we were. this girl had run before i want to believe, because she was going 60-65 down some neighborhood roads. long story short, we lost her, went to a public parking lot to meet the cops, and realized that had she stopped, we would have never even called the police!! so, basically, ben and i were just really mad at teenagers in general, we went through the drive through and chick-fil-a and headed home. then, we got home, turned on the new season of scrubs (we love that show, and it's on again tonight), and ben got a phone call. it was the girl's dad, who was sitting in his living room with his daughter and the cop. poor girl. now i have a little more compassion on her, but really hope she learned her lesson. we are all fine and so is she, apparently. just an accident. accident number 2.
accident number three might not seem like an accident, but it is in my book. i feel like i'm so busy, but don't know what all i've done. does anybody else feel like that? i want to so badly know that i at least try to clean my house and straighten it. i never really feel like it has to be clean for people to come over. we are who we are. but i want to know what it is to be that proverbs 31 woman. ross guthrie says that proverbs 31 woman has muscles in her arms because she totes kids around all the time. that's very encouraging to me because i am much stronger than i was even two months ago. however, she's also the woman who gets up before her household does to spend time with the Lord and to do the things that need to get done so that she can take care of her children and husband. anyway, this might not seem like an accident, and i know very well that i am in survival mode because of new little isaac, but i really long for this. all i can do is what i know TO do...read my bible consistently, and actually have a love relationship with my first husband, Christ. i do have to say that since isaac has been here, my bible reading has been sporatic. however, i feel like even now, Christ is convicting me. both kids are asleep, isaac doesn't have to eat for at least 15 more minutes...don't worry about the dishes and laundry. go read. i encourage all of you to do the same. a lot of my friends are feeling like they have to be status-quo and that status-quo is that you have your house clean, no toys out, and that you are all things to all people. sometimes that's not possible. i'm learning to live in my means as i know how. and i'm learning to take one day at a time. i say all of that to say that my no-blogging might continue for a while. but please do check back, and please let us know who you are.
i hope this post hasn't been too harsh. it might have just been a journal entry for myself, and that's ok. i want to be more transparent and i want people to know that i don't have it together. it's just my life and how i live it. we wish you all the best for 2009. we pray for God's blessings on your life...there's already so many things that have happened this year for a lot of our friends and for us and there's so much to look forward to. my prayer is that you will take this and go read your Bible and decide what you need to do to get the "more important" things done in YOUR day. love to all!!

and just because i can't resist...dillon got a hat just like daddy's for Christmas! he LOVES to wear it!

and this is how much our boys love new york and their aunt jen jen, even though they have yet to be there. however, they will visit someday (along with mommy!)

so much in so little time

2008-12-27T09:39:00.000-08:00

well, it has been a C-R-A-Z-Y couple of weeks!! seriously, we have been so busy and had so much going on, i haven't even been able to blog about dillon's birthday!! it was 2 weeks ago!!!! we postponed his actual birthday party to the 15 since ben had to be in oklahoma. the whole williams clan was here, but there was a fear of an ice storm, so grandpa and granny had to leave early. however, much fun was had by my family the williams ladies and the atkins. here's a picture of his birthday cake that i made. i didn't get any of him eating his cake on still shot, but my sister-in-law got it all on video. i think it's like 5 minutes long, so please feel free to skim it. dillon has a GREAT time eating cake and anything sugary...should i be worried? i don't think so. he's just a normal kid ;)

the birthday boy!!

does he look like his daddy or what?!?!? i mean with a frosted beard ;)

so, after the williams left, we had a few days (like 2 or 3) before the myatts came to town. those three were filled with cleaning the house a little bit and finishing up Christmas shopping. also, ben was very busy at work helping this convention centerget their visitor's guide finished up. he's on the second draft and waiting for corrections. he has worked so hard in the past couple of weeks, so we're both very very thankful for a couple of days break ;)
so, this past week was Christmas, obviously, and we spent most of the time at my parents' house. in this house, there were 8 adults, ages 28-58, and 8 children, ages 1 month-6 years. it was SO much fun. dillon didn't have a second of non-stimulation except when he was sleeping. every year, my dad reads the Christmas story from Luke 2 and the grandkids act it out. michael and zoe are mary and joseph, marie and tessa are angels, and mom was hoping that luke, tate, and dillon would be shepherds...however, that didn't work out too well. isaac was baby Jesus and it was a hit! it was even more fun after the story was read that tessa and marie made up stories for mimi and papa to act out. we also rented a 15 passenger van, fit 8 car seats, 8 children, and 8 adults in there (yes, that's 16 people in a 15 passenger van) and went to look at Christmas lights. we ended up at the hailey's house...aka the christmas tree house in jackson...and saw over 30 trees, plus a HUGE train set and a bunch of little trains. that house is AMAZING!!! this was an old tradition that we did as kids and my brother decided it was time to bring it back. we'll see if we keep doing it year after year...of course none of us can have any more children if we keep doing it because we can't all fit ;) anyway, we had a great Christmas and we racked up with all KINDS of presents! ben got a new desk and i got a new ipod, to name a couple. we're so grateful for our family and we hope that your Christmas was as great as ours. God bless you!

in case you can't read their shirts, they say "all mommy wants for Christmas is a silent night" ... do you think i got it by the looks of this picture? ha!

the boys in their christmas pjs...i know...dillon's has nothing to do with Christmas, but i thought they were great for a little rocker baby and isaac's do have a candy cane on them ;)

the buzz around here

2008-12-10T13:36:00.000-08:00

so, i realize that it has been two weeks since we came home with isaac from the hospital, but do you realize that i have two children under one year old!!! that is until tomorrow. dillon thomas williams will be one tomorrow, thursday, december 11, 2008. i can't BELIEVE it!!!!! this year has FLOWN by! and just think, this time next year, isaac will be one and i will have thought that this year has FLOWN by! anyway, we celebrated once already with the myatt/tankersley families, and dillon DOVE into his cake, but i'm going to wait to do a post only with dillon in it to post all of the pics. we're doing another birthday with the williams/stover families that my family will come to as well; however, we are having to wait until monday to celebrate. it's with a sad heart that i say this...ben's grandpa passed away on saturday, dec. 6. you can read ben's blog here...scroll down to "our world has been oficially rocked" and "no time for bloggin'"... to get a little more about grandpa. he was a great man and we know that he is praising Jesus face to face now, and he's not in any pain anymore. praise God that we get to go to a better place. it's also sad though, because ben needed to be in oklahoma for the funeral. so, i am a single mom for a couple of days...i'll let you know how it goes. :)

::edit::
i did fine as a single mom, but it really made me realize how thankful i am for ben and for our family. i missed more so the companionship that comes from a spouse. it's so hard to make yourself get up and care for a newborn when you don't have anyone to discuss matters with. to all my single mom friends, you guys are AMAZING and i will forever hold you at a higher reign in my book for raising your children by yourself.

:::::::::::::::::
so, what else has been going on here you ask? well, this year we have started a new Christmas tradition. we celebrate advent at our church. i have been very amazed at how many of my friends have never heard of advent and they don't know what it is. advent is basically the preparation for celebrating Christ's birth. and a lot of times, churches focus on the second coming of Christ. this is a very exciting time at our church as we anticipate the coming of Christ. well, as a family, we want nothing more than to instill in our boys who Christ is and why we celebrate Christmas. so, we have started the jesse tree this year. what's the jesse tree you ask? you can go here for a detailed explination of it, or i'll tell you a short version ;) jesse is the first name in the geneology of Jesus in matthew. so, this tree has ornaments on it that tell the story from jesse to Jesus, through the old testament and how everything in scripture points to Jesus. it has been so fun to watch dillon throw the ornaments on our tree and to see him take the ornaments out of our little advent house. we know it's the utmost importance to establish these traditions early in life for our boys and whichever other children God chooses to put in our family. it makes me so excited for the years to come and the questions that both dillon and isaac will be asking about Christ and why we do what we do in the williams family. God has blessed us so much, and we realize the importance of being parents and to teach our children the gospel and the truth from day one. i was talking to a friend the other day and was telling her about the jesse tree. i said "i guess it's kinda silly for us to be doing this this early." glenna said "janie, it's never too early to start traditions with your family! that's why they're traditions!!" i'm so glad that we are doing this this year. it has been such a blessing for me.

in other news, several of you probably know that i have struggled with endometriosis in the past. pregnancy is a somewhat "cure" for endometriosis...meaning you're not in pain with it when you are pregnant. so, when dillon was born, i felt pain with my endo two weeks after the birth. well, with isaac, it has been no different. when isaac was almost exactly two weeks old, i felt that pain that you know so well, that doesn't feel like anything else, and that feels like someone is sticking you with a pin (p-i-n...not p-e-n). ben and i (along with half the world, i think) have prayed for healing for some time and there was a year that we didn't think we would even be able to have children at all, and now we have TWO! but, we ask ourselves again, will God give us anymore children? will we ever be able to conceive again? we don't know. however, i do know that the Lord is glorified even in my pain and, if anything, it teaches me more about Him and allows me to minister to other girls who have endo as well. it teaches me to trust in the Lord with ALL of my heart. to REALLY trust HIM. that is what 2008 has been all about for me. really trusting that God will provide and that it doesn't matter what we do, as long as we are trusting in Him. we do ask that you pray for me and for healing, however, i'm not going to ask that for long. i feel like this is my life. and my life is not my own, so if this is how God wants me to live, why not use it for His glory instead of complaining about it all the time ;)

well, in family news, dillon turned one on thursday. we still have yet to celebrate his birthday really. we did have a cake and spaghetti at my mom's house last sunday, but that was for four birthdays...that's right. we have four birthdays within a week in my family. he is doing so many fun things right now! he's SO expressive, SO funny, he's saying words, he loves to walk while holding on to our fingers and would do that for FOREVER! he says "dye dye" and waves (of course for bye bye), he says "pup pup" for petey, he says "dada" when we talk about daddy and see daddy, and when he wants to be held or fussy, he says "mama". we're still working on that one ;) we are having a party on monday night for him, so i will post pictures of that party later, but for now, here's our little one year old!

isaac is doing very well as well. he's in about 50th percentile for weight (8 lb 15 oz at his two week checkup) and 65th percentile for his height (22 in already!) the boy is GROWING!!!! he is such a good baby and we are sleeping when we can. he still is waking up twice in the middle of the night to eat...i'm really ready for it to be once...but he is only two weeks old ;)

well, speaking of, it's time to feed him. we will post pictures of our williams' family Christmases later this week and we're gearing up for the myatt family Christmas next week, where i'm sure we'll have more pics. we love you all!! thanks for reading this ridonculously long blogpost.

ps sorry about the gross newborn pics. he's just so great!

look who dcided to come a little early!!!!

2008-11-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

i am proud to announce that i am now the mommy of two little boys UNDER the age of 1!!!! isaac james williams came into the world on monday, november 24, 2008, at 10:30 pm, weighing 7 lb, 11 oz, and 19.5 inches long! we are so thankful for him and praise Jesus for a healthy little boy and a healthy little mommy!

****i don't have all of our pics uploaded yet, so this will have to do for now. more pics to come of big brother and little brother soon!!!*****

isaac's and dillon's room!

2008-11-10T19:30:00.000-08:00

while ben's mom was here, we had a good time trying to figure out how to put two cribs in the boys' room. we did figure it out and i do have to say that it's cozy in there! dillon loves playing in his room and i'm sure that isaac will, too :). well, tonight, we hung isaac's name up that i made today while watching a couple episodes of gilmore girls (my fave). here's the finished product...

in other news, dillon has started cruising around furniture and wanting to walk EVERYWHERE! he holds on to our fingers and takes off! it's really fun seeing him pull up to standing and just growing like he should. we are SO thankful for a great little boy who is developing correctly. what a blessing that is. ben took a lot of pictures that i'm going to upload to picassa...you can click the link in the right-hand column for all the pictures...but here are some of my faves :)

he loves to play the piano...seriously...he could stand here for HOURS!!!

love that paci...peek-a-boo!

isaac's name...like big brother's, but a different color ribbon.

mommy and dillon playing...i think dillon was giving me a kiss...those are the best kisses :)

also, i had a show for bug-a-roo on saturday and union's arts in the park. it was a good day...VERY COLD...but good and we had a good time. we got the word out about my side biz and i'm looking forward to more orders and all that fun stuff after isaac gets here. i did go to the doctor yesterday and we are right on track! i'm not dilated or anything like that, but i am (from ben's orders and doctor's orders) trying to take it a little easier. one great thing is that i'm not working anymore and so dillon and i are able to have a little more time together...even though he misses aunt cilla, unkie kirby, aunt rach rach, caleb, and leah terribly!!! (that's who kept dillon while i worked for those who don't know.) i'm so thankful for our friends and family who have helped me out while i'm so big and so ready to have isaac! you guys are wonderful and mean more to us than you'll ever know.
we're also gearing up for thanksgiving and Christmas. ben and i were watching tv the other night and ben said "let's go get our tree now!" (this was actually about 3 weeks ago). so, we've started listening to Chrismas music and are very excited about Christmas this year and spending it with all of our family. we will go get our tree in a couple of weeks so that the house is decorated before isaac comes...hopefully :) it's very exciting to be able to spend the holidays with everyone and to start new traditions with dillon. we have an advent calendar and a little tree that i think we're going to put in the sunroom for his jesse tree ornaments...we'll see how that goes this year...next year it will be a LOT of fun i'm sure. anyway, it's 8:38 and dillon is still sleeping...sometimes a good thing, no always a good thing to have a little bit more time in the morning than you think you will. he must be TIRED. we love you all and don't forget to look at the pics to the right on picasa!
just a couple more...i can't help it!!!

37 weeks! only 3 more to go!

that VERY COLD day at union. thanks to mimi, dillon was the warmest one out there and even slept for an HOUR with everyone around him!!

his new favorite thing! he's so proud!

happy halloween!!!

2008-11-01T09:12:00.001-07:00

so, last night was halloween! dillon is so little...as you know...and he doesn't eat candy...but we took him trick-or-treating anyway! we only went to a few houses to show off our little monkey, but it was so good and fun to show him off!

grammy and dillon hanging out with the pumpkins ;)

trick or treating at mimi and papa's

and at granny's. she gave ben and janie "treats" as well ;) i love granny!!!

also, grammy has been here this past week. we have had such a good time with her! we've been shopping everyday, and i think that dillon and isaac are SET! we have been busy trying to figure out how both cribs will fit in the boys' room and i think we've figured it out, we just need to get rid of a chair. i'll post pictures of the finished product, but until then, here's a pic of dillon playing in isaac's bed. :) it was almost like this boy knew it wasn't his bed and he bounced around on that bed like he never has in his crib. it was a blast!!

here's a few more pictures, too, of new things that dillon is doing. he has 4 1/2 teeth and i think that 1/2 is going to break through any day. poor boy, he's been teething for about 3 weeks now, and i am ready for him to be done! he's such a good baby and he's so happy all the time. we can't wait for little isaac to get here. i just can't wait to see what he looks like and see if he has hair and if he has big feet and who he looks like! it's just going to be great!!! 4 1/2 weeks to go!!! YIPPEE!!!! we hope everyone had a happy halloween!!!

it's so fun to EAT!!!!

CHEESE!!!!

i'm SO big!!!

fun in the bathtub!!

sorry it's been so long

2008-10-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

so, i realize i haven't updated in almost a month. there's not really any excuse for that except that we have been pretty busy, nothing huge has been going on, and dillon is doing great! we haven't had any visitors until just yesterday...ben's mom is in town for the rest of the week!!! it's always such a blessing to have grammy/brenda/mom here and i'm sure that we'll have lots of pictures to post afterwards. i don't even think that i have any new pictures to post of dillon...i'll look and see. we did get dillon's isaac's crib and mattress, dillon's new carseat, AND our double stroller ALL last weekend, thanks to grandparents and the wonderful girls that i used to work with at the salon. we are SO excited for isaac to get here and i'm so glad ben's mom IS here this week so she can help me arrange the two cribs, bookshelf, chest of drawers, changing table, and rocking chair that we have in the boys' room. we might have to do away with the rocking chair :( ... but i think i will live. ha! for those of you that are wondering...ben did hear back from aeneas. they are looking for more of a part-time person. well, ben is willing to negotiate with them if they are with them about him being that part-time person, but we will just have to wait and see what God does. praise Him, that ben has been VERY busy the past couple of weeks. this is usually his down week and the only reason i saw him during the day yesterday was because of the trip to the airport to get brenda. we praise God that He has given us the flexibility of having ben work from home and we are SO thankful for the steady, busy work that he has had! we pray that the Lord continues to bless ben in his efforts to provide for us. we know that God can do anything he wants, and we really really appreciate your prayers for our family. they have definitely been felt. as far as everything else goes, isaac continues to grow, praise the Lord. i went to the doc monday and she told me if i did go into labor, they wouldn't do anything to stop me. so, part of me would LOVE to go into labor NOW and part of me really wants this little guy to hang on for a little bit longer ;). i have been having contractions...nothing serious or regular, but i know that he is getting ready to get here and i am so excited for that. i can't wait to see what he looks like and to hold his little hand and kiss his little nose and see his little toes. anyway, we love you all and we thank God for His provision as of late. come see us soon!!

please pray!!!

2008-10-09T08:45:00.001-07:00

ben has an interview at aeneas tomorrow at 10:00 am!!!! please pray and we will keep you posted!!!!!!
****************************************EDIT******************************************
SO, the interview did go well. everything that we had heard about this position was not exactly true, but the director of sales seemed to really like ben and they hit it off. so, that is good. also, this company is not in any hurry to fill the position. and what we thought would be full time with benefits and everything turns out that it might just be a parttime position for ben because he's worth more than a recent college grad :) (sorry to all of you recent college grads, but it's only true). so, we beg you to still pray. we need this job very badly. ben needs wisdom in knowing when to contact them again to check on the status of the job and to know exactly what to do. we're praying for an open or closed door period. so, please join us in praying for that. thanks so much for your prayers and if you have any further questions, please call either one of us. seriously, we KNOW that all of you have been praying and there's no way that we can thank you for that. we love you all!

there's a first time for everything!

2008-10-08T09:28:00.000-07:00

so, we decided to give dillon SPAGHETTI on monday! monday nights seem to be, and have been for a long time, spaghetti night at the williams's. it started out with stefi brazzeal and josh mousse coming over for dinner every monday. josh worked (and still does) at this great liquor store in nashville and we had a tour of wines around the world, thanks to josh ;) those were great times! well, josh got married, stefi moved to georgia, and since then, joe and lisa garner, ariel gee, and some others have been a big part of spaghetti night. well, now dillon gets to partake in spaghetti night! he LOVED it!!!! please notice the clump in his hair, and ben decided we needed to market a new hair product, spaghetti gel. gross :)

the finished product...everything got thrown in the wash...including dillon!

oh how this boy loves bath-time!!!

and as promised, here's a picture of isaac james! 8 weeks and counting!!!!

we love reading!!!

2008-10-06T08:02:00.000-07:00

this is dillon's new favorite thing to do.

he LOVES this book tails. it's about all
the different kinds of animal tails, but i think what he likes the most about it is the different textures that it shows all of the animals having! it's a really cool book, even if it is torn up by the time he's three ;) he'll enjoy it for these three years.
dillon has also started doing a LOT of new things. we started him on table food (see the previous two posts), he started drinking from a sippee cup, we're weening him off of formula (praise Jesus) and he's crawling. that's right!!! he's not up on all fours yet, but this kid gets around!! sometimes he'll get really tired of crawling and just start rolling all over the place again, but he loves to crawl under the piano and play the pedals, he loves the door, and he loves to get under the table or chair and lay there and read. it's pretty fun to see this little personality coming out in our little boy! also, his favorite words as of late are mm-bop mm-bop mm-bop, pop pop pop, hada, and dada. i'm not sure that he realizes that he's talking about ben when he says dada, but we'll both take it for now.
as for other news, we only have 8 MORE WEEKS until little isaac gets here. i hate to say this, but i really am looking forward to not being pregnant and i'm looking forward to seeing what isaac looks like! that's THE most fun thing in the world!! i'll try to post a pic later of my HUUUUGE belly. it's crazy, this belly of mine ;) we love you all! here's a little video of dillon crawling. sorry it's a little dark.

happy fall ya'll!

2008-09-27T12:55:00.000-07:00

well, the weather isn't very fall-ish...although i think that it's coming to jackson next week! i LOVE fall!!! i think a lot of people do love fall, but it's just so wonderful when the high is 70 degrees, and the low is 50, and you get to wear hoodies and jean jackets and i just LOVE fall!! i love getting pumpkins to go on our front porch, i love eating pumpkin muffins and pumpkin roll (made by dottie herself, of course!), i love pumpkin spice lattes from starbucks, i love putting dillon in a long sleeve shirt with shorts on, i just LOVE fall! i love mums, i love the leaves changing and i REALLY love our neighborhood in the fall, because we have some of THE best trees in the state of tennessee!

so, to commemorate fall, we went to green acres pumpkin patch in milan, tn, today! that's milan with a long i. dillon wasn't really that sure what to think about all the pumpkins, but he did have a really good time hitting them like drums, and chewing on a couple of the stems (gross). even though it is 86 degrees today (hot still), i think the weather is going to be changing next week, which means i can get pansies and mums to go with all of our pumpkins that we got today! yippee!!!! here's a few pictures of dillon and the pumpkins. we hope you enjoy!

this is a good one, daddy!

look at how big that gourd is!!!

our little family :)

mommy and dillon

i like the drums!!!

bug-a-roo!

2008-09-25T08:12:00.000-07:00

don't forget to check out the bug-a-roo blog! i have some new fabric, and if you mention the blog, you receive $5 off your purchase!! happy babying!!!

new things

2008-09-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

dillon is doing great these days!! he is rolling ALL over the place. he is getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. he is making all kinds of new sounds. and he is eating real food. no more making baby food!!! one of my friends has just written a great blog of how to make your own baby food if you are interested. here is her blog. making baby food was great at first, but it just got really really old. so, i'm really excited that dillon is eating off of our plates, or eating a turkey and cheese sandwich in really little pieces all taken apart ;) he also had his first hot dog yesterday, and he loved it, which is pretty great, considering how much ben and i love hot dogs. i know, if you think about it too long, you get grossed out, but we love them! dillon also has his two bottom teeth!!! he won't keep his mouth open long enough for me to get a picture of him, and everytime we try to look at them, he sticks his tongue out. little stinker ;) here's a few pictures and videos to show how big dillon is. the last video is of dillon and petey playing together. they are going to be best buds. dillon thinks petey is hilarious! we can't wait for them to run around together!

the turkey and cheese "sandwich"

a happy boy!!

the hand on the chest means please.

we also had our first outing to the park. i must say that dillon LOVED the swing. he is a boy after his momma's own heart!! we hope you enjoy these pics of this adorable baby boy, who is becoming this adorable little boy :)

having a GREAT time swinging!!!

the sunset on the way home

he was worn out!!!

we love you!

i can't believe it's been almost a month

2008-09-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

for all my faithful readers, i'm SO sorry that it's been almost a MONTH since i posted!! there hasn't been a ton going on, but at the same time i haven't had time to update you guys on what's been going on so i guess that that means that there's been a lot going on! ha! we had some great friends, alice and aaron hardin, to get married on labor day weekend, which also happened to be mine and ben's third wedding anniversary weekend! here's a pic of me and ben on our honeymoon in massachusettes, 9.3.05. i coordinated the wedding, but mimi and papa kept dillon so that we could "get away" at our house for the evening. we had a great time at the wedding and thank you to mimi and papa for keeping dillon so we could sleep in a little bit on saturday morning. after that, we went to FLORIDA!!!! florida was FANTASTIC!!! so relaxing and enjoyable and fun. we thought that dillon would crawl, but he hasn't yet, BUT he does have two teeth on the bottom and he's already cutting his top two!!! my poor boy is basically cutting his first four teeth all at the same time! i'm only going to post a few pictures because you can click on the link to the right and see all of the pictures, or you can go here for a short verysion of the picture of vaca. we had pretty good weather...ike didn't get us particularly, but we had windy weather because of ike. however, it was so nice for ben and me to just sit around the condo and not have to necessarily DO anything if we didn't want to. if you haven't been on vacation yet this year, it is so great and i highly recommend it ;) here are a few pictures of the trip, but as i said, just click to the right and you can see all of them...

dillon REALLY enjoyed the beach! he was SUCH a trooper! i think we have the best baby EVER!

hmmmm, what's in my mouth? OH it must be a cheerio!!

dinner at the blue parrott one night

enjoying the beach!!

kissing mommy good night. he's such a good little boy.

home at LAST!!! actually, this is grandpa and granny's home, but we were exhausted from traveling and glad to not be in the car anymore!
thanks for bearing with me while i haven't posted. please let me know who's reading so i can keep up with you, too! have a great week!!

so, what's been going on?

2008-08-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

well, not much evidently! i can't say that we've been extremely busy and i can't say that we've been bored out of our minds...i guess it's just been normal ;) dillon is wanting to move SO badly!!!! he can't figure it out yet, but i think that crawling is soon to be coming to the williams's. he gets very frustrated when he wants to go somewhere and can't, so in turn, we hear a lot of screeching...for real screeching, and rolling back and forth in the living room when he's trying to get somewhere. i haven't taken hardly any pictures of dillon's 8th month because our camera batteries won't stay charged and that is VERY frustrating!! if anyone has any ideas of what type of rechargeable batteries have a long life, i would greatly appreciate any advice in this area. we've been using energizer and i guess the little bunny inside ours just isn't up for running the triathlons we ask him to :)
we did have a great visit last weekend with ben's aunt and uncle. they take a BIG road trip everywhere in their rv and this year happened to include i-40. therefore, they got to stop and see us!! they treated us to a great dinner at the old town spaghetti store (one of our fave's here in jackson...and be warned, the website plays music!), then we went to see the rv and then they came to see our house. this is what our house looked like last time they were here.

needless to say, they were glad to see that we had gotten to do some work on it ;) we had a great night with them and we look forward to seeing them again really soon, hopefully.

dillon with his aunt nette...they like the same kinds of shoes ;)

dillon with aunt nette and uncle jim. dillon really really like uncle jim. he would laugh and carry on everytime he looked at uncle jim!

also, we've been praying for ben's grandpa lately. he was in the hospital last week for an emergency surgery where he has an infection on his gall bladder. basically, they have controlled the infection, but he's too weak to undergo gall bladder surgery, so this is all they can do now. we ask that you guys pray along with us for healing and comfort for grandpa.

all of us with grandpa a year and a half ago.

we are also really really looking forward to VACATION!!!!! yes, that's right, you heard me correctly...we will be leaving for florida with some of ben's family on september 6 and honestly, it just can't get here soon enough! we went last year to st. george island and that is where we will be returning to. we'll be there for a week and seriously, i can't type how much we are looking forward to this. this is ben and janie last year at st. george...dillon was there too, just in the belly!

dillon and i have been having a pretty good time in the mornings with playtime. i left the room the other day for about 5 minutes and when i came back, this is what i found...

please notice the legs hanging out of the blanket.

and this is what i revealed from the blanket...
a somewhat happy dillon ;)

ALSO, ben has begun a teaching series at church on the holiness of God...how being holy is good, beauty, and virtuous. i'm going to try to put that lesson on here so that you can listen to it for yourself. he's pretty good, i must say...but i'm a little biased to him ;) here's the link to the lesson. so, we hope everyone is doing well! we thank you for your prayers for us...God is providing for us daily. love to all!!

check this out

2008-08-16T19:24:00.000-07:00

you should totally check out brian's blog for a great pic of dillon and a great pic of thursday nights at the denker's. man, oh, man...we love brian and cindy.

this might be disturbing

2008-08-08T08:43:00.000-07:00

ok, usually i don't do anything like this, but this is hi-larious. thanks to one of ben's friends (who will remain nameless), we got a really good laugh out of this on friday morning. just in case you ever needed lessons before going to da club...here ya go

good times with friends

2008-08-07T19:29:00.000-07:00

so, ben and i feel pretty blessed to be where we are. we LOVE the people that the Lord has put in our lives. we LOVE that we live two doors down from the guthries, about 10 doors down from the garners, and that the denkers, the atkins, hoopers, and putts are all one block away from us. we LOVE the fact that janie's parents live 10 minutes away, and that her sister and family live about 15 minutes away (when you don't get all the red lights...20 when you do, and when they don't live in louisville. boo that that's happening soon). we LOVE the fact that our church is only about 7 minutes away from us. and we also LOVE the fact that God has put so many people in our life at different times for different reasons. july was characterized by old friends who have moved away coming into jackson to visit. it was filled with babies getting to meet each other (who WILL be bff someday as well), friends coming in from denver and arizona, and talking to family who live in new york, atlanta, oklahoma, and chicago. today, more friends came to see us for lunch from loveland, co, where i used to work. after i graduated from college, i moved to ft. collins (aka ft. fun) to work at orchards baptist church in loveland, co. OBC has grown more than i ever thought it would. it's pretty amazing, but that's a whole 'nother post in and of itself.
anyway, i have truly just realized how amazing Christ is in putting us around people that we need at certain times to be encouraged, to be spurred on, and hold us accountable to what the Lord has set before us.
you might think that all this is cheesy and "over spiritualizing" the obvious. and sometimes, i think that a lot of things are over spiritualizing. however, i know that i serve a mighty God and i know that He wants what's best for us. (read Romans 8). i praise HIM for all the people in our life. i'm so thankful that old friends still come in to see us, and i'm so thankful that we're going to get to see more friends and family this month and next (and i'm sure in many more months to come). we are so thankful for each of you. thank you for being the people we need in our life at the time that we need you, and for being willing to be used by Christ to strengthen us.

here's a new picture of dillon that i think is amazing. it's just to make you smile.

bear with me

2008-08-05T08:08:00.001-07:00

i'm trying to re-vamp. this could take a while.

********************************EDIT***************************************************

i'm having a little trouble...does anyone have any good websites that they go to to get good blog skins or templates? that would be wonderful. thanks ;)

and here he is!!!!

2008-07-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

well, the long awaited pictures of isaac james williams have finally arrived!!! we cannot wait for him to get here...well, i guess we really can ;) but you know what i mean! here they are! he's so beautiful already! (and yes, my name is dorothy jane)

the side view

little feet...he has all ten toes...

and all ten fingers ;)

and that little guy was as curled up as he could be. we love him so much!!!!

wow, Wow, WOW!!!!!

2008-07-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

so, this past weekend, we had a BIG, but GREAT time! people are some of the most important thing in our life. we love going over to friends' houses and hanging out. we love having people over for dinner. we love seeing old friends and reminiscing over old times. we just LOVE life with our favorite people in it. God has truly blessed us with amazing community and people and they are what gets us through some of our hardest times. so, thursday, our friends joe and leah sulateskee came in from denver, co. ben and i were both in their wedding a year ago and hadn't seen them since then. they are LOVING life in colorado and we were just VERY happy to see them thursday and friday. :)

this is us at lunch at chick-fil-a. one of the best places on earth ;)

so, after we saw leah and joe, glenna and baby isaiah came to see us! let me tell you, isaiah is BEAUTIFUL!!! glenna and him came over for a couple of hours on friday, then we had a baby shower for glenna at our house. isaiah RACKED up! glenna could clothe a small country with all of the clothes that she got. here's some pictures of friday and one more of saturday...

dillon looks HUGE compared to isaiah! they are already bff ;)

ben meeting isaiah. he slept through most of the visit.

me, glenna, and our BABIES at isaiah's baby shower.

we are so thankful for our community, too. we have made it a little habit of going over to priscilla and kirby atkins's house on sunday nights. we LOVE it. they have two kids, leah and caleb, and we already think that dillon looks up to caleb. caleb is 7 now (he'll be 8 soon) and leah is 10. caleb is starting to teach dillon how to make sounds, motions, all kinds of things. and cilla keeps dillon once a week for me while i work. they all love it and we are so blessed to have friends that love dillon. here's a picture of caleb teaching dillon how to hit the floor (one of dillon's favorite things to do now) and then a picture of kirby and the kids loving on dillon. yea!

all the kids and kirby making dillon laugh ;)

caleb and dillon "teaching" each other.

we love you all. we thank God for each of you. please come see us soon!!!

fun times when grandpa comes to town!

2008-07-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

so, grandpa, also known as ben's dad, came to visit for a couple of days starting on wednesday. he got to be a part of the normal everyday stuff that we do here at the williams's household, and also do a few really fun things. i haven't been able to get any pictures of dillon in the tub yet because usually i take all the pictures and, well, i give him baths, too. SO, i was happy that grandpa got some good pictures of dillon in the bathtub...this is one of my favorites! he LOVES bathtime and kicks and squeals and splashes and everything. notice how ALL the toys are behind him. he scoots toward that end of the tub and all the toys go with him. ha!

then, we got to take dillon to his first ballgame! the diamond jaxx are the minor league team here in jackson and ben and i actually went on our second date there. we only get around to going to 1-2 games a year, and we always have a great time when we do get to go. i think dillon had a good time too, until it was time for his bottle and we couldn't find hot water. and there was a WHOLE lot going on, so we decided to get home to feed him; however, he did manage to get a ball from the pitcher for a souvenir and grandpa bought him a hat that he can grow in to when he gets a little older.

on our way into the stadium.

dillon's not too fixated on the game at the moment, but he did have a good time.

the fam at the ballgame!

i think you all know this

2008-07-15T14:06:00.001-07:00

but, if you dont, we're having another BOY!!!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! his name is isaac james and we cannot wait until december!!! get ready for double strollers, another crib, and ohhhh so much fun! i can't wait to see dillon and isaac grow up together and be the best of friends. i know they'll argue, but what siblings don't ;)

we've been busy with a yard sale that we did really well on. and dillon has been one of the happiest babies i've ever seen before! we have been putting him in his doorway jumper and he LOVES it! there's not just a whole whole lot more going on. the doc said that isaac was healthy and the due date is actually december 3...so if he comes a day early like dillon did, we'll have december 2 or 3 (isaac), december 4 (janie), december 11 (dillon), and december 29 (ben), and don't forget Christmas ;) yea for the holidays! we hope you all are doing well and here's a little video to enjoy of dillon in his johnny jumpup. it's not the best video ever, but i'm sure that we'll get more soon. and grandpa is coming to town today, so i'm sure we'll have fun pictures of dillon and him playing together. AND we don't have a scanner here, so when we go to mimi and papa's house or to the atkins, we will scan in pictures of isaac so you can see and count his little toes. seriously! she gave us a picture of his toes and i counted them! there are 10!!! he's already so cute! we love you all!!

what a great weekend!!!!

2008-07-08T07:24:00.000-07:00

well, we decided to try the sippee cup without the stopper in it this weekend. dillon did much better and we're going to try again tonight. here's what it looked like...

i think i like this...

i DO like this!!!!!! (notice the trails of prune juice on his stomach!)

THEN, we were hanging out with the kennedys and the joneses eating pizza and STEFI calls me to say she is coming to jackson for the night!!! she was flying from texas back to georgia and they needed someone to go monday instead of sunday! so, she took them up on it! i was SO excited!!!!!!! notice the chocolate on my face...i was making brownies ;)

me, stefi, and dillon

THEN, my group of girl friends from high school decided to get together for dinner! it was GREAT! almost everyone has gotten married and there are more babies than just dillon in the mix, too ;) we had a great time!!!

erin, me, lori, dillon, ashley powell, jill, ashley akin, and sarah. we were missing ashley jackson, jenny, and erica. and yes, those are maiden names, and yes, there were THREE ashelys in our group of friends ;) we had a wonderful time.
we hope everything is going well for you guys. we're pretty busy this week, but that's good! we'd love to see you soon!

pics from the weekend with the myatts

2008-07-04T08:05:00.000-07:00

we tried to get dillon to drink out of his first sippy cup. i think he knew it was food...simply because he was pretty fussy when he couldn't get anything out and we had to feed him early because he was SO hungry, i'm SURE. :) we'll keep trying with the cup, though. he knew to put it in his mouth at least, so that's good!

not too happy here. I WANT SOME JUICE!!!!

and the newest picture of baby #2. this is at 18 weeks. he/she is G-R-O-W-I-N-G!

here are some pictures from our weekend with the myatts! we had "princess zoe's" birthday party. she is 6! can you believe it?!?! sadly, i got no pictures of tate, though. he is so cute and you can see a very cute picture of him on mel's blog.

michael and zoe after icing zoe's cake. they did do a pretty good job :)

marie and tessa sitting on mimi's step stools. they were having a great time!

michael made a mask and was a scary horned something...i'm not really sure what :)

luke is just cute!

zoe got a yellow guitar with a flower and a butterful on it (so cool!) so uncle ben tuned it and taught her a little beetle's song. i think that practice makes perfect ;)

to top off the weekend, michael and zoe made party hats for all the kids. i'm not really sure what dillon thought about the hat, though. at least he didn't grab it off his head!
i hope you've enjoyed the pictures of our fun weekend. i might have more after the 4th. we have two cookouts today! YIPPEE!!!! we love the grill!!! i need to go make some bug-a-roo things! we love you all!

what's new

2008-07-01T13:44:00.000-07:00

hello, everyone!! it feels like it's been a while since i've last posted. thanks to all of you who have stayed true to our blog even though it's restricted now. i realized i left out some pretty key people (sorry) but i think that everyone who wants to see it can now ;) yea! and i hope you all will keep checking it even though you have to sign in. you can never be too sure about crazies in the world! we've had a busy few couple of weeks, consisting fo family, a wedding, a funeral, and a lot of fun.
my brother and sister-in-law and their three kids were here for a few days and two of their kids actually stayed with mimi and papa for an extra week! so, there was lots of swimming and playing that went on, as well as a very happy birthday to my great great aunt virgie!! she turned 100 years old so, of course, we had to celebrate ;) we had a great time at her party...even though you wouldn't be able to tell it from ANY of the kids' faces in this picture. ha! that is CLASSIC!! aunt virgie is the little lady in the blue. she still has a garden, and when the news interviewed her for turning 100, she said they had to go out to her garden because it is her favorite place. i think that she just stopped substitute teaching about 8-10 years ago, and she's as quick as a whip! we should've gotten my granny in this picture, too, then we would've had 5 generations of myatts. it's pretty amazing. last july, she fell OUT of her ATTIC while ironing and was in the hospital for a while. ben and i were prego with dillon at the time. we went to visit her july 4 weekend with mom and dad myatt and she was sleeping when we got there. she sat right up when she heard us talking and said "well, sammy, when did you get here?" it was like she had never skipped a beat! so, she knew we were pregnant and said we better bring dillon to see her when he got here. wellllll, she didn't meet dillon until her 100th birthday, and she knew exactly who he was, as well as all the other crazy kids in this picture! we had a great time!

aunt virgie in the blue, the tankersleys minus marie on the left, papa and the williamses in the middle, and the myatts plus marie and mimi on the right

while the myatts were here, we mostly swam and ate. that's pretty much what we always do. i don't have any pics yet, so i'll have to upload them when i put them on my computer (i can't find my camera right now). in other news (ie, the kids) dillon is sitting up on his own now and completely rolling over. he's also eating a new fruit/veggie every 3-4 days and he likes it so much, he doesn't even like to take his bottle after he eats. so, he might drink 1 oz after he eats some food ;) it is SO much fun feeding him! he is so funny!!! ben took a video that we'll have to download to his computer then, he'll have to post it on the blog. also, i'm about 18 weeks pregnant right now. we went to the doctor yesterday and we have an appointment for july 15 to find out if dillon will have a little brother or sister! once again, you'll have to check back to see a picture of my ever-growing belly soon ;) ben and i are doing well also. our businesses are doing well. there was actually a write up on the bug-a-roo business in the jackson sun!!! HOW EXCITING!!!! i also have had the opportunity to meet with a few girls about wedding planning outside of our church! i have packages and everything that i can offer for a great wedding ;) hopefully that will continue to grow. ben's business is going well, too. he's plugging away at getting more clients, and we patiently wait for the Lord to provide for us. we know He is! we pray God's blessings on you! come see us soon!!

this is dillon sitting up in the living room. isn't he a doll!!?!?!?

the zoo!

2008-06-20T13:20:00.001-07:00

so, i mentioned earlier that my sister and i took our kids to the zoo on wednesday. we had a GREAT time! i only got one picture of dillon, but michael, marie, and luke had a really good time. also, i'm going to post some pics of what a day looks like here at home. dillon is LOVING his exer-saucer. it's a cool one that doesn't hurt his legs because it's attached to his bumbo seat. it's pretty great. other than that, we have just been really busy and can't wait for july to get here because we have ONE thing on the calendar right now! and that's our good friends, the sulateskees, coming to town! so, here's an update on some things that have happened this month...

the rundown
after we got back from oklahoma, we had father's day. ben got the best present ever...a hammock! and a mantle clock, but that hasn't arrived yet
then, that same weekend is when our friends' adoption was going down, so we were very enthralled with that and praying with them
then, last week was pretty normal...i guess that's this week...zoo, baby stuff, work, you know. the norm
the weekend is here! and we are so excited! and my family is coming to town this weekend! yea! i'm sure i'll have some pics to post after this week, especially since zoe and tessa are staying for a week longer than bill and mel ;)

here's some pics of a day in the life of ben, janie, dillon, and petey

daddy and dillon playing ;)

dillon in the exer-saucer

marie at the zoo ;) isn't she adorable!

marie and i with the kamodo dragon

daddy with his boys. this is a nightly occurrence and we LOVE it!
we love you all! come see us soon!

he's here!!!

2008-06-19T07:33:00.000-07:00

i want to thank all of you for praying for our sweet friends, william and glenna. they welcomed william "isaiah" marshall into the world on saturday, and, after much waiting and patience, are officially PARENTS to this sweet little boy!!!!!! hopefully they will get to come home to sikeston, mo, early next week and we will get to pamper glenna and william with all kinds of great things for this sweet baby. please continue to pray that all goes well with the continuation of the adoption.
dillon and i got to go to the zoo yesterday with my sister, lili, and her three kids, michael, marie, and luke. i'll post pictures of that later. dillon just chilled out in the stroller most of the time. however, fun was had by all! again, thanks so much for praying for william and glenna. hopefully i can put a picture up of little isaiah soon ;) love to all!!!!

HE'S COMING! HE'S COMING!!!!

2008-06-14T08:18:00.000-07:00

*****EDIT!!!!**********
william and glenna have encountered some problems with the birth father. please be in prayer, especially during the next 48 hours (specifically tuesday afternoon at 2:43) as they try not to get too attached to the baby if in fact they don't get to bring him home. please stay tuned to their blog for updates. thanks.

william and glenna's baby is on his way!!!!!!!! i am SO SO SO SO SO SO EXCITED for my BFF!!!!!!!!!!!!! we'll keep you posted!!!!!!!!!!!!

we've been away, and now we're baa-aaack!

2008-06-13T07:16:00.001-07:00

well, good morning to everyone! we got to go to oklahoma last weekend to spend some time with ben's family, and, most of all, to be there hope's sweet 16 birthday ;) (i'm just kidding, hopie). we had a great time and seriously had a vacation. on sunday, we went to church at lindsey's church, the people's church, and then got kfc. then, we watched law and order svu ALL DAY LONG! seriously! then, monday, we decided to go shopping (the girls did) so, ben and dave watched no country for old men then law and order, then another movie, then more law and order until we watched letterman that night. we also all got pedicures from lindsey, even though she was off work, and she didn't even charge us ;) thanks, linds! our feet are STILL wonderful!!! seriously, that's about all we did in oklahoma. oh, yeah, we did see grandpa and he is doing fine. we went to a carnival at his new home and we really liked his new place a lot. we love you, grandpa and hope you feel better soon!! also, hope did turn 16 i think the day after we left, but we had her party before we left. so, we got to hang out with all the siblings and their kids. man, i love me some stovers. you say some friends are tighter than blood, they're tighter than blood and they ARE blood! it was great to see everyone and see how much all the kids had grown, who the boys were dating, and updates on everyone ;) we love you, stovers, and williamses and romines! come see us soon!!!

here's some pics to enjoy from the weekend...

good times with daddy and auntie lindsey (chew chew) on the floor ;)

i think i want your teeth, aunt hopie.

grammy and i both like to cover our faces when we sleep.

i'll smile for the camera, sure, i'll ham it up for the camera ;)

paw paw is SO much fun! i love his whiskers!!!

waiting for the plane at the airport. i'm so tired! are we there yet?

i'm taking dillon to the doctor today as well. we've had some problems with the rice cereal that we started him on...he threw up once/day for three days in a row after eating it for 2 days, so we stopped, and are hopefully going to start solids this weekend and rice cereal, introducing a new food every week. please just pray for dillon's little tummy. he's having a lot of issues with it and we just want to do the right thing. i'll keep you posted for sure! come see us soon, friends!

dillon rolled over!

2008-06-01T18:49:00.000-07:00

what ben would rather be doing than working his tail off in franklin.

WOW!!! it's june the 1st!! i can't believe it! i can't believe that dillon is halfway to a year. i can't believe that he'll start eating baby food next month. i can't believe that he'll be walking soon. i just can't believe that we have a son that is getting bigger everyday and that we have another son/daughter on the way!! holy moley!! we had the opportunity to go to nashville last week for a quick visit. ben worked like a dog from memorial day until thursday at noon. i'm not kidding...i think he worked about 50 hours in 4 days. that man is amazing!! i would've given up and left it at 5. but ben isn't like me, and we're all thankful for that. he is SUCH a hard worker! so, while ben worked, dillon and i played! we did get to meet up with my good friend, ashley guinn davis (she writes for this online devotional from time to time). she was married last june and i had not seen her since then. it was SO good to get to talk to her! and of course she loved dillon ;) sadly, i didn't have my camera with me that day, so i did not get a picture of her and little man. anyway, we had a great time at fido's and i can't wait to see her again hopefully soon!
after seeing ashley, dillon and i made our way all the way around cool springs galleria. it took us three hours, and only about $40 later did we leave. i think that's pretty good. ;) then, we waited for ben to be done with VIP. we thought we'd get to go home, but we didn't. he worked again until 2:30 am for the second night in a row. we did eat at this great irish pub in downtown franklin that really competes in my books with the irish rover in louisville. the pub is called mccreary's. i HIGHLY recommend it. it was such a great atmosphere and some of the best food i've had in a while. so, we stayed another night in cool springs and then ben worked till about noon the next day. we stuck around and had a good time in nashville for the afternoon...ate at panera, drove around and looked at great neighborhoods, AND ran into our great friends, sheila and julian williamson! we were driving down 21st and i thought i saw their boys kicking the soccer ball around and thought, "that can't be them." but it WAS! so, we met up with them for coffee at fido's (yes, the same place i met ashley) later on in the day and it was so great to see some great friends outside of jackson! we ALL needed it big time!

julian and sheila with dillon

since we've been home, i've been really busy and ben has been busy with work. i had a wedding shower for a friend from high school on saturday, so it was a lot of fun to see old friends and catch up.
AND i had three friends that were pregnant and ALL due today, but they ALL had their babies early! i got a phone call from hannah on wednesday morning saying she was in the hospital, then i got a text from adam, leslie's husband saying that they were being admitted to have their baby boy. well, our other friends, shelley and steven had been having contractions all week and they induced her yesterday! all three moms are healthy and all three babies are healthy! we have samuel trayner fields, weighing in at 8 lb 2 oz and 19 1/2 in (i think), then we have elijah marc lickey, weighing in at 8 lb 9 oz and 19 1/2 in, and then we have addison grace kennedy, weighing in at 6 lb 15 oz and 19 1/2 in. (all three same length!) i'm so glad that all my friends are having babies these days, too! i LOVE IT!! now, if hannah and leslie could just move to jackson, we'd be in good shape ;)
oh, yeah, while we were in franklin, dillon rolled over! YEA!!!! i had been waiting and waiting for this moment. he did it all on his own the first time when no one was in the room with him, then i did catch it on video the second time. it's not like it was on his stomach...he doesn't roll over everytime, but he is still doing it, so that's so exciting! some of these other pics are from sunday night...we were just sitting at home having a little family time, so i thought i'd let you in on that. we love you all! can't wait to see some of you in less than a week, grammy and paw paw! (and all the aunts :))

look at my feet ;)
he looks so big in this picture!

PETEY!!!!
and finally the video of dillon rolling over! sorry for all the other pics and details. it won't hurt my feelings if you just watch the video and look at the pics! ha!

here we go again!

2008-05-21T07:19:00.000-07:00

well, here we are again taking pictures of my ever growing belly! i am oficially 12 weeks pregnant today and i'm actually feeling pretty good. i had a good week and a half, had a bad yesterday, but feel a lot better today. the only bad thing is that i have had to give up hot coffee in the morning. it's really sad, and because of it, i've had HORRIBLE headaches for a week and a half. so, if you think about it, pray that they stop. i would greatly appreciate it.

12 weeks pregnant! i can't believe that we're doing this already again! we will find out what we're having at the end of june/beginning of july. my friend, lisa, was out yard saleing one saturday morning and found the exact same bedding that dillon has for $25!!!!!!! can you believe that?!?!?! so, we have matching bedding for dillon and his little brother/sister. they will share a room for at least the first year or two...and if the baby is a boy, they'll share a room till they're 18 if it's up to me ;)

my days have been filled with this big 16.4 lb boy. if you remember from some previous posts of pictures, dillon had a red spot on his right cheek. we weren't sure what it was...the doctor said it wasn't exzema, but he thought it was a fungal infection. he gave us some medicine that didn't clear it up...it dried it up and it scabbed over, but looked HORRIBLE!!!! so, we went back to the doctor on monday becuase he had another little spot coming up on the other side of his face. anyway, the doctor wasn't really sure what was going on, but suggested hydrocortizone cream all over and changing all of our detergents to the free of everything detergents and no smelly lotions for me. in just three days, dillon's face looks AMAZING!!!! you can't even see the spots on his face in the pics!!! also, he is pooping SO much better (for those of you that knew about our poop troubles). we are so thankful for that. it's amazing what makes you thankful when you're a parent ;)

i call this my sweet dillon picture. and that's what he is...a SWEETIE!!!! he is talking so much! he laughs at just about everything you say and is ALMOST rolling over from his back to front. he'll roll up on his side, lay there for a little while, then turn back over...maybe it will happen soon, but as my sister says, if you rush it, your days of sitting with your child are over! he has found his feet and plays with them all the time. his favorite words are "a-ba-ba-ba", "ma-ma-ma-ma" (but only when he's crying), squealing at the top of his lungs, and "a-ha-a-ha". it is so much fun to hear all his little sounds. and loud sounds! he is getting so big...i can't believe he'll be 6 months old next month!!!! you're pregnancy C-R-E-E-P-S by, and then their infanthood goes by so FAST!!!!!

this picture was taken this morning...pre getting ready...but i do LOVE this little boy! he is our pride and joy! i encourage you to look at our friends blog, william and glenna marshall. they just found out that they are adopting a child and he will be born in probably LESS than THREE WEEKS!!!!!!! holy cow!!!!! they never thought it would happen this fast (the adoption) and i am SO exciited for them...i can't wait to see a picture like this of glenna and her little boy ;). we love you, william and glenna!!
this is dillon's new "exer-saucer". it's actually his bumbo seat with some fun things attached to it. he LOVES it!!!

just in case you forgot what petey looked like ;)
we love you all...this post is mostly for aunt mel! i hope you enjoy the pics ;) it was so good seeing tessa on sunday...she's SO BIG!!! i can't wait to see the rest of the myatts in a few weeks!

st. louis!!!

2008-05-09T07:40:00.000-07:00

hello to all, and so sorry for the long periods of time between posting these days! i (janie) have started a new job. i'm working at euphoria salon and day spa as their receptionist 3 days a week. the owner has been my stylist for 11 years and i did this job for her when i was in college. well, she has just bought a new building downtown (very cool) and she needed some help again! so, i'm working and taking dillon with me which is a huge blessing. this summer, my sister, lili, will be back in jackson, so she will keep dillon for one day a week and i'll keep her kids one day a week while she works at their church, cornerstone community church, so dillon will be getting some quality time with his cousins who are here for the summer! everything with ben's job is going well. he is actually doing another VIP mag this month. they lost their designer and of course called ben, whom they knew they could count on ;) so, he has been busy with that for the past couple of weeks, and it will actually take us to nashville for a few days in a couple of weeks.
enough about boring stuff! onto the fun stuff! my parents treated us to a weekend in st. louis at the end of april. it was SO nice. see, my family used to meet once a year in a random city and the men would go to a baseball game and the girls would take care of the kids and go shopping. as there got to be more and more kids, it got to be harder and harder to get together and since everyone was so busy, dad decided that he would take matters into his own hands. he bought a pujols package so that he could go to two games and each child and their spouse could go to a game as well. while the spouses were at the games, mimi and papa would keep the kids! how great is that?!?! so, mom and dad decided to go with us to keep dillon. dillon slept in their hotel room and they let us go out to eat on friday night while they took dillon to cracker barrel. then, the next morning, we went downtown, ate breakfast at the st louis bread company (aka panera bread...we really wish we had one here!!!), and mimi and papa enjoyed dillon at the arch while ben and i enjoyed the cards beating the astros in the bottom of the 9th!! it was so great! they beat them 4-3 and there was almost a fight, which added to the greatness of everything. ha! so, here's some pictures of our fun weekend.

us at the arch

pre-game fun

our seats were great. prime homerun spots, but there weren't any hit to us that day :(

i'm excited!

ben's worried...are we going to win?!?

yea! we won!!

the cards celebrating.

dillon was exhausted from all the excitement!

when we got home, we had a squirrel fiasco that made ben nervous (and me nervous) and we decided that ben should patch up all the holes where we had started work. so, this is his wonderful job on the laundry room! we did lose the curtain that was hiding the washer/dryer, but that just means we get to put a real wall up soon! yea! and the squirrels are gone, i think ;) i'll fill you in if you want details later.

and how could i not put this picture up? i mean, he's ADORABLE!!!!!!!! he's getting so big and we're so proud of dillon. we also had an ultrasound for baby #2. there is only one baby #2 which i'm very thankful for ;) and the due date is either decemer 3 or december 5. my birthday is on december 4. so, that's probably when this little booger will come out. ha! we love you all and thanks for putting up with all these pictures.

georgia on my mind

2008-04-18T07:45:00.000-07:00

well, this is a much needed post! i have been so busy and haven't been able to just make myself sit down and blog! we got to go to atlanta a couple of weeks ago and spend some time with ben's dad, meri, aunt sandy (which sadly, i got no pictures of :(), and aunt jeanine. we had a BLAST! we went to the georgia aquarium which apparently is the biggest aquarium in the world. i'm not so sure about that, but it is pretty cool. and we had a great time getting there, right pop? other than that, we at a LOT and we played cards only about 10 hours/day. we had a very good time and were so glad to get to see everyone. here's some pictures from the week! to see more go here.

dillon with granny and grandpa

dillon being silly with grandpa

dillon and aunt jeanine

jellyfish at the aquarium...my favorite picture i took ;)

our family picture at the aquarium...next spring, this will be a double stroller!

dillon with dad and grandpa. he's a little more interested in the fish than in the camera. oh well!

we also had an ultrasound yesterday! everything looks great. i am 7 weeks TODAY and that puts my due date at december 5, one day after my birthday, one week before mimi's birthday, 6 days before dillon's birthday, and 24 days before daddy's birthday. oh my word. december is going to be very exciting! so, we got to see the heartbeat and it's so amazing that God has created another being inside of me. we are so blessed to have this second bundle of joy. right now, the baby is a centimeter long and his/her heart is the size of a poppyseed. however, we still got to see it. i'm so amazed by that! so, there is only ONE baby in there and i do have to say that i'm a bit relieved. i think that i would have been excited for twins, but two babies one and under will be plenty for me ;) we love you all and would love to hear from you soon!!

dillon is so good!

2008-04-05T08:33:00.000-07:00

well, i just wrote a post and blogger lost it! don't you hate it when that happens?!?! anyway, the past two weeks have been very busy with trying to get dillon on a good napping schedule. i think i have FINALLY figured it out...when to lay him down, how long he'll sleep, etc, to allow us to have a good evening together and not a crazy, screaming evening. this picture shows how dillon was pretty distressed this day...crying a lot and such...but he would stop crying when i wold take a picture of him. i didn't abuse that, though ;) even if he is crying, i think he's pretty great, still!

when we would eat dinner, we used to put dillon in his bouncy seat in between us on the floor. he would either go to sleep, or just talk to us and play while we were eating. well, just recently, he has decided to let everyone who is at the table with us know that he is down there. so, we decided to try out the high chair and pull him up to the table so that he could see what was going on! he LOVES it!!! thank you so much, grandpa and granny, for the high chair! we're getting use out of it WAY before we thought we would!

isn't he adorable?!?!

and this is a picture of our dear friend, reba dudley. she LOVES dillon so much and is SO excited for #2 to get here ONE WEEK before dillon turns ONE...that's right, we're pregnant! (some of you had seemed a bit confused by our last post ;)) we are so thankful for this second bundle of joy and so blessed to be able to be parents. we LOVE it!! so, this is macy that reba is holding. she is another friends baby who is one week older than dillon, but she's so TINY compared to him!! i guess dillon like to eat...just like his daddy and mommy! we love you all and hope you're doing well! dillon is awake from his nap, so i need to go. we'd love to hear from you soon!

oh and one more thing

2008-03-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

dillon will be a big brother in december :)

long time no update

2008-03-28T17:55:00.000-07:00

well, everything is going so well here in the williams's house. we are making some pretty big decisions about work and such, but when are we not making decisions about work? :) so, since the last update, ben's mom and step dad came for a visit! we had a great time with mom and dave and we know that dillon had a great time. it was very relaxing and fun to be able to vent, hang out, and eat out and in with them. :)

dillon with grammy and pawpaw. isn't this the best picture?!?!

we also had holy week that week. holy week is such an important part of the church calendar at CCC. during this week, we have what we call a Jesus Feast on Maundy Thursday. at this Jesus Feast, everything we eat is symbolic. for instance, we have lamb (Jesus), wine (the blood of Jesus), pita bread (unleavened bread and the body of Jesus), olives (which we're not sure what it's symbolic of...) and some other things that are really good. so, this is the best meal that we have as a church body every year. we had about 100 people there this year...the biggest yet, and we just praise God for what He's doing at Christ Community. then, we also have a Good Friday service, which was the hardest service i've ever been a part of. i was completely reminded of my sins (which is very fitting) and also, at the same time, reminded of what Jesus truly did for me on the cross. He died for me because HE wanted to. it wasn't my fault that He went to the cross. it's because He loves me and wanted to fulfill the prophets. i love Jesus. so, anyway, back to the services, we also had holy prayers on saturday that ben went to, but dillon and i decided to stay home since he had a pretty fussy week. (still sorry grammy and pawpaw for that) then, Easter sunday arrives! that is THE BEST service ever at CCC. i truly felt like i was in the heavenlies. ben did an amazing job with worship and we were just so excited that Jesus ROSE FROM THE GRAVE and ascended into heaven! PRAISE THE LORD for that!

this is dillon on easter morning. this is the only pic i got of him. sad.

so, onto what else has been going on. dillon continues to grow and make us laugh so hard everyday. today, we were sitting at the table eating pizza for dinner and dillon was in his bouncy seat in between us. all he would do is spit and make hilarious sounds. we laughed all through dinner at dillon! so, he's continuing to change daily and we are working really hard on our napping schedule. i think that today was a breakthrough. he did so well today until his fussy time tonight. so, anyway, we are doing well. dillon sat up in his bed for the first time today (leaning up against the rail of course) and he thought it was the greatest thing in the world. he was laughing and smiling, and then he would just fall over. so i would set him back up and the next time i would look at him, he would be face down in his stuffed animals. he's so much fun! here's some fun pictures to enjoy from today. we love you all!!

this is my FAVORITE picture from today! he's SUCH a HAM!!!

and he fell over ;) what's going on here?

still falling...

and now we're happy again! it looks like he's saying cheese!

and my other favorite. please notice the drool (yes, he has started teething, but no teeth yet, and please notice how dirty his shirt is in every other picture. thanks, lili, for showing me that you don't have to change your kids clothes after everytime they spit up or get something on them :))

3 months old!

2008-03-18T09:24:00.000-07:00

dillon is 3 months old!! can you believe that?!?!? i really can't. he's getting so big and so expressive! i LOVE it!!! we are having a blast with him. we had a great time in louisville a couple of weeks ago and dillon continues to make us smile everyday. also, thanks for all of your support for the bug-a-roo company and ben's new company, too! here's a few pics to enjoy. thanks again for checking in on us!

dillon is sitting up in the couch! so much fun!!

dillon in his new bumbo seat. he can't quite hold his head up well yet, but he's getting there!

looking at daddy play the guitar.

here are a few pictures from our trip to louisville! we had a really great time with the tankersleys and fields.

michael, our big, 5 year old nephew. he's so much fun ;)

me, marie, and dillon. marie is ALL ABOUT dillon! she's 3 and oh so much fun, too!

aunt lili and dillon. such a good aunt!

sisters, and bff forever! i LOVE this picture!

lee (my brother in law) and luke, he's 1 year old. he wasn't exactly happy here, but lee obviously was ;)

hannah and me. she is one of my bffs. i guess that makes for a pretty great weekend.

daddy and dillon playing outside. we've had GREAT weather here, so it's been so much fun to take dillon out and about in it!

bug-a-boo blog!

2008-03-14T06:56:00.000-07:00

good morning to all! i have been working very hard on slings and the bug-a-boo concept. i have just created a bug-a-boo blog. it's called slings-and-things.blogspot.com. please check it out often for new fabrics and products, as well as opportunities for parties and purchasing. thanks to everyone who has bought a sling so far and please continue to spread the word! we love you!

it's up and running!!

2008-03-04T17:42:00.000-08:00

it's the moment you've all been waiting for! BWCreative is ALIVE and WELL!!!! ben has gotten his website up as of this week sometime. we are praying (and you can pray with us) that people will start calling him for work. he's realized that there are a couple of other graphic designers in jackson that make it on freelancing in jackson. that was very good news to hear ;). also, i (janie) have started a little business kinda. i'm making slings for babies! we named them bug-a-boos and there's a couple of potentials for how i am going to sell them. as of right now, they are $35 and if you're interested, you can let me know and i will hook you up. woo hoo! so, ben and i are just taking care of ourselves and being entrepreneurs. something that we thought would never happen, but is, and it's good. so, check out BWCreative and buy a bug-a-boo and let everyone you know know about the williams! haha!

on other notes, dillon is doing great. he is changing every day. he is holding his head up so well and he loves his swing...something we just got out yesterday. i think he could sit in it all day long.

he continues to roll over and is very close to rolling from his back to front. we would love to see you all sometime soon! pleae let us know how you're doing!!!

isn't he an angel!!!

dillon is rolling over!

2008-02-26T12:13:00.000-08:00

a lot of you have seen this in person, but i wanted to share it with you anyway ;) this is how dillon and i spend probably about 25% of our day. it's with me making ridiculous noices...him laughing...then rolling over and me putting him back on his tummy, then me reading to him or singing or something like that. it's SO much fun! so, here's the best video in the world! HAHA!!! we love you!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

i've been tagged!!!

2008-02-22T12:02:00.000-08:00

Here are the rules.
(1) Link to the person that tagged you.
(2) Post the rules on your blog.
(3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
(4) Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
(5) Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

ok, here are the six quirky things about myself...hmmmmmm.

1. i claim that i don't like reality tv when in fact i cry everytime i watch extreme home makeover, long to watch the bachelor with my girls, LOVE so you think you can dance and have a NEW love for american idol. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!?!
2. i play the piano to relax. i bang it really hard (by playing chords that go together of course) and pretend to make up a song when it really ends up being a praise chorus or old hymn.
3. when i go to sleep i have to be touching ben AND petey. that's kinda gross...
4. i don't like to drink milk after the experation date. it wierds me out. but i just bought milk that doesn't expire for 2-3 weeks...how many hormones can they PUT in that stuff?!?!?
5. when i run or walk, i have to be on the left side even if it's a not-so-busy street like my neighborhood. it's the rule, right?
6. i like to cook dinner by myself...it's a power, i'm in control kinda thing. however, i LOVE going out to eat!!!

i tag melanie, bill, hannah, jenice, ginger, and lindsay. go get 'em tiger!

time with the grandpas

2008-02-22T11:19:00.000-08:00

well, it has been a while since i have posted anything. we have been very busy...out of town, friends moving, ben's business, etc etc. the theme for this past couple of weeks is that everything is just fine. it's not great, it's not horrible, but it's fine. it started off with a visit from ben's dad! this was a great time. he LOVED hanging out with dillon and he even babysat for me while i went to get my hair cut. and he tore down the wallpaper in our laundry room. we will forever be in debt to pop for everything he has done for us on our house!!

he was here from tuesday-thursday and right after he left, ben got a call from his mom saying that grandma passed away on valentine's day. this was her favorite holiday of all and she died very peacefully. brenda (ben's mom) was sitting with her in the hospital telling her what a great mother and grandmother she was and she said it was time, closed her eyes, and went to be with Jesus. we will miss this fine lady. she was a lady who loved everyone that she came in contact with. she didn't judge anyone and she had a heart for the Lord. she will definitely be missed, though! so, we went to oklahoma on saturday. our dear friend, stefi, was going to keep petey. she recently accepted a job at SCAD and we thought that she was moving before we would get back on wednesday. she didn't leave until today! so, it's very sad to see her go, but it was really good that she was able to keep petey and have some more time with us before she left. we will also miss this very fine lady, but we know that we will see her soon...right, steft? :)

while we were in oklahoma, dillon got to meet his great-grandpa and his pawpaw. this was a really cool time. we all sat with ben's grandpa the day after the funeral and grandpa just would stare at dillon.

pawpaw (dave) would also just gaze at dillon. it was a wonderful time. we had a blast with all of dillon's aunts and other family, and we are glad that we got to go to oklahoma, but we do wish it was under different circumstances. please be in prayer for ben's family as we grieve the loss of grandma.

so, we said good bye to stefi this morning and are trying to get back to normalcy here at westmoreland pl. ben's job is going well. he has had business and work since we got back...something that wasn't in place until we got to cincinatti and missed our connecting flight, so we had some time in that airport for ben to work. praise God for the clients that he has gotten and we covet your prayers as we continue to try to get more clients.

i'm not really sure what else will be going on with us next except that i am going to see one of my dearest friends in the world, holly cossiboom, in march in birmingham. you never know, we might come see you, too!!! we love you all!! enjoy these great pictures of dillon! he's rolling from his stomach to his back, so his head goes crazy when he's on his stomach. i have to hold him there so he doesn't just roll over right when he gets on his stomach! :) he is such a blast and a blessing! we love all of you and hope to see you soon!!!

tornado videos

2008-02-11T06:41:00.000-08:00

i'm sure that all of you know about the tornados that came through tennessee last week. it has been one emotional week for anyone related to union university in any way. i found two videos that are pretty amazing and show some great pictures that capture, as much as they can, what happened on tuesday. from these two videos, you can see a lot of other videos that students have uploaded.

we do serve a strong and mighty God. i also want to ask you to pray for ben's family right now. his grandma romines (mom's mom) is not doing well at all. she went into the hospital over Christmas first and was then moved to a transitional care facility. for the past two weeks, she has been so sick and has fought all that she can fight for her life. she is on full time oxygen right now and the doctors asked her if she wanted to go back on the vent and she said no. they also asked her if she wanted to be resusitated if it came to that and she said no. please please please pray for ben's mom as she watches her mother go through this and pray for ben and i as we decide what we need to do from here. also, our good friends julian and sheila williamson received some bad news last week about sheila's mom. she has inoperable and untreatable liver cancer. sheila is an only child, so she is having to make a lot of decisions right now about what to do for her family. the doctors gave her mom 2-4 months. please be in prayer for all of this. we feel as though the past month has been one of tragedy and not one of happiness. we're ready to be happy again. our hearts are heavy and we don't know how to pray or how to feel comfort. however, we do know that we serve an amazing God who is more powerful than we will ever know. thank you for your prayers.

praise God

2008-02-07T07:55:00.000-08:00

as many of you know, jackson was hit with some terrible storms this week. union university (where i went to college and where both of my folks work) is almost destroyed. the Lord is so faithful as no one was seriously injured and no lives of students were taken. that is amazing as most of the damage was done to the dorm rooms where all of the students were. please continue to pray. i haven't gotten out to see the damage yet, but am planning on venturing out today, hopefully. here is a link to some great photos taken my matthew elia, a student from union and a christ community person. please continue to pray as this is going to be a huge project on the university and the community as they strive to get things as much back to normal as possible for these students.
on the other hand, dillon is GROWING! he has begun to roll over from his stomach to his back and he is so smiley and laughy all the time. i had him going last night and this morning as got ready for bed and got dressed this morning. please enjoy some of these. we would love to see you so please come see us soon!
oh, by the way, we are fine and safe. there was no damage to our house or cars or us, or to my parents' house or cars or them. praise the Lord! HE is so faithful!
oh, and dillon slept for 8 hours last night! YEA!!! hopefully, he will keep doing that so i can sleep for an entire night! wouldn't that be GREAT!?!?!?!

what's goin on?

precious baby!

YEA!!!

he's so big!

i love everyone!!

dillon is 7 weeks old!

2008-01-29T18:16:00.000-08:00

can you believe dillon is 7 weeks old!?!? i CAN'T!!! we laid dillon on his tummy tonight for the first time in several days and he did awesome with holding his head up! our little boy is growing SO much! he is getting so big. we go to the doctor on feb. 8 for his shots. it's not going to be a fun day, but i know that we will get through it! we love you all! this is a much better pick-me-up than my last post. God is so faithful...even in daily tummy time. we love you all!!

dillon on tummy time.

what are you guys talking about?

we're so proud!

look at our family!!!! (dillon's saying "who is this dog and what is he doing?!?!)

PS: dillon does have other clothes besides this t-shirt!! HA!

this week in review

2008-01-27T18:03:00.000-08:00

i do have to say that i'm kinda glad this week is over. it has been a wierd week where a lot and not a lot happened all at the same time. as i'm sitting here with dillon and petey on the couch, covered up with the best blanket in our house, i'm reminded at how quickly life can change drastically. at the beginning of this week, i found out that one of my friends's house had been broken into and the man that broke into her house beat her up and sent her to the hospital. then the next day, i found out good news, two of our friends are pregnant! (rachael greenway and jennifer hooper...they're sisters-in-law and they're due two days apart! yea!) so, that brings us to wednesday. i called my sister to tell her the good news and she had horrible news. a dear sister, amber mathenia, was killed in a tragic car accident on tuesday evening, leaving her husband and two kids, 4 and 6 months old. on that same day, i found out that one of my longest and best friends in the world received some terrible news from a doctor...that she and her husband would not be able to conceive children natrually. so, that brings us to thursday. i was talking to one of my best friends, holly cossiboom, and she told me that a 3 year old from their church had drowned that weekend in 19 degree weather. on friday, mom and i got to hang out for the evening...we went to englewood's women's conference. that was good. and on saturday, i enjoyed dillon all day, along with pancakes in bed, staying in bed until noon, going to see some old friends for dinner and hanging out with new friends after dinner. praise God that He is faithful.
on friday, as i was reading in psalm 4 and reading an email about amber that i had received, i was reminded that the Lord is so faithful to his children. although this week has been hard and i've been reminded of bad things in life, i would not trade it for the fact that my God is a sovereign God. Psalm 4.8 says "in peace i will both lie down and sleep, for You alone, o Lord, make me to dwell in safety." and again in psalm 116.15 "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones." the second verse sounds somewhat morbid you might think, however, i love that it is precious to the Lord when someone goes to be with Him forever. also, the psalm 4 reference is such hope...not just for the life to come, but for now, there's nothing for us to be fearful of. the Lord allows us to dwell in safety. we have nothing to be afraid of.
i realize that this might be a ramble, but i wanted you to first of all, pray for all of these tragedies that have happened this week, and also rejoice with those that are rejoicing right now. Praise the LORD that HE is sovereign and that we are not...that HE is faithful...that HE is our best interest at mind...and that HE loves us. i pray that all who read this will have a better week and live in the peace that passes understanding.

here's a little picture to show you how big dillon is getting...

nothing to blog

2008-01-22T07:02:00.001-08:00

well, we have pretty much just hung out the whole month of january. dillon is asleep in my arms (even though i know that's not babywise, but i LOVE this little boy!) dillon and i got to go to sikeston, mo, to visit aunt g and uncle ricky (i'm stealing lee's name for william because i think uncle ricky is funnier ;)). we had a GREAT time. glenna and i have been bffE for ten years. i'm so thankful that we've remained friends who pick up right where we leave off even though we don't live in the same town anymore! we really wish the marshalls lived closer...like down the street. maybe someday they will ;)

the tankersleys (janie's sister and her family) have been here since dillon was born, but they are heading back to louisville today. last night, marie was having a really good time with the hamper and dillon. we are really going to miss them, but know that it won't be long until we get to see them again. other than that, ben is just working like a dog at vip and on his freelance work. thanks to everyone who is sending him work. God truly is providing for us and we are so thankful! we would love to see everyone soon! peace of Christ to you all!

edit: i just realized i used the same picture of dillon as in a previous post! i guess i really like that picture!!

ben makes one helluvan elvis!!!

2008-01-14T15:22:00.000-08:00

well, we had one happenin' party on saturday night! thanks so much for everyone who made it awesome! also, for those of you who don't know, ben turned 30 on december 29. well, since we had a newborn and family had been in for awhile, i decided to throw him a surprise party this past weekend instead of on his birthday! he had NO idea! not even with all the cars out front! we decorated the house with record streamers and gold happy birthday garland along with (of course) the bust of elvis from tom!! it was absolutely awesome!!! we've decided that this might be ben's only surprise party...at least for 10-20 more years :). we finished off the night with pictures of "elvis" (we'll see if you can figure out who elvis really is). here's some highlights from the night!

the cupcakes that cindy, cilla, and rachel made.

ben's reaction when he saw everyone!

cilla and kathy with the king...the were scared.

stefi and sarah havin a good time.

mimi and papa givin elvis some love

one team trying to come up with 6 degrees between ben and elvis

brian and cindy with elvis...cindy did shake her pelvis.

me and my king ;)

ben had a great time with me and these pictures. everyone was scared to get their picture taken after that :)

dillon is one month old!

2008-01-12T07:56:00.001-08:00

(tummy time on daddy's chest)
well, this past month has FLOWN by!! i can't believe that dillon is one month old! it seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital. i've uploaded a few new pics to picasa and i'm going to share some on here. you can click the link on the right margin to see all of the pictures. we have enjoyed some great times with friends lately. our friend, kathy guthrie, decided last week that she hadn't had enough holiday parties, so we all got together and played catch phrase and had some junk food that was pretty great so that kathy could get that last fix of holiday cheer ;). it was a blast! then, last night we went to kirby and cilla's house for some pizza and we had a great time with them and the williamsons. one of the ladies that was there asked me if we had had some good family time since all of our family had gone back home. we have had some great family time and we're figuring out that dillon loves to stay awake between his last two feedings of the night.

(more tummy time with daddy)

(my granny, dillon, and me. i'm her namesake, and she's one of the most amazing women i know.)
we are all adjusting well to dillon's schedule and just keep praying that he continues to do well. several people have also asked about petey and how he likes dillon. he LOVES him. he's very curious, but he's also very protective. i'm looking forward to this next month with "chillin' with dillon" (thanks auntie jen). we hope you are doing well and that you'll come see us if you get a chance!!

(smiling in the morning ;))

boy, are we glad 2008 is here!!!

2008-01-01T17:53:00.000-08:00

that title sounds like we had a horrible 2007, when, in actuality, it was a pretty great year! it definitely had it's ups and downs, but all in all, i think it might have been one of the best years of my life so far. we topped it off with dillon (of course...in case you hadn't noticed yet...) and family for Christmas, then we rung in the new year at 11:00 because we're just officially adults! how terrible is that?!!?! but we did have a good time with the atkins and denkers and rachel. it reminded us even more at how blessed we are and how much we hope that the Lord never takes us away from our dear friends.
Christmas was crazy, but really good. we spent a day or two with janie's family only, then ben's older sister, jennifer, came into town and tagged along (what a great sport she is...to put up with the myatts!) until ben's family came in on the 26. and when i say family, i mean his mom, sister, dad, and meri. janie's brother and his family were still in town, too, so i think it was officially the most family that has ever been in one town for us since we have been married!

everyone was so excited about dillon and once again, it reminded of the incarnation of Christ since mary was feeling the same way that i did and still do with a newborn around this time of year. it's pretty crazy to think about Jesus coming as a baby. Christmas has taken on a whole new meaning for us this year. it's been pretty amazing.

dillon is doing so well, too! what a trooper through being on a crazy schedule and all of that! we went to the doctor for his two week check up and he now weighs 8 lbs 10 oz (he's gaining the right amount of weight!) and he is now 22 inches long! that's 3 inches in 2 weeks!!! so, we might have a long, lanky boy on our hands!! he is doing so well with his scheduling, too. he's going at least four to five hours the first stent after we go to bed, then, he goes four more! YEA!!! that's pretty great for a three week old!! he also is learning about tummy time. he only lasts for about five minutes, but then he is so content with just hanging out with us lying on his back on the floor. he did great meeting all these new family members of his. he also got to be baby Jesus in he myatt production of the Christmas story. it was pretty great.
now we are looking forward to figuring out what normal is with dillon. bw creative is getting off the ground and if you here of anyone needing any kind of design, please send them our way! we're praying that God would bless your 2008 beyond what you could ever imagine!

all the pictures of dillon

2007-12-14T14:03:00.000-08:00

a lot of you have looked on facebook, myspace, and of course here for pics of dillon. here are a couple of web albums where you can see all the pictures from his first day home from grandpa and granny's camer (click here) and also the newer ones that we've taken (click here). we love all of you and thanks for being so excited about our little boy.
we took him to the doctor today and everything is going well. he only lost 6 oz. so that is great. and he slept through the night last night with only two feedings that he woke up for. YEA!!! keep praying that he keeps doing that! we love all of you!! this is what he looked like when we were waiting to see the doctor. he's got that thumb suckin almost down :)

he's finally here!!!

2007-12-12T16:24:00.000-08:00

SO, dillon is here!!!!! he arrived tuesday, december 11, at 9:14 am after about 12 1/2 hours of labor. he weighed 7 lb 2.2 oz, was (and still is) 19 inches long, and is AWESOME!!!! we got home today at about 11:30 and this is the first chance i've had to do anything on the internet. we hope you enjoy the pics, and can't wait for all of you to meet him!!! he's AWESOME!!!!