all the pictures of dillon

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!!!

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!!!!

39 weeks, 3 days...that's 4 days to go!

well, we still have no baby. i can tell that things are getting close, though :) i'm done working! ben has been working with ross guthrie this week (painting) and is going to do some freelance work for the VIP jackson, ms, magazine later on this month. we appreciate all of the prayers that everyone is praying for us. we really covet them, so please continue ;). we're looking forward to seeing family in about 2 weeks! we can't wait for Christmas and can't wait to spend Christmas with dillon!!! we will definitely keep you all posted. we love you!

false alarm

so, yeah. i don't know if i should be telling this, because it is pretty embarrassing...i just feel the need to update everyone on the goings on of our life. and this is what has been happening.
so, last night, i had contractions off and on throughout the night. mind you, i haven't had any braxton hicks until today. so, ben and i got ready, went to church, and timed contractions all through church. they went from 8:30 - 5:30 (which is when we went to the hospital) going from 30 minutes apart to 3 minutes apart. well, i probably had 2 contractions when we walked into the doors to the hospital and that was IT!!! no more! zilch! nada! it was SO annoying! i felt like an idiot. they hooked us (me and dillon) up to the monitors and so it was pretty fun hearing dillon's heartbeat for an extended period of time. anyway, so, if anyone tells you that i went to the hospital, they're right, but then you can tell them it was nothing.

anyway, on other notes, everything is going very well. we haven't taken any recent pictures of me to post because, let's just face it, i'm pretty large AND our camera is packed in the hospital bags. i do only have one more week of work, though, which i'm VERY excited about :). we also are finishing up getting ready for dillon to get here. that's pretty much what our days consist of...work and getting ready for dillon. it's good times! also, ben is probably going to start some free lance work in the near future. if you hear of anyone who needs some graphic design work, let him know. we would greatly appreciate the business...however, there's no compensation for a referral...yet ;). we also had the privelege of having TWO thanksgiving dinners this year (not including work dinners). our first one was at the myatt's house. the tankersleys were in town all last week. we had SUCH a great time with them! so, we had both sides of the family in on last saturday (before thanksgiving). then, we went to the denker's house on thanksgiving day! that is truly our home away from home! we had such a great time with our "family" there, and we all decided that it was one of the best thanksgivings ever. we loved it.
i guess that's about it! we love you all! thanks for all your prayers! and we will definitely keep you posted!!

i love our friends

so, i'm just realizing how good ben and i really have it. i've known that we've been really blessed, but i mean, we have the BEST friends in the WORLD!!! we have been blessed with having almost 3 baby showers...the 3rd one is sunday...and we still have 2 more to go! i LOVE our friends! and, as many of you know, most of my friends from college (ok all of them) live in different states. these are the girls that were my bridesmaids and who i know we will be life long friends with. you girls have been the awesomest people since we found out we were pregnant! you always ask about us and how the little guy is doing and how i'm feeling. anyway, i just wanted everyone to know how blessed we really are and how much i really do love our friends. our "other group" of friends are guys from Christ Community. (follow the link on the places to roam to see our church and hear some great teaching). these are the men that were ben's groomsmen in our wedding and over the past two years, i have had the privelege to know their wives and call them BFF as well ;). the Lord has truly blessed us with amazing people in our life. i am so thankful for how each of you has blessed the williams family over the past two years. and, if you read this, you know that you're one of those people that we love ;). i just wanted to express my gratitude for our friends and praise the Lord for bringing people like you into our lives. the peace of Christ be with you all today.

mud pies, beetles, and fire trucks

well, i'm at 34 weeks and 1 day. this little guy is going to be here before we know it. and ben and i really are just very excited about seeing him. i think that we're ready to just know him, and i'm kinda just ready to have my body back to normal...not with a huge baby in my belly :). anyway, we also have dillon's room painted completed. well, i guess it's not completely done, but all we have left is some doors and trim around the doors to be painted. YEA!!! we're SO ready!

on other notes, there's not a LOT going on. i think that some of you knew about kirby's film and project that ben was supposed to work on. the plans have changed a little bit and we're actually excited about it...so what's going to happen is the atkins and the williamsons are going to go to spain in january. the company has decided to have kirby and julian and several others (from spain) to do the pre-production in spain. basically the company is not willing to move the williams (us) to spain, so we can't go. BUT kirby is still going to use ben in the pre-production. only he will be able to work from home, which dillon and i are very excited about. we are actually pretty excited about all of this and have seen how God has worked and answered prayers even though they have not been answered how we thought they would be. there's a lot of specifics to that i could explain and i will expalin if you want to know, but it's way too much to type. so, you can just call if you want to know ;). everything is going well and we are very excited about what Christ is doing in our life. thanks for praying for dillon, the film, and for us. please keep doing so. we love you all!

sooooooo

so, i'm at home by myself on a wednesday night. we've been going so much, ben said, "you're staying home tonight" and so i did! anyway, there's been several things to go on since last time i posted. first of all, i'm at 33 weeks. we've gotten a lot more done on dillon's room, but i'm going to wait to post pictures until the room is completely done.


the last two weeks have been pretty crazy. they began with ben's mom and step dad, dave, coming into town.(for some reason i think i already posted about his...but i don't think i did). anyway, we had a great time with them. brenda was able to come to my shower from CCCand dave and ben got to hang out a lot. it was SO great to have them here.






the next thing that happened that's fun is that i took two of my kids to a farm! we had SUCH a blast! i think that the girls that we took had a good time, too. i do hope (if i don't do anything else in this job) that i can take these kids to places that they have never been and to get them OUT of the classroom and their beds.
i think i can accomplish that.


the next great thing that happened was that i had FALL BREAK!!!! it was such a great weekend! i had the opportuniy to coordinate a wedding in nashville. it was a great wedding and i hope the bride and groom thought so too. that was this past sunday. i got home around 11:30 that night and went to work on monday, ben and i had our baby class on monday night, tuesday we went to work, and tuesday night we went to union's scholarship banquet with my parents, kirby and cilla, and walton and katy. it was SO much fun! the speakers weren't the best in the world, but we had a great time. that's what matters most, right? so, tonight is wednesday night. ben is at worship practice, i am blogging at home (i needed to rest and stop) and petey has fially calmed down to sit in my lap and i'm about to start folding dillon's clothes and put them away. we were going to do a yard sale this weekend, but we decided to wait until after dillon comes when we have time to go through everything a lot better and do it sometime in april. i'm SO thankful for a husband who realizes that his wife HAS to slow down. that's why i'm home tonight, that's why we're not doing the yard sale, that's why we're taking a little break before dillon gets here. anyway, i just felt like posting a couple of pictures of what the weeks have been like. spend some time with your family this week and weekend. be appreciative of them. hug them. kiss them. have fun with them. (i don't know who this kid is, but i left my camera on the bus, and this picture was on my camera when i got it back. i love it!)

dillon's room

several of you know that ben and i have been working very hard on getting dillon's room ready so that gramby and grandpa stover will be able to see it this weekend when they come for the Christ Community shower. we have had a GREAT time putting together his nursery and we have a few more things to get...like a chest OF drawers (that's for you, hannah) and some baskets, but we know that those will come. ;) here's a play by play of what happened...
ben is halfway there


the room BEFORE cindy came over to help ;)


the springs for the crib



it's DONE (minus the sheet...it's in the wash)
ben's the man!


a REALLY bad shot of the rest of the room (again, minus the chest of drawers, squares on the wall, and rug)


the proud momma and her belly


the BIG belly!

so there's the play by play. after all that, petey needed to be played with and i thought this was pretty funny...

Photo Sharing -Video Sharing - Share Photos - Free Video Hosting
we are SO excited about this little man coming into our world and we're so glad that you all get to be a part of it...whatever that might be. come see us soon!!! love to all!!!

9 weeks and 5 days to go!!!!

can you believe it?!?!? we only have 9 1/2 weeks to go!!!! our great friends kirby and cilla gave us a brand new crib today for little dillon, so this weekend, ben and i are going to get his room ready. the last thing that we'll do is paint, which might or might not get done. but if it doesn't, it's going to be ok :). ben's mom and step dad (brenda and dave) are coming into jackson next weekend. we're so excited that they're coming! dave is doing 200% better (if you don't remember, you can read some old posts...) and we just can't wait to see them.
keep praying for the film that kirby is working on. it still hasn't started, but we feel that God is just telling us to wait right now. please be in prayer for us as we seek first the kingdom of God an das we learn what God's will is for us.
that's really all that's going on. petey is good. janie is good. ben is good. God is good to us and He gives good gifts. we pray the peace of Christ on you!

just because

as i got to work this morning and started looking at a few of the blogs that i puruse, i noticed that almost everyone i look at had updated their blog! it makes my day when i have new stuff to read from some of the greatest people on earth! (that's some cheez wiz right there). anyway, i don't have a lot to say. i guess i'll just update quickly about the past few weeks.
dillon is now 29 weeks into his development, which means we have 11 or less weeks before he'll be here! i feel the need to get his room ready, like now, so hopefully this weekend, we will get his crib and be able to paint and all that stuff. mimi got him his bedding last weekend which we are SO thankful for! so, now we know what we need to do to get paint colors! YEA! anyone who wants to help, give me a call!!!
also, the Lord has been gracious with giving ben work a little last week and this week at VIP. please pray for us as we decide what to do with the movie and how we decide to live for the next year or so. we really need some guidance.
everything else is going well. my new job is getting better everyday. i'm looking into taking my kids on a field trip because they deserve it and it would be fun :). i hope we can go to the pumpkin patch or to tennessee safari park. we'll see what happens. i have some of the greatest kids and they teach me patience everyday. i know God's preparing me to be a mom.
i also would like to just say that i'm very thankful for the elders of our church. they are such a blessing to me and ben and our little family. we love the community that God has brought us into and i would encourage all of you to pray for your elders daily. they are our shepherds. may we be faithful to pray for wisdom for them.
well, this is basically a post where i could just ramble, so i'm going to stop. we're excited about seeing the tankersleys in a few days. we miss them like crazy. expect crazy pictures from the week that they are here! much love to everyone!! this is our nephew, luke tankersley. this picture just makes me smile everytime i see it!

26 weeks and counting

well, this picture is about 2 weeks old. i've made it into the third trimester and i can't believe it! this last 13 weeks is going to FLY by!! we're starting to have baby showers and it's really exciting. thanks everyone for having them for us!! this is a picture of what my belly looks like if you're food sitting on our table :)
also, ben and i have had some pretty great blessings recently. the movie is still not up and going, but we're confident that it will be soon. please continuing praying for that. in the meantime, we're taking advantage of our sunday afternoons ;). this is ben and petey last week...
we hope to see you all soon!! thanks for praying for us!

nash-vegas!

well, today is oficially mine and ben's anniversary. although we celebrated this past weekend, i did make ben breakfast in bed this morning ;). we went to nashville for a couple of days and stayed downtown at the union station inn. it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! it's totally worth it to stay there just to see the room and the inside. we started off the weekend with a trip to qdoba (janie's favorite)! we love their big burritoes. on saturday, we went to franklin and walked around downtown. we enjoyed lunch at the mellow mushroom (pizza) then drove around looking for a pipe shop, but couldn't find it, so we went to uptown's instead (in green hills). (these are my feet after the day in franklin)
then, we went to maggiano's little italy for dinner that night. i think that all we did was eat this past weekend. on saturday night, after going to border's, we were driving back to the hotel and our car started overheating. we made it back to the hotel, but sunday we knew we would have to take it to the closest firestone (right down the road). dave was nice enough to take it right in and look at it. in the meantime, we walked to panera (about a mile) and had breakfast with some sunday morning paper reading. then, we decided to walk back. after two hours of sittin in firestone, our car was ready for the trip home! dave was kind enough to give us 10% off and a couple of hoses for free since it was our anniversary ;). thanks, dave! we then finished off the weekend with eating at blackstone brewery (the st. charles porter is ben's fave) and headed home. we did listen to a lot of this american life which we highly recommend to everyone! happy anniversary to us!!!

here are some pictures of union station. it's beautiful!! (have i said that yet?)

and i said "hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, hey, yeah, yeah..."

I said hey, what's going on?
there are actually a LOT of things going on with ben and me right now. first of all, we thank you all for your prayers for dillon and for ben's step dad, dave. dave and brenda are doing much better and actually just bought a new house in edmond! we can't wait to get out there and see it and see the whole family out that way. dillon is still developing really well. he's growing and growing. ben actually felt him move for the first time last weekend! it was such a great thing! i had been feeling him move for a while (and it just feels like a little alien moving in you), but it was really great when ben felt him move :).
also, ben's new movie that he is working on with kirby is just about to get off the ground. praise the LORD!!! we are really looking forward to this getting going completely. kirby has signed the document we were looking for, and so now it's just a matter of everyone else following through. you can still pray for that to completely get going.
janie, in the past week, has started a new job at what was formerly the Cerebral Palsy Center in jackson. the name has changed to the West TN Center for Child Development in the past few months and it's probably going to change again ;). our friend, ben hickey, was the teacher in the school age classroom, but he has found his wife in ethiopia and they were married at the beginning of july! you can look at brian's blog to see their picture, or you can look at patrick's blog to see a wedding picture. we're very excited for them. since pepo's visa is having a hard time getting to them, they are having to stay in ethiopia which opened up his position at the center. so, i have started working there, and, honestly, it's pretty overwhelming. i've never taught children that are as medically fragile as my kids are; however, i am already falling in love with all of them. you definately can pray for e though, for patience and a dilligence to continue on with what i need to do.
on happier news, we are busily working on our house. ben put insulation in above the office/guest room today, and we just got finished painting up there last weekend. now, we just need to do the floors and move the bed, then we will be ready to paint and work on dillon's room! it seems as though we're never going to get there, but i know that we will ;). i'll post some pictures as soon as we download them.
next weekend is our 2nd anniversary! my parents are celebrating their 35th this week and it seems like we've been married for longer that 2 years, but it's pretty cool that we feel like we've been married for longer than 2 years, but not 35 ;). we're going to go to nashville and stay at union station for two nights, then have monday to get ready to go back to work on tuesday. we're really looking forward to a needed weekend of rest. i will post some pictures when we get back from nashville, too. here's a picture from our last anniversary trip to st. louis.

i guess that's about all that's going on. it's a LOT! anyway, we'd love to see and hear from you, so come see us or call us. we love you all!!