so much in so little time

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

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.

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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!