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 ;)