summer, 2009!

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...

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

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

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!

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

typical breakfast

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

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

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!!

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

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!)