so, what's been going on?

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

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

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

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

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!!!!

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!!!!!

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!

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

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!!!!

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

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

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!

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!!!

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!!!!

*****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!

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!