1st Birthday Party for our Lil Prince!

We celebrated Ethan’s birthday over the weekend with family & friends. We had a GREAT time with perfect weather. Ethan enjoyed every minute of his party ( except for when I had to clean his nose) You can tell from the pictures that his little smash cake was his most enjoyable part of the day. Trust me; it took a while for all of the blue icing & blue boogers to come out of his nose. I was totally exhausted afterwards but the exhaustion was no comparison to the pride & excitement that I had for Ethan & his celebration.

Here are the pics:

A look back ...what a difference a year makes...

A look back ...what a difference a year makes...

One week old

First day of daycare 11/2/10

Baby Dedication 10/30/10

7 weeks old

 1 month old

Ethan's pony ride 11 months

 Cowboy Ethan 11mths old

2 weeks old

One week old

1st Christmas

4 months old

It's PARTY time

It's PARTY time...

I can't even believe that I'm saying this but in 4 days my BABY will turn ONE!!!! Can someone tell me where the time went? This has been such an incredible year & Ethan has filled our home and our hearts with joy unspeakable! We will celebrate his birthday with friends & family this weekend. I've really tried to add a lot of little extras to make the day even more spectacular. I know that Ethan will not understand now but maybe when he’s older, he’ll look at the pictures and get the same joy that I have experienced in planning the celebration. I'll be sure to post pics afterwards!


Let’s PRAY that Hurricane Irene does not come our way! But we do pray for all of those in her path!

Happy Birthday Prince Ethan!

We love you SOOOOO much! 

We have a name!

Chris had the task of naming our soon coming Christmas miracle. I chose Grayson as the middle name but his first name has been a long, hard decision. Chris wanted a Biblical name and gave great attention and detail to bestowing the perfect name upon him. Earlier this week, Micah was the name of choice but he wasn’t 100% certain if this would be THE name. Other choices were Jonathan and John ( neither of which I like at ALL although John is my paternal grandfathers name) Last night, with great excitement, Chris announced that he had a name but was reluctant to tell me because he thought I would not like it. I encouraged him to just SPILL it, as I was dying to know. Drumroll, please…. Israel Grayson Dillard is the name and I absolutely love it. I love the meaning of Israel ( one who wrestles with God, Prince of God, the Champion of G-d.) and I also love “Ethan and Israel together). I still equally love the name Grayson and will call him both names…as I do with Ethan. If Ethan is in trouble he gets called “CHRISTOPHER ETHAN” and when he’s just my sweet baby boy ( which is 99% of the time), he’s Ethan.


Here is a pic of Israel Grayson from an ultrasound on Wednesday. Our OB wanted to recheck his heart because he did not see all 4 chambers on the 8/3 ultrasound. Thankfully, the repeat ultrasound showed a 4 chambered heart. Thank you, Lord~

The tech was able to get a shot of his face. The placenta is in front of my uterus and directly above his face. So, getting a GOOD picture may be difficult for a while. Either way, I love this picture. I believe that our sweet baby boy was smiling in response to hearing our voices. I can’t wait until we can see his precious smile in person & hold him.

Can you see this sweet smiling boy????
22w 4 days old

5th addition

I have not updated in a while but that doesn’t mean that noteworthy things haven’t taken place. It’s finding the time to sit down & blog that is the real problem.



All is well with our family and…. We’re expecting!!! Yes, this will be our 5th child, our “child of grace” ( the number 5 means grace in Christian numerology). We had our full anatomy scan yesterday and found out that we’re having another son. I wonder if God will bless us again with a baby as wonderful as Ethan. Chris gets to choose his 1st name but we do know that his middle name is Grayson.


We’re due Christmas Eve but this again is a planned c-section that will occur at 38 weeks. We should all be at home together by Christmas Eve. I am excited but I realize that I am sorely outnumbered in our home. Maybe, just maybe….we’ll try for a girl in a few years.

This pregnancy has been PERFECT. I didn’t even know that I was pregnant for the first 10 weeks. I have no morning sickness or pains or anything! THANK GOD! Hopefully, this is a sign that our baby is very calm and will fit right into our family.


Here’s the picture of Grayson form yesterday at 19 w 4d.

Beach Vacation July 2011

I want to share some recent pics of my sweet Ethan. He’s such a wonderful boy & will celebrate his 1st birthday at the end of this month. It’s hard to believe that time has passed soooo quickly.

Here are a few pics from our recent family trip to the beach.

Somebody spoils this sweet baby boy!

I mean really though...HOW could you not? He's so stinkin' cute & friendly!  We are thankful for Auntie Sam, Uncle Ron & Cousin Brittney who makes sure that Ethan is always fashionable. Now, whenhe's 18and wanting ME to buy him this kinda stuff, I'm sending him in their direction!

Here's Ethan in his 1st Ed Hardy shirt!

 This one is a little fuzzy but that lil smile is perfect!