5 years down & a lifetime to go…

5 years down & a lifetime to go…



On Friday, October 21st. Chris and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. I can’t believe how much our lives have changed in what seems like such a short period of time. Although many things have changed, our love for each other has remained steadfast and unchanged.

We celebrated the entire weekend. Friday, I was welcomed to roses in our living room and another floral bouquet in our bathroom. The greatest gift to me was a beautiful card from my love. He always gives nice cards but this one included a lengthy love note…He certainly know how to melt my heart.

On Saturday, we spent a lovely evening together with dinner at a restaurant on the river….AND Ethan was with us! Now, I know that my husband is JUST as protective of Ethan as I am. We are getting to the point where we are VERY cautious about who we let watch Ethan for us…even our family members. However, the night was absolutely perfect and Ethan was a social butterfly. He makes friends everywhere that he goes! His little personality continues to blossom beautifully!

On the drive home, Chris and I held hands and shared some of the best & worst moments of our 5 year marriage. It was great to reflect upon the memories that have touched our hearts & lives the most.

We are imperfect people, with a perfect love for each other. I hope that everyone can experience the power of genuine, untainted Love.


Here is a link to the wedding slideshow. 5 years later…its still beautiful!
http://bigshow.bigfolio.com/?s=000003430&t=1dd88f24052973a7b72676f6374d9306

Only 9 weeks and counting DOWN

I really can’t believe how extremely fast this pregnancy has gone. I feel great and in no way am I ready to evict Israel from his snug little home. I feel a bit cheated since I didn’t know that I was expecting for 3 months. SO, this seemed like a 6 month pregnancy for me. I protest….I want to be pregnant until MARCH!



I was just thinking the other day that September 27th marked the 2 year anniversary of my TAC. WHAT a difference the TAC has made in our lives. We are thankful to God and to Dr. Haney for our two TAC miracles!



The pregnancy is going great. I feel bigger than ever but in all actuality, I’ve gained less than 10 pounds. Our U/S on Thursday revealed a healthy 2lb 11oz handsome boy. My amniotic fluid was up to 30% which concerned my OB. He wanted to know if I had passed my glucose test and I did with flying colors. I’m not sure what or where the extra fluid is coming from but it concerned me enough to adopt the diabetic diet and really watch my carb/sweet intake. The more carbs/sweets the more urine Israel will produce, which will increase the fluid and make for a large baby. Since he will not travel thru the birth canal and have some of the fluid squeezed from his lungs, it could put him at risk for NICU. SO, I’m being careful. Has anyone else had excess fluid?

Here is Israel Grayson at  28 weeks 5days

Family Pics

Here are a few pictures of our growing family...As you can see, I was hiding.  It was DH's idea for us to have pics also.  I had only planned for Ethan to be photographed...anyway, I'm glad that we all took the pics.  Ethan did great!  He's such a happy baby & knew EXACTLY what to do for the camera.

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