Guatemala

Recently, Will wore this shirt that Ashley got him from Guatemala.



I love this shirt! Not only does my boy look cute as a button in it, it also serves as a reminder to pray for the people in Guatemala. Our church and two other churches have teamed up to help the people in Guatemala. They have already been on some very successful mission trips. Currently, the churches are preparing for 3 different trips this year to provide medical care and build a church for the people in Guatemala, all while sharing about Jesus! Please be in prayer for the people who are readying themselves to travel this year.



Though I haven't traveled to Guatemala and don't plan to, I know that I can pray for the people there and for my friends who will be traveling. I hope that as Will gets older, I can share with him about this shirt and that he will understand that people from our church were willing to travel around the world to share about Jesus!

Birthday Prep

Am I really planning a 1st birhtday for my 6 pound, 3 ounce tiny baby boy? In 43 days will he really be ONE? This can not be happening. He is still a baby. But it is happening and it will be here SOON!

So far...
-I have picked a day and time for the party
-I have picked a theme (that Clay hates, but I am not changing my mind)
-I have secured the location
-I have gotten the guest list together (The number of people is insane, but everyone on the list cares and loves Will so much so I can't make any more cuts!)
-I have found the invitations (which I plan to order Friday)
-I have made a list of food we are going to serve
-I went to Edgar's and got cake prices
-I have picked out all the decorations

So I am on my way. Thus far, it has been a pretty stressful experience. I know Will won't remember it, but its his first birthday and it needs to be PERFECT. I can't wait to enjoy the day with all of our family and friends. I will update more as I make more progress.

Video: Will Walking

Here is a video of Will walking! Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Uncle John!

Happy 24th Birthday!!

You are a wonderful brother and brother-in-law and a GREAT uncle!!

We hope you have a great day!

Pictures from my phone

There is not much going on this week, so I thought I would post some pictures that I have on my phone.  Some are precious and some crack me up. 

Will is on the move!

I am declaring that Will is offically walking.  He is taking 8-10 steps at a time. He will walk from one piece of furniture to another.  He is on the MOVE! I have a video and as soon as I get it uploaded to the computer I will share it with you!

Sweet Picture

I wanted to share this picture because I thought Will looked so sweet.

(If you look closely, you can see the two bruisies on his forhead that he got at daycare)

I love this boy!

Propel Water

Will refuses to drink any kind of juice or water. We have tried everything, but he is content just drinking formula.  Of course, he loves to taste whatever we are drinking.  He has tasted Coke, Dr. Pepper, and sweet tea.  He always makes a terrible face and usually doesn't want a second taste until now.  The other night I was drinking Kiwi-Strawberry Propel Water and Will grabbed the bottle.  After he tasted it, he would not give me the bottle back and everytime I took it away from him he screamed like I have never seen him scream before. It was crazy. I poured at all but a VERY small amount and let him have it.  HE LOVED IT and drank it all. After it was gone he kept licking the top.  It cracked me up.  Later he decided Winnie needed some water too.  He is such a funny boy!

Drinking it up!

Sharing with Winnie.

He carried the empty bottle around for the rest of the night.

Snow Days

I got to stay home with Will the last two days due to the weather.  My work made a decision early on to let us work from home to avoid any issues we may have had getting to and from work.  Of course, we were supposed to get an inch of snow, but that never happened.  Will missed all the snow because he was asleep when the flakes actually fell.  Clay didn't want Will to miss out on the snow, so he had another plan in mind.

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Snow for Will!

10 Months Old!!!

I can't believe I am 2 months away from being a mother of a one year old! WOW!!  Time is flying by. I hope that I can treasure these last few baby months.  I fall totally in love with this boy every single day!

Will and Tiger - 10 months old

(I had to give him the Little Tummies medicine to hold to get him to sit still)

What Will is up to this month:

-He pulls up on everything

-He has taken two steps independently and cruises a lot holding onto furniture
-He says mama, dada, bye, hey, and something that we think sounds like puppy (he says it when he is playing with or pointing at Winnie, so we are assuming that is what he is trying to say)
-Other than those words that we can distinguish, he babbles all the time, to us and to himself
-He loves to play with all his new toys
-He will dance when we sing the “William Yates” song (a song we made up)
-He plays peek-a-boo and patty cake
-He claps all the time
-He still only has 4 teeth: 2 on top, 2 on bottom
-He is wearing mostly 9 month clothes, and some 12 month clothes
-He is still in a size 3 diaper
-He is eating more and more food everyday
-He still loves bananas and we are getting him to eat other fruits now
-He is sleeping all the way through the night (7:30 pm – 6 am). Of course things were messed up around Christmas and New Years since Clay and I were home so much, but he is right back in the swing of things.
-He has had a little separation anxiety and cries when Clay or I leave the house; it makes me sad :(

We had to do his “Will and Tiger” picture (above) a little different this month because apparently he wasn’t in the mood to have his picture made. Here are some of the outtakes from tonight:

I know I say it all the time, but we are so so blessed to have Will in our lives!

If you want to see Will and Tiger month-by-month, go HERE.

Twenty-Ten

The new year is here!  Wow!  Clay and I have had a great time over the past couple of days spending time with family, friends, and Will.

I didn't make any real New Year's resolutions, because I know I will just break them.  But I do have a short list of things that I want to do during 2010:

• Spend as much time as possible with Will and Clay
• Laugh more and cry less
• Give more, take less
• Learn to slow down and take every single moment in
• Read the entire Bible
• Spend more time worrying about what God thinks about me, and not what others think about me
• Live the life I know I am supposed to live and let everything else fall into place

It's not much but these are things that are important to me now. If anything, last year taught me that this life is too short wasting time on "stuff". I used to worry too much about what other people thought. Do I drive the nicest car? Do I have to best house? Do I wear the right clothes? How big is my paycheck? Do people think I have it all together?  All that stuff doesn't matter.

Now, I want to invest my time and energy into the important things in life. I want to live my life by God's standards. I want to raise my child in a loving home. I want a strong marriage. I want spend time with people who love me for me - flaws and all. Having Will in 2009 changed my perspective on this life.  I thought success could be measured by the amount in my bank account. Now I know that is not true. I want my success to be measured by what kind of Christian, mother, wife, daughter, sister, and friend I am.  God's plan for my life is so much better than what I had "planned" and that is pretty amazing.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2010!