I Love Fall

The Fall is my favorite time of the year! I love the bright, clear sunshine together with the slight chill in the air...it reminds me of all the fun holidays and family get-togethers that are on their way. This Fall has been a crazy one for us. New baby, new job, new family-dynamic, etc. Russ is adjusting to being a stay-at-home-dad and I am adjusting to being back at "work"...although in my opinion being a home-maker is STILL the toughest & most important job in the WORLD. And, yes, I do miss it...though I feel extremely blessed to be back at ORNL credit union. They have been sooo good to me. So we are ALL adjusting quite well to everything. Jacob is such a BLESSING!!!! He is the best baby in the world and I cannot imagine my life without him. He has such a pleasant personality and practically exudes joy and happiness. It is seriously impossible to be in a bad mood when you're around him. Just as his baby-blessing foretold, he is a "mighty example" and an "inspiration". The girls are so cute with him! They love to cuddle and coo with him...and Brooklynn is quite the nurturing little "mommy". I absolutely ADORE my little family and am so thankful for every moment. I just pray that I can be everything for them that they need and deserve.

Luigi and Mario!

We celebrated Halloween on Saturday night this year with dinner, games and trunk-or-treat at church. At first Brooklynn wanted to be Sonic the Hedgehog, which was going to take quite a bit of time and creativity on my part, so I was happy when she fell in love with this "Iron-ette" costume. (Think Iron Man's younger, super-cute sister) Red and shiny with a cape and boots!!! What's NOT to love? (Brooky dressed up as a scientist for school.) Izzy wanted to wear the good-witch, hand-me-down costume. Only Izzy can make a witch look angelic! And I finally succeeded in getting Russ to "dress-up" for Halloween this year. We used eyeliner to darken in his "scruff" and make his eyes look akin to Captain Jack Sparrow. He blackened out a tooth and donned some minor costume items and VIOLA...Captain Russ Williams, aarrgh!

Well, hello there!

We're still here! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted, but we've had alot of changes around here. In addition to a new baby, Russ and I have had a change in careers. After 8 years in the insurance business, we decided to get out. The stress of sales along with the expenses of running a business made Russ realize that insurance just isn't what he wants to do until he retires. So I have gone back to work and he is at home with the kiddos while studying to get certified in repairing computers. Talk about changing things up!! Blessedly my old employer ORNL Credit Union was hiring and the timing was just right to where I was able to actually go back into my same position at the same location! It's been an adjustment for both of us, but we're all doing great! Russ is, as always, an awesome daddy!! He is a natural...we just hope he'll be able to find more time to study once we find a good routine. :~) So here are some pics of what we've been up to lately.

7/25 First smile caught on camera. 7/31 Grandma Su-Su's visit to TN. Brooklynn was introduced to the wonders of shopping. Thanks Grandma! :~)

8/1 Jacob's Blessing Day. 8/12 Brooklynn's first day of 2nd grade.

8/28 Grandpa Tom & Grandma Diane's visit to TN. We went to Dolly Parton's restaurant/show, The Dixie Stampede and we went sight-seeing at the top of the mountain that overlooks our county. Poor Diane got stung under her eye while we were trudging through the woods. :~( Other than that we had a wonderful time.

9/14 My adorable LiTtLe MaN!! The camera makes his hair (what little he has left) look blonde but it's actually light brown. It may lighten up to a dark blonde like Isabelle's did, though. Both my girls have big, beautiful blue eyes but Jacob definately has the Hodges-squinty-eyes. His pretty, blue eyes nearly disappear when he smiles...just like his momma. :~) He is such a good baby! He sleeps through the night with only the occassional night-time feeding. He has the most gorgeous smile which he loves to show off. It seriously melts your heart! He is very interactive now. He looks at you very intently when you talk to him and he tries to talk back. He makes all sorts of cute faces and coos at you and spits bubbles. Very talented, of course! Brooklynn is enamored with Jacob. She "aaaaah"s at everything he does and bursts with pride at everything he does. Isabelle also loves her baby brother...sometimes a little too much! We have to keep an eye on her. ;~)

12 Days Old

Jacob Russell Williams in 12 days old today. Although he is screaming as I type this :) he is really a very content baby. He eats good and sleeps good with minimal fussiness in the evenings. He's definitely a cuddler and prefers to be held. (I hope he gets a little more independant as he gets older and more alert...so my house doesn't always look like it does at the moment) He is sweet as can be and it is near impossible to resist kissing those cheeks of his. I better go relieve Daddy, but I will try to get more pics with his eyes open as soon as I can. Love y'all!

The 2 Hannahs trying to entertain themselves while stuck inside. It's just too hot and humid past 11 am lately. Luckily, they're pretty imaginative.

Welcome to the World

On 7/7/2010, we welcomed Jacob Russell Williams into the world. He was 8 lbs 8 oz, 21 inches long and apparently in quite a hurry to get here. I had actually been having contractions for weeks but Wednesday morning I woke up at 5 am due to contractions that were about 20 minutes apart and continued to get closer and closer together. By 7:30 am they were 12 minutes apart and I sent Brooklynn to wake up Russell and let him know that we might be having a baby that day. He wanted to leave right away but I wasn't positive since I had a false alarm last Wednesday but, luckily, he was persistent. We dropped the girls off in town with Lorna and we rushed to Knoxville (about an hour drive). On the way, the contractions got sharper and were between 5 and 6 minutes apart. The nurse at my OB's office thought it would be "faster" for me to come there first and then they would send me to the hospital if it was true labor. (Trust me ladies, ALWAYS go to the hospital first!) We got to the doctor's office at 9:35 am where they determined it was the real thing so they loaded me in a wheelchair and took me across the street to the hospital by a little after 10:00 am. I had progressed quickly to an 8 or 9 at this point with no medications or massages or anything so you can imagine how I was feeling. :) I tried hard to concentrate on Brooky and Izzy for comfort. They got an IV in my hand but they usually make you get a whole bag of fluids in you before they start the epidural, but blessedly the anesthesiologist took pity on my and started the epidural right away, which helped tone-down the contractions before it was time to push. Thankfully, it all went pretty quickly and by 10:52 am we had our sweet baby boy. He was just perfect!


Hello world! Daddy got to do the first diaper change.

First meal. Yummy! I love visitors.

Sweet sisters!!! I love my Great-Grandma!

Happy Birthday Isabelle!

My little Isabelle turned 3 years old July 3rd and we had a fun time eating pizza and beating-up poor Dora. :) After I bought the Dora pinata, I wondered if Isabelle would be traumatized watching Dora get beaten...NOPE! All the kids seemed to genuinely LOVE getting a turn to bash the poor cartoon's face in. The adults had just as much fun watching them. :)

Isabelle, you have been my little side-kick for 3 years now and we have been nearly inseperable. I love how you love me and make me feel needed. Even though your curiousity and....um....shall we say persistance are challenging at times, I truly hope you keep your zest for life and that you are always persistant in standing for what's right. I love you my little Busy-belle!

Recipe help!

Does anyone have...or can anyone point me to a website or blog that has a wonderful, delicious, really crispy-crunchy chicken fingers recipe??? I cant tell you how many times I have tried to make them (oven-baked and stove-top-fried) and the coating just NEVER sticks and it never quite satisfies like Chili's or Applebee's chicken tenders...and now Hardees is coming out with their own "hand-dipped" chicken tenders! I want to know the secret to getting a nice, crunchy coating and to making it STICK. I've tried egg, buttermilk, plain milk...I've tried coating in flour before coating in the wet mixture...but to no avail. So how 'bout it? Does anyone know the secret??
PS-For the BEST mexi-meal ever, check out this recipe on one of my new favorite blogs It ain't cheap because of all the spices it calls for (twice!) but it's divine! I just made a double batch of the chicken mixture and will freeze half of it to pull out and use after the baby is born. Here is my other favorite food blog. Yum!

What do June Showers bring???

April showers might bring May flowers, but June Showers bring July babies. :~)
A BIG "THANK YOU" to my sweet mother and sister-in-laws for throwing me a super-cute shower and "THANK YOU" to all the sweet friends and family that attended. We will definitely use all the diapers, wipes and boy clothes we recieved!! The food and company were excellent and one of my favorite parts of the evening was the "Baby Food-Sampling Game". I doubt the players enjoyed the game as much as the spectators did. :~) Too funny!!! Thanks again to everyone!!!



I was looking around the storage/Nursery room a week or so ago and realized how boring it was with the plain white walls and furniture crammed into every corner...and I decided I needed to do something to make this room really feel like it belonged to baby Jacob. I saw a cute idea on my friend Mindy's Blog and decided to give it a try. Now, she used the big, paper-mache letters, which turned out adorable, but I found these letters 50% off at Hobby Lobby, so I grabbed them. They are more flat and were already finished with a white paint, but I loved their whimsical shapes! I picked out some scrapbook paper with matching colors and Modge-Podged the paper on top of the letters after tracing and cutting out the shape. I Modge-Podged the top to give it a shine and protect the paper, but next time I will watch my brush strokes more carefully. In the right light, you can really see the srokes going all different directions. :~( On the whole...I quite like them, although I think I need to go back (when I get my next burst of energy) and measure their positions to get the letters to be a little straighter. I had to stand on a step stool and lean my big belly over the crib in order to reach the wall so...maybe it will have to wait until after he's here. :~)

Happy 7th Birthday, Brooklynn!

My baby turned 7 last week and we had a really fun time celebrating the occasion. One thing that she really wanted to do was go to The Melting Pot, a chic fondue restaurant in Knoxville. So a BIG thanks to Grandma Sue-Sue & Grandpa Brad for granting that wish. She could hardly wait for that evening to come and when it did she got all dolled up in a dress and heels. :) Too cute! We met Russ there after he got off work and the restaurant had a birthday card waiting for her at our table.

She LOVED the cheese appetizer...

...but as you can see from her fudge-smeared face and from her seal-of-approval kiss...the chocolate desert was her FAVORITE! (mine too!)

~Russ had to work on Saturday which was her actual birthday so the girls and I went and saw the newest Shrek movie, which was actually pretty good.

~We had her birthday party with family on Sunday after church. Thanks to all of you who helped make this such a special birthday with your love and well-wishes! As you can see, she had a BLAST! Lorna made her some Raggedy Ann pajamas that Brooklynn liked so much that she went and changed into them at the party! It took several people to convince her that they were indeed pajamas and not play clothes. Funny girl!

~Brooklynn, you are such a light in my life and I can't imagine my life without you!! If success in life is based on the amount of smiles, laughter and pure joy they have brought into the world...you are definitely the MOST successful person I know! I remember how your daddy and I would go to sleep with our sides hurting from giggling so much with you. For the first few years of your life we didn't even turn on the TV because YOU were the entertainment! Then, as you kept growing, you amazed me again with your eagerness and capacity to learn. Your inquisitive nature and determination have proven to be a challenge to me as a parent at times, but have also made me sit back and look at you with heart-warming pride. And you just keep making my life better! When your baby sister came along after 4 years of being the only child, I worried about how you would adapt. We definitely had our moments of adjusting...but you have proven to be a HUGE help to me!! You have such strong nurturing and motherly instincts and they have proven extremely helpful to our family. Words cannot express the gratitude that a mother has when her children genuinely try to make family life sweet & harmonious! Thank you for just being you!!! I love and adore you and look forward to what the future holds for you and what YOU hold for the future!!

Hurray!

I am soooo proud of both my girls!! Brooklynn had her awards ceremony today for 1st grade. She was recognized for being on the High Honor Roll and for maintaining 95% or above for the entire year! Way to go Brooklynn!!!

Also, it's been 3 weeks and Isabelle is still doing an great job on potty-training!! I am so proud of my little BIG GIRL!!

As for me and the bun-in-the-oven...we're doing good to. I'll admit that I hurt...alot...and never get more than 2-3 hours of sleep at a time...but everything else seems good, so I'll deal with it. Sometimes I feel like a zoo exhibit when people look at how big my tummy is and find out I have 7 more weeks to go. We went to a Chinese restaraunt the other day and our waitress was talking about my soon-to-be baby and asked how far along I was. When I told her I had 7 more weeks, her eyes bulged out and she started shouting in Chinese back to her friends in the kitchen and some of them came out to "observe". I was probably red as a tomato from embarassment!!! NOT fun! The good news is that I havent actually gained much weight and what I have gained is ALL BELLY. It just makes it hard on my back and I'm constantly knocking into things with my "beach ball". I see the doc this week and plan on talking about inducing me as early as safely possible. :~)

Here we go again...

Well folks...we're gonna do it this time. After the last 2 tries at

potty-training failed, I was going to wait until after the baby was born, but as I went to go buy more diapers yesterday I thought "No! We're going to do it now." Yes, there are going to be wet pants and I'm going to have to get my pregnant self down on the floor and scrub up accidents several times, but I decided I'd rather do it now than when I'm taking care of a newborn. It just felt right! So this morning I showed Isabelle the empty box of diapers and announced that they are all gone and she is now a BIG GIRL. We then cheered and clapped our hands and danced around a bit. I've already had one accident to clean up but we've also had some success. Wish us luck!

PS-I had an ultrasound yesterday and the baby has moved up some so he's in a better position. I could see chubby little cheeks and poochy lips!! I can't wait to meet him in person!!

Welcome Spring!!

Easter and Conference...2 treasures in one weekend. We had a yummy pancake breakfast at church Saturday morning followed by an Easter craft, egg-hunt and Conference. It was a beautiful but windy day.

On Sunday morning, we awoke to find all sorts of treats from the Easter Bunny. He's getting better and better each year at hiding those eggs in new places!

Here are my sweet girls. Oh yeah, Brooklynn finally lost that 2nd tooth! After the traumatic experience of her first tooth-loss, she just would NOT wiggle it (or she'd pretend to) so we decided to wait until it got very, very loose...which it did, but it was still a bit of a sturggle to get it out. The dental floss kept sliding off because she would pull her chin in a down when Russ went to pull it, which made it hurt...with no results. Finally, Russ just had to give it a couple of good tugs with his fingers. She was glad to have it gone. Poor thing!!!

For Spring Break this year I was determined to get out of the house and spend some quality time with my girls. We went to the movies, our local park, Chuck-E-Cheese and the World's Fair Park...and thanks to coupons, gift certificates and checking the interent for free local events...we hardly spent any money!!! Gotta love it!! These pictures are of the Sun Sphere in downtown Knoxville where the World's Fair was held in 1982. Erica, Tara & her boys, and my girls & I took the elevator up to the observation deck where we had a gorgeous 360 degree view of the city of Knoxville. Then we had a picnic by a pond and let the kids play a while on this really cool, huge wooden play set. It was such a nice day! I wish the weather would stay just like this the rest of the summer and not get any hotter or more humid. *sigh* One can wish.

Success!

Sorry I've been absent from the Blog-o-sphere lately, but you know how it is. We finally have some nice weather so we've been busy enjoying it plus getting ready for the baby. An update...we were able to squeeze that 2nd twin bed into Brooklynn's room (FREE bed from my sweet neighbor!! Oh yeah!) and we will eventually move Isabelle in there with Brooklynn, but we first wanted to move her to the toddler bed in her own room until she is used to STAYING IN HER OWN BED before we put her in with Brooklynn. Izzy has had a history of wanting to get up at all hours of the night, so I was a little nervous and even prayed much about it. I really, really want her to be used to staying in her own bed all night by the time the baby gets here...just in case the new baby happens to be a good sleeper, I'd like to be able to get a few good hours of sleep myself. :~) And the results so far... SUCCESS!!!

I put a bunch of things in the crib so she would realize that there is no going back, but so far, she hasn't even seemed to care. She is quite proud that she can sleep in a "big-girl bed" and I am proud of her too!

Someone please sedate me!

One word...NESTING!!!! I was never this bad when I was pregnant with my girls. I really think I'm borderline neurotic now. I still have over 3 months left, but I am already not a very patient person, then when you add a looming due date...well, let's just say I'm not sleeping well lately. I have to figure out a way to squeeze Isabelle into Brooklynn's room, including another twin bed, dresser and her clothes and shoes. (Don't bother suggesting a bunk bed because Russ is highly against them). Plus, Brooklynn's room is also the play-room with all the toys, crafts and dress-up items. So I need to figure out how to fit everything in there and still leave a little open space to play. Our master bedroom already doubles as our office and will also have the bassinet for the first few months...and the "nursery" is also our deisgnated storage room with filing cabinets, my craft and scrapbook supplies (which I never have time to do anymore but I am too cheap to throw them out), book shelves, crib, baby gear and the new baby's clothes. I know I sound whiney, but I AM truly grateful for all the comforts we have that may lead to a rather cramped house. I just wish I could find a way to make it all fit...and I wish I didnt have to rely on other people to get it all done. Russ keeps getting after me for "over-doing it" by hauling boxes and moving furniture...and I know he's right...it's just this strange need to get everything in place and organized, like, NOW. Aaaargh!! Did any of you have major nesting issues?

*Drum roll*.............It's a boy!

Our baby boy is developing perfectly and right on schedule for July 9th. Normally, I would hope for as early as possible but I think I'd like to have at least a week in between his and Isabelle's birthday...so I guess I'll just have to be patient.