December so far...

Jack is so fun! He has had a few milestones this month already! So far, he has started sleeping in his own crib, taking a bottle twice a day, sitting in his Bumbo, helping Daddy hold his bottle and best of all...smiling at us! His favorite pastime is playing on his Baby Einstein activity mat. He grabs at his toys, smiles at Mr. Whale and Mr. Octopus, does tummy time on it and uses it to do his infamous "scooting!" He still loves climbing up Daddy too! Now we just have to master the sleeping through the night thing... I suppose that will come with time.

Troy is done with his first quarter of classes...finally!! My mom came down to help out during finals which was super helpful. Troy was able to fully concentrate on school and I still had and second set of hands. He finished on 12/9 and so now we are just hanging out as a family relaxing for a few days. It's so fun and I feel so fortunate that Jack has this time with his Daddy. They are such buddies...it's so fun to watch them spend so much time together bonding.

Wednesday we will hop in the car after Jackson's middle of the night feeding and attempt to drive to Minneapolis in under 8 hours...we'll see! :-) It will be so fun to bring him there and introduce him to all of our friends and family who haven't met him yet! We have a pretty busy schedule while we're home but it will be fun! Lots of pictures to come from Jack's first Christmas, I'm sure, so check back after then to see more photos! Also, there are several more photos on the Shutterfly site so check that out too! Below are a few of my favorites from the last few days...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Williams family!

Jackson playing on his activity mat - his favorite thing to do!

Sitting in the Bumbo for the first time!

Holding his bottle!

Jack and Daddy

All bundled up for the cold weather!

"Touchdown!"

"Please stop taking pictures of me!" :-)

Auntie Amy and Jack!

One Month Old!

Jackson turned 1 month on the 25th! We went to the doctor and Jack is now 7lbs, 14.5oz and 21 inches long! He is still wearing newborn size clothes though...a little peanut!

Some of Jack's favorite things...

1. Tummy time! He lifts his head and turns it and lifts his legs up at the same time!

2. Scooting! If he's on his tummy and you let him push against your hand with his feet he scoots forward 6 inches at a time!

3. Hiccuping! He still gets them regularly like he did before he was born.

4. Climbing! He climbs up Daddy until he gets to the top of his shoulder!

5. Bouncing! We have an exercise ball and anytime he's upset we sit and bounce and he becomes a happy baby again!

6. Eating! What baby doesn't like that?!? He has started taking a bottle once a day too so Daddy can feed him and Mommy can sleep! :-)

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Troy's family. They drove down to see us since we didn't want to travel with a newborn. We had some good family time and all took a walk down by the lake. Everyone loved getting to know little Jackson better! Below are some pictures from this weekend.

Jackson's play time...

Grandma and Grandpa Williams with the grandkids

Family Picture by the Lake

Family Picture on Thanksgiving

Mommy and Jack

Williams' Family Picture

Bella is meeting her cousin Jack for the first time

Baby Jackson is here!!!

Wow...this past week and a half has flown by!! My apologies for not updating this sooner!

We welcomed our beautiful baby boy -Troy Jackson Williams- into our family at 2:45pm on October 25th, 2009. He weighed 6 lbs, 10 oz and was 20 1/4 inches long. He was born 16 days early, but absolutely perfect! He's named after his daddy but will be called Jackson or Jack so he can have his very own identity too!

My labor was about 13 hours long and I was lucky enough to only push for 5 minutes! Overall, it was an amazing experience...no words to describe it. We are absolutely loving life with him around. We are constantly tired, but he's worth every second of it! He's already got his own little personality. He is very busy...just like he was inside and it's fun to see him moving around
like I used to feel inside of me too!

Enjoy the pictures and if you want more...go to our Shutterfly website where there are many more photos to see! http://williamswall.shutterfly.com

The Last Few Weeks...

These last few weeks have flown by! We have been trying to make the most of our last few weeks before the baby comes! Last weekend we took another trip into the city but instead of taking the train this time, we decided to drive. It is much faster! We went to dinner and visited the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) at night which was really cool. The city is beautiful at night and once again Troy was able to play around with the camera and get some great pictures. We included some below.

We also went to Kellogg's CIM Ball on Navy Pier a few weeks ago which was a semi formal ball for the students. The ballroom was gorgeous. I was probably not as dressed up as the rest of the ladies that night but I did manage to wear my 3 1/2" gold heels! I only made it until around 11:30 but not too bad at 34 weeks! They had a photo booth with colored pictures which was really fun. I tried to dance but dancing to club music while pregnant is definitely more challenging than you might think! All in all it was a fun night though!

Troy's school is still keeping him super busy but he's still loving it. He is almost at mid-terms which is crazy to think that the quarter is half way done! He is starting to go to company events that correlate with getting summer internships already. He's also playing flag football weekly and he joined the Tennis Club. I'm keeping myself pretty busy. I found an outlet mall that might become my new favorite destination! I also got the chance to go visit Amy up in Milwaukee on Tuesday this week. I drove up and we went shopping, went to dinner, volunteered at her church and just had some good sister bonding time! Her new place is super cute and she was kind enough to sleep on the couch and give the pregnant lady and all my pillows the queen bed all to myself!! I owe her!! :-) It's so nice having her this close after 8 years of living 5 or more hours away from each other!

Baby update: We finally met my doctor last week and really like him. He is really down to earth and you can tell he's been doing this for a long time and knows what he is talking about. He determined that our baby isn't going to be a big baby - which made me very excited!! I went back today for my 36 week appointment and he's estimating that our little guy is about 5 1/2 pounds right now. He still hasn't dropped fully yet so I think we still have a few more weeks. He continues to be extremely active. So much so that we decided to video tape it so when we tell him someday we can actually show him what he was like. I'd post the video but since we used his name a few times, we have to wait until he's here so we don't ruin the name surprise! :-) Last weekend we packed our bags for the hospital so we are ready when he is and can't wait!!

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks...

103rd floor of the Willis Tower

Troy standing in the glass overhang where you can look straight down Troy looking straight down 103 floors...I couldn't do it!
Looking at the John Hancock Tower and the rest of downtown
Looking out North over the Lake Michigan and Indiana
CIM Ball
CIM Ball - Big Ice Sculpture

Photo Booth at CIM Ball

Weekend of Painting

My Mom, Dad and sister were able to come down for the day on Saturday to help us paint the baby's room. They were a great help! Troy and my Dad were able to get most of the baby's room taped and painted which was a huge help to Troy since I'm not a lot of help these days! :-) All in all, it turned out great! Now we just need to hang everything on the walls! My mom and sister were even kind enough to paint my toes for me (since that is pretty difficult for me too now). We were also able to enjoy the beautiful weather and of course, eat at Giordano's for pizza!

I went to the dr. last week and looks like all is well. Not much to report but it feels more real now that I am actually meeting the dr.'s that will deliver our child. Now I just need to remember to pre-register at the hospital and interview some pediatricians... The to-do list to get ready is never ending! The baby is still really active. Last night he literally moved around for 3 hours, took an 1 1/2 hour break and then was right back at it for another hour! He finally settled down around 11:45pm so his Momma could get some sleep!

Troy started a new round of classes today that he will have now until Christmas break. He really enjoyed them so far. I'm sure they will be a lot of work but he really loves learning...so this is the right place for him! I joined the Kellogg Kids Committee to keep me busy so now I will be helping plan events and activities for this group during the upcoming year. I'm so thankful this school has a place for the moms and kids!

Life is good...enjoy the pictures!

Eating Pizza...again...

The painting process...

The final product...

Our New Life in Evanston

We have been here 3 weeks now...and it's flown by! The first few days Troy and I spent some time together getting our new home all set, relaxing and we also took a trip into the city on the train. Although we are only 10 miles from downtown Chicago, it takes an hour to get there by train! We took an architecture boat ride tour on the river through the city while we were there and got to use our new camera to take pictures. Troy has been practicing with the camera so that when the baby comes he will be a pro! My sister also visited us during the first few weeks to keep me company while Troy was busy with school activities. It was really fun showing her Evanston and eating at our favorite pizza place.

Tomorrow I have my first doctor appointment since we've been here (32 weeks!). So far, the baby has stayed really active. My tummy is really moving and is visible for anyone watching. There are many times when Troy finds me laughing by myself because the baby is doing something amusing (like punching anything I rest on my belly). He has also really developed the hiccups lately. Usually about once a day I'll feel the rhythmic thumping for a few minutes. It's so crazy how real it all is now! We will be painting the baby room this weekend and after that is done, we will be 100% ready for the little guy to make his way into the world! We are so extremely excited to meet him!!

Below are some pictures we've taken over the last 3 weeks...

Baby booties...

Giordano's Pizza...yum!

Troy and me in Chicago