Merry Christmas!

This is the family Christmas picture... pretty cute, huh?!

We hope you and your's have a wonderful Christmas this year!

We will share pictures from tomorrow when we have the chance.

Love,

Diane, Chris and Dillon

A visit with Santa

Last Sunday Santa visited St. Paul during our annual Christmas dinner. We weren't exactly sure what Dillon would think about Santa, but I think he handled it fairly well. :) It probably helps that Grandpa Drilling is the unofficial photographer for the church and took the picture. ;)



Afterwards, Dillon and Santa and Daddy had several conversations...


He looks like he was telling him what he wanted in this one. :)







Dillon was looking at one of Santa's toys in this one...




It was a great night for everyone. We all had lots and lots of fun! :)

Dillon performing

first haircut

Aunt Michelle was worried that Dillon's hair was getting a little long in the back, and her nephew just couldn't have a mullet.

He had fun playing with the toothbrushes and nail polish in Nana's front bathroom.


He wasn't overly cooperative, but didn't raise too much of a fuss.







tada!

They ended up trimming the very front, back and side edges, and he's still got most of his curls in the back.

I'm Thankful For...

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I thought I would blog about a few things I am thankful for. Just remember, these things are in random order as thought about in my brain. :)

I am thankful that we are able to celebrate such a wonderful holiday with family and friends! Tomorrow, Chris has to work from 5-1:30, but then we are going to his grandmothers' house with his family, then heading to my parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner. YUM! My mouth is watering at the thought of my mother's dressing... which is my FAVORITE thing about Thanksgiving...

Although a lot of the leaves have already fallen off, I am thankful that they are pretty when changing. Looking at changing leaves and their colors always makes me smile.

I am thankful for a WONDERFUL church. I was born into this church, but I am VERY thankful I was. My grandparents were charter members of St. Paul, my mom and uncle were raised here, my sister and I were born, baptised, and confirmed here. I watched Chris join the church (on his own... I did not pressure him!), we were married here, and my son has been baptised here. We are very actively involved in several ministries. I am grateful for the memories I have and that most of my best friends are from this church.

I am thankful for my marriage to Chris. We haven't been married quite two years, but we have already been through a lot as a young, married couple. However, I wouldn't change it for the world. Chris laughs with me, provides me a shoulder to cry on, and he has been supportive of me from the very beginning. I am very thankful that God led me to apply to Tanako that fateful summer that led us together. I had a WONDERFUL summer living out my dream of being a counselor where I grew up going to church camp, and I met my husband! What more could one ask for?

I am thankful for "sweet kisses," as Chris and I call them, from my little guy. This picture was taken a while ago, but I love it! Dillon has provided me so much joy. I never knew I could love someone as much as I love him. I never knew what love at first sight meant until he was born. Now, I know what it means... and it's AMAZING! He has taught me so much about myself and life. One of these days, Chris and I hope for Dillon to be an older sibling... but for now we are enjoying our sweet little boy!

Even though this season has been tough, I am thankful for the Razorbacks! They have provided me with smiles, frowns, laughs, and tears. I have grown up in a legacy of Razorback fans, and I am already teaching Dillon to be a football fan. He will watch football with me, and I taught him to hold his hands up for a touchdown. :) The Razorback games also offer me a chance to have family time or hang out with my friends. They are fun, and there is nothing quite like 70,000 people saying, WOOOOO PIG SOOIE! at the same time.

This picture was taken last Christmas, but it reminds me I am thankful for family. My family, as we continue to live and grow together. :) I am also thankful for my mom, dad, sister, uncle, etc. They have taught me so much about life, love and happiness. I am thankful for Chris's family, for loving and teaching him. We are also thankful that Chris's brother, Ben, and his wife, Cheryl, are going to have a baby in a few months. Dillon and his cousin will be about 18 months apart. Too fun! I am also thankful for my close friends whom I consider family. They are the best friends a girl could ask for. They've been there for the good, bad, best, and ugly.

Trust me, I am thankful for more... the little things, the big things. I hope you and your's have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving tomorrow!

Birthday Party!

Last Sunday, Nana (my mom... but Dillon has made a name for her!), Grandpa, Chris, Dillon and myself headed to Bryant for a birthday party for Dad's cousin, Linda, who turned 60 this past week. Here are some pictures Dad caught of Dillon...


Here he is with a knife... He was brushing his hair with it. I did watch him carefully with it, and he didn't hurt himself or anyone else. :)

Trisha had some cookies on her plate that Dillon wanted to eat. He also tried some petite fours that were there. He enjoyed everything!

Here we are eating dinner. Dinner was good! Baked beans (Mom fed some of her's to Dillon... and then ran out... so I shared. He LOVED them!), crackers, and rolls was mostly what Dillon ate. But he really liked it.

This is Daddy's uncle John. He is my great-uncle, and so I guess he would be Dillon's great-great uncle... We love our Uncle John, and we were glad he was able to spend more time with Dillon.

Here they are having a "deep" conversation. I wonder what they're talking about....

Peering around the corner...

Last Sunday, my parents took Dillon to Morrilton for the annual Drilling family reunion. He's holding onto my mom's skirt in this picture. I'm not sure if he knows what to think... :)

2008 Halloween Carnival

Sunday night, we attended our church's Halloween carnival. Dillon wasn't quite old enough to do a lot of the games, but he had fun wandering around the event.

Here are some pictures of the event...

My little lion!!!

The family picture. I am the Twister board, Dillon a lion, and Chris a pirate. One of my coworkers (who attends our church) said Chris's costume reminded him of the free credit report.com commercial! :)

They had a cookie decoriating booth. Dillon didn't care about decorating the cookie -- he had fun eating it. It took him almost the entire time, but he finished it before the carnival ended.

"Playing" the games...

After the carnival was over, Dillon decided he would help clean up by holding the vaccum cleaner chord!

Hope

This picture is actually a few weeks old... the weekend Chris and I went out of town for his birthday was also the weekend for Race for the Cure. My parents, Michelle and Dillon walked the Family 2K. Apparently Dillon decided to take a nap during the race. I told my coworkers it looks like he is doing the Pledge of Alliegance in his sleep. :)

One thing I love about this picture is how Dillon looks like he doesn't have a care in the world. I really wish we could have the same outlook on life. Instead, I am slightly worried about the economy, worried about my family... I have felt more vulnerable to security in the last week in the aftermath of the brutal murder of Anne Pressly. And then to hear about the UCA shooting from last night just breaks my heart. I started crying last night thinking about how down right hopeless our world is getting.

And yet, I hold on to hope. I have hope in the fact that I know I have a God to care for me and that I can cast my burdens on Him, for He cares for me. I have hope in the fact that I have a family who supports me, even when it's not all roses. I have hope in the fact that I have a husband who is the greatest man on the face of the planet and who loves me more then I EVER thought someone would. I have hope because I have a son who is the light of my life, who smiles at me just because he knows I am his mommy, and who reminds me that there is still some innocence in this world. I just wish I could bottle it up. I'd give it away. For free! Just so our world could experience it...

I just pray that we all might find some hope in this world. That we might take time to see that we all have blessings and to not take them for granted. :) I thank each of you for being a blessing!

Cute Picture

This picture was taken a few weeks ago at the Jack Dillon Memorial Golf tournament at church. The golf tournament is named in honor of my grandfather - my mom and uncle's father. If you notice, the last name is spelled exactly like my son's. Although it is the family name, I would be lying if I said I didn't name my son after my grandfather. Papa (as Michelle and I called him) was a WONDERFUL grandfather who I was extremely close to. I wish he were still here today to meet his great grandson. But, trust me, there will be plenty of stories told to Dillon about his mischevious name sake!

Not Me! Monday

I've thought about this for a few weeks, but I haven't posted anything...

I have been following a blog for a while (I need to add it to the blogs I follow on the side of my page!) and she has a Not Me Monday section... so, now, I am debuting some things that I did NOT do this past week, because I am a good wife/mother/daughter...

Yesterday I did NOT sleep in until 8:00 even though I needed to get up and ready for church. I did NOT make my husband get up before me to get ready even though he got home from work around midnight and I went to sleep around 10:45-11:00 the night before. (However, we still made it to church basically on time...)

Last Monday, when I read last week's Not Me post and decided I was going to post, I did NOT think about what I might NOT do so I might have an interesting post...

Friday night I did NOT tell my sister that we could go shopping at Target with Dillon for birthday presents for my husband's family get together Saturday morning so I could look at Target's cheap new winter clothing items and decide 2 items were just perfect for me. I would NEVER impulse buy when I know that I need to be buying for other people...

Even though birthday cards are the main event at the family birthday get togethers, I did NOT forget them on the coffee table and only realize it when we got to Chris's grandparents' house. And I did NOT beat myself up for it all morning even though we brought 2 presents, 1 baby and his stuff, and part of breakfast and were actually EARLY for a get-together...

When my son was crying yesterday because I took away a toy he wasn't supposed to have, I DIDN'T give him Daddy's comb to make him immediately stop and grin at me. That would be spoiling my son and getting him used to playing with things he might not always be able to have, and I am a much better mother then to do something silly like that...

Okay, I am sure there are more, but that's all I got for now. Hope you had fun reading! :0)
By the way, we had a fun-tablous weekend... pictures will be here soon!

blue chair

so Dillon's learned how to climb up in this chair...

Daddy's turn

Your personality type:

Independent, original, analytical and determined. Have an exceptional ability to turn theories into solid plans of action. Highly value knowledge, competence and structure. Driven to derive meaning from their visions. Long-range thinkers. Have very high standards for their performance and the performance of others. Natural leaders, but will follow if they trust existing leaders.

Careers that could fit you includes:

Scientists, engineers, professors, teachers, medical doctors, dentists, corporate strategists, organization founders, business administrators, managers, military, lawyers, judges, computer programmers, system analysts, computer specialists, psychologists, photographers, research department managers, researchers, university instructors, chess players.

Personality Type

Okay, so this post doesn't have much to do with Dillon and more to do with Dillon's mommy. I took a personality test and this is what it told me. You can take it by clicking here. Dillon does seem to have some of my personality types... especially the enthusiatic one! Something I read further says that I am extroverted... and I really, REALLY am... and I think Dillon will be also. :)

Your personality type:
Enthusiastic, idealistic and creative. Able to do almost anything that interests them. Great people skills. Need to live life in accordance with their inner values. Excited by new ideas, but bored with details. Open-minded and flexible, with a broad range of interests and abilities.


Careers that could fit you includes:
Actors, journalists, writers, musicians, painters, consultants, psychologists, psychiatrists, entrepreneurs, teachers, counselors, politicans, diplomats, television reporters, marketers, scientists, sales representatives, artists, clergy, public relations, social scientists, social workers.

Enjoying Sunday

Yesterday morning at church we had a huge brunch in honor of our financial pledge drive. Afterwards, Dillon rode on the cart with the speakers to help put things up!

After a 4 hour nap (!), we went to grandma and grandpas where we enjoyed the sunshine! :)

Random Pictures aka The Catch-up Post!

While Dillon is taking a nap, I thought I'd take a few minutes and get some random pictures on the blog! Most of them have Dillon in them, but we'll get to some that don't, also...

A few weeks ago, Chris and I decided to take Dillon to two parks. He had a lot of fun!

Dillon is swinging back and forth. He's not big enough to fill the entire seat, and so he sits forward. :)

I'm watching my boys have fun!

Chris and Dillon on top of the slide....

....and I got my turn with Dillon next. He didn't like the end of the ride either time. I think it scared him too much... but he did have fun going down.

At the second park, they had a small jungle gym we could let Dillon climb. He had fun with that!

We've also gotten to see "aunt" Karen's new house that she and her husband are building. Karen is my aunt Debbie's sister.

Grandpa and Dillon admiring the view from the living room. The house sits on a hill, and there is a gorgeous view of the city and lake below.
Dillon and "aunt" Vicki. Vicki is also one of Debbie's sisters. Dillon liked Vicki. :)

After seeing the house, we went to dinner. Dillon decided to really like Vicki when she allowed him to play with the straw in her drink. She tried to stop him, but Dillon is a fast learner and remembered how to get the straw out of her drink. We couldn't help but laugh...

Dillon and his first car ride in Kroger with the race car carts. I promise these things are awesome! Dillon really likes the fact that he can actually see where we are going. They are a little hard to "drive," but it's worth it because it makes grocery shopping easier!

We went to Benton while Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Ben were here for a family dinner. Dillon was very fussy (it'd been a while without a nap), and so Chris's aunt Cara took him outside to hang out and sit. Dillon loves the outside, and so this was perfect for him! (And Mommy and Daddy didn't have to worry about him!)

Around a month ago, Chris and I were able to go to the first Razorback game in Fayetteville. Mom and Dad had a wedding to attend, and so Chris's parents kept Dillon and Chris, Andrew, Ashley and myself used our four tickets. Ashley's friend, Brett, also rode up there with us and got to sit with us after half-time.

Andrew before tailgating. Our meal was sandwiches. Yummy!

Digging into the food. (Chris has developed a habit my father is extremely good at - catching pictures of people while they eat!)

The big A!

Chris and myself during the game.

The team celebrating we won...

On the way up thee... I had to pay attention to traffic!

Chris took this of himself...

Ashley!
Her friend, Brett, talking on his phone about either the Cowboys or Florida. People called him all morning to talk about football!

The weather during the game. We had a great time, and we were glad that our friends got to go with us!