Just wanted to post a few pictures from our recent trip to Hilton Head. I REALLY DO LOVE THAT PLACE!!! It really is such a blessing to be able to get away, enjoy some great weather, eat great food, and do a little outlet shopping. Will really enjoyed the beach, and we were lucky to have my parents join us to help out with Will. Billy and I even were able to enjoy some time to ourselves, which I had forgotten how nice that can be!

Sunbathing baby

Sweet beach baby

Nothing like "wet sand in my underwear"

Testing out the waters with Papa

We also took Will to the playground at Harbor Town while we were there. It was his first trip to the playground, and I think we might have an addict on our hands!

Slippin' and slidin'

Horsey, horsey, horsey...

Just a swangin'.... (don't mind the snotty nose)

Will enjoyed the playground so much, that we decided to take him this past weekend here in town. Even sweet Kate and Amanda joined us to make it more fun!

Sweet cousins

Sweet smile

My turn!

So, we’ve been having fun—needless to say! Lastly, just wanted to post a pic of Will’s latest encounter with whole milk—I think the milk won that battle!

In your mouth buddy, not your face!

Happy Halloween!

I’m not sure what it is when babies turn 1, but it’s like overnight they become these little people with their own personalities. We are in awe of how much Will has changed just in the past few weeks. He is walking/running, into EVERYTHING, talking more, eating more (and more, and more), drinking whole milk really well, sleeping great (praise God!), and loves to be outside. He is learning to play more by himself (which gives us a much needed break sometimes), is eating ‘pretty much’ all table food now, and is getting longer and curlier hair. I keep begging Billy let’s take him for a little trim, but I’m met with resistance…check out the do!

 

Our little 'curly'

 

Just wanted to post a few pics of Will since it’s been awhile since my last post. I’m obviously not a great blogger, so I’ll just periodically update as new things come about. We went to Steed’s Dairy with Nana and Papa last weekend and Will really enjoyed the petting zoo. What a great place for kids! It’s so fun to be able to do these things with him now.

 

Daddy and Will with the goats

 

 

Decisions, decisions...

 

 

Catching a laugh with Nana

 

 

Family photo op

 

Also, wanted to share a picture of my niece Kate, Will’s friend Charlie, and Will all together in the bathtub. Our sweet nanny Kathryn kept the 3 of them on a Friday night for us so we could go out and bathed them together. The pic says it all….

 

"Rub a dub dub, 3 cuties in a tub"...

 

Hee, hee! I laugh everytime I see it!

Happy fall everyone!

Ok, so now that we have survived Will’s 1st birthday there is no excuse to not post more often! We really had a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends. We had bubbles (Will loves em’!), BBQ (thank you Shane’s Rib Shack) and LOTS of birthday cake (thank you “A Piece of Cake”)! Here are a few pictures from the party! I enjoyed every minute!

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Just to update, Will has been taking steps here and there…I watched him take 4 today! We are also drinking whole milk, and making the switch to the ‘big boy’ sippy cup from the bottle. These times are bittersweet. I’m so happy to see him grow, but miss the baby in him. I’ll admit I’ve resorted to rocking him to sleep at night (more for me than him) just so I can savor every minute of him being little. Oh, and speaking of little, we went to the pediatrician today for our 1 year visit. Will is a whopping 28 lbs (97th percentile) and is in the 90th percentile for height! He is one BIG boy! He’s never been one to miss a meal, and it shows. Love those chubby thighs!

Chubby thighs!

He’s also getting more teeth in, which is evident by the massive amounts of drool that trails along our hardwood floors. And, funny to note that he has a ‘special’ tooth right-smack-dab-in-the-middle-on-the-top. It is an extra ‘wide’ tooth that looks quite interesting. Now, I do see these things in my practice, but it’s really not that common, and to see one of these ‘special teeth’ erupting in Will’s mouth makes me just laugh at our luck. I’ll post pictures as I can take them. He’s such a moving target now, it’s hard to get a clear shot!

More to come…just wanted to post some pics of the BIG day for our friends and family that we don’t get to see too often. Miss ya’ll!

Whew, it’s HOT! We’ve spent lots of time at the pool…it’s hard to want to do much else. Will is starting to enjoy the water alot more, and is starting to ‘tan up’ just like his daddy, not like his pale mommy–Billy loves pointing that out.  My response to that is….’whatever’!

Pool time

Flying fish (with uncle Bobby)

Will is 11 and 1/2 months old and we are watching him change daily. I was even cleaning out some of his old clothes and just couldn’t believe how small everything was.  I remember wishing those long, first few weeks away, praying for sleep! He was a sweet baby even then…hard to believe that they can go from this…

Tiny Will (1 month)

to this….

Sweet boy

in such a short time. They have been some fun times!

We are ‘trying’ to get Will to wear shoes. He is NOT a fan, so we thought we’d try crocs first. He has a GI-NORMOUS foot, so trying to find shoes to fit him has been crazy difficult. I think that the verdict is still out on whether he’ll keep them on or not. We still aren’t walking yet, so maybe a few more weeks to practice with the shoes.

Not too sure about these

We’ve also spent a good bit of time indoors lately (due to the crazy heat we’ve had) and keeping Will entertained can be tough. He seems to like to ‘help’ Billy and I with our things, and likes to play with his toys; check out this predicament we got into…

This could be trouble

He was ready to pounce on those balls, and they were stuck underneath a chair (which you can’t see so well in the picture)! I laughed at this one…he couldn’t quite figure this one out. Also, I loved his ‘help’ with this one!

Helping mommy with the mail

We also celebrated my grandfather’s 82nd birthday by getting the entire Wallace clan together. It was a special time, and I love watching my grandfather’s face light up when the great-grandkids arrive. Priceless!

Grandpa's 82nd birthday

Will is going to be 1 in just a few weeks! Pray for sanity as I’m planning his sweet party. What a special time! Happy summer to everyone!

“OH!” is Will’s new word/sound? I’m not quite sure if it classifies as a word just yet, but we are having fun with it. He makes this funny face when he says it…check it out…

Practicing "Oh!" with Papaw

We’ve been out of the ‘blogging loop’ lately, so I apologize. I am going to get the hang of this, I am going to get the hang of this, I am GOING to get the hang of this…I think if I keep repeating it, maybe I’ll get the motivation to stay with it.

What’s new with us? Well, Billy’s dad is still recovering from triple bypass, but is home and doing well, Billy’s doing great after his appendectomy, work is REALLY busy (which I’m thankful for), and we are watching Will pull up, down, out, and around everything. We were in Tennessee to celebrate Father’s Day with Billy’s family and had a great time. It was good to see everyone and we had a good time visiting. What a special day…Happy first Father’s Day Billy!

First Father's Day

Will is staying busy as usual. He is now pulling up on furniture, crawling up the stairs (yikes!), and not sharing very well (he comes by that honestly). 🙂 We are introducing solid foods slowly: scrambled eggs, bread, pasta, steamed veggies, etc. and he seems to be doing well with that. I’m just spoiled rotten with the pre-packaged baby food packs…I mean, how easy is that? Also, we are getting excited about his first birthday-just a few weeks away! My, how time flies! Here are a few recent pictures of Will and one of Kate I took just the other day…it was too cute not to share!

"Who likes puffs? Not me!" Yes, that's 1 stuck to his chin!

Taking steps with Papa

"Outlets, electricity?? Sign me up!!!"

"Scrunchy face X 100!"

REALLY? Husband’s appendectomy the day we are supposed to leave for a much-anticipated, week-long vacation, check. Hot water heater bursting in beach house flooding the first floor while we are staying there, check. Sweet father-in-law having open heart surgery immediately after getting back from beach, check. Teething 9 1/2-month-old baby, check. All in a 1 1/2 week span, check. REALLY? Nonetheless, I’m thankful for it all, for it is our life’s circumstances and how we react to them that defines who we are. I like to think that God has been working on me lately, and I am better for it. Thankfully, Billy is recovering well after his emergency appendectomy, we actually were refunded a good ‘chunk’ of our vacation money and no one was hurt!, my father-in-law is now recovering from his triple bypass surgery, and Will seems to be handling the teething bit a little better. Whew!

Just wanted to catch up on a few things since I last posted…we celebrated my first Mother’s Day in Edisto Beach with some sweet friends, and their baby Charlie (who is almost 8 weeks younger than Will), and had a great time. A few of pictures of our trip are below.

I had Will’s 9 month pics made on May 1th by Katie Hardy. We had a great time, but had Will’s first ‘boo-boo’ after falling off a prop. But, after a few tears (from Will and I both) he hung in there and smiled for us. The pictures turned out great (a few are below)-thank goodness for photoshop!

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I’ll post more later, still have more uploading pictures to do, especially from our Hilton Head trip. We’ll be back! Stay tuned!

It has been a BUSY weekend. Dinner with good friends, LOTS of yard work, wiping Will’s runny nose 100X a day, etc. Poor Will, he really has a tough time with these colds. I’m pretty sure that it’s me that is the guilty party–bringing every germ known-to-man home from work, but what’s a mom to do? I just hold him down and fight the ‘boogie’ fight. Every mom knows what I’m talking about. It’s the irresistible urge to get every singe ‘boogie’ out of your poor child’s nose; #1: so they can breathe better, and #2: so you (and your friends and family) don’t gag every time you look at their poor, sweet, ‘boogie-covered’ faces. Oh, what a joy it is!

Lately, we’ve noticed that Will (all 24-25 pounds of him–big boy!) is never quite satisfied after each meal, so we’re thinking that we may have to start the ‘real deal’ solid foods with him soon. Pray for us and for Will; because we have no earthly idea what we’re doing–can’t wait to give updates on how that goes!

Our 'big' boy!

Lastly, let me just mention that this coming Sunday is Mother’s Day. What a special day it is, and I can’t wait to celebrate it with my sweet husband and precious Will. We’ll be celebrating over on Edisto Island with some very special friends. Definitely will post pics of Will’s first beach trip–can’t wait!

Ok, so I’m finally feeling up to par tonight, and trying to play MAJOR catch up with my ‘superstar’ friends and sister who have been blogging forever. Wow, I salute you all for being able to balance work, family and time. I for one, am still struggling. 🙂 Anyways, had a few minutes before getting ready for bed and wanted to write about what’s been going on at the Hughes’ household. Billy and I just got back from Chicago on Sunday, and we are getting settled back into our routine. It was wonderful to have some time away, but even better to be back in town with Will. Will is almost 9 months old and in fact next week, he will be. Yikes! He is actively crawling around everywhere, and is into everything. Things have really changed just in the past month and I’m starting to realize that he isn’t just a little baby anymore–sniff. For our sweet out-of-town family and friends, here are a couple of up-to-date pics of Will. What a ham!

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So, Billy and I decided to take a weekend trip together to Chicago (without our precious little one), which is exactly why I have the time to write a quick post! Billy is here on work-related things, and I have ‘tagged’ along for the ride. This is our first big weekend away from Will and yes, I have called about ‘ump-teen’ million times to check on how both he and the grandparents are surviving without us. Amazingingly enough, all seems well in his world even without us being there. 🙂 I have rested well knowing that he is in good hands this weekend, but really just can’t wait to get back to be with him. So blessed to have my trusty iphone with me that is filled with pictures and videos of Will—and I wonder why I have to keep recharging the battery…ha!

So the ‘journey ‘has been quite slow lately….Ha! Gosh, how life seems to get so busy that you forget to savor the little things. Will is going to be 8 months old tomorrow, and we are still in awe of how quickly it has flown by! He is so much fun now…attempting to crawl, teething (ok, maybe not so fun), and eating like a champ! He definitely has not been a picky eater, and we are so thankful for that. Just wanted to end on a picture of our little man after bathtime (his favorite)…just gotta love him! Stay tuned…hopefully, we’ll get better at this whole bloggin’ thing!