weddings

my youngest brother got married last november. my oldest brother got married this past march. these are pictures mostly from march - the mississippi wedding. shots were taken by my sister - in - law, laura brown!

dancing with cousin, felicity, at the atlanta wedding in november.

victoria bryant camping

water was cold. will got in and played, but it took a little persuading. a toy bucket helped.

Rice Creek

phoebe's first camping trip. 12 weeks old. she did great. she is such a trooper.

victoria bryant state park campground

i enjoy camping. grew up camping every summer. this was a good trip despite a very cold first night - 45 degrees - and the fact that our air mattress deflated every 4 hours. but, it really showed me how much my babies can handle. they did better in the cold than i did, and they slept through the air mattress blower.

it was a great opportunity for family to get together, to get away, and to enjoy outdoors. and it always makes me appreciate my home more - makes me see how easy i have it.

weekend

had to get out some maternity clothes today. i guess it's starting to feel real.

we also moved some bunk beds into will's room (his crib is still in there). and we moved the bed out of the guest room to work on making it the baby's room. will went to sleep in his big boy bed last night but fell out a few hours later even though we had a side rail on. we didn't realize how easy the side rail would be for him to move. he likes putting his feet up on things and pushing. i felt really bad that he fell - now we have it more secure. maybe we'll try it again tonight. i'm keeping the crib in there for awhile at least for naps. i encourage independence with him, but with certain things it's hard to release control and let him grow up. i want to keep him in a crib forever. hahahaha.

i got to see lots of family in the past week - actually my whole family. everyone was in town (except for ben and his crew) to help paul move stuff out of his apartment and to make wedding plans. they were nice enough to help lee and i rearrange our house as well. then last night my friend for life, carla, and her family got to stay with us. yay! so thankful for time with family and friends that live so far away.

Round 2

another one of God's miracles. only 6 or 7 cm. long with a strong heartbeat and lots of movement.

12 weeks and 1 day old (womb age).

looks like the baby is striking a pose here with it's hand on it's hip. maybe it is a girl! we'll find out for sure in about 2 months.

see ya later!

family

my dad's dad and his wife of many years - my mema.

nana and will reading on the swing.

lee and i were headed to a wedding. will was gonna stay at home with grandma - that's why he was still in his pjs. this was the day i found out my little brother was engaged!

this is the Brown crew on the day of will's 2nd bday party. this is a fun group. love em.

go gwinnett braves!

Here's Will at his first baseball game.

he sat in the stands for about 2 innings and ran around the stadium for 2 more. i think he liked it, but glad we got free tickets because we could only stay for half the game. it was a nice family outing.

isn't his outfit cute?

camping

Yellow River Game Ranch

i think this was will's favorite part of the game ranch - the playground - with a really fast slide. he couldn't get enough of it.

yes, we had him on a leash some of the time. he's a wanderer - a very independent little booger.

watching the bears. they weren't domesticated unfortunately. :0(

we had so much fun yesterday at the yellow river game ranch in lilburn, ga. the coolest was the domesticated deer. they would come up right to you wanting a snack. you could pet them and everything. of course my favorite part were the lambs - one day i would really like to have 3 or 4 sheep and some lambs. they are so sweet and soft.

here is will feeding some sheep. he also fed a huge pig and a donkey. as you can see, he is eating a snack as well.

happy birthday to me!

i turned 28 last week. i know it's still young, but seems like time is getting away from me.

we went to zapatas in downtown norcross for dinner on my birthday. this place is sooo good. the service is great too. it is authentic mexican. no chimichangas there as paul found out. my brother paul was able to join us and i share a birthday with my mother-in-law so lee's parents were there as well.

will reads my birthday card.

lee tries to take a pic of us blowing out our candles, but gets a picture of paul and jerry instead. this is me and his mom laughing afterwards.

me and pauly

lee got me my first sewing machine for my birthday. haven't done anything yet, but hoping to make a pillow or something soon. maybe with having my own i won't be so intimidated by it. i do love fabric!

mad gab

one night during Christmas vacation at my mom and dad's, the group got together and played mad gab. paul and nikole hadn't arrived yet, but this is everyone else except will who was in bed. jake was particularly funny. just watch. hilarious!

christmas in SC

will loves wearing his reindeer hat. he wore it for 3 hours last night. the raggedy ann and andy plate was one that my brothers and i used when we were little. will was often the center of attention at nana's house. there were twelve of us there. he loved having so many people around. definitely an extrovert.

i got to see lots of people i don't get to see very often at all. on new years day my cousins, brittany and riley came to visit. i had not seen them in several years. thanks to facebook we had a little reunion. they are some of my first cousins on my dad's side. we had fun playing perpetual commotion - a very fast card game.

this is will with both sets of grandparents.

i also got to see my friend carla (from the college years) one day. we met in gaffney for lunch because she lives a couple hours away. just us girls - that was a big treat! she is the one who helped me learn to play guitar and the reason i got to go to brazil on a mission trip a few years ago. we've had a few other fun road trips. she is having a baby boy in february - just a few weeks away! i wish we lived closer to one another.

and this is jennifer my college roommate for 3 years. i'm so glad we still keep in touch. she knows me better than most people and still loves me - hahaha. she is a great cook and a new aunt.

unbelievably cool

okay, so this is my younger brother and mom parasailing in panama city. if you know my mom, you will not believe what you are seeing in this video. she barely gets in the pool and here she is hundreds of feet in the air above the ocean! they said it was quite peaceful.

beach pics continued

here's the whole group. this is my family and all of the significant others and children.

this is one of my favorite pictures. my sister in law took it i believe. check out the spiky hair.