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.

this is how we do it

okay, so this is just a really cool pic of will and his friend n. his mom was taking a picture right at the same moment i was, so her flash gave some awesome lighting.

and this is how we do it - shopping that is. well, most of the time. sales, gift cards in the mail, bogos, coupons, etc. i got will two pair of shorts for $2.10. and below is an example of publix bogos coupled with coupons including their $5 off $30 that they occasionally mail out. on one income, gotta do what you can.

will's first bicycle ride

we found this child seat on craigslist and thought will might like to ride with us. if you listen closely, you can hear will say, "ride bicycle mommy".

it's getting really hot here in atlanta. i think we might be visiting pools instead of playgrounds for the next two months.

4 roses for 4 years

outside of a georgia tech dorm where we first said, "i love you" almost 5 years ago.

view from the Sun Dial restaurant and lounge. we ate some cheesecake there. i forget we live so close to this big city.

this is the only picture of us that night. we were foolish not to get our waitress or some of our friends who helped us have this date to take our picture. we were looking sharp.

my buddy is back

praise the Lord - no tantrums this morning!
i've had a good taste of the terrible twos this week, and it was not pretty. i'm hoping all of those fits the past three days were because he was feeling bad. i missed my buddy and i'm glad he's back!


happy 4 year anniversary to me! surprise date tonight!

friends, food, and art

i got to travel to see my very close friend, carla and her new baby boy. he's almost 4 months old. we had a great time, but the visit was too short.
she is one of my music buddies. that's how the Lord linked us together. i have about 3 music buddies and they're all very special.
she helped me learn how to play guitar. and now she has started painting and wants my help.

whoops! eyes are closed.

our first crop from our garden! a cherry tomato. we put it on a pizza sunday night. yum!

i made graham crackers on sunday. been wanting to do this for a few months now. will loves them and i have to say they are very good and not too hard to make.

beginning to illustrate

in other news, lee just found out last night that he passed the professional engineering exam. i'm so proud of him - and this was his first attempt. praise the Lord!

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

vacation to charleston

a few weeks ago we went to summerville to stay with cousins and visit Charleston. this was will's first trip to the Atlantic. he still is not a fan of the beach - in his defense, the water was very cold. after we were there for five minutes, he said bye bye water. we stayed for awhile, but he wasn't excited about it.

we also got to walk through charleston a bit. i love all the ironwork. lee loves the brick houses.

will at 22 months

it's really weird having a cold in may.

will is 22 months old. he attempts to say just about everything.

• ih ikel - tricyle
• biaper - diaper
  
• mama's bo beel, sometimes it's bo meal - mama's oatmeal
• angles - triangles, sandals, candles (sometimes he sees sandals and tries to blow them out as if they were candles) he says this word with lots of slobber at the end like sean connery
• bapple ush - apple juice
• ine bapple - pineapple
• mama heepy - mama's sleepy
• mama ick - mama's sick (yeah, haven't been feeling well this week)
• ew ash - ew trash (one of my favorites!)
• asses on - glasses on (hahaha)

he still says that the car horn says "bee beet" - i love that! and also that he calls a boot a "boop".

he also knows several shapes and colors. for awhile he liked to call everything purple and if anything was orange he pretended to eat it.

he picks things off the floor and shows me and says, "eat?" most of the time i say no - haha. i like that he asks me.

he loves to sit in my lap with a book and read. sometimes i will stop reading because i'm daydreaming or just tired of reading and he waits a few seconds and then turns around and looks up at me like, "aren't you gonna read?". it's so cute because he doesn't say anything, he just gives me that look.

lessons in shopping

it was nice to get out today but it was a bad shopping day. i decided to go to walmart. i kind of knew it was a mistake going in. i haven't been to the one near us in about a year. it is horrible. it's typically very loud and disorganized. i noticed some of the prices were a little cheaper, but then i'm so overstimulated that i forget to use one of my coupons and then i leave the 3 pears that i buy in the self checkout. so i definitely lost money with that trip. that's not the first time i've left merchandise that i've already paid for at Walmart's self checkout. ugh!
i then decided to check out kohls because i had a $10 gift card mailed to me. that was a mistake because everyone and their grandma was at kohls today. big sale and i'm sure most of them were just like me with their $10 gift card. it was a mistake because there were no stroller carts available. will and i even walked around for awhile - he does not do well with this and doesn't let me stop to look at things. can you believe that? :0) that's why i really needed a stroller. so they didn't get any business from me today. but they probably will later because i can't resist the gift cards. last time i got a carter's fleece sleeper for will for zero dollars and cents.

lessons learned today:

• always have a stroller in the car
• look at all items in cart before purchasing to remember to pull out any coupons or additional coupons needed
• check bagging area before leaving store
• don't go to nearby walmart again

so i wasted a little time and money this morning, but shopping does do something for the soul. even if i don't buy anything it's fun to see what's out there and do a little price comparison. and will was very patient for a 21 month old.

spring in full bloom

these azalea bushes always amaze me and take my breath away!

lee plowed the garden on saturday - he had a hard time moving on sunday.

will likes anything with wheels.

training him young!

plowing

lee begged me to get these pics. the big tractor belongs to lee's dad. the little one was lee's when he was a boy. lee and i had fun with picasa - sepia toned and film grain effects.

this is our garden! or will be. i can't believe how big it is. lee's decision - not mine. i didn't want it to be too big, for fear we would get too overwhelmed by the work. i'm very hopeful for lots of veggies!

will got a tractor ride with papa.

love this pic!

will is 1 and 3/4 years old

i'm sorry if some of you get tired of reading about will, but this is the best and easiest way for me to document milestones. i'm hoping i can print out my blog one day.

so on wednesday will turned 21 months old! he is such a fun little boy. there are still things that make him a baby - like diapers and not saying words clearly and sucking the tags on his blankeys. i'll be happy when the diapers go away, but the other stuff is so cute. oh, and he still has his chubby baby cheeks and legs. :0)

he is talking more and more, but i think only a few people can understand him. here are some new words.

anga - grandma
opa - papa
gog - dog (sometimes he says this word clearly)
hide - outside, slide
bubbers - bubbles

he loves slides, bubbles, running laps in the backyard and on our driveway, running down hills, books, puzzles, kissing stuffed animals, and wrestling on the bed. he loves pretending to give lee and i and also his stuffed animals food and drink from his kitchen. he's very interested in anything i'm doing - washing dishes, ironing, laundry, sweeping, and even vacuuming (he even laughed at the vacuum yesterday.)

sometimes he hears the dogs in our neighborhood and says, "gog" and then kisses the air. he also kisses the air when he sees the baby einstein caterpillar on tv.

he tries to pull the hairs off of lee's arm (lee says it doesn't hurt) as if he is cleaning off lee's arm.

he's been interested in the potty for awhile now. he says oo oo for poo poo and ee ee for pee pee. sorry, tmi! he loves to tear toilet paper off for me and then flush the toilet. he understands not to flush if it's just water, so he will tear off a piece of toilet paper and put it in the toilet just so he can flush.

i want to potty train, but then i don't want to potty train. i think he'll be ready soon. i know that's gonna be a big job on mommy having to ask him about the potty every hour. it's nice to not have to worry about that right now.

he eats just about anything. he's like a little garbage disposal. he encourages us to eat our fruits and veggies. the only thing he doesn't really like is white potatoes - mashed, baked, fried - does not like them.

i love that he is very independent. he plays by himself very well. the only thing i don't like about him being independent is he is a wanderer. he would wander 5 miles away from the house if i let him go. he does hold my hand in parking lots and we go on short walks together, but if he wants to go a certain direction or isn't ready to leave a certain place he lets me know - sometimes this is not pretty.

yesterday, will saw the pollen falling from the trees and got really excited and said, "Bubbers!"

that's will!

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.

Good Friday

the thunder crashes in the heavens, and the earth grows dark in the middle of the afternoon, and a man, beaten to a bloody pulp, cries from a cross between two thieves, "it is finished!" because he did, one day God will wipe away every tear from the eyes of those who trusted him, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will pass away and all our hardship will be finished.

writing taken from beth moore's, so long, insecurity

Easter bunny

i started painting a mural in the hallway of my church's preschool department. i have a friend helping me out so progress is quicker than normal. very thankful for that! hoping to finish in the next two weeks if all goes well. check my art website for additional pics and updates - http://lauracoxart.wordpress.com/

nana hid easter eggs in our backyard for will.

saturday, we were invited by one of my neighbors to an egg hunt at the gwinnett braves stadium. this was a great time. i was terrified of the easter bunny when i was young - i don't think will is afraid, do you?

he thought big fuzzy creatures were awesome!

we had a campfire in our backyard friday night. we still have enough sticks from the yard to have another one. better go buy some more marshmallows!

love my baby

will is starting to say mama a lot more! i like this for now. it is sweet.

recently he has been fighting me a lot when i pick him up to put him to bed. (we've had a few rough days with several mini tantrums and defiance, but overall he is still a good boy and today he has been an angel). last night i asked him to hug mommy and he did - so sweet!

this morning, lee touched my cheek and gave me a kiss while i was holding will. will tried to say kiss and touched my cheek and gave me a kiss.

will can now say a few words clearly other than bye bye and daddy and mama. he says book, bed, hat, hot, head, bag. for "peek a boo", he says "book book".

yesterday lee was tickling him and he was laughing so hard he snorted - several times - i loved it!

this morning we were eating breakfast and the sun was shining on the wall - perfect for shadow puppets. we had some fun with that. i noticed will move his head (making the shadow of his head move) and say "boo".