Time to Move on to the Next Ride!

Slow this life down!! I feel like we are on a merry go round that is going faster and faster every day! Hopefully next week will slow down and we can jump over on the lazy river and relax for a while!


Here's a quick run down of our week!



First of all, I wanted to share a picture of Harry and his "Church Girlfriends"! Brooke and Lindsay helped me with Harry so much last Sunday!! They toted him all aound and fed him, they loved it, he loved it and I loved it!! Thank you to both of you for all of your help!!



Sunday afternoon we went to Katelyn's piano recital in Duncan. She did VERY good and we were proud to know her! That's Katelyn's little brother Luke standing on the right.




Sunday night we went to the Greenville Drive game with BreakFree Kids! I love going to the baseball games! It's so much fun watching the game, eating ballpark food and singing "Sweet Caroline". I think we sing that song because we live in South Carolina since I don't remember it saying anything about baseball. Anyway, we had a great time and had great seats, even though we were behind the net and so the Boys didn't get to catch any fly balls. Greenville lost :o( but there were great fireworks at the end anyway! Here's a picture of Garett wearing his ice cream bowl "hat".



Monday was Memorial Day. We went swimming with our friends Brady and Hannah. Here is everyone drying off. The Boys love the water and I love that they use lots of energy and wear themselves out swimming and playing!



That night we had dinner with my brother, Jeff and his wife, Debbie, who are visiting from DC. They will be moving overseas for a couple of years, so we are happy to be able to spend some time with them. Debbie's sister and brother in law, Lisa and Rick, and their Babies came too so I got my Baby fix holding Sam. Here's Harry having fun with Taggie and Garett with Sam. Kristy, do you recognize Sam's outfit!!?








Reece's field day was Tuesday and Garett's was Wednesday so the Babies and I (and Jeff and Debbie and my Dad and Lisa and her Babies) were at the school two mornings in a row for those. The Boys both did great in all of the activities. Here is Reece with his friend Duston during the fun and here is Garett doing the Super Ball Hop!! Great photography, Uncle Jeff!! We had a great time and the Boys definitely slept well the night of their Field Day!






Wednesday night I got a Girls Night Out for a couple of hours and ate dinner with my PTA Girls. We missed you, Kandace!! It was nice to be able to talk without a million (okay-we really only have 13 younger children among us) little voices pulling us this way and that. It's a great group and I'm so glad we connected this year. Here's Nadine, me, Rita, Paula and Amy. It's funny what you talk about when you don't have children to do the talking for you...I think we touched on about 100 different topics in 2 hours!





Thursday was our first of two half days and lunch wasn't served so when the dismissed at 11:20 a group of us went to Lake Cooley for a picnic, playing and to feed the geese. Here is everyone feeding the geese and then they gathered for a picture on the rock. What a great group of friends the Boys (and I) have made this year through school.







So today is the last day of school. I dropped the Boys off on the Cafeteria side of the school for the last time. Next year we will have a new school that's much closer to home. Thank goodness all of our friends will be there too. With it being the last day, I took the Boys for biscuits before school. As I pulled into the drive through and paid for my order and then asked how much the order was for the car behind me, the woman at the window broke into a huge smile. She told me that when I paid for the car behind me last week the string of "Paying It Forward" went on for 5 cars!! How awesome is that!! I was so excited I had to clap! I paid for the person behind me and then they paid for the person behind them and so on and so forth till before she knew it 5 orders were paid for like that!! That makes me happy! Happy that other people want to make other people to be happy! Just remember that you don't always have to buy someone something...a kind word or smile can do just as much! Pay a compliment! That's free and people love to get compliments! And if you are the receiver of the compliment...take it!! Don't dismss it or downplay it! Take it, smile and pass one along yourself! I'm trying to make the world a happier place, one person at a time....if I could just get off this merry go round!!!!




That's all for now, there's laundry to do and Babies to read to, so until next time,




I'm Fondly Yours,




Jeanne

Queen of the Brown Clan

Things I Have Learned This Week

1. Logan likes ketchup as his dressing when we have salad with chicken on it. I guess the salad is just like a chicken sandwich all mixed up in a bowl, but I never thought of ketchup as a dressing, so see, I learned something!

2. Black snakes can crawl up trees. We had this one in the yard and after he laid there for a little bit so we could look at him, he went along his way across the road and right up a tree. I had no idea! Now I'll be worried about snakes falling on me out of the tree when I lay in the hammock all day!!

3. Logan has his own sense of style. I knew that. No learning there. The thing I learned is that it doesn't matter if other people don't like his style choices. Case in point, today's footwear selections. When I say selections I mean that he wore two different boots all day. He had on a left cowboy boot and a left rain boot. This is a battle I do not fight. Eating breakfast, I fight that battle. Clothes and shoes (or boots!), that his choice the majority of the time. Today did get a few smiles and cute comments, but we got a couple hard stares and disapproving glares and you know what? I didn't care!! He will grow up and care about matching soon enough.

4. I learned that one of my favorite things to do is dance to John Mayer in the kitchen with Rhett and Harry. Between the sound of Harry's beautiful laughs and Rhett's smiles, my face was lit up! I love dancing with all of my Boys! I need Mimi to teach me to shag, because one day I will want to dance with my Sons at their weddings and I want it to be a fun dance, not a slow, sweet, make-me-cry-dance so I need to learn how to shag!! (Rhett's sister, Meredith, teaches dance so I need to get started!)

5. I learned that Harry will eat almost anything you put in front of him! I started the whole table food thing timidly. I really wish he wanted baby food still, but, no. He will not eat watermelon or strawberries that well, but loves PB& J, cantaloupe, cucumbers, scrambled eggs, waffles, grilled chicken, chicken tenders, cheese, turkey, I could go on but will stop. Point of the story...I don't think he will be a picky eater! That's a good thing, but I still wish we were still eating baby food! Here is a picture with him covered in Peanut Butter and Jelly!

6. On Friday night I learned that Rhett is teaching Harry to walk behind my back. Not funny. He's doing really good with his balance (Harry, that is!) and with Rhett helping him, all of my knocking Harry down during the day is not going to hinder his learning process. I really wanted Harry to stay a Baby longer, but it seems everyone is working against me. Once he is walking really well, I will (begrudgingly) post a video. Don't get me wrong, I am very glad that he is growing so strong and healthy, but it's just happening so fast! I'm not ready for this!

7. The last thing I learned this week was this. If you play outside all day and Logi doesn't get to take a nap, there is no chance that you can put him in the car and drive him into Greenville for dinner and expect him to be awake to eat. We worked in the yard Saturday and came in and got showers around 6:30. We got to dinner, I carried him in, sat him down at the table and leaned him over on his bear, Bubba, and he slept the entire meal. He didn't wake up when we left, when we got home or when I put his jammers on him. But he did wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning! He's such a darling little monkey!!

So this week is our last week of school!!! Yea!...I think yea! We'll see how quickly the Boys get bored. Hopefully they can hang in there til at least the beginning of August before they complain!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Fondly,

Jeanne Brown

CHO for the Brown Family

Fun Day for the Browns!

What a great day! Here's what happened today, Wednesday, May 21, 2008.

Reece and I went on a Field Trip to FENCE in Tryon, NC. Here is the website http://www.fence.org/ . We hiked in the woods, sucked on some honeysuckle, fed snapping turtles and fish, explored the marsh and swamp and pretty much just had an amazing day outside! It was beautiful! At one point his class was playing Duck, Duck, Goose! and it was so refreshing to see him play with such abandonment! Recently he seems to have developed an outer "cool" shell and I've shared with friends that I'm not a huge fan of the attitude that comes with the shell. Today it was gone and I am happy! After we came home he and I picked sticks up in the backyard and I discovered 3 things:

1. Our backyard is too big! We need to fill up some of the yard and add on to the house. There is too much room for limbs to be scattered around!

2. Chloe has taken to digging holes in the red dirt and I am not happy about that...at all.

2. Reece hasn't grown up as fast as I thought he had. I loved being able to talk to him one on one while we worked together. It was nice.

Here are some pictures of our trip.

Here is his class....................Here he is being silly in the animal room.

This picture is of him on the boardwalk feeding the turtles and fish.

And this is Reece and our friend Katelyn after we ate lunch. We missed Katelyn's Mom, Nadine, who was planning to come but got sick at the last minute.

After the trip I stayed at school till it got out and got to do one of my very favorite things...start changing out a bulletin board! I mean it! If there was a job that simply entailed designing and constructing bulletin boards at school I would apply! I love it! I'm working on one for church right now too! Maybe I'll post a picture of it when I finish. ANYWHO...we left school and headed to Beba's to get the Babies. I really miss them on days we are apart. We loaded up and when we got home we got ready to go out to dinner for Harry's 1st Birthday!! Here come more pictures! He opened presents first...here he is wearing the AZ Diamond Backs hat my Mom and Marty sent for him. It came with a cute little baseball outfit! The it was time for cupcakes!! He wanted that 1 candle bad!! Then the mess came!! He's dressed in this picture, but when we left, he was a nekid baby!! Smart Mommy bought blank cupcakes at Bloom (I love that store!) and iced them with vanilla icing and sprinkles so #1 the sadistic frosting bakeries use wouldn't stain everything and #2 there wouldn't be NEAR as much sugar and lard in my children's systems! Thank you to Wendy for this wonderful tip!! We all had a great time celebrating and were so glad our friend Lindsay came with us. She was a real trooper when she held a conversation while helping Garett do a crossword puzzle before dinner. She's a great multitasker and will make a great Mom some day!! Here she is with Bug. Reece and Logan hammed it up for the camera, messy faces and all! Thank you Daddy for taking the pictures...once again, the man behind the lens didn't make it in front of it...we"ll get you next time!!

All in all it was a wonderful day as I sit here typing and listening to Baby Harry's sleeping noises, I am so thankful for him. A year ago at this time he was in NICU and we were praying that he'd be able to go home with us. Look at him now!! You'd never know that there was ever any doubt! I am so lucky to have my 4 Boys. I love them so very much and hope that one day they will know the love that fills a parents heart.

That is all for now since it's tomorrow already and past time for bed.

Sweet Dreams,

Jeanne

I Refuse to Get Behind on Life!

Okay, I know you are all falling over from surprise, but here I am, updating, twice in 4 days! Compose yourself, it's not that exciting...


We had such a great weekend that I had to post pictures before I forgot. But I have to clear up something first. My Mother and "my friend" Dora were not the only 2 people who thought I could pass Statistics. Rhett Brown also had faith in me...he made sure I knew that this weekend after he read the blog. My apologies, Dear. I'm glad you knew I had the knowledge in me to pass!! One more thing and then I'll let this go-I thank Rhett for being a single Dad 3-4 nights a week for last semester. I could not have made it through the classes without you...and get ready, because it'll start all over again soon!!


I had a WONDERFUL birthday!! Thank you all for the calls, emails and wishes! I've told Rhett that there are 2 days that a mother should be celebrated (well there are more than 2-but they should DEFINITELY be celebrated on these 2) and that is Mother's Day and her Birthday. Pull out all the stops! Treat her like you should treat her every other day of the year! He and my Boys certainly did that! I did not cook, do laundry, or clean and I loved it!! Although it's like taking a vacation from work-my in box was always piled high. And so it is now! So here we go-I'm hurrying so I can go play catch up!


Here is Reece wearing my hat for me at lunch with Rhett's parents. I really did not want to wear it and while Rhett did get a quick picture of me with it on my head, this is a better picture because Reece is in it with me!


I got my first birthday cake from "my friend" Dora (I promise-from now on she'll just be Dora!). She made me a lemon jello cake that was AWESOME!! It was so thoughtful for her to make that for me and bring it by. She brought her son Conner and he and Harry had a good time talking and laughing at each other. Did I mention that the cake ROCKED!!? Just wanted to make sure! We celebrated Friday night at dinner too before Rhett headed off to Relay for Life to play with Pretzel Logic-don't ask me about the name-I forget where it came from. Anyway-it was cold! And LATE!! I bribed the Boys with ice cream and Oreos and the promise of a trip to Monkey Joes later on and it worked! I was glad when Rhett made it home safely at 3am.


Saturday we all spent the day together and went shopping (after we had all of the paint washed off and the confetti vacuumed out of the van!) and I got a couple Teacher gifts for the end of the year. Saturday night we had dinner with Missy and Andy Alling since their birthdays are in May too. There were about 18 people there I think and we had a great time! Here are the birthday girls! While I'm on the topic of Allings, I want to share the picture I took of their growth "chart". Remember, I talked about it earlier in a post. Here is one part of one side of it. The idea of having 8 children used to scare me, but now that I'm at 4 -what's 4 more?!! I'd love to have 2 more! Hey-I just read in People magazine (I know-don't lecture me on the pitfalls of society and the obsession with celebrities-I hardly ever read it) that the Duggar family is expecting child number 18! Number 17 is 9 months old. I've seen them on TLC. THAT'S a little much for me. Anyway-here is the picture! I love it! You can't see it too well, but you can see that there are lots of measurements! I love that!





Well, we did Mexican after church on Sunday with Rhett's parents (and I had my 2nd birthday cake!) and I took this picture of Harry-his birthday is Wednesday-can you believe it? I can't. Let's not talk about it...but here is a cute picture of him multitasking. He was drinking juice and playing with the balloon. I loved the picture, so here it is.



Sunday night Reece had been invited to see his friend Amaris in a musical at her church, so Garett and I went as well while Rhett stayed home with the Babies. Amaris did a great job! She has a beautiful singing voice! So sweet. Reece picked some flowers out for her and here is the picture I took afterwards. Good times for sure!!


So, this week holds a field trip for Reece and I to Tryon, NC. We are excited about that! Logi and Harry will spend that day with Beba and every afternoon will be filled with fun stuff so Garett will not be left out. The hammock has made it's debut for the season, so most likely instead of my lying on the sofa eating bon bons, I will spend the days out in the yard, swaying in the breeze...hmmm, I think 4 tons of laundry disagrees with me! One day off makes a huge difference in the schedule I try to keep!


Hope everyone has a great week and remembers to Pay it Forward if you can! Smile more than you have to---it's a great gift you can always give!

Until next time, I'm Fondly Yours,

Jeanne
CHO for the Brown Family

Just Another Day

Hey! Jump right in to the Brown Lake of Life! Here we go! Today it's all about bullet points so I stay on task!

-I PASSED STATISTICS!!! I really don't think anyone thought I could do it besides "my friend" Dora and my Mom (including myself-I was very pleasantly surprised!), but I did it!! Thank you SO much to Jaime and Dora...I really could not have done it with out you, or everyone's prayers! I know my high school algebra teacher, Mrs. Byrd, would be the most shocked of everyone!! :o) Anatomy and Physiology was good too...I wasn't as worried about that one! I'm taking the summer off to be the Camp Counselor at Camp Keeping-4-Boys-Occupied-for-21/2-Months, but will be back into the thick of things in August. Whew! I need a break!

-We have pulled out all of the old home video tapes and are having a ball! Last night I found one that I taped before we had children. We had 3 cats and 2 fish tanks (BIG fish tanks) and I gave a tour of our 2 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath condo that lasted 15 minutes-i showed every detail-including thee laundry room and the cat boxes. So THAT'S what I did before kids! It was hilarious to watch! I took it in 1997 and Rhett and I had only been married 2 years. The Boys love watching the tapes and especially got a laugh when I talked about not wanting Baby Garett to walk because he was probably my last baby!! HA HA HA! That was 2 Babies ago! I need to run the camera more...it's so much fun to look back on the Boys' lives.

-Logan is a freak! Not long ago I told him that I loved him. The conversation went like this:

ME: Logan, I love you.

LOGAN: Me "yove" YOU!

ME: I love you MORE!

LOGAN: ME "yove" you SO much more...with a little CRAZY on top!

How can you not smile at this curly haired ball of energy ?!? This curly haired ball of energy who has decided that NOW it's okay to be potty trained!! YEA!! One Baby in diapers is GREAT! No rush for him to get out of them! Here is Logi with my new "nephew" Sam! He couldn't wait to hold him! He's the son of my brother's wife's sister and brother in law, Lisa and Rick. Technically they aren't related to us, but we call them Aunt Lisa and Uncle Rick and so their daughter Halleigh is my niece and Sam is my nephew! I love new babies and when the Boys and I stayed with Lisa and the children last weekend I jumped out of be to do the 3:30am feeding. I miss that time with my Babies. I so wish I was preggers again!

School is winding down-9 days left not counting today and 2 of those days are half days! I'm excited to get to sleep in and not have to get up and take the Boys to school (sorry Rhett!), but we'll miss our teachers! Bug's teacher, Mrs. Deal, is moving to the new school with us next year, but Reece's teacher, Miss Ford will still be at Wellford. We've become friends and I wish I could be her Room Mom again next year!! I'm glad Mrs. Deal is moving with us, because number one, she and her husband are going to have a BABY in January (yea!) and number two, I have two more children coming behind Bug that could have her for kindergarten!! We are looking forward to lots of field trips and fun times this summer...let us know if you want to plan a play date!!

One more thing, I think just one...Last night when we pulled into the driveway, Rhett saw a frog...the first frog of the spring! So the Boys all scrambled out and Bug scooped it up! Here he is. Jaime, remember how we used to catch the frogs at your parent's farm and throw them up in the air and catch them?! Those were fun times!

The icecream truck came through the neighborhood this week. Summer is coming! Now we just have to wait for the fireflys!! When I get old I want to drive the icecream truck. That is going on my list of goals.

Okay, well, I will go for now. Today is my birthday and so now that my CHOOSE JOY coffee mug is empty it's time to get dressed and climb in my van that my DH (Dear Husband) so thoughtfully decorated for me and go to lunch and playdate with the Babies. We're off to see Joy and Taylor and we're so glad that the sun is coming out!!

Remember to be nicer than you have to and try this this week-Pay it Forward. If you are in line at Hardee's or Bojangles or wherever, ask how much the order for the person behind you costs. Then, if you can, pay for it! It's the BEST day brightener EVER!! Then you just leave! Let them enjoy their sweet tea or biscuit and hopefully they will be nicer to someone that day than they have to be! Try it! It's fun!

Until next time, I'm Fondly Yours,

Jeanne

Queen of the Brown Clan

P.S. I sort of failed on the bullet points, I know. Oh well!