13 Years!

This morning, I was arriving to work when Philip called me. I was worried that poor Landon was sick again, but instead Philip said, "Happy Anniversary!"... I thought for a minute..."Oh my goodness!" I had almost forgotten! It WAS our anniversary.

Thirteen years ago tonight, Philip and I went on our first date! A blind date that is! I was a freshman in high school and Philip was a senior. We went to schools across town, but were set up by a mutual friend. We ate at Outback Steakhouse and went to see the movie Simply Irresistible. In my first post, I talked about how natural our first date was and how we talked and talked like we had known each other forever! We started dating and have been together ever since!!

In honor of our 13 year anniversary (almost half of my life!), I thought some high school dance pictures would be a funny little blast from the past! The first dance we attended together was Philip's Valdosta High School Prom in 1999, but we both refused to share that one. :) So we will start with a Lowndes High School Homecoming Dance picture from 1999. (Scary that this one was better than the Prom picture...)

Next is the picture from the Lowndes High School Plowboy Dance from 2000. The boy and girl dress alike and the dance is always a country theme. Ha! Ha! Aren't we cute. :)

I think this picture is from the Lowndes High School 2001 Homecoming Dance. Don't you love the bangs!

And here is a picture from my senior Prom in 2002.

We had a lot of fun reminiscing while looking at these old photos. There were many more (Since we dated through my entire high school, I think we went to about 20 dances together!)...but these are the only ones you get to see for now... We also went to dinner to celebrate tonight and used our Longhorn gift card!

Definitely glad that God gave me this man to share my life with and truly thankful that he allowed us to start so early in our lives spending time together! I love my Philip Melvin Brown!

Brookshire Babes

Friendship isn't a big thing, it's a million little things.
- Author Unknown

I mentioned in one of our introductory posts that Philip and I were very homesick the first year we lived in Athens. I also mentioned that when we bought our house in Brookshire, everything changed. We finally felt like Athens was our home. Now we are in LOVE with Athens and have a hard time imagining living anywhere else. A big part of this change was the wonderful friends we met in our neighborhood. I think we had been living in our house for about two days when Layla Lammi came knocking at our door to welcome us and ask if we wanted to start a game night with some other couples in the neighborhood.

A couple weeks later, Philip and I hosted the first Brookshire Game Night (I was really excited to be a homeowner and wanted an excuse to get unpacked quickly) and the rest was history! Game Night lasted  about six months to a year with all of the couples rotating houses every month, but the Browns, Lammis, Estes, and Freys have remained friends for the past five years! These years have included lots of dinners and late night talks, movies, snow day celebrations, a mouse infested lake house trip, an amazingly relaxing spa trip, New Years celebrations, Easter Egg Hunts, new babies, and lots of love, support, and laughs!

Last night, the Brookshire Babes (as we have lovingly named ourselves) went out for a much need girls' night to celebrate Marisa's upcoming birthday! Sometimes we get so busy that we go several weeks without seeing each other, but last night reminded me how lucky I am to have these ladies in my life! Here are a few pictures from our night on the town!

Me, Marisa, Layla, and Courtney

Marisa excited about her fried Oreo birthday treat!

Landon's Ten Month Post

Landon turned ten months on February 8th! I can't believe all the changes he has made since I posted about him at nine months back in January! When I posted in January, Landon wasn't even crawling! In just a few short weeks, he has figured out how to MOVE! Landon can now expertly crawl, pull up, and walk with support. Philip and I just can't believe how fast this happened! Check out this video of Landon walking with his walker. He just learned how to do this in the past couple of days! He hasn't quite figured out what to do yet when he runs into a wall, but I suspect he'll figure it out pretty quickly!

Landon is very curious about everything and loves to get into cabinets and drawers! He said his first word this month which is, "Dada!" He loves to play with balls and his play table that his Aunt Chelle got him for his birthday! But probably the hottest toy at our house right now is Landon's Valentine's balloon! We got it for him before Valentine's Day, and it is still full of helium! Landon just LOVES it! Maybe I'll get him a new one when it finally runs out of air.

We did have a couple of big changes in the past few weeks. Landon began drinking formula full time. This was an adjustment for Landon and Mommy, but we have both done pretty well. Only tears from Mommy one day and that was after the doctor thought his stomach flu was actually an allergy from the formula. I felt really sad about my decision to wean him and confused at why it wouldn't have shown up before. It turned out that Landon just had a stomach bug that was unfortunately perfectly timed to our switch from breastmilk to formula.

The tummy bug definitely gave our house a little trouble this month, but we all fought through it together. Philip and I had to put in a lot of team work to survive!! But we made it! We also had a lot of love and support from our family and friends (near and far).

Overall, this may have been the best month yet! It is so much fun to watch Landon learn and grow...and he's still my little snuggle bug. I can't even begin to describe the feeling of pure bliss when Landon crawls across the room to come sit in my lap. I'm so glad I am raising a mama's boy!

Landon is pulling up on EVERYTHING!

Enjoying the sun on a warm winter day!

                                                      Where's Landon? There he is!!

It's cool to stand up in your crib! 

Haha! And now the secret at the end... Mommy is trying to train Landon to say, "Mama!" I give him a little bit of Oreo or yummy treat and say "mmm...Mama!" Then I point to myself. Haha! It hasn't worked yet! :)

Baby Buddies

One of the great things about living in Athens is St. Mary's Hospital. First of all, it is a beautiful hospital with a great staff. The rooms are spacious, and Mommies have the same room for delivery and postpartum care.  But the thing that has impressed us most about St. Mary's is the support provided to us after we had Landon.

Nursing a baby is one of the most rewarding things in life. But I'm not going to lie, it has its challenges! However, St. Mary's has a support system for new moms. Every Monday, they have a mommy group called Bundles of Joy. At this group, you can weigh your baby before and after a feeding to find out how much he or she is eating, get advice from the lactation consultant, and meet with other moms with babies close in age to your baby. There is also a group that meets on Fridays for new moms with babies and toddlers. Landon and I went just about every Monday (and Friday) until I went back to work in August. At this group, we connected with several other wonderful mothers and their precious babies. Each week we would eat lunch somewhere nearby and then all walk to Bundles of Joy. I will always look back on those Mondays as a special time to talk, laugh, and share our experiences as new moms. Here are some pictures of our sweet babies when they were teeny tiny!

Landon and James (around 1 month old)

Charlie, Landon, James, and Joshua (around 2 months old)

Charlie, Joshua, Landon, and James (around 3 months old)

Landon and Tripp (around 4 months old)

James, Tripp, Landon, and Charlie (around 6 months old)

Natalie, Joshua, Elizabeth, and James at the St.Mary's Halloween Party

Tripp, Joshua, Landon, and Charlie (Halloween- around 7 months old)

Charlie, Joshua, Landon, and Tripp (Almost 7 months old)

Even though we don't really get to go to Bundles of Joy anymore (we are all working mommies), we try to get together at least once a month to spend some girl time and let the babies play. This week, we had a get together at our friend Crystal's house (she didn't go to Bundles of Joy this summer, but she and Tripp joined our little Mommy play date group this Fall). We had such a great time chatting and playing with the babies. When they were little, they used to just lay beside each other while we would talk. Now they actually play together!! Sadly, Lindsey, Baby Charlie, Elizabeth, and Baby James couldn't come, but we can't wait to see them in the next few weeks...Charlie and James will be having their first birthdays in March! Tripp, Joshua, and Landon will follow them with birthdays in early April.

Crystal blowing bubbles for the boys!

Landon loved trying to catch the bubbles!

Landon loved playing with his friends!

Circus Athena

Lately, I have been completely and utterly obsessed with the circus. I think it all started after I read "Water for Elephants" this summer. For some reason, the idea of the circus just intrigues me...traveling around the world...the animals...the performances...the bright colors...the costumes...So much excitement!!! I'm sure it's no surprise that when it came time to decide Landon's First Birthday Party theme, there was just no other theme it could be...his party had to be a Circus Party!! I have been so obsessed with his Circus Party, that I began planning it in January...yes my friends...January...and Landon's birthday is in April!!

You can only imagine my excitement when I discovered a month or so ago that there was going to be a circus of sorts at the Morton Theater in downtown Athens! The show was going to be a stage-show of circus acts performed by people in Athens. I immediately emailed Philip, and we put it on our calendars! 

After weeks of waiting, it was finally circus weekend! We went to the matinee on Saturday afternoon. First of all, we arrived and were greeted by lots of funny looking jester clowns as we entered. We knew Landon was going to love the circus when he laughed at the clowns and tried to grab their faces while we were taking a picture. When we sat down in our seats he was amazed by all the people and children, and I was amazed by the beauty of the Morton Theater.

The show began and was full of lots of laughs, some intentional...others not...Philip's favorite part of the circus was when a dog, who was jumping through hoops and catching frisbees, flew off stage and into the orchestra down below. The whole show stopped and everyone watched in nervousness as the trainers looked below for the dog. All of a sudden, one of the musicians handed the dog up from below and placed him back on the stage. He wasn't injured thank goodness! Everyone laughed and the show continued.

Another highlight was the pole dancing teacher...yes people...you read correctly. So begins the performance by the pole dancer and the little girl behind us says loudly to her parents, "Look Mommy and Daddy, It's my teacher!" She actually was great (she did trapeze too), and the little girl was so proud of her teacher! :)

Circus Athena was a wonderful show filled with laughter and action, and I was so happy that my boys shared in my love for the circus! Watching Landon with his bright eyes LOVING EVERY SECOND of the circus made Philip and I so happy! See...good thing I picked it for his birthday party! Maybe he will love his party just as much!

A Night with Auntie Em

For all you single parents out there, KUDOS to you! It is tough! Philip was out of town Thursday night and Friday night, so I learned just how challenging life is as a single parent can be! Dinner, baths, preparing for the next day, etc... Not to mention that I'm a bit of a scaredy cat, so Thursday night I probably slept about 3 hours!

So when Emily texted me Friday afternoon and asked if Landon and I wanted to hang out with her and spend the night at her apartment, we JUMPED at the chance! I was itching to see The Vow, so we decided to take Landon out for a night on the town! We had a great time at dinner and then headed to the movies. We decided to sit in the back row, thinking it wouldn't be very crowded, and we wouldn't disturb anybody if Landon decided to make a peep. Boy were we wrong! The movie was packed, and we ended up having tons of people all around us. Including several teenage couples who Emily said were making out the entire movie...ha! I'm glad I missed that! Luckily, Landon was great! He only made about 3 peeps (Da da da) at the very beginning of the movie and then fell asleep for the rest of the movie.

 The three of us at the movies sitting in the back row!

Mommy and her snuggle bug!

Of course being the crazy mother that I am, instead of going straight home after the movie, Emily and I decided that we just HAD to have some Menchies! I mean you can just walk there after the movie and yogurt filled with lots of unhealthy toppings is just so delicious! I don't think Landon minded at all...It WAS a Friday night!!

Everybody loves Menchies!!

Landon says, "You should try it!"

After Menchies, we went back to Emily's apartment and crashed. Landon was great the whole night and woke up intrigued by all the cool things in Emily's apartment. The rest of the morning was not quite so magical. All of a sudden Emily and I smelled something that was not exactly pleasant. Let's just say that the morning ended with a load of clothes that had to be washed immediately, Landon and I both in the shower, and Emily and I screaming, hysterically laughing, and gagging all at the same time! Oh how we love our Auntie Em!

Now we are back at home with Landon napping, me cleaning and blogging, and Daddy driving home! We can't wait to spend the day with him!

100

Today is my Aunt Vallie’s 100^th Birthday! Aunt Vallie (also called Rudy) is such an amazing woman who has led a wonderful life so far! When she is asked the secret to living so long, she answers, “Stay Active!” The other night, Aunt Vallie told my Dad that she had been trying to talk her 91 year old boyfriend ( she says she “robbed the cradle”) into going with her on a road trip from Louisiana to Florida, then through Georgia and up to Virginia. When her boyfriend said “no,” she argued that she would drive!

Such a spunky and caring woman! Aunt Vallie still sends B-day cards and Anniversary cards to all of her family members. I figure she must have to send at least 5 a week! So special… something you can always count on!  In honor of Aunt Vallie, Philip and I decided to list out 100 things that we would like to do in our lifetime!  We had so much fun coming up with these together. It took a while, but resulted in a lot of laughter and dreaming! They are not in order of importance. Here they go…

1.       Tell our kids we love them every day

2.       Tell each other we love each other everyday

3.       Foster/Adopt

4.       Backpack through Europe

5.       Go on an African Safari

6.       Visit the Holy Land

7.       Teach our children to love the Lord

8.       Live in Hawaii for at least a year

9.       Watch Landon graduate

10.   Sleep under the stars with our children

11.   Philip plays a round at Augusta National

12.   Decorate the house like the Griswolds

13.   Katherine get a convertible Beetle

14.   Philip get an old Jeep

15.   Scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef

16.   Fly in a helicopter over a volcano

17.   Ride in a hot air balloon (Philip doesn’t want to do that one—afraid of heights)

18.   Katherine grow hair out one more time for Locks of Love

19.   See George Strait in concert (okay…so if you read our blog regularly, you know Philip has already done this one)

20.   Visit all seven continents (including Antarctica)

21.   Learn to speak a second language

22.   Read the bible from cover to cover

23.   Change someone’s life for the better

24.   Visit all 50 states

25.   Visit all National Parks

26.   Sail the Florida Keys

27.   Smoke a cigar after UGA wins the national championship in men’s basketball or football

28.   Spend a night on the Appalachian Trail…or maybe hike the whole thing

29.   Watch KJ bite a park ranger (Oh yeah…already happened)

30.    Wrestle an alligator (Philip really wants to do this on his 70^th birthday)

31.   Own a boat

32.   Make our kids laugh each day

33.   Attend the Daytona 500

34.   Eat lunch with Jack Johnson

35.   Attend a Jack Johnson concert in Hawaii

36.   Get invited to the White House

37.   Go to the Super Bowl

38.   Finish our Ph.Ds (still waiting on one)

39.   Become a grandparent

40.   Own a mountain cabin

41.   Write a book (Not counting a dissertation)

42.   Remodel an old house

43.   Take a cruise to Alaska

44.   Run a half-marathon

45.   Attend the World Series

46.   Run for political office

47.   Patent an invention

48.   Zip line in Costa Rica

49.   Win a grand in Vegas

50.   Attend a Presidential Inauguration

51.   Ride a donkey or elephant

52.   Forgive an enemy

53.   Win a hot dog eating contest

54.   Have dinner with the pope

55.   Have a basketball goal in the driveway

56.   Own a beach house

57.   Be on a gameshow

58.   Read to our children everyday

59.   Have our own vegetable garden

60.   Eat the vegetables from our garden

61.   Have a fancy dinner on our China at least 5 times a year

62.   Dance together

63.   Go to Disney World in another country

64.   See Niagra Falls

65.   Attend a Mardi Gras Ball in Louisiana

66.   Ride a steamboat

67.   Feed a giraffe

68.   Win one of those halftime games

69.   Snuggle with our babies

70.   Teach our children the history of our country

71.   Raise kind children

72.   Drive a moped into a Conch train (oh yeah…already done that too)

73.   Katherine never drive a moped again J

74.   Manta Ray Night Dive

75.   See a Penguin in the wild

76.   Learn how to cook Gumbo

77.   Learn how to cook Cornbread Dressing like my Daddy makes it

78.   Be an extra in a film

79.   Take my Mom and Mother in Law to a fancy spa overnight

80.   Spend a year of our life traveling the world

81.   Grow a beard and leave it for at least a month (Philip not Katherine-Ha!)

82.   Mentor

83.   Shower in a waterfall

84.   Spend the night in a haunted hotel

85.   See a lunar eclipse

86.   Kiss the Blarney Stone

87.   Befriend an elderly person in the nursing home and visit regularly

88.   Catch a ball in the stands of a Major League Baseball stadium

89.   Take lots of pictures and keep them organized in photo albums

90.   Teach our children to give to others

91.   Spend a Thanksgiving serving food at a shelter

92.   Look into our children’s eyes and see ourselves

93.   Go skiing

94.   Bake Cookies every Christmas eve

95.   Take our family to church every Sunday

96.   Ride in a Smart Car

97.   Make a family of snow angels

98.   Drive an electric car—or some other energy efficient vehicle

99.   Learn to juggle

100.  Love each other unconditionally!

Pretty good list! I’m sure we’ll add even more over the years! This is going to be a good life!

What 100 things would you like to do in your lifetime?

Feeling the Love

We love celebrating in the Brown house, and Valentine's Day is no exception. Why miss an opportunity to cherish our love for each other?!? Here is our mantle all decorated for Valentine's Day!

 For Valentine's Day, Philip bought me a beautiful diamond cross necklace. He gave it to me on Sunday about 5 minutes after Landon and I got back from Valdosta. Philip is so cute after he has bought me a present. He can NEVER wait to give it to me! I had literally walked through the door when he said, "I bought you something," and pulled the jewelry box out of the drawer!Such a sweet husband! He had also cleaned the house and folded a bunch of laundry! Love it!

I bought Philip a ticket to see George Strait for Valentine's Day. The concert was Friday at the Gwinnet Arena, and he got to sit on the fourth row!! I would have gone with Philip, but he didn't really decide to go until last minute and I already had to go to Valdosta for a meeting pretty early Saturday morning. Even though I couldn't go, Philip decided that he wanted to go anyways. He just LOVES George Strait!! Landon and I also had a lunch date with Philip today for pre-Valentine's Day! We brought Philip lunch today at work since I was furloughed today. Landon was all over the place in Philip's office! Here he is pulling up on one of his chairs.

 I also made this cake for all my boys (really just Philip) and some chili! Not the most beautiful cake, but delicious nonetheless. The chili was really yummy too!

We bought Landon this funny Popeye shirt and Cars 2 for Valentine's Day. I love Popeye's tattoo (which is a heart with "Mom")..and Cars 2 is special because it was Landon's first movie theater movie. He also got a balloon which he was obsessed with!! KJ got some canned dog food. Fancy Shmancy. :)

What we would all really LOVE for Valentine's Day tomorrow is a snow day so we could all spend the day together! Guess we better start praying! :)

Visit to Valdosta

I graduated from high school 10 years ago!! Can you believe it? I for one can not! Time is just flying by! Because it has been ten years, it is time to begin planning the Lowndes High School Class of 2002 Ten Year Reunion!

In order to meet with some girls to start planning the reunion, Landon and I decided that we needed to take a weekend trip down to Valdosta. Poor Philip had to stay behind in Athens to write. He spent the whole weekend at the UGA library or Jittery Joes trying to focus and write! Have I said how happy we will all be when he is finished ?!!?

Landon and I left right after I got off school on Friday. He was so good in the car for our four and 1/2 hour drive to Valdosta (really Lake Park). It's always nerve-racking when Landon and I have to drive a long distance with just the two of us, but he only cried one time for about 2 minutes when he got really sleepy near Monticello. The rest of the time he played, slept, and talked to Mommy. I know Philip and I are very blessed with such a good traveler!

Saturday morning Landon went to spend some time with his BB while I planned for the class reunion. They had so much fun playing and playing! I had a great class reunion meeting and we got a lot planned! We opened up the planning meeting to all of our classmates (500+) people so anyone who wanted to help could and have some voice in the reunion. We were a little nervous that we would have too many people at the meeting and it would be tricky to set some plans. But we only had 6 people show up! Ha! The 6 people who did show up were amazing, and I think we will have a great class reunion! Of course, several other people have offered to help that couldn't attend the meeting, so we will have a great team of probably about 12 people getting our exciting weekend of events organized for our reunion in September!

 

 Landon and BB have so much fun together!

After the meeting, I went with Michelle, Anna, and my Mom to get a pedicure. I LOVE a pedicure!! I decided to get my toenails painted red with a lovely heart design for Valentine's Day. <3

  My lovely toes! :) Landon loves them!

After pedicures, Mom, Michelle, and I went to El Toreo's ( a favorite Valdosta Mexican restaurant!) and to see Michelle and Trent's new house! It is such a wonderful house! It's an older home with a lot of character and a big backyard. They are renovating a good bit of it right now, but I'll post some pictures in a couple of months when it's finished! We can't wait for summer days by the pool!

Saturday night, Dad and Mom cooked a big family dinner, and Michelle and Trent came over with Austin. The boys had SO much fun playing together now that Landon can crawl and interact! They took a bath together which was the cutest thing ever! Landon thought that Austin was amazing and would laugh hysterically every time he splashed.

 Best Friends and Cousins!

My parents LOVE being grandparents!

Sunday morning has been a nice, lazy morning! We decided to wait and go to church tonight, so we have been hanging around. Grandaddy came over and had breakfast with us and played with Landon.

Little Chief loving on his Grandaddy!

Now we must get packed up, eat some lunch, and head back to Athens! At least I have off tomorrow! Whoop! Whoop!