Music with Magnolia-

A few clips of Magnolia singing that I was able to capture this week. Enjoy! :)

Frosty the Snowman (and yes, that is a carrot)

Row your boat (Magnolia style)

Sweet friends-

The Lord has surrounded us with so many sweet friends who are an encouragement to our family, one of whom is Frostie. I love this picture of her and wanted to share it here.

And Magnolia loves this photo of her buddies Captain Hook and Mr. Smee.

Jeremy and I took her to see Disney on Ice when they rolled into town, and our sweet girl was more excited about seeing these pirates than about any of the princesses. This was the first big show that we have taken her to, and I was so excited as we sat there and the lights dropped. We had loaded up on snacks and beverages (her first experience with popcorn and Sprite); the music began; and Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy skate out! My girl turns around and says to me, "Where's Captain Hook?" What in the world! By intermission, I was concerned that he would be a no show (after all that build up, I did not want to see the disappointment on her face), but he and Mr. Smee made their appearance in the last performance (if you look closely you can even see the crocodile in there). We even managed to spot Bill on one of the boats! It turned out to be such a delightful time for all of us!

Tonight on the way home from church, Magnolia asked if she could borrow my car. For what else? To take RuRu to see Disney on Ice next year. What a funny girl-

What's all this monkeying around?

On Saturday, December 13, we celebrated Furman's first birthday. It's so hard for me to believe that my sweet baby boy is now one. I'm sure that most all parents say that on their child's first birthday, but his first year seemed to pass so much more quickly than Magnolia's. I'm not sure if it's because we do have another child and are not able to spend every free moment focused on him (primarily because there really are no free moments), but these twelve months truly flew by. Everything about Furman seems to be fast though (did I mention he's walking like a pro (or at least semi-pro) these days?).

We had such a joyous time celebrating his big day with a party at home with family and a few close friends. Furman sported the same Clemson overalls that Magnolia wore at her first birthday party. Unlike Magnolia, however, Furman LOVED him some birthday cake. Don't get me wrong, Magnolia's sweet tooth has definitely emerged, but she preferred sliced cucumbers and tomatoes over cake on her first b-day. Furman has been pulling out that pointer finger and grunting at the mere sight of sugar for the past several months. I promise you he somehow knew that he was missing out on something good. And check out this face after his first taste of sugary goodness (evidenced by the blue lips).

He took a second to check in with Jeremy to make sure he really was allowed to tear into the cake...

...and then it was on! He actually became upset when Jeremy cut him off.

Don't worry sweet boy. Lord willing, there will be many more cakes to come. Happy 1st Furman! We love you so much!

Arrrr Matey!

It felt like Magnolia and Furman wore their Halloween costumes for a week straight. Between dressing up for Boo in the Zoo, Enchanted Forest at the Pavilion, Pirate Night at Chick-fil-A, their library class, our Small Group, and trick or treating at Publix, we definitely got our money's worth out of these costumes (and we were sure to get a gender-neutral pirate one for Mags so that Furman could wear it in a few years to get the biggest bang for that buck)!

My favorite pictures from the week have to be of Magnolia with my grandparents. These are my dad's parents; Magnolia is named after my grandmother's mother and Furman is named after my grandfather's father. They are both so special to Jeremy and me, and it delights my heart to see Magnolia respond so well to them. Furman is also beginning to warm up to them, though not enough to make great pictures (thus the reason his were left out). I love these shots of our little pirate with Mr. Bud and Great MiMi!

It's a hardwood life, for us.

Ever since he returned home from Ohio, Jeremy has been diligently working on our new home to prepare to move. Though the house was in great shape and did not require much work to be done, we decided to tear up the carpet in the dining room and living room and put down hardwood floors (a small child with reflux and carpet is never a good combination **see previous blogs about Furman's sensitive stomach if there is any doubt). Jeremy ripped up the carpet and prepared for the installation process while waiting for our order to arrive. Once it was here, his dad, my dad, and my brother Craig all came together to tackle this project.

It was a long process (5 weekends, numerous late nights during the week, and one state of delirium (aka. hangover) from staining the floors for 5 hours one night with the windows closed), but with one more coat of poly, the floors will finally be complete. Praise the Lord! And they truly do look beautiful! Great job Brownie (and team)! Now, we just have to wait 3 days to let the floors dry, so we will finally be able to move in on Saturday the 15th!

My sweet girl.

While Jeremy worked on our house this past Saturday with his dad, my dad, and my brother Craig, I was able to spend some sweet time with Magnolia. After her Zoo Tots class, she and I were headed to our new home to take the guys lunch. Since Magpie has never met her Uncle Craig before, I was trying to explain how he was related to her. Once she caught on that he was her uncle just as Keith is, she began to ask about other family members.
"Like MeMe is my aunt."
"That's right."
"Ganna?"
"She's your grandmother."
"Papa?"
"He's your grandfather."
And so it went through the family tree until she got to our immediately family. She asked about Jeremy and then about me. And then she said:
"Furman?"
"He's your brother."
"And he's my friend."
Melt my heart.

Later that night as she lay in bed and was telling me people for whom she wanted to pray she said "Help me pray Mama, cause I don't know the words." What a reflection of the way my heart often feels when coming to my Father. Thank you God for the tender heart that you have given Magnolia (and for giving her to us).

Not so cave-ish any more.

After painting Magnolia and Furman's rooms at our new home, their bathroom was next on my punch list. The walls were a lovely shade of lilac. And not that I have anything against lilac, I just thought that it didn't quite suit the rough and tumble boy that Furman is becoming (or any boy for that matter). Loving the earthy tones as I do, I decided their bathroom would look wonderful with Caramelized Onion walls (i.e., Vaspar's sophisticated way of saying "brown"). We had purchased a set of jungle shower hooks from Target and found the matching lion bath rug on clearance (75% off...I love a good deal!), so I thought the brown would tie everything in nicely. After taping and painting for hours, Jeremy came upstairs to check out my work and felt that the brown walls made the room too dark. I don't think he actually used the word "cave-ish" but that is definitely the impression I got from him.

So, I decided to paint some pictures to hang on those drab walls to match the monkey and elephant shower hooks we had. Thanks to a coupon from a dear friend at work and some paint on loan from Frostie, we were able to transform our cave for only $3.50. Jeremy helped me paint these last Sunday afternoon while the kids were napping (we hung the shower hooks on the top of the boards so that you can see how it all ties together).





Magnolia woke up before we finished, so she grabbed the last board to paint a giraffe. We haven't found it yet, but I'm sure that giraffe is hiding somewhere in that mix. This one will be proudly displayed in their playroom.



Hope you release the artist in you sometime this week! It's extremely therapeutic!

Fall for Greenville

While Jeremy was working hard on our new home this weekend, Furman, Magnolia, and I ventured downtown to Fall for Greenville with a tremendous amount of help from MeMe (Aunt Melissa). We had such an amazing time together and were so grateful for the beautiful day the Lord provided. We were able to enjoy some music by the river (courtesy of His Radio) and the Kid Zone, where Magnolia got her first taste of amusement park life.

Though the food sold at the festival is one of the main focuses of the event, we only forked over tickets for two M&M cookies. At the time, I didn't realize that each cookie was approximately the size of Magnolia's head. At least she had a little help from the buddy on her cheek-



Poor Furman missed out on the food and only managed to sample the couple of leaves he stuffed in his mouth before we could get ahold of them. As we did with Magnolia, we're holding out on sweets until his first birthday; only 2 more months little man!




The highlight of the day had to be Magnolia's first roller coaster ride. I'm not sure if this could technically be classified as a roller coaster as benign as it is, but MeMe and I thought that it was a grand feat for a 2 year old (especially without a buddy to sit by). She was so brave and marched right up onto the platform, plopping down in a seat. Check out the joy on her face in the video below. Look closely, she's in the second to the last row. I love this girl-

Long Time, No Blog

Jeremy returned home from Ohio almost two weeks ago. Though I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity he had to earn some extra income and happy that he was able to help so many, I am so glad that he is home.

I want to thank my parents and sister for all of their help while Jeremy was away. They really stepped up and put many hours in with our family to make sure things were going smoothly! We love you all so much!

While Jeremy was in Ohio, we closed on a new home. As you probably know, we sold our little house on Circle Drive the month before Furman was born and decided to rent for a period of time while we saved money and looked for our next home. I was on the three year plan, but Jeremy soon grew weary of apartment living and wanted to get back into our own place. We began looking in early August and found a wonderful home for our family last month. It is in great shape, but we did a little cosmetic work to put the Brown stamp on it. Jeremy is there now ripping up carpet and preparing to install wood flooring downstairs. And thanks to my sweet sister, Melissa, and dear friend, Joy, Furman and Magnolia are going to have two of the sweetest bedrooms! I'll try to remember to post some more pictures when they are complete, but here is a preview of our paint job-

If this social work thing fails, I think we could definitely have a career in painting-

And now for something a little different-

Our first tough night without Daddy.

Last night we had our first tough night without Jeremy. Well, I guess I should say it was the first tough night for me, not Magnolia and Furman. Both of them have seemed off since he left, particularly over the past few days. It's like they know something is wrong but just can't quite pinpoint it. Of course it probably doesn't help that we are all recovering from colds and that Furman is cutting teeth. Magnolia keeps asking if Daddy's going to be "there" (i.e., wherever we are talking about going) and will then say "he'll be back in just a minute." This must be the longest minute ever for her.

So. Last night my Mom (I thank God for the help she extends to our family) ate dinner with us and helped bathe Magnolia while I got Furman in bed. Once he was asleep, my Mom left, and I continued to read to Magnolia. Now this child will draw out our nighttime routine as long as possible. She always wants to read just one more book and will then return from her basket of books with a big smile on her face and our 238 page copy of Swiss Family Robinson in her hands. Her newest stalling technique is to say "I've gotta poop." I must admit this is very clever on her part, for what parent would prevent a child who has to poop from using the potty. So it was probably close to 8:45 before she got to bed and as we were praying, Furman began to stir. This is where chaos ensues.

I first tried to hide by Magnolia's bed (yes, I do realize how horrible this sounds), but eagle-eyes in the crib spotted me and began to wail. I carried him out of the room to try to soothe him and had stopped right inside of the kitchen when Furman spewed. 4 times. This sweet boy has the most sensitive stomach ever and would do this anytime I drank milk when I nursed him. He did it a little bit after a couple of bites of yogurt last weekend, but I didn't even think about this when I gave him mac and cheese for dinner last night. So here I am standing in the dark with nastiness all over the floor, my shirt/pants/leg, and the weeping baby in my arms and here comes Magnolia out of her room saying, what else, "I've gotta poop." I sat Furman down and stripped down, then stripped him down, then put him in the bathtub with Magnolia sitting next to us on the potty talking incessantly. I have never seen her so wound up that late at night!

After finally coercing Magnolia into bed around 9:30, I had to try to keep Furman content until I could give him more to eat. He passed out after 2 ounces of milk around 10:30 and I was finally able to clean up from supper, clean the floor, wash clothes, make Magnolia's lunch for school today, and get ready for bed. Furman woke up again at 1:30 and at 4:00 (more vomit). I rocked him until about 5:15 and then caught a quick nap before work.

The Lord sustained me on that sleep today and I made it through the day much more alert than I thought I would be. And through it all, He gave me joy. I cannot even begin to imagine life without Christ (and am so thankful that He gave me a husband who is willing to help with the night shift).

On other things Jeremy, he arrived in the northern part of Louisiana sometime Sunday only to leave Monday morning for the Cincinnati area (possibly northern Kentucky). Apparently the remnants of Ike hit hard up there and around 2 million customers were without power in Ohio. I'm wondering if this means he'll be home earlier since they are already so close (relatively speaking) to SC or if they'll head back out to TX after finishing there. Of course, Jeremy knows no more about the plans than I do so we'll have to wait and see.

*By the way, my apologies for all of the text, I didn't manage to capture any shots of the evening.

Here we are...

Over the past several months I have enjoyed peeking into the lives of my friends (especially those who are now more distant than they once were) through their blogs. I have enjoyed catching a glimpse of their hearts as I pour over the words they have typed and over the pictures they have chosen to include. As my dear friend Frostie described something in another setting, it's almost as if I am reading something I should not have access to. As if I found my older sister's diary and am sitting in the closet with a flashlight trying to discover the name of her lastest crush. But I guess if it's put out there for the world to see, it's ok for me to see. So here I am. Throwing my thoughts and stories out there for the world to see and for our dear friends and family members (whom we don't get to touch base with as often as we like) to experience life with the Browns. As an update: Jeremy is a lineman with PIKE Electric which he absolutely loves. He is currently in Mississippi waiting for Ike to make landfall so that he (and his cohorts) can restore power. I cannot believe the extent of the destruction that has already taken place. Please keep the TX and LA residents and those who are responding to this disaster in your prayers. He's only been gone one day, but we already miss him terribly. I am a social worker with Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics where I am able to work with a team to evaluate children for autism and help families work through the challenges of raising a child with special needs. Though the work is very rewarding, I am filled with joy to come home to Magnolia and Furman each day. Magnolia is currently 2 1/2 and Furman will be 9 months old on Sunday. I am sure you will get to know them really well over the next few months. Welcome to the Brownies site; I hope you enjoy your time with us!