Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Here are some picture of how Cody and I spent the holidays. This year it was the Brower's family turn to have us around and we sure missed the family that couldn't make it. The house was full of kids and excitement and I was able to spend some time with Cody's sister and her husband and girls who live out in West Virginia. It wouldn't have been Christmas without them! Bear Lake graced us with 20 degree weather in the day time so the snow wasn't even warm enough to pack a snowball. It was pretty cold! For Christmas Eve we did a dinner where everyone did something so I made Tortilla de Patata for the first time in two years. It's pretty much a glorified french fry and egg thick omlette and it was good! One re-adjustment I had to make was the time that presents were open. I think even when Chelsea was a little girl my family began pushing maybe 9 am to open presents. Not so with the Browers. 5 am. Seriously. Actually- before 5. I think someone got us up ten to 5. And let me say that in this stage of pregnancy any lost sleep is regarded more like the losing of a limb. So we got up and did the present thing and I went right back to sleep. Cody got help from all the nieces when he opened his presents. Unfortunately Cody and I had already maxed out our Christmas money on a new computer for him and a new camera for me so we set the limit at $10 for Christmas morning. Pathetic I know but at least it was something. So Christmas was great overall but I got to say that my favorite part was pulling out some pipe bells and with 5 of us trying to recreate Christmas songs. By the end I got to say that we were pretty good. It was weird not singing but the bells filled the musical need of the season. We're back at home now and are excited to get down to business preparing for a baby.
















































The last picture on the page is a picture of Cody's graduation. At first he didn't really want to walk but with enough persuasion he saw the benefit in it. And it meant a lot to his parents and to me as well. I'm so proud of him and even more proud because he's choosing to go on to Law School. What a smart man I married!

Here are some of the beautiful baby things that have come my way in the last little bit. First off I wanted to say thank you to my grandma for the beautiful quilt that she sent. I can't wait to wrap my little baby boy in that quilt made with so much love! It's something that I will treasure for a very long time to come! Also pictured is a nice little bassinet that I got used for only $20 bucks. And the gal threw in a bunch of baby boy clothes too! My favorite new thing by far is the crib we just got yesterday for $35 and the bedding that my mom bought for me. It is the cutest little cowboy print you've ever seen. I'll probably be staining the wood so it is dark like the bassinet. And I forgot to take a picture of my careseat so on the next blog look for a picture of the cowprint car seat (also a favorite of mine and also from Mom and Dad). I'm getting so excited with all of these fun baby things. Now if this little bundle would just hurry up and get here!





























These other two pictures include some of my pottery from this year and also Cody's new favorite project. I had a blast with throwing this year! Too bad about halfway through my class I was unable to throw on the wheel cause my belly got in the way. But I'm glad I was able to put out what I did. The picture of Cody is him putting together his first home made computer. It's the Christmas present we gave ourselves this year and you should have seen Cody's face when it arrived. He was like a little boy Christmas morning. I don't understand a bit of it but that never stops Cody from explaining it all to me while he's putting it together. So I've got my baby stuff that I'm enjoying and Cody has his computer to put together. I'm heading out today to visit my dear friend Carrie in Provo and my darling little sister Chelsea. I have decided however that this will be my last trip other than to the Brower's for Christmas. Driving has become so uncomfortable and I seem to sleep poorly in anything other than my bed. All a part of the joy of being pregnant!

Sleigh bells ring... are you listen'n

I don't have much time to write but I found my camera (it was in my car that I let my sister-in-law use) so I thought that I would at least put up some pictures. Of course there have to be horse pictures involved and I thought that I would also include some of Cody and I setting up our tree. It turned out really cute but it's hard to see the darling ornaments I bought. True to Idaho tradition Cody and I went up to the woods with his parents to cut down a live tree for only $10. It's been one of my new favorite traditions since marrying into the Brower family. And the tree lasts forever because it doesn't have to be transported for days and die in the process. So this is the little tree we picked and I love it. Last year I had in mind a huge beautiful tree and it took an hour for me to settle on one. This year I came with the realization that wild trees just don't look as full as the expensive store bought ones and it only took me 10 min to see this one and cut it down. That also might have stemmed from being pregnant and not wanting to trudge through the snow for an hour. Regardless these are the pictures and it made me realize Cody and I need a new camera really bad. Especially before the baby comes cause this camera is taking really horrible pictures. So if anyone knows of any deals right now do share. I'd like one that will not disappoint but that will also be a fair price. Love you all and happy holidays!

Baby Time!

Well I finally located the ultrasound pictures and thought that they would be nice to put up even though they are months old. So any of you that are still in doubt about whether or not I'm pregnant or just getting chubbier- here's the proof you've been waiting for. Little Gage Lynn (the name I'm pretty sure we've decided to go with) has been doing great. He is moving all the time and will sometimes give me kicks that take a bit of the wind out of me. I think he's going to be big and strong like his daddy but hopefully not too big. After all- I just was looking at Cody's birth certificate and he was born 9 pounds and 1 ounce. Such a big baby! As for him being strong like Cody he's going to have to be. Already he's survived being thrown from a horse, jumping off a waterfall, and now hiking 5 miles up a 1500 foot ascent called Angels Landing in Zion National Park. I didn't intend to go that far but I was surprisingly not tired that day and just kept going. That's why Gage is tough- not like he had a choice when I was doing all that stuff but I like to think that even in my tummy he's already instilled with a sense of adventure.
Thanksgiving this year was a blast with only 1 broken back, 1 scratched neck, 1 bee sting and several close calls of almost being squashed by a 4 wheeler. Poor Dad finally went to the doctors to find out that he fractred one of his vertebrae. Crazy guy! We stayed in some nice little cabins outside the East end of the park and spent our days hiking, horseback riding and riding ATV's on the sand dunes. I would like to point out that the one activity that I was forbidden to do (horseback riding) was harmless and the other two ending up being the most dangerous. The entire list of injuries above came from the ATV's and the day after we hiked Angels Landing a women fell from a height of 1000 feet and died. Then again I get to ride horses all the time so I wasn't too bummed about it. That's about all I have in way of random news. I haven't been able to locate my camera since Thanksgiving so as soon as I find it I'll do some more updates with pictures. Happy Holidays everyone!

Happy Veteran's day!

I wanted to wish everyone a happy veteran's day! I'm so proud of Cody for his 8 years of service to the country and am so glad for the impact it made in his life and the positive things about him that I know came from that service. It's nice to be a part of a family where there have been so many who have served for America. Grandpa Kelley, Coats, Anderson and our late Grandpa Brower all gave such wonderful service and I'm so excited that Cody can tell our little boy about his time in Iraq. Here are some pictures from Cody's time over there. Some of them I thought were just fun pictures of Cody but others show what a really awful place it must have been to stay there for as long as he did. The one on the street was from a car bomb and it really makes you think about how close they all came to dying during their time over in Iraq. Cody didn't tell me till be were back together after our 4 year break but apparently he put me down as receiving $50,000 from the army if he died overseas. That was news to me! It just goes to show that I meant so much to him even back then! Anyway- enjoy the pictures and don't worry- the tatoo ones are just washable hennas. I love you all and can't wait to see some of you at Thanksgiving!

Happy soon to be Halloween! This is going to be a combo update including both Cody's birthday and also the Brower family Halloween party. First off Cody had a great birthday filled with cake and friends and games. I invited a few of our friends and family over to have cake and share in the celebration. I made a graveyard cake (seeing as how Cody's favorite holiday is Halloween) and had some orange colored food. It was a lot of fun getting everyone together and made me realize how sad it is going to be to leave this place and all the friends and family we have up here. For his birthday I got Cody a 60 day pre-paid World of Warcraft gift card and a special plaque I made him in my pottery class. We also went this last weekend to his parents house for their big Halloween party. We had the weaning of our baby horses coincide with it so we could give them lots of support and love while they were without their mothers or milk. Cody and I went as a devil and a pregnant angel and I had a sign with me that read "the devil made me do it". It was a good comfortable outfit for me and pretty cute besides. Cody's make up job was a huge chore that luckily turned out pretty good. When I first started applying it the face paint came out orange and it looked terrible. Plus it was caking all weird too. So we used the black hair spray and some water to get it runny and darker and I think the result came out pretty good. Cody still has some pink spots in his hair which I'm sure his BYU-I teachers love. thank goodness we were able to get off the fake nails before church the next day. That would have turned some heads! Cody took 3rd place for costumes and overall it was a fun night of creepy food and a treasure hunt. We had taken away the mares that afternoon so the baby horses were crying and crying for their moms. It was pretty heartbreaking! But we wanted to do it before snow is all over the ground. That way when they loose all the weight from weaning they will still have good green grass to eat for a few weeks. It also made them very hard to leave because they were so hungry for attention that they would whinny and run to the fence whenever they saw someone. They were in need of some serious loving. So hopefully they transition well and figure out how to survive on just grass and no milk. So that's been my life for the past couple of weeks. The baby is growing well and he continues to surprise me with how strong of kicks he can give. Especially in the middle of the night. I can tell this is going to be a long 3 1/2 month wait! Love you all!

a horse is a horse of course!

Cody and I went to his parents this weekend to wean our little baby horses and also to set up a horse shelter for the winter. It was so much fun going out there and seeing how much our little horses have grown. And much to our delight they still remembered us and let us come right up to them. After all, a month roaming the land free with a whole herd of horses could make any horse forget humans. We had to walk the four of them back from the pasture to the house (a distance of a mile or so) and sure enough I got about half way and was too tired to walk more. Dumb belly! So I had a total pioneer moment and rode good old trusty Shadow the rest of the way back. Actually, saying that I rode her back is an overstatement. I pretty much just sat on her while Cody's mom led her and I felt like a little kid back on the pony ride at the fair. No one would let me just loop the rope and ride her on my own. Something about a hospital visit because of a horse kept being brought up. But I was sure grateful for the lift! We got back and brushed the babies down and pretty much just gave them some much needed loving. And much needed brushing because their winter coats are already coming in and they sure look shabby. I can't believe how huge they've gotten! Cody and I are going to have some seriously big horses (one perk of them being half draft horses :) They were so funny because they met their first cat and didn't know what to think. Pokie kept trying to get a good smell of him but he ran every time she tried so she figured out how to inch closer and closer to the cat and in the end decided that cats don't smell all that great anyway. So we had a wonderful weekend with Cody's parents and also with Cody's little sister Kaylee and her boyfriend Eric. Kaylee even got to feel the baby moving. And by the way he is moving a ton lately! I always tell Cody that it is the strangest feeling to have something alive and moving in my tummy. Seeing Cody's expression the first time he felt him move was priceless. Cody has always wanted to feel a baby move. He's a kicker too! He always seems to keep me in line and remind me not to let myself get too overworked or tired. We're still debating about a name so right now he continues to be baby boy to us. Cody's birthday is this Wednesday so if anyone wants to give a call and wish him a happy birthday I know it would mean a lot to him. Just be sure not to ask him how old he's turning. It's kind of a sore subject. Just kidding- he doesn't care much but I do take ever opportunity to tease him about it. By the way- for those trying to figure out which baby horse is which you'll notice that one of the babies has three white socks on her feet with a little while blaze on her nose. That's Pokie. And the one with just 1 white sock and bigger body is sweet, calm little Coco. Well everyone- my camera replacement came in so I'll be able to blog a bit more. A special thanks to my mom-in-law for letting me use her camera this weekend. Hope everyone is well! I love you all!

Long time in coming

Ok everyone. First off let me just acknowledge how bad of a blogger I am and secondly I wanted to wish my new niece a happy birthdate. Becky had her a few days ago and everyone says that Becks was a total pro. Click on to her blog for a full account. I'll be going home this next weekend for a wedding so it'll be great to see her. Anyway, for those of you who didn't know it Cody and I never took our honeymoon cruse due to a horrible kidney stone attack so we've been sitting on $700 dollars worth of cruse line credit and we finally got to use it at the end of August. These are some pictures from that trip. We were lucky enought to have some really awesome people at our dinner table whom we ended up spending a great majority of the cruse with. We travled to Catalina Island and Ensenada Mexico. The food was great and morning sickness only made itself known once (honey dew just happened to be a bad breakfast choice that day :) Plus I got to use my spanish skills to help us save over $50 to get to a great beach. I talked to some locals and they told us which city buses to use to get there. So we spent about $3 to get to a beautiful beach that was completly void of turists and a taxi wanted to take us for over $50. How dumb did they think we were?





























Another classic part of the cruse was the Kareoke (spelling?) nights which made up that majority of our evenings. I LOVE Kareoke and Cody had never done it before so after much coaxing and encouragement Cody finally did it and to his surprise people loved it. The next day we had three different strangers come up and tell Cody that his preformance was their favorite that night. Cody was mostly embarassed but also flattered I think. Anyway- I've got about two more things to update on this blog but I'll spread it out since my dear faithful Cannon powershot finally kicked the bucket today after years of faithful service to me. Just as I was going outside to take a picture of the first snow! Terrible timing I know!


Also quick baby update- Things are going ok. I'm slowly starting to learn what I can and can't do (and also learning what things other people think I can and can't do). Like trying to help move a new recliner into the house and Cody wouldn't even let me help a little. Or the fact that picking up things has now moved to crouching down to grab what I need rather than bending at the waist and simply picking it up. I've been having a problem with getting some of those Hicks contractions lately and as a result I make sure that I'm not pushing my body to far or fast. Plus they're uncomfortable so they have made it to my top list of things to dislike about pregnancy. I'm feeling him move a lot now and have almost been able to get Cody's hand on my tummy fast enough so he can feel him too. And by the way he is most definatly a boy. The second ultrasound confirmed it. I'll put up the pictures when I get a chance next. Ok- that just about does it for me. I miss you all and love you so much!

So I thought it would be kinda fun to put up a blast from the past page. Cody took off for the next 4 days to be in Vegas with a friend so of course I'm moping around the house feeling sorry for myself. And what better to do than to look at sweet pictures that make you even lonelier? Anyway- these pictures are from back in the day when Cody and I dated in 2003. Wow that was forever ago! And I was thinking about it and I figured out that Cody then becomes the 2nd longest son in law to mom and dad that they've known (of course Ryan takes the cake on longest known) but I thought it was cool that Cody has been around the family for years and years.













I can't believe how different we look in these! We were so young! Thank goodness we weren't dumb youngins that got married right away. We both would have missed out on some serious adventures. Looking back it's funny to think about the last time I saw Cody the first time we dated. He was driving me down to Aspen Grove where I'd work for the summer and we were driving and just talking. Well we got on the subject of how great dating had been and how much we were going to miss each other and I told Cody that I thought he was going to be the best dad in the world and he teared up and told me that I would be the most amazing wife to someone someday. Who would have thought that I would be that wife for Cody and that he would be that Dad for our kids. I'll bet sometimes fate gets a really big kick out of times like that where it knew we'd get married. Anyway- The pictures just reminded me of that story. I sure love my little Cody and can't wait for him to get home. In fact he could cut the trip short and come home right now. I wouldn't mind.