Christmas tree hunting!

Tis the season! To spend way too much on a christmas tree! Well I can't say I mind it since it's still one of my favorite things to do! We debated about getting a fake tree this year but I realized that some of my best memories come from tree shopping. Plus some years i hope we can get one from the mountains of Idaho since it's only $10 and way more fun to cut it down yourself. We thought it would be fun to dress Gage up in his santa outfit his grandma Kelley got for him when he wasn't even born yet. It fit's great so I'm glad we went with the 18 month size instead of the 12 months. Who would have known he'd be so big! It sure was cold but we had a blast picking out the perfect tree! I love it!

Thanksgiving Time!

Thanksgiving has come and gone and I can say I'm thankful we survived all the winter driving! Thank goodness Cody handles the ice well! We had a blast spending the last week up in Idaho with friends and family. The one I think who enjoyed it the most way our puppy Tipsy who learned that there is a wonderful place called Idaho where you can run to your hearts content. A place where large, four legged beasts exist and a place where 15 degrees is no big thing. We got to stay with the Kunz's, Mom and Dad and we even got to have a sleepover with the Womack crew which was a blast from start to finish. I'm so glad that I was able to make it to my sister-in-law's bridal shower and as always the Browers prove themselves to be a fun, wild bunch! We also got to hang out with friends that we love so much! Gage and Trey are only a couple of months apart and it's been so much fun watching them grow up! Gage got his first "real" horse ride. I call it real because we weren't holding on to him so I think it was pretty legit. Coco, our yearling, wouldn't hold still enough so we got a great picture instead on Cymeron. Can't wait for Gage to get more horse time in the future! All in all it was a great week and I can't wait to go back in a month for Kaylee's wedding!

Videos!

Cody got the video converter up so here are some awesome videos of the boy. I also did a little photo shoot this morning cause Cody commented that we don't have enough 9 month pictures of Gage so I have now captured the many moods of Gage at this point in his life. And believe me- there are many. Enjoy the great pics!

Snow!

I feel like someone has hit the fast forward button with Gage lately! He's developing so fast now and it seems like every day he is getting just a little bit bigger. In the past couple of weeks he's learned how to pull himself up on stuff and has even figured out the neat trick that if he climbs up my leg I pick him up 9 times out of 10.
Mostly I pick him up because it's so dang cute and he has semi ignored me half his life so it's nice to be wanted. In fact, he's become so loving and cuddly. It must be that age where other kids refuse to go to anyone but their mom and Gage is exhibiting it in that he seems to prefer me. He still goes to anyone (as proven by his popularity in Relief Society today) but it's nice to be needed. At church this morning Cody made the discovery of Gage's first upper tooth. It explains his behavior from the last day or so and by tonight he was running a full out drama show. No amount of teething gel or medicine seemed to help so he went to be early. Poor little guy! Cody and I had a great weekend of projects. Some went well and others... not so well. Our TV broke recently and Cody was lucky enough to be awarded some extra money from the Army that they owe him for schooling so we finally joined the club of plasma owners. We got our 50 inch plasma off craigslist for a steal of $540 and even managed to find the perfect stand for only $60 more! It was just what I wanted (which was good because I was extremely sad to see my old entertainment center go- It took me 4 hours to set it up the first time and over an hour of hard labor to take it down so needless to say I had invested some serious time into it). I wanted a TV stand that would keep the DVD and Cable box out of Gage's reach and also to have some wood in it for my country themed living room. It turned out great. Unfortunately, we got it home and it was 2 inches too short for the TV to fit so my wonderfully handy husband re-drilled all the upper shelves and sawed holes in the back for cables to go in. That was our successful project. Now for the not so successful. We have been working on re-finishing a coffee table for the living room. It's the one in the picture before we decided to do our "final" coat of stain and seal. So re-doing furniture is no picnic. First you use a type of acid to take the original finish off- then you scrap that finish off- then you sand the whole thing- then you do the first, second and sometimes third coat of stain to get just what you want. That's where things broke down for us. We got the stain + finish combo and I don't think it agrees with cold weather because it was like trying to spread quick dry molasses on a table that just keeps getting darker and stickier. Totally ruined it so now we'll have to start from step one again. I think we'll try separate stain and finish this time. So help me I will finish this project! I've already done too much to drop it now. The picture with the TV was our pre-screw up and it looks so good! Anyway- you win some and you loose some. On the plus side it was a blast getting to use table saws, band saws and sanders with Cody. It reminded me of wood shop. Cody only has a week of classes left and then they give the students 3 weeks to study for and take their finals the first half of December. Hopefully he does well cause loosing the scholarship would be terrible. Stupid curve grade! He could get an A on the final and still fall in the lower 50% of his class. He's doing great so far and I'm so proud of all his hard work. I can't believe he's willing to go through this for me and Gage. What a loving husband!
Lastly I wanted to include pictures of Gage's first run in with snow. He was a little confused by it but the puppy sure had a blast! I have a couple of videos that I need to post but we just re-formatted the computer so I lost my video converting software so once I figure that out I'll be able to throw some videos on. Miss you all and love you all!

Well we have had a few busy weeks here at the Brower home! Gage seems to be coming up with something new everyday! Sitting up, grabbing and eating food, pulling himself up the railing on his crib and screaming bloodly murder when he realizes that he can't get down. So many fun things! Cody also turned 29 a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to say thanks to everyone who got their birthday wishes to Cody. I love him so much and can not believe the effort he is putting into Law school right now. We're talking 12 hour days at school which really gets him down sometimes. He works so hard to take care of Gage and I and we couldn't be prouder! We also had our awesome friends down from Idaho this last weekend and had a blast with them. It was so nice to hang out with friends that you have history with and you don't have to do all that get to know you stuff. So thanks to garage sales I've acquired a new truck and rocking horse for Gage, both of which he loves. He likes the truck more because of the more stable hand holds but as you can see he's a natural on a horse. Well, at least he is till Tipsy licks his face and he falls off the horse! He has fluctuated between waking up 4 times a night at times to not waking up at all (like the last two nights) so I can't rightly says what his nights are usually like. What a great feeling to wake up at 6:30 and realize that the bottle you set out for the night is still there. If not for the bottle I would just figure I got up with him and didn't remember. He's finally beginning to realize that his parents are pretty cool. He'll actually tolerate an occasional snuggle (and not just when he's asleep and we sneak in his room) and I think he's starting to get excited when he sees me. Halloween wasn't bad even though none of us dressed up. Lets be honest- if I can't get candy out of dressing up whats the point? Maybe next year. We did go to a trunk or treat and give out candy but with our Idaho friends visiting I wanted to just spend time with them and not worry as much about Halloween. The videos are from any given time in the last two weeks. I've been a total blogging slacker but I still wanted to get them up cause some are really cute. I'll miss all you Kelley's at Thanksgiving! Can't wait to see you Browers! Love you all!