the brower bunch: 2013

6/25/13

Happy Birthday Ashlito!

Happy First Birthday Asher!!! I sure love my little guy!!! Asher is a different splash to the Brower family. He is so different than Gage in so many ways and sometimes I am amazed I can love two totally different boys with so much intensity. I have such a snuggler in Asher. He loves to cuddle up but he also is so busy. I had a friend watching him the other day and she said "he is one of the most curious babies I've ever met" and it's true! I can dangle anything in front of him and he'll be jumping out of arms just to get to it. Since he's begun crawling his curiosity has only gotten worse and he fills his days with learning everything he can.

He has the most brilliant blue eyes and I believe his eyes are about the only feature I can claim to have come from me for sure. He has all the baby boy chubbiness to go with his ever smiling face. In fact now that I think about it I'm pretty sure I've never come up to him without being greeted with a smile, even in the middle of a breakdown.

Asher is also the worst car traveler I have ever met. I'm talking about full out, top of his lungs, cannot be dissuaded from his tantrum, yelling. His Grandpa Kelley can attest to it. Somehow it still adds to his charm. He's also fascinated with music. Especially at church, the music will kick on and he'll swing his head back and forth till he finds the source and then he'll just look at it, soaking it all in. He's also enamored with his big brother and thinks that everything he does is funny. Lately Gage has been riding around on a little race engine car we have at the house and his favorite thing to do is have Asher hold on to the back and try to make him walk around with it. Gage loves being a part of this baby's life. And oddly he has never shown jealously towards Asher and I think it's because he loves having him in the family too.

Asher, you're a pleasure to be around and we love the unique, loving little fellow you are.

And this is the little guy we love so much.

6/6/13

Asher is finally in a family picture!

My dad was sweet enough to indulge a daughter in a photo shoot while down in California and they turned out pretty great. Lovely weather, perfect beach and squinty kids made for a challenging picture sesh. As you can tell in almost every picture Gage hates having his eyes in the sun but realistically perfect pictures are hard to come by with kids. This pretty much sums up a wonderful vacation at my parents and almost daily Gage says he wants to go to grandma and grandpa Kelley's house. The trip sure made an impact on them!

And some random beach pictures!

4/28/13

First real ride of the season!

Well we had an exciting weekend here. Horse back riding and hanging out with little cousins. Cody and I were excited to work with the horses all Sat since the weather was so nice. We've got two mares that are just 3 years old that we've been working with since we got here. They were both born with us at the summer rental house after we first got married and this is the first time we've been able to see them on a daily bases. Coco is a draft horse to the core both in size and in temperament. Her mother was a appaloosa and her father a Clydesdale. Her sister Pokie was sired by the same father and an Arabian mare so she's a bit smaller with a lot more spit to her. Needless to say she needs much more work than her sister :) Anyway, I got some darling shots of the kids with them and surprisingly enough Asher had yet to ride on a horse so we got him sitting on Coco which is about all he can do right now. Cody and I took the mares out for a big ride on Sat with Cody's brother Landen (who was also riding a very green and unpredictable horse) so we all had our own adventure trying to get to the top of the mountain. The ride was lovely and afterwards Cody and I thought we'd try and do some control exercises in the field afterwards. Apparently the horses had had enough cause upon running them Cody was bucked off Pokie and just a few minutes later Coco had also bucked me off. For a first ride of the season it wasn't that surprising and we're all paying for it today! Poor Landen was bucked off when I pulled at an old stitching on his horses chest so the day ended horses 3 humans 0. But they paid for it in sweat! Funny thing is that if you're reading this you're probably thinking "That does not sound like a very fun day to me" but I had a blast the whole day. Other than landing on my backside. That hurt pretty bad. :) I expect great things from these horses. Especially Coco who has an unusually kind and human heart for a horse. The funniest thing that happened with her was during my ride I noticed that she was itching herself on whatever she could find. Especially her face. Finally she dropped her head and I thought she was going to itch it on her leg and instead she dropped onto her belly and I jumped off her just in time and she rolled onto her side, rubbing her whole body on the ground. I guess there are just some itches that only rolling can get. I couldn't believe it. I'd never seen a horse do that before in the middle of a ride. And it was so slow and purposeful that I never felt in danger. Just shocked. Next time I'll have to bring my camera up with me to take a picture of the gorgeous mountain area we were riding in. I sure love being on horseback! Anyway, enjoy!

4/10/13

Chickens, Sticks and Boogers

So I got a new camera yesterday and I've been having a blast taking pictures with it. I know I've got a ton to learn about a DSLR and I'm looking forward to the challenge. I got a Nikon D3100 with a 18-55mm lens. I'm hoping a pick up a 55-200mm lens later on this week from craigslist so that should be really exciting. It's been cold and snowy up here for the last few days so I've had a chance to sit inside and play with my new camera. I've always been a die hard Canon fan but the Nikon had better specs and it was on sale for a hundred cheaper. So now I've got to figure out a new system. I loved capturing some of our favorite past times here at the farm. Going up to Gage's great Aunt Kolay's house to look at chicken eggs is one of them. In a close second it throwing sticks in the creek. I also had to include picture of Asher sucking his lower lip in and pushing it out. He could chew on that thing all day long. I wish I would have gotten a picture of us going to the ranchers store and holding all the baby chicks. Gage was in chicken heaven! And the little ducklings were my favorite of all! Lastly Aunt Kolay's golden retriever is obsessed with Tipsy. They play together for hours on end and I wanted to try out my camera's action photo ability. Cool pictures came from that! Be excited for some beautiful country pictures to come!

First picture I snapped with my new camera ever. Kinda fitting of what my life consists of right now.

Lip out

Lip in

Showing Dad his hurt toe

Daily walks are a must!

Two eggs!

Throwing sticks in the creek

Just look at those eyes!

4/8/13

Idaho times

We made it to Inkom! After a long and hard move we can happily say that things have finally settled down over this way. Cody spends his days applying to jobs and reuniting with the family since bar prep. I've been loving having him around and I count this as one of the happier times of our lives. We've been all over the place the last couple of months. Heading down for Chelsea's wedding in March was a blast and the cruise we went on to Ensenada with Cody's sister Kaiann and her husband Kevin was a total blast! We've had helmet appointments with Asher in Salt Lake and a weekend with Logan and Tonya for Easter. All in all things have been good with lots of horse working. The horses are totally crazy and they've taken a lot of effort but every time I finish with them I realize how happy it all makes me. The following pictures show some of the fun we've been up to. Enjoy!

Tipsy has finally made her peace with the horses. They continue to be leery of her.

The neighbors goats came to visit us for the day. A mom and her two babies!

CoCo, my favorite horse in the entire world. She was laying down sleeping last week and I crawled on her back to give her a good scratching and I got her to stand up and walk around with me on her back. Just really fun moments.

We had a Brower sister's craft weekend and I made these really cute seasonal houses. My biggest craft of pride was a bandana quilt that turned out really cute. Pictures to come when I bind it.

Gage tapping into his Idaho roots. It's not a good day till Uncle Landon takes him on the ATV

BEST LOWER LIP EVER!

And finally we attempted a family picture. This was the best we got which just goes to show how successful it was :)

2/8/13

Market Pictures

I asked my real estate agency if I could have some pictures that were used in advertising our house and here they are. Proof that my house occasionally gets spotless clean :) Right now we just made it past the appraisal hurtle and it was nearly a deal breaker so I'm glad it went through. Selling the house has been a lot of ups and downs and I"m grateful that the people buying the house want it so bad because they've had trouble with their loan and there were a few things the had to get figured out in the inspection. But now that the gutters are being replaced they can finally get the FHA approval that they needed and I think that means we're really gonna start getting ready to leave this place. It's been a great home and it makes me sad that Gage isn't going to have this place forever. When ever we're on trips he always eventually asks to go home and when we get here he's so happy. We'll just have to find him a place just as cool to love.

I really need to kick my packing into high gear but me and the kids keep switching off being sick. It's like we're stuck in a perpetual cycle of cold, flu, fever, cold, flu... and on and on. But I think this next week I'll get rid of them for several days at different times so I can get this house packing started. My original plan was to move on the 23rd of this month but because of Stake Conference (a big church meeting) I wouldn't be able to get a lot of help from the people at church so I'm thinking we'll move March 2nd instead after Cody has take the bar. And really I'm all on my own for this move because Cody is killing himself with bar prep. He leaves by 9 and I don't see him again till about 9 so things have been pretty hectic at home without Dad. But I know it's what's suppose to happen. We really feel like we came to Denver for a reason and now we're leaving Denver for a reason too. Anyway, enjoy the pics and I'll try and keep everyone updated on what's happening as soon and I get my life figured out!