Adelyn Quarrles Brower

I haven't blogged in a really long time but I did a birth announcement for each of my kids on the blog so I couldn't go without updating that for Adelyn. Even though she is 9 months old right now I remember her birth very well. Mostly because it was a total breeze! A week before she was due I began to have occasional contractions through out the day. By 8pm when we had put the boys to bed they began to get regular and I told Cody we would probably be going to the hospital that night. By midnight we made the decision to drop the boys off at Jodi Alan's house and head to Pocatello. The contractions were getting really uncomfortable on the way down and by the time I was settled in my hospital bed at 1 AM I was ready for the epidural. After that I just had a short 3 hours of laboring before the doctor checked me and was surprised I was at a 10 already.

It was go time and the whole room of nurses, doctors and staff kept commenting on what a happy, easy going birth this was. We were all enjoying ourselves and enjoying the miracle that was about to happen. At 4:01 AM she made her appearance and she came out screaming her head off. Just to let us know how much we had inconvenienced her :)  She nursed right away and just loved to snuggle in my arms as long as I would let her. We got settled into our hospital room for the next couple of days and had a great time getting to know this new sweet little girl.

My first thought was that she looked just like Asher but as we started looking at baby pictures of Gage there is a lot of him in her too. In fact when I look at all three of my kids together I notice that they will always have to live with "are you so and so's sister/brother?". It has been such a joy to have three sweet little kids right now. Life is crazy because I'm working part time so the kids are in day care about half the week but Gage and Asher seem to love the pre-school element of it. Adelyn would rather just stay with me and cuddle all the time but she is not good for a work environment. In fact, she is the most snuggly, clingy baby that I have ever had. A part of me loves it and the other part can't stand it. So here's to my sweet little Adelyn! The cutest, most charming of them all!

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. 

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!