The Gages

Some Halloween Pics

2009-11-16T14:53:00.010-06:00

Gabe was an Alabama football player!

Roll Tide!!!

Landon was Cookie Monster.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Happy Birthday Dad!

2009-10-27T09:24:00.007-05:00

Last month, we celebrated my dad's birthday at Mi Casita. Most of us got their wonderful chimichangas. (They seriously have the best in town!!!) After we finished eating, they came out with a big sombrero for dad to wear while we sang to him. And of course it's not a birthday without yummy sugary sweets, so afterwards, we had some yummy cake and cupcakes. We had a great time!

Landon loves his cupcakes!

And Gabe too!

Happy birthday dad! I love you so much!

4 Boys!

2009-09-14T18:40:00.013-05:00

Several weeks ago my cousin Leslie and her family flew down from Massachusetts for a visit. She is one of my best friends and I hate that she lives over 1000 miles away but I was really glad to see her. We got to do something we have always wanted to do - get all 4 of our boys together! We played at a park in Trussville, ate lunch at Chick-fil-A, went over to their hotel for a while and then headed over to our grandparents' house to have a nice southern meal.

Tired after playing at the park.

Get us out of here!

Playing with animals.

Going on a walk.

The 4 cuties!

We had a great time and now it is my turn to go visit Leslie!

Super Short Post.

2009-07-30T23:18:00.011-05:00

Guess what this cute little guy did today?

He used his new potty for the first time!!! I was so proud of him and he was so proud of himself! I really hope he keeps up his interest in potty training.

It was very rainy so we just stayed inside all day long. I think Landon got a little bored because he did this...

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Painting and a Potty.

2009-07-29T08:52:00.013-05:00

A few weeks ago, I took Gabriel to a Paint the Town kid's class. They had the music blasting and everything set up so cute and kid-friendly when we got there. The kids got to go outside and play with sidewalk chalk and blow bubbles while the paint was drying. Gabe said he enjoyed that almost as much as the painting. All you have to do is bring your child, $20 and ~~healthy snacks~~ Brite Crawlers and Gatorade. Just hide the worms from Katie :)

"Hootie"

When we got home, Asa hung Gabe's painting.

And mine too.

Landon's new potty arrived yesterday. Yes, we are beginning the long journey of potty training. I ended up getting the Baby Bjorn Potty Chair. Of all the ones I looked into, this one had the best reviews.

He is fascinated with the potty and likes to go sit on it! So far that's it. I am glad that he likes it though. My cousin Leslie also uses this one for her son and she suggested me getting it through Diapers.com because they have such a great discount for new orders. I used her referral and got another $10 off my order. My referral code is LIND6160. That gives you $10 off your total and me a $1 credit for every order. And they carry more than just diapers so check it out.

We have also been preparing for the new school year. I just registered to take Sociology for the fall. Yes, just one class and that's the way I like it! I have no intention to put Landon in preschool until he's 3. And then we'll see about taking more classes. At this rate I will get my degree in 10 years. Ha. When we had Landon in daycare for my 1st semester he stayed very sick all the time. He kept an ear infection and had to use a nebulizer frequently. I have nothing against daycare or preschool because Gabe went when he was an infant up through 4K. I am grateful to have the option to stay at home with Landon. I do need some ideas for some creative/ educational things I can do at home with him. Any suggestions?

One last thing...

Look at my brave boy here!

Gabe has been going to the summer reading program at our local library. I still can't believe he held a snake!!!

Girl's Night Out!

2009-07-11T15:20:00.008-05:00

Friday night, I went to Paint the Town with two of my best friends, Mary and Joan. Mary lives in Arkansas now and is here visiting for a few weeks. We all don't get to see each other too often, so this was a much needed girl's night. They were so very sweet to pay my way for my birthday! Thanks girls :)

I must say that painting really is harder than it looks! Within the first 15 minutes, my easel broke and fell on me, and I was covered in green paint. Ha. Mary took a picture of my messy self. Can't wait to see that one. In the end, we ended up with paintings that actually resembled fruit!

Not too bad!

Vacation!

2009-07-11T12:56:00.024-05:00

A few weeks ago, we went on our first vacation in 2 years! This vacation was like no other because we saved up for it and used zero debt! Yay! I think we actually enjoyed ourselves more because we knew we wouldn't be getting a big fat bill at the end of the month. We were not planning on taking a vacation until I ran across this amazing deal on Bookit. We were able to stay for an entire week at a really nice condo that was perfect for us! We took our niece along with us and my parents stayed in a condo just a few doors down.

Our first full day there was Father's Day and we celebrated by taking Asa and my dad to Angelo's Steak Pit. Angelos has been a beach tradition for as long as I can remember! I forgot my camera, but mom took a picture of everyone that I can post later.

View from our balcony

Sandy face!

What a cool toddler!

Smile!

Gabe chilling on the beach.

Our niece Caitlin

He wasn't crazy about the hat.

No more pictures, please!

Asa and a very sleepy Caitlin.

He loved playing with his truck...

As long as he wasn't touching the sand.

What a cutie!

You can almost feel the heat and humidity by looking at this picture. The heat index was 110-115 for the entire week!

One of Landon's favorite things about our vacation was our condo. He LOVED playing hide and seek in the kitchen cabinets. Here is the proof...

This is what Landon did while I was trying to pack! I walked away for a second and he got into a bag of toiletries! I love the guilty look on his face. No. The bag wasn't within his reach. He learned how to climb in and out of the pack n play on the trip.

Next time we go on a trip, I will take more pictures. I didn't even take my camera to any of the restaurants or outings. Shame on me! We did go-carts (twice), the maze, bumper boats, Pier Park, arcade, mini golf and lots more! We ate at Angelo's, The Back Porch, The Boatyard, Pineapple Willys, Mellow Mushroom and a few other places. We also got homemade ice cream almost every single night. It was soooo good. At night, we went swimming a lot. The condo had awesome pools and one was zero entry with cool fountains everywhere. We had a great time and I can't wait to go back!

Summer Fun!

2009-06-08T21:43:00.013-05:00

We enjoyed the beautiful summer weather today by grilling out and spending some time outdoors. The boys played and played on Gabe's new Slip 'N Slide. At first, Landon wasn't so sure about it. He would run towards the water and then dart back to me. He eventually warmed up and we couldn't keep him out of the water! We ate some grilled food outside and then Gabe and Landon decorated our driveway with sidewalk chalk.

He loves the water!

Splish splash!

Wipeout!

Sidewalk chalk art.

He loved his chalk eggs.

A Quick Overdue Easter Post!

2009-04-28T09:26:00.008-05:00

I do realize that I have been a TERRIBLE blogger! We have been super busy with spring cleaning and our yard sale. We are so happy to finally have an empty garage after having it packed full for over 2 years.

We had a great Easter! The service at church was wonderful and afterwards we finished up the last lesson in our marriage series in our Sunday school class. After church, we all went out to Cracker Barrel for an Easter lunch.

It was very sunny!

Cool little guy

Family photo

Waiting on a table at CB.

First chocolate Easter bunny!

YUMMY!

Easter Egg Hunt

2009-04-04T21:16:00.010-05:00

This morning we got up early and went to our church's Easter egg hunt. They had 12,000 eggs filled with candy out there for all the kids. Asa took Gabe to the 6 and up area and I stayed with Landon in the 2 and under egg hunt. Landon caught on pretty fast once I showed him what to do. You can see in the pictures that he only wanted blue eggs!

Having a good time!

Looking for blue eggs.

Little guy with a lot of eggs.

Gabe had soooo much candy that the bucket broke!

Gabe in the air.

Ready for a nap.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Weekend Fun

2009-03-21T21:40:00.009-05:00

We drove down to Trussville this afternoon to visit my grandparents. Before we went to their house we stopped by The Children's Place to get the boys their Easter outfits. I love shopping there because it's one of the only places I can find them matching outfits. (Gabe may not be cool with that for much longer!)

When we got to Paw Paw and Betty's house, we headed over to Chick-Fil-A and got some lunch. (Sorry Leslie!) After we ate, we stopped by Walmart for sunscreen and went over to this great park to let the boys play.

Still not a fan of swinging!

Smiley and Pouty

Sliding is his favorite!

After we left the park, we went back to Paw Paw and Betty's house to visit. I think the high today was around 70 degrees and it was perfect weather to sit outside on the screened porch. Gabe entertained us by singing the songs for his upcoming school program. Landon just ran around and kept trying to figure out their dog Shadow's doggie door. It was really funny!

We had such a great time and hated to leave.

Betty and squirmy Landon

Paw Paw and the boys

Checkup

2009-03-18T23:43:00.006-05:00

Landon had his 2 year old checkup today. Thankfully, Asa went with us because he screamed for at least 45 minutes until his doctor came in! Poor little guy had to get a shot. We are so thankful that he is a healthy boy. I will never forget when he was a newborn and the pediatrician at the hospital called me at home and said his blood test showed that he might have some rare disease that we had never even heard of. We had to have him retested and they didn't give us the results for like 6 weeks. It ended up being a huge bad batch of tests. I have been reading so many blogs about very sick babies and children and I know I am so blessed to have 2 healthy children.

Since it was a beautiful day, we had to go outside for a walk!

Happy Birthday Landon and Asa!

2009-03-17T09:14:00.021-05:00

Sunday was Landon's 2nd birthday and we celebrated by going to my parents' house after church and eating lunch and opening presents. Mom cooked a delicious chicken casserole and a homemade cookie cake for Landon. He loved the cookie and it was so easy for him to eat. I couldn't capture a single picture of him opening presents because he didn't sit still long enough! The only present pictures I got were from putting him in his highchair later at home. No way to escape!

Thanks everyone for celebrating Landon's birthday with us! He has enjoyed all his gifts and birthday gatherings!

Cookie cake

Getting ready to sing!

Blowing out the candle (with a little help from Grammie)!

YUM!

Gabe loved the cookie too!

The birthday boy with Grammie and Pop Pop.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband Asa! He turned 28 yesterday. He did have to work on his birthday, but his coworkers surprised him and got a birthday cake and balloons which helped the workday go by faster. Asa expected me to be in my pajamas and on the couch when he got home from work because I have been sick, but I surprised him and had all of us ready to walk out the door. The 4 of us went to Sante Fe Cattle Co. for dinner and Asa got this huge steak! I told him it was the biggest steak I'd ever seen! Afterwards, we went to Walmart to let Gabe spend some of his birthday money. We had a fun family night.

Two years ago, Asa spent his birthday in the hospital with me and 1 day old little Landon. Poor thing. I know it wasn't the easiest birthday! His dad and Kim were thoughtful and brought him a cake and I desperately wanted some because I was on a restricted, nasty post-op diet. The doctor did let me have some cake the next day so all was well! I had a terrible hospital/recovery experience, but Landon definitely worth it.

Only a few hours old.

We spent St. Patrick's Day in the hospital.

Landon's first night home!

Wait! There's more...

I see the resemblance!!! Do you know who this is?

This one is my favorite!

I hope everyone has a happy St. Patrick's Day!

A Weekend Trip

2009-03-09T21:36:00.020-05:00

We are trying to take more road trips now that Landon is more pleasant to travel with, so this past Friday we took a weekend trip over to Georgia to visit Asa's dad and stepmom (Gabe and Landon's Poppa & Nana). When we got there, they took us out to dinner and we had birthday cake when we got back to the house. We celebrated 3 birthdays! Asa, Gabe and Landon all have birthdays pretty close together and it worked out well for us to come visit in between the dates.

The birthday boys!

Saturday morning we had a yummy breakfast at a restaurant before we headed to Zoo Atlanta. It was breezy and warm and we could not have asked for a prettier day. We all enjoyed the zoo and took a lot of great pictures. (Thanks Nana & Poppa for the wonderful trip! We had a such a great time!)

Next time I have a lot of pictures to post, I will try to do a slideshow. For now, I will just put my faves on here.

Landon studying the animals.

In front of the elephants

Family photo

Silly boy!

I caught a smile!

Gabe at the petting zoo.

It wouldn't be a trip to the zoo without a bunch of animals, so I will end the post with my favorite zoo animal pictures!

Meerkat

Lion

Panda

Pandas are my favorite.

Baby panda

Happy Birthday Mom!

2009-02-28T23:05:00.012-06:00

My mom's birthday was this past Thursday and we celebrated tonight by driving down to Fuji Japanese Restaurant. (Thanks mom and dad!!!) We thought Landon might be kind of scared of the fire and all the noise but he actually loved it! Gabriel's favorite part was the soup and the fried rice. We ate and then we went back to my parents' house and had some coconut cake and chocolate cake. Mom and dad did a great job making the cakes! After we ate cake, the boys did what they do best after a sugar overload - Run wild! We had a wonderful family night.

Gabriel with Grammie and Pop Pop

Landon and Cooper playing!

Chocolate cake (my favorite!)

Coconut cake

Ballet and Pancakes

2009-02-21T22:44:00.013-06:00

We started off the day by going to the Kiwanis Annual Pancake Day. I haven't been in about 6 years and it was great. We had to eat really fast because Landon wasn't a big fan of Pancake Day.

On the way

He loves riding in the car

Being silly

Eating pancakes!

Our attempt for a family photo. Ha! You should have seen the other one!

Tonight, my mom took me to dinner at Applebee's and to see Ballet Magnificat! It was amazing. The ladies were really talented and one is from here. Local ballerinas got to dance too and one was in my mom's class. It was just precious.

Someone Turned 8!

2009-02-19T08:01:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday Gabriel! I can't believe that my firstborn just celebrated his 8th birthday! He is growing up so fast. He was excited that school was out on his birthday and got to have a nice lazy day. We threw him a little family party at Grammie and Pop Pop's house. We ate pizza and yummy birthday cake.

Gotta love Mario!

We got to meet Cooper, Grammie's new puppy! Isn't he cute?

I thought I would end with a pic of Gabriel at his first birthday party. He has grown just a little! This little boy has brought me soooo much joy over the last 8 years and I look forward to the next 8!