The Birthday Boy Quade . . .

  As I sit here writing Quade's Birthday blog, my heart is both sad and filled to the brim with love and happiness for Quade. He is my last baby. Never again will I have a one year old that does one year old things. But I am trying my best to enjoying each of his stages and cherish his little moments.
  Quade turned a year old on the 13th. He was 8.8 pounds and 21 inches long at birth. He is now 24 pounds and 29 3/4 inches longs, a year later. He has always been the easiest baby there ever was. He slept through the night a 6 weeks old and has never again woke in the night. He has four teeth working on five. He is a slow teether and he is pretty sensitive to the teething pain. But I won't hold that against him. He has never had an ear infection (knock on wood) and is very healthy. I have found him to be a little sensitive to strawberries. But hopefully he will grow out of that like most people do. He is a snuggler, which I absolutely love. He loves his pacifier and his blanky for comfort. He is taking two naps a day. Each two hours, and sleeps for about 11 hours at night. He loves the water. He will dunk his face over and over and just giggle. And just like Austyn, he is an eater! He is a smidge bit pickier than she was, but I'm sure that's my fault for letting him get away with it. He is a lot more adventurous with his food if I'm not present. Jordan does wonders with getting him to eat new things (pickles!). He gets one 8 oz bottle at bedtime still. And that purely is for my sake only. I weaned Austyn on the day of her first Birthday, just like the doctor and all the readings said. But for Mr. Mr. I'm holding (or clutching if you will) on to every last baby thing I can. I'm sure I'll give it up shortly (maybe). Quade is a very hands on thinker when it comes to play time. He can figure out how a toy works immediately. He is very clever. I'm still telling myself he is going to be easy going, but a little bit of Me slips out once and awhile and scares me. He is very sensitive to discipline. He gets his feelings hurt easily. Quite different from what we are use to with Austyn. But he still respects his boundries very well. He is walking and beginning to attempt climbing. He's pretty husky ;) so it's a little difficult to get his little drum sticks up on what he's wanting to climb on. But he'll get it very soon. Quade loves anything with wheels. He just freaks outs every time he sees a tractor, 4 wheeler, lawn mower, basically anything he can ride on he loves. His vocabulary with me is great. He can say: dog, cow, goat, cat, thank you, mama, dada, Cha Cha, Austyn, bird. But my mom and I are about the only ones that can pick out what he's saying. I love love love this stage. He is soaking up everything and learning something new by the minute. It is so rewarding to see his new skills develop and be put to use. He waves and claps and shakes his head for "no no". And he loves to be praised. 

  I'm sitting here trying to think of something to say about Quade that needs some work or improvement. And I've only come up with him eating a little bit better and not needing his pacifier. I would like him to try new things and get a little more variety in his diet. But other than that he is my perfect precious angle. I just can't believe he is one already. This summer is going to be so much fun with him. He I'll be running around and he will love splashing around in the river. He makes our perfect little family complete. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not sure how we got so lucky to have two wonderfully perfect and adorable kids. 

A few pictures over Quade's first year of life:

Days before Quade graced us with his presents. 

I think Austyn was mocking me:)

First picture at the hospital in Daddy's arms

My hopes and dreams for Quade is that

he will grow up to be exactly like his Daddy 

in every way, even the irritating ways.

This kid has been able to fall asleep anywhere. And

he's even happy while he sleeps.

Happy Easter!

Best picture taker ever...

Bath time cutie. He's a killer with those big

blue eyes.

Happy Halloween

The Lights Are On and We Are Home . . .

  It was six days without power at home and I'm happy to announce we have power again! I can't even begin to thank my family for all the help and support they gave us through this week. My dad came over twice a day and fed and watered our goats, while fueling up the generators that were running our refrigerator and freezer. And my mom is always the best help with the kids. Also a great big thanks to my brother who put up with all of us for two of the nights. We are all safe and sound at home now, laundry is going and kids are napping in their own beds :) I can't wait to sleep in my own bed tonight. The floor was not good to me. I'm still paying for it with my back.

It's always an adventure with the Petersen's. But that's how we like it (I think).

The Power of Power. . .

 Oh my goodness where do I begin... Saturday at about 4 pm our power went out due to the ice storm we had. So I packed up all our stuff and traveled over to my brothers who had power and a wood stove. My parents and Grandma had also lost power so they were there as well. Along with all of our dogs:) 5 adults, 2 kids, 4 dogs. A house full to say the least. Almost forgot to mention one dog had diarrhea. Fun, fun, fun. Austyn was so so excited to have a slumber party at Cha Cha's (Chad). So we settled in and made the best of it. In the morning my Grandma moved up to my Aunts since they had power and we stayed at my brothers all day. My parents power came on in the evening so we moved down to their house for the night. The next day we spent playing and hanging out at my parents like usual and right before dinner, their power went out again:( So once  again, I packed all of our stuff up and moved it back down to my brothers house. During the night the power was restored at my parents and confirmed it was restored by the power company. So Tuesday morning I re-packed our stuff (that's four times if you've lost count) and went back to my parents. We have been doing the every other night thing between my brother and my parents. Did I mention we have had to move our stuff four times, and the amount of crap kids require is amazing. But I'm doing it with a smile on my face. And all the while Jordan was on a ice fishing trip and then at work. Needless to say, he got to miss out on ALL THE FUN we've been having. Tuesday has been the first day he's been home since Thursday. So that has been our living situation. And now for the events that came along with the chaos.

Here we are at my brothers house eating breakfast. 

  First thing that happened was the snow was getting too deep for our goats so I moved them up to my  Grandmas barnyard. Shortly after their house caved in from the snow. Then the ice storm began which started all the trees and limbs falling. So as the kids napped on Saturday I had to watch all our beautiful trees falling all over our property. The best tree on all of my families 100 acres split in half and fell right I front of the house. I wanted to cry. So so sad. It was very scary. We were barely able to make it down my parents driveway due to all the trees and limbs falling. They were just falling like the leaves in the fall. Everywhere you looked you could watch trees and limbs explode on the icy snow beneath them. And trying to sleep through it knowing that all of our buildings, houses, barns, shops are all surrounded by trees. I was just praying that our structures would make it.  And to our surprise they did!!! The tree mess will probably take about a month to clean up. It looks like a hurricane came through. It's just amazing the damage the ice caused. Pretty devastating.  

This is the big tree in front of our house

The end out our driveway

This is my parents driveway after hours of clearing just to make it passable

Behind our house

 In our slew behind our pump house

Another picture of the tree in front of the house 

  The picture don't even begin to show the amount of disaster to our properties. I wish we would have taken pictures the night of and morning after. But no one was really in the mood. I'm sure you can understand. 

  So it's now Wednesday night, still no power. We have been hearing 3 or 4 more day:( I'm just thankful we have family close by that has power. The kids have been little trooper through this whole mess. Austyn has loved the excitement and the new and different places to sleep. And Quade is his usual easy going perfect little self. I'm not sure what I've done to deserve such great kids, but I'll take it. Austyn and Quade loved the bath they took at my brothers house. He has a deep sink in his utility room that we bathed them in and they absolutely loved it. It was different and fun, so I'm sure that's why the liked it so much. Not one time has Quade cried or fussed through all the moving and different napping and sleeping places. I just lay him down like usual and out he goes. Austyn has been a little more chatty during bed time, but that's only expected under the circumstances. We made Quade Birthday cupcakes for his Birthday tomorrow. And Austyn has a Valentine party at school tomorrow too. So life as they know it hasn't changed. Just can't get over how great they are.
   I can't complain much about not having power. Some people don't have a place to go or families to help. And it's out of my control anyways, so there's not much I can do. No need to gripe about something that I can't fix. At least it's making memories we will never forget. We have been fortunate enough to keep a generator going for our refrigerator and freezer. Our house is colder inside than it is outside. Our windows are fogged from the outside, it's so cold in there. The one thing that I will complain about through this whole thing is our (Jordan and I) sleeping arrangement. We are use to a king bed and sleeping on a double is a bit of an adjustment to say it nicely. I'm not much of a snuggler, but you don't have much of a choice in a double bed :) I'm a little lacking of sleep, but nothing I haven't dealt with before. Hope everyone is faring well through all of this. Now for the flooding. What's with this weather.