The Easter bunny was good to the Petersen kids . . .

  As always Austyn and Quade got completely spoiled over Easter. It was so cute this year Austyn wanted to leave the Easter bunny breakfast. She left him carrots, jello jigglers, rice Krispy treats, and she left the colored eggs out so he could get them and hide them. I think she took some of the ideas from Christmas and mixed them in with Easter. Super cute. We did an Easter egg hunt on Saturday at Hentzes farm and then one in the morning at our place and one at Jordan's grandparents house in the afternoon. Even Quade got in on the Easter egg hunts. I wish the kids would never grow up.

Daddy and his little man. 

My best friend forever!

Cutest kids on the block. I love dressing them up.

  We got invited to go to the beach with Jordan's brothers family. It was the best day at the beach I've ever had. We left the house at 9am and got back at 9:30pm. There was no wind, a little overcast (which was absolutely perfect to keep the blazing sun off us), and so warm. The kids ran around in their undies the entire day. I'm not too sure we will ever be able to top that trip. 

  Seems like we've been really busy lately, but I can't think about what we've been doing. Lone Pine is opening on Wednesday! We are so excited for ice cream, popcorn, goats, chickens, playground, ice cream, fresh veggies, ice cream. And all that Lone Pine has to offer, like ice cream! 

  Kids are doing fine. Austyn is my best little buddy. I had the best time making all our Easter treats with her. She is the best help you could ask for. And Quade, oh Quade. He is......shall we say completely and utterly rotten. I've finally come to the realization that he is not an eater like Austyn was at his age. He just isn't a big eater, especially at dinner time. It drives me nuts, but if he's not going to eat, he's not going to eat. Right? And he is still doing his usual Mamas boy crap with strangers. But that's totally expected at this age. But besides all that he is my happy little camper. As long as we are doing something to do with riding something, throwing rocks or dirt, being outside, or anything that will keep his little boy brain busy. I've decided that enough was enough with the pacifier. I had gotten rid of it for two weeks and then he started getting his molars and two other sets of teeth at the same time. I was forced to give it back. After that he got so much worse with it. He would never take it out of his mouth. I got tired of looking at it and decided now was the time. He still gets it for nap and bedtime(which is totally fine with me), but that's it. The first two days were a little rough, but nothing too bad. Glad that's over with. I'm thinking potty training is next! When he goes poop he runs into the bathroom and points at the toilet like he needs to use it. Smart boy! But I'll wait until he's at least 18 months. Can you believe he is already 14 1/2 months old. Oh, and I swore before I had kids that I would never ever enter them into a baby contest. Well my Aunts shamed me into doing it with Austyn and she didn't win. And now my brother shamed me into it with Quade. I know better, but I couldn't help myself. So we will see. But how disappointing is when you find out that everyone doesn't think your baby is as cute as you think they are. 

  Jordan is doing well. He continues to take classes for the fire department. His next two are for the Technical Rescue team that he's on. He got to take his LUV(his 4-wheelin rig he has had since high school) out for a trip the other weekend. First time out in years. It felt so weird being in it again. And yes, I was his co-pilot. I used to love it, now not so much. I was actually sore the next day from tensing up and pulling on the grab handle so much. Needless to say, I think I've retire from the co-pilot seat and won't be invited back:( Jordan had fun, and it's never a wheelin trip unless something breaks. And break it did. We had a plug wire fall off in the middle of a climb, which made the motor die. So no power steering. Then Jordan tried to muscle the steering and broke the steering pin. He Mcguiver'd it back together. Then we ripped a tread on the tire and had to stop about ever 3 minutes and fill it up to get back to the main trail. Oh the fun we had! 

  And I am doing well and loving the diet I started. Two weeks in and I'm down 5 pounds and 4.5 inches. From January I've lost 11.5 pounds and 7 inches. I can totally tell I've lost some weight. I've been able to not cheat and stay on the diet this whole time until Easter. I totally blew it. I'm hoping to lose 1-2 more pounds in my final week to reach my goal weight. Then, I'm not sure what my next goal is. Another 10 pounds maybe? I started running (a very slow jog if you will) with Quade in the stroller and am loving it. But on nasty days I still go upstairs and do some workout DVDs. 

  Not too much planned for us in the next few months. Jordan's and my brother's Birthdays are coming up. Then camping over Memorial Day. But other than that nothing. But you know how that changes for us so quickly. No more babies, no more houses, no more promotions(for awhile anyways) so I don't know what's going to fill our time yet. Without those things going on we still manage to stay as busy as we did when it was all happening at once. But I'm still not sure what exactly we do to stay so busy. Life I guess. Hope everyone is well and had a wonderful Easter. We sure did. I always hate splitting holidays between families, but it's got to be done.

This is our camping trip to Thompson Reservoir 

The wounded tire from the wheeling trip

This was our first coast trip with the Bishops.

It was a little chilly, but not to cold to stop

the kids from stripping their pants.

Austyn and her shell 

Jordan and his craft self getting the whole family

in one picture

Look everyone I have a ton of wet nasty

sand in my diaper! And I LOVE IT!!

Austyn at the zoo

This was our second and most recent coast

trip. The kids played on that hill ALL day.

My wonderful husband and I :)

Here is my little super hero 

She's getting so big.

Quick update . . .

  Ok, so I've been working out since November and have actually been really proud of myself for sticking with it. I can say that I really enjoy my workouts. But I have seen no results. I've taken before and after pictures and can't tell any difference. So I've decided to go on a major (for me) diet called the 21 Day Fix. I'm really excited about it. I've heard and seen really good things about it too. Can't wait to share my results with you!

  Spring break came and went. We were able to go camping at Silver Lake though. It was fun as always. Could have been a smidge bit warmer, but we don't let a little cold, snow, hail, or rain scare us away (we had all of that). We are hoping to go again in the next few weeks. 

  We got two more goats. So now we have five. Fern, Fankie, Phillis, Felicia, and Fanny:) and we also got some cattle. One of Jordan's captains let us borrow them to eat our grass down. I love seeing the cattle out in the pasture. Quade is crazy about them. We named them Marybell, Mavis, Bobby, and Ron. 

  I've been going crazy over this nice weather we've been having. I've been pulling Austyn out of school left and right so we can go do fun things outside. We went to the beach twice, the zoo, over to Sisters, and next week we are going back to the beach! I love it. This time of year I hate nap time. It takes too much time away from playing outside. So sometimes the poor kids just don't get naps because I want to play. Kinda seems backwards to me. But it works;) My summer to do list is going to the Aquarium, Enchanted Forest, the beach as many times as I can, and camping as many times as we can. Quade absolutely loves the water, so the first day it's warm enough we will be in the river! 

  Jordan is busy as usual. Still a day or so left on the tree clean up after the ice storm this winter. And he has a summer to do list as well, but it's all boring work stuff. Mine will be much more fun! 

  I hope this weather sticks around and all of you are enjoying like we are. Catch ya later

He's Back...

  I'm happy to report that Quade is back to his happy self:) I don't know what type of stage he was going through or if he was teething or not feeling good. But it's over!! He is eating good again and loves his bath and anything to do with water. Wow, that was a long few weeks. But we made it through, and it won't be the last one for sure. I'm just not used to Quade being any kind of fussy or unhappy and that's what he was for 2 or 3 weeks. Poor guy. He did get a molar and four other teeth during that period. So we'll just chalk it up for teething. 

  Austyn is doing good. And Jordan has been working his butt off cleaning up all the trees around our place. Him and my parents have been so busy. We almost have all of ours done. What a mess! I've been busy mowing and spraying and doing all the springy things around the house. I love this time of year. I can't wait for Austyn to be done with school so we can play outside all day.  We planted daffodils last fall and it looks so pretty. I can't wait to get some flowers this summer to put in front of the house. 

  I'm loving this warmer weather, makes me motivated to go running with the stroller for my workouts. I put Austyn in the front of the stroller this morning and the 40 extra pounds on top of Quade's 30 and however much the stroller weighs was quite the push for 3 miles. Definitely got my workout this morning. Hope everyone else is enjoying the warm weather like we are. 

My Happy Boy Turns Crabby...

  As much as I'm reluctant to face it, Quade is changing into quite the determined young lad (to say it nicely). He is still happy and easy going the first half of the day. But when he wakes up from his second nap, he is a different kid althogether:( He is a little turd to feed dinner, and he screams the whole time in the bath tub. Which is something he used to love. I'm finding myself anxious and dreading the evenings with him, which I hate feeling like that. I've tried to feed him a big meal right when he wakes up thinking he's hungry. I've tried another small nap in the late evening thinking he's tired. But nothing works. All he wants to eat is baby food and snack foods for dinner, which is not going to cut it with me. He throws fits about everything, which is something I'm not used to either. I feel like I've tried everything the nice way. And all I'm doing is causing bad habits. And I know it's just a stage he's going through. But mean mommy is slowly creeping out in me. He is so picky with his foods too. It's driving me nuts. Gotta love this part of parenting, shooting from the hip and hopeing it works. I don't mind trying new things, in fact I love different approaches. I just hate causing bad habits, they are so hard to break. I know everything will turn out just fine in a few weeks when he moves on to a different stage, but it gets a little draining every evening. That's the beauty and the downfall about kids is that they travel through their different stages so quickly. Enough to keep you on your toes for sure. It's even puzzling Jordan. Usually when I get to this stage I'm grasping at any suggestions or ideas I can get and he usually has such a simple solution for everything. But not this time. Dang it! I totally get that it's a stage, but I'll take any thoughts on the issue. Sooner than later please!!

Motherhood...

  Some days there are times when the only way to define myself is by saying I'm a Mother. I think those days are the most exhausting, but also the most memorable. My most recent mom moment was while letting Quade run around without a diaper (first mistake), and suddenly he started to poop.  Without hesitation I dove off the couch and caught it in my bare hand. Earlier that day I was trying to catch one of our goats so I could give it a shot, and yet I couldn't make myself dive to catch the goat. But when my mom powers kick in I have no problem diving towards a pooping kid in the middle of the living room. Funny how those things work. I also have to say that in my last post I had said that Quade had never woke up in the night since 6 weeks. Well that came back to bite me in the ass. Friday night he woke up screaming. And the only thing he wanted is to be held and rocked. So I pulled my first all nighter with Quade and had a nice handful off poo all in a 24 hour period. And I didn't mind either one. The glory of being a mom. I'm sure that's not the last time I stay up all night for one of the kids for whatever reason. Down the road I bet I'll be wishing I was holding and rocking my baby in my arms at 2 am instead of wondering and worrying what he's doing at 2 am. Not sure I'll be wanting to catch anymore poop in my hand, but I'm sure that's not the worst thing I'll end up doing. I'm just forever grateful that a few sleepless night of teething is all we have to worry about. We have been blessed with amazingly perfectly healthy kids. I can't even begin to imagine how hard it would be if we had serious health issues to deal with. 

  Austyn is our little spit fire. Sassy as ever. With an enormous imagination. She loves to help anyone do anything. She likes cooking/baking the best. She is still enjoying her pony, but with quite a cautious approach. And that's ok, because she is only three. She is learning so much in school. I love seeing her learn new things and then I love seeing how proud she is of herself. One of Austyns more funny/irritating at times traits is singing and talking. I'm surprised she doesn't talk in her sleep. From the time she wakes up to the time she goes to sleep, she never stops talking or singing. And sometimes when I put her to bed, she will sing to herself until I go in and tell her it's bedtime. She makes up songs about what she's doing or have singing conversations with me. It's pretty funny. I'm told I was the same way when I was her age. 

  Quade is walking all over now. He is getting so good at walking on uneven ground. We are working through his picking eating, and I can see if we keep up the consistency it will get better really soon. He loves the men in his life. He is a mans man already. Everytime Jordan walks through the door he freaks out and starts yelling DaDa over and over. He is getting all four eye teeth at the same time. He doesn't handle teething pain very well. It gives him the worst blistered bloody diaper rash for a day or so. It's miserable for him. But when he's not teething he is his happy self still and loves his new freedom that comes with walking. He loves to have his little hands busy with toys that require a little thinking. 

   Jordan is doing good. He's been busy trying to clean up all the trees and limbs that came down in the ice storm. He almost has all the brush done. But then he still has all the logs to work up and split and stack. Wood, the heat that warms you more than once(like four or five times)! He is beginning to take classes for his officer development program. He is always moving forward. 

   I'm just chugging along. Enjoying the kids as much as possible and the time I get to have with them. Because I know it won't be like this forever. I'm still working out and losing weight. Although slower than I'd like, but it's coming off. I have 7 more pounds to go, to get to my goal weight. Not too bad. Definitely doable before summer hits. 

   Hope everyone is doing great. 

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).