Mother's Day . . .

O  First of all, it's still a little surreal that I'm a part of Mothers Day. I got to wake up to the face of an angel, my precious baby Austyn spent the night in my bed with me. Then Quade decided to sleep in and let us sleep until 8:00! So right there my day started off amazing. Jordan came home and brought me hot chocolate and made a Mothers Day card with the kids. Then we left for the aquarium. We had so much fun! Kids were amazing and had a blast. We then went to downtown Newport and saw around 100 sea lions all on the docks. That was almost better than the aquarium. We headed home and visited Jordan's mom for a minute and then went to pizza with my whole family. It was a very good day. 

Austyn thinks "selfies" are the coolest

My whole world!

Quades crabby hat. 

The kids got their faces painted and chose glitter face paint. Note to self, never again. We swear the lady used super glue to stick the glitter on. 

Salt water taffy in his cheek and ball in his hand. How couldn't he fall asleep?

Thank you family for making the day so special. 

Pet Parade Fun . . .

  It's pet parade time again!!!!! I love the pet parade. We went as Cowboys and Indians this year. Austyn and I and Chocolate Chip went as the Indians. And the boys went as Cowboys with KODA. They won 1st place. The prize was $15 and a whole bucket of horse treats, brushes, candy, and coupons to the feed store. Austyn was beside herself when she won. We had gone to the feed store the day before and they had the prizes put on display. She was determined she was going to win when she saw the prizes. The weather was perfect again and there were so many cute costumes. We had the whole Pertersen clan dressed up and parading around. It was so fun. I love making the costumes. I think we may be using these same costumes for Halloween this year. Only time will tell. 

This was the start of her costume. 

And this was after I bedazzled it. I made Quades vest and an adorable pair of chaps (that he wouldn't wear). 

Chocolate Chip was amazing. She stood so still while I painted her. And she let me tie feathers and beads around her legs. She's an amazing horse. 

The boys and KODA. 

Best picture of the day. 

The big WIN!

The whole gang. 

April Adventures . . .

  Oh my lord it's been a strange month for me. I looked back over my last post, which was just one month ago, and it seems like it's been six months since then. I can't decide if it's just been so busy it seems like we've done 6 months worth of things or it has just dragged by. Either way, it's been only a month. I have a ton of pictures and I think it would be easiest to tell our latest by giving a quick run down on each picture. And then I'll see if I left anything out. Here we go ...

Jordan thought it would be an excellent idea to shave his head. He said he wanted to see the shape of his head. I told him I could have saved him from looking retarded and told him it was round😊

We finally got to experience the new trampoline place in town. It was amazing. Austyn is attempting to walk a tight rope which is over a huge mat. This place was filled with all sorts and sizes of trampolines. My favorite were the ones that ran up the wall. It had great big foam pits to jump in too. Great place for all ages. 

My parents on one of their little quad finds ended up with this adorable motorcycle. Quade has claimed it as his. And he thought it needed to be cleaned after he rode it. 

This is the outfit Quade would choose everyday. Undies with rubber boot (no socks). THATS IT! Not the ideal riding attire, but he's happy. 

When I wanted a boy this is the picture I had in my mind. Laying on his tummy in his undies playing with trucks (quads will do). My heart is so happy. 

She is the best. So glad she is in my kids lives like she was in mine. 

Fishing with his Daddy. Pretty cute if I do say so myself😊

I'm not talking about the bald head 

Mowing with Daddy

Here's a funny story😣 One day I was picking Chocolate Chips pen and decided to brush her so I walked through the gate and closed it behind me (not latching it) and before I could blink she was out and running through the hay field. Every time I got close to her she'd put her tail up and run. She did this until she got to the farthest possible corner away. Then she just walked right to me and let me catch her😤 Needless to say, the field was VERY wet along with my shoes and pants. I had in the mean time called Jordan to come help me catch her so he picked me up on the quad and we lead her back to the barn. 

We took the kids to Hentzes for an Easter egg hunt. It was so cute. There was barely anyone there and the kids had a blast. After that Jordan took the kids to a friends place for another little hunt while I made a dish for a family Easter get together. 

Easter morning! 

So after they found eggs and their baskets at home our good friend who lives at our old house called the kids and said that the Easter bunny forgot they had moved and he had hid eggs and presents all over the place. It was so amazing. Lucky kids. 

After the two hunts we were off to Easter in Albany with Jordan's Grandparents. It was so much fun. The food was great, everyone was there, and the weather was perfect for the kids. Couldn't have been better. 

Oh the great help I get folding clothes. 

Ok how amazing is this?! This is my moms wedding dress. Austyn has been asking to wear it forever and my Grandma was watching the kids one day and I came back to find this. The funny thing about this is that everything fit Austyn perfectly except for the length. 

Showed the kids some alligators on our walk around the golf course. They loved it. 

I babysit on Mondays and I had an extra this Monday. Needless to say we had an all boy day!

We got to go see the Garth Brooks concert!! It was so much fun. 

Helping some friends work their sheep. The kids had so much fun. 

My mom and I took the kids to Wildlife Safari while the boys went over East to shoot. We had the best time ever. The animals were all out and so close. Quade was wild about these bears. He is crazy about bears. 

And this is him with his pack on and gun ready for his bear hunt. 

That's it for the last month of pictures. So a quick run down on everyone:

 Austyn is starting t-ball soon. She is very excited about it. Usually after the first practice she's over it, but we will see. She is over school for the year. Once the sun starts coming out consistently it's so hard to get her to go to school. She's also very excited for the pet parade this year. She will be going as an Indian and dressing Chocolate Chip up as her Indian horse. It's going to be cute. I haven't decided if I'm going to have Quade do it or not. It's an awful long walk for him. I was thinking about making him a Trapper and leading the two mini donkeys with furs on them. We will see how motivated I get. 😉 

 Quade is so good at talking. Amazing how much clearer he is in just a couple months since his Birthday. He is still struggling a little bit with the control issue, but is so much better. I'm expecting it to keep getting better and better. But man he sure gave us a run for our money for awhile there. He still loves to ride anything with a motor and pretend to hunt alligators,cougars, bears, and wolves. 

 Jordan had started physical therapy for his shoulder and hopefully it will take care of the issue so he can avoid surgery. Only time will tell. He has gotten his "new to him" truck all fixed up and road worthy. Just waiting for some paperwork and then he will be rollin in his new ride. 

  Same ole same ole for me. Austyn and I planted our flowers and I've been just soaking up the time with the kids. My mom has always told me that every stage has been her favorite with her kids (us). I'm hoping she's right (always is) because I couldn't imagine it being better than it is right now with the kids. I can honestly say I've loved every stage with the kids so far. Except of course those rough few weeks with Quade. But I wouldn't take those back because I learned so much about him and myself during that time. Summer is going to be the best one yet. I can already tell. We have our camping trips planned. And hopefully we will get some projects done around the house this summer. I'm hoping it will be a bit more laid back than last year. But I know as well as you that that probably won't happen. 

  Hope everyone is getting ramped up for summer. 

Our latest happenings...

  We have recovered from our goat kidding fiasco. And now are back to life as we know it, but now with two bummer goats 😊 The bummers are eating three times a day now (with snacks in between 😉). We turned all the goats back out in the field and they are all doing great. No one has ventured towards the electric fence to experience that yet. But I'm sure it will happen sooner than later. The two bottle babies pretty much hang out by themselves and only play with one of the other baby goats. It's quite comical when we go out to feed them. We have to let the kids (human kids that is) get a head start running and then we let the goats loose and sprint away from them after we are done feeding them. Other wise they won't leave us alone and go through the fence. We dehorned them last weekend and in a few weeks we will casterate the males and give them their vaccines. Everyday they grow and get stronger and stronger. They are two weeks old now. So cute to watch! Our donkeys are doing great too. They are so good with the kids. Funny how the majority of the animals I want really have no purpose for us but to be looked at and played with. Makes me happy though. Can be quite the expensive and stressful hobby at times. Of course Chocolate Chip is as wonderful as ever. She is really enjoying the nice weather. She has been able to stay out without her blanket and be in her corral everyday. I feel so blessed that we stumbled across her. And last but certainly not least KODA is thriving! I'm happy to report she has gained weight and is looking as good as ever. Her energy isn't quite what is was, but she is 8 years old. I don't know what was going on with her, but I'm hoping it doesn't happen again. We do have some new additions in the works. We may be getting a couple field hogs! It's a pretty big maybe at this point. 

  We were able to sneak away to the coast the other day. It was absolutely gorgeous. It is so much fun as the kids get a little older. Austyn took her little quad and rode an incredibly long way for her age. We were very impressed. Quade also got to ride all by himself. Jordan hooked a strap to the quad like we use to do for Austyn. He loved it. 

  Jordan has done an amazing job on his diet. He is looking thin and trimmed!! He has also been having trouble with his shoulders lately. They've been bothering him for years now, but just in the last six months or so they have really gotten horrible. He's gotten several cortisone shots and a recent MRI showed that he has excess fluid (bursitis) in the joint and the bone isn't quit as smooth as it should be. He got another cortisone shot to see if there was any relief from it and to see how much time it would buy him before surgery. He will have to get an arthroscopic surgery to smooth the joint. It's a day surgery with 6 week light duty recovery. I'm sure the surgery will have to happen within the next 6 months. Jordan has also be starting ODP (officer development program). Within the next few years he will go through the training and testing and studying like he did with his Engineers test. He has been told it is not as intense as the Engineers program, but I'm sure it's no walk in the park either. He recently got a new (completely used and abused) truck. He has been loving fixing it up in every spare minute he can find. I have to hand it to him, it looks a million percent better than it did when we picked it up. 

  Austyn is practically perfect in every way. She is excelling in school. And she may quite possible be the kindest little girl I've ever met. She blows my mind with what rolls out of her mouth. Quade and I were having a "day" together and I had snapped at her for no reason at all. And later that day when I had realized what I'd done, I apologized  to her and she put her hand on my cheek and said "Mommy it's not your fault. It's ok." I almost started crying. I'm not kidding at all when I say she does these things everyday, if not multiple times a day. We were driving the other day and it was completely quiet and all of a sudden randomly she turns to Quade and says "I love you buddy!" I look back a few minutes later and they are both holding hands. I'm not sure what I did to deserve a child like her, but I thank God for her everyday. 

  I have the same aww and astonishment for Quade as I do for Austyn. Just in very different ways. He is 110% boy, through and through. I could watch him play for hours. He will act like he's hunting bears or wolves, run around the house like a wild animal, he LOVES to be teased, and he LOVES to tease, he likes to rough house, and loves to be snuggled. He has to have his owies kissed before he can continue playing. He would wear underwear and rubber boots everyday if we let him. If you've ever seen Old Yeller, he is much like the little boy. He is everything and more than we ever dreamed of having when we wanted a little boy. I can't begin to list how he has made me a better mother and person. We turned Quades crib into a toddler bed recently. He thinks it's the coolest thing ever! He looks so cute in his big boy bed. We told him once to not get up unless Mommy or Daddy says he can and so far he hasn't gotten out of bed without our permission. 

A little country kid fun:

  And as for me, I'm just living it up! I don't think I could possibly love life anymore than I do right now. We got a good thing going here and I'm so glad I realize it. Hope everyone is doing well and have a great Easter!