Day at the Park

On Saturdays we like to go to the park around lunch time and let the kids run around and tire themselves out. Going to the park is one of our favorite activities. This past Saturday we were there with a Frisbee and Katie took pictures of the kids. She takes great pictures, so these are all hers. Thanks Katie!

Welcome warm spring and welcome back days at the park!

These are Zach's big muscles. He asks me to take "big muscle" pictures all the time.

I forgot Cade's hat, so I was trying to shield his head from the sun. Poor kid.

Brothers and Easter

Cute Brothers

These 2 boys are so glad it's getting warm! Cade now has 2 full teeth and 2 more slowly coming out. His first word was "dada" and also says Zach ("dat"). He says "mom" and "mama" but I'm really not sure that it has meaning. I like to pretend it does. He's getting really close to crawling. He gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. He can scoot forward this way but hasn't gotten the arm and leg coordination down.

My brother Rob was here for Easter and it was great to see him. He's graduating from medical school in May and we are so proud of him and excited (for him) that he'll be staying in Philadelphia for his residency in neurosurgery. Wow! We all wish he could live closer to us, but we are very glad he gets to do what he wants to do. Good job Rob!

Happy Easter (really late)

Decorating and Dyeing Eggs

New Hat (do you think he's pleased?)

Poor Cade didn't get any candy, but he liked messing with all of it

Egg Hunt at Grandma and Grandpa Bailey's (we came home with quite a bit of Easter candy)

Happy Easter! What a lovely holiday to celebrate Springtime and most of all the sacrifice and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. HE LIVES and we are so grateful for Him!

I can use my hands for...

Cade can now wave, clap, and bang piano keys. He responds to others' greetings by waving, whether they wave, say hi, or just smile. He knows it's a greeting, and it's oh so cute. He waves with his hand vertical and twists his wrist back and forth. Unfortunately I still have not caught it on camera because he won't do it if he sees the camera.

Above is Cade (left) and Asher G. (right) playing the piano at Grandma Bailey's. Apparently it's one of Asher's favorite activities so he showed Cade the ropes yesterday. They were very cute playing together on that bench and Cade just loved it. He had a blast!

These are just cute pictures with Grandma.

Asher is very sweet and affectionate. He loves to give kisses and Cade was on the receiving end most of the night. As they were playing the piano he kept kissing Cade, holding his hand, and patting him on the back. So sweet!

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs!

Welcome Spring! (or so we thought, until the snow started falling...AGAIN)

My little bug:

Zach's little bugs:

We made bugs out of an egg carton, paint, pipe cleaner, and googly eyes. Zach had a lot of fun and plays with the bugs in the grass we made. He calls it his bug farm.

He's in!

Congratulations, JAKE!

Jake's been admitted into the U's doctoral program in Political Science. He's worked really hard to get this far in his academic career and I'm so proud of him. Good job, Jake. I knew you'd get in. Now he has even more hard work in front of him, but we're excited. This is something Jake's wanted to do for a long time, and he's excited to get going. The U made a good choice and certainly won't be disappointed in Jake.

You can call him Dr. Jake Petersen, PhD (in the near future)

Congratulations, Jake!

I've included a little comic I found about doctoral dissertation writing. (Probably only funny to those directly involved in that activity, but this is what Jake has to look forward to)

Anyone interested in a STARTER for AMISH FRIENDSHIP BREAD?

WARNING: It is a 10 day process for making 2 loaves of yummy bread and 4 new starters (one for yourself to make more bread in 10 more days and 3 to give away to friends). It is very easy, but it requires a ziploc full of ooie-gooey bread starter in your kitchen for 10 days.

I've never made the bread myself, I was just given a starter 9 days ago and I'll be making bread tomorrow along with 4 starters, so I'll have 3 to give away. There are lots of variations possible on the vanilla flavored recipe. Tomorrow I think I'll make one vanilla loaf and one chocolate, but I've also heard of lemon bread, pistacio bread, banana bread... I did have a taste of someone's vanilla bread and it was very yummy. Worth a 10-day wait? Not sure yet, but it's fun anyway.

Let me know if you are interseted.

Zach's noggin knockin

These pictures were taken about 1 minute after Zach fell off of a kitchen stool and knocked his head on the tile. He had an immediate goose egg on his head that was purple/black. I was really nervous about it, but we put some ice on it and he acted fine. Now he sports a nasty looking yellowish bruise. By the way, this happened the day after Jake shaved his head, so it was very very noticable. People were surprised to see his naked head, but always asked about the bump first.