Easter Babies

After a quick visit to Ohio State for work last week (so quick, that I didn't even pull out my camera!) Kyle, Paisley and I hit the road for Easter in Wisconsin.  It's so nice to be close to family again - only a 3-hour drive to see Kyle's family and a big airport with direct flights to see my family.  Amen.

Holidays are always more fun with little ones - both the two-legged and four-legged kind.  We took full advantage capturing all the cute baby moments.

Here are Kyle's little cousins Ciana, Hallie and Spencer ... and the creepiest Easter Bunny I have ever seen.

Just try not to smile when you look at this adorable pic ...

Here's me and our baby ... she humors us on a regular basis ...

Here's Kyle and our baby ... enjoying the sunshine ...

And Brett, teaching his cousin, Paisley, how to play ball ...

Here's the classic shot of the weekend ... in the words of my friend, Casey, this picture will be included in the slideshow when Spencer graduates ... ask Kyle, this is how they do it in Wisconsin!

We took a few family shots - the Petersen kids (well, not technically ... we didn't have Paisles and Cody is not official ... yet ... )  But we sure are one good lookin' bunch, huh?!

And, our little Petersen family.  Paisley still needs to work on her modeling ... I guess this is her GQ pose, gazing into the distance ...

Even though Kyle and I are almost 30 and 30, respectively, we are still lucky enough to get Easter baskets.  Here I am modeling the present that was in my basket ... unfortunately, you can't read the phrase stitched on the hat, but it says "City Girl Livin' the Country Life."  Ain't that the truth.  Thanks, Kathy!  Can't promise I'll wear it out (just can't seem to find an outfit to go with it) but I will cherish it always.  :)

Kyle's hands are full of cousins in this one.  Ciana, on the right, is our God Daughter.  They really keep the family occupied, and we just don't know what we did without them.

And even thought we didn't see him this holiday, we have to include another favorite baby of ours ... our nephew, Vaughn.  Here he is playing with some of the gifts that Aunt Tracie and Uncle Kyle sent for Easter.  (those names do have a nice ring to them, don't they?!)  Thanks for sending some pictures, Kathleen!

We sure do miss this little baby and can't wait to see him again soon!  Skype is great, but I can't seem to squeeze his little cheeks through the screen, so it's a little less than optimal.

Thanks, once again, to Aunt Lori and Uncle Steve for hosting another holiday and to our cousin, Jenna, for giving up her bedroom!  Now that we are Northerners again, we look forward to seeing everyone again soon!

Like Father Like Son

We had a nice visit with Kyle's parents this past Sunday.  With only a little over a 2-hour drive, they are able to make it over pretty easily to spend an afternoon here and there.

As always, they arrived with some gifts for little (spoiled rotten) Paisley.  She proceeded to rip the head off of her new chicken in, oh, about 2.6 minutes.  But, boy, were they an exciting 2.6 minutes.  We were tempted to send the toy back to the manufacturer and let them know it was defective.

I've determined that Paisley likes her men ... Kyle is her favorite in the household, she was obsessed with my Dad when he visited, you already heard in the last blog that she's dating our friend Brent, and this weekend she proceeded to jump right into Mark's lap without a second thought.  I guess I taught her well.

Before they headed back to Wisconsin, we got the boys posing by their new babies.  Only a few weeks before Kyle got his new black Chevy Silverado truck his dad got a new black Chevy Silverado truck from the same dealer ... Uncle Steve, who works at a dealership in Wisconsin and has been outfitting the family with vehicles for years.  How cute are they?!  Thanks for hooking up the Petersen boys to ride in style, Uncle Steve.  Hopefully, they helped you hit your quota this month!

The verdict is still out, but I gotta tell you, those heated seats sure are cozy.  ;)

Thanks, Mark and Kathy, for all the help around the house this past weekend, the toys for Paisley, and of course, the Special K bars ... half chocolate frosted for me and half plain for Kyle.  I guess Paisley gets the "spoiled rotten" part from us too.

Poison'd

What better way to celebrate the first day of 50 degree weather in Minnesota, than to go to a local bar to see a Bret Michael's show?!  Yes, you read that right.  Kyle and I dragged our friends, Brent and Christine, to see Bret Michael's in concert.  He was playing at a bar only 15 minutes from our house - how could we pass that up?!

Here's our friend Brent, warming up for the show with his girlfriend, Paisley.  Seriously, I think she's in love.  Brent would like us to point out that the mullet is just part of the concert attire for the night ... he doesn't normally look this redneck ... well ... close, but not quite.  I mean, not everyone can pull off a mullet quite like he did so he must have some "inner-redneck" in him somewhere.

Here are the boys ... rockin' out at the show ...

... and the girls rockin' out at the show ...

... a little more of the mayhem ...

... and here's Mr. Michael's himself ... the one in the cowboy hat and muscle shirt ... hot ...

The show was actually really entertaining.  The opening band was decent and Bret didn't skip a beat rocking out on stage.  I can't promise we'll race out and buy tickets to the Poison reunion tour this summer (although, stranger things have happened) but I know we'll catch some more live music at the Medina Ballroom.  Who needs downtown when we have townie bars and entertainment like this right at our doorstep?!  I'm sold on this country livin' thing!  (as long as I'm no more than 20 minutes from a Target and a movie theater ... but that's for another blog post)