Liberty Turns 1
We celebrated Libby’s birthday at Aunt Susie and Uncle Mark’s house in Syracuse, New York. 
Pink is Perfect!
What’s more appropriate than a PINK cake for our girl?  My sisters tried to dissuade me, but I was determined. 
(BTW, I think I have 3 other ridiculous pictures of myself blowing out a candle for a 1 year old)

Disdain
Unfortunately she is now the 2nd of our children who was not impressed with cake.  Sigh. 

At one, Liberty is a sweet tempered happy baby girl.  She loves her brothers, especially Levi and loves her parents, especially Dad.  She is stubborn in her own way and refuses to lay down while you change her diaper and refuses to let anyone feed her. She has to do it herself.  She is endlessly patient it seems, for which I’m very grateful.  She’s not talking or walking yet, for which I’m also grateful!  But she has mastered the small set of stairs in our house and is pulling herself up on the furniture now.  I love her little red curls and her blue blue eyes.   
We love you sweet baby girl.  You are such a joy in our lives. 

Grandma Wesel
We also got to spend some time with my Grandma Wesel while we were in Palmyra.  She was very interested in who looked the most like her.  We decided that Sarin wins.


Hymas Girls

Wesel Girls

Kindred Spirits 

Free Ride

Picture if you will for a moment,  a small nursing home room with two very old people in it.  Walkers, wheelchairs and stacks of books line the walls.  Not much room to move around, right?  Then picture 6 more people trying to cram themselves into the room, three of which are little boys who have just spent several hours in the car.  Yes, I know it was a recipe for disaster, but we did it anyway.  This picture of Cade was taken just before he launched himself onto the bed, bumping Grandpa George’s recently replaced knees.  George was reading at the time and hollered out so loud it gave us all a heart attack and I thought for sure he’d had a real one.  On closer inspection we found that he had been mostly startled and only slightly hurt.  At times like that I would like to know what is running through a child’s head just before they do something like that.   They were told in no uncertain terms to behave themselves,  to be very quiet, still, etc.  But just like you never think to tell them “Don’t eat the Dandelions, I never thought to say, “And remember, don’t try to fly and launch yourself into the air over a very old man.”   I think I have Calvin and Hobbes to thank for such moments.  But I suppose that’s backwards.  We have Calvin and Hobbes BECAUSE all little boys think like that.  
At any rate, I was mortified, and Cade was banished from the room. Rock was in the car trying to sleep in preparation for our long drive home that night and the girls and I needed to visit with Grandma so no one could take the kids out of the tiny room even though they were past ready to leave.  I figured the nurses didn’t get paid for childcare, so  that’s when I decided to pull out the iphone games.  Angry Birds is very handy in moments of desperation.
My dad later asked George how the visit went and George told him that our kids were very “rugged”.  When leaving the nursing home that day, “rugged” was not on the list of adjectives I would have used to the describe them.