A little lady
Miss. Cadie is growing up so fast! I see it best with pictures - she looks so old! She will be 18 months next week. Most of our pictures of late have an open-mouth little girl. This is her reaction when we ask her to smile. Breakfast on the front porch.

Making cookies with Mom.

Cadie made a chili pepper pinata filled with Kix while I was at work on Cinco de Mayo. This picture was taken seconds before she destroyed it. (Thanks Laura! what I cute idea!)

Finally, one real smile. Her first bike! We are all so excited about this one.

A little decorating
Finally did something to Cadie's room. Thanks to Paige for the tree.
More house/yard projects to come!


Our neighbor has an amazing tulip garden - I had to take pictures.

Pictures
Life has been a little crazy with Cadie getting one illness after another (latest was Roseola) and me (E) teaching at OSU this quarter. We have managed to squeeze in some fun. I'll document with photos:

Community easter egg hunt (or scramble). This picture was 5 minutes before the start and before the crowds. It lasted maybe 60 seconds and there was probably only one egg per kid. Cadie at least got the package of animal crackers that she had tried to pick up before the start.

Easter! What a great time of year.

Meet the sheep (and all the other baby animals) at Slate Run historic farm. Cadie loved the ducks and chickens, was a bit hesitant with the baby pig and lamb, and did not want to even get close to the horse. But the entire car ride home she kept telling me about the animals - she would say "HI!" to get my attention and then do the sign for one of the animals - usually horse or cow.

Fooled Me!
Don't put sprinkles on that cupcake!

Unless you like sprinkles with your mashed potatoes and meatloaf.
Thanks to Laura for this fun idea.
And dessert:

Watch out for worms!

Paige, DC, and the National Marathon!
My sister Paige flew to Columbus for a visit - we enjoyed a St. Patrick's Day parade in Dublin!

Paige drove with us to DC. We stayed with the McArthurs and Kai taught Cadie some moves.

I'll end with the worst family photo ever:

I guess this picture says more than I can - we were all pretty beat at this point but the race went well and Cadie eventually got a nap. :)
Eric ran marathon #2 and I ran the half. I beat my time goal by 35 seconds (finished in 2:24:25) and felt great the entire time. I think we are both finished with long races for a little while. We need to work on our speed so that we don't have to be out on the course as long.

Spring!
We hit 78 degrees yesterday but are back to the mid 40s today. A little weird but I'll take it. I ran in shorts and a T-shirt and was still dripping sweat.
I love love love this first spring in a new home. We have bulbs coming up everywhere! It is a happy surprise every time I go outside.
Cadie is growing just as fast as our bulbs. She had a growth spurt and at her 15 month Dr.'s appointment was 33" - she had grown 2.25" in 3 months.
My brother is in Iraq again - here is a little clip we sent him.

Detroit

Cadie and I took a quick trip up to Detroit to visit some friends. It was great to see Amy and Angie and their families. Cadie loved hanging with all of the kids - she would follow them everywhere. We need to work how to share toys though...
Ang is 38 weeks pregnant and was still up for an all day adventure at the Science Museum. Amy was an amazing hostess - I'm still dreaming about the peach french toast. I just have to say that I had the greatest group of girl friends in high school. I love that we can still get together and hang and be totally comfortable.

Tornadoes are better than Hurricanes
We had tornado warnings last week and lots of wind and rain. Unlike hurricane Ike we had no storm damage and our power stayed on. We did have a front lawn full of "spikey bombs" (so-named by our 10-year old neighbor) from our Sweet Gum tree. Cadie helped me rake the bombs up. They were not nearly as fun as leaves to jump in though.

Plenty of spikey bombs still left on the tree.

We met up with friends at the Columbus Science Museum and stayed in the water area for a while. I think she is a hydrologist in the making. I love that they provide rain coats but next time I'm bringing water shoes and an extra pair of socks.