Keeping records is a blessing. I really enjoy looking back on this blog (though often very sporadic) and remembering funny things the kids were up to, challenges, and how grateful I am for my family, and also our Heavenly Father's plan for us.

There are so many things to catch up, I will try and highlight a few. I have been babysitting a little girl from William's school since May of this year. It was something crazy to add on top of everything else, but I had confirmation that it was the right thing to do. It has been a blessing for both of our families. She is basically an only child and learning how to be part of a bigger family, sharing, working, responsibility. She has also taught William how to really be interested and play with his younger siblings. I can see how he now enjoys opportunities to interact with them. I, personally, have had an increase in patience and understanding, also learning how to approach a more sensitive child, all GREAT skills for me to develop. I have learned, even in discipline, how to show my love for the children. It is also funny, how I really don't mind watching children now. Pile em up, and I'll be fine. (To be fair, though, they usually are older than 2 1/2. I can definitely appreciate those moms who can wrangle big families though.)

We had a blast using our pool this summer. It was a good amount of work, but we loved it, especially in that 90 degree heat. We especially enjoyed having people come over to swim with us. I told all my friend to invite themselves. I was so busy that I usually didn't plan specific times. (Don't forget for next year! Call me.) Kevin did a great job learning all the ins and outs of the pool, and it was almost always clean and balanced. The kids did get to have a few lessons also from my brother this summer. It is so nice to have him living here.

William started 2nd grade this fall, and has a great teacher. I have tried to volunteer as much as possible to spend some time doing things just for him. Thank you to those of you who wrangled the other two for me. :) It was still crazy with things for my gma, but I wanted to make him a priority, and I can tell that he feels more appreciated in our family.

William and Kate played another season of soccer this fall. Kevin was able to coach William's team, and Kate was able to be on the same team as her cousin, and have a member from church as her assistant coach. It was a lot of fun, again family time. William loved having Kevin as his coach, and Kevin really enjoyed coaching. It makes me so proud sometimes to watch William play soccer, I almost cry. He is a good player, but what I love most about him is his drive and his determination. He NEVER gives up. He never lets up or lets getting tired lessen his efforts. He runs himself nonstop to the end of the game, always giving 110%. He encourages his teammates when they get tired or are ready to give up. As hard as we are as parents with him, he is a great son and a good example. Kate is a joy as well. She can certainly hold up her own and kick that ball hard, IF she is paying attention. She had fun, but she's still young, and would often start twirling around and playing with her teammates by the middle of the game. :) She said she likes soccer, but by the end of the season she couldn't wait until her last practice so she could take dance classes which I didn't even know she was going to take... :)

As far as baby Nathan, he is still growing and growing. He is a happy guy, has a great smile and sense of humour. He pays attention to everything his older siblings are doing, and is smarter than his own good. He is a CLIMBER, and can easily scale chairs to tables and everything else in between. He is like our little puppy. He even used to love chewing on kleenex. He is very wiggly, does not like to be held long, and LOVES to explore. He is very fast and has a high gear that he can kick into when he really wants to go after something. He is starting to spit out words all over, and even says thank you of his own accord. Younger kids are still more physical labor, but he is mainly a joy and a pleasure.

Kevin and I are staying busy with business as usual for the most part. Kevin is very busy with work since one of his projects is organizing the IT set-up for sites to collect and process information for the US 2010 Census. He has been traveling some going to Salt Lake City and Phoenix, but also getting a chance to visit good friends that have moved there this past year.

I was previously consumed with care for my grandmother. She was in and out of hospitals during September and October, for medical and psychiatric needs. She became dependent on oxygen, and eventually more comfortable in hospital settings than her own home. Her Alzheimer's staged dramatically, and while she stills know her immediate family, the paranoia and suspicion became overwhelming for her in her home surrounded by her own things that they recommended placement for her. We were given less than a week to find placement, but again Heavenly Father always has a plan, and we were very blessed to be led to the right facility. She lives in Topeka, near the Stake Center, which allows for visits even more often. I take the kids weekly to visit with her, and while she still asks about home, she has adjusted as well as possible. It is still a strange and scary place at times for her, but she participates in activities, and as her level of anxiety has dropped, she is no longer dependent on oxygen.

So, now I can broaden my focus on life. I can now take real time to listen to each of my children and their concerns/needs. I have time to ponder how best I can serve them. I have time to pursue a few personal interests, and even visit with family and most of all friends that have been missed. I have also felt a slight void, not just missing her a bit (we are also relieved quite a bit), but missing the all consuming service. While an enormous challenge, it was also such a blessing and direction in my life. Service is how we find direction in life, how we discover who we are and why we are here. I know that whenever I feel lost, I find myself again in service. I am again grateful to have had this opportunity to serve her, to cushion her journey for just over a year. I learned so much about myself, strengthened family relationships, and drew closer to the Savior and my Heavenly Father. I learned that while I can do much on my own, I can do so much more with their help, and that they are always there just waiting for us to turn to them, even in that very second. I also know that others were able to find greater peace in overcoming the past. I know that there is always a purpose, a reason for everything. I am of course still involved in my grandmother's journey, and we look forward to sharing and bringing joy to her and also many others each time we visit. What a wonderful time of year for sharing!

Okay, so I am not the best at staying on top of blogging, (REALLY BAD), but at this point, that's how it goes. We have been busy having fun and trying to stay on top of things around home and Gma!

BUT, it is now official - Nathan is a WALKER!!! I just looked over today, and there he was standing in the middle of the kitchen and deciding to walk around. He has taken steps here and there for a while, but I guess he just finally decided to give walking a serious try. (I think he actually prefers the perspective from up there.) He walked quite a bit throuout the day, getting down to crawl when he wanted to get somewhere fast (he is REALLY fast at crawling). I did get some on videotape for Kevin and fam, but I'm sure it won't be long before most of you will catch it first person.

Other than that, Lori started up a photography business and took some great family photos for us. (You can see some of them on her blog - lorigeorgephotography.blogspot.com.) I am really pleased by them, and I was also reminded why in the almost 9 years we have been married we have never done official family photos. I know it gets better as the kids get older, but wow. It could certainly be worse, but it is A LOT of work. I am excited though to start turning our house into our home. I have put off decorating or hanging pictures for painting walls, and then I wasn't sure what I really wanted to do. But now I am excited to display some family photos and even more happy to have made a few decisions about how I can really cozy things up for us to enjoy. My mom will also be painting some beautiful close-up floral paintings for the livingroom. I will be also be painting something, but not sure it will actually end up anywhere... :)

And, I guess I am excited to start working on taking care of our yard, what landscaping we have, maybe a little bit of gardening in pots, definitely a lot of mulching, and yes, our pool will be opening next week. I guess we'll see how we like having a pool. The best thing in my eyes looking ahead, is that my oldest brother (who used to teach swimming lessons all the time when I was growing up), will be coming to my house to teach lessons to William and Kate once a week. (I don't have to drive anywhere!!!) I enjoying staying home more and more. 1. Because I don't always have the chance and 2. Because it is a lot of work packing and taking little babies all over, and then I miss taking full advantage of nap time sometimes. I am very grateful for our van though. Just the other day while running around, Nathan took a nap and Kate and I stopped to eat fast food for lunch. She climbed up in the front seat next to mine, I read her a book, we slowly ate our lunch, I read a book while she continued eating, and overall it was a comfy, roomy place to hang out. It really is a second home sometimes, that I do enjoy.

That is about all for now. Soccer season started and is practically finished. (William has only a make-up game left.) That has certainly kept us pretty busy with Kate and William both playing soccer this year, (hence the lack of blog activity...), but it has also been some great family time. I'll post some pictures and blog all about it next time.

Sorry it has been a while!

Update on Oklahoma, we didn't get to go! Kevin's grandma ended up catching something and we stayed home. So, we had vacation in Lawrence. It was actually really fun for me and the kids. We went to do all the things that we usually don't have time for and took our time doing things we usually do. We ate out often for lunch (even ordering anything we wanted), went downtown to play at The Toy Store, went to the St. Patrick's Day Parade, Kevin stayed home a few days, I got my hair cut/colored (yeah!), and we went to the zoo in Topeka with cousins. We even played at the park and had ice cream from the ice cream truck (William!). Enjoy the pics!

Everyone at the Zoo.

This lion kept roaring and pacing - a really neat sound.

(Side note here - I always had a soft spot in my heart for the Topeka Zoo, I went there as a kid, and even when William was little and loved it. We loved the tropical forest, the hippos, and they seemed to have all the good animals without being too big. WELL - this time I was quite disappointed. It may have been the slightly cool weather, and while the zoo was nice (especially the REALLY clean bathrooms), I could barely withstand the smells from both the rainforest and the hippo building!!! And, I used to be able to tolerate just about anything. Maybe I am just becoming more sensitive as I get older, but OH MY GOSH!!! It took me at least 10 minutes to get used to the smell and my stomach even turned a bit. So, next time, we are going to head east to the KC Zoo and check it out. I know it is BIG, but I am hoping for a better experience for me anyway. :) Who knows, we may even end up in Nebraska at the Omaha Zoo, or St. Louis. next.)

The Rainforest Dome

Stop getting so big!

This sloth had a baby hiding up in the vent with her. Really cool.

My grandma's sister also had a nice vacation here for a couple weeks. She did wonderful taking care of and spending time with my grandmother. We will miss her! She barely made it back to California though with a big snow storm that blew into Wichita (12+inches). It was a great visit for her, but also sad because she worried that it might be the last one. It's true that my grandmother is getting worse, becoming more frail with her body getting away from her at times. While I am looking forward to her moving on eternally, I just realized today how much Kate will really miss her. She loves spending time with Grandma Great, and it's funny to see part of Gma being passed on to Kate. (Kate thinks all tags have to be cut out now.) While I have mixed emotions about having Kate spend hours at her house from time to time, I know that it is a blessing for my Gma and even for Kate, being showered with pure, loyal, love.

Watch out for the crocodile!

Eating giant popsicles at the park.

Okay, things have been kind of slow around here lately, yeah! We were actually planning on going to Oklahoma to visit Kevin's grandma for Spring Break, but she ended up ill, so we are staying home and vacationing. It has actually been really fun, and we have taken time to do alot of things that we don't feel like we usually have the time to do or things that are on more our "special" list. I think the best thing has just been slowing down with the kids and really just hanging out with each other, playing games, eating slow, and no agenda. We did make it to the St. Patrick's Day Parade with temperatures in the 80's. It's been a while since I have done a parade. In fact, I don't think I have done one since before Kate was born? I can't remember, but the kids loved it and we made it a family event, having lunch with my brother first and watching the parade with Mima, friends, and cousins. Yeah for vacation!!!

(Oh, and my grandmother's sister is also staying with her for 2 weeks, so things are nice and slow for me in that department. She is doing really well helping my grandmother and following along her usual routine. My grandmother is doing ok having her around, though sometimes I'm sure it's a little sad to remind her of how things used to be, and tiring for her to be on "hosting" mode, but it's working out overall.)

Firetrucks (loud) and Horses!

What more can you ask for?

A little outback style?

Always a smile

Cooling off before the parade


Uncle David and little boy

I love William. He is such a big help around the house, even when he gets distracted. :) He has such a sweet heart, and I miss spending more time with him now that he is in his second year of school. He is a wonderful son, and I don't tell him enough.

So, Thank you William! For all that you do.

Okay, now to finish up my post.

KATE's BIRTHDAY!!!

Kate turned 3 last month, and it took us forever to finally get her birthday party done. I guess I should back up and say, that I had been thinking and planning about what to do for her birthday since January. I made Kevin sit and talk with me for over an hour and try to solve the birthday party conundrum that we are lucky to have. We are very lucky to have both sides of our families in the same town, so thus, we end up with not 1 or even 2, but sometimes 4 birthday parties for our children! I was sure there must be some way to pare it down to 1 or 2, but alas, we are only able to get down to 3 (1 party with mom/dad and mom's family, another party with dad's family, and finally a friend party...)! I am also still organizing and unpacking and I couldn't imagine what she was going to do with a bunch of new toys. While short on girl toys at first, after Christmas and her family birthday party this year, I couldn't imagine what she would even need or where I wanted to put it... Oh, and actually there are 2 other little friends that have birthdays a day and a few weeks from Kate that we are always trying to watch out for when having parties. (We usually end up inviting a lot of the same people anyway.) :)

SO, after her birthday had gone and past by a few weeks, and the party favors and pink plates, forks, and napkins that we had so much fun picking out were still sitting on top of the fridge, I finally got it together enough to give our friends a heads up on Sunday, and then called everyone the night before to come to her party the next afternoon. :) Thankfully, almost everyone was able to make it. AND, since I was kind of concerned about the whole getting a million presents thing, we decided to take a page from a friend's un-birthday party at the end of last year. For Kate's party, we asked everyone to bring something from home, they already had, that someone might like for a gift (surely, I couldn't be the only one whose house was overflowing with extra toys from time to time), and then we drew numbers and had a gift exchange (with NO stealing...). It turned out to be a lot of fun, and everyone went home with a little gift. I also stole another page from a friend's party earlier in the year, and just let them play, have some cake, and then open presents. Very simple, yet fun and just the right amount of time for the younger crowd. Overall, it turned out to be a really nice party (thank you everyone for coming). I think it will be something that we will repeat with many birthdays to come.

A lovely, pink cake baked only a hour or so before... :)

Lots of friends, and a little family

One of the best things ever, living in the same neighborhood as cuz!

Oh, and a couple other things ----- Nathan finally broke his first tooth yesterday! (Grandpa wins for noticing! We really had no idea.) :) He also tried his first table food (mashed potatoes), but wasn't really thrilled with it. Probably because he had to use his fingers...

I couldn't decide which one to choose, so here they both are!

AND, FINALLY ----- Grandma's paperwork got turned in! I have been working with an attorney to arrange medicaid support for my grandmother in helping to cover the cost of her Alzheimer's care, and it is the BIGGEST paperwork headache in the world (even for the lawyer). I have also had to spend hours on the phone talking with case managers, supervisors, transferring case managers, and making sure that she is receiving the care that she needs. If you can believe it, the first case manager that came to her home and interviewed us (as well as one of her caregivers) came up with a total of 8 hours of assistance for my grandmother! Currently, we have arranged support for her almost 70 hours a week. It was a combination of a really poor case manager (or her having a rough spot in her personal life right now) and the fact that we cannot answer questions completely in front of my grandmother. (We always try to avoid any type of embarrassment or upsetting her by obviously pointing out things that she can and cannot do on her own anymore.) Physically, my grandmother's health is very fair, but we have really started noticing that her memory in daily living activities is really slipping. She still knows who we are, and can laugh and smile with the kids, but she is getting worse. There are so many things that we take for granted that she cannot remember anymore. Just a normal morning or night routine, brushing hair, teeth, knowing if we have done things or not. I actually had to sit down and spend a hour or two writing out a daily schedule for my grandma, so that her caregivers can monitor the completion of those activities. It actually reminded me of when I first had William (and even when Kate came along), and that anytime I would drop him off at someone's house, I had a childcare sheet that had a whole schedule of when and what he would eat, and even included how he liked to fall asleep. (Poor Nathan, no more sheets...) :) But, it was very similar.

ANYWAY, it has been quite a deal. I remember speaking with the supervisor of all the case managers of Douglas county as well as a couple other counties, and as she was talking to me (NO ONE would have been able to make it through this conversation!!!) she insinuated that my grandmother should be put into a nursing home and asked what do I or my mom do!!! Luckily, I was VERY patient and VERY nicely explained everything to her, even stroking her ego a bit. I was willing to give her and another case manager a chance before going above her head and really raising a ruckus. I was still shocked about some of her comments, and she was VERY lucky that it was me on the phone, and that she hadn't had any extra chances yet! Oh, and when I told her about some of my grandmother's medications involving eye drops and 10 minutes with a washcloth on her eyes, she said well that would take about 30 seconds for eye drops and 60 seconds for the washcloth. Ummmm, wait she has Alzheimer's. If someone puts a washcloth on her face and then walks out of the room, she will NOT KNOW why she has a washcloth on her face or how long 10 minutes is. REALLY! (Medicaid only pays for time people are actually ASSISTING, which is fine, but please think through how something really has to be done when someone has Alzheimer's...) Well, thank goodness our new case manager is top-notch and really knows her stuff. She is also an older lady herself (60's) and had been a nursing home administrator for 21 years. (I specifically asked for someone with Alzheimer's experience.) She has already been 100 times better than the previous one, and we have yet to meet in person. Oh, and she really cares about us.

Sorry for the superlong post, but like I said so much has happened and MUCH has been accompli shed. :)

Sorry it has taken me a while to get back here, but much has happened and much has been accomplished!

First of all, Nathan is standing all by himself... He is not yet crusing around, but he has really good balance and can even eat while he is standing. He seems so little to be up and about like that, but deep down I know it won't be long before he is walking, I just don' want to admit it. After all, he may be my last little boy and I wish he would slow down on the growing up. I have always loved my chilren, but after being a mom for 6 years, I have really learned how to cherish them and each moment. (BTW, he is also still really, really cute.)

Kate had her first hair cut! I think it will take about 10 years for Kate's hair to actually grow long, but we finally decided it was time to have it trimmed because it really just started looking messy. (You really know it looks messy when Daddy is the one who points it out...) So, we took her to Uncle David for her first haircut! I kind of wondered how she would do, and we talked about it beforehand how she might get her hair wet, she will need to sit still, and that uncle david would use scissors to trim the ends. In fact, I worried a tiny bit because William is very dramatic about having hair fall on his neck during and after a hair cut. BUT, I should have known. Kate is a girly girl, and she just sat there nice and tall, head up, and just let david do everything without so much as a bother. In fact, she looked like it was a perfectly normal everyday occurence, and that it was only right. :) Her hair lays much better now, and while it will take years for her hair to get long, her curls are beautiful.

Just an everyday thing...

After

Okay, what else... Well, I'll get back to you... kiddos are having a tough time following the rules and getting along while I am typing. :) I usually do this after they are fast asleep. Now I remember why...

I love how we get to hang with cousins!

Someone took a fancy to the bell... :)

Fire Station Playgroup!

Playgroup has been a part of my life ever since William was little, and I would attend almost religiously. I couldn't even imagine why anyone would have reasons or little desire to join in. I used to take William (and Kate as she came along) to the library, the park, berry/apple picking, and even made trips to KC to the Deanna Rose Farmstead (free and HIGHLY recommended!). There are even a few of the same moms since William's 2-4 year old days.

These days, however, playgroup has become a special occasion. I am figuring out that things in life change. While I strive to find constants and absolutes to satisfy my need to organize life, I am understanding phases and continual change in life. While taking care of my grandma, three kids, and home and church responsibilities, I can only make special efforts to be there for things that are unique or I think that Kate will truly enjoy. Before we left, I told Kate we were going to a fire station, and she had no idea what a fire station, fireman, or even firetruck was! I guess she is a girl... I think I am also beginning to understand that while I think I've figured out how to keep laundry from exploding all over our basement, that sometimes my "fool proof" approach will need to be modified from time to time. What I mean is, I am always trying to figure out the "best" way to organize or accomplish something, and I am realizing that the "best" way changes. One way can work for a while, but it will not last forever. And, that's okay. It's just time to reassess and take another approach. I thought that someday I would get everything figured out, but now I am realizing that does not exist. BUT, I can hone my skills at figuring out the best way to do something until things change. Then, I will work on figuring out the new "best" way of doing things.... :) I also have a new saying - 3 kids equals superspeed. (At least for me. Although, I have never really known 3 kids without my grandma...)

FYI - Nathan is a big sinker. After crawling going on 3 weeks, getting on his knees for 1, getting to his feet 2 days ago, he is now pulling himself up wherever he can, (even made it on the couches upstairs which don't really have good handholds) and he is even moving his feet a bit, taking a couple steps here and there, and he is still 7 months old.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Well, he is still really, really cute.