My new favorite photo of William and Kate. This is from my mom's birthday party March 26.

This a more recent picture I have on my computer from October 2006. William and his aunts put together a movie of TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). You might think that this had something to do with Halloween, but it was completely unrelated. William was a black knight for Halloweeen last year.

Kate and her dimples. She loved watching the "filming" of TMNT, as well as holding onto the swords when not in use.

Okay, so many of you have given me a hard time over the last year for my lack of blogging. Well, I didn't feel bad, but I totally deserved it. I recently took the time to organize ALL of the photos I currently have on my computer using Picasa, a free program from Google that organizes, edits, and searches photos. And, it turns out that they make it incredibly easy to blog, publish web albums, and order prints. (I have yet to print ANY pictures since before William was born...). I have been inspired somehow, and I am getting excited about scrapping all those pictures (I even bought a whole bunch of kids papers which was a big step, especially since I hadn't bought a scrap since before Kate was born...). Well, I do want to keep in touch with my long lost friends and family, even those who live here in town. I have been given the advice to write more of them myself rather than have Kate and William do all the work. I will probably do so, although they may write something from time to time. :) So, HELLO to everyone, again.

Gaia

William has not been keeping up with his posts lately, so I guess I'll have to be the one to catch everybody up... :) About 3 weeks ago, we went to visit my Poppy in New Mexico. It takes a really long time to get there in the car, but William and I did really well. I really only cried to let Mommy know I was hungry or tired, and then she would give me some milk or help me fall asleep. We had a great time at our Poppy's house and the weather was so nice up in the mountains, Mommy didn't want to come back to Kansas. We did lots of hiking, (well Mom hiked and I rode in the carrier), and we hiked to the top of a mountain and around some cliffs with Indian caves. Mommy says she loves hiking vacations. I guess besides spending quality time together she gets lots of exercise at the same time. We got to meet my new cousins that recently married into the family and William and they played ALL DAY LONG (really they played for 6 hours straight in Poppy's backyard.) There are some pretty funny pictures of William playing in his underwear (not with his cousins), but Mommy wouldn't let me put those on the blog, sorry... We also got to visit my 2 uncles, Joseph & David. I really liked David which is good because William really likes uncle Joseph. So, we both have our favorite uncles. We spent about a week in New Mexico, and mommy has decided Daddy needs to get a job in the mountains, maybe Colorado. I'm not sure that will be happening anytime soon, but there is a possibility of Daddy seriously looking at a new job that would take us away from Lawrence. I don't really mind since I haven't been around too long (except missing Ava), but I know that William and Mommy & Daddy would really miss their good friends and family. Daddy doesn't really know anything yet, but I'll keep you posted. That's all I can really think of for now, plus I'm tired and it's time for my nap. I'll try and get some pictures posted later today.

After a while crocodile...
Kate

P.S. I am 6 months old now! I weigh 17 lbs. and I can sit on my own for a few minutes before tipping over. :)

Woah! It has been 3 weeks since mom has let us get on the computer. So much has happened that I don't even know where to begin. I guess the first thing that comes to mind is that mom and Aunt Lori had a garage sale the weekend before last. There was an entire neighborhood garage sale, and we took some of our things over to Aunt Lori's house. Mom told me that I could keep the money that I get for selling some of my old toys. Nobody did end up buying them, but I did get to buy a Nightcrawler action figure that was my uncle Chris's. I actually had a hard time deciding which X-men guy to get. I was thinking about getting Deathlok, but mom said he was too scary looking. Oh, and speaking of garages, our garage door died the Tuesday before the sale, and mom and dad had to get it fixed. Luckily no car or nobody was in the garage when it happened. Mom just tried to close it and part of it came off the track. It turns out the track was bent. Mom had 3 different guys come over to look at it and one guy said he could bend it back for $60 (mom said he was kind of goofy), another guy said we needed all new hardware which cost around $535, so we might as well buy a new door for $800 (mom said she must have looked easy), and the last guy mom and dad felt really good about and he replaced the track and got everything working really well for a little less than $200. They were pretty sad when it broke though.

And, I guess the most recent thing that happened was mom and dad went to help out at church girls camp. They didn't plan things too well though because dad had to help with security from 12pm to 6am and mom was supposed to be at camp from 7am to 12pm that same day. Aunt Kelly came over after work though and spent the night so she could help take care of us since dad was going to be out of it anyway. Everybody was tired, but it all worked out and thank goodness girls camp is over! Mom also wanted me to tell the story of when I was cleaning my room (which I seem to do often) and how I had to crawl under my bed to get something and while I was under there I said, "I'm sure glad that my bracelet glows in the dark." For some reason they think it is really funny. Maybe you had to be there. Well, I think that about catches us up, except that Kate is rolling all over the place now. Mom calls her our roly poly girl. She can also move herself around in cirlces on her tummy.

So that's it. Mom also found the cord to our camera!!!!!!!! It turns out dad put it in a pocket of the camera bag mom didn't even know existed. So, we are going to add some of our favorite pictures today. We'll talk with you soon!

William

Well, it has been another week, and mom is still having trouble finding time to help us on the computer. She is still looking for the cord to the camera, and she is still busy as ever. Mom had her birthday this week, but for some reason she decided to work and teach lessons. She teaches lessons on Wednesday afternoons and Thursday evenings, so I guess she didn't want to wait another week to get them started for the summer. She did say that next year, she will make sure and take her birthday off. I think she kept forgetting that it was her birthday or that it was coming up, but lots of people called our house and she said it made her feel like it was really her birthday. Dad, Kate, and I got her a breadmaker for her birthday. She has been wanting to try one since we go through bread like crazy. She hasn't used it yet, but she is getting the ingredients tomorrow.

This has been a fun week. I started my gymnastics class for the summer at our parks and recreation center, and I have 2 new teachers, Kelly and Cindra. I am in the class for the 4 year olds now. I have a lot of fun jumping off the vault, hanging on the rings, and flipping over the bar. Mom asked my what my favorite thing to do was and I said, "The balance beam because you get to sneak." :) We also got to go the wading pool this week with lots of my friends. Even baby Kate put her swimming suit on and got wet. She really likes floating through the water and watching all the kids play. I cleaned my room again, all by myself. It wasn't easy, and I didn't really like doing it, but I like how nice it looks when it is clean. I even made my own bed. Kate also had a doctor's appointment today, and she now weighs 13 lbs. 13 oz. I guessed she weighed 12, but mom was right. Mom says she is in the 55% for height at 24.5 inches and 50% for weight. She is learning how to do more things like grab her toys, and I have fun trying to make her laugh. She does like to smile a lot. I hope that mom will get some more pictures on here soon.

So, I guess it's off to another week. Mom seems to be getting the hang of taking care of both of us and Kate is getting more interesting. I hope we get to go the pool some more and soon we'll be going to the Kansas City Zoo. I can't wait!!!

William

So mom's goal is to help us write in this at least once a week. I'm not sure she's doing too well. :) She also has lots of pictures that she wants to post, but cannot find the cord that connects the camera to the computer. (I know I am a genius...) Kate and I are doing well, although Kate has been kind of smelly lately. I guess she's having trouble making dirty diapers. Mom says I shouldn't type that because Kate will be embarrassed. I don't think she will mind until she gets older. She can' t even talk yet. Other than that, I keep trying to make Kate laugh and help her learn to roll over. She does pretty well rolling around on her back and she can lift her back off the ground and scoot a little, but she hasn't rolled over by herself yet.

This week, I am enjoying "vacation" with mom and dad, although I don't understand why we aren't going anywhere. Mom says vacation can be getting to do things we don't normally do like go to the pool and eat out. Mom and dad also like to play racing and lay on their bed watching TV. I like to watch them play racing games. Mom always tries to beat dad, but sometimes he wins.

There isn't much else going on. Everyone is healthy and happy. I did clean my room today and I did it all by myself. I think I'm in trouble though because now Mom knows I can. Hopefully mom will post pictures soon. See ya later alligators!

Love, William

Well, we are slowly recovering from a long, but exciting weekend. Mima graduated from college with a PhD in Sociology at KU. I guess it took her a long time because mom always says, "She finally graduated." Uncle Joseph taught me that the Ph stands for philosophy. I'm not sure what that means yet, but I say it really well. We had to sit a really long time to watch her walk across a stage, and I got hungry. Uncle Joseph was eating my goldfish, and even Papa was sharing some of my grapes. We also had to stand outside for really long time waiting for Dr. Mima to walk up, I mean down the hill. (I had a hard time remembering which way she was supposed to go.) Everyone was excited, and mom was taking lots of pictures. It was a little hot outside, but I danced when my dad played some music for me on his phone, and I got to play swordfighting with some sticks. We had a big party at our house with lots of food and balloons. I especially loved the balloons. I like to practice punching on them. Mom gave them away to the neighbors though. I don't think she liked the loud noises they made when I hit them. But, overall, I had a great time hanging out with Dr. Mima and my uncles. They always played with me.

Kate got 3 new dresses from her uncles which mom loved. I got Underwater Duke (GI Joe) and Snake Eye's motorcycle. They are my prized possesions. Things are going back to normal. Kate didn't say much, but I think she had fun. I found a new way to make her laugh when I was telling mom a story. I said, "But, then...." real loud and she started laughing. Now whenever mom or I say that, she smiles and laughs sometimes. That's really the only thing she can do right now. I was hoping I could play with her soon, but she is taking a realllly long time to grow up.

I also had my birthday party not too long ago. We had a costume party with all my friends. It was really fun, and mom knocked the head off the spiderman pinata. She was blindfolded and thought it was really funny. I got lots of new toys like Power Rangers, and GI Joe. I carry them around the house with me wherever I go. I love my new toys. Life is good, and now that mom lets me use the computer I can talk to everyone! I hope you have a nice day. Mom says it's good manners to say that when you are done talking.

Love, William