Recent Happenings

Ok moms fellow Moms: Do you know those days/weeks when you feel like you are watching your kid from another perspective and start to realize that your baby isn't a baby still? I have been experiencing that lots lately! My little girl still doesn't talk lots, but she understands everything! And man is she just getting big! Her baby fat is all but gone, and she is getting long and skinny! She continues to amaze me with the most simple things that I didn't give her credit for. For example, when we pull into one of our friends or families driveways she will point at the house and start saying their names. Yesterday we ran by a friends house to see if there was a package waiting there and Kate SCREAMED when we didn't get out of the car and go see her friend. But when I said, "Kate honey, Nikki isn't home." she stopped crying instantly! Too funny. She also is starting to get much more creative during play. This morning for example I was entertained watching her and her "baby" as she calls him. (for some reason teddy bears are babies...whatever works!) She and her baby were sitting at her little table eating their breakfast and sharing very nicely! She also is very gentle and nurturing. Oh and her bear got LOTS of hugs and kisses, and then got to kiss all the other stuffed animals in the room, and chance got some kisses. I thought it was just too cute. She would gently give her bear a cheerio and then eat one herself.

Here she is saying cheese with her bear

Using hands to eat cheerios is so time consuming. She and her bear both took turns eating like this for awhile.

Man, my little girl is getting so big!

5 years...

This very day marks 5 years of being Jonathan and Sarah Walter. It is SO crazy how fast the time has gone, but at the same time it feels like we have been together forever, ya know what I mean!? In 5 years we have gotten 2 college degrees, moved to 4 states, totalled 2 cars, got a dog, had a baby, and bought our first house. We have not however, bought a tv (although we own 3). We have had thousands of fights and arguments, tons of dates and fun, tears and laughter. Ours is a marriage that works. We push each other to be better (hence the arguments ;), we work well together, and we make beautiful babies! Cheesy as it may sound I love being in love with Jon! We are still happy together after 5 long years!

For our celebration we went to Kings Island Amusement park in Ohio while we were visiting. It was fitting because the last time we had been to a park was the day after we were married (not something I recommend to any single/soon to be married people!). So here is a LOVELY, and by lovely I mean hideous, picture of us eating the famous blue ice cream at King's Island in front of Snoopy. Just remember it was hot and we had been riding roller coasters...no body looks good after a long day of fun!

Thanks for an amazing 5 years hun! Here's to another happy hundred to come!

Popsicles are cold

While in Ohio Kate learned that popsicles are cold: But GOOD!

OHIO part 2

Kate is one special little girl. Everyone just loves her to pieces. Especially her grandparents and great grandparents. Above Great Grandpa Lynch is giving Kate kisses.

And now her Great Grandma gets a turn.
Sitting with Great Grandpa looking sleepy.
And then with Great Grandma, even though it isn't the best picture its the best one I got, so it has to work!

Our little family... not our best ever, but it works. Kate was mad that Jon took her fingers out of her mouth.
Kate with her Grandma and Grandpa. She just adores them!
But something about her Grandma....Kate still is walking around the house asking me where grandma is. Its too cute! Jon likes to call Kate Tina since he thinks they look so much alike!

OHIO part 1

Oh how I love Ohio! I love being in a place where things looks so familiar and I can find my way around without a GPS, no matter how long I've been gone! That place will always be my home. Even now that we have been in Texas for awhile I still say I'm from Ohio when asked. We were fortunate enough to get to spend our summer vacation in Ohio last week visiting my family (fortunate because we bought the tickets before Kate's last seizure and all the medical bills started haunting us!). It was such a great trip, although a little fast for my taste (6 days just doesn't quite cut it!). We got to spend lots of time with family, and that is always a great time! Kate loves her grandparents and uncle Zach so much that she would always pick them over Jon or I the entire time!

While we were there we went to two different water parks to entertain the kids. Kate was a huge fan. She just loved running around in the water!

My mom and cousin Bailey. Kate and Bailey did a great job playing together.

Dad and Kate on the slide they must have gone down 30 times. (I was just super excited to have Jon there so I didn't have to look like a fool 30 or more times!)

I love how the next 3 pictures look like they are part of some baby sports illustrated issue or something. Here we have the serious looking into the distance shot.

Work it baby!

And the classic "oh I didn't see you there" pose.

The View from where I sit:

This post is brought to you by my cell phone, capturing the normal, everyday view of my life. First you see the view from my throne. You know-the place where everyone should be alone. But if you are a mom-you might as well get over it. Note the mixer brought all the way from the kitchen. Mom thought Kate was busy enough in the kitchen cabinets to not notice her slip away to the bathroom. Mom is funny.

This picture is probably my favorite I'm posting. This is my view of Kate at our ward Pioneer Day celebration. She did NOT want her chicken broken up for her, she wanted the whole drumstick to herself! I don't know why she looks quite so angry...but it is fierce!Kate has recently decided that she is big enough to climb into her toy box. She also seems to have a bright future as a plumber.Then we have the sticky baby picture. I went to return our cable box (we are ditching cable to save some extra dough....but that is an entirely different post! How sad is it that I don't know what to do with myself without tv!) and the lady at the desk gave Kate a sucker. And since she is old enough to know what it is I couldn't take it away without a huge fight, so I caved and let her eat it in the car. This is the view from the drivers seat.This last picture doesn't exactly fit the "from where I sit" theme, but it is from where I stand at least 2 times a day. This is my view from the stove. Kate has learned how to get to the kitchen counters. The dog food is supposed to be on the counter to prevent Kate from eating it, but now where can it go?! My strange child seems to love the darn dog food!

Other than that our life around here has been pretty low key lately. We finally got an EEG done! I learned that my daughter should never get involved in drugs-- she turns crazy when 'under the influence'. But eventually the drugs knocked her out and we were able to do the EEG. We are still waiting on the results. Other than that we are getting excited for our vacation to Ohio next week!

I hope everyone else out there is enjoying the view from where they sit!

Posting AGAIN Today

Yes, yes. I realize I have posted like 30 times already today, but Kate is STILL sleeping, and when you are a Mom you learn that when you have free time you HAVE to use it. SO I am blowing up the blog world with my catching up posts! Just remember that you love me and read my posts anyway.

So first we have a picture of Kate covered in Spaghetti. She loves getting covered in her meal...the messier the better in her opinion. If the meal doesn't require an immediate bath it wasn't that great.

My mom had a great idea a while ago to make a tent in our living room. Kate had a BLAST running in and out of it....a few times she ran so fast that she ran right into walls. No big enough injuries to keep her out of the tent though! I love that being a mom you realize that the simple things really are the best things.

After swimming in the yard a few days ago I found my daughter chomping on this carrot while I was cooking dinner. She looked just like bugs bunny to me-- I thought it was so funny. She carried that carrot around chewing away until dinner.

More 4th

The day after Kate's seizure (the 4th) Kate was acting perfectly normal. The ER doctor told us to just watch her for another seizure, but basically he couldn't find anything wrong with her. No fever, no nothing. So we decided to carry on with our plans for a family-fun-filled Independence day. We of course watched Kate closely to make sure we weren't over-stressing her, but she had a blast and showed no signs of stopping. We went to Scott and Susan's house to have breakfast, dinner, and fun in the sun. We had a slip-n-slide and a pool for the kids. It was a hit! As you can see-- the men also had fun in the pool! Kate liked to crawl through the slip-n-slide with her mouth open...not sure she understood the concept, but she made her own fun!

Overall it was a fun weekend. We were sad to see Jon's parents go, but hopefully they will find an excuse to come visit again soon!

Happy 4th of July!

For the holiday weekend I decided Kate needed a patriotic skirt for church. Although she only got to wear her skirt for an hour, I think it was cute. It is just 2 bandannas I sewed together.

Grandma and Grandpa Walter

Kate's grandparents on the Walter side were able to come to TX for a visit during the holiday weekend. Aside from Kate's seizure (that traumatized my mother-in-law...she was the first person to realize what was happening to Kate in nursery and came running into the hallway holding her) the trip was fun! We went bowling one afternoon and got to have them over for dinner.

Here are some shots of the bowling fun!
Kate LOVES her aunt Susan. Whenever we visit she insists that Susan hold her.Daddy is so funny...he always makes Kate laugh.
Kate and Grandma Walter...not exactly looking at the camera, but happy nonetheless!

Kate getting some time on Grandpa Walter's lap.

Never a Dull Moment

So I thought I explained to Kate that 1 Seizure was all I could handle in this life, but apparently she didn't listen. Today Kate decided to cause quite the scene at church by having a seizure during nursery. A few of my young women came running to tell me that Kate was having a seizure, and I actually asked them if they were joking. But sadly they were not kidding. I got to witness my kid have a seizure again....and I will say that on the positive side, the second time around I didn't panic quite as bad. It might also help that I was in a hallway full of people, and got to get Kate a blessing while she was having the seizure. So long story short--the ambulance and fire EMS decided that we needed to head to the ER, because she didn't have a fever. Her last seizure she didn't have one either-- but the doctor decided that her temp had bottomed out instead of spiked. And then no fever again today had all of us worried that her seizures aren't just related to fevers. So being in an ambulance is not a fun experience. But 4 or so hours later the cat scan, blood work, and vitals all indicated that Kate was normal. Yay-- no answers. So we have to do a follow up appointment with our pediatrician on Tuesday to get an eeg. Hopefully that will at least give me some answers. Please keep Kate in your prayers, hopefully we will find out what is happening soon and this excitement can be over once and for all!

Stress makes Daddy and baby sleepy! OH PS: Kate didn't cry when they did blood work at the hospital. The nurse said it was her first kid not to cry. They wrapped her up in the sheet to hold her still, but Kate just looked at them and watched them do it without trying to move or cry. She is such a trooper! The IV attempt in the ambulance was a different story however....she cried so hard I had to get on the bed and lay down like I was a patient.

Movin' on UP!

I feel I need to brag. Jon and I have reached a HUGE milestone in our lives. Our love is going to reach to new HEIGHTS. My dreams will forever be altered. I can feel the difference already in my life. I can barely put my feet on the ground. I am so high, I almost feel prideful! That's right friends, for the first time in 5 years of marriage, our bed isn't on the ground or comically high like our newly-wed apartment. We GOT A BED FRAME! I seriously feel so weird climbing into me bed...I see things in a different light. I feel like I am defying gravity in some small way. I, Sarah Walter, no longer am confined to the ground...I am like 6 inches higher when I sleep!
Yes, you should be jealous! Our bed can finally wear a skirt!