A Beautiful Woman

A few days ago, a wonderful and beautiful woman left this earth far too early, leaving behind three precious children and a lot of people missing her. Her name was Helena Kemp. I never had the pleasure to meet Helena in person, and I now wish I had. I knew her first through my PCOS moms list. I had been on the list when she joined, after the birth of her triplets, Jonathon, Madison, and Zoe. She was an incredible woman and I admired her greatly.

When I discovered I was expecting triplets, she was right there, ready and willing to help me in any way she could, even though miles separated us. She gave me priceless resources and was a wonderful role model for me. She honored me with a blog award in October, "You Blessed Me." It means a lot to have that from her...I had no idea I made an impact on her life, not near as much as she has made on mine.

About two years ago, her husband, Andrew, passed away unexpectedly. My admiration for Helena grew immeasurably by how she handled his death. We all try to avoid the thought of losing our spouse, especially when we are so young and have young children. She was an amazing woman, taking care of three children, some with special needs, and how she handled things for them.

Helena passed away on February 21 of complications following surgery to correct an aortic aneurysm. I am still having a very hard time adjusting to this. I cannot believe she is gone. I cannot believe I will never read another of her e-mails or blog posts. She was an amazing woman and she impacted many, many lives. She will be deeply missed and forever loved by many.

There are a few websites for her. Her personal blog, which is still up (I'm not sure how long it will be) gives you amazing insight into the woman who was Helena and greatly and deeply she felt for her husband, her children, and her God. That is www.thriceblessedmomma.blogspot.com. The other ones are new memorial sites that friends have started for her family and children, so they know how much she impacted all of us. The first is www.thriceblessedmommy.blogspot.com and the other is http://helena-kemp.last-memories.com/.

This has been an awakening to me. We do not know how long we have on this earth and have no idea when we are going to go. Please let your loved ones KNOW how much you love and care for them.

More Aidan-isms

Aidan has many hilarious sayings, as I have said before. Some are not exactly appropriate, so unfortunately, I cannot share them here. Let's just say last week he had Steve and I rolling with something he was explaining to us....not understanding exactly what it was that he was saying. And, of course, we have to keep a straight face, which isn't always easy.

It is with utmost respect to my loved one that I share this next story...and absolutely no disrespect intended, at all.

Steve watched the boys while I went to a doctor appointment. He and Aidan were picking up the living room, when Aidan found a five dollar bill. He is obsessed with money and so whenever he finds some, he tries to keep it (generally, if it's a dollar or less, he gets to keep it...not five). He asked Steve if it was George Washington on the bill. Steve said, no, that is Abraham Lincoln. Aidan said, "Oh, that's right. George Washington has hair like Granny." Steve said he had to try very hard not to start laughing...Aidan was referring to my Grandma, whom is known as "Granny" (compliments of a very small Austin) to all the great-grandchildren, and actually, now almost all of us call her that. It fits her. At first, I said "No way....Granny's hair doesn't look like George's!" Then, upon closer inspection of a one dollar bill, we could see where a four year old might get that mixed up.

And to Granny...you know how much we love you!! Even if your hair might, kinda-sorta, in a very hard-to-discern-way look like George Washington's!

Aidan's Songs

Aidan likes to sing his songs that he learns in school and "teach" me how to do them. He's really cute. Here is one he's been doing a lot lately.

Looking for beauty...

Sometimes, in the dead of winter in Iowa, it can get a little hum-drum. All I really want right now is spring...and I think that I am probably not alone. We have had snow storm after snow storm, with a few blizzards sprinkled here and there for fun this year. Every day, as I wade to the front door between piles of snow up to my mid-section (literally), I wish once again for spring to hurry up and get here! Today, however, I noticed something stunning (in my opinion) near our front door. I actually noticed it the other night, but thought it was a figment of my imagination. It's a huge ice sculpture in one of our front bushes. It's caused by all the somewhat "warm" (20 degrees) temps in between all the below zero freezes and the water that falls off the porch roof onto that bush. It is pretty, though, and right now, that's what I need.

WAY Behind

Our computer crashed, so I am finally getting around to updating (some) on here now. I have back-dated some posts, so if you want, you can check them out.

Our Little Climber

Ethan has been quite the little climber lately. The other day, I was out of the room for two seconds while they were eating breakfast. All of the sudden, I heard a terrible crash! I came running, and discovered Ethan on the floor...in front of Nathanial's high chair. Hmmmm.....that's odd. How did he launch himself way down there???

I was feeding them breakfast this morning, when I discovered the answer to my question. Ethan did not launch himself way down that way. No, not at all. He crawled on top of Noah's highchair, then Nathanial's, to get himself more food. Not that he didn't already have some on his tray...but hey, I guess that wasn't quite good enough. Then, he cautiously turns himself around, on top of the tray, to lower himself to the ground. Yeah, like there's a graceful way to go about that. Thankfully, I was standing there to witness this second attempt, so he did not fall.

He's also been gathering everyone's sippys, especially Noah's, but often times Nathanial's, also, on his tray, to leave his brothers without any. I have managed to get a couple of pictures of him in the act of stealing food. We have tried tightening the tray as far as it will go, tightening the little belt...nothing helps. He wiggles right out. Help!

Birthday Party!

The boys had a great time at their birthday! They were so fun to watch dig into their cakes. Noah dove head-first into it and ate his way out. He ate almost half of his little cake! Ethan started by trying to be neat, but quickly caught on to how Noah was eating and joined him! Nathanial was still ever the neat eater, daintily picking each piece off bit by bit, but was still filthy by the time he was finished! We have videos on the dropshots page, if you want to see them.

Nathanial picking:Ethan diving in:
Noah diving in: