Changes

I've been told that new pictures of Grant need to be posted, so . . . . . . Here's a new one of him - highlighting his newly repaired lip and the wonderful job the doctors did.

Grant in his robe after bath

Andrew thought he had to join in the picture too.

As far as other news goes, some of you already know the biggest news where Tyler is concerned, but others may not. We will be traveling back up to Kansas City for him to have surgery on his left foot March 18 (the first day of spring break). Dr. Olney will be closing the "cleft" some in his foot. He's been having a difficult time finding shoes that feel good and the doctor feels that will only get worse as time goes on. We've felt for some time now that his foot is spreading farther apart and had that confirmed at the doctor. Tyler is NOT excited about this and was quoted as saying, "I don't want to go to the doctor. Every time I go they tell me I have to have surgery." Unfortunately, that did happen again. We are sorry he feels that way and hope someday he will realize that our ultimate goal was to make things the best they could be for him! I do feel confident someday he'll realize that, it's just difficult right now for him to see the "future". This surgery will require an overnight stay in Kansas City at Children's Mercy Hospital (we will become very familiar with that place). Please keep all of us in your prayers: knowledge for the doctors, understanding for Tyler to know why this is necessary, words for us as parents to help him get through it, and understanding for all of us through his recovery as he'll be on crutches for 4-6 weeks. They will look at doing his other foot at a later date, but we'll probably wait until after summer due to swimming, baseball, a big trip for us to Washington DC, etc.

Ryan's basketball team is on a 2 game winning streak! It is amazing to see the improvement they are making. We are so proud of their gains and the individual development Ryan has made since last year. His high game was 8 points, and he's playing point guard some of the time. Never thought he'd be a point guard, but he's doing a good job. It's not a position I expect him to be in forever, but for now it's working. It's just fun to see his team work together and achieve a mutual goal of winning. He's truly enjoying it (although we're unsure how excited he is that his mom is on the sideline as an assistant coach). Thankfully, someone else has taken the head responsibility.

Turning Two

Well, Mr. Andrew had his 2nd birthday on January 5. Amazing how time flies!!! With Grant's surgery so close to that date and Christmas and stuff, we chose to wait and celebrate this last weekend. On Sunday we had a come and go time for family and a few close friends. I have to admit that Andrew wasn't too thrilled about opening too many gifts (I guess Christmas was too close). The crazy thing is that after he opened the package, he'd then hold the gift up and say, "Open this, open this". He did enjoy his cake (made once again by Uncle Kent) and ice cream. The cake (a combine) was a request by Andrew --- although we aren't sure he remembered that he'd said he wanted a combine. When they are 2, you just go with the first thing they say. Here are a few pictures of the occassion.

Opening presents

New "Eat, Sleep, Play KU" shirt

Does this look like trouble? We keep thinking he will be our broken bone, stitches, ER, etc. child anyway. Now he has roller skates (knee and elbow pads came with it). We're hoping we won't be going to the ER anytime soon. He does fine on carpet, we just won't let him loose on the wood floor or outside on the cement yet.

Holidays

It seemed like the holidays flew by, and we didn't even get any "holiday" information posted. So, here's a short little update. We were very blessed this holiday season being able to enjoy it with a new nephew, in our new home, and having numerous Christmas gatherings there. We felt very fortunate to spend the holidays with all of our family and top it off with the Goering Christmas Gathering on the Sunday that we left for Kansas City. Here are some pictures.

The kids in front of the tree. Notice how happy Grant is to have this picture taken. Hope that isn't an indicator for his excitement about pictures all the time or it could be a rough life.

The items on the list that were fulfilled for Tyler and Ryan --- football jerseys.
Tyler ended up with Romo AND Manning, Ryan ended up with
Johnson AND KU quarterback Reesing. They were VERY excited!

Andrew's first "moving vehicle" - a tricycle --- he was on the go before and
now when he catches on to this, it will be all over.

The Huxman great grandchildren --- Ryan (oldest) holding Ian (youngest), Sloan,
Tyler (2nd oldest) holding Grant (2nd youngest), Luke, Parker, and Andrew.
They did a great job posing and had a wonderful time playing together in the basement.

The Goering Great-grandchildren: Luke, Ryan holding Ian,
Tyler holding Grant, and Andrew. It was impossible to get one of all of them
looking at the camera. This time the 2 year olds (Luke & Andrew)
are both contemplating what they might do next --- huh?

Our newest nephew (cousin to the boys) Ian Milo Huxman, born to Brian and Cori Huxman on December 18. It was wonderful to have him sharing his first Christmas with us this year.

On the 23rd we celebrated Chris' grandpas 90th birthday. He informed us that he has lived longer than anyone else has in his family. What an accomplishment.
This year we had the "oldest" and the "youngest" member of the Goering clan for the reunion.
The amazing thing is to think that Ian and Great Grandpa
are almost exactly 90 years apart in age - WOW!

We had to get a picture of our children with Great grandpa on his special day.
4 generations is quite an accomplishment.