Medicaid Mania, part deux

Since I got a lot of questions and interest in the last medicaid post, I'll give some tips here:

1. If you don't know where to start, start by visiting your state's government web site. Mine is kentucky.gov, and every other state has a "state name" dot gov. Texas.gov, Montana.gov, Northcarolina.gov, etc. Once there, I have found it nearly impossible to just navigate around the web sites and land upon anything about waivers, so the easiest way to find something is to just go to the search box and type in "Medicaid Waiver." That should bring up a lot of informations about different kinds of waivers.

2. There are usually several different types of waivers in every state. You might find an HCB (Home and Community Based) waiver, or a Katie Beckett ... there are lots of other names, but those two names are pretty common ones. Read all you can find about the requirements for the waivers before deciding which one or ones you might qualify for. Some are only for adults or only for children, some require an intellectual disability, which most people with Spina Bifida do not have, but up until a certain age, they can't assess IQ level, so sometimes they look at "developmental delays." That can mean delay in walking and such, so that can work.

3. Don't get too scared by language you find that says the child has to be at a "nursing home level of care." These waivers were started to keep children and adults who have special needs out of institutions, which doesn't happen as much anymore in general, and obviously very rarely for SB. So most states interpret this to mean that if you were suddenly hit by a bus tomorrow, your child would need a lot of extra care, some of which might even be medical. Obviously, if the child has a trach, vent, feeding tube, etc, you will easily qualify. Cathing is also one big thing that can help you get qualified--not that you're going to start cathing if the child doesn't need it specifically to get a medical card, lol, but if you are cathing the child, this will help. Otherwise, what they are looking for is the child's delays and how they are not independent (to an extent further than other children that age). He does not use utensils properly to eat, he cannot get in and out of the bath by himself, he does not brush his own teeth, he is not potty trained, he needs help getting up and down the stairs, he needs a lot of help calming himself when upset, he does not play with other children ... things like that. Now, some people might take this too far and either lie or not teach the child to brush his teeth to get the medical card :) but what I'm saying is that it is sometimes in the best interest of the child, even though it doesn't feel good for the parent, to point out every little thing he or she is delayed in so they can fully see the extent of the child's needs.

4. So when you've done your research, you might get a better understanding of the process you go through in your state to obtain the waiver. Sometimes/usually you start with a home health agency or a state agency on aging and disabilities. Your state's web site might offer a list of places to call in your area, but if not, one thing you can do is just google home health agency and your city to come up with a list. Some have web sites, and some will tell you if they work with the waiver program. Others you may have to call up and ask if they work with a waiver program. If they have no idea what you're talking about, they don't. :) But if you know that's the right place to call, simply ask to speak with someone about the waiver program and ask for an assessment.

5. Many states have two options: Standard (a home health agency provides respite workers for you, or you can have the person you want to be your respite worker to apply to work for the home health agency, and they'll only work for you), or CDO (Consumer Directed Option, which means they give you a budget and they handle all the money, but you can hire and fire whoever you want, and you pay them whatever you want ... you make all the decisions).

6. So someone will come out to do an assessment of the child, and you'll tell them all the things I talked about in #3. If the child qualifies, they will take care of getting you the medical card, because you need medicaid to cover the home health services ... making sense now? You may still have to go to the Medicaid office (here, it's called Community Based Services) and provide income information, but for a child, they look at the child's income, not the parents'. Most children of course do not have income, but if you get child support or SSI or have some sort of trust for the child, that could cause problems.

7. Now, there are some states, such as Texas, that require you to actually spend a night in a nursing home to assess whether the child really does meet a nursing home level of care. This seems to be rare. I've heard that New Mexico and Arizon are particularly shoddy in the waiver department. And there are many states, such as Tennessee, that have very long waiting lists. A long waiting list tells me that at least that state is making it easy for people to know about and apply for waivers. Here in Kentucky, if you're one of the few who finds out about the waivers, you can usually get one within a couple of months. Neither is a great situation.

8. Remember, this is a state thing, unlike SSI, which is federal and has the same rules from state to state. So each state has its own rules and programs. Oh, and it was also brought up that, because this is a state-by-state thing, if you move to a different state, you have to start all over again. When we moved to Tennessee for like a minute two years ago, we would have had to move to the bottom of the waiting list. Thank goodness we didn't stay there and could keep our Kentucky medicaid--I would have just died if all that work had meant we'd lose our card after having it for only 6 months!

If you have any other questions, or want me to help you find information about your state, let me know and I'll try to help.

Signed,
The Medicaid Maniac

While Mama's away ...

I LOVE the fact that Alisa and sometimes Blake take pictures of the kids throughout the day and email them to me! Here are some of the great pictures I've gotten since starting work. The comments in quotes are from Alisa. :)

Georgia swinging on our back deck.

"Nate in the sand... Still in pjs. He was all stoked for the park and then went and hid when I got his shoes. Wouldn't budge. He asked for sand, figured since it's bath day, the colateral damage will be small :). We already talked about 'going strait from sand to bath. Clothes come off outside!"

"Your kiddo was being cute."

This is how Blake got her to sleep one day.

"The best smile he would give me."

"Georgia in her zoo cave." (she didn't have sunscreen)

"Drawing a train outside."

"Nate and neighbor kiddos racing"

Nate was driving Georgia to his classroom.

How cute is this!!!!

Singing "She'll be comin round the mountain when she comes!"

"Georgia fell asleep in her high chair waiting for the milk to warm. I guess she wasn't interested in a full belly before nap!"

"Taking huge bites of yogurt all by himself!"

"G keeps catching her thumb between her fingers Between her fingers and it is blowing her mind. She just stares and stares at her stuck thumb and then pries it loose with her other hand."

"Mr. 'No, I'm not napping!'"

Nate used a big boy swing at the park today! Every now and then, he'd say, "Please can you fix my bottom, please?" (Alisa is working on him using full sentences!) and we'd scoot him back up on the swing.

He stood beside this tree and said, "Take my picture!"

"Your house is sacked out!"

"Hungry? No breastmilk? No problem! I can just eat my sock!"

Today I asked Alisa to bring the kids to my office to drop off something I'd left at home and also to feed Georgia. When Nate walked in the door, he immediately remembered the playgroups we've been to there and said, "Where are the toys?! Open that door!" I found him a few toys to play with, including a keyboard with microphone. He asked me to sing him a song. So I started singing "John the Rabbit" from our music class. After each line I'd sing, Nate would say "Yes, Maam." I'd sing "Oh John the Rabbit," and I put the mic in front of his face and he'd say, "Yes, Maam!" Me: "Got a mighty habit" Nate: "Yes, Maam!" Once instead of putting it in Nate's face, I put it to Georgia's mouth, and I swear if she didn't try to sing! It was hilarious.

Medicaid mania!

Everyone wants to be an expert at something, right? We all have that one special interest that no one else really cares about, but you could go on for hours about the Rocky movies, or the history of fonts, or the benefits of chiropractics, or the proper uses of there/their/they're. My latest growing area of expertise ... (dramatic pause) the Medicaid Waivers.

What is a Medicaid Waiver, you ask? Well, I can surely tell you! It's a type of Medicaid for people who have special needs. When you're talking about children, it is not dependent on the parents' income, so lots of people who would not qualify for regular medicaid can get a waiver. Not only does it give you extra health insurance benefits (ours is secondary to our private health insurance for Nate), it also provides things like diapers and wipes for kids over 3, or catheters; respite care, which is basically a glorified term for babysitting that gives the caregiver "respite" (and what parent, especially special needs parent, doesn't need respite?); personal or attendant care (which I don't want to go into right now because its a sore subject for me this week); and other types of help, depending on the person's needs.

When Nate was a baby, I tried to get him the Synagis shot to prevent RSV, which can be very dangerous to preemies (he was a 32-weeker). The shot was very, very expensive, to the tune of about $1,400 per month for 6 months. Our insurance *cough*UnitedHealthcare*cough* denied him, I appealed it, they denied the appeal, and I appealed it again, only to receive the call that they had denied it again as we were leaving the pediatrician's office with the news that Nate had been diagnosed with RSV. Two days later, he was in the hospital and was there for a week. During that week, I called up the nice insurance people and said, "I told you so" and "Wouldn't it have been cheaper to just give him the shot?" and "So, now I guess you want to pay for the shot for the rest of RSV season, right?" Hmm, nope. In addition to this, UnitedHealthcare would not pay for durable medical equipment, which includes orthopedic braces!

Anyway, it's obvious how I feel about insurance in general and UnitedHealthcare in particular, but during that whole ordeal, I heard that there was a type of Medicaid that would pay for Synagis, and it wasn't dependent on income. So I went to my local Community Based Services office to apply for Medicaid. They said, "Sorry, you don't qualify based on your income." I'm all, "But wait, I heard this kind of Medicaid didn't depend on income." They didn't know what I was talking about. They pulled several other people into the room to see if anyone knew what I was talking about. One said she had heard about someone doing this once. I KNEW this was a possibility, but I could not for the life of me figure out how to get it. A therapist told me the name of someone who worked at a home health agency, and I called her, just desperate to talk to anyone who knew anything about this. She set it up. She sent someone to assess Nate for home health services (I had no idea why), and because he qualified for respite care, he got a medical card. We didn't even want respite care, but we did want that medical card.

Medicaid has SAVED us. It pays for everything our insurance doesn't pay for--the hundreds of appointment copays, prescriptions, braces, diapers and wipes ... and now that respite care/attendant care/personal care is much appreciated! If Nate didn't have the issues he has, you bet his and Georgia's little bottoms would be in a nice daycare somewhere, but that just won't work for Nate so we have to make special arrangements. The Medicaid Waiver helps us survive financially almost like we didn't have the special needs to consider. The only thing it hasn't paid for is Nate's therapy, and that's because GreenHill is not a Medicaid provider (though they are trying to figure out how to be!).

But the troubling thing is that this resource is not accessible to most people. I was persistent to the point of being stubborn, and it still took me an entire year -- and just knowing someone who knew someone -- to figure out how to get the waiver that we qualified for. It makes me furious at the system when I talk to a parent and they are so worried about medical bills or being so burnt out from taking care of a special needs child 24/7, and I ask them if they have a Medicaid Waiver, and they inevitably say, "No, we don't qualify based on income." YES, YOU DO!!!! And it's my mission to let all Spina Bifida affected families in Kentucky know about this resource.

Last week I went to an information session about Michelle P. (one of the several types of waivers, and the one we happen to have for Nate) at the Council on Developmental Disabilities. I was sitting there, literally with my mouth hanging open, just blown away at all the resources that WE NEED that are available to us, but I didn't know about them. Then Tuesday, I had the opportunity to go to Frankfort (Kentucky capital) to advocate on behalf of Spina Bifida affected families with a national consultant asking what needs to be changed with the waivers. Then on Wednesday, I went to Lexington for the "Celebration of Disability Expo and Medicaid Waivers Fair" where there were representatives from each of the waivers to speak on a panel and individually with families.

First, let me say: I love my job. :) This just feeds my geeky obsession with Medicaid. I learned a lot about the waivers in general and even some specific information about our family's situation. I also learned that you pretty much have to have a master's degree in Medicaid Waivers to really understand the system, and I'm still at about a 6th grade level. BUT, I do know enough to walk someone through the process of applying in Kentucky, and we're hoping to do informational sessions for our SB families across the state.

So there's everything you probably didn't want to know about Medicaid Waivers, but I'll let you talk about Rocky II on your blog, and I'll talk about my area of expertise on my blog, kay? :)

The many faces of Nate

Try this with a kid--it's fun. :)

Happy face.

Sad face.

Surprised face.

Sick face.

(He made this face while saying, "I'm sick.")

Laughing face.

Puzzled face.

Hey, is that my butt?

Here's my silly little man.

Yesterday we went to church, and while Blake was taking Georgia to her Sunday school class, I took Nate to his. We always anticipate a bit of a fight about whether he's actually going to go in and stay (and Blake is kind of a sucker, so that's why I volunteered to take Nate, hehe). But when we got to his class, I could almost hear the angels singing when I saw sitting in the middle of a table a tub that had "Toy Trains" written on the side of it! He didn't even say bye, just ran in the room as fast as he could and almost knocked over the teachers.

After church, I took the kids to Toys R Us to buy 2 new car seats (ouch), and Nate was so funny: "Do you see those trains?! Look! Look at those toys over there! Oh my gosh, it's Sponge Bob the leggos! Ooh, I see a train over there!" And we somehow managed to leave the store with only the two car seats and no trains. As I was installing the carseats, Nate was sitting outside with me. Usually he picks at the grass or plays with the mulch, but I looked over and saw that he had pulled up an entire section of our beautifully blooming phlox! I told him he should go into the grass and pick those pretty yellow dandelions instead. :)

Oh and one other cute Nate-ism. Yesterday Nate was walking around in just a shirt and diaper when he first got up, and somehow his diaper fell off (Blake blamed the diaper-er). Nate looked back and said, "Hey, is that my butt?" Haha, yes, yes it is.

And here's my little handful.

On Saturday we went to the zoo, and when we got home, Blake went to work and the kids and I were hanging out at home. Well, Nate was in a mood where he was just crying about every little thing, and Georgia was being her precocious self. We were sitting at the kitchen table eating soup, and after Georgia decided she didn't like it, I gave her a bottle with some water in it. She was sitting in her bumbo seat on top of the table. Well, she dropped/threw the bottle in the floor, and Nate got so upset by this that you'd think she threw it at his face. "She dropped it, she dropped it! Whaaaaa!" So while I was trying to calm him and pick up the bottle, Georgia reached around and knocked over my glass of water. Oh, that just sent Nate over the edge. So again, I was trying to talk Nate down off his ledge while cleaning up the mess, and I picked up this basket that I keep on the table with Nate's craft supplies in it (one of those things that doesn't really have a place, so it goes on the kitchen table) and put it in the floor so it wouldn't get wet. I realized the water went under the bumbo seat, so I put Georgia in the floor since she wasn't eating anyway. When I finished cleaning up, I looked down to see that Georgia had gotten into the basket of craft supplies and somehow opened a box of these marker/paints that we have, and she was sucking on the neon green one. She had neon green paint all inside her mouth, around her mouth, all down her shirt, all over her hands ... ack! I was searching the box to make sure it said they were nontoxic (they are, thank goodness) while Nate was screaming, "Her mouth is green!!!!!" Okay, I wiped off the worst of it and set about putting the paints away and the basket back up on the table, and 30 seconds later, I turned around to see Georgia in the baby wipes pulling them out one by one ... and she was halfway through the box already! Lord help me.

Georgia, the little stinker!

This child thinks she's too good to just be a baby! She is 10 days into her 8th month, and she is pulling up on everything. Every time I looked at her this evening, she was standing up next to something. And then she either flips out cause she can't figure out how to get down or she faceplants and hurts herself.

This morning, Blake put her in her crib for a nap. We actually still swaddle her arms so she doesn't continually pull her paci out of her mouth. Well, he heard her talking and looked over at the video monitor to see her standing in her crib! Just a couple weeks ago, he lowered her crib mattress to the middle level, and now it's time to lower it to the lowest level or else she's going to dive head first into the floor. For her next nap (she takes like 4 a day still?) he wrapped her in two swaddle blankets in an attempt to stop her from pulling up :) but she really didn't like that.

She's also a big crawler now. Our favorite is when we leave the room and she crawls after us crying pitifully. Blake said this morning she crawled across the living room, through the dining room, and all the way to the other side of the kitchen and made a bee line for Maggie's food bowl! She is a handful!

And for all my SB mommies, let me say this. When Nate was a baby and I heard other moms complaining about how mobile their babies were, I just wanted to smack them. I'm definitely not complaining about Georgia--it's more like I am just in awe of this child after a complete opposite experience with Nate. It's a whole new experience, and Blake and I are just trying to stay one step ahead of our wild child.

On another topic, we've made a big decision about Nate's therapy. As of April 1, through no choice of our own, Blake's health insurance changed from Humana, which pays (after we meet a big deductible of course) for unlimited therapy, to UnitedHealthcare, which pays for 20 visits, and our "Horsey House" (Green Hill) is out of network. At most other therapy centers, our medicaid will pay the costs in full, but not at Green Hill because they're not connected to a hospital (medicaid rule). Last year we paid a couple thousand dollars for therapy, and this change will only increase those costs. Now that Nate is doing so well, we just can't justify the costs when Medicaid will cover 100% at another place. I'm really sad about this decision because we love Green Hill. His therapists are amazing, and they care so much about Nate. They call Nate one of their stars; they even used his story in their fundraising letter last year. And Nate took his first steps there. :( So I don't want to take Nate anywhere else, but that's life. Stupid health insurance.

Nate and I had our first big talk...

... and I told him he has Spina Bifida. It's not like I've tried to keep it a secret from him--I've brought it up casually many times, such as "We're going to our Spina Bifida playgroup. Did you know you have Spina Bifida just like these other kids?" and he'd say, "Yeah..." But he was too young to understand anything about it. Well, he's still too young to understand what it really means, but he's starting to understand a lot more than I give him credit for.

As I was putting him to bed tonight, I gave him his Keppra (seizure meds). He said, "Mama, am I sick?" I said, "No ... do you think you're sick because you're taking medicine?" He said yes. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Nate, did you know that you have a lot of really special things about you?

Nate: Yeah ... what? What special things?

Me: Well, first, you take this medicine because you sometimes have seizures. That means that sometimes you stare off into space and your brain gets a little foggy. Do you ever feel like that?

Nate: Hmmm. (thinking)

Me: Well, that's why you take this medicine, because it stops the seizures so you don't feel foggy and stare into space.

Nate: What else is special?

Me: You also have something called Spina Bifida. That means there was a boo boo on your back when you were really little, but the doctors fixed the boo boo.

Nate: I have a boo boo on my back? (feeling around to his back)

Me: No, not anymore, but you can see a line where the doctors fixed it. Do you want to see it?

Nate: Yeah!

We went to the bathroom, and I sat him on the sink with his back to the mirror so he could see his scar for the first time. Then we went back to his bed.

Nate: I have a boo boo. (very serious)

Me: No, not anymore. It doesn't hurt anymore. But because of the boo boo on your back, that meant you have had to work really hard to get your legs strong like they are now. That's why you go to the Horsey House (hippotherapy) and play with Miss Nikki. And you have worked so hard so that now you can run and jump and swim. And that's why you wear your car shoes (SMOs). Did you know that Mama doesn't get to wear car shoes, and Daddy doesn't get to wear car shoes, and Georgia doesn't get to wear car shoes? That's another thing that's special about you!

Nate: (smiling) What else is special?

Me: You're a really hard worker. Remember when you decided you wanted to jump? You practiced and practiced and practiced, and you learned how to do it all by yourself! I was really proud of you.

Nate: What else?

Me: Well, you talk A LOT. You know so many words, and you can talk all day long, more than anyone I know.

Nate: What else is special?

Me: You're a good big brother. You can make Georgia laugh, and she thinks you're great.

Nate: What else?

Me: Oh, something really special about you is that when the doctors fixed your boo boo, you were a little bitty baby in my belly. Remember when Georgia was in my belly, and my belly was really big? Well, you were that little and were in my belly once too. And the doctors went in and fixed your boo boo and put you back in my belly, and you grew and you grew and you grew until you were ready to be born!

Nate: Noooo, I'm not a baby. I'm a big boy.

Me: I know you're a big boy now, but you used to be a little baby.

Nate: Noooooo.

Then we read "I'll love you forever," which I actually think is a very creepy book, but it was appropriate tonight. And I started singing his favorite bedtime song, and he sang along with me.

Me: Oh, Nate, I just thought of another really special thing. You sing all the time. You sing like a little bird.

And for once, he didn't cry and complain as I left the room. He smiled and sang songs until he fell asleep.

Colleen and Nate meet Wendy and Cody

When Nate was about three months old, I found the Spina Bifida message board on babycenter.com. There was like one post, and I posted something with my email address. Soon after, I got an email from Wendy, who was having twins, one of whom had spina bifida. We have been friends ever since! She says Nate is Cody's inspiration, and I think Cody is a little hero! They have both come so far, and so have Wendy and I!

Well, last summer my dad started working up in Wheeling, about an hour from where Wendy lives. It turns out that the woman who diagnosed Cody's SB on ultrasound, who has become friends with Wendy, is married to a man who works with my dad! Didn't follow that? Well, trust me, it was a very small world kind of thing! In fact, when Nate was done with his walker, I sent it home with my dad, who gave it to Lee, who gave it to Jenny, who gave it to Wendy, and Cody has been using it ever since. :) Love it.

This past weekend when we went to Ohio to visit my parents, Wendy and I had the chance to meet in person for the first time! I was so excited to meet her and her family. It's so funny when you "meet" someone online and then meet them in person years later--It's like "nice to meet you" but we already know each other well!

Here's (left to right) Cody, Nate, and Connor (Cody's twin who does not have SB).

I couldn't tell if Nate recognized that that used to be his walker or not.

These two hit it off great.

We were just standing there, all 9 of us, in the middle of Cracker Barrel taking pictures of the boys and chatting, when we realized we had an audience. The people at the table next to us were watching, and the woman wondered why we weren't taking pictures of Connor too. :) I told her that Cody and Nate both had Spina Bifida, and that's how we knew each other and why we were taking pics of just them. Even though I've been Nate's mom for nearly 4 years now (wow), I'm still not really used to how people react about the whole SB thing. I dealt with it a lot more when Nate was using the walker because people noticed that--usually in a positive way. But for example, this woman in Cracker Barrel said, "At least it doesn't affect their minds!" And then, "I know a boy who's deaf, dumb, and blind!" It makes me laugh a little, because I know she genuinely meant well. I rarely get mad about anything anyone says--the only time I remember getting mad was about a little boy rudely asking "What's WRONG with him?"--and honestly I'd rather someone ask questions or talk about it than just stare or, worse, look away because they are uncomfortable. Anyway, then I looked behind me to see a waitress standing there, and I apologized for being in her way, and she said, "No, I'm just standing her watching them." It was sweet. Our boys were putting on a good show.

You can't go to Cracker Barrel without sitting in the rocking chairs.

All our kids! (That's Wendy's oldest son, Casey, in the back.)

There's my friend Wendy!

They look like two old men rocking on the porch together. :)

Then Cody said he saw Santa Claus!

There was this old biker dude with a long white beard, and Wendy's boys were convinced he was Santa! Wendy said, "You've been spotted, Santa!" and he was really nice about it. Casey showed him his Nintendo DS because that's what he brought him for Christmas. :) And as they were leaving the man said, "I'll remember you all this Christmas!" It was great!

Look at them!

It was great to meet you, Wendy and family!

Are you ready for this cuteness?

I have Easter weekend pictures to share! We went all the way to my parents' new house in Ohio, and it was a loooong 5 hour trip. Especially since the A/C in our car is broken, and we drove in the 80 degree heat with the windows down. Nate didn't mind--having his window down in the car is his new thing. He even fell asleep like this.

When we got there, Nate got to see his and Georgia's room, complete with bunk beds and a basket of trains. After dinner he helped Granna decorate cupcakes.

And we played outside in the gorgeous weather. (That's what hair looks like after blowing in the wind for 5 hours!)

Georgia doesn't like crawling on hard ground, so she bear crawls. I wish I would have gotten a picture of her trying to crawl on the wood floors--she couldn't get any traction and wound up so frustrated cause she couldn't move. :) This weekend was the first chance my parents have had to see her crawling.

Woohoo! Bubbles with Uncle Lucas!

Pop is so much fun.

What a sweetie.

Him too. :)

More excitement with Lucas!

Georgia is Nate's biggest fan.

By the way, she can now say Mama, Dada, Hi, and Bye bye.

Wearing her big girl pajamas.

Easter baskets, of course.

I looked up, and this baby was cruising along the furniture! :O She also learned to pull up, and she cut her first tooth! It was a big weekend for Georgia.

Saturday evening I "hid" (as in, threw around the yard) some eggs for Nate to hunt.

He picked up about five ...

... then just as I suspected, he was done finding eggs and sat down to play with grass.

"Seriously?!"

Which meant that we had to round up the other 45 eggs. What a stinker.

I bought Georgia's Easter dress last September. I was at a little shop and saw the most gorgeous dress on sale, half off. Well, I had my heart set on finding a hat for her to wear with it. A couple weeks ago I saw some Easter hats at Target, but I wasn't really Easter shopping that day and just made a mental note they were there. So on Saturday, my mom and I went on the hunt for an Easter hat. We started at Target, but they had sold out. Then Walmart, Kohls, JCPenney, Old Navy, Sears, Macy's, Kmart ... all in all, I hit 13 stores in two different states looking for a dang Easter hat the day before Easter. Finally, just as we were ready to give up, I wondered aloud whether Cracker Barrel might have them. We checked, and they did! (Cracker Barrel has such cute baby things, and I have no idea why.) And by the way, we had already been to a different Cracker Barrel several hours earlier for lunch, and we ended up right back at Cracker Barrel after all those other stops. Anyway ... are you ready for this cuteness?

And there's her famous sneaky smile.

And check out this handsome little man! I always have such a hard time finding cute Easter clothes for Nate. There will be a sea of beautiful dresses at every department store, and then one little rack of sweater vests and khakis off to the side for the boys. But I lucked out this year and found this cute little suit at Target! I think it's my favorite Easter outfit I've ever gotten for him.

We went to church, and Nate sat through about 10 minutes before making a huge racket, and Pop had to take him out to the lobby for the rest of the sermon.

Good thing he's cute.

I think we clean up pretty good.

Pops and Granna with the babies.

Mama and her two precious loves.

Three generations!

It's a clip-on, in case you're wondering.

This is my new favorite picture of all time.

It's so hard to crawl with a long dress on.

She'll grow into it. :)

Don't worry, she also had a hairbow on for when she wasn't wearing the hat. We had the accessories covered.

And here's Nate the politician shakin hands with the Easter bunny.

And it was a loooong drive home with the windows down, but we had such a nice time. Nate is on spring break this week, so he's headed down to Daytona with some of his buddies. Haha, just kidding.