Kate's recent post on Jim's Beating The Cancer was about how much they love their dogs - Palmer and Major. Kirsten absolutely adores them too. She could never wait to take the dogs to the park with Uncle Jim when we visited. The little pipsqueak wanted to be in charge of walking one all by herself and loved to throw their ball until it was a total gross and slimy mess. (Then Uncle Jim clued her into using the lacrosse stick to throw the ball!)

Now this picture is a favorite of mine of Jim & Kate pre-human kids. You can see, just like she said, Palmer and Major were the practice run for them for real kids. Okay...well practice run for her. Jim was always a fan of kids and adored his niece from day one. He came up to the hospital and was one of her very first three visitors with my mom and dad (Mimi & Papa).