Well, another week is gone again! A recap of this week can be summed up with colors...Nattie's nose is still running bright green and Kyle's ankle is a lovely shade of purple after twisting it playing basketball. It's still really cold here, but we've had heat the whole week! Nattie has been having fun checking cows with Daddy every day since Grandma and Grandpa Tharp are visiting Cousin Madison in Nebraska, and Beckett's teeth are bothering him on and off. We had some fun play dates this week, and I had my first parent-teacher conference for Natalie! Wow, that does make me sound old. Anyway, iy was so fun to hear someone else talk about how she is when I'm not around because the only perspective I ever get is from being her stay-at-home mom. She's really good at counting and naming her shapes, and it surprised me when she said she has a hard time doing large group activities sometimes. She's great in small groups, though, which is just fine. I'm just so glad she has a great place to start her school journey.

Not much else is new here. I'm headed to a movie with Mandy tomorrow afternoon and we're looking forward to Grammie's visit Feb. 11 and our trip to North Carolina with Auntie Hannah in March to visit Nana and Papa Brooks. We are all happy and (relatively) healthy and hope you all are the same. Please keep in your thoughts and prayers little Tanner Griemsman, our friend's new one-month old baby who is hospitalized with a bad respiratory infection called RSV. What a horrible thing to see your new baby struggle to breathe. Hugs to all.

Here is the video of Beckett and his girlfriend Blake from our trip last weekend.

"We seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom." ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Girl Time!

Well, we had a really fun trip to Montana this past weekend, despite 2 degree weather and lots of snow! I got to hang out with Suzi and Lauren most of Friday and Saturday, then bummed around Lauren's again Sunday while I waited for Kyle to finish his tournament. It was so much fun! It's hard to believe we've known each other for 10 years this year and now we all have babies the same age! Those college days are long gone, but it's fun to laugh about them now. Kyle and I got to meet Gracie Ella, born in November. She is such the opposite of her big sis Claire. Gracie has red hair and blue eyes and still looks like a newborn because she's so tiny! Lauren's little Blake, born in August, is growing like a weed and has lighter hair now than when I last saw her. We have some great video of her and Beckett "talking" to each other. They're sitting in the same chair, touching each other's faces and just having a great old time. As soon as Brune sends it to me I'll post it. I missed my little Natalie dearly, but she had fun with Grandma and Grandpa, naming all the new calves Panda and Bambi and freckles. Here are some weekend photos...

Suzi, Jess and Lauren... now the college mommies instead of roomies!

Beckett visiting with Gracie...

Suzi and Gracie...

Momma and Beckett...

Beckett was really struggling with teeth last week and screamed almost all the time and quit sleeping! I thought for sure he had an ear infection or something, but he got all checked out and was diagnosed as an early teether due to his swollen gums and constant hand-chewing. Tylenol and teething gel helped a little, but he finally got some relief when that bottom tooth decided to go down again instead of poke through. Hopefully this will get easier for him. I don't remember Natalie having that much trouble, but they say it's different for each kiddo. At any rate, he slept a lot on our trip catching up from his lack thereof last week. He also tried his first rice cereal last night and ate a few spoonfulls. Our little man is sure growing fast!

As Nattie told her teacher this morning, "We had an adventure last night!" We sure did. The power went out last night, and after a few hours the temperature in the house had dropped a lot, so at 4:30 this morning I packed up the kids and headed into town to Mandy's house! I knew I could count on her, and I thought Brad would be working nights, which he wasn't. Anyway, we camped out in their spare room under the electric blanket and came home about 9:30 this morning once all was restored to normal. Being without power isn't that big of a deal...unless it's 28 below zero! Yes, it is very cold here now, and we were worried about the kids getting too cold and having no warm bottles for Beckett. Natalie kept asking why our house was broken, and we told her hopefully it wouldn't last long! When Kyle called in the wee hours they said they didn't know how ling it would take, but luckilly not longer than it did because we were worried about the pipes freezing. Anyway, THANKS BRAD AND MANDY for letting us invade your home.

Not much more news from us. We hope you all are staying happy and warm! Hugs to all.

Quick Update

I don't have any new pictures to post from the last few days, but thought I would give a quick update on Natalie's appointment from Wednesday.

The specialist was very nice and confirmed what I had suspected but just wanted to check out. We are doing everything right with Natalie's tummy problems at this stage. The medication will not have any longterm effects, and we should just keep on it, reducing the dose in the future as long as it keeps working. She's only thrown up twice since being on it, so that is really good. There are no indications that she may have other problems like an ulcer, but if she still needs medication next year we will run some more tests. She said two percent of kids won't grow out of it (most do by age 2) so she may have these issues for life. As long as we stick to her good diet and do what we can to keep things normal, she should be fine. Natalie was very talkative and good in the office and loved the talking parrot in the waiting room! It was a cute African Gray named Morgan who gave Natalie a high five. That was the highlight of our quick trip.

Anyway, we have a birthday party tomorrow and are looking forward to our trip north next weekend! We are all still trying to get over the nasty head cold that's been hanging around for weeks now, but other than that we are just fine and dandy. Hope you all have a fun weekend. Hugs to all.

I Can Roll Over!

Yes, Mr. Blue Eyes can officially roll over. We got home from hauling calves Wednesday afternoon and it was just the two of us (Kyle was at work and Natalie was with Grandpa in his truck and trailer getting ice cream after the hard day's work...). He was on the floor under his activity gym and I glanced over and thought to myself that he looks like he just might finally do it. So, I ran to get the video camera and he was on his belly by the time I got back! He thought it was OK for about a minute or so, then he decided he wanted to be back on his backside and couldn't figure out how to do it. He hasn't done it since.

4 months old!

Hope you all have had a good week. We sold calves yesterday and spent the better part of the day at the sale barn. After school Natalie joined us there and we had lunch, played with stray kids and kitties and finally fell asleep on the benches listening to the auctioneer. Once our calves went through we headed home with Daddy. It was a fun day. I love sale barns (really, no joke)! I'm now coming down with the head cold Kyle and Natalie had last week, so hopefully Beckett won't get another round of it too. We've had a great first week of 2009 and are excited to get out of town next week. On Wednesday we'll take Nattie for a consult with a pediatric gasteroenterologist just to be sure we're on the right track with her tummy issues. She's been doing really well on her new medicine, so we expect things to go well at the consult. It's Daddy's day off, so he gets to go with us! We're also so excited about our trip to Laurel/Columbus the following week!!! Hugs to all.

"May the spirit of Christmas stay with you through the year of 2009."

Welcome Tanner

Forgot to mention that we are so happy that Tanner was the New Year's baby in Worland! My good friend Cassidy had him January 1, and we are excited for Beckett to have a little buddy now! Congratulations and welcome Tanner Levi Griemsman!!!

2009...Here we come!

Happy New Year! We hope you all had a safe and fun celebration...we made it to 10 o'clock, then we called it quits! Kyle has been in North Dakota for the week, so the kids and I headed out to Hyattville. We ate dinner at the Paintrock in Hyattville and then spent the night, but I figured hearing the new year celebration in Greece on the radio was close enough for me. I get so worn out being by myself for the week. Anyway, it was a fun visit, despite Nattie picking up a head cold, which she probably got from Daddy before he left. But we're all excited today because he's on his way home right now!


Here is our last picture of 2008 before we went to dinner New Year's Eve.

I put a video of each of the kids on for all of you who live far away and can't see how fast these kiddos are growing up! Beckett is 4 months old today, and his smiles and laughs just keep getting bigger and better. His video is of him in the bath last night "talking." Natalie's video is of her dancing last week to one of my bluegrass albums. She likes to dance in front of the TV because when it's off she can see her reflection. She is just as energetic and fun as ever and is starting to like board games.

We hope you are enjoying the first week of 2009 and that everyone is happy and healthy. We are so grateful to have our health, great friends and family to start this new year off. Hugs to all!

My new quote to live by for 2009 (at least try to remember it every day): "Make up your mind to be happy." I just have to remember that perfection is not a good goal, but doing the best we can with what we have is. Cheers!