Is January Gone Already?

Ok, Ok, I know it's been forever since I updated. We've had a busy month! Christmas was wonderful at home with family, except for the stomach flu Kyle, Natalie and I got Christmas afternoon. It was awful for about 2 days, then we felt great... just in time for Grandpa Guy to get it! We didn't do much for New Year's and have been having fun in the snow, getting back to school and trying to stay healthy amid all the sick kids everywhere! Katie is recovering from some sort of accident yesterday. We were all playing outside and I noticed her holding her leg funny. She had somehow gashed it open and Natalie and I took her to Uncle Steve, who put about 15 or so staples in her. She's doing well and gets to come home today! It's always hard to see one of your favorite family four-legged friends injured like that, but she'll pull through. Next week Kyle has some mandatory time off, so we're going to head to Billings for 3 days to visit with Suzi and Lauren and their families. We've got a hotel with a great pool, so we plan on some pool parties in January. It should be as lot of fun, and the weather is supposed to stay relatively nice (that means not a lot of snow and below zero temps). We got a lot of snow here the last few days and had fun yesterday taking the snow mobile out. We have lots of fields and BLM land right outside our driveway, so we didn't even have to drive anywhere. It was Beckett's first time and he loved it! Anyway, here are some pictures to catch you all up on the last month. Beckett and Natalie have so much fun together, and he can run with her and give her a taste of her own medicine when he needs to! Hope you all had a great first month to 2010. What a great year we are looking forward to! Hugs to all.

Our family photo from snow mobiling yesterday.



Adorable Natalie, who is not such a little girl anymore...

And our curious Beckett who seems to get older by the minute!

A few weeks ago Beckett decided he needed to rub an entire jar of Vick's Vapor Rub into his hair. He was not a happy camper once those fumes wouldn't go away! He took the jar off the changing table when he woke up from his nap and didn't start fussing until it was almost all in his hair...
so after several washes I got the smell out, but could not get the greasy gook out. So I doused his head in baby powder to soak some of it up, then washed a couple of times with dish soap. It says right on the bottle "fights grease" and it worked pretty well! His poor little head was pretty red and irritated at the end of the day, though!
Not quite out yet...

And here they are being goofy. We tied their blankets around like capes.

It was so much fun to have Randy and Suzi stay a night in December when we had our Christmas party at our house. Good friends are such a blessing.

Nattie with her Godparents.

And here the kids are dressed up at Church Christmas eve. Natalie succeeded in setting her hair on fire the last 5 minutes during the candlelight vigil. Yes, a little excitement that evening. This is the first year we let her hold a candle, and Kyle was watching her closely (I was standing in the back with restless Beckett). She turned around to look at a little boy behind her, whisking her hair in the flame, and Kyle said a little blue flame just ran right up the side of her ponytail and went out. He freaked a little and started patting her head, and she had no idea what had even happened! All's well that ends well, though.

Our little church at Christmas Eve service. It will have its 100th anniversary this year!

Natalie in her beautiful dress Ipa bought for her last year. It was a little big last year, so she wore it again.

Nattie with Uncle Steve.


Here is Christmas morning at our house. Natalie was excited to get a computer from Santa!



Daddy in his new camo hunting mask.


Reading with Grandma Jill. Guy and Jill came over after services Christmas Eve and spent the night. Since Jill had to work Christmas Day I hosted dinner for the first time, and it was great fun... other than when I thought we all got sick because of my food. Not everyone got sick, so we figured it was a bug!


Natalie and her new Bryer horse from Grammie.

Beckett and Great-Grandpa Chauncey

Giving kisses

Grandpa got a new toilet seat from Santa!

Great Grandma and Grandpa Tharp (Grnadma Phyllis is wearing Natalie's pink cowgirl hat). That's the last month in a nutshell. We're excited to help Grandma Phyllis celebrate her 80th birthday on Valentine's Day in a few weeks! Then in March I get to go visit my sisters while Grammie comes to watch the kids for 5 days. What a treat! I am so excited! Have a good week and stay warm!