I'm surrounded by sickies!

Well, Nate has been hinting that he wanted me to take a whack at writing the blog this week, so here I am! He is actually having a little nappie in the other room so he should be surprised to see that I am actually doing it!

Things in the Throop household have been running fairly smoothly. After the craziness of the holidays it is actually nice to have things back to normal. Nathan keeps busy with studying and preparing his Sunday School lessons. I try to be home as much as I can in the evenings (with the exception of Thursday nights when I have my class). Claire is becoming more and more independent every day which is fun to watch but makes me a little sad sometimes. Allie is now proudly displaying two bottom teeth and is rolling and scooting everywhere! It shouldn't be long before she is crawling and I'm sure she will be into everything. I have been working hard to train Claire to keep the little pieces of her toys put away, in anticipation of Allie being more mobile but it's amazing that kids survive childhood, with all the 'dangers' around the house.

I suppose that the most exciting things that have been happening are the following 3:

1. Lots of snow! It seems like the groundhog was right and winter isn't about to be over. On Sunday morning, February 3rd we had a huge snowstorm. Claire was sick so I stayed home with the girls but Nate tried to go to church. They held sacrament meeting and then sent everyone home. Nate got the car stuck in the driveway when he came back and he and the neighbors spent the next 3 hours trying to help everyone out. Last weekend Claire and Nate decided to take advantage of all the white stuff and they went out to build a snowman. It was Claire's first snowman, they had tons of fun.

2. Sickness everywhere! It all started with Nate's sore throat the last week of January. He ended up with strep throat and the flu. It knocked him out for 3 days! The girls and I tried to spend as much time at my parents' house away from the germs as we could. We thought that we had dodged the bullet but the next weekend Claire had a sore throat and fever. Yep- strep throat. Allie and I were afraid that we were doomed but we both seemed escape the germs. Just when we were all healthy again Nathan started to get a cold. Claire and Allie have both ended up with stuffy noses and coughs. And poor Allie, her cough is the worst one! Believe it or not, as of today I am the only healthy one in the family (knock on wood) and everyone else seems to be on the mend. If I survive this I will consider it a small miracle!

3. Happy Anniversary to us! On Friday Nathan and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary! It seems to have flown by in some ways, but yet we feel like we have been together for much longer. Our lives have definitely changed in the last 5 years, but we feel like it has only gotten better.

Well, that's all the news from the Throop homefront. Nathan should be back next week to thrill you all with his comical commentary. Love you all!