Nothing grows in the snow!

Okay, so I was checking out the blogs of some of our friends and family and getting really jealous! Matt and Melissa live in St. George and they have recently been to the lake, swimsuits and all. And then there's my cousin Jamie who lives in California and she has cute pics of her daughter at the park in shorts and a t-shirt. Do they realize that it snowed here today?!! I guess it is just another typical spring day in northern Utah!
Yesterday was a nice day, we worked in the yard most of the day and Claire had a blast playing outside. Nate said he was glad she is rediscovering her love of playing outside after being cooped up in the house all winter. As we were working in the yard I commented to Nate that I think my green thumb must be more brown than green because I definitely don't have the 'gift' to make things grow. I am planning to cover another of our flowerbeds with grass later on this summer. (Who puts 4 flowerbeds in one yard?!)
Our latest project is growing a little pot of strawberries on our kitchen table. Claire was excited to put in the dirt and the seeds and water them, but although I explained to her that it will be a LONG time before they grow, I think she checked them 15 times yesterday. Today she was sure that she could see something growing, but no, it was just a crumb. I'll be sure to let you know when/if we get a sprout!

Moooooom, I wanna ride the PONY!

Time for another entry in the ongoing saga of the ever-exciting, don't-you-wish-you-were-us lives of the Throops!

I know that in the last entry I mentioned that Allie is now a mobile little wave of destruction, but I felt like I just couldn't express the level of excitement she feels in her newfound crawliness. Imagine, if you will, a grin that is somehow both devilish and innocent at the same time, a grin that says, "As soon as your back is turned, I'm eating whatever I find on the floor!" and "You can trust me, I'm a good girl!" That's the grin she has as she sneaks (yes, she does sneak) around the house. That's the grin Kayley managed to capture in the above picture with Claire. Scary, isn't it?

Yesterday we went with Kayley's family to a local park/farm so the girls could see all the newborn animals. Right near the entrance there was a pony ride, and we made the mistake of pointing it out to Claire. Here's a quick tip for everyone out there who doesn't have a little girl yet but might one day have one: If you're not going to let her have a ride right then, DO NOT POINT OUT THE PONY RIDES!!! Claire had a great time holding and petting the ducklings, kids and lambs, but after each one she would ask, "Mom, can we go ride the horsey now?" I got to the point I would grit my teeth after each new animal in preparation for the inevitable plea, whine and pout. I felt like she wasn't just getting on my last nerve, she was using it as a trampoline. ("Mommy, I wanna ride the pony." "Not yet." "But, I wanna. Please?" "We'll do it when we leave." "Buy whyyyyyyyy? sob.")

Finally on the way out we stopped at the pony rides, and let her have her turn. I expected her to want to back out at the last minute like she often does with this sort of thing, but she surprised me by jumping right up and riding around with a huge grin on her face. On the way home she said in a wistful tone, "Daddy, I loved riding the horsey!" It may sound cliche, but that made all the whining worth it.


Not much new on the Kayley and Nate front. Kayley is still working on getting her reading endorsement and is having whole messes of fun teaching full day, even though she sometimes complains about a problem student named Nathan (Ah, the namesake lives on!). I'm still chugging away in biochemistry and will hopefully be able to get an internship down in Salt Lake this summer. It'll be hard being away from Kayley and the girls 5 days out of the week, but it'll only be for the summer, so we'll manage.

Well, that's the update!

After church today, Kayley told me in no uncertain terms that I was to get on that danged computer and write a danged blog! Some men may have been offended and not done it, but I, being the humble and obedient husband that I am, do hereby acquiesce and am now writing a danged blog.

Well, this last week was kind of a big one for the Throops because my WHOLE FAMILY came in from diverse locales for my nephew Kalon's wedding. If you haven't met my family you just don't understand the level of wierdness and political conservatism (in about equal portions) that entails. If you've ever seen the movie While You Were Sleeping, you'll get a good idea of what my family is like if you imagine the dinner scene where Bill Pullman and Sandra Bullock do nothing but laugh at everyone else. Now instead of a conversation about tall actors, make it a political argument in which no one is really taking the con side; everyone just talks really loud and fast to try and make the good observations first. Finally throw in a healthy dose of my dad's horrible (and I do mean horrible) puns. That's every family get together I've ever had, and I gotta tell ya', I love it!

Allie has decided that she's done with the whole waiting-for-Mom-and-Dad-to-pick-me-up-and- take-me-places thing. She is a crawler! I don't know how Kayley and I could have forgotten that when babies learn to crawl they require more supervision, not less. The other day I walked into the hall to see her quite happily trying to jam her finger into the only uncovered electrical outlet in the house.

Claire had a fun day yesterday finding Easter Eggs at Grandma Mary Kay's house. The entire neighborhood knew each time she found one because she would let out an earsplitting yell of, "MOM, I FOUND ANOTHER ONE!!!" It was interesting to me that even after finding twenty of them, the excitement was still almost more than she could handle. Evidently, the Law of Diminishing Returns has no hold on our Claire-bear.

Finally, we have had a hard time with being sick in the Throop household this winter. We've several colds come through, flu, strep and now we are graced with the presence of....Pink Eye! The girls and I have gotten everything we have been exposed to, while Kayley hasn't gotten even the sniffles. Right now I'm writing this post with eyes the color of a circa 1985 leotard. Hopefully, once spring rolls around, we'll start being healthy at last.

Well, that's the update! See ya' again next...well, whenever I feel like writing another!

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!