Christmas Time 2012

CHRISTMAS HAPPENINGS

It was a white Christmas this year in Montana.  We were blessed to spend it with our family in Colstrip, The Greens, and Tuff's parents, The Harris'.  We also made a few trips to see other family around eastern Montana.

Little Miss Claus.

Dale, Tuff's cousin who hosted us at his family's house for the past month and a half, and Grace getting ready for Christmas festivities.

The Green Family Christmas Eve.

Goofy photo with the Greens.

We scooted over to the Harris household in Colstrip (Tuff's parents) for some more Christmas Eve festivities.

Harris Family.

Senior Pic!  Haha.

Classic monkey family picture, taken every time this family gets together for a photo.

Pointing at each other.  We ran out of silly things to do I think.

Grace's first gift opening experience.

This is also her new smile.  Scrunch face.

Again with the scrunch face.

Grandma Merle Jean's family gathering in Hardin, Montana.  She was sick so wasn't present.

And of course the outtakes photo.

Grandma Merle Jeans lemon meringue pie.

Grace and mommy.  Where did she get those dark eyes from?

COLLEGE FRIEND REUNIONS

While in Billing we met up with a great college friend Richie.  He was on the track team with Tuff at the University of Montana.  We will get to see more of him as he will be around Billings.



We also met up with college friends Greg and Kelly Burfeind as they were visiting family and drove up from Denver.  Greg was also on the track team.

On the 28th we journeyed to Columbus, Montana to visit my dear friend/college golf teammate Jasi at her parents house.  She lives down in Phoenix now and was up visiting family for Christmas.  I spent just about everyday with this girl for the four years I was in college, at practice, in the dorms, etc.  It was so good to see her again.

GRACE UPDATE

Since the last update Grace now drinks from straws.

She also crawls everywhere.  And pulls herself up on everything and scoots around that way.

MAKING OF CHRISTMAS CARDS 2012

This year we went with the footsie pajama theme, as you can imagine we have a few of those around for Grace.  I found adult sized pajamas for Tuff and me at Target.

Some of the possible card candidates:  Tossing Grace your way for 2013.

Awkward family photo.

New Years yay!

I liked this one below but it didn't bring the comedy aspect as much as the finalist.

And here is the finalist!  We had a great time, as usual, putting them together.

We made the partial move to Billings and will be staying with Tuff's cousin Donnie and wife Kassia.  You will get to see more on this in the future and how our move is going.

Until next time...

Montana Continued

Still in Colstrip enjoying family and making some future connections and decisions.

Sunday Tuff traveled to Glasgow, Montana and spoke on adversity at their annual sports banquet.  He enjoyed the journey to Glasgow and the opportunity to speak.  He will have more similar speeches around Montana in the future.

A picture of his journey to Glasgow.  Looking out at Fort Peck Reservoir, Montana's largest body of water.

Grace Goodie is learning to move around.  Just about crawling and grabbing on everything to stand.  I'm not ready for her to go places.  I like her just sitting in one place!  Watch the video below.



Also as you saw in the video she's talking a lot more.  Words in her vocabulary (some clearer than others):

Daddy
Momma
Hi
Bye Bye
More
All Done

Some cute Grace photos.  She enjoys reading but doesn't realize the book is upside down.

Always a Griz fan.  Normally we'd be watching the Griz in the playoffs this time of year, however this year they had their first losing season since 1985, so no gold there.  NCAA FCS Semi Final Game is this Friday.  Its my little sister's college, NDSU vs. Georgia Southern.  Go Bison!

Loves dogs!

Tuff entered the social media world this last week.  We are both learning a lot from it, like hash tags and @ symbols.  Wow a whole new language.  He started a twitter account, @Tuffharris, and a facebook fan page, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tuff-Harris/303340916451822?fref=ts.  If you are on either of these social medias check him out.  Follow him and like him.  There is another Tuff Harris fan page out there on facebook and we are not sure who started it.  Tuff's official page has a profile picture and albums.  Enjoy.

Tuff is posting some old school videos from high school and some great photo albums on his fan page.  Here is an example of his latest post.  Tuff is a sophomore at Lodge Grass High School and is a wiry 175 pounds:



Totally missed a senior pic remake opportunity with the photo of Tuff below.  He's modeling a knit hat at Colstrip's annual Christmas craft sale by local artist Genevieve Red Shirt of Naked Sheep Boutique.

Submit your senior pic remake if you want to join in on the fun blog post I'm working on for the new year.  I only have about 8 participants so far.  Tuff suggested taking the pic at your place of work.  For example, if you are a pharmacist, take the remake in your uniform jacket and by the pills.  Need a reminder of the senior pic?

Montana

Just take in all that is the Eastern Montana/North Dakota border in the photo above; hey bales, snow, land that goes on for miles. We are in Colstrip currently, which is about 3 hours southwest of the border.  Still the same open space but a little different landscape.

I got the areal image of Colstrip (population 3000) below from sierraclub.org.  You can see the power plant stacks and coal conveyor belt take up most the town and are the main livelihood of the community members.  The power company, PPL Montana generates energy for its customers in Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.



On our journey out we stayed with my little sis Cydney in Fargo, North Dakota.  Notice our truck looks pretty little compared to our trailer.  Slow and steady is the name of the game.

Next stop was Glendive, Montana and we stayed with Tuff's Colstrip High School friends, Matt and Katie Shahan.  They gave Grace the Monte Bear stuffed animal you see in the photo below.  Its the University of Montana's (our alum) mascot.

The crazy thing is they stumbled upon it at a pawn shop in Medicine Lake, Montana (way up there in Montana, almost in Saskatchewan, Canada).  If you look close, you'll see a signature.  Tuff Harris #13.

Throwback from Tuff's football days in college.  Matt and Katie said they had to get it!

From Glendive it was just another short three hours to Colstrip.  On one of our gas station stops Grace tried on some adorable hats.

A lamb of course!

Polar bear.  Haha.  I think they are made for bigger heads.

Eventually we made it to Colstrip, Montana.  Again slow and steady.

For Thanksgiving we enjoyed a great family meal at Tuff's parent's home.  It also happened to be his niece, Kaydee's third birthday.  She's the one with the green daisy headband.

There's the princess again!

All the granddaughters were told to wear their tutus.  So we had to take a group photo!  Well, none of them turned out.  Its hard to get five year old and under to all pose cute for a photo.

Grace's auntie Jeri Lyn spoiled her and gave her a bunch of hand me down toys and clothes, including the adorable Carhart overalls in the photo below.

For black friday we opted to go to Sheridan, Wyoming with our host family and enjoy their annual Christmas Stroll.  It was a brisk night but really fun to walk main street and see all the shops and vendors.

Grace even tried on a Wyoming Cowboys hat.

Only in Sheridan would there be a live size horse for a window display.

And since we were in cowboy town, Grace shopped for cowboy boots.  But her mother said no.  Haha.

Mary and Grace taking a pit stop in one of the Sheridan stores to warn up.

A great toothy smile and bundled up.

Sunday of last week disaster struck and Grace's "Lambsickle" as we call it, was no more.  Tuff tried to take it away from her and Grace tried to keep it, both pulling to the opposite end and BAM, just like that the nook tore off the lamb stuffed animal.

It used to be attached to the mouth.  Lucky for us Grace is growing out of the pacifier stage so Lambsickle is not such a big deal.  But I think its a bigger deal for Tuff and I so we ordered a back up, Lambsickle II (on its way thanks to Amizon.com).

Monday we journed to Billings, Montana (about 2 hours from Colstrip) and spent the night with Tuff's cousin and wife Donnie and Kassia.  We were on our way to Bozeman (another 2 hours past Billings) the next day to visit an old college roommate/teammate of Tuff's, Chris and his wife and baby Tsveta and Reagan.

The photo below is of the Crazy Mountains.  Just one of the many beautiful mountain chains of the Rockies.

These photos are so cute of Tuff and Chris each carrying their babies.  Reagan is 3 months old, Grace 8 months.

Chris and Tsveta were visiting family in Helena, Montana all the way from Washington DC.  We last saw them three summers ago, when we ventured to DC from Pittsburgh.

When they meet again they will look so different.

                                                                                             

Until next time...