How would it be?

This is our puppy Boog, as you can tell boog can be a very lazy puppy at times. He's got such a funny personality and we get a real kick out of him.

Boog loves laying in the sunshine to bask in the heat of the day. (that sounds funny because it's freezing here right now). He spends a lot of his time following the sunny spots to lay in around the room.

The other day we had our fireplace on and we didn't know where he'd disappeared to. When we found him, he was on the floor by the fireplace soaking up the heat!

Latest Updates..

Not a lot is going on here with us except for a couple random updates, so here they are.

Brock and I got released from the Sunbeams recently and got new Church callings. We are going to miss our cute little sunbeams but we are excited for a change of pace.

1.Brock has been called to be the 1st Counselor in the Sunday School Presidency and I'm an Activity Day Leader. Neither of us quite know what our roles are going to entail yet, but we are excited.

2.I'm going to be working full time now instead of part time. We had some things change in our office and they offered me the extra hours. I'm excited for the extra money that the hours will provide but I'm also a little nervous about how I'm going to balance everything. (I've been spoiled to only have to work P/T since we've moved).

That's all the news I've got!

Gotta Love Montana Style...

I've been meaning to post this picture for a couple months but just haven't gotten around to it until now.

No matter how many times I stop at a stoplight next to a dude on a four wheeler or a dirt bike, I will always have a good laugh.

Yes, I saw this guy and stop on a green right turn light to take this picture. I couldn't pass up the moment again! I'm sure he thought I was a freak and I'm sure I had a bunch of ticked off people stopped behind me....but I didn't care!

Oh and YES....it's completely legal to drive off road vehicles on the streets like cars.

Christmas Vacation

The Christmas Season this year flew by so quickly, I can't believe it's already January! Brock and I left home Christmas Eve and drove down to SLC to spend Christmas with my parents. Before bed on Christmas Eve, we opened our Christmas P.J's (thanks mom & dad), threw Reindeer Dust on the roof and drank hot chocolate.

Christmas morning we opened gifts with my mom & dad and enjoyed the afternoon together. My sister Lynette and I were in charge of our family Christmas party that night at my mom's, so we spent part of Christmas day putting things together for that.

Christmas night we had our party and dinner. We had a Caribbean themed party and dinner. It was so nice to spend the night with my siblings and their families.

We spent the remainder of the weekend in SLC at my parents and enjoyed eating out, shopping and going to the movies. On Sunday morning we headed down to Brock's parents to spend a few days there.

We had their family party and dinner on Sunday. All of Brock's siblings were there with their families (except for one of Brock's brothers) even Shilo and Devin made it from West Virginia!!! We had a super fun time being together as a family.

We drove back to SLC to ring in the New Year! We went out to eat with my parents and my brother Jon and his wife and then went to my brother Mike's for the New Year Celebrations. We stayed up until Mid-Night and watched as fireworks filled the valley.

Thursday we were able to meet up with our old friends Brian & Candice and their cute kiddies. We met up for lunch to catch up with each other, it was a much needed visit!

Friday the 2nd, my Nephew Jake went through the Jordan River Temple for the first time so we were able to be there for that too! After the Temple we packed up and drove to Idaho for Brock's cousin's wedding. It was fun to see a lot of family and friends in Idaho.

We finally pulled into our garage at 12:30am Saturday morning, after being away from home that long we were super excited to be home.

We had a great time in Utah with friends and family, but Brock thinks we should go on a Cruise next year instead! Bransen & Brinlee throwing Reindeer DustBrock on Christmas morningKadence was helping Uncle Brock with the computer

Our niece Kindred has gotten so BIG since we saw her last!

Our niece Bella...I love her hair! She has so much hair at just 3 months, she plays with it to put herself to sleep. You can kinda tell in this picture.
All the girls in my family out to lunch at Rumbi's

We went through West Yellowstone on our way home and it was covered in tons of snow, we couldn't believe how much snow they have.

We thought it was so funny that people drive around on their snow machines in West Yellowstone, we had to take this picture of this guy getting gas.

Brock's main gift didn't come until after we got home. He was surprised to get some ALE81 all the way from Kentucky!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas Parties

December is always filled with parties of every kind; work parties, neighborhood parties, Church parities and family parties. As much as we like to "party", sometimes it's nice for all the festivities to end and to just relax at home. However, isn't that what's so great about December?

We had both our work parties, one with the Dental Group and one with the Fargo Group. We went bowling with the Dental group and Pete ( my boss) bought us lots of food and drinks. It was a lot of fun to hang out and bowl, although, my arm was a little sore by the end of the night!

As far as the Fargo party goes....that was a little more stressful! Brock and I had the party at our house, which meant a lot of WORK for me. I was exhausted by the time people started showing up, but I still managed to have a really good time. We ate a yummy dinner and played a fun white elephant game to end the night.

The WFF GroupTyler was disappointed to open his white elephant gift which was just a roll of T.P.

Conor and Derek got a complete make-over kit: Bath and make-up supplies.

Kim & Lucy

Our Christmas Tree

This Christmas Season is going by so quickly and Brock and I have been sooooo busy! We are enjoying all the fun that this time of the year brings and feel really blessed to spend a lot of time with family.
A couple weekends ago we went out to a nearby canyon to cut down our Christmas Tree. We hiked around for a long time until we found the perfect tree. This tree is by far the best tree we've ever cut down and is actually perfect on all sides. (no need transplanted branches to fill in any gaps.heheh) You can't beat a 9 foot tree for only 5 bucks.

Decorating our tree this year was quite an ordeal, it took forever to get the lights on right and we had to use a ladder which made it kinda tricky! It's done now and we love it.

We'll Miss You Grandma

My Grandma Bennett passed away on Sunday morning and we are going to miss her very much.

Grandma has been ready to go for some time so it's bitter sweet for all of us. I'm excited for her to re-united with my Grandpa Bennett who has been gone for about 25 years. One of my most precious memories of my Grandma is her love for Grandpa. She spoke of him so sweetly and has missed him greatly since the day he left this life. He was perfect in her eyes and in essence perfect in mine. Grandma has been looking forward to being with her "Sweetheart" once again for many years, so I'm happy for her.

It's always hard to lose a loved one but there's something different about losing a Grandparent. Grandparents are the people in your lives that seem to love you unconditionally. My Grandma Bennett loved me and I always knew it. She was very vocal with her feelings for her kids and grand kids and we all new we were her "little sweethearts". I love her too and I am going to miss her more than words can say. However, I am grateful for being blessed with such a good woman to influence and bless my life. I'm a lot like my Grandma in many ways and I will always cherish those characteristics.

Grandma had a very spunky fun personality, she always had us laughing. I have very fond memories of spending time with her one on one and she always made me feel special. I loved to sleep at Grandma's because I got to sleep in her bed with her and in the morning we always had eggs, bacon and toast with some sunny delight! (and I got to drink all the Diet Coke that I wanted....heheheh)!

I love you Grandma and look forward to being with you again!

Grandma, my Dad, Grandpa and Uncle Ron

Dad, Grandma, Grandpa and Ron

Grandpa Bennett

Grandma Bennett

Grandma Bennett and me at my 17th Birthday Bash! We had a fiesta in my parents back yard and everyone dressed up.

Grandma and me at my wedding.

Grandma at my brother Jon's wedding.

Grandma enjoying a Diet Coke with me at Jon's wedding.

I got to have a long good visit with Grandma this spring when I went home to Utah for a couple weeks. We had a lot of laughs and she knew who I was. (she was confused sometimes about who was who) We took this picture with my phone and she looked at my phone and then looked at my mom's and said " I can tell you have the cheaper of the two". Silly Grandma!

Grandpa Belnap

Brock's Grandpa Belnap passed away on November 24th at home in Idaho, so we spent most of our Thanksgiving weekend in Idaho with family. Grandma and Grandpa Belnap have a very large family so it was fun for Brock to catch up with some cousins he hasn't seen in a very long time.

Grandpa's funeral was very touching and quite spiritual. They did a military tribute because of his service in WWII, that was super neat and very touching as well. He was such a good man and a really fun Grandpa, Brock always tells silly stories about Grandpa and his teasing and goofing around. We will miss him and look forward to being with him again!

I'll never forget the first time I met Grandpa, he instantly pulled me in for a giant hug and a kiss and said "I'm not crazy.....I'm just half crazy!" He was so lovable and funny!

Brock and I with His parents and grandparents at the BIG Belnap Family Reunion this past summer.

Grandpa Belnap was a scoutmaster for many years and he loved it.

I'M GRATEFUL FOR GOOD PEOPLE

We all know how hard it can be to move to a new unfamiliar place, away from family and close friends. It seems like no matter where you go there can be a kind of "loneliness" due to unfamiliarity. The streets, stores and people can for a period of time seem so foreign.

These are some of the feelings I had when we moved to Montana. We've been here over a year and a half now and those feelings since fled and I love it here. Sometimes though, no matter how happy you can be with a home, neighborhood, neighbors, co-workers, ward and friends, you still miss having family close by. Especially as Thanksgiving and Christmas get closer the desire to be closer to family grows.

However, the friendships we've built here have become so important to me and many of these people have become "our family away from home", and have made Montana our new home.

I started thinking about all this last week when my close pal Kirsten made Brock and I Sunday dinner. She prepared a very nice meal and called and asked if we wanted it for dinner. She was going to deliver right to our door but I couldn't let her do that too. I went and picked up the COMPLETE meal and brought it home to eat. It was maybe one of the most kind thoughtful deeds anyone has done for me. (I must mention too...Brock and I were both physically and mentally sound, so it wasn't a "sick person" meal).

Basically it's nice to have people around that you can count on no matter what, especially when family isn't around to help you out. I sincerely believe that the people in our lives are here to help us and we should be there to help them in their lives.

HUNTING FRENZY!

AS YOU MAY KNOW, BROCK'S BEEN HUNTING THE LAST FEW WEEKENDS FOR A WHITE TAIL BUCK. LAST WEEK HE WENT OUT A COUPLE MORNINGS REALLY EARLY WITH A FRIEND TO HUNT NEARBY OUR HOUSE. THE 2nd MORNING OUT, MATT GOT HIS BUCK BY CALLING HIM BY RATTLING ANTLERS TOGETHER. THE NEXT MORNING THEY WENT OUT AGAIN AND CALLED IN BROCK'S BUCK THE SAME WAY.

BROCK IS SUPER PUMPED TO HAVE HIS MONTANA WHITE TAIL AND WE ARE NOW IN THE PROCESS OF GETTING THE MEAT PROCESSED AND PACKAGED FOR US. (I won't allow cutting up an animal in my kitchen...YUCK!) IN RESULT WE ARE NOW IN THE MARKET FOR A FREEZER TO PUT ALL THIS MEAT, SO IF YOU KNOW OF ANY GOOD DEALS LET US KNOW!

NOW BROCK IS FOCUSING HIS HUNT FOR A BULL ELK OR A BLACK BEAR, SO WE'LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS.

WARNING: DEAD DEER PHOTOS BELOW

Hunting Season

From Hippies to Hillbillies...we do it all! The past couple weekends Brock and I have ventured out to the surrounding mountains for some hunting. (I believe this is what we are going to be doing with the rest of November on Saturdays...lucky me). We've done A LOT of hiking and I have been feeling muscle aches I've never experienced before! We are hunting for Mule Deer, White Tail Deer, Elk and Black Bears, apparently Montana lets you do it all at once! However, we have yet to see any animals that are NOT behind NO HUNTING signs. Plans are we'll shoot what ever we see first. When I say "we" I mean Brock. I have never witnessed a killing of animal and am pretty worried of how I will handle it. I'm just around to keep Brock company and am not really into the whole "redneck" hunting thing. I do enjoy getting out and hiking and seeing more of Montana though. Who knows....maybe my feelings will change after the whole experience, maybe I'll really like the hunting thing. We'll see?

I had to take a pic of this HUGE pine tree.

(We were hiking through lots of huge trees like this).

Views from on top of the mountain we hiked

BOO!

We had a very SPOOKY HALLOWEEN this year and here is our recap.

We had a very spooky dinner with our friends Kirsten & Aaron. Kirsten put together a really fun "spooky dinner" with mummy dogs, baked slugs, blog clots and green boogers.... pretty spooky huh! It was so much fun, she made a cute little ice cream dessert out of oranges too!

After dinner we headed to the "TRUNK or TREAT" at the church to pass out candy and hang with some ward members. It was such a warm night ( the warmest Halloween night that I can remember in the longest time). to spend outside socializing. We had a wonderful SPOOKY evening!!!

The cute little pumpkin Kirsten made each of us filled with chocolate ice cream for dessert.

This is our "Spooky Dinner"

Brock dishing out some green boogers.

(notice his eyes...he looks like a REAL hippie)

Aaron looking pretty "spooky" at dinner.Me and my little buddy Claire! Yes...we make good hippies!

We had fun dressing up this year as hippies and creating our own costumes. Kirsten & Claire home grown from the farm!

Last but NOT least....the Wells Fargo group!

Brock the hippie, Conor the LDS Missionary, Carla as a baby, Graham as Sponge Bob and Lucy the bow hunter. They had a fun time dressing up and enjoyed a BBQ for lunch.