Grandma's House

Here is Grandma's new house. It is so wonderful

for her to have a place to call her own. Without

the surround sound from the peoples television

downstairs. Or the 2 year old nextdoor tearing the

walls down. Or the cockroaches from the neighbors

dirty apartment coming over to visit. Or their dirty diapers

outside of their door. YUCK!! Now all she has is every cat

in the neighborhood going to the bathroom in her dirt

around the house. Oh well, its all hers and that is all that

matters. No really, this house is a true gift from God,

it is a real blessing to her - right Mom?

The kids love going over to Grandma's house to sleep.

(Hint-hint)

Just kidding!

There is a carport around the back of the house and a

fenced in yard for all the stray animals that come

to our house. It is a cozy 2 bdrm, 2 bath, living room,

family room and kitchen and we

are really excited to have Christmas

Eve at her house this year instead of ours.

Oh, and Lauren is standing on the front steps.

She looks so small.

It's called Christmas with a capital "C"

Check out this video.

I loved it!

You tube video

Wow!

Some Visitors

Ok, since we have been in South Carolina we have had a couple visitors. On the left is a kitty who I will call Creamcicle. She showed up one night and would not go away. She ended up getting a home through the shelter in our area. Our next visitor was a black lab on the right, playing with Millie. One morning we walked outside to get in the car and there she was. She was a wonderful dog, we called her Pupper. After keeping her for a month - I went to the shelter for the 2nd time and scanned all the lost tags on the wall. I couldn't believe it when I found one that said "missing, black lab mix, small white spot on chin." I took a chance, wrote it all down. When I got home I couldn't believe it when Pupper had a white spot on her chin. I called the lady and Pupper turned out to be Princess. Yaaaaayyyyy!! Kind of sad because everybody loved her. But we find out about all the things Princess eats (shoes, paper, toys) because 2 of her owners go to school with Hannah. Pretty amazing huh? The Lord is sooo good - all the time.

Emma and Millie

Ok, these are our dogs. Millie is on the right and in 2 more days she will have her 1st birthday. She is pretty silly looking, huh? On the left is our newest addition, Emma. She is about 4 months old. She is bigger than that now. We have no idea what kind of dogs they are, we are just the rescuers. Now they have a nice, happy life and don't have to worry about living at the pound. Wait, do dogs worry?

Me and My Mom

This is me and my mom just having some fun on my birthday. My mother is so special to me. She is such a blessing to me and my family. Another reason to be thankful. I love you, mom!

Brandon

I took this picture from by brother Brandons blog. Isn't he so handsome. I just love him so much and wanted to share this picture with everyone. I am so thankful for him. He has a girlfriend Veronica and they live in Denver, Colorado. I have seen some beautiful pictures of Colorado but have never been there. Maybe some day we will be able to take a trip there.

All tangled up

One picture I forgot. We got carried away with the decorating. Ha-Ha!
Just having a little fun. Oh, never mind the boxes in the background.
Remember, Dawn and Dom are living with us right now so we have a little
storage in the living room. We don't have basements in SC. Or a garage yet.

Mom and Dad (and a surprise guest)

The one picture of Me and Phil today and Lauren told us after we took it "Ya know what, I'm in your picture." And we looked and she sure was. This was the last picture we took of the day. This is a day we always look forward to and remember. The Lord sure has blessed us.

Still decorating

Ashley has come away from her laptop to get involved in the action. I cannot believe she is almost as tall as the Christmas tree. She was very happy that she didn't grow anymore since last year. She is at 5'8" and it looks like that might be where she will stay.

Daddy - Not sure what he is doing?

This is Phil, he is having a little playtime. Joseph and Mary are having a little conversation.
A little scary huh? Hannah was being entertained though.

Day after Thanksgiving tradition

Today is the day to untangle the lights, find which one of those little bulbs is making the whole strand of lights not work, pick out which of the stockings they will use this year since they each have at least 2, and fight about whose putting up what ornament. Joy, joy, joy. But, we really do end up having a great day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow, how could it already be Thanksgiving? What a blessing it was. I always love big gatherings around the holidays and the Lord blessed us with a big one. We had Grandma, Dawn, Dominic, Chelsie and Nicholette. I am so thankful that the Lord has provided above and beyond our needs. He is so good - all the time. Thank you Jesus, first for You, dying for us and loving us so much, for family, friends, food, fellowship, the list would be soooo long if I could write it out.

My prayer for this season would be that while we await the celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we would not get caught up in the hustle and bustle. Keep our eyes on what is important. Jesus is the reason for the season.

On her way to pre-k

This is Lauren on the school bus for the first time.

Lauren's 5th Birthday

Lauren is getting ready to eat some ice cream cake. Treena's recipe. mmm mmm!!
We decided to have it at Grandma's house - She moved in the day before. Very
exciting!!

Lauren's Birthday

For Lauren's birthday we went to Chuck E. Cheeses and the kids had a ball.

After we went to Grandma's new house for ice cream cake.

I can't believe my baby is 5 years old and in school. It is bittersweet.

Our House

This is our house. I can't believe that we have been here for over a year now. It just doesn't seem possible. Our house looks really small in this picture but it is soooo roomy. It has been a blessing. We love living in the boonies. The most you hear is a dog bark or a gun shot (the hunting kind ha-ha). Once in a while you can hear the air force jets or fort jackson doing their drills. Lauren thinks they are having a parade.

Just a night at the Tharps

This picture was taken last minute because Lauren needed a picture for school the next day.
So, we quickly got together on the couch, pajamas and all and Dom took the picture. The only
request was that he took the picture from the waist up so our pj bottoms would not show.
So, now you can see everything behind the couch, mess and all. Oh well, the fact that everyone
was available at the same time and smiled was a miracle. The picture actually came out pretty good so we will try again this weekend - maybe for our Christmas picture.