A Merry Little Christmas

We hope you have all enjoyed your Christmas season! As you know, ours was a little crazy. But amid all the stress, chaos, back-and-forth, set-backs, adjustments and discomforts, we did actually manage to celebrate our Savior's birth, spend time with loved ones, and enjoy a little Christmas magic!

My mom let the girls decorate a little tree at her house. They had such a blast doing it. I don't think they could've fit one more thing on that poor little tree. Look at it about to topple over! They were so proud.

 My girls love "The Night Before Christmas". We read that book a lot over the past month. They even have some of it memorized! Here, Matty is trying to teach her little brother some of the verses...

 And as if we didn't have enough going on right now, we had to throw in this little project. :) We have been meaning to build this bunk bed for the girls for two years now. It just never got done. So, Kyle, being the awesome guy that he is, built this baby in a flash! He never ceases to amaze me. No plans or anything...just whipped it up! And I (with a little help from my folks) had the pleasure of painting it. Oh boy. This is how it looks now. I will post when I have added some finishing touches and it is all put together in their room!

 And, of course, there was the photo shoot. It was actually Kristin's photo shoot. She gets the credit for this. I just happened to have my camera along as well. These little kids are always so entertaining when we are trying to get pictures...this time was no exception. A picture is worth a thousand words!!!

I know for a fact I didn't slow down enough to enjoy Christmas time to the fullest this year. But we did have some great moments! We have so many blessings to be thankful for and I am so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ! Happy Holidays to you all!

Santa Baby

We Are "Those" People

I like to think that I keep my family pretty clean. I pride myself on fixing the girls' hair cute every day, making sure their faces are washed and they have clean clothes on. I much prefer myself with my hair fixed and my makeup on. I like to make sure we are all bathed on a regular basis and have brushed teeth. It makes me feel like a good wife and mother. It just does.

But right now...

we are not so lovely. We smell good and look nice about 2 or 3 days out of 7. However - on those days we are in the car and nobody sees us! Another couple days out of the week we are looking just a little "rough around the edges". And then there are the other two days. Oh baby. On those days we are "that family". You know the family I'm talking about. The ones that we are all sure live in a barn. The ones that send their poor little children to school with messy hair and a certain "smell" following them around. The family that I have always tried not to be. That would be us. Right now.

I say all of this with a smile on my face because I know that is not really us. It is...but just for a little bit longer til we have some water at the house. I know I am not the mother of the "stinky family". . . .

But -

do the fine people of Meeteetse, Wyoming know this? :) :) :) Funny. I hope we don't get labled yet. I hope they give us a chance to get our problems straightened out and then we can show them how lovely we really are!!! wink, wink!

When The Dog Bites, When The Bee Stings...

When I'm Feeling Bad
I Simply Remember My Favorite Things
And Then I Don't Feel So Bad!

Loves from my Mr.
Smiles From Mason
Even Better...Giggles from Mason
The twinkle in Anastyn's eye
Matty singing Hannah Montana or Taylor Swift in the back seat of the car
The smell of my children after a bath
A snowy or rainy day when there is nowhere to go
Ice cold Pepsi
Scotch-a-roos
My flannel sheets
The Twilight Saga
Movies on the Big Screen
The smell of rain or freshly cut grass
Sparkles/Glitter/Bling
Spring
Summer
Fall
Christmas decorations
Tai Pan
Visits from sisters
Target
Scrapbook Paper
Shopping trips to Billings
Olive Garden
Reading a good book

These are a few of my favorite things!

**Meeteetse Update** Still getting settled, still waiting for good water, still driving to Cody or Lovell every few days to get cleaned up and do laundry. And Matty is liking her new school so far. :)

Top Ten

My Top Ten List of Things I Have Recently Taken For Granted

10. A nice, long fall
9. Someone to "car pool" kids to school with
8. A good metabolism
7. A really good elementary school with a really good special ed program
6. Not having to pay rent
5. Sleep
4. Living near family and friends and having plenty of babysitters
3. Having a grocery store in town
2. My mom
1. Clean, clear city water

Lesson learned: Be grateful for what you have...things can always get worse!

This move is going to be hard on me. I am losing a lot of helpers, I'm not sure how Matty's education will be affected, I am going to have to think ahead and plan meals and be careful not to forget anything at the grocery store (since the nearest one is 30 miles away). I am going to have to deal with a lot of snow and mud...and worst of all, well water. In. My. Home. Well water that has been sitting in the tank and pipes for years. Brown, stinky well water.

But...it can always be worse. I know someone who will have to move to China soon. China is worse than Meeteetse...right??

P.S. I will be making a list of positive things about my move just as soon as I get settled. And as soon as I think of some. :)

Slow Down!!!!

I have had so many things to blog about during the past month but just haven't been able to find the time to actually do any blogging!! It seems like time just keeps slipping through my fingers. I need it to s-l-o-w down.

A few highlights from the past month:

• Our very, very good friends, the Gublers and the Hamiltons from St. George surprised us by driving all the way up to the middle of no-where (here) to come to Mason's blessing. We felt so loved and enjoyed their company.
• Anastyn, my three-year-old, developed her very first crush. Oh my.
• We took the girls on their first fishing trip ever. In case you didn't know - those cute little Barbie fishing poles are pieces of crap.
• Matty lost two more teeth. She just may decide to be a jack-o-lantern for Halloween. :)
• My sister (oh, how I love her) came home to have her wisdom teeth removed.
• After walking around with tape holding her glasses together for a few weeks, Matty got yet another new pair of glasses. :)
• Kari and Tyler had a beautiful wedding and reception.
• Kyle started his new job at Marathon and thinks he will love it!

That's a lot of stuff. All of those things were worthy of their very own blog posts. It makes me sad because there are a lot of great details that I would like to remember...sigh. The condensed version will have to suffice. And that's better than nothing.

Mason turned three months old yesterday. Three months old. Can it have been three months already?? He is getting so big. (sniff, sniff) He weighed in at 13 lbs 8 oz and measured 25 inches at his doctor appointment last week. I snapped a few pictures yesterday to capture in time my 3-month-old baby boy.

At 3 months, Mason:

• smiles and coos and has even chuckled a time or two!
• holds his head up well
• doesn't enjoy being on his tummy
• still does not sleep through the night
• enjoys his swing
• loves being entertained by his sisters
• wants to suck his thumb...but mommy and daddy just won't let him! (he can thank his bigger sister for that!)
• loves to wiggle on the floor
• looks quite a lot like his mommy
• takes a lot of naps
• is such a good baby and rarely fusses!

Mason's Blessing Day

We blessed Mason this past Sunday. It was a very special day. Mason (and his father) looked so handsome. Kyle gave him a beautiful blessing and we were able to spend the day with so many loved ones.

Life is Busy!

I am still here! Lots of things going on in our family at the moment! I sure do love my children a lot....but I was so ready for school to start! Matty is finishing up week #1 of kindergarten. This being her second year of kindergarten (and going to three sessions of extended school year through the summer), it hasn't been as big of an adjustment as it was last year. She is so good at being a school-girl...I am proud of her! And the house is so much quieter between 8:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. without the girls fighting and master-minding terrible messes, etc. :) Anastyn is enjoying having mommy and Mason all to herself. She is a pretty good helper.

Kyle has accepted a new job with Marathon Oil, which we are super-excited about! The only bad part is that we will have to re-locate. He will be working in the Spring Creek Field just outside Meeteetse, Wyoming. I'm not sure how I feel about moving...very mixed emotions. We haven't started checking into housing just yet...so I don't know if we will be living in Meeteetse or Cody, but we will keep you posted. :)

Mason is growing like a weed. He is such a good baby and still sleeps quite a bit. We sure are enjoying him. He is so snuggly! He is a very serious baby - we really have to work to get a smile out of him...but when we do it is heart-melting!!

I don't think I have any more updates, but I wanted to record some of the funny things my kids have said lately before I forget. Sometimes I wonder what goes on inside their cute little heads. :)

• For some reason, every time Anastyn is thirsty and wants a drink, she says the following as fast as she can, "A lot of apple juice in a sippy with a lid!" It is the weirdest thing. It is as if she is worried I will only fill the sippy with a tiny amount of apple juice! And if I wasn't going to put a lid on the sippy, why would I even put the apple juice in a sippy cup at all??? I can't figure out why she says it.
• Matty has been funny with names lately. If we call her a nick-name or use a term of endearment like sweetie, or stink-butt (is that a term of endearment??), or cutie-pa-tootie...she gets all upset and says, "No! My name Matty!". And Kyle likes to call Mason "Turbo". She doesn't like that one bit because his name is not Turbo....it is Baby Mason Beau! Too funny.
• Anastyn likes to call people names - names that she has made up. She will call someone a kook-a-look, shibby-shab, goob-a-doob, or shy-la...what ever pops into her head. Sometimes I get after her and tell her it isn't nice to call people names. Oh well...it's not like she called the person an idiot or stupid-head, right? Hmmm...

A Visit From Fairyland

July 31st - Matty lost her first tooth!! It had been loose for quite some time. She finally got brave enough to let Kyle pull it for her! She was so excited to put her tooth under her pillow for the Tooth Fairy. The Tooth Fairy did, indeed, show up and left Matty a little cash! Isn't that smile precious?? Way to go, Matty!!

Mason Beau

Well he has been here for a week...and we sure have been enjoying him! What a sweet little guy. Sleeps all the time. Lovin' it!! ;)

Welcome to the world...and most especially to our family, baby Mason Beau!

July 13, 2010

9:01 a.m.

8 lbs. 0 oz.

20 in.

Pins and Needles...

We are counting down to delivery day!! 11 days to go. I am scheduled for my c-section on the 13th. I am so ready to NOT be pregnant any more. :) I am excited to meet baby Mason, but also extremely nervous for surgery and, to be honest, a little worried about how I am going to handle three kids. Scary.

I remember the adjustment to a sibling being quite difficult for Matty. But the girls both seem to be really excited about getting a baby brother. Boy, is he in for a rude awakening. Matty and Anastyn are both prepared to be extremely “helpful”. They can’t wait to snuggle him, and squeeze him, and I’m sure smother him. Watch out little boy!

Anastyn must have heard me tell someone that we had two weeks left. This morning she asked me if baby Mason was coming out in two weeks. She is so smart and picks up on everything that is said. A while back, Grandma Marla asked her how baby Mason would get out of my belly. I am sure she wasn’t expecting Anastyn to have any idea. But she does have ideas. :) She told Grandma that my belly was going to “pop”. She just might be right…

How’s this for a pregnancy picture?? I look miserable. Just keepin’ it real. :)

Needless to say, we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the newest member of our family!

Recent Happenings:Kyle was able to make it to the “Annual Fishing Trip” with the guys from St. George this past month. The weather wasn’t wonderful, but that didn’t stop them. He had a great time with his buddies – especially since he hasn’t seen them since we moved. We celebrated Mustang Days here in Lovell. Always a fun week. Kristin and I made poodle skirts to go along with the 50’s theme so the girls could be in the Kiddie Parade. It rained and the girls ran the whole way! I had a hard time keeping up with them to get pictures!!The girls had a great time catching candy during the parade and enjoyed the floats, music, and, of course, the can-can girls!! And last, but not least….Matty had to go to Billings for yet another “poke”. We got bloodwork done and saw the Doctor. Her bloodwork looks better – which is exactly what we wanted to hear!! Darn needles anyways…but nothing a little Cinnabon and Orange Julius can’t cure!!

Happy Birthday Matty!

Life sure is busy! We celebrated Matty's 6th Birthday last week!! She had a great day playing at the park and enjoying her sister and cousins. She had a fun family party in the evening. She got to eat hamburgers (which she loves) and an ice cream cake! As always, she enjoyed the day to the fullest. I have never seen someone get so excited about EVERY LITTLE THING! My favorite part of Matty's birthday every year is watching her open her presents. She gets excited about every present no matter what it is...even if it's money. :) She even loves to read the cards! It is so hard to believe my little Matty is six! She is growing up so fast. We sure do love her!!

Happy Anniversary!

Love this man. Sunday we celebrated twelve years together.

We have been so blessed!

Sisters

My girls have a tendency to find their way into our bed in the middle of the night. Last night was no exception. Anastyn crawled in bed with us and easily fell back to sleep. Whatever was bothering her was all better as soon as she was nestled snugly between her mommy and daddy.

Later, in the wee hours of the morning, her sister Matty woke up as well. There is not room in our bed for all of us to sleep comfortably, so I carefully moved Anastyn’s sleeping body back to her bed so that Matty could have her turn in ours. Soon Matty was drifting back into peaceful slumber.

It wasn’t long before I heard Anastyn sneaking back into our room. What to do? I was so tired and it was just way too early to be getting up for the day. So I decided to try squeezing us all in somehow. I figured this would backfire and the girls would start kicking each other and fighting over who got to lay by which parent and no one would be getting any sleep.

Well, we didn’t get any more sleep. But that’s okay, because instead of fighting, I got to witness my two little girls join hands and snuggle up to each other. There was no kicking or whining. No pushing or squirming. I watched Matty caress her little sister’s cheek and softly pat her hands. It was a tender moment that I am glad I got to see.

After a while, my pregnant body was just too uncomfortable to lay in a bed with three other people. So the girls and I got out of bed and went in to the living room where we quietly sat by the window and watched the rain outside. We sang songs like “Rain Is Falling All Around” and “In The Leafy Tree Tops”. I treasure my sleep…but I think I will treasure this early morning memory even more.

Pretty soon we were discussing the reason for everyone being awake at such an early hour. Anastyn told me that the monsters woke her up. I asked her what they looked like. She said they were red and blue and green and orange…oh – and pink!

We decided to go in and have breakfast. Anastyn and I had blueberry bagels with strawberry cream cheese. And Matty had her usual – Eggo waffles and syrup. When I got the syrup out and put it on the table in front of her, she got all excited. She pointed to the picture of Aunt Jemima on the label and said, “That’s the guy that woke me up!” I’m not exactly sure what she had been dreaming about!!

Speaking of sisters....I love mine!!

What's Cookin'...

The girls made dinner last night. :) It was pretty comical. Matty didn't want anything to do with cracking the eggs - she doesn't like to get her hands dirty. Anastyn was very liberal with the milk and vanilla. They had so much fun helping; and as it turns out, they are pretty good cooks!!

Adventures In Motherhood...

Most of us would agree that being a mom is both overwhelmingly challenging and undescribably rewarding at the same time. The past couple months in our family have been loaded with lots of challenges and lots of rewards. Here is a summary....

A trip to Thermopolis to visit Aunt Emily, a.k.a Aunt "Enemy", a.k.a. Auntie Em. We don't make it over to visit her and Uncle Pat very often, so I thought it was post-worthy. Especially since my girls have a huge soft spot for their greatest of great-aunts. Children automatically fall in love with this woman. She is spunky and fun and caters to their every whim. We had a fun time visiting for the day and enjoying her and uncle Pat's hospitality!!

Recently we drove over to Otto to spend a little time with Grandma Great for her birthday. The girls always love to explore at her house. This time they explored in a few places they shouldn't have. I think Grandma was glad to see us go home that day. :) Besides dragging out every toy in the house and pulling clothes out of drawers, they also got into a drawer that had a razor in it. Being the curious little critter she is, Anastyn managed to cut her precious, most beloved thumb (the one she is constantly sucking on). She cut it pretty deep and, oh boy, was there drama. Drama, drama, drama. We had blood everywhere. On the clothes that they had pulled out of Grandma's drawers, on Grandma's carpet. Everywhere. And when we finally got everything under control and the poor thumb bandaged up, we thought it might actually be a blessing in disguise. We kind of thought maybe this would cure Anastyn of her obsessive thumb-sucking habit. You know - since she would have it all bandaged up for a while. Well, that's not really how it turned out. Now we just have an ambidextrous thumb sucker. :)
Somewhere along the way, we had Easter. We dyed Easter eggs the night before with BrookLynn and Elle (which I hate doing, by the way...way too messy). And, naturally, the girls loved finding their Easter baskets on Easter morning and eating candy. Oh, how they love candy. :) It was nice to be able to relax and enjoy General Conference on t.v. and we had a delicious lunch of ham and funeral potatoes and homemade rolls and jello at Grandpa Leithead's house. It was a good day. This past Friday night was Matty and my "all-expense paid" night in the Sleep Lab! Unfortunately, I have no pictures to share with you. I forgot my dang camera. I did get some pictures on my phone, but I have no clue how to get those pictures onto my computer. We were testing Matty for sleep apnea. Now, I knew this wasn't going to be a pleasant experience. And I also figured that I wouldn't get much sleep. But it really was worse than I had expected! Knowing Matty's history of doctor's offices and hospitals, it was no surprise that she was scared out of her mind the moment we arrived. So scared that she did, indeed, hurl all over the carpet in our room shortly after we got there. And her little hands were shaking the entire hour it took to get her hooked up to all of the wires. I lost count of how many wires they had her hooked up to. Ten on her head alone. Don't ask me how anyone is supposed to be able to get any sleep when they have wires attached to every part of their body. It was one of the longest nights I have ever made it through. I am pretty sure I looked at the time on my cell phone at least fifteen times during the night - just to see how much longer before we could get the heck out of there. I spent the entire night trying to make sure Matty stayed asleep, stayed untangled from her wires, and that the wires stayed attached to her through her very active tossing and turning through the night. I did not want to have to re-do the dang test! I do have to mention that I was slightly creeped out the next morning when the guy sheepishly admitted that he had forgotten to have me sign a form the before we had gone to bed. The one that says "Yes, I was informed that we would be observed on video all night long." I patiently signed and dated with the previous day's date and then thought really hard to remember if I had done anything embarassing-like scratch my butt-during the night. We were so happy in the morning when we could finally leave!! And I was so glad that Kyle and Anastyn had stayed the night in a hotel in Billings that night. I am pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to drive us home without falling asleep at the wheel! We haven't heard on the results yet, but we are hoping that we don't have to have this experience again for a very long time!!

Next. I was hoping that we would somehow be able to avoid this common childhood crisis. But that was not in our stars. Last night Anastyn found scissors. And she knew exactly what to do with them. I wanted to cry when I saw her bangs snipped off at the scalp. Luckily, she left a few longer strands on the top layer so we can camouflage them. :) It wasn't until this morning that I discovered that she hadn't stopped at her bangs. When I took yesterday's messy bun out and started brushing I realized that we were missing a lot more hair. Then I started taking out Matty's messy buns. This is when I realized that the scissors did not stop at Anastyn's hair. After brushing, Matty was actually missing a significantly larger amount of hair than her sister was. I was not happy. You can see the pile of hair in the following picture. I was extremely upset. And Anastyn could sense that. I heard her in the other room a little while later saying, "My Mommy doesn't like me." I had to explain to her that I did, indeed, like her. I just didn't like the haircuts she gave herself and her sister...

Anastyn is very aware of the upcoming arrival of her baby brother. She is so excited for him to come. She loves to rub my tummy and feel the baby moving. She and Matty came in to show me that they, too, had babies in their tummies this morning. I thought it was so cute. When they unzipped their jammies to show me, I discovered that they were actually expecting kitties. :) Too cute.

Oh The Joys!!!

Do I Look Stupid To You??

Much to the amusement of everyone else during Easter dinner yesterday, I had the following conversation with Anastyn:

*Keep in mind she is only 3 - and I am very worried*

Anastyn: "I want more ham."

Me: "You need to eat the rest of your potatoes first."

Anastyn: "I'm done."

Me: "Aunt Kristin, are Anastyn's potatoes all gone?"


Kristin: "No."


Me: "Anastyn, don't lie to me, we are not stupid."


Anastyn: "Ya, you are."


What can you say to that???

Knowing

Ahhhhhhh..... *Big Sigh of Relief*

I like to know things. I like having a plan. I don't like surprises (unless they are the kind that you don't know are coming!) And I don't care what anyone from the older generation says to me about not knowing the sex of their baby before it was born. I wanted to know. And I was determined to find out before 30 weeks.

I really lucked out. Thank heavens for good friends with connections. :) I was finally able to get an ultrasound yesterday. Kind of in the "black market" way. Hee hee. Let's just say a friend of a friend of a friend hooked me up!

But what is most important here is that we now now - FOR SURE - what the gender of our baby is!!! Drum roll, please.................................

It's a BOY!!!

I am finally providing Kyle with a male heir!!! Needless to say, we are excited and elated! And now we can get some real shopping done! Gender-specific shopping!

I feel much better now. :)

a sneak peek at our sweetie's cute little profile...

Snow Angel

I am not a very fun mom. I don't like extra messes and I don't like cleaning up dirty kids any more than I have to. And I don't enjoy being dirty or cold myself. So, my kids don't get to do a lot of playing in the mud, or with paint, or in the snow. Poor kids. But we did get some snow back in January, and I did let Anastyn play in it one day. She had a blast! And she didn't come back inside on her own free will. I had to drag her in after I decided she was freezing!! I am so ready for summer!

Grrrrrrrr.....

Just back from a Baby Leithead doctor appointment. It seems that this baby will be known on my "baby ticker" as just that - Baby Leithead - for a very long time. Like around 10 weeks before I am due.

This makes me unhappy. Very unhappy.

I don't like surprises. I like to have a plan.

I had to have an ultrasound last month because I was measuring bigger than we thought I should be. It was too early to tell the sex of our baby. But I just figured I would still get my 20 week ultrasound. Silly me. My doctor told me "no". He said my ultrasound showed that I have a low-lying placenta and that I would need to have another ultrasound between 30-33 weeks. And that was it. No in-betweens. I complained quite a bit - even with my whiney voice. And he still said "no".

What a bummer.

Heartbreaker...

(intended to be posted December 4, 2009)

I hate taking my kids in to get shots. That’s probably why I finally got notified by the school that I had to get Matty’s kindergarten shots taken care of before today or she couldn’t come to school.

So I finally set up the appointment. And yesterday when Matty got home from school, I casually mentioned to her that we just needed to stop by “an office” for a minute. She was cool with that. Until we pulled into the parking lot at the hospital clinic.

Then it dawned on her what was going on. She is no fool. “No! No doctor! – No Matty hurt!” she started whimpering. This little girl has had pain inflicted on her too many times at the doctor to believe that this wasn’t going to end badly for her. Oh, I felt like such a jerk. I am sure she was thinking, ‘Why would my mother bring me here? Does she like to subject me to pain?? Doesn’t my mother love me??’

What do you say to your child in a situation like this? So I just smiled at her calmly and said, “We just need to run in and talk to the doctor for a minute, ok?” My beautiful, trusting child took my hand and willingly walked into the waiting room. Thankfully she was entertained by the fish swimming in the fish tank while we were in the waiting room for way too long.

As soon as Matty’s name was called, I gathered up the girls and herded them along behind the nurse. As soon as we went through the door, Matty started volunteering Anastyn for whatever was going down. “No Matty hurt. I fine. Sissy hurt. Sissy’s turn!” I couldn’t help but giggle under my breath.

As usual, we had to wait quite some time before the doctor came into the exam room. Matty wasted no time pleading her case with the doctor. Again, she tried to explain to him that she was fine and didn’t need to get a ‘hurt’. She was more than happy to offer her little sister in her place.

All the while I just wanted to grab her little hand and take her home. My heart was breaking as she was begging me not to let her get hurt! Finally it was time. Poor little thing had to get four shots. And it is always fun when they make Mom help hold her own child down. That’s just mean! Thankfully they sent in enough help to give her three of the shots at once in her legs. As soon as that fight was over, she was given to me so I could give her a big hug and comfort her. But that was just a dirty trick because they gave her the fourth shot in her arm as she was hugging me.

She was so sad and I am certain she felt betrayed by me. But one of the most endearing things about Matty is that she is quick to forgive. She has always been a very tough little girl, and even though she hates to get shots and have her blood drawn, she has always been such a trooper about it. And it always melts the hearts of those that have inflicted pain on her when she says “Thank you” in a weak little voice when they get done hurting her. She does that quite often and it always surprises me. I’m not sure why she says it – maybe she is just thanking them for being done. I don’t know.

Thank goodness we are done with regular immunizations for a while now! However, it is time again to go get blood drawn in the next few weeks. And I will get to go through the guilt all over again!!!

Sorry, Matty! Mommy loves you!!

February 11, 2010

Hey! Hey, Lady!..... (more of the same)

As many of you know, Matty had congenital leukemia when she was born. We were blessed that it resolved quickly and without treatments. However, since there is a chance the leukemia could make an unwanted comeback, we regularly have her blood checked. And this means she has to be “poked”. At first, she got blood drawn every two weeks, then monthly, then every other month, etc. until finally we got clearance to do blood work annually. (The chance of getting the disease again decreases the older she gets.) You can guess how many times this little girl has been “poked” in her lifetime – on top of the normal childhood immunizations. So naturally she associates hospitals and doctor’s offices with pain. And the above episode with the vaccinations is branded into her recent memory.

Well, back in June or July last year we had gotten her annual CBC done. And they found that her platelets were a little bit enlarged. The doctor told us to make sure she got her multivitamin every day for six months and then we would check her blood again to see if it was due to a lack of folate or something. So, last month we did just that. We drove Matty to Billings to get “poked”. It was another heartbreaking event for me. When she saw the lab guy come in with his little tool box of vials and needles, she begged and pleaded and looked at me like I was betraying her in the worst way. She fought like she always does. She is a strong little girl. It took three of us to hold her down (why do they include me in this???) But we all got the job done together. And then she forgivingly thanked everyone involved and sweetly accepted her sucker and stickers.

The results this time weren’t much different. And the hematologist/oncologist she is seeing wonders if she might have a bit of sleep apnea causing her blood cells to be lacking in oxygen which can cause them to be enlarged. So we had to schedule an appointment with a pulmonologist. -Another trip to Billings-. I thought I was going to go insane on the way there. Every couple minutes, Matty would say, “Where we going?” Alternating between my patient voice and not-so-patient voice I would tell her, “We are going to Billings.” Then she would say, “No doctor – I fine.” To which I would respond, “Yes, we have to go to the doctor today. But I promise no pokes. Mommy won’t let anyone poke Matty today.” And then she would be fine for a few more minutes. And then we would have the exact same conversation over again. Well, we finally made it to the hospital. While we were there, she went up to every receptionist and nurse we talked to and started tapping their arm until she got their attention. Once they were listening to her, she would say, “Hey, lady. Hey. No pokes. I fine. Matty all better now.” And while we were in the exam room with the doctor, no less than twelve times, Matty did the same thing to him...“Hey. Doctor Office. (she thinks Office is every doctor’s last name.) Hey. Matty fine. No pokes!”

It didn’t matter that I had spent an hour and a half promising her that no one would poke her. She obviously didn’t trust me. She knew that I had let it happen so many times before and she wasn’t about to believe me. Isn’t that sad? I found it sad. And so I am the bad guy…at least on doctor appointment days. Next up – a night at the sleep lab – so they can see what goes on while she is sleeping. Ought to be fun!!

Anastyn. She is my little firecracker. Most days she spends more time being naughty than nice. Let's face it - she tries me. But, then, she has this other side. A very tender, loving, sweet side. She was very charming this morning. She likes to dress herself. She likes to choose her own underwear, clothes, socks, shoes - all of it. But this morning she asked for my help. And I was more than happy to offer my assistance. I helped her pick out her Dora panties. Helped her put them on. Helped her choose an outfit. Helped her put it on. And then....

She said with such sweet sincerity, "You're the Best Mom in the whole world." and "I love you so much."

My heart melted and drizzled all over my soul. It was a good morning. I love you, too, Anastyn Belle.

Birthday Surprise!

Our little AnaBelle has turned three! She has been waiting for this for a long time now!! What a fun little critter to have around. The night before when I was tucking her in to bed, we were talking about how it would be her birthday when she woke up. The next morning as I was still laying in bed I heard her wake up and then she ran as fast as she could into my bedroom. With a huge grin on her face she shouted, "It's my birthday party!!" It was so cute! I think she had a pretty good day. We took her and Matty bowling in the afternoon. They loved it and would run around saying "I Win!" every time they sent the ball down the lane. Kyle and my dad and I had a good time bowling too!

Aletha Durtsche made a FABULOUS cake (as usual). Anastyn loved it and it was Delish! We had family over for taco salad, cake, ice cream, and chocolate covered strawberries. Anastyn felt so loved!! Unfortunately, her daddy got called into work and had to miss the party. We sure appreciated everyone who came to help her celebrate!!

Opening presents at this age is quite the fiasco! She got lots of great toys and adorable clothes. The next day she finally sat down next to me and asked me to read her cards to her (she had no time for such things when there were presents to open) :)

I don't know if you can read the t-shirt that Anastyn got for her birthday, but Anastyn wasn't the only one who was surprised!! :)

Christmas 2009

Our Christmas was great this year. Crazy, but great. The Season was filled with decorating, Christmas programs, parties, family and friends. There was a lot of going here, there and everywhere. Very tiring, but so very worth it!

Matty's Elementary Christmas Program was adorable. The music was wonderful and Matty did such a great job! We were very proud.

We had a couple photo shoots. One for our Christmas cards, which were late coming in. So those of you who received one probably got it well after Christmas. Sorry. I actually still have a few sitting around that never got mailed because I ran out of stamps and never remembered to go to the post office to get more. Sorry!! The other shoot was for Leithead family pics which were long over-due for an update. :)
The girls were spoiled by Santa, their parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles of course. I'm not so sure this is a good thing. But they had so much fun!!!
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!