Not Buyin' It!

Look at this little girl. She is hanging out with Santa!! Or is she??

Well, according to her, that is not Santa Clause. And neither was the guy at our church Christmas party.

She is not impressed or fooled by these imposters. At all. I'm not sure what gave it away. The obvious lack of interest in what she wanted for Christmas? Maybe. The string holding his fake beard on his face? Possibly.

The point is, this is a very observant 5 year old we have here. She doesn't know who those guys were. She just knows that they were not the real deal.

We have decided that Santa is extremely busy this time of year and simply cannot be everywhere at once. He must have some helpers. Some very poor excuses for helpers. But when you're desperate and up against the most important deadline of the year, well, I guess you can't be too picky. :)

The Elf on the Shelf named Trick - now that's a different story. We will talk about him later....

Merry, Merry, Merry Chirstmas to you!

The Runner Up

This is the runner up for our Christmas cards this year. Even though it didn't make the cut - I love it!!!! Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!!

My 2nd Birthday!

At 2 years old I:

• am still so sweet and mild mannered
• love to do pretend yardwork with my pretend lawn mower, weed wacker, and shovels
• say I am '2' but my hand says I am '5'
• was so excited to open my presents. I wanted nothing to do with singing, blowing out candles or eating birthday cake!
•  am a man of few words...but I understand everything YOU say!
• love Grandmas and Grandpas 
• like when people read to me
• like to look at 'I Spy' books
• love to go fishing
• like to spot animals along the road
• would rather be outside more than anywhere else
• still take a nap
• like to wear my baseball cap...just like Daddy
• love to play with trucks and trains

As you can see by the pictures, Mason had one of those extended birthdays. That's why he has so many different outfits on! We decided to take Mason fishing for his birthday party. We had a picnic at Beck Lake in Cody. Mason didn't care to eat because he was preoccupied with the pile of presents. He didn't want us to sing to him, and he didn't want to blow out his candles. He didn't even want a piece of his birthday cake!! So, we just did all of that without him while he opened presents and played with his stuff. It got a little stormy on us, but we were able to take his new fishing pole over to the lake and he actually caught a fish all by himself! He did finally eat some birthday cake the next day when he had 'time'. :)

We are so blessed to have Mason in our family! I don't think there has ever been a sweeter little boy! He is so much fun and all BOY (except for when his sisters get a hold of him!) Happy Birthday Buddy!!!!!!!

8 is Great!

 Matty turned 8 at the beginning of this month! She had a great day! Usually school is out for the summer before Matty's birthday, but this year our summer vacation came a little later and Matty got to take cupcakes to 1st grade! She was thrilled! She had a lovely birthday party at Grandma Marla and Grandpa Jim's house. Lots of family came to help her celebrate. We had a BBQ and ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. Presents were opened in true Matty fashion! She is the funnest child to watch open gifts. She gets extremely excited over everything. Cards, small sums of cash, movies she already owns, underwear.  Oddly enough, she was less impressed with the wii we got her. Go figure. :) Anyways, she says things like "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!!!!!!" and "Oh My Goodness Sakes Heavens!!". She is always full of 'thank yous' and hugs. When it was time to blow out the candles on the cake and we weren't quite moving fast enough, she ordered us - "Sing To Me!"  Our family's version of the Happy Birthday song includes a bit at the end where everyone sings "How old are you? How old are you? How oooold are you? Happy Birthday to you!" and the Birthday girl is supposed to sing back her age. Matty got a little flustered and couldn't remember what to sing for a minute. We kind of reminded her but she didn't want any help from us. She shushed us and continued, "I am now eighty years old, I am now forty-eight years ooooold!".  Ha ha ha! We chuckled for a while about that one. What a cutie!

Well, Matty was especially excited about turning eight this year because that is the age when you can be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! We had her baptism on the last day of June. It was such a beautiful occasion. Matty had been given a beautiful white dress on her birthday to wear on her baptism day. She looked and felt like a princess. She had so many friends and family come to support her on her special day. She and Anastyn even sang a song together during the baptism. She was baptized and confirmed by her Daddy. It was a lovely service. We had a family dinner afterwards complete with a cake made by Aletha Durtsche (our very favorite cake lady. ever.)

Beautiful Day. Beautiful Girl!

 Congratulations Matalyn Cate!!

Cabin Fever!!

According to Wikipedia (unreliable sometimes, I know - but in this case I believe it is quite correct), Cabin fever is an idiomatic term for a claustrophobic reaction that takes place when a person or group is isolated and/or shut in a small space, with nothing to do, for an extended period (as in a simple country vacation cottage during a long rain or snow). Symptoms include restlessness, irritability, paranoia, irrational frustration with everyday objects, forgetfulness, laughter, excessive sleeping, distrust of anyone they are with, and an urge to go outside even in the rain, snow, dark or hail.

Hmmmmmm. I think we have it. We have cabin fever.

For those of you who aren't familiar with our current situation, we are living in a cabin. You see, the house we were renting sold. This house sat empty for three years on the market, until we begged to rent it. Then we begged to fix the big problems with it. And then it sold. Sarcastic smiley face.

We started panicking when we were unable to find a new place to rent. But of course it all worked out...kind of.  Another sarcastic smiley face.

We found another place to rent. Unfortunately it wouldn't be available soon enough. So we had to find a temporary solution. A place to call home for one month. And so began our Oasis Cabin Retreat!

We are living in a campground! Five of us (three of which are small children that bounce off walls and make lots of noise and go crazy when couped up) are jammed into this one-bedroom joint. And we are having so much fun! At least that's what we are trying to tell ourselves! The kids bounce from bed to bed. We find them under the bed. They watch the same movies over and over. They yell and scream and giggle. When we are all here, I would say it's pretty much pandemonium and we all want out, out, out!!!

There are some strange things about living in this little cabin. For some reason, the part of the night I should be sleeping just drags on for me. I wake up a lot. I wonder if it has anything to do with the four other people sleeping in the same room? And then, I am so tired in the afternoon I end up taking a nap (which isn't something I normally do). And a couple times I have woken up in a panic. One night it was because my entire arm had fallen asleep. I was so out of it I thought I was having a heart attack! I woke Kyle up and got him upset. And I couldn't let myself fall asleep the rest of the night because I thought I would die if I did! It took me clear until late the next morning to snap out of it!

Another night I woke up sure that I could smell a gas leak and that we were all going to die. Anyways...I don't usually act quite so crazy!  One morning I was making our bed and found a huge, nasty spider with a great big egg sac attached to it in our sheets!!!! Freaked out just a little bit.

And then, the other day I was speaking to the man that lived in this cabin just before us. He told me all about the ghost he saw one night at the foot of the bed. The freaking guy says he saw a ghost in this cabin! Holy crap, if I couldn't sleep before.....

Anyways: Claustrophobia, check. Isolated/shut in a small space with nothing to do, check. Restlessness, check. Irritability, check, check, check!  Paranoia, yep. Laughter, check. Excessive sleep, check. It all fits, really. Cabin fever it is.

On the bright side of things, the kids are enjoying it here. They think it is an adventure - and they are right!

We are looking forward to moving on. Soon, Cabin 29 will be just a memory. A good memory, but one we probably wouldn't want to repeat!

The Escape Artist

In my last post, I shared the most terrifying of Matty's escapes...but there have been other incidents. Plenty of them. Enough to have shaved years off of my life, I am sure. Here are a couple that come to mind...

Before the Great Escape of 2010 (previous post) she ran away several times. One day she came up missing and I ran up and down the street calling for her, panicking, the whole routine....couldn't find her anywhere! I was yelling and running and panting and running and yelling. I knocked on doors. I knocked on the door of a particular next-door-neighbor who didn't answer. A little while later I tried her door one more time. She answered this time and informed me that Matty was in her house. Holy Crap!!!! I guess she had gone in their back yard and let herself into their house through the back door. What a little stinker.

While we were living out here on Sand Cliffs Road in Meeteetse we woke up early one morning to find that Matty was not anywhere in the house. We looked everywhere and yelled and yelled for her. So, naturally we figured she had gone out. It was quite chilly outside. We went out and finally did find her in the back of the house. She was in her pajamas and a jacket and shoes. I grabbed her and carried her inside and gave her the whole 'you can't go outside without telling Mommy' lecture. Later, she brought up the subject on her own and I just listened to what she had to say. It was a pretty amazing story. She talked about walking around and doing this and that...and then in her own very simple language, she said the Holy Ghost told her to 'go home'.

I'll tell you what, I believe in the whisperings of the Spirit. And I have no doubt in my mind that that little girl heard a voice telling her she needed to go home. I am so grateful to know that our Father in Heaven is mindful of each one of us and will warn us when we need help. I am so glad that Matty was listening.

More recently, she had another sneaky break-out. At least it wasn't so scary this time...but made me nervous about the things this little girl will do! I couldn't find her one afternoon and automatically opened the front door to look for her (even though I had just been in the kitchen and never saw or heard the front door open or shut). Sure enough, there she was playing outside. But I couldn't for the life of me figure out how she had gotten past me without seeing or hearing her. Later, I went downstairs to do something and saw how she had accomplished her escape. She had somehow gotten the window in the family room open (it is way out of her reach, but she must have pushed something over there to climb up on) and crawled out into the dog kennel with the dog and somehow got herself out of the kennel too!!! She never ceases to amaze me!

I hope she is finally outgrowing this escape artist routine. I am so tired of it. :)

A Blast From The Past - "I Was Running"

I thought that I had posted this story about Matty running away, but I couldn't find it anywhere on my blog. Must have been one of those posts that I composed in my mind but never got around to typing. She has run off quite a few times and each time it scared me to death. In fact, I am still to this day careful about doors being locked, and on occasion when I get a 'feeling', I even barricade the doors at night!  But she really out-did herself this particular time. It was a couple years ago, spring 2010 I believe when we were living on 10th Street in Lovell, but I wanted to make sure I had it recorded...

I had been at a Young Women activity on a Wednesday night and was just getting in my car to go home when I got a phone call from Kyle. "Matty is missing." It was almost 9:00 at night. It was dark and it was cold. I raced home and called 9-1-1 on my way.

Kyle had put the girls to bed earlier. They had been fast asleep. So he went out to the backyard to work on our pump. He went back inside to check on them and they were still fine so he went back outside. About ten minutes later he went to check again and saw that our front door was open. Assuming that I had gotten home from my meeting, he started looking for me in the house. When he didn't find me, he looked outside and saw that my car wasn't home and automatically realized that Matty must have gotten out. He went to her bedroom, and sure enough, there was no Matty. He looked up and down our street and couldn't see any sign of her. That's when he called me and I called the police.

My heart was pounding on the way home. Once I got there, I started helping Kyle look all around the neighborhood. I was really pregnant at the time and was having a hard time running and yelling and I was really starting to panic! So many people showed up - almost immediately. Police, Sheriff, Fire Department, family members, neighbors. Everyone was combing the area. It was so cold outside and all I could think about was the fact that they had let the water into the canals and I didn't think she was in anything but a t-shirt and pajama pants. I was so afraid that she had wandered somewhere dangerous or was freezing. I was f-r-e-a-k-i-n-g out! And I wasn't the only one. Even Miss Anastyn as little as she was was terribly upset and wanted to find her Matty. Finally, after we were searching and yelling and crying for what seemed like an eternity, I got a phone call from a lady wondering if I was "missing someone". I said, "yes! do you have her???". And thank goodness she did!

My little Matty had wandered clear down the street, all the way down the hill, past a canal full of water (which typically she would have been curious about because she loves water), to a house that she had never been to before. Apparently she had tried to jump on their trampoline and eventually ended up at their back door. She knocked and they didn't hear her, so she just walked right into their house! Luckily they knew who she was!!! The fire chief and her Uncle Tyler drove down and picked her up for me. I was so happy to see that little girl's face. So happy!!! As soon as I had her in my arms I asked her where she had been. She matter-of-factly stated, "I was running!" like it was no big deal!

Come to find out, she was at least smart enough to put some shoes on and one of my coats! (They found those on the ground by the trampoline the next morning!) Oh, Matty. You almost gave Daddy a heart attack and dang near sent Mommy into pre-term labor!!!! I am certain she had some guardian angels looking out for her that night...

A Blast From The Past Part III: Christmas!

We had a great Christmas Season! It started off with a visit from Aunt Chelsea mid-December. She only got to stay for a couple days, but we sure enjoyed her!!

 We attempted a family photo for Christmas cards. It was soooo cold outside, and not a single member of the family was in the mood for picture taking. Not even myself. But I was not about to let another year pass by without a dang card. I got my tripod and camera all set up, got everybody situated, realized the sun was in everybody's eyes, set the timer, ran to position, the camera captured what you see here, and everyone was DONE. Nobody wanted to cooperate with me. Nobody wanted to move to a different spot. Nobody wanted me to try again. It made me grumpy. I think a few unkind words were said and we packed it in. Needless to say, it was another Christmas-cardless year. 

I give up.

The girls dictated their letters to Santa to me. I wrote them in pencil and then had them trace the letters with their markers. They had writer's cramp by the time they were done, but they were pretty proud!

This one is Matty's:

 And this one is Anastyn's:

We had lots of fun decorating for the holidays this year. We have an artificial tree, but we did make a trip up the Wood River to the mountains and cut a fresh one for the girls to decorate downstairs. They loved decorating their own tree!! We had fun wrapping presents for each other and we even made snowflakes to decorate the windows with! There were Christmas parties and programs. We listened to a LOT of Christmas music. I finally had to hide all the Christmas cd's downstairs just this month because the girls were still asking to listen to them!

We spent Christmas Eve here at home in Meeteetse with my mom and dad. We had a very delicious prime rib dinner, which will definitely have to become a tradition! It was so fun to have Grandma and Grandpa here Christmas morning to witness Santa's sleigh wreck! The kids enjoyed every second of discovering their treasures and unwrapping all their gifts. Mason had a blast tearing the paper off his packages! We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast (Pilsbury, of course. No over-achieving here!) Then in was off to church. I actually love it when Christmas falls on a Sunday. After all, Jesus really is the reason for the season!! After church, we drove to Lovell for more present opening at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Whew...who knew opening gift after gift could be so exhausting!! :) Next stop: Grandpa Leithead's! We had a yummy dinner and the highlight of our Christmas this year was talking to Kaleb (a.k.a. Elder Leithead) via skype! We got to listen to all of his amazing missionary experiences and his strong testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ! What a blessing to be able to see him and talk to him! We are so proud of what he is doing!

And last, but not least, we mustn't forget the very special and unforgettable visitor we had in our home for the month of December. We heard a knock at the door the first evening of the month and were surprised to find a package had been left on our doorstep! The girls opened it and found this little guy! They named him 'Trick the Elf'. He provided much entertainment for our family while he was here. Some of his shenanigans included helping himself to the candy jar, fishing for "goldfish", making snow angels in the flour, messing around with our camera, toilet papering the girls' bathroom, providing a movie night for our family, fraternizing with the Barbie dolls, leaving notes, painting Rudolph noses on the girls in their sleep, and many, many more silly pranks! The girls looked forward to finding him every morning. He even took a few trips with us! We will miss him terribly until he returns next year!!!

A Blast From The Past Part II: Halloween Fun!

The kids carving pumpkins. Does it look like they are having fun to you?? This picture makes me laugh. I can't really remember what the malfunction was at this point...but they really did have fun carving pumpkins! Matty carved a bat and Anastyn carved a cat. Mom and Dad carved a haunted house.

 What cute kids, if I do say so myself. We went with a 60's theme this year. I was not super-mom. I was more like super-lazy-mom! We dug out the poodle skirts I made them for the Lovell's Day Parade a couple years back. Luckily they still fit. And luckily Mason had some jeans and a white t-shirt in his dresser. All we had to do was slick his hair up and voila!! They did look adorable. :)

 And this year we did our trick-or-treating in Lovell again! I can't remember why we were in Lovell instead of Meeteetse (that's what happens when you wait 3 months to blog about something). But, hey, they got to trick-or-treat for heck sake! It was Mason's first time and the girls were so kind to show him the ropes!!

There ya go...that was Halloween in a nutshell!!

A Blast From The Past: Part I

So since I did some serious slacking over the last few months as far as blogging goes, I am going to try to catch you up to speed. Nothing major happened....just the girls first hunting trip with their dad, Halloween, and Christmas.

Now, since I missed some pretty big things that deserve their own posts, I am going to split this up into parts.

Part I: Matty and Anastyn's Antelope Adventure!!!

 I should probably make Kyle write this post since he was there and I was not....but he's not that into blogging. :) I really don't know what all went down on this little hunting trip. Here's what I do know: According to the photographic evidence, my children had their hands all over a dead animal. And since I didn't see the photographic evidence until a little later...I'm not quite sure I washed their hands well enough when they got home! Another thing I know is that the girls had a Fantastic time. I figured they would get very bored driving around looking for animals. I thought they might be a bit sad to watch their dad kill an animal. I even thought they may get a little sick to their stomachs watching it die. Well I was wrong. They were unbelievably excited about the whole entire experience. They were right out there with their dad trying to help him gut the thing! Couldn't believe it...but I'm glad they can make these memories with their daddy. And it is looking like they will be going along every chance they get!

A Handful!

Yes, Miss Anastyn is officially a handful! She turned FIVE the other day! I just can't believe how quickly time is speeding by. This year she will be off to Kindergarten, and I just don't know what I will do without her. She had one of those extended birthdays this year. She actually missed her first birthday party so-to-speak. :) She has a blonde mother. A really super (blonde) mother that sent out a very mistaken text about the date of her actual birthday party! It was a good practice run for everybody I guess. Anyways, her birthday party was a couple days before her birthday. We ate at Pizza On The Run and she got to play in the bounce house. She wanted a chocolate Barbie cake. I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out half-way easy on the eyes. :) She got many fun gifts including clothes, jewelry, a jewelry box, Leap Frog games, and money. She was given the royal treatment on her birthday. We stayed home and focused on her every whim! We painted her fingernails and toenails, cuddled and watched movies, she got to take a bubble bath (instead of the quick shower her mother prefers) and got to eat spaghetti for dinner! She had a second (very small, very casual) party on her birthday. She got to help decorate the cupcakes and had some of her very favorite friends over to enjoy them with her. And a couple days later, she was delighted to find another package in the mail from Aunt Chels. It came in one of those fancy envelopes you can buy at the Post Office. It had cupcakes on it. She couldn't believe her eyes and wondered how in the world Aunt Chelsea could possibly have known that she had cupcakes on her birthday! he he! 

So what do I have to say about Anastyn and her five years? A lot, actually:

She's just a great girl. She loves her kittens and her dog. She takes such good care of them! She loves to help with her little brother. She loves him dearly and thinks he is the cutest thing in the whole wide world. She has a beautiful voice. She goes to preschool and loves to learn anything and everything. She is like a sponge. She is hungry for knowledge and asks an almost unbearable amount of questions in a day. She is very fashion conscious and will not wear 'just anything'. She has many friends and loves to be around other people. She is forgiving. She loves her family 'more than birthdays and chocolate, more than anything in the whole world - except for Jesus' (in her own words). She loves Barbie movies, Angelina Ballerina, and the Backyardigans. She enjoys listening to storybooks and playing games. She is very fond of spaghetti and ham sandwiches and candy and not-so-fond of anything else. :) She likes everything to be 'just right' at bed-time and can't go to sleep without several hugs and kisses, a drink of water, and the reassurance that I will wake her up if there is anything that I might need to tell her in the middle of the night! She loves to prance around the house in her ballerina dress. Every once in a while she is allowed to wear it all day long...that's when she's in heaven! She is definitely our favorite 5-year-old and she could definitely never be replaced. She is a blessing to our family. She brings countless smiles to our faces and an endless supply of warm fuzzies to our hearts. We love you Anastyn! Please don't grow up too fast!!!! xoxoxo