Tricky Trickerton

Here it is, March. In fact, we just celebrated St. Patrick's day. Well, I guess that's what we did. If you call realizing it was St. Patty's Day at 1:00 in the afternoon and reminding everyone that I will pinch them if they aren't wearing some sort of green 'celebrating'. We weren't even visited by any leprechauns. What can I say, we're not Irish.

What I'm getting at is that I kind of forgot to record for posterity our visit from Trick the Elf this past Christmas. He's kind of like a leprechaun.

If you recall, Anastyn had a couple run-ins with 'Santa Clause' at Christmastime. She had some issues with his authenticity. But never once did she doubt in her trusty elf, Trick. Not even the time or two that she found him in the same exact location as the morning before. (Which brings to mind her first encounter with the Tooth Fairy recently. Another story for another day.) Sometimes these magical creatures can be a bit ditzy. Kind of like me. Odd. :)

Anyways, we enjoyed our elf this year. As you can imagine, he caused some mischief and mayhem. But at times, he was a perfect example of what the Christmas Season is all about. He will always be welcome in our home.

Trick roasted tiny marshmallows on a candle, dressed up like a shepherd, gave us friendly advice when needed (like 'Santa's watching - you might want to remember to clean your room!'), hung the girls' underwear on the Christmas tree, admired pictures of Baby Jesus, left us magic candy cane seeds, got sick, made messes, and even made out with Tinkerbelle. My, my, my! Can't wait til next year!

P.S. - The Tooth Fairy - Anastyn lost her 1st tooth and guess what? Her little tooth fairy didn't show up. Can you believe that??? Me either. The nerve! She did come the next night, though. She paid up (with interest) and left a note with some sorry excuse of having a dentist appointment the night before. 

Christmas 2012

Wow, here it is the end of February, and I haven't blogged about Christmas!!! Shame on me. What a happy time we had over Christmas! We enjoyed our break from school, our time with family, and all the festivities that come along with the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

I have hidden the Christmas music. We started listening to that over the summer. Seriously, half a year of Christmas music was too much even for me. I refuse to do that again. I am sure by next November I will be ready to drag it all out again, but no sooner! And I mean it!:)

The kids were spoiled by everyone again this year.  And we were blessed to be able to Skype with Elder Kaleb Leithead. That was definitely a highlight of our Christmas this year! Of course we made the rounds this Christmas, spending time at all the Grandparents houses. It was a mad whirlwind of visiting, eating, and opening presents everywhere we went! What a great time!

And I was so very, very proud of myself to have actually succeeded in getting pictures done and Christmas cards mailed out this year. Every year I try or at least have good intentions - but it usually doesn't happen.

Anastyn told me today (Feb. 22nd) that she misses Christmas.

 

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!!!

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 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

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!

The Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
Our family was too busy to pick up the mouse
To give you some news or even a peek
Of what's been going on for weeks and weeks.

Kyle's been busy paying the bills
And in his free time, goes seeking thrills
Hunting and fishing, calling and riding
But not enough fun time quite for his liking!

Catherine is always feeling behind
Dishes and housework and laundry piled high
Chasing two girls who giggle and cry
Watching them grow up - time really flies by!

She also is busy all through the week
With meetings and lessons and activities
A big job, but fun - a blessing from heaven
to serve as president of the 3rd Ward Young Women.

Matty's in kindergarten and doing so well
She loves it. She's happy there and we can tell
She's learning so much and has many pals
Her teachers all love her - she makes them all smile!

Anastyn - Wow! We are so proud of her!
She decided one day to be a big girl.
She now goes potty on the toilet
And wears big-girl panties on her cute little butt!

The girls are excited for Santa to come
Their ages are perfect for magical fun.
We've been trying to teach them about Baby Jesus
And tell them about the true meaning of Christmas.

We know you are busy having a ball
So - Dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!
We hope your celebrating goes just right -
Merry Christmas to All, and to All a good night!!

Love,

The Leithead Family

This Christmas

We have had a great holiday! Two entire weeks of family and fun. Our crazy little family has been going, going, going every minute of every day. We are getting quite exhausted (maybe I'm just speaking for myself). But we have had a good time and a wonderful Christmas Season.

Here are some of the highlights:

V.I.P. Christmas Hayride

Matty and Anastyn both had a blast!!

Scattering "Magic Reindeer Food" on Christmas Eve to make

sure Santa's reindeer can find our house!!

The Girls with their new dollhouse. They fight over it. Go figure.

This expression. Another reason why I LOVE Christmas!!

Matty loving her dress ups! And looking like an angel.

I made the girls tu-tu's for Christmas. They hate them....too itchy. Bummer!

Aunt Chelsea hand-made scarves for the girls. They are adorable!!

BrookLynn and Elle on Christmas. Making themselves pretty.

Anastyn making herself pretty??

(If you haven't seen Kristin's blog...she is a troublemaker!!)

Grandma Leithead painting Anastyn's toes.

We played games. Lots of games. That's what we do!!

Took long enough for me to finally post about Christmas. It was wonderful! Hope you all had a great one!!! Back to life....back to reality. : )

Christmas Cards...

Well, for the second year in a row I am officially NOT sending out Christmas cards. This makes me feel like a total loser. I like to take a family picture (which we did), then find some really cute photo card layout online to put it on. I actually spent quite a bit of time looking at photo card layouts. And I am ashamed that I never decided on one to order. Then I just kept forgetting. And at this point they just wouldn't make it to anyone by Christmas...so I'm not doing it!!! Again.

So, sorry to all of you who were hoping for one. We still really love you all... and maybe...I say maybe...I will send out some Happy New Year Cards or something. Is that lame?? Oh well, but please don't forget that I only said maybe. This being said, here is the picture that would have been on our Christmas Card. We really do wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!

Lots of Love,

The Leithead Family

{Kyle, Catherine, Matalyn, and Anastyn}

The Week In Review...

Well, we have been busy, busy, busy. Which is typical of December, right? Where do I begin?

Let's see....

We got the Christmas tree finished, which is always my first priority. I love the Christmas tree!! As many of you know, we are living with my parents right now. But my mom let us put up our Christmas tree instead of hers, which was really sweet of her. Kristin brought my finishing touches with her at Thanksgiving (I had her swing by Tai Pan for me...oh how I miss that store...thanks Kristin!!)

We had our ward Christmas party last Wednesday. Lots of good food...a program that I am sure was lovely (don't know for sure, thanks to my almost-two-year-old that didn't want to sit still or be quiet)...and the girls got to see Santa! For some reason, my girls looked like little orphans that night. Darn.

Kyle and I went to his company Christmas party on Friday night. There are more people than I thought that work at Colloid. Tons of people were there. We ate at the Irma in Cody, which I had never been to before. They provided a prime rib dinner and an open bar....Kyle and I drank lots of Mr. Pibb!! Ha ha!! There was a live band and dancing. It was a good time.

We got some lights put up outside. Well, Kyle did...while I supervised and lost control of the girls...who were so excited to be outside!! They were running all over the place (in opposite directions, of course). Matty got out in the field and just kept running and running and running! Can you see her out there??

She scared a jack rabbit out of the field. Funniest thing ever! It was HUGE! It ran up to the road, looked both ways to make sure there weren't any cars coming, then it hopped out onto the road and stood on its hind legs. Then it did some donkey kicks, and finally it just hopped right down the middle of the highway out of sight!!

And yesterday we stayed in our p.j.'s all day. I was working on some Christmas gifts. I am so excited about this project...but mum's the word...it is a surprise for some of you out there! This is the only hint you get:

And while I was busy at the sewing machine, the girls were doing this:

They were so cute dancing together in their pajama tops and some random skirts they pulled out of their closet! And yes, I did join them for a while....good thing I'm the one that runs the camera around here!!!!

I love Christmas time and all the sweet memories that come with it!!!!