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!!