Matthew's birthday

My Matthew's birthday is on the same day as my parents anniversary- so Happy Birthday to my honey and Happy Anniversary to my sweet parents- thanks for setting such a great example of marriage, love, dedication, patience, forgiveness, understanding, compromising, supporting, and cherishing one another over the years! Many more to come!
So- I don't know how many of you keep track of hunting seasons- but if you do, you know that September brings the start of elk season for archery hunters... this works out nicely for an archer whose birthday is in the fall... ie: Matthew. Earlier in the week he and Travis had gone to Cabela's and purchased a lot of things for the coming hunt- Matthew came home and let me know what he'd forgotten that he still needs (that interprets as, "take the girls to Sportsman's to buy these things for my birthday!") ... so of course we did that. We had a fun girls night on the 9th- dinner at Carl's jr- the girls got to play, play, play on the slide and climbing stuff, which they love, and then we headed over to Sportsman's Warehouse to see what we could find. I was lost- for just a few things it sure took me forever because this is foreign territory to me, where's the salesman when you need them to ask, "can I help you?" or "are you finding everything?".... no, those are only questions that come when you know the store and are doing just fine on your own! But, alas, we did find what we'd gone looking for and got everything home to wrap...

On the 10th (actual birthday) I worked- the way those days go is this: I leave for work at 5 am and get home around 5 pm, Matthew has had the girls during the day and then he leaves for his interpreting job around 5:15 pm and the girls and I have the evening.... so we'd planned to open presents during our 15 minutes of "family time." All day there had been happiness and merriment every time I'd talked to Matthew- he was giddy as a school girl over his birthday. So I walk in the house to crying girls and an upset papa bear.... what happened? Matthew had gotten on the girls over something minor and Kenna said it scared her and she could not stop crying... the whole time we opened gifts she'd start to regain composure and then the flood gates would open again... she cried the whole time- happy birthday daddy! I love this picture, Jocilyn was getting so sick of it, and I had a hard time getting Matthew to give me a real smile because he was so frustrated...
Alas... he is a year older, better, and hopefully wiser! I'm so totally blessed to have him as my sweet eternal companion- and as the father to my girls (who totally adore him and the occasion that he does get upset with them is so rare that when he does it's the end of Kenna's world...) He is just so good- I don't know how I got so lucky... but I'm so thankful that I did- Happy Birthday sweet man of mine!