The Ten Minute Kidnapping

Oh the afternoons. They can be so long and boring. Rachel came to me today. . ."Mom, I have nothing to do." Well, I am a quick thinker so I suggested she go see if our neighbor could play. About 20 minutes later the door bell rang. I opened it to find our little neighbor wanting to know if she could play at our house. I was confused. "I thought Rachel was at your house." No. Well, then, she must be here. I yelled throughout the house. In every room. "Please go home and make sure that Rachel isn't at your house." So, the little girl left and returned shortly affirming to me once again that Rachel was not at her house. Now I was starting to panic. My heart racing, I went outside and began to yell Rachel's name. No answer. Emily was in the bathtub, so I pulled her out, quickly dressed her, and said a prayer. Then I told Ben to start looking for his sister. Ben was only worried about his stomach. . . he wanted a sandwich. "She's lost!" I told him with less than kindness.

Now it just happens that the neighbor girls Father is a police officer. I saw his patrol car in the driveway, so I headed over there. I was ready to put in a missing child report. . . Rachel does not wander off around the neighborhood. If she wasn't at he neighbors and she wasn't in our yard then she was kidnapped. I was near tears when I got to my neighbors house. They opened the door and I said "I can't find Rachel."

They looked at me with a confused gaze and said, "She's here." Oh my gosh. I can't tell you the relief I felt. Even after I left and went home I had to sit down. I laughed and cried together. Apparently, Rachel arrived at there house before her friend was home from school so they invited her to come in and wait and watch Tinkerbell. Well, when the friend came home she didn't even go into the house. She just jumped out of the car and headed to our house. That explains why she didn't think Rachel was at her house. Whether not she actually went home to double check when I asked her to is unknown. All I do know is I never want to have that happen again. It was terrible. The worst ten minutes of my life. I gave all three of my kids huge hugs afterward.

This is Halloween!

We had a very busy Halloween this year. We abandoned our own house. I was surprised our pumpkins survived. I thought for sure some snotty teenager would take revenge on our empty house. We decided we wanted to spend Halloween with the family. We did miss the super fun Halloween Party because of the swine flu so we had a lot to make up for. Our first destination on Halloween day was the Pumpkin Patch place on Geneva road.


Way fun. Then we headed off for some trick or treating with the cousins.

I think our kids came home with about 10 pounds of candy this year.. . which was all gone in a week. Amazing.

And the best part of all. The ride home was very quiet.


You can't beat that. Thanks to all who made our Halloween killer. :)

Oh yea, and if you were wondering. The girls were dressed as

and the boys were. . .

Moms and Daughters

I've mentioned how Rachel was having a bit of a tantrum problem. Well, I was really worried about her. So, in the midst of thinking about it, I decided that we needed an outing, just the two of us. I told her about it and we looked forward to it for a week. Color Me Mine just opened in Ogden, so that was our destination. Every part of it was fun. From picking out what we were going to paint, to laughing as we painted together. Rachel loved her finished project which is now displayed in her room (when she is not carrying it around the house). I made Nate a BYU mug which I forced him to take to work and put on his desk. . . really, he loved it.



Food also had to be part of our night, as no night out is complete without it. We went home happy and I will be anxious to do it again. Consequently, spending more time with Rachel has been part of the answer to her tantrums. They have improved a lot. I love my girl.

So You Think You Can Be a Rock Star

Finally, the end of the day had come. The kids were in their jammies and playing nicely. . . but what were they playing.
"Are you guys going on vacation?" I asked.

"NO, we're rock stars!"
Ah. Yes. Now I can see. I don't know how I didn't guess that to begin with. :)

Pumkins, Apples, and A Big Big Mess

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

Just Another Day

Today I was a little camera happy. Sometimes, I just want to snap shot my day. This or that. . . just a moment frozen in time. It started this morning. Nate was home when the kids woke up. One by one they all filed in and piled on top of him. Hey, he's a fun Dad. And they love it when he teases them. . . like when he says "Group Hug!" and smashes them all together.

Sadly, Nate had to be to work at 11:30. When he left, it seemed all the happiness of the morning went with it. Those three little scoundrels started fighting. First, Emily and Rachel wanted the same chair. . . then Ben and Rachel wanted the same chair. . . then Emily wanted Ben's toy. . . then Rachel didn't want to play with Ben. . . and on and on. I thought I might pull my hair out.

We finally left the house to purchase something for dinner at the Walmart. It was a break, I guess. Except for me repeating "Get off the cart. Your too big and heavy and I can't turn it" like 10,000 times. Really, I used to like them to hold on to the cart but now it's like pushing around 100 extra pounds. Unfortunately, I haven't been keeping up on my weight lifting.

Luckily, by the time we got home our friendly little neighbor came to invite Rachel over and that saved us from more fighting. Ben retreated to play games on the computer and Emily and I played peek-a-boo.


Many years from now I will read this blog and naively say "Oh, that was so fun. Look at those cute kids. I miss those days."

Success!

Sometimes I really worry about screwing up my kids. So much so that I think I might not have anymore children. . . I mean. . . how bad can a mess up on just three children. And messing up three would be better than messing up five. Right.

So, Rachel has been having a little problem with major tantrums. She is a very headstrong girl. And, frankly, I think it gives her an adrenaline rush to fight a battle, which seems to be the perfect brewing ground for her tantrums. Now, you might think that I would be an expert with such behavior. I mean, I spent all last year dealing with this exact behavior everyday. Alas, many times I get frustrated with her and have to remove myself to my bedroom for prayer and meditation before I do something I may well regret.

Well, I have tried to institute a sticker system. Each kid has 5 things they can do each day to earn a sticker. The stickers can be exchanged for a treat at the store, friday night movies, happy meals, and other fun activities. This plan has been working pretty well. Rachel has been doing better with her tantrums. But, last night I had real success. Rachel was in the throws of a rather huge tantrum. During family scriptures she was playing with a toy telephone.
"Rachel, if I hear that phone make one more noise I am taking it away and you won't get it back for a week."
Shortly thereafter, what did I hear. Oh yes, one more noise. She just had to test the limits. So I took the phone. . . and then the tantrum erupted. But the success came about 2 minutes into the tantrum. She calmed down just a little and I said
"Rachel, do you know what I liked about what you did today?" She stopped and looked at me "What?"
"I liked how nice you were to Emily today. Thank you for being such a good sister."
"Do you know what else I liked about what you did today?"
What?
"I liked that you didn't fight with Ben all day. You did a good job on that today."

And just like that the tantrum ended. I have been thinking about this. I posted a Bill Cosby sketch on facebook today. In it he talks about how parents often get a perma frown on their face. Picking up on the negative, we forget to point out the positive. Well, here's proof that the positive has power to overcome the negative. I spent half of my expensive college years learning it. Positive Power. It's going to be my motto from now on. I can do it!!!