Escape Artist...

Oh,man. My little Jack is becoming an escape artist! A few weeks ago, I left Abby to babysit for 10 minutes, while I went to pick up Emie and Erin at the school after volleyball. It turned out that they got a ride from a friend, and got here just in time to see a man carrying Jack around trying to find where he belonged. He had wandered out of the house, and was walking around in the front yard--barefoot--in 115 degree weather! The man rang our doorbell, but no one was answering, so he was going to go to the next house. I got home a few minutes later and the girls had brought him in and thanked the man for his help. Boy, did Abby get a yelling at for not watching her brother when I asked her to--she was in front of the TV where she was when I left her, and didn't even know anything had happened!
Fast-forward to this morning... Todd left to go to work, and I had 5 of my 6 kids home from school with this nasty stomach bug that has them all down this week. Everyone was in the living room watching TV, and I was in the study checking email and news for the day. Then I hear the doorbell ring. I yelled at the kids to go get the door--as I still had my pj's on, but no one would come, so after a few rings I run out there. What do I see? This sweet lady holding my Jack--in his little sleeper still, and another man who had seen him and stopped to see where he belonged. She told me he was walking in the street. That little stinker, I had seriously been holding him not 10 minutes before that. The sad thing is, he can't even open my front door, and I didn't think he could open the garage door either, but he opened 2 doors to go out this morning! Needless to say, I locked the deadbolt for the rest of the day so I could prevent him from escaping again! I am very grateful that we don't live on a very busy street--and that we have kind people in our neighborhood that were willing to stop and help, (and not call CPS on his negligent mother). It seems I have an escape artist on my hands...yikes! (But isn't he adorable!)

This isn't the first time I have had an escape artist--Abby was my other kid who liked to run off...although she wasn't quite this young when she started disappearing! We lost her when she was 2 in the beach club that we stay at. We were on the 3rd floor, and she wandered out of our room because someone had propped it open. I don't know how long she was gone before we noticed, but we were searching like crazy for her, when I found her in the basement parking lot in the maids quarters. Another time she got on an elevator in California without us, and we had to stop on every floor (like 15 of them) until we found her. Another time, we were at Todd's parents house on Christmas day, and everyone was playing, and I had the thought that I should look for Abby. She was no where to be found, so we started searching in the orange groves around their house. We finally found her about half an hour later, and she was about a mile away in the orange groves, just walking, and having a great time!
The scariest time of all was when Todd was working on starting his first funeral home. We didn't have any money, so we were doing all the fixing up and painting ourselves, and we had the kids down there with us. Abby was about 3 years old. I was painting, and the kids were all running around, and there were people going in and out moving furniture. All of the sudden, we hear someone banging on the front door, which was locked (so Abby wouldn't get out--she snuck out the back door instead). So I go and open it, and there is this man there holding Abby, and he proceeds to SCREAM at me, "what the bleep are you people doing, this bleeping baby is out here in the street, and it's rush hour." It was about 5:30 on a weekday, and the funeral home was right on the corner of Horne and Southern (a super busy intersection!). You should've seen the amount of cars on the street that day--it was truly a miracle that she wasn't killed or stolen. I immediately started to cry and apologize, and thank him for stopping to pick her up. His heart softened a bit, and he just said we needed to be more careful--which was great advice--but when your daughter thinks she's Houdini it's easier said than done!
I have thanked the Lord over and over again for saving my Abby, and I thanked Him again today for watching out for my little Jack. I am grateful that he sends angels to help when Mom isn't doing the greatest job! I need all the help I can get!

Soccer Time!...

Josh started soccer last week, and is on a team with two of his cousins, Kam and Carson. They have so much fun playing together, and are so cute to watch! They are all so funny--at this age, I don't think you pass the ball much--because they all want to score the goal themselves! Josh didn't play last year, because I signed him up too late, but he didn't miss a beat. He is SO stinkin' fast--he is all over that soccer field! I feel a little sorry for those on his team who aren't so aggressive, there are a few little girls who hardly got to touch the ball at all. Josh didn't care though--he scored 3 goals, and thought he was ALL THAT! I am going to have to make sure his head doesn't get too big, (although if his head gets bigger--maybe it will grow into his new ginormous front TEETH!)! Ha, just kidding--I love you buddy!






Getting advice from Dads during the break:


Cheering for his cousins...


This is his, "Oh yeah, I just scored a goal" face:




Being silly...these boys are so much fun! Love you guys!

Cookies Anyone???

We went out on a date on Friday night and left Erin and her friend Amber to their own devices...this is what we came home to:




The good news? All of the kids were still alive and well, and the cookies tasted GREAT! Good job girls!

Attributes of Christ

Todd and I went to a special HFPE last night and it was Debbie Forrest (she used to be in Bob and Sue's ward--her husband was killed in a car accident while he was bishop in 2000). Anyway, she has taken the Character First program that several cities have implemented, and turned it into something wonderful that we can use in our families, to work on our character, and help us to be more like our Savior, one characteristic at a time. There are 49 character qualities, and their definitions that you put into a notebook for each member of your family. Then, each week on Sunday night, you introduce the quality for that week, and talk about the definition, and also the opposite. Each person writes down goals for the week to improve that quality in their own character. Monday is a family night lesson on that attribute using scriptures, or quotes from prophets, or whatever you want to use. They even suggested using Preach My Gospel on page 122 & 123 where it says "Developing Christlike Attributes", then goes on to give 8 steps to follow to study and develop each attribute. Obviously some will be harder than others, but this is part of the challenge. "Patience vs. Restlesness"--boy that will be a BIG one for me! And how about this one: "Punctuality vs. Tardiness"--oh MAN! You get the idea.

She talked at length about using these attributes to mold and shape our children into children of character, helping them to follow the Savior, and to be more like him. She challenged us to make 10 positive, praising comments to our children for every negative one--HARD! But they need to feel our love, and our Savior's love in their lives! It's hard enough for our youth to live in this wicked world, with evil all around them, and then to have to come home to negativity and criticism. We need to be careful that we are BUILDING character in our children and recognizing the good that they do--not TEARING down their self-worth, and self esteem. I really felt the spirit in this meeting, and felt a need to change the way I speak to my children, and to my spouse. Most importantly, I felt a need to try to recognize in my children the gifts of the spirit, and the strengths of character that they have already been given, and recognize them more often for those strengths instead of grinding away at them for their weaknesses. After all--don't I have more weaknesses than all of my children put together!!??

I would challenge you all to take a look at this program, and see if you think it is worth your time! I really think it is a great way to recognize that all of our children have different strengths and weaknesses, and we as parents can work on building our character together as a family. If you are interested, leave a comment, or email me, and I will email you the contents of the folders you can make, and you can also go to the website for more information, although, I'm not sure you need to buy any of their materials, unless you just want to make it easier on yourself in researching each character trait. They do have a great poster of all the traits and the definitions for pretty cheap--and also a pocket guide you can buy for $1.00 for your children to keep with them. They also have a page with tons of free downloads to help you. Somehow, I think we will learn more by doing it on our own, and putting in the time and effort to study each trait. I think I will assign different children to do some of them as well. Think of it--49 family nights--DONE!

Cousins...

We loved having the Alexanders over last weekend for a visit! We haven't seen them forever! I swear Kimbies kids all grew a few inches since July! The kids had a great time playing and swimming--and they had a great time drinking smoothies out by the pool! It was a great place to hand them out, since it is inevitable that the smoothies are everywhere! Some more great smoothiestaches! Love you guys!

GO DEVILS...

It's that time of year again--time for FOOTBALL! This is our absolute favorite time of year--and not a Saturday goes by that you can't find us planted in front of the TV watching college football games! ASU had their first game last Saturday vs. Idaho St. and won--bigtime! We also enjoyed watching most of the BYU game vs. Oklahoma where there was some sort of divine intervention for SURE! LOVED IT! These are just a few pics from our first game! Go Devils!
The TV was on the wrong channel for the first half of the game--we were watching CSI Miami, instead of replays!

A Great Lesson...

Abby did the lesson for family night a week ago, and it was such a great lesson, one that is mentioned several times in the scriptures. We talked about Elder Kevin Pearson's April conference address called "Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ". You can click on the title to read the whole message, but here are a few quotes that I absolutely loved:

We can give our children education, lessons, athletics, the arts, and material possessions, but if we do not give them faith in Christ, we have given little."

“Faith is kindled by hearing the testimony of those who have faith”. Do your children know that you know? Do they see and feel your conviction? “Strong faith is developed by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

"Faith and fear cannot coexist. One gives way to the other. The simple fact is we all need to constantly build faith and overcome sources of destructive disbelief. The Savior’s teaching comparing faith to a grain of mustard seed recognizes this reality (see Matthew 13:31–32). Consider it this way: our net usable faith is what we have left to exercise after we subtract our sources of doubt and disbelief. You might ask yourself this question: “Is my own net faith positive or negative?” If your faith exceeds your doubt and disbelief, the answer is likely positive. If you allow doubt and disbelief to control you, the answer might be negative.

He goes on to talk about things that can erode our faith, and mentions specifically 6 D's that can destroy our faith in God. I think these are probably as important as President Hinckley's B's!

"These Six Destructive Ds—doubt, discouragement, distraction, lack of diligence, disobedience, and disbelief—all erode and destroy our faith. We can choose to avoid and overcome them."

Then we did an object lesson that Abby was in charge of, where we planted our own "seeds of faith". We set the seeds in a little baggie on top of a wet paper towel, and hoped that they would grow. I have to admit that I was a little skeptical, but my children must have great faith, because those seeds grew and grew within just a few days--with no oxygen, and no sunlight, just sitting on the counter. It was a great visual reminder of a great principle! I really felt like my children grasped the idea, and it was a great lesson! It doesn't always work out that way at our house--(ask my children about the lesson on "Reverence and Respect" a few weeks ago that ended in weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth--yeah, it was THAT bad)so I was grateful! Thanks Abby for a great night!

Mea...

We had our "adopted" neice over a few weekends ago, and I couldn't resist a photo session when we got home from church. She is actually a friend of the family--Trasi's daughter, Mea. I just love her in these pictures! Such a beautiful little girl! Love ya Mea!

We Won't Forget...

Today, more than ever, I am so grateful for this great country that we live in. So grateful for freedom, and so grateful to be alive. Take a moment today to tell your children the story of this day, and watch footage if possible. We need the next generation to know what happened on this day, and how we feel about it! We will never forget!

Love this...

Quote for the day, courtesy of Abraham Lincoln:

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves."

Abraham Lincoln

Love it!

Disturbing...

If you haven't seen this...you have to watch it. I pledge to not let Sean Diddy Combs, Demi Moore, and Cameron Diaz, and these other left-wing wack jobs brainwash my children! Is this going to be shown at your school? I'm calling to make sure it's not being shown at mine. Environmentalism is the religion of the left--and they are trying to push it on us, through our children. Can you imagine if we were actually showing a religious video, or taking a religious message to the schools? This is propaganda, pure and simple. Ugh... Oh, and I'm leaving my lights on, and having a bottled water as we speak, and I'm going to drive my obnoxious SUV all I want! It's called FREEDOM people! We need to fight for it!