Family Doings

Everything has been quite hectic here. As can be guessed by the lack of posts. I actually should be doing something else right now, but have a few things I wanted to post before I forget them.

Riley has been enjoying soccer for the past month and we have a few more weeks to go until the season is over. I have learned this year that he has inherited the Bott competitiveness. There has been a couple of time at practice that his team wasn't winning and he had a complete break down. It actually happened last night. Thank goodness it has only happened at practice and not during the middle of a game. I was worried it would happen during the first game when he was put in as goalie. He is very hard on himself and expects perfection. Well the other team scored on him and he threw the ball. I looked at Terry and said here we go. Terry said he would go talked to him. The next thing I knew Riley was smiling and actually doing a pretty good job. Later I asked Terry what he said. He told me, he said, "Riley don't worry about the times when they score, just focus on all the good things you are doing. You stopped the ball twice before they even scored on you." I felt so humbled after this because I probably would have gone over there and lectured him or yelled at him for throwing the ball. It was a good lesson on positive reinforcement.

Abbie is turning four soon and very excited about her birthday. She gets to have her first birthday party this year. She has been going through a temper tantrum stage. She spent about an hour crying and screaming in her room the other night. She did sleep well that nigh,t however. She tries to be the little mother and tell everyone what to do. It is so cute to watch her. Her love for music is still going strong. She has now high jacked the radio in the van. We have to listen to one of her CDs whenever we are out and about. If I have to hear the song 'If Your Happy and You Know Clap Your Hands,' one more time I will scream. I am just joking. I love listening to her sing all the songs in the van. Riley has even started singing some of them. He has a very beautiful voice, but I don't get to hear it very often because he doesn't like to sing.

Terry, as usual, is running at top speed. He is still the Head of the Science Department, and has picked up a new position to go along with that, Computer Tech. He was doing a lot of the Computer Techs job anyways, so it isn't to much more. He just gets paid for it. He also is busy trying to inventory the chemical store room at the school He is supposed to have it finished by October 16th or 15th. He is getting paid for it as well. It is just a lot of work.
Terry got called as the Ward Clerk a few weeks ago. He is pretty busy on Sundays now. It is a different story trying to get my kids to church by myself. At least I only have two to get ready, I can't imagine how mother's do it with more. The good thing about it is we are guaranteed a set up front and don't have to sit on the folding chairs in the back when we are late.

I am busy with my daycare and being a mother. I love being with my kids. They are growing up to fast. I just want to hold onto them and keep them from getting older. At the same time I love watching them learn and grow. I just picked up another girl in my daycare. That makes 3 girls that I am watching. Yesterday was my first day. She is a doll, but keeps me running. Unfortunately I have her until just after 6:00. I have learned that once you go past 5:00 it gets stressful. I will only be watching her temporally though, so it shouldn't be to bad. After she left yesterday. I was feeling pretty tired and stressed. I was trying to get a hold of Terry at work to ask him to get something at the store for me, but couldn't. I don't know why, but this made me even more stressed. Finally, I packed the kids up in the van and went to the store myself. By the time I got home it was 7:00, and we hadn't had dinner yet. Terry had just gotten home right before us. I walked in the house and said, "I am so stressed." He replied by saying, "If it makes you feel any better so am I." While we were fixing dinner Terry and I decided that we were not going to do FHE. It was to late and we were both just to stressed to worry about it. Than Abbie proceeded to give the dinner prayer and thanked Heavenly Father that we were going to have FHE. Terry and I looked at each other and said, "It looks like we are having FHE." I am so glad we did. Riley was in charged of the lesson, and he did a wonderful job and we had a good time together.

My children love anything that involves the family. They love FHE, family prayer, family dinner, family movie time, and especially family hugs. Somehow we started this tradition, don't asked me when it started I can't tell you, but basically what it is; is anyone can call, "family hug" and everyone stops what they are doing and we hug as a family. They also love 2 minutes. What we do is give each child time in their beds each night. Terry with one child, while I am with the other child, and than we switch. It is about 5 minutes with each child, but we call it 2 minutes. This can be tedious at times. There are just some nights I wish I could tell the kids to go get in the bed and that is it. I was having one of those nights about a month ago, when Riley reminded me why we even do this. During the middle of our 2 minute time Riley said, "Do you know why I love 2 minutes so much mom? Because 2 minutes are so exciting." Whenever I have one of those nights were I just don't want to do 2 minutes I remember what Riley said.