The Escape Artist

In my last post, I shared the most terrifying of Matty's escapes...but there have been other incidents. Plenty of them. Enough to have shaved years off of my life, I am sure. Here are a couple that come to mind...

Before the Great Escape of 2010 (previous post) she ran away several times. One day she came up missing and I ran up and down the street calling for her, panicking, the whole routine....couldn't find her anywhere! I was yelling and running and panting and running and yelling. I knocked on doors. I knocked on the door of a particular next-door-neighbor who didn't answer. A little while later I tried her door one more time. She answered this time and informed me that Matty was in her house. Holy Crap!!!! I guess she had gone in their back yard and let herself into their house through the back door. What a little stinker.

While we were living out here on Sand Cliffs Road in Meeteetse we woke up early one morning to find that Matty was not anywhere in the house. We looked everywhere and yelled and yelled for her. So, naturally we figured she had gone out. It was quite chilly outside. We went out and finally did find her in the back of the house. She was in her pajamas and a jacket and shoes. I grabbed her and carried her inside and gave her the whole 'you can't go outside without telling Mommy' lecture. Later, she brought up the subject on her own and I just listened to what she had to say. It was a pretty amazing story. She talked about walking around and doing this and that...and then in her own very simple language, she said the Holy Ghost told her to 'go home'.

I'll tell you what, I believe in the whisperings of the Spirit. And I have no doubt in my mind that that little girl heard a voice telling her she needed to go home. I am so grateful to know that our Father in Heaven is mindful of each one of us and will warn us when we need help. I am so glad that Matty was listening.

More recently, she had another sneaky break-out. At least it wasn't so scary this time...but made me nervous about the things this little girl will do! I couldn't find her one afternoon and automatically opened the front door to look for her (even though I had just been in the kitchen and never saw or heard the front door open or shut). Sure enough, there she was playing outside. But I couldn't for the life of me figure out how she had gotten past me without seeing or hearing her. Later, I went downstairs to do something and saw how she had accomplished her escape. She had somehow gotten the window in the family room open (it is way out of her reach, but she must have pushed something over there to climb up on) and crawled out into the dog kennel with the dog and somehow got herself out of the kennel too!!! She never ceases to amaze me!

I hope she is finally outgrowing this escape artist routine. I am so tired of it. :)

A Blast From The Past - "I Was Running"

I thought that I had posted this story about Matty running away, but I couldn't find it anywhere on my blog. Must have been one of those posts that I composed in my mind but never got around to typing. She has run off quite a few times and each time it scared me to death. In fact, I am still to this day careful about doors being locked, and on occasion when I get a 'feeling', I even barricade the doors at night!  But she really out-did herself this particular time. It was a couple years ago, spring 2010 I believe when we were living on 10th Street in Lovell, but I wanted to make sure I had it recorded...

I had been at a Young Women activity on a Wednesday night and was just getting in my car to go home when I got a phone call from Kyle. "Matty is missing." It was almost 9:00 at night. It was dark and it was cold. I raced home and called 9-1-1 on my way.

Kyle had put the girls to bed earlier. They had been fast asleep. So he went out to the backyard to work on our pump. He went back inside to check on them and they were still fine so he went back outside. About ten minutes later he went to check again and saw that our front door was open. Assuming that I had gotten home from my meeting, he started looking for me in the house. When he didn't find me, he looked outside and saw that my car wasn't home and automatically realized that Matty must have gotten out. He went to her bedroom, and sure enough, there was no Matty. He looked up and down our street and couldn't see any sign of her. That's when he called me and I called the police.

My heart was pounding on the way home. Once I got there, I started helping Kyle look all around the neighborhood. I was really pregnant at the time and was having a hard time running and yelling and I was really starting to panic! So many people showed up - almost immediately. Police, Sheriff, Fire Department, family members, neighbors. Everyone was combing the area. It was so cold outside and all I could think about was the fact that they had let the water into the canals and I didn't think she was in anything but a t-shirt and pajama pants. I was so afraid that she had wandered somewhere dangerous or was freezing. I was f-r-e-a-k-i-n-g out! And I wasn't the only one. Even Miss Anastyn as little as she was was terribly upset and wanted to find her Matty. Finally, after we were searching and yelling and crying for what seemed like an eternity, I got a phone call from a lady wondering if I was "missing someone". I said, "yes! do you have her???". And thank goodness she did!

My little Matty had wandered clear down the street, all the way down the hill, past a canal full of water (which typically she would have been curious about because she loves water), to a house that she had never been to before. Apparently she had tried to jump on their trampoline and eventually ended up at their back door. She knocked and they didn't hear her, so she just walked right into their house! Luckily they knew who she was!!! The fire chief and her Uncle Tyler drove down and picked her up for me. I was so happy to see that little girl's face. So happy!!! As soon as I had her in my arms I asked her where she had been. She matter-of-factly stated, "I was running!" like it was no big deal!

Come to find out, she was at least smart enough to put some shoes on and one of my coats! (They found those on the ground by the trampoline the next morning!) Oh, Matty. You almost gave Daddy a heart attack and dang near sent Mommy into pre-term labor!!!! I am certain she had some guardian angels looking out for her that night...

A Blast From The Past Part III: Christmas!

We had a great Christmas Season! It started off with a visit from Aunt Chelsea mid-December. She only got to stay for a couple days, but we sure enjoyed her!!

 We attempted a family photo for Christmas cards. It was soooo cold outside, and not a single member of the family was in the mood for picture taking. Not even myself. But I was not about to let another year pass by without a dang card. I got my tripod and camera all set up, got everybody situated, realized the sun was in everybody's eyes, set the timer, ran to position, the camera captured what you see here, and everyone was DONE. Nobody wanted to cooperate with me. Nobody wanted to move to a different spot. Nobody wanted me to try again. It made me grumpy. I think a few unkind words were said and we packed it in. Needless to say, it was another Christmas-cardless year. 

I give up.

The girls dictated their letters to Santa to me. I wrote them in pencil and then had them trace the letters with their markers. They had writer's cramp by the time they were done, but they were pretty proud!

This one is Matty's:

 And this one is Anastyn's:

We had lots of fun decorating for the holidays this year. We have an artificial tree, but we did make a trip up the Wood River to the mountains and cut a fresh one for the girls to decorate downstairs. They loved decorating their own tree!! We had fun wrapping presents for each other and we even made snowflakes to decorate the windows with! There were Christmas parties and programs. We listened to a LOT of Christmas music. I finally had to hide all the Christmas cd's downstairs just this month because the girls were still asking to listen to them!

We spent Christmas Eve here at home in Meeteetse with my mom and dad. We had a very delicious prime rib dinner, which will definitely have to become a tradition! It was so fun to have Grandma and Grandpa here Christmas morning to witness Santa's sleigh wreck! The kids enjoyed every second of discovering their treasures and unwrapping all their gifts. Mason had a blast tearing the paper off his packages! We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast (Pilsbury, of course. No over-achieving here!) Then in was off to church. I actually love it when Christmas falls on a Sunday. After all, Jesus really is the reason for the season!! After church, we drove to Lovell for more present opening at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Whew...who knew opening gift after gift could be so exhausting!! :) Next stop: Grandpa Leithead's! We had a yummy dinner and the highlight of our Christmas this year was talking to Kaleb (a.k.a. Elder Leithead) via skype! We got to listen to all of his amazing missionary experiences and his strong testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ! What a blessing to be able to see him and talk to him! We are so proud of what he is doing!

And last, but not least, we mustn't forget the very special and unforgettable visitor we had in our home for the month of December. We heard a knock at the door the first evening of the month and were surprised to find a package had been left on our doorstep! The girls opened it and found this little guy! They named him 'Trick the Elf'. He provided much entertainment for our family while he was here. Some of his shenanigans included helping himself to the candy jar, fishing for "goldfish", making snow angels in the flour, messing around with our camera, toilet papering the girls' bathroom, providing a movie night for our family, fraternizing with the Barbie dolls, leaving notes, painting Rudolph noses on the girls in their sleep, and many, many more silly pranks! The girls looked forward to finding him every morning. He even took a few trips with us! We will miss him terribly until he returns next year!!!

A Blast From The Past Part II: Halloween Fun!

The kids carving pumpkins. Does it look like they are having fun to you?? This picture makes me laugh. I can't really remember what the malfunction was at this point...but they really did have fun carving pumpkins! Matty carved a bat and Anastyn carved a cat. Mom and Dad carved a haunted house.

 What cute kids, if I do say so myself. We went with a 60's theme this year. I was not super-mom. I was more like super-lazy-mom! We dug out the poodle skirts I made them for the Lovell's Day Parade a couple years back. Luckily they still fit. And luckily Mason had some jeans and a white t-shirt in his dresser. All we had to do was slick his hair up and voila!! They did look adorable. :)

 And this year we did our trick-or-treating in Lovell again! I can't remember why we were in Lovell instead of Meeteetse (that's what happens when you wait 3 months to blog about something). But, hey, they got to trick-or-treat for heck sake! It was Mason's first time and the girls were so kind to show him the ropes!!

There ya go...that was Halloween in a nutshell!!