Adyson's Baptism

Adyson wanted to get baptized while we were in Utah this summer. She had a stake baptism that she could have participated in here in WA, but she didn't want strangers in the audience...only friendly faces. She's not one to want to attract a lot of attention so doing it with family was the least painful way in her being the main subject of the event. Thanks for our great friend Jackie for taking these 2 pictures (and many more) beautiful pictures at Temple Square and the Beehive House.

When deciding what she wanted for the program Ady also included receiving a "comforter" like Maryn did. You gotta watch what you do for older siblings because the younger kids won't forget it and they'll make a tradition out of it. This one is a soft and snugly one just like the Holy Ghost makes you feel...He is the comforter making you feel warm and safe and protected. Because it was pink and cozy Ady loved it! It was presented by Grandma as she gave the talk on the Holy Ghost.

The program goes as follows: Grandpa conducted the meeting. Marty played the piano and Marjorie lead the music, singing Ady's favorite songs, "I Love to See the Temple," and "I Am a Child of God." Marc gave the opening prayer. McKay and Danielle gave the talk on baptism. All the Matheson, Slichta and Shuman girls did the musical number singing, "A Child's Prayer" but really it was a solo performed by Marianne and Marjorie. Of course Jeff performed the baptism. The talk on the Holy Ghost was by Grandma. The confirmation was by Jeff and lots of friends and family (listed in a moment) and James gave the closing prayer.

We had lots of relatives and a few special friends too. Yummy snacks were served while we hugged and chatted and took many pictures of everyone who was there.

Just for the records and posterity sake I will name the great men who where in the circle in setting a part Adyson. Top row from Left to Right: Jeff C. (long-time special friend), Matthew B.(funniest husband to cousin Heather), Bro. Barton (bishopric member from mom and dad's ward), Dad (best Grandpa), Jeff (worthy and proud father of little Ads), Marc and Merrill and Marty (super duper brothers) and Uncle Wes (short and proud of it). Bottom Row from Left to Right: Uncle Richard J.(if you're looking for a joke), Taylor J. (can't believe you're so dang old), James (best brother-in-law ever!), McKay (super duper brother), Mike H. (cousin that shares the same birthday as me) and David A. (new husband to cousin Stephanie. Great to meet ya!).

We are so proud of Adyson. She is such a gentle girl who has the face of a "Precious moments" figurine. She has the desire to be so good. She wants to be an example and is so proud of the fact that she is the family peacemaker. She is very aware of the importance of this big decision she has made to follow the Savior, Jesus Christ in being baptized like Him. She met with the sister missionaries for a few months before her baptism. We wanted her to have special teaching moments by some special teachers without the interruptions from her siblings. She loved these times and was aware of the Spirit she felt during these visits. She even answered all the questions right! She is our awesome girl and we LOVE YOU Ady!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

Monday night was Mormon Night at Safeco field with the Seattle Mariners. Of course we had to go and cheer with the Mormons and have a little Family Home Evening together. It was pouring rain as we were getting ready to go and my first instinct was to pack umbrellas, ponchos and other rain gear. But, since we are in Seattle and it rains a lot we remembered that the stadium has a "roof" that opens and closes as the weather changes. We enjoyed the dryness and had a wonderful time. Even though the Mariners are in last place they still won the game.



Marc has been with us for the last 3 weeks (more about Marc in upcoming posts). He actually went to a game with my dad when he was here so this was his 2ND time. (More about my mom and dad's visit in upcoming posts.) It has been SO fun to have him around. Kaden and Marc are best buddies!!!

All the Mormon ticket-holders got free Mariners hats. We love a free thing you know.

Maryn and Adyson's main goal during the whole game was to get up on the big screen. Fans who were holding signs or acting crazy or dancing were usually the ones who were shown on the screen...so that's how Maryn and Ady acted...embarrassing. Much to their disappointment they were never shown but they already have their costumes and posters planned for the next time we go to a game.

Everyone got into the spirit of things. Adyson became a fan of the opposing team, the Minnesota Twins. We asked her why she wasn't cheering for the Mariners she said, "Because the Twins flew all the way here to play the game with us. They would go home sad and they don't have anyone here cheering for them." Typical of Ady, always thinking of other's feelings. She makes a great Mariners fan too though because her 2nd grade teacher was a huge fan and talked about all the players all the time to the class. Ady knew most of their names.

Go Mariners!!!

And the winner is....

This week we have the "weirdest family member" award... and the winner is Adyson! Hooray! She had so many weird things going on this week. Here are just a few:
Ady loves watermelon. She especially likes to get the ball scooper and clean out the watermelon. After she was done cleaning out this watermelon...and I mean cleaning it out to the white rind, she decided it was good enough to be the perfect hat. She looked like she was wearing an army helmet. Ady, that's weird!

Ady was born with weird teeth. As her permanent teeth are coming in they are getting weirder. The modern orthodontic work that can be done is amazing these days....we can prevent her from getting braces at 8 years old. First, we had spacers, then an expander where we turned a "key" in it everyday to expand her mouth. And now we are wearing this...

head gear. It is meant to pull the upper jaw out as it grows. The good thing is that she doesn't have to wear it to school...still making sure that she wears it 14 hours a day. The bad news is that it's worn for 6-9 months. She'll then have a retainer and then hopefully no braces. Each time Ady puts on her head gear I am still shocked and have images of Willy Wonka (the new version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) when Willy was little he wore the head gear that attached over his whole head and neck and spread his lips clear out exposing his mouth full of braces. Now, that's weird! We are so thankful that at 8 Ady understands the importance of wearing this thing and isn't hiding in the closet over it like I probably would do if I had to wear it. Good job Ady!

Ady found a new weird friend this week...a fly. Maybe it had a broken flying part or something but this fly stayed on Ady's arm, crawling up and down. It crawled on her head and back down to her arm again. It really acted like it didn't want to leave her. Now that's weird!

I am the runner up for weirdness this week. I woke up one morning with a blood-red eye... maybe a broken blood vessel. This picture is actually the 2nd day of my red eye so it's lightened up a bit from the first day. Do you see the part where it's solid blood-red? Well, imagine the whole thing being that color. My whole family was grossed out to look at me. All day long I heard, "Mom, you're freakin' me out!" I had just finished reading Stephanie Meyer's last book Breaking Dawn, so I told everyone I was turning into a vampire. That really creeped them out. 2nd place Weird for me!

They found us!!!

In Redding, CA every summer began with a visit from the pest control people catching at least 3 moles from our yard. Mole pop-ups were a normal part of our lawn. We were so happy to move to WA and see that no pop-ups were found in any of the yards in our neighborhood. Finally we had escaped the pesky little guys. Well, after 7 months of a nice lawn we nearly died at seeing the dreaded pop-up in our yard! They found us!!! The bad news is by law you cannot kill a mole in WA...(that's the dumbest law we've ever heard of especially when moles ruin your lawn), but the good news is that at Home Depot they sell all the goods to kill the mole yourself. Here is Jeff checking the killer clamps...we were hopeful, but unsuccessful. Next we called the pest control guy...although they couldn't kill and catch the mole they could put "poisonous worms" (that cost $115!!!) in the ground hoping the mole would eat it and die. Apparently, he wasn't killing the mole directly and that made it legal. Whatever. We have to assume the mole is dead because we haven't had any fresh pop-ups...at least for now.

Bikes and swings

The pictures in this post actually speak for themselves...Emmy learning to ride a bike...in a dress...and Jeff breaking his back holding on to Emmy.

While we're on the topic of Emmy, let me just insert some of the latest info on her. She was our easiest baby...but now she has made up for lost time. She is a busy girl and we can't keep up with her. If we can't find Emmy we don't even know where to start looking. She could be in any house down the street, having dinner with them, having pajama parties or a few blocks away at the park. We get phone calls from parents we don't even know letting us know that Emmy is at their house. If she gets invited to a party she goes around and invites 20 other friends to come with her. (to the displeasure of the hosts of the party.) The thing that cracks us up is that all of these friends are boys. She is the neighborhood mascot...running around without shoes on and with some sort of dress. We try not to be embarrassed of her and we honestly do try to control her and set boundaries for her, but with the close proximities of houses and friends and ALL of her energy it sure is hard to contain her...can't wait for kindergarten...hope her teacher doesn't hate us.

Our kids are still adjusting to having space limitations and weather limitations keeping them indoors a lot. So in an effort to not hinder their creativity I didn't want to stop them when they were being creative AND having fun together. I was quite impressed when they rigged up this swing from our banisters, duck-taping pillows for a nice seat to swing on. They played happily together that night and most of the day Saturday. Jeff hypervenilated when he came home from work seeing the weight of the children pulling on the banister and envisioning the whole wooden railing crashing down. I calmed him down by putting him in his bedroom with a good book telling him that at least the kids were happy, not fighting, being creative and making memories. If we had to make a trip to the ER or call in a carpenter at least it would be a good story to tell down the road. I'm happy to report that there were no accidents and only happy memories of the day they made a huge rope swing inside the house.