Easter

We had teensy hangovers on Easter morning but never the less, the Easter bunny still came to the Slichta house. Thank goodness our special friends, the Debenhams invited us over for dinner and an egg hunt after church. Nothing else is better than homecookin from Jenny's kitchen! The kids decorated cupcakes and ate lots and lots of candy.

Sunday morning was so crazy that we didn't get our pictures taken in our Easter outfits before church. I made the kids get redressed later on which no one was happy about... thus, bad attitudes slightly reflect in the pictures... Ady was the Easter Bunny's helper this year and had a hand in picking out every one's dresses which she loved since she claims she's a fashion designer.

Can you tell that Emmy was beyond tired at this point in the day? Her dress sure was cute though! I had to post these pictures though because I know someday she'll laugh at herself, and I'll join her since at the moment I didn't think she was one bit cute or funny either.

As we were trying to get Kaden to pose this picture flashed and then the camera dropped cracking the lens. Oh mercy me! What more can they do to me? So, this it our only picture of Kaden in his Easter duds on Easter day.

Being a mother and making memories for the family is sure a thankless job. If I think about the frustrations too much I might end up in the mental institution. I just have to remind myself of my "eternal rest" that I'm trying to be worthy of someday.

Spring Break

At the last minute we decided to go to Utah for our Spring Break. The choice was: should we stay home and have nothing major to do and let me fuss with the kids about doing practicing and jobs or should we drive 14 hours in the car just for the sake of getting away. We opted for getting away. We also proved to ourselves that we're not such old foggies as we thought we were... we drove it all in 1 day, arriving in Provo at 3:00 am. Normally we'd stop 1/2 way, sometime before midnight just because we were too tired. We're tougher than we think we are! In the end we were all glad we went.
We first greeted James with a mustache which had been shaven down from a beard to a goatee. He then trimmed his beard to a Charley Chaplin (or Hitler) mustache and decided to color it and be creative. He and Marianne took way too many pictures for this dress-up event. Ady was glad to be apart of all this creativity.

The 2 sisters and their beebee boys.
Saturday night all the boys went to the Priesthood session of conference together and then came home to lots of spaghetti eatin.

The girls had some girl time stitching up a baby quilt for Rachie and her new baby. It was fun to be with Heather, Ellie and Addie and Rachel and Aunt Melanie.

After much finger bleeding and leg poking and bleeding through jeans and stuff... the finished project.

Sunday we had our usual family talent show. While Emmy's harp is still small we wanted to bring it along... very soon, as her harps get bigger it will be too big to haul around.

Some singing around the piano.

Who's cuter than Spencer hanging out on the guitar case? Notice Marianne's super cute blanket that she's working on in the background. My girls haven't stopped begging to make one just exactly like it.

Uncle Marty, the dancer's perfect pianist.

Two little nakie cousins. (Don't judge me that Kaden's still in a diaper. He's 3! I've tried so many times to start potty training him... he could care less about the whole thing. When I ask him about wanting to be big in "big boy pants" he says that he just wants to be little. What does a mom do?)

Our best friend in Utah is Kaitlyn and Laura Halladay who live across the street from Grandma and Grandpa. It's so handy for the kids to have friends to play while we're there too. They made a big parade for everyone to come and watch... with music, floats and lots of marching.

Love that Hula Hoop move Kado!

The Seattlites were loving the sunshine! We spent an afternoon at Canyon Glen in Provo Canyon. Here's some bubble blowing.

Of course my kids found the amphitheater and had to put on some corny skits and dancing.

We also had an outing to the Thanksgiving Point animal farm. They loved milking the cow.

They loved riding the horses but wanted the horses to walk free without going around and around and around in circles.

Of course, true to her nature, Emmy had a book in her hand the whole entire time. She would read to whoever would listen and even when no one would listen. Grandma teaches Kindergartners reading at Westridge Elementary and couldn't believe what a good reader Emmy is. Maryn and Ady went several days to help out Grandma at the school. They loved being teachers.

Spencer loved all the attention. He loved having friends to play with. James and Marianne loved having Spencer have friends to play with too.

We spent an afternoon at this craft place in Orem owned by a lady in my mom's ward. You pick out what you want to make and they help you make it so you go home with a completed project. It was SO fun. We all felt so crafty!

Friday before Easter we decorated eggs.

When you get everyone involved we had some pretty fancy and creative eggs... wax, crayons, rubber bands, stickers and all sorts of dye.

Once again, it was sad to say good-bye but we were glad we came and thankful for all the fun! Because I am blessed to have an overprotective father (who's proud of that title) I drove to Boise and picked Jeff up at the airport where he drove the last 8 hours home with us. He thought it was a crazy idea, and it was... but I was glad to have him help out driving and provide some relief from the wild kiddies. Happy Spring Break! No more school vacations until school gets out June 20th! (isn't the summer 1/2 over by then? whole other blog topic!)

Hear Ye Hear Ye

Friends, Family and Fans
This is to hearby notify you that this blog is going private in just a few days. If you would like to be included in the invitation in keeping up with our family please notify me by e-mail. www.slichtafamily@yahoo.com. I will try to add the family and friends whose e-mails I have, but if by chance you get skipped over please let me know. We feel that it is best to do this at this time to protect the innocent.
Gracias and hope top see you again soon in the blogging world.
The Management

Big Boy Kado!

After 4 months I am finally getting around to getting Kaden's 3 year old pictures. With the other 3 kids I was quite prompt in getting their pictures taken... usually ON their birthday in fact. Keeping current with their pictures was always something important to me. It still is very important to me but somehow with Kaden I struggle with keeping up on his pictures. I'd like to blame it on the Sears Portrait Studio being farther away now, but maybe since he's the youngest and his wild, time-demanding older sisters make it harder for me to do something for someone else is also a possibility. Anyway, Kaden has never taken good pictures. He never looks at the camera and he's always moving. The photographer lady today had to work hard for her money with Kaden. He kept poking his tongue in the side of his cheek and he moved out of position the second she put him place. She soon learned that she had to be speedy fast with her camera... she did a decent job. I thought I'd only find one or 2 pictures I'd like but after she touched up the pictures and made them into fancy collages I could not decide what pictures I liked best. I was so happy. What to do but buy ALL of the pictures...I bought the CD with all the pictures. Here are a few samplings.

Lions and Tigers and BEARS

I've always wanted to see a bear in real life...not like in the zoo or anything... but roaming the streets of Sammamish where we live. It is quite common around here to have bear sightings. Last year several of our neighbors saw bears at various spots around... by the kid's school, crossing the street by the grocery store, out the back window in the green belt behind our house, or rumaging through the garbage can in Emmy's friend's backyard.
So last week I was out on a walk all by myself around 7:30 pm... and low and behold I saw this very bear.
I was more amazed at first not to mention how thrilled I was with myself that I had actually seen a bear. I called Jeff on my cell phone and told him. He then began to freak me out telling me that he was on his way to come and pick me up... the bear was going to eat me... what was I thinking?...don't move because I will be right there.

After hanging up with Jeff telling him that the bear was far enough into the meadow that I was ok... I began to freak myself out thinking that the bear was going to jump out of the bushes at me or was chasing me from behind. So, needless to say I safely ran the rest of the way home. I am proud to say that I saw a bear. I am not pleased with the fact that I don't feel safe alone at night going on walks anymore. I am also not pleased that I don't feel safe having my children outside by themselves. This bear is living right here in our neighborhood. This picture of MY bear was taken by the local news people who did a report on bears warning the citizens about bears coming out of hibernation and looking for food. Hmmm, interesting.