Takin' time for some Family History

On President's Day I took the kids to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. It was a pretty great zoo. Every time we go to the zoo I like to do a little Family History... this time we worked on Jeff's side of the family which meant we had to spend more time observing these types of animals.

This group of ladies cracked us all up. They looked so bored. The one with her mouth open looked like I feel a lot of the time. She kept dozing off. When her eyes would roll back her mouth would open like they were moving together. It was crazy to watch. We bonded even more when I realized that we are almost exactly the same age. I might be in denial of how I really look but her face was so wrinkled and she looked SO tired. I walked away from her feeling like we were kindred spirits.
This baby was the cutest... only a few months old. There was a high school girl who had the assignment to observe these 2 for 2 hours. She was almost finished when we arrived and said that the mom had snuggled with her baby the whole 2 hours. She hadn't slept at all but appeared to be soaking in this close time she was sharing with her baby. I was so jealous of that mother. I have never been able to snuggle with my children for 2 hours. That's motherhood at it's finest.

Ady's wondering if there's any resemblance... what do you say? The zoo is an amazing place to visit if you want to remember how much Heavenly Father loves us. He has created amazingly beautiful animals for us to enjoy and to help keep the cycle of life moving along. We had a great day!

Happy Valentimes

The only way I felt like I was on the ball for Valentine's Day this year was with my teacher gifts. For one, I never do special teacher gifts for Valentine's Day and for another I thought they were pretty darn cute gifts... great for Visiting Teachers too. Thanks to MY visiting teacher who is super craftsy I just copied her idea for these cute little boxes. We had fun making them together. When I went to her house I started oozing with envy. She has the greatest set-up... just like you would find at the store... like she's going shopping in her own house for paper, ribbon, stickers. You can see all her stuff right there and it's SO organized with hooks and jars and cubbies and drawers and counter space and nifty pen organizers. Why can't I be that organized in MY house? I desire that with all my heart. Other people with tons of kids can keep things organized. I just need to come to grips with the fact that everyone is always going to do something better than me. My gift that I contribute is to appreciate and LOVE what everyone else does. I'm just going to have to rein in my jealousy and learn from their organization and creativity.
Sorry, this is about Valentine's Day and not my insecurities of what I am lacking in.

Here are my boxes.

Kaden wanted to show that he was wearing a red shirt for "Balentimes Day."
Ady and Emmy showing their cute heart shirts.

A week earlier the community had their Daddy/Daughter Dance. Maryn and Ady went last year with Jeff, but this year Maryn was too old and Emmy was old enough. Several Dads in the ward arranged to all go out with their daughters at a yummy Mexican Restaurant and then go to the dance together. Apparently they had a great time.

Emmy was a little nervous because she had never gone to a dance before, just dance recitals. She thought they were all going to have to perform a dance in front of everyone. She did not want to go. Naturally she ended up having a blast when she realized it was everyone going out and being crazy, twirling around with their dad's and dancing in big circles with everyone.

Their cute dance picture.

Super Extended Family Bonding

I've been holding off on this post because I wanted to get my facts all correct especially for my own personal records but I will proceed and fill in the gaps later... if you're related to me you might find this post of interest and if not, then skip over it and move on.

My mom has about 60 cousins just on her dad's side of the family. I believe she has cousins that she's never even met before. So it was fun to move to Washington to find out that she has several cousins around. Glen Harston is Ray's youngest son... he called me out of the blue and wanted to chit chat. I asked if they did anything with the other cousins in the area and he said no, not really. I was surprised the next day when he called back to invite me to their annual Martin Luther King family gathering. He forgot about this tradition that started several years ago. So, in celebration of the MLK we went to Glen's sister, Vera's house and had a fun old bonding family shin-dig with a few people I'd seen before but mostly with people I had no idea who they were. (Jeff was bragging about the advantages of smaller families.)
My mom was so jealous of our activity, Jeff was doing his husbandly duty with a smile pasted on his face and my kids were excited because swimming was involved. Vera has a pool in her house... how great is that!

Emmy immediately bonded with Mike Hawkins (husband to cousin Donna Hawkins.)

Emmy also bonded with Glen's youngest son who's 11. Everyone is her "best friend." Mike and Donna Hawkins... yes I've met them a few times but they mostly bonded with my family when they participated in the Hill Cumorah Pageant together on a year when I wasn't there. Their kids at BYU have spent some time at my parent's home.

Jeff and Glen bonding.

Here is only 1/2 of the group... Left to Right (for those of you interested in a little family history) Donna and Glen Hawkins, Aunt Catherine (wife to Uncle Ray), daughter to Vera with husband and son, Vera, (Vera's husband, Tom is taking the picture), Maryn, me, Faye, Glen and his wife Diane, Beth is in red on the floor and the rest of my kiddies.

There you have it... a little Briggs/Harston family togetherness.

bit o sunshine

We are at that time of year in Washington that when the sun peaks out everybody has to run outside to enjoy a bit of Vitamin D. One Sunday after church was a day of chilly sunshine... we headed out for a walk and had to stop at the park for a minute.

As a side note, I hope that when Jeff sees how awful these pictures are he'll agree whole-heartily that we do need a new camera. I cringe at the blurriness, the delayed shutter release, the bad light and the focusing on everything in the picture but the main subject on all of these pictures. (our good camera broke and we are using our cheap-o camera... hence the need for a new camera... pretty please???)

The purpose isn't to show how bad the pictures are but to look past that and see how darn cute the kids are and what a yummy day we enjoyed.

Kaden loves his green froggy rain boots.

I love that these 3 sisters are such good friends. They love to play together. They hug each other at night before they go to bed. They still love to do dance routines together. Mind you they have their fighting moments but I just love that older Maryn (almost 12) all they way to Emmy at 6 with Ady in the middle at 8 can still can have so much fun together and include each other when friends are over to play too. I just loved this moment of watching them walk hand in hand.

Happy Birthday Kado!

On January 12, Kaden Kenneth Slichta turned 3 years old. I can hardly believe it. (I haven't even lost the weight from him yet.) He wanted to spend his birthday at Chuck E Cheese and eat Pizza. We invited our Washington family, the Debenhams with us which was fun.

With his sign that Adyson made.

Kaden didn't look at the camera the whole night. He's never been a real good picture taker kid or maybe my camera just isn't fast enough. He loves balls, cars and he loves Diego. He spent the longest time deciding which plates he wanted to have for his birthday. Finally we were out of time and I just threw the Diego plates in the cart... he was mad that I didn't let him choose, but he had his chance. He got a remote control car, a Diego boat thing, some more match box cars (like he needed anymore), and some coloring books.

Not looking at the camera.
Not looking at the camera.

Not looking at the camera.

Christopher Debenham(15 yrs old) and Kaden have always been best buddies. Maybe it's because they are the only boys. But Christopher helped Kaden win a couple of hundred Chuck E Cheese tickets.

Not looking at the camera.

Not looking at the camera.

Kaden is such an awesome little kid. He is such a fun, happy part of our family. He's very affectionate and touchy, either playing with hair or rubbing your cheek, or ramming into you for a good wrestle and roll on the floor. He gives lots of big hugs all the time and is very generous with his kisses. He grabs our face and plants a l o n g kiss right on your lips. We have to pull him off to breath but he protests saying, "I'm not done yet!" When Jeff and I kiss in front of him he tells Jeff not to kiss me, and only HE can kiss me. Then Jeff says, "Don't kiss my girlfriend." and Kado will come back with, "Dad, I'm kissing your girlfriend." I have to end the game by leaving the room or breaking the 2 apart. The Nursery leader has told us stories of Kaden kissing the girls in Nursery...on the lips! Yikes! We'll have to keep an eye on him.

Maryn, Adyson and Emmy love Kaden and take care of him. The funny thing is, he listens to them. They love to be his mothers and for the most part he goes along with it. Like I said he loves cars. He always has an armful or pocketful of matchbox cars. He also could watch Dora and Diego all day long if I let him. And he loves Balls. He kicks soccer balls around the house, shoots baskets into anything he can find and throws baseballs with whoever will play. He has a pretty serious throw too. Even in the nursery at church they've commented on his strong arm and good aim. Today I wondered if he'd be in the major league someday... I heard this loud banging upstairs in the playroom and went up there to see Kaden with his plastic bat taking some swings at everything in the playroom. It was a mess. Even when I came into the room he didn't lose focus and knocked Emmy's kitchen right over then took on the bookcase. Needless to say he has a strong and straight swing.

His latest thing that either cracks us up or makes us want to scream is his use of the words "what" and "why." We'll say something like, "Kado hurry and eat your lunch." He'll say, "what lunch?" "Kado you have something in your hand." "What hand?" "Let's get in the car?" "what car?" OR the why thing... "we need to go pick up the kids from school." "but why?" "so they can come home?" "But why do they come home?" Because they're part of our family and we want them home." "but why are they part of our family?" "Because Heavenly Father sent them to us?" "But why?" AHHHHHHH! We go on and on like this all day long. It really soaks up a lot of energy from my brain and isn't much for stimulating conversation for my day.

He's very much into gum and graham crackers. He could eat--meaning chew and swallow a whole pack of gum in one sitting and come back asking for more. He also could care less about being potty trained and frankly so could I. It takes a lot of effort to potty train a kid especially when I'm home so sporadically throughout the day. I'll just wait until he's good and ready... hopefully that will be soon because diapers are getting so expensive and 3 year old poopie is nasty. He also is in a crib still. It's funny how differently you raise your 4th child compared to your first. He doesn't mind the crib and neither do I. He can't get out. He's never tried to get out and he's a really good napper so why mess up a good thing? I'll just wait until he's good and ready to get out of there. Maybe when he's 6 he'll realize that his friends sleep in big boy beds and he'll ask to get out of his crib finally. Is that child abuse? Not if we're all happy about the arrangements.

He has been such a good boy up til now but recently he's had to go in time-out a few times. He either peels the wallpaper off the wall in the bathroom, unrolls the entire toilet paper roll or takes everything out from under the sink and then he comes out saying, "why are you being so mean at me?" He also recently likes to throw ALL of his clothes out of his drawers and closet. He is becoming quit destructive I suppose only to balance out his very gentle, loving nature.

I asked Emmy why she likes Kaden and she said while gritting her teeth, "because he is so super cute." Our thoughts are that it's great to have a boy in the house to balance out the girl drama. He's a whole different breed and we like that. He's ALL boy. He's so darn cute with his big eyes and crazy hair and happy smile. We sure love him... Our Kado Tado! Happy Birthday!

Last But Not Least...Spencer

Thanks for bearing with me on my many epistles of Utah. I still have hundreds of pictures that I didn't use... be grateful, but you can come over for a home video presentation later if you'd like more.
The star of the trip for us was Spencer. He turned 1 right after we left. One is one of my favorite ages because his little personality is showing and he's fun to play with. The kids had a ball with him and I think Marianne and James liked that Spencer could play with someone else besides them. (ah the joys of your first child.) We love Spencer! Just a few Spencer highlights...

It's fun to be an Aunt. I've never been one before. (hurry up the rest of you!)

James was brave enough to let Spencer wander around without a covering on his cute little fan-fan.

This was hilarious. James started tossing him up in the air not realizing that me and Mom were right there at the sink doing dishes. Pretty soon it became a wild game of naked Peek-a-boo.

The back shot with us playing. Spencer was laughing so hard.

Kaden couldn't get enough of Spencer.

He wanted to help feed him everyday.

They took baths together with their new tubbie toys.

The boys with Grandpa.

Kaden crawling along with him.

Having a man to man conversation.

Look at that face. Who's cuter than Spencer?!

The Real Us... in case you were wondering.

Some of you, and you know who you are have made comments in regards to the Matheson Family being photogenic and always taking great pictures. Well, as I scanned through my Christmas pictures I realized that we had enough goofy pictures of ourselves that I'd beg to differ on exactly how photogenic we are. In fact, we enjoy taking retarded pictures of ourselves. Here is just a brief sampling of our real selves.

Marc and McKay

Poor Spencer being dressed up like a "Can-Can girl."

Dad

Ady
Danielle and McKay

Me and Marianne

James

Spencer

Mom

Mom and Me.

Dad

Maryn

Marianne

Marty

James

Jeff

Marc teaching Kaden how to make a weird picture. Bubba in the back.