Something Slade

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2010-07-20T15:44:00.002-06:00

Well not really, but I thought I would drop a quick line since I've been so abysmal about keeping up on our blog. We are gearing up for our trip to South Dakota tomorrow and are super excited to hit the road. We all could use a vacation, and we love being able to spend more time with Dad!

We recently had Darren and Stephanie here and had many interesting talks with them, as they prepare to make some big changes in their lives. Needless to say we will be keeping our "eye" on them as they take new steps forward. The kids loved having cousins here to play with all the time, and we decided seven kids may be a lot to handle!!

I can harldy believe we are down to a month before school starts, I am sure time is going to continue to fly by and before I know it, it will be down to Oliver and I in the mornings(for a couple of months anyway!)

The baby is doing well, growing as she should, and we are anticipating the arrival of a baby, which in a way feels like it's been forever since we've had a baby at our house. I keep remembering all the "little" things that babies entail, and hope I'm up for it!

We hope all is well in your world, and want you to know that we love you all!

2010-06-23T22:31:00.003-06:00

HA HA HA, well there goes my desire to write often on this blog! I'm sure lots has happened during this time, probably our biggest news is a new addition coming to our family in November. That's my excuse for not writing!! It's actually been a tough pregnancy this time around, guess it's my just desserts for it being so easy with my first four. We don't know the sex yet, and we don't really care either, with two of each it's just the icing on the cake having another one!

These pictures were taken by a very nice lady who was trying to get some experience before she started a commercial business, so we lucked out. They turned out very nice, and what a cute family we are right?

Life is crazy with kids out of school! I thought life would be easier and more laid back, but apparently it's just more time to have more stuff going on. We swim, and play, and go to the library, and do chores, and do school work, and have campouts, and...... Someday life will settle down, but probably I will be dead I suppose!

We are looking forward to seeing some family this summer. Sara and Sheldon will be here this weekend for a short visit, Darren and Stephanie in a couple of weeks for a visit, and then we get to see a lot of my family in South Dakota at the end of July! Yay for summer!

2010-01-22T12:11:00.003-07:00

I am trying to dutifully write something on this every few weeks. We don't have a new baby, but I sure have been enjoying reading about them, and my heart goes out to those new moms who life is hard for right now. My advice is, it does get better. Really before you know it they aren't little babies anymore and you wonder how time could have gone so fast! People always told me that too, and I never really believed them, but I'm here to tell ya it's true!!

We do have a naughty two year old, but he's the baby so he gets away with lots of stuff!! He's going to die if we have another one!

I am gearing up today to go see Air Supply. I have loved Air Supply since I was a child. Their music was some of the first that I learned the words too. I'm excited to get to spend the day with my wonderful husband, and hear some good music too! Let's hope the roads stay good for us.

Last night we had 70 mph wind. We got worried our house might have blown away. We ended up with peoples welcome mats in our yard, and thankfully no major damage like tree blowing over! Needless to say we are grateful for calmer winds today!!!

We love everyone and hope everyone is doing well!

2010-01-05T11:34:00.004-07:00

I have been one of the worst bloggers I know, but all I can say is I was coerced into doing this(right Liz?) =)! And I am being coerced once againd to update it(Mom Slade)! I've had really good intentions, I just never feel like nothing new is happening, but now I have lots to talk about!

We had a wonderful Christmas, just being home and being together. The kids must have been good this year as Santa was very kind to them! We had our traditional prime rib Christmas Eve dinner, and it was delicious. We look forward to it all year round and it's always worth the wait. Our Christmas day was pretty low key, but that's what was so great about it.

For New Years we made a quick trip to Montana to see my dad. We got to see lots of family and it was fun to be home for a few days. We are still recouping today from doing that, lots of traveling and then lots of clean up and laundry when I get home.

I was recently called into the Primary Presidency so that probably means a few changes here at home for Mom and consequentially the rest of the family. I'm excited to serve, and excited that I still get to be involved in Cub Scouts, as that was my calling before and I loved it!

Caleb is playing basketball and his first game was yesterday. It's pretty funny watching those third grade boys playing. We enjoyed watching Caleb too!!!

The girls are growing by leaps and bounds. Morgan just seems to ge taller and taller. Aubrey got her hair cut and it is super cute. When I was taking her in to get it done, Morgan decided she wanted to get her hair cut too!! And this after finally getting her bangs to the point where they didn't hang in her eyes. Her hair is actually very pretty and I said No. There has just been too much work put into it dangit!!!

Soccer

2009-08-31T10:29:00.004-06:00

It's that time again for our one sport a year!! I just love the kids in their uniforms, so cute!!

Aubrey's First Day

2009-08-31T10:09:00.007-06:00

Thought I should post Aubrey's first day of school to be fair!

This is what happens when you tell your four year old to keep her eyes open during the picture!!

School Days, School Days dear olden golden School Days!

2009-08-24T13:30:00.002-06:00

As you can guess by the title we are back in business, as far as school is concerned. This year I have a third grader and a first grader, and it's been taking some getting used to, to have two kids gone from home all day. So far so good, no homework, though I imagine that will begin this week, and everyone seems to like their teachers. Aubrey is anxiously awaiting the start of preschool next week, and then I will be down to one two mornings a week. A neighbor commented that she wasn't sure was glad she was going to have only one at home, cause guess what? That one is going to be boooored!! Luckily one of the days Aubrey is in preschool is my shopping day and what two year old doesn't love shopping?

Summer

2009-07-16T11:39:00.002-06:00

So even though I haven't had a lot planned this summer we are staying super busy. I guess with four kids there isn't many dull moments. We've been going to Jumping Jacks lots( an inflatable play area for kids), and I've been going to the gym, I know shocking, and it just seems like all the little stuff is tying us down. We have managed to go camping twice the summer, the second trip much more successful, though both times we managed to camp next to NOISY people, who stay up all hours of the night. Guess that's what happens when you live in collegeville! We are excited for our family reunion coming up, getting time to spend with those we love best in the world. It's sad to say that school starts in a month for us, crazy, crazy, crazy! I guess I should just stop and smell the tomatoes, hmmmmm!!

Eight is Great!

2009-06-08T11:39:00.003-06:00

Well our oldest child turned eight this last month and with that age come a lot of neat things in life for an eight year old.

Caleb had a Star Wars party, and we had the kids eat doughnuts off of a string, do an obstacle course, fight with light sabers. It was a lot of fun and Caleb had a good time.

Calel also gets to be a Cub Scout, which he is super excited about, and very handsome in his uniform too!

A few other perks is Caleb gets to stay up a half an hour later than the rest of the kids, which he holds over their heads often! He also got to graduate out of his booster seat and gets to sit in a seat like an adult.

Probably the biggest marker for turning eight was being baptized. Caleb claimed this day was better even than his birthday. It was a special day for our whole family, and we enjoyed having our extended family here to celebrate with us. We sure are proud of our not so little son!

The End of the Year

2009-06-02T09:41:00.006-06:00

Well quite a lot has happened in our little neck of the woods. The kids have finished a successful year of school with Morgan even having a little graduation ceremony. She was asked to perform a song with two other girls out of the whole kindergarten, and we were sure proud of her. I am happy to have less to do in a day, but not as excited to deal with four rambunctious children all summer. Luckily we know lots of friends and have some stuff to do this summer!

2009-05-18T16:38:00.002-06:00

I'm pretty sure it was yesterday that I wrote here, but apparently it's been a week! We had a fun weekend. We had made a goal a couple of months ago that we wanted to start hiking more, since our older kids are up to the task. So Saturday we loaded us all up and drove out to Spanish Fork and went up the canyon. We were headed for a hike up to some hot pots, but as we got closer we realized two things. One we didn't gas up and it was going to be close getting home without being stranded. The second thing was as we got closer we saw the cars were lining the road to the hike, so apparently some big group was up hiking. We turned around and searched for a closer spot. What we found was a horse trail that climbed an awfully big hill. I, who thought I was in better shape, barely made it up the hill with the snacks. Andy hauling Oliver was barely breathing hard. And Morgan was still running around! That was the end of our hike, and boy was it fun! That took up most of our day, but it was fun to get out and be with my family.

2009-05-11T09:49:00.002-06:00

So apparently blogging is turning out to be like my journal. I commit to writing in it and do so for a few nights, and then months go by without a single entry! I guess I feel like my days are pretty much the same-o, same-o so not much to write about. The kids are all growing and doing well. Oliver's vocabulary is growing all the time, and today when going down for a nap he said, "night night shoe", see how impressive he is!! The other kids are winding down for the school year, which means I'd better start figuring out some stuff for the summer, or we will all go crazy together (especially that all my partners in crime are gone this summer!). This is also our second Christmas time with all the May birthdays and Mother's Day to boot!! Caleb's birthday is on Wendesday and that is what all the focus is on at this point. I can't believe he is turning eight, you would have thought we would survive this long! We're sure proud of him and the young man he is turning out to be. Anyway we are still here, just living life a day at a time I guess!

As the World Turns

2009-03-19T12:17:00.007-06:00

I kept thinking that we really didn't have much to report, but as I sat down to write this blog I realized we've been up to some things so here in a nutshell is the last month of our lives.

We managed a trip to St. George for the weekend is search of some sun and warmth and we had a good time together. We managed to find some sand and sun and realized we like to hike alot. Since that trip we have checked out numerous books on good hikes around our area!

Morgan had her sixth birthday and had a little party with some of her classmates. It's hard to believe she is six already but her birthday means spring is just around the corner. Morgan also lost a second bottom tooth!

Oliver went into nursery and at first thought it was just fine, but has since decided maybe it's not for him after all. It probably has something to do with nap time being right then too.

Caleb finished off the Harry Potter series and is on to other great books. He also has been learning magic tricks with a deck of trick cards he got from the prize box.

Andy has managed to stay busy at work, even though there isn't much to be had right now. His boss keeps warning his crew that they might not be able to work very much, but so far we have been fortuante in that regard.

Aubrey is precocious as ever, we've been dealing with lots of jealousy over Morgan's birthday but soon that will be old news. She still loves her babies, and dress up clothes.

Really life is always full of accomplishments and goings on, it just feels like life I guess.

Something lost and something found!!

2009-02-05T12:20:00.003-07:00

We've had a lot of changes in our lives in the last month or so. Our old van decided no matter what we did it was not going to cooperate and be licensed, i.e. pass emissions and safety. We decided that it might finally be time for a new van. The van is like my dream come true and I love driving around in it!!

Morgan lost her first tooth last week. She's been pretty excited as it's been loose for quite some time, and those of you who were around might remember our battle with Caleb, Morgan's was nothing like that. One yank and it was out, no pain and not even much blood. It's weird how they are a year apart in loosing thier first tooth.

I finally decided that I was tired of our carpet always being so dirty, so we decided to add laminate to our family room too. And I got to tell you I love it! The room feels cleaner and warmer since we went with a darker color. So alot has been happening and it all seems to be for the good!!

Sladeals

2009-01-19T11:00:00.004-07:00

As you can see we have started our own little band with Oliver on the drums and Caleb playing the guitar, unfortunately thier dad is singing! We've had a lot of fun with this game and it's bringing out the rocker in us all(though I think Oliver mostly just likes to whack stuff!).

My not so baby

2009-01-15T09:30:00.003-07:00

I wanted to show off Oliver a little and his expanding vocab. I taught him sign language for eat and drink, and he mostly does eat for everything, and he tells me eat oh.. fifty times a day!!! I think this kid has Andy's metabolism. In fact he was walking off to go find something to eat!! As you can see shoe isn't all the way there yet, but it's pretty cute and he's only been doing it for a day or two now. As you can see my baby isn't much of a baby anymore, in fact he goes into nursery in February, I'm a little sad it went by so fast, but I guess I should know by now babies don't stay that way forever!!

Belated Merry Christmas

2009-01-15T08:46:00.004-07:00

Well I guess my vacation is over. Apparently the Christmas Season overtook all my time and I couldn't blog for awhile!! We had a wonderful holiday and managed to spend time with lots of family. A quick trip to Wyoming and Montana allowed us to see my family and it's always good to be home. The kids did pretty good for Christmas and are now enjoying the spoils of said holiday. The wonderful thing about traveling is it's so good to be home. You miss your bed, and your routine when you are gone. We've been working on getting back in to the swing of things and resuming normal life. I love the start of a new year the all the things that you can change this year! My big goal is to get to know our ward better. I've resolved to have a new family over once a month for us to become better acquainted with. We'll see how it goes I guess? The pictures are of our family doing the nativity, the kids an our gingerbread house(thanks Joy), and Morgan all ready for her big program, isn't she beautiful?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

2008-12-04T13:58:00.002-07:00

We are gearing up for the big Holiday here in Sladeville. Time seems short this year, and it's crazy all the stuff we have going on. We have our tree up, but that's about it, unfortunately we were hard hit by the flu this week, and have been mostly surviving. Being sick always sure makes you grateful for being healthy. We hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season this year. As a side note, I wanted to share this picture of Oliver, as you can see he is sitting in our toy box, and a sippee cup in each hand! I'm not sure why babies like sitting in stuff so much but he sure he does!

Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T16:40:00.003-07:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday and are so grateful for the family we have here. Suffice it to say there was enough food to go around, and good company too. We were totally excited to get out the Christmas tree, and had hoped to decorate today, but unfortunately car repairs took longer than expected(a shocker I know). We are so grateful this year for the many blessings our family enjoys, for our healthy kids, Andy's job in this unstable time. The chance we have to live in this bounteous country and of course for the gospel in our lives. Where would we be without it. We want to send our love to everyone and say Merry Christmas!!!

Belated Halloween

2008-11-15T22:06:00.005-07:00

Wow, where has the time gone! I wanted to post our Halloween Pictures and then our computer died, so here they are albeit a bit late!

Almost gone Fall!

2008-10-13T13:24:00.004-06:00

We decided if we were ever going to see the fall colors we had better do it now. We've had extremely cold weather the past couple of days and it feels like winter out there today! We drove the Aspen Loop last Thursday evening and it was gorgeous. I don't know what it is about Aspens but they are beautiful in the Fall. We got a few pictures to document the beautifulness. The one shot was neat as we came around a corner there was a picutersque view of the pretty colors with the snow on the mountain!

Who needs toys!

2008-10-13T13:15:00.005-06:00

The other day a cake pan was on the floor after having served its purpose for a rain catcher. Oliver was most delighted with this toy. He spent an hour pushing it around on the floor, taking the dish cloth in and out and trying to figure out how to fit his little body into that seat just for him. It was pretty cute and amazing the simple things that kids can amuse themselves for. I think cake pans all around for Christmas this year!

Our not so baby, baby!

2008-10-13T13:10:00.002-06:00

Well it's a sad day in our house, but a joyful one too. Oliver has begun to walk. He still primarily crawls but has walked across the room several times. He thinks he's a big boy and always has a huge smile on his face when he arrives to his destination, usually mom or dad's arms. I feel like time has flown by and it's hard to swallow that he is already walking and begginning to make sounds in the form of words. We've all "heard" different words, though most likely they aren't purposefully being spoke. So here's a cheer and a sniffle too for Oliver!

Cornbellies Extravaganza

2008-10-06T10:10:00.004-06:00

A week ago Saturday while at a soccer game, Andy overheard some parents talking about how Cornbellies, a big maze and with activities for the kids was offering $.94 tickets so we decided we could probably afford that! It was tons of fun and the kids had a blast doing something we could never regulary afford. As you can see the there were lots of stuff for the kids to do, they had a Halloween Princess, and a big dinosaur you could walk through that was completely dark with growling noises going on. Caleb loved the spooky one but the girls were a little terrified and Aubrey wouldn't even go through the first time. It was hot, which is so weird for this time of year, but we still managed to have a good time!

Fall is in the Air!!

2008-10-01T14:28:00.002-06:00

I don't have pictures yet to confirm this fact, but the mountains are turning all shades of yellow and orange and red! We have had very little cool weather, with most of this week and last in the high eighties, but I can smell it coming! I'm starting to get excited for Halloween and the ensuing Holidays! The warm weather has been helpful in ripening our tomotoes, which we were starting to despair that we may never get enough to can them. We managed to put up one batch last night and hope we can get at least one more. We of course had hoped for a higher yeild, but such is life and Mother Nature! We will be canning pears soon though and that should be lots and lots!

Soccer Mania

2008-09-25T13:40:00.001-06:00

We've kicked off a new school year in style this year. I decided that our kids should be athletes and enrolled Morgan and Caleb in soccer. Andy tried to convince me that it would be too much, and maybe, just maybe he was right. We go to soccer Tuesday, Wendsday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings!! Aubrey has made friends with other kids whose siblings are playing, and Morgan and Caleb love soccer!! We have major meltdowns if we can't find socks or uniforms, and heaven forbid if we miss a game. I actually have enjoyed watching them play and at least the weather is pleasant this time of year. Andy reluctanlty goes, to support his family, but his heart just isn't in it!