May 28, 2012

Memorial Day

We had a great Memorial Day this year.  Nothing happened.  Nothing huge or exciting but nonetheless, we had a great time.  The boys spent the night over at Grandma and Grandpa's house along with Ava.  It was their turn to spend the night.  Grandma told them that when school was out she would have them over.  They had such a great time too.  She set up a tent out in the front room as if they were going camping.  The kids were so excited about it.  The plan was for the kids to sleep in the tent and Grandma was going to sleep on the couch by them.  Well they all decided that the hard floor was not very comfortable and so Grandma ended up sleeping in the tent and the kids all on the couch.  Glad they had a good time.
We went to pick up our kids around noon and then we headed to the park to play.  I packed a big lunch and an extra change of clothing for the kids.  We had my neice Ava along for the fun too.  We had lunch, let the kids play on the playground and then run through the water features that they have there too.  It is a fun little water park in the summer.  After they were all soaked and cold, we changed their clothing and headed down to the river to throw rocks in.  The had a great "adventure" as Andrew and Keaton called it.  It was a good time.  I carried Ellie in the baby carrier. I could tell she was antsy to get down and run around like the other kids.  Sorry Ellie! You need to learn to crawl first sister.
After we had fun at the park/river, we loaded up and headed home.  All the neighbor kids were out so they had a big water fight with them and just kept really busy running around.  Hopefully they will sleep really well tonight.
We had a fun family bbq at our home and then we went to the cemetary that is just down the road from where we live, where my Grandfather was buried.  We make it a point to take our kids there every year on Memorial Day to pay tribute to him.  They really enjoyed that. We put some nice fresh flowers on his grave site and then wondered around to check out all the old, old headstones. The oldest one we found was from 1832.  That is old. 
Then we came home for some homemade donuts and more fun outside.  Ava decided that she wanted to sleep over tonight so they are all up stairs in their little beds we made for them watching a movie.  I love days like today.  We literally spent the entire day outside. I loved it!




May 20, 2012

Here they are.....

Over Mother's Day weekend my brother came up from Utah and it was the perfect time to have our extended Quinn family pictures taken. It had been years since our last family picture so it was the right time. 
My good friend Nickelle took them and I think she did a fabulous job! Thanks Nickelle for taking them.  We loved them! They turned out so fun.











Quick trip to Provo

We just got home this evening from our mini trip to Provo. I call it mini because that is exactly what it was. We didn't leave Boise until Keaton got home from school which is around 4 p.m. so we loaded everyone up and left for Utah.  My brother-in-law's daughter from his first marriage was getting married on Saturday and we thought it would be nice to go down and support them. They were married in the Timpanogos temple and I hear it was beautiful. We didn't go to the ceremony or the luncheon but Lance and my boys did make it to the reception later that evening.
It's a party every time we go to Utah. There are now 4 of Lance's siblings that live in the area so when mom and dad, Camille and the other Snyders (that would be us) come up then we all get together and have fun.  Our fun consists of letting the cousins roam and play between all the houses during the day with the hundreds of cousins that live there. They are in cousin heaven when they go there. It is never boring and there is always something fun going on.  This weekend consisted of..... several games of racquetball with the kiddos in the court. Now when I say racquetball, I mean 5 little kids with rackets trying to peg me with the balls.  They had a blast and it was so much fun watching them have fun. Owen was really focused on hitting the ball.  He got better and better. There was a trip to the park, watching Young Victoria (I love that movie!), and just sitting around talking until all hours of the night.  Ellie was kind of a hand full. She wouldn't really nap or sleep at night so the sleep deprevation just keeps going.  We got to get that fixed soon!!!!!!
So we got into Provo around 10:30 pm and put all the kids to bed and then talked until midnight or maybe later, I can't remember. There is really no sense of time when we go there, I like that part!  Then we had all day Saturday to play and then we attended sacrament at 9 a.m. and then we hit the road right after the prayer was said.
My brother Justin lives in downtown Salt Lake.  He lives relatively close to Temple Square.  So we dropped in just in time to have lunch and take the kiddos on a walk down to Temple Square. I don't think our boys had ever been down to Temple Square. This afternoon it was really warm and there were a ton of people. You would have thought it was Conference weekend. It was alittle crazy but nonetheless we had a great time.
These are the only pictures I took over the weekend. I forgot my camera so Lance's phone to the rescue. Thanks everyone for a fun weekend in Provo! It was so nice to see all of you.


May 17, 2012

The Graduate

Today was Andrew's last day of preschool.  We have really been impressed with Miss Amber's school this year and it worked wonders for our son Andrew. We really owe her a lot. She was amazing with the kids and the kids absolutely loved her class.  Andrew has been a little sad to see it end. I think he was alittle emotional about it later on today when we talked about not going back there and moving on to Kindergarten.  This morning was his graduation.  It was darling! The kids sang some really fun songs, recited some fun things and did a little presentation.  It was so fun to watch. I have had a thankful heart today for all the good people in our families life.  Our boys have been blessed with such great teachers, well, most of them anyways.  Here are a few pictures from Graduation this morning.








Congratulations Andrew!!!! We are so very proud of you!

A sneak peak



More to come! Stay tuned.......

May 16, 2012

{9 months}

Ellie Mae at 9 months

Stats:
Weight: 16 lbs 15 oz {25%}
Height: 28 {50%}
Head: 43 1/2 cm {49%}


Some fun things about Ellie-

Ellie as you can see is pretty small for her age. But all my kids hve been petitte, but we are not concerned. She loves to eat.
The doctor asked if she was trying to stand up and walk along furniture. I asked her if she should be doing that before she can even crawl. The doctor asked "she isn't crawling yet?" Nope! She really does not like being on her tummy. So more tummy time is in order for her.
Ellie LOVES the bath. It is by far her favorite time of the day. She starts getting excited when she hears the bath water starting.
She LOVES her blanket. When it is bedtime she loves to bury her face in it.
She isn't the best sleeper. When need to improve with that.
She is a good eater. She usually eats anything you give her, expect peaches and squash. Those have never been her favorites.
She is in love with her brothers, minus Owen right now. 
She prefers mom right now over anyone.
Stranger danger
We still have yet to attend a sacrament meeting that doesn't involve roaming the halls to keep her quiet.
She is noisy!
She isn't content for too long to sit and play. She has to be up and moving with the crowd.
She has the most darling bed hair ever!!!! I love to run my fingers through it. It makes me smile almost every morning.
She is just so sweet! Could there be any girl as sweet as my Ellie? I don't think so!
We love her! Happy 9 months Ellie. Wow, in just a few months you will be a year old. I am not ready for that. I wish we could freeze time right now. She is so much fun.
But I am really, really, really tired.

May 13, 2012

Happy Birthday to Lance

Lance was born on Mother's day 33 years ago. His mom said it was the best Mother's day gift she had ever had.  He was the first boy after having 3 girls.  They were really happy to have a son.  Since it was Mother's day too we put it all together.  So what do you do when your birthday falls on a holiday?  Good question, we are still trying to figure that out.  Lance made me breakfast this morning, watched Ellie 2nd and 3rd hour of church, and then what?  We went to my parent's house for dinner and my mom made a great pie for his birthday dessert.  I think he really liked that. My boys like it and it went fast.  Thanks mom!
So instead of giving Lance something really nice for his birthday, I took the boys out shopping yesterday and I had picked out a few fun things, then they told me that it was boring and that we needed to go somewhere fun to get dad a GOOD birthday present.  So we went to another store and they found what Lance has always wanted, glow in the dark chalk and a slip n' slide.  I think he was pretty surprised when he opened it :).  Thanks boys for knowing just what dad needed.
Happy Birthday Lance! We love you!

Mother's Day

Mother's day was nice this year.  It was low key. Lance and the kids let me sleep in until 8 this morning. That doesn't happen often and I took full advantage of it.  When I woke up they had made breakfast for me and Lance entertained the kids this morning. It was very low key and very nice. Thanks boys!
Church was nice.  Lance took Ellie for me while I got to sit and enjoy classes.  That was a double bonus and that was great! We can't wait until Ellie can go to nursery. It is hard especially when it is naptime and what makes it even harder is that she only sleeps in her own bed.  But we survived and it was fabulous.
Then my mom had a big Mother's Day dinner prepared for everyone who we headed over there to be with the rest of the family.  It was really nice.  We had a great time.  My brother Justin came up from Salt Lake to be with us this weekend and my boys LOVED that!  We also have family pictures taken this weekend up at the Train Depot. Stay tuned for that one. They are going to be awesome!  Happy Mother's day to all of you amazing moms that we know and love!

May 9, 2012

Keaton loses his first tooth

I think Keaton is the last 6 year old on this earth to have lost his first tooth.  Most of his friends are on tooth #7 or even more.  Well his two bottom baby teeth have been just hanging and Monday as we were waiting for him across the crosswalk, he ran up to me to show me that he had lost his first tooth during recess.  So the little handy, dandy nurse at the school gave him a little orange tooth treasure chest to put his tooth in.  He was so excited.  So he ran home and was so excited to tell all the neighbors.  I love that little things still get this boy of mine excited.  The Easter bunny, Santa Claus, and now the tooth fairy.  Oh she is real alright. So don't tell my boys yet. Let them be excited about that for awhile. It is so fun to watch. 
Something I didn't notice before but stands out now, behind his two bottom teeth are his permanent ones.  They are literally sitting parallel to each other. Orthodontist here we come.
So that night we put the little orange chest next to his bed post and he woke up the next morning to find $.  Since Andrew was really sad that he wasn't loosing a tooth the tooth fairy had compassion on him and gave him some $ also.  That made him happy.  Thank you tooth fairy! 

Our new neighbors

We have been seeing some recent activity involving some tractors behind our home the last couple of days.  So we decided to go out and talk with the gentlemem who have been working endless hours putting up fences to find out that we will be having a herd of cattle living in our backyard.  Our boys are beyond excited and Andrew thinks that he can go out and milk them.  I mentioned it to him thinking he would take it as a joke, but oh no, he is ready to milk cows. I told him that we wouldn't have to take late night trips to the store for milk, and that we could get it right out our back door.
This picture I took this evening is a little further off but right now Lance and I are looking out our back door and there they are looking at us. This is going to be so much fun.  There are a lot of little baby cows too. One of the reasons why I love the country. Now I get to enjoy it in my own backyard.

May 6, 2012

A Saturday afternoon

What do the Snyder kids do on a Saturday afternoon when the neighborhood is gone?  This is what we do.  They LOVE it! Lance is their hero and takes them for rides as long as they want. He is such a good dad! Thanks for entertaining them!!!

Andrew at 5

This past week has been full of Kindergarten registrations and orientations for Andrew.  He is really, really excited about going to Kindergarten. There are some really great teachers and I am hopeful that he will get Mrs. G.  She just seemed like a grandmother type figure and she was just so sweet to the kids and I have heard nothing but praise about her.  The other Mrs. Carr is a great teacher too so really there is not bad teacher.  With school registration, Andrew also needed to go and get a physical done by the doctor.  I told him that he would be getting some immunizations and he was actually excited about that.  I told him that if he was brave and didn't cry then we could possibly find a prize at the store afterwards.  Owen came along for the ride as well.  I couldn't believe how well they played together for the 30 minutes we had to wait for the doctor in a teeny, tiny room.  I was quite relieved.  Usually the combination of Andrew and Owen together is not a very good one, but they proved me wrong.
Everything went well and he got a clean bill of health.  Plus two shots.  He didn't like that much but didn't cry so he got a prize afterall.
Here are his statisitcs.......
Weight: 50 lbs. {90%}
Height:  46 3/4 {95%}


Here is a little glimpse of life with Andrew.....

- Andrew loves to play. He always wants his friend Tyler to come over and play. Life would just be so happy if it involved playing 24/7.  He lives to have fun.
- Andrew has the best belly laugh I have ever heard.  The smallest things make him laugh so hard.  It is quite cute to watch him laugh. It makes me happy.
-He is incredibly smart when he wants to be. He knows his letters and numbers but will freeze up if anyone puts him on the spot. He must get that from me.
- He can write his entire name, and he is proud of that too.
- He is so sweet and gentle towards Ellie.  His voice gets all nasaly and it is just darling to watch him talk to her. She loves him so much.
- He is currentlly playing soccer right now.  His dad is the coach and he LOVES that. He is a pretty good player as well.
- We are really trying to work on being obedient with him right now.  I swear sometimes you have to ask him 10-20 times before he will actually do what you ask.  It is very frustrating right now for me.
- He LOVES treats.  He constantly asks for one. His world revolves around candy. Too bad we don't have any in the house. We don't do that anymore. It is helping out alot.
- He knows how to ride his bike without training wheels.  They are still on his bike and he refuses to let us take them off. He thinks he needs them when really he doesn't even use them when he rides it. I guess it is the security he is after.
- One thing that stands out about Andrew is how excited he gets. Anyone who knows Andrew and is reading this will agree with me when I mention that he will start to jump up and down and flap his arms like a chicken when he gets excited. Usually it happens when he plays the Wii.
- I love this boy of mine. He is the only who really will come up to me and hold my hand. I love that about him. He is a cuddler when he wants to be. 
- He loves to be read to at night.
- He still tries to come and sleep in our bed at night.  I know he is coming because he runs really fast and then jumps onto our bed and crawls in between Lance and I .  We are really trying to get him to sleep in his own bed all night long.
Thanks Andrew for being our son!