June 26, 2012

Cousins

My sister Rachel's daugther Olivia and my Ellie are the closest cousins in age.  Olivia is just 6 months older than Ellie and Ellie is in love with Olivia.  Everytime we get together Ellie just starts shaking because she is so excited to see Olivia.  They will be the best of friends when they get a little older.  I just know it.  Once Ellie starts walking the two of them will be off on their own little adventures.  Today we took all our kiddos to Grandma Q's house to play.  They had a fun time. Grandma invited us to stay for dinner so that was nice. Thanks Mom for dinner! Oh and Rachel too!  Rachel took this photo of Ellie and Olivia out in the grape arbor on the swing. Ellie is a mess. She was tired and very cranky.  But it's a cute picture. I just had to post it. Oh I love my Ellie girl!

June 24, 2012

10+ hours

Ellie has been sleeping for stretchs of 10 + hours for the past two nights. I hope this is the beginning of sleeping through the night for us.  This is huge! I mean huge! She has never slept for longer than 5 hours since she was born. The night before last I put her to bed at 6 p.m. and didn't hear from her until 6:45 am the next morning. It was heaven! I actually woke up not cranky.  Then last night I put her down again at 6 p.m. and she didn't wake until 5 a.m. Then she slept until 6:30.  It has been so nice. Now if only I could go to bed at a decent hour.  Keep it up Ellie! I bet I just jinked myself. :)

June 20, 2012

Look who's crawling

Yep, she is offically a crawler.  Not a very fast one yet, but she is crawling.  Life has taken a new turn in the Snyder home.  Now she can get where she wants to go on her own.  I think she is still freaked out about it at times but all her brothers are there to cheer her on when she does it.  She is so much fun.  She is mimicing actions now and so she usually starts to clap too.  It is the most darling thing to watch.  She just makes me heart happy!  All my children do when they are so sweet to each other.  Life is just heaven when we have days like this.  I can't believe she is almost 11 months old.  Where did my baby go?  She is growing up so fast.  I wish I could just freeze life right now.  Life is crazy busy but life is crazy good as well.
Happy crawling Ellie!  Way to go sister!



June 9, 2012

A busy week

Where do I begin to start?  We have been a busy bunch lately.  This past week my Grandma Snyder came to visit us.  Every summer she starts a little summer school to teach the little kids American History and also the history of Religion.  It was a wonderful experience for my children this week.  Grandma arrived last Saturday afternoon and they met up with the kids and I at Golf Lessons.  There were a number for Pro golfers in town and they were hosting an event to teach and give lessons to those who wanted to learn.  Keaton got really into it, Andrew, not so much. He was more interested in the little paper cone cups that you could drink water from and the Otter Pops that Grandma Quinn sent up with them.  Owen, well he wanted to rake the dirt pits on the golf course, and that is what he did. Ellie was content to let Grandpa Quinn hold her and ride on the golf cart. She really liked that.
This week was busy everyday.  Every morning Grandma would take all 3 boys off to school with her while Ellie and I stayed at home.  That is Ellie's nap time so I got some nice quiet time each and almost every morning. It was heavenly! Thanks Grandma S. for all you did this week!
We had activities, walks, trips to the park and eating out.  It was a full week.  One night we took the boys to the Water Aquarium in Boise to see all the fishes.  It was interesting. It wasn't the best exhibit but the boys loved it.  It was a good thing we had a free pass for all of us or I wouldn't have paid the price to get it. It was alittle too pricey for our taste but we had a free pass and so it was worth it.  There were fishes of every kind, poisonous frogs, crabs, sea horses, sting rays, hammerhead sharks and jellyfish.  Most of the fish, including the sting rays and sharks you could pet. They had water tanks everywhere and you would just stand on the side and put your hand in the water and they would come up to you and you could pet them.  Pretty interesting. Keaton didn't want to do that so Andrew and Owen had a fun time touching the "slimy" fish.
One night we went out to Sweet, Idaho.  It is about a 45 minute drive up the foothills to the other side.  Lance's cousin Brandon and his family have a pretty large home that took them years to build.  Brandon and Tamara Walker have 8 children. They have lost 4 of them and only 4 remain.  They have all been tragic deaths too.  They have a little garden for each one of their children.  They own 80 acres and they farm it all. Well, almost all of  it.  There were barns galore, animals, trampolines, slides, and a lake down below with paddle boats and a BBQ pit where we had our hot dog dinner.  The boys were in absolute heaven. I don't think they wanted to leave. They were so happy and so content. It was every little boys paradise.  It was very beautiful.  Their home is massive.  Owen found out that that they had a slide in their home and a swing set and he was content with that.  As I am sitting here writing about all of this, I just realized that I didn't take one single picture this whole entire weekend.  So sorry, I have no pictures to back me up.  Trust me though, it was amazing.  Then a storm started to blow in.  Owen doesn't like storms.  He was really unsettled by the wind and rain so that is when he, Ellie and I went in to play while the others were happy to play outside with all the other 20 kids that were there.
Since I am a den mother for the Wolves for the scouts in our ward, we had Scout Camp this past week. Since I am new to the program I still have no idea what I am supposed to do. I feel like I have been thrown into this without much information so I just go with the flow. Well I was planning to go camp all day long and planned out what I was going to do with my children and then found out the night before that I wasn't needed. They had enough leaders who signed up to go. So that was kind of nice. I wish I were more helpful though.
For the past day and a half my mother-in-law has been taking a Foot Zone Reflexology course.  I took the course last year while I was pregnant with Ellie and really loved it. Loved what I learned and I use it all for my family. I feel confident that when my children have issues, get sick or for whatever reason I can use the oils and the reflexology to help them out. I don't panic anymore when I hear them cough, have a sore throat, or ear infections. I can do it all right here in my home and it is fast and relatively easy.  I have felt so empowered to be able to do that. I was tired of going to the doctor's for every little thing and now I can be a doctor in my own home, kind of......
Since Grandma's last day of summer school was yesterday and the class started  yesterday morning, she had asked me if I would like to go in her stead and take notes for her and that she would meet up with us after she was done around noon.  So I went and I LOVED it! The two women who teach it are my good friends and they did a fantastic job.  We learned a lot about Chakras and emotions and the things they are linked to. I could go on and on about all the information and how it has really helped me and is still helping me,but I won't bore you. But I feel like I have found my nitch.  This is what I am excited about and I have a passion for.  It has changed me and my family.
Grandma Snyder fly's back home this evenin after her class.  For lunch this afternoon Ellie and I went and took Subway to Grandma during her lunch break while taking this course. It was so nice to be with her and my friend Amber who is team teaching the class. Ellie did so well. She was so happy and I took a little lunch for her as well and she sat and ate with us.
A huge thanks to Grandma Snyder for coming and staying with us.  The boys are really going to miss her, as well as Ellie. She is so comfortable with her now and it is so sweet to see them interact with one another.  We will miss you but we will see you soon in Colorado and Utah in July.  We love you! Thanks for coming!