Snyder Baby #6

I am not going to lie. I feel old. I feel really old. This is going to be my 6th baby. 6? Can you believe it? I still can't. I still can't believe we are having another baby. But once the sickness hit me, and I mean it hit me hard with this one, I knew that it felt more real. Someone once told me that you know when it's your last, when your body has a harder time being pregnant. Yep, this is it. I guess I can't really say this is it because I really don't know, but right now I feel good saying it.

So baby #6 is going to grace our family with his/her appearance on August 4th. Just a day before our little Ellie turns 2. So I am keeping my fingers crossed that she can have a sister. Two little girls at the tale end to play with one another and just love each other. But if it is a boy, I won't complain either. Just as long as he/she is healthy and strong. That is all I want really.

I am about 13 weeks along and I am starting to feel better. After we came home from Christmas, we have been sick. It all starts with one child and then hops to the next and then it starts all over again. I am ready to see the sun, to feel it on my skin and for all this snow to just melt away. Summer please come quick. Even spring, I would be happy with Spring as well.

Stay tuned for more details and we find out what the gender is. I have tried to talk myself into making it is surprise, but if you know me, then you know I really don't like surprises. I like to have these things planned out and prepared.

Wish us luck! Baby Snyder #6 we already in love with the idea of you coming to our family. 

Is it worth it?

I am debating whether or not to leave the blogging world behind. I am going to do a trial run. If you read this, then please leave a small comment and tell me how I know you. Trying to see if anyone reads this anymore!

Christmas- Part One

 Before I begin, please forgive me for not putting the pictures with this post. For some reason it is not letting me upload them. I will post them when I get it up and running.
This year for Christmas we loaded up a car full of excited kids, presents and everything other kind of excitement we could have packed into our suitcases. This year we went to Arizona for Christmas. We had a great excuse to go down this year, Camille's wedding.  Since there were so many of Lance's siblings that we planning to go for Christmas and since we had to drive the whole 18 hour drive we decided we better make it worth it and go down for more than just the wedding. We got there Saturday night, the 22nd. We celebrated Andrew's birthday with a cake that Grandma had ready for him the minute we walked through the door.
We had a great time! I can't remember the last time I really was excited for a big family trip. Don't get me wrong, I love family get togethers, but I am a home body. I could do without the traveling and just sit perfectly content and let everyone come to us. Well that only happens once in a blue moon. This trip I really didn't worry too much.
Christmas Eve rolled around and we got to talk to Elder Preston Snyder who is currently serving in Singapore. Technology is amazing. Lance and his brothers jimmy rigged the computers so we could skype with Preston as well as all the other families that were in their own homes for Christmas. We could all see each other. It was amazing! Preston looked so happy and he is being well taken care of by Sister Chris. A sweet member of the church over there in Singapore whose life mission is to serve the missionaries. Simply amazing! It was an emotional goodbye and Preston was the braver one to hang up first. So happy to see him. We sure miss him!!!!
Christmas Eve night just after we spoke to Preston, Santa showed up for our Christmas party. This year everyone did pretty good. Chiara, my niece was the only one scared of him so she and her dad hid behind the kitchen table and enjoyed the view from the floor. She eventually worked up the courage to go and sit on his lap realizing that he was a pretty good guy. Everyone got a pair of Christmas socks who sat on his lap. My boys loved that!
Christmas was busy. When you wake up on Christmas morning with a million people there opening gifts and the volume level is at its highest, you know its a good thing. I LOVED it! It was so nice to be with everyone. This year I didn't care about getting anything, in fact I didn't open anything on Christmas morning. I just got to sit back and watch all the kids enjoy the moment. That was worth it for me. Thanks Snyder's for such a great experience. I will always remember it!
So since Santa couldn't carry all the gifts for our children for Christmas down to Arizona we thought Disneyland would be the perfect gift for our kids since they have been asking us literally every night this past year, wondering if we had saved enough pennies to go. Seemed appropriate and so we jumped on it. Two days after Christmas, Disneyland we were bound. The drive was great, not too entertaining. We made it in mid afternoon and we had a fun time showing the kids around. We went swimming and walked around Downtown Disney. A man at our hotel told us it was only a 10 minute walk from the Hilton Hotel where we were staying to Downtown Disney. His time was way off because 30 minutes later our kids are dragging and just really tired. But we survived and had a great time. Being away on vacation does not bring many rested nights for our family. Our kids don't sleep well and Ellie was up all night our last night and it was just enough to make me go mad. Being up all night and then up all day carrying her and walking Disneyland. It was crazy. So this was our first time. They say Disneyland is magical right? I was still looking for that. I guess I didn't get too much out of it. My kids kept crying and complaining about different things and we had to constantly ask ourselves "This is the happiest place on earth right?" Well it was most of the time.
There were way too many people. In fact you couldn't really move around because it was back to back traffic through all the parks. I bet we only saw 25% of Disneyland. I was alittle disappointed that we didn't get to see more. But our kids had a good time. Besides waiting in line for an hour and half for each ride, the rides were pretty good. Some made me really sick. Star Tours was not my most favorite. I really enjoyed Pirates of the Carriabean and so did the kids. Ellie even sat still through it. I was surprised. I really loved Soaring California and the Cars ride was by far my most favorite. It had the longest line of a 3 hour wait. Man the first thing we did when we got to California Adventure was go straight to the fast pass line to get our ticket. It took about an hour in line to get it but it was worth it. I think California Adventure was my most favorite. I am still not sure. Next time we will go off season when there aren't so many people packed into one place. But the kids loved it and that was worth every long line.
Our first day was warm and sunny and our second day was cold and really rainy. We had to buy a lot of ponchos to keep us dry but then it cleared up and that was when we left. We headed back to Arizona to get ready for Aunt Camille's wedding on the 2nd of January. That will be in part two. Stay tuned.

Merry Christmas!

We are headed to Arizona today! Wishing everyone we know and love a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Updates when we get back.

Healing Fears

Healing Fears


Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face. . . . You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
As you work to create a successful and happy life, you will be led to face your fears and then overcome them. This is a natural part of the process of achieving excellence—and one you shouldn’t prevent. True, it can be terrifying to uncover and heal your innermost fears. But isn’t it even more frightening to consider leaving this earth never having reached your highest potential?

In order to become all that you can be here on earth, you must, indeed, “do the thing you think you cannot do.” Transforming your fears is a worthy priority.
Fears produce powerful thought energy. In fact, fear can often be as powerful as faith, prompting us to stand still, just as faith prompts us to move forward and take the great leap that leads to better things. Fear tends to occupy the bulk of a person’s thoughts, thus overwhelming the natural thinking power that helps individuals mold and create happy, successful lives. When you allow fear to govern your thoughts, you focus your attention on what’s negative rather than what’s positive. Then you risk living out experiences that match your fears.

Letting go of fear is essential and necessary in order to love. “Love is letting go of fear,” says author Gerald G. Jampolsky, who has written a book on the subject. When you heal your fears, you replace those feelings with faith and hope, thus gravitating toward love. Trust becomes a by-product of your actions, and fears begin to fade away. And this is when the miracles happen: you begin to manifest more of what you want in life that is positive.
You learn that your daily actions and responses can be motivated by love or fear—it’s your choice! Choosing to heal your fears and allow love to be the mainstay motivation throughout life will help you to be happy, peaceful, and successful. When you face your fears—and you do this by deciding that the next step needs to be taken because you love yourself and those around you and you have confidence that you can succeed—most of the time you will inevitably discover that what you once feared really isn’t all that scary . . . or at least not as scary as it once seemed.
Fear can blow situations out of proportion, making something small seem monstrous in your mind. Remember that your fears and your imaginations are incredibly powerful. Then use your faith and ability to love (rather than your fears) to help you succeed.

Decemeber is here

I have a feeling this blogging buisness is going to end soon. I feel like I don't really have a lot of time to sit down and write about all the crazy things we have been doing. By the time I sit down each night I am too tired to do anything. I just want to curl up with a good book and read. Not type out my days, weeks and months. But nonetheless, here I am.
I can't believe it has been almost a month since I last wrote. I swear once Halloween is over, the rest of the year just passes in the blink of an eye. The end is almost here and we have so much still to do and accomplish.
Thanksgiving was nice. We didn't go anywhere this year. Since we are going to be in Arizona for Christmas we stayed here and had Thanksgiving with my family. It was nice. My sister decided to come and be with us this year. That was great and my brother Justin came home for a week and that was so much fun. Being all together was a wonderful thing.
I can't honestly say we did a ton of fun, crazy things that we had planned but we did have a good time doing a few things together. Bowling, going to movies, shopping and just hanging out. My children had the entire week off so we took them to see Wreck-it-Ralf one day and they just loved that. Eating too many treats, not working out and having late nights was fun for awhile but man, I am telling you, there is nothing like being back on track and on schedule. I feel good. My kids are good and life is happy and wonderful.

Now it is December and this month is going to fly by even faster. We have so much going on. The list is never ending but all of it is good and will be a lot of fun, minus the traveling. I wish we could just close our eyes and wish us there but unfortunatley I will have to wait for that until I can create my own world :).

Lance's youngest sister Camille, who, I just adore and love, is getting married Januay 2nd in the Mesa, Arizona temple. So to make it worth the drive we decided to go to Arizona for Christmas. At first I was dreading the drive and being away from our own home and traditions, I am actually really excited. There will be all of Lance's siblings together, minus Preston, who is currently serving his misison in Singapore now. But we are so thrilled to talk to him on Christmas day.  All my sister-in-laws will be there and we will all be under one roof. I know, I know, crazy but a good crazy. Can't wait.

So Camille will take our her endowements the day after Christmas and then on the 27th we have decided to surprise our children with a trip to Disneyland this year for our family Christmas present. I think they will be pleasantly surprised. I am not a huge Disney fan. Yes, I admit it, not really a fan but it will be worth seeing my children so happy. So we will drive to Disneyland and stay until the 30th and then head back to Arizona for some fun wedding festivities and then head back home on the 6th. It is going to be a long trip but we can do it.

I love my in-laws. They are wonderful people and we all have so much fun together. So until we leave we have ward Christmas parties, a birthday party to celebrate, an anniversary, finish up Christmas shopping, take kids to the dentist and the list goes on and on. Tis the season.
Now I just need to finish up my list of people to send out Christmas cards too. Happy Decemeber!!!!!!

Half over

Is Thanksgiving really next week? Where have I been? I don't even have anything planned yet. Have no clue what is going to happen, where we are going to go and with who. I am hoping my parents invitation is still open.
This month just like all the others seems to be passing faster than I can keep up. My kids are growing up way too fast, and sometimes not fast enough. I know, I know, everyone tells me not to wish it too fast. I don't really wish it, it just seems so on days like today that I wish it would. Do I make any sense?
I am really, really tired. Ever since the time change about two weeks ago our family routine has been screwed up. Instead of my children waking up at 6:30 a.m., which I thought was insanely too early, are now waking up at 5:30 a.m. and demanding breakfast. UUUGGGHHH!
Lance has been teaching early morning seminary this entire week and when he wakes up the whole house wakes up. Seems like our little house echos and it wakes everyone up. So at 5:45 I start to hear Ellie making some sounds in her room. By this time Owen has been awake 3 times and is running up and down the hallway turning on every bright light he can reach for and turning it on, waking everyone up and them that makes us all tired and grouchy. Well this morning he ran into Keaton's room and woke him up telling him that Ellie needed to get out of her crib.
Keaton is amazing! Can I just tell you that? He seriously gets up every morning and has taken upon himself the job of taking care of Ellie so mom and dad can sleep alittle more. Well I am usually up and running by 6 to be at the church to teach our workouts. I am in the door by 7 a.m. and the hosue is awake. Well this morning Keaton did it again. He took Ellie upstairs and put Cinderella on for her. She LOVES that movie. All I have to do is ask her " Wanna watch Cinderella?" and it turns tears into smiles. Love that about her. She will sit so still and watch. Is that bad to use that as a crutch? Well, I don't care right now because I need time, sometimes.
Well this morning I tried to fall back asleep to catch a few more minutes of shut eye when I hear Keaton coming. Next thing I know, I am laying down covered in cereal, milk and yogart. Keaton tried to make me breakfast in bed, Keaton style and while trying to make it to me in bed, he tripped on something and this sweet little tray of food that he prepared for me came crashing down on me. I was literally covered in milk, fruit loops and peach yogart. How gross is that?
My first reaction? Well I yelled. I shouldn't have, but I was dead tired, and covered in food. My poor son ran to his room crying. I cried then too. I went into his room and cried in front of him. I told him I was really sorry for being upset. I told him I would still eat the food he made for me and he cheered right up. So what did my son do next? He cheered me on and I had to try and scoop the cereal back into my bowl and eat it. Yes, I know, how gross! But it made him happy. I was happy about that too.
Did I take pictures? My friends all asked me today. No! I did not. That was not my first reaction. I wish it was. I will hopefully look back on it and laugh one day. The thought was so sweet and that is what makes me smile about that each time.
Like I said, Lance has been subing in early morning seminary all this week. That means he has to be up by 5:30 a.m. and out the door a quarter till 6. Class starts at 6:25 a.m. Then he is back home around 8 a.m.. Just about the time my kids are asking for lunch. I haven't been able to go and workout this week. I am feeling it. I am tired! I am grouchy! I need to run!!!!
Well it is almost 10 p.m. and I need to go to bed! Good night!!!!