Christmas at Grandma Snyder's

Before...

After...

During...

Hope your Christmas was filled with Laughter,

wonderful Surprises,

time with Family,

and Sillyness,

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight.

Christmas Day Fun

5:30 am Kids wake up (that is great for them, last year it was 4am!)

5:31 am Open presents

5:35 am Done opening presents

5:40 am Ready to go to grandma's to open more presents, too bad mom and dad aren't ready to go yet. And breakfast is not until 7:15. That did give the kids more time to play with what they had gotten from us and Santa.

Kelsey and Andy, we tried to put Kelsey in her stocking but she didn't fit. Needed a bigger stocking.

Dad's not awake yet, Ellyn is too awake.

Looks like fun!

Can you guess what the kids got for Christmas? Not sure why I have a picture of Steve and not Andy using Andy's camera.

Christmas Eve Fun

When you get married you have to find a way to merge the two family traditions. Some are easier to do than others. One tradition that I had growing up was we opened up our gifts on Christmas Eve. I found out after I had grown up that the reason we did this was because my parents wanted to sleep in. I wanted to keep some of this tradition alive, and we have found a way to do that. On Christmas Eve morning we let the kids open one gift. Then later in the day after we had gone to dinner and been down to see the Festival of Lights in Spanish Fork, we let the kids open a few more gifts. It makes them enjoy it more, I think. On Christmas day it is just too over whelming to do everything at once, and they seem to remember what they have gotten if we break it up. This year the gifts they loved were for Andy a new book (got to love a kid who loves to get books!) and for Ell was a How to draw Spongebob book. After gifts it was time to settle down (right) and get to sleep. Santa had to wait for the kids to fall asleep so he could bring the rest of Christmas by. He was pretty tired by the time he had left the gifts. I have to say it was a great Christmas Eve this year. I even got a gift from Santa! I think Santa just couldn't wait for Christmas Day. I got a new wedding ring! Mine had broken a few years ago and we just hadn't gotten around to getting it fixed. So, Steve got me a new one. I was so surprised. He is just full of surprises this year.

MomCat seems to think one of these is for her. This has been her favorite place to sleep. Don't know if she likes the smell of the tree or if she thinks she is outside.

Ready, set...go!

A new cd!

A new DVD!

Ornament Fun

This is our second year for the ladies at our church to have an ornament making activity. This was my first year to attend. It was so much fun. We had the fun plain balls to start with and then had tons of ribbon, glitter and all kinds of things that sparkle to add to it.

MomCat and her baby

Ellyn had left her Cabbage Patch doll laying out in the living room, and we walked in to find MomCat snuggling with it. Later in the day she left, and then went back to it. And even the next day she was sleeping with it. I guess everyone just loves a Cabbage Patch Doll. I remember when I got my Cabbage Patch Doll. That was the best Christmas present! Maybe that is what we should get MomCat.

Crafting Fun

It is always fun doing crafts, but it is so much more fun doing crafts with friends! Good friends, good ideas and great fellowship. Thanks Genia for letting us invade your house, you are a great hostess.

Ellyn loves doing crafts, and this week she really got into it. We were making Christmas gifts. Shhhh, don't tell.

Even little Nevaeh got to make a craft.

Spelling Fun

Who likes to write their spelling words? Well our kids do. When they get to write them on the windows! A great suggestion for making spelling more fun.

Leave it to Ellyn to do a pretty picture.

A kids got to have some fun, right mom?

Surprise Party

As I have gotten older, I have noticed that birthdays are not as much fun as they used to be. With this year being the exception. Now all husbands should take notes from my wonderful husband. This year he planned a surprise party for me! He invited some of our great friends, cooked dinner, arranged for babysitting of all the kids (i lost count after 10) and got me a great gift. I had no idea of what was going on. I was asked to leave the house, Steve told me that the kids were wanting to cook dinner for me and I needed to be out of the house for a while. He didn't have to tell me twice to leave.

When I got home I drove into the garage and saw some decorations for my birthday. When I came into the house it was pretty quiet, I did see my friend Ashley with Kelsey and I thought that it was pretty cool for Steve to invite Matt and Ashley to dinner, and then everyone jumped out and yelled surprise! And boy was I surprised.

But not as surprised as I was going to be. We had a great dinner and then it was time for gifts. I got some wonderful gifts from our friends, I am so blessed to have such great friends. And then Steve had the kids give me a small box. Inside the box was a key, and boy was I lost. Steve had to help me.

Steve " What is it?"

Me: "A key?"

Steve: " And what does a key go to?"

Me: "A car?"

Steve: "And where do we keep the cars?"

Me: "The garage?"

Steve: "And where do you need to go?"

Me: "The garage?"

When I got to the garage, there it was, my new van!! Now it is a good thing that I HATE car shopping, the last two cars we have had Steve has gone to the lot and picked them out, drove them home so I could test drive them and then went back and bought them.

This was a great birthday. Many thanks to my husband and wonderful friends who we got to share our night with. I love you all so much!

Just a bunch of crazy kids!

Gift time!

There it is!

And more crazy kids! Thanks to my bro-in-law for doing crowd control for the night. Your the best Josh.

School Helper

I guess MomCat thought that Andy needed some help in school to day.

Christmas Fun

Before After

Christmas has come to the Snyder house! It is always fun picking out our tree, this year it was a green one. One of my favorite parts of Christmas is putting on the ornaments. I love looking at each one and remembering where we got it. The kids got bored (we have a ton of ornaments) so I finished the tree by myself. And I was ok with that. I would tell Steve the story behind each one. I am on the hunt for Kelsey Anne's first ornament and our new family one. These are the special ones to me.

Steve did the lights this year. Normally I do them, because he doesn't put them on "the right way." Also, I think I do them because every year that he does them he puts them on the wrong way so they can't plug in. And what good are the lights if they are not lit? Well, this year he got them on, almost so they could plug in, and then he did plug them in. And wouldn't you know it, only half the tree was lit!! Poor guy, all that work for nothing. He was off to the garage to hunt down another strand, of hopefully working lights this time, and going to give it another shot. When all was said and done the tree looked great. Now I am in the Christmas mood.

Ellyn with her first ornament.

It was Andy's turn to put the tree on top.

OH so many decorations, Mom can I please be done?

Our half lit tree. I am thankful that Steve didn't leave it that way.

Mom and MomCat

This is what Sunday afternoons should always be like. Me and the cat taking a nap on the couch watching football.

No laughing matter

Kelsey Anne has started to laugh! Andy told me she laughs at him all the time. I was so excited to tell Steve, and he didn't see it as a big deal. I got so mad. Of course this is a big deal, our daughter's first laugh. He then proceeded to tell me that she has laughed at him before. WHAT! Then Ellyn tells me today that Kelsey laughed at her. She has yet to laugh at me. As I am thinking about this I remember something Andy said to me, he said that daddy plays with Kelsey more than I do.

mmmmm....

Isn't that how it is though with moms and dads? Moms have laundry, dishes, school work and other things to do, besides play. And dads are the fun ones. They are the ones who get down and play. But does it have to be that way? All our kids want from us is to "just play with me mom."

But how are we to do it. Do it all. The whole "to do" list and the playtime? Are we to do it all? I think that is when burn out happens. We don't have to be the super mom. We don't have to have it all and do it all. There has to be a balance. Right? But where or how do we find that balance? I don't want my kids to grow up and remember all the times mom said "Not right now, I have to do...." I want them to remember the fun, the playtime's and the family times. But once again there has to be balance. There is still house work to be done, meals to be served and laundry to do. And I can't forget about me. Me! Yes there has to be time to take care of me. If I am not getting filled up, and all I am doing is pouring out into everyone, I am going to run out of me. And that will not be good. So how do I take care of me? and the laundry and the kids?

I don't know.

But I do know, that I need to spend time with Kelsey Anne, and wait for that laugh. The laundry can wait, the dishes will still be there, but this cute little three month old will be all grown up before I know it.

Fun with Bubbles

What to do on a day where it is too cold to play outside? Play with bubbles inside.

Ellyn's bubbles kept popping while she was blowing them and the soap was getting in her eye. So, being the smart girl that she is, she came up with a great solution.

Who knew that blowing bubbles was so hard?

Now that the flow is all covered in bubbles what are we going to do?

Mop, of course. And there is more than one way to mop a floor. Might as well put the kids to work today.

Oh Baby It's Cold Outside

That's why I like to curl up on a nice warm vent.

Halloween Dinner

Each we have a Halloween Dinner up at Steve's mom's house. The kids get to carve pumpkins and the adults get to eat lots of yummy food. One thing that was added to the dinner this year was making caramel apples. Those were way yummy.

Shower #2

One more party for Baby Kelsey. This one was thrown by my wonderful mother-in-law and sis-in-laws.

Cute stroller made out of diapers, ribbon and flower for Kelsey's hair was made by Stephanie. Just in time to, we were in need of more diapers.

And as with any party at Grandma Snyders, tons of great food.

To bad Kelsey slept through the whole party.

One of the great things about being the big sis is getting presents at the shower. Once again my crafty sis-in-law Steph made some leg warmers for Kelsey and a matching pair for Ellyn.

Instead of games, the girls had planned a great craft for us to do. I had been wanting to get big letters of my girls names and hang them up in their room, but have been a little busy and hadn't gotten around to doing it. Well, I think they knew that, and for our craft we decorated letters for Kelsey and Ellyn! I loved this idea. We picked out scrapbook paper and then modge podged (attached it with fun glue) to each letter. Even the little girls helped out.

The finished project. Thanks Ladies, it was fun.