Briggs Blessing

On Sept 5th Briggs was blessed by his amazing Dad. It was beautiful. After Sacrament meeting we came back to the house and had a yummy breakfast and just relaxed out back for most of the day. The weather was perfect. Here are some pictures of our handsome little guy.

Caden really loves his little brother. He doesnt even try to wrestle him or anything (yet )

I just loved this picture. Caden looks so grown up and briggs with his bright eyes.

Briggs with his gorgeous sisters!

All the kidos

The whole family :)

I am so blessed to have such a great family. To have 4 beautiful healthy children and such an awesome hubby who takes such good care of me and the kids. I love that he is a worthy priesthood holder and honors his priesthood. I can honestly say I feel like the luckiest girl in the world!

Where to start...

Man, where to even start.. Its been a little crazy around our place with the new baby and school starting.. trying to get the hang of everything and my internet only works when it decides it wants to so between the two of those I'm a little behind on blogging!! The kids are growing fast. Especially Briggs hes now 6 wks old. Hes smiling at us now. At his 2 wk appt he was up to 9 lbs , and 21 inches in the 75% for both and growing good. Hes so fun to have around. I always forget how much work they are.. but so worth it! Caden is staring to talk a lot now. He says a lot but still kinda hard to understand. A lot of the words sound the same and most of them sound like tractor. Hes still obsessed with tractors.. especially combines. He can pick them out from miles away! And I'm happy to say that he is behaving himself much better! He doesnt cause me near the headache that he used to. I love it. Hes my little pal now. Aspen is adjusting to Kaylee being gone to school. Shes learning how to do a lot more on her own now that Kaylees not there to do it for her which is good. Shes getting to be a great helper and plays a lot with Caden which is nice!! The poor kid.. she makes him hold still while she puts makeup on him! He need briggs to grow up fast so he had a boy to play with. He puts babies in his tractors and takes them for rides! Aspen is such a sweet outgoing girl who makes us laugh all day!! Kaylee is growing right up. She is such a great kid! She loves school and comes right home and does her homework and jobs every day. Shes a great reader too. I cant believe how fast they learn! Dave Has been released from the Elders Quorum President.. Hes been there for 6 yrs now and it was time for a change. He is the new Young Mens President and is super excited. He loves the boys and has always wanted to work with them! As for me, I'm just here.. Still in the Primary Presidency.. We have great kids and an amazing Presidency! At home.. I'm trying to get trough each day.. trying to keep the house to where its not a health hazard! :) Laundry.. I gave up on that some time ago! no, I'm doing good, but Ive just came to realize I will never have the perfectly clean house and laundry all done. Its just not in my DNA or something. But we have fun.. and I LOVE my family and my live!! Heres some of the things weve been up to.. sorry its so long, Its more for my records! And sorry a lot of the pictures are sideways.. I went through and changed all of them but for some reason when I uploaded them they had I mind of their own. Curse you computer!!

Kaylee has been wanting a motorcycle for almost a year now. Shes been saving any money she can and trying to earn more. It was so cute.. dave got some junk engines from a neighbor who was moving so the two of them spent hours at night stripping it all down and seperating the metals she was out there with the air tools and magnet to see what kind of metal it was then we took it to the scrap yard and she had earned like $50. She was so excited so between that and her saving she had almost enough to buy this all by herself!! She was so excited!!

If only her dad would give it up so she could have a turn!!! (Hes probably going to kill me for posting this one!)

Taking off for the first time

We went for a ride up Ophir canyon. It was so pretty up there!! Dave is pretty set on getting some property up there. Now all we need is money :) Kaylee had had her motorcycle for only a few days but really wanted to ride it. She did great! it was a long steep rocky road. Her motorcycle wouldnt go up the hills very good so she had to flinstone it a lot of the way.

Taking a little break in a meadow

Playing in the stream- surprisingly none of them even fell in!

Weve been doing lots of canning... The kids are great helpers! Caden not so much.. but he tries!

We helped lay sod at my mom and dads house.. See, there are sure advantages to having so many kids!! :) Her yard is so nice now!

Grandma Snyder took us to thanksgiving point and the kidos has a blast!! We went to the petting zoo.. they loved all the animals then we went to the gardens where you play in the water.. Caden loved to just put his head under the water like this. Thanks Grandma!!

Girls playing in the water.

Aspen turned 4 on the 17th of Aug. She just wishes she turned 5 so she could go to school with Kaylee.

With her presents.. just hoping she got some makeup!

She got her makeup.. thats all she wanted :)

When Kaylee got her motorcycle Aspen was mad and she wanted to ride one too. So Dave told her she could after she learned how to ride her bike without training wheels thinking it would be another year or so.. No, she said ok.. take off my training wheels and i will do it. So we did, and she did it. Shes a little crazy still but does pretty good. Shes getting the hang of it!!

Riding by herself

Kaylee on her newest motorcycle... Her first one we got her was a little small and didnt have very good suspension so she would bottom out and hurt her bum bum (as she would say) every time she would jump.. so yes her dad had to get her a faster one with better suspension!! She really wants to race them... We will see...

Kaylee and her cousin Cody giving each other high 5's after they were practicing jumping on a little track by our house. They are so cute riding together! One crashes and the other goes to make sure they are ok and help each other out. Super cute!!

We did asphalt in our parking area for trailers and Kaylees crazy dad let her run the compactor to smooth it all out. She did really good.

Kaylee started 1st grade this year! Its so weird to me...I kinda dont like it. First of all she is the best helper EVER!! so i miss her helping me especially with Briggs. And she is gone all day.. I miss her! But she loves it. She has a great teacher and likes to learn and play with her friends.

Aspen rock climbing at trafalga

Aspen was glad Kaylee got a different motorcycle so now she can have the smaller one! She tried riding it a week or so ago and did pretty good. She would struggle a little with starting and stopping.. but in between she did great :)
Here her dad and sister are giving her words of encouragement!

Off she goes!! Its a good thing her dad is like a freak of nature and is always in great shape without ever working on it.. I kinda hate him for that!!

Getting all stoked up to try to ride by hereself

The girls shooting Dave with water at Trafalga they absolutely loved these boats... especially caden! Even though they all got soaked!

Introducing Briggs Earl

Our little guy decided it was time to join our family. On Wed. Aug 4th I went to the doctor for my 38 wk checkup and he said I was super close.. I was dialated to a 4, and 75% effaced and "Really baggy", really baggy, what the heck does that mean (probably not the best thing to say to a pregnant lady as your checking her :) but, he just laughed and said my water bag was very full and low, meaning it could break really soon. So I decided to have him strip my membranes and if I was really ready that would help put me in labor. Well, sure enough a few hrs later I started having regular contractions 3-5 mins apart. I tried to ignore them and honestly hope they would go away...( I think it finally hit that I was going to have a 4th child and I think I was getting a little freaked out) but we were all at my moms birthday party, and my sisters wouldnt let me forget that I was having contractions and they were timing them more than me :) So by the time dave got home from work around 6 they were pretty strong and getting worse, so I broke the news that he better pack his bags. We ditched the kids on my mom for her birthday (good present eh?) and headed to the hospital. When I got there I was at a 5 and 90% effaced, so they kept me. I waited a little bit for the epidural then the nurse said "if your water breaks, you are going to go fast and might not have time for the epidural, so you might want to think about it" So I decided now was a good time. And, oh man, that was so nice! after having contractions every 5 mins for 7 hrs then no pain.. It was so nice. So we relaxed for an hr or so then the doc came and broke my water. They said to call them if I felt any pressure. Well, I was starting to, but it hadnt even been half an hour yet, so I didnt want to bother them. About half an hour after she broke my water the nurse came to check me, sat down on the bed, and said "oh, theres his head" then calmly ran out and yelled for the other nurses to call the doctor and come help set up. A few mins later the doc showed up, got all dressed and said to try a practice push.. then out came the head.. so 2 more pushes and little Briggs was out. He cried right away and everything was perfect. Well, except he come out upside down and his little nose was completely squished flat and over to the side. Poor little thing could barely breath through it! he had some bruising on his face, not bad and it went away soon. Then we spent the next 2 days at the hospital enjoying the sweet little thing. Its amazing the love you feel instantly for the little things, even when they cry, poop, nurse, then repeat the cycle all day and all night. We are so glad to have him here and that he is a healty little guy!!! So, theres my birthing story, more for me.. I always think I will remember it then a few yrs later I dont. I didnt record my other ones and now I wish I would have. So, sorry so long, but this is my journal!

This is just a few minutes after he was born

Being Weighed. 8lbs, Ooz... good thing he came early he would have been a big boy. He is 1/2 pound bigger than any of my other kids and he was 2 wks early! He was 19 in long.

Awe, a little snooze time with mom

And.. a little snooze time with dad (sorry is sideways)

The whole family. Its weird to think I have 4 kids now! We are a family of six!! Im way too young for that! ( in my mind I still think I'm about 22)

Being smootherd by the girls.. Man how we love him!!

Proud dad with his kidos!!

His crooked nose :) this is even the next day after it had popped up a little.

4 days old after his first bath at home.. wide awake and happy as can be.

oops.. wrong kid :) he decided he wanted to try out the bath after Briggs did.

Cozy in dads arms

All ready to leave the hospital to go home and be mauled by his sisters!

In the hospital with his name tag.

Were glad hes here and are gratefull to all who have helped. We have the BEST families and neighbors and friends in the world! THANKS!!

Cadens 2nd Birthday!

On July 13th Caden had his 2nd birthday. For the life of me I cant figure how to put the pictures in order.. so these are in random order, but some fun memories from his birthday.

Opening presents with dad

With his cake... He didnt care about the cake he was just fasinated with the tractors on it.

With his blue no 2 pancake for breakfast.

He was lucky enough to have 2 parties... This is at Grandma Snyders.

On his birthday we moved him into a toddler bed, well, this is the next day after I put him down for a nap, I didnt hear him for a while so I went to peek on him and this is what I found. And no, he does not have a diaper on. We have gone thru quit the stage lately... everytime he needed to poop he would take his diaper off and go all over the ground then usually walk around in in. I dont even dare guess how many times I've shampooed my carpet. Before this picture he already came out of his room with his diaper off and poop all over his hads, feet, and floor and door knob, so I cleaned that up and put him back down for a nap and found this. Luckily, he hadnt pooped, just decided to take his diaper off then finally fell asleep. Dave used to tell me "just duct tape his diaper on" and I would laugh, saying no, I am not taping his diaper on.... Well I do now. I should have started this weeks ago and it would have saved me a LOT of headaches!! so, now his diapers are duct taped on and we havent had a mess in like 2 weeks!! YEA!!

This is his first night in his big boy bed... Dad is a softy and layed down with him and was out cols! Im not sure who likes it more :)

The next morning for breakfast he had to have all his new toys gathered around him while he ate

Our little "Home Slice" Dave calls him :)

Look at all those new trucks and tractors... He is in HEAVEN!!!!!!

Caden is the one in our family who keeps us going. He is always on the move and usually getting in trouble! Whenever its quiet and not pestering his sisters its usually a guarantee hes causing some kind of trouble. I have him to thank for the yellow food coloring carpet in the front room, the many toothpaste stains on many rondom places on the carpet, the bottles and bottles of carpet shampoo and so much more. But, we LOVE this kid and the joy he brings to our lives! He does have a very sweet side where he loves to hug and kiss you. Sometimes I think he hurts his sisters just so he can give them hugs and kisses better. He is obsessed with tractors. Whenever he is cranky or causing trouble I just find a good long you tube video of tractors- )A combine cutting grain is his favorite- and he makes sure you know its a combine.. not a tractor) and he will just sit and watch it- totally mesmorized! He has a CAT machine movie that is the only thing he will watch on the tv. When driving he will pick out every tractor along the way and make sure you see it too and repeat it back to him or "tractor, tractor, tractor" never ends :) He goes to bed great and wakes up happy!! He is his daddys little buddy and would spend every minute with him if he could. We Love him so much and are glad hes in our family!! Happy birthday buddy!!!