Cutting a Christmas Tree

This year we decided to go as a family to cut a Christmas tree. Dave has sworn to never have a fake one.. so in years past I have stayed home with the kids or he would take Kaylee and they would get one. So this year with the weather being so nice we decided to make it a family venture. We went up Broad canyon thats about a 45 min drive from our house down the allens ranch road. We went with Krista and her family. It was super muddy and we werent sure if our truck would be able to hang with Kristas Avalanche (that was for you Krista) but we barely made it. We had so much fun and we are going to try to make it a yearly tradition!

Heres most of the clan hiking up the mountain trying to scope us out the perfect tree.

This is the one Kaylee wanted... But we werent sure it would fit through our door :)

Look what a sweet dad my kidos have.. they are SO lucky!! (sorry its sideways)


Now that is the perfect one. We kinda liked a different one better, but we told Kaylee she could pick it out and there was no talking her out of this one.

The whole family standing by our tree

Getting it all decorated

And finally.. Aspen putting the finishing touches on it.

All the kids standing by their beautiful decorated tree.

They had so much fun getting ready for Christmas. Going hiking to pick out and cut our own tree was their favorite part. Hopefully there will be many more years of these to come, and many more memories to last a lifetime!

Thanksgiving 2010

Now that Christmas is over I should probably record my thanksgiving. :-) We had a great thanksgiving. We started with an amazing dinner the sunday before with Daves family. His brother who lives in Alaska was here visiting with his family so it was great to see and visit them and see their cute little kids that we dont see nearly enough! They are great. Our kids sure had a good time playing with their cousins. Then on Thanksgiving day we went to Wasatch Wing & Clay, a hunting club that my dads family is part owners of. My dad and most of the guys went out early in the morning to run the place.. Put the pheasants out and help the customers, then the rest of us met there later morning and the kids did some super cute crafts (Thanks Emo) and played. Then we ate a delicous Thanksgiving lunch with all of my family and my dads sister and her family (good to see you T) Then the good part came.. We relaxed the whole day. I forgot my camera so i just got a few shots on my phone.

Some of the older neices and nephews went out hunting and got quite a few birds.. They were super nice and let Aspen And Kaylee help clean them..Heres Aspen cleaning one.. She actually did pretty good considering she would only hold the bird with 2 fingers. :) but she loved it and was determined to do it herself.

Kaylee on the other hand.. She just digs right in. I was surprised she even put gloves on. She probably just saw her older cousins doing it and decided to copy them.

It takes serious concentration!


The whole crew with their prizes.
(minus a few of the younger cousins who already left for the day)

I've actually been thinking a lot about how blessed me and my family are and that I am truly gratefull for so much!! We have so much! I'm gratefull for my family- my kids, my hubby, our good health, a warm house, the friendship of my family, and daves family, the suport from so many, running water, vehicles that get me where I need to go, food on our table, laughter, employment for my husband, being able to stay home with my kids, kaylees willingness to always help and be so responsible, aspens big heart and the ways she expresses her love and feelings- always making us laugh, Cadens crazy personality and his determination-when he is sweet it just melts your heart, Briggs smile- It just lights up his whole face and could make anybodys day better after seeing it, My mom and dad (the poor things- They have to live right across the street- so they get a lot of us) They do so much for us, Daves mom and all the love and support she gives us, I am so gratefull for my husband who takes such good care of us!! He always puts our needs first and never thinks about himself, I'm grateful that he is a worthy priesthood leader and that it is an active part in our lives and last of all I am grateful for my savior for his attoning sacrifice and the love that he shares for me and the role he plays in my life and for his gospel! Well, those are a few of the things I feel so grateful for!!

(Maybe before easter I will finish the rest of my holiday posts.- I'm a little slow.. obviously)

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!

Family Pictures

A few weeks ago we went up a canyon called 4 mile to get family pictures before all the leaves changed and died off for the winter. It is about 4 mins from our house to where we unload the 4 wheelers and headed up the canyon. Its also where my dad runs his cows during the summer. It was so pretty up there. We packed a dinner and just took our time riding the 4 wheelers and enjoying the scenery and ate dinner in a beautiful meadow where the cows water was. We had a great day.

Of course we had to shoot too.. I love this picture! It cracks me up because Caden loved the gun and could hardly wait his turn, so when he finally had his turn to shoot it, he fired one round and it scared the crap out of him! Hence Dave laughing his head off and Caden bawling. Then he would stop and want to shoot it again. He would cry every time he shot it.

Aspen Shooting.

The Whole Family

The girls



The handsome boys just chillin

Kaylee

Aspen

Caden- man he looks so innocent, If only you could see the real him....

(I do love him by the way, he is just very good at trying my patience..All day every day!!)

Briggs

All the wild hooligans!!

Kaylee and Aspen.. I wish the sun wasnt glaring in Kaylees face. O-well

oops.. I actually did this one twice but I cant figure out how to delete it. I hate that all the time I accidently delete them when I dont mean to but when I want to and am trying to I cant figure it out!

Here Caden is more interested in the treat we are trying to bribe him with!

We had a good time but the kids were not so happy about getting their pictures taken so they didnt turn out as good as I had hoped, but you do what you can, and just go with it Right?

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!