Things that make me SMILE :-)

I've thought a lot about how lucky I am to have such a great family. I love my kids! Although some days its all I can do to make it to bed time, I wouldn't change being a stay at home mom for anything! This week I have been organizing the pictures on my computer, and ran into some that made me smile.. enjoy.

Weird, but I love living where you often find snakes in your yard. I grew up with my dad bringing us snakes home in his lunch box that he caught while at work in this same valley. I am a little more chicken now and let my brothers or nephews catch them for us. This day was funny, we were all at my moms front yard visiting- me my sisters and my mom when Caden came over trying to tell us something, but he was just learning how to talk and we couldn't understand him. He was pretty serious about something, but we didn't know what. My sister thought he said snake but we just laughed it off. Then we looked over at my house and saw the cats playing with something so we went to check it out and Caden was so glad we finally caught on there was a snake on our grass just like he was trying to tell us.

I love being able to leave from our garage and ride on these fun tracks with my girls riding their own motorcycles with me, and my husband sharing his motorcycle with me if I be really good :)

Having Kaylee teach me how to jump, although she can still make it higher than me.

Love watching the kids play together happy!

Aspen being so brave. That's not a beginner track, and that was a big hill she came up.
Great job Aspen!

See, Kaylee teaching me how to do it.

Love watching my super hot, talented hubby do anything he does. He does it all so good!

This would make anyone smile, right? Jumping a tote gote? I'm smiling now.

Yep, here's the proof, she can jump higher than me.

Love to see this kid play so hard and happy that he cant even finish his dinner he is so tired.

I realized I never posted any pictures of fathers day!! Here is Dave and Caden in the new sleeping bag the kids got Dave. Seriously Love this guy! he is amazing! Always thinking of others way before himself, actually I'm not sure he ever gets around to thinking about himself. He is such a hard worker, never waisting a minute!
Happy super late fathers day to the best one ever!

These crazy girls make me smile a lot! They are total goof balls.

Sometimes so goofy they wear themselves out and cant even make it all the way up the stairs to their room before totally crashing out on the stairs. Yes, they are dead asleep!

Love Caden and his pet frogs he stashed and hauled around in his shirt pocket. During the summer Kaylee's cousins caught her a ton of frogs and she brought them up here to sell them to the neighborhood kids. I wish I would have got a picture of her sitting out there with a table, selling the frogs for 25 cents. Her and Kandice made signs and put them up around the neighborhood. She sold quite a few and they had fun with them. When she would leave the table she put up a sign that said " take a frog, and leave the money in the jar" so she didn't have to sit there the whole time. Too cute!

Ok, I wasn't smiling at this exact moment but when I look at it now it makes me smile. Aspen had just opened a brand new bottle of nutella and left it on the table. I was painting and was happy Briggs was entertaining himself when Kaylee said I better come check Briggs out. Its never good when she says that! There he was, just having a great ol time!

But, who couldn't smile at that!?!

He loves to put his bowls and plates on his head. Again, not funny at the time, but fun memories.

Love these two, and love how handsome they are!

I had to smile when I found Caden asleep with a rice crispy treat stuck to his face.

Love the imagination of the kids. We got this doll house for free a few weeks ago, and the kids now play hide and seek in it, and use it to lock each other up in it.
Caden locked up

Who wouldn't smile at that handsome boy!?! There is an elderly guy in our neighborhood that Dave and the young men take the sacrament to each week. Caden goes with him each week, dressed in his suit to see "grandpa" (thats what they call him) Caden loves to go and each week he runs right in there and gives this sweet old man the biggest hug and makes him so happy. His family says that is the highlight of his week, to get hugs and to see Caden. Its actually kinda funny but he loves any grandpas. He does the same with his great grandpa Smith. He can be such a sweet boy when he wants to.

Love that we live close enough that we can go visit the farm whenever we want. I love it that my family is so great and lets Caden and the girls come ride on the equipment with them!

Kaylee locked up

There are so many more moments that my kids and family make me smile and make me ponder how lucky I am to be where I am right now, to have them as my family and to be so lucky to be their mom but there is just a few to share for now!!

Canning, and canning, and more canning...

Well, I'm not going to lie, but I'm a little glad that were just about done with the canning season. We actually did quite a bit this year. I think the only thing we have left is our beets that we want to pickle that are buried in a hole in our garden, that we will hopefully get to this week. We did apple juice, apple sauce, apricots, apricot jam, peaches, peach jam, grape juice, beets, stewed tomatoes, I cant remember what else there is, seems like more. Anyway, a lot of work, and late nights. We did a lot this year with my sister Krista and her hubby which was fun. I'm glad I have a willing husband who will stay up late and do it with me, and spend his Saturdays helping. Its not so easy to do it during the day by myself when the kids are crying at my feet. But, it is worth it!!

This was one night we had been going for a few hrs, then we put the kids to bed while we still had a long time to go. Kaylee was supposed to be asleep, but she snuck down and wanted to help, so we put her right to work and she was a trooper! She stayed with us almost to the end, until about 11 when we finally made her go to bed. She did great and is a really good help

When we had a ton of apricots to do and Dave had a final paper due in one of his classes, my sister Alexa and my niece Kaycie made the mistake of coming over and saying hi! I put them right to work and they worked their tails off until about midnight. They saved me!!

Aspen mashing the apricots for jam :)

I love seeing that the hard work was worth it!- look at all that yummy apricot jam!

I'm sure thats sanitary!!! :) guess its a good thing we process them at such high heat, right?

this day I think we all swore if we never saw another apple again in our lives, we would be just fine with that! We were given a bunch of crab apples, but they were bigger than normal crab apples, but still small. We were juicing them and for every apple we would get a few drops. At the end of the day I think we ended up with like 57 quarts of apple juice! Think of how stinkin many little apples that is to wash and run though the juicer!! It was a long day, but the kids helped so good and we were able to finish in time to go for a family motorcycle ride. That was a good bribe to have the kids work hard, and they did!

Briggs was a good washer. I think he took little bites out of most the apples:)

I do love to can, and I especially love to see the food sitting on the shelf, I am excited to do more of it when the kids get older and can help more. One day I would really like to get into it and be creative! But for now, we will stick to the easy stuff!

Snyder Family get together

The weekend before Halloween Dave's whole family came into town. His brother Kimball and his family, and his sister Amelia with her family. It was great to see them all again. We don't get to see Kimball and his cute family since they moved to Alaska, but we are glad we got to see them and Amelia. Glad Amelia moved a little closer so now we can see her a lot more often then before. On Saturday everyone came out to our house and we were so lucky to have super good weather. The kids wanted a go at riding the motorcycles and little 4 wheeler. It was so fun and the kids all did super good at the machines for their first time. Drew took off like a champ on the motorcycle, now his parents are in trouble- they are going to need to get him one- or better yet, just come try ours out every other week! :) Lincoln did really good on it too, but he totally rocked the 4 wheeler. (Now I'm thinking he is going to need his own too, not sure I can talk them in to coming to our house too often to just ride ours.!: )Grandma Snyder did good holding on to all the kids in the Gator. Surprisingly, we had I think 8 motorized toys out and not any serious injuries! We had a few little fender benders, but nothing too serious. I am totally bumbed, I didn't get very many pictures of everybody. Not sure why I didn't!. I think I was just too busy trying to make sure nobody was going to die. :) Wish I would have gotten more. :(

Me and grandma taking most the younger kids for a ride.

Briggs taking Caden and Lilly for a ride

A big thumbs up from Lincoln on the 4 wheeler and Drew and Kaylee on the motorcycles.

That's all I have darn it!
(so Kimball or Amelia, if you have any good ones and want to send them my way, that would be great) :)
I am so lucky to have such great in laws! We were so glad to see them and to come all the way to no mans land to see us and to play with all our junk. (actually everything ran pretty good. We only had 1 thing break down, and for us, that is pretty good!) Cant wait to do it again!

Pumpkin painting

For some reason these didn't load with my last post about Halloween, but I still wanted some pictures for the scrapbook.
The kids painting their pumpkins:

I tried to kinda help Caden with his painting. I think it was supposed to be a skull head, but after a few minutes I decided to just let him go to town on it all by himself. Wow. It was a nice colorful ball. But, he had fun!

Kaylee did a Dracula that tuned out cute, but she didn't have very much time to make it her very best.

Aspens turned out to be a cute little witch.

Briggs was napping so he didn't get to paint a pumpkin. I hope he will forgive me. :)

Halloweeeeen 2011

Well, we survived another Halloween! The kids were excited and had a really fun day. Started out the day with the parade at the school and then each class had a little song they would perform. It was fun to see the whole school. Then after school we were able to paint some pumpkins- the only thing we did with pumpkins this year. We never had any time to carve any but the kids loved to paint some little ones. Then we turned them in to the Maverik my sister works out to get a free icee and enter in a contest to win gift certificates. So we dropped off the still wet painted pumpkins then headed to see Grandma Snyder at work at the post office. Then off to my sister Emily's work, then a quick stop to great grandma and grandpa Smiths then a few of my aunts, then hustle home to get some descent food in our bellies before heading to our community trunk or treat, Then topped off the night with Seeing my parents and doing some door to door trick or treating around a few houses of the neighborhood. A crazy busy day, but the kids had fun and were really good.

The girls getting ready to head out the door to school.
Kaylee wanted to be a cowgirl, and Aspen a Witch- Not sure where her hat is in this picture.

Now that is some crazy hair!!
(Yes, it was fun to brush the next morning:)

Aspens class singing their song. Aspen sings this song all day, but she was way too scared to sing it in front of everybody, so she just stood there. Then the little goof ball - They had each kid walk across the stage one by one so we could all get a good look at them, but she wrapped her hat down around her head so nobody could see her and walked super fast. Shes never been in front of anyone like that and she was really nervous!

Caden layed out watching the parade. - With his pal Corby.

I did go make her uncover her face in the end so I could get a picture. The poor thing when she saw me she about started crying from being so embarrassed. She will get better though!

Briggs was a monkey, and a pretty dang cute one. I thought he wouldn't like the hood up over his head, but it didn't bother him it all, he kept it on all night.

My niece Kandice put these glasses on Briggs and he was chewing on a glow stick - now that is one cool kid!!

Kaylees class singing their song

Hes got a sucker, hes good to go. My baby looked so big out walking around trick or treating with the big kids. Kinda sad, kinda exciting! :)

This is with some of the cousins we met up with at my sisters work.

Dropping off our pumpkins to enter in the contest and get our free icee.
Kaylee made that mask at school at her party and had to wear them the whole day.

Our race car driver

Until next year!! I will be counting the days - NOT!! I know I'm a totally lame parent, but it is by far my least favorite holiday. Lets see, spend money to spend time to dress them up, to haul them around- in and out, in and out, in and out of the car- in their costumes. Just to get candy from strangers and then eat so much of it they are sick and un controllable for the next week. YEA!! Actually Aspen did really go to ration her candy out. She just finished it off yesterday, and even shared a lot with everyone.

Cutting wood

Two of the nice Saturdays in October we took the kidos out and chopped us some wood for our fireplace. I was worried being stuck outside with them all day and how they would be, but they were troopers. They helped pretty good, but they played, and entertained themselves and took care of each other so good.

Briggs would spend so much time playing with an empty bottle putting the lid on and off again and sucking on it.

We brought a dump truck and tractor. Caden was set.

Kaylee and Aspen found entertainment by climbing the trees.

Briggs really wanted to start the chainsaw and help us cut the wood.

Caden playing away

They all spent a lot of time down playing in the dirt.

Aspen brought her stuff to practice writing her letters. She loves to write and color now! She spent a lot of time writing and coloring.

Picture Kaylee snapped from inside the truck of me and Dave running the chain saws.

Sweet little Briggs sat on the back of the trailer and played for a long time with his tractor.

Where Briggs? Playing peek a boo. :) love this kid!!

Aspen was great to help her brothers! Shes getting to be quite the helper! Look how dirty they are! That means they have been playing and working hard!

Had to drive though a little stream to get to the wood. We were SOO dirty we decided to stop and wash off our hands and arms.

Smile!!

Kaylee and Aspen trying to cross the river without getting wet. Kaylee managed, barely, Aspen- almost.

One buff chic throwing in the wood. Look at the strength in the face! WOW!

Were so lucky to have such great kids! We sure love them and love our fireplace to keep us nice and warm! Now were just hoping we have enough wood for the winter!

October date nights

Since its now November, I decided its probably time to update our October date night with the girls. It was my turn to go with Kaylee and she wanted to go to "jump on it". I would have killed for a place like this back in my good ol days of gymnastics and jumping. It was a ton of fun and Kaylee had a ball. I felt bad I couldn't jump with her as much as I would have liked to, but lets just say things are a little different as you get older and after having 4 babies. Although I still did manage to do two consecutive back flips, to prove to Kaylee just because I'm getting old, I am still the coolest mom there. (nothing compared to my record of 47 consecutive back flips in my teenage years)

Jumping away..

She loved jumping into this foam pit.

We got home and were talking about how much fun it was, Aspen decided that is what she wanted to do with her date night with dad the following week. So that's what they did too. Aspen is quite the jumper. On nice days she spends a lot of time out on the trampoline in the backyard jumping. She can actually jump really high!!

Jumping off the platform.

And Kaylee is spent...

We all had a blast and I'm sure it will be a place to visit again. We love our date nights and being able to spend one on one with the girls!! Kaylee and Dave have their date tomorrow night then me and Aspen next week.. hopefully I will be faster updating them. Probably not ;-)