THE SNYDER FAMILY

My Color Guard Team Wins First Place!!

2012-02-05T13:35:00.000-07:00

The past 2 weeks have been extremly busy by all of us.....school, parent teachers, basketball,soccer, school projects, work & color guard. My camera did not get out of the case until last night when I went to my first colorguard competition this season. Our show is really fun this year, but it is also very hard to design & organize. We are a group of girl scouts called the Fireside Girls. Our show is called "A Day at Camp Bear River". Our show is exactly that....what a day would be like at camp. The outfits turned out darling! They all have earned badges for their sashes. It has been a lot of work for everyone trying to work with props and 21 girls on the floor. But it is rewarding when you get first place out of 10 teams. I am very proud of them and I am excited to continue to make this year a great experience for everyone.

The girls after the awards.....#1!!

The girls in their outfits before we went to perform! So cute!

Busy week of Colorguard & Grandpa Snyder's Birthday

2012-01-15T14:08:00.001-07:00

This week was busy.....work, school & more work. Then add color guard to the mix....crazy. I needed to buy painting supplies this week to paint the color guard floor and backdrops for this seasons show. It was a lot of paint & money....but it all worked out!

Saturday was our big painting & show preparing day....The floor got painted (it looks like a campground's ground), the backdrops painted (looks like a forest) and giant marshmellows made, campfire made & poles now look like wood. It was a very productive day, long day, but we got a lot done. This show is going to be fun!

This is the last of the girls & helpers that were still there at 5 pm (we started at 8 am)....eating a snack

a picture of our backdrops.....pretty good huh?

This is the girls making the ground look like it has texture....Brinley is helping in the middle (yellow top)

Taylee was helping make "badges" for the girls. Since our theme this year is camping, we have the girls earning badges for their sashes.....kind of fun

Then we also celebrated my father-in-laws birthday this week. He turned 63 years old. He is a great man. He has helped us out in many ways, expecially since Chris lost his job. He is a great dad & grandpa! I hope he had a great Birthday!

Starting to get a little organized......

2012-01-08T13:01:00.004-07:00

One of my resolutions this year was to get organized and clean out some things. I found a website on the internet (helps from a friend at BATC) that is great for cleaning and organizing your home. It is called Flylady.net. I think it is more for those people that have awefully cluddered homes.....but after I skipped through all that sections.....the cleaning and organizing part was awesome. I made a list last sunday of all the things I wanted to clean and do...plus all the things I had to do. I did pretty well. Each week you focus on a section of your house and last week was the kitchen...like cleaning UNDER the sink (wow, have not done that for awhile). Next week is the Bathroom & Office....can't wait!!

I also wanted to go through all of Chris & I's clothes so we could take a trip to the DI. Well Chris put in his pile of clothes.....camo pants. I actually was glad he was getting rid of them, but when Austin saw them, he asked if he could have them. Well as you can see, they are not going to fit him ever!! The kids had a fun time teasing dad about his FAT CAMO PANTS! But I am sure some man will love them at the DI!

A New Year.....A New Blog

2012-01-01T15:10:00.015-07:00

Well here is is......2012! Where does the time go? I have thought about some new resolutions for the year. I did not want it to be anything that I would give up on or forget about in the next couple weeks or months. So one of them is to keep up my blog. I am not going to say it will be updated every week....but I will try to keep it updated. I really think it will be good for me to keep up on it for my extended family, but also for me. It is almost like writing in a journal...with pictures!

2011 had it's up's and down's.

We all lost my dad in February..... It was a horrible thing for all of us to go through. I know he is in a better place and is now in no pain....but it is hard to not have him here to enjoy life with. I think of all the things that he is missing....but he really isn't....he actually is helping us more now than he could of before. I sure do miss him!

In March, Brinley turned 6 years old....ready for 1st grade! My color guard took State Champions again for the 2nd year! It was really cool to acheive that goal again this year.

April.... Austin's soccer team won first place in their division & Taylee was in her school play "Snow White & Friends" as Briar Rose. I am very proud of them and all they are accomplishing.

Brinley played soccer for the 1st time and had her dad be her coach.

May....Austin turned 13! Yes I have a teenager in my home! He has been great so far!! I have heard stories and I was one myself....but so far so good. He participated in the iron man at his school and won 5th place out of the whole 7th grade boys! I was very proud of him! The kids all had their dance recital....always so fun to watch and Austin won the Clogging scholorship for the year! He was so suprised!! My sister Jaycee got married to River also this month. This one a great time for our family. My brother Bryan and his family came home for the wedding.

June.... Taylee turned 10 years old.....we went to Bear Lake with our family & Chris & Austin went to Basketball camp in St. George for a week.....then Austin went to scout camp for a week. They were not home much this month. I participated in the Cancer Walk as a survivor. That was a neat experience. My family all wore melanoma shirts in support of me. I survived my first Father's day without my dad. I don't think we knew what to do...so we went to my mom's.

July.....Chris celebrated a birthday....celebrated 4th of July and 24th of July with families.

August......took another trip to Bear Lake... got ready for school....Austin marched in a couple parades with the marching band.....Taylee got a 1st place ribbon on her quilt for the fair. I had a birthday and started the downhill to 40, so exciting!

September.....we all started school one way or the other, Chris college at USU, the kids at school and me teaching at BATC in the evenings. Life just got busy!! Chris is also subbing for the school district and coaching Austin's soccer team.

October.....still busy.....celebrated Halloween

November..... Austin marched in the Vetrans Day parade in Ogden with the marching band. Very cold and wet....but good experience. Celebrated thanksgiving at Grandma Braegger's house this year. Chris started helping coach the freshman basketball team at the high school.

Austin has been playing basketball on a comp team.

December..... had a great christmas....we all got spoiled ...like always....anxious to start this new year out right!

Fashion Show

2010-11-01T20:29:00.005-07:00

Taylee is in 4H with her Aunt, Robyn as her teacher. It is a sewing 4-H and they had a fashion show at Robyn's mom's house to practice for the Fair.
It was really fun to have all the dresses and outfits from differnt eras of time.

This is Robyn and Kit.

Brinley got to model too. She was scared to come out by herself, so another girl brought her out. She looked so cute in the little dress from the 70's.

I love this picture!!!!

Taylee loved modeling!! She was eating it up!! She was modeling the skirt from the 80's.

This is a group shot of some of the girls modeling their dresses. Very fun!!

Island Park

2010-10-10T10:24:00.009-07:00

This year, we got invited to go to Island park with some friends. We had a blast riding the river in tubes and just relaxing and enjoying some time off.
The first day we got there, that night the girls, drove up to West Yellowstone and went to a Play. It was Beauty and the Beast. It was so fun and cute to watch.

The next day we had activities and floating on the little buffalo river. We did not bring our camera, cause i was afraid it would of got wet. I wish I took it though.
This is the girls... Hollie, Taylee, Calie & Brinley

Here is Austin after he made a "fire" out of Candy

We took our dog, Oreo. He was such a good dog. He just relaxed and never barked. I was worried about that. Well ok he did bark at a few squirrels, but I think they were taunting him!

We all decided to go cliff jumping. This is Taylee jumping off.

This Tiny picture is Tiny Brinley jumping off by herself!!!! I could not believe she did it!

Then they all talked me into jumping off with my 2 friends, Crista & Kristy! Don't we look crazy!

There was a big Volleyball pit in our campground and the kids loved to play in it. Well, Brinley was in heaven with all the sand and dirt. This is a pic of her and how dirty she got!!

We played games around the campfire and enjoyed talking

Here is a picture of us at our campsite.

We loved going there. We have to go there more often.

24th of July

2010-08-01T17:40:00.011-07:00

The annual 24th of July in Bear River city, started out with the parade and my mini colorguard being involved in it. So much fun.

The 24th has many highlights...

Brin marching down the parade

Playing with cousins

hanging out with family....

and more family....

and running the races, eating pie and watching the baby show.

This year we went to a Salt Lake Real Soccer game in Sandy. We all had never been to the new stadium and this was something different to do.

We had good seats, 5 rows up and right behind a goal. This is everyone eating cotton candy. It was soooooo hot, we spent $20.00 for each of us to have ONE bottle of water. But it was worth it!~

The game ended up being tied 1-1

Here is the girls posing and the boys very into the game.

When the game was over, they let us go down to the field and sit and watch the fireworks. It was a lot of fun to do that.

After the fireworks, we got a hotel in Sandy and spent the night there. It was a late game and we thought that would top off our fun weekend, and it did.

Chris's Birthday

2010-08-01T17:27:00.002-07:00

When you get older, birthdays just are normal days.....that sucks!! Chris and I both had to work on his birthday, but at 7 pm, we got in the car and at least went to dinner. Texas Roadhouse seems to be our favorite lately. When we got home, we blew out the candles. We gave him a Germany soccer jersey and tickets to a Real game on July 24th.

4th of July

2010-08-01T17:06:00.009-07:00

Well this year, we decided to go to Willard Park and enjoy the races and the airplane candy drop.

I think the kids enjoyed this part the best. Candy falling from the sky! Who would NOT like this!!

Brinley ran her race and won 2nd place!!!

Taylee ran her race and won 3rd place!!

Austin ran his race and won 1st place.

After the races, we went an met my mom and sister in Ogden at the mall and went and saw a movie. A little bit different of a 4th of July, but we saw fireworks the night before in Logan and played with our owm fireworks in my parents driveway the next night.

Austin goes to Scout Camp

2010-08-01T17:01:00.002-07:00

Austin left to go to scout camp for a whole week. This is a first for him and me! This picture is of him the night before he left. He is using the same backpack that his dad used when he went to scout camp. He had a blast and loved camping and earning merit badges.

Taylee's Birthday - Camping @ Cherry Hill

2010-07-04T10:29:00.019-07:00

Taylee turned 9 this year. She wanted to go camping and swimming at Cherry Hill this year. We have never been there before, so it was all new to us.

Here is my birthday girl and me. When we got there, we set up camp and then went swimming. This is us having a lunch break.

Brinley and Chris eating lunch.

The kids liked the pirate ship. They wanted a picture by the "TREASURE"

Brin and Tay on the pirate ship.

This is Taylee and Austin after they just went on the double dragon water slide. They had a lot of fun!

Austin and Taylee going down the rapid water slide. They kept getting stuck.

And Taylee fell off a few times

Brinley just liked to swim in the regular pool. She loved the lazy river until the squirters and buckets started dumping water on her, then her new favorite was this pool.

This is us in front of the pirtate ship before we left for dinner.

We ate dinner at our camp site. Hamburgers and hotdogs were on the menu anlong with fruit, chips and capi suns. that is the menu Taylee picked out.

Brinley enjoyed playing in the ball pit

So did Taylee....

Austin wanted to climb the rock wall.....

So Taylee thought she would try it too.

This was her first time, and she did great!

Then we went mini golfing. It was a really fun course.

Here is Chris showing us his mad putting skills!

After golfing, we went and got treats and came back and had cupcakes for her birthday. We all had a good night's sleep in the tent and packed up and came home the next morning.

Later that night, We had her real cake.

I love you sweetie! You are a great sister and daughter. I am very proud of you and loved the idea of camping for your birthday!

Bear Lake

2010-06-29T08:40:00.007-07:00

We had our condo in Bear Lake for the weekend, so The kids and I went up for a couple days.

Austin getting ready to swin in his new goggles -- look at his ears!

Brinley, my little fish!

They got new slides at the pools. This is Taylee trying it out. They all did, even Brinley, but she got scared and stopped at the bottom of the slide and another kid come down and bumped her off into the water. She never went on it again!

Cute little fish!

Me & Austin

Then we went Mini Golfing....

Austin was trying to take score and be a little too professional about it. But we still had lots of fun.

Brinley got a hole in one and another time in 2 strokes. Pretty good for her.

Memorial Day

2010-06-29T08:27:00.003-07:00

Memorial weekend, we visited my grandparents graves. We first went to Bear River city. We went with my brother Lance and his wife, Jamee.

Brinley sitting by Grandpa Braegger's headstone.

This is my Great Grandpa and Grandma Huggins grave.

This is my Grandpa Grover's headstone. It is in Brigham. He died last year at this time, so this is our first time to see his headstone. It was very beautiful. The whitest one in the cemetary.

I love you all and miss you!

Dance Review

2010-06-27T10:28:00.019-07:00

Well this time of year is always crazy! But it is fun to get to watch all the hard work my kids have put in all year long on this day. I really enjoy watching them perform!

Here is the annual picture before we leave

TAYLEE......

Here is her ballet pose before she started her dance

This is her turn....pretty good

This is her tap dance. She really gets into it.

This is her Jazz routine. It was the Hannah Montana Ho Down Throw Down. She loved this one the best!

This is her in cheer.

She gets to be the "flyer"

BRINLEY......

Ballet.....

Tap......

Jazz.....

And Cheer......I really like this picture. Such cute faces.

Her kick...... cute huh?

And this was our tumble......she went to do a cartwheel and landed on her head. She got right up and went on with the show, but it was funny that I caught it on film.

And the ending pose.....

Aunt Jaycee and the girls - We were waiting for Austin to Clog

AUSTIN.......

Austin & his partner, Mikayla.....Cartwheeling

Spinning.....

And ending....

What a fun night...long....but fun! Till next year....

Brinley's Preschool Graduation

2010-05-16T10:23:00.005-07:00

Brinley graduated from Preschool this week. We are all done with preschool at our house. I can't believe that she is going to kindergarten. Wow, time sure flies!

This is Brinley and her friend Kaydee.

Brinley had two speaking parts. She had to name all the months of the year. She did them all right and in order, but at the end she said," .....October, November, December and October"

Very Cute, everyone giggled!

This was a cute color song they sang. They had actions to different colors. Well this was for the color Pink, you had to wink! So cute to see them try to wink!!

This is Brin's Friend, Jayden. They are eating cookies afterwards.

These are her teachers, Sarah and Alicia. They were great teachers and Brin loved them.

After, we all went to Macks for dinner, and both teachers were there and about 5 other kids from her preschool. Funny how that is where we all chose to go.

Mother's Day / Austin's Ordination

2010-05-16T10:02:00.007-07:00

Mother's day!!! My favorite day of the year. The day I get to celebrate being a mom. I love being a mom. I love being with my mom. This year was special. I got to share part of it with Austin. He got ordained to the office of a Deacon in the church. We got to celebrate that and mother's day together at our house with our whole family!

Here is the annual picture of me and the kids before church.

Here is Chris and his brother Brian with their mom.

Here are the "Snyder Men"

Here is My Family's "Men". They all helped ordain Austin.

Trapper, Jaycee, my mom, Me, & Lance

Our awesome mom on Mother's Day!

Picture of the girls on the couch

Austin's Soccer Pics

2010-05-16T09:43:00.006-07:00

This year, Austin Played Rec soccer. He had a fun time. They don't learn much but they have fun. I took some pictures of a game. He is a great goalie and forward. He stopped tons of goals and made quite a few on the other end too.

Austin's Birthday

2010-05-16T09:30:00.006-07:00

Austin turned the big "12" this year, so for his birthday dinner, he chose Texas Roadhouse. He even picked off the Adult menu. Look at all that food!! No, he did not eat it all. Even though he is old enough to be off the kid menu, I think his belly is still only big enough for a kids menu amount of food.

Showing us his "big" meal!

Austin had a soccer cake this year. Not really fancy, but He loved it!

Austin gettin ready to blow out his candles

His sisters and him.

Taylee & Brin's Competition

2010-05-01T16:30:00.008-07:00

Well after about an hour and a half in the bathroom with hair and makeup for 2 little girls, we were off to the dance competition. This was Brinley's first one. She just performed cheer, while Taylee performed cheer, ballet and jazz.

Here is here little pose before we left

Here is Taylee's pose. She had to have her hair back in a ponytail and no bangs!! She looked like she was almost bald! Her ponytail was maybe an inch long is all. For the dance review, I am making it cute, forget the hair pulled back thing, not for girls with A-line hair cuts!

Both girls posing!

I videotaped their performances. I did not have my good camera with me, so we just took a few shots here and there. This is after Brin finished. I could tell she was nervous and she said that she had to get to her spot, so she forgot to "spirit".

This is a not so good picture of Taylee doing ballet.

This is Taylee and Brin after Taylee's jazz dance and getting ready to go home. They did really good and we had a fun girls day!

Jazz Playoff Game

2010-05-01T16:00:00.004-07:00

For a part of Austin's 12th birthday, Chris & I decided to take him to a Playoff Jazz game.

Austin & his Dad

Austin & his Mom

It was a really good game, but Austin was having a hard time getting into it, so we bought him a foam bear claw and he enjoyed the game a lot more with something to wave around. Love you bud!! Hope you enjoyed it!

Clogging Competition in Idaho

2010-04-18T08:34:00.009-07:00

It is the time of year when my kids start performing their dances that they have been learning all year. Austin had a clogging competition at Idaho State last weekend, so we headed up there and decided to spend the night in a hotel.

Look at that tough guy holding Mikayla in a cartwheel!

Now he is even a tougher guy holding 2 girls in a slide!!

Some fancy footwork, which he is very good at.

They recieved 2nd place in both of their dances.

At our hotel the next morning, we found some dancing friends of Taylee and Brinley, staying at the same hotel as us. After breakfast they all decided to go swimming together. This is Libby and Brinley. They are in Dancing class together. They look like twins!!

And this is Brin and Taylee. They are in dancing and cheerleading together. Brin was also at the clogging competition.

Thanks for the fun times!

Easter

2010-04-18T08:18:00.008-07:00

Easter was very busy! We colored eggs, Brinley went to the easter dance with my mom, all the kids went to my grandma Braegger's for an easter egg hunt, and the easter bunny even came to our house. But...I was not around for most of it! Easter eggs...yes and here is the pictures, but the easter dance, I was at work and the hunt I was at my color guard championships....so No pictures got taken.

tied dyed eggs!!

Easter was on Conference so this is the next Sunday in their Easter Dresses and new Tie.

COLOR GUARD CHAMPIONSHIPS

2010-04-18T07:52:00.010-07:00

My Color Guard season was finally coming to an end and we gave it all we had and at the right time too!!

This is our finals performance....they are throwing "doubles" which we had never done all year until this day! It was awesome!!!

This is one of my seniors, Jamey, showing us our preliminary results!!! First place and an 80.8 score!!! whoooo hooooo!!

We won first place at finals too!! Here is a picture of us with our "GOLD" metals!!

Kissing their medals......WOW, that was a sweet victory!!

The celebration!!! Wow, I can't say enough about this season and this bunch of girls!! I had a blast getting to know them and being their "Coach Red". What a way to end the Year!! Utah Winter Guard Regional A Champions!!!

Brinley's 5th birthday

2010-03-24T08:53:00.008-07:00

Brinley turned 5 yesterday!! I can't believe it!! My baby is 5!!!! She had preschool and it was her special day. So she had to bring a poster to share with the class and she brought easter cookies too.

She got to wear a special crown with all the kids hand prints on it.

Here is her preschool class

Here is her Darling cake. Princess and the Frog.

She invited her grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles and cousins for the party. Thanks to all that gave her presents. It is great to get together with family. love you all

Dax, Brin, Kenedee and Taylee

Science Fair Project

2010-03-24T08:43:00.005-07:00

Another year.... another science fair project. This year, Austin, decided to grow crystals and see how temperature affected their growth. Our first attempt failed, too big of a container and rock, so the second time worked out much better. Conculsion: Heat makes crystals grow faster and bigger than cool air.

Here is his board and crystals ready to tell all that wants to know. Good Job bud!

Basketball

2010-03-24T08:07:00.004-07:00

Austin decided to play Jr. jazz basketball this year and Chris decided to coach him. They had a very sucessful season. They were in first place clear up to the end of the season, then had some unfortunate games.
Austin did very well, scoring in every game. he is a great defender. I think that comes with being a goalie in soccer. Don't let the ball past ya!!
It was fun to go and watch the games. Way to go Bud!

Austin's 1st Band Concert

2010-03-24T07:59:00.006-07:00

Austin decided to join the band this year in school. He wanted to play the drums or the saxaphone, but when we finally got done waiting in the longest line ever to get instuments..... they were both gone..... so he settled for the Trombone.
Austin ready for his concert.

I wanted another picture and he did not act like he wanted another one. I asked if he wanted a picture taking with anyone, andher said NO! Are you sure? YES I AM SURE. so I guess i should be excited that I got these.

Looking excited to play. Actually he did very well (for the first concert) I video taped the concert.

Color Guard Season

2010-03-24T07:40:00.006-07:00

This is a busy time of year for me. Besides the hustle and bustle of family life, I have a color guard team to run around with. My girls love to come with me. We travel to various high schools on saturdays and have competitions all day. We ride a bus and go out to dinner and get home at one in the morning....but it is a total blast. I love how the girls just jump in and are part of the team too!

Taylee is helping take back some props after our show was finished. She gets to work just like everyone else on the team. Good Job Tay!

Even after a win (2nd place in this case), the girls jump in the picture with the team too. Love it!

We all have matching shirts. My Color Guard girls call me coach Red and my assistant, coach Brown (hair color), so my girls wanted shirts too, so Taylee's says.......

Little Red Taylee and Brinley's says.... Little Red Brinley

Cheesing it with my girls.....

They are part of the team & definately "center" of attention!

Happy Valentines Day

2010-03-24T07:28:00.004-07:00

This year, Valentine's day was a Sunday and also stake conference.... so we had a little visitor from Wyoming stay with us over night. It was fun to have Ellie with us.
Taylee...... I love her love for life and everything in it. She is a very nice person (most of the time) She loves to dance and I love how she tries very hard to get better at it. She practices all the time. I love her dearly and want her to know how much I love her.

Brinley...... I love her spunkyness (even though sometimes it is too much) I love how she is my buddy and still wants me to hold her. I love her hair, it is so easy to comb, the no bang thing is awesome! I love her sooo much!

Austin....... I love how grown up he is getting (even though I don't want him to grow up) I love how he is trying hard to do well in school. I love his love for sports. It is fun to see him play. I love him so much!

Thanks for staying with us Ellie. Love you too!

6th grades World Fair

2010-03-24T07:19:00.004-07:00

This year, Austin got to participate in the worlds fait at his school. He choose the country of New Zealand. My brother Lance went on a mission there. He learned a lot and so did Chris and I about this country and how to write reports. Sometimes I feel like I am back in school.

He did a great job with his display.

He had to explain things to people as they walked by.

We painted his face like a Mouri warrior. He thought he was pretty awesome!!

Jack Rabbit Hill

2010-01-20T08:52:00.005-07:00

Winter is not winter, unless you go sledding at jack rabbit hill. The kids had a blast! and Brinley went down all by her self, but needed help carrying the sled back up the hill.

Temple Square

2009-12-20T15:43:00.008-07:00

Yesterday, we headed down to Salt Lake to take the kids to Temple Square. We had not ever taking the kids during christmas time. We got there around 5 pm just as it got dark. The lights were not turned on yet, so we took some pictures before it got dark.

Taylee, Brinley and Austin sitting by a water fountain, that they were so surprised it was running. They took bets on if it was cold water or warm water, it was cold, but I think it started out warm.

As we walked through the square the lights started to turn on. So we went out to the street and took a picture of the temple. It was a little foggy, so it turned out really cool! It was neat to see all the people and feel the spirit of Christmas there.

Here is my other picture of the temple. Amazingly Beautiful!!!

We took the kids around in the visitor buildings to look around and to warm up. It was pretty cold! This is one of my favorite things to see, besides the temple. This room was so crowded. People were just sitting and standing around just trying to take it all in. I am so grateful that we live close to this special place. We are going to make this a tradition every year.

After looking at the lights, we went to the Gateway and went to see the new movie Avitar! It was on of the best movies I have ever seen. I was leary to go see it, all I knew is that it had blue people in it, but WOW, I loved it! This is a definate keeper of a movie, all I can say is wow!

This morning, we had pictures in our christmas clothes before church. I guessthe color for the year was gray. We had a great day at church learning about Jesus. It helped us get in the christmas spirit even more.

My Girls and Me!

Our newest family member, Oreo

2009-12-01T22:55:00.005-07:00

We have a dog! I know, I know, we were never going to get a dog again after the last one, but I couldn't resist!! He was free!!!

This is Oreo, (his real paper name is Scoby, but we did not like it). He is a 6 month old Shih Tzu dog. Isn't he cute?

A girl that I work with gave it to me. They were having a hard time with him, (actually she does not like dogs and her huspand just brought him home one day!) So I decided to take him home to my kids. They were so excited! We always said, that if we got another dog, this would be the kind of dog we would want. My mom has a dog like this and she is a good welll mannered dog and so is he!

Brin has a new "baby" to play with. She loves to put him in the stroller and just go. He doesn't seem to mind one bit!

New Moon

2009-12-01T22:43:00.005-07:00

Yes, we are fans! Actually, we must be pretty crazy fans! We saw the movie the night before it even came out!!! My sister got us tickets and we all jumped at the chance to go. Austin invited his friend, Isabel. Her mom came with us too. My mom, Taylee, Robyn, Jaycee and the Whole BRHS Color Guard and their moms came! How fun is that?

We all went and ate at a pizza place before the movie. It was fun!

I bought Tay a tee shirt. It has edward and bella on it. After seeing the movie, she should of got a Jacob shirt!

Me and my mom! Thanks for coming with me mom! Love ya

Aggie Game

2009-11-08T22:41:00.006-07:00

Taylee went to a USU Cheer/Dance camp Saturday. She loves to go to these things. While she was there, I did a little christmas shopping by myself! It was wonderful & fun! Anyways, she got to perform at the halftime basketball game that night at USU. So we all went to watch.

This is Taylee and her Cheerleading teacher Morgan. She has known her since she was 3. She loves her. This year, Morgan is an Aggiette dancer instead of a cheerleader, but they did the clinic together. It is always fun to know one of those cute popular ladies.

Taylee did great! She was front and center and actually in her own line!! I asked her about that and she said that there wasn't room to do her toe touch, so she had to move up. So there ya go.

This was her ending pose. She was one of the few that stayed there and soaked it in! How fun!

The whole game, Brinley was hunting down Big Blue. She really wanted him to come say hi to her. He never came and never came, then all of a sudden Chris said, Brin there is Big Blue! She ran with him and they got her picture with him. She was so excited! It made her day!

It was fun to go to the game and be aggie fans! Until next time

Halloween

2009-11-01T15:25:00.011-07:00

Well this years halloween started off with a friend party Friday night. It was a lot of fun to get to dress up 2 nights this year. Many of the families that came to this party have kids Brinley's age, but my other 2 kids had fun, even though they were the oldest.

Taylee and her friend Weston. They are moving this month. We are going to miss them.

Austin liked hanging out with Ben, his old weblo leaders son. He is a funny little kid.

Her is Brinley and a few of her friends. Most of the kids I have taught in sunbeams or will teach next year. So if you can imagine, a lot of crazyness going on!

I did happen to get a picture of Chris and I for the night. He actually got dressed up! Thanks honey for amuzing me for the evening, I just was not lucky enough for him to dress up again the next night. But I get what I can get!

Then Halloween night.....

Brinley was a scary witch. She wanted green hair, which turned out awesome. She loved her outfit. Thanks to my awesome friend and for trading costumes. It makes everyone happy and great for the pocketbook! Thanks Kristy!

Taylee was a cute girl pirate. After I did her makeup, she said that she looked like a "goth pirate". I didn't even think she knew what "goth" ment? I put fake eyelashes on her, but really they were about the same length of her real ones, no fair! She looked darling!

Austin was a werewolf. This is his last year of trick or treating. He actually doesn't even really like candy, so it doesn't bother him much. He said next year he will dress up and scare people, but I first think he needs to get over his own fear of being scared, I don't know, maybe that will help!

I dressed up for work that morning, so I wa already in costume attire for the evening. Chris was our "respectable" driver. In this picture we are being scary and Chris is being a "shadow", OOOOO scary!!

After we went around to a few houses, we went to my parents for pizza. Tradition to have a picture with them. We love you 2!

My sis-in law dressed up like a witch too. So us witches had our picture together. Hope everyone had a great weekend like we did! Love you all!

Yellowstone Trip

2009-10-03T17:30:00.011-07:00

We took a very quick trip up to Yellowstone this September with some friends. Next time we go, we are staying longer!! It was a lot of driving for not staying very long. But it was a blast. I put a few pictures on this blog, but I put more on my facebook page. This website takes too long to download pictures.

This was our favorite geyser. I don't remember its name, but it was cooler than old faithful!

This was us by the trailer.

We saw a lot of buffalo by the roads. A few elk too.

This was our family photo

Our favorite game was looking for license plates. We found 41 different states and 4 from canada! Even Alaska, Rhode Island& Florida. That is amazing that people drive from all over the country to see yellowstone. This was in just 2 days from west yellowstone to the south entrance!

The second day, we went on a bike ride. It was a lot of fun! We saw a buffalo and a deer on our bike ride.

We waited for a geyser to go off at the end of our bike trail. We found this old bridge to lay on an wait. You can't be in a hurry when you are at yellowstone. Nature comes when it wants to come.

And it finally came!

The bike ride back. thank goodness for the little buggy for brinley, she would of never made it!

Thank you to the Spencer Family for inviting us. We are definaltylgoing every year. There is so much more to see!

Birthday, Fair & 1st day of School

2009-09-07T16:20:00.009-07:00

Well the last week of Summer was a very busy one! My birthday was very eventful! It happened to be the first day of the Box Elder County Fair. So we had a parade to go to.

Here is Taylee with some of her friends before the parade started. She cheered in the parade.

But my morning started out, by getting gifts from my family. My kids were so excited to give them to me. The kids had doctors appointments that morning in Logan. After that, I decided to treat myself to a birthday haircut.

I went to my cute, sweet, new sisiter-in-law, Jamee, and we decided to WAK- IT-OFF! I now have a darling A-line hair cut and I love it! She was amazing to give all us girls haircuts that day! Thank you so much Jamee, we love you! I took the kids out for lunch, then we headed back home for the parade.

These are my darling color guard girls who performed awesomely!!

Here is also the sign that those "darling" girls put on the car as I drove through the parade! I have never had so many people tell me Happy Birthday before in my life!

We headed out to the fair, and rode rides, since it is discount night! The kids love it!

Then a few days later was the first day of school.

Austin is in 6th grade, intermediate school!!! He rides a bus now and has a locker!! AAAHHH!

Well he loved the first day, except he got on the wrong bus that morning. He got on the Middle school/High school bus. But the nice bus driver took him to the right school. he was not the only one who was on there, thank goodness! He had trouble opening his locker, but we think he has it down now. He has classes with a lot of his soccer buddies and Mckinley friends. He loves the food, (Weird huh?) and has his own lunch card. He leaves at 7 am and gets hame at 2:45.

Taylee is in 3rd grade. She is the only one in the family at the elementry school. She loves her teacher and loves her class. She already got 100% on her first spelling test and had a watermelon party! Sounds like it will be a fun year for her. She has a cute friend that she rides bikes to school with so she is not alone.

Good luck this year kidos!

The Summer is almost over!!! YUK!

2009-08-23T17:48:00.029-07:00

The first weekend in August, Chris & Austin took a trip to Denver, Colorado to go see a baseball game. We like the Rockies ok, but we LOVE the chicago cubs, well, that is who they were playing. They took a road trip with a few other guys, and had a blast.

Austin the Friday night game.
This was his first major league game.

Saturday, they went to the Denver Zoo before the next game. Austin loves animals! You know, he is going to be a zookeeper one day!

Saturday's game.

Austin walking with Chris's friends to th the stadium.

Chris and Austin in front of the Stadium. Too bad it isn't Wrigley field, oh well, maybe someday.

They would go to the games early and watch the teams warm up. They could only get so close.

Beautiful stadium! Full house - 47,000 people there!

The boys enjoying an icee and watching the game.

The Cubbies won! This is my favorite picture!

Then the middle of the month, we headed to our annual trip to Bear Lake.

Sand castles are a must at bear lake. It was a little cold the first couple days, but that does not stop kids playing in sand!

Brinley made me a birthday cake, with a candle and everything!

Warming up right before we headed back in, the wind off the water was just too cold!

Sunday, we had a family dinner. Lance and Jamee brought kites, so Brinley had to show me how she flies kites. She just runs and runs!

Here is Taylee, Jamee, & Lance eating dinner.

Chris cooked us his famous dutch oven dinner of BBQ Ribs and potatoes. It was yummy!

When my parents came, they brought my cute grandma Grover. It was great to have her up there with us for the afternoon. Love ya grandma!

Monday, we hit the pool! It finally got warm enough to get in some water. Brinley loves to swim!

Here are my kids in goggles! Aparently you need to have goggles to swim in my family!

Here is our only family picture of the trip, self taken of course.

Taylee found a friend at the playground. They actually looked a lot alike. Her name is Alycia and she is 10 years old and is from Salt Lake. They played and talked all about HS Musical and Hannah Montana and other stuff, (tay says). They even did gymnastics on the grass. How fun is that!

Tuesday, We went swimming to the other pool. Brinley put the goggles on all by herself! Can you tell?

Austin jumped off the diving board all by himself, I knew he could, it is just the first time jitters. Once he did it, it was a piece of cake!

Then it was Tay's turn. She had to borrow Austin's goggles, but she still plugged her nose!!!

Then we did a little mini golfing. Brinley tryed really hard to get her ball in the hole. She did it every time, even if she placed the ball in the hole with her hands!

Taylee did good. She got a hole in one in one of the courses! Good for you sweetie!

Austin, Mr. Professional Mini Golfer, did great.

Then we headed up to the Snyder Family Reunion.

During the reunion, Brinley's bottom tooth started growing taller than her other teeth!! I felt it, and it was sooooo loose! She had hit her mouth previously a week before, twice and made her mouth bleed, so it must of knocked her tooth loose. So she said that Chris could pull it out.

So after a little pulling, not much, it came right out. The whole excitement and a little pain, made those darling tears run down her face. She is now missing a tooth!

I don't know if you can tell, but the root is bigger and longer than the tooth was. It was not ready to fall out natrually. We told her it looked like a shark tooth! She wrote the tooth fairy a note and asked her to "please keep my tooth at home". she did, and gave her $5 too.

I am proud of you sweetie, you were very brave!

Birthday, Mini Color Guard, & Swimming......that's what we have done in July so far...

2009-07-23T18:55:00.017-07:00

Happy 35th Birthday to my sweet huspand! It really sucks when you get old and you have to work on your birthday, huh? Well, when he got home from work, we took him to Texas Roadhouse to eat dinner. That is our new favorite place to eat.

The kids were excited to give him his presents. We bought him some cool plaid shorts and shirts to go with it.

The girls helped me make him a cake. It had blue frosting with blue sprinkles, his favorite color.

Austin had his first overnight scout camp. He was so excited!! There are only 3 11 year old scouts, and they are his 2 best friends, so how fun is that! He actually is really enjoying scouts. I bought him his shirt the day before camp and hand sewed the patches on, I was very proud of myself. I hot glued all his cub scout ones on.

I held my 2nd annual Mini Color Guard Camp this week with my high school team. We had 92 little girls come to the camp. Ranging from ages 3 to 13, we were well covered! It was a great fundraiser for us. Thanks to all those that helped and supported us. It was a sucess!

Here is my little Brin, future color guard girl!

Taylee, making sure she is doing the right hand placements!

My two cute Mini Color Guard Girls!

Today, I decided to take my kidos swimming at the Brigham Pool. We have been hiding in the 100 degee heat the past few days and we were sick of staying indoors, so we headed out.

It was so much fun. We had nothing planned for the day, so it was nice to just relax and keep cool.

My kids love to swim, I had fun watching them play with each other.

Taylee got stung by a bee in her hair, so we were sad for awhile. I tryed to make her smile by doing kissy faces, but she still does not look happy.

Austin and his goggles, he wont swim without them, silly kid!

Taylee stole them and Austin chased her down!

I love these kidos with all my heart! We had a fun summer day today! Thanks to the Tomlison family, our neighbors, for swimming with us!

Taylee's Baptism on the 4th of July

2009-07-07T18:57:00.015-07:00

Taylee's baptism was a wonderful day!! First off, she looked beautiful in her new dress!! She picked it out (with the help of my sister).

She was the only girl out of 3 kids that got baptized that day. She had her dad perform both ordinances.

This family picture turned out cute! Austin & Taylee sang a song during the opening of the baptism. They did a great job! It was a very nice morning. We had a lot of family, friends & her primary teachers & bishop there. They filled the room.

AFTER>>>>

We got out the grill and had a bbq at the park across the street. It was a lot of fun. My huspand loves to cook on our new grill! He looks professional don't he? (with the apron)

Both of my grandmas were there. Grandma Grover (my mom's mom) and Grandma Braegger (my dad's mom). I am so glad they came. I sure do love you both!!

Lots of little kids came, but these are my 2 nephews. Dax and Avery!

We had my in-laws bring over there big blowup slide for the kids to play on. Austin is getting a little too big for it. But He still had fun.

Brinley loved it!! I think she went down at least 100 times!

Taylee had the time of her life! Look at that face! Life does not get sweeter than this!

We hung out at the park for a few hours just chilling and eating food. Brinley and Marcus each took a bag of chips for their selves.

AFTER>>>

We went to Brighama and saw the new movie Ice Age 3, Dawn of the Dinosaurs, with my 2 brothers, their families, and my sister. It was a really fun movie!

We went to the store on the way home and purchased FIREWORKS!

We had our own little firework show in our driveway. We invited our cute neighbors and enjoyed the sparks!

Hannah & Brinley

Austin was trying to be the guy on the movie "Inkheart", the fire twirler, anyways that is what we were attempting to do with our sparklers!

Another fun 4th of July, one we will remember for lots of years because of one special girl in our life, Taylee. She made a great decision that day, I hope she will always remember the feeling she had that day! Love you SIS!

Brian & Heidi's Wedding

2009-06-28T14:13:00.006-07:00

Thursday was a special day for our family. Chris's little brother, Brian, got married. He married Heidi and we love her dearly! It was a beautiful day and fun to get together with the family.

Brian & Heidi walking out of the temple.

Taylee, Heidi, Brinley and Kenedee

Chris and his siblings, Laura, Heidi, Brian, Matt, and Michelle

Heidi and Brian with all the grandkids on our side. Heidi does not have any kids on her side, so we dominated on the kid side.

Good luck in your new life together. We love ya!

Taylee's Baptism Invite

2009-06-24T14:17:00.003-07:00

Here is an invite to Taylee's baptism on July 4th. I will be sending out these invites, but I wanted to give you a little heads up before you recieved them in the mail.

Camping & Taylee's Birthday

2009-06-21T19:29:00.012-07:00

Last weekend, we all decided to go camping to the Green River by Flaming Gorge Dam. We went with a fun family, the Earl's. I was really hesitant to go after our not so fun ,wet , unpredictable weather. I had nightmares of being stuck in our tent in a rain storm the whole time.... but it was nothing like that.

We had very nice weather! So nice that Brinley thought she had to take off her shoes and walk in the water on the boat ramp! I can't keep her out of the water, she is a little fish!

Chris did a little fly fishing the first day and he floated the Green in a kick boat the second day. He had a great time. Even though he did not catch a fish, he always had a smile on his face. He loves to be outside fishing.

Chris was showing Austin how to use his fishing pole and he caught a fish!. Tiny one, but they caught one!

The girls had a blast playing with the Earl girls, Cambrie and Caroline. They also had an older sister named, Chelsey. I hardly saw my girls, they played and played with each other. It actually was a little vacation for me. I got to sit on a lawn chair and read a book!

We had a great dinner, dutch oven, my favorite. The Earl family has 7 kids, all but one was there. ages 19, 18, 17, 15, 14, 12, & 11. So as you can see, I did not have to watch my kids very much, I had lots of babysitters!

When we packed up and headed home, they fell asleep 10 minutes down the road. They were so tuckered out. Playing hard, fishing hard, not sleeping so great and a lot of sun, that's what made them crash!

Then this weekend was Taylee's Birthday. She wanted a new bike for her birthday, so My mom and I took her shopping and she picked out her new bike.

She was so excited that her bike said "Slumber Party" on it cause she was having a slumber party that night with her friends.

She had four friends sleep over. They played at the park for awhile. This is their sassy poses!

We made lipgloss, decorated little bags with fabric markers, sang on the ps2 "Disney sing it".

I painted everyones toes and fingers until one in the morning! I finally told them "We have to go to bed"

I let them sleep in the next morning until 8:30. We also made fuzzy flip flops. Look how cute they all are in the morning. It was fun and I think Taylee had fun. It was all of their first sleep over and I think it was a success!

I was so tired by the end of the whole thing, how do they get so much energy?

We Got Through The Month Of May!!!!! I can't believe it!

2009-06-09T18:18:00.017-07:00

Well the second half of the month ended, finally. It is actually so nice to have a little lighter of a schedule in our lifes now. Everyone deserves a breather now and then, we just don't get very many of them.

Austin finished up his season of Comp. Soccer. Chris is the Coach, he loves it. Austin is usually the goalie, and he loves it, only when the defense is doing their job, otherwise, he doesn't like it so much.

Here is a picture of their team. Some very awesome boys, great kids!

Austin got to participate in the district pentathalon at Box Elder. He recieved second place in his school overall, so he was able to go to district. These were a couple of his friends from school that were in his group.

Here he is doing the high jump. This is his favorite thing to do. He did great, just not as great as all those SUPER athletes. No one in his school won anything, all brigham schools mostly. It was a fun day though to watch him compete. Some parents got so into it, more than the kids!

Austin had his science fair. He did a great job. Each class gets 6 blue ribbons and he got one of them. I am very proud of him for stickin to it and getting it done. Way to go Bud!

Taylee had her 2nd grade program about the wild west. She sang great and spoke her speaking part wonderful. Here she is with her best friend, Breely.

This is Taylee's other 2 friends that she made this year in her class, Kelsey & Kira. Cute girls!

Austin went on a field trip to the hogle zoo and utah natural history museum in Salt Lake. Chris went with him. They came back with tons of pictures of animals and none of them!!

Ok, there was one picture, at the museum. They had a fun time. Taylee also went on a field trip that day, but I worked so I could not go. She went to willow park and went bowling at Logan lanes.

Through all this busy schedule, we had my Grandpa Grover pass away. He has not been well this past month. He had heart surgery in March, was recovering ok then he fell and broke his hip. He went to the hospital to have a hip replacement and got and infection and it all went down hill from there. He was on a ventalater for a week with no response, before we took it off. He died instantly. My brothers & cousins were the pall bearers for the funeral. It was a great funeral. Very nice service from the military & search and rescue, and the speakers. Plus a very beautiful day!

I thought this was a great picture of Taylee hugging my Grandma Grover after the service.

I will miss his quick wits and loving hugs. Thank you gramps for always considering me as one of your "blood" granddaughters. I will always be greatful for your love and the oppurtunity you gave Chris and I to live in your house during one of your missions. That ment a lot to us. Love you!

Austin had a big month!! He got to graduate from Elementry School. I am very proud of him and all the things he has accomplished this year as the "big man" on campus. Now to the intermediate school for next year. I am a little nervous about that. He is growing up too fast.

This is Austin & Isabel. He has really liked the friendship they have had the past couple years. I think it is turning into a little crush, but I think it is great that he likes girls, instead of thinking they have cooties or be mean to them.

Well this last weekend, Austin & Chris went to the Air Show in Ogden. They had a blast!! I told them to not just take pics of planes, they needed to be in the pictures too! Well they came home with tons of pics, each of them standing by one, good job boys!

I am glad they had some man bonding. It is good for them!

Now to the summer.......

I can see the end.....the end of may...

2009-05-20T07:32:00.013-07:00

For anyone who knows me really well, I am a very busy mom!! This month of May has been soooo crazy, and we are only half way through! Well we are winding down and I can see the light. I guess maybe we should recap since Mother's day.

This is the evening of mother's day. My kids gave me great little presents and cards. Those kind of gifts are the best ones. We always have a picture together before church, but we had all 4 of Natalie's boys that day, so a picture was forgotten until the evening. Even though we are in jammies, it still turned out cute.

Brinley finished up her preschool and had graduation. She talked about it for weeks. It was good to see her up there singing her heart out and saying her speaking part. "My favorite shape is a circle". It was not very loud, but I knew what she said. We had been practicing it for weeks.

These are her teachers. They are very nice and Brinley has learned to love school. At first, she wanted me to walk her to the door and not want to go to school, to "bye mom, I can go myself, you don't need to get out of the van". Wow, she is growing up so fast. Then, 2 days later, her class had a icecream party at the park. I forgot my camera that day, but she had a blast playing with all her "friends".

Austin had a big day on his last cub scout pack meeting. It was the pinewood derby, so we had spent a few days getting that car ready to race. We remembered a few days before, hence the busy month we have had. Austin's car recieved 2 place in the Weblos & her recieved his Arrow of Light award. I am very proud of him and always wanting to go to scouts every week. I did not help much in this project. His leaders did an amazing job in helping him get this award. He is now a 11 year old scout, working towards an Eagle scout one day. I know he can do it. He loves to be outdoors and loves to camp. he is looking forward to his campouts this summer.

We also had a few accomplishments at home. One being that Brinley made her bed, all by herself, with no help!!!! Amazing!!

She was very proud, so I had to take her picture. I think she has too many stuffed animals, what do you think?

Austin's science fair is coming up, and Chris & I have been helping him with his project. He decided to do it on what things glow under a black light and why? We have had a fun time finding things around the house and seeing if they glow and what color. I suggest NOT to take a black light in your bathroom!!! If you think your bathroom is pretty clean, this little light will tell you otherwise! Wow, I have some deep, deep, deep cleaning to do in there.

This is a gallon of milk by the black light. It turns a bright yellow.

The dance review is finally here. We spent the whole afternoon before at dress rehersal. Austin had a soccer game, so I did not get his picture with the girls before we left, but aren't they cute?

Their costumes were really cute this year.

It was Jaycee's 19th birthday that day and she is such a sweet sister! She came over and fixed both of my girl's hair and came and watched them dance, all on her birthday!! Thanks sis for everything you do for me and my kids. You help me out a lot & I apprieciate it. I promise to return the favor when you have kids!

Brinley's first dance review. She did a fabulous job. They did ballet and tap. She likes to dance just like her sister.

Taylee performed ballet, tap, & jazz, then went and changed into cheerleading clothes and performed her cheers and did tumbling at the intermission. She loves to dance and cheer and tumble. She sounds like me when I was her age.

Austin made it back from his soccer game in time to perform his clogging routines. He has a new partner this year. Mackayla & Austin are a great little team. They are front and center and her mom and I, along with others, think they are the best ones out there, but we are the moms.

Well, this month still has a few more activities to go.

Austin's last soccer game tonight, he goes to the district pentathlon tomorrow all day at Box Elder high, Science fair for him next week and Taylee's 2nd grade program the same day. They both have fun field trips coming up and Austin's 5th grade graduation on June 2nd.

I am so excited to finally have a non booked calendar for the summer. I still do have color guard, which takes up a ton of time, but we will have a little breather in our lifes. Which is always good right?

Austin's Birthday

2009-05-13T07:11:00.009-07:00

I can't believe he is 11 years old!!!! Wow, where has the time gone? Well, Austin got to celebrate his birthday 3 times this year!! It lasted a whole week!

The first celebration was at Chris's family's house. It was a couple days before, but also Laura's foster daughter, Bella, had her 1st birthday the day before. So it was a duel birthday party. Austin loves this little Bella. she is so adorable! The sad thing is that this was the last time we will see her. She got placed with her grandparents in Idaho, a few days after this.

Austin loved sharing this with Bella. He is so great with his little cousins!

Austin is really into these "Ology" books. He has 3 at home, so I think it is tradition, to give him one now. so he got Eygptology from his grandparents.

Well, when his birthday finally did come, I decided to get him Pirateology. So his collection is now at 5 books. I think 2 more to go. I also bought him some clothes and a psp game.

We let him pick where her wanted to go for dinner that night. He chose Texas Roadhouse in Ogden. It is so yummy!! We let him choose from the "big person" menu, and he wanted Chicken Fried Steak with 2 sides. His sides were, Baked potatoe & Steak Fries!!! Needless to say, he could not eat it all! Probably cause he ate all those peanuts before the dinner even came out! (look to the side of him on the table for all the shells!) We then went to the mall and watched the movie X-Men, orgin of Wolvarine. It was really good. We all liked it. We were prepared to see it though. We watched the 1st x-men movie a few days before.

Then came the third party. Mother's day was another combined birthday party. This time with his Uncle Lance, who's birthday was that day. Jaycee spoiled him with the only other thing he asked for, a nerf machine gun. I don't know who he is going to shoot at, but he was sooooo excited!

He wanted an X-man cake, with three slashes making an x. Well thank goodness for my awesome cake lady!! She knows how to make my kids imagination come to life on their cakes.

Lance & Austin each had their own cake. We had so much food that day!!

Happy birthday to you both!!! 25 years old & 11 years old!

Cheer/Dance/Clogging Competition

2009-05-09T13:44:00.007-07:00

Well, last saturday was a very, very busy, crazy day. Taylee & Austin has a competiton at the High school, which I am so glad that it was in town, or the day would not of worked!

First, was Taylee's cheerleading. She did such a great job. All of my pictures were fuzzy, I really don't like taking pictures in a gym, they never turn out.

She is a "flyer", which she thinks that is so cool. In this dance, they rotate her around in a circle. She was very brave and stayed super stiff! Way to go sis!

Next, was dancing. she performed ballet & Jazz. We had to run and do a really quick costume change between performaces, but we all made it just fine.

She is always out there just smiling! Loving every minute of it. Well as soon as Taylee was done, there were 10 more numbers than it was Austin. well the problem was he was playing his soccer game in East Garland. So I fly to the soccer field & he is playing. I hoped his dad would see that I was there and sub him out. Oh, no not him, he subbed out everyone but Austin!! so I am freaking out waiting for the halftime whistle to blow, cause we are going to be late!

As soon as the half ended, he jumped in the van & I flew to the high school. He changed out of his sweaty soccer clothes into his clogging clothes in the back seat. I dropped him off at the door, he ran in as I parked the car. I flew into the gym just as they were walking on to compete. They had been waiting 10 minutes for Austin to arrive!!!

His teacher told me that she would wait for him, and she did! They performed two numbers back to back. He is a great clogger, wow!! His hair was very wind blown! we did not have time to comb it or wet it down!

His partner & him are a great team. they perform very well together.

After he was done, we raced back to the soccer field, with him once again, changing in the back seat. we made it back to the game, he ran in and assisted in a goal to tie the game!! wow, what a crazy, busy afternoon!

Alice in Wonderland

2009-04-25T17:39:00.007-07:00

The Mckinley school play. Taylee & Austin wanted to be in it this year. They have had practices twice a week for a few months now. I was very proud of them. They did a great job!

Taylee is Alice's cat, Dinah.
Austin is the King of Hearts.

Austin with the Queen of Hearts (Mariah).

Taylee with Alice

The main cast of Alice in Wonderland. Darling kids!!!

My three cute kids!! Oh how I love them!

End of another Year!

2009-04-23T13:08:00.003-07:00

Another banquet, where does the time go? We had an awesome year this year. The best yet. I think I learn more and more every year. What to fix for the next year and what NOT to do the next year. These ladies are very special to me. Thanks for the memories & friendship this year. I am truly going to miss my seniors. Those 5 girls are so dang fun to be with!! Thank goodness for facebook and the internet to keep in touch!

Back row: Kaitlin, Jamie, Monica, Kelsee, Haley, Shayden, Charity, Sarah, Me, & Kristy
Front Row: Carrie, Nicole, Kelsey, Abby, Ky, & Shelbie

Reagan's Funeral

2009-04-16T19:55:00.008-07:00

Reagan Lillie Crook, Born July 26th, 2006 - passed away April 11th, 2009

Making a trip to "Wyoming in the snow storm we just had, was exciting, but we made it. We headed out Wednesday afternoon and got there in time to go to the end of the viewing that night. This was the first time my kids saw her and came to the reality of all this. I think I started crying first, memories came back as soon as I saw her laying there. Chris was next to follow with tears, then Austin. Wow, he had a hard time. He loved her so much & he is actually old enough to understand more than my other kids. There was this lady there at the viewing, who had downs syndrome and saw him crying. She came up to him and hugged him and talked to him. It was really cute. After she left, I asked him if he knew she was like Reagan, and he knew, i think somehow that made it better.
We went to Michelle & Shane's house for dinner. We had never been to their house before. They built it a few years ago. Very cute. Chris's parents up us up in a "log Cabin motel" for the night, thanks!

The cabins were very cute and fun.

The funeral was tear jerking, like expected. My children were asked to sing "I am a Child of God" with their cousins. They did a great job. I know that was very hard for them to do.

The cemetary was covered in snow still, so this is not where she is actually being buried, her spot is still covered in snow. This was the most cleared off space there.

This is Devin, Reagan's big brother. He is 4 years old, pall bearer, how cute is he?

This is Ellie, Reagan's sister, she is 6 years old, and Michelle, Reagan's mom.

The dinner provided by their ward was wonderful. The girls were inceperable these last 2 days. Oh I wish we lived closer. They wanted to show off their big pieces of cake!

Thank you all for you love and concern for our families loss. She ment a lot to us.

Our Angel

2009-04-12T07:19:00.002-07:00

Reagan passed away yesterday morning. Chris & I were on our way to Salt Lake to see her that morning & she left us before we got there. We went there any ways and saw Shane & Michelle & Reagan. They had just finished giving her a bath, her hair was wet and she looked like an angel. Words can't express the feeling we felt there, I gave her tons on kisses and wept. We watched Michelle and the nurse make her hand and foot prints on cards for memorabilia.
She will always be in our heart. Until we meet again little Reaggie......

The funeral is Thursday in Star Valley, Wyoming

Prayers for Reagan

2009-04-05T12:41:00.007-07:00

This is my sweet niece, Reagan. She is Chris's sister, Michelle's daughter. She is very special to our family. She was born early with a hole in her heart and also with Downs syndrome. She will be 3 years old in July. Doesn't her face want to make you smile!

Reagan is now at the Primary Childrens Hospital in a coma. She had a 2 inch tumor in her brain which made her non responsive and shifted her brain over to which she had a stroke and is now on a ventalator and in a coma.
Oh how my heart aches, to know that this precious child is going through all these trials in her young life. She must of been one of the most special spirits up in heaven that needed to come down for a body and touch peoples hearts. She has definatly touched mine!

It is so hard for our whole family to go through this waiting period of what is to happen next. We all know that this is in our Heavenly Father's hands now. We know that what will happen is for the best of Reagan, but it is so hard to think that it might be in the negative. We all have hope of everything turning out for the best, but when the doctors are thinking "grim", and "grave", it is hard to keep up hope. We will all think of better "gr" words, like Groovy, Great,& Grand.

My kids have a hard time talking about it. They ask daily if there is any news about her. I know they love her and are keeping her in their heart.

Primary Children has a web site that is updated about Reagan daily.

it is /www.carepages.com/carepages/Cucumber/updates

We love you Reaggie!

Family California Trip..plus Brinley's Birthday

2009-03-31T18:46:00.024-07:00

We went on a family rode trip to California last week. It was so much fun and the kids were awesome!! Not to mention the weather!!!!

Our first family photo was at the Arizona border. We were planning on taking a picture at each sign, but this was the only one we saw, maybe cause it is in the middle of nowhere!

Half way between Vegas and California, we stopped at a rest stop for a potty break, and we were "blown away" literally!! the wind was crazy!!!

We got to our very nice hotel (mini apartment) in good spirits. We needed to run around a little bit after the long car ride. We will definately stay here every time we go. It was the nicest hotel ever! We had a kitchen and everything. that is the way to go!

Our first night, we ate at the ESPN Zone, Chris's pick. The kids enjoyed playing in the arcade upstairs while we waited for our table that night.

The next day was my Brinny's 4th birthday!! We went to Disneyland. She wore this button on her shirt all day and it was wonderful how all the disney characters and workers treated her all day, like a Princess!! She loved it!

She loved to find characters all day, and since it was her day, we ran around and tried to find as many as we could. tinkerbell was cute to see.

We found her favorite Minnie at her house. She showed Minnie her "minnie mouse" earrings, and Minnie loved them!

We found Mickey in his movie barn behind his house.

That night, we ate at Goofy's Kitchen for her birthday party. It was a lot of fun, expensive, but so worth it.

Dale came out with her birthday cake as the whole restraunt sang to her. It was lots of fun!

they next day consisted of riding big rides! Space mountain ride was one of our favorites. Where is Brinley? She is so little, you can't see her!

You gotta go see bug's life in 3-d, the kids loved it.

That night, it was Taylee's pick for dinner, so we ate ate Ariel's Grotto. We had to have a picture with the redheads & the redheaded princess.

Cinderella is Brinley's favorite princess, and it was so cute to see her with Brinley. She made it really special for her.

Splash mountain, need I say more!!! AAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

The third day, we spent mostly in California Adventure. We rode the Grizzly river rapids, got SOAKED!!!!! But we dried, that is how warm it was in California, umm 75ish!

We met some friends from Utah there, Jason & Janna. It was Janna's birthday that day, that is why they were there. We enjoyed hanging out with them a bit and eating lunch with them.

The tower of TERR"OR!!! Chris hated it, Brin did not show any emotion, Austin, hugged the cage the whole time, and Taylee and I loved it!!

That night, Austin picked the Rainforest Cafe. He loved all the animals that moved in there.

Teh next day, we headed home. I have never at at In and out, but Chris said it was the bomb, so we tried it. I could not believe the menu. You have 3 choices, that's it!! But I will agree, it was the best hamburger and fries I have ever had!

That night we stopped in Las Vegas to the stay and visit the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. Austin really enjoyed this place.

We walked a little down the strip so we could go shop at the M&M Factory. We decided that Vegas is SSOOO not for kids. Too many things to see and too many weird people.

The kids by the M&M Race car. My night to pick dinner and I picked Panda Express takeout for Chris & I and McDonalds for the kids, and we went back to our hotel and watched a movie.

Then to the long car ride home. I have to give it to my kids for being troopers. They kept busy in the car, thank goodness for dvd player and lots of souviniers!

Lance & Jamee's Wedding

2009-03-18T08:12:00.005-07:00

Saturday was a very special day for our family! My little brother got married to the love of his life. We are so excited to have Jamee in the family. It was a beautiful, very chilly, day, but everything went great.

Picture of Jamee & Lance as they walked out of the temple.

We had a lunch at the church. It was great food and fun to mingle and enjoy everyone.

My kids loved hanging out with their cousins, Bryson and Mckenzie. They live in Illinois, so we don't get to see much of them.

The three girls had mathing dresses and looked adorable. Lance and Jamee posed for tons of pictures that night. One with everyone.

Lance telling Brinley goodbye, before he left for their honeymoon in Mexico.

I love you Lance & Jamee. Wish you the best in your new life together!

My Trip with 200 Teenagers!

2009-03-11T09:21:00.015-07:00

Ok, you are all probably thinking, she is crazy to go all the way to California on a Bus with 200 people!! Yeh, you are probably right, but I had the time of my life! I have never laughed so hard that I cried and we had wonderful experiences that I will never forget!
The BRH Color Guard, Marching Band, Orchestra, Drama Club, & Choir all went on tour together. We had four tour buses full. The trip down, during the night was hard and I did not sleep well, but it was WONDERFUL to get to the hotel and sleep in my own bed!! I don't think I moved at all the entire night. I was in the same position when I woke up!
Our first day, we went to Cal State Long Beach for clinics. It was a long day, since we had been on a bus all night. The clinic we went to was ok, but I really enjoyed the band clinic. That college instructor spent time with each individual student and helped them play better. It was amazing of the results in just 2 hours!

The next 2 days, we went to Disneyland!! This is Myself, Kristy, my assistant advisor, and Becca, the choir directors daughter & sister to one of my color guard girls. We hung out all week, along with a few of our awesome color guard girls.

Kristy & I found Goofy, and decided to "plant one" on him. I was too occupied about where the camera was though. He was embarrassed after the picture. He hid under his ears for awhile.

I have never been to Disneyland and actually got my picture taken with Mickey. I have seen him, but always too many people or from a distance. I feel so tall when I stood next to him. doesn't he just make you want to smile!

Our favorite part of the time was going on rides and laughing at our pictures taken during the rides. This is Splash Mountain. We got soaked!! The funny thing about this picture is that the little family in the back of our "log" was from Tremonton. The dad played high school basketball with my brother, Bryan. What a small world!

I even got to see Minnie. What great luck I had with Characters!

After we performed in the parade through California Adventures, we all, 17 of us color guard, went on the Tower of Terror together. I few did not want to ride it, cause it was "scary". But we are all great persuaders, so here is the picture. I actually bought the picture, it is the only time we were all together the whole trip, besides performing.

The next day, we went to the walk of stars in Hollywood. I found this star! OOOH LALA!

I also found a man dressed up as the transformer, Bumble Bee. I had to have my picture taken with him. Our family is transformer fans.

That night we ate at Midevil Times. That is the most fun I have had during a dinner before. there was so many of us that we were split into 2 different teams. Which made it fun, cause there was a little rival going on. You have to cheer for your color of knight.

It was amazing how it was all set up.

Our knight was the Green Knight. He was evil, so that made it fun. He went all the way to the end except evil never prevails in these kinds of things, but it was so fun to cheer.

I had to take this picture of my dinner. It actually is not all here, but I could not believe I got a half of chicken!! Spareribs, potatoes, garlic bread & apple fritter came too! And ALL of it is eaten with your hands!!!

This picture I could not resist taking is on the ride home. I slept better on the ride home, but it is funny how everyone slept. Most were on the floor in the isle.

It was a great trip, I will do it again in 2 years!

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-15T11:03:00.007-07:00

It is tradition to have your picture taken on Valentine's day before school. My kids enjoy this day at school. They spend hours putting together their valentines for their classmates. This is Austin's last year, how sad is that?

The things I love that Austin loves...
1. He loves to read, which is great for a little kid. I bought him a book on Thursday and he finished it Saturday!
2. He loves sports, which is great for exercise. Soccer is his all time favorite, but he is playing basketball now and enjoys it too.
3. He loves science, which is great! He loves to get involved at school in projects. He took his rock tumbler to school the other day because they were talking about "weathering of rocks" what? He is smarter than me at things like that.
4. He loves babies and small children. He is great with his small cousins and neighbors. He comes down to their level and plays and makes them laugh. He is a great example for those little kids to look up to.
5. He loves to still have me tuck him in at night. I can never let that go! Sooner than I know, he will be all grown up and not want his mom to do this, but I hope not.
6. He loves to perform. Whether it is clogging at a competition, or recital or being one of the main characters in his school play, he loves to get out there and perform. I am proud of him for doing these things. Clogging has given him great foot skills for soccer and also taught him to like "girls", since he has a partner he dances with. He is in his school play this year. He is the King of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland.

The things I love that Brinley loves......

1. She loves to be with her mom, who would not like that! She loves to go with me everywhere, which sometimes I need a break, but we are great buddies. With the kids in school all day, we do everything together.

2. She loves Color Guard, which is awesome. She knows all the girls by name and knows if someone is not at practice. She is my buddy at 5:30 am practices every morning, she would be a great secretary in keeping track of the girls.

3. She loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, which I think is a darling show. She gets so excited to watch that every morning. She learns how to count and reconize things on that show, way cute!

4. She always is excited to see me after work or when I have been gone somewhere. She hugs me and tells me that she missed me. How touching is that.

5. She loves preschool, which is great. She is making new friends and loves to sing songs and count. Great start to her education.

6. She loves animals. She loves dogs the most. She loves to pet them or at least day hi to them whereever we might see one. She had a couple stuffed dogs at home, that to her are "alive". She loves to sleep with them, talk to them and play with them. She loves my mom & dad's dog Lizzie the best!

The things I love that Taylee loves.....

1. Taylee loves dancing. What a great way for a girl to express herself and exercise at the same time. She loves cheerleading too. She is always showing me her "moves" she learned that day. She has the energy to make a great bubbly cheerleader one day.

2. Taylee loves school. She is awesome on her spelling tests. She gets 100% almost every week. She is starting to like to read more.

3. Taylee loves her friends. She has great friends. It is always good to have great friends in life. She loves to be with them and they love to make up dances together.

4. Taylee loves to be with her mom. We went to a color guard competition together yesterday and it was fun to be together. She loves to do what I do, I guess she looks up to me a little, I like that.

5. Taylee loves to draw. She loves to show her artistic side. She goes through so so so much paper at our house, but it is hard for me to say don't, because she expresses her talent of fasion, and design through art. She got an art set for christmas and absolutley loves it.

6. Taylee loves Music. She loves to have her cd player playing in her room. She loves to sing to music in the car or anywhere. She will definatly be in choir or something when she gets older.

These are the roses Chris gave me for Valentine's Day. They surprised me with them when I got home. They are beautiful! I have not got flowers for a long time, so it was wonderful!

The things I love that Chris loves.......

1. Chris loves his family. He always puts us first with anything that he does. He will put off something that he wants to do and does something with us. I love that about him.

2. Chris loves school. Ok, maybe not loves, but I love that he has decided to go back and get his degree. I am very proud of him for that. He will be a great teacher!

3. Chris loves kids. Wheather they are ours, our friends or neighbors, or his little soccer team kids, he loves to be with them and he enjoys teaching them or playing with them. I guess that is why he wants to be a school teacher.

4. Chris loves sports. Why would I love that for him, he is good at what sports he plays and it keeps him physically active. He even knows stats and statistics for all kinds of sports, that is a little extreme, but he loves it.

5. Chris loves me. He loves me unconditionally, even though somedays he is upset at me, I know he still loves me, for me. I love him back the same. I would do anything for this man, and he would do the same for me.

6. Chris loves life. Even though his life sucks in the health department, he trys to live his life to the fullest by keeping what is important a priority and enjoying the little things, I love you sweetie!

First Competition......First Place!!!!!

2009-02-03T10:15:00.002-07:00

I know this is my family blog, but I was so excited, that I had to let you know how my Color Guard did at their 1st competiton!! We won first place!!! Check out my color guard's blog in my friends and family section. I am so proud of them and all their hard work!

Jazz Game

2009-01-25T14:38:00.008-07:00

Last night we got to go to a Jazz game thanks to our friends who have season tickets. It was also Jr. Jazz night, so Austin already had a ticket with his team. So we left early, so we thought, to get a bite to eat and then head to the game. Well, Saturday night anywhere, you wait at least 30 minutes to get in anywhere, then the traffic is another thing. Well we were hoping to park close, because it was really raining HARD! No such luck, since we were late getting there. We parked 2 blocks away, which seemed further cause of the rain. Three of us had hats and the other 3 did not. Well Taylee and I were 2 of the 3 without hats and our hair is the most important right?

Well needless to say, we looked like drowned rats when we walked in the bathroom when we got there. And to make it even more true, a lady in the bathroom asked us if it was raining that hard? We said yes, can you tell?

Well Chris took Austin & his friend Trace to their seats which were the opposite side of ours and in the rafters, while the girls & I sat in our seats.
Chris came back just as the first quarter was almost over. He said that Austin's ticket was by a scary man and Trace's seat, someone else was sitting in, and he had the same ticket as him! So he searched for other people he knew and finally found his coach, and found seats close by him, so they could be watched. He said it was crazy how everyone was scattered and no one was sitting by their teams!

We had good seats though. Taylee comented that these were not close seats! But we showed her where Austin was sitting, then she thought our seats were great!

Brinley has something to do with loving mascots! She loved watching the BEAR! We got a picture of him riding his bicycle down the stairs and off a jump. He was very entertaining to watch.

We all thought it was cool to see the "Guys that are on TV", in real life! They sat just 1/2 a section from us the whole game, really cool!

Austin & Trace after the game. Austin purchased himself a b-ball for a rememberance. Thanks Francis family for the tickets!

The BIG 60!

2009-01-21T09:03:00.005-07:00

This past week was my father-in-law's birthday. He turned 60! That was a little weird for me, since my parents are only 53 & 51 years old. I did not think he was that "old". Well he definatly does not look it. We had a party for him to celebrate this occasion with him.

He is a great father-in-law to me. He has always made me feel like I am part of his family. He has told me numerous times that I am one of his daughters and he loves me the same. I want to thank him for that. That means a lot to me.

He is a awesome grandpa to his grandkids, 10 grandkids in all! As you can see in these pictures, my kids also adore their grandpa. He is a busy man with working at USU and traveling to various seminars and meetings, but he does find time to come to a soccer game or a school assembly, & I know my kids really enjoy that he does.

And last but not least, he is a great dad to Chris. I know they have had their differences through the years, like all parents and kids do, but they are so much alike. Not only in their looks (cause they look like twins) but also in their mannerisms, health (which is not good), & personality. I guess that is why I like my father-in-law so much, he is very similar to my huspand.

Thank you Don for all that you do for my family. You make us all feel loved and wanted in your life and we feel the same for you. We hope you make this next year a great one! We love you!

Chris, Don, & Brian (Chris's little brother)

USU Cheerleader

2009-01-18T19:32:00.006-07:00

Taylee went to a USU cheerleading camp on Saturday with some of her friends and then she got to perfor at the USU vs Boise State game that night. So we all bought tickets and watched her perform at halftime. She had fun and was excited to go. It brought back a lot of memories when Chris and I went to all the aggie games, while we were dating and first married. We tried teaching our kids the cheers that you do. We rode the bus from the stadium to the spectrum. They thought that was cool!

Taylee, Maddie and Noelle

USU won Boise State, yeh go aggies!

Brinely and I. Brin's favorite part was looking for Big Blue during the game. He never did come to close, but it kept her occupied during the game, plus snacks, (always a kids fav)

Jack Rabbit Hill

2009-01-15T13:53:00.009-07:00

We decided to go sledding during the christmas break. There is a hill in Garland called Jack Rabbit Hill, and we had never been there before, so we called up some friends, the Barfuss Family, and headed out for the afternoon.

Taylee getting ready to go down the hill

The girls were all trying to pull Brinley UP in the sled, kind of difficult, I ended up pulling her up the rest of the way.

This is me, I apparently have outgrown my snowpants! I got this ski outfit in college, so about 15 years ago, and apparently snowpants were just shorter in those days, or I have gotten taller? Whatever the case may be, They still FIT me around the waist! woo hoo for me!

Paisley and Brinley watching everyone go down the hill.

Chris taking Taylee down...........

Austin going down........

We found a jump and Austin got brave and decided to jump it! He did well, so then everyone started too.

Chris even did it. He got some air! It looks like he is going to bend the sled in half!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-15T13:37:00.005-07:00

This year we went to my brother, Trapper's house for New Years Eve. It was a lot of fun. We played a lot of games and had a lot of food to eat. My parents came over too, only until 10 pm, they say they are getting to old to stay up that late! My kids enjoy playing games & with their cousins, Dax and Avery.

Some of us did not quite make it to midnight, Brinley & Avery NO, but everyone else did.

Jaycee and River even joined us for the party. I was wondering why they wanted to hang out with us old people with kids, but they came and hung out all night, it was fun. I am glad they did.

We hope everyone had a great new years eve too.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-30T13:42:00.022-07:00

Well Christmas Eve started out with Taylee pulling out her front tooth! She looks so funny with it missing. She said she wanted to sing that song about wanting front teeth for christmas, funny huh? So she was visited by the tooth fairy and santa claus in the same night! How lucky was that! Maybe they rode there together in Santa's sleigh.(taylee's theory)

First stop on christmas eve is Grandma Braegger's party at the Bear River Civic Center. We out grew her house a few years ago. It is great to be in a big room where we all fit great.

My sister, Jaycee and Brother, Lance

My brother, Trapper and his family, Robyn, Avery and Dax

My Grandma Braegger and my Dad. (they both do not like getting their picture taken, can you tell)

Me, my mom, Jaycee and Robyn

Next we headed to my Grandpa Woodyatt's house in Willard. My Grandma Grover was there also. We were late getting to this party, because they decided to start it 1 & 1/2 earlier than other years, so we got there just in time for desert and presents.

Taylee and Brinley opening their pj's (a tradition)

Here are the little girls in their matching pj's

Brinley, Kalea, Elle, Hallee, and Taylee

Here are the big boys in their pj's: Austin, Conner, Hunter, Tanner, & Preston

CHRISTMAS MORNING..........

The kids all got "webkins" in their stockings, so we are cool with the kid crowd now.

Brinley's favorite present was her baby doll and baby crib. She also liked her puppy dog she named Zippy.

Taylee's favorite was her MP3 player. She loves music. She also loved her art set and all her clothes.

Austin's favorite was his PSP! He was so excited. He also got a Rip Stick skateboard and a microscope.

My sister and my parent's doggy, Lizzie. she got a new coat for christmas.

My parents, Jaycee and Lance all came over christmas morning for presents. Santa brings Jaycee and Lances presents to our house too. This is the last year that Lance gets to be here. Next year, He will be married.
Next, my parents had their christmas party that afternoon...........

Austin and Brinley fell asleep in the 10 minute car ride to my parent's house! Boy they must of got up early!

Chris, Brinley, & Austin snuggling before the party started.

Brinley got some cute clothes, more pj's and polly pockets! her favorite!

Taylee got Hannah Montana camera, jewelery box and 8 ball, & lots of clothes.

Austin got lots of clothes and more PSP games, which he loved!

Here is a picture of my dad with his head light flashlight on his head. Lance gave that to him for putting on lures in the dark when he is fishing.

We gave Trapper a snow sled, so the kids thought it would be fun to sit in it. Brinley, Austin, Avery & Dax. We had a great Christmas holiday! Thanks to all our Family! We love you all!

Christmas Sunday

2008-12-23T07:06:00.004-07:00

Well here is our annual sunday Christmas picture. The girls got new dresses this year, but poor Austin, he did not. But he doesn't care, he had a black shirt that matched just perfect. The kids sang in the sacrament meeting program. I love the song they sang. It is called Baby in a Manger. Brinley even went up there and stood. I think I even saw her mouth move during the chorus. She is going to be a sunbeam in January. I am kind of a slacker on Christmas cards this year, so here is a shout out to everyone, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

After we went to my parents house, we came home and watched my favorite christmas movie. I dug it out from all the "tapes" in my parents basement. It is just recoreded from tv, back from long ago, when I was a kid. It is called "One Magic Christmas". I did not know it was a Disney show! The girls liked it, I think. Taylee asked lots of questions instead of just watching the show and finding out for herself. But here is a picture of us girls watching my show.

Snyder Christmas Party

2008-12-14T13:30:00.015-07:00

Yesterday was Chris's parents christmas party. We were all there except Matt & Amy & family, cause they moved to Indiana. We Sure did miss them though! The day started with a lot of snacks to snack on, which I REALLY snacked on a lot! Then the cousins exchanged their gifts with each other.

Michelle took charge of that activity, which worked out well for everyone.

This is Reagan, my little niece. If I had to play favorites (which I don't) she would be my favorite. She is so special to me. She is 2 1/2 years old and can walk behind a walker/stroller. She is so fun to play with. We had her name and we gave her a doll. She loved it!

Brinley got a apron, cookie cutters, little rolling pin & sprinkles to make cookies. The only bad thing was, she wanted to make them NOW!

Taylee got a hair scrunchie, and Hannah Montana pencils and pens! That is right up her ally!

Austin got an erector set of a motorcycle. He spent the whole rest of the day putting all 103 pieces together!

It is tradition to act out the nativity. Here is the group picture of them all.

"Star"ing the 3 angels, Ellie, Kenedee & Brinley

Taylee as Mary, and Austin as Joseph. (They must not like each other much. Look at the space between them.)

Chris, as the donkey. He was a bad person to do that! He has horrible knees! But Taylee loved it!

Our Shepherds, Emmaleigh & Devin. They were the cutest ones. Devin about hit everyone with the cane and Emmaleigh looked like a midget! It was so cute!

Here are the angels "ON HIGH". They loved how they got to stand on the table for a bit!

And we had 1 wise "man". Collins had a turbin and all. He was awesome!

We had a great day! We love our family! Merry Christmas!

Celebration Dinner

2008-12-07T14:27:00.009-07:00

Well if you did not know, Lance is getting married! Yeh! He has found an awesome, darling & fun girl named Jamee. They are a lot alike! We are so excited to have her be part of the family and to get to know her more. They are getting married on March 14th, my dad's birthday.
Trapper, Robyn, Jaycee, River, Chris, & I all went out to dinner with Lance and Jamee to celebrate this exciting time in their lives.

Jamee and Lance (I love ya already Jamee)

Chris & I (nice shirt honey!)

Jaycee and River (the youngest, hippest couple)

Trapper & Robyn (you keep the evening fun & exciting like always)

I love my family. We were really missing my brother Bryan and his wife, Heather though. Texas is just too far away!

We decided that we are going to make a tradition that at least 4 times a year we do this. But I really hope it is more. Love you all, We had a great time!

Happy Turkey Day!

2008-12-01T21:34:00.013-07:00

Turkey day started out with a little neighborhood flag football, which they called it the "Turkey Bowl". Chris & Austin had a blast playing with the neighborhood guys! Chris is #7

Austin is wearing the brown hoodie running towards the ball. I guess when the game was all over, Chris made one touchdown and Austin made two!

The annual, before we go to thanksgiving dinner, picture.

We went to Chris's parents house this year. His sister Michelle and her family was there and his brother Brian and his girlfriend, Heidi. Austin had a blast playing with my niece Reagan! thay played forever. He is such a good boy to play with his little cousins!

Then after we let the food settle, we all went bowling! We love the shoes!

Austin trying to teach Brinley how to push it down the lane. He is having a difficult time showing her.

This is how Taylee got it down the lane!

Look at that pro bowler stance!! what a stud!

Look at my luck! I am not a very good bowler, but on Turkey day, I bowled three strikes in a row, which is called a "Turkey". How lucky is that!

Then that night we went and saw the Disney movie "Bolt" . We loved Rhino in the show. He was our favorite.

We are so thankful for all our family and the fun day we had!

Where does the time go?

2008-11-26T12:35:00.006-07:00

TIME IS GOING SO FAST!!! I was getting out all my christmas stuff yesterday and today and I wanted to put old christmas pictures on my digital photo frame. Look at what I found! It made me sad to see how big my kidos are getting! It seems just like yesterday that Austin was this little!

Austin's first christmas morning, 1998

Austin giving Taylee loves!! What? Unheard of now! Dec. 25th, 2001

Austin & Taylee holding hands before we went to church. They actually liked each other then!

Dec. 2003

Taylee, Brinley, & Austin - Getting Bigger! Dec. 24th, 2005

Brinley, Taylee, & Austin - Dec 2006

I need to hold on to these memories and continue to treasure every moment with them. Soon they will be all grown up and out of the house!

Happy Halloween!!

2008-11-01T16:55:00.008-07:00

This year for carving pumpkins, we actually got to do it outside!! It has always been too cold to do it outside in past years, so I was excited that the mess was outside this year. The kids were troopers. They cleaned out their own pumpkins and even carved MOST of it themselves.

Well this year, we had a PINK MINNIE MOUSE! She was adorable and loved ever minute of being minnie mouse.

Can you guess who this is? It's HANNAH MONTANA! She kept getting called Sharpay from high school musical, but she was suppose to be Hannah! oh well. She loved her outfit and when people asked her to sing, she laughed and said no!

And then we had a WEREWOLF! He made his costume himself. I just gave him sissors and let him go with it. He loved his big gloves!

Well another year down and gone. Way to much candy! We hope you all had a great halloween too!

High School Tag

2008-10-26T12:01:00.010-07:00

My Friend Jamie did this tag and it looked like a lot of fun! It brought back a lot of memories!

1. DID YOU DATE SOMEONE FROM YOUR SCHOOL?
um yeh, lots of people!

2. WHAT KIND OF CAR DID YOU DRIVE?
this beautiful light blue SunBird! I thought I was so cool driving this car! It was a stick shift car though, and I think I killed it at least twice a day! I got my first ticket in this car, right in front of the high school during lunch break!

3. DID YOU PASS YOUR DRIVER'S LICENSE TEST ON THE FIRST TRY? of course, you heard about my ticket!

4. WERE YOU A PARTY ANIMAL? no I don't think so

5. WERE YOU CONSIDERED A FLIRT? maybe a little, but not as much as my friends!

6. WERE YOU IN BAND, ORCHESTRA, OR CHOIR? no none of them!

7. WERE YOU A NERD? nope, I was not bright enough to be one

8. WERE YOU ON ANY VARSITY TEAMS? yes, I was a junior varsity cheerleader my sophomore year and then varsity cheerleader my junior and senior year. this is a picture of all us seniors, who were ever a cheerleader, at the sob assembly.

9. DID YOU EVER GET SUSPENDED OR EXPELLED? never, I did not even sluff!

10. CAN YOU STILL SING THE FIGHT SONG? heck ya, I can even do the cheerleader moves still!

11. WHO WAS YOUR FAVORITE TEACHER? Mrs. Deanna Vaughan. She was my chemistry teacher and our cheerleader advisor. I was her student helper my senior year, She was always pregnant! She had 2 boys while she taught there.

12. WHERE DID YOU SIT DURING LUNCH? cafeteria or the pie dump

13. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL'S FULL NAME? Bear River High School

14. WHAT IS THE SCHOOL'S COLORS AND MASCOT? well then it was red/white/blue, now it is red/white/black - and the mascot is a BEAR

15. DID YOU GO TO HOMECOMING & WITH WHO? my junior year I went with Layne Sorensen. I can't believe I wore a purple dress to our homecoming! where was my school spirit!

my senior year, I went with Micah Redmond

16. IF YOU COULD GO BACK & DO IT AGAIN, WOULD YOU? yes I would. I sometimes feel like I never left (since I walk the halls every day)

17. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT GRADUATION? i remember being the 1st person to cross the stage and graduate!

18. WHERE DID YOU GO ON SENIOR SLUFF DAY? we went to first dam in Logan.

19. WHERE YOU IN ANY CLUBS? nope, is cheerleading a club?

20. HAVE YOU GAINED WEIGHT SINCE THEN? that is a BIG yes!

21. WHO WAS YOUR PROM DATE? Sheldon Munns. Look at that AWESOME dress!! HAHA Gold and Navy Blue, what was I thinking!

22. ARE YOU PLANNING ON GOING TO YOUR 10 YEAR REUNION? um that was 5 years ago, and yes I went to the family picnic. i am mad though that I did not take any pictures! What was I thinking! My son loved how he caught this little gold fish, and Cryed when it died the next day!

23. DID YOU HAVE A JOB IN HIGH SCHOOL? yes, I worked at Smith's in Brigham. I worked in the video department.

That was fun to think back, I tag anyone who wants to go down memory lane. I really enjoyed it!

The CORN MAZE

2008-10-25T20:31:00.007-07:00

We decided to try out a Corn Maze this year for our family halloween activity. Last year, we went to the Dinosaur park. This was a lot closer, so we went to see what it was all about. We went a night it was NOT haunted, cause I would have 3 kids sleeping in my bed for weeks if we went when it was!
Here is the start, (we also went when it was light!)(you know, kids sleeping with ya)

The kids were not so sure about it. I kept telling Austin to go down one way and I would go another, and he would quickly so NO! They liked to stay close to us! Funny Huh!

Brinley got a smile on her face when she discovered that there was REAL CORN in the corn field. She loves to eat corn.

Here is us trying to figure out how to get out!

Taylee not leaving my side!

The kids after we figured the maze out! It took us 50 minutes to figure this 20 acre maze out!

They were excited to finally leave, but they said they had fun. I am glad we got out before it got dark!

MY LITTLE FARMER

2008-10-16T20:29:00.008-07:00

Every week for the past 6 weeks or so, I help out my family by picking tomatoes for the Saturday's Farmer's Market. I usually pick them while Brinley is at preschool, so there is no distractions. Well this week, I had a helper.

She is all ready, Gloves and all!

She did really great (at first). She helped me pick all the RED tomatoes, not the GREEN ones! This is something that she had to keep reminding me!

Then she got tired and just played in the dirt most of the time!

She did help me take off the stems from the tomatoes, so she just sat by the basket and I handed the tomatoes to her.

Her favorite ones were the BABY ones! Every small tomatoe we found she called it a baby!
They are so cute, she would say.

But her favorite part of all, was to ride or help drive (she thinks) the 4 wheeler.

Thanks sweetie, you made picking tomatoes fun and memerable (and twice the time to pick them) haha

Dax's Birthday

2008-10-06T20:33:00.003-07:00

Well life has been very busy, and since I broke my camera, I have not taken many pictures. I did take a few at my nephew's birthday party last week.
Dax is a tractor lover, so he had a John Deer Birthday. We all wore green, brown, or yellow clothes. It was fun. The kids had dinosaur nuggets & tator tots and the cake was very yummy! Robyn did a great job on that!
It is always a fun day, when we have a party!

Avery's 1st Birthday

2008-09-16T12:05:00.008-07:00

My darling little nephew, Avery, had his 1st birthday! We celebrated at my mom & dad's house on Sunday. He is getting so big. He can walk and get around really well. He had a Elmo Birthday!

Avery wanting to touch the candle!

Avery after eating dinner

Avery playing with the toys we gave him

Dax eating his cookie monster cupcake

Brinley eating her Elmo cupcake

Tay & Brin in party hats! a must for a one year old party!

Love you Avery!

When you give a 3 year old a camera.....

2008-09-16T11:42:00.009-07:00

You never know what your going to get when you let your 3 year old take your camera. I thought it was quite interesting of the things she chose to take pictures of. Here is a peek of the things you see through the eyes of a 3 year old.

self picture

Dad, Brother Austin, & the dog Lizzie

Elmo, what kid doesn't like Elmo

The treat drawer at my mom's house. Her favorite place of the house

Aunt Jaycee's bedroom

A little people.

She took 55 pictures, I didn't have time to show ya all of them. It was really fun to have her explain to me what she took a pictures of. Love ya Brin!

And let the Dancing Begin....

2008-09-09T21:06:00.007-07:00

First, I have to tell you that I dropped my camera and it broke! I was so mad!! So now I had to dig out the "old camera". I now know why we bought a new one! This one sucks!! Every picture I take is blurry!!! It makes me soooo mad!! But anyway, enough of my rage!

Today was the first day of dancing! Brinley was so excited to go! She had a big day of preschool & dance.

Here is Brin in her new "ballerina" outfit.

She was showing me some of her moves, like turns........

and kicks!!!! This is a funny picture! I told her to show me a "ballerina pose" and this is what I got! It looks like a karate kick!

This is her curtsey...... as you can see, she is going to learn a lot in these years to come about her ballet skills.

She went right in and sat down, she acted like a pro, like she did not need mom there. I am starting to feel like I am not needed as much anymore! It is kind of sad! When I picked her up, she said that she wanted to come back when Taylee had to come to dancing. She loved it! She told me that to do a summersault, that you touch your toes and look at your belly, then you just roll! She demonstrated to me a few times, she has that down already!

Then it was Taylee's turn. She is just pro dancer, does not need mom there, and if I walk in to talk to the teacher or pay money, she says, why are you coming mom I can do this myself.

She has been waiting for dancing to start all summer. Look at those legs! She is all legs! wow!

Have a good year sweetie!

Brinley's 1st day of Preschool!!!

2008-09-02T09:59:00.006-07:00

Can you see the joy and excitement in her face? The 1st day of preschool!! She has been waiting for this for weeks!! It was a sad day when the big kids went to school and she had to stay home. But, today was her day and she was all about it.

She told me that she wanted her hair just down & curly today. I thought it turned out great! (for me, I don't make my girls hair very cute some days) Thanks mom for my birthday present (new chi!!) I think it helps make my girls hair darling!

She was asking me how she should but her hands in the picture. I said just down, by your legs.

So in this picture, she has her hand on her leg and the other holding her WONDERFUL backpack, that she loves to pull around on wheels. I don't know why I bought her one of those kinds of backpacks, I guess the baby of the family always gets what they want, right?

She did not want to sit in her carseat on the way to school. She said it would mess up her hair if she sits back in her seat. So it was a little funny to see her sitting with her head forward, so she wouldn't mess up her hair! It has already begun, the life of a teenager!!

She put her backpack on the star with her name on it. She was a little nervous about that.

Then she had to find the alligator with her name on it, then sit on that spot for the day. She was so excited to stay. As I walked out to the car, my eyes started burning a little bit, then a lump started forming in my throat, I got a little choked up! I promised that I wouldn't do that!! My baby, in preschool, I couldn't believe it! Now what was I going to do?

First Day of School

2008-08-28T08:11:00.006-07:00

SCHOOL'S BACK FROM SUMMER!!!

I have a very handsome 5th grader this year. He is excited to be back to school. He likes to socialize with friends (& girls!!)

I have a darling 2nd grader, who just cut her hair (again). She was very excited to go to school this year too. She is our social butterfly.

Austin & Taylee before we headed out for the first day of school. I asked them if I could come with them to their classrooms and take a picture, and they told me NO!! I guess they are already getting too big for their mom to embarass them in front of their friends.

I love you guys. I hope you have a great year!

Hogle Zoo

2008-08-17T12:04:00.012-07:00

Yesterday, Chris & I decided to surprise the kids by taking them to the hogle zoo in Salt Lake. We told them that we were going on a picnic to a park and that is all they knew until we pulled into the zoo parking lot. They were excited to go. We promised them that we would go before school started, and school starts in 8 days, so it was definatly time to go.

We brought our own lunch and had a "picnic" at the zoo. Here is Brinley and Me

Austin & Brinley eating lunch

Taylee and Chris

The kids liked to pose on the various statues in the park. This is the first one we saw, the tigers.

The Gorilla had to have his picture with us too.

We each had our favorite animal at the zoo. This one is mine. The orangutan, was so funny. It was a baby and it was playing on the ropes. You would think it would fall but it doesn't. they are the cutest animal there.

This is Brinley's favoritem the Gorilla. He never moved from this position, but when she saw it, she said that that was her favorite!

Taylee's favorite was a peacock. Kind of funny, since there is a peacock that lives just down the road from my parents house. But she made sure that I got a picture of it.

Austin's favorite was the Rhino. He did not move from this position the whole time. His name is George and Austin loved his "big horn".

And Chris's favorite was the Cougar. He took a lot of pictures of them and this was the best one. We even got the hear him growl. It was cool.

It was a great end to our "short" summer vacation.

24th of July

2008-07-27T20:23:00.017-07:00

It is tradition to go to the Bear River City Park on the 24th every year. This year I had my little mini color guard camp join in on the parade!! I was expecting maybe 25 or so girls, I think about 60 or so showed up!!! Is'n't that exciting! I had tears in my eyes at the end of the parade. I was given so many complements on how great the program is doing now and just to watch the parents on the side of the road with their camera and video camera just grinning from ear to ear, waiting to see their daughter march down the street in their very first parade!! THAT is what makes this job all worth it!

Practicing before the parade started.

Brinley working so hard, concentrating!

Taylee remembering the MOVES.

Group photo before we started marching.

Taylee, me & Brinley in our twinner shirts.

After the parade, it is the baby show. It was my first year with out a baby in the show! how sad, not really, I like the stage of life I am in right now. Dax was in the baby show, but before he went on, we were playing on the tractor/trailer to stay occupied. Dac won the bubbliest personality by singing the ABC's in front of everyone! Way to go Dax!

Group photo while watching the races

Brinley running very fast. Look at that little smile. She said this was her favorite part of the day.

Taylee running hard!

Austin running even harder!! We did not win any races this year. That is ok, we are still the champions at the Willard Park!!

They had sack races too. Taylee, Brinley, and Dax all wanted to do it. Dax did not want a sack, he just wanted to RUN! Brinley was hopping just fine until........

She was the only one left, then she started crying! It was the funniest, but cutest thing ever!

Austin told me that he was going to ride a sheep this year at the rodeo! I really did not think he would get on a sheep, but he fooled me. He was just 2 pounds shy of being the limit to ride, so I guess this is his last year to ride. He looks really serious getting on this "bucking" sheep.

AND THERE HE GOES!!!!

He did not stay on too much longer than that picture. He landed on his knee when he fell off and he limped out of the arena! I had to laugh, it was just really funny when he was telling me the story of his ride. I had to take his picture! Isn't he so cute! (i mean handsome)

Later that night, after we ate pizza, we had our own firework show out on the driveway again.

I love my family and I love traditions! Until next year....

Mini Color Guard Camp

2008-07-22T15:34:00.009-07:00

I am the Color Guard Advisor at the local high school, and we had our 1st annual Mini Color Guard Camp today!!
This is Brinley and Taylee in their Future Color Guard shirts before we left!

These are my 18 color guard girls this year. They are a wonderful group of girls, who did a great job at the camp. They have been working really hard this summer to get prepared for all our parades and fall shows.

This is Brinley's preschool group. I think they played more games in this group then they practiced, but they are just 3 & 4 years old. How cute!!

Brinley trying really hard to do her "moves"

Good job Sweetie!!

This is Taylee's 2nd grade group. They were taking a break.

Taylee's best friend Breely came. She was so excited to have her there with her.

Taylee performing her dance in front of all the parents.

They had a fun time and it was a big success. We had 81 little girls there at the camp!!

Wow we have come a long ways!!

Snyder extended Reunion

2008-07-22T15:11:00.009-07:00

The Snyder (extended) reunion this year was in Paradise at Chris's Parents house. We all brought tents and trailers and slept in or out of the house.
here are some highlights of the reunion

JUMPING ON THE TRAMP WITH THEIR COUSINSRUNNING RACES

WE WENT SWIMMING AT THE MT CREST SWIMMING POOL. AUSTIN JUMPED OFF THE DIVING BOARD!!

WE WATCHED A MOVIE OUTSIDE! WE WATCHED CARS!

I WAS IN CHARGE OF A GAME, SO WE HIT A PINATA!!
IT WAS A FLIP FLOP

BRINLEY TRYING TO HIT IT!

TAYLEE HITTING IT BLINDFOLDED!

AUSTIN WACKING IT HARD!

AUSTIN LOVED PLAYING WITH HIS SECOND COUSIN BRENT SNYDER. BRENT LIVES IN WYOMING AND WE DON'T GET TO SEE THEM VERY MUCH. THEY HAD A FUN TIME SHOOTING GUNS WITH THEIR DADS, PLAYED GAMES, BASKETBALL, WATCHED MOVIES AND ENJOYED EACH OTHERS COMPANY!