December & Christmas

Our family has had a blast in December. We continued our tradition of riding the TRAX train to downtown to see the Christmas lights. It was a freezing cold night, but everyone had a great time. We even brought hot chocolate in a thermos to enjoy midway through the night.

Riding TRAX

We love to see the temple.

Warming up inside the visitor center at Temple Square.

Visiting temple square is definitely a family favorite.

Christmas Eve . . .

Grandma & Grandpa Lewis & Gr. Grandma & Gr. Grandpa Johnson came up on Christmas Eve, and we enjoyed dinner together and participated in a Christmas program the kids prepared.

Excerpt of Christmas program.

Christmas . . .

All of the kids but Tadd were awake on Christmas morning at 6:15 a.m. They were patient and waited until 6:45 a.m. before their parents woke up. They just couldn't hold off opening their presents any longer. We started opening presents without Tadd, who we thought might end up having his own private little Christmas this year, but he eventually woke up while we were still opening gifts. His last present was an electronic dog that Teya gave him. You'll have to watch the video of Teya's excitement when the gift was open, and Tadd's expression when Teya was faster than him to grab the dog to show him rather then letting him take the dog out of the box. Although it didn't show, he really was excited, but probably just wasn't sure quite what was going on.

Christmas morning (6:45 a.m.)

Tadd wakes up with a bear hug.

Tadd (Teya) opening Tadd's gift

We spent the rest of Christmas day enjoying our gifts. Cara & Teya played with their Webkins; Kyle played with an R/C helicopter and a car that drives up walls. Jeremie took the kid's sledding. We also had fun with the web camera Grandma & Grandpa sent for video conferencing.

Kyle and his helicopter.

Kyle's car really does drive on walls.

We're having way to much fun with the web camera. Why would anyone want to use the regular setting when the "Fisheye" setting is so fun?

Enjoying the outdoors on Christmas day. . .

Holly abandoned her snowboard for us to sell. Cara and Kyle made sure it worked.

Day After Christmas. . .

On Saturday after Christmas, we had a fun day at Hogle Zoo. We basically had the entire zoo to ourselves. Though many animals were unviewable inside heated rooms, the animals that were out seemed to be more active than what we've seen at other times of the year.

We learned our hand isn't even close to the size of a gorilla's.

(Do you know why gorilla's have long fingers? . . . . Because they have big noses.)

Up close with the animals in an uncrowded zoo.

Geoffrey the giraffe snuck into one of our pictures. . . What a joker.

Enjoying our hot chocolate, a regular on our cold outings.

We finished the night going out to eat, giving mom a break from preparing dinner.

Teya and Tadd shared a Kid's meal.

Goings on

Recent events with the Snowders:

Tadd gave Jeremie a black eye.

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Teya being Teya

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Tadd is excited about dinner

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We completed a 999-piece puzzle.

(It was supposed to be 1000 pieces. . . We blame Tadd)

Halloween Fun

The kids visited Jeremie's work.

Yes, those are real nunchucks that Tadd has from one of Jeremie's co-workers.

Trick or treat!!

Kyle and Sarah had fun playing a scary Halloween game on the computer.

If you haven't played it. We'll have to send it to ya.

Tadd's Birthday

Tadd is 2!!!

Ask Sarah why his candle says "6".

Tadd enjoying Grandma & Grandpa Snowder's gift

(wearing Eric & Tracie's shirt)

Video of blowing out the candle.

Monday Halloween Activity

We just had a fun evening at Farnsworth Farm & Cider Mill. We enjoyed hay rides, bounce house, carnival games, outdoor movie (It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown), and won a gallon of fresh apple cider.

Arrgh!!!!

Happy Halloween

14-sec video of bounce house

Tadd Hot-Tubbing After a Long Day

Oct 17 Weekend

Finally, a relaxing weekend. . .

Cara and Teya had their last soccer games for the fall season. Cara's team finished undefeated, with Cara scoring 2 goals in the last game's win at 3-1. Cara was scared because her team was down 0-1 at the half. She has a good knack for the game, and made some very good passes and defense plays.

Teya was all smiles as she ran around during her game. She had some pretty good kicks and blocks, but was most proud that it was her turn to bring treats to the game for her teammates.

With soccer season over, that leaves Kyle as the only active one. He is on the pre-comp swim team and is loving it. When we finally got him a racing swimsuit, he couldn't believe how much drag was eliminated.

We've been a little worried about Tadd's limited vocabulary. He turns 2 in a couple of weeks but can only say a few words: Mom, Dad, I, milk, Wii, apple, please, no, yes, dog, play, hi, bye, and uh-oh. However, last night, he said his first sentence, "Mom, I play Wii?" Even though it is not our first choice in what we want his first sentence to be, we were happy to finally hear him talk. Nevertheless, the answer was "no".

On Sunday, it was a joy to attend Stake Conference. It was one of the broadcast sessions where we were able to hear from the prophet, Elder Hales, Elder Costa, Sis. Matsumori, and the local temple presidents. With four temples in the valley, we were encouraged to attend the temple weekly. Where else but along the Wasatch Front would that even be possible?

Anyway, we are doing well at the Snowder home. Again, much thanks to everyone helping out lately.

House Update (Ready for Appraisal)

We've completed enough of our house for the appraisal, and will spend the next few years finishing everything else. We owe a special thanks to Grandpa & Grandma Lewis for a lot of work they put in the last few weeks to finish it. We received a lot of help from several people. Tiff & Terry helped design it, paint the interior, and build the food storage shelving. Eric and Tracy Snowder helped lay the sod. THANKS EVERYBODY!!!!!!

Sarah made a video of the interior on Friday but recorded it on HDTV quality (to big to post). Besides, I don't think that Grandma wants to be seen crashed on our couch or wandering sleep deprived through our house. Since then, the kids have run amok with toys scattered all over. We'll make another video to post, and then we can be done talking about our house forever!!! Until then, we find the "before" and "after" pictures of the exterior pretty fun.

March 2009 (Before)

October 2009 (After)

House photos

Someday we'll post more than just house photos. We are almost done.

We love the outside

and . . .

the inside.


It's even kind of fun at night.



But then again, a home isn't a home without . . .


FAMILY!

Updated house pictures

We hope to have the work completed by the end of September. The exterior rock work should be done this week. We've already finished the mud room and we are now ready to paint the rest of the house.

The unfinished exterior will be rock finish with a metal roof on the shed

Mud room. Yeah!!!!

Weekend Pictures

Teya's soccer game

Cooling Cara off

Oh, Dad!

After a long day.

The kids got tired of waiting for the house to be finished, so they built their own to sleep in.

Real Salt Lake - 4; Chivas USA - 0

We had another fun excursion on August 26 at the Real Soccer Game. (Pronounced REE-AL for all non-soccer fans). It was Kids Night sponsored by the school district, and we walked away with free hotdogs, drinks, popcorn, and bike helmets. Not to mention an action packed 4-0 win.

We made new friends.



Enjoyed the concessions.

Half-time

Tadd celebrating one of the four goals by RSL

Beautiful sunset