The Snow Family

We had a Christmas party at Church and Santa came to visit the kids. Ryder sat back and stared at Santa until every kid had finished talking with him. He is always very cautious around other people and won't have much to do with anyone. However, he seemed pretty intrigued with Santa, especially when he saw that Santa was giving packs of M&M's away. We finally got the courage to go up to Santa, but as soon as he got close, Ryder started screaming. Through his screams and tears, Ryder reached out to give something to Santa...it was an M&M that Ryder had found on the floor and put in his mouth. He had taken it out of his mouth to share with Santa. It was, of course, all nasty and gross, but Santa was a sport and took it (despite my objections). After Santa took the M&M, Ryder immediately stopped crying and decided Santa was ok. Keira, however, has no qualms with anyone. When she saw him walk into the room, she immediately jumped up and ran to give him a big hug. She w...

We have a beautiful Christmas Village in downtown Ogden where different business and/or groups decorate little homes and put in on display. We took the kids to see the lights and they had a ball. Ryder was cracking us up because he ran through the entire thing. He kept slipping and falling on the ice, but was determined that we were not to touch him. He just got back up and kept running. He would stop every now and then to take a look at some of the displays. Then he would say, "Bye Bye," and run off to the next one.

Roger had an "in" with some instructors at a local helicopter flight instruction school. They invited him over for a ride and he had the time of his life. They let him take the controls and fly...they even let him hover for a while. He absolutely loved it. The kids loved it, as well, as they buzzed by the house. In fact, every kid in the neighborhood loved it because the helicopter was very loud and kept flying right over all of our houses. We stood in the driveway and waved to Daddy. Now, whenever Keira sees a helicopter of any sort, she thinks Dad is in it.

We had a great Halloween this year. Grandma Snow got to come up and go trick-or-treating with the kids, which they thought was great. Keira still asks if Grandma can come up so they can go again. This was a scary Halloween for us, as we had poured a new driveway that day. Wet concrete and trick-or-treaters can be a scary mix! Roger dressed up as a snowboarder (kind of a stretch for him, right?) and stayed at the top of the driveway so that no one would try to walk to the doorway. The kids were fascinated with all the tractors and fun things in the yard that day. Ryder dressed up as a ninja and even kept his hat on the whole time. He was very excited to get his candy and didn't even mind having to walk up to a stranger to get it. Suckers were his favorite. Keira had a choice between being a fairy and Thomas the Train. She chose Thomas, which made me very happy as it is clearly an extremely easy costume. She was also very excited about the whole candy thing...anything choco...

Our stake had a Fall Festival over the weekend. They had a live band playing and all sorts of games for the kids to play. We started by "fishing" for prizes, where Keira got a bracelet and Ryder got finger puppets. Keeping with the fish theme, Keira picked a whale to have painted on her face. Ryder would not let anywhere near his face. We furiously painted a sun on his hand, which he was very please with when all was said and done. The kids danced to the band for most of the time. Even Ryder got into it! Keira figured out the cake walk and couldn't wait to get a cupcake so that she could eat the gum drop off of the top. Neither one of the kids would actually eat the cupcake, but Ryder couldn't wait to get ahold of the wrapper to munch on. Roger was at Powder Mountain for a First Aid training, so he couldn't come with us. He was certainly in our thoughts, though, because Keira told everyone she saw that, "Roger is on the mountain."

Weber County Fair We decided to splurge a bit and give the kids their first taste of cotton candy. Keira loved it. As you can see by the stink face Ryder was giving us, he wasn't about to put that weird stuff in his mouth! Can you believe we paid $5 bucks for Keira to ride these ponies!? She loved it so much. She asks us every day to go to Grandpa's house to ride his horse, Brownie. This horse is no Brownie, but she loved it all the same. Ryder had a great time feeding all of the animals until this goat nibbled his finger. He wouldn't go near them after that! Keira, on the other hand, loved every minute of feeding the animals in the petting zoo. The crowning moment of the Weber County Fair was when Keira got to milk a cow. After all her experience riding horses and milking cows, I think she's almost ready for a summer at Grandma and Grandpa Goodman's farm! We had so much fun at the Weber County Fair in Ogden, we decided to go to the Idaho State Fair in Blackfoot. We...

Keira has decided that her favorite thing to do is jump the stairs. She is progressively jumping further and further, to the point that it is starting to make me a bit nervous. Ryder, of course, loves every minute of it and thinks that he can do anything big sister can do. I know...his shirt is disgusting.

Keira is practicing her wakeboarding stance. Good thing Aunt Kathy is so Super Fine, otherwise she may not have been so excited to have a picture of her in a swimsuit posted online. But this is the only picture we have of the boat that was once ours...an awesome little Mastercraft. We have a lot of good memories on that boat and we are glad that Uncle Mike and Aunt Kris bought it so that they will have good memories in it, too!

After getting dunked a few times, Ryder started getting really confident in the water. He wanted to go everywhere by himself and would walk around in water up to his chin like it was nothing. Keira....America's next swimsuit model? We were a bit hesitant at first, but thought we'd start getting the kids to go all the way under the water in the hope that they would get used to the water quicker. Ryder did really well and actually kind of liked it. Keira did much better than we thought she would. She didn't cry when she came back out, but she wasn't about to let me do it again. The kids sometimes take a few minutes to warm up to the water. This little sprinkler section works like a charm!

Keira waited all week to ride one of Grandpa's horses. She finally got to ride Brownie and she was so excited she could hardly stand it. In Utah, she only gets to ride the carousel horses after we are done shopping. She liked the real thing even better! Grandma and Grandpa's new house is right by the river. Grandma takes all the grandkids and cools off in the water. Keira and Ryder are catching pollywogs and crawdads with their cousin, Avery. It was hot and muggy in Missouri, so we really liked spending time at Stockton Lake. The kids liked the water ok, but liked playing in the sand the best. You can see that Ryder had his own bucket, but preferred Keira's pink one. He may be little, but he was clearly big enough to send Keira into meltdown mode. We lit fireworks on the 4th of July in Everton at Grandma and Grandpa's new house (and no...that's not it in the background). Keira loved her little sparklers, but wasn't about to relinquish the hold she had on the...