A Snyder tradition

that James and I have carried on from his family is adding a new ornament to our Christmas tree each year. This is our ornament for this year symbolizing all the new beginnings we have had this year: Charity moving to a new school (and there have been a ton of "new" things there), James moving to a new bank, and our family starting a new business.

We can't wait to see what 2009 has in store for us!

Christmas evening

we invited the fam over for dinner and games. These are some of the pictures taken with the "professionals camera."

Christmas morning at home

just the three of us!

Christmas Eve at the Snyder's

Judy prepared a delicious meal for the family, and James made another delicious (but spicy) fried turkey- that I can't seem to get enough of.

Then Judy read us the Christmas story. Trey illustrated it for us by opening these little boxes in numerical order in order to set up the stable picture for us. This was my favorite part! :D

I can't believe I didn't get a picture of our little worker in his tool belt. He didn't take it off all night. I wonder if he slept in it? (To see a picture of one, or order one of your own check out the Randall's blog on our home page.)

There are more pictures to share BUT they were taken by the professional ... and he hasn't shared them yet.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

from our card playing home to yours!

Christmas at the Carver's

We celebrated Christmas a few days early to have the whole family together... which seems to be growing each year.

The whole gang was here, and after passing out all the gifts we started with the time honored tradition of opening our stockings first.

Even Buddy liked his wrapped gift!

Jay was thinking about re-gifting his John Wayne gift box until he saw what was really inside (apparently he didn't snoop- this year!)

Emma loved the paper!

All around it seemed to be another years for the COWBOYS (blankets and more blankets, a jersey, and even a brick- not cast stone- at the new stadium)!

A few "professional" pictures

of our little four legged kid.

I say professional because it seems to be Grandpa S's new hobby in which everyone asks him to video tape or take pictures -for what ever occasion it may be. In turn it has given him a chance to get new and improved equipment. These pictures happened the other night when he had a "new" lense on loan from the store to see if he liked it before purchasing it (wouldn't that be nice with everything we buy). Apparently Mikey liked it- for over an hour he just kept taking pictures of Grace (and her owners but those just didn't make the cut) and thankfully she cooperated.

Grandpa has complained for the last 2 years that he has never been able to get a good picture of Grace- but I think he has finally succeeded! Sorry Gram, I'm not sure how much this is going to cost you?

It wouldn't be Christmas without a few holiday crafts.

This year James got a little intrigued and wanted to help, then excited, which lead to... stress coming up with new and invented ways of painting the perfect ornament.

Each one was unique and beautiful just like the people receiving them!

A fall blessing

I'm sorry if you get a crick in your neck looking at the pictures- but there was no other way to get them. This is one of our fabulous Gerber daisy's that God blessed us with in early November. I couldn't believe my eyes when I realized that we had twins! I had never seen this before and just had to share how truly awesome our God is!

The cutest trick-o-treater!

This was by far the cutest trick-o-treater we had stop by our house. Except the only treat we got was a stinky diaper left on our front porch from this little stink bug... I mean ladybug. Let's just say we had to turn off the porch lights and the last kids got the candy bowl "dumped" in their bag- SURPRISE!

You can tell a lot about a person when they play cards with you, or is it they can tell a lot about you?

Lynn was a good sport playing cards with the family. I think she left Austin feeling like one of the us. She will become an official member of our family on January 10th- stay tuned for pics.

Halloween taken a bit too far

I know it may be hard to believe what people will do, but I didn't take this picture... I only had a little elf take it who can vouch for this absurdity!

I only wished I had the capability to find this car now and see it's decorations for Christmas. My guess it is a Santa squished to the front of their car.

Dinner at the "new" Oasis

My grandfather and Lynn (his finance') flew in for the October birthday's and we took them to dinner at the new - or should I say remodeled Oasis. It was a beautiful evening and the food was delicious.

(our camera doesn't take very good evening shots- sorry)

More of God's creatures

It appears that we have our very own Noah's ark at our house. Here are some pictures of the very cool caterpillars "hanging and eating around" in our back yard.

I haven't gotten any pictures of the many butterflies, yet. But hope to soon.

And whether or not you want to believe me- we even had an armadillo in our front yard this morning snacking in the pouring down rain. That was a strange sight to see!

Also not pictured are the 7 dear that roamed in front of our car coming home Friday night down by the pool. (there were pictures, but the images were a bit to dark to be believable)

This little piggy went to market

and this little pig -went to school to teach all the little kindergartners about banking and how to save their money.

It sure is great to have a community job and know a teacher! Lucky U :D

A year of Jubilee

ie: mother- in- loves 50th birthday as she liked to call it. Yes, I promised (maybe even sweared) that there would not be anything BLACK or out of line. Gee, I can't imagine what ever she could mean. Me? The designated organizer not celebrating in style?

Well, as you can see I didn't get away with much!

Pink and more pink with a touch of silver is what I got away with. Thanks to the guys for putting up with the nauseating decor- that of course didn't go without a few Pepto-Bismol comments. I guess I was afraid of what my retaliation might look like. That's the trouble with having birthdays so close together... there isn't enough time to forget -even if you are 50.

Everyone was asked to bring a piece of pink fabric, of course, that will be turned into a very special quilt sewn by "the pink hat lady" herself.



Thanks to Mrs. Cotton who shared the cake recipe (3 years ago for a very special little girl's shower) and who almost got a call to bail me out on having to make a three layered, don't have that size or shape pans, fresh strawberries inside and out with homemade icing, and a never before seen recipe. OH, yeah not to mention garnish with fresh strawberries that leak, and eventually run off the cake yummy goodness. Everyone seemed to like it but me- then again we are our own worst critic, aren't we.

We did it...

kind of. The house didn't burn down, and the only thing that got well done- not burned just dry, was the pork loin. Unfortunately that's what happens when the King leaves the Queen in charge.

Now I'm off to do another Queens job, cleaning, bummer!

The KING has left the building!

or should I say the king of the grill/smoker left me and my side kick in charge of not letting the fire die out on the requested brisket for the mother-n-loves 50th birthday celebration.
You see this is the man's job. The woman's is to light the candle and make the house smell good, but when duty calls (or should I say work) I'm the next best thing or should I say "watcher" as appose to letting the house catch on fire. My instructions consisted of don't let the thermometer get below 200 or above 250. Watch the flame and make sure it doesn't go out. Here is the wood to add..blah, blah, blah, blah. After the first 2 minutes of instructions I clarified that he would has his cell phone handy just in case...right? "Oh, yeah! I'll have it on loud." Great! That's all I needed to know!

You see if they really wanted to make grilling attractive they would make the tools and product prettier- don't you think? Then us women would probably take a little bit more interest in it. You see I have been alone with IT for 2 hours now and I have been racking my brain on how to make this "my baby". Could I bedazzle it? Paint it? Modge podge it? Spoof it up? Still nothing came to mind so I decided to BLOG it. That's a Charity thing!

Well the clock tells me I have to go check it...stay tuned. :D