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)