Hanging out with Grandpa Snarr

Janell and I were trying to give Grandpa a smooch. We all were laughing so hard that I couldn't catch his cheeks.

Chapin, Mason, Kaylee, and Rachel.

We love our grandpa so dearly. He is at the top of my list as a goodhearted person. I loved, admired, and enjoyed him as a grandpa all growing up and am really thankful that my kids have gotten to know and love him. As an adult I've only learned to love him more. He has a great sense of humor, an incredible work ethic, a pure heart, and a desire to serve others. And so many other remarkable traits. When I read through Rachel's school journal entries from the fall she said that "Today I went to my other home to juice apples with my family." The short few months that we lived with them until our last house was finished has really stayed with us. We grew really close to Grandpa and Grandma Snarr and learned a lot about what it means to live a great life. It brings tears to my eyes just trying to write about how much they mean to us.

Birthday Cake

We made Kaylee a princess castle for a cake. It was yummy. The kids ate cake out of the cones. Aunt Nellie spoiled her with the princess crown, baby, and a darling dress. Bubba melted my heart by getting her a stuffed cow (she loves to moo). Grammy went in with us on a kids table for the play room. We let her pick out her own chair. She loves to make play dough creations on it. We can't believe how she is growing up!

Kaylee's Birthday at the Riot Zone

I can't believe that my baby has already turned two! You can tell by the grin on her face that she is a delight.

This family has a need for speed! We raced each other on the track. Kaylee loved cruising with daddy. We all had fun trying to catch and pass each other. Janell was the speed demon that no one could catch.

All grins!

Rachel and Grammy

Phill and Mason

Afterwards we headed for the bumper boats. Kaylee didn't like them, we got soaked and they were noisy and stinky. Rachel and Chapin had fun crashing and soaking each other.

Field Day

Last day of school ! The kids played lots of games and then the fire-truck came and hosed all of them, shooting water clear across the grounds. Chapin got soaked but Rachel stayed out of the water.

This month has been lots of fun at school. Rachel has had a Luau and a talent show and Chapin has had a BBQ and Mother's tea. They both had exceptional teachers and have done a great job with their schoolwork. We love our school!

Oops

Kaylee decided to help daddy make egg croissants and oops went the eggs. She exclaimed "eew" which is her new favorite word.

Yard

Talk about Tonka trucks! Byron had a ball ba-ha-ing around in the bobcat. We had our excavator do a lot of dirt work for us in efforts to redirect water that runs onto our property from the hill but after the flood (our walk-out flooded with the Feb run-off) we decided to beef up the burms. We also made them more rolly and park-like. We planted some pine trees and are looking into lots of other trees. It's getting exciting! It was noisy in the bobcat so Byron could not hear me to tell him were to make my landscaping mounds and the ridges for the rock so I was holding Kaylee and yelling and waving my arm to direct him. Later Kaylee would see the bobcat outside or in the driveway and would yell and wave her hands at it. It was funny!

Kaylee's 4 Wheeler

Kaylee squeals over her 4 Wheeler. She loves cruising around on it and trying to keep up with the kids on their bikes.

Easter

Easter was a lot of fun. We went to Tremonton this year and spent the weekend with Byron's family. Everyone went to the egg hunt in Kaysville. The cousins also had an egg hunt at Nana and Papa's. The Frew's had baby chicks that the kids got to see. We also celebrated Hanna's birthday. When we got home we also found some Easter fun waiting for us.

Chapin's Spotlight

We had fun spotlighting Chapin in his class. We got to share some fun pics and tell about him: his favorites, where his name came from, some of the fun experiences he has had, and how much we love and enjoy him. We shared cookies and kool-aid and played some fun games with his class. I can't believe how much he has grown - a big kindergartner!

Rachel Cheerleading

This is one of my favorite pics. Mostly because we actually got one of one of her stunts. She moves too fast to get too many pics during stunts and tumbling. This was at a competition earlier this year in Utah. Rachel is so small but really tight from ballet that she gets to be a flyer. I've had mixed feelings about that as mom. They had a barrel toss (she was the toss) in their routine but she was dropped (on the soft mats at practice) and decided she didn't want to risk it on the hard gym floor during performance. Her coach commented that they wouldn't be able to get another girl at this age to be able to do the stunt, that Rachel had really mature strength and timing abilities.

Rachel loves cheer leading. She has had fun performing at local high school halftimes. Here they are opening for the Eastern Idaho Competition a few weeks ago. These pics are dark, we need a new flash bulb for our camera. She is the one in front on the first row.

State Chess Tournament

Rachel and Chapin participated in the state chess tournament hosted at their school. The did really well. Rachel had two wins and three draws.

Chapin had one win, two losses, and two draws. He played both kindergartners and older first graders. Rachel and Chapin just started getting into the game this fall at our new school. They teach chess as part of their curriculum. Byron played in state and national chess tournaments when he was their same ages. The experience helped both of them to improve their game and confidence. We were proud of them for sticking the long day out and playing so many games.

Happy New Year

We were a bunch of party animals at Grammy's house this year. (She was sacked out on the couch). Rachel was the only little one that stayed up. We played monopoly - the once a year if that game- which Byron literally cleaned house and then we had a movie marathon until 4 in the morning. Byron would have pulled an overnighter but we made him call it quits.

We partied in style with some funny hats, blowers, and poppers!

Bry and Kay were up from St. George and Janell and Phill of course were out. Gramps didn't even take the couch. He went to bed.

Yeah, Good Times!

Sledding on Christmas Day

The Christmas Day blizzard kept the Grandparents snowed in and unable to come for Christmas dinner so we decided to make the most of it and go sledding in our back yard. The walkout made a nice hill. Rachel built a cave. It was a little dark for good pics.