We are finally getting the snow that has been eluding us for so long. It's not a lot but we have a little over 12 inches now, and that is plenty for the kids to have fun outside sledding and various other activities! We just about have enough snow to build a snow house to sleep in and the kids are very anxious to do that again this year. Yesterday was the college championship football game where Ohio played against LSU and lost, so it is a sad day for the Snyder household. They did well though for only having 2 starting seniors on the team. I am getting the bindings put on my cross country ski's so that I can get out in the snow for some exercise too! Hope all is well with everyone. bye for now.

Thanksgiving is almost in 1 week!!

I can't believe how the fall has flown by and the winter has crept in on us. We had our first snow last Thursday that has stuck around for more than a day. Our hay tunnels are complete and Emma's birthday has passed us by as well. In our hay tunnel we had over 1400 kids go through which set an all time record for us. They had an amazing time and the staff that worked them enjoyed talking with all the different groups that went through. Emma had a great birthday...we made caramel apples, hit the pinyata, and went through the hay tunnel. She keeps telling everyone now that she is still 5 as if she could lose it or something. It is so cute. Emma is doing school this year and having fun with it. She does well and can sit for about two hours at a time to work on it with me. Madison is trying to work on school as well so I have given her books on shapes and letters for her to do, which makes her feel like a big girl! Heidi is crawling and standing up everywhere. She is constantly moving and does not like it when her mommy leaves her sight at any time. Somewhat frustrating, but can be really cute as well. She can be quite aggressive if you do not feed her food when she wants it, and right now she wants to eat all the time because of a growth spurt!!
Chad and I are working out most mornings and keeping each other in check when it comes to food. We have added more salads and vegetables to our diet and now we are trying to work on healthy snacks and portion control. Please pray for me especially because this year has been a depressing one for me since I gained about 30lbs since Heidi was born , and now to motivate myself to get out there and just start working hard on this has been a slow process. I know what I have needed to do in my head for a long time but to actually put it into practice is proving to be so much harder for me.
In Faith of Christ,
Stephanie for all

The End of Camp is Near

Next week is our last week of camp. We are surprised at how quickly the summer has disappeared. We said goodbye to our last work team on Sunday. There were 24 people from Altoona, PA. Chad has been in charge of taking care of the groups this summer so he has been busy keeping them busy! Each of the groups came over and I cooked Pizza for them and Chad did the salmon/halibut cooking. We had such a good time visiting with each of them (the 3 different groups we had over) and truly appreciate all of the hard work they put in to help camp out with its' projects.
Emma and Madison have been playing hard outside and have developed a beautiful tan! They love playing with their friends Katie, Jordan, Zechari, Audren, and Trent. Their favorite thing to play is some form of princess and Zechari and Trent get to be the lucky boys whom the princesses marry! Thankfully they know they are just pretending!!!
My littlest is trying her hardest to be crawling at 4 months of age. She has gotten up on all 4's today and pushed herself forward, so we will see what happens. She is sleeping wonderfully though. She sleeps about 10-12 hours at night with one feeding at about hour 7 and then she takes 2, 3 hour naps each day. She has been a pretty easy baby, which makes life easier.
My garden is doing ok, I had a huge bug infestation on my tomato plants and I was able to kill them all, but I don't know if my tomato plants will produce much this year because of that. I have been getting lots of lettuce and radishes. My carrots are very sweet and the beets are looking healthy. I also had Holli help me landscape my front yard and it looks absolutely gorgeous now.

summer!

We thought that we had summer, it was here and the weather was warm and we played in the sun and the water, and then the rain came, and came, and has never really left and the sun disappeared and we all want it back!! We have been trying to be unselfish and send it to other states that need rain but it is not listening! However the benefits of rain are nice green trees and grass.
My greenhouse is up and my plants are loving it. Next year will be better because I will get lots of manure for it in the fall so the soil will be better as well. My plants were put in the greenhouse a little later than I wanted, but I think that we will still get a good growing season in.
My sister had a wonderful wedding and the three girls and I went down for it. The date was June 22, 2007 and Emma and Madison made the cutest flower girls ever! My dad had told them to walk really slow and they did. It took them a good 4 min. to get down the aisle and the best part about it was they arrived at the end just as the song was ending!
It was fun to visit with all of our cousins and aunts and uncles as well. All of the cousins on my mom's side of the family were there so we of course had to document it well with many photo ops :).
While we were in Montana my mom and I took the girls to the water slides and they had a blast! After 4 hours there they were still wanting to play and go down the slides. It was the perfect day for it because it was 100 degrees outside and the water was cool so it was nice and refreshing.
Now we have been enjoying the company of my sister-in-law. The girls are having lots of fun and we all go on daily walks together. It is always nice to have friends and family around to visit with. I always do enjoy a nice adult conversation every once in a while!!
Heidi is getting big and can roll over now. She is itching to start crawling and moving around. We are working on getting a good nap routine down but she is starting to fight sleep a little bit which is making it hard on mommy:)
I am starting to get my exercising in more as Heidi gets more independent and Chad is doing more as well. We are all eating healthier and making better decisions in that direction, which is the first time that we all are making it a group effort.

beginning again

Well this time that I hope to begin writing in this on a regular weekly basis if not more. We are gearing up for the summer with this coming weekend beginning it all. We will have more than 200 people come to help us clean up the camp and get things ready for all of the campers that are to come. The weather is not supposed to be very nice with lots of rain in the forecast for the week, but we are hopeful that it will change! The girls are spending almost every waking moment outside playing with our next door neighbors. They have 5 children and we have our three so it makes for a lot of fun playing. Heidi is growing and eating and sleeping so we are doing well. She will be 8 weeks old in a few days and I am amazed at how fast time passes. I enjoy cuddling with her and seeing her smile at us. She is a very smiley baby with lots of personality. My garden is halfway planted. Right now I am waiting for Chad to finish my greenhouse and then I can plant the rest of my plants. I am really excited to have one, because it will help our garden grow so much better. We have just not been having extremely warm summers so this year I am hoping to get a lot of veggies to can for the winter!

Let it snow, let it snow!!!

We had another 6 inches of snow fall on last night and it is expected to snow some more!! Today the staff has 5 tube hills that last 2 hours apiece. Chad is plowing the roads because there is a rental group arriving tomorrow and James is on call to plow for a company in town so he is gone doing that, so that makes today is a very busy day for the other three staff members!
We had two moose in our back yard this morning and the mama moose tried to stomp the neighbors dog, luckily the dog was able to get out of the way.
Yesterday, some of my friends and I got together for a tea party. With just four of us we had eleven kids all together, with two more on the way in just a few months!!! We had an enjoyable time together and it is always fun to sit and have tea. We used to have a tea parlor in town that we all met at, but it went out of business so we are left doing at home. It is always nice to have interactions with other young mothers like myself and to trade stories about our experiences.
Chad and I have been rearranging the bedrooms again so that we are ready for the new baby. I have been able to really get rid of the extra clutter that we have by having to go through everything so many times!! The moving has been good for me to get that kind of thing done.

Sleeping in the snow....kind of :)

On Thursday the 28th of December, the girls and I attempted to sleep outside in our makeshift snow house. Everything went smoothly for the girls, but a 6 month pregnant mother was having a hard time finding the right spot to fall asleep in. So the poor girls had to wake up after only three hours of sleeping outside to come inside with their mother for some better sleep! They were both very disappointed and told me that they had been very good and were very warm! Alas it is hard to explain to a 4 year old that mommy is not comfy and cannot make it through the night having to get up every 45 min. to use the bathroom! We are thinking of trying it again another night after we, Chad and I, have made some modifications to the old snow house. For now the girls will have to suffer sleeping in their nice soft warm beds!

catching up!!!

Christmas Eve is upon us, and yesterday we received one foot of snow as a wonderful present from above. The kids have had so much fun going outside and rolling and crawling around in the snow. We even have some nice hills for them to sled down around our house so they can spend a lot of time there with their friends. Chad has spent much of this last week catching up since he was gone for two weeks with his dad in Ohio. Today he has been plowing all the snow! His favorite job. I have been keeping our walk way and patio shoveled and since we have all this new snow the girls and I are going to make a big snow cave to sleep in. This is the only time of year I feel safe sleeping outside in our back yard, so I might as well have fun while we freeze at night :). On Thursday, camps' snow camp will begin. The kids come from Anchorage and surrounding areas as well as from the peninsula to have fun playing in the snow, going to chapels, and spending time with friends. We have two camps; one for the young kids and a camp for the older ones. We wish everyone a merry Christmas and hope that you can cherish the times that you spend with your loved ones.