Frosty Buddy

Well, Brian and the kiddos went back outside in the snow. The snow is perfect for making a snowman. So that is what they did. They created "Frosty Buddy."

Thanksgiving and SNOW!

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! We had a good one and ate too much! We had Thanksgiving at my mom's house this year. We ate at noon. It was so yummy! My grandma did an awesome job on the turkey. It was very moist. After we ate we cleaned up my mom's kitchen. Then the men watched football. The women started to plan for Christmas. Then I went with my grandma and aunt julie to help put up my grandma's christmas. Then I went back over to my mom's house. We were going to watch a movie but her cable wasn't working right. We just ended up eating more and talking. It was a relaxing day!

Last night it started to snow. I worked last night so I had a fun time driving home this morning. When I woke up today, Brian was getting the kiddos ready to go outside to play. They were super excited to get out in the snow! They had a blast playing in the snow, making snowballs, and throwing the snowballs. Then Brian took them around in the sled. Ava's favorite part was falling in the snow and eating it. Hayden's favorite part was the sled.

The kid's table

My grandma getting the turkey ready to eat

The table

Sportin their turkey hats, again

Getting ready to go out in the snow

The men watching football

Hayden eating his pumpkin pie and Ava's pie

The family

Aunt Julie, Grandma, and my mom

Sled fun!

Ava eating the snow (with a side of dirt)

Hayden having fun!

Pure Joy!

"Nobody puts Baby in a corner!"

This past weekend I went to Chicago with Megan and Ashley. We had a blast! We left Friday at noon. When we got to Chicago we checked into our hotel, The Allegro. It was very nice and very modern. We got a taxi and headed to The Melting Pot. So yummy! We spent two hours eating. We were so full, so we walked back to our hotel. It was freezing but nice to get out and walk. We relaxed for a little bit and then got ready to go see, Dirty Dancing, the musical. The theater was next door to our hotel so we didn't have to go far. The show was absolutely amazing!!!!! They did just about every scene from the movie. The set was amazing. The best was Baby. She looked and souded just like Jennifer Grey. Her mannerisms, too. If you can go see it, GO!!!!! Two thumbs up. If you want someone to go with let me know, because I would go see it again! We went back to our hotel and got ready for bed. We were all pretty tired. They didn't have any rooms left with two beds or any cots so we all slept in the king sized bed together. We woke up and left the hotel by 9am. We headed to the suburbs for some shopping. Then we ate at The Cheesecake Factory and headed home. We got home about 5:30pm. We had a great time!

I added a few pictures of Hayden and Ava with their turkey hats. I thought they were cute!
Oh, by the way, have I mentioned that I will be graduating in three weeks? I am super excited!!!

Megan enjoying cheese fondue

Ashley getting the bread all cheesey

Our hotel room

This was our main course

Ashley and me being silly with our animal print robes that were in our room

outside the theater

Megan and Ashley feeding each other dessert

The three of us

Hearts and The Rockettes

Last night we had a surprise "heart" party for my mom. This past Sunday was the anniversary of my mom's emergency open heart surgery. We are very lucky that she is here with us. God was with her a year ago when she decided to go to the ED because she wasn't feeling right. She ended up getting emergency surgery that night. So, to celebrate the milestone we surprised her. She was very shocked and had no idea what was happening. Hayden and Ava helped me decorate our dining room by cutting out hearts and putting them on the wall. We added balloons so it would be more festive. We had a great evening with our family. When my mom came to the door, Hayden was supposed to say "Surprise" but instead he said "Trick-or-Treat." He was a little confused. Ava was hiding. Anyway you can look at the pictures.

Tonight my mom had bought tickets for the Radio City Music Hall, The Rockettes for Hayden and Ava's birthday. It was AMAZING!!!!!! It was a super show. We had seats on the floor so we could see really well. There was so much to see. There was Santa, fake snow, a moving bus, ice skaters, flying people, an amazing portrayal of the nativity, and of course the Rockettes. Their costumes were so pretty. Ava did not move the entire show. It was action packed and she loved the dancers. Hayden liked it too, but he ended up falling asleep on me. I don't know if it was too stimulating for him and so he checked out but the parts he saw he really enjoyed. His favorite was seeing Santa. Then the funny part of the evening was beginning. We had gone to the 4pm show and it was over at 5:30pm. So we decided to go eat at Chili's. We got there and we had a 35 minute wait, so they said. We waited 40minutes and decided to leave. We got to Morton and went to Cracker Barell, thinking there would be no wait. We were wrong again. We had to wait 15minutes. By this time it was 7pm. We finally sat down and ordered. We were all starving. We got our food and most of it was wrong. Of course one of the mistakes was on my food. So I had to wait longer. Go figure! Then my mom had to wait in a long line to pay. It was 8pm, what are these people doing eating so late? He, He. Anyway, we had a great night! Good Times!

Grandma and Grandpa with the grandkids

The family enjoying dinner

The healthy heart Mom/Grandma

The decorations

Another view of the decorations

In Celebration of......

Elliot Kenneth Snyder. Tomorrow we celebrate the short life of our second son, Elliot. He was born 10 days after Gabriel. He was 21 weeks gestation. It happened mid morning. Brian was taking a shower in my room to get ready for work. My water broke again, out of the blue. I screamed for him and then he called the nurse. I was checked and there was nothing they could do to stop him from coming. I was going to deliver him that morning. The doctors were really worried because they didn't know if I would just deliver him or all the babies. My contractions were hurt really bad! I remember one of the doctors feeling my belly while I was having a contraction and he said, "Yeah, those are hard contractions." I was like, Yeah, I know. Anyway, I pushed Elliot out and he was born with a heartbeat, but no interventions were done due to the fact that he was too early. It is so hard to deal with, even now, that both Gabriel and Elliot were born with heartbeats and nothing could be done. It breaks my heart to think if they were in pain or not. I just remember praying for God to take them home quickly so they could be comforted. I did not post any pictures of Elliot because I don't have any good ones to show. The good thing about him being born in the morning was that our families were able to be with us and everyone got to hold Elliot. Also, after Gabriel was born, I never wanted to be left alone. So, Brian's mom, Paula, came from Ecuador (they were missionaries there at the time) to stay with me. It was so nice to have someone with me. Not just to talk, but to have someone in the room while I was sleeping, too. I will always be so thankful for Paula being with me. It really meant a lot to me. Also, to my mom. She was still working and some days she would stay with me. She always made sure things were done for me. She would bring my own sheets into the hospital and my favorite was she would brush my hair for me. It was so relaxing. Also, she would encourage me to keep going and to stay strong. There were so many days when I would cry and say that I couldn't do this. Anyway, tomorrow I have to go to clinical because it is my last one. So, after clinical Brian, me, Hayden and Ava will go to the gravesite and let balloons go for Elliot. Please pray for me that I have a good day at clinical!

Tim Hawkins

Hilarious!

Ok, I just had to share with you that Brian and I just got finished watching a hilarious DVD. It is Tim Hawkins in Concert: Full Range of Motion. He is a Christian comedian and so funny!!! my favorite parts are when he does music parodies using songs we all know. He talks about regular every day things and things that go on at church. I recommend anyone to watch this DVD. Then if you do or have watched it already let me know.

Ambulance trip....

Well, this morning I was on my way out the door and I saw Hayden sitting up in his bed at 6:15am. So I took him in our room to be with Brian while he got ready for work. When I picked him up he started to dry heave, which is his precursor to a seizure. I was hoping that was not going to happen but I was wrong. He started dry heaving more on the potty so I had Brian take him off and then he started having a seizure. He does not have seizures that people think of when you fall down and start jerking your body. He has absent seizures. That is exactly how he acts. He does not respond to you, he stares, he moves his mouth up and down and his lips/mouth go blue. Very scary!!!! I called 911 and by the time the ambulance got to our home his seizure had stopped. So, Brian went with him to the hospital and I followed behind in our van. He is fine. He is back to his normal self. We were discharged from the hospital by 8:30am. We had weaned him off his seizure medication two months ago. So now he is back on his medication.

I have been extremely busy with school work. I presented my huge senior project on Wednesday and I have another presentation on Monday. Tonight I finished another paper. I do not work this weekend so I am looking forward to spending time with the family. We plan on going to see the new Madagascar movie on Saturday. The first one just cracks me up.

I posted a few pictures. They got out of order and I don't know why but we made cookies the other night just for fun and then last weekend Hayden got to spend time with Grandpa out at Mackinaw. When we picked him up we found him on the tractor driving it with Grandpa's help. He was in heaven.

Making cookies for fun!

Hayden driving the tractor

This is how we found them. Two peas in a pod!

In Celebration of......

Gabriel Paul Snyder. Today is the anniversay of our first son's birth and going home to Jesus. It has been five years and it still feels like it happened today. Most of you know that I was pregnant with quintuplets (five babies). I was admitted into the hospital on October 18 because my water had broke. I held on for two weeks and then on Nov. 3, Gabriel decided to be born. I had stood up and felt my cervix open/close. I made it back to my bed and screamed for a nurse. She came and checked me and told me to move my leg. I was petrified because I knew in my heart it was a baby. Unfortunately I was right. Gabriel was born. It was in the middle of the night so Brian was not with me. One of the nurses called him and he rushed to the hospital. Gabriel was alive (he had a heart beat) but because he was only 20 weeks he was not viable for them to do any interventions. So we got to hold him while he left the earth and went to heaven. I remember just sobbing. My heart hurt so bad. I had never felt that kind of sadness before. A couple days later we had a small memorial in my hospital room because I was still pregnant with four babies. So, I was going no where! Brian's dad did the memorial and it was perfect. I debated about putting a picture up of Gabriel because this is such a personal thing but I decided to share our precious Gabriel with you. This morning we went and did our ritual of going to get balloons and then going to the gravesite so we could let them go.

Trick or Treat!!!!!

Last night was a blast!!!! This was the most fun Halloween, yet! Hayden and Ava really understood the concept of trick or treating. In fact, after a few houses Hayden told us, "You don't need to come up with us." I was kinda sad. Ok, I was really sad. Then while we were walking on the sidewalk Hayden said, "This is more fun than riding my bike." We were all cracking up. It was me, Brian, my mom, and my Aunt Julie. We started at 5pm and went to my Grandma's place. She lives at Parkside so we walk around there and knock on the doors. The older people really enjoy seeing the kids. Then we went to my mom's subdivision. It was really busy there. We walked around part of the neighborhood. Then the kids got too tired walking. They were satisfied with what they had. We got in the van and drove to one more place. We stopped at Emmie and Keith's house. By that time the sugar had kicked into Hayden's system. He was a crazy, crazy boy. He was all of the place! I mean he was running around, he picked up her Jack-O-Lantern pillow and kept saying, "Hello, Jack" So funny! Then we went back to my mom's house for pizza! We had a great time! Enjoy the pictures.
Oh, I wanted to say again that my mother-in-law made their costumes. I think she did an amazing job! They really turned out adorable!!!!

Trick or Treating at Emmie's house

I saw my first elebug!