Family Prayer and Scripture Study and some hard times

Family Prayer has never really been a problem at the Snowden house.  We meet together every night around 9:30 and pray.  Everyone has an assigned night so we know when it is our turn.  Scipture Study has been OK as a family we have read through the BOM 3.5 times now.  Which is really slow.  Some nights everyone is just too tired, including me.  Some nights everyone is too silly and a lot of nights we have watched general conference talks instead of reading the scriptures.  This year we need to try harder to follow the advice of our leaders and be more consistent with our reading. I know it will bring greater blessings to our family and we need to help Austin prepare for his mission!

I just got a new calling to be the Assistant Camp Leader for our Stake. I am really excited and love all the ladies on my board.  I have to give a devotional the first morning of camp to all the YW and leaders of the Stake.  I am a little nervous about this but have a lot of time to prepare so I'll be fine! :)

We have had a hard couple of years financially in our home.  The economy has hit very hard and the construction world has been the recipient of it's wrath.  Somehow Scott has found enough work to keep us afloat but our income has been cut to almost 1/3 of what it was. We are really weighing in on me getting a job outside the home.  The problem is I have no formal education.  (Girls get your education finished :))  If I'm going to work outside the home I want it to at least be helping our family more than hurting it so we are going to start praying and looking at what is our there for me :)  The roller coaster of life has us on a slow climb upward now and I can't wait to get to the top again! :)

Austin's Blessing

Today we had a very special morning.  My Austin received his patriarchal blessing from Orlo McQuewen.  The McQuewens were such a sweet couple and invited us into their home and let us know how awesome they thought Austin was and got to know us in the first half an hour.  Brother McQuewen then went on to give Austin a very touching special blessing.  I was crying through the whole thing of course. Scott and Austin were both very touched by it also.  I'm so excited to get it in the mail so we can read it over and over and save it away somewhere very safe for him.  All these steps are just helping me realize how grown up he is becoming.  And most of all how PROUD I am of the Young Man he is becoming.

The Girls Awesome Studio One Concert

This year I was so excited for the Benefit Concert.  I hadn't seen any of the girls dances since they started learning them.  It's always fun to get a peak at the choreography you'll be cheering for all year.  It is Nikki's first year on a major company team.  She is on Juniors this year.  That was another reason I was excited to watch.  She did great.  I loved all the dances.  Usually some of them have to grow on me but I really loved all of them.  Sidney's senior team is full of Studio One lifers.  It is crazy to see all these girls who have danced together since they were three now in High School and performing like pro's! It's going to be a super fun year!

Do we live in Antarctica??

It is soooooo freaking cold!!  I'm soooooo tired of it! The ground is frozen.  The snow from weeks ago is still on the ground and the roads.  I can't get up the desire to go and run because ice is still all over the sidewalks.  I have a ski pass but I don't want to go up into the cold for the day to ski! All I want to do is snuggle up next to my fire, with my blankie, in my jammies and watch T.V.  This is not the best training for all my races I have coming up but I'll just keep enjoying my excuse to be LAZY!!

Conner isn't SPOILED

The kids are always saying I spoil Conner buy I think everyone in the family is to blame for this.  I constantly see the big kids giving in to him and making him feel like he is king of the home.  This day at a pool in SLC cracked me up.  I know Conner was thinking " Ha Ha once again I've got my brother and sisters right where I want them.  I told Conner my New Years goal was to make him more obedient and nicer.  He wanted to make sure I had a resolution for every kid.  I had to think about that and made one for everyone.  Most of them involve spending more time one on one with each of my kids rather it be skiing, lunch or pedi's. Every week I'm going to take a different kid myself.

AUSTIN 18 AND A SENIOR

Austin turned 18 this month.  It's so hard to believe.  This could be our last Christmas with him for two years.  We are getting him ready for college and he is taking his classes to become an elder.  I remember so much about his youth and what a great kid he has always been.  I'm excited to see the awesome man he is going to become and I love him so dang much.  I better enjoy every minute of him this year!

Never too old for SANTA

Moab

We went to Moab with our great friends the Wilkeys.  We had never taken our family there and I have no idea why.  We had so much fun.  We mountain biked all over.  We hiked the arch.  We went Jeeping over crazy things.  It was so scary but I loved it. Once again we slept in the motor home as a family.  We are getting very used to the squishy motor home. We will spend a lot more time in Moab in our near future!

Our Christmas 2010

As usual we played all Christmas Break!  We went to a Jazz game, the nutcracker, festival of the trees, bought Christmas for an angel, saw a few movies and went skiing.  Christmas Eve we spent with the Stalker family.  It was a lot of fun to see everyone and Jess came down for Christmas Eve and stayed for Christmas morning.  It was so good to have the whole family around for a night.  We cut way back this Christmas with our spending but you wouldn't of been able to tell by the excitement of the house.  I got great deals on Amazon.com and made our dollars really stretch.  Austin got an amp he really wanted, Sid and Jess got new iphone 4's, Nikki got a used computer,and Conner got a lot of fun toys.  This year Conner figured out the Santa secret and it was really sad.  I think we will just keep leaving Santa out and pretending that he came because it is so fun.  I don't want to give that all up.

Skiing at Sundance

This year our whole family got Sundance ski passes.  We have already been 4 times! Turns out to be a cheap family activity once you pay for the passes, the ski's, the snowboards, the ski outfits, the lost gloves, the hot hands, the new helmets you feel guilty not buying for the safety of you children and last but least the sundance chili and nachos that taste extra yummy when you come in from the cold.  We sure have fun though and everyone is getting really good.  It is beautiful up there if it would just warm up a titch!

Cousins

We went to festival trees again this year with the cousins.  The next week we had a huge cousin sleepover with all the Stalker side kids.  It was a blast.  We cooked, made ginger bread houses, and danced.  We hung out at Pirate Island for hours, everyone got a ballon animal and tons of tickets.  All the cousins then slept together on the family room floor and watched Kung Fu Panda.  The next morning we loaded them all into Grandma's van and took them to Kripsy Kreme in their pajamas.  This has become an Aunt Sandi tradition that they all expect when they sleep over at our house.  We came home and gathered everyone up and they went home.  Now that I have no more little ones in the house I really appreciate those little ones so much more.  They are just adorable! Kids, I'm not in a hurry but it makes me excited to be a fun, spoiling grandma!

The New Year!

Another year has come and gone.  2010 was a pretty good year.  We did a ton of stuff as a family together. We all grew emotionally and spiritually through various trails thrown our way.  We had some great trips to Moab, Disneyland, and San Franciso. Excited for the new year and all it has to give.  Bring it on we are ready to face the good and the bad. ( Hopefully more good times)