Snowed In.

We have not had school yet this week due to snow and cold temperatures. (This morning when I woke up it was 3 DEGREES!) Many people complain about snow days, because it does mean we have to go longer into summer, but I will take a day at home when I can get it- snowy or sunny. At this time of year a few extra days come in handy. Since we have bee home Clark and I have been busy. I have cleaned, addressed cards and made some tasty treats all the while playing trains and watching lots of Mickey, Thomas and The Wiggles. The forecast is calling for more snow tomorrow night so who knows about school for the rest of the week, so if you have any activity ideas for a two year old, send them my way! Of course I have been taking lots of pictures, so here are a few to show you what we have been up to around here in Snyderville.

We woke up early on Monday morning to help daddy shovel his way out.

It was hard to shovel in mittens- so he took em' off.

Big helper.

We have done a lot of Barney lovin'.

I worked in my closet.
BEFORE

AFTER

We took the front of the crib & made the BIG BOY BED.
Day 2= success thus far!

We made these for our friends.

We found a new use for trifle bowl.

I made a wreath for the mantel mirror.

We slept in on Tuesday & had a late breakfast.
This kid woke up (in BIG BOY BED) at 9:45am!!

We made a trip to Target where I nearly finished Christmas shopping & we bought this.

Our Gingerbread Train- GREAT SNOW DAY ACTIVITY.

He LOVED putting the candy on.

And might have eaten some of the ingredients! :)



Our finished product.
No, it will not be winning any awards- but it was fun.





It has been a productive and enjoyable two days at home. The roads were fine when we drove to Target today, so we will see about school tomorrow!! I don't know about you, but I am excited for GLEE tonight- rerun or not that show makes me smile. LOVE IT. Speaking of GLEE, do any of you watch The Sing Off? It is on Monday nights and I think it is on tomorrow too. It is very entertaining and I LOVE it too- watch it!
Off to eat dinner and bathe this wild child of mine!

Stay Warm!

Christmas Card Reveal

I have mentioned before that not much makes me happier than getting mail. So the Christmas season is like a perma-high for me. I love all aspects of it, but I LOVE going to the mailbox each day to see the fun Christmas cards. I especially love the cards with adorable pet pictures, vacation photo cards and cards with your cute kids on them. I display them as long as I can get away with it and equally love sending my own.  This year I used Shutterfly again and was more than thrilled with the outcome!
Not only are they adorable, but they were FREE! Yes, you heard that right. Free for blogging about them. They were $1.79 each for 50 but because of this awesome deal I got them free & it is my favorite card I have sent yet! I thought this card was perfect because I take so many pictures of Clark throughout the year.

WHAT DO YOU THINK??
  


Thank you SHUTTERFLY. As if I needed another reason to love you even more!
And thanks to this snow day I now have them all addressed and ready to send!!

Thomas Party & Santa Sighting

The snow is flying and I am being so L-A-Z-Y. I have put off everything I had planned to do today in hopes that there will be no school tomorrow. I hope this does not turn out to be a bad idea. We went to church, stopped by Kroger (with EVERYONE else in town...no carts!) and headed home. Since I have been here I have done no laundry and not cleaned one thing. I have a pile of clothes in my bathroom that I am supposed to have hung and ready to go to the consignment store tomorrow that are still waiting on me. I have made some Santa cookies with my little Santa lover and managed to get Stuart to put his NFL Sunday Ticket on pause long enough to watch Polar Express. C loved it and calls it Christmas Express. Of course he loved it, it involved trains. :) We are now all hanging around in the dusty living room wearing our sweats, with a floor covered in trains & blankets and watching T.V. It has been quite the relaxing day and I would love to do it all again tomorrow.

This weekend we went to a Thomas The Train birthday party in Lexington. My child was in heaven. (THANKS KENTON!) He loved every minute of the event. It was like his dream world. I am thinking he would have stayed there forever had I left him. The pictures speak for themselves. I am thinking if this Thomas addiction remains this strong in June, we may have found the perfect birthday spot.

They had 3 train tables.

A Thomas you could ride on!

They even got to paint their own train!

C hard at work on his masterpiece.

Lovin' every minute of it.

Since we were in Lexington we decided to try and visit Santa. C has been talking all about him, but I was a little worried how he would react to seeing him in person. The girls at the party told me that the Santa at Lexington Green TOOK RESERVATIONS! So I called and made an appointment. How perfect! So we went and did not have to wait in a long line. He was a little whimpery at first as he watched two little boys ahead of him. But once it was his turn he did fine. Santa asked him what he would like for Christmas and he said "Trains". Santa asked him what else he wanted and he replied "just trains". It was super cute and I was one proud momma. So proud that I paid $30.00 for the entire disk of pictures. Look how BIG he is!

My sweet boy & Santa.

Yes, Santa- just trains!



 After leaving Santa we shopped for ONE WHOLE HOUR at Joesph Beth Bookstore. He was so good and I scored a ton of books for my classroom. They has an entire section on sale. We are talking $1.99 books and then they let me use m 20% educator discount on top of that! I was thrilled.  It was such a wonderful evening - Great party, successful Santa visit, well behaved 2 year old and cheap children's books!  And nearly equally exciting news just flashed across my screen:
 NO SCHOOL TOMORROW!! 
Now, I am off to put my boy to bed and enjoy my time with the Housewives and the Walkers in their entiriety knowing that I do not have to be up at 5:30 am!! Yipee!



Decked Halls

I LOVE CHRISTMAS. I love everything about it. I have been listening to Christmas music since early November and my house has been decorated for a while and my shopping is nearly done. Just when I think I get my house decorated to my liking, I see someone else's beautifully decorated home and I change my mind! :)I usually take pictures of the decorations so that I can remember what I have done from year to year to replicate certain things. Here is a sneak peek at some of the Christmas fun going on at the Snyder house.

Our mantel.



C's 1st ornament. He made it at MOPS on Thursday.
"Look momma- It's baby Jesus"



The nativity in Clark's room.

The nativity in Clark's room after Clark re-arranged.
(Notice the train reference? )

Our living room nativity.

A little end table decor.

Our card display.
(LOVE this- Not much makes me happier than getting mail.)

Current door decor.

Just bought all this with a new wreath in mind...

I can't think of anything else that I would like more under my tree!

My beautiful boys.

I hope you are having a great weekend. I am hoping this might turn out to be a long weekend. You might find me doing my snow dance on Sunday night in hopes that the forecast is true and we might get a snow day on Monday.  Fingers Crossed!


What Clark's Loving Wednesday

It has been a while since I have blogged so tonight I thought playing along with Jamie would be a fun way to get back into the blogging spirit. To make it even more fun I will let you in on what Clark is lovin' these days.

 1. Clark is loving all things Christmas. He gets so excited about Christmas lights and mentions daily how much he LOVES Christmas. He points out all lights we pass and gets very excited to turn on the tree each day.  We have an entire basket of Christmas books in the living room and he loves reading them each night, he also has Christmas music cd that we play at night for him per his request. It is super cute and makes us very excited for Christmas Day knowing he will be so into it.

2. Clark is loving the trees and trains we saw Thanksgiving weekend while at my parents house. This kid of mine is a train enthusiast and loved seeing the huge model train display. He did not however enjoy the fact that he could not touch the train displays- and that my friends is hard to explain to a two year old.

3. Clark is loving the band he and his Grandpa Snyder started in the living room this weekend. Please watch for their summer tour to hit a major venue near you in 2011.

 4. Clark is loving the new Follow Me Thomas. It is a light that you shine and Thomas will follow it. He has seen the commercial on T.V. like twice and he dances around. I would love to see how it really works. He hopes Santa reads my blog!

 5. Clark is loving his new "Fighter Man" face. It took us a LONG time to learn that "Fighter Man" is SpiderMan, but we get it now. It took him seeing an actual spider and calling it a "Fighter" for me to understand, but we have cleared that up. Now we just have this hilarious, scary face that he pulls out every now and then. Have I mentioned that this kid cracks me up?

Well, there you have it folks. Five fun and fabulous things that my nearly 30 month old(GASP) is loving this week. He really does crack us up everyday. He is saying the most hilarious things and impresses me with how much he really knows. I know I say this at every stage, but this one is the best by far.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

Abby