Our Summer in Review

Over the last year we have become a family of four.  On January 1st we welcomed Andi Willow Snyder into our family.  She was born on December 30th.  She is a great blessing to our family.  From the time that we started our adoption process Ashley prayed every night for a baby sister.  Her prays were answered.  The girls are mesmerized with each other.  Andi is now six months old and growing like a weed.  She is a very happy baby.

Ashley finished her last year of preschool in May.  She starts kindergarten on August 10th.  My baby is not a baby anymore.  Over the summer Ashley has played T-ball, this was not one of her favorite things to do.  She said it was boring.  Right now she is playing tennis, she really enjoys tennis.  They are learning the fundamentals of tennis.  

Ashley keeps herself busy with playing with her friends, running through the sprinklers, and playing with her toys.  

A few fun things we have done this summer are going to the zoo, picking blueberries,  and going to Shipshewana to ride the carousel and have a JoJo's pretzel.  

Stawberry Jam

Ashley mashing up the strawberries for the jam

 

She is such a big helper

The fruits of our labor

Daddy and Ashley camping in the backyard.  Mommy slept in the comforts of a nice bed and air conditioning. :)

Big Girl Bike

For Ashley's birthday we got her a big girl bike.  This is her first time riding it.  She rode the bike every day several times a day.  Then she took a little tumble and now we have to coax her to ride her bike.  

And they are off!

Home safe and sound

My two favorite people!

Today is Ashley's 4th Birthday!

 Today Ashley is 4 years old.  What a little blessing God gave us.  It is amazing to see how much her looks have changed over the years.  I love my little sweetie very much.

Sprinklers

Running through the sprinklers is Ashley form of staying cool this summer.

      

I don't know if you can tell but her clothes are soaked.

                                     Pure Joy!

        






             We finally put a swimsuit on her.

Fun

Right now this is one of Ashley's favorite things to do.  She loves to ride the mower before daddy mows the yard.

Fall and Winter

Ok I am a little behind on posting.  Ok maybe a lot behind on posting.  My goal for this year is to do much better at posting.  Here we have our little princess for halloween.  She was so excited to go trick-or-treating.  Once we started she was done after three houses.  This was ok with mommy.  After that we went visit daddy at the fire station so he could see her costume.

Daddy and Ashley decided to make cookies one evening.  Ashley had to have her chef hat and apron on.  Then they patiently waited for them to come out of the oven.

Bubble Fun

Ashley loves to play with bubbles.  For some reason this day she was trying to lick the bubbles. 

Cute Furry Little Visitors

We had these cute little bunnies for 2 weeks.  I was amazed how fast they grew.

This was the first we found them

This was the day before they hopped away.

Ashley's First Snowman

Christmas Morning In Tenn.

Liyah's Birthday Party

The Girls Decorating Their Christmas Tree

Excited

Sorry I have not been posting lately. Photos are not wanting to load. Hopefully I will figure out why soon. On to the exciting news. We are officially licensed as foster parents. We are getting our first placement on Monday. Her name is Liyah and she is 8 years old. Our first placement happened a lot quicker than we were expecting. I have been moving stuff out of the room that will be hers. The room was our office. The room is cleaned and ready to be painted. We are going to let her pick the color of the room and the bedding to go with it. We have her enrolled in school already. Courtney took care of this yesterday. She will start on Tuesday. We are praying that the transition goes well. She was here on Wednesday for a visit. The visit went well. Ashley was her little shadow the whole time she was here.

R.I.P Mackenzie

It was a very sad day in the Snyder household yesterday. We no longer have our dog Mackenzie. She was hit by a car yesterday morning. Luckily Ashley did not see it happen. Ashley doesn't understand what happened. She was crying because mommy and daddy were crying. Mackenzie was our baby before Ashley was our baby. Our dog Tunny seems to be doing okay without Mackenzie around.

Foster Care

We have started the process of becoming foster parents. We have done two sets of classes, had two home visits, fingerprints, and some paperwork. We are not moving to quickly with the paperwork we still have quite a bit to do. The paperwork seems so daunting. Oh well a little at a time. I still need to do a CPR class. We are excited and nervous about this journey. The unknown always makes you a little nervous.

2 Years Old

This is what happens when Ashley dresses herself.


Lately Ashley makes this face every time I take her picture.



Ashley is now two. She weighs 25 lbs. and is 34.25 in. tall. She can count to ten and can say her ABC's. She repeats every word you say. Everything is MINE and DON'T. She also is very independent. She is into Elmo and Barney right now. So we have to limit her video watching. She could watch a video 5 times. She loves to play outside. Her favorite foods right now are blueberries and tomatoes. We are so lucky that she is a good eater. She loves fruits and vegetables.