Top 10 of 2010

Kaden Snyder’s Top 10 moments of 2010

10) Ringing in the new 2010 year wearing big boy “unnawears” 

9) Learning to spell his name, write part of it and learning to say his full name:  Kaden Snyder Derek (well, a little out of order but he's almost got it)

8) Fun activities with Aunt Tina: Hogle Zoo, the library, the Aquarium, etc. 

On the carousel at the zoo.

7) Singing “California Gurls” incessantly


6) First bicycle


5) Lots of summer fun at our swimming pool

4) Spending time with friends and family

3) Lake Powell

2) Disneyland

1) Turning 4 on 10-10-10!

Halloween in December

Gosh, I'm so late posting about our Halloween!  I don't know where the time has gone. On the Sunday before Halloween we carved pumpkins with Grandma, Tarah and Annika.  The fool that I am, I decided to make a costume for myself about 4 days before Halloween.  I sewed a pink prom dress, made a corsage, bought a long blond wig and a tiara...then poured "blood" over all of it.  Can you guess the character?  Kaden was a skeleton.  He picked out his costume himself this year.  He loved having his face painted.

The Friday before Halloween we went to a costume party at my friend Cal and Deidre's house.  Trick-or-Treat night, which was Saturday (because they don't trick-or-treat on Sundays here in Utah) we ate chili at my parents' and went trick-or-treating with Tarah, Annika, Aunt Kristin, Uncle David, Grandma and Aunt Tina.  That has become our little tradition.  There were some issues with Kaden and his manners trick-or-treating at first (he kept asking for more candy at each house), but we worked it out.

Bree-Ghost, Deidre-Vampire, Kathy-Little Red Riding Hood, Rhianna-Panda, Me-Carrie

Disneyland

We got to go to Disneyland!!!  It was Kaden's first trip.  We left right after his birthday.  We went with Tina, my mom, and Tarah (it was a surprise for her - she didn't know we were going until the morning of).  We had a great time!  The Halloween decorations were so cute and fun!  I can't wait to go again.  Especially during a time when it isn't so crowded (Note: never go UEA weekend).  Thank you to Mom and Tina for making it happen!  I loved this trip!

Heard most often from Kaden, "I wanna get outta here."  He didn't love all of the rides, but I made him go anyway.  Aren't I mean?

Kaden's favorites: Dumbo, Teacups, Toy Story Mania, Autotopia.  Not so favorites: Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain and Nemo Submarine Voyage (really Kaden?!).

Stacy's favorites: Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones Adventure, Splash Mountain, Peter Pan.

All of us in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

Kaden with his new "ears".

With Halloween Minnie.

With Halloween Mickey.

On the Jungle Cruise.

Kaden was chosen to be part of the conga line during the parade.

On Dumbo.

Newport Beach

On the Pirate Cruise.

Kaden was so cute when he got to meet Woody that it brought tears to my eyes.  They thought he was adorable and Woody copied Kaden by putting his hands on his hips too.

At the Lego store.

Tarah, me and Kaden on Small World.

It was fun to be at Disneyland when it was decorated for Halloween.

The Ladybug Boogie at California Adventure.

Kaden's Birthday

Kaden's birthday was on 10-10-10. We had a children's party at the dollar theater to see Toy Story 3. Afterwards we went to Aunt Kristin's for cake, ice cream and presents. Here are some pics of the highlights.

10-10-10

Kaden turned 4 years old on 10-10-10!  I think that is very exciting as chances are it will only happen once in his lifetime (unless he lives to be 104).

We are going to Disneyland later this month to celebrate.

40 Wonderful Years

My parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this past Saturday.  I'm sure they would both say it has been 40 wonderful, blissful, happy years.  In all seriousness, I'm proud that my parents have stuck it out through thick and thin, happy and sad, mad and glad.  I love you Mom and Dad!

Things Kaden Says

Kaden says things that really crack me up sometimes.

Kaden was sick last Saturday.  He was very disappointed because he was supposed to see Grandma and Annika that day.  He kept asking to go to Grandma's but I told him he couldn't because he was sick.  He responded, "But Gramma say yes."  I told him that Grandma actually said no.  So he decided he wanted to call grandma himself, thinking he'd be able to talk her into letting him come over.  When he called, Grandpa answered the phone.  "Hi Grampa, I'm sick because I have a sore froat, and coughing, and a body.  Yeah, I just coughing and my froat hurts.  Hey Grampa, you want to come to my house and watch Scooby Doo wis us and eat hot Cheetos?"

Grandpa told him she wasn't home and that she was at Sandy Mall (he meant to say South Towne Mall) looking at the flags (a Sept. 11th memorial).  Kaden asked confusingly, wrinkling his nose, "They're at Fanny Mall yooking at fags?"

"Mom, why I gotta get scumscweem on?" 
Sunscreen.

When I was combing his hair, "Mom, I want a haircock." 
Mohawk.

The other day I asked Kaden how school was.  He said, "Miss Colleen just say, just say, just say, he say to sit on my cot."  So I asked Kaden, "How come you weren't on your cot?"  He replied, "Because I don't want to, but Miss Colleen just say to sit on my cot."  I asked Kaden, "Did you sit on your cot?"  Kaden's answer, "Mmmm, no, but Miss Colleen he keep say that."

"Mom, can we go to the chicken place and get a cheeseburger?" 
The "chicken place" is Chick-Fil-A.  They don't serve burgers.

"Mom, don't look at me." Or "Mom, go away." 
This is always a dead giveaway that he's doing something naughty.

"Mom when I'm bigger I will get in your belly and be your baby.  Yeah.  I will."

"Hey, Pizza, will you help me with this?" 
He was referring to my friend, Caprisse.

Kaden said, while bawling, "Mom, Annika say I can't be the pwincess, but I want to be the pwincess."
Princess. 

Kaden has been fighting with Annika over princess dress-ups, singing "California Gurls" non-stop, pretending to walk the runway when I watch Project Runway, and wants to watch Mama Mia repeatedly and walks around singing the songs all the time.  Sometimes, I wonder about that kid.

Lake Powell

In July, Kaden and I went to Lake Powell with my sister's family and a large group of our friends.  We were there for 10 days.  Yes, that is a long time to be at Lake Powell in July, but we had a blast.  It was SO HOT.  The temperature gauge on the truck one day read 116!!!  Everyone stayed in trailers and they were all arranged to block off our own little part of the beach.  Over the weekend (Friday to Monday) there were over 60 people, counting kids.  It was so much fun and there were lots of little kids for Kaden to play with.

The biggest damper of the trip happened the day before we left.  Kaden got sick from swallowing the lake water.  Vomiting+diarrhea+camping=fun. We were over it at that point and decided to leave early (Friday instead of Sunday).  Tarah rode with me and Kaden, and we followed the Mesker's home.  The Mesker's ended up having a bad tire on their trailer and had to get new tires on the way.  We didn't get home until 2:00am, but it was still worth leaving early.

Here are pictures of the highlights of our trip.

Kaden and Annika playing in the water.  The water was quite shallow and they could touch with their head above water for yards.  We eventually had them stop wearing their life jackets because they were getting big rashes from them.  People asked a lot, "Does Kaden have something in his eye?" because he kept closing only his right eye.  That's his way of squinting I guess - closing one eye like a pirate.

Kristin and Me.

Kaden and Annika always played nicely together.

Someone caught a tiny lizard and all the kids took turns holding it.

Kristin and Tarah on a boat ride.

Kaden and Annika on a boat ride.  This was after Kaden had been sick all night.  We were all over it!

Ethan and Kaden playing with the water gun.

Kristin took Kaden for a ride on one of the wave runners.