Nativities from around the world

Our Stake Center has what they call Nativities from Around the World every year. It is a huge event that has grown over the last 7 years. For the last 3 years it has been ranked as one of Spokanes top 10 things to do during the Holidays. that is so awesome. The stake center is literallhy taken over by nativities of all shapes and sizes and people stand in line to get a chance to get inside and partake of the spirit of it all. Every night there are concerts from different choirs of the area. Children's choirs, cathedral choirs, etc. The gym is decked out in all Christmas galore, lights, trees, and tables surrounding the edges and in the middle all beuatifully adorned with Nativity sets that people have donated to the church for the week. There are over 300 nativities on display. In the Young Women's rooms there is a childrens area were they can play with less fragile sets of nativities and even get the chance to dress up and play in their own nativity scene. Good think I have plenty of kids to fill those precious spots. All the above picture is missing is a Joseph and Mary, which in hindsight daddy and I could have done, but well, the kids look so darn cute anyway.

The Releif Society room this year held a new exhibit called The Life of Christ with a pictorial chronology of Christ's life. We did not make it in there, but hope to see that next year.

Overall, it is a wonderful way to celebrate this Holiday season. I am so grateful to have such wondeful teaching moments like these for the children. They loved the childrens area and got all their wiggles out before going in to be reverent and see all the Nativity sets. They loved them and had a great time seeing sets from places like Peru, Mexico, Italy, and Portugal as well as Nativities made from Legos and toilet paper rolls, paper mache, and nuts and bolts. There were the small and cute sets and the obviously expensive and imprressive sets as well as sets that were handcarved or blown from glass. It was an amazing, spirit filled night. I cant wait for next years display!

Family Night at Mobius

We earned some free tickets for the children's museum here in Spokane. After school on a Monday night we decided to take the kids (you know, before the FREE tickets expired. LOL). Mobius is very small, but we ended up being the only people there. When we first got to Mobius, there were a few other kids, but they all departed within a 1/2 hour leaving the Snook family to roam the place alone. The kids had a blast! I think the little cars were the biggest hit, even for the biggest kid out there.

After our time at Mobius, we walked across the street and enjoyed a rare treat of dinner at Red Robin. That means that Jim and I actually braved a Restaurant with 6 kids. Actually the kids were great. Of course we got plenty of stares and finger points. Seems we are an oddity going out in public with so many kids, but I am getting more and more used to that. (especially when the stares are because they are amazed the kids are being good and not for the opposite reasons. LOL).

At Red Robin of course they ask if the kids can have balloons. I am not a big fan of latex balloons mainly because of the fights that they tend to cause, but also for the choking hazards with the little kids. I know, spoil sport mommy. I decided since it is a special night of rare treats, why not give in for this one as well. Of course, just because they got the balloon doesnt mean they got to keep them. After dinner we walked over to the park and gave our balloons to Jesus. The kids enjoy letting their balloons go and watching them fly up into the sky. It is a fun thing for them to do and keeps me sane by not actually keeping the balloons.

Anyway, it was a very fun night. Here are some pics to share with you!

Woodland Park Zoo

We took a fun drive down I-90 a few weeks ago and spent the day at the Zoo. We went over to the Seattle area to take some baby clothes, toys, pay pen etc to my brother who is having a baby in just a few short weeks. I thought since we were over that way we would make a day of it and have some fun at the zoo and boy did we have fun.

The kids enjoyed looking at all of the animals and sites. Here is a slide show of the pics from the day.

The elephant featured in the above slide show was doing a dance. It was so cute to watch. Here is a video that Tyler shot of the 'dancing elephant.' One of the zoo workers said that she was taken to anothe zoo to 'mate' and while in the big truck traveling she started doing this dance and has ever since. I guess it is a stress thing, which is sad to think about, but the dance itself if very cute to watch.

Anyway, it was a very fun day. The kids had a blast and it was well worth the 4 hour drive to get there. We will definitely have to make the trip again.

I am still here, I promise

Well, life has been very VERY busy for us all lately and I have not been able to post any blogs in a very long time. I apologize for this. The kids have started school, I have started working full time, I am attending school full time, and James is working full time as well. The bottom half of the kids (Abby, Daniel, and Jameson) are in KinderCare every day and are loving it. Abby loves "school" and making more friends. She is learning so much faster now, so she definitely will be ready for kindergarten next year.

Daniel has taken a while to get used to his school, but he does enjoy it after the initial shock of Daddy leaving him passes every morning. By the time I pick him up in the afternoon, he is smiles and gigles and doesnt want to go home.

Here is a picture of the boys first day of school.

Such handsome young men. Tyler is a 6th grader this year. OMG! he is getting so old. I cant believe it. Jacob is in 3rd grade and Noah is in 1st grade. Everyone is loving school and learning lots. Noah is a beginning reader and enjoys his Geronimo Stilton books every night before bed. Jacob is on Book 4 of Harry Potter and also enjoys reading. His teacher says that she is amazed at how much he enjoys reading and sharing the stories to his class.

The boys are in their routine of going to school and walking home together after school. They are home for no more than an hour alone after school while I get off work and go pick up the babies from daycare. It has been a rough transition, but I think we are doing well with it. This leaves just a few hours to cook dinner, clean house, get homework done, and get everyone ready for bed before the morning comes again. We are so busy right now, but we are happy, healthy, and having fun.

Anyway, just an update on how things have been going for us. We have had some fun adventures over the summer and in the recent few weeks. A trip to the lake, a trip to Seattle and the zoo, and a fun time at the Children's museum. If I can find a few extra minutes here and there, I will try and blog some more and get pictures up.

Our Toofwess NOAH

It is so much fun to go through each stage with all of these kids. I remember the front tooth stage of both Jacob and Tyler and it is finally Noah's turn.

I think this look is the cutest look in the whole world! They are just adorable. I love the lisp while the teeth are gone. Everything seems to have just an added whisp sound to it. It is so cute and so fun. I tend to ask Noah to repeat himself, just so I can hear his cute little articulations one more time.

He was so excited to have both teeth fall out at once and was even more excited to go to school to show off his new smile to all his friends and his teacher. I love all these stages and watching this little man grow up.

Tyler

Well, our soccer season has come to an end. We are sad to see it go, but also very releived. It added quite a bit of caos to our little world taking 3 boys to different fields for practices 4 nights during the week and then 3 soccer games, usually at different fields ALL day on Saturdays. It was a busy time so I am glad that is over and we can get back to normalcy. But, I will miss seeing the boys in action. They had a wonderful time and it was fun to "get out of the house" for some exercise and sun.

All 3 boys participated in the Wendle Tournament last weekend, but Tyler's age group competed for championship. It was a rough first few games for Tyler's team, but towards the end of the season they really started coming together as a team and it showed during the tournament.

Their first game was on Saturday morning. They led most of the game 2-1, but ended up giving up a few undeserved goals in the last few minutes, mostly due to tired boys. They lost 4-3, but fought very hard to stay alive in that game. Their next game was Saturday evening and they slammed that team 9-1. The last game was on Sunday, which we did not participate in, but apparently they won this game as well putting them into the championship game. They were playing for 1st or 2nd place. Tyler's coach called after the game and said that they tied 7-7 so they had to go into a tie-breaker shootout, which they ended up loosing by 1 point. That means that Tyler's team got 2nd place overall for his age group. WooHoo. Way to go Tyler. They had a medal for Tyler, which we picked up a few days later. It sounds like it was a fun game to watch and the boys did an excellent job. They should all be proud of themselves.

Here is Tyler with his medal and a trophy that his coach got for the team. What a great soccer season. I am so proud of the hard work Tyler put into learning this new skill and the success he achieved with such hard work and determination. Way to go Tyler, your are AWESOME!

Our Park adventures.

We enjoyed an evening at the Park with some nice weather last night during Jacob's soccer practice. It is always a fun time for the kids since the practice is right next to Shadle Park with lots of fun toys. It is fun to see all the kids have a great time. Abby made good friends with another little sister of the soccer players and they were running around the whole time playing some game. Of course she had her purse with her with all of her most important things.

Daniel had a great time being chased by Tyler and Jameson. They went up and down the slides I don't know how many times. Jameson just had a ball exploring all over the place. He is just not afraid of anything and had so much fun trying all the new things.

This is video of Jameson going up the stairs to the slide.

And this is video of him going down the slide.

He is just too brave for his own good. He had a lot of fun doing this over and over again. Tyler helped out a lot and took him down some of the other slides. If he was not climbing stairs, playing with Tyler, or going down slides, then he was just wondering around taking it all in.

And here is some video of our little Noah. He has recently learned how to swing himself and he spent 90% of the time just swinging and swinging. I am so proud of him and all the growing he has done over these last 6 months or so. He is a totally different child and it is so fun to see him out there interacting and learning and growing and most important of all finally acting like a kid and having fun.

The video clips are from my phone, so they are not the best...

Overall, it was a fun night while Jacob was at soccer practice. It is so nice that we can finally go outside and enjoy ourselves. We have been trying to spend more time outside being active and less time sitting and watching TV or playing Wii. It is great to finally have the opportunity to burn off all this energy these kids keep building up. I hope the weather continues and we can have more and more fun outdoors.

Mani-Pedi

The Easter Bunny brought Abby some fun new fingernail polish in her Easter Basket this year. She really wanted me to paint her nails, so I did her fingernails before church. She really wanted her toenails done as well, but I had already put her tights on for church, so I promised after church we could paint her toenails. She decided that since she got her fingernails and toenails painted, then I needed mine done as well. Here she is doing my fingernails

And now for my toes. She had so much fun. She wanted to do Grammy's as well, but Grammy declined the offer, saying maybe next time. For some reason, the boys wouldn't let her do theirs, hhhmmm I wonder why? She even begged Daddy to do his as well.

She had a blast and I am sure that she will be doing more nails before long, maybe even a few of Daddy's. he tends to be a bit of a sucker when it comes to what Abby wants. LOL. It is so fun having a little girl and getting to do all these little girly things. Cant wait till she is older and we can enjoy real "big girl" spa days together full of shopping, mani-pedis, and lunch dates out.

Soccer 2009

The boys are enjoying SYSA (Spokane Youth Sports Association) soccer this spring. It is so much fun to watch them play and enjoy themselves. It has made our life completely upside down busy with practices for each of them during the week at different places and games all on Saturday at different places, but so far we have made it work and it has been a blast. Jim and I usually have to tag team the kids and split up, he and I taking 1/2 of the kids and heading off in different directions. They are having a ball and doing great, learning some new skills, and enjoying themselves.

Our 3 Snook Soccer Studs!

Our little Noah is so fun to watch. His coach is doing well with him and it is great to see him grow so much over this past year. He has really begun to interact more with other kids his age and we are learning to work with his deficits. I was not sure how he would do at an "organized" sport, but I have to say now that it is THE best thing we could have done for him. He is enjoying himself so much and have a great time. He even almost scored twice now. He has his moments of "watching butterflies" out there, but he is starting to pay more attention and have a ball. I am so proud of him and the progress he has made in his little life. He has grown so much this year and I am so glad that he is my son and I get to see all these milestones and witness all this progress for him. Way to go Noah!

Here is Jacob really giving it his all. Wow has he really found something he likes to do. It is so good for him to get out there in practice and run off all the extra energy he seems to have in that little body of his. At today's game, his coach practiced a lot with him beforehand in the goalie position. He was doing so awesome. He was so excited to get a chance to play goalie. He got out there and had a ball doing it. he made one really good save, but good for his team the rest of the time he was in the goalie position, all he did was stand around. Seems our team dominated and we were down on the other end of the field most of the time. Jacob had fun and stayed in his goalie stance the whole time he was out there. He was so cute to watch. He really is excited about playing the goalie position. I am happy that he has found something he likes so much and can have fun doing (and something that can wear him out LOL.)

Tyler is having a great time also. His team is in an older age group so he has a bigger field, bigger goals, etc. It gets pretty intense at his games sometimes with a crowd of parents, family, and friends cheering on those players. It is amazing to watch. Tyler has done soccer before, but it was coached by High School kids and they pretty much just let them run around and kick the ball. This is his first "real" soccer experience and he is doing great. He is out there keeping up with kids that have been playing for a few years and making some pretty cool moves. He is getting a hang of dribbling and running at the same time. LOL. It is fun to watch them grow and gain new skills. Keep up the good work buddy!

They are all halfway through their seasons. They have had 3 games and have 3 more games to go. I wish them all luck. We have a few week break after soccer and then start into baseball. that will be a lot of fun to watch as well. I hope they continue to be so active and have fun playing sports. James and I are both big sports fans so it is great to have kids that want to be out there doing it. LETS GO SNOOKS!!!

Favorite Spot

Funny how the kids will find their favorite little spots to hang out. Jameson has been so into sitting on the hearth. He first learned to climb on it, then penguin slide off it, then walk around up there, and now that his legs are a bit longer he can finally sit on it. It is so funny to see him back up to it and pop a little tiny squat right there. He will look up at you with a big grin and just sit there and let his feet dangle. So cute. Here is a pic of him at his favorite spot. What a cutie...

My Love

I just had to take a quick moment to Congratulate my talented husband. Today he gets to do something he has dreamed about doing his whole life. Right now he is on his way to Seattle to photograph an MLB Baseball Game. I am so proud of him and his accomplishments. It has taken a while for him to get to this spot and there is still a long way to go getting into this career, but he is on his way to a wonderful and rewarding career in photojournalism.

So to the love of my life, I LOVE YOU and I AM SO PROUD of you. I hope you have a blast. When you have fun and get to do something you really love to do, you cant really call it WORK can you.

Happy Birthday Jameson

And you thought the birthday wishes were over. LOL. Not quite. Jameson turned the Big #1 on April 11. There has been so much going on this last year with graduating from school, moving back to Spokane, and welcoming this wonderful little man into our family. He has been a great addition and it seems like this is the way it has always been with the 6 of them.This little guy is a definite go getter and has added some spunk and activity to this already boisterous household. He is so determited to keep up with all the other little people he sees around him. Jameson has such a sweet disposition about him. He is usually very happy and is always on the go.Albertsons gives out a free first birthday cake, so here is the one that Daniel and Abby chose for him. It was very cute. We give this cake to the birthday child for their own cake to mess with and play in and sometimes actually eat.

That is Tyle holding down his hands. He just wanted to grab that thing. If you look closely he alread grabbed the Oreo cookie ears off the cake and started muncin on those. He is a fast one.
He was pretty tentative at first. Mostly justed wanted the cookies, but he soon got into the fun of making a mess and eating some yummy frosting.Of course some actually did make it in his mouth, but mostly it just went all over his face, budda belly, and highchair tray.

To be able to play with your food again. Oh what a life.

Showing off his goopy hands.


YEAH CAKE!!

And of course a bath to end the day. Happy Birthday baby. We love ya. Jameson has grown so big and fits into this family just perfectly. I cannot wait to see what this next year holds for our little J.

Yeah for Crafts

I love it when I get the opportunity to be crafty. For my birthday, Jim got me the Cricut design studio to go with my Cricut machine. So much fun. Tonight I worked on a project for a wedding gift. It was a lot of fun to make and for my first time playing with the Cricut design studio, I think I did pretty good.

Hopefully I will have the chance to make many more projects like this. It will be a fun new hobby. Thanks again Jim for the wonderful present. I love it.

Happy Birthday Daniel

Daniel is the big 3 years old. It is so amazing to think of the last 3 years and what has transpired. He has gotten so big and adds such joy and silliness to the house. He is a big ball of love and sunshine and you just cant help but smile when he is around. Happy Birthday big guy. We love you tons.
For a few weeks before his big day, we kept asking what he wanted for his birthday and the only thing he would every say was "An Elmo Cake!" In fact, Jim baked the cake during the day while I was at work and he told me that as he was taking it out of the oven, Daniel just looked up at him with sadness in his eyes and asked, "Where is Elmo?" Jim told him that Mommy would do it when she got home, but he insisted that Elmo needed to be on his cake now. He waited as patiently as a just 3 year old could and as soon as I walked home he reminded me that his cake needed Elmo. He had a lot of fun and was thrilled with the outcome. I wished we had the Elmo cake pan and that I could have spent a bit more time on the cake, but he is 3 and he was so happy with this Elmo, that it really did not matter to him that I did not spend more time or money on it. Thanks for the lesson there buddy.


Of course, he was also excited to eat Elmo. LOL. He had a great time and all of the kids were so good about making it a special day for him. We love you Daniel and I hope you have many more Elmo years to come.
Oh yeah, gotta snitch some more frosting when no one is looking. What can he say, it is sitting there waiting for a finger to run through it.

Easter pics

We went to the mall the other day and saw the Easter Bunny. They let us put all the kids up there and take 2 (only 2) pictures with our own camera. Here is what we got. I havent even looked at these yet, so lets see what we got.

it is what it is right. LOL. Not too bad I guess. You cant have everyone looking and/or smiling all at the same time.

Love that Abby is cringing as jameson pulls her hair. These are our Easter babies. From left to right we have Daniel, Jacob, Abby, Jameson, Noah, and Tyler.

We had a fun filled day that I will blog about later, but it included a stop at the mall where we ran into the Easter bunny. This was not a planned thing, so we don't have any fancy clothes on them or anything. It was just something the kids saw and they wanted to get a picture, so here it is. Happy Easter to all of you. Hope you have a hopping good time.

Pinewood Derby

It is that time of year again. the time when Fathers get out there saws, sanders, and design kits and boys get out there legos cause you know they don't get to do anything. LOL. Actually, Tyler and Jacob both designed their cars. Jim did the cutting, but after that, the boys did a lot of their own work on sanding and stuff. It was fun having 2 cars in the race this year. It looks like we have learned a few things from our first 2 years in the Pinewood Derby world. Tylers car won 2 races and Jacobs car won 1. They both got quite a few second place races after that. They tell me that they tied for 6/7th place. I am not sure if that is the final score though. they took the top 5 to the district meet, so we missed out by just a bit.

Tyler's car is the red one and Jacob's is the blue. This is actually Jacobs second design. We had a few pinewood derby emergencies with the first that required designing, painting, making a whole new car the night before the race. It was fun though.

Tyler's car. The red sliver. He was going for the sleek, thin look.

Jacob's first car was a skateboard and look pretty cool. This is the second attempt and is a dragster type.

Tyler with car. Cant believe this is his last year in Cub Scouts. Getting so big he is...

Jacob with his car. he can never seem to take a picture without blinking. This is the best of the bunch.

We had a great year. Although we have come a long way since the first build with Tyler, we still have a few things to learn about in the pinewood derby world. We are thiking of investing in our very own track, lights, and scales. We figure we have 11 more pinewood derby cars to make, we might as well have a track of our own to do test runs and stuff. We will be doing pinewood derby cars for a while so it will be a good investment. LOL.

It definitely is a fun time of year. Cant wait till next year and see the design Jacob comes up with. Then the year after that will be both Noah and Jacob. Good job Tyler and Jacob, your cars are way cool and you both did awesome in the race.

Crazy J

It has been so nice since last Friday. The kids have really enjoyed being able to play out in the backyard. Of course, whatever the big kids can do, Jameson can do even better, right. Here is his no fear side. He is just a crazy little guy and is all over the places. This one definitely keeps us on our toes.

Happy Birthday Jim and Teresa

What can I say. Happy Birthday to Us. I enjoy sharing a special day with my honey. It was a great day with a surprise date at the end. Thanks for a great day Jimmy. I love you tons.

Vinyl projects

I have had some fun with the Cricut and vinyl. I have learned it is very fun to do and gives me some craft time, which I desperately need. Here are a few of the projects that I have been working.

This is our family portrait collage. You can see that right now, we just have pictures of a really cute dog and little boy. Unfortunately, as cute as they are, I cannot claim either. We do still need to get family pictures LOL. But the collage is done and I am so proud of it. We will do a family pic in the big middle. Then under live we will have a picture of the kids and under love we will have a picture of Jim and I. Then on the bottom we will have a picture of Jim and the boys and then a picture of Abby and I. In the middle between Families are Forever will be a picture of the Portland Temple, where Jim and I were sealed. Hopefully with the nice weather, we will be getting family pictures soon and I will post an updated with all the pics in their propers places.

When we first moved into the house, we wondered what we would do with this ledge. As you come into the front door you face this wall into the kitchen. The ledge above the doorway to the kitchen extends the whole wall and actually turns the corner into the dining room. I though it would be fun to get a picture of each child up there. When that was done, I thought that maybe it needed just a little bit more, so I added each childs name in Vinyl under their picture. I think it turned out pretty good.

Plus those are the pictures that Jim (own personal photographer) took for us in lue of school portraits. We had a bad school picture year and have decided to never go with school pics again, just Daddy Pics. LOL.

I am excited for more Vinyl projects around the house. I want to do one more for the living room with my favorite quote. Then I will do one for Abby's room and one for my bedroom. I will think about the boys rooms. Not sure what to do with that. We will have to see.

Random Daniel Moments

I cant believe our little Montana Boy is turning 3 very shortly. It is amazing how fast time flies around here. These are just some randome moments caught on by my phone camera.

Daniel wearing cousin Zach's shades. Too cool!
Uncle Kevin teaching Daniel how to drive!

If he is in the car around 3 p.m. for any length of time, this is what we get.

A day at Ocean Shores Summer 2008

Sleeping with Elmo! His second best friend.

2 of the best things in the world. A box and toys.

A candid shot on the Apple ride at Toys R Us.

Again with the shades. He is my lil heart throb

Guitar Hero Nut. Taking after brother Tyler.

Elmo garb to go out in the snow.

A lunch out with Grammy and Poppy. Love the chocolate face.

Clawing for me under the bathroom door. Such a sad lil man.

Optimus Sunshine!

Daniel is such an amazing little guy. He has a wonderful imagination and is often found playing animatedly with a few toys, talking back and forth to each other, rescuing one another, and going on different adventures. He has always been the little boy with 1,000 different facial expressions. Since he was very small, he just gets the kookiest little expressions on his face. So much emotion, so much passion, so much Sunshine. He is a great addition to this family and always keeps us laughing. WE LOVE YOU DANIEL!!!!!