BASEBALL 2011

Here are just a ton of photos for the start of baseball season 2011. SYSA has been fun to do over the last few years and this year just adds another fun experience for us. Daniel gets to play for the first time this year and he sure is having a great time. Abigail and Daniel are on the same team, T-ball. Noah is on a coach pitch team. Jacob is in the 9-10 year old division. They are having a great time.

Snook Starting Line Up

This is Abi and Daniel's team all together

SUNSHINE, Daniel Snook

what a cutie pie

Getting ready to hit the ball

Doesnt really look like he is having any fun at all does it :0)

Sometimes those accident pictures turn out the best. Not sure how I got this shot above, but I absolutely love it.

He was so excited to make it to base.

Just having a ball!

He made a good play here and stopped the ball. Has some good looking form there throwing it back to the pitcher.

Abi and Daniel were on the same team. Here are a few pics of them working together!

Abi had a lot of fun last year and was so excited to get to play again this year. Her batting form is looking pretty good.

But she still has some work to do in the outfield. Most of the time we find her dancing around to the princess song playing in her head. LOL.

But she can get in there and get to the ball! And she is not afraid to take a beating to make the play! You go ABI!

NOAH has tons of fun and it is such a great outlet for all his pent up energy. This year, he has several classmates on his team, so it is extra fun getting to play with so many friends.

Nice baseball stance Noah!

Hitting it out of the park (or maybe just between 1st and 2nd, but it was a good hit)

Jacob also was very excited to get to play. Here he is showing the kids the proper baseball stance.

Really mom! Why so many pictures :0)

He got to pitch for the first time and did pretty good. He got a strike out, which made him feel pretty great. It is a hard position and he has some work to do, but he really liked it so we will have to keep working with him.

The kids sure enjoy this every year. I am so glad that we have something so affordable for them to enjoy. It allows us all to get out and have fun every Tues/Thurs and keeps them busy for at least a few months of the summer. Here's to a great Baseball Season 2011.

So I am a total slacker!!!!

I just cant seem to find the time to blog anymore. Sorry guys. Here are some pics to get you up to speed on our life as of late.

We had a rough go of it for a bit with all the little kids catching a pretty harsh case of pneumonia and RSV. Little Jameson above spent 5 days in the hospital. Daniel and Abi (below) spent 1 night in the hospital. James was with Jameson as he was getting discharged while I was with Daniel and Abi in the ER getting admitted.

Daniel and Abi recovered fast and were out of the hospital the next day. I cant really say they enjoyed being in the same room becuase they were sick and in the hospital. LOL. It was one long week, but they all got healthy and are back to their normal selves. I get nervous at any runny nose or cough now, but they are doing well. We have such wonderful church members who helped with childcare, cleaning, and bringing us meals. Not to mention one great Visiting Teacher who took the top half kids a few times as well as gave me a great shoulder to cry on. Thanks to all who helped out. We really do appreciate it.

Other than the hospital stay, nothing too SHOCKING has been going on at the Snook house. We are just hanging out... Bouncing on the trampoline....

Enjoying hot dogs bigger than our heads....

Getting in touch with the ape inside of each of us....

Jumping for joy at the blessings we see each day....

Reaching for the sky at a higher potential in each one of us...

Spending some family time on hikes outdoors...

And enjoying some great bedtime stories....

I very much enjoy peaking at the world through the eyes of these little guys....

As they strap themselves in tight to me...

With working full time, school full time, and some various other duties (like laundry, kids, etc) I am staying very busy. One thing I am very grateful for is a loving family. I enjoy each moment I spend with these kiddos and thank my Heavenly Father every day for the chance to be their mother. I love them all and have learned a lot from each one.

Better School Pictures

With a built in photographer in our family, we have chosen to not pay for anymore unsuccessful "school" pictures for the kids. Instead, James and I take the kids to the park on a sunny fall afternoon and get new pictures of each one. Here are this years pictures.

Jameson is just growing so fast and getting so big. I cannot believe that he is 20 months, almost 21 months old now. It sure does go fast. He is into EVERYTHING! Climbing all over the place and generally getting himself into all kinds of trouble. Good thing he is so darn cute! LOL. We love his bubbly personality. He has shown his love for music and anytime he hears music from a comercial, the radio, or even his sister singing he will stop what he is doing and do a little baby dancing jig for us. He is a little ham and is always strutting his stuff. If it is not music he is enjoying, it is Elmo! The kid is an Elmo addict! He has few words that he can say, the typical Mama, Dada, Ty-Ty, and of course Elmo. Elmo and music though are nothing compared to his big bro Ty-Ty. Those two are best buds and Ty-Ty is such a wonderful help with his lil brother. Jameson is very fond of Tyler and I think Tyler is pretty darn attached to Jameson.

Jameson at 18 months old

_______________________________________________

Daniel is 3-1/2 now and is growing fast as well. He has mastered potty-training (yay) and is showing the usual 3 year old interest in Buzz Lightyear and Woody. Daniel is a goofy little guy who is always making us laugh. He is always coming up with funny little things to entertain everyone. His future career may indeed be the stand up comedian!

Daniel at 3-1/2

_____________________________________________________

Abi has proven to be a little Princess Diva as we like to call her. She definitely rules the roost most of the time. James is very thankful to only have one melodramatic daughter on his hands. LOL. She can be very dramatic when she doesnt get what she wants, but boy is it fun to have a "shopping buddy!" I look forward to the days when we can go to lunch and get our nails done and do a bit of shopping together. Just her and I chillin as girls whilst the boys are out playing with mud and junk. Those will be fun times. I cannot believe that she is almost 5 and ready to start Kindergarten next year. She is looking forward to being in the same school as her brothers.

Abigail at 4-1/2

_____________________________________________________

Noah is doing wonderfully! He is learning to read and getting better at writing every day. For Christmas he got a Tag reader and he enjoys using that to build his reading skills. It is so fun to see him do things on his own. He is still very shy and worried about a lot of things, but I see progress every day. He loves being in 1st grade and cant wait to be able to read like the big boys so he can read things like Harry Potter and Fablehaven. He is happy with Geronimo Stilton being read to him for now and working out words with his Tag reading system. It is great to see him learning and growing each and every day.

Noah 7

_________________________________________________________

Jacob is a big 3rd grader now. He is an amazing reader and is on the 4th Harry Potter book and 3rd Fablehaven and somewhere around the 2nd Percy Jackson. He is very much enjoying reading the same books that Tyler has been reading for the past few years and being able to talk to him about the storyline and so on. It is fun to see this kind of interaction between these two boys. Usually Jacob is in the midst of reading 4 books at one time because as he says "he might get bored with one for a while so he has a back up, or 2, or 3..." LOL. He is a great kid. He is still a challenge at times with his ADHD stuff, but we have learned how to work through things a bit better and as long as he is making such good progress with school, I cannot complain at all. His teacher is amazed at all the ideas he has floating in that head of his and loves to read his daily writting, because he always has such great things to say. Along with reading, he has taken well to math and science and just generally enjoys school alot. I am grateful for this in my children. They have all loved school so much.

Jacob 9

________________________________________________________

Tyler is in the 6th grade. Again, I cannot believe how time has gone by so fast. He is just a wonderful child. Always willing to help with the little brothers and sister, eager to play with them, and ready to help us with anything we need. I cannot live my life without Tyler there assisting me in my daily routine. He is truly a blessing to this family. Him and Jameson have developed a special bond and they very much enjoy playing with each other. Anytime we need Jameson out of the room (like when we are doing dishes and he is pulling all the dirty dishes out of the dishwasher faster than we can put them in) Tyler is ready to take him away and keep him occupied. Tyler too is doing wonderfully in school. He has taken a few tests at school and has scored "off the charts" according to his teacher. This year he has a great teacher who encourages these kids at such a critical juncture in their lives. He is trying to prepare them for the crazy world of middle school and I am impressed by his dedication and love for his kids. Tyler is blessed to have a great teacher like him. Tyler enjoys reading, math, science, and sports. He will be starting basketball soon for the school and is very excited about this.

Tyler 11

______________________________________________________

This is a picture we tried to get off all of them crossing the bridge together. It is okay, but did not work exactly how I was picturing it. It was very hard to get Jameson to cooperate. It did turn out good though. I like how most all attention is focused on Jameson in the middle.

This is the one that we used for our Christmas Card this year. We tried to get everyone, including Jameson, to hold hands while walking towards the pond. Alas, Jameson proved uncooperative again in regards to holding hands with these guys. They kept pulling him over and such. We decided to let Jameson hang back and see what happened. We sent the big kids off walking towards the pond while holding hands and Jameson turned to look at us (probably checking to see if we were coming, LOL). This is the shot we got and I loved it!

Anyway, those are our school pictures this year. A friend photographer calls them "better school pictures" and takes them every year for her kids and some clients. Jim is interested in starting to do more of this kind of thing as well. We will see how that all pans out. It seems to be a pretty good business, once you get the client base going an so on.