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.

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.

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!!!

Snowy days are upon us

I have been trying to decide what to would be appropriate for a very first post. After much thought I came up with this. It started snowing on Thursday morning around 11 a.m. and snowed until Friday afternoon. Literally, nonstop. Since we had the nice snowfall, we thought it appropriate to take the kiddos sledding. They have been wanting to go all over Christmas break, but of course it never snowed enough to actually go.

It was a very fun time over at the local sledding hill. With some friends coming along, we all hiked out to the hill. Of course, Abby lagged behind until she became a pink dot amongst the snow. She eventually caught up to the rest. Typical girl, had to stop every few steps and admire the snow. Also, of course, Jacob was a grump because we would not let him play on the computer forgoing his computer time to go out and enjoy some fun. Overall it was a very fun time until our little sunshine got the biggest whitewash of his little 21 month old life. Poor little guy came down with Daddy and since the snow was so fresh the first few rides down the hill were a bit more than bargained for. Here is the pick that shows him just covered with snow. He was not a happy camper.

A few minutes after, his little cheeks were just beet red and stayed that way for the remainder of the time out there.

Sunshine got over his little traumatic experienced and enjoyed the rest of his rides down the hill, including a few small rides with best friend Landon. The two had a ball going down together on a little blue circle sled.

Abby enjoyed the snow as well and even braved a few rides down with Daddy.

She also enjoyed trying her hardest to pull little Sunshine up the hill. No small task since the little man weighs the same as she does.

The rest of the boys had a blast too of course. Here is Noah after one of his trips down the hill. Notice the snow clumped to his gloves. He spent the last 20 minutes or so out there just licking away at this snow.


And one of Jacob on his way down the hill. This must have been in the beginning, one because of all the snow covering him, a testament to the fact that the powder on top had not been packed down to better suit our sledding, and two because he was grumpy at the end and wanted to go home, spending the rest of the time under a tree pouting.


Here is Tyler after a trip down. He enjoyed trying to go off as many jumps and obstacles as possible. Even getting brave and trying to ride the sleds like a snowboard with his friend Terrin.

It was a very nice afternoon of fun and sledding. Of course mom being 7 months preggo chose to just stand and watch taking photos of the fun times and rescuing the little ones when the big ones would go farther than expected and head straight for them. One afternoon well spent in the wonders of snow. What a great blessing from heaven above allowing a family to enjoy each other if but for a breif moment.