4th of July

The next fun thing we did during our interlude in Yelm was enjoy a nice 4th of July with family. The last 3 years we have just ended up in Oly on the fourth and it has become a nice tradition to spend it at Grandma Snook's house with a blow out of fireworks. The kids have really enjoyed it and the time with the cousins is always great.

Heres a pic of all the cousins. They grow so much bigger each year, it is amazing how fast it all goes. Amanda is getting her driver's license this year, Zach is starting High School, and Skylar is keeping up with it all.

This is our booty this year. The kids loved to pick out some favorites and with Zach's help spent the day lighting snakes and throwing pop-its.

Time out for a cool moment with Daniel. Just way to cute for his own good.

Dog pile on Aunt Tammy and Uncle Kevin.

And here is the trick on getting the little kids to sit and watch, but not play with the fireworks. Both Abby and Daniel spend a bit of time "locked" into their carseats for their own safety and mom's peace of mind.

Overall, it is really a very fun time. We have decided that we will make it a family tradition, after all we have done it for the last 3 years so why not keep it up. Watching the fireworks is great, watching the kids is even better. We all look forward to the future years of fun and excitement.

Happy Birthday Noah

Another day, another catch up blog. While at Grammy and Poppy's Noah turned 6 years old. I cannot believe the little guy is 6 already. It goes by so fast. Seems like just the other day we were running around calling him Baby Noah.

He has grown so much in the last few years. He is our quiet little guy and has really begun to blossom in the last few years. He loves to tell stories and play pretend. He also loves his big brother Jacob and follows him whereever he goes.

I remember a few years in a row where Noah got Thomas the tank engine stuff for every birthday and christmas present. He has grown beyond Thomas now and is in to Dinosaurs and legos.

His 6 birthday just happened to fall on the day that Wall-E came out in the theaters, so Tyler, Jacob, Abby, and I all accompanied Noah on a trip to the theater to see Wall-E. It is now a new favorite movie and we eagerly await its arrival at the stores for purchase.

Amongst many birthday presents, Noah enjoyed receiving a V-smile pocket from Grammy and Poppy, a board game from Tyler and Jacob, and a Planet hero guy from Daniel. We had a nice quiet day and enjoyed some cake and ice cream for dinner. (Who said I cannot be a cool mom :)

Some highlights of Noah's year:

• Preschool at St. Pauls were he learned his ABC's and made lots of new friends. They went on some great feild trips including PetSmart, Griz Stadium and running through the tunnel, and the Bread store to learn how bread is made.
• Grew 2 inches since last summer. (Someday he will start to gain weight LOL).
• Enjoyed going Folfing with Daddy.
• Rode a 2 wheeler by himself for the first time.
• Moved from Missoula, MT to Spokane, WA.

I am sure there is more, but that is why we are supposed to write these things down before we forget them all. He really has grown a ton. I remember this time last year, we were stressing about if he was ready to go to Kindergarten. We decided to hold out one more year and I truly think it was the best decision. He is so ready and so excited for kindergarten this year. He is talking better and learning so much now. I am sure he will love school just like his big brothers. Happy Birthday and here is to another year with our little guy.

WE LOVE YOU NOAH!!!!!!

A Day at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium

I thought maybe doing a scrapblog would be easier than posting all these pictures on blogger. LOL. You can click on the scrapblog logo in the bottom right corner and it should take you to scrapblog to view full size. I did not want to make a post that goes on forever and ever.

The kids had a great time. We took Aunt Tammie with us to help me out with all the kids. She was funny, kept hearing her count to make sure we had everyone. In our home video, you can even hear her in the backgroud counting, "One, two, three, four, five, and you have Jameson that's six." LOL. We kept her hopping and wore her out good.

This was one of the kids favorites events from our time at Grammy and Poppy's house. It is something we have not been able to do for a few years and don't have over here in Spokane either. It was nice to be able to take them. Hopefully we can make it back when Jameson is older and can appreciate it more.

Camera-maniacs

The kids have found a new love... That is stealing my camera any chance they can get and take hundreds of pictures. Thank goodness for digital cameras and I can delete the many repeats. LOL.

Tyler especially has gotten into photography and is a budding photojournalist just like his father. Just before we left Missoula, Jim took him out quite a few times to take pictures of the Rugby and Lacrosse games that were constantly going on in the big field by the house. He really did enjoy it and got quite a few great pics out of it. Here is his favorite from that.

While at Grammy's house, Jacob and Tyler were constanly running off with my camera. They did get a few shots that I liked, so I kept them and will share them with you now.

Of course one of the most important shots is to get one of yourself. So I thought this was a fun one of Jacob. Don't see that smile on him very often, so we gotta enjoy it while we can.

This one is also a favorite of mine. It is of Jacob and Noah's shadows. I just thought it was a fun idea and came out pretty cool looking.

Needless to say they all want digital cameras for their birthdays. If only we could afford to get them all one cause you know if we only get one for use by all the kids they will constantly fight over it. We will have to check into something I guess for these budding photographers of ours. I can also say that Jim is so very proud of them all. Glad they can follow in his footsteps.

Cooking with Poppy

Noah found a new interest while at Grammy and Poppy's house. He has learned to love to cook. All the kids enjoy cooking with me, but Noah has really gotten into it. He helped Poppy cook dinner a few times while there and watched Food Network with Grammy a lot. He has now continued to watch food network while being home and just really seems to enjoy it. I hope he continues to love it and can grow into a wonderful cook.

New House

Okay, I promised that I would get up to date with all that has gone on in the last 2 months. I finally got all the pics onto my computer and there are a lot of them. It may take me a little while to get them all up and going.

First I wanted to start with pics of our new house. Here she is.

We really are loving all the extra room. Here are a few shots of the inside of the house just to get to know how we are living here. It is a nice house with essential 4 levels and a big backyard.

Here is the backyard view from the back sliding glass door and porch area.

And here is the end of the backyard looking at the back of the house. You can see we have lots of room to run around and the kids have been having fun making a mess and all.

When you walk into the front door, you see the kitchen and dinning room. The stairs there in front of you are going up to the master bedroom and Abby's bedroom. There is a bathroom up there connected to the hall and the master bedroom.

Next is a view of the stairs that go either up to the 2 bedrooms and bath or down to the family room, office, and 2nd bathroom.

This is a pic of Abby's room. She loves the colors and the butterflies. Although if you catch her at bedtime, she says she hates her room and she hates butterflies. LOL.

Next is a view of the living room from the top of the stairs. The fireplace is really quite extravagant and then the bay window just adds to it. We are running short on furniture to go here, but I keep dreaming about all the possibilities up here. Cant wait to work with it all and cant wait to decorate at Christmas. It should be fun.

Now if you go down that set of stairs just inside the door, you come to the family room. It is a bit small, but very well used right now. With the addition of some furniture from mom and dad, we have made it a cozy little place for us to be together to watch TV, movies, or of course play Wii. Also, if you go to the right you come to a little office area for me and a bathroom.

Here is the office area. It sure is nice to have that office area (not in my bedroom). Makes it easier to separate my work from my home life. It is also nice to be close to the family room, but not in it so I can be nearby for the kids, but still out of the way and able to hear what I am supposed to be transcribing.

And the final level is through the family room and down another set of stairs. We have 2 bedrooms which we have broken up to be for Tyler and Daniel and then Noah and Jacob. They seem to be enjoying the split that way. The door you see just straight down the stairs is Noah and Jacob and I purposely closed it as it is a huge mess and I am afraid to say always will be. Tyler and Daniel's room is just to the left of that. Then on either side is 2 more rooms. On the right we have a storage room for our food storage and miscellaneous storage. Also the furnace and things are in there. On the left is the laundry room. There is also some storage under the stairs.
Well there you have it. A virtual tour of our house. Like I said before, we are really enjoying it. I was a bit skeptical at first, not sure how we would all fit, but we have worked it all out and I love it. With the 4 levels, we are amazed at how we can loose each other. I was down in the laundry room the other day and Jim searched all over the house for me. I could not hear him calling for me upstairs. LOL. The kids are enjoying the neighborhood, being able to go out and ride bikes, scooters, etc. The backyard is nice too. Jim and I have gotten some nice chairs to go on the porch and we have enjoyed sitting out there in the evenings watching the kids play and so on.

We miss Missoula and all the fun we were able to have as CA's, but we are looking forward to our new life here in Spokane.

I will soon post all the fun stuff we did while we were away at Grammy and Poppy's house. Things that include going to the zoo, going to the beach, and fun around the house. Hope all is well with everyone. Keep looking back for more updates from us in Washington.

The Big Move!!!!!

Our time in "The Country of Montana" as Jim says is over. Jim has graduated and we are now in Spokane, WA. It took a while for us all to get here. We left Missoula on May 31st, but just moved into our new house on July 14th. Jim has been staying with an Aunt in Spokane and working while the kids and I have been in Yelm with my parents.

We have had lots of fun experiences during these last 6 weeks that I will post about later, but for now we are glad to finally have a place to call home again. I will post pics of the new house at a later date. The kids are loving all the "extra" room. I never realized how small our place in Missoula was until we finally have so much room here. We dont have enough stuff to fill it all up right now, but I am sure it wont take long to get there. It is nice to see the kids having fun running around and playing, but not being in my hair either.

I am slowly getting things organized and I would say after 4 days I am about 50% done. Just got all the toys organized, which is a hard thing to do with the kids playing and getting toys out as fast as I can get them put into buckets and figure out where to put them. LOL.

Anyway, I will post pics of the kids and of all our fun adventures soon as well as a pic of the new house.