INTRODUCING......

Jameson Thomas Snook
Born: April 11th, 2008 at 1:02 a.m.
Weight: 7 lbs 8 ounces
Length: 20 inches

With our last few babies coming to us a few weeks early, we were pretty sure that this little guy would come earlier than he did. After not showing up in the first week of April, we resigned to wait out through all the birthdays. Jim and my birthday is April 7 and Daniel's is April 9, so I told baby if he could just hold on until after April 10th I would be happy.

Well, April 10th came and I had been having contractions all day long. They were very mild and only about 1 to 2 an hour at the most. Nothing I had not been having for the last few weeks anyway. In addition to all the birthdays, it was Family week for the University Villages, so we had lots of activities to do every night for our community. The activity that night was the Carrousel, so we hung out down there for a few hours. All of the kids had a great time. I will try and blog about that later on, we have some great pics of that night. Daniel had a blast with his first horsie rides with Daddy and Abby just adored all the horses of course.

Anyway, Jim was on call that night so he had to head over to the Community Center after the Carrousel night, so the kids and I headed home. I got the all tucked into bed, except for Daniel of course. He stays up late to let Abby fall asleep and then he can go to bed. About 9:30 my contractions started coming a bit more regular about 10 mins apart or so. I was not convinced at this time that it was labor, as I had been having these episodes of contractions for a couple of weeks now. They would just go away after a while so I was just waiting for them to go away. Jim came home and we got Daniel in bed. About 10:30 I decided to time the contractions and they were about 6 to 7 minutes apart. Still not convinced it was real, we decided to go to bed and see if they would go away. At 11:30 p.m. I had a very hard and painful contraction and we decided it was time to go. I am so glad we did not waste any more time. We got someone to take the phone for Jim and then got someone to come over and sleep with the kids, then we headed to the hospital. The contractions were still not too close, but they were starting to get more painful. We got to the hospital at about midnight or a few minutes afterwards and checked in. The nurse checked my progress and I was 5 cm dilated at about 12:10 a.m. I was very surprised, as I was only 2 cm that morning at my checkup and I had been 2 cm for the last 2 weeks.

Well, things got fast and crazy from that point on. They asked if I wanted the epidural and I hemmed and hawed for a few minutes, but finally said yes. they went to call the doc to let him know I was there and call the anesthesiologist. We got all the admission questions out of the way and started getting things prepared for a night of labor. About 12:40 a.m. during a rather hard and painful contraction my water burst and Jim went and got the nurse. She came in and checked me again and I was 9.5 cm with just a tiny little anterior lip. The anesthesiologist had just gotten there. He thought he could still get an epi in so we sat up and tried to get things going and the nurse went to give a call to my doc to hurry him along. Baby was obviously coming faster than anticipated. Well, after 2 contractions while sitting up, I realized that an epi was out of the question. I had the urge to push and had to lay back down. There happened to be a doctor in the halls waiting for his laboring mother to get to a pushing point, so he was brought in to help with us as baby was crowning and coming now. Jameson was born at 1:02 a.m. on April 11th after just 2 pushes with an all natural delivery, not my first choice, but I am glad for the experience.

Birth was a rather traumatic experience for poor Jameson and also for mother. I was in a bit of a shock about how fast it all went. I cant really even remember Jim announcing it was a boy, it all happened to fast. He was not breathing very well and had to be bagged for a bit. He had a lot of fluid on his lungs from coming so fast, so it was just hard for him to move air. After NICU worked on him for a bit, he pinked up and is doing well. He is a ferocious eater and got the hang of that right away.

All in all, he is the spitting image of his siblings. Another "cookie cutter Snook." He is a cutie and we are enjoying the new addition to our family. Abigail was certain it was a baby sisser and Jim was very scared to have to tell her she got a brother. She took it very well and says that she loves her baby now. She calls him "Your baby" and always asks me "Wheres your baby mom?" She wants to hold him all the time and is a big help with diapers and stuff. Daniel enjoys him as well and is fascinated with something so small. He is having some mommy holding time issues and wants me to hold him quite often, which is a switch cause he usually wants Jim. We can handle that though. The boys all think he is cute and say "he will do." We pretty much have 5 little faces in his face at all times. Jameson will definitely be used to crowds when he grows up.

Anyway, the Snook family is doing great. We are all enjoying our new addition and thank the good Lord for this wonderful blessing. We look forward to many years of fun times ahead of us raising these 6 beautiful children. We are truly blessed.

Here are a few pics of the kids all holding him when they came to the hospital. Also, a few more pics of our newest little man.

Here is Tyler holding Jameson. He is so proud.

Jacob is so loving and caring when he holds him.

Noah is all grins with his new baby brother.


Abby is amazed by how little he really is.


Daniel is just so interested in everything he does.


Here is Jameson in his going home outfit.


Daddy holding his new little guy just before discharge from the hospital.


Ultrasound pose. If you scroll down to the ultrasound pic we have on the blog, you will see Jameson in this same position. Obviously one of the more comfortable positions.

Well, there it is. Our new family has started. We are excited for what lies ahead for the Snooks. We will see where life takes us and look forward to the new chapters life has for us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUNSHINE!!

Daniel turned 2 years old on April 9th. He has very much enjoyed Elmo, so we decided to do Elmo cupcakes for him this year. He loved them, and I think they turned out pretty darn cute myself.

He got some blocks with the alphabet on them, which him and Abby decided were better suited to build towers and knock down. Oh well, they had a great time doing it.


Daniel is a funny little man and has many expressions, one of which is featured in this next picture. He gets genuinely excited about everything and shows such excitement and surprise on his face. It is so great to see his silly personality.



After dinner of course, we have to blow out the candles and eat the cupcakes. They were well received by all of the kids. Daniel enjoyed attacking his cupcake, tentatively at first...


But then, full on attack.

It is always fun to celebrate each of the kids birthdays and is a special time for mom and dad to remember the last year or so of the child's life. This last year Daniel has grown so much. To think that 1 year ago, he was not walking, talking, or showing near as many emotions. He has learned to walk, run, and climb on everything. He amazes us every day with the words he picks up, sometimes surprising us with what he repeats. He has grown such a wonderful little personality it is so fun to see. His favorite things at this point in his life are his big brother Tyler, cars, playing with sister, Elmo, and cars. He is a little cutie patootie that we have enjoyed. It will be fun to see his personality blossom even more and see what kind of child he grows into. For now, we enjoy his fun loving, energetic, monkey-like personality.

Lesson learned

Never leave a 2 year old unattended downstairs with 2 open boxes of cereal.

Easter pictures

Here are the kids in their Easter outfits. Jim gets upset when I dress the boys all in the same outfit, so this year I went with a pastel theme. Tyler came down and asked if he really had to were the pink shirt. I just reminded him that "real men wear pink" and he adjusted to it very well.

Here are my 4 boys. Tyler is in pink, Jacob is in green, Noah is in blue, and Sunshine (Daniel) is in yellow of course. I actually got a great shot with all the boys cooperating. Unfortunately that cooperation did not last. See pics below.

Here is Princess Abigail. Her dress was chosen because it has most of the pastel colors to coordinate with the brother's shirts. She is just a little cutie pie. She was very pleased with mommy's choice of dress and hair accessories. If she grows up and complains that we MADE her wear dresses all the time, I have written proof here that she begs to wear a dress almost every day. She loves her "booful" dresses.


And here comes the hard part. Trying to get all the kids to stay still and smiling at the same time to get a pic of all of them together. Mostly it is getting Sunshine to cooperate and the other 4 to be ready when he finally decides to look at the camera. I will post all of the pics and you can decide which one is the best of all 5 together. LOL.

Oh well, you cant win them all. At least we got the pictures of the boys all together and the picture of Abby. Maybe I can get my photo savvy husband to photoshop a photo of all of them.

Last picture here is of Sunshine and his buddy Tyler. They are best buds. Sunshine and Abby both got those Mr. Potato Head bunnies, one pink one and one blue one. Well, here is what Sunshine and Tyler came up with.


Easter this year was very fun for all. Lots of candy, lots of eggs, and lots of fun. But more important we had so much great family time. It is great to be able to spend such wonderful days with the family having great times. It is also great to be reminded of the wonderful sacrifice that has been made for us by our Savior, Jesus Christ. What a way to spend a day, playing around with family and remembering our Savior, together as a family.

Easter egg hunt

It has been snowing off and on for the last few weeks, so Jim and I were very afraid we would wake up Sunday morning to snow on the ground. It has not been uncommon for it to snow during the night or early morning and then all melt by afternoon. It is also very cold in the mornings, considering we still have snow and all. This caused a bit of trepidation as to whether the Easter bunny would leave the eggs in the house for a family hunt or be able to do it outside. Well, we woke up Easter morning with just the snow that had fallen the day before and only covering the shaded spots in the backyard. So, the Easter bunny was able to hide eggs outside for our family hunt. The kids were so pleased, as well as Jim and I, cause there are not too many places to hide eggs in this small apartment.


This was Sunshines first real egg hunt and he thought it was a lot of fun to locate eggs around the yard. He was not too sure about picking them up at first, but he quickly got the hang of it. We had to have a "talk" with the boys about making sure they were letting Sunshine and Abby get some of the eggs and they did pretty good with that. There were a few times when Abby would be going for an egg only to have a brother swoop in and steal it, but with a few stern looks from mom that only happened a few times. Again, it is always nice when you can make it through things like this without any major traumatic episodes or fights from anyone. We had a cold, but wonderful time.


Of course in this next one we could not get Abby to look at the camera. She was just more concerned about grabbing the egg and scouting for the next egg to pick up. She got to enjoy 3 different egg hunts this year, so she has plenty of practice.


And this one is just to prove the cold weather we still have. Spring or not, it will still snow in Montana if it wants too.

Dyeing our Easter Eggs

Easter is always a fun time. We spent the evening prior getting all of our stuff ready for the Easter bunny. I procrastinated a bit too long and it was 7 p.m. on Saturday evening when we finally dyed our eggs. The kids had a blast.


Sunshine had fallen with one of the food coloring bottles in his hand, causing the end to poke into his hand. He got a nice little cut in the palm of his hand and was pretty upset by the episode, so he sat with thumb in mouth watching most of the time. He did enjoy seeing all the cool colors the boys were coming up with.
Overall, we had a great time. It is fun to see the kids get so excited. It is also great to make it though these times without any fights and the dye staying in the cups and not all over each other or the table. Most of you can understand what I mean by that, LOL. After dyeing the eggs, the kids were off the bed with dreams of candy and treats in their heads.

Pinewood Derby Time

Well, it is that time of year again. Time for all the dad's and boys to get their tools out and sand and sculpt to their hearts content.

Last year's derby car was our first attempt and while it looked good, it did not travel very well. For a first attempt, it was pretty darn good, Jim and I thought, but it lacked a little weight behind it. So this year, after learning our lesson last year about the importance of using as much weight as possible, Tyler and Dad headed out to the hobby store for extra weight.

Tyler designed a pretty cool car this year and Dad attached the weight. We still came under weight by about 1/2 an ounce, which we did not think was that big of a deal, considering last year we were under by 2 whole ounces. But, apparently, you need to squeeze in as much weight as possible. Tyler was very proud of his car with all of its cool embellishments. I was pretty proud myself.

Race day finally came and out of the 4 races he was in, he got 2 second places and 2 third places. He was very pleased with that, as it was progress from last year. I was happy that he was happy with this accomplishment. There were some kids, whose parents were putting on the pressure to win, who came out of the race with very sad faces. It is sad to see so much pressure from the parents. We just wanted him to have fun, of course if he won we would not complain at all. But the main reason for being there is to just have fun and we did accomplish that.

Here are some pics of our Cub Scout and his cool car.