Random Pics/Vids...

I take quite a few random pics and very FEW videos but here are couple of them that i have taken recently that I feel are blog worthy :) Enjoy!

Neya thinks she is soo funny. She referred to herself as "one of those old people" haha. Rian clearly has no personality ;) Chloe, getting bigger and more crazy every day :) Rian showing us how proud he is of his bike riding skillz! Reading RC the directions to his helicopter he told us they said "Sorry, your helicopter does not work." Haha. Neya made a bakers apron and she loved it, took overnight to dry all that puff paint but she did good. Very creative, she may give me a run for my money. LOL. Thought this pic was funny. Check out the headphones on both Rian and his shirt ;)

Disclaimer: We do have three kids, I swear it, but lately Carina has been gone on the weekends and if she isnt around we get no pics, not to mention she is WAY to cool to be caught doing anything dorky. Haha.

Other News...

Well it just dawned on me that I have left out some key pieces to what has gone on lately!

Carina started middle School!

Yep you read that right, Carina has started middle school, she is in 6th grade and now has to swap out classes, walk through halls and feel like the 'young one' on campus. It was such a sad and exciting day. She promptly came home asking me to wear mascara and after freaking out, like any respectable mommy might do, I said fine. So far she has worn it twice and isn't that big of a fan because HELLO, you can't wipe your eyes, it smears when you sweat and so far she hasn't done that great of a job washing it off. I know they get older and I know its exciting to see them grow up, but goodness, couldn't see wait longer to get into makeup! She has a few really cool classes, like a higher level math and science and she even has classes with her friends from elementary school. Very cool. My 7th grade history teacher already knows to look out for her and I am certain she will do a great job. Oh baby girl, how big you have grown!

I did manage to get 1 pic in before she was too cool for us :)Next year I will be sure to take some at home!

Neya has started 2nd Grade!

We were going to take Neya out of Alternative but seems it might be too late. So we will have to suck it up. The good thing about alternative is that she will be with all the same kid as last year, and a few new ones. Pretty neat. I still feel like an outsider but the important thing is that Neya does not. She gets along soo well with everyone. She likes her teacher so far and I am excited to see how the year progresses. Of course we are already hearing the whining about homework but hey, it is what it is. She is already planning her birthday and who to invite and what kind of party to have and she has worn all her new outfits and man, that is probably the most exciting part to her. Haha.

Dad's birthday

One of the neat things about being back in CA is that I get to celebrate birthdays and such with my parents. It has been a long time since we were this close and I am glad that we get to be around for all these birthdays they have so far. NOT TO MENTION it is a great time for me to try out my baking skills. For my dads birthday I made the same Red Velvet cupcakes I made for my friend, of course they came out deelish. Then I tried to make some banana cupcakes. I dont think they cooked quite long enough so they were a bit gooey but honestly, still good. Haha. I cored out the center and put caramel in and topped with cream cheese frosting and a fondant tennis ball. LOVED IT. He was appreciative and I was glad I could try something new out. Happy Birthday dad!

Dance Class

The girls are both signed up for dance class at the same studio this year. We decided to switch Neya out for two reasons...
1. She no longer wanted to do ballet, she wanted to switch to tap and the tap class at her old studio...well I didnt feel it pushed the girls
2. My cousins wife Marci was actually teaching at a different studio for the first time!

So how neat, we get to have Neya taught by a family member. This could be good or bad, depending on the way she respects her. Good for us, Neya loves to respect her elders so long as she doesn't see them often and doesnt feel confident testing them ;) SOO now she is in TAP at Expressions Studio, so far I like it!

Carina is doing hip hop. Its another good reason we are at a new studio. At the other studio Carina would have had to take 2 classes to be in their hip hop class and it wasn't even that great. At this one she can take one class (better for our wallet) and she seems to love it so far because its got a lot more structured and 'hip hop like moves' than the last studio. I wasn't too impressed at the recital so Im hoping this is better.

So far both girls love it, but we have only had one class, the other great news is that its on the same day, just one right after the other! WOOHOO! Makes for a long day but also only takes one day out of the week to have extra curricular stuff happening on!!! WOOHOO. Win Win as far as I am concerned. The first night we had dinner with my cuz and his wife, it was nice to get out and hang with them :)

Hudson Sinclair Snook

As you all know this is super exciting. Tiffany and Gabe were expecting their 3rd little man and not only did I get to help throw him a baby shower I also got to see him the very first day he was born. He is amazing. Just a precious little man. He looks like such a sweet mix of both the boys and although we all realized that is what we did "compared him to his brothers looks" we remembered briefly that that means he is a perfect blend of mommy and daddy also. HOWEVER, with such handsome brothers, how could you not hope he looks like them! I didnt snap many pics at all, I know that first day can be crazy, but I did get a few and I am even in them! Shocking...

First I just want to say to Gabe and Tiff:

You guys are some of the most amazingly sweet, caring, fun and thoughful people I know. I realize the wait for the next baby was to be longer and that you wanted more N & A time before adding a 3rd bundle, but I want you to know that I see already how great it is going to be. I can imagine it won't be instant quiet nights or perfect gentleness from the big brothers but I have no doubt you two will successfully knock out a schedule, have came babies and still show each and every one of them plenty of love (times 100). Not only is Hudson a lucky little man to have come into your family but I am a lucky friend to have you in mine!! I wish you guys soo much love and luck in all your upcoming years!

Love you Snook Family!!!

Hudson Sinclair Snook
7lbs 1oz 20 inches
8/26/2011 7:57am

Note: I know everyone takes flowers but for me, I wanted it to be special, even if they eventually fade and are no longer in the Snook House. I got 5 roses. 3 white ones for the boys and 2 yellow ones for mom and dad. I felt it was a good resemblance of their final destination as a family of 5! So cute.

Undies.

Well, it is official. Our little man is in big boy undies. Has been now for a couple weeks but didn't want to jinx it. He now pees in the potty, holds his pee during car trips, stays dry when he sleeps and even has attempted poop. ALTHOUGH he has also had accidents with poop (just once so far) but hey...that is pretty damn good for just being 3 weeks into it.

One morning during a busy weekend I was told by my little man that he did not like diapers anymore.

His exact words "this diaper is disgusting!"

Haha, so I took it off of him and slapped him in a pullup, which apparently to a kid (not to this momma) is totally different than a diaper. He still had an accident and so I took it off of him and decided to let him run around in the nude. The girls wont home with me so I figured it was fine, the first hour I asked him every 10 minutes if he needed to go potty to which he always politely responded "no I'm fine". I thought that was too cute! Then all of the sudden, I turn around and wouldn't ya know it, he is going to do the potty on his own, staring down in sheer amazement. I love this kid, and his joy to pee in the potty was pretty much the best thing ever! I was so proud of him! He went the rest of the day, then the rest of the weekend, then he went to school and had two days with no accidents, then the only accident he had was cause he was to close to the edge of the potty and it aimed right at his pants (but technically he was ON the potty so really...not an accident as far as I'm concerned). Now here we are three weeks later and he is a potty trained TWO year old. WOOHOO. Yes I cheat and although he will be 3 soon enough, my little man learned at 2!!!

Well here is to one super naked weekend and a super awesome potty trained boy a few weeks later!!

Wow! Now that's a wrap...for now...

Okay so I thought after vacation life couldn't get much more hectic and then BAM it hit me. Yes it could. Haha. I have often wondered how on earth people do this every day, work full time, raise kids, have good marriages, participate in lots of side things (party planning, sports, whatever) stay sane and of course don't fly off the deep end. I mean some of those folks that you read about in papers that just lose it, well...after all these crazy crazy weeks it sort of makes sense. At some point you gotta snap. Now...I do a lot, and I mean A LOT. I work a boatload of hours, I do lots with the kids and I help out witha lot of side things that I absolutely enjoy, but boy oh-la it has made it quite busy around here. So without further ado here is what we have been up to picture style...and YES it is a lot of pics...I mean you throw in a few days of fun stuff and voila all those pics you didn't think you had time to take suddenly appear. Haha!

Baby Shower for Hudson Sinclair Snook!

When my friend Tiffany announced that she was preggers with her 3rd baby (number 3 after her twins) I was over the moon, and also in shock...but thats a whole other story ;) I wasn't here for much of the boy's first months of life, both in her tummy and out of her tummy so I was STOKED to be a part of Hudsons whole story. I also wasn't here to throw her a shower (although her BFF of course did) and I wasn't here for delivery, I mean we had to wait a whole month just to meet them! So at the first chance I decided...ya know, sure it's the second pregnancy but hey...to me its just as special so I gave the idea to her BFF and BAM we decided to throw a shower. We make a great team and I was more than excited to see how it all turned out. I am forever grateful to be a part of Tiffany's life, she is a great friend and I can only hope we continue to be an bigger part of Hudsons life (and Aaden's and Noah's). I love you guys and I hope it was a special day for you!

The food spread...Susie made the best breakfast bake I have ever eaten!



The gifts :)




The Games...this one was funny. You chewed up a piece of bubble yum (hello SUGAR!) and you laid it on a 3.5 card and then you shaped it with only a toothpick to look like a baby. MAN were there some interesting ones!

Our Trip to the Napa Fair

What is there to say. We had a town fair, it was busy and we spent oh so much money. We ate tons of crap and enjoyed every minute of it! Hehe. The cool part was that we got to see our friends band perform the first night (sorry no pics) and then the second day we went we joined the same friends and the kids got to ride all the rides for an insanely large amount of money. Talk about debt! Ugh. However, if you can't tell by the kids faces in some of these pics...they TOTALLY enjoyed it, which makes any money spent completely worth it!

My Sister Ashley's Baby Shower

My sisters is a bit younger than me..I don't want to age myself so no specifics but its funny to me when I think of her as anything by my 'little sister' that wears clothes my mother dissapproves of, that sleeps with her kitty and blankie, that is so tiny and itty bitty you almost forget she is a grown up. However, here she is and on her way to becoming a mommy. When I first found out she was preggers I was sad cause it was on Facebook and my hubby had told me but looking back everyone does things a certain way for a reason and I'm sure she had her own reasons. I later got a personal text and although apprehensive I still wanted to celebrate it with her and be there for her because with my first kid I got a lot of a slack for how young I was, for the father I chose, for how much my life would change etc etc. I never wanted her to feel I wouldn't support her so the biggest way to show her that I was always going to be her biggest supporter was to of course, be there for everything but also to throw her a shower. To really celebrate this new life she was bringing into our crazy wild world. I got to planning a while back and it didn't even end up at the same place we had originally sent out on the invites but without skipping a beat we (my other sister and I) threw her a pretty amazing baby shower. I had the vision and my sister Amy helped me to bring it to life and keep me sane even with some of the hiccups :) We took lots of pics, had so much extra food and before time gets away from me, here is a little note to my sister Ashley:

'Ashley, life won't always be easy, raising a kid won't always be filled with smiles and laughs, but along the journey you will always have me to keep you grounded, keep it real and to be there when you need a hand. When it comes to baby Gabriel Myles, you rely on your own motherly instints, take all the help you can get, shove pride out the door and do what will keep a roof over Gabes head and love in his life. Although you will always get a million pieces of advice, the only piece that you will want to listen to 100% is this...No mother is the same, no child is the same, you will have people judge, warn, bash and support your actions and the only thing you need to remember is that MOMMY KNOWS BEST!

I wish you all the luck in the world little sis...I love you!

Now without further ado...here are the pics!

Onesie decoration station...what a hit...check out some if the awesome art folks did :)





The decor (a bit of it)







The games. We played two of them. One was "Who's poop" and you had to guess which chocolate bar was in the diapers. OMG soo funny with such a young group and then the tie breaker game was "chug a lug" where you had to chug liquid out of a bottle. I included the two winners pictures while they chugged away! Talk about not easy!





The guests...














The gifts...




I also took a pic of my sister and wanted to put it in a frame (you can see that in previous pics) for people to sign on as a 'guest list'. It turned out really cute but here is the actual pic :)