Brittanies got TALENT!

This is for you Grandma! Watch it over and over!

Britt is trying out for her school talent show next week. When we told Grandma she wanted a little audition tape so here it is. We did several takes but this one was extra funny thanks to Nate. We all laughed so hard watching it that this was the one we had to post.

We hope you all enjoy. (Mom, Can you believe that I told you I would post and then I did all in the same day! I think I'm getting a handle on my life--maybe.)

First Family Ski Trip

We took our first family ski trip on Saturday. Having great success with the first trip Dad took with each of the kids, we thought it was time to get all of us up there together. We went up with Kevan & Judy's family to Bogus Basin for a little night sking fun. By the end of the night, we were so thrilled out how far both Brittanie and Nathan had come. They both could ski down the "coach" hill on their own and really started to love going fast.

Both kids are really excited about skiing and can't wait to be able to go again. We hope to get up there a time or two before all the snow melts this Spring.

Nate's B-day Celebration

" Look how fast I am dude!"
The kiddie pool and playground area

Our b-day BOY!!

The kids love riding the big floating snake.

The Gang is ready to hit the pool!

Nate and his magic wand.
The Snelders family in Washington

Finally--Mom got in the pool!

Great Wolf Lodge Trip:

It has become tradition in our family to do a trip when our kids turn 5. When Britt turned 5 we went to Disneyland. So we have been planning to go again when Nate turned 5 but as his birthday approached he didn't seem too excited to go. So we started thinking of other options and when we showed Nate the pictures on his cousins blog of their trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Washington it didn't take him long to decide. This little boy LOVES swimming and so this was the perfect trip for him. We left early Friday morning and arrived at the hotel at 4:00p.m. We were lucky enough to meet Craig, Julie, and their boys and share a 2 room suite! (Thanks Craig for getting us a deal!) So after a quick dinner the kids couldn't find their swimming suits fast enough! So we got in a couple of hours of swimming before the kids were done and wanted to go to story time in the hotel lobby. After story time, Nate and his cousins used the magic wand we got at the "Magic Quest" store to wander around the hotel and make creatures come to life and open treasure chests. Harry Potter...eat your heart out! It was pretty cool!! After traveling and so much action Nate fell asleep almost before his head touched the pillow. Saturday morning we were back at the pool by 9:30 a.m. and swam until about 3:30 p.m. It was a blast. (Hopefully nobody that works at Great wolf will read this next part of my story) Nate was the only one of the kids that was too short to ride the big waterslides so towards the end of our 2nd day I slipped Britts bracelet off and put it on Nate and we took him down the big slides a few times. (Don't judge me--Nate missed qualifying by 1/2 inch). Can we just say...He LOVED the fast slides and it was totally worth the dishonesty. Britt almost made a scene when I asked her for her bracelet by saying "No Mommy, that's CHEATING!! And then again when I went to take Britt down after she had given her bracelet to Nate, the lifeguard questioned us about her missing bracelet and she looked at me in fear. Luckily she kept her lips sealed and after a quick measurement she was allowed to ride down...and go get a new bracelet. Wheww...that was close. OK, so I'm a bad Mom but if you saw the smile on Nate's face after his 1st time down ANYONE else would have done the same thing. Totally worth it! What a great time we had and a HUGE thank you to Craig & Julie for helping us make it happen!! I don't know if anyone will notice but we hardly ever go anywhere without Craig & Julie...and we are more than OK with that!

IT's a tie-dye Christmas

Inn Keeper Nate and "Wise Woman" Britt in the Navity Christmas Eve.
Britt wants to be just like her older Cousin Tyler and now she can look the part with matching hats from Grandma!

Our tie-dye family!

We made sure Zach wasn't left out and dyed one of his onesies!

"tis the season to be tie-dying???" Well it was if you were celebrating Christmas in Wayan. This year I was in charge of decorating some t-shirts that our Uncle brought out and I thought tie dying sounded like fun. It was really fun!! Little Britt fell in love with it and made 2 shirts for herself and helped make one for Zach and Nate. I think this will be one of my favorite christmases when I look back at all the pictures and see all of our family wearing their shirts on Christmas Eve! I wish I had gotten more pictures of our aunts, uncles and cousins wearing them because every shirt was unique! We had a wonderful holiday with our family in Wayan and on Christmas eve we drove to my sisters house in Utah and spent Christmas morning there. Since I didn't have church responsibilities to run home to I stayed for another 5 days while Scott came home and worked. It was SO fun to spend more time with my sister and brother-in-law and then a few days with my parents. I wish I could do that every year!! Thanks to everyone (my mom and Craig) for shuttleing me from city to city!! I had a blast. We wrapped up the holiday in Pocatello to celebrate New Years and Scott came back from Boise to pick us up. Now we are back to "normal" and have been spending our days running to and from gymnastics, ballet, work, mutual and our all important family Saturday Activities. I can't believe how fast life is going but it sure is a fun ride!

Nathan's 10 Seconds of Fame

We needed a little actor for our Toys for Tots campaign for Albertsons in Boise, and our Advertising Director asked if my son would like to be the tot. Nathan was pretty excited about the whole thing. He was great for the photo shoot in the store for the posters. He had a great smile and was willing to try about anything. When shooting the video for the advertisement, Nathan was a little more shy. I couldn'g get him to show the same big grin he had for the photo shoot and he was definately hesitant about giving the Marine a hug.

The ad is currently playing in Boise on ABC:

Here is the poster that is at our Boise Albertsons locations at the toy bin drop-off area:

Do you think he has a career?

Time flies when you've got 3 kids! Am I right Ladies?

Zach is almost 3 months in this picture!
Hannah and "pepe" go trick or treating.

Isn't Nathan the cutest Super Hero Ever?

Scott wore Britt's Hannah wig for a last minute costume to run the Fun Run here. We added the Bandanna and called him Brett Michaels! Rock ON!

Scott ran the St. George Marathon and did GREAT!

So you may have wondered why can't Nat get a new post more often and here is a glimpse at what is keeping me busy these days! I can't believe how much faster my day goes since we brought home little Zach! Halloween seems like yesterday but here we are already Christmas shopping today! We had a blast having almost all of Scott's siblings here to celebrate Halloween with us! What a Blast!! It is one of our new family traditions that we look forward to. Scott decided an hour before the Great Pumpkin Race that he was going to run so we scrambled for a costume and this is what we got! I think he looks pretty sexy with that long blonde hair! He came in 2nd place and won 3 months at the gym w/ personal training--that he gave to me! So reaaly we were bith winners! That is the other thing that has kept us busy is running around to watch Scott run races this month. He ran the S. George Marathon in early October and another 10k race here in Boise 2 weeks later. He had his fastest 10k finishing in 41 minutes! So other than racing I stay busy shuttleing kids to and from school, preschool, and gymnastics. Oh, and just to make sure I don't get bored I went back to work 1 day a week starting November 5th.

I always love to post a funny story and so I'll finish with my favorite Halloween story. I had gotten this sombrero at DI and thought it would make a fun costume. Half way through trick or treating Britt was at the door and the adults were asking her about her costume. She was very proud that they could tell she was Hannah Montana. I guess she must have felt bad for me because they didn't comment on my costume so she drew their attention to me saying, "And look at my'Mom, She's a (pause)...Chinese thing!" The neighbors got a kick out of that! I think I laughed until the end of the block! Britt wasn't trying to get a laugh but she really enjoys making a good joke!

New Family Pictures--Hurray!

Just the Girls!

What a cute toothless Smile.

Just the Boys!

Just the OLD people!

The Snelders Family

Nate is voted most photogenic.

Our family (in a) TREE!

We want to thank Judy and Kevan for taking time to help us get some cute new family pictures. I think we got some good ones. Our favorite background spot ended up being in the sun and all of us are making weird faces so we didn't post that one. My favorite picture of the day was the one of all the kids that is our new title picture! So cute!! I know all the Grandmas will be excited to get a copy of that one. THANKS to Judy and Kevan now we have new pictures!! Mom--I know you will want to see all 200 but we didn't think everyone else would so we will send you a CD!

Families are Forever

Little Zach is 4 weeks old on his blessing day.
This little boys is always moving those hands if he is awake!

Who wouldn't want to be together Forever?

VERY proud Big Sister and Big Brother. Now they have something..or Someone new to fight over! And believe me they do!

We are very blessed! (Pretty busy and tired but blessed all the same!) Little Zachary has been in our family now for 7 weeks today. Somedays I feel like it is flying by and then other times I feel like it has been a FOREVER since I got a good nights rest! But look at that little face, he is worth every minute. I guess I just feel very lucky today and want to express my gratitude for having such a wonderful family. I think I would feel very lost if I didn't know, without a doubt, that I will live with my family for eternity. Somedays I know the kids would like me not to nag them for eternity but its a risk they will have to take. Recently we had some friends comment on how neat they thought it was that we spend every Saturday doing some kind of activity together as a family. I guess this is something I have just taken for granted. I am very lucky to have a husband that makes family time a #1 priority. We don't always do exotic things on our Saturday family day. Often our family activity is going to Sams Club browsing and getting a hot dog. It's about an $11.00 date but our kids love it because Saturday is sample day so they get more than just a hot dog. So thank you to our friends for telling me that you think the Snelders have a fun tradition because it has made me realize how important family time is and I'm grateful that "Saturday family day" is just part of our life style. I'm glad they shared with us that they have totally changed their previous Saturday schedule to now make Saturday their family day. I hope everyone reading this blog knows me well enough to know that I'm not boasting, I'm just as shocked as everyone else to realize we are doing something that others think is right.

P.S. We are truly blessed to have THE coolest friends and family in the world...yeah I mean all of you reading this. (Unless your a blog snooper and then I guess I don't know if you are cool or not.)

"Look Dude, No training Wheels!!"

Our little artist!! It is definitly in her Genes!
Nate is pretty excited about his new skills!

Look at me GO, and GO....and GO!

Britt has been riding for 5 months and shows Nate how a pro does it!

Nate and Dad at "Art in the Park" building and Airplane out of Cardboard.
The fancy term is "recycled art".

Have we EVER mentioned that we LOVE Boise in the fall? I know we are annoying but Art in the Park is one of our absolute favorite events of the summer. Usually we ride our bikes on the Greenbelt into Julia Davis park but this year with Zach we had to change and walk into the park. Zach can't hold up his own head so he is no where near ready to try out the bike trailer. We did however keep our tradition of packing a picnic and finding a shady spot to enjoy lunch together in the park! Some may think is a little sad that a piece of fried chicken and free art projects makes for such a happy family but that's how we like our Saturdays... SIMPLE.

Now for our other big news, Nathan can ride his bike. It was amazing how fast he learned. We knew he would pick it up quickly but we had no idea it would be this quick. Just like Britt he decided to learn when Mom was gone to mutual and had nearly mastered riding a bike in a single night. On Thursday he followed Mom around all day begging her to find time when Zach was asleep that she could go help him riding his bike. After a couple of laps up and down the street with him yelling over his shoulder "LET ME GO"(because I was hanging on to his shirt) he gave up and waited for the real bicycle trainer (DAD) to get home from work. Then that night he was well on his way. So the first night he could balance and ride but was scary to watch. The second night he had even better balance and learned how to turn around and stop with out crashing. And then Friday night, he learned how to start all by himself and now is an expert. He loves to show anyone how fast he can go! It amazes me that he chose to have Dad take off his training wheels and learned to ride his bike in one night! He gets that from Scott. I haven't confessed to the kids that I couldn't ride until I was like 8 or something! I just remember being embarassed that I had training wheels so I must have been pretty stinkin' old!

Back to the Books

Lining up after the 1st bell and guess who is 1st in line!!
This was the shirt Britt picked out on our Girls only shopping trip.
Thanks Honey, for taking the boys so we could go shopping. It was SO much fun for both of us!

Now you can see the total look. For all the girls, we know it is all about what you wear the 1st day back to school!

Brittanie started back to school on Monday and could not have been more excited!! She woke up as soon as she heard Scott and she quickly made her bed and put on her outfit she picked out the night before and then to my dismay....she did her own hair. In her mind she thought she was ready and now she just had to wait. But the poor little girl has a Mom who is way to up tight to let her do her own hair on the 1st day of School. After some savy negotiations of "extra baby Zachary time", I talked Britt into letting me do her hair! Sigh of relief!! (I have found these two kids will do just about anything if it results in them getting some alone time to snuggle their baby brother.) After a few pictures, she couldn't stand it anymore and we drove her down to school. Nathan was a little embarassed because as we headed out the back door of the house he asked me if I wanted a jacket so nobody would see that I was in my pajamas!! Looking back now on taking her to 1st grade in my pajama's...I must say I am a little humiliated. I was wearing my Rad Racing t-shirt so at least it was my "cool" pajamas AND I had on sunglasses! I'm still trying to figure out where my day goes, but being home with the two boys keeps me busy but we love it. Nate likes having Mom and Zach all to himself for a few hours of the day, I guess that is as long as I don't take him anymore places in my pajama's!!