Beach day in November!

Gotta love California. We were blessed with a nice 82 degrees at the beach last weekend. So we piled in the truck and had to make it a beach day! We met up with Seth and Emily and enjoyed a few hours at Laguna Beach!

I did not plan for water play, so did not have the kids in swim clothes. It was cute watching Nate's shorts falling down the entire time while he was playing in the water.


Sam is usually water timid, not today! You could not get him out of the water!

And of course, Faith our little social butterfly started making buddies with other little girls on the beach. She even blessed this little girl with a toy she found in the water.

Jake the Spartan Racer

Here is my crazy muscle machine of a husband. :)

Jacob discovered an event called the Spartan Race. A 3 mile run that includes obsticales...like jumping over fire, crawling under barbed wire, running through freezing water trenches, climbing walls covered in mud and soapy water, you get my drift.

He did this race with his brother Seth. They had a great time, raving about it for days. And they came home very very muddy...you do not want to know the condition of his laundry after this event. I have not seen so much mud in clothing!

Here is a pic of Jake's legs once he completed the race.

And of course you can not do a race like that without getting some sort of cuts and bruises. Jake's legs took a bit of a beating.

But he loved it so much, and had so much fun training for it, that he entered the next race in January...this one is 8 miles long....crazy! But he loves it!

Thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had an amazing family day to celebrate all we are thankful for.

The day began with a super fun family hike. Our kids LOVE hiking! And it is such a great family activity.


Sam led the way for most of the hike.


When we got home, we made "Thankful Turkey's" On each of the feathers, the kids listed something they were thankful for. Nate's number one item was Seaworld...the kid is obsessed with Shamu at the moment. :)


Then I hit the kitchen.
We ate this...it was very yummy. :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and took a moment to remember all the blessings in your lives. :)

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS GUY IS 5!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR WONDERFUL LITTLE SAMMY!

I guess you can say he is not so little anymore. He is becoming quite the sweet young man.

We started a new tradition on Sam's birthday. We had celebrated our anniversary a few days before Sam's birthday, which includes Jake making me breakfast in bed. So we decided Why not do that for the kids on their birthdays? Sam was so excited when he got his breakfast that we decided this new tradition is a goodie and will be sticking around!

Faith is our little video girl, filming the fun. Following in Daddy's footsteps??

But of course he was not allowed to actually EAT in bed, he had to move to the living room. No messes on the sheets!

And of course we had to have a party! This year our theme was Batman...of course! Anyone who knows Sam, also knows he will be a "Real Batman" when he grows up.

Sam's little friends came over to celebrate (rain forced the party inside this year) and we all had a great time. Nate was really into the singing and the blowing of the candle...he almost beat Sam to it!

Hope you enjoyed your birthday buddy! We love you oh so much!

On The Blog Again

I know, I know. I keep abandoning the blog. Life gets busy, and the blog gets up on the backburner.

Life is a little extra busy these days. In October, we pulled Faith out of the public school system. So I am now homeschooling ALL THE KIDS! :) We are beyond delighted, and this decision has been a wonderful fit for the family. Faith is doing MUCH better then when she was in school, and Sam is loving having his bestie back home all day to share school time with him.

So with that comes adjustment. Which is where my focus has been. Getting a good "school day" groove in place. Finding what works best. Took a couple of months of testing out this and that, but I think we are on a great routine now!

SO now I'm simply trying to get other things back on track...including the blog. We are doing so much fun stuff, I really need to get it recorded on the blog! I love spending quiet nights reading back to older posts and remembering the fun times. :)

So, here we go. I will once again try to blog more often ;)

Time to play Catch Up!!

Alright, we are moved in! Pretty much all settled into the new place, so time to play some catch up on the blog...This will be a huge entry!

Let's start with my Birthday surprise...I know, it was back in April, but Jake did something pretty special for me!

I have always had a dream to swim with Dolphins...so for my Bday, Jake got us all passes to Seaworld, and signed me up for the Dolphin Encounter!!!!!

The kids loved Shamu...and were chanting the Shamu show song for days...clap clap clap, SHAMU, SHAMU!! haha

Faith took a 6 week long Tumbling Gymnastics class. She is addicted to cartwheels! Her class ended with a floor routine competition, which she tied for 3rd!!

Meanwhile, our Sam did the spring season of T Ball. Jake and I coached his team, and it was so much fun to watch all these little 4 - 5 year old little boys running in the wrong direction, attempting to slide, all 9 on the team chasing the ball at the same time, you get my drift. Lots of laughs. And so much fun for the boys!

We also just added a new member to the family. Jack the Cheweenie came into our lives soon after we moved. The kids are in heaven! (pics to come)

So I would have more pics to post, but my camera is missing at the moment and I have tons sitting on it waiting to upload! Rats...so this will end my post for now. More to come soon! Summertime is busy and I want to capture and record a lot of it!

And here we go a moving again!

But this time we are doing a first for the Snowden's! We are moving locally! haha. Can you believe we have NEVER moved locally, until now!

We have found a beautiful condo in a great community! Across the street is a park we love to visit, and 2 blocks down the street is Faiths new school (starting in Grade one, she will finish K at her current school) and the library. A block further down the road is the grocery store and shopping plaza....yes I can go back to my walks in the morning, dropping Faithy off and heading down to the market for fresh fruits and veggies for the days meals. I did that a lot way back when we lived in Costa Mesa and have always wanted to get back to a place within walking distance to the store. And another bonus, we can practically see Oakley from our house...so an even shorter bike ride for Jake!

So we are in the midst of packing and once again getting organized...I feel like a pro at this. On Saturday we will be having a garage sale. I'm in the mood to do an overhaul...so I'm selling as much as I can, and then starting over with the decorating....very very excited.

On another note, I FINALLY have my IMMIGRATION interview!!! YEAH!!!! The final thing before I get my permanent residence to the US! Very happy. nervous, anxious, etc. Will be glad when that's over!

Will update more later, I know I have not been very consistant lately with the blog...but the last month or so have been filled with looking at apartments, praying for a new home, working out budgets, etc.

Happy Birthday Faith!

March 6th was our little Faithy's 6th Birthday! I can not believe she is 6 already...as much as it seems we've had her forever, I can still remember like yesterday holding her for the first time!

This year we had the theme of Hello Kitty! This is one of the 3 cupcake cakes I made for the festivites!


We had 2 parties for Faith. The "school friends party" that we had at the park after school. Had a great turnout! Around 25 kids! Nice thing about a party at the park, is that there is something for everyone to do! Then on the weekend we had the "Family and Friends" party. Much smaller, much more relaxed :) Here are some pics from both parties!

The hit of the party was when the kids got to "shop" at Hello Kitty's candy shop! What kids doesn't like to fill a bag up with candy?


We were surpirsingly able to keep some order when Faith opened her gifts! :) Just look at how nice those kids are sitting!

This is Sam at Faith's "family and friends" party. You can tell by now he did not care much about Faith's birthday and just wanted to relax. I love this kid!

Faith's "prince charming" brought her some beautiful pink roses!

Happy Birthday Princess! We love you so much and are SO BLESSED to have such a wonderful little girl!

San Diego!

A few weeks ago, we decided we were LONG overdue for one of "weekend getaways". So off to San Diego we went!

There is an air show once a year at the Navy base. It's cool because they open up the entire base to the public! It was neat to see where we could have ended up living if Jake had not been medically discharged from the Navy.

We also hit the zoo, and a Train museum! Fun Fun Fun weekend!

Faith and Sam showing off their Batman hands!


Nate was a hoot at the Train museum...he pretty much screamed CHOO CHOO the entire time :) He is as obsessed with trains as the big kids are with Batman right now!


My proud Canadian moment, when we found the Canadian plane!


The kids hanging out inside a rescue plane.

The airshow was so fun. The kids got to go inside so many planes while a steady stream of planes and demos were happening overhead...never a dull moment!

Brielle

If you look a few posts back, I had asked you to lift a sweet little girl up in prayer.

Today she is in heaven, in the arms of Jesus not suffering anymore.


I am so sad today. Just thinking of her family. Her mom and dad, and 2 sisters...and how on earth you process such a loss. Even though they "knew it was coming" I don't think it softens the blow. I'm so thankful she was able to have such a fun last few weeks. Her family went to Hawaii, and then up to their cabin in Arrowhead. What a wonderful time they were able to have, and to just cherish and enjoy each moment.

Even though I never met Brielle, I have followed her blog for quite some time. And the spirit and maturity of this girl amazed me. In her suffering, she was always thinking of others, always doing devotions or writing bible study lessons. She was always looking for ways to reach out to others...she was just plain beautiful.

I am challenged by this sweet angel. What can I do to reach others? How can I be a blessing to those around me, and to those I come into contact with? How can I better my relationship with God, and have the desire to serve him that she had?

I know today she heard the words "Well Done, my good and faithful servant!"

I want to be like Brielle. She is a hero in my life. And I will never forget her.

Thank you Brielle for being so beautiful.

Please pray for the Murray's and their family as they deal with their loss. That God will put His arms of comfort around them.

www.briellemurray.com

Superbowl Reaction

We had a house full of Steelers fans (and one Packers fan) on Superbowl Sunday. We had just the best time hanging out with friends, eating TONS of yummy food, and cheering our team on!

Unfortunately our Steelers did not come away with the win this year.

I'm wondering if our friend John caught this pic the moment the game ended. haha


I love it when these little "moments" are caught on film. :)

Maybe next year Steelers! Now I'm just hoping my Vancouver Canucks make it far in the playoffs so I will actually be able to see some Canuck games!

Hammy

Meet the newest member of the Snowden Family! Hammy the Hamster!

She was a gift for the kids for Christmas, and I have finally taken some pics of the kids with her.

Those first few weeks I'm just trying to make sure Hammy SURVIVES the love fest!

Who says it doesn't snow in Orange County?

The park near our house hosted a "Snowfest" last weekend! The park has some great hills, so they truck in some snow and make some sledding runs. They also make a nice big area for the kids to just play in the snow :)

Unfortunately, we missed out on the pre-registration for the sledding, but playing in the snow was just as fun for our kiddos!

Sam was all about the snowball fight. He spent his entire time throwing snowballs at Jake! haha


Nate was so curious about this strange, cold white substance. He loved it!


And Faith was all about trying to build little snowmen. She kept saying, this is like Canada! Well, in Canada we would be in more then a long sleeve T... :)


After the snow we hit some rides, played on the playground, found some Kindergarten friends to do some rides with, played some more, then went home....I was TIRED! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATE!

I can not believe our little man is already 2!!



We had an amazing day at the park celebrating with friends!

We love you Hurricane Nate!

Prayers for Brielle

A few months ago I read a post by a friend on facebook, asking to join her in prayer for a little girl named Brielle. This little girl and her family attend my friends church, a church that Jake and I used to attend.

So I hit the link and started to follow the story of Brielle. At that time she had just gone through some surgery to remove a tumor and I followed along and read about her recovery, the good days and the bad..and just kept on praying for this little girl, believing that the Cancer invading her little body was now gone

Over the holidays I did not follow as much. And she was doing so well, the blog entries became fewer..and then this morning I was checking my facebook and 2 friends had requests to cover the Brielle's family with prayer. Oh no...

So I rushed to the blog and discovered that Brielle's cancer had returned..and had spread to her spine..even though she had been doing Chemo..it didn't help..the cancer was back. Her prognosis is grim. She will go quickly the doctors say, as quickly as a matter of weeks.

I broke down and cried. Cried for a little girl I don't even know...but had gotten to know by following her journey on her families blog. I could not believe after all she had been through, that this was going to be the end result. I think often of her mother, and how on earth is she coping with all this? How do you handle the news that your daughter will be going to heaven so soon??

So please friends, join me in praying for this family. Pray for a miracle for Brielle! Yes, the doctors do not have good news, but GOD IS BIGGER!!!!! This family has been so strong in their faith, they truely are an inspiration! Please take a moment to read some of the blog so you can see this family of faith in action, and PRAY PRAY PRAY!

http://web.me.com/terrypeiffer/Brielle/Welcome.html

Welcome 2011!!

Well it has been a bit since I last blogged. I had meant to blog about Sam's birthday...Christmas...Christmas break from school...

BUT....We have been at battle with a feisty cold/ear infection/bronchitis/sinus infection!!! I think we are finally all pretty much over it, but I am still keeping track of Amoxicilin doses for the boys and puffer treatments! Phew!!

So my first prayer for 2011 is that I have a healthier household!! I've been at battle with these never ending colds and cough's for weeks and weeks! Thankfully Faith has been the least affected and has not had to miss school. The 2 times she's been sick this season were on weekends or Christmas break.

Now on to the New Year!! Welcome 2011!!

So as we do every year, here we are again with the "New Years Resolutions!" What are you going to change this year?? Where do you want to improve?? What areas of your life do you want to see growth (or shrinkage??:)

As for me, I seem to have the same ones every year! So I'm a little apprehensive about making huge resolutions for not wanting to feel like a failure when I look back at the end of the month and my goals are already failures! Haha! So this year, it's more of a "Here are the areas I'm going to work on"...with little achievable goals that are more realistic!

My areas of work...

1. Getting up early to do devotionals. I LOVE how my days turn out when I start my day out this way. Nice and early, just me, my Bible and journal...so I wonder....if I like the results so much, then why is it so hard to get out of bed to start my day out this way??? Hmm. So for January I will work super hard to get my butt out of my nice warm bed and get my day started out right!

2. The Gym...oh the evil gym...I have been pretty good with this. Making it an average of 3 - 4 days a week. But I would like to consistently get 4 - 5 days in a week. Should not be too hard. Especially if I get number 1 going, then I'm ready to get out the door by 8am for the gym. :)

3. Patience...oh my kids...how I love them soo, but how they also love to test my patience. I have found the last month or so that my patience has been paper thin...doesn't take much to push my buttons and then I find myself yelling at the kids and just being plain ugly. I need to not let circumstances get the better of me. Just roll with it girl!! Stop stressing over messes, time, getting all the home school stuff done today. :) This is something I am very ready to tackle head on!!

4. Blog more consistently! :)

So there you go...guess this is my January mission of the Month!