More pictures!

Blessing day- Easter Sunday, 2009


Jackson's 2nd annual Pine Wood Derby- Jeff Gordon even attended! :)


All these years waiting to buy pink and she looks great in green. Great!


What a sad life!


He really can sleep anywhere! :)

Quick rundown

I guess I better make some time to update with words as well as pictures! I thought I'd have some time while I was home on maternity leave to catch up the blog, but a fussy baby and a 3 year old seem to have eaten all my time up very quickly!

Maelie is doing well- she is getting less fussy, and is starting to react to her parents and brothers more. We love it when she smiles at us. It makes all the fussiness very worth it. We got to bless her on Easter Sunday- surrounded by family and thinking of Christ,it was kind of a special day all around.

Jamison love having mom at home, but thankfully loves the babysitter as well, so my first day back to work wasn't as traumatic for him as I thought it would be. He is a great helper, loves playing outside with his older brothers and loves to "give loves" to his sister.

Jacob lost another tooth recently, one of his front teeth. The tooth fairy only brought him $1 in coins and he thought he was ripped off. Kids these days! :) He too loves playing outside and loving on his baby sister.

Jackson is growing into quite the little man. He had his second Pine Wood Derby last month and was so sure his Army Hummer car would whoop up. It didn't, but he won the "Eat my dust award" anyway. :)

John is nearly 100% finished with his Masters degree. ISU should be discredited for requiring 400 internship hours when most people are working full time while they get their degrees. He got some good compliments on his Masters paper though and passed the oral defending/presentation of his paper as well. He is having fun coaching Track and hosting board game club (a big nerd, I know), right now and Cross country in the Fall. He says next year he'd like to get more involved with wrestling too! As long as he can find a principle ship soon- he can coach cheer leading for all I care!

As I alluded to earlier, I just returned to work after a healthy 7 week maternity leave. Man that went fast! I am a little nervous about the swine flu since I am out of sick days though :) I loved my time at home and can't wait to be able to stay home for good. Summer break is just 19 (school)days away though- so I am counting down and getting through.

We hope our friends and family are doing well and enjoying the blessings the Lord has given you!

New Maelie

Just testing this thing out.


Such a crying shame- all dressed up and nowhere to go...


Just Maelie and Dad sharing a moment.


A rare happy moment!


My close up!

More family fun!- sorry, just pictures!

Thanks Aunt Alyssa for the cute hair bows and flowers!


I just hate being put down!


Jamison fell asleep watching Jacob play Webkinz


I love my swing too!


My first big smile!


I had to get a pictire of her in her cherries outfit from Aunt Mer- love the built in shoes!


Daddy and Steve, enjoying some R & R with their "girls"- a clear case where boys look good in pink too! :)


Maelie and her "faux-hawk" as the boys call it.


Jamison being a cool dude in his sunglasses. We need spring badly!


Maelie's first dress up session- the day after she got home from the hospital- we knew the NB dress wouldn't fit her long. :)

The new family

My first few minutes of life!

Baby Maelie is here!

Maelie Adeline Snell has finally made her entrance into the world. They started me Thursday night, and after contracting all night long, they broke my water at 6:30 am. I got my epidural (yes, I not only demand to be induced, I have to have drugs as well) at 8:30 am and after only 2 pushes, she was born at 9:15 am. John and my mom were at home getting the kids off to school and daycare for the day and arrived just after my epidural- they missed all the real pains- luckies! The boys are so excited to be big brothers to a little sister- finally. Jamison acts a little clipped at times, but for the most part, he too loves "Bebe me" Jackson and Jake can't get enough "I want to hold her" time, and neither can Dad! :) I didn't anticipate her cry sound so feminine, but it is way different than the boys. Luckily she's a great eater, just like her mom :) and although very curious, even the dog has gotten used to her strange noises and smells better than I anticipated. All is going very well so far. I will update again very soon with earlier photos. This was her first 4 hours at home, just 30 hours old. :)

1 more day...maybe

I am sitting in bed trying to decide what and how to update. Not much to tell but sore feet and legs and plenty of tired. I wonder how much of this is just mental, but all week long I have been looking forward to my last day of work (tomorrow) and now that it is here, I am wondering if my mind, and body, can push through the pain. I hope I am not the only mom who has ever gone through 3 pregnancies and still wonders if my pain is labor. Anyway, I am looking forward to my mom coming to help soon. Didn't realize how much I needed it until I started hurting so bad tonight. I almost cried like a baby when she called to see how I was doing. Some of my wishful thinking could be attributed to the fact that my friend who was due after me just had her baby early. No fair! Well, after looking this over, I can see I am sounding more like an online diary so I better cut this short. 1 day to go to baby girl Snell!

11 days to go!

I thought I'd hurry and update while I have a moment or two here. I went in today, but not quite there, despite feeling like I'm in labor all day. SO I am officially scheduled with the hospital for the 13th. They may start me the night of the 12th, so I am really ready by Friday morning. Either way... We should have a baby by the night of the 13th! YEAH! I will keep information coming as I get it.

Albertson's Sale!!!!

I forgot to mention this last night when I updated, but Albertson's is having a buy 10 (select) items and get $10 back sale right now. I think it may be nation wide... I hope. Anyway, Ours goes until Tuesday the 24th. I mention this because we got, no joking, over $600 worth of food for food storage, for only $150. I got John to come with me and even he was impressed. Check our your local store and see if you can take advantage of this sale too! I have an extra trick on fruit snacks - e-mail me if you want to know. Happy shopping!

Does Community Care offer stock? If so, I might as well get some...

I just wanted to take a moment and update everyone. Pretty presumptuous of me to think you really want updates, but It's my blog, so here goes.

Just after Jamison turned 3, Dec 28th, he was playing rough with Jacob and hit his head on the window sill in the living room. As with any wound in our family, it seams, he required 3 staples. Visit #1 to community care.

1 week later, the day I was taking Jamison back to get the staples out, Jacob says his throat hurts. With strep going around and his proneness to getting ill, I took him and Jamison in on the same visit. The whole way there he kept asking if he had to get a shot. In all my mom wisdom I said, "Of course not, he'll just look at your throat and if you are sick, he'll give us some medicine..." Jamison goes first and cried more than I was hoping for, but got over it quickly. Next was Jake and imagine the shocked look on his face when after the Doctor looked at him, he says, "It looks like it could be ???" (I can't even remember what ailment this time) "so we better give him a shot first and then start him on a round of antibiotics." I thought he was joking, perhaps he had overheard Jacob requesting no shots... SO when he left the room I said, again in all my mom wisdom, "Jake don't freak out, he's not going to give you a shot!" Again, picture if you will, the wide eyes of fear in a 6 year old when the nurse walked in and had a needle in her hands. To his credit, he did try to be brave, but he couldn't decide if it would hurt more in the bum or in the leg. After stalling for as long as he could, I had to help the nurse hold him long enough to get the shot in the leg. The funny part (so says the liar mom) came when the nurse stuck the needle into the sick bed, to it wouldn't poke anyone and having his nose right in on all the action, Jamison gets scared from the needle and all Jacob's screaming sobs and starts crying himself. THEN... Jackson who was only there as a spectator, decides watching Jamison's staples get removed was easier to take than seeing Jacob get a shot and says (pale as a ghost), "I just need some air mom, I'm going in the hallway."Visit to community Care #2.

Again... about a week and a half later, Jamison develops some sort of nasty canker sore on his tongue and cheek. We let it go for a few days, but when he couldn't eat or drink because it hurt too bad, we decided it was time. In we go again. To their credit, and our bill, they even recognize him this time and say, "Didn't we just see him?" Visit to Community Care #3 in less than 3 weeks. Not looking forward to those bills just after the holiday.

Anyway... Other than that, we are just waiting patiently for the arrival of Baby Girl Snell to our home. I have finally wore John down enough to start calling her by the name I picked out (we had a hard time coming to a consensus). Although the ultrasound tech was 99.9% positive this last time that she was a girl, I will officially announce her name when I have visual proof that she is indeed a SHE. After 3 boys, you tend to be a little skeptical that you'll ever get a girl. My blog baby counter says just 19 more days as of tonight, so that's what I am going by.

We take life and aches and pains just one day at a time here lately, and luckily so one is sick or has been hurt since our last catastrophes mentioned above. Hope all is well with everyone else, and we'll be sure to let you know when "Baby" arrives!
I also just realized my last 2 videos didn't work. Sorry. If I have time to think about it, I'll try to fix that. If not, just know that they were cute! :)

Christmas Eve 2008- They are so excited here!


Treats for Santa



What a way to wake to Christmas... At least it was white! :)



Merry Christmas Snell Family! This is Daisy... it's a wonder she can walk with how much she gets held.



Jamison loves Primary... now that he has a crown to wear. It's his favorite hat.




Snowman making time... they had so much fun with John.