Bling for the Birthday Girl!

While we were pregnant with Malaia we had the talk, do we or don't we? Pierce our babies ears I mean. It wasn't a hard decision to make, we both felt the same way, let her be a baby, let getting earrings be a special thing, something she asks for and looks forward to. My mom had 5 girls, and each of us couldn't WAIT until our big 8th birthday. The year we got to pierce those ears! So I thought that 8 would be the perfect age for my girls to have to wait as well...you know, carry the tradition on? Benjamin agreed, and so 8 it was...until Malaia was about 3! Please Ben, can we pierce her ears....please?! Finally I found a way to change his mind, and get that number down...at least a few years. While I still wanted it to be something they waited and asked for, I didn't want to wait until 8. So...5! 5 was the perfect age in my mind. The year they start Kindergarten(don't get me started, I promise you, I will bawl...) and old enough to understand that we must clean them daily, and keep our fingers off them. 5 was ok with Daddy too....done! So there I was waiting and waiting, counting the months, weeks, then days till it was FINALLY time to take my baby to get those beautiful big girl earrings! I stressed! I was so excited, but just like every mom dreads the immunizations, I was sad for Lai that this might hurt. I remember vividly getting my own ears pierced and bawling my eyes out. Now I am a bit of a drama queen, but lets remember this is MY child, and as much as I hate to admit...she takes after mom! Benjamin sent me off to do this 'mommy and daughter' style...in all honesty, he didn't want to be there to see the tears. His only rule was that she get to pick the earrings, that two people do it at the same time, and that Mia come back earring FREE ;) So we were off! After hitting up Claire's in the mall and finding that they only had one piercer, off we went in search of another ear piercing place, following Daddy's rules (and dodging the small chance Laia may have picked the dreadful hello kitty earrings). At last, two piercers! Laia picked the cutest pink flower earrings, was I really worried? She is MINE after all...I love how still and terrified she is in this picture...And could we have captured a better reaction! All the worry for nothing. She didn't even FLINCH! Such a big girl! Mamma was so proud! And it was such a success I was ready to hike Mia into the seat and give her a go too! She changed her mind last minute, also keeping mommy in line with the rules of Mia returning earring free:)And so here she is! My very big 5 year old! I cannot believe my little Malaia is FIVE! And now, we can FINALLY share earrings:) Mommys dream!

P.S. Daddy told me that night he was surprised when Mia came home without earrings, and a little sad...oh silly Daddy...

Snider Girl #4 ?

Getting ready to head out for a day at the park I was in the bathroom straightening my hair when I heard Benjamin tell Mia to 'go have mommy do your hair and we will go'. Mia came into the bathroom, I locked the doors, and we started;) It took only seconds but this looks like a different PERSON!!! She thought it was so fun to have 'blong'(a combination of long, and blonde hair, its what kind of hair the girls say Malaia has) hair like sissy! I listened for Daddys reaction when he first saw our little curly girl, straight. 'Oh how pretty Mia' I hear, then right into the bathroom he was to ask 'Why did you do that!!' I laughed and told him I liked it, and he agreed but just explained he loved her curly hair so much the straight kinda made him sad. 'Can you change it back now?' I laughed again and told him he would have to wait until tomorrow. We headed out for the day and I couldn't stop laughing every time I looked at Mia. She is such a doll baby, and with the straight hair she looked just like big sissy! But I have to admit at the park it made me nervous trying to keep an eye out for her, I'm so used to just looking for the curls:) I also had to keep myself from telling anyone we came in contact with that 'she actually has curly hair' how silly of me, but its all I wanted to say to anyone that day...
Our little family day was as fun as always, and although we all loved Mia with her blong hair...we are happy to have our curly monster back:)

Hunting eggs the Coastie way...

I have been to many Easter Egg hunts in my life, eggs in the grass, a bush, the trees, but none as fabulous as the one my 3 girls attended this Easter. This year one of the sweet Coastie wives thought it would be a fun idea to do something at the station for Easter...she rallied the troops and the end result was the BEST Easter egg hunt I have ever attended:) There were more eggs than could be needed for 50 kids, let alone the handful of Coastie kids that were there to hunt them, baskets were so full they were falling out left and right, the adults wasted no time 'helping' the kids pick those lost eggs up;) The best part of the hunt was the location. As usual Easter morning on the Oregon coast was a sky full of rain, so my husband and the other guys on duty(whose only duty that day was to hide the dozens of eggs the wives had filled at ladies night that week) decided what better place to hide all these eggs than the haul out....thus leading to the best egg hunt...EVER!

Is it cheating since he helped hide the eggs??

where else do kids get to hunt for eggs in life jackets?!

Loving all the fun places you can find eggs in the haul out at the Coast Guard station...mine are the luckiest kids in the world!!!

diving into their treasures....perfect day, and perfect egg hunt! Thank you Jessica and all the other wifey's that helped with this fun egg hunt! Thank you Daddy and the boys for being the best egg hiders out there!!! Daddy enjoying the yum yums from the hunt... Happy Easter!

Kaier's First Easter

Kaia's first Easter was a hit! She had so much fun helping her sisters dig into their baskets, and finding eggs...keeping us all on our toes all day long making sure there were no choking hazards laying around....Happy FIRST Easter to our sweet baby Kaier's!!!
her first peep....yum!

Egg fun with my girls!!!

I love when I can combine 'arts & crafts' time with 'bring a desert' time, and I think the girls like it too:) A few years ago we did the rice crispy treats that you shape into an egg, and dip into chocolate and sprinkles and candies, and while it was fun, and delish, we didn't end up eating many of the eggs it was just too much. So this year I decided we would cut the eggs with a cookie cutter instead of shaping them into full on eggs, and go from there. When I found out we needed to bring a desert to the station Easter egg hunt I thought, YAY an excuse to do my fun craft time with the girls!!!

After I had all the eggs cut and laid out, I melted down white chocolate chips and we began in the decorating fun...

Thank you to my sweet husband for making a store run for some icing after I was knuckle deep in white chocolate and we realised that our sprinkles just werent going to cut it as far as Easter egg fabulous-ness goes...

The girls loved this little project, and I must admit I thought they turned out pretty cute. They seemed to be a hit at the Easter party at the station the next day too, especially with the pregnant wifeys:) Happy Easter!!!

Gamma updates

We have the Gramma's now reading the blog so there will most likely be a lot more posts about the girls and what they are up to, to keep the Gramma's in the know...we have special requests for more post and more pictures...so enjoy keeping up with the Snider gals!!!

Thought I should throw in a pic...and opportunity for a picture makes Gamma's happy:)

Stand...Soo BIG!

I don't care how many kids you have, you get just as excited with every child as they learn and grow. So you can imagine how excited the Snider home has been in the past few months watching our lil runt go from a sit n stay kinda gal, to learning to crawl her lil booty around the house in hopes of someday catching up to those crazy big sisters of hers. Makaia was a little backwards in that she was pulling herself to a stand up, before she ever started walking. So fun to see them stand, and see how proud she is of herself when we gets up there. She has started crawling now, which only leads to more standing because she can get herself to whatever she needs to stand up to. Makaia is silly, she thinks she can just stand in the middle of the room already....mommy is thinking things are about to get a little more crazy in this house, I don't think this kid is going to be crawling long...she is in a hurry to get those legs moving so she can RUN with the BIGS...ahhhh... Malaia is such a little mother....whenever she is standing she does just as a mommy would do....'LOOK AT KAIER'S...she is STANDING!!! Oh your so good Kai!' Ahhh where does she get that from;) Kaia is now to the point of, there is NO sitting, only standing, and she will stand without hanging onto anything for balance for about 30 seconds....soo big, too fast....but here we go!!!