Goodbye summer break!! Hello school year!!

So for the last couple weeks we have been doing nothing but getting Sydney and Steven ready for school. Hair cuts, cloths, shoe, lunch and school supply shopping is offically done. I cant believe I will have 2 full time kids in school now 1-1st grader and 1-2nd grader. It is going to be great and sad all at the same time. Tori is excited to have more "Mom and Tori time!" As much as Im ready for the kids to start school, Im not sure if IM ready for the school year to begin. With all the rushing to get to school in the mornings, dropping off and picking up, homework, cranky attitudes, new adjustments, MEAN KIDS, and not to mention Steven will be starting soccer; practicing once a week and games on Saturdays. Sydney will be taking a Hip hop class too! So hopefully the little girls and I will be able to keep up as Steve will be pretty much unreliable due to his crazy work schedule. I just need to remind myself to slow down and enjoy the moments because as much as I think they will last forever they are going faster than I ever thought they would. :(

We're gonna party like its your burfday!

Happy 28th Birthday to Stevie-O!!! Even though your Birthday is squished in between mine and your sons, and you think you get the shaft, we still love you and are so happy you were even born!!! oh and my mom and sisters did make you this special cake in your favorite color.



On Steves day we actually drove home from the beach and spent the evening at his moms house playing soccer, and football and having a fun time with Marty, Suzie, Mackenzie and Dan I mean Doug (a little inside humor....)
On my day we hung out one last time with my family and then headed to dinner with Steves dad and came home to have birthday cake. We had a great time visiting family!!





Here is a cute pic of the kids all zoned in on the TV at the hotel as we were loading up to leave for home.

Stevens 6th Birthday.... at the beach

Stevens Birthday was great. We got to be with our family and spend time together. After we got back from taking Steven to breakfast we had family pictures, swam in the pool, went to the beach, had dinner, ate PB cupcakes and partayed! But Stevens favorite day was the day before when he got to go crabbing with the big boys (Steve, Uncle Wes,Uncle Jeremy) and his cousin Westin! He said he loved having dad/son time.

Swimming at the beach

One the kids most favorite things about going to the beach is the pools at the timeshare. The kids LOVE them! Sydney enjoyed swimming with her cousins. Steven was jumping in all over the place (with life vest)and getting over his fear of going underwater. Tori has has always loved the water and has no fear....which kind of scares me. She would jump in from the side and I would let her go all the way under before I got her and every time she would come out of the water with this huge smile and say "Again!" It was so cute! She also loves swimming with her aunts and her "friend" Lauren. Mom got into a tiny little water fight with the boys which resulted in her looking like a drowned rat. No mercy from Jeremy ;)






This is Steve's best whale impression.



These seals were on the rocks right below our front lawn.

Kanooth family Beach trip 2011

We headed up to Washington with our van packed...literally to the max to meet up with everyone and head to the beach. We were all bummed Leif,Rachel, the twins, and Lairen werent going to be able to make it. They are always so much fun!
Tori and Westin enjoying...destroying their donuts before we leave.


The weather at Depoe Bay this year was great considering it didnt rain once! Sunny and warm the first day and sunny and windy cold the next two.

Spending the day on the beach the first day

On the good ship.....

ok Mom here are the pictures of when I curled her hair after it was cut short and then used a PICK on it which pretty much turned her into a poodle right before we had to go to church!!! It was HILARIOUS! Everyone kept saying ohh what happened to her hair...its so cute..LOL!









I put curlers in Tori and Sydneys hair the other night and Tori woke up looking like this. And she loved it! Poor Sydney she didnt like how hers turned out and in her words she said, "I look like a lion!"

Party at the Brooks!

We had some of Stevens church friends over for a little party since he has never had a friend party before and we all had a GREAT time. I was a little nervous having this many kids over but since it was outside and they were entertained the whole time with the bouncey water slide it was perfect! Also we had a special guest appearance from Grandpa who was in town on business!

Stevens riding his bike

We kind of forgot about teaching Steven how to ride without training wheels. With Sydney being the first it was a big deal and now we've just been busy with other things, I guess. So we took him to the school parking lot and he took off without any help. We were so proud of him! When we got home, I got him on camera.

Reese is finally taking steps!

Reese just started taking steps about a week ago. She has been my lastest walker! The rest were all around 11, 12, and 13 months and Reese will be 16 months in a couple weeks. I think she just doesn't care. She doesn't have to go far to find excitement at our house!! So here she is doing a little walking.

4th of JULY!

This year for the 4th we didn't do much. Mainly because Steve had to work and trying to keep 4 young kids up until after 10 is just TOO tiring! Steve worked until 6ish, so for breakfast I made the kids red, white, and blue pancakes. Then I took them to Jabbers to play for the afternoon, Hoping this would tire them out to take naps.....yeah right. Only Reese took one....I should have drugged them ;) JK! (kind of) Then we made homemade chicken pot pies for dinner. I know we went against all tradition of BBQin but Steve wasn't here to man the grill. And they turned out perfect...surprisingly! So After we lit off our fireworks here with the kids until we were attacked by Mosquito's (we always forget bug repellent) I kept looking at the kids and seeing a mosquito on their forehead sucking away. lol! Also a funny thing here in Idaho is that at all the fireworks booths that are everywhere, when you buy fireworks that go off higher than 5 ft. you have to sign a paper saying you wont lite them off here in ID!!! LOL! Yeah who abides by that? Its the FOURF of July! So after our own we drove up on the hill and watched the cities before getting all the kids to sleep with in minutes after 11pm. Best night of them going straight to bed. I didn't even have to lay with Tori.

Cake Pops

I kept hearing how good these cake pops from Starbucks were, so I took the kids and we had one. They are so easy to make so I got a recipe on line and tried them. They turned out great....except dipping them was a little harder than I thought it would be...

Father's Day 2011

Steve had to work on Sunday, but before he left we went to church and visited with some old friends from Battle ground that just so happen to be friends with some of our friends here in Nampa! Small World!!! It was great to see them and watch the kids remember eachother. Then we came home, made Steve a deliciouso brunch, and played until he had to leave. Steve- youre a great dad and we all love you a ton!