Snap-EZ Blog

The Last Big Stocking at Snap-EZ is all done!

All the trainers we will ever sell under the Snap-EZ label are in stock and ready to ship!  Some styles/sizes are already sold out!  Check our Stocking Updates page for details on the trainer sizes and availability.

Plus, I’ve lowered the prices on all AIO Trainers another $1 to make the price savings more comparable with the other styles.

Nearly all the diapers are now in stock - we have a few larges, quite a few Skinny Larges and some Mediums in production yet, but those should be all in stock in about 1 - 2 weeks.  All we have in Preemie/Newborns, Chubby Mediums,  and Extra Larges are all in stock.

Since the prices are marked down so much now (25 - 40%), the discontinued products will no longer qualify for free shipping.  All Eco Products, The Cloth Diapering Handbook, and the Snap-EZ 4 Life Products will stil count towards the $125 minimum for free shipping.    If your non-discounted products add up to $125 all your order will have free shipping though…you won’t have to pay shipping separately for the discounted products.

We are currently working on new products for the Eco Line - keep an eye out for announcements for these great new products - sign up for email updates on new products on our home page, upper left hand corner!

We are looking for new seamstresses, so if you know anyone looking to work from home, has some sewing talent, and lives in Whatcom County, have them drop me an email!  snap-ez@snap-ez.com

The biggest excitement in March was getting our driveway fixed!  We’ve known the Bergeron’s for years (see link here for Baker’s Dozen), and recently Chuck started his own business doing excavating work.  So we decided to have him fix our driveway.  He did a great job!  He worked hard and long hours and did even more that I expected!

It took us almost a whole week to really clean things up around here - my being pregnant last year, the move and then all our adventure with Esther meant we haven’t done much outdoor clean up in over a year!

But we got it done in time, and Chuck showed up with a huge bull dozer, an excavator, and Doug Crabtree brough his double trailer semi truck full of pit run, and later made around 10 trips with new gravel as well! Our boys loved watching it all! I love watching it too - knowing how nice it will all look when we are done!

Here’s a photo of Chuck working to re-do the front yard

Solid Rock Excavating

The driveway looks awesome, and he even removed the biggest stump I’ve ever seen from the middle of our back yard!  He also leveled the back yard, and made our front yard larger.  Here are some before and after photos:

End of driveway/parking area - before

End of driveway/parking area - after

Storage Shed Area - Before

Storage Shed Area - after

Old Parking Area

New Parking Area

We actually had Chuck take out pit run and put in dirt to make the driveway/yard make more visual sense with the new house.

Entrance to the Garage, Before

Entrance to the Garage, After

This was one of the best improvements - before we couldn’t even get into the right bay of the garage due to the “hole” in front of it - pure mud and no traction. It was a serious make-over that is for sure!

Front of the House Before

Front of the House Now

We are still working on the front yard (putting in new grass take hard work and lots of time, that’s for sure, but I’m a little more than halfway done with the front yard now).

And here’s our new grape trellis - we took treated wood from an old swing set who’s brackets had weakened, and the wood off an old chicken run and *poof* we have a new trellis!

New Grape Trellis - dirt will be lawn soon!

And lastly - here’s the flash animation I used to post while we were building our home - and following is the current view!

House building Progression

Oh - and if you look carefully, in one photo there’s a dump truck dumping sand - that’s also Doug Crabtree!

Current View - note new flower gardens at the bottom of each porch post!

The last photo will be taken when the front yard is all nicely grassed in and the trim has been painted a darker blue than the house - hopefully that will be sometime in July!

Rebekah's hair before

Ok, these photos have a long story behind them, but I’ll try to keep it short. Last winter we spent some time down at the Ronald McDonald house and Rebekah got to know a girl her age who has leukemia - her name was Grace. She had lost her hair due to her treatment. She was a very sweet girl, and their family even gave ours a Christmas gift! Then, sometime in February or March, we found out about Locks of Love - where you can donate hair to be made into wigs for people who have lost their hair due to their ilnesses! Rebekah is the only girl in this house who’s hair grows fast enough and even enough, but it wasn’t quite long enough, YET.

Side view of her hair

Well, last week it was finally long enough!

Man that hair's long!

First you measure out 10 inches of hair before braiding, then braid it and make sure you they are even

Then you cut off each braid (we did two braids, but it can be done in one if the hair is long enough)

Itdoes look weird right after the cut

Punk, maybe??

Then you try to fix what's left!

I almost gave up and took her to a salon, but I finally got the hang of it and it turned out she looks just like her American Doll, Kit!

The Final"doo"

Then you print out the form from the internet, package it up with the hair, and mail it off

The next day, the girls all did double pony tails on everyone, and even got their dolls in on the act:

Goofy Pigtails!

How fun it that?  I love girls!

Even Esther got two piggies!

And once again we heard over and over again about how much Esther looks like Cindy Lou Whoo - these piggies were just like one she sported in the Grinch cartoon!  Is that girl CUTE or what??

So,  last time we ended with photos of when Jeremy was home (by the way he was home for just 8 days, and left for California on March 7, and left for Iraq the week of March 20.  It took him several days to arrive there and we’ve gotten to talk with him on the phone 3 times now).

Here are some random photos of events during March:

Dayton Up Close and Personal

Fun with the Riding Mower - no lawn to mow, but that doesn

Esther

Multiplication Tables - back to basics around here this spring to prep for annual testing!

Next the kids went to the Youth Fair - sponsored by 4H and happens every year at the North West Washington Fair Grounds. The cost is minimal and the fun is maximum! Your child selects a class to take, and spends all day Friday/Saturday learning - everything from cows (Jessica did beef cows this year), to gardening, to clowning, to chess and more! This year Reuben did chess, Rachel did knitting, and Rebekah did gardening/country crafts. Here’s some photos that were the outcome of this:

Rebekah's birdhouse!

Chess Game - guess who's playing against Reuben?

It's Dayton - he learned all the moves (but the strategy is a little beyond him at just 5 years old)

Girls Can play Chess - I even played a few games and won!

A Perspective on Chess

By the way - I didn’t take any of the last 6 photos - it’s the old “leave the camera out and you get lots of bonus photos” - I am so thankful for digital photography as it free the kids up to be creative with the camera and all I have to do is delete the bad ones and benefit from all the photos I didn’t take the time to take!

Elizabeth - when she sleeps, she really is laid back!

Hmmm...I wonder where I saw this before!

Esther with Andrea, her physical therapist. Andrea got a new job working with inpatient at St Joes, so this was her last time with Andrea - we will miss her and she was so sweet with Esther and Esther just loved her and so did I! Thanks Andrea!!

When Esther first came to Andrea at the end of January, she couldn’t even hold up her own head, and now Esther can roll from front to back, back to front, holds her head up while on her tummy, holds herself errect when you hold her and is almost sitting up by herself now! All that in just over 3 months - amazing for a cardiac baby, let alone for one with Downs!

That bring you up to the Middle of March - now I’ve got two events that need their own posts!

I have been sooo busy! It all started back when Jeremy was coming home.  It took so much work to get things ready for him, prepare for the open house while he was here, get our family portraits, and get in as much family time as possible - and all that was back in the beginning of March!  And here we are in May already!

So here’s some photos of thei highlights of all the happening around here during Jeremy’s visit until now.

Jeremy Bowling

Jeremy and Jessica and Bowling

Daryl Bowling

The Men Bowling

Jessica and Esther - Esther is wearing Jessica's old outfit - one Auntie Lisa gave her - you know you are getting old when... the kids hand-me-downs are nearly antiques! LOL!

Family time!

Daddy and Esther Time - Great Smile eh?

Boy and their Tunes

Trying to Burn the Stump - hot dog roast and marshmellow roast too!

We spent around 5 days burning a “huge” hole in this enormous stump in our back yard - the hole we burned was around 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep. As it turned out, it didn’t even make a dent. The base of the stump was around 8 feet across with around 4 roots that were at least 2 feet thick coming off. After breaking off most of the roots (each of which took around 10 - 15 minutes with a HUGE dozer ) the stump and root bases were around 12 feet across when it finally gave up and was lifted out of the ground leaving a huge hole behind to say the least!

Jessica dis-assembling the old chicken run

This used to hold chickens - it was mobile and we had meat chickens in it - you would move it every day and the chickens would eat the grass and fertilize you yard! Great idea, worked well, but I am so done with butchering chickens - last time I ended the butchering day by sinking around 2 inches of the butchering knife into my arm and puncturing an artery - not good! Jessica is removing a gazillion staples so we can re-use the treated wood to make a new grape trellis - photos of that coming soon!

Well it’s bedtime, so I’ll just give a quick up-to-date report. Jeremy is in Iraq and doing well. They are in a camp that is really basic - all tents and not even a real bathroom. They are on a base that has never been attacked since the Marines came there, that sounded great to me! He’s a little bored and we’ve sent him magazines and book.

Esther is sick - she was very healthy for a little over a month and gained weight like crazy! Last weekend she came down with a bad cold, we thought, but on Wednesday I decided she wasn’t herself at all and took her in (after several very-little-sleep nights with her coughing) to see the doctor and she has an ear infection, and some “noise” in her chest. She was put on some beefed up antibiotics which gave her diarhea - it burned her backside already, but we are keeping her slathered with A and D ointment now. She’s still really congested so I might have to bring her back in as the doctor said to call if she wasn’t feeling better after the weekend (I think that’s what she said).

Esther now weighs over 15 1/2 pounds, rolls from front to back, and back to front and is almost sitting lone now!

I hope to find some time to put up some more photos from March and April tomorrow, as well as some before, during, and after photos of our driveway and front yard.

The girls and I had done some really neat flower beds in front of the house, and I’ve got a little over half the new front yard seeded for grass and the first portion is starting to have a green haze to it. We are planning out vegetable gardens right now and hope to start planting as soon as the rain stops (first rain in weeks - it’s been like summer around here for a while and we’ve gotten spoiled, but we need this rain too as it will help make that grass grow!).

I’ve got to go to bed - long day/week and I’m bushed - just have one more sleeping body to move upstairs and then I can rest!

As of 4/13/09 I have reduced prices on all Snap-EZ Discontinued Products up to $4 more off the already discounted price! Check out our Price List for details!

Shop early before the good ones are all snatched up!

Happy Bargain Hunting

and it’s called a “Jones Fracture”.  It’s the outermost foot bone (the one that ends in the pinky toe), and it’s fractured closest to the ankle - placing the break about halfway dow her foot betwenn the toe and heel.

Here she is this morning, playing golf on the Wii:

Rebekah's Boot (you can see Esther in her swing too!)

She was given a boot to wear for 4 weeks.  So after a few days of rest, Ibuprophen, and ice off and on, she’ll be walking arouns…with a big boot on her ight foot.

It was a long night.  We finally got called back for exrays around 11 pm (2 hours into our wait), and then to a “room” (a bed with a curtain in a room that had 4 beds and an exam chair) around 12:30 am.  We were in the room for about 1/2 hour total.  We were discharged and home by 1:30 am.  Once we got into the room, it went extremely fast.  They’ve really improved the admitting process at St Joes - they just had way too many people come in last night.  For over an hour there was constantly a line of people coming in the door - it was unreal!

So this bring our count of 6 confirmed broken bones with our children with the following break down -

Jessica (1)- stress fracture in her foot last year (running barefoot in Karate class),

Jonathan (2)- displaced fracture, femur (12 weeks in traction body cast) (tobogganing on Mt Baker) plus a green stick fracture in the tibia (jumping onto the couch) (same leg, 8 months after breaking femur, probably lower bone density from lack of use while in traction cast),

Rebekah (2) - Broken Humerous just above the elbow, displaced, requiring surgery to place pins (at 16 mos from falling off the couch), fractured fifth metatarsal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_metatarsal_bone) (kicking a tiny soccer ball around with Rachel)

Reuben (1)-Green stick fracture of the tibia (another child sliding and ran into him)

Here’s a great skeleton listing, in case you can’t remember what bones are what - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bones_of_the_human_skeleton

So that gives us an average of less than 1 broken bone per child at this point in thim!  That’s good, right???

Updates in general:

Jeremy is deploying to Iraq on Tuesday (we had a wonderful but short time with him - lots of pizza and bowling!)

Jason - working fulltime as a machinist, very busy with volleyball (city league), bowling (for recreation now, but trying to get a team together for the Ferndale league), assistant coaching a Bible Quizzing Team, and trying to get his Camaro running again (toasted the engine last fall just after getting the super charger to work!).

Jessica - working lots for me at Snap-EZ, Karate, Piano Lessons, Bible Study, 4H Dog Training Class, doting on Esther much of the time, almost done with her tooth implant, waiting for crown in May.

Jonathan - looking forward to lots of biking with the weather warming up, blazing trails in our woods for mountain biking, Karate, working for Snap-EZ  doing snapping (and of course, homeschooling), hanging out with Esther, had oral surgery to expose impacted canine and now has a brace attached to the tooth in the room of his mouth with a chain going from the brace to the wire for his braces.  Oh, and we’ve discovered that he’s really good at golfing and bowling!

Rebekah - Art Lessons, drawing, painting, cartooning, hanging out in the great outdoors, playing with her horses (toys), putting on nail polish, Making things in general, homeschooling, recovering from a broken foot

Rachel - Loving on Esther, writing letters to friends, Karate, Piano Lessons, making things for her American Doll, playing in her play house, homeschooling and plays a mean game of bowling (both on the Wii and in real life!)

Reuben - Riding his bike, being helpful in general, playing games with everyone, homeschooling, doing math calculations whenever possible, playing cars with his brothers.

Daniel - Playing cars, riding his bike, learning to do chores this year, homeschooling - loves to read!

Dayton - plays with his brothers, but also with Elizabeth a lot, started Speech therapy this month, playing outside, racing around on his bike

Elizabeth - being cute 90% of the time, talking like there’s no tomorrow, getting into trouble, drawing on walls with any form of writing utensil, drawing stick people, changing clothes, tinkering around on the piano, pleading to go shopping with Jessica or I every week, in general, being the perfect exaple of an energetic little girl!  Just had her first filling done this week at the pediadontist  under sedation- was not fun at all.  At least they got all the work done as she won’t want to do that again for a long time!  She’s also warming up to Esther and starting to love on her (I think she was intimidated with Esther, not knowing how to connect with her).

Esther - Just getting of having a really bad cold (juicy cough, brocheitus, nasal congestion etc) that has lasted over 4 weeks, sits up with support, shakes toys especially if they make noise, talks to us a lot, loves to smile and laugh, sleeps through the night again now that cough is better, pony tail on top is now over 3 inches long!, holds up head up without arm support when on her tummy, almost can roll over both ways, is starting up physical therapy again this week, 2 times a week, getting more evaluations in April for Occupational/Physical Therapy and Speech Therapy for the Children’s Neurological Development Program in Bellingham (this is where Dayton is getting his speech therapy).  Esther turned 6 months old this week too!  She now weighs just over 13 1/2 pounds, slow but steady weight gain.  She’s down to just one precription for her Thyroid again (she was on antibiotics and an inhaler while she was sick).

Me - busy putting materials into production so we can close out our Snap-EZ Line, dreaming about landscaping (never did any when the house was finished as I was too pregnant last summer) - flower gardens, lawn, vegetable gardens and such, homeschooling the kids, caring for Esther, reading some really good christian Novels by Karen Kingsley, trying to do a Bible Study, but due to all the sick kiddos I’ve missed most of the meetings, Driving to our many appointments (well child check ups now, some dentist appointments, orthodontist appointments, physical therapy for Esther, Speech Therapy for Dayton as well as shopping for this crew.  I’m also enjoying the use of Jeremy’s Z28 Camaro - man can that car get up and boogy!  I don’t use it to speed, generally, but it’s nice to really make us of on ramps….you know, get up to 70 mph before gettting halfway down the onramp!  Bet you ddin’t know I took a race driving course back in 1985!

Daryl - working as usual, recovery from the flu, trying to decide what car to buy for his commuter car (Jessica bought his Camaro) - he really wants a 69 chevelle, but running ones are usually more than he has to spend, but is also thinking about getting a Fiero or Corvette (the Fiero being more in his budget, but what car not wouldn’t dream of owning a Corvette at least once in his life, know what I mean!?).  He’s also planning on putting an engine on his S-10 pickup so I can have a truck to haul things while doing the landscaping - he has the engine, just waiting on a clutch for the transmition.  Also working on repairing my station wagon as the previous owners lowered it improperly and it ruined the suspension - parts are on they’re way. He also is learning to bowl with a serious spin, and is looking forward to some time on the greens this year, if we can afford it!

Oh - and this week we’ll be celebrating our 24th anniversary.  We are hoping to get away to celebrate - maybe to San Francsisco and stay with my sister, Lisa, or possible some other location - you know fly in, buy the car, drive it home kind of thing!  We love adentures!  That how we got our Stationwagon - bought it on Ebay, flew to Spokane that afternoon, drove it home (stayed in a hotel in Ephrata and visited my brother Tom and neice, Shelley).  24 years, and 11 children later and we’re still best friends!  We started as friends, and that’s never changed.  Right now our favorite thing to do together is playing golf on our Wii - Daryl taught me how to golf way back when we were friends, we also golfed frequently when we were first married, and have tried to go golfing at least once a year when I’m no too pregnant.  I’m looking forward to golfing again this summer, but for now, golfing with the Tiger Woods Wii Golf is fun for both of us - and I can even beat him, which never happens in real life!  Althoug, in the summer of 2007, I beat both Daryl and his Dad on one hole!  I’ll never forget that as that is a huge milestone for me!  LOL!

Oh - and everytime I play golf, I think of my Grandmother on my mom’s side - her and grandpa were members of a country club and played golf a lot.  She was so proud when Daryl taught me to golf.  I can imagine her watching from heaven and smiling whenever I play golf!  I just love being able to go in the great outdoors, on immaculately kept lawns, ride around in a fun little cart, and get out a few frustrations by hitting something as hard as I can!  If I  could, I’d probably like to go golfing once a week all summer long!  Now we have the fun of golfing with our kids.  Jason does quite well, Jeremy enjoys it too, and Jonathan is going to be a natural!

I’ll do a blog on Jeremy’s visit another time, and for now, here’s a photo of Esther sleeping (with her eyes partially open as usual) on her Aunt Kim’s lap yesterday - we had Daryl’s family over to celebrate his dad’s 80th birthday yesteday and Aunt Kim has the knack with Esther (which was a big help for me as I was grilling burgers and hotdogs for dinner!):

Esther and Aunt Kim

Not!  I think 50% of the population is here too!

Unlike our trips here with Esther (infant heart failure), a possible broken bone in Rebekah’s foot does not effect immediate treatment.  We’ve been here for over 1 1/2 hours, and from what we hear, the wait is averaging 3 hours.

Three hours of sitting in a crowded waiting room with scary coughs, people vomiting, sick people huddling in layers of coats with glassy eyes while holding your medically fragile baby.  I told the triage nurse that Esther shouldn’t be exposed to this room and she said she’d get us into another waiting room, but they are so busy it took almost an hour just to get a bag of ice for Rebekah’s swollen foot.  I’ve given up on getting special treatment, so I’m praying that God will protect Esther from all the nasty bugs floating in the air here.

Rebekah was playing some free style soccer with Rachel, and when they bumped into eachother, Rebekah twisted her ankle and rolled her foot.  The outside of her foot a littl more than half way between the heel and the end of her big toe swelled/bruised immediately.

Esther’s trying to drnk her bottle, so I’ll update once we know something.

I worked way too many hours, and stock all trainers and diapers that have made it out of production as of this week.  There was new stuff in everysize and style!  Tons of new stuff, and some brand new prints never before seen!

I won’t have more products to stock for at least 1 1/2 weeks, possibly longer.  From here on out, there will be very limited prints and almost no fleece, so get those while they are still available!

We have been overwhelmed at the number and size of orders this week, so please be patient on your orders shipping back to you.  We caught up yesterday, only to get a lot more orders today!  We’ll be working extra hours to stay on top, but there might be times when we get a little behind.  Also, with so many orders coming at the same time, sometimes the same product is over ordered, so keep an eye on your emails for requests for substitutions!

I’ve also edited our emails - you can now sign up for or edit your preferences so you can get stocking updates via email for either training pants or Diapers or both!  I’ll send out notices when we restock all sizes each time over the next few months.

Also, for my loyal blog followers, I haven’t forgotten you!  I plan to update on the personal side soon with pics of Jeremy’s visit.  I haven’t had much time for blogging as the flu has been hanging out at our house for over a month now - with Esther being the sickest the longest.  She’s still got lots of congestion, but is finally not coughing all night.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Ruth