Sight & Sound

Yesterday we visited the Sight and Sound Theater. Sight and Sound is a theater that reenacts Bible events. The musical we saw was Noah's ark. It was great! Everything was portrayed very well. They showed the seriousness of the event and the parallel between Noah ark and the and Jesus dieing on the cross, as well as adding some fun songs and other elements. In one scene they made the auditorium look like an ark. Seeing that, made it easier to see how all the animals could have fit in the ark, along with eight people. The best part was that at the end they clearly reveled the plan of salvation.
I would defiantly recommend it to others. They not only show Noah's Ark but Danial, Ruth, Creation and at Christmas time Jesus' birth as well.

Roy Rogers Museum

Several of the people in our family are big cowboy fans, Roy Rogers fans in particular. Today we had the opportunity to visit the Roy Rogers museum. It was very good. The museum had a lot of pictures of Roy and Dale, it had many of Roy's Cowboy clothing including boot, hats etc... it also had lots of the toys and such with the Roy Rogers stamp of approval. Roy Jr. said that all the toys were tested by Roy Roger's 9 children before they were sold.

Roy Jr. had a show of his own. We took some time to watch him sing and tell stories about his Dad and Mom (Roy & Dale). Something that I didn't know about Roy was that he had a wife before Dale however she died not long after they were married. When Roy and Dale got married they had a child of their own but she died of down syndrome just after her second birthday. The Rogers decided that instead of having more of their own children with the probability of them also having down syndrome, they would adopt. My understanding is that they adopted seven children.

St. Louis Arch

Yesterday we took a boat ride on the Mississippi River. From the boat we were able to see the St. Louis Arch. The day was a bit over cast but the view was still beautiful. We all enjoyed floating on the river... well, except Trent. The poor guy got a little sick.

After we took a ride on the boat we traveled the rest of the way to Branson. We are staying in a time share Grandpa and Grandma Schnarr let us use. The place is beautiful. It turned out that we got 3 apartments with adjoining door. Each apartment has 2 bathrooms, a bedroom with a jacuzzi, a kitchen and a living room. Another feature we like was each apartment had a washer and dryer set, very handy!

Bungee Trampoline

Today after traveling for several hrs. we stopped at a mall to shop and get some lunch. The mall was very big. It was much larger than our mall at home. In one section they had a trampoline bungee jumping aria. Basically you a get strapped to bungee cords and jump on a trampoline. You go much higher than you would without the cords. It everyone enjoyed it. I even took a turn, if you can believe it.

After wards we visited one of Daddy's college friends, Bill Blakley. He is a pastor of a church that prints Bible to send to different countries. We got to take a tour of the print shop. It was really cool to see how everything worked.

The Schnarr's & The Robertson's

After about seven hrs. of driving our family is in Kentucky. Our relatives Uncle Joel, Aunt Denee, Aundrea, Micah and Natalie came up to spend a few days with us.

Today we all visited the Creation Museum. I'll have more on that later but all I will say for now it that it was awesome! If you haven't been it's really something worth seeing.

Our families have been having so much fun together! Not only have we visited the creation museum but we went swimming in the hotel pool, played games together and just hung out. It was great to see everyone! Aundrea came out for my birthday last year but we hadn't seen everyone else in about 3-4 years, so it was a really fun time!

New Rendition of "I've Just Seen Jesus"

Thought you would enjoy Mommy and Trey's rendition of "I've Just Seen Jesus". We had to relieve some stress while packing for Branson.

Packing Up

Our family is leaving to go to Branson, Missouri for vacation. We will be gone for about two weeks. The last few days we have been packing and getting everything ready to leave. As you know we have a pretty large family, so this takes quite a bit of time. On average our family packs:

42 shirts

21 pairs of pants

18 pairs of shoes

50 pairs of socks

7 full sized pillows

1 large cooler

1 guitar

1 banjo

1 mandolin

1 fiddle

Not to mention everyone bring throw blankets and things to entertain themselves. Plus all of us!

Thankfully we have pretty big vehicle to transport everything!

"I've Just Seen Jesus"

I Have just added "I've Just Seen Jesus" to the "Schnarr Family Music" link. I sang this song on Easter Sunday with a friend, Jacob Mast.

Last week Tyler, Trent and I have made a paper mache boat. It took quite a while. We first shaped it out of card board, then covered it with paper mache. We used acrylic paint to give it some color and then sprayed it with water proof spray. We had a fun time doing it.

Yesterday we spent the night at our grandparents house and we were able to take it out on their lake. It worked very and stayed together for the whole ride.

Trey Carson

Trey is eight years old and just finished third grade.

Profile of: Amber Brook

I have decided to periodically give you a "profile" of each of the members in our family. I hope to be provide recent information as well as pictures for each person as I did for Amber, below.

Amber is an energetic eleven year old who loves the out doors. She doesn't mind getting dirty, for instance, this spring she and Trey have planted their own garden in our back yard. She is very faithful to taking care of it. She also has a girly side. She enjoys dressing up for church and having her hair done for recitals and such.
Amber enjoys music and plays the banjo and piano. She has been asked several times to play in church along with her other siblings.
Amber's heart is very soft to the things of God and we have seen immense spiritual growth over the past year.
She is very good at remembering to thank people for things. Probably the most common way for her to do that is by writing a note expressing her love and thankfulness. Her notes are always very thought out and detailed, from the words she uses, to the way she decorates the letter.

Snapshots of Amber Brook Schnarr

Amber is 11 years old and just finished sixth grade.

Baking Beef Brisket

Yesterday Amber, Trey and I made dinner together. Recently I found this great recipe for Beef Brisket so we made that together. It was a nice time to bond together as a family. It was also a good learning experience for Amber and Trey. The meal turned out very good. Everyone loved it! The meat was very tender and it's the kind of stuff you just can't stop eating! Below is the recipe for those interested.

Beef Brisket
Ingredients
• 4 lbs beef brisket
• 1/3 bottle liquid smoke
• 1 teaspoon salt
sauce
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 cup brown sugar
Instructions
Directions
1.Best if this is done the day before serving: Rub brisket with liquid smoke and salt.
2.Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
3.Bake covered for 3 hours.
Do not rush, as this will insure the meat tender.
Cool and refrigerate several hours until firm (or overnight).
This makes it easy to slice. (I usually do up to this step the day before).
7.Slice meat very thinly and cover with sauce.
For sauce: Combine all ingredients in saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes.
Place meat in baking dish and cover with sauce.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake until heated through about 30 minutes.

Happy Mother's Day!

Yesterday we celebrated Mother's Day by cooking a Lasagna lunch for Mommy. We made her Lasagna, green bean casserole, salad and Texas toast. Then we all gave her handmade cards.
We have such a wonderful mother! She is always so loving and patient with us. We are very thankful for her.

Day at the Park

Today most of the family went to the park for a couple of hours. It was a beautiful, sunny day with a nice breeze. We met four other families from our homeschool group there. After eating lunch the kids played baseball, frisbee, soccer, some went roller blading and some drew with sidewalk chalk. It was a fun time. Amber went rollerblading with her friends Sammie and Maddy. She borrowed some rollerblades, knee, elbow, and wrist pads and a helmet. She had to put her rollerblades on 3 times before actually skating! First Amber put the skates on with out putting on the knee pads....which you had to have the skates off to fit your foot through the hole, she had to remove them a second time when she realized she put the elbow pads on her knees rather than the knee pads, and finally got everything on where it belonged, got the skates back on and went skating. She had 3 people helping her into her get-up. In the long run she had fun, and didn't hurt herself :-). There were not enough skates for Trey so he "walked" along with the skaters and helped pull them back up the hill.

The Assisted Living Home

This afternoon our family went to an assisted living home, to play and sing for the people there. It went very well! When we started playing the people's eyes lit up. We had a few people clapping their hands and singing-a-long. I think they really enjoyed the music. Before we left someone called over to us "come again!" I am so glad we were able to brighten the day for a few people.

Sydney's Hair Cut

This week has been crazy for all of us but we can finally see an end in sight. Thank you to those of you who have been praying for us as we take the Iowa tests. Tyler and I have finished our tests up today and most of the others only have a few sections left.
Recently our dog Sydney got her spring hair cut. My mom decided that she was so tangled that she needed ALL her fur to be taken off. We didn't want to spend the money on a trip to the groomers, when we can shave it all off for our selves. Right?... maybe we should have gone to the groomers. Sydney didn't exactly hold still for us so that made it very challenging. We could only do a little at a time so for a few days she walked around with three shaved legs and half of her skirt. Pretty funny! :-D Finally we got all of her cut and surprisingly she looks kind of cute! She doesn't look very much like a Schnauzer any more though!

Is that a smile?

"I hate pictures!"

Busy Week

This week is going to be very busy for our family. We are all taking Iowa tests, which are very time consuming. Not to mention not very much fun :-D! If you think about it pray that no one will be nervous or get distracted.
We are also singing and playing at a local nursing home this week. We have never done that before and are hoping that it will be a blessing to the ones we are playing for.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is Mommy's birthday! Yesterday we celebrated it with Babum and Nanny. We had a great meal from a Chinese restaurant. Then we eat cake and ice cream and opened presents.
I can honesty say that I have a great relationship with my mom and that she is my very best friend. She is always such an encouragement to to all of us and we love her very much!

"The Sound of Music"

Last night I was able to spend a nice time with my grandparents. Our church's Christian school was putting the musical "The Sound of Music", and they took me to go see it. "The sound of music" is one of my favorite musicals so I really enjoyed it. The cast did a great job and it was fun to see people you know doing all the parts. I also enjoyed spending time with my grandparents we always have a good time when we are together!