Our new home!

So here is the whole story...

We had absolutely no intention of buying another house. We had talked about how nice it would be to take advantage of the ridiculously low-priced real estate market in Vegas, but we knew it was more of a dream than a reality.

After a good friend of mine at work started looking to buy a house, she would email me listings of homes they liked. When I saw the amazing values of these homes, I had to tell Jeff about it. We talked to a couple Realtors and decided, it was definitely a buyers market, so we would look to see if we found something we couldn't resist, and if so, we would keep our house and rent it out.

After looking at one house, we fell in love and knew this was a deal we could NOT pass up. 2 months later, we moved into our new home on Spiced Strawberry, truely my dream home, a place where we will live for MANY years. Below are a few pictures of the living space and the outdoor space (almost half an acre which is unheard of in Vegas)... more to come in the Spring when our new landscaping is in full bloom.

Front Elevation:
Family Room:

Family Room and Dining Room (view from the kitchen)

Our Kitchen (SO big, I have a few cabinets with 2 items in them... one just had Tupperware lids!):

Formal Dining Room (looking out to the front of the house and our courtyard):

Living Room (this is open to the Formal Dining Room)

Our gorgeous pool:

In this picture you can't really tell, but the way the yard is set up is the pool is in the middle, and then on both sides of the pool there are grassy areas surrounded by landscaping... SO NICE!

The other grassy area on the right side of the pool: We invite you to come visit so you can see the rest. We didn't take pictures of the 4 bedrooms, or super-sized loft area (upstairs), so you will have to come and see it for yourself! :)

Happy 1st Birthday to ME!

On October 23, we celebrated Carson's 1st Birthday in Porterville, where his Great-Great Grandmother, Momma, was celebrating her 100th Birthday. It was a wonderful weekend with the Scott Family, looking back on our little man's first year.

Carson loved the birthday cake (mostly frosting) that his Grandmama got for him.
A week later on Halloween (in our new house) we had Carson's 1st Birthday Party. His family and friends came over for a football themed party, filled with love, good food, cake, presents and laughter. Here is "Carson Palmer" posing for a picture.
After chowing down on his birthday cake:

And here is Carson playing with a balloon. He was kind of afraid of balloons, but after his party, he became a little more comfortable with them.

It is really amazing to look back on how much Carson has changed throughout his first year. We somehow love him more and more with each passing day, and really enjoy all of the changes he is making as he becomes more of a little boy with a very distinct personality. I think Carson is going to be funny, as he will play and just crack up at the littlest things... but only time will tell.

Many more posts to come, I promise. It isn't easy trying to chase after him, keep up our new big house (pictures coming), and still find time to blog, but I will make more of an effort.

Happy Holidays to all of our Friends and Family! xoxo

Fall Fun!

We had a great weekend enjoying some cooler temps and time together as a family, and with our friends.

Saturday night we went to the pumpkin patch with The Buck Family. Here we are in one of our rare family pictures (thank you Ben for getting this good one of us)!
Carson the hill-jack eating his corn, sittin' on a bail of hay. Yee-haw!

The cutest pumpkin in the pile of pumpkins... I'll take that one!

Carson and his BFF Kaden hanging out among the squash and pumpkins.

Today, Carson celebrated his good friend Zack's 1st birthday. Carson loves Zack's nanny too!

Next week we are looking forward to a weekend in Fresno. Friday night we are going to the "Zoo Boo" where Carson will be dressed up as a lion. Saturday, on Carson's first birthday, we will be celebrating Carson's great-great grandmother's (Momma) 100th birthday... what a wonderful celebration that will be! Lots of pictures to follow...

Remember me?

Hello Friends and Family! Mommy has been VERY bad at updating the blog, so what better time than now, to send some recent pictures of me?!?

Here I am outside wearing Daddy's Bengal's hat!

Eating spaghetti for the first time. It was yummy, but I liked playing with one noodle for a while. It was funny to me and Mommy!

Here I am wearing my favorite shoes. My friend Abigail gave them to me and I wear them everyday, even if they don't match! :)

This BIG pile of books was given to me by Daddy's boss, Erin, and her 2 sons. I really love books, so I appreciated this gift a lot.

And this is my best buddy Kaden. You can see me in the back, I was thinking about going over and jumping on him, because that is what I do most of the time... but for now, I was just hanging back and letting him play. I love when he comes over to my house, we have lots of fun!

Mommy will try to get better at updating the blog, but she is busy cleaning up and chasing after me most of the time. And after a full day of work and ME, she needs some sleep I suppose. However, we will all do our best to send pictures more often.

For now, we are all off to bed, I will see you in a couple weeks when I turn 1 year old! :)

Love, Carson

Disneyland and Huntington Beach

Last weekend we had a wonderful family vacation to Southern California. As our Christmas gift from Mom and Dad, we were all treated to a four night stay at a beach house, and our birthday gift this year was admission to Disneyland. It was a great time with all of the kids, and aunts and uncles, and of course, the grandparents too!

Here are the 3 BFF boys in their matching outfits posing with Grandmama and Grandad (Ishbobo), before hitting the road to Disney!

The Schnells first family trip to Disneyland!

Carson got to meet Mickey!

Carson's highlight of the day was riding the Carousel with his Daddy!

After a long day, 3 cute (matching) cousins were sound asleep in their strollers.

The next two days we spent at Huntington Beach... we had a blast! Here is Dad, all suited up to go out and catch some waves!

Carson, sitting on top of his sand castle his cousins made him so he wouldn't get wet by the waves.

Playing in the sand with Daddy, Auntie, Uncle Sean, and Cousins Dylan and Devan.

The two beach babes after going boogie boarding.

I wonder where Dylan, Devan, and Carson get their ability to nap in public?

We had a wonderful trip, and look forward to doing it again next summer!!

Summer fun!

Here are some pictures of the past month, filled with friends, fun, and swimming!

Fourth of July fun... Auntie E and Uncle Michael came over, as well as Kenny, and Megan and Kara (pictured).

Definitely interested in the sweet treats!

BBQ with Auntie Kourt, Uncle Ben, and BFF Kaden!

Swimming with Mommy

We have had a great month in the pool, Carson loves it. We take him in most nights after we get home from work/daycare at least for a quick dip. When it's still over 100 degrees at 7:00 PM, unfortunately we can't go for a walk. The pool is the best place to find us!

US Open!

Two weeks ago we had a wonderful family vacation to Monterey/Carmel and Pebble Beach. We celebrated Jeff's first Father's Day at the US Open, and celebrated Suzi's 30th, Michele's 32nd, and Maya's 38th birthdays, as well as Suzi's Dad's 38th Father's Day! Lots of fun was had by all.
Here is Carson on our first day down at Cannery Row

After lunch at Bubba Gumps, Carson with his Grandmama and Grandad!

At The Gevertz' condo in Carmel where we stayed, we all had fun playing with the boys!

Grandmama and her three favorite grandsons!

Jeff and Carson on Father's Day! :)

Then Jeff and I went down to Pebble and Carson spent the day with his grandparents. We snuck our camera in and Jeff had no problem busting it out to get some great pictures.

Phil Mickelson:

The man who needs no introduction, Tiger Woods:

On our way out someone got this pic of us (too bad my hat is so low you can't see my eyes).

The following day, we drove along the coast to Big Sur. Unforutnately, it was a bit foggy on the water so we didn't get to fully enjoy the beauty, I guess we'll have to go back another time to check it out!

At the beach in Carmel:

On our last day of vacation, we drove to San Jose for a quick visit with The Narduzzis. Here is a picture of Sean playing in his new backyard, tee ball turned to golf, I got some great pictures of him, but I loved the golf pictures the best!

And, we got to meet Sean's new brother Ryan Baker. What a sweet boy, in this picture he was one day shy of two weeks old! He only showed us his eyes for a second and spend most of the time we were there sleeping. :)

We had a wonderful family vacation and look forward to our next trip in 2-weeks when we go to Disneyland and Huntington Beach. Lots of fun!!