Carson's 3rd Christmas... new traditions!

This year was filled with firsts, that will hopefully become new traditions for The Schnell Family during the holidays!

We went with some of our good friends up to "The North Pole" (in Arizona) and experienced our first ride on the Polar Express. This was a wonderful time for all of our families!
Carson with two of his BFFs on the Polar Express - Zack and Livia!

Another new experience is we went on a horse-drawn-carriage, sleigh ride in Las Vegas. It was interesting as the picture shows, Carson was very tired for some reason and didn't love it, but we are certain next year he'll be the perfect age for this activity!

For our second year, we went to Opportunity Village where they have lots of light displays. This year Uncle went with us again, but he also had Auntie Mia and Baby Mavin as a part of our family in 2011! We are definitely looking forward to many more years of this event, and hopefully Caron will not be scared of Santa in 2012!

Here is a picture of Carson with his Nanny Salud. He calls her "Lude" and couldn't love her any more. You can see that in his eyes!!

For Christmas Eve we got all dressed up and went to a nice dinner at The Mirage with The Goods. We had a wonderful time, and went to Venetian to experience "Winter in Venice" - hopefully we can do this again next year as well!

Here are Carson and Livia, all dolled up for Christmas Eve triple date (with their parents)!
Christmas morning Carson woke up to find a stocking over-filled with goodies from Santa!

He also got a huge train set, you can see he was very happy, and a little surprised by the gift!

And as always, we light our menorah throughout Hanukkah, to enjoy some of the celebration of lights. This year, we lit Nana's menorah, here is Carson on the final night saying "Ha-ku-nah!" he asked to do it every night, and loved to help light the candles!

We are looking forward to many more experiences in 2012, and sharing them with all of you (a little more frequently is one of our resolutions)! Happy New Year to all!

Fall

While I realized this is a severely out-dated post, I have been a terrible blogger. It's hard when you only have 2 naps per weekend of time alone to get on the computer, usually laundry and cleaning are a priority!

Here are a few pictures of our wonderful fall...

Carson and I went and looked at pumpkins at a pick-your-own patch not far from our house on his 2nd birthday. Later in the day we took him to see The Lion King on his birthday, which he loved!

Then for his birthday, we planned a trip to Disneyland. Both sets of grandparents came along, as well as his 3 favorite boy cousins! :)

Here's Carson enjoying his time at Disney!

We also made our first trip to Zion National Park this fall with our new friends, The Good Family. It was beautiful, and certainly not our last trip to Zion!

And for Caron's 3rd Halloween, he chose to be a Tiger. Here he is growling before he went out trick-or-treating, which he was surprisingly good at!

Another great season spent with the coolest kid we know... next up our Christmas post! :)

Baby M!

Two weekends ago we hosted a baby shower for Michael, Mia, and Baby Girl M... who will be here in NINE weeks! We are so excited to see her darling little face, and finally have another Scott Girl (it's only been 31 years since the last one was born)!!

Michael and Mia opening their cards and gifts

Getting big hugs after they opening the present from Carson (he picked out a really cute piggy bank and cowgirl boots for his cousin)!

Playing with his BFF Uncle!

And of course, Mommy had to make sure all the bows that Auntie Shell bought for her first niece fit ok... looks good, right?!

We love Auntie Mi Mi and Uncle Michael very much... and we can't wait to see them as parents! xoxo

San Diego

Last month we went to San Diego for 4th of July Weekend. This was the first vacation the 3 of us have been on all by ourselves. We had a blast, and made some wonderful memories!

Carson loved Sea World, we'll definitely have to go back as he gets older!

Watching the Shamu show, we had amazing seats

Carson applauded lots... he loved the shows!

We got to meet Elmo and Cookie... you can tell he loved it! :)

We went to La Jolla for some beach fun. Carson was a little timid in the cold water.

Mommy made him get his feet wet! On the 4th of July we went to Coronado Island where we watched their big parade. It was an awesome day!

We enjoyed a sunset as a family

And Carson hammed it up around Seaport Village!

We had a blast... don't be surprised if this becomes an annual family tradition. 4th of July in San Diego was tons of fun!

Happy Father's Day! And Summer fun!

This morning we took Jeff out to breakfast at Silverstone Golf Club. We were going to hit golf balls on the driving range together after breakfast, but it was too windy. I got this great picture of Jeff and Carson together at breakfast, Carson was saying "cheeeeeeeeessssseeeeeee!"

Here are some pictures of us enjoying our summer - Carson trying out t-ball, night golf, swimming and the last picture is our trip to the circus yesterday!

Carson ready to go "imming!"

We have some great pictures to load from Uncle Michael and Auntie Mia's wedding last week, we will try to Blog about their special day within the week.

Lots more summer fun to be had for now!

Love,

The Schnellys

Easter 2011

Sorry for this VERY tardy post. It seems a few motherly tasks take precedence over blogging these days. However, I again promise to try and be better about it...

Here are some pictures from our Cincinnati trip for Easter, yes, Easter that took place two months ago!

The first day we arrived was our only full day of sunshine, and we went to the awesome Cincinnati Zoo with Grandma, Grandpa and Cousin Mia!
The tulips were beautiful in full-bloom!

The second day of our trip we celebrated our niece's baby shower. We didn't have any great pics of the mommy-to-be, Brittany, but here is a cute picture of Carson with his Aunt Tracey and his cousin Mia.

The skies quit dumping on us for about 2 hours, just long enough for an impromptu Easter Egg Hunt in Grandpa's yard!

Carson with his grandparents, too cute!

And here, the cousins got to hit a few putts on Grandpa's putting green. Mia can't wait for Carson to be bigger so they can play golf together!

And the first time (surely there will be MANY more of these pictures as Carson grows up) - riding on Grandpa's tractor!

We always have a great time with The Schnell Family, and we are already looking forward to our next trip for the Labor Day Party! Hopefully, this time we won't get rained out so we can see more of Grandma and Grandpa's friends!

Good times growing up!

Here are a few recent pictures of Carson having good times!

Celebrating Daddy's birthday (that candle is in a yummy cupcake):
At Red Rock Canyon with Charlie and Emma:

Carson's first trip to the snow, he loved it and we are going back next weekend (with better snow clothesso he can play and explore more without getting too wet):

Playing with Daddy:

Here are the "horsies" we saw - next weekend we will go on a ride with them, they will take us on a 30 minute journey around the snowy Mt. Charleston area. Fun!

Carson is saying more words and continuing to amaze us with how much he is learning. Every day is an adventure, and we love introducing him to the many exciting adventures in our own backyard (Las Vegas). More fun to come!