WELCOME CARSON!

Our big day came a week early...

Carson William Schnell
Date - October 23, 2009
Time - 4:27 PM
Weight - 6 pounds, 15 ounces
Length - 19 inches

One week ago we welcomed our little boy to the world. It was a wonderful journey, and we are just so thrilled to have him at home, and doing perfectly well. Jeff and I now know what this new love is all about!!

Here are Jeff and I, about to go into the surgery room for the C-Section.

Here is our little baby, just after birth (and clean up in the nursery)

Daddy brings Baby into recovering Mommy!

Some of our many visitors included Grandmama and Grandad (Suzi's parents), and our nephews Dylan and Devan. Of course Auntie Michele came too, but we didn't have a photo with everyone in it.

Our other visitors have been - Gerry and Lynda Robbins, Uncle Michael and Auntie Erica, Aunt Maya, Kara, and Kourtney and Ben. More to come this weekend... lots of love for Baby Carson!! :)

Mandy and Jerry's 50th Anniversary Party

This post is VERY delayed...

Mandy and Jerry Schnell celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary on October 4. Over Labor Day weekend, Jeff, Beth and Tracey threw them a party to celebrate the big occasion in Cincinnati. Unfortunately I couldn't be there, but the rest of the family was there to celebrate this wonderful milestone!

Enjoy a few pictures...

On the night that everyone arrived. Aunt Nancy and Kitty had already left at this point, but it was nice that everyone could be there to celebrate Mandy and Jerry's big day! The Hendrixsons flew in from Florida as a surprise... and Mandy was floored to see her brother and sister-in-law!

This picture is all of the "cousins" - Beth, Jeff, Brian, Tracey and Shari. Small family, but I think they are just right! :)

Here are the "bride and groom" getting ready to help themselves to the yummy buffet dinner at their party!

Mandy and Jerry with some friends who were also a part of their wedding 50 years ago.

Of course, there had to be a putting contest... which was won by TEAM SCHNELL (Jeff and Jerry)!

Big congratulations go out to Mom and Dad Schnell... for many more years of love and family fun!

Baby Shower!

A week and a half ago Jeff and I traveled to Fresno for Carson's first baby shower. It was hosted at Linda Jensen's house, and my sister and friends put on a wonderful party.

Here is the awesome cake (sure wish I had some of those leftovers now):
Me, my mom Diane and my sister Michele:

Here is a picture of Linda and Corina and me all hanging out (kinda like the old days):

Brina, Darcy and me:

Me and my long-lost college friend Samantha... so good to see her again!!

Me and Carson with the cake! :)

Michele played an awesome game of "Memory" with baby things. It was too clever!

These cute gift bags were for everyone to fill up with candy as their favor.

Here is the wide selection of goodies for everyone to choose from. Of course, all the candy matched the shower colors!

Opening gifts! This is a scrapbook my mom made for Carson. It is an A B C book - this page is "A for Aunties" and has a picture of all of his aunts. SO cute!!

Here is a cute "I love Mommy" outfit for Carson to wear. (Thanks Brina!)

Super cute Fresno State blanket that was made for us by Nana Shirley!

What a great weekend with family and friends, and a wonderful day. We know Carson will never have to want for anything, he has so many people that love him already... what a lucky kiddo!

So sorry for the delay in posting these pictures. Since I wasn't the photographer at this event, I had to seek out the pictures and download them from those who did take pictures. :)

Ben and Kourtney tie the knot!

We just returned from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin where we spent the weekend with our good friends Kourtney and Ben to celebrate their wedding.

We arrived on Friday afternoon and went to the golf course for a rehearsal, and then headed to Ben's aunt's house for the rehearsal dinner. It was a wonderful crab-boil held outdoors with views of the lake. It was a beautiful night and so nice to be outside celebrating the pending big day. Here is a picture of the pile of shrimp, crab, corn, and sausage - all made for finger-licking fun!

Here is Ben perched high over his party giving a thank-you speech to everyone for coming. Kourtney didn't want to climb up with him...

Here is me and Jeff - we were on top of this awesome slide they had - so we could see the lake (you can kinda see it in the background).

Here is a view of everyone else playing kick-ball, too fun!

Jeff and I stayed up at the to to wait for this beautiful sunset!

On Saturday, we had an even more wonderful day. Here is the happy couple - Ben and Kourtney BUCK!

Here is the location of the first 1/3 of their wedding ceremony - on the 10th tee box...

All was going along great until it started to rain (you can see it in the picture below) but then 10-seconds later the skies open up in an all-out downpour, and everyone had to run for cover! Also, maybe you can tell in the picture below just how much I am showing... my baby bump was in full effect!

The second 2/3 of the ceremony took place inside the clubhouse (as seen below) after we all dried off with towels and took a few minutes to get it all together.

Nothing could stop this happy couple - they were just as thrilled to say I-do (and kiss) indoors as they would have been outside!

We had a great weekend with The Bucks in Wisconsin. Next up, a baby for Carson to play with!!

Carson's Nursery

What an eventful weekend we had! Mom and Dad Scott drove to Vegas from Modesto to bring us a truck and U-Haul full of goodies for Carson's new nursery. We had a great time with the family setting up his new bedroom.

Here is a peak into Carson's Nursery walking in the door from the hallway. On the left side of this room, there are double doors that connect Carson's bedroom to ours, making it nice and convenient for his infant years. The door right behind the rocking chair leads into Carson's walk-in closet.

Here are some pictures of the work in progress...

Grandad working on putting the crib together

Here is Daddy getting it done right for Carson's crib:

Mommy taping off the baseboards in the nursery:

Grandmama painting the baseboards a nice bright coat of white:

And the "after" pictures...

The new changing table/dresser:

Our new rocking-chair that Auntie Michele had re-covered to match Carson's room:

Carson's new crib!!

The new crib with his quilt showing. (Thank you Michele and Mom for the new bedding!)

Now we just have to be VERY patient and wait another 15 whole weeks for Carson to come. We love having his room done, it makes everything feel much more "real."

Big thank-you to Diane and Bruce for buying the new dresser. Thank you to Mandy and Jerry for the new crib. And of course some more big thanks to Michele and Sean (and Dylan and Devan) for the 15 bins of clothes, glider and ottoman, tools, books, and goodies they sent us... we couldn't do it without the love and support of our families!

Lullaby Lane!

Today Jeff and I went shopping in San Bruno at The Gevertz' baby-wonderland Lullaby Lane. We found the perfect baby furniture for Carson's new room, with thanks to Mom, Dad, Michele, Dylan and Devan! We had a great time finding all the right stuff, and are so excited to have the big delivery to our house in a few weeks.

Here is the crib we chose. It looks darker in the pictures, and it is a little dark - kind of a cherry wood. (Big thanks to Mom and Dad Schnell for buying this crib for their grandkiddies to have sweet dreams in!!)


The matching changing table/dresser that also came with a hutch to go over the top for once the kids no longer need to be changed on top. Big thanks to Mom and Dad Scott for buying this furniture for the kiddies, we know they will use it forrrreeever! (Especially since Pup can't build furniture to be delivered all over the country!)

Here are the two pieces side by side. We liked the shape of everything with the round shapes - it looks great in person!

Here is all the stuff loaded up in Dad's truck. Big thanks to the Gevertz Family for buying us our super cute orange and grey stroller combo! Score!!

After our shopping extravaganza Mom and Dad took us out to a lovely Italian lunch in downtown San Bruno. Here are Michele and I with our boys! :)

These pictures are from last night hanging out at Grandmama and Ishbobo's house in Ceres!

Dylan with his grill (like Auntie):
Devan swimming - he was so cute jumping in off the sides yelling "jump, jump!"

Dylan hanging out in the spa with his Uncle Jeff and Grandad:

We also have some cute pictures of Jeff and I together during our shopping trip... I will have to wait to get those from Mom so we can upload them on here.

The weekend flew by, but we had a good time and always love spending time with the family!

Melissa and Shannon's Baby Shower!

This weekend we traveled to California for Melissa's baby shower, and to visit our family. Melissa and Shannon had a couples-shower which was fun because we got to see all our friends, and the hubbys too!

Here are some pictures of the BBQ shower!

This picture (L-R) is Amity who is Melissa's best friend, she is due August 15ish with a girl (Nyla). Melissa in the middle who is due September 1 with a girl too (Elliott). And then me, due October 30 with Carson!


Here is the super cute shower cake!

Melissa, Darcy and me - best friends forever! Darcy is the only non-preggo, you'll see her super cute son, Sean, below.

Jeff getting ready to have a baby boy - this is Sean, Darcy's son who is now just a few days shy of 11 months!

Melissa and Shannon and all their loot!