Texas High School Football

So this happened a week ago, but with Christmas and all I didn't get around to posting so I thought a week late post would be okay. As many of you know we are living in Texas right now, and everything in Texas is BIG, right?! Also, as many of you know, I am a football nut. Another thing that many of you might know is that I went to the best high school in the state of Arizona when it comes to football, Mountain View (Go Toros!). So needless to say, with all of the previous facts about me and Texas it was only fitting that I had to go see the the State Championship game for 5A High School football here in Texas. I didn't want to go by myself so I thought Brooklyn would be a fun companion. Her and I made the trip downtown to the Alamodome and watched Trinity (from Dallas) defeat Judson (from San Antonio). We had a great time but I think Brooklyn was more entertained by jumping over the chairs and doing gymnastics on the railings than she was in the football game, it was still fun to have her as my date though. Here are just a couple of pictures.

Santa, are you there? Here's My Christmas Wish

I know there are only a few days left till the big day, but I think I still have some time to get my wish list out to Santa. So if any of you feel like playing St Nick this year, my official request is for this...If any of you have an extra $400 lying around your bank account and that Christmas spirit of giving is touching your heart, now is your opportunity to act on that urge!

Christmas Cards

We have now received several wonderful pictures of friends and family for their annual Christmas Cards. I must say you all have beautiful families, and thank you so much for putting us on your mailing list for these pictures and cards. In lieu of this new blogging explosion, I have talked Chelsea into allowing me to post our Christmas Card on the blog for all to enjoy. I know there are several of you that are going to be disapointed because now you can't hang our bright, smiley faces on your fridges, but if you are so inclined I made the picture large enough for you to print it out and do with it what you like. Merry Christmas to all. The Snell Family.

Sea World with Grandma and Grandpa

As you saw in the previous post we were lucky enough to have Grandma and Grandpa come and visit us last weekend. On Saturday, we decided to brave the cold winds and make our way to Sea World. We have been there a few times now, many of which we have blogged about, but of all the times we have been there this time it was like we had the park to ourselves. I guess there were very few people crazy enough to endure the cold windy day just to get a glimpse of Shamu! Even with the winds and cold, we all had a good time.

The best part of the whole day was when we were walking into the park a random lady handed us her ticket and told us that her husband had gotten sick so he was unable to come, and she had this extra ticket that she wanted to give away! So that saved us $50! Thank you to whomever you are that was so kind to just give us your ticket for free!

Enjoy the pictures!
Brooklyn getting kissed by a Beluga Whale
Grandma getting kissed by the Beluga Whale

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEATH!!!

We celebrated Heath's 29th birthday on December 14th. His parents came which made for some great company. The kids were so excited it was his birthday. They had fun decorating the apartment for him and putting the candles in the cake (upside down). I'm sure most everyone knows what an amazing person Heath is but I'll just point a few things out. Without a doubt Heath is a wonderful father. The kids are so excited when he comes home from work. They love to wrestle with him and I always see them giving him hugs and saying, "I love you daddy!" As far as being a husband, he's perfect for me. Yeah, that may sound cheesy or whatever, but it's true. He is so thoughtful and so fun to be around. He always makes me feel good about myself and makes me want to be a better person. I am so thankful to be married to my best friend! I love you Heath!
Cade celebrated his dad's birthday by shaving for the first time. This was an early Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa Snell (Thank you!) and he loves to shave "just yike daddy!"

Politics vs. Poo Poo Platter

While those two things usually go together in most people's minds, that is not what this post is about. I just find it interesting at the response that our last two posts have received. Based on the number of comments it appears that our society is more interested in poo than politics! In a matter of days our poop story had over 10 comments and it has been five now that my declaration for Romney has been out there and only 7 comments (2 of which are mine)! C'mon people, you don't have to agree with me when it comes to what candidate to vote for, but I sure hope the lack of comments isn't a demonstration of a lack of interest when it comes to voting for our next President of the United States, especially this year when another Clinton might be stepping into the oval office (and might I add that she is by far the scarier of the two)!

Great Book. Even Better Candidate.

I am reading the book "A Mormon in the White House? 10 Things Every American Should Know About Mitt Romney" by Hugh Hewitt and am absolutely loving it. Now I must admit that the book is a little biased towards Romney since Hewitt really likes him, but since I myself really like Romney I guess I like that bias. In this crazy political season, almost as crazy as the college football season, I hope everyone takes a good look at all of the candidates and picks one that you feel best represents your beliefs (and oh how I hope that none of you are voting for Hilary, Obama, Edwards, Giuliani, or McCain, but if you are there is still time to do more homework and change!) If any of you are curious about Romney, I suggest reading this book to learn more about his views and where he stands on the issues. I know a lot has been said about Romney, by his naysayers, that he is only a flip flopper and can not be trusted. I'm sorry, but I just don't see that. Yes it is true that he has realized he was wrong with his stand on abortion and has since changed, but in listening to him and more importantly seeing his voting record as governor, I truly believe that he realized he was in the wrong and thus decided to change his mind, and to me there is no fault in that. Romney would be great for this country, just as he has been for several companies, the Salt Lake Olympics and the state of Massachusetts.
Since this is a political post I guess you do have the opportunity to disagree, but if you do please post your comments for all to view. Also, please take the time to visit Celeste's Conservative Corner for excellent reading (Celeste is a friend from dental school and she has an excellent website devoted to conservative views).

Who Ordered the poo-poo platter?

So Heath was actually home early yesterday (yahoo!) and so he played outside with the kids while I finished up dinner. When they came inside they showed me how they bought a candy bar from the kid next door for his fundraiser. Of course they wanted to eat it right away. It was a Caramello and they got chocolate all over their hands. It had been a few minutes since they had finished and I found Brooklyn sitting down holding her shoe licking her finger. I asked what she was eating and, "I don't know" was the response. I said it was probably dirt and asked her to stop. A few a second later she came up to me and said, "Um, mom...it was poop." Sure enough she had dog poop on her shoe that she was convinced was chocolate! That was the third time in 2 days that one of my kids stepped in dog poop. It drives me crazy that people around here don't clean up after their pets!!! So apparently my four year old isn't afraid to eat something that smells weird on the bottom of her shoe. Yuck!

It's Official!

It's official! Caden is now potty trained! It's probably been 3 weeks since I got serious about it but we've been busy and not home much so I wasn't sure it would go all that well. Cade surprised me and it seems he was more than ready. He caught on so quick and (knock on wood) he has been a lot easier than Brooklyn. The other day we were at the store and I had already taken him to the bathroom once and at this point we were far away from any bathroom. Cade told me then that he needed to go poop. So we were walking to the bathroom and the WHOLE way Cade was saying in a loud voice (as hard as I tried to get him to whisper) "Mom! Poop's coming out! Poop is coming out!" It was pretty funny. Luckily we made it with time to spare. Now I can save a few bucks on diapers...at least for a few months.

Grateful Sunday

I decided it's time to take a page from Stephanie Farnsworth's blog and do a Grateful Sunday post (by the way I love the idea Stephanie, I should adopt it permanently...but I'm too big of a blogger slacker for that!)

This Sunday I am grateful for....helmets! No not the kind you see on TV every Saturday and Sunday in the fall while watching the best sport known to man, but rather those kind that protect us motorcycle riders (or in my case a little 49cc scooter!) This past week I had a little "accident" while riding my scooter to work and am very grateful that I had my helmet on.

I was approaching an intersection going about 35 mph, when all of a sudden a car decided to turn left in front of me. Rather than broadsiding the car with myself and the scooter, I locked up the brakes and no sooner than I did that did the scooter slip out from underneath me and sent me flying to the ground. I immediately hit the ground and my head bounced against the road as I skidded along the asphalt. Luckily I missed the car and was actually okay. I got back up to my feet and looked over at my scooter, which surprisingly was still running, allbeit on its side. So I just went over to my scooter, picked it up, hopped back on and rode the rest of the way to work. It was really quite surreal. I guess I should have stopped a minute and got the information of the guy/girl that turned in front of me but I think I was in such shock that nothing more serious happened to me that I just got up and left. I did get some nice road rash on my elbow, hand and knee, a very large and ugly bruise on my hip, and one whopping headache, but other than that I was okay. I know that it could have been A LOT worse, and someone must have been watching out for me. Thanks to my kids for all those prayers about keeping daddy safe on his scooter! I must say, judging from the wicked bounce my head made on the road, if it wasn't for that helmet, I don't know if I would be posting this right now. Here are some pics of my minor injuries. I was also luckily wearing my big winter coat that I think padded my fall a little as well.

Picture of my scrubs with the asphalt ground in nicely and the hole in the knee

Super Why!

Cade and Brooklyn love this program on PBS (I have never seen it personally), but when I get home from work Cade is always running around and yelling "superWISE" like he is some kind of superhero. He even tells me how he goes after the "bad guys." So Chelsea made both of the kids the little eye masks that they apparently wear on the show and the kids loved it. This picture is a classic as Cade loves to wear it with his Superman cape and belt (and yes we are doing the potty training thing right now so he is in his McQueen underwear).

Cade also loves to wear this new hat that I got from my brother in law, Dionys, so I thought I would post it as well because I think he looks so cute. By the way, thanks Dionys for the hat I, and Caden obviously, love that hat and it has replaced my ASU one as my #1 go to hat.

Rudy's; Great Food and Great Fun

It has been a week now since we went out with the Dial's and the Giani's but I thought it would still be okay to post some pictures of our first time ever at the world famous Rudy's BBQ. We had such a fun time and thank you, thank you, thank you to the Dial's for inviting us and taking care of us. We absolutely loved the food and will definitely returning to take any family and friends along that come and visit (so all you family and friends that might be thinking of coming to wonderful San Antonio for a visit, here is one more reason to come see us!)

And to make the night complete, thanks to the Dial's who have ESPN and a DVR, we were able to watch the glorious ending to the Ohio State/Illinois game (sorry Krista).

Wow, a whole week without a post...we are slacking; my apologies (that is probably a very wrong use of a semicolon, but deal with it). We were watching home movies with the kids the other day and I just thought I would put this clip up for everyone to see. We got a kick out of it. Some background first (although I bet most of you have already watched the clip and are now reading this). This video was back in Denver and Cade used to love to swing this little broken golf club around and in particular he loved to swing it at Brooklyn. It really freaked Brooklyn out, as you can hear on the video clip. The funniest thing though is what happened at the end of the clip (sorry Jocelyn if you are watching this).

Cade the Handyman

So Cade went to great lengths today to try and give me the hint that he doesn't want to sleep in a crib anymore. I got out of the shower to find that he had yanked the screw from the wood and pulled the metal rail out in order to dissemble part of his crib. I was rather impressed until he started using the metal rod as a weapon. The poor kid is still in the crib and probably will be for awhile but I think I'll watch him a little closer from now on.

HALLOWEEN!

We had a fun Halloween this year. The kids were so excited to dress up and say "trick-or-treat". I think they mastered it well. Brooklyn chose to be Cinderella and Cade just had to be Superman (since he has given himself that nickname).

Brooklyn couldn't wait to get her hair done and to be able to wear a little makeup. "Is everyone going to think I look so beautiful?" Brooklyn asked after she was already. Once Caden saw Brooklyn all pretty in her dress he went and gave her a big hug and said, "Brookie so pretty!"
From the moment Cade got his costume in the mail from his Grandma Pam he was SO excited. He called grandma to tell her thank you SO much. She did a great job sewing it and making it look so cute. I think Cade wore the costume for a day and a half before he would part with it. He was jumping off of everything yelling, "Superman!" Thanks Mom!


They had fun at the trunk or treat and
couldn't wait to sample their candy with their dad. Right before we left Brooklyn ran up to Heath crying because her Cinderella shoe just broke. "Now I won't look pretty anymore." she said. Good thing for Heath and duct tape!

Baseball with apples

So grocery shopping is always an adventure with Brooklyn and Cade. I usually make them sit in the grocery cart whether they are crying or not-it's just quicker and easier. Well I just needed a few things today so I told them they could walk if they would listen. Yeah right! First stop, produce. Cade's eyes were glued to the apples. He heads straight for them and grabs one. I ask him to put it down and then tell him to put it down. I find myself reaching for him as his arm is cocked back ready to fire with an apple in hand. I was definitely too late. Before I could even get to him and pick up the bruised apple he was launching more. People were watching at this point and as he continues to throw I hear this lady gasping as Cade has succeeded in making applesauce on the floor and on my feet. I finally got control of the situation and had a good "talk" with Cade. As I walked away I imagined how funny the whole ordeal must have looked. A two year chucking apples as fast as he could, his pregnant mom trying to stop him, and his big sister looking on in awe wondering why mom isn't moving any faster. Quite a sight I'm sure. I hope everyone enjoyed it, especially that lady that was gasping rather loudly which probably translated into, "Get some control over you kids!" Ahh, the excitement kids bring into our lives. Gotta love it!

Goggles and Paper Hats

These are just a few pictures from our trip to Mesa. The kids had a fun time in the hot tub. Brooklyn could use some help getting her goggles on right and Cade is totally posing for the camera. They had a fun time hanging out with Maya and all of their other cousins. I'll have to find some pictures of the rest of them because they are all so cute. Brooklyn and Cade already miss playing with them all. Thanks for the fun time everyone!

Isabel and Cade both fell in the pool that week. Luckily, Ondria was close by to grab Isabel and Chris sacrificed getting his clothes and shoes wet to grab Cade. Thank you Chris!

Heath will probably roll his eyes when he sees that I decided to post these pictures of Cade. I thought his "outfit" was too funny. Katie Snell helped the girls (granddaughters) make these hats in Mesa. She is extremely creative and the kids love her. Cade was rather attached to the hat as you can see. The goggles seemed to help him navigate the stroller around. He wears these goggles often and they immediately get foggy but it doesn't seem to bother him.

Soccer

We have had fun watching Brooklyn play soccer this fall. She was so excited the day we bought her cleats, shin guards and a soccer ball. As soon as we got home from the store she put all of her soccer stuff on and didn't take it off until bedtime.
Her team name is the Rockets and she is playing with her friend, Bryson Simonton, which she was so excited about.
Cade loves to go on the field at half time and kick the ball around with Heath. He's actually pretty good. He loves to show his support for Brooklyn by drinking all of her water when she's not looking.
It's so fun to see Brooklyn's face when she kicks the ball. She really enjoys playing and we've had so much fun watching her.

Whitney's Wedding

Well we finally made it back home. This last weekend we were out in Arizona for my little sister's sealing. It was so fun to be together with all the family and it was great to have extended family drive in from Utah and Colorado for the big event. The best thing of the whole trip was being able to sit in the sealing room of the temple with our entire family for the first time ever. Our family is so blessed and I am so grateful to wonderful parents who raised us so well. We are so lucky to have the gospel in our lives. The whole weekend was very fun, from the sealing, to the reception, to the wonderful (and famous) family "discussions". The only thing that would have made it better was if our drive home wasn't 15 hours long! Gotta love the road trips (that is a whole other post in and of itself!) Congrats Whitney and Juan.

10 year reunion

So I just got back home to San Antonio from attending my 10 year high school reunion back in Mesa, Arizona. I have to say, I was excited about reuniting with old friends and to catch up on the current happenings. While the 15 hour drive over there from San Antonio wasn't the most fun thing in the world, I am very glad that I made the effort to get to the reunion. It was fun to see old high school friends and see how everyone was doing. I'm not sure what I expected out of the whole ordeal, but one thing that was surprising to me was how much people....stayed the same! I guess 10 years isn't all that long of time in the grand scheme of things, but I had just thought that more people would have changed more. Thanks to everyone who traveled to such great lengths to make it to the reunion, it was fun to see everyone. A big thanks goes out to my wife, Chelsea, for putting up first, with a 15 hour straight-through car drive with 2 kids and one on the way, and second, for staying by my side the entire night at the reunion. Sorry, I don' t have any pictures to post, but I'm sure there are several other's blogs where you can find all sorts of pictures from the event.

What's the deal?

I was recently reading someone's blog who mentioned that they are gong to join the new custom to make her family's blog "private." Now, I may be the only male who follows this blogging stuff and maybe because of that my view is different than many of yours, but I just don't understand the whole "private" blog. I like blogging for the fact that it is fun to see how other people are doing and what they are up to. I have, on several occasions, stumbled on to other friends' blogs through others blogs and it is always interesting to see how they are doing. If everyone makes their blogs "private" then this will stop that real quickly and you will only be able to read about those whom you already know about. Thus canceling out the fun of happening upon old friend's blogs because you weren't personally "invited" by them. And for this reason I am resisting the "private blogging" movement and staying public!

Fun with the Farnsworth's

So even though it has been a week since we went, I thought it is better late than never to post our activities. Many of you probably already read of our adventure on the Farnsworth family page, but I thought I would post our pictures as well.

Last Saturday we were able to hit up Sea World again, but this time we were fortunate enough to have fun with Dave and Stephanie and their 3 boys (such a cute family). It was so fun to introduce Chelsea and the kids and go watch the show with them. Thanks Dave and Stephanie for making the trip down here just to hang out with us!! Okay, so maybe we weren't the only reason you came down, but it was a fun morning.

Fun at the Park

This last weekend we went to a little open house at Raymond Rimkus Park. The kids had so much fun. There was a magician there and I don't quite think the kids got what he was doing but they loved the balloon animals he gave out.
There was even free face painting. Brooklyn knew exactly what she wanted painted on her face and Heath and I couldn't believe how still she sat the entire time! Cade wanted a football but he got the closest thing to it I guess. Once we got home from the park, Brooklyn would go and look at herself in the mirror every couple of minutes and come back saying how cute she looked.

They love playing on this little merry-go-round thing.

This is just a random picture of the kids when we go on our walk. To be honest, our walks are few and far between. It's a little too humid for me. Not to mention this stroller is an absolute BEAST! And to help matters, the other back wheel broke this morning. I think that's supposed to make my walk more challenging and thus more beneficial. Yeah, I think I'll just go by myself next time.

The best wife? I have her!

Chelsea is the best wife out there. She lets me sleep in every weekend and gets up early with the kids. Then to top it off, this morning, I was fast asleep and all of a sudden the kids come in and jump on me and say "daddy wake up. Mom has breakfast for you." Then Chelsea walks in with a hot waffle and an Orange Julius on a tray! So not only does she get up early with the kids and let me sleep, but then she brings me breakfast in bed! I'm not sure what I did to deserve such an incredible person, but whatever it was I sure am glad I did it. I got so lucky, and somehow tricked Chelsea into taking a chance on me. Thanks Chelsea, I love you.

Do you want to dance?

I know I have mentioned before that I have the most prototypical "girl" and "boy" for kids. Brooklyn loves dressing up and looking in the mirror and asking how cute she looks, and Caden loves throwing balls, swinging sticks, and watching football. So to further add to why I think this of my kids I have to relate the following story that took place this morning before church.

Brooklyn had just got her dress on with her new shoes and was swishing it in front of the mirror and was all smiles. She came up to me and asked me if she looked cute, and of course she did so I grabbed her and gave her a big hug and told her she looked beautiful. She then walked out of the bedroom and into the living room where Cade was watching TV. Chelsea and I were still in the bedroom and we heard Brooklyn ask Cade in this sweet little voice, "Hey Cade, do you want to dance with me?" To which Cade immediately responds very curtly and matter of fact, "No. Watching TV."
Chelsea and I just started laughing because it was your typical girl just wanting to impress the boy and the boy not even noticing the attention the girl is seeking! It was pretty cute.

Born to play

This time of year is great. The weather is cooling off, the leaves on the trees are changing, baseball is coming to an end, and football has begun! For those of you that don't know, I LOVE football and there is just something about the fall season that does it for me. Of course I have been watching the games the past few Saturdays (enjoying watching Notre Dame be 0-4 and all the other upsets that are happening), but one thing that has made this year that much more fun is because I have my little boy to watch the games with me. Caden will sit down on the couch with me and stay enthralled with the game for a good amount of time and he loves watching the guys get tackled as well as watching the quarterbacks throw the ball. I must confess, when we are both there on the couch watching the game, it is such a proud moment for me! Who knows what our kids will end up liking to do, but I won't be complaining if it involves a brown oval shaped ball, a helmet, and pads.

Just to show you that I am not exaggerating Caden's love for the best game on earth, this is a picture from Chelsea's cell phone from when we were at the sports store last week getting Brooklyn her soccer outfit. These shoulder pads were at the front of the store, and so I had to put them on Cade. When I went to take them off, he started freaking out so we just left them on and he wore them around the store the entire time we were there, which was about 20-30 minutes. I tried getting the helmet on him too, but he only kept that on long enough to get the picture.

What a great time of year this is!