Good dogs!

It's all about dogs these days. First of all, here's a cute picture of Mom and the dogs. They have been getting lots of attention with my parents here. This is funny because it looks like Oz and Mom are talking, and Pinky's got kind of a jealous look on her face.

Now here are some more good dogs. Jeff frequents this hot dog place called The Dog Pound in Cedar Hill. This weekend we went with my parents. It was my first time there. These dogs are just as good (if not better) as anything you'd get from a Chicago street vendor. I think this was Dad's favorite eating excusion in Texas so far. He wants to go back before they leave. The owner, Randy (below), was excited to have patrons from Montana.

I had the LA-style dog. It had mustard, chili and cheese. I had cheese instead of pico de gallo, because I wasn't sure how that would taste on a dog. Here's my foot-long dog. So yummy.

Jeff and I both are off on New Year's Eve. We get a day off together about once every three months, so I'm excited we'll get a day with my parents. I'm sad Mom and Dad's visit is coming to an end. I've had the best time with them.

Moose and deer and Buelingos, Oh my!

On the way back from San Antonio today, we saw some familiar sights. There was a small herd of Buelingos along the freeway. And the odd thing we noticed about every group of cattle we saw was that there was a donkey in the pasture with them (see him on the right?). I'm not sure why that is, but I'm going to do some investigating.

We also stopped at Cabela's just south of Austin. The store is a lot bigger than the one in Post Falls, with many more mounts and displays. I spent $10 on clearance Christmas stuff.

Then in Waco we stopped and golfed nine holes. The wind was chilly; I don't think I could have done 18 today.

We had a really good little weekedn getaway. I got to see parts of Texas I hadn't before.

Where are we going?

You wouldn't think a guy who spends so much time in the mountains would be directionally challenged. But my dad had a hard time this weekend figuring out where we were going. See, when they flew down, they stopped in El Paso. This weekend, we went to San Antonio. He kept asking how far El Paso was, even though we were headed to San Antonio.

And my mom has been fascinated with the Alamo since I moved to Texas. When Jeff and I were figuring out where to get married, she kept saiyng "Get married at the Alamo." We went to Hawaii instead. So Thursday she finally got to see the Alamo. I think she and Dad were disappointed, because it's literally downtown San Antonio. Still neat to see.

And they had this big tree outside the Alamo. Mom took a lot of pictures because "Ethan and Elsie will get a kick out of that." So if a certain Montana family is missing my parents, know they are missing you too.

Our next stop was the River Walk. It was my favorite part of San Antonio. We took a boat ride and had dinner at a restaurant on the River Walk.

The River Walk was all lit up for the holidays, so we took the boat ride just as it was getting dark. These pretty trees were at the Westin, where each NBA team but the Nuggest and the Lakers stays when they are in town to play the Spurs.

The big event this weekend in San Antonio is the Alamo Bowl. Penn State vs. Texas A&M. It was crazy with fans, and we stumbled upon a pep rally.

The school bands also were playing on the river. It was pretty neat to see, but it was crowded.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We had our Christmas on Christmas Eve. Mom helped me make my first real turkey (she did most of it), and we had Aunt Marlene's stuffing, green beans, corn and mashed potatoes. It was awesome. We didn't even have room for pie! I was off, but Jeff worked until 8, so we had a late meal and then opened presents.

Oz got a little curious while Mom and Dad were digging in their stockings on Christmas morning.

Here's the tree after we cleaned up presents.

It's been great having my parents here. We figured out it's been 6 years since I had a Christmas with Mom and Dad, so it's pretty special.

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday

and we wish you all the best in 2008!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Since Jeff and I are both working tomorrow, we're celebrating Christmas today after Jeff gets home from work. We've had a busy day so far.

First of all, here's Oz and Pinky. My friend Christi brought to my attention in an earlier comment that we need more pictures of Oz on here. Unfortunately, they are all with Pinky. That will be my New Year's resolution!
Here's Mom making Aunt Marlene's sage stuffing recipe. She's teaching me all the tricks so maybe one day I can do this holiday thing for her!

We took the dogs for a walk this afternoon. Dad is getting pretty annoyed with Pinky. She barks a lot, and he's not used to little dogs.

And this is near the dam at Joe Pool Lake, just a couple miles from our house. We drove around the lake today trying to get closer to the dam, and finally found the visitor's overlook.

Lights, Lights and more LIGHTS!

Tonight we went to Grand Prairie to the Prairie Lights exhibit. You drive two miles through more than 3 million lights. Some of them were pretty spectacular. Luckily we got there early. By the time we left, there was a line about a mile long just waiting to get in!

Here's a dinosaur.

And the nativity.
A buffalo.

This is the grand finale. We called it "raining lights."
It was really beautiful.

The other awesome light display, which was too big to get in a picture, was representations of each verse of The Twelve Days of Christmas. At first we were trying to figure out what it was. I kept saying "There's some birds... and some more." Guessing what all the displays were was really fun.

Cedar Hill State Park

Saturday we went to Cedar Hill State Park to hike a little. Some of the trails were closed, but we walked along Joe Pool Lake and found a little trail. It was really windy out there.

And they had a little playground at one of the picnic areas. I hadn't been down a slide in quite a few years!

Mom and Dad are golfing again today, although it's getting chilly. Still warmer than Montana.

Golfing in December

My parents are here for two weeks for the holidays. Friday we went golfing in 70-degree weather. Not exactly something you can do Dec. 21 in Montana.

There was a lot of water on this course, and we lost (and found) plenty of balls. Below Dad steps down to get my ball, which had gotten stuck in a branch.

The wacky Schnick household

Finally, here is a picture of Jeff and his friend Brent standing by Brent's big rig, literally.

This day they were starting to clean the garage, so that's why they look extra rednecky. :)

And here's this funny picture of Pinky's tongue. My friend Jeff M. came over last weekend and was trying to take a picture of Pinky. But if you know her, you know she doesn't sit still very often. So this is what he snapped:

My parents will be here tomorrow for the start of their two-week visit, so I'll be better about updating the blog!

It's beginning to look a lot like ...

Christmas!

I love Christmas. My parents are coming this year, which makes it even more special. I hurt my back last week and am finally feeling like I can walk normal, so today I got the tree up.

And I got some cool holiday table linens at Wal-Mart, so I tested them out.

That awesome centerpiece is a trifle bowl Erika got me for Christmas from Pampered Chef. She told me about using is as a decoration when not using it for food, so I filled it with small and large ornaments. It looks so festive in here!

And Jeff's best friend Brent is visiting us this weekend. More pictures to come after the weekend, but here's one of Brent in Dealey Plaza late last night. He didn't know if he'd get to stay all weekend, so he wanted to be sure and get to see it. We'll take him back in the daytime.

The Secret Recipe

I love to bake, as most of your know. So I thought I’d share a recipe that I have gotten several compliments on and is super easy. This scone recipe, from KraftFoods.com, is so moist and yummy. The scones aren’t hard and crumbly like the ones you get at Starbucks or some bakeries.

Cranberry Walnut Scones
Since we're not really a nut family (insert joke here), I substitute white chocolate chips from the walnuts. I don't measure them, just eye it.

Chocolate Chunk Scones
Another great scone recipe. I prefer the white chocolate and cranberry ones, but when I brought a batch of both to work one day, my coworkers were raving about the chocolate chunk scones.
** The link to this recipe isn't working, but I'll update it as soon as their search function is working!

KraftFoods.com is my favorite Web site for recipes. They test recipes in their kitchen, and they have this cool feature called 1 Bag, 5 Dinners, in which you get four recipes and a shopping list. It's a great, easy way to plan a week's worth of dinners. And since most of the recipes serve four, we always have leftovers to eat as lunches throughout the week.

Happy Baking!

My new friend Jackson

On Friday I went to a mall and met up with my friends Brian (who I used to work with) and Christi from Abilene. They have an adorable son, Jackson, who is now three and a half months old. It was my first time meeting Jackson, and we got along great. And Christi motivated me to get a start on my Christmas shopping.

Here's a picture of Jackson and me. I love that we have the exact same expression on our faces.

It's Finally Fall in Texas

Just in the last couple of weeks it's started to feel like fall in Dallas. We still have days in the 80s, but it's been cooling down for the most part. Yesterday the clouds looked beauftil against the colors of this tree in our back yard.

And here's Pinky being a bad dog up on the couch. It's hard to keep them off the furniture without watching them every second. She likes to snuggle down into the blankets and pretend she's hiding. I need to take more pictures of Oz. I belife I'm showing a little favoritism on this blog. :)

Idaho Fun

First of all, it was quite chilly in Idaho compared with Texas. Here's a peek at some of the frost.

Matt and Erika on their deck.

Erika's nephew Jack hanging out with Uncle Matt at breakfast.

I made her stand by the tree to gauge the size

of her cute belly.

Erika and me before heading to the airport.