The Crisenberry Clan

The last few months

2012-02-16T12:37:00.000-08:00

So it has been awhile and I thought I would just upload the latest pictures and post them on here. Here are the boys excited that we had just picked out our last real Christmas tree and it was nice that the guy from Home Depot loaded it on top of the car for us. (Thanks to the Home Depot after Christmas sale I got a really nice fake one for $49, normally $199...hello simplicity!)

Our neighbors were super nice to surprise us and give us their tickets to Toy Story 3 on Ice. Nathan took Chase and Kai along with our brother in law Adam and his son Jacob. They had a blast!

For their cousin Joseph's birthday they all went to Lollipop Park, an indoor fun zone for kids.

And here are some of the pics we have taken of Hunter when he was 2.5 months to 3.5 months. I will have to start taking some more recent pictures since he is already older and bigger than these pictures depict.

Christmas morning before the boys got to come down and see everything.

Can you tell they had just woken up?

Mr. Hunter decided to wake up early Christmas morning too. I bet it wasn't due to excitement or anticipation for what Santa brought him (which was nothing :) ).

We have been being dumped with snow periodically here in Colorado and one day we decided to go on a family walk to go sledding down the street. I carried Hunter in the Baby Bjorn and he fell asleep. When we got home I unlatched him and he just slept like a log on our giant LoveSac. Too bad that didn't last so long.

Gotta support the Broncos

Hunter's blessing day. I put on a sweater for him to stay warm afterwords and realized that we matched perfectly.

Hunter's Here!

2011-11-20T18:52:00.000-08:00

Once again I have not figured out how to put these pictures in order, so bear with me, but....Hunter is here! Ok, this is kind of old news since he is now a month old, but it is official now, I am writing about his arrival on our blog :).

Most people like to hear some details on how he made his entrance into the world, so I guess I will start with those. My due date was Oct. 23rd, but since my mom was arriving from CA a few days later, my doctor would not be on call that day, and I have never had my own dr. deliver me before, as well as we have two boys to shuttle to someone's house to take care of them while we are in the hospital, we decided to go the induction route. I had never been induced before and have heard a good amount of horror stories, but since my doctor said I had had two deliveries already, that it should be easy. Nathan's grandma's birthday is October 20th, and we thought that it would be neat to give her a birthday present by having her great grandson on her birthday, plus 10/20 is kind of a neat date to have for one's birthday. So early that Thursday morning we checked in at 5am, and got settled in. By 6:30 I was hooked up to everything and pitocin was coursing through my veins. I was only at 1.5 cm, so a lot of progress needed to be made. About an hour or so later, no progress, but I was feeling it and the nurse said I could have an epidural. I knew I could hold off, but why wait? So the anesthesiologist came in, let me have it, and about 10 min later my doctor's colleague came in and broke my water to see if things would progress. When they checked me after doing so I was at 4cm. Well my dr. called the nurse soon thereafter since she had made an exception for me to deliver that day and wouldn't be able to make it in to the hospital until after 12pm, so she called to see how things were going. My nurse told her, and that prompted my doctor to tell her to take me off of the pitocin since I was progressing too quickly. So at around 10am they stopped the drugs, which was kind of a bummer to have things slow down, but at the same time I did want my doctor to make it in time. The contractions continued, but a lot slower and weaker. A little after 12 my doctor came in, got the drug going again, and my progress sped up again. Around 1:00 two nurses came in and proceeded to move me to this side laying position. I just followed their directions since they seemed to know what they were doing, and within 5 min I felt pressure down below and they said I was ready (they were amazing to make that happen so quickly and easily). My doctor came in, I pushed 3-4 times, and Hunter was born at 1:24pm. He was 6lb13oz, 21 in. long. He was a little guy, but he was the healthiest out of our boys, with a loud cry right away, no jaundice, and good on everything else they check. My doctor even forced Nathan to cut his embilical cord since he hadn't wanted to with my other two before (Thankfully he didn't pass out :) ).

Thanks to several different friends watching our boys, we were able to take it easy the first two days and stay in the hospital. I was ready to leave after 24 hours, but we found out, the morning after Hunter was born, that Nathan had a severe case of strep throat, and thus wouldn't be much help once we got home. Thankfully he got on antibiotics right away, but he was feeling miserable and had to keep his distance with a mask on the whole time. I was kind of lonely those two nights at the hospital, but I was glad he was able to get sleep, and I was glad to have the nurses' help while staying there.

On the following Wednesday, Nathan picked up my mom who was kind enough to come up for 8 days to help out with everything. It was so much fun having her here to chat with, play with Chase and Kai, and take care of Hunter so I could rest. On Friday night, at 9:30, someone rang our doorbell. I have to admit I was a little scared since who would be coming at that time, but when I looked through the peep hole I was totally shocked to see my dad standing outside. He not only surprised us, but my mom as well, and he was here to stay the rest of the time and go home with my mom the following week. It was such a blast having them both here. We even were able to have them for Halloween, which was great. Having them leave made me realize how much I miss them, and how I hate that we live a flight away, too far to drive. Anyway, I was super grateful for all that they did for our family, and I already miss my mom's cooking.

Thank you also to the many people in my ward, as well as friends and family who were super awesome to call me up and ask when they could bring dinner. Not only did they all bring wonderfully yummy meals, they were all gluten free, which is super thoughtful. I received the most help after having Hunter than I have had with my previous two boys, and I can't tell everyone thank you enough for not listening to me, and providing me help in various ways. You all allowed me to take it easy, heal, and have a much easier time adjusting to having a third boy. Of course I am still adjusting, but having three weeks where we were helped in so many ways was a wonderful gift. So thank you.

Ok, now onto the rest of our pictures:

Chase and Kai have been awesome older brothers. From the very start they have shown a huge amount of love and caring for their little brother, and are always wanting to hold him, get things for him, or give him his paci and tell him shush, shush, shush when he is crying. Hunter is very lucky to have them.

Kai is always the first to ask to hold Hunter, and will hold him the longest when he gets the chance. He has been so loving and so cute with his little brother.

Thanks to my friend, Kari, Hunter has a large assortment of Christmas outfits to sport this time of year. Thanks Kari!

Having a newborn sure takes a lot more time and energy than either Nathan or I remember. We tried to have him sleep in our room for the first few weeks, and then we came to our senses and moved him out of our room. Waking up every 1.5-2 hours sure does take its toll, and thankfully newborns will sleep pretty much anywhere during the day, that Nathan was able to lay back and relax while being an awesome dad.

I thought this picture was funny because this is the position he fell into after one of his many feeding sessions. Oh, to be a baby: to eat, sleep and poop. To be able to eat to your heart's content and just fall down in a total relaxed slumber.

Thanks Mom for all of the time you spent holding the little guy and giving me a break! Isn't my mom one hot mama? It is funny, because I am used to my mom being a cute, petite lady, but since no one around here had met her before, I can't tell you how many people came up to me after she had left and referred to her as being "hot". Of course I had to pass on the compliment to her, because what grandma of 10 grandkids doesn't like being reminded of her good looks? I hope I can age as well as she has and get that compliment in 20 years too :).

Aww, Dad, I just love you too. Thanks for surprising us all and coming up. Obviously Hunter thanks you too. And don't feel left out, you are equally as good looking as your wife :).

This picture makes me laugh because of the costume Kai loves to wear. Not only does he have awesome karate moves when he wears it, but it almost looks like he is doing some special move on Hunter :)

So this picture should be one of the first on this post, but oh well, I can't figure out how to do that :). So here he is, shortly after being born. It is crazy how big my hand looks in comparison to his face. And just for your reference, I have fairly small hands. I sure am glad to have all of those hospital bracelets removed too...those were a literal pain!

Here is Nathan, a proud and tired papa. Not only was he tired from our early morning check in, I think he was mostly tired because he had strep throat and he didn't know it yet. Poor guy. Thankfully no one else in our family got it, especially our newest little dude.

Another pic of him shortly after arriving.

Proud older brother Kai.

The two big brothers, happy to finally see their little brother for the first time. They came at the perfect time too, because the hospital I delivered at has these two nice ladies visit all of the patients every afternoon with a gourmet dessert cart. If they had come any earlier or later they would have missed out on choosing one for themselves.

Now Chase is the proud older brother to two boys. We couldn't have had a better son to be our first too. Chase is so responsible, caring, and helpful. I know he will be the best example for Kai and Hunter to have.

Hunter's first time out and about. Here he is on our way home from the hospital.

No time to waste, here is Nathan and all of the boys watching the cartoon X-Men shortly after we all got back home together. I think I am definitely out-numbered now.

Our little baldie, only a few days old. It is crazy how much they grow and change in a short amount of time.

Last, I had to include Chase and Kai in their Halloween costumes. I thought I was being way organized and taking advantage of an online costume deal in August so that I wouldn't have to worry about costumes when I had a newborn, but there were so many better deals I could have easily taken advantage of shortly before Halloween. Oh well, the boys loved their costumes anyway, even though Kai had to keep tilting his head back to see everyone :). They scored a ton of loot too, which if only I was eating dairy I could be enjoying all of the chocolate along with them. I guess Hunter's happy tummy is more important than my happy tummy.

Random Hodge Podge of Pictures and Updates

2011-08-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have finally gotten a moment where I actually feel a slight desire to get on here and post some pictures. Because I know how much I get frustrated about the order the pictures end up being uploaded on here, they are in no particular order, but I will try and at least provide a caption or two about each.

On our drive from Washington to Colorado we stopped in Burley, ID, (one of my most favorite places on earth since it is where my Dad grew up, and where most of my relatives live), and stayed at my grandparents' house for a few days. Sad to say that we only took pictures of my grandpa's old truck that he has restored, and let the boys (Nathan, Todd, and Austin) take a drive around the area in. All I can say is that I am majorly impressed at my grandpa for restoring this truck so wonderfully, as well as boy am I glad that we have so many more luxuries in cars nowadays.

After Burley we stopped in Salt Lake and went through the visitors center at Temple Square, as well as walked around the temple. The boys enjoyed learning more about the Pioneers, and we really enjoyed the new Joseph Smith movie that is being shown at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (is that what it is called?)

After we moved into our new place here in CO, I proceeded to find furniture that we needed for the family and living rooms. In the process I got excited about some moving sale finds that allowed us to totally score some awesome deals. Well Nathan wanted to be part of the fun, and decided he really wanted to get a Love-Sac for the family room. I wasn't too thrilled knowing that it would be a big un-appealing blob just sitting there, but I did have to agree with them, they are super comfy. Well the Love-Sac he ended up finding was being sold by a family moving to Florida and they sold it to us for a fraction of what it is worth. It also happens to be the biggest Love-Sac that the company makes! It is called the "Big One" and it is almost taller than the boys. Nathan could barely get it to fit in the back of our van with all of the seats down! He could also barely get it back out of the car, and then it had to sit in our garage for 3 days before we could get two other big guys to help shove it through the door into our house. Anyway, it all made for a funny story, and even though I am not a fan of its hugeness, its color, or how it is just a big blob, I do love that Nathan and the boys love it. The boys love being thrown onto it, and love jumping from the arm of the couch over to the blob. Oh well, I am glad they are happy :)

This is a random picture of a random thing that happened soon after we got here...Over 8 years ago Nathan proposed to me with this lovely platinum ring. I have worn it every day since and it has proven to be strong and robust. However, one normal morning I went to Target, vacuumed the house, made lunch for me and the boys, and normal things like that, but while they were napping I realized I felt a slight pinching on my ring finger. I looked down and found that my ring was totally bent and almost ready to break! I could barely slide it off of my finger! You would think that something major would have had to happen to bust the ring right next to my finger to make it do this, and you would think that I would have recalled the incident that caused it, or at least felt it when it happened, but I didn't! It was the most bizarre thing. So $60 later my ring has been repaired and is just as beautiful as it was brand new (I guess it really needed a polishing and a cleaning too :P )

My big boy Chase just started Kindergarten last week. He was so excited to go and meet his "new friends" and learn more things. He didn't act nervous at all and was counting down the days, then the hours, and then the minutes. He always comes running out of his classroom at the end of each day with a big smile on his face and a big hug to give me. He seemed to have gotten into a major moody, disrespectful stage prior to starting, and thankfully with the start of school he has been the sweet boy again that I know and love. I won't be surprised if that stage, or something like it, starts back up again, but I think he appreciates the break from me as much as I am enjoying it as well--it makes us appreciate each other that much more. I am really proud of him, and already is he coming home with new words he now knows how to write.

Even though Kai isn't in school yet (he is going to start going to a co-op preschool next week), he had to have his picture taken too. He sure is a handsome little dude :)

Here is Chase on the first official day of school, (he is the one that is 3rd in line, or two behind the boy picking his nose), lining up outside of his classroom for the first time. (I say official because the other picture of him was on the first day of school where he got to get pictures taken and meet his teacher, etc.) Don't they all look so cute and little with those big backpacks on?

So that is the latest in the pictures that I have taken over the last two months or so. Nothing too exciting but we have been busy and have had a lot of fun in the process. Now I am counting down the next 10 weeks before we get to meet our newest little boy, who we plan on naming Hunter Craig (Craig after my dad) Crisenberry. I am so excited to not be pregnant anymore and to meet the little guy, and to have my mom come and visit to help out. I will try and remember to take a picture of my growing belly since a few of you have requested to see what it is looking like these days. Until then, I hope all is well with your families too.

Update to our most recent adventures

2011-06-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

So we made it to Colorado! We left for our journey the last week of May and drove to Boise the first night, visited my parents and siblings, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles in Burley, ID for Memorial Day weekend, and then we stopped in Salt Lake to visit my great friend Melissa and her family. On our last night we stayed in Laramie, WY (which provided no exciting visits to family or friends but happened to be a nice place we've never been before). We arrived at our new home on June 1st, and were lucky enough to camp on the floor in sleeping bags for the first night. Thankfully our truck with all of our things arrived the next day so we could sleep in our beds the following night!

I think I took some pictures of our journey, but I am too lazy to look and now upload them on here :). I know I neglected to take pictures of all of the family gathered in Burley, but I will need to ask my sister Megan for her to send me hers since she is way better about taking her camera out and capturing memories in the making. The trip went really well and we enjoyed our stops along the way. Other than me getting a bad case of the stomach flu when we were visiting Melissa in Utah, and then each of our boys having bad cases of it when we arrived in CO, everything has gone really well and we have been blessed throughout it.

Even though we really miss our friends in Washington, (and I mean we really miss them!), we are enjoying our new home and area. Parker is a great fit for us, it is a great community, with things to do, but is not overwhelmingly crowded. I can get to everywhere I need in about 5-7 minutes, but things are still somewhat spaced apart, relatively affordable, and really nice people everywhere you go. Plus we love having such big blue skies and white clouds! We are a 2 minute walk from the community pool, tennis courts, and playground, and those have been great to take advantage of. When we went out as a family last night to get "Fro-Yo" (frozen yogurt), Nathan said that he sees us living here for a very long time/for good. I was really surprised to hear him say that. He said he really likes this area and feels like it has everything to offer that we would ever want. Plus he says he loves the weather, and from what we have heard about the Winter time, he says he thinks he will enjoy that as well. So we shall see, but I am really happy that each of us are enjoying our new home.

Now for our second update....I feel like you all probably know by now, but we are having our third boy! I wish that our ultrasound place was cool like a lot of yours and provided an electronic picture of our little guy so I could post it on here, but I figure a pic of my pregnant belly is the best I can do for now :). So here I am at 22 weeks:

At the ultrasound we were pretty surprised to find that we are having another boy since family and friends were so convinced it was another girl. However, even though I had joined the bandwagon and was anticipating a girl, I have to say I wasn't all that surprised and I am really happy to have another little guy. I love our two little boys now, and love being a mom of boys, so bring on another one! Plus I know that if and when we have a girl, that teenage years will be tough and she will probably hate me during those years for all the dumb reasons....but it seems with sons, they always love their moms, at least that is what I am hoping :). So now we are just wrestling with the right name and hopefully we can decide on one we both like.

I know there is way more to add on this post, but at least I am getting something on here :). Thank you also to all of you that shared excitement and support to us in our last posting about these two changes/adventures. All I can say is that I feel like life is starting to get back to normal again and I am very happy about that. Yay to no more putting things in boxes or unpacking those wretched things!

Two New Adventures

2011-04-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

This year is an exciting year for us because our family has two big exciting changes. First, as you can probably guess from the above countdown, we are excited to announce that we will be welcoming Crisenberry #3 in October. We are so grateful to be having another baby, and started to wonder if it was ever going to happen.

With Chase I ended up having to get on a fertility drug (Clomid) after a year of no success. With the help of a duo family fast (mine and Nathan's), we were blessed with the ability to have Chase, a healthy and adorable little boy. Shortly before we conceived Kai, our 2nd, I was surprised to find out I was pregnant again, and without any effort, but unfortunately that pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. To our surprise, just a month after our loss, we found out I was expecting again, which was very surprising, and miraculous in my mind. Kai joined our family and added even more fun. Then, well over a year ago, we decided we were ready to add to our family yet again. I figured it would be easy again, since other than conceiving Chase, things seemed to work out ok in that department. However, after many months of disappointment, nothing seemed to be working. I went to the doctor about nine months into things to see if there was anything that might not be working, and thankfully he decided to check my thyroid levels. I thought for sure this would amount to nothing since I didn't feel like I had any symptoms of hyper or hypothyroidism, but felt like "what the heck, we might as well check." To my surprise, my levels were WAY off, and I had extreme hypothyroidism, meaning an underactive thyroid. Typically people who have this condition battle their weight, lose their hair, have no energy, are depressed, and a number of other symptoms. I am blessed to come from good genes and have not had a problem with weight gain, and normally I am an optimistic person, but could tell that I wasn't completely myself a lot of the time. I have had dry skin for years, ever since going to school in Utah, but figured everyone has to use lotion. Anyway, I felt like I didn't fit the mold, and when I chose to see a specialist to help me get my levels normal, they were shocked to see me walk through the door, rather than someone really struggling with life. Anyway, after months and months of trying different amounts of thyroid medication, and my levels going from really high to really low, and then really, really high again, we finally seemed to get things right. I had also been taking clomid again, but after that didn't seem to be helping matters, I figured maybe now isn't the right time, or, I should be really grateful that we have two beautiful, healthy boys, and it is ok if we remain a family of four forever. We decided to ask our families one more time to join us on a family fast, and we were blessed that everyone was more than willing to help out, including my brother serving a mission in Brazil. Anyway, after more than a year, and me just deciding that now wasn't the time, I was more than shocked to find out that I was pregnant! One night I was feeling really sick and did NOT feel like making dinner. I called Nathan at work and said either I am coming down with something and if so I am not going to force myself to think of anything to make, or I am pregnant and if I ate something I would feel better anyway. Nathan said, just go take a test. I figured yeah, right, it isn't like I have taken 100s of these things and will ever see two lines in my life ever again, but I figured, well I did have a DollarTree test, I might as well. So I went and took the test and could not believe my eyes, what a shocker. Nathan couldn't believe it when I called him, and we immediately felt blessed that we got to experience this miracle again.

Trying to have a baby for a year can seem like a really long time, and for those of you who don't get pregnant right away, you know what I am talking about. Three months can seem like forever when you have made up your mind to have a baby. However, I am grateful for the time it takes us for three reasons: 1. It makes me realize that I am not the one in control of my life, and I can't always make things I want to have happen, happen. 2. It gives a small glimpse into what it would feel like to not be able to have children. I am not saying that I know what that feels like since I am very blessed to have conceived and carried babies to term, and not everyone is blessed with that gift. I know so many families that for whatever reason, have not been given this gift during this lifetime, and that breaks my heart. To not be able to conceive a baby makes you feel all kinds of thoughts and emotions that are not accurate, but hurt and can break your spirit. I really enjoyed the article in the Ensign this month entitled "Faith and Fertility" because this is something the church doesn't address much and I thought it was written very well and would be helpful to families in this situation. 3. Lastly, I am grateful because waiting a little bit of time makes all of the yucky aspects of pregnancy very welcome. If I got pregnant without even thinking about it, or by mistake, I can't imagine feeling sick 24 hours a day for 3+ months, as well as all of the other non-fun symptoms that come throughout the 9 months. However, as much as I don't like these feelings, I love that I am feeling them. In the end, I am grateful for this recent journey, for learning to have patience and faith, to know that my Savior knows what is best for me and my family, and has a different timetable for me; to learn that I have hypothyroidism/hashimoto's disease, and will now be on top of my health more, which will in turn help develop a healthier baby; and last I am grateful to once again learn the power of fasting.

Our second new adventure we will be experiencing this year is our very quickly approaching move to the Denver, CO area. Nathan and I will be flying out to Denver very early May to find our next home and get things lined up so we can officially pack everything up and drive there the very first week in June. We have mixed emotions about this change. We knew when we moved to Washington that it would be only temporary, and knew that the goal was Colorado in a year or two. However, even though I am so over Washington's weather, I am really going to miss the friends that I have made while living here. I have made some of the greatest friendships here and hate to leave people I love so much. But I hope to keep in close contact with them, and thanks to Skype and Facebook, this is easier than ever before. And although I am sad to leave the year-round greenery here, I am excited for Colorado's beauty, even if it is a lot drier. I am excited for 300+ days of sun each year. I am excited to start a new chapter of our life, to meet new people, to get to an area of the country that I visited over a decade ago and said "I can see myself living here someday", and to live around my grandma and aunt that I haven't lived around since I was 10. To live really close to a temple (less than 20 minutes away), to live in a very family-friendly area that is conservative and has a large LDS population. I am excited for all of the things that I have no idea to be excited about yet, because the nice thing about life is you never know what great things are in store for you until you get there. I am hopeful that this will be a great new adventure, and I am grateful that I will be in my 2nd trimester, hopefully feeling close to amazing, when we pack up things and make the trek eastward. We plan on living in Parker, Highlands Ranch, or Castle Rock, so if any of you have ever been there let me know what you think of it!

Boy do I love change...I am so grateful to have these two changes coming in our life, and I love new adventures. Thank you to all of you that have been integral in supporting, encouraging, etc. regarding these two new adventures in our life.

Inspired Hearts & Hands

2011-02-21T19:49:00.000-08:00

So I have been a MAJOR blogger slacker since this Summer, and there are a few reasons why; however, there is one main reason why, and that is because I had an AHA moment late Summer 2010 that has occupied most of my free time since then. When driving to my cousin's, Aaron Anderson's, musical performance that he put together with members from the Olympia, WA stake, Nathan and I were talking and he was asking when I planned on starting a new artistic project. Normally this question turns me off to the whole subject :), but instead my brain went off onto another tangent. When I drew the Monson picture, the only way I could realistically market it was to you, my friends and family. I created a blog and there ya go, that was my way of marketing it, plus selling it in a local LDS bookstore. It sold better than I had anticipated, but there wasn't a great deal of growth opportunities.

I have also been amazed at looking up other artists' work online, whether they draw, paint, compose, sing, sculpt, photograph, etc.--- so many of you are so talented, and so many people in this nation are so talented! Often times it would discourage me because I think, wow, my talent really isn't that great compared to so many others around me (I know, Satan :) ), but that still didn't keep me in awe of the wonderful creations many of you do on a frequent basis.

Anyway, because of my experience in realizing how difficult it is to market one's artistic creations, along with coming across so many other talented creations done by others, I thought why not I solve this problem that so many other people are obviously encountering? I am one to normally wait and hope for someone else to make my life easier, at least when it comes to something big like this, but I couldn't let the idea and excitement be contained, and over the last several months I have, along with many others' help, put together www.InspiredHeartsandHands.com .

Inspired Hearts and Hands' tag-line is "Bringing Inspiration & Talent together to Beautify Life" . Many of you have great talents that have been given to you as gifts, that you have cultivated and utilize to beautify your own life as well as others around you. What this online site provides is another avenue for you to market your creations without fees, without annoying hassles, with a large exposure to customers, and to be surrounded by people and other artistic creations that are similar to yours. My goal is to provide you opportunities to be able to get paid for doing what you love, and to make your hobbies more worthwhile. Many of you are stay at home moms like me, and like to have excuses to put your talents to good use. I know that Nathan only loves his job so much, and yet has other talents that provide him more fulfillment and enjoyment that if he had an opportunity to make some money on the side utilizing those talents, he would put them to greater use.

I encourage each of you to think of what talents you have, your spouse has, your best friend, your parents, your siblings, your kids, your extended family, acquaintances etc., and pass this along. Right now I am trying to get the word out and tell people of this new opportunity. It is somewhat like etsy, however, there are no fees to selling (so no reason to hesitate), only 10% commission kept if your product(s) sell, and we will be catering more to art, music and literature rather than craft items. Plus the items need to be uplifting, nothing dark or depressing, or you know what I mean. Music, art, and literature can tend to be dark and not provide the best atmosphere in one's home, and this will not be the case with our store.

From now until June I am looking for anyone who would like to give us a shot and post their items for sale on our site. June is when we will open up to customers, and I hope to have a large selection of your great creations to offer to them. If you are curious about how it all works, please visit www.inspiredheartsandhands.com/Artist-Info-and-Login.html . You can also go and look at what the site looks like, and get an idea of its possibilities in showcasing what you have made, or think of others that you think this would be perfect for.

I really appreciate the support I have received from many of you already, and can't wait to hear from more of you. Sorry again for slacking on this blog, but I will most likely continue to since I know this endeavor will keep me busy. I will try to get on here occasionally, but feel free to also check out the Inspired Hearts & Hands blog at www.InspiredHeartsandHands.com/blog . There are only a few postings about why we are, and what we are looking for, but as the site starts to welcome customers this Summer, you can expect to have constant articles that will be fun to read, and neat things to learn about.

Thanks for your support and I look forward to being overwhelmed by all of your talented submissions! :)

I miss them already

2010-08-24T19:06:00.000-07:00

My little brother Devin left today on a LONG flight to fly to Goiana (sp?), Brazil for two years. I am so proud of him and his dedication to serve a mission, and also a little nervous imagining if I was in his shoes on a red eye flight into a country I have never been to, where they look different and speak different then I do, and I know no one there. However, Devin has seriously been so nonchalant about everything it seems as if he is just anxious to be there and start this next chapter of his life. What a good example he is.

Anyway, because of him leaving on his mission, we drove down to El Dorado Hills, where my parents live and many of my siblings, and we spent a week there all together. There were 8 kids, 5 and under, and 11 adults. I know that doesn't sound like very many, compared to many of your families, but in a house with almost all stone floors, the noise got to be quite loud at times with kids screaming and playing, and the fact that in my family if you want to be heard you just need to get louder than everyone else. However, despite what I expected, I enjoyed every minute of it and wasn't driven crazy! It was sooooo much fun seeing my siblings and their families as well as my parents and grandparents. Devin did a great job on his farewell talk, and we did a ton of fun things together: the zoo, water park, Funderland (little kid amusement park), the Temple, and lots of swimming. I took a good amount of pictures compared to what I normally take, but now wish I had taken more. Here are a few of my faves as well as a video...

Devin, Adam and Austin jumping to splash us all. Guess who felt the pain?

Chase loving the water wings (and mom loving them too)

Collecting accorns as if they were part of an Easter Egg hunt.
Grandpa sure loved their help in getting rid of the potential sprouts.

Kai, amongst strangers, loving the giraffes

Thanks, Mom, for all of your help with the kids at the zoo!

Chase and his buddy, Grandpa

And last, but not least, one of the few videos I took of our stay. This was one of our last nights together as we were getting the kids fed before putting them to bed so the adults could eat in peace. All of us had had a long day outside so we aren't looking our best. It is Stoker tradition, thanks to Devin, our DJ, to blast fun dance music and run around and look idiotic. Watching this makes me miss you all so much. Thanks for a really fun week!

Untitled from Mimi Crisenberry on Vimeo.

A Posting of Pictures

2010-07-02T13:38:00.000-07:00

So I haven't posted anything in awhile since I was without a camera for over a month. For part of Nathan's birthday celebration at the end of May, Nathan, myself, his sister Nicole and her husband Adam, all went shooting. When packing up our trash, our camera somehow got in the same bag and ended up being thrown away. We didn't realize it was gone until after "Trash Day" and so we have had to do several things without a camera. So now we have a new camera, and now we have some new pictures. I just posted a few of my favorites. Unfortunately our boys are just now over the stomach flu, so all of our pictures have been taken hanging out at home. Here are a few of my faves of Chase...he is getting so big and is growing up in so many ways!

What a handsome little dude! It is amazing how much he is looking more and more like Nathan. (Good thing I married a good looking guy!)

And now the many shades of Kai. He really didn't want me to take a picture of him, and can you blame him? He had been sick the whole night and day before. He sure was a grump the day I took this picture, but thankfully there are many more sides to Kai than being grumpy!

What a little sweetheart

And then, the sweetheart turns into a goof with an attitude :)

I just love this little monster's personality :)

And now for my favorite of the two of them together:

I love this picture for a few reasons: 1) It makes me smile looking at it. 2) Encourages us to start putting away for Kai's orthodontia. 3) Kai's little monster side shows and 4) Chase is the sweetest little ham lately and I love it.

Woohoo, I feel like I am in California!

2010-05-08T19:56:00.001-07:00

Today, thanks to a recommendation from my good friend, Heather, we took a trip to Alki Beach. We loved it because when you looked to your right, it looked like we were looking at San Francisco. (Except the Space Needle is a dead give away for Seattle).
And when when you turn to your left, it looks like you are in Lake Tahoe!

Wow, it is days like today that make me happy again to live in Washington. The weather these past two months has been getting me down and I have been getting grumpy. But yesterday and today have been gorgeous and make me feel like I am living in California, (except it is way more "treesy" and green than I remember CA to be).

I am glad we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and drive to Seattle for a day at the beach. We left at 10 and got there before it was too packed. It was a little chilly at first, but as the day went on it became perfect and got into the low 70s. Below are some of my favorite pictures we took:

If I only had editing software to edit out that lady in the back this would be the perfect picture! I love that I actually got my camera to take the picture when Kai was smiling, not seconds too late like normal. I just love this little guy. He kept thinking that the ocean was coming to get him. He kept saying, "I'm scared." It is funny because Kai normally loves the water.

Ok, this isn't the best, but I still kinda liked it :)

Chase getting buried in the sand

Nathan, the midget. Seriously though, this picture makes me laugh.

Not one of my favorites of the day, but I hate that every blog rarely has pictures of the person who puts it together. So here I am :). This was taken when we first got there when I was still pretty cold. Most of the time we were there I was laying on our blankets absorbing some rays and enjoying the warmth, (and loving that I have a husband who is great at playing with our boys and letting me take a break and zone out & fall asleep).

I think this was Kai's only venture out to the water. Most of the time he was content with just digging in the sand.

Well after today I realize why people from Washington seem to get out and enjoy the outdoors more than any other group of people I have met....When you are stuck with gray weather for at least 7-8 months out of the year, on beautiful (or even semi-sunny days), you have to get out and take advantage of being outside. It is funny that in California, where it is sunny a good portion of the year, there are a lot less neighborhood parks, or outdoor things to do; but in Washington, there are a ton of things to do outside, all over the place. Maybe I am wrong about the difference between the states, but it is just an observation, and all I can say is that we have now decided to get out and do things way more than we ever have before.

Some funny videos

2010-04-30T12:10:00.000-07:00

Kai is so funny these days. Ever since he turned two he has decided to be even more funny and now has a fake (somewhat evil) laugh that he likes to do to get more laughs from all of us. I caught a little bit of the laugh, and with Chase's "help" some real laugh too. (Sorry for my repetitive urging for him to do his laugh :) ).

This video is funny for a few reasons: 1. The boys cars racing makes it sound like a rollercoaster is zooming by (I bet the neighbors love it), 2. I bought Kai girl pants by mistake and so him running makes him look even more girly as he shakes his bum, and 3. The winner's prize? A rock. (Ok, I just watched this video after I "published the post"...it isn't that funny, but I think their grandmas might enjoy seeing them in action ).

Two Birthdays

2010-04-25T13:05:00.001-07:00

Ok, first off, once again I could not put my pictures in order. I am amazed at what great blogs you each put together, and when I come on here, to give blogger another shot, I end up hating it even more then I remembered and vow not to post again for another several months :). So please forgive the horrible order of everything, I will try to make this posting somewhat understandable to those who actually want to look at it.

Above is the cake that I made for Chase's fourth birthday party that we had yesterday with all of his friends. It was very easy to make, and I am relieved that it turned out alright. Chase had a pirate party and loved playing pirate games with his friends. I think their favorite was shooting these pirate cups down with these major water guns, and I wish that we had taken more pictures rather than only video footage. If I knew how to upload videos from our camcorder I would do that, but sorry, I am not about to try and figure it out :).

It is hard to believe that four years ago we had no children, and that in 3 days we would have this little guy who would forever change/improve our life.

And here he is, our big boy Chase who we are so grateful to have in our family. He loved his presents from his friends, and got his first semi-real guns from the Nash's. He loves them and feels more like daddy now. It is crazy to think that on the 28th he will turn 4. Sometimes he seems so much older than four, and then sometimes he still feels like my little baby. He is growing up so much, and is a great little guy.

Then there is Kai. I am late in posting this, but we celebrated Kai's 2nd birthday last month on the 13th. To think of him so quiet and peaceful in this picture of him as a brand-new newborn, and to see that he is neither of those attributes anymore :). Actually he was rarely quiet and peaceful as a newborn either, but came to this Earth with quite the personality. We love having Kai, and love his spunk, his excitement, and his passion. He is growing up so quickly too, and loves to play with his big brother (which I love!).

Here he is opening up his card from Nammy (grandma), who always sends a dollar in her cards. It is funny, she will also send a present, but they sure do love their dollar :).

I forget how Kai got his scratches on his face right before this picture, but they make a great addition to his cuteness, don't you think? We had our friends and their kids come over to decorate cupcake ice cream cones, so sorry that the cupcakes look incredibly boring!

Days later we still had plenty of the cupcakes left, so Kai was able to enjoy an extended birthday celebration.

We love you Chase and Kai, and happy birthday to both of you!!

I'm Flattered :), (and the latest)

2010-03-02T19:58:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I have to say that I am flattered that some of you actually do read our blog...I don't know why you do when all of yours are so creative and fun, but thanks for caring :). But, due to laziness, and hearing that the whole "going private" thing causes more work than it is sometimes worth, I am not going to make the change just yet. In case I do all of a sudden, though, I will know who to add, so thank you.

Well I am way past due for an update on here, and since you can only add up to 4 or 5 pictures at a time, I can never end up arranging the pictures on here in order and it makes me ticked. But rather than delete the whole thing, I will just leave them out of order...who cares right?

I am hoping that if you were to make this picture bigger it would not need any editing, so sorry if you choose to look at this closer and it does :). Many of you know that we don't have a bathtub where we are living, and I just bathe our boys in a large tupperware type tub. Our boys still love our makeshift "tub", but when they get access to the real thing they have a blast. On Valentine's day, Nathan surprised me with a reservation at the Bellevue Embassy Suites, and we went and stayed there as a family last Friday night. Thank you to those that offered to watch our boys so we could go alone, but we had told the boys that we were going to a hotel with a pool, and Chase had been looking forward to it for 2 weeks. Needless to say they had a blast and we had a great time as a family. So here they are enjoying the bathtub, probably more than they enjoyed the indoor pool.

When we had first gotten to the hotel Nathan got the boys riled up and had them jumping on the bed and furniture...gotta love husbands. They calmed down enough for me to take a picture of them :)

Let's jump to a week or so before our hotel trip, when we were blessed with some beautiful, sunny weather. I found this table and chair set at DI for $8! I had been looking for something they could sit at for awhile, but I am cheap and couldn't get myself to spend $50 for some cheapo table and chairs. When I saw this at DI (I love that place, it has the best deals!), I called Nathan on his cell since he was too far away in the store to yell, and told him that I had found a steal of a deal. The DI manager heard me talking on the phone saying this, and jokingly said, I guess we should raise the price. Thankfully he was only joking and we shoved this table and chair set in our front seat (unfortunately we had taken the small car that day ;) ). Anyway, the boys loved having a picnic in the sunny weather.

Our friend's, the Nash's, were kind enough to invite us to go to the zoo with them a few weekends ago. The Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma is awesome! First off it is in a very pretty area, and second all of the animals are soooo close! I am used to going to the zoo and barely being able to see the animals since they are hiding somewhere in their "habitats", but this zoo the animals were so close that if the plexiglass (or whatever it is) wasn't there, you could reach out and touch them. They even had this area where you could touch different marine life. The boys thought it was so cool.

Here was the tiger eating a huge slab of meat. Doesn't it look like the little girl could just pet him (or he could eat her instead)? He was seriously that close!

Here is Chase petting the sea animals. I told you I couldn't get these pictures in order!

Ok, I am horrible at knowing what animals are called, but I think these ones are called Tapirs? I am probably totally wrong, and now I am embarrassed, but oh well, you get the picture, they were close. But it was so fun at the zoo, and since it was cold and rainy when we went, we didn't have to deal with any crowds, it worked out perfectly. Me and the boys were also lucky enough to go again to the zoo a few days later with our friends the Mann's, which was just as much fun. Sorry, Honey, that you didn't get to join us that day, but thanks for working hard at work :).

"Mr. Box Boy". Chase is obsessed with boxes, and probably likes them more than most toys. He found this box in the trash, and if you zoom in, it is pretty comical what box he chose to get into. I should save this picture and embarass him with his friends when he is older.

It looks just like a boring, big box right?

Nope, Chase found this box to be just as fun too. He would lay in it forever and then just pop out. He is a funny kid.

For one of our dates a weekend or two ago, Nathan took me to a friend of ours' property and introduced me to his two new guns. The last time I shot a gun was with my grandpa in Burley, ID years ago. It was a lot of fun shooting at targets and eggs, and watching them explode. I have to say that I impressed Nathan with my skills :).

Well we did a lot more fun things since the time I last posted something on here, but I have to admit that I am almost as bad at remembering to take pictures as I am at posting on here. Oh well, I hope you enjoyed seeing a brief documentary of the latest!

Thinking of going "Private"

2010-02-23T13:55:00.000-08:00

So I have debated about this for awhile now, and I know I put together one of the least exciting, or special blogs out there (especially compared to all of you guys), but I am thinking that I am going to change this to a private blog. The reason for the change is that I know that I love being a blog stalker, and thankfully I am harmless :), but I want to make sure that no one I don't know is checking out what is going on in our lives, and not that I include important details, but I don't want to worry if I am. So I will probably change this pretty soon, so let me know if you want me to add you to the "okay" list :).

Visiting my Fam

2010-01-29T12:12:00.000-08:00

So these pictures are in no particular order, (I tried, but then I got confused :) ), but me and the boys went down to El Dorado Hills to visit my family for a little over a week, and we had so much fun! I still love WA, but seeing my family made me miss them more! Now I just need to figure out how I can make more than half of my family leave CA to move to WA. So above is one of the nights we all got together for dinner. Thanks, Mom, for some delicious food!

Here is the other half of the table. Not the most flattering of anyone, but who cares :).

Unfortunately I picked a bad weather week to visit. I left pretty nice weather in WA to come down to wind and rain. On Saturday the rain let up and my dad and the boys went outside to pick up sticks that were all over the place from the storm. Hanging out with "Cuppy" and putting sticks in buckets is the ultimate treat.

Here is lovely ol' Samson. Don't you love his gigantic mole on his chin? He is so ugly that he is almost cute, and definitely has a great personality to back it all up. Chase never really warmed up to him, but Kai loved "Fuff" (for "ruff ruff" like a dog says).

Here is Austin, my goofiest brother in law. I love his pose with his son Levi smashed in his legs...totally Austin!

This is adorable Makaela, who is Megan and Austin's oldest. She is soooo cute with her little voice and the funniest, most girly mannerisms. Makaela is one of the main reasons I would like to have a little girl someday.

And here is Levi in a more flattering picture. We celebrated his first birthday all together and he loved destroying his cake.

This is my newest little neice, Kyleigh. She is my brother, Adam's daughter, and she is soooo cute I couldn't get enough of her. I was glad that I was able to go down there and finally meet her!

This is Cortnie and her little gal Kyleigh. I loved getting to know Cortnie better and am so thankful that she is my sister now!

And this is my little brother Adam with Kyleigh. I love how Megan had to come and jazz up the picture :)

Chase loved playing with Uncle Adam. We didn't get to see Adam too much since he had to work a lot, but when he came over it was all fun and games. Chase and Makaela especially loved when Adam would take them for "airplane rides" around the house.

I just had to post this picture of Kai with his pouty face. I think he was mad that a cousin of his had swiped his toy.

I loved getting to hang out with my mom a lot this visit, since she no longer is having to work. I probably chatted her ears off, but I loved hanging out again.

So Megan definitely got more of the good looks in our fam, but I thought this picture was really good of her, and I LOVE how her husband snuck up behind us, without us knowing. I wouldn't have noticed his tiny face back there if he hadn't pointed it out to us afterwards.

Anyway, we sure missed Nathan while we were away, and are very grateful to be back home and back with him. I miss my family a ton, but look forward to seeing them again when we go to see Devin off on his mission at the end of the Summer. I love you guys!

Couch = Trampoline

2009-12-02T17:27:00.000-08:00

We love our couch. Not only did we get it for free several years ago, but it matches our decor; and since it was free I let our kids get away with almost everything on it. Chase especially likes the couch and does all kinds of acrobatics on it, and jumping off of it. Unfortunately I didn't catch one of his great stunts while filming tonight, but you get the picture. I also apologize that half of the things I am saying don't come out right, and Kai keeps saying "help me" throughout it. (He does that to copy his brother, who will always put himself in a position where he looks like he is falling or trapped and will say "help me"...so now Kai says "help me, help me" too). Hope you enjoy their little entertainment. I especially like Chase's legs flying across the screen at the very end. :)

The Hunt for our Christmas Tree

2009-11-29T10:30:00.000-08:00

So I probably shouldn't title this entry as a "hunt" because our tree ended up being an easy find. We had in mind to go up in a more mountainous area to cut down our tree, but had promised our boys that we would look at trees after their afternoon nap on Friday, and decided to go around the corner to a u-cut place that was in someone's very large backyard. However, this little u-cut place off of 36th Ave in Edgewood was very impressive, with a large choice of perfect looking, affordable trees, it just took us some time to find the most absolute perfect one in both of our eyes (I like taller and skinnier trees, Nathan likes shorter and bushier with not a hole to be seen).
Of course, me being goofy since I rarely like to take a serious picture (I am not the most photogenic so I might as well look like I am not trying to look good, haha). At least it looks like we are in a forest, huh?

Ok, I guess I am being serious in this picture, and it turned out ok. Too bad Kai has his "bobbie" in (as he calls it), and Chase is doing his "cheese" smile :).

Look at my man sporting a saw...so masculine :)!

And after, to make the experience even more perfect for the boys, they each got a candy cane...something Chase has been wanting for weeks! (You would think that I would have bought him one since they are so cheap and he has wanted one for awhile, but I am a bad mom, so that's why he had to wait until now to be given one for free ;) ).

Chase wanted to save his candy cane until we got home, (he loves to plan and is often too practical, haha), but Kai on the other hand wants things IMMEDIATELY, and will let you know by screaming if you don't get him what he wants NOW. So he was happy to eat his candy cane right away.

And since the Christmas tree place was seriously only 3 minutes away, it sure didn't take us long to get it back home and put up. What fun...I am so happy it is the Christmas season!

Last, but not least, below is a video of Nathan holding our tree for it to have the loose needles (and bugs, hopefully) shaken off of the tree. Unfortunately I didn't start recording this earlier since seconds before I started filming Nathan lost his grip and the tree fell on top of him while it was being shaken. It was hard for him to get control of it again, but he did :). I just thought it was funny since both of our boys didn't like seeing their new tree get shaken to death.

Random Video Blog

2009-11-18T16:44:00.000-08:00

I decided to video the boys playing today, and then got to looking at what was saved on our camera. I found this video of when me and the boys went down to visit my family in March of this year, and my sisters and I were trying to keep our older kids entertained. I guess all of the little guys, each of us have our youngest boys not represented, must have been napping. Anyway, seeing Megan dancing around with them, and then Kelli videotaping it made me miss my sisters even more. I wish we could all be hanging out at Mom and Dad's again tonight :). Oh well, someday :)This isn't that exciting of a video at all, but I realized that I hadn't posted a video of the boys for a way long time, and if Nathan's mom is looking at our blog every once in awhile still, well I thought she might enjoy seeing what they look and act like now. The weather outside was nice this morning, but started getting ugly this afternoon, so we used a box I got today in the mail as a bridge for the boys to drive their cars on. It is funny that the junkiest, lamest toys end up being the most fun.

Anyway, at least I posted something, cause lately I haven't been the best :)

Dirt and a Bumble Bee

2009-10-31T14:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, so none of these pictures turned out great...oh well, but here are what the boys ended up being for this year's Halloween. Last night was our ward's Trunk or Treat, and Chase chose to be dirt this year (even after I gave him so many clever, fun, boy costume ideas), and Kai had to be a bee since he is too young to tell me what he wanted to be. I had a difficult time thinking of how we could make Chase look like dirt, and not a poop, and you see the result. We put a little plant on his head to look like it was growing from the dirt, put cocoa on his face to look dirty, and made a sign that says "Can you DIG it? I wanted to be DIRT" and had a garden shovel that can go in and out of the back of it.

Kai doesn't look that cute here, but he sure was cute as he walked around later that night and his little chubby face was hidden back in his big bee head.

So tonight, Halloween night, we will be joining Nathan's sister's family and having pizza and then going Trick or Treating around their neighborhood. Hopefully the weather (and our boys) will cooperate! :)

FHE: Pumpkin Carving

2009-10-31T13:56:00.000-07:00

This last Monday, as a tradition of ours, we carved pumpkins since Halloween was later in the week. The boys loved getting to stay up late, and the privilege of getting to sit on the table, a rare occasion, and watch Dad carve out the "yucky stuff" and see Mom carve out the faces. They loved smacking the "yucky stuff" and helping separate the seeds from it.

Don't you love Kai's "smile" haha.

And here are the finished products. Happy Halloween!

Beach Trip!

2009-10-31T13:50:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately our batteries died pretty soon after our fun weekend getaway began, but thankfully we were able to get a few pictures in before then. We were able to go down to Seaside, OR with a few of our friends to stay in a beach house and have fun hanging out, a surfing expedition, and playing games. It was a lot of fun, and it was nice that the weather was really pretty on Saturday so we could enjoy the beach. Nathan caught almost every wave that came by him, and even I gave it a shot, but a very quick shot. I figured stand up one and a half times for a second and then I had had enough :). I am not a major ocean person, and after being thrashed in the waves I realized I really am out of shape! Anyway, it was a fun attempt, and I was kept pretty warm in the wetsuit, and it was overall a really fun weekend hanging out together and seeing a really beautiful place.

The beach we went to.

We went to the shops "downtown" and stopped by one of the arcades. Don't you love that 3 year olds have no idea that they are not the ones playing the intro to the game? Sure saves us some quarters at least when they think they are already playing and doing awesomely since that is the example :)

We also stopped by another beach at Cannon Beach, OR before we left to go back home, and the rock in the distance is the same rock at the ending of the movie "The Goonies". Funny.

Nathan's Trip to Santa Barbara

2009-10-31T13:45:00.000-07:00

Even though this isn't the best picture of Nathan or his grandma, Bobbie, it was a neat experience that Nathan went down to Santa Barbara for. Earlier this month Nathan flew down alone (it was too expensive to do as a family), and went and sealed his grandma to her deceased husband who died well over 30 years ago. He was also able to then seal his grandma to two of her daughters. It was a neat experience for their family and I am glad he was able to go down and be a part of it.

Also, both of his sisters were able to go too, and so they were able to have fun together in the nice 70-80 degree weather, while the rest of his family (me and the boys) were in the rainy, cooler WA weather :).

Some of the Latest Fun...

2009-09-08T08:04:00.003-07:00

So it has definitely been tooooo long since I wrote on here. Our family has had several bouts of the flu and it has been so non-fun, and crazy. However, we have had some fun over the last month or so that I thought I would post on here. I am really bad at figuring out how to post these pictures in order, so we are starting from most recent :). Yesterday, for Labor Day, we were able to go boating with our good friend's the Mann's. We thought the weather was going to be pretty bad, but thankfully it was actually pretty nice, and a lot of people weren't out on the Sound with us because they were listening to the weather report unlike us.

The boys weren't a huge fan of boating, but thankfully Kai had his blanket and me, and he calmed down for the most part. Doesn't he look like he is having a blast in his life jacket? I look pretty scary, but what can you expect when you are the picture taker?

Here is Captain Ron (Evan Mann :D), who didn't know I was taking a picture of him, haha. He also made us all a delicious, hearty breakfast that morning, treated us to some fun boating, and then introduced us to Korean BBQ that night, which was really good. Thanks, Evan!

Here is the lovely Heather, somewhat bundled up trying to keep her boys feeling secure. Too bad Orion and Merrick weren't paying attention to me taking their picture so I could have captured their cute faces. They were great sports about the whole boating thing...too bad my boys weren't as good.

Here is their oldest, Connor, who was majorly brave and figured he could sit by himself and still hold on. He did a great job, but on the way home, when I took this picture, it was really windy and their was some water spray on him that he would hold his hood down to shield his face. He is a funny one :)

I love Nathan. He is such a good dad that he held Chase, who was seriously FREAKING OUT most of our boating time, and he did his best to keep him calm, or really, from passing out. I am glad he has more patience then me!

My grandma also came over to visit us from Colorado for a week, and that was a ton of fun. It was nice that she was able to meet Chase and Kai, and get to know Nathan better, and it was really fun for me being able to have another helper who was always happy to play and read the boys a story. We all really enjoyed having her here...thanks Granee!

Then before my grandma came, Kelli and her family came down from Bonners Ferry, ID to visit us for a few days. Here is Chase and Payton, her youngest, sitting in their PJs watching some morning cartoons. Payton really liked hanging out with Chase since he thought he was cool :), but Chase wasn't as big a fan of that. Payton is only two weeks older than Kai, and 18 month olds aren't so fun to play cars with I guess.

While the Bateman's were visiting we also went to the beach in Tacoma and that was a lot of fun. We had never been to Ruston Way (I think that is what it is called), and the kids had a lot of fun playing in the sand and water.

Our boys liked it a lot too, until we showed Chase the jumping little sand "crabs" and that was the end of Chase's fun. Thankfully Chase is recently getting over his fear of bugs, but at the time the little jumping critters sent him into pure terror. This posting seems to be addressing all of Chase's fears :), unfortunately he has a lot to work through.

We have had a good time with family and friends these past few weeks, and look forward to hopefully some more soon!

Having Fun with Cuppie and Nammy

2009-07-21T14:35:00.000-07:00

Last week my parents came to visit from El Dorado Hills, CA and we had a lot of fun with them! I wish we lived closer to them like we used to, but it was nice having them "captive" with us for four days so we could spend all of the time together doing fun things like reading as a family (see above), and...
going to Dairy Queen (DQ) and getting messy with ice cream...

Chase loved his ice cream cone, can you tell?

We also enjoyed visiting Redondo Beach 2 out of the 4 days. Of course the boys loved throwing rocks in the water, and...

playing with big sticks. Thanks "Cuppy" (Grandpa/Dad) and "Nammy" (Grandma/Mom) for making the effort to come up and see us, we already miss you!

"I'm So Excited, and I Just Can't Hide It!" :)

2009-07-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

So some of you already know that I have been working, and working, on a drawing of President Monson, but I am FINALLY DONE! I got the idea to do this a little while ago because I was thinking that I would like to have a picture of our Prophet in our home for our boys to see, and then found the perfect picture that I wanted to draw. I contacted the photographer who said to do whatever I want with it (thank you so much to him!), and so I think the drawing has finally met my expectations. I had so many fun and inspirational thoughts along the way that inspired so many of the ideas behind it. It probably looks simple to all of you, but there were so many decisions along the way, and sometimes I have a really hard time making decisions, especially when it comes to a project I am working on.

So today I am mailing a matted, hand-signed print, with a letter to President Monson and his wife to have, (I hope they like it :S), and I am offering the same to any of you that are interested (minus the letter, but I will put a special note in it instead, haha). If you are interested in seeing the three different quotes you can choose to have on yours, or would like to have one, I created a separate blog where you can buy it online with cheap shipping. I priced it cheap so anyone and everyone can have one (and I am crossing my fingers that someone else might want one of these, but no pressure, only if you want a picture of the Prophet like I did :) ). Click here to go to the website.

Also, I would love to have any feedback, advice, thoughts, suggestions, etc. as well...thanks! So, please let your family and friends know about this if you think they would be interested. Thanks everyone, and hope you like it!

Recent Happenings

2009-06-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

I recently took Kai to the Dr. for a well-baby visit and found out he wasn't so well. He had a double ear infection (no wonder he had been so cranky lately, poor guy), so we got him on Amoxycillin. He loved the stuff, but it didn't do the job. So after a wasted week, he got on some other stuff. His ears like it, but his poor bottom doesn't. The stuff has caused him to break out in a rash all over his body, and it has given him the runs that have done a number in his diaper region. So, since he is often going #3, I didn't want him running around naked to let his skin air out, but thought Chase's undies might offer a little protection and be nicer for his rear. Needless to say he enjoyed the new freedom, looked pretty funny/cute, and then left us with a disgusting mess to clean up, and undies in the trash, (I don't know how some of you deal with cloth diapers--yuck!)
Since fireworks are legal in wet WA, Nathan went and dropped some moolah to purchase some fun. Even though the 4th is still a few days away, every day a little fun is to be had. Chase has already joined in on some of Daddy's pyro enjoyment, and is fond of sparklers.
Nathan's mom came to visit from Santa Barbara for a few days, and so we took her to a trail that Nathan visited before. It was like a rainforest in there, (to think it is only a few miles from our house), and we thought we would take some pics with the nice foliage background.
A somewhat decen family pic minus the stroller :)
Lastly, Mr. Kai loves cookies, and even though he was smiling in most of the other pictures I took after his enjoyment in eating them this time, I decided to post this one since it almost looks like he is a tough guy with stubble growing in.

Attempting to Take Good Pictures--Oh Well

2009-06-13T10:06:00.000-07:00

The other day I gravitated toward picking out somewhat matching outfits for the boys. So because they were looking pretty cute, I told them we needed to take pictures before we got to play outside. Anyway, these are how they all turned out. First, Kai would not cooperate and cried the whole time, so I liked this picture because it looks like Chase is giving him a "what is your deal?" look.
Then this picture turned out semi-cute except Kai started bawling as soon as Chase put his arm around him and tried pushing him away.
If I had good editing software I could probably turn this picture into something good.
Then we took this picture a few Sundays back because my grandma said she wanted a family picture of us and we were all looking good, but had no one to take our picture. So needless to say, it didn't turn out :). Oh well, we are excited to get "official" family pictures this next week!

Kai--a funny little guy

2009-05-22T13:21:00.000-07:00

Kai is such a funny little guy, and is someone who seems to have so many facets to his personality. I think Chase is so similar to Nathan and myself, that our little Kai, who is so different, is hard to anticipate what he will do next, or what he is thinking in that big head of his. One cute thing he has been doing recently is he will disappear in his room for long periods of time, and just sit on his little bench and take book after book out of his bookshelf (right next to the bench) and "read" books to himself. I came in the other day and found him sitting here reading "Goodnight Moon".
Since our place doesn't have a bathtub, I bought a big bin to bathe the boys in, in our shower. I decided to put bubbles in it, and Kai starts dunking his head into the bubbles to eat them. He of course got a bubble beard, and was making such a funny face that I ran to get the camera. Unfortunately he wouldn't make the face one I had the camera to take a picture, but at least he made a goofy face for this one.
So Kai is still stubborn, and will not walk for us. He is now 14 months old, and has been standing up anywhere and everywhere, but will not take a step once he is standing. Oh well, we know he can, he will take a step every once in awhile, and will walk well when we are holding one hand, he just has to gain the confidence. But what is cute is that when I brought the camera out to take a picture of him he said "cheese" and smiled. He barely says any words except: "Da-dee" (Daddy), Chase, mommy, yes, more, and this, so it is funny that cheese is one of the few words he knows. I love this little guy!

Lake Tapps

2009-05-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

So this is a pretty funny picture to start out this post, but it is a funny picture wherever I put it. Chase is quite the ham for pictures, and he posed for me on this tree stump on an outing we did two weekends ago since the weather was really nice. What a goofball :).

Anyway, two weekends ago we decided to go and see what there was to do around us. We wanted to go to where there was water, and in WA that isn't really that hard to do. Lake Tapps is near to us, so we decided to explore, and we are glad that we did. It was such a pretty place, and it made me realize that I should be more grateful for living where we live because Washington really is a beautiful place--so green, so many different trees, so many things to do outdoors, and really pleasant weather (when it is the summer :) ). We had a lot of fun, now the next goal is to find a boat for next time because then we will have a blast!
Of course Kai is gonna go to where the real fun is, and that is wherever he can make the biggest mess of himself. He is always one to experience life to its fullest though, and thankfully Nathan was there to hold him back from jumping right in.
What is nice about boys is that it is pretty inexpensive to provide them entertainment. Give them a few rocks, some water to throw them in, and they are happy for hours.
My picture didn't turn out that great, but this would be my dream home (minus the 6 mo. of rain a year). Surrounded by tons of trees, and right on the water, with a gorgeous home, how fun. I really don't need a big home like this, or in these surroundings, but I still had to take the picture.

Happy Birthday Chase!

2009-04-28T12:44:00.001-07:00

To think that 3 years ago (as of last night) I was still wondering where my first baby was. 6 days late, and still no sign of him. Then, as I was watching "Survivor" I felt something that felt different than Braxton Hicks...hmm, maybe Chase was going to grace us with his presence? A call to the hospital and they said we should come in (I wasn't sure if my water had broke or not), and after being told that my contractions weren't serious enough, that my water hadn't broke, and that it could be days before he came, we were sent home at 11:30 pm, with a 40 min. drive back home. As soon as we walked in the door, I layed down, and "Pop!" my water broke. This time there was no mistaking it, and the contractions really started coming. Back in the car, in more pain now, checked in after 1am, Chase decided to be born at 5:50 am, 7lbs 6oz (I think :D). Anyway, now we are celebrating his third birthday...pretty crazy!
Here is our cute boy on his 1st birthday, excited about his presents.
And just last Saturday, we had a birthday party for Chase with all of his/our friends. Here he is hanging with his buddies eating pizza.
Chase and his "cheese" face, which is pretty goofy, showing off his present that he got from "Nammy Janie and Cuppy Craig." Thank you to all of you that sent him presents, he loves all of them.
I know there should be 3 candles, but I made little gluten-free lava cakes (so Nathan could eat them too), and put ice cream on top (the only dessert Chase really likes), so there wasn't a whole lot of room for numerous candles. He had 3 candles to blow out for his party, so I think he got his fill. Happy Birthday Chase, we love you soooo much and are grateful to have you part of our family!

Easter

2009-04-17T15:41:00.000-07:00

I have noticed that everyone's blogs have wonderful pictures of their Easter celebrations; unfortunately I don't have any pictures to post for this special holiday. Both of our boys looked really cute in their Easter outfits, and had a lot of fun learning about what Easter is really about, and of course seeing what the Easter bunny brought them, but I only videotaped everything, and didn't take any pictures. I know I can upload videos to here, but with the camera I taped everything with, I don't have the stuff to use to put them here on the computer. So I am sad that I was too lazy Easter day to record the happenings on both of our cameras.

But we did have a great time Easter weekend. Nathan got the Friday before off, so we left for Spokane Thursday night to visit his sister Noelle and her family. Chase had a lot of fun playing with his younger cousin Peter, and I had a lot of fun holding their little baby, Eva, most of Friday. It was a lot of fun seeing Spencer and Noelle, and we wish we lived closer.

We then drove 20 minutes to Hayden, ID, where my sister Kelli and her family lives. We really liked the area they live (Coeur D'Alene, which is a resort town), and would love to move up there since it is so pretty and so cheap to live. Unfortunately with the economy being horrible, and their area having no jobs to begin with, it wouldn't be the smartest move. However we loved visiting with them, and it was wonderful for Chase since he had constant playmates: Taylee and Lexi kept him occupied the whole time we were there, and thankfully we weren't there too long or he would have been hooked on Polly Pocket :).

We had a great time with family and hope to be able to visit both families again since 5 hours isn't too long of a drive.

Enjoying the Outdoors

2009-04-17T15:16:00.000-07:00

Now that we are starting to get some Spring weather we can't get enough of being outside. I can't wait until it gets really nice and then maybe we will attempt camping. Anyway, Kai loves playing outside with all of us, but he isn't a huge fan of grass :).

This is the nice new lawn that we now have in the front of our place, but instead of the boys wanting to run and play on it, they would rather play...

...here in the rocks and dirt. As soon as we go outside they immediately go to this one spot and dig in the dirt, throw the rocks, and Kai occasionally likes to rile me up by putting one his mouth only to spit it back out and smile at me.

This is before the new grass was put in, but we have this crazy swing out in the front, and Kai likes to lazily swing around in it.

Here is the view we can see when the day is clear and there aren't any clouds blocking it. It is of Mount Rainier, the volcano that could blow who knows when. Thankfully we are a ways away from it, and are up on a hill, but there are signs around all the roads and freeways that say "Evacuation Route"...kinda scary. Anyway, at least it is pretty to look at.

We can't wait for it to get even warmer and stay out all day long, and do all sorts of fun things!

What we have been up to

2009-03-24T16:36:00.000-07:00

As most of you already know, we have since moved out on our own and are enjoying the time together as our little family of four. Over the last few weeks we have been up to a few things: First, potty training. This was something I did NOT want to do, and have put it off and put it off. Then, when living with Nicole and Adam and their two boys, things were a little too crazy already to introduce potty training. So, now that we are on our own, I had to get to it with Chase. Even though he wasn't all for it, he jumped on the bandwagon and success soon followed. We started last week and we already have a pro on our hands. Only a few minor accidents, and that is it. I am pretty amazed...I guess he was ready. So here is a picture of that, (we ended up going to a smaller potty chair, but I thought this picture was kinda funny with Kai attacking me with the camera, and Chase being goofy).

Slightly before we moved we realized that Kai liked all of our food, not baby food. So we started him on anything and everything. Now that he has a few teeth (you can't tell here), he really can eat most things. One of his favorite things, which he gets on a rare occasion, is Oreos :).

Now that we have our own furniture back, the boys are embracing it. This is their favorite pastime, it seems, (or jumping on the couch), and if I am not paying attention for a minute, all of the books (as high as they can reach) are brought tumbling down. Unfortunately with the curved bookcase, it is hard to put them back up, so they aren't really able to help me clean up their mess.

Without two other cousins always around, Chase has had time to sit and ponder life. Haha, yeah right. I did think this was a funny picture though. All of a sudden Chase says, "Mom, look at my chair!" and I turn to see him sitting on this little toy chair all seriously.

We were also able to go to Brown's Point in Tacoma, WA, and even though it was way windy and freezing, we were able to enjoy the sun and see the lighthouse, and even a bald eagle. Pretty cool.

Lastly we enjoy having more space to ourselves. So the other day I put Kai up on my shoulders and chased Chase around the house. Don't you love all the drool on Kai? He is majorly teething and is constantly soaked.

We Love Kai--Happy 1st Birthday!

2009-03-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

It is so weird to think that a year ago today contractions were starting and I was in denial that I was actually going into labor. Thanks to the help of Melissa and my mom, I heeded their advice and went to the doctor to check things out. Kai was relatively easy to bring into the world, however, once he was here, he wasn't the easiest baby right off the bat. But over time we got his reflux figured out, and the Kai we all know and love came through, a sweet, fun-loving, loves to eat a ton, and little baby boy who knows what he wants and when he wants it :). It has been a lot of fun getting to know him over this last year, and we can't believe how much he has grown up. We love you, Kai, and are glad to have you part of our family.
Here he is less than a week old.
And now here he is, grown up a little more, and able to feed himself, kinda. We celebrated his birthday while at my parents (with his cousin Payton who is just 3 weeks older than him), and will celebrate it again tomorrow (a day delayed), but here he is discovering his first cake. It didn't take him long to discover that eating his first cake would be a lot of fun.
I love Kai's personality...we didn't even have to encourage him, he went all in...so typical of this guy.
He seriously ate almost his entire cake. A few pieces were slung through the air, where my parents dog was anxiously waiting. Samson knows to hang out where Kai is eating, Kai is pretty good about sharing his meals and his treats. Happy Birthday Kai, we love you and are anxious to celebrate your birthday again tomorrow.

Adam's Wedding & Our Visit to El Dorado Hills

2009-03-10T11:56:00.000-07:00

It is crazy to think that my little brother Adam is a married man now, and that I have a new sister named Cortnie, but I am happy for the two of them, and excited for us to have an even bigger family now. Adam and Cortnie got married on a golf course outside of the San Francisco area on Feb. 28th, and thankfully the weather cooperated and it was really nice. My parents were nice enough to fly me, Chase and Kai down for it, as well as Kelli and her three kids. It was soooo much fun being all together as a family (minus Nathan and Kelli's husband, Todd). The wedding was beautiful and a lot of fun, and I am glad that we were able to be there.

Here's the newly married couple.

The reception afterwards was a lot of fun as well, and Chase was up to his antics in putting on a show. He loved to go out on the dance floor while everyone was still eating, and start dancing to get the wedding party to laugh at him. He especially liked flirting with a lot of the women there. Chase can be really shy, but when he is tired he typically turns into a little ham. I thought this picture was cute of the grandkids that were old enough to dance.

I know that none of us girls like this picture, but it is decent of the three of us, and we had a great time hanging out at my parents' house the rest of our visit. It was nice having our kids all together because for the most part they played with each other and left us alone to visit.

Here is the whole gang of grandkids on the Stoker family side. There is one on the way, so that will make four boys and four girls...crazy to think how many we have already!

My Cute Boys

2009-02-06T15:05:00.000-08:00

So I tried taking a cute picture of Kai, but he keeps making all these faces and I can't get the "perfect" one. I remember when Chase was little he would smile for the camera so nicely, but Kai, nope, he is too animated. So, here are some pictures of my funny little boy.

Here is the latest picture of Chase and his cousin Joseph making cookies together. Nicole has the yummiest cookie recipe so we all love it when she is in the mood to bake (which is fairly often :D). Chase was quite the good helper, and especially loved eating the cookie dough.

Thanks for the Compliments

2009-01-22T10:41:00.000-08:00

Per some of your requests, here are the originals that I used to draw the drawings I showed below in my previous posting. I don't have the cropped picture of Chase and Kai to show you, but this is where it came from, and you will notice that I chose not to draw Chase sucking on his finger since I thought his plain smile would look better :).

Anyway, I just wanted to write back and thank you to all of you who stroked my ego :). Seriously, though, thank you for all of you who had such nice things to say. I thought it was funny that a few of you thought I was holding out on you and not telling you that I could draw. Honestly, I have always loved drawing, mostly just fun little characters, but I never have taken the time to really draw anything. Until after I took that class at BYU, and then drew that picture of Nathan and myself after our wedding, I didn't really know that I could draw very well. Plus, drawing that picture for Christmas was so many years after that first drawing, and even though the picture of Chase and Kai definitely has its flaws, I can tell that drawing is coming more easily now, and the drawings are looking better as I go. So I am currently working on one for a friend, and I hope that will turn out even better than the others.

In response to a lot of your questions as to how much I charge, I did some research and determined that I would charge $99 for a 4"x6" drawing, matted to the person's color of choice to make it overall either 5"x7" or 8"x10", (I can make much larger drawings as well, they just take longer and cost a little bit more). That is what I charged the woman that I drew her baby for her, and I think it was the right price. With the overall time it takes me to draw something and mat it, it ends up not being the best hourly wage, but hopefully with time I will improve and get faster. It is a lot of fun though, and I love being able to do something for someone else that they will be able to enjoy for a long time. So I am working on a few right now, but if any of you, no matter where you live, (since all I need is for you to email me a picture), would like me to draw a picture of your kids or family, or anything, email it to me (mimi.crisenberry@gmail.com) and I will get back to you as to when I can mail it back to you finished.

I am amazed at all of the talents that each of you guys have--crafts, kid teaching ideas, sewing, cooking, etc., and it is fun to be able to have blogs and be able to see each of them exhibited every now and then :).

Drawing

2009-01-15T13:45:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, I think I mentioned on a previous blog entry, that I drew Nathan a picture of our two boys. This is the picture I drew without the frame, and although the quality of this picture is kind of blurry, and unclear/dark, since it is from me taking a picture of it, it is pretty close to what it looks like. Well Nathan brought it to work to put on his desk, and one of the ladies that worked there asked if I would draw her a picture of her newborn daughter. Of course Nathan said yes, he is always happy for an extra buck or two, so he had her email him a picture and then I got back with her about how much it would cost. I was a little unsure of what to charge, since I don't know if they are worth much, etc., but I told her what different sizes would cost and she asked for a 4"x6". Below is how it turned out. I am a little anxious to give it to her next week, but I am hopeful she will like it. Now I have another picture I will be working on for some friends of ours, and I know Nathan is going to try and get more business for me :). It is kind of fun though, I am able to listen to music or watch movies while I do it, so hey, why not?
This is a picture I drew for Nathan for our first Valentine's Day after we were married. I thought I might as well post it on here too, even though the timeline of drawings is out of order.
This is the picture of the little baby named London. I am pleased with how it turned out, and I hope the lady feels the same. If any of you would like me to draw a picture of your family or children, or anything, let me know (mimi.crisenberry@gmail.com)! I swear, they look better in person :)

Finally, a Highchair!

2009-01-13T10:12:00.000-08:00

Kai just turned 10 months today, and just recently started eating in a high chair. Since we are a packed house, the space that a high chair takes up is highly coveted :). However, with some rearranging, we were able to manage giving up the space to allow Kai his own chair to eat in, (well he does share it with his cousin, Jacob too). He is loving it, and I am loving that I can just give him some food and leave him alone with it while he feeds himself. He has also recently started waving, and his wave somewhat resembles the "Heil Hitler" wave the Nazis used to do, not something we taught him :). He is such a fun little guy, and we love seeing his good-natured personality coming out even more.

Christmas

2008-12-30T13:12:00.000-08:00

Both boys got new PJs Christmas Eve, and here they are showing off their cute little skinny bodies. Doesn't Kai look a little scary smiling here?
I thought this was a cute picture since all of the boys seem so interested in one of the toys that Kai got from his grandma :).
I just liked this one of Kai feeling so proud that he was standing up by himself. He isn't pulling himself up on things quite yet, so he shouldn't feel too proud that he had my help to stand there.
Chase got a tricycle from Santa, and that "green hill" to the left of him. With money being very tight this year with all of our recent changes, I shopped at DI for both boys. I got the bike for $5 as well as that cool car ramp/hill for $5. With the boys having no clue that they weren't brand new, I am sold on D.I. and all of the amazing deals I have been finding lately.

This picture was too cute not to post.

Christmas was a lot of fun this year with Chase believing in Santa, and Kai getting excited to open presents. The morning didn't start out too well with me waking up at 5:00 only to throw up, but thankfully my prayers were answered and I was feeling well within a few hours and able to have a fairly normal day.
Nathan and I set a pretty tight budget for each other this year and only allowed each other to spend $15 on each other's presents. It was supposed to be tricky to encourage creativity, and Nathan did a great job. He made me a CD of songs that I have been wanting, a tape recording of him telling me what he loves about me and our life together (my favorite gift), a really good-smelling body spray he got for $2 with a coupon from Victoria Secrets, and some chocolate. For him I got him a tortilla warmer he has been wanting for years it seems, some wooden suit hangers that were on sale at Linen's and Things, and I drew him a picture of Kai and Chase and framed it. Nothing big, but it is all about the thought that counts, and what was neat is that each of the presents were well thought out.
I am grateful for my little family, and for their spirits, and the fun that we have together. Having to live more simply has made me realize how much I really do have, and how much family and friends really mean to me. I am so grateful that we were able to celebrate our Savior's birth, and am so grateful for the sacrifices he made for each of us. It was great to celebrate Christmas with most of Nathan's family, and now we have 2009 to look forward to. I wonder what 2009 will bring? :)

The First Real Snow for Washington

2008-12-18T16:55:00.000-08:00

We have been getting a little bit of snow over the past week, but all today we have been getting some decent snow flurries for this area, (I know many of you reading this are getting dumped with some major snow). Nicole, myself, Chase, and her son Joseph all went out this morning when the little boys were napping, and we had a lot of fun. Here we are "sledding" down the street. Chase enjoyed it even though it took some persuading to get him on the sled...he isn't the most adventurous little boy.
After Nathan came home from work this afternoon we decided to attempt the cold as a family. I didn't want Kai to stay out too long, so he and I went inside pretty soon thereafter; but we enjoyed watching "Daddy" sled down some dangerous hills and almost hurt himself.
I just had to post this picture of Chase and his cute little face (even though only a little bit of it is showing :D ).

Bath Time!

2008-12-16T10:14:00.000-08:00

It is so much fun now that Kai is good at sitting up and can play in the bath with Chase. Sometimes Kai is a little too brave and will lunge for a toy he wants to play with, and ends up face deep in the water, but this is pretty rare. The boys enjoy playing in the water together, and especially like to splash. Here is a short video clip for those of you that don't get to see the boys very often (hopefully there are no particular body parts showing :P, I tried to be careful).

Finally, an Update with Pictures

2008-11-21T20:00:00.001-08:00

After three weeks in Washington I feel like we are all starting to get in somewhat of a groove. For all of you that don't already know, Nathan took a job up here with his sister Nicole's husband. We left everything we know to act on answers to prayers, and are living here on faith and hope that we made the right decision. In doing so, his sister and her husband are nice enough to provide us a place to live until things become more stable with the selling of our condo in CA, his part time job turning into a full time job, etc. Living with family has actually been easier than we were expecting. Of course we have our ups and downs, those are to be expected, but it has actually been a lot of fun hanging out with them since they are the same ages as we are, and their two boys are just slightly younger than our two boys. Here are a few pictures of each of the two sets of buddies:
Kai (on the left, the bald one) is now 8 months and is great at sitting, and is getting better at pushing himself around, (his head is pretty big for his body (weight is in the 5% and head is in the 85%) so he drags his head as he pushes himself to where he wants to be). Jacob is almost 5 months old, and although he spits up a ton, (it sure seems to run in Nathan's family's genes), he is 3x the weight of Kai! These two little guys don't do a whole lot with each other, but they do enjoy each others' pacifiers and toys. Thankfully Jacob is a pretty quiet and mellow guy because Kai loves hearing himself and is becoming really LOUD!

Chase and Joseph are becoming quite the brothers--they love each other one moment, and the next moment they are bitter enemies. Although they are the same size, Joseph is 7 months younger than Chase. It is nice having them together because they entertain each other and always look forward to seeing the other one when they wake up from naps or in the morning. Here is a picture of them soaking their feet before Nicole pampers them with a foot massage :).
They also enjoy snacking, drinking, and eating at the same time, because if one is doing something, the other has to do the same thing. Unfortunately if one is playing with one toy, the other one wants to play with the same one--sharing is something they are working on :)
After frequent fights, they are still really good at hugging, and sometimes kissing, to make up.
Here is Nicole and Adam's family room, where most of our day is spent each and every day. This is cleaner than it normally is. Even though it normally is filled with toys, and looks as if it has been hit by a tornado, we are able to make it look presentable pretty quick. It is nice to be getting the hang of cooking, playing, and living together, and I know I will have many experiences to be putting on here in the next little while.

To wrap this up, I just wanted to mention a funny thing Chase said the other day, it is pretty random, but he is learning to say so many things now, and the things he says are often hilarious. So Chase and I were getting ready to go outside, and he says, "You're not my mom." I replied, "Oh I'm not am I?" and he says, "No, you're my girlfriend." I have no idea where he came up with what a girlfriend is, or why I am his girlfriend, but I thought it was pretty funny. Anyway, sorry for the random ending to my post :)

We Made It

2008-11-05T15:12:00.000-08:00

So I can't find my camera since we moved, but I really haven't looked for it all that hard... so no pictures yet. However, I thought I would update you on our journey here and let you know that we made it to Washington in one piece :).

Halloween was unfortunately not full of trick or treating, but packing and cleaning. The day started out rainy, which we were worried it was an omen because it was really the first rainy day of the year for Cameron Park, typical...when you need good weather, you don't get it, haha. Anyway, it only rained on Nathan and me while we packed boxes in the morning, and when we had more help for the bigger stuff, the sun decided to come out and shine, an answer to prayers. We had two women in our ward that were so benevolent to offer to watch our boys, one watched them the first half of the day, the second for the rest of the day. We had some trouble getting the trailer we rented to tow our 2nd car, but 15 minutes before the rental place closed, they had our trailer in stock, so Nathan drove back to get it with our loaded 16' truck, and I was still at home scrambling to leave our place in a nice condition for potential buyers to actually consider buying it :). It was a mad rush for us to get everything done so we could pick up our boys before their babysitter had to make it to the ward Halloween party, as well as get the trailer picked up before the place closed for the week; however, we miraculously made it, and were exhausted in the process. The rest of the evening consisted of trying to get things figured out for the journey ahead of us, and trying to have an enjoyable last evening with my family while we still lived in the same town. I am really going to miss my parents, my brother Devin, and my sister and her family, we were really blessed to live close to so many of them, and now I am realizing how spoiled I have been. If it weren't for them, this move would have been a lot easier.

Anyway, the next morning we hit the road after the boys woke up. My dad helped us out by driving our HUGE moving truck up there for us, to allow Nathan to drive our other car, and me be the personal entertainer for the boys. We didn't realize how much we needed my dad to come along with us until we hit the Northern tip of CA and parts of Oregon, because the roads were slick, the rain came down hard, and passing through the windy mountain roads alongside semi's made for some crazy driving experiences. We made it to Eugene, OR the first night, which was over half way. My dad treated us to Outback, which we enjoyed, except for the fact that our two boys were exhausted from the long day, and did NOT want to be stuck sitting down again, who could blame them. We grabbed our things to go and went back to where we stayed the night at the local Super 8, which was actually nicer than I imagined :). We hit the road the next morning after we all woke up again, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of OR and WA, and made it to our destination around noon. WA greeted us with HUGE rain drops, which made it difficult for the guys to unload the truck, but the rain soon cleared, and they were able to get all of the moving done. Thank you to all of you that came to help.

Now we are trying to figure things out in our completely different life. The job that we moved up here for is unfortunately only part time for right now, and will hopefully be full time in the near future. So as of right now Nathan is looking for another part time job to give us the income to survive on. We have chosen to make several sacrifices for this new change, which have been really scary, but because we feel that this is what the Lord has asked us to do, we are hopeful and faithful that He knows what He is doing and that the sacrifices will bring the blessings.

We are also very blessed to be temporarily living with Nathan's sister and her husband. I am amazed at how willing they are to clear out two of their rooms to allow us to move in with them. We have enjoyed spending time with them and their two boys, and look forward to the many adventures that lay ahead of us.

Washington Here We Come!

2008-10-24T16:27:00.000-07:00

We have finally made a decision! With mixed emotions, and a lot of nervousness, we are moving forward with faith to live in Federal Way, WA. It is really crazy because we were presented this job opportunity by Nathan's sister's husband 3 weeks ago, and it has taken us until, Tuesday, a few days ago, to finally decide that this is the right thing for us to do. The crazy part is--we are moving from where we have both lived at least 95% of our lives, California, on Saturday, the 1st!

I am excited that we have come to a conclusion, and have had experiences that have told us this is what we are supposed to be doing right now, but it is really hard leaving my parents, my sister Megan and her family, as well as our ward family that I absolutely love. Plus, Cameron Park has become our home, and it will be hard driving away from it. But we are moving forward, and although we haven't provided much heads up to anyone, we apologize, we are running around with our heads cut off too :).

What we are primarily looking forward to is that Nathan will be getting into a career that he has found interesting, and something I think he will really enjoy. There were a few job opportunities here in the Sacramento area, but none really panned out, and the ones that could have just didn't feel right, nor do I think he would have enjoyed them much. In Washington he will be learning the ins and outs of the financial industry, working for a company that does 401k's for businesses, but he will be working for the trust company that they have started as an off shoot that has been doing really well, and growing quickly.

Anyway, I will try to get on here as often as I can. I think these next few months will be crazy and full of changes, but I hope to report on here in the future that things are going wonderfully and that we are enjoying our new home. To all of you that we will be leaving, we will really miss you, more than we can ever express, and if it weren't for you, I think this choice would have been made earlier than we made it :).

Washington, here we come!

We're Alive Still, I Promise :)

2008-10-11T18:42:00.000-07:00

I haven't been very good about updating our blog on here for two big reasons: 1.) Our computer got a million trojan viruses on it and would not operate unless it was in "safe mode", which prohibits me from opening a lot of websites, and will not let me open up any of our pictures. Thus it was hard to do anything online. 2.) Nathan has been looking for the right job opportunity, which has occupied our thoughts, energies, and time for the past few months, and overall it has just been crazy with all of it-- so blogging hasn't fit on the top of my list of priorities.

So, unfortunately we are still working on both of the above mentioned items, but we are temporarily borrowing my Dad's old laptop, which allows me to operate in normal mode, and so even though I can't upload any pictures to make this post more exciting, I am able to come on here and tell the few of you that actually check our blog, why I haven't put anything on here for forever.

I am hoping that within the next week or so, we will be able to decide on which of the few options Nathan has is the right one, and then be able to move forward and get back to a somewhat normal life. Until then it will probably be sporadic posts, but I love getting the few chances that I have to come on and see each of your latest blog happenings. Thanks to all of you for your words of encouragement and support during this trying time, and I will be eager to post what we will be choosing to do, and what type of adventure it will entail. I have a feeling we have a huge adventure ahead of us.

The Ice Cream Man...or is he?

2008-09-16T21:45:00.001-07:00

I had to be careful about what I titled this post because my sister-in-law was concerned that I might get myself into trouble if I labeled it the way I would like to. I mentioned to a few of you recently that I had an epiphany that our ice cream man really sells drugs. The reason for my speculation is this:

He is scary and creepy looking
His ice cream trunk is totally junky
His ice cream co. is from a city/town 2 towns away = why would you drive so far to sell ice cream for $1?
He comes at the same time each time, and comes frequently (and I swear he came in the winter time last year, as well as when it was raining. Who buys ice cream when it is cold and wet outside?)
We don't have many kids that live in our condo complex
He turns on his music until he gets to the back of our condo complex, turns it off for 5 or so minutes, and then goes around the other half of the complex without turning his music back on...why not turn it back on to possibly get more sales?
The only reason you would come all the way over here, only turn your music on for part of the time, and not care about what you look like is because you are here to make a much larger profit selling something other than ice cream, and I know we have a cocaine addict that lives in our complex

So I told Nathan my speculation a week or so ago, and he thought I was crazy, and stupid for wanting to meddle and spy to see who is buying the ice cream. I thought, "How suspicious is it to buy ice cream from an ice cream man?" I just wanted to see if it was the addict coming to buy "ice cream"...how much trouble could that be?

Well today I was in the kitchen while the boys were playing in our family room, and I hear "Pop Goes the Weasel" getting louder and louder--the ice cream man was here! I started scrambling all around trying to determine if I was going to be stupid and investigate. I asked Chase, "Chase, do you want to go and get ice cream?" He responds, "Yeah, I am excited!" which is not a word I have ever heard him use before. So at this point I have to go because now my son is excited. I grab his bank, because he has all this change that we could use to buy the cheapest ice cream, and then I grab him and we leave Kai to entertain himself for a few minutes, (in retrospect that was a stupid move because what if something bad happened to me in my investigative work and I was never able to come back to my baby?) Anyway, I go running up the hill towards the back of the complex with Chase in one arm laughing, and his bank in the other, totally looking like an idiot. I make it in time before the driver looks like he is going to pull away. I see a Hispanic man and his little boy walking away from the truck, his little boy holding an ice cream, I didn't catch to see if his dad was holding his own "treat" :), and I run up to the ice cream window. The scary Indian man glares down at me when I ask what the least expensive ice cream is, and I pick out an Orange Creamsicle for Chase, because of course he has clammed up when we are around a stranger. So I am handed the ice cream, and when I am about to turn away, there he is! The coke addict! He is coming to the ice cream truck and he says, "Hey Boss, I'll have the banana fudgesicle" or something like that. At this point I had said "Hey", to be a polite neighbor, but had to start walking away to look normal. I didn't see how much money he gave to the driver for his inexpensive ice cream, but I am willing to bet that a druggie, coming to buy ice cream in the middle of the day, by himself, who is a grown man, and who refers to the ice cream man as "boss" in a familiar way, is buying something more than ice cream. So now I know, my speculation is almost 100% correct, but I really don't know if there is any other way to prove it, nor if I should try. This addict is a scary guy with 2 pitbulls. They have never done anything to us, but I know they are capable of it, so I think I will mind my own business from now on. At least I know, and at least I can let all of you know to watch out for scary ice cream men.

"Kai" = Fire

2008-09-11T16:30:00.000-07:00

You would never be able to tell from this picture that our little Kai can be quite the fireball. When we chose the name Kai, we liked its many meanings: ocean, beautiful, leader, enlightened one, and many more. However, in Irish, the name means fire, and we are coming to see that Kai has a fiery personality, and to add to the fieriness, he seems to be slowly growing red hair.

Since I mentioned in my last posting that we were going to let Kai cry it out last night, I should mention how that went. I was surprised at how well it went. He started crying two hours after being put down, but after 10 minutes was silent. I think he woke up two more times, and cried no longer than 20 minutes at his longest interval. I went in to feed him close to 5am, and then he slept until 7am. I am thinking that in the near future I will no longer go in to do that morning feed, but I don't want to cut him cold turkey. I am hoping that tonight will go even better.

Anyway, I am only doing the cry-it-out method during the night, and surprisingly Kai has been slowly extending his naptimes from 40 min. on the dot, to sometimes an hour, and sometimes even an hour and a half. Well this afternoon he woke up a little before 40 min., but he was in there talking having a great ol' time. This is unusual since he normally wakes up with a shrieking cry that makes anyone want to get him to make it stop. So since he was having a good time, I thought I wouldn't go in and interrupt. Well he eventually started his normal cry so Chase and I went in to get him up. This is what we walked in to see...

I cracked up when I saw him up there because when I put him to bed he was up against the rolled up blanket, swaddled, (in the blanket that is bunched up on the right,) with one arm out. He not only managed to get out of the swaddle and inch his way upwards, but he also took off the bumper, and was underneath it. I guess he is telling me that he is finally ready to be fully unswaddled :).

You can't quite tell by the picture, but he was quite mad that I hadn't picked him up right away, but rather ran to the other room to grab the camera to take pictures. And I normally don't have him only sleep in a diaper, although it is warm enough to, but he is soooo drooly that his outfit was completely soaked that I didn't want him to have to sleep in it.

He is a funny boy, and I just wonder what we are in for as this little fireball continues to grow up. I can just see him now, a tall, skinny, redhead, with a big head and bouncing off the walls, not to mention shrieking at the top of his lungs...oh no!

AHHHH I am SOOOOO Tired

2008-09-10T20:09:00.000-07:00

I figured I would come on here briefly before jumping in the shower, (since I take them at nights due to my mornings often being too crazy), to share that I am trying something different with the whole getting Kai ready to share a room with Chase. So far I haven't had a lot of luck with Kai sleeping through the night. Last night, for whatever reason, he decided to wake up every, and I mean every, hour and a half. Needless to say I was ticked and am pretty exhausted today. I didn't feed him, except for once close to 4am, but figured that by me showing him he didn't get to eat, that he would eventually stop waking up. I have found that there is no easy way with him, he is going to have to cry it out, and cry it out for good. I will go in and reassure him initially in the night, but after that he is going to have to figure out how to soothe himself. This kid is a unique one, and sleeping has never been one of his gifts. I think I have spoiled him by always coming to his aid and giving him his pacifier, but I feel like I really am doing a disservice to him by not allowing him to figure out how to get a good nights sleep, as well as a disservice to me who never gets any rest, (which is why I think I have been having my ear/equilibrium/hearing problems lately). So, tonight I have decided to have Kai get used to sleeping in the crib at night, rather than just at naptimes, and get used to soothing himself. I have convinced Chase that sleeping in the Pak-n-play in the living room is a special treat for a few nights, and we will see how that goes. I figured with Kai crying in a room with a door, we might all be able to escape his piercing, shrieking cry a little bit better. Who knows, tonight is the first night and I am doubtful, but hopeful at the same time. I will have to come back on here and post an update after we give this a go for a few nights. I have to tell myself to be consistent, because it is so easy to give in. Wish us all luck! (Sorry for the long saga, you can tell this is something I think about a lot).

The Latest Pictures

2008-09-04T11:37:00.000-07:00

Nathan and Kai enjoying some boy bonding time...watching the t.v.
Kai getting his first bites of rice cereal...not a hit.
Doesn't this face tell you exactly what he thinks?
Chase and Kai love sitting on our rocking chair together. It is nice to see them enjoy being together as well as entertain each other, even if it is only seconds at a time.
I can't believe I actually got them to both make decent faces at the same time. Not the best picture of either, but together it works!

Chase attempting to sing

2008-08-27T16:53:00.000-07:00

Chase has been singing more lately, and can sing Pat-a-cake, Popcorn Popping, Twinkle Twinkle, part of Happy Birthday, and probably a few more. I catch him singing sometimes by himself, but as soon as he sees me it typically stops. Anyway, he was willing to sing for the camera today, but as soon as I bring it out he starts acting goofy and mumbling all of his words. So this isn't the best example of him singing, but I thought I would put it on here for my mom to hear him sing "Happy Birthday" to her since it is our birthday tomorrow. Happy Birthday, Mom, even though you will probably never come on here to see this :). I love you so much, and thanks for giving birth to me on your birthday 26 years ago.

More SB Pictures

2008-08-25T08:08:00.000-07:00

There were a few more pictures I wanted to post but they wouldn't fit on my last posting. Not that this is a great picture of me by any means, but I am always the photographer and people have complained that there are never any pictures of me. I had to have my hair up most of the trip, which is so not like me, but there was so much humidity that my hair was really frowy! Now Nathan has seen my ears better and realizes where Kai gets his from :).
Since Chase made so many sandcastles on our trip, I had to at least post one of the pictures capturing the master builder at work. I think we need to get a sandbox for our place!
Kai began his stranger anxiety stage while we were on our trip. He would smile at others as long as I was holding him. Too bad we couldn't get a picture of him at least being decent with "Nammy Bobbie". Thankfully Chase is good at saying "Cheese" and is smiling for us on cue when we need to take pictures.
Last but not least, we were able to dogsit while we housesat. This is Teagan, and she was a really good dog. She would even come into our room at night to let us know that Kai was crying in the other room. She put up with Chase screaming because he was scared of her, (and he never did warm up to her completely), she was laid back, and an overall great dog. Nathan and I still aren't dog people, even though we thought we were a few years ago, but we enjoyed spending time with her, and couldn't have watched a better dog.

Vacationing in Santa Barbara

2008-08-25T07:56:00.000-07:00

We got so lucky this last week to be able to go and housesit for someone in Nathan's mom's ward. We were able to stay in their nice home, just our little family of 4, which was sooo nice since Kai was able to sleep in a bedroom rather than our family room at night :). The weather was in the 70s and 80s our whole stay, so we were able to escape the 100+ degrees back here at home.
The home we stayed at had a jacuzzi, lawn to play on, a hammock (as you can see we enjoyed that), a fire pit where we were able to toast marshmallows, and it was so airy and bright with windows all over the house.
We were able to go to the beach every other day, and despite Chase being scared of the water, he loved building sand castles and getting himself covered in sand.
Santa Barabara has a really nice zoo, and we were able to enjoy seeing all of the animals one of the days we were there. Chase liked seeing them, but I think he enjoyed just running and jumping around, and going on the train ride.
We were also able to visit Nathan's family, even though they gave us our space and allowed us to truly have a great vacation, and here are the boys with "Cuppy Steve" as Chase calls him. We were also able to spend time with "Nammy Sandy" and "Nammy Bobbie" who the boys love, and Chase always asks and talks about. It was a lot of fun and we were spoiled by each of them. We will miss them, but were grateful to see them.

I've Been Tagged

2008-07-31T20:21:00.000-07:00

Well I have finally been "tagged" and so now it is my turn to answer some "love" questions :). I am a little frustrated because my good friend Emily is the one that tagged me, and her blog entry in answer to these questions was full of cute pictures; however, I have tried my hardest to get the pictures of us dating, our engagement, etc. onto this computer and really, the level of effort I was putting into it made me realize it is stupid for a dumb blog! So, at least I have one picture to put on here. Here are my answers to the "love questions":

Where did you and your husband meet? There are two answers to this question. I saw Nathan for the first time at a BYU computer lab. It was his first day at work, and everyone's first day of the semester, and I needed to go and switch some of my classes. He was the friendly greeter that pointed students to the next open computer, and he smiled at me, but has no recollection of seeing me there. I remember him, and I remember saying to my good friend, Nan, "He's cute," but thinking to myself that he probably already had a girlfriend. We officially met 3 days later at the Enclave, an apartment complex outside of BYU. There was a dance party outside, and I was with my girlfriends. I saw him standing on the outskirts like a loner (just kidding, honey), and I leaned over to my other friend, Katie and mentioned that there was the boy from the computer lab. She dragged me over to talk to him (thank goodness), and I asked him why he wasn't dancing. Thankfully he didn't think that I was a big loser in coming up to him, and joined me and my friends for the rest of the night. In the end he asked for my number and I went home that night and wrote in my journal that I met my future husband :).
First thing said? I guess I already answered that..."Why aren't you dancing?"
First date: The following Tuesday, Nathan called me to see if I was going to be going to the Devotional on campus. We met at the Brigham Young statue and went together. He then asked if I would like to hang out with him that night and we hung out at his apartment and made spaghetti, got to know each other better, and...
First kiss: I am worried that I am skipping a date of ours, but I am pretty sure that we kissed the very first "official date night" we had. It was September 11th, 2002 (a year after that momentous day in history). After we had made spaghetti, I think we talked and did other things, but then he asked if I wanted to hear him play his saxophone. Of course I did, so he played me "Hero" by Enrique Iglesias, and I was smitten with his sexiness :), and leaned in to kiss him right when he finished the song. It was a great first kiss. I was laughing at myself afterwards though, because shortly before I had met him I said to myself, "I wasn't going to meet anyone special to date at a dance," and "I was going to wait awhile, and get to know someone before kissing them." Oh well to both of those thoughts :)
When "I love yous" were first said: I am not exactly sure on the date, but it was after dating for a month or so, I think. Nathan created the cutest slideshow, I know, dorky, but it really was adorable--and it talked about how his life was boring before he met me, and now it was wonderful that we were together, and then at the end it said, "I love you" on the last screen. Of course I had to tell him that I loved him back, especially since I had realized that for some time by that point.
Long or short courtship/engagement? We officially met on September 7, 2002, got engaged on February 8, 2003, and were married on May 30, 2003. So I would say it is pretty short from the world's standpoint. Maybe long from a BYU's standpoint, haha.
Where did you get engaged? Nathan tricked me on this one, and I didn't see it coming. We had planned on going on a double date to some big fun zone place in Salt Lake. We met at the girl's parents' house from the other couple, and were talking to them in their family room when Nathan said he needed to get something from the other room. He dragged me with him and I realized that the room was all set up. There were over 50 roses lining up a pathway towards a homey fireplace, with rose petals and little tealight candles everywhere. He then took out his saxophone and played "The Wedding Song" (which I only knew that that was what it was called since we had talked about it before, it is a Kenny G song, and I am really not into jazz), but he played it very well. And then he said some cute, sweet things and got down on his knee and proposed to me. It was all very well thought out and romantic.
Where were you married? In the Oakland, CA temple
Where did you go on your honeymoon? For the first night we stayed at the Pan Pacific in San Francisco, then after our reception the next day we stayed in Tahoe for two nights, and then traveled down the coast, stopping in Monterey and Solvang, and ultimately met our destination in Santa Barbara where we lived/housesat a really nice "mansion" that overlooked the city and the ocean, for the summer.
Where did you make your first home? I don't count those few months in Santa Barbara as our first home, it really was more like a vacation home. Our first real place was at the good old Villa Maria apartments in Provo, UT. They definitely weren't fancy, but they hold great memories for us, and we made it our little home for about a year's time.

Now it is over five years later, with two more little Crisenberry's, and a lot of life experience. I am more in love with Nathan than when we were first married, and appreciate him even more than I did back then. I don't know how I got so lucky to have found him, but I sure am grateful for all of the blessings that our little family has.

I guess it is my job to now tag a few more people. I tag Katie Robertson, Laurin Smith, and Tracy Haws. I will be surprised if any of these 3 actually see this since they are new to this blogging thing, but if they do I would love to hear their stories.

Our Family Trip to the Sacramento Temple Grounds

2008-07-28T17:08:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we had the morning to spend together, (Nathan had to go and record with his band the whole afternoon and evening), so we decided to go to the Sacramento temple grounds as a family. There is a huge grassy, tree area that is nice and shady, perfect for the 90+ degrees it was, and so Chase ran around playing frisbee with Nathan, and then played in a sandy area, while I kept Kai happy and content. Here's Kai enjoying the shade and looking up at the trees, even though he doesn't seem to be enjoying himself that much.
Chase wouldn't stop for a second for me to take a picture of him,

and each time I asked him to he would run away from me. Toddlers.
Since we ended up being there for such a long time, (we were trying to decide what we are wanting to do with our life :)...long story, but I think we figured that out, and thankfully it isn't going to require too much change), I had to get Kai to go to sleep. He is used to being wrapped up like a "peanut" as my sister calls it, but he only slept for about 20 minutes. We paid for that on the 20-30 min car ride home.
Here is Chase running at me, but still, he wouldn't pause for a picture...toddlers :).
I thought this was a cute picture. Towards the end of our visit, Chase ran up to his dad and just leaned into the back of him. He loves his dad so much, and Nathan sure loves his boys.

Kai Kicking and Chase Crashing

2008-07-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it was really cool in the evening so we decided to go outside after dinner to play as a family. Kai loved the cool air and looking up at the treetops, and when he gets excited he kicks his legs wildly. I decided to capture it in a short clip for family members that live far away and don't get to see him very often.

Nathan showed Chase that lifting up his legs on his little car, to go down the slight hill, was pretty fun, and then crashing at the end made it even more fun. Thankfully I caught this on camera since the next time down resulted in a minor injury and the fun was no longer there :). This really ended up not being as entertaining as I had expected, but my voice in it is pretty funny so I had to post it anyway.

Our Afternoon

2008-07-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays are my day where I don't "schedule" a certain household chore to be done, and so it is just a day based on what our "needs" are, if that is to go grocery shopping or to get out of the house, that is where the day usually goes. So lately Chase has been really grumpy, defiant, and quick to throw a tantrum, a stage I am sure, so I thought why don't we all go to the library, since Chase loves going and playing with the toys there and picking out books to read. Here is a picture of Kai while we were there, he made a slobbery mess out of himself, but enjoyed talking very loudly while there...I guess he didn't realize we were in the library and that you have to whisper :).

Here is a picture of Chase working on his laptop, which I am sure is covered in other library goers' germs. This is one of his favorite toys to play with while visiting, and wouldn't look at the camera to smile for me...the stubborn little thing. He had a lot of fun though, and we ended up getting a book on firetrucks, dump trucks, throwing tantrums, and then some sing a long CDs. I got a million other books too, one of them being "The Happiest Toddler on the Block" since I enjoyed the one for babies, and I am needing some ideas with my toddler every once in awhile :). He is really good though, and like you said, Emily, boys are a lot of fun. I think I am blessed with Chase since he is fairly easy-going and obedient...normally, haha.

Then, to end our afternoon, Chase got a bath so he could go swimming with his bathtime Elmo. He was splashing away, having a grand old time, until he decided to dive. Unfortunately our bathtub isn't the standard 9ft deep for diving, so of course he hit the shallow bottom. Not only did he suck up water, he also hit his mouth, and it quickly swelled up. I am not sure if this picture does the bump justice, but this is his pose for the camera to show it off.

So I guess we will see how the rest of the afternoon goes. All I can say is that I am glad that Nathan will be home in a little more than an hour, and that he doesn't have to go out with the Young Men, or any other committment. :) I guess this evening's possibilities are endless with 3 boys!

Kai's 4 Month Dr. Visit

2008-07-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it is hard for me to believe that Kai is already 4 months, but other times it is hard to remember what life was like without him. Yesterday, Chase and I took him in for his 4 month well-baby visit. The trip would have been perfect if Kai wasn't super tired and needing a nap. However, he held in there as best as any tired 4 month could, and despite loud complaining and a few meltdowns in the waiting room and doctor's office, he made it.

For Nathan's mom, especially, I am deciding to write his stats since she loves hearing how our boys are growing. First, the doctor said he is very strong, has a good heart, and good lungs, and she can tell he is very vocal :). Chase and Kai seem to follow pretty similar growth patterns, long and skinny with big heads, but compared to Chase at 4 months, Kai is longer and weighs a little less. I think their heads are pretty comparable :). Kai weighed 13lb7oz, so he is getting lower on the weight charts, and his height is in the 85% at 2'2". His head is in the 76% at 17". Because his head is so big he tends to look overall more chunky, but if you get a look at his long, skinny arms and legs you can see it is an illusion. But the doctor isn't concerned about his slenderness since he just seems to be taking after our little family. He is healthy, and I am grateful for that. He is becoming more and more social, animated, and fun. He is also mellowing out a little, and acting way more easy going, thank goodness! I love this little guy to death, and love kissing his round little head and cheeks. I am so blessed to have two cute, fun, and happy little boys.

Now if only I can work on my patience level today. Last night I was up 4 times with Kai, and when I am acting on little sleep and Chase is throwing everything he can get his hands on, talking about a million things without ever taking a break, and crawling all over me, by the end of the day I have almost lost all sanity. We will see how the day goes. I just need to keep in mind how cute they are and that they are just little boys who need my love and attention :). Wish me luck!

My Sweet Husband

2008-07-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

Last night after we had gone in after swimming, Nathan decided he was in the mood for ice cream. Since we didn't have any on hand, he decided to take Chase to Safeway to buy some. Nathan and I are each on a restricted diet, he can't eat any wheat, flour, or anything that has gluten in it since his body doesn't tolerate it, and I can't have any dairy since Kai's body doesn't tolerate it. Anyway, he went to the store to get ice cream for him and Chase, and to pick out a surprise for me. When he got home he showed me that he got me a Ghiradelli chocolate bar, but the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and a few other of the ingredients were milk. I was bummed. I was excited to eat a treat, and then when I couldn't eat anything, and had to watch them eat ice cream, I got even more bummed. I tried not to show my disappointment, but Nathan felt really bad for not thinking of my dairy limitation, and getting me a treat I couldn't eat.

The boys finished their ice cream, and then I took Chase to his room to put him down for bed. While I was in his room, Nathan snuck out to the store again. When I came back he was gone. In the end, he came back with 3 choices: Sour Patch Kids, Sour Gummi Worms, and a Snickers Bar, 3 of my favorites. Snickers has milk in it too, but a smaller amount, and I probably shouldn't have eaten it, but I couldn't resist :).

Nathan totally didn't need to do that for me, but I really appreciated the sweet and selfless gesture, and it just proved to me even more how lucky I am to be married to him.

FHE

2008-07-08T09:42:00.001-07:00

Last night for FHE, Nathan took Chase out to go swim. Kai of course woke up from his short nap and came out to join us. Since it was darker outside, we felt that it would be fine letting him go in the pool for the first time. It was a little chilly in the water, but he adapted ok, and was able to last for a few minutes. We had a fun time hanging out at the pool as a family.Here Chase looks exceptionally skinny, but I just had to post this picture because it shows that we really need to get "Little Swimmers". His diapers look like they are about to explode!
A cute picture of Nathan and Kai...at least I think so :)
Another cute picture of my hubby :). What a dad!
A funny picture of Kai after drying off. I almost can picture him with an Italian accent asking me what I am looking at.

Bath Time

2008-07-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

Kai loves bath time, especially now that he has discovered his feet. Chase also loves having me bring a chair over to the counter so he can watch his little brother get a bath. I apologize for the indecent exposure in the first part of the video, that was an accident, as well as the messy kitchen that is also captured...oh well to both!

The Latest on Kai

2008-06-26T12:03:00.001-07:00

The two latest things that Kai likes doing is looking and watching things, and sucking on his fingers. He loves Baby Einstein, which is nice since it allows us to eat dinner in peace, he loves looking at books, and he loves watching his dad and Chase. He is also crazy about sucking on his fingers, and is lately choosing to suck on the very same two that Chase always sucks on...something kind of unique. It will be funny if these are the two he sticks with as well.

Eating PB & J & "Fubbies"

2008-06-25T11:24:00.000-07:00

Chase and food have really never went together. He has been so stubborn when it comes to eating, and has found that it is his way of having a power trip over me and Nathan. However, yesterday he miraculously decided he wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some grapes. I decided to let him eat it away from the table so he could come and go and not be stubborn at the table. He did a pretty good job eating everything, but the jelly on his fingers made them sticky. When he gets sticky fingers, and then touches our brown shag rug, he gets "fubbies" on them which really upsets him. Fubbies are fuzzies, and he hates them because 1. He hates his hands dirty, and 2. He always has to suck on his 2 fingers and this gets "fubbies" in his mouth, which really gets him going. I took these two pictures before he realized the fubbies were there (hence the happy and goofy facial expressions).

Getting Frustrated

2008-06-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

Kai has been such a funny baby from day one. He has such emotions, both good and bad, that we can't get over how extreme they can be. I didn't know that 3 month olds could get frustrated, but Kai sure does. He has been getting better at his hand to mouth control, and loves grabbing things and putting them in his mouth, but he can only control his arms and hands for so long before they choose to come out of his mouth. This makes him very mad, especially if he is trying to suck on a toy of his. Yesterday he was throwing fit after fit, that finally I had to stop letting him have toys to play with.

Big Boy Bed

2008-06-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

Two nights ago we were given large wall decorations that consisted of a truck and tractor for Chase's room. We put them by his "big boy" bed (the bottom bunk) to hopefully create more of an atmosphere that he would want to be a part of. He has been refusing to sleep in his bed for several months now and we have tried everything. Each time would result in him crying in the room next to his crib, crying "crib" and wanting to get back in where he was used to sleeping. But because of these new decorations, Chase was ready to make the transition on Wednesday night.

So far he has stayed in his bed throughout both nights, and one of the naps during the day. The other times I went in his room to find him sitting or laying on his toy box waiting for me to come in after nap time. This morning, however, I wasn't expecting him to actually fall asleep for his nap because our condo is being painted outside and there are all sorts of noises that would keep him awake. When his nap time was up I went to open the door, expecting to see him doing who knows what. What I found instead was that I couldn't open his door! I didn't want to push too hard, so I went and got a flashlight to shine it under his door's crack to see what the blockade was...it was him! I could see about an inch worth of his ear, his arm, and his leg, he was totally out of it. Me pushing the door into him didn't even wake him, and as I write this he is still sleeping on the floor next to the door. Pretty funny. I was going to try and take a picture, but the crack under the door is too small for the camera to catch anything.

Picture Time!

2008-06-18T14:27:00.000-07:00

Today I realized that I dressed Chase and Kai in almost matching outfits, thus I had to take some pictures to capture their matching cuteness. Here is kind of a funny one of Kai. I tried so hard to get them to smile, but they both are obsessed with their fingers/hands that that was a hopeless effort.
FEET!
More fingers...
Chase actually trying to be photogenic.

He used to always love smiling for the camera, now it isn't always the easiest feat.
A semi-decent one of Kai. Of course I was a second too late of capturing his big smile.

Kai's Blessing Day

2008-06-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

Kai was finally blessed today on Father's Day. Even thoug heturned 3 months on Friday, we decided to wait to have the blessing when Nathan's mom was able to make it. It was nice waiting so long since Kai behaved like a gentleman, and he fit my little brother Adam's blessing outfit he wore back in 1988 when he was blessed.

Nathan did such a wonderful job blessing him. And since today is Father's Day, I want to also mention how grateful I am to have such a wonderul husband, especially since he is such a great father to both of our boys. He is always involved, helping out so much, as well as playing with them. They both love him so much and are blessed to have such a great dad who cares about them as much as he does. I love you, "Bubbs", Happy Father's Day

Even though our boys didn't want to smile for the camera, we decided to get a family picture after Kai's blessing. It was a good day, and I am so grateful for my 3 boys.

Time for Swimming

2008-06-13T16:53:00.001-07:00

Today Nathan took a 1/2 day to be able to come back and spend some more time with his mom who is in town for a few days, so we took advantage of him being home and went out and enjoyed the 90 degree weather. The pool was a little chilly, but it was bearable and Chase sure enjoyed it. Here Chase is doing "kick, kick, kicks".

Of course Kai couldn't miss out on the fun...he decided that taking a nap inside wasn't the best choice and woke up so he could come out and join us.

Here is the little cutie

Here are the boys enjoying the last little bit of cool water before having to go inside.

The Next Tiger?

2008-06-10T17:23:00.000-07:00

The golf course across the street is opened for people to come and walk it on Monday nights, since it is closed to its members for upkeep. We often go over there as a family with the double stroller, and then Nathan and Chase stop to do some putting. Last night Kai and I were unable to join them since Kai was tired and I wasn't in the mood to go out in 90 degree weather, but Chase and Nathan, the dedicated golfers, decided to still go. Here is a picture of Chase analyzing the green deciding what club he needs to use to make the shot :). Above is him hitting the ball into the hole. He has learned who Michael Jordan is, now we just need to teach him Tiger Woods.

Which one's which?

2008-06-09T15:50:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of Kai I took the other day...
Here is a picture of Chase around the same age as Kai is. People have been saying that Kai looks just like Chase did when he was little, but I never realized how similar they looked until I started doing some comparisons. They definitely have their unique traits, but they definitely have a similar look. Maybe all of our kids will have the look too, it will be interesting to see.

Picture Time

2008-06-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today I tried to take some pictures of Chase and Kai together, but they never turn out that great...oh well. Anyway, here is one that I took that of course Kai wouldn't smile in since Chase was.
Today I got some smiles from Kai, and my camera was actually fast enough to catch them. Lately Kai is starting to laugh a little too, which is a lot of fun. He is an outspoken guy when he is both happy and sad, and I have to say it is entertaining when he is in either mood because he is so expressive.
"Yeah, yeah, I know you want to give me a kiss. Who wouldn't?" It seems like Kai is so put out in this picture, but Chase loves giving him kisses nonetheless.
I had to post this one since they almost both look like they are doing a Zoolander pose. Not the best picture either, but still kinda funny.

Exercise Time

2008-06-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

Since I just figured out how to get videos on here, I had to do one of Chase "exercising" this morning. He is pretty good at figuring out how to count, but he always resorts back to his way of counting, which uses his 2 favorite numbers, nine and two. He says "nine, two, nine, two" and so on. Anyway, he brought out one of his toys this morning and said he was exercising since it somewhat resembled a dumbell and he has seen Nathan lift weights. So I decided to record him lifting his "weight" as well as doing push-ups. I hate the way I sound on here since I am trying to sound tough, but oh well.

Reading to Bobbie

2008-06-06T09:50:00.000-07:00

I had to post this picture since Chase chose to read to his "little man" "Bobbie". It was pretty funny to hear him reading, and then to notice that he brought Bobbie to hear the story. All of his little people have names like, "Martin" "Dave" "Johnny" "Stewie" and then there is also "Gloria". I have come up with the names for each of the people, and he loves to call them by their names when he goes looking for a particular one. It is pretty cute & funny.

Video Gamers

2008-06-06T09:42:00.000-07:00

With my recent posts on here Nathan made the comment that our blog is only about our boys. I started to think about it and realized he was right, and that we barely comment about we, Nathan and I, are up to. I also noticed that there are no pictures of me on here, except right after delivering Kai, which isn't all that flattering. The problem is that we aren't that great at taking pictures very often, and when we do they are of our 2 boys. I am normally the photographer so I am rarely in any shots, and when I am there is NO WAY I am going to post them on here since I hate the way I look in pictures. However, now that Nathan has pointed this out to me, I will see if we can take some pictures together all as a family, as well as just the two of us. I will also try to mention things here and there about us, the adults, if there is anything worth mentioning :).
So in honor of Nathan's comment, I posted a recent picture with him in it. The other night Nathan asked Chase if he wanted to play video games, which Chase was all for. Chase gets really into whatever game they're playing, which in this case it was Tiger Woods golf on Xbox, and even though his controller really isn't hooked into to play the game, he thinks he is the one controlling the golfer when it is in fact his dad. It is pretty funny to watch him get into it, especially when he pulls out his ugly Spiderman "big boy" chair to sit in and play the game. I also thought this picture was funny since Nathan looks pretty into the game as well. We probably shouldn't be encouraging video games with Chase being only 2, but I guess they are born with the desire to play :)

Now We Have 2 Talkative Boys

2008-06-05T17:23:00.000-07:00

As if Chase saying words like "ladder", "people", "hammer" over and over again, as well as saying a whole number of phrases all the time, we now have another talkative little boy. Kai loves to talk now that he is almost 3 months, and rarely stops. His squeals and squeaks are so cute and they go on forever. I don't remember Chase talking so much, but Chase was a lot more mellow baby from what I can remember. Kai is starting to feel much better, and that is so great for us because it is a lot of fun seeing him happy. He is becoming so much more observant of the world around him. He loves watching each of us, and he loves sucking on his hands and grabbing at things. I just love my boys.

Hoops!

2008-06-05T13:11:00.000-07:00

Chase loves basketball, and almost every other sport that uses a ball, but for his birthday we got him his first hoop and he loves to play with it outside. Tonight he is excited to watch the first Lakers and Celtics game with Dad. Go Lakers!

Getting to Know Kai

2008-05-01T15:29:00.001-07:00

Kai has been a difficult baby so far, since his acid reflux causes him to scream and cry a lot, and not sleep very well, but he is getting better and is starting to figure out this world he now lives in. He is seven weeks today, and has been getting the hang of smiling and interacting with us. He seems like he is going to be a big boy, and is getting longer and longer. We love having him and can't wait for him to become an easier baby.

Welcome Kai

2008-03-22T13:57:00.000-07:00

Kai Nathan Crisenberry joined our little family on his due date, March 13th at 6:52 pm. He was a pretty easy delivery, and was an ounce bigger than Chase was, 7lbs8oz. He has been a joy to have, is such a cutie, and is thankfully pretty easy for a newborn despite not allowing me too much sleep. Chase is adapting pretty well and loves to say "baby" and "Kai". He is also a pretty good helper, and is just trying to figure out where it is ok to touch/poke the baby and how to be "gentle." I am so thankful to have my 3 boys, I love them each so much!

Christmas Tree Hunting

2007-12-06T20:08:00.000-08:00

Normally we go to good ol' cheap Wal-mart to get our Christmas tree, but I called around and found a place up in the forest that was less expensive and we could cut down our own tree. It was a cold day, but Chase was surprisingly ok with being bundled up and looking through hundreds and thousands of trees until we finally decided on one. It was a lot of fun and we will have to see if we are still up to it next year when we have 2 little boys to be worrying about.

Thanksgiving at the Beach

2007-12-06T20:05:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving we went down to spend the holiday with Nathan's family in Santa Barbara, where he grew up. Thankfully the weather was nice, like it almost always is, and we were able to go to the beach while we were down there. It was pretty windy, but Chase and Nathan still found it fun to throw sand, dig, and run around.

My Boys

2007-11-14T16:05:00.000-08:00

Although Nathan isn't fond of the way he looks in this picture, I thought it was too cute of the two of them to not put it on here. Chase loves time with Dad every night, and especially likes looking at the animals in his "Big Animal Book." He is getting pretty good at imitating a lot of animal noises, and it is especially funny hearing Nathan try to teach him how to gobble like a turkey...I am not sure if Chase will ever figure out how to do it quite like his dad.

Recent trip down Memory Lane

2007-11-14T15:59:00.000-08:00

Recently Chase and I got back from visiting my old roommates and friends in Utah, where we were able to go back and walk around BYU and go out to our favorite places to eat (Cafe Rio & Papa Johns). It was a lot of fun seeing each of them, reminiscing about some of the goofy things we did back then, and having all of our kids meet for the first time and play together. Unfortunately Nathan had to stay home in CA to work, and he probably wouldn't have enjoyed all of the "girl time", but it was a lot of fun getting away and re-living old times.

Bad haircut turned decent

2007-11-14T15:44:00.000-08:00

I have been cutting Nathan's hair ever since we have been married, poor Nathan :), but have been trying my hand at cutting Chase's hair now too. We have done little trims here and there to avoid a mullet from growing, but I have gotten too brave and decided to try different razor attachments to achieve a more sophisticated look. Needless to say, an 18 month old little boy does not like to sit still, and especially isn't thrilled with the idea of some pointy black thing that vibrates and makes a lot of noise touching his head. I am normally satisfied with my job considering the circumstances, but Nathan often will come home from work and laugh at the areas where I went a little too high with the shorter attachment. Oh well, we have decided to transition into the spikey hairdo for Chase since I cut it a little too short on top by accident. I think he looks pretty cute with the change.