"Kai" = Fire

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

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

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

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

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

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

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":

1. 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 :).
2. First thing said? I guess I already answered that..."Why aren't you dancing?"
3. 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...
4. 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 :)
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Where were you married? In the Oakland, CA temple
9. 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.
10. 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.