Random Hodge Podge of Pictures and Updates

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

 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

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

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

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

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!

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.