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.

Our Family Trip to the Sacramento Temple Grounds

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

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

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!