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.

Some funny videos

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

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)

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"

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 :).