Dial Family Blog

Life Cycle Research

2012-01-02T21:56:00.001-06:00

You know we like research at our house, right? Remember this among many others? We are just so researchy. It's a word. Research it.

I've always wondered what the average life cycle of a gingerbread house is. This year...I was bound and determined to find out.

Results show: the average life cycle of a gingerbread house is surprisingly short. 56.2 minutes. That is some mighty fine quality research right there--brought to you by Dial Researchers Inc. You're welcome. :)

Research also shows that camera phones are poor substitutes for an actual camera.

Additional research shows that on the second day in January of 2012, the average number of blog posts one can catch up on is 2.0 before the blogger decides it is bed time. Perhaps that average will go up in later days of January. Stay tuned.

Last Hurrah

2012-01-02T21:15:00.001-06:00

I know. I know. It's so shocking. Krista actually has to play blog catch up. I am usually so on top of blogging. But alas...it happens even to the best of us. Ha!

Way back in 2011 (haha) our neighborhood homeowners association asked us to do one last hurrah just before we moved. (Or really--just before we THOUGHT we were moving. Before our move got extended.) Us Dials--we are always suckers for hurrahs. And definitely we are always up for throwing hurrahs. :)

And so...here is a glimpse of some of the fun.

Of course there was lots of food, games, giveaways, and prizes. Even if I didn't take pictures of them. :)

Bounce house.

Obstacle course.

Police car to check out. And not 1--but 2 firetrucks.

Those firemen were so awesome! Letting the kids climb all over the trucks and showing them all the cool stuff.

They even brought equipment for relay races:

A local radio station came and broadcast live on site:

There was also an amazing telescope set up. I could NOT believe the views of the moon and stars that we were able to see! Incredible!! However...the view from the picture below? Not so amazing. But you get the idea.

And well...since the hurrah was so last year and because I am old and senile...that's all I remember. We are missing our friends and neighbors from the old neighborhood. But we also love our new neighbors and are already plotting some hurrahs in this neck of the woods. :)

Violin Recital

2011-12-01T22:35:00.000-06:00

Caleb did awesome at his recent violin recital.

At his first recital a few months ago, Caleb was feeling super shy. Luckily, I was part of his performance so I got to go up with him and that definitely helped. But I really wasn't sure if he was going to get up and perform.

What a difference a few months make.

This time, at his second recital when it was Caleb's turn, he popped off his chair, marched up front, nailed every note with that cute big smile on his face and sat back down as if nothing happened. I was SO proud of him! LOVE THAT KID!!!

Whirlwind

2011-12-01T21:20:00.001-06:00

You know that game called Balderdash? It's that game where each person makes up a definition to an obscure word and then you try to guess whose is correct? I always use the definition "a swift moving whirpool" and get lots of points. Not sure why...except that it gets me lots of points. And my dad is my all time favorite person to play this game with. He was a toxicologist and all his definitions were very scientific with words that were 23 letters long. But really...that has absolutely nothing to do with this post. Except that the title is whirlwind...which reminds me of whirpool...which reminds me of Balderdash. Which reminds me why my sister and I always say, "This doesn't relate, but..." And Chris laughs at us. But really--everything does relate. We just do you the favor of not explaining the whole train of thought that got us to the next point. Anyway. Such a long post...why not make it longer? So...this doesn't relate...but:

What a crazy whirlwind. Within a 7 day period at the end of August, we
1. Accepted an offer on our house
2. Found a new house just a few miles away and put an offer on it that was accepted
3. Caleb started kindergarten
4. Chris was offered and accepted a new job

Can you fit anymore life events into a one week period? I guess if we were pregnant or had a baby. Neither of which happened.

Oh my gosh. Moving. Wow. What an adventure.

We worked for months trying to finish projects we had started on our house that was kind of trashed when we bought it. I wish I had pictures of when we bought it. Chris has done SO MUCH! New flooring, light fixtures, crown moulding, chair rail, base boards, scraped and painted ceilings, painted every darn part of that house, installed lighting in the living room where there was previously none, new doors throughout the house, new sinks, new toilets, new bathroom cabinets, new blinds, new deck...you get the idea. You name it, Chris probably did it.

And we had come a long way...but there was much to do to get it ready to sell. Which you could only appreciate if you saw the house when we bought it. So all last summer and fall and winter we were doing projects. I'm exhausted thinking about them. If I never paint a paneled door EVER again...it will be too soon. 13 of those darn doors. Just suffice it to say we worked hard. Really hard. And yet...when we left there was SO MUCH more we wanted to do to make it nice for the next family. Especially since we happen to know and love the family that bought it!

But let's back up a bit and talk about the adventures in showing the house. Oh my. Did you know it is hard to keep your house clean with 2 crazy boys? Actually, they were a huge help. It's just hard to live in a house and show it! It was just simply an adventure. Like the time they called at 5:28 and said there was a showing at 5:30pm right in the middle of a dinner I was making to be delivered to a friend and while the house was full of 500 neighbor kids. As soon as I put the phone down, there was a knock at the door. I'm shooing all 500 of the kids out the door, trying to find shoes for everyone and meanwhile shoving food in the microwave and oven. Then there was that time when I was teaching Joy School at our house and had a last minute showing. Let's just leave it that backyard preschool is adventurous. Let's also think of the number of trips to McDonalds and Sonic during other showings.

Bleh. Oh and then there was the time when we were watching a couple friends at our house and ended up having a "movie theater" in the parked car up the street complete with popcorn and juice during another showing. (Ok...that was kind of fun. But still adventurous). A lot of time spent in the car running here and there wasting time during other showings:

Suffice it to say--9 months worth of adventures. Whew! I am exhausted just thinking of all that cleaning and last minute adventures. :)

Oh, and then there are the fun adventures of closing on our new house. And the time when I flew in on Tuesday night after a cancelled flight only to be greeted Wednesday morning (24 hours before closing--3 days before we said we would be out of our house for the new owners) when they called and told us we couldn't have the house. And then by the end of the day saying...oops. Sorry about that. Yes you can. But the closing day is going to be pushed out. Again. Or how about the time when we showed up to closing and they said...you can sign the paperwork...but the bank still doesn't have all the stuff ready.

And then there is the actual move. Of course we move the weekend of our big church service fair that Chris and I were both heavily involved in. Thursday night we pack the truck. Friday morning we go to sign the paperwork on the house, expecting to have the keys by 10am. But the bank doesn't have everything done. Chris spent the entire day babysitting the guy. Signing more paperwork. More babysitting. Did you sent that to the title company yet? Not yet? Hurry up please. How about now? No? The entire day. Seriously. Then we unenroll Caleb in one school. Find out the person we need to talk to at the new school isn't in for a couple days. Wait for keys. Get stuff ready for the Service Fair the next day. Wait for keys. Clean the old house. Wait for keys. Pack last minute stuff from old house. Wait for keys. Start to worry because the truck has to be back by 6pm for the next person. Wait for keys. More babysitting of crazy bank guy who has messed our stuff up through the ENTIRE process. Wait for keys. 4pm. Title company closes at 5pm. If we don't have our keys, we won't be able to get our keys until Monday. Stuff is still on the truck. Truck still has to be back by 6pm. More phone calls. More waiting. Finally get keys! Yay!! With the help of AwEsOmE friends, bust an entire truck full of stuff into our new garage in 50 minutes. Go to bed late. Drag boys out of bed early to be at the church Saturday morning at 7am to set up for the Service Fair. Have fun. Finish cleaning up at 1:15pm. Be at Caleb's violin recital at 1:30pm. Go back to old house to clean. Ugh. More work than we should have left until then. Lifesaver friends help. Go to IHOP with no shoes on because they somehow got packed up with the last remaining stuff. Do NOT care AT ALL. Boys go to bed late. Chris goes back to knock out our final list at the old house. His cell phone dies and he doesn't have the list we made. Does the best he can. Comes home at 3am. After the time change. Up early for church the next morning. Up to our eyeballs in boxes. Caleb's church clothes that we set aside are suddenly lost. Ok...ok...you get the idea. I'm exhausted just thinking about the whole process. I never want to move again.

It was a whirlwind in every sense of the word. Physically, emotionally, spiritually. And yet...we are learned so much and we are feeling totally and incredibly blessed. We can't believe we are finally in our new house and are totally loving it! Already we have almost forgotten all the headaches. And what a sweet reunion we had with our stuff that was packed up for over a year.

Thank you to all of you that helped make this possible and worked along side us tirelessly to help us move. You know who you are--and we love you dearly.

Halloween

2011-12-01T20:46:00.000-06:00

A little trivia contest for you:
Which costume did Carson use to trick or treat this year?

A. The cute dog

B. The cute lion

C. Batman on a tricycle

D. Optimus Prime

If you guessed D--Optimus Prime--you are correct. But the boys sure loves to dress up lately! Even when costumes are way too small! :)

Caleb and Carson had a funny little series of negotiations going for weeks before Halloween. They had to have similar costumes...so which should they be. Carson was dead set on being Optimus Prime--but the "bad Optimus Prime." Despite many explanations and clarifications that there is no such thing--he was bound and determined. Caleb wanted to be a knight and have Carson be a dragon. Caleb wanted to be Mario and wanted Carson to be Luigi. Caleb wanted to be pirates with Carson. Carson? He just wanted to be the bad Optimus Prime and wanted Caleb to be Bumble Bee. Finally--Caleb relented. He told Carson, "Fine. I will be Bumble Bee this year, if you will be Luigi next year." Carson agreed. Ha! I laughed for a long time about their little negotiations. Let's see if either of them remember or even want to be the same thing next year!

As usual, I'm kicking myself for not posting sooner since I really cannot remember everything we did to celebrate Halloween. But here is what I do remember (and can find pictures for):

Pumpkin carving

We also went with some of our favorite friends to a fun pumpkin patch with lots of fun activities including a petting zoo, story time, a maze, etc. We had a lot of fun. But shhh...don't tell Caleb! We went while he was at school!

And...that's all I remember. Though I have vague recollections about fun Halloween projects and crafts and treat making and and trunk or treats and school carnivals and....

Ranch

2011-12-01T20:32:00.000-06:00

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch....

While I was on girlcation (see next post), the boys had a great time together. They camped out in the living room

Went all together to Caleb's group violin lesson:

Went swimming, ate out, went to SeaWorld and who knows what else! :)

And just so you know--I am a big advocate for girlcations (see next post). I think Chris has always done a good job helping me and showing appreciation for me--but there is nothing like 4 days with crazy kids to remind a dad just how much work and fun it is and how they can best help out! :)

Girlcation!

2011-12-01T20:20:00.002-06:00

Last year for my birthday, Chris surprised me with a girlcation. He had talked with my sister and set up a little vacation for me. We had so much fun and decided we should do it annually and just meet up at a different place for a long weekend once a year.

This year's girlcation location was Cincinnati! My sister, Kaylyn and I met up in our old stomping grounds of Cincinnati for 3 glorious days. We didn't really take any pictures though. Could NOT find the camera before I left. Oh well.

It was so fun to see and visit so many people that we both knew and grew up with. And really-- just be together. We also went to Time Out for Women--which is a weekend conference of inspiring speakers and music. And of course, we had to eat at Larosas and Skyline and who knows where else.

Excuse me while I go wipe some drool off my face....

And I'm back. Oh yeah...and Red Fox! My dad used to take us there and we LOVED it! These pictures are for you, dad! :)

Another little break...more drool...sorry!

Unfortunately, on my way home, I made it as far as Chicago and then my flight got cancelled. So Chris had an extra day juggling work and home and boys and schedules. And I eventually made it home the next day. After waiting several hours where they delayed my flight every 10 minutes for just a few minutes later, and waiting in a long line to get my flight rebooked, and waiting in a line to get on a shuttle to the hotel they put us up in, and waiting in a line to check into said hotel...I was kind of done waiting. And I was anxious to get home and finish packing up our house because I thought we were moving in only a couple short days. But the only real damage done? Frost bite in the airport. I joked with Chris about digging in my suitcase to find a pair of socks to go with my only shoes--flip flops. But after a couple hours of freezing...I may or may not have really done it.

Many thanks to Chris for holding down the fort and encouraging me to go. I love my sister and I loved spending time with her. And I love having just enough of a break that I can't wait to go back and do my normal routine.

Family Pictures

2011-11-14T20:41:00.000-06:00

We recently had family pictures taken by Jessica at Memora'belle Photography. Love her!!!! And love the pictures!! If you're looking for someone to take pictures, check out her site here! You even get a dvd with all the pictures and the rights to them so you can print whatever you want. Great deal!

Here are some of my favorites:

One of my favorites that shows how it really is...

Fun times!

Lost

2011-08-23T21:15:00.000-05:00

Lost: My sidekick of 5 years, 6 months and 29 days

Cute, blond haired, blue eyed. Answers to the name of Caleb.

If found, please return him to me as soon as possible!

Anyone know where this guy went?

I sure don't!!

Kindergarten started yesterday. Huge sigh.

My Caleb was SO unbelievably excited. It made it easier for all of us. And I did it. I dropped him off with that huge grin on his face and lived to tell about it. But truly--Carson and I have been a bit lost the last couple of days ourselves. It feels so strange without him being around all day. And Texas schools are so lame--the bus comes at 6:50 AM!! (yes, that's right people 6:50AM!) and returns at 3:10pm. All day kindergarten and it starts before anyone should even think about being awake! Lame!

You'd think I would have caught on to how fast he was growing up. What with his Joy School graduation:

Mastering swimming lessons

(Talk about improvement! Caleb went from being fairly timid in the water to full on swimming under the water! It helped that he took swimming lessons with one of his best buddies ever!)

Oh and then there is how well he is doing at violin and how well he did at that violin recital a few months ago

He did such a good job! He really made us proud!

So you see...all the signs have been there...but I have just been in denial!!

We prayed and debated and prayed some more about what we were going to do with Caleb this fall. Public school, private school, home school. We looked at every option. 500 times. But in the end...we went with public school.

This quote from a lady named Karen Beaumont quoted here describes my feelings exactly:

“I love a winter storm. … When the wind starts to blow and the snow begins to fall, a feeling of excitement starts to build. … When I can’t see the trees at the neighbor’s farmyard, … I phone my husband! … He then picks up the children who are at school. … It is hard to describe the feelings I experience as our family is gathered home, and the storm rages outside. … And I love it! Everyone is safe; we are together. We have lots of food and water. The longer it lasts, the better. … We are shut off from the world. … We bask in the warmth of our home and in the warmth of our love. My heart is full, and I am at peace. Sometimes, I wish I could just stay like that forever, with my family gathered around me, protected, shut off from the evil influences of the world. But alas, the storm blows itself out eventually, we dig ourselves out, and off we go to face the world again.”

I sometimes want to just keep my family locked up and safe and protected at home with me forever! There is so much junk in the world and I would love to just keep Caleb sheltered forever. But at the same time, I felt like maybe Caleb could be a light to someone--and if so--it would be pure selfishness to keep him home. "In the world, but not of the world...."

When I read this quote from Joseph B Wirthlin--I knew what I had to do: "Perhaps all of us sometimes would like to withdraw and isolate ourselves from the storms of life and from the fiery darts of Satan. However, we must be in the world but not of the world, meaning to go forward in the midst of the sin, evil, and corruption that are in the world but resist and reject them. Being in the world can be frightening because we live at a time when Satan is becoming more and more bold. The Lord said, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” (John 17:15.)

And so...though I know it is not the right choice for everyone--for Caleb, we felt strongly about where he needed to be. He is out there already being a light and a leader. And it was harder than I ever thought it would be to bring him there! And yet more fun and exciting then I ever thought it could be! Funny how that works!

The Three Amigos

2011-08-04T21:05:00.003-05:00

Another marathon blogging session. 5 new posts. Life is just insanely busy right now. Need to figure out a way to simplify a bit. More on that later. Maybe. If I get around to it anytime soon. Yes...I know...you will not be holding your breath!

Amigo #1: Carson
Now this amigo likes to get sick...really sick...about once a year--the same time every year. Like sick enough you will find him laying down in very random places:

And sick enough that he gets to do the ever so fun steroids and antibiotics and breathing treatments:

Amigo #1 loves to make silly faces and make us smile:

He is frequently seen around town posing as superman

He has an unnatural ability to identify logos. Like this one:

He saw this truck and excitedly said, "Look mom! It's the ice cream truck!!" Hmmm...now knowing he can't read it...I looked and looked trying to figure out where on earth he could tell that was an ice cream truck. He could just tell by the logo! He does this all. the. time. It kind of freaks me out.

You can also find him cruising through stores in semi-odd riding positions. Exhibit A:

He loves it. We just go with it.

Amigo #2: Caleb
This amigo is all about dinosaurs lately.

Maybe he needs a pet. But probably not. :) Because he told me recently, "Mom? I don't want a cat or dog. Because I don't want them to pee or poop on our floor. That is SO gross." Insightful. :) Next he told me, "So I decided that I will be a kitty and Carson will be a puppy and then we don't need to get a pet!" They take their roles very seriously! Very! Carson constantly refers to himself in the 3rd person as "the puppy." "The puppy wants some milk." "The puppy doesn't want to do that." "The puppy is funny." But I digress. This is about Amigo #2.

Amigo #2 loves to help.

The minute I stop to fill up on gas, he jumps out of the car and goes to town washing the windows on the car.

See that popcorn?

Amigo #2 saw a lady drop her debit card. He made sure she got it back. The VERY nice lady went and bought him that popcorn and then tracked us down to tell him thank you again. How nice is she?

Amigo #2 is definitely always good for a laugh and pure silliness

Amigo #1 and #2 are both pure craziness and silliness. But they clean up nicely:

Amigo #3: Chris
He's pretty busy. But he finds time to wrestle with our guests

And even though he's busy--he will still run in the door, see one of our neighbor's kids excited about his new skateboard and decide to show him some tricks before running out the door to a meeting. Love the hurried outfit.

Perhaps a bit of the silliness of Amigo #1 and #2 could be traced back to Amigo #3

And last but not least, here is the video I made for this year's Father's Day about the three amigos over the last year.

Summer Fun

2011-08-04T21:03:00.001-05:00

What do you do when it's way too hot outside in the summer heat in Texas?
You go to SeaWorld. Way too much.

You go to open gym at a local gymnastics place

You make it really awkward for the 10 guys doing some work on your house by staring at them all day long

You color lots and lots and lots of pictures and plaster your walls with them

And you wonder how fast ice melts when it is so darn hot. And find out.

Utah Trip 2011!

2011-08-04T20:58:00.000-05:00

We did it. We packed up the car and DROVE to Utah! We drove straight through. 24 hours. Even slept in the car.

And the drive was actually awesome! There were zero tears and only happy boys! And others doing anything to keep themselves from getting tired!

Chris's family was nice enough to drive down for our first weekend from a couple different places. We went to Thanksgiving Point, saw Cars 2, ate at the Mayan, went to church at Temple Square and visited the sites and just had a great time catching up and spending time together.

(vacation=only cat naps for Carson!)

(We got quite the looks...but Carson wheeled that thing all the way to the car by himself)

Caleb and Carson's favorite site seeing?

The drain outside temple square. :)

Papa Rick (Chris's dad) and Grandma Sheila came down and went to the zoo with us one day:

See? Proof that Papa Rick was there.

(We only have one picture with Papa Rick and it's the back of him? What can I say...I have mad photo taking skills! Sigh)

Oh that Papa Rick. He spoiled us with ice cream too.

And wouldn't you know it? It was our lucky day. They had dinosaur exhibits all over the zoo.

Caleb's favorite was definitely the dinosaur that watched you as you walk and then spits on you. Carson's favorite exhibit was the elephant that sounded like it was going to sneeze and then sprayed water on you. He still imitates it in fact. He also liked petting the animals:

We were also able to have lunch with my two aunts Jan and Joy and two of my cousins Kylor and Brandi. So fun to catch up with them! And we got to swim with Deonne and family and my cousins! It was too short, but fun as always!

We also caught up with the famous Giani Mob. And we even rode a train! Yes a train to a baseball game! Two favorite things! (Boys loved that! Thanks, guys!)

Hmmm...come to think of it...we waited fOrEvEr in line to ride a train within the ballpark too. :) But the boys all entertained themselves by rolling and somersaulting down the big hill. :) The boys also had a good time on the big inflatable slide and playground and stuff.

The rest of the pictures seem to be MIA. But maybe I will find them soon and upload them. Trying to keep you in suspense. But always a good time with the Giani Mob! Thanks, guys!

Towards the end of the week, my family started to come into town. Oh how I love and miss my crazy family! We had the Great Race to see who was going to have to take over the master bedroom. Kip and Bridget were close to losing

But Kerry and family lost. ;)

You would have to understand my family to understand all that...but just go with it! :) Perhaps I will be in trouble for putting a couple of those pictures on this blog...but I just couldn't resist! :)

We played lots of games including (as Kerry? or Kody? said) the Biggest Game of Idiot Ever (TM)

We swam, we played foosball and ping pong, we had yummy treats, watched the Provo fireworks on the fourth, went to the temple with 5 of the 6 siblings, went to a movie, had fun activities for kids, and just all around enjoyed being with each other.

This whole time we stayed with my brother Kody and his family in Lehi. Did I mention I'm moving in permanently? They truly have the party house! And we miss swimming every day.

Sigh. I miss everyone already.

Weekend Away

2011-08-04T20:44:00.000-05:00

We recently (relatively of course!) took a quick weekend get away to Houston!

The boys had so much fun even on the drive there.

(had to throw that one in there :)

We went to an Astros game

Among other things, we met up with friends for a fun lunch at the Rainforest Cafe:
(Cool pictures would have been here. If we had taken any!)

But of all the things we did...I think the MOST fun was had just staying in the hotel. They LOVED swimming and exploring the room and the hotel and oh! that breakfast! How they loved that breakfast! "You mean I can have a waffle AND a donut AND cereal?" Can life get any better? :)

And yet again...I am left wondering...why don't we do this every weekend?!? :)

Easter Extravaganza!

2011-08-04T20:43:00.000-05:00

Let the marathon blogging begin!

Easter...Easter...so long ago! But what an awesome weekend!

Chris took Good Friday off and we headed to the coast with several families of friends. It was SUCH a good time!!! Caleb and Carson even got to drive down with the Weatherholtz and they pretty much thought they were the coolest ever! :) Unfortunately...we left our phones in the car which meant that we took zero pictures! We will have to bum some off of the other fun people who went and brought their cameras! Suffice it to say--we had a BLAST and I am left wondering why we just don't do that every weekend.

Saturday we woke up and left our hotel early to drive to the next party! Some friends of ours have an Easter egg hunt every year on their awesome farm!

But there is SO much to do in addition to the egg hunt! Like huge tire swings

Throwing rocks in the pond

Riding in jeeps and go-karts

You get the idea. Straight up fun and the boys are in heaven each and every time we go!

Through it all--we stayed up late, got up early and drove several hours here, several hours there and back again. But the boys were still smiling at the end

In the weeks leading up to Easter, we did lots of other fun stuff. Like dying Easter eggs

Making Easter bunny cupcakes

Eating said Easter Bunny cupcakes

We also made some rice krispie treats shaped as easter eggs with surprises (m&m's) inside.

The boys had fun having an Easter egg hunt at our house and finding the other surprises left by the Easter Bunny.

And of course Aunt 'Nyn is awesome as always. She found this egg that you put in water and watch and watch and watch...

Several days later...it hatches! So cute! The boys were SO excited to check it several times a day every day to see if it was hatched yet!

Good times...good times.

Missing My Mom

2011-05-03T15:15:00.001-05:00

For many years, I just really did not like Mother's Day. Kind of dreaded it in fact. I really just let it be a reminder of what I was missing. My mom died of breast cancer when I was 9 years old. In the grand scheme of possibilities, I really didn't have it that rough. After all...my dad is a saint. Seriously. I have no idea how he did it with 6 young kids by himself for so long. But he did...and did it well!

And really--my step-mom is wonderful. And I couldn't ask for a better mother-in-law. And I've had so many wonderful women in my life who have all helped to fill that big hole.

And yet.

Life without your mom is just hard. Anyone that says time heals...not really. With time you merely learn how to cope. There are so many times I just selfishly want her here. Times I selfishly want her to be a part of my children's lives. Here and now.

Then there were the years when we were trying to get pregnant and could not. Suddenly Mother's Day was a double whammy. I wanted to be a mom. But I couldn't. I wanted MY mom. But I couldn't.

But finally...I've started to see Mother's Day a little differently.

NOW, I choose to celebrate the years I DID have with my mom. 9 wonderful years where faith, love of music, fun traditions, and family love were deeply ingrained in me.

NOW, I choose to celebrate the wonderful women in my life who have helped to fill the huge hole that was left when my mom died. Looking back...I've always had at least one special woman in my life every day and everywhere I've lived. Someone was always placed in my path that I loved dearly and considered my second (or tenth!) mom.

NOW, I choose to celebrate the fact that I know that this life is not the end.

NOW, I choose to celebrate the ways my mom can guide and influence me and comfort me from the other side. Ways that she perhaps could not have influenced me if she were still alive. Maybe I'm the lucky one after all.

Becoming a mom has been very healing too. If you are still waiting for your miracle...have faith!

Being a mom has taught me to love more deeply. Being a mom helps me understand just how much my mom loves me. Being a mom gives me a renewed eternal perspective. Life would be so very pointless if there were no heaven where we could live together as families forever. Families ARE forever. And when I think of it like that, I wonder why we waste so much time and energy on pursuits that in the end...really do not matter. I love this quote:
"I have learned to say no to some things in order to be able to say yes to others. The most important yes we can say to our children is, "Yes, I have time for you." And for me that means both quantity and quality time." (Patricia T. Holland) Because really...what else really matters? A spotless house? Nope. A fancy house? Nope. Time for ourselves? Nope! We just never know when our time just might be up!

Hug your mom today. There are many like me that would give anything to have that chance.

Hug your kids today. There are many that would give anything to have kids. And many who would do anything for just one more hug from their angels who have passed on.

Find those out there who need a good mom. And give them a hug and be a mothering heart and a goodly parent to them every chance you get.

Find those out there that desperately want to be a mom. And give them a hug and be their friend every chance you get.

My resolve this Mother's Day is simply to be a better mom and to love and be a better mothering heart to those that are not mine. Someone recently said some very upsetting things to me about my boys. The comments cut me to the core. In my mind I thought, "Wow! If only you could see those boys as I do!" My next immediate thought was, "Oh, Krista. If only you could see her as I do." Yes indeed. If only we could all see ourselves and each other as our Father in Heaven does.

Happy (soon to be) Mother's Day!

Hard Time

2011-04-25T19:05:00.006-05:00

Lately, I've been having a hard time with something--the fact that my boys are growing up so fast. It seriously stinks. Yet each and every day and every new milestone is so fun. How can it be so bittersweet?!?

The other day we were looking at old pictures and videos. It made me so teary eyed. I couldn't believe how young Caleb and Carson were!! It was shocking! When did they grow up? How is it that time is flying by so fast? And while I am trying to just enjoy each day, sometimes it just hits me hard how old they are and how big they've gotten. And it makes me cry.

Perhaps I've lived in Texas too long. I fear I get closer and closer to the dark side each day I live here. I heard this country song and *liked* it (yes, you read that right! I know!!!) and it totally fit how I was feeling today. (Thanks, Brandy!)

Instead of just posting a link to the song, I decided to post some of my favorite pictures of my boys with it:

Sigh. Is it bad that I never want my boys to grow up?

Post edit: Ah yes...minor detail...the song is "Never Grow Up" by Taylor Swift and I cut out parts to make it shorter! (Thanks, JoEllen!)

Lately

2011-04-02T22:28:00.001-05:00

Lately...

...we have been trying a few different very hole in the wall places. Yummy!

Lately...

...I have been missing our camera. It's been missing for months and months. I've determined it is forever gone. Kind of a bummer. The only camera we have now is on our phones. Pretty good...but.... Like the picture above--we went to the Magik Children's Theater and I just couldn't get a good picture of Caleb meeting the cast. (Show was aWeSoMe by the way--I really didn't know which was funnier--the show, or Caleb laughing hysterically at the show! We will definitely go back!)

Lately...

...we have been enjoying lots of Sea World.

Lately...

...we had a fun visit with my brother Kody who came to town for work. But well...we didn't take his picture. But I did take this picture when he was with us. That counts for something, right? We love uncle Kody. And Rudys.

Lately...

...I think the arcade game that usually dispenses one bouncy ball as a prize was broken.... Cause we got 30. Bouncy ball anyone? Can life get any better? Monkey bread and 30 bouncy balls!

Lately...

...we've been digging the new HEB (grocery store) that they just opened near our house. Race car carts, balloons, suckers, buddy bucks, samples galore.... Suddenly grocery shopping is so much more fun!

Lately...

...Caleb offers to hold his brother's hand to keep him safe in the parking lots. Melts. My. Heart. Every time!

Lately...

...we've entered a new phase of life. The phase where we wear what we want to the store. And bring what we want to the store. Whatever keeps us happy while shopping.

Lately...

...we've been learning some new tricks. Like headstands. (And for Carson--somersaults. He is great at them and giggles hysterically after each one he does. Funny kid!)

Lately...

...we have to set an extra plate out for our pet t-rex. I know...I know...pets eating at the table? What can I say? I'm a sucker. (Caleb always gets his pet some meat because he's a carnivore, you know.... :) Lunch meat counts, right?!?)

Lately...

...I find my boys reading together a lot. I just love to see my boys reading together. Especially the children's scripture reader. They are all into the stories and I love it!

Lately...

...we have enjoyed playing the wii together. Really close together! :) (You don't think those boys love their dad at all, do you?)

Lately...

...Caleb lines stuff up. Oh wait. Maybe he's done that before. But he is very creative and loves to use his imagination lately. Here he had 67 cars lined up and was feeding dinner to each and every one. (And yes...I counted out 67 pieces of cereal for those guys, as instructed by Caleb. I hope those cars appreciate my hard work. :)

Lately...

...we have been enjoying the weather and swimming.

Lately...

...we have had a couple of ghosts riding in the backseat of our car everywhere we go.

Lately...

...those ghosts think they're funny. Very funny. (Ok. They are.)

Lately...

...Carson is all about helping. Caleb has taught him well.

Lately...

...we have enjoyed a home movie theater. Life is so rough!

Lately...

...we (term used loosely) find strange things to play with. Like the diaper genie full of dirty diapers. (Remind me why we buy toys again?)

Lately...

...we love to play games with each other and with friends. But, hey...if they're busy...that's ok. We can just play games with our stuffed animals. (In this case--5 stuffed animals each had their own bingo card that Caleb was helping them mark.)

Lately...

...Carson cannot seem to just walk anywhere. Physically not possible. He has to skip, hop, gallop or jump his way everywhere. And we all find it very adorable. I seriously giggle every time. It never gets old!

Lately...

...I find Caleb helping Carson with whatever he needs or wants. He really is such a sweet kid. (See that dark picture? Missing my camera, I tell ya! :(

Lately...

...I just love to see my boys pal around together.

Lately...

...I just love how much my boys love each other.

Lately...

...I'm behind in blogging. And apparently I like very long posts to make up for it. You still here? :)

Lately...

...life is good.

Itzhack Perlman

2011-03-22T21:40:00.005-05:00

Two more posts. I am on a roll! :)

For his birthday, I got Chris tickets to see Itzhack Perlman. Shhhhh...to be honest, I really didn't know much about him. But Chris had mentioned him a time or two (or ten) so I thought...what the heck...sounds like a good birthday present. Well... I hit the birthday present JACKPOT! Chris was SOOOO excited. (I love it when I accidentally hit that jackpot... :)

A couple days before the big concert day arrived, Chris got an email from the place where we bought Chris and Caleb's violins back in the day. They were advertising a contest to enter to win backstage passes to meet Itzhack Perlman. Chris entered and WON!

He was pretty much giddy to just have tickets to see this legendary man. So imagine the level of giddiness (can you say that referring to a guy? Whatever...just go with it!) when he found out he actually got to MEET him!

I was so excited. Not because I really understood how excited I should be, but because I KNEW how excited Chris was! I couldn't keep a smile off my face because it was so fun seeing him so excited about it!

Such a fun night. I just love that Chris guy.

(Ok...and maybe, just MAYBE I was an itsy bitsy, teensy weensy, little tiny bit distracted thinking about my bracket and March Madness and all the games I was missing.... But only a little bit. And I secretly and discreetly only checked the scores a couple times. :) But I don't feel too bad since I saw Chris also checking those scores during intermission. ;)

It really was wonderful music, a wonderful night, and even better company.

Going Green

2011-03-22T21:14:00.004-05:00

Well, not really in the earthy kind of way...more like the St Patty's Day way.

Caleb and Carson woke up to Clue #1 that led them on a treasure hunt ending in a few fun St Patrick's day things.

And we had a bit of clover fun (love those cookie cutters!) with breakfast and lunch that day.

During the day, Caleb, Carson and Chris had to find the randomly placed invitation with their individual name on it. It was an invitation to our family St Patrick's Day party, complete with decorations!

The mini party started with a mock restaurant and a fun menu of green items to select from (sorry...no pics). And was followed by some fun shamrock coloring pages while their orders were put together. Followed by the menu items selected being delivered to the table

Next we played some silly, but fun games. Like throwing lucky pennies into our lucky leprechaun hat. Or the ever fun, letting an inflated green balloon go to see who can land closest to that green leprechaun hat .

We ended by eating our green desserts also selected from our menu of green items.

As always, the days leading up to St Patrick's Day were filled with festive pjs

(Ok...ok...perhaps they just squeezed into last year's....)

And the Queen of Packages, my awesome sister again sent the best package ever. EVER! I'm serious. She is the Queen of Packages. And festive holiday-ish pillowcase fun too. She's the queen of that too.

(The only picture I could find of said pillowcase. And by now the Easter ones are out so it is too late to take a picture. But this picture serves a dual purpose since it just cracks me up anyway. Poor kid was sleeping sitting up in his bed--his head was bobbing up and down and all around and banging into the crib. But he slept on. I'll have to find and post that video soon.)

Anyway. We had a good time. I love holidays. And I just love my cute boys.

Chris's Birthday!

2011-03-14T15:45:00.000-05:00

Alrighty. Another marathon blogging session. 6 new posts. Watch out! It makes me sad because I always forget what all the fun stuff like three days later. But...you do what you can do, right?!?

To start out the festivities, we went with some good friends to the temple. Thanks, guys! It was wonderful!

Chris took the day off for his birthday. A nice present to the rest of us too on his birthday! He woke up to Caleb giving him a big hug and his first clue. We sent him on a treasure hunt for his gifts. Once he found and opened the last one (or so he thought!) we were having fun playing games when there was a knock at the door. The awesome Cheneys held onto his last gift for me and brought it over to surprise him. (Thank you, thank you by the way!)

A new electric acoustic. I think he likes it just a little bit. He falls asleep playing it every night. :)

We spent the day together and used one of his other presents that night--tickets to the rodeo/concert.

The weather was awesome and we had a great time walking around the fair grounds and watching the rodeo. In San Antonio, they kick the spurs out of the AT&T Center every year for a couple weeks while the rodeo is in town. It's a big deal here. After the rodeo was a Martina McBride concert. And I must say--I actually enjoyed the concert. I'm not much of a country music fan, but I did like and actually recognize a lot of her songs! Time to move out of Texas? :) Thankfully, my boys are still holding strong. They'd much rather do this

than listen to an ol' country concert. :)

We were also able to sneak away the next day and go have dinner together. Hmmm...was it my birthday or his? :) Perhaps I benefit too from it being his birthday! :) As always, it was great to spend some time together, just he and I.

And lastly, we ended our several day celebrations on Sunday when we were able to have friends over for cupcakes, root beer floats and games. Thanks again, guys!

We had a great time celebrating and love to be able to spend time together! I love birthdays.

Snow in San Antonio!

2011-03-14T15:35:00.001-05:00

Our good friends came to visit from Utah. All 6 of them, ready for warm weather and fun! And then this happened:

Could not believe it! What are the chances?!? The first snow in 25 years and it has to be while our friends are here ready for a week of nice warm weather! We unfortunately got caught in an ice storm the night these pictures were taken. Scariest. Drive. Ever!! We watched several cars in front of us just driving along cautiously suddenly slide down the freeway into massive pile ups! People were spinning out and fish-tailing all over the place. Roads were closed. And it took 2.5 hours to get home from a drive that normally takes 20 minutes. I lived in Utah for 8 years--yet I think that was the slickest I'd ever seen roads! It was insane!

But we still managed to have lots of fun that week and are hoping they'll give us another chance soon! :) Thanks for coming! Always so fun to see you and spend time with your cute family!!!!

Valentine's Day

2011-03-14T15:30:00.000-05:00

Hmmm...can't seem to find any pictures. Perhaps I didn't take many? The boys did get matching pjs.

(I thought this picture was funny and happened to show their Valentine's pjs. :) They're both holding their cup the same way and reading their books. :)

And then there is that awesome sister of mine. Everyone should have one that is so awesome. She made the boys some Valentine's pillowcases and then later sent a Valentine's package. She is queen of the packages. There were so many cool things in there. I wanted to steal some of them for myself! The boys were seriously giddy and dancing around when they saw the pillowcases! They love holidays and they LOVE those pillowcases!!!! They are always excited to get a package from aunt Nyn! Unfortunately, I didn't turn on the video camera until they settled down enough to open it. They were running around all giddy and excited just before this. So all you get to see is the tail end...but you get the idea!

And as if that wasn't enough...Chris has the sweetest and most thoughtful co-worker who also sent home valentine packages. They were in hEaVeN!

Anyway, we made our usual heart shaped sugar cookies. It was especially fun this year because we made them on Sunday when Chris was home. It was so fun to have him help us decorate them too and the boys had so much fun with him!!!

This year we snuck over to Chris's work and put hearts all over inside his car. Caleb worked hard all morning (and Carson for about 2 minutes :) drawing on the hearts and writing little notes to him. It was fun. That is, it was fun once we circled around and around and around the parking garage where he was parked trying to find the car!

Anyway...it was a fun day and we love our holidays!

Joint Party

2011-03-14T15:25:00.001-05:00

Perhaps someday it won't be so fun...but for right now--having birthdays one day apart is awesome!

This year we headed back to Chuck E Cheese for a joint birthday party for the boys.

Carson is already getting kisses from the girls :)

Chris made awesome invitations. They were VIP passes that we put in plastic badge holders and attached a lanyard. Here is the front:

And the back:

Chris is hilarious. He always does such a good job with such things!

Why are there no pictures of Caleb? He was way too busy playing to stop and pose for pics. I love that kid.

Thanks to all of you that helped us celebrate the birthdays of our boys and helping them to feel so special and loved. And thank you to all of you that sent fun packages and cards. It was so fun checking the mail every day before their birthdays. They were giddy with excitement and anticipation each time we checked the mail. In fact...they still are!

Caleb's Five!!

2011-03-14T15:20:00.000-05:00

The day after Carson turned two, Caleb turned five. Sniff sniff again. Time is just flying by too fast for me!

Another fun day! Carson's birthday was on Sunday and Caleb's was on Monday. So Chris took Monday off from work to spend the day with us. Always fun!

Caleb woke up to his bottom bunk bed decorated and his presents hiding behind.

Caleb also had a lot of support opening his gifts:

My favorite of his gifts? Well, since you asked...

We have had hours and hours of fun together with those dominoes!

And in case you were wondering...Caleb is definitely still a liner upper (want to reminisce about his lining stuff up habit? See here, here or maybe here, or if you're still bored, here ):

We had a fun filled day together that ended in yet more candles and cake:

Caleb, Caleb. He is also made of 100% pure ham. The kid just cracks us up all of the time. There is constantly something funny coming out of his mouth. Yet he is such a good boy and makes friends wherever he goes. We laugh because he has no problem playing with anyone of any age--from 2 to 62--he will play with everyone and anyone!!

We love our Caleb!!

Carson's Two!

2011-03-14T15:15:00.000-05:00

Sniff sniff.

I can't believe my baby is two!!

We had a fun day. Carson woke up to his door decorated and presents galore.

He had lots of support in opening those presents! :)

And he blew out those candles like a champ!!

Carson is such a ham these days. And that kid can TALK! He amazes us all the time with his vocabulary. We count 8-9 word sentences all the time. We took him to his 2 year appointment and unfortunately, although he'd been hanging on to the tail end of that weight chart...well, we finally fell off. He's a pretty good eater...just so small. But oh so cute. And snuggly. He is also a champion sleeper! Hurry! Knock on wood!

One thing I love about my Carson--he runs, skips, hops, or jumps his way around everywhere. There is no walking from place to place for him! I seriously giggle every time because he is just so darn cute with his little jumps and runs here and there.

Another thing--it's interesting--there have been several people who have confided in us that they just feel something so special about him. We do to. He is a sweet little guy.

Carson has come a long way in the last year! He went through a very bad case of stranger anxiety for awhile, but is coming out of his shell a lot. He goes to nursery at church like a champ now. Even when we are visiting other wards (or congregations) with Chris.

We love our Carson!!!!

Day #10: Potty Humor

2011-01-14T17:53:00.002-06:00

Day #10: Potty Humor

Warning: This video contains some potty humor. Not for the faint heart or anti-potty-humor enthusiasts.

What is it with boys and potty humor? And who knew it could start at such a young age? Silly boys.

Day #9: Do YOU have...

2011-01-13T15:33:00.003-06:00

Day #9: Do YOU have...

Caleb is getting really good at playing games. It's a favorite at our house.

I love the inflection in Caleb's voice each and EVERY time we play Go Fish when he asks if you have a certain card:

"Do YOOOOOU have...."

And I love how we are teaching such good sportsmanship. Got to start them when they're young, right? :)

Day #8: Mayhem

2011-01-12T22:45:00.002-06:00

Day #8: Mayhem

Mayhem. It's pretty much the norm at our house. Especially if Chris is home. :) There is forever someone wrestling. Forever someone singing. Forever someone dancing. You get the idea. Here is a random sampling:

I love how Carson takes a break from the wrestling action to play a little Ring Around the Rosies by himself. "Ashes. Ashes. Ashes. Ashes. Ashes. Ashes. Down!!!!"

I love our mayhem.

Day #7: Hamper Head

2011-01-11T23:11:00.000-06:00

Day #7: Hamper Head

We have this almost daily ritual at our house. Carson goes into Caleb's room and pulls out all the dirty clothes from the hamper. Meanwhile, my little OCD Caleb is trying to toss them back in as fast as Carson is tossing them out. Caleb really does not like his room to be messy or have things out of order for long. Oh, he will play with toys for awhile and make a mess with the best of them. But he will NOT go to bed until his room is clean. And things like clothes on the floor just bug him.

So I'm chuckling about their little daily exchange as I'm typing this because I find it so very funny. But anyway. Eventually, Carson will win with the clothes hamper thing. At least very temporarily. The whole purpose of removing all the clothes? Carson loves nothing more than to walk around with that hamper on his head. The more objects he trips over or runs into, the funnier he thinks it is. He is seriously a little nut.

Unfortunately, I accidentally clicked the video camera off before he trips over that car garage in the middle of the floor. He laughs hysterically every time. Sometime I will have to get the whole exchange start to finish on video so I can laugh about it always.

Hours of daily entertainment right there. They are both such hams.

Day #6: Stunts

2011-01-10T23:56:00.002-06:00

Oh man...first I cheat...and then I miss a day. Not working out so well, huh?

Day #6: Stunts

My boys are constantly giving me heart failure with their crazy stunts. It's all I can do to just bite my tongue and go with stuff sometimes.

Exhibit A:

Carson zooms his little truck down the driveway and then stops on a dime at the bottom. Every dang time I think he's going to biff it head first into the street. He never has.

Exhibit B:

Then there is Caleb. That kid is a nut on his bike. He can turn on a dime. Most the time. Sometimes he biffs it hard. But it never seems to phase him. Just me.

Bunch of crazies, I tell ya!

Day #5: Cheating

2011-01-08T21:44:00.006-06:00

Day #5: Cheating

Oops--Day #5 and I'm already cheating. Perhaps this isn't a video. But you can pretend, right? (Enter Wayne's World "back in time" effect...whew whew whew...)

Caleb was entertaining us at dinner one evening by being crazy apple mouth. "Look at me! I'm 'Crazy Apple Mouth' Boy. Now give me some candy!":

Carson, not one to be left behind, thought he would also try it out. But with a pea. Not quite the same effect, but funny anyway. "Look at me! I'm 'Crazy I'm Too Po' So I Gotz a Pea Instead of a Gold Tooth' Boy. Now give me some candy!):

Halloween all year long at our place. We're doing Adam Sandler proud around here. Sometime I may post the "Captain Headstand," "Funny Short Pants," and "What I Would Do for a Klondike Bar" photos. In the mean time, you can always watch the "Sucka' Stink Foot" rerun for kicks!

Day #4: Contagious

2011-01-07T21:51:00.002-06:00

Day #4: Contagious

Carson has the most contagious laugh ever. See for yourself:

Our awesome neighbor gave the boys both one of those little launchers. Carson thinks it's the funniest thing ever. They have spent seriously hours and hours doing this exact thing over and over again. Caleb is such a good brother to gather up and put all the things back in there so Carson can shoot him again. I absolutely LOVE watching my boys play and giggle together. There is just nothing like it. Sigh. So fun.

Day #3: The Small Things

2011-01-06T13:47:00.004-06:00

Day#3: The Small Things

Ah yes, the old ice cream dance! I'm so glad that it's the small things (like a little root beer float) that make my kids dance!

Day #2: You Better Run!

2011-01-05T13:45:00.000-06:00

Day #2: You Better Run!

Chris has been playing this game with the boys for a long time. I thought it was funny then when I saw Caleb playing it with Carson.

I find it so funny that the boys think it's so hilarious when Chris yells to them, "You better run!" and then chucks a blanket at them. I find it even funnier that they then bring the blanket back over and over to him to then throw at them again.

And as always...you know who to blame if my kid throws a blanket at your kid.... :)

Day #1: Blackmail

2011-01-04T13:07:00.001-06:00

Today is Day #1 of ten days where I will, as promised yesterday, post my Top 10 2010-Not-Yet-Posted-Videos-of-Pure-Dial-Family-Craziness.

Let the fun begin.

Today's video is titled: "Blackmail"

As in, I will be using the following video and pictures as blackmail someday. Probably lots of days.

Carson is a funny one. The more I say, "Ewe. Gross! Nasty!" the funnier it is to him and the more encouraged he is to do more. The kid must have an iron gut by now. (See HERE for a sampling.) I figure, if you can't beat 'em, blackmail 'em. :)

So proud:

So gross:

What's that you ask? Was that just an isolated incident? Unfortunately not. Here is another incident caught on camera:
So proud

So gross:

So proud:

He knows he's funny and cute.

Times

2011-01-03T15:43:00.001-06:00

Sigh. 4 more new posts. Another New Year's resolution. To keep up better on the blog. Mostly just for myself.

2010.

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

It was filled with fun stuff. Like parties galore, fun holidays and traditions, riding trains, going on trips, swimming, violin playing, April Fool's Day jokes, weddings, friends, spending time with extended family whom we miss so much, winning contests, Spurs games, high school football games, Seaworld, the first annual Girlcation, a fun run, calling changes, a road show, pure year long silliness, fun house projects...

Also included in 2010 were some of the worst of times. Not so fun house projects and car repairs, health insurance woes, Caleb's meningitis, and too many funerals.

But, the best of times definitely outweighed the worst of times. And we definitely learned some life long lessons from the worst of times in 2010.

Here's to making 2011 great! And to kick it off right, I'm going to post my top 10 2010-not-yet-posted-videos-of-pure-dial-family-craziness. One every day for the next ten days. Try to contain your excitement. I know you're excited. About the videos. And about future 2011 Dial craziness. I know I am.

Breaking Stuff

2011-01-03T15:25:00.003-06:00

So, I've decided that it's not actually a holiday tradition of speeding tickets like I had originally thought.

You know...this one...and this one....

Maybe it's more like the Dial Family Holiday Tradition is all about breaking stuff that costs a lot of money during the holiday season. You know. Like the law. :) Or the air conditioner. (Which broke on Christmas morning. Wouldn't matter most places. Matters in Texas.)

Or how about breaking this?

Chris decided to trade in breaking the law this holiday season for breaking his arm! :) Ewe. And yet those pictures just don't do it justice. His arm was, well, pretty much disgusting.

And well, everything is mostly not broken now. And that's what matters, right?!?

I KNOW you're disappointed...but I have to announce that there will be no Christmas Tree I Spy this year. There was definitely some decidedly random stuff hanging on the tree, but no pictures. Sad. I know. But I will refer you to year's past...HERE, HERE, and HERE. :)

We love our traditions!

Christmas

2011-01-03T14:36:00.001-06:00

Ahhh...Christmas. How I LOVE Christmas! And this was one of my favorites ever!!! The reason? This should give you a clue:

It was one of my favorites because of this awesome sister:

And because of this awesome brother, sister-in-law, and nephew:

They all came for a visit and we had so much fun! Playing games, making and eating food, making crafts and more holiday pillowcases and pajamas, going places and just being together and celebrating Christmas together.

(One of the places we went was the Children's Museum. Other places included Rudys, Lulu's, downtown to see all the Christmas lights on the Riverwalk, a train ride by the zoo, and a fun lunch and gift exchange with some of Chris's co-workers. We also made Kip D record himself and make a cd of Christmas music for our parents. But I also have copies for the highest bidders.... :)

Chris made us all a couple of nostalgic gifts. Our family would always play Christmas songs on the chimes. One of us would be the conductor and call out the notes and the rest of us would have one or two chimes hanging on our fingers that we would hit when they called our note. Very sentimental.

You can also string them on a broomstick between two chairs. :)

Chris also made for each of us the infamous marble game! My dad made one long ago that we LOVED playing growing up. I had to go by memory, so I'm not sure I told him exactly right...but it is close enough. Caleb and I have had hours of fun playing together.

Other favorites? The holiday pj's and matching pillowcases.

Isn't my sister awesome? She didn't know what kind of pjs I bought, but they matched almost EXACTLY! The boys LOVE their pillows now!

Another favorite was Caleb getting to play Joseph in a nativity scene for Joy School. They did a little nativity scene and some songs at a local nursing home and again at a Christmas Party for the families.

Yet another favorite? A sweet friend made us this little cradle and baby Jesus. It came with a very cute story and some pieces of straw. We drew each others names out of a hat and then did acts of service for them. Each time we did something nice, we got to put a piece of straw in the cradle. Caleb is still doing stuff for his person and trying to guess who has him. :) Apparently it has not ended yet.

I'm still not sure why we buy toys when boxes still seem to be the favorite:

Santa finally broke down and brought a Wii. But the family rule is that you have to play with someone else. No playing by yourself. That doesn't seem to be a problem though...

And I may or may not have pulled a little muscle while bowling on the wii.

All of our family had to leave on Christmas Day, so Santa came a day early at our house. All of the festivities were over for us by Christmas. So we may or may not have eaten dinner on the actual Christmas day at McDonalds.

Thanks to Kaylyn, Kip, Bridget, and Elliott for spending the holidays with us. We LOVED having you and reminiscing and playing and creating new memories with you. I love how much my boys love you and keep asking for you. We love you lots and miss you already!!

Thankful

2011-01-03T13:52:00.001-06:00

I love Thanksgiving. I love all the reminders it brings to be thankful for all that we have.

Just before thanksgiving, we had a big church stake (several congregations combined) service day. Currently, I serve as the assistant stake service director and Chris is the high councilman over activities. So we were both heavily involved and it kept us very busy, but was very fun! See the article in LDS Church News HERE.

Unfortunately, Thursday night Caleb started throwing up and then Friday night Carson started throwing up. So after 10 months of helping plan the activity, I had to stay home with sick kiddos and missed all the fun that Saturday morning. Bummer! But it was a lot of fun to plan and be involved in. And it was a great success!

For the month of November, our family did the turkey feathers thing again:

Whenever we saw someone doing something nice, we would write down what they did on a feather and stick it behind their turkey. It's amazing how such a small thing can motivate us to do so much more service for each other!! Even Carson was SO excited to see more feathers behind his turkey!

Caleb enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving with his Joy School friends.

And what's a holiday at the Dials without holiday pjs? :)

Oh wait...I couldn't find turkey pajamas. But my awesome sister "Nyn" made and sent Thanksgiving pillowcases! You can only see one of them (kind of) in this fancy picture, but they are awesome!!

Thanksgiving Day was perfect! We made a couple things and then met up with a bunch of friends. We had a HUGE feast, crafts, board games, balloons, and a couple pinatas.

All the families were full, the place cleaned up and sent home with leftovers by 1:30pm. Now that's the way to do Thanksgiving! Everyone does a little and yet has a LOT of food and fun!

We all took a nap. Played games. And finally decided it was time to break out the Christmas tree, lights and music.

So Last Month

2010-11-18T15:55:00.004-06:00

I know what you're thinking..."Krista, that was SOOOO last month!"

Yeah, but I'm just cool like that. And it is before Thanksgiving, so I decided I met and even exceeded my goal. Overachiever. I know.

Halloween was fun. Yet I don't really remember everything we did. Just that it was a whole lot of fun! We did the matching Halloween pajamas thing, but I don't have a picture of them together. :)

We had a meeting every Wednesday evening in October, so we would always hit Krispy Kreme Family Night on the way home. Fun free craft, free balloons and hats, and they give you free donuts to dip in chocolate and sprinkles. Very fun. And free. Did I mention that part?

We of course made Halloween sugar cookies and cupcakes for friends.

And of course ate one or two of said cupcakes and cookies:

This year Carson was a very cute superman

He was spotted flying all over town:

Short, but very cute. Just like Carson. :)

Caleb was Batman:

Chris and I? Well, we had big plans to have fun costumes. But we just never had time to make it happen. I think this is the first year we did not dress up. Bummer! Life is just too busy. I'll post more about that soon!

We went to a pumpkin painting party, had a Halloween Joy School party at our house, hit the church Halloween party and trunk or treat and also organized a trick or treat with about 25 families from church for Friday night. The boys LOVED it!!

(Cute ghost on your door, by the way, guys! :)

I thought that perhaps the sorting of the candy ritual was a learned thing passed from one generation to the next. But alas, it must be the natural cycle of life. It was the first thing Caleb did when he got home without any prompting from us. Not bad loot for just visiting a few houses on Friday night, huh?!?

(That pile of snickers, twix and 3 musketeers? That was the "I don't like it--it's for mom and dad pile." We made the sacrifice and took care of it for him.

Another fun holiday. Love them! So excited for some more!!!

Got the Fever

2010-10-19T20:59:00.002-05:00

Phew. 7 posts in one night. (Just for you Chattertons! :) Jk. But your note to Chris on FB was timely since I had started all these updates this afternoon! :)

My boys seriously make me laugh.

The other night as we were heading into a restaurant, I turned around in the parking lot to see why Caleb was going so slow:

Funny kid.

At Wendy's Carson just couldn't help himself. He apparently like the music:

Carson. Already wearing his pants drooping.

My all time favorite dance--I call it the "Na na na na na na Dance." I'd like to thank my brother Kerry for teaching Caleb it a couple years ago. When we were visiting them in Washington, we were in two different cars driving home to their house. The car we were in got there first and Kerry taught Caleb how to turn around in the driveway, bend over, and stick his bum out, and say, "Na na na na na!" I don't know if he realizes what a positive and lasting impact he has had on Caleb.

Caleb does it all the time! Imagine my hysterical laughter when I realized that Carson has now perfected it too!

And while I was cleaning up the table at yet another restaurant, Chris took the boys outside. They decided that I (and all the other patrons around) needed to be entertained: (Highlights include more "na na na na na na dancing" and Carson's superman flying.) I was filming from inside the restaurant.

Never a dull moment. Just the way we like it.

Brothers Gotta Hug

2010-10-19T20:55:00.000-05:00

Brothers are silly together:

Brothers share everything:

(including suckers)

Brothers spend lots of time together:

Brothers hold hands:

Brothers read together:

Brothers differ in the things they like:

(Caleb loves animals)

(Carson could care less about feeding the animals--just point me to a good mud puddle!)

Brothers watch football together:

Brothers enjoy nature and taking walks together:

Brothers play together:

Brothers imitate each other:

Brothers work together:

Brothers teach each other:

Brothers just love to be together:

Brothers Gotta Hug (to quote the astute Chris Farley)

(Carson fell and hurt himself and wanted Caleb to hold him on his lap. Ready? Collective "Aweeeeee!")

Block Party

2010-10-19T20:51:00.000-05:00

We were in charge of our neighborhood block party for National Night Out which we held in the street right in front of our house.

The boys had a blast!! They especially enjoyed the bounce house, food, police car, and the two fire trucks!

This fireman was so nice to play checkers with Caleb!!

A good time (hopefully) had by all. It's always nice to get to know neighbors and spend some time with them.

Thomas

2010-10-19T20:48:00.000-05:00

A few weekends ago we went to the Day Out with Thomas.

The boys had so much fun! They actually got to RIDE on a real train. They were soooo excited!!

They also had a bounce house train thingy:

Pretty sure Caleb only ran through it 206 times.

They had a miniature golf course. Food. Magicians. Musicians. And Caleb's favorite--a rock climbing wall:

I was surprised at how much Caleb loved this! We will definitely have to find one locally that we can take him too.

Perhaps Chris enjoyed it too. :)

Good times. Good memories. Good company! (Thanks, Cheneys!)

Utah Trip

2010-10-19T20:45:00.002-05:00

We were able to go on a quick trip to Utah to attend the funeral of Chris's Nana.

Carson LOVED the flight. For the full first hour on the airplane, all that was heard was, "AIRPLANE! AIRPLANE! AIRPLANE!" Cute and funny to his parents. Maybe not to the people around us. But probably better than crying, right?!?

We were able to stay at a 12 bedroom cabin at Bear Lake with all of Chris's siblings and families and parents and even some extended family. We had so much fun spending time with family and want to thank everyone for their hard work in making this such a fun time together. Thank you for driving so far, for letting us crash with you, all the meals, etc. etc. etc. We have truly been blessed with good families!

The memorial service was very nice. Chris was honored to be able to play a violin piece with our niece at the memorial service that was beautiful! He also did a great job speaking at the service and singing a hymn with his siblings.

Utah is a truly beautiful place. I forget just how beautiful in between times.

(While in Utah, one of my favorite parts is to take the boys to the place where my mom is buried and spend some time with Grandma Kathryn too. :)

We are so thankful, despite the circumstances, that we were able to go and spend time with family and be there for the funeral. Unfortunately, it was such a quick and busy trip, we missed seeing many of our friends. Hopefully we will be able to go again soon and spend time with all of you! But meanwhile, you are also always welcome to come see us in Texas. :) (Counting down you know who that is coming on a surprise trip, Sandie, Kaylyn, Kip, Bridget, and Elliott!!)

Nana

2010-10-19T13:46:00.004-05:00

As I mentioned in my last post, Chris's grandmother (Nana) and uncle passed away on the same day in two different states.

I'm so glad we have been able to visit with Nana a few times in the last few years and let our boys meet her and take pictures with her.

We were lucky enough to be able to attend her funeral in Utah. More about that in another post. While Nana will surely be missed, we are happy for her to be reunited with her husband who passed away 43 years before her, her daughter that died very young, and her son that passed away just hours after her. What a sweet reunion I'm sure that was!!

As I've had cause to contemplate life and death and the purpose of life...it has reminded me of one of my secret pet peeves. :) And since you asked...haha...here you go! Secretly, it drives me nuts when people complain about their parents. If only they knew how much some of us would give to have our parents alive and "bugging" us. :) Just hug and kiss your parents and tell them how much you love them! I don't care who you are and what the circumstances! You will miss them when they are gone!

Hero

2010-10-19T13:37:00.001-05:00

(Chris holding Caleb when he was a baby, Chris's dad, Chris's Uncle Rod)

One of Chris's heroes passed away a couple weeks ago. His Uncle Rod died very unexpectedly in a kayaking accident at a young 50 years old. (see the news story here). He died in Austin, just hours after Chris's grandmother (Nana--also his uncle Rod's mother) passed away in California (more on that soon.) What a day for the Dial extended family.

Chris has always looked up to his Uncle Rod...as a father figure, a mentor, a church member, an entrepreneur, a businessman...the list goes on and on....

We are so happy for the time we've been able to live fairly close to them and visit them while living in San Antonio--a short hour and a half drive away from Austin. How we will treasure our memories of him and the example he set for our family.

The funeral was beautiful. And just packed with people whose lives, as our lives, were influenced so much for good.

His passing and funeral brought back waves of emotions and memories for me. I couldn't help watching his sweet kids and mourning for them. For the heartache that I know is theirs now and the heartaches that will come and go for years to come. I mourned for all the missed future life events--weddings and baptisms and missions for the church and births of their children--his grandchildren. My heart aches for them because my heart has ached for my own mom who died when I was 9 years old. And yet...I know they'll be ok. Because I'm ok. I know that their dad will still be a part of their lives, because my mom is still a part of mine. I will see my mom again...as I know they know they will see their dad again.

Another good reminder about how short life is. How we need to make the most of it and not sweat the small things.

Day #9

2010-09-09T09:12:00.007-05:00

See my cute boys?

(As a totally random aside--dang! Can't believe how much that power washing helped our sidewalks, porch and driveway! Looks so dirty in this picture! Good job scouts!)

They have no health insurance. And that scares me. A lot.

Today is day #9 with no health insurance.

We've had recent reminders of the importance of health insurance. Remember that meningitis bit? Expensive! If it had been without insurance? Dang. And our last weekend with insurance, we decided we should take advantage of it one last time with a trip to the ER. Chris sliced his hand open and we ran to the ER to have them fix it up. Can't imagine without insurance how fun it would have been. We may soon find out! :)

Chris has his own company. Which is great!!! We have learned soooo much this last year and he is doing awesome! And he has so many irons in the fire he's not sure which to pull out first! Great, right?

BUT! Health insurance is a major issue for us.

I admit--I used to be a bit judgmental on this topic. I'd hear about health insurance issues and think...well, go get health insurance then!

That was then. When I had health insurance.

We have been on COBRA up until now because we have been unsuccessful in buying private health insurance. We keep being denied because of various pre-existing health conditions. Supposedly this health reform bill was supposed to make it so they couldn't do that. But apparently Texas is fighting it...which translates into...us fighting it too.

We've looked into CHIPS at least for the kids. We do not qualify because Chris makes too much.

So, as far as I can tell, that leaves us with the following options:
1. Have no health insurance
2. Chris works for somebody else instead of himself so that we can get health insurance
3. Krista goes back to work--just for the insurance
4. Earn significantly less money so we can qualify for medicaid or CHIPS or something

I choose none of the above. At least I wish I could choose none of the above.

I've asked every doctor, nurse, receptionist, insurance salesmen, friend, neighbor. Anyone I can think of to see if they know of any other options. I've turned up nothing.

Krista's commentary? Sad that small businesses and people working for themselves are forced back into working for someone else if they want to have health insurance. Sad for sure.

Meanwhile, since we are a business, we pay double for medicaid and medicare and such. We pay the company portion and our individual portion. Nice that I can pay double every month for insurance for somebody else, but no one will allow me to even purchase it for myself! I'm WILLING and ABLE to pay for my own insurance! BUT NO ONE WILL LET US! Messed up system. (Disclaimer: Ok...last time I mentioned this, I was teased about mentioning medicaid and medicare. I have absolutely nothing against these programs...nor anyone that has ever used them. Just frustrated that I have zero good options and that I am forced to pay for the programs when no one will give me an opportunity to pay for my own. Selfish? Yes. I know. Sorry!)

So for now, I guess we will just pray for no major health issues and brush up on our negotiation skills if we do. :)

P.S. Even with private health insurance...seems like none of them have maternity coverage--anyone out there with private insurance--how do you go about that? Just save your money and pay for it outright? Not an announcement by any means--just curious for future reference! :)

Lessons Learned

2010-08-22T19:58:00.005-05:00

Phew. 3 posts in one night. A new record!! Trying to play catch up.

Lessons learned from Day #1 of speaking assignments:

Ok, so our new found plethora of time with Chris is kind of over. Not completely...but a bit. A couple of weeks ago he was asked to serve as a member of the high council at church. How do I explain this to my friends of other faiths.... Our church is organized by geographic boundaries. So the actual congregation you go to each Sunday is based on where you live. Several congregations (or wards) make up a stake. So he now helps with more regional things on the stake level (made up of several wards). And everything we do at church is volunteer. You are asked to serve in a certain spot and you can decline or agree, but it's all unpaid. Does that make any sense? If not...you'll just have to come with me and see what I'm talking about for yourself. :)

So among other assignments, once a month we are assigned to speak in Sunday services at one of the 11 wards that make up our stake. Each month it rotates and we will be somewhere different. Today was the first one. Lessons learned from today:

1. 1:30 is too late to start church for 18 month olds who didn't take a nap.

2. 4 year olds don't like their cheese moved. In the beginning. But by the end, they are happy their cheese moved. (Also known as...four year olds don't like to attend other congregations...they miss their own friends and teachers...until they realize it can be just as much fun and they can meet new friends.)

3. 4 year olds will, if parents are not watching closely, make their way to the front of the congregation where their other parent is speaking. Several times. Especially if one parent is holding a sleeping baby and is not sure how to snag him with said sleeping baby. Oops! :) A little distraction and entertainment never hurt anybody, right? :)

4. 18 month olds who really like their dad should not be sitting near the front in church where they can see said dad really well. They will probably keep calling out to him while he is speaking. Daaaaad!! Daaaad!!!

5. Chris loves to speak. In church. In public. Really, anywhere. Krista, well, does not. But is learning that it is ok. I guess.

6. I thought the high council was for old guys. I mean no disrespect. :) But apparently it's for young guys too. :)

7. It actually can be a lot of fun to travel to different wards and visit old friends and make new ones and get out of your comfort zone!!

8. (Chris' item #1) When Krista says she only needs five minutes to speak, what she means is that YOU only need five minutes to speak.

9. (Chris' item #2) Four year olds LOVE finding hymn numbers. For example, if you tell a four year old to find hymn #219, they start at hymn #1 and go in order until they find #219. The carrot is when they hit, for example, hymn #29. "Hey! There's a 2, and there's a 9, but there isn't a 1 between them. Keep looking!) Hours. Of. Distraction. (Or at least until mom starts speaking and you need to run onto the stand. Again.)

10. (Chris' item #3) Tori K. is my all-time speaking partner. All other high councilors BACK OFF! ;) (I'm also thinking of poaching Bradley C...any thoughts on whether I can pull it off?)

Beach Boys

2010-08-22T19:50:00.000-05:00

Meanwhile...back at the ranch...

While I was on girlcation, Chris was ambitious. He decided to take the boys camping at the beach.

And wow. Those boys are still talking about it. They had so much fun!

What a fun memory for them!!!

I'll have to get the other pictures from Chris and post them because there were some really fun ones!

Funny side note--in case you didn't realize it--it's HOT in Texas this time of year. So Chris was apparently roasting all night. But when they woke up in the morning, Caleb said, "Man! Next time I need to bring my jacket! I'm cold!!" Haha. Little Texas boys don't know what cold is. Let's hope to keep it that way! :)

Girlcation

2010-08-22T19:41:00.001-05:00

For my birthday, Chris surprised me with an airline ticket for and helped orchestrate the first annual girlcation (Girl + vacation = girlcation. It's science). He even took the days off work and watched the boys himself. Now if all of that doesn't win you the Husband of the Year Award...I'm not sure what would! He is pretty much the best!!

So I hopped on a plane by myself and man oh man was it weird. It was strange to go through security at the airport without a whole bunch of kid gear. It was strange to get on the plane and not have kids to distract. It was weird carrying only one suitcase through the airport.

But I somehow persevered the weirdness and I met up with my sister, Kaylyn (aka Nyn) in Nashville. About two miles outside the airport...we had our first of many adventures.

Hehehe. Awesome, huh? That's what fun memories are made of right there!! A guy rear ended us. Welcome to Tennessee!!

We met up with another sister (Kim) in Huntsville, AL. We went to the space museum and played games galore and just had fun catching up with each other.

Caleb apparently loved all the pictures of the spaceships I kept texting them. He kept asking me to ask someone there if we could all ride on one. :) The only thing in Huntsville I probably could have done without is the human centrifuge machine thing they called experiencing g force. :)

Then all three of us met up with Kip and family in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. What a crazy but fun place. I think it is becoming the Vegas of the East!! We road a tram 3000 feet in the sky, played miniature golf, rode a ski lift up to an alpine slide and raced down the slide, hit the outlet stores, ate out, made candy in our hotel room, and just had a relaxing but fun time.

Chris said the only thing I had to come home with was a date and place for next year's girlcation. :)

And so...looking forward to next year! :)

It's funny, but really all I wanted to do when I got home was all the daily things that sometimes get mundane. Life is so good.

And when I got home to a nice clean house and happy boys, check out what else was waiting for me!!

I had to take a picture of those cupcakes. Pretty much masterpieces, don't you think? They tasted even better than they looked though! Thanks, Jill!!!

Grinning

2010-07-30T14:57:00.001-05:00

Maybe...just maybe...I have had a permanent grin on my face since Sunday.

Maybe Chris was released from being first counselor in the bishopric at church. (For those not down with this lingo--I've been told by my friends of other faiths that it might be compared to an assistant pastor of sorts. Except it's all volunteer and unpaid.) So maybe...just maybe...a lot of his time has been freed up and we have certainly enjoyed him being home a bit more!

And maybe I sat and giggled during church when Chris came and sat with us and the boys wanted absolutely nothing to do with me and were all over Chris during the meeting.

Here's Caleb showing us how excited he is by showing us the bull:

And sporting women's sunglasses

(Thanks for dressing my son in these fancy sunglasses, Aubrey--and taking a picture--but this looks suspiciously like it was during church--hmmmm.... :)

And Carson was so excited, he was doing a mariachi song for us

And doing a happy dance on the table

Ok. Actually...that is where you can find him anytime I turn around for more than a second. Crazy kid!

All teasing aside though--Chris really enjoyed serving in the Bishopric. I know there will be plenty of other opportunities to serve, but he will definitely miss being able to serve in this capacity. He constantly amazes me with how hard he works. He was going to school full time finishing his second master's degree, working 60-70 hours and serving in the church full time and yet managed to make his family feel like the priority. Now he is finished with his MBA, usually working only about 40 hours a week, and has a break from church service. Hence our smiles! :)

And the second exciting reason I am maybe...just maybe...smiling a lot is because Carson started Nursery at church on Sunday. (Again, for those that are not down with the lingo--they have a class that kids start attending at church during the second and third hour when they turn 18 months.)

Ok. Not really! I'm not smiling that big about this yet. I can't believe my baby is 18 months old and I'm a little sad about it. Sniff sniff. Ok. A lot sad. And I think it makes it harder because he is having such a hard time with nursery so far. As in crying so hard he puked. This is a new adventure for us as Caleb walked into nursery like he owned the place! Any suggestions? Tips? Pointers?

And speaking of grinning...here's to hoping that Chris is still smiling when I get back from girlcation!!! :) hehehehe.

Summer Fun

2010-07-15T20:23:00.002-05:00

Just a random (albeit long) sampling of some of our fun this summer....

We have been having a lot of fun so far this summer! We just love those free summer movies. And we've been actually making it to playgroup. Ok...sometimes.

Ok. And seriously? The. Best. Dollar. Ever. Spent.

Marble races. Awesome. It's one of those swimming noodle thingys (that's the technical term) cut in half and stuck together with toothpicks with a shoe box at the end to catch all those racing marbles. Seriously...we have had hours of fun! You can find more detailed directions online here. Awesome site!! Love it!

Caleb started swimming lessons and LOVED them!

Caleb is doing quite well at the swimming thing. And Carson is too. Carson was so cute watching Caleb's swimming lessons. He would walk around the pool kicking his little feet and saying, "Kick kick kick!" while the kids were practicing their kicks in the pool. When they went under the water and blew bubbles, he would be blowing too. Every time Carson gets in the bath or pool now he kicks and blows bubbles in the water and practices everything he saw Caleb's class doing. Funny kid. He even insists on wearing Caleb's swimming suit (and one flip flop) at all times.

I always think that thing is hidden...but he comes up with it somehow!

Speaking of water...we have spent quite a bit of time at the Sea World water park this summer.

Um, yeah...in case you were wondering...it's HOT in Texas in the summer. Not as hot this year as other years...but still hot. I thought this picture of them sucking down their drinks was funny.

I've been very surprised and very proud of Caleb for wanting to do all the water slides. He goes by himself on any that he's tall enough for. I took him on a kind of scary slide and thought I had probably made him swear off water slides forever. It was dark and fast and at the end he was bucked off our tube. But he got up and said he wanted to go again! I was ShOcKeD!

Caleb and Carson love the various play areas at Sea World.

They have also enjoyed some sprinkler time

It's actually rained some this summer...so on the rainy days we find things indoors to amuse ourselves:

Like riding a bag of dirty diapers like a horse while shouting, "Woo hoo!" Sick. But not too sick to stop and take a picture first. :)

Or racing in laundry baskets:

We spend time indoors being crazy box head

Or giving each other rides in boxes

Or rides on blankets

or just playing hard core together

Or just kicking back and having a cold one:

Or having breakfast in bed:

Maybe we have enjoyed a few too many indoor play lands.

Ahh...so much fun and so yummy too.

Carson's vocabulary is EXPLODING! He says EVERYTHING we say now and it is SO very funny! He also imitates everyone. Like this:

Caleb fell and twisted his ankle a little bit. So he was scooting on his bum over to see me. So what does Carson do? Why of course...he drops down on his bum and scoots over to see me too! He had everyone in the place laughing at his antics.

This is Carson's new spot for dinner cooking:

A little wet and well, at first I thought it was kind of gross...but then I decided it's nothing a little clorox can't fix. :)

And what summer is complete without...

...a flat tire. Can't you see how excited the boys are to wait an hour and fifteen minutes for a patch? :)

Also needed for some summer fun--

...some bike riding...

...and some skating

So there you have it! A random post about some random summer fun!

Now go make that marble racer thing. And just TRY to pretend you don't think it's fun!

Fourth Fun

2010-07-07T21:30:00.002-05:00

Ahhh...nothing like some Fourth of July Fun and a three day weekend! Action packed fun, really!

Where to begin? We had a church breakfast celebration in the morning--complete with a kazoo parade for the kids.

Um...thank you...I THINK...for the now well used kazoos! :)

Then we hit a good old fashioned small town parade

The boys scored a ton of candy! And some pretty necklaces. Nice. :)

Then we hit a community center celebration, complete with food and fire trucks and such:

Went to a very fun pool party

Stayed at said pool party way too late. Stayed up even later when we got home and set off a few of our own fireworks in front of our house.

Regretted staying up so late the next day during morning church. :) Remembered how one and four year olds should not be up until 11:00pm. Recommitted during morning church to never staying out so late again. At least on Saturday nights. This month at least. :)

Went to a very very very yummy barbecue at some awesome friends' house. Then missed meeting up with some other good friends for some fireworks. But still saw the fireworks. A bit disappointed they were so short...but the boys didn't care. In fact...they loved them. I have just been personally spoiled by Cincinnati fireworks.

Of course we had to do some 4th of July crafts and make some yummy treats

(boys putting festive sprinkles on cupcakes)

And of course we had to have matching patriotic (and dirty) t-shirts.

My favorite part was just being with my three boys. My boys' favorite part I'm pretty sure was the poppers.

Iron Gut

2010-06-30T15:19:00.001-05:00

A little quiz for you:

Which of the following has Carson had a drink of or eaten:

A. Chunks of his flip flops
B. Dirt
C. Bubbles
D. Wood chips
E. Sand
F. Glue stick
G. Sneakers
H. Foil wrappers
I. Elmers glue
J. Dishwashing soap
K. Pool water
L. Puddle of rain water
M. Very hot and spicy salsa
N. Chunks of sponge
O. All the above

Yes, that's right friends. Carson has eaten or taken a drink of each and every one of those things. His new nickname is Iron Gut because he's going to have one if he doesn't already after eating and drinking such yummy things.

Exhibit A:

Carson--apparently thirsty--decides to just bend over and drink some nice pool water at the splash pad. Yum yum!!

p.s. For the record...the kid LOVES salsa!

p.s.s. I try to stop him. I honestly do! He's just too fast for me!

Father's Day

2010-06-23T19:33:00.003-05:00

Our theme for Father's Day this year was "King for the Day" and we had a lot of fun with it! The boys had a blast calling Chris "king" all day, making him wear a crown they made him, and giving him clues to his treasures and back rubs and just serving him all day. Too cute!!

Each year I put together a dvd of pictures and videos of Chris with the boys for Father's Day. This is the beginning of this year's dvd. I put this on here mostly because Caleb likes to watch videos on our blog and especially loves watching the "dad movies" as he calls them. If you're really, really, really bored, you can watch and enjoy too. But BEWARE!! Chris has turned to the dark side since moving to Texas and so there is ample dark music (country!) Oh, and cut me some slack on not being able to polish it. Something about some meningitis going on and a little helper that turned off the power button on the computer when I was about half way done and smart me hadn't saved it yet. :)

We love Chris so much and think he is the best! He is such a good dad to Caleb and Carson!! So much fun, such a good example, and so loving and doting!

We also love our dads. They are too good to us and we miss them tons! The older I get, the more I realize how much they have done and continue to do for us and how ungrateful I've always been! We love you and hope you had a good Father's Day!!

How?

2010-06-15T21:56:00.001-05:00

How do I explain to someone how last week could be so so awful and yet so wonderful?

How I wish I could erase the look on Caleb's face as he was in so much pain last week!

How I wish I could erase mental snapshots like this that will forever be ingrained in my head!

How do I thank someone for making my sick and pained son smile with their gifts?

How do I thank someone for praying for my son?

How do I thank someone for showing up at my house at just the right moment with just the right words or gifts or services?

How my heart melted as I watched Carson just want to make his brother better again!

How do I thank my husband for choosing to be with us and support us over not losing income?

How do I explain to someone how last week has affected me for the good?

How the things I worried about a couple weeks ago seem so trivial!

How I desire to be a better mom, wife, sister, daughter, friend, disciple of Christ!

How do I thank a loving Father in Heaven for the feelings of peace and comfort I have felt?

How my heart hurts to think of all the mommies out there who are hurting and worrying about their little ones tonight!

Scary!

2010-06-09T23:15:00.001-05:00

Life is so fragile. It can really be taken at any time. No one ever thinks it will happen to them!

We spend so much time worrying about and being frustrated by things that are utterly and totally meaningless!!

We had a small reminder of that the last few days. Sweet, sweet Caleb.

Friday night Caleb just stopped playing and just put his head on the table to rest. Chris went and got him ready for bed and noticed he had a fever. He complained that his head hurt. No alarms going off in my head yet.

Saturday the fever continued and by mid-afternoon he had a crazy crazy rash. It spread all over his body. He complained that his head hurt. Strange--but still no alarms going off for me. I was just wishing it wasn't the weekend!! Why oh why must they always get sick on the weekend when the doctor offices are closed?!?!

Sunday morning, he woke up and his rash and fever were gone. I questioned my decision to stay home from church. But Carson was running a fever and I had a cold myself. By early afternoon, Caleb's fever came back. And then the rash. In full force. Again, Caleb complained that his head hurt. I asked him to show me where and he pointed all over his head and his neck too. I thought maybe he had a sore throat or something. By early Sunday evening I was getting a bit worried. Chris walked in the door and took one look at Caleb and said we were going to the ER. I convinced him to slow down and call the free nurses hotline to see if we should really be worried. Haha. As soon as we were telling the nurse the symptoms over the phone, the alarm FINALLY went off in my head! Oh my gosh!! He is having head and neck pain!! And fever!!! HELLO?!?! The nurse kindly but emphatically said to get him to the hospital NOW! I tried to wake Caleb up as he had fallen asleep about an hour before. I tried to explain to him what we were doing but he really wouldn't wake up and was not very responsive which only added to my panic. Although I know he was somewhat with it because he later opened his eyes long enough to say, "No shots!!" and go back to his delirium. :)

If you ever want fast service at the ER, just drop the buzz words "head and neck pain" and "fever." Dang.

They ran a bunch of tests to try to rule out other things. All came back negative. He had to have a spinal tap to confirm what the doctor already heavily suspected--meningitis.

Funny side note--during the spinal tap Caleb had to be sedated. One of the monitors on Caleb's thumb had a red glowing light that as he was coming out of the sedation, he thought was pretty cool. Chris had a good ol' time with him. They had the same conversation over and over and over again. It was rather hilarious. "Caleb, your thumb is red (because of the light from the heart monitor on the end of his finger)." "Oh wow!!! Why does it do that? Wow!!" 10 second pause.... "Hey Caleb, your thumb is red...."

Another funny story--after Caleb finished the spinal tap and had come out of the sedation, they brought in a little bag with several little presents. He was so excited when he pulled out this little car and exclaimed, "It must be my lucky day!!!" Again, we found it hilarious. Perhaps the staff in the ER thought we were strange finding so many things hilarious. But anybody that can believe it to be their lucky day after going through all that craziness and still laying flat on their back in the ER recovering from a spinal tap is my little hero!! He is just such a sweet kid. He smiled through his whole hospital stay even though it was scary and new and crazy and painful.

The spinal tap results came back and confirmed that he had meningitis. Now to fully understand my mommy worry--the only thing I knew about meningitis was that it had taken an old friend of mine in her 20's who had been perfectly healthy just a day or so earlier. And that the ER doctor basically told us this is very serious. Yikes!

We quickly learned that we were hoping and praying for viral meningitis and not bacterial meningitis. Caleb was showing a few signs of both so it was impossible for the doctor to guess. Not that guessing matters except to put my mind at ease!! We had to wait for the cultures to come back. We would know preliminary news at 24 hours and definitive at 48 hours. Praying for viral. Praying for viral.... Bacterial is just straight up bad!!

The next day we found out it was viral meningitis. Serious...but not as serious as it could have been!!!

Bottom line...we were released from the hospital and are now at home dealing with it.

Caleb has been a trooper. He has had a lot of head, neck, back and stomach pain. Especially after he thinks he is feeling better and starts playing for awhile. I cannot stand to see him in pain...it just breaks my heart. So we have been watching a lot of tv and movies. Bleh. :) But Caleb is in heaven about that part. :) Caleb basically has zero immune system right now so we cannot go anywhere and have to be ultra careful about not having anyone sick come to see him. And yet, overall...I am just so happy that things are not worse than they are. My hope is that things just improve from here on out.

I brought Carson in yesterday because he too had been running a fever since Saturday. Just an ear infection. Phew! Never thought I would be so happy for an ear infection! :)

We are so thankful for priesthood blessings and the prayers of many and their healing power. We are so so thankful for such loving and supportive friends and family. We have learned so much about being charitable and giving service. It is just not possible to put into words the gratitude that I feel....

We are also thankful for lessons learned. Another life event that just has an amazing ability to zero in our focus on what is truly important in life.

Later

2010-05-30T22:45:00.002-05:00

16 months later...

...still climbing! Still giving me heart failure.

16 months later...

...still has the same kidney issues. Dang it!! Just had another renal ultrasound and appointment with his nephrologist. Kidneys are not any better, but not any worse. Focusing on the not any worse part. :)

9 months later...

...Caleb finished Joy School. He has had so much fun with it, and so have I!

Being hit by several Nerf balls later...

...Carson is out for revenge! :)

Several trips to Sea World later...

...yup...we still love it. (Can you tell? Carson is becoming quite the hammy these days. Perhaps we only produce ham bones.)

12 months later...

...Still thanking NCI for doing us that favor. Still thankful Chris now only puts in 40 hours a week. Still thankful he is happy doing his work now. Still happy he actually enjoys the people he works with now. Still happy we are now better off financially. Only thing left to work out is that dang health insurance...but that is a post for another day! (Yeah..ok, so that picture doesn't really go with that one. But it's the only one I didn't have a picture for and Carson is, I'm sure, happy about all the stuff mentioned above. :)

2 weeks later since Uncle Kody came for a visit...

...still missing him!

Too many years later...

...Chris still manages to get the craziest injuries in racquetball!!

4 years later...

...Caleb still just loves to help. He can do laundry by himself now. Granted...he has a difficult time reaching the stuff in the very bottom. No pun intended.

5 months later...

...I'd say Chris and Caleb's weekly violin lessons have paid off. This video was of a practice for the song they played in church today. Can't believe Chris picked up the violin for the first time just a short 5 months ago. Some people got it...I don't got it! A man of many talents, for sure. Speaking of talents, Caleb is doing well on the violin too and absolutely loves to go to his joint lesson with Chris and then out for dinner together afterward each week.

Soon I'll have to record Caleb playing too for your viewing pleasure. But later.

Fun Run

2010-05-08T15:30:00.000-05:00

Caleb and Carson participated in the Wildflower Kids Run held last weekend at the Botanical Gardens. The weather was good, the price was right (free!), the scenery great and we just had a blast!!

We weren't planning on Carson participating, but when we checked in and got Caleb all registered, the lady organizing the event told us to go get a shirt for Carson too because there were plenty of extras. They had a 3 and under race and so we figured, why not?!? Carson ran/walked the whole 1/4 mile run and it was sooooo adorable. He came in last place, but I'm pretty sure he got the most attention. :) Everyone around me at the finish line was oooohing and ahhhing and running to grab their cameras to take pictures of the cute 15 month old running the race. He's a little distracted by the bubbles here at the end, but he made it!!

Carson getting hydrated for the run:

Getting distracted by bubbles at the finish line:

LOVING all the attention and giving his cheesy face to all his fans:

We were so late finishing up Carson's race that we were still at the finish line when they started the 4-6 race for Caleb. So he had an extra leg in his race to try to catch up. He had so much fun though!!! He has asked every day since if we can go to another race. And at least once a day, we have to go outside and he has me time him while he runs or rides his bike to the end of the street and back again.

Here is Caleb being a good listener--listening to instructions for the race:

Getting all stretched out and warming up. SO CUTE!!!

Rounding the corner to the finish line:

Ready for his prize after reaching the finish line:

A good time had by all. We will definitely look forward to this again next year and will definitely have to check out some other fun runs for kids as well!

Shows

2010-04-30T10:20:00.001-05:00

So our family recently participated in a play at church.

It ended up being really fun, but there were definitely times that I wasn't so sure about it. I will admit that this is way (WAY) out of my comfort zone. It is WAY inside Caleb and Chris's comfort zone. Haha. Caleb loved being on stage. Caleb decided to put on his own little side show and quite a few people told me that they didn't really watch the show because they were too busy watching Caleb and his cute antics. :) He went to center front stage and was doing all sorts of funny stuff apparently. Oh well.

I have to give a shout out to Marcie for all those ruffles. :) And Jill for the costumes! Thanks, girls!!

Poor Carson was so sick. He had been running a temperature for five days (of the 104.5 variety--I'll post more about that later. He is all better now though!) We walked off stage and went straight home and Carson puked all over within two minutes of walking in the door. Phew! At least we didn't puke all over the stage!!!

And speaking of shows...the three amigos spent a bit of time together while I went to a two day conference recently.... We know what happens when the three amigos have a lot of time on their hands, right? :) And well...let's just say we have quite a hilarious constant show at our house these days.

This video just doesn't do it justice. It was in the confining car and Carson was being a little camera shy. But all Chris has to say is something like, "Who is a crazy monkey?!?" and Caleb and Carson and Chris all go crazy making monkey noises, beating on their chests and walking like crazy monkeys. Quite entertaining really. If you see Chris, be sure to ask him to see his crazy monkey impression live. :)

p.s. Aren't we so festive? Caleb in his Halloween pajamas and Carson in some Valentine pjs? Awesome. Even more awesome? That we took them to a church activity dressed that way.

Assorted

2010-04-17T15:28:00.001-05:00

This post is like a box of a dozen yummy assorted Krispy Kreme donuts. Wide variety, oh so yummy and no reason they're thrown together in one box except for convenience. And in no particular order.

Donuts #1, #2 and #3: We will take three of those melt in your mouth original hot glazed Krispy Kremes please!

Nothing melts me more than watching my boys playing together--especially reading together.

Donuts #4 and #5: Those cutesy donuts that they make into nice pretty butterflies and such

Awww. Love those boys. Not calling them butterflies. Just cute. Like those donuts are cute.

Donut #6: I'll take one of those fun donuts. Those donuts that Krispy Kreme makes that look like basketballs and footballs sometimes. They are Caleb's favorites. They're cool and awesome.

Remember that photo contest you helped us out with? The one where we took pictures of the boys pretending to be private eyes? CALEB and CHRIS WON!!! Woooohooo! See? Cool and awesome. Just like the donuts. Thanks Fulmer Investigations for sponsoring such a fun photo contest and for the awesome prize of two cool tickets to the Spurs game. Those two boys had the time of their lives together. I'll have to make Chris do a post just about that night soon! And thank you sooooo much to those of you that voted for them!!

Donut #7: This is that nasty jelly filled donut that I hate and Chris loves. I take one of these reluctantly.

Chris thought he was funny. He sent me this picture of our car on April Fool's Day. Mean, huh? I was heartbroken. Worried about our car.

Haha. I wasn't heartbroken. Here's the real story. I had begged the help of a couple people to help me get Chris for April Fool's Day. Awesome Jo Anne told Chris she had to go grab something from her car and came back and told Chris it looked like someone had crashed into his car. She even had the license plate number to verify it was his car. Chris went out and looked at it and then decided to try to get me back. He texted me the picture above and said that my April Fool's Day joke would have been funny only if someone hadn't really hit the car. He told me that he was so confused when he came back inside and Jo Anne said, "April Fools Day!" Oh haha, Chris. Nice try. And nice quick photoshopping skills. Later in the day another joke was played on him when someone told him he was going to have to do some work at another location where he did not want to work. Haha. Thanks for all your help Cindy in setting up both jokes!!!!! You're the best!!

Donuts #8 and #9: That yummy kind. You know...the chocolate iced cream filled ones

When Caleb does things that are good (yummy), he gets to put a marble in his bowl. When he makes not so good of choices, he gets to take marbles out of the bowl. When the bowl is full, we take a trip to Chuck E. Cheese. This is the second time he has filled the bowl! You can see how happy he was with his prizes from good ol' Chuck.

Donuts #10 #11 and #12: That weird donut with all the sprinkles (as Brian Regan says) "scrunched over on the edge"

I'm not even sure. Caleb asked if he could make some popcorn so he could eat it while he watched his movie. I said sure and he immediately started getting decked out. Tie and church shoes, with a sporty shirt and shorts, crazy green glasses and some hot pads. I'd say he's ready to make some microwave popcorn alright!

I think this is the funniest face ever!

One day Chris was raising his eyebrows up and down at Carson just for fun. This is Carson trying to do it too. Anytime we raise our eyebrows at him now, he will try to raise his too...and this is what happens. So...um...you may notice that we raise our eyebrows up and down a lot lately. Just go with it.

Latest edition of I Spy:
Find in my washing machine:
One Jacket
One shirt
One vacuum part
One Notebook
One battery package
One violin chin rest package

Um...yeah...I don't know.

Today only! Buy one dozen assorted donuts--get one video free!

I thought this was so cute. Carson picked up the bat, hit the ball, threw the bat, and ran for the base. So...he forgot first base and went straight for second...we will work on that. It's amazing what this little guy is picking up on just by watching his brother! I love this age!!

Easter Fun

2010-04-16T20:52:00.003-05:00

Another fun holiday.

Here is Caleb trying to get ready for the Easter bunny. I love the way he is looking at his brother in this picture.

And here is Carson three seconds later--climbing on the table trying to get us unready for the Easter bunny. :)

I love Caleb's hands on his hips, like, "Mom! You see this?!? You're going to do something about this, right?!?"

We recently made Caleb a little mail box that he leaves outside his door. He LOVES it! When he does a good job going to bed at night (which he does 95% of the time--we are in such a good bedtime phase right now! Both boys go down sooo easy right now! May it never end!), we leave him some mail and put the flag up. Caleb insisted that we needed to leave some mail for the Easter bunny. So Caleb wrote him a little note, drew a picture, put it in an envelope addressed to the Easter bunny and put it in the mailbox with the flag up. He also left a cupcake for the Easter bunny on a plate near his basket. He's taking mighty fine care of that Easter bunny, huh? Quite the little host. :) Meanwhile, Carson was trying so hard to spellcheck Caleb's letter to the Easter bunny and to taste test that cupcake to make sure it was suitable for the Easter Bunny. Quite the little helper!

Carson's first Easter egg--he scribbled on it and dropped it in the cup.

Some of the other eggs

The Awesome Aunt Nyn sent us a picture of some cute cupcakes she made. So of course we had to try them out too:

We had so much fun making these together. So some of them look more demented than others...and were supposed to have black whiskers that I just couldn't find...it's the time and fun spent together that matters, right? :)

More decorated bedroom doors:

A couple people have asked what I mean when I say I decorate their doors for holidays and why I don't ever put up a picture. Here ya go. Exciting, huh? :)

After finding all the hidden eggs and going through the Easter baskets...Chris took a little snooze...

(hehehe...can't wait for Chris to see this one on here...Caleb took good care of his daddy, making sure he was nice and comfortable! And photogenic!)

...the boys had so much fun playing together with all their little Easter stuff.

And of course in their matching Easter pjs.

In The News

2010-03-31T20:11:00.008-05:00

Well, actually, you could consider it a slow news day at the Dials. But here is the news all the same!

News to Me:

I didn't know how much love I could feel for two little boys. Especially when I see how much they love each other. Makes my heart flip in circles.

News to the major league baseball recruiters:

Get ready! That boy can SMACK a ball. Left handed or right handed. It's a new favorite past time of his. Each and every day.

News to Caleb and Carson:

I actually do like and support child slave labor. Just so you know.

News to Chris:

Caleb really needs a haircut. Seriously. :)

News to the grass:

You're going to be oh so green this year...whether you like it or not. Those two boys are sure to water it each and every day.

News to Carson's future girlfriends:

Carson already drives with one hand on the steering wheel and one arm around his imaginary chica. Watch out!

News to anyone visiting our house:

Um, there was a lot of stuff "out of order" at our house recently. The kitchen sink even had a nice reminder. But thanks to my handy-man husband...things are all good. As always.

News to the same people visiting our house:

Don't eat the whipped cream. The top may or may not have germs. (I love how he grabs it like it is a bottle or something! :)

News to the carpet

Let's hope that Carson's new found love of making himself dizzy and throwing himself on the floor doesn't result in any vomiting. :)

News to the world:

I have the cutest, most adorable, loving three boys ever. Love those guys.

Circus Comes to Town

2010-03-26T15:58:00.000-05:00

What? You didn't hear the circus was in town? Oh man. You missed out. We had great seats.

That's because it only came to our house! For two weeks straight!!!

It started when I had this bright idea to play musical rooms. Move everybody around. Caleb one room over. Carson one room over. Home office to a different room. Furniture out of our room. Furniture into our room. Toys to a different room. We started moving stuff. And more stuff. And even more. If only the paint on the walls would move too.

But we had to stop in the middle.

Life got busy.

And then the boys got sick. Again. Of the double ear infection (again!) plus bronchiolitis variety.

Hence the circus.

No pictures. I don't want to remember this circus. :)

Death defying trapeze act down the crowded hallway.

Stunning displays of dexterity as we bounce, flip, and twirl our way out of our bedroom.

The wondrous ability of the strong man as he maneuvers furniture and books all around the house. (And in some cases back again! Hehe!)

The awesome thrills continue as you watch the two young boys blast around inside the wooden globe at 65 miles per hour with only inches to spare between them and the globe.

The circus is mostly gone now. Mostly. (Such a relative term. :) I think I mostly like the changes. Mostly. I think even if I don't like the changes, Chris will not change it back. :)

Perhaps next time we can sell tickets and get rich. (Anyone else notice I have lots of schemes to get rich on this blog? I should start marketing this as a get rich quick idea blog. Maybe I'll strike it rich.) Buy your tickets now for the best show on earth! Date to be determined.

St Patrick's Day

2010-03-24T21:04:00.004-05:00

Hmmm...I can't remember. Have I mentioned that I love holidays? Well, I do. :)

Soon after Valentine's Day, the boys woke up to a scavenger hunt that led them to their fancy St. Patrick's Day pajamas.

It also led them to a kit to grow some fun clovers

Caleb has been giddily watching those clovers each and every day. Most days are complete with hourly growth updates. :)

We did several crafts during the weeks leading up to the holiday and also made our traditional four leaf clover yummy sugar cookies. But sorry. No pics. I know you're bummed. We'll try to do better next time.

Joy school was at our house that week. We had a little fun mini St Patrick's Day party even though it wasn't in the lesson plans. :) Only Caleb and one other kid took me up on coloring their drinks green though. The rest thought it was a little gross. Speaking of gross

I was going to make something different for dinner this time, but Caleb begged and begged for green eggs and green pancakes. So we obliged.

On St Patrick's Day the boys woke up to their doors decorated. They also woke to another scavenger hunt that led them to a few little fun things to help them celebrate

Seriously...is there anything better then seeing your kids so very excited about things?!? I can't get enough of it!!!

And now we move on to Easter!!

Stages

2010-03-06T13:30:00.002-06:00

Ah yes...the old dumpster diving stage. Love it.

Eating a muffin from said dumpster diving stage:

Gross. Not too gross to take a picture first though. :) Haha. I love that guilty look!

Ah yes...and then there's the good old move-the-stool-wherever-you-need-it stage:

But at least he's not climbing as high when using the stool, right?!?

Grabbing what you want from the counter from said stool stage:

Including the always favorite--brother's toothbrush and the box that he put up high so "no one" can reach it. :)

Next we have the borrowing other people's clothes stage:

Carson loves to wear Caleb's slippers and walk all over the house. It's hilarious!

My poor freezing Texas boy...freezing in 60 degree weather. Needed my sweatshirt.

I found Caleb like this one day:

Awe. An aspiring scout. His eagle earning uncles would be so proud! :)

Next stage: everything road sign stage

Caleb loves road signs lately. He asks about each and every one everywhere we go. And makes sure I follow the signs. "Mom...did you see that yield sign? Did you yield?" "Mom that sign said 30. Are you going 30?" He will definitely keep us honest!

And who doesn't love that the-Tuesday-after-the-superbowl-free-grand-slam-for-everybody-at-Denny's Stage. Right?

"All this?!? For me?!?! For free?!?"

"Caleb...hook a brother up!"

Then there's that blasted sick stage. Bleh. You know they're sick when...

...they want to take a nap.

...and when they will just lay on the kitchen floor by you while you cook dinner.

Saddest little picture ever. :(

Next we have the crazy animal petting zoo stage:

Um...yes...yes...that is a llama.

Those animals were a little too crazy for me. I had a slight nudging and shoving act on my hand just to get the dang food out of the machine. Those animals mouths were right under it and pushing my hand out of the way. What I won't do for those kids of mine.... :)

Carson--he loves animals too. From afar. As long as we were holding him, he was all excited.

When we put him down--not so excited. Aubrey was nice enough to oblige. I think we need to spend more time around animals--I was surprised to see he was a little nervous of them. But I thought about it--he really hasn't spent much time around animals ever. Lexi? Are you available to train our kid #2 to love animals? :)

The snow in Texas stage:

That's right friends. We actually had a tiny bit of snow here in San Antonio. Who would have thought?!? Caleb HAD to call Grandpa and let him know that his snow had made it's way all the way to our house! The boys kept opening up the back door, grabbing some ice/snow from the deck and putting in in a bowl to watch it melt. Hours of entertainment right there.

And now the imitate everything stage:

I was very surprised to see Carson pick up the paint brush, pretend to dip it in the water jug like brother does, and start "painting." So cute! The other day, he picked up a wet diaper from downstairs, carried it upstairs and brought it to the diaper genie in his room. He also loves to lead the music anytime he hears it and.... He's picking up on so much right now! So fun!

But then there's that fun best of pals stage. The best stage of all. That stage where the boys will just pal around and giggle with each other. It's my favorite stage, really.

"Will you please just take the picture so we can go down the slide now?"

If Chris is home, he usually has these two appendages crawling all over him. Starting the minute he wakes up!

Kind of a dark picture, but Caleb showed Carson how to fly his first kite! Carson was walking all over the empty parking lot flying it by himself. So cute!!!

"Ok...here's the plan. We head to the next aisle and we'll ask for a new movie.... When we get to that aisle over there--we'll go for some candy. Got it?"

"You fly the plane. I'll supervise."

See Kip D! Older siblings start very young making the younger ones do all the work!! It's the natural order of things. Don't fight it.

The mom of these kids should really teach her kids not to walk and jump on the couch. When they go to other people's houses--they'll probably think it's ok. Some people's moms.

Sentimental

2010-02-28T21:52:00.006-06:00

Watch out. Krista's feeling all sentimental and stuff.

It's true. I'm feeling all sentimental tonight. Not sure why.

Maybe it's because I sat and watched my boys sleep for a long time tonight. Thinking about what miracles they are. What good spirits they have. How fast they are growing up. How I love nothing more than to see a smile light up those little faces.

Or maybe it is because I'm missing my sweet husband while he is out serving others--and yet realizing, I wouldn't want it any other way. Knowing that he is so attuned to the Spirit and so willing to serve anybody, anytime.

Or maybe it's because I haven't seen extended family for so long and I was thinking about how much I miss them and how blessed I am to have them in my life. Even so far away.

I'm just plain feeling sentimental. Reminiscing on good times.

I miss backyard soccer, volleyball, badminton and board games galore. Why was I so anxious to grow up?

I miss our first tiny apartment when we were first married where we had no money to do anything but play board games or throw an old comforter out on the floor and cuddle and watch a movie on our tiny tv. Why was I so anxious for a better job and a bigger apartment?

I miss our USU days of Big Mac Mondays, Dr. Mario nights, Sunday dinners with the family, the best friends ever! and laying by the pool baking for hours. Why was I so anxious for a "real" job and a house?

I miss the laughs and giggles and time spent talking with just the four of us that happened while driving Chris to and from work when my car wasn't working for several months and we didn't want to invest the money yet to fix it because of the job situation. Why was I so anxious to get my car fixed?

I'm done being anxious. I don't want to be anymore. I love my life. All the craziness included.

I love my Carson. I love that he just stops what he's doing and will come over to me or Chris or Caleb and give us a big hug, kisses, and lay his head on us for a minute and then he's off to his next adventure.

I love my Caleb. I love the hilarious stuff he is always saying and doing. I love his crazy energy. I love how he will just turn to me and say, "I love you, mom! You are the best mom!"

I love my Chris. I love that he can always make me laugh. I love how hard he works at everything. I love his hugs. I love his homemade bread. I love his faith.

I've talked lately with so many people who are so anxious for the next phase of life. So many who are so annoyed at their spouse or kids. So many who are just not happy lately.

I feel so sad for them. I just want to shout, "Please! Just go and love them!!!"

Instead of nodding and listening...I wish I would have asked instead:

Why do we waste so much time being upset and angry and impatient with those we love?

Why can't we just love people for who they are instead of being upset about what they aren't?

Why do we spend so much time making our homes spotless when we are giving up time for those that matter most to accomplish it?

Why are we so anxious for this or that to be over?

Such a waste of precious time and energy.

I truly believe life is what you make of it.

Life is so short.

So so short.

Why can't we just squeeze them more? Just laugh more? Just enjoy life?

I don't know anyone whose life is exactly the way they want it. I don't know anyone that has no worries and no problems to deal with. There are always going to be uncomfortable things in our life...we really just have to learn to deal with it and find a way to enjoy it!

That's what I wish I would have told my friends. That's what I hope to tell myself next time I feel like I'm having one of those days.

I love this article: Come What May, and Love It!

Climbing

2010-02-23T19:42:00.003-06:00

Whew. Three posts in a week or so. Watch out. Smoke is probably coming out of our computer. It's not accustomed to being used so much. :)

Have I mentioned that Carson likes to climb?

Sometimes--the climbing is ok. Even handy. Like at the park. When I'm close by and ready to catch any falling babies.

Other times...well...it's just not ok.

This picture just doesn't do it justice. (Well, it does the mess on our desk justice....) But our desk is pretty high off the ground. This kid is crazy. In a cute-but-give-mom-a-thousand-heart-attacks-a-day kind of way.

I can honestly say my days are not boring or mundane, right?! Ahhhh...the adventures.

p.s. No pun intended with the use of the word justice. :)

Happy Birthday, Chris!

2010-02-21T19:45:00.006-06:00

We just recently celebrated Chris's birthday.

The night before his birthday, Chris had to be at the church for some meetings. So Caleb, Carson and I made cupcakes during the day and brought them to the church in the early afternoon. We left them with a sign that said Happy Birthday so he would be surprised when he got there and be able to share cupcakes with everyone there.

As a side note...Caleb LOVES to do surprises. Except he doesn't quite keep it a secret. He says things like, "Dad, there's not a big present for you upstairs." Or "Dad, a box didn't come in the mail today for your birthday." He thinks he's keeping it a surprise, but , well.... But this time, luckily, Chris was only home from work for a few minutes before he had to run off to the church. So Caleb didn't get much of a chance to tell him that we did NOT leave cupcakes at the church for him. :) That is probably the first and last time you will ever hear me say that it was a good thing that Chris was only home for a few minutes before he had to run off to the church. :)

The best part of Chris's birthday was just that he had the day off. He doesn't take days off as often anymore because he doesn't have paid vacation days just waiting for him to take them. So any day he doesn't work is just lost income. And when you can figure down to the penny how much lost income you will have, it suddenly doesn't seem worth it as often. :) But this time it was worth it! :)

I think the next best part was Caleb singing Happy Birthday to Chris several times that day. Anytime he remembered to, he would break into the song. It was very cute.

I love that kid. He is so sweet.

We had Joy School at our house the morning of his birthday. At first I felt bad because the only day he had off, we were busy all morning. But it turned out to be a lot of fun! It was fun to have Chris involved in Joy School and see Caleb interact with his friends and help out with all the activities. We had a magic show, made biscuits and then made butter, read stories, did an art project, had a riddle game, and a treasure hunt. And then at the end Chris did one of his famous puppet shows for the kids and had them all rolling in laughter and all hyped up to send them home to their parents. :)

We had some lunch and took some naps and opened some presents. This time, we randomly gave Chris his presents throughout the day. One of the boys would just show up with one in their hands and give it to him. It was a lot of fun that way.

In the early afternoon, we headed downtown. We walked around the Riverwalk, rode the boat (always a huge favorite with the boys), and ate at Tony Romas. We pretty much just love that place.

Next we headed to the rodeo/concert.

They make a HUGE deal out of the rodeo here. They kick the San Antonio Spurs out of the ATT Center for a couple weeks and have a rodeo followed by a concert every night. The boys loved watching the animals in the rodeo til the end when...

...we both had a sleeping boy on our lap. Too much excitement all day, I guess. But two of the four of us saw Toby Keith in concert.

Don't tell Toby or Chris, but I must admit...not necessarily my favorite concert ever. But I certainly enjoy any time I get to spend with my boys. And I did like the song "American Soldier." Very touching--especially since they had invited a lot of wounded soldiers to the concert and had given them floor seats. And well, I think Chris enjoyed the concert. And well, that's what matters, right?!?

Thanks to everyone that called or sent a text or left a message on Facebook and helped to make his birthday so fun!

Happy Birthday, Chris!! We love you!

Valentines

2010-02-19T12:18:00.005-06:00

Another fun holiday!

The boys in their cute matching Valentine pjs

We made our annual Valentines Day cookies. Caleb is getting really good about sprinkling...not dumping sprinkles. Yahoo!! :)

Caleb had a Joy School Valentine's Day party that was a lot of fun for him. No pictures though. But he had a lot of fun writing his name on the valentines and putting a pencil in them and giving them to his friends!

On Valentine's Day the boys woke up to hearts all over their bedroom doors. We had written on the hearts things we love about them and love to do with them. Both boys were so excited to have hearts on their doors!

There was also a trail of hearts they followed from their bedrooms, down the upstairs hall, down the stairs, and into the kitchen where they led to some fun Krispy Kreme valentine donuts. And oh! Were they excited!! We have 9am church, so it had to be something fast and easy! :)

After church, the boys and I put hearts all over the inside of Chris's car since he has to stay late at church. Caleb had written on a lot of them and drawn pictures too. Carson had even drawn on some of them. He loves to scribble already!

When Chris finally got home, Caleb got to go on his scavenger hunt to find his Valentine treasures. Carson was just happy to follow him around on the scavenger hunt. But also happy for his spoils.

And finally, for dinner, we made pink pancakes and pink scrambled eggs. Caleb LOVED squirting the red food coloring in and stirring it to watch them turn pink. Chris on the other hand...I think he had to close his eyes to eat them. They did look kind of gross. :)

I love holidays!

p.s. In reference to my last post--it's not really the use of "lol" in general I am opposed to...it is the use of "lol" after saying something rude!!

p.s.s. So apparently it was the infamous Sandie who introduced the "bless their little hearts" idea to us at USU. So sorry SWATWONK! Should have known it was you! So I'm giving you props where props are due.

p.s.s.s. But Sandie, you still stink at Dr. Mario. Lol.

Opinionated

2010-02-16T23:01:00.005-06:00

Alert! Here comes some ranting!! In two parts.

Ranting part one: What is up with the use of "lol?" Way overused. Seriously. It needs to stop. I'd like to compare it's use to the "bless their hearts" theory. When I was working at Utah State, we used to have this joke about the phrase "bless their hearts." I don't remember who started it or introduced it. Whoever it was grew up in the south. They told us that you could say anything you wanted about someone if you started it or ended it with, "Bless their little heart." Like here's an example... "Bless her little heart...but she is messed up." It was kind of fun. And wrong at the same time.

But now this "lol" is all over the place. People say whatever mean thing they want to say in a text or as a comment on a blog or Facebook and then add "lol" at the end like it makes it all better!! Seriously?!? Krista, you have big feet. Lol. Krista, you need to brush your hair more than once a week. Lol.

Okay, so really I haven't been much of a victim of this. But friends and family have. I read comments and texts and I am straight up dumbfounded by the straight up rude things people say. As if adding "lol" makes it all better. The mean part of my self wants to just comment back to that person by name and say, "So and so: You're rude and dumb. LOL." So far I've refrained. Instead I'm ranting to you. But it makes me feel better. Lol.

Ranting, Part 2: Eye Rolling and Opinionated People on Parenting (opp)

Once upon a time I was on an airplane with my then 2 year old. The lady sitting next to me had a one year old that was just sad as could be. All around me I saw eye rolling. Strangers looking at other strangers...rolling their eyes at each other. My opinionated opinion? You are only making things worse. The more eye rolling this mom saw, the more flustered she became, the louder the kid cried. Since I had been training 12 hours a day, seven days a week for two plus years in the art of kid distraction, I tried one of my fancy tricks and I picked up my fancy Subway wrapper and made some distracting noise. What do you know?!? That kid stopped crying and wanted to play with my fancy Subway wrapper. I do not tell this story to brag about my mad kid distracting techniques. I understand I am still a novice. My point is that instead of rolling your eyes, HELP! And if you're not going to HELP, at least pretend to ignore! And please stop with the eye rolling!!

I see the eye rolling a lot in the stores too. And I hear people tell stories about what they said to other parents in the stores. And to be honest...I think..."You said WHAT?!?" My opinionated opinion is that unless you are the parent of THAT child...I don't think you should judge. I'm learning that. The same rules don't work for every kid. Just cause it worked for your kid does not mean it will work for mine. I'm sure I have a lot more of that to learn still.

And lastly, since I'm ranting...the other phrase that has been bothering me lately is, "Well, my kids never..." or "I never would have let my kid...." My opinionated opinion? Well, since you asked, my response would be simply, "And you were never the parent to that child."

I'm definitely not saying that I don't want parenting advice. I just don't want judgmental parenting advice with accompanying eye rolling.

Ah. I feel better. My opinions too harsh on opp's? Lol. :)

Fortune Teller

2010-01-30T14:42:00.005-06:00

I think I just might be a Fortune Teller.

Or perhaps a Mis-Fortune Teller?

Either way--I feel some stitches and broken bones in our future.

Climbing...always climbing!!!! See that nice, fancy toilet paper and trash can? Haha. I thought they were safe. Maybe I'm not much of a fortune teller after all. I didn't see that one coming.