Sentimental

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

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!

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

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

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

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.

Birthday Festivities

For Carson's and Caleb's birthdays, we did a couple of fun things.

Last weekend we had a joint birthday party at our house. Unfortunately, I guess we were so busy having fun that we forgot to take any pictures. At all. Lame-(with a big fat) O!

But we did have a good time. We got out the arcade basketball and set it up in the garage. Caleb is actually pretty good at it--which amazes us that he can actually throw the ball that far!! We had karaoke in our living room. The Dial Speedway Concessions in the kitchen. In another room we had a projector going showing Cars (the movie), Thomas the Ride on Train and track set up in another room, and another room with video games.

We also turned the backyard into the road Lightning McQueen fixed. We took a black roll of table covering and rolled it out covering the yard. Then we used crepe paper to make a double yellow stripe down the middle. It looked cool to start out. But by the end of the party, the wind and little feet kind of got the best of it. Anyway--we had 7 or 8 carnival games set up out there with prizes and fun and made the kids stuff their own goody bags this year. :) We made all the carnival games Cars themed. So there was an inflatable Mater tool toss where you toss tools in his mouth, the ring toss was to throw rings onto orange cones, throw bean bags into tires...you get the idea.

So I've heard a lot of comments the last four years about why all the effort for such young kids. But you know what? We just like to celebrate. And really, I think we should plan a party as a family every month. Our family worked on everything together and it was so fun! For example, Chris and Caleb and I worked on the yard, while Carson closely supervised:



Every game, food item, the decorations, cleaning etc. Caleb helped us with. It was so fun to have a project that we could all work towards and work together on! Caleb even helped with the cupcakes and cake:

Not the fanciest cake ever, but hey, Caleb could recognize it :) and was excited about it...so that's what matters, right? :)

So the bottom line... Caleb was straight up giddy to help with all the preparations and about having his friends over. And that my friends, makes it worth it right there!

Anyway, we had a great time and the boys were spoiled rotten, just as kids should be on their birthdays, I believe. :)

This weekend we also did our annual birthday trip to Chuck E Cheese. A good time had by all.

Carson loves doing the slides (here and at the park) by himself:






I wish this kid's parents would teach him not to put his foot on the table. How rude.

Actually...I'm pretty sure this is hereditary. Chris always likes to tease me because I like to put my foot up on everything...like in the car...or wherever. But so do the boys. We have a lot of pictures of them with one foot up, just chillin' like their mom. So proud.

We had a great time celebrating the birthdays of these two sweet and fun boys! Can't wait for next year's festivities! :)

Four

The day after Carson turned one, Caleb turned four.

We CANNOT believe our little man is four!! Seriously?!? Where does the time go?!? It's so exciting and yet so so sad at the same time.

We celebrated a lot on Saturday (still going to post on this soon), but on Caleb's actual birthday we did a lot of fun things too. We made him a little thing to go around his neck that said, "It's My Birthday Today!" to wear to church. It was great because everywhere he went at church people were stopping him right and left and telling him, "Happy Birthday!" We had told Caleb we would open presents after church, but we had to wait for Chris to get home from his meetings at church too!! Caleb was sooo anxious! But Chris finally made it and then we had some fun. The night before I had set up a scavenger hunt with all of his presents. Only this time, I had made it so he got gifts along the way. So he would find a few clues and then find a gift with the next clue attached. Giddy does not even begin to describe this boy's excitement. I love how excited he gets over such things! We played the afternoon away all together with the new toys and games. That night we had some of Caleb's favorite friends over and made homemade pizzas and had more cake and ice cream. I think Caleb had a great day and we enjoyed celebrating with him.

One of his favorite presents was this little table top stage and some dinosaur hand puppets. He has had a lot of fun making up and putting on shows for us. He also enjoys dad's shows...just a little bit.

He literally had tears running down his cheeks from laughing so hard.

Some things (besides dad's shows!) that Caleb is into:
Caleb loves to write words and draw pictures
Loves to figure out what different signs say
Still loves to help and be involved in anything anyone is doing
Loves going to Joy School and is getting used to being a Sunbeam at church :)
Loves to have his room in order before he goes to bed
Loves to ride bikes, play ball, and just be outside
Loves to cook with mom
Loves to make his brother laugh
Anything trains, Buzz Lightyear, trucks, or Lightning McQueen! :)

And finally, here are some of Caleb's 4 year pictures:



(had to get those shoes and hat in a picture--he doesn't leave home without them!!)

Oh how we love our Caleb!! He is such a good helper and just so much fun. He makes us so proud and brings so much joy into our lives. Love you, Caleb!

One

One. Can you believe Carson is one today?!? I certainly cannot.

We had such a fun and action packed day today. More on that later though.

Here are a few things Carson is into lately:

• Carson is such a sweet boy. He always comes over to us and gives us a kiss and hugs and then just lays his head on us for a minute and then is off to something else.
• Carson loves to climb climb climb. Up and downstairs. Over and over and over. All day long. Climb onto the living room table. Off the living room table. Onto the dishwasher. Off the dishwasher. Onto the bike. And off of the bike. You get the idea. The idea that he scares me. All the time. Do you like short sentences? I seem to.
• Carson loves to drive little cars along the table and floor and makes the sound of them. He's been doing it for months and I find it so darn cute.
• Carson loves to fold his arms for prayers, loves to say yes, and loves to say no. In fact, I don't even need to tell him no anymore. He reaches his finger towards the outlet and waits until he catches my eye and then shakes his head no no. He starts to lift the lid of the toilet to play in the fun water, waits for me to look at him, then shakes his head no no. Too funny.
• Carson is very much a daddy's boy. But mom will due if dad's not around. He has had quite a bit of stranger anxiety that is slowly getting better.
• Carson loves to laugh at his crazy brother all the day long. In fact, if Caleb is not near, Carson searches around for him.
• Carson really loves to be outside. Anytime we come inside, I really hear about it.
• Carson has no fear of water. He slurps up the bath water like nobody's business. And scares me. He just dunks his face in that water all the time!
  
• The boy loves to dance. Anytime music comes on (including at church during hymns), the boy will start busting a move.
• Since Carson was a small baby, we'd tease him about having stinky feet. We'd pretend to smell them and say, "Eeeeeewwww! Stinky feet!" and he would just giggle and giggle. Now he comes around all the time and sticks his foot in your face wanting you to say the line. Even Caleb's in on the game.
• Carson gets giiiiiiiddddddddy when we pull in anywhere and turn the car off, knowing that he is getting out to go do some adventurous thing.
• And finally, nothing excites Carson more than food. The boy must have a hollow leg or something. I'm going to enter him in a food eating contest. Teenage boys have nothing on him! Consider that a challenge! :)

Here are some of his one year pictures:






It's been so interesting to discover how different two boys can be. One of the ways they are different is in their tolerance of messiness. For Caleb's first birthday we stripped him down and put him in his high chair with great anticipation. We sat that cake in front of him and he just looked at us like we had lost our minds. I finally jabbed his hand into it so he would take a taste. Instead he just stared at his messy hand...again like I had lost my mind. He never did take a bite. He didn't want to be dirty. Ahhh...but then there is Carson. I finally got my picture with cake smeared here and there for the first birthday celebrations.





"Check it out, dad! Even my foot is dirty!!!"



"Hey Caleb...you want in on this action?"



Oh sweet Carson. We love you so much. Thanks for making our little world so happy and full of your smiles.

Career Week

This week the boys have been investigating the career of private investigator. Gotta keep all your options open. It's never too early to start researching careers, right? That's what I thought. We felt the boys really needed to take a thorough look at it, so we made them do some surveillance and tailing. Even in disguise.

This photo titled: Surveillance Done Right

Love the disguise (complete with totally inconspicuous Lightning Mcqueen hat and girly cell phone, donut in hand with a full box nearby.)


This photo titled: Tailing the Subject

Sporting that same inconspicuous Lightning McQueen hat with an equally inconspicuous turquoise convertible.

Actually, a friend of ours and his awesome company, Fullmer Investigations, is sponsoring a photo contest for the best picture of someone dressed up as a p.i. I didn't see in the rules where it said groveling was unacceptable. And since I'm not above groveling, well...you should go check out the entries and vote! Just click here! You have until January 20th and I think it said you can vote once a day! So let's get to those phone lines and start voting! Or wait...maybe I've watched too much American Idol this week.

And should you or your company find yourselves in need of a good private investigator, I hear he is the best at what he does and is an all around good guy. There is your tip for the day. You're welcome. As my dad always said, "Don't say I never gave you anything." haha! :)