Messes and Mess Ups

Things have just been so busy lately. Especially for Chris. (Then again, are they ever not so busy when you are a full time dad, full time project manager, full time student, and full time church stuff?!?)

To add to the fun, last Thursday we had a leak in our living room that turned into a pipe bursting. It made a big mess, but luckily Chris acted fast and minimized the damage. I always knew Chris was a jack of all trades, but I just didn't realize how much so. He is quite the plumber, carpet layer, and dry waller, etc. After some time with no air conditioning, no water, and our whole living room in our kitchen, we are back up and running and thankful it didn't cost us tons of money. We had someone come look at it and test for water damage and he basically said we are very lucky and all the stuff Chris did totally saved us some major damage. As a side note, for some reason, we kind of found it fun to sit on our big ol' couch in the kitchen. :)

Here is Chris Thursday morning when he ran home from work and started cutting into the wall while still in his suit and tie. I must say, I was a bit nervous when he started cutting. After all, how do you know where the leak is? Apparently he did, because he found it first try.


Our nice whole in the wall:


Here Chris is re-stretching the carpet. He laid new carpet pad, and then re-stretched the carpet.

So there is our mess. Now for the mess up.

Our mess up happened tonight when we were double checking whether Chris's classes start next week (like Chris thought) or the week after (like I thought). Uh, yeah. They started this week. Already missed two classes this week. Oops. And the summer semester is already short and condensed. Oh well. Just this last 10 week semester (make that 9 1/2 weeks) and then he is FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!! Yahoo!

It's a good thing Chris has a good sense of humor. I think I'd be crazy with all the stuff he has to keep track of, take care of, and deal with! :)

Drummer Boy

We like to make up songs and words to our own songs too. Caleb has taken it a step further by making up his own language for his made up song.

Old!

The other night, Caleb and I were talking about how old he is. Then we started talking about how old everyone else is. This is how it ended:

Dad is OLD!!!!!!! I thought it was so funny that I had Caleb call Chris and tell him over the phone. Now Caleb asks all the time if he can call dad on the phone and tell him he's old.

I shouldn't admit it, but the other day we were all discussing it again and totally unprompted, Caleb says, "No, dad not old. Mom old." WHAT?!? Talk about your all time backfire! I can't believe he could even conceptualize it, let alone say it. Let alone betray me like that. :)

p.s. Do you like the bruise? Caleb had a run in with the sidewalk, and the sidewalk won.

Four Times the Fun

Lots of fun at our house lately.

First of all, Caleb and Chris went to their first father/son campout on Friday night. Tilane was nice enough to have some of the girls over to her house and we had lots of fun! Thanks, Tilane! Chris and Caleb had lots of fun too. But, alas, in true Caleb form, he would not go to sleep. About 12:30a.m. when Caleb was still completely wired and keeping everyone else from sleeping, they packed up and came home. (Poor Chris was way tired too since he had worked on Wednesday night until 1:30a.m. and Thursday night until 5:30a.m. and back at work by 7 or 8a.m.--he is a crazy working man these days!) Thanks to the Snells for sharing your tent and letting Caleb keep you awake half the night and to Stephen for joining in the fun!



Secondly, Saturday was commencement for Chris. He will be finished with his MBA in August, but they had him walk early since they don't have a commencement ceremony after summer semester. We are VERY PROUD of Chris and all his hard work and the achievement of a SECOND masters degree. More proof that he is a crazy man, huh?!? One more semester! Yahoo! My favorite part of commencement was at the very end when a Mariachi Band came out to play the processional for the graduates to leave the building. Everyone went CRAZY! Only in Texas.







Thirdly, we had an awesome mothers day. No pictures, but lots of love and gifts. And thank you to the Weatherholtz Family who once again had us over for an awesome dinner and tons of fun. I think this was really one of the first mothers days that I was truly just happy for the time I did have with my mom before she passed away, for the legacy she left, for the other "moms" I've had in my life, and for the opportunity I have now to be a mom-- instead of sad for the time I didn't get.

Fourthly, and the best yet, we get to have the famous ones-- Kip D (my brother) and Bridget (his wife)-- stay with us for the summer. They arrived on Saturday. Kip is in law school and got an awesome internship here for the summer. Bridget will hopefully get a sweet summer job too--so if you know of any sweet jobs for an awesome almost finished english major, let us know!! Kip and Bridget are so much fun and we love hanging out with them. Caleb can't get enough of them! The first words out of his mouth this morning were not hi mom, or love you mom, or good morning. Nope. His first words were"Bibetts?" "Dip?" (his version of their names). We are looking forward to a very fun summer! This is an old picture, but it works, right?

(later I will have to do a post on the many sarcastic faces of Kip D. He refuses to just smile for the camera. Ever.)

Finals and Frogs

Chris finished up his last final for the semester on Saturday! Whew! Another semester done! Now he has more time (until the summer semester starts) to teach Caleb things like this:

Actually, I think Caleb came up with this on his own, it was just encouraged by others. Hmmm...it seems like the rule was no climbing on the living room table. But I guess if you're doing cool jumps, an exception must be made, right?!? :)

We Knew Him Back When...

We are so proud to say we knew him before he was so famous! Anyone that's ever been on a cruise or knows much about cruises will appreciate this video. The Dial Family Blog proudly presents Michael "Princess Pop Star" Christensen:

Rumor has it that while on a cruise, Mike entered the Princess Cruise Line's version of American Idol and won...making him officially "Princess Pop Star" We totally miss our days of chillin' with you guys while Mike makes up funny lyrics and songs! Ahhh...the good old days! :) Thanks for the laugh, Mike! Wish we had been there to see it in person! Next time!

Sandie and Manny

We were fortunate enough to have our good friend Sandie and her escort, Manny the Moose, visit us for two whole weeks! Sandie documented her trip using one of her many men, Manny. So in keeping with her tradition, here are a few pictures of things we did as told by Manny.

First of all, we played a lot of Dr. Mario on the Nintendo 64 and established that I'm still the reigning champ. :) Notice Manny checking out all the action and note that I'm on the left of the screen, Sandie on the right. :)


Of course we had to see the Alamo:


And try on Texas sized sombreros:


Do the boat ride:


Manny's newest friend:


But not as good of friends as he became with Caleb:

Caleb made sure that we took the moose everywhere with us!! Caleb was amazed that he could put an M&M on Manny's paw (do moosen have paws?) and he would eat it!

And of course, Manny had to raise a ruckus and get locked up:


He tempted fate by posing for this picture with the dinosaur:


We did lots of fun stuff that we didn't document with pictures too. We ate out WAY too much--PF Changs, Rudys (twice), Bobby J's, Taco Cabana, Chick Fillet, Chili's, Papa Johns, Thai Lao, Tony Romas, and those are just the ones I remember! We were also able to meet up with another USU friend, Mimi (who happened to be in town for a conference) on the riverwalk for dinner. We enjoyed Bunco night at Rachel's house--and Sandie (with an i-e!) the out-of-town punk even won! We visited St Mary's where Sandie did her undergrad work. We watched lots of movies. We played some games. We did tons of shopping. We went to the temple. And to end the visit, we drug her to Houston with us (see previous post!)

A couple funny Caleb stories that happened while Sandie was here. Caleb had just gotten up from a nap and we were finishing up watching something. So we hear Caleb rattling around in the kitchen and out he comes with three bags of chips, two sodas and a juice box. He hands one bag of chips and a soda to Sandie, one bag and a soda to me, and has the juice box and the last bag of chips for himself. What a little sweet heart!

Caleb would make sure EVERY DAY that Sandie had enough towels and wash clothes etc. He would also supervise her getting ready and make little cute comments as she described what she was doing and why. He was shocked when he walked past her room and it was empty after she left. He keeps asking where she went!

We had so much fun--thanks for visiting, Sandie!! We hope you will come again soon!

Houston Fun

This weekend we headed to Houston for some fun!

Friday night we hit an Astros game. Here is a video of some of our fun!

They lost big time. But that's ok. They're not my team. :) We even ran into the Davis clan! What are the chances? So fun to see them there!

Here Chris and Caleb are posing with a couple guys from the team:



Saturday we found some time for swimming. Here is Caleb chillin' poolside!

The water was surprising cold. But Caleb refused to admit it even though he was totally shivering the whole time. If you watch closely, you can see him shivering. Must not let that stop the fun, though, right?!?

Caleb loves to jump in the water--we didn't get a very good one on video, but you get the idea. We have a little fish on our hands. He LOVES the water! You can see that he also loves to say cheese and smile for the camera! :)

We were planning to hit the Aquarium, but we spent so much time at IKEA that we ran out of time! Man, that store is too much fun. Luckily, (or unluckily?) our car was already full, so we didn't get to buy much. Just a couple smaller things, like this rug for Caleb's play area where he can drive his cars. He's done it nonstop since we've been home!

(And, yes, in case you're wondering, he's moved on to his sun hat--he now has to wear that one everywhere we go. Even if it doesn't come close to matching what he is wearing. And at naptime too.)

Then Saturday night we went to see our favorite comedian of all time, BRIAN REGAN! It was so awesome!! He's totally clean and totally funny! A fun night also made better by running into Paul and Jamie who were there also! It was fun to see you guys again! Anyway, we weren't allowed to take pictures or video, but here are a couple funny clips from online :

Always Makes My Day

It really doesn't matter how much craziness is going on around me, this makes it all better:

Man we love our little guy. He sure makes life fun!

Highlight Reel

We've started early on Caleb's highlight reel for his college basketball scholarship:

During this particular video shoot, he was showing off for Nolan. Caleb has really become quite good at shooting hoops, kicking balls, hitting balls with bats and throwing and catching lately. Yahoo! I love it! So much fun!

And now for deep thoughts from my friend Sandie:--She was saying today that we should all learn to clap for ourselves like Caleb does--even if no one else is clapping for us. How true that is. :)