Day #5: Cheating

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!!!