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. :)

Random Caleb Moments

Apparently Caleb's bears needed to cool off a bit. I went to get something out of the fridge and was surprised to find two stuffed bears:



Caleb and I like to have movie nights with our blankets on the floor and popcorn. Caleb seriously gets giddy. He gets to pop the popcorn and pick out some snacks and some juice and the movie and sometimes we party while Chris is at school:



Caleb loves to watch Sesame Street, but his stuffed animals have to watch too.



Caleb and Nolan are best buddies. (Nolan is Jed and Rachel's cute guy that we get to hang out with during the day). They are starting to become really interactive and it just melts my heart every day to watch them. They just giggle at each other all day long! Caleb has also learned to swaddle his own bears and change their diaper and feed milk to his bears. Thanks, Nolan!





Caleb still amazes me with how much he likes to help. He is always asking to do the dishes or sweep or vacuum. I say, knock yourself out! Definitely don't want to discourage that habit!




Caleb loves to help outside too. Here they are planting some flowers:



Our friend Sandie is here visiting from Utah. After breakfast in the mornings Sandie tells us she is going to go shower and Caleb has to follow her upstairs to be sure she has enough towels. Quite the little host, huh?!?!



It has always been so fun to hang out with my little buddy--but it is even more so these days. His vocabulary is EXPLODING and he seriously cracks me up all the time. He is such a little ham bone. But he is also a sweetheart--here are a couple examples: The other day, he asked me for something and I handed it to him and he started to run away. But he stopped, came back, gave me a kiss and said, "Thanks, mom!" And then last night we accidentally bonked heads, but he came over and kissed it and said, "Sorry, mom" in the absolute sweetest voice ever followed by a big hug! We love our little buddy!

What Am I Teaching?

The other day, Caleb was in his highchair eating breakfast. He finished up and said, "Mom, down please?" I told him to wait just a minute as I was in the middle of something I wanted to finish. He asked a couple times very politely and I gave him the same response. Then he said, "Hey, mom?" and when I looked at him he picked up a piece of cereal, looked directly at me to make sure I was looking, and dropped it on the floor and then did the same with another piece. And of course, I went right over to get him out before he decided to drop more. I tried not to show it, but I thought it was kind of funny. A little manipulator, huh? But later, I felt so horrible! He had asked politely a couple times and I told him to wait just a minute. Which he did. He knew (because I have taught him by my actions!) that if he dropped a piece of cereal on the floor that I would respond immediately. Isn't that exactly opposite of what I am trying to teach him? I should reward him for asking politely!! I know it's not always possible to respond right when he asks, and yet, I'm sure whatever I was doing that day could have been put off for 20 seconds to get him down when he asked politely the first, second, or third time! It definitely gave me some food for thought and made me reevaluate some things.

Then the other thing that gave me pause to think happened a couple days ago. We came home after dark and there are these flying beetle nasties that come around this time of year that are attracted to light. One of them followed us inside and I admit that I let out a few screeches. But in my defense, it was like totally dive bombing at me! I kept ducking and giving a little screech. Yes. In case you haven't figured it out from my 30 billion posts about nasty creepy crawly things...I HATE them all! Anyway, Chris caught it and threw it outside. I didn't think any more about it until a few days later when we saw one outside and Caleb did something funny. Caleb imitated Chris by pretending to throw it outside and told me how "dad throw bug" and then said, "Mom say Ahhhh!!!!" and imitated how I had screeched! And everytime we see a bug, he says, "Mom say AHHH!" I was totally laughing at his version of events. But I thought about it later--I had no idea he was watching the scene go down! Let alone that he would remember it several days later! Yikes! I wonder what else I'm doing that my little sponge named Caleb is picking up that I don't know about! I always knew he was watching, but I guess to see it illustrated so exactly was crazy! So scary! Again, it made me pause and gave me food for thought.

And this last part is totally unrelated except for the fact that I have a funny kid. Here is a fashion show he put on for me the other night. I like the poses and faces he makes:









So in case you were wondering how you could wear that blanket or cup of milk on your head...now you have some new ideas.

Night Night! and Scary Movie!

So, awhile back, Caleb figured out that if he yells "night night!" to me after I put him to bed and leave the room, that I would yell "night night!!" back. It has sort of evolved into a game where I'll put him to bed and as I'm leaving, I'll open and close his door a few times yelling "night night" in different voices and stuff. He thinks it is hilarious and is excited to go to bed so he can hear it. Hey, whatever works, right?!? Well, then Chris joined in on the fun, evolving it even more, so that now two heads are poking in and yelling "night night!" Except, of course Chris has to add all the theatrics--like hitting his head on the door and getting his arm stuck, etc., which of course Caleb thinks is even more hilarious. Well, then one night, Caleb decided to impersonate us, complete with the theatrics, and we got a good laugh out of it:

Even my poor sister, Kaylyn, had to do it when she was here visiting. So while she was here, there were three heads popping in yelling, "night night!" in lots of different voices. And yes, Kaylyn, Caleb is STILL asking for Nyn to say night night too!


As for the scary movie, well, you'll have to see for yourself. Here is Chris and Caleb's first attempt at a making a scary movie:

Ok, so actually what really happened is that we like to play with remotes. A few months ago we installed some ceiling fans in all the rooms upstairs. When we bought the fans, we didn't realize that an added perk is that they can all be run by remote too. So the remote turns the fan on several different levels and will turn the lights off too. As you can imagine, we've had hours of fun with them. But I thought the story about making a scary movie was more fun. :) And now everyone knows where Caleb gets his scream! :)

Easter Fun

We had several days of Easter fun this year.

Thursday we had an easter egg hunt at the park with the playgroup.



Caleb is hilarious because he gets an egg, cracks it open, dumps the goods into his basket, throws the egg in the basket, and runs to the next one. I tried to get him to just put it in his basket and open them later, but I guess it's just not as much fun that way. :)

Saturday was the big annual easter egg hunt at the Lunt's house. Not only did Caleb get to go hunt for more easter eggs,



"Grandpa Ned" took all the kids for rides on this



He got to ride this jeep



He also road a cool truck. Caleb got smart after awhile--he would just drive the truck to the next egg, get out, get the egg, crack it, put the candy in, put the egg in his basket, and drive to the next one. Faster and more efficient than walking from egg to egg, don't you think. :)

And funny--he would talk on his cell phone the whole time he was driving. Hmmm...wonder who would have taught him that? Not me. I never talk on my phone while I'm driving. :)


Then on Sunday, the easter bunny came and Caleb got to have yet another easter egg hunt. Spoiled boy, huh?



And here he is ready for church (minus his shirt tucked in :)

(He recently got these little golf clubs that Chris has been showing him how to use, and I think they must be super glued to his hands because he takes them everywhere! Hence why he is holding a mini golf club in this picture).

We were lucky enough to have easter dinner with the Weatherholtz whom we absolutely LOVE! And of course it was the best meal too!

Caleb has also been in the true spirit of Easter lately. A couple weeks ago we watched a "Jesus movie" together on a Monday night and ever since, Caleb has been asking to watch more "Jesus movies." It always surprises me because they are definitely not made to be kids movies, but I'm glad he likes to watch them with us!

We hope you had a great Easter!

Nyn and My Couch

We just enjoyed an awesome visit from my sister, Kaylyn, aka Nyn. Ok, and once again, I didn't take very many pictures, but we had tons of fun even if I don't have pictures to show it!

We went to Sea World





We made some treats, like fudge and too many St Patrick's Day sugar cookies. We went to Rudy's, and an awesome Thai place (Thai Lao near North Star Mall), and Martha's for yummy mexican food, and to Tony Romas (which I think is my favorite place EVER! I love everything they have...onion loaf, ribs, bread, salad...). We also introduced Kaylyn to Bobby J's--a very hole-in-the-wall, greasy hamburger place that is SO good!!



We played games, and went to the outlets, and downtown to see the river dyed green for St. Patricks Day. They had an event going on downtown so they had the Alamo all lit up in fun colors too:



Caleb has been sad since Nyn left. Every once in awhile, he'll just look at me and say in a sad voice, "Nyn bye bye?" and I have to say, "Yes, Nyn had to go bye bye."

As for the mention of my couch in the subject of this post...well, it's not really related to my sister, Nyn, but it is where you'll find me for the next couple weeks for March Madness!! I love it! So many of the games end up coming down to the wire and it is so much fun to watch! Everyone plays with so much heart and emotion in college sports! One definite perk to staying at home with Caleb is that I don't have to constantly hit refresh for the scores of the games online like I used to when I was working outside the home - I mean...not me. I heard others have done that before. (Chris says ESPN claims there are MILLIONS, if not billions, of dollars of lost revenue from the American economy every year due to March Madness!) Now I can actually watch them live. Sorry to rub it in again, Chris. :) Too bad none of my teams are even IN the tournament this year. What's up with that? They're always at least IN the tournament, if not seeded fairly high. Here's to a better year next year. :) The Final Four is actually in San Antonio this year, but when I checked on ticket prices awhile back, they were already a bit more expensive than I wanted to pay.

So anyway, if you need us, we'll be on our couch!