Happy Birthday Super Star

Let me tell you a little known fact about Kris and one reason why he is a super star (besides it being his 29th birthday today). When Kris was in high school someone thought he looked just like James Dean and told him they would pay for acting classes if he would just agree to take them. So he did and then off they shipped him to New York City to perform in front of a bunch of producers.

Turns out they really liked him and thought he would be great for some show. He had already been accepted to BYU so he would have had to drop out to do this. I, naturally, was wondering why he didn't take them up on it! I mean, shoot, it's not every day producers in NYC are wanting to make you famous, right?

But he chose going to BYU instead. Didn't even hesistate, in fact. It just wasn't the life he was looking for. I've always been impressed with that.

And so I say thank you dear, for not becoming famous so I could meet and marry you. You will always be my super star.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I LOVE YOU!

Worst Anniversary Ever

Besides the fact that I haven't slept for about two weeks (took Tofer off the reflux meds to see if he's ok without them and he stopped sleeping for a week so we put him back on...THEN two days later he got sick so he hasn't been sleeping this week either) we also had to move out of our rental yesterday. Yesterday being December 1st, our two year anniversary. Awesome.

Since the house doesn't close til the end of the month but we had to move out, we are homeless. Thanks to our dear friends the Pobsts, we have a place to sleep. Kris and I spent all day packing and moving stuff to a storage unit and feeling sick. We are all sick, the three of us.

We also spent the entire day fighting.

Last year for our anniversary we went to the St Regis resort in Dana Point for the weekend. The memory of that made this year suck even worse (if that's humanly possible).

This morning we felt bad for being such wrecks and our conversation went something like this:

Cathy: I'm feeling remorseful for being such a brat to you yesterday.
Kris: Yea, me too.
Cathy: Do you love me less now?
Kris: No. Do you?
Cathy: No
Kris: But I sure don't love you more!
*long pause*
*laughter*

I like how Kris makes me like him. Dude, yesterday sucked so this is NOT a warm fuzzy post, just get that straight...but in an effort to be repentant I will say, I do appreciate how he makes me like him even when I really don't want to.

Happy Crappiversary Dear.

You guessed it!

Nope, not Irvine! But I knew that would throw some of you off because of the great schools and "safest city in the country" - I think since 2007 Irvine has actually carried that title.

MISSION VIEJO!

I had no idea that Mission Viejo was so AWESOME! We feel really blessed and are so excited! Only trouble, moving tomorrow.....don't close until the end of December....which means we are homeless until we leave for Christmas vacation to Virginia. Thankfully we have some great friends who are helping and an old landlord who is super cool. Blessings.

The house needs a lot of work so we'll do before and after remodel pics just for kicks (i love that kind of thing). And although it will be overwhelming, we are super excited!! As we are not blog privateers I may only post a few outside pics of the house. Don't want the paparazzi banging down the door ;)

P.S. The winning guess goes out to Miss Hermana Anderson (Mission Companion Extraordinaire and dear friend for life ;) love you!!!)

Announcing....

Through a series of miracles (literally) we FINALLY found a house and in a place we had actually never even considered!! Yayayayayayay! Bank owned, KILLER deal, 6 offers in two days and the highest was $35K higher than ours and we STILL won. It's an awesome story actually.

ANYWAY! AFTER we offered we realized more and more awesome things about the city and neighborhood. I even broke down and cried as I was learning. Anyone wanna guess where it is??? Here are some clues and some of the things I found out after the fact...

1. In 2007 Newsweek voted this city the safest city in the country
2. This city is the largest master planned community in the country
3. The high school is in the top 2.5% in the country
4. You CANNOT walk to the beach :( but it's still close (relatively)
   
5. The average high in August is low 80s
   
6. The neighborhood has a big park and backs up to a reserve with trails
7. There is a lake across the street from the neighborhood that we have HOA access to
8. Around the corner is a youth athletic center where they have all the t-ball games, etc
   

Any guesses????????



P.S. This is NOT our house....but it IS a Tudor style and this house is my inspiration. Pics to come.

Cookie Monster

Still Sleeping!

It's 9:15 AM and the baby is STILL sleeping (and breathing, yes I've checked like three times).

How is this possible? I had to document.

P.S. Halloween Pics to come. He was a hit.

To Eat or Not to Eat

Who really knows these days!

Out of the mouth of my crawling little munchkin has emerged:

1. A hair ball
2. Pebbles
3. Jelly Beans
4. Thread
5. Paper of every kind, including toilet paper (if I can get it out before he swallows it)
6. Baby Food - of all these things, I think baby food is his least favorite - go figure
   
   
   

Tofer with his little friend, Emma Claire. Likes older women, just like his Dad ;)

Check out Kris's new Temple Pics!

Kris took some amazing pics of some of the temples around here and is starting to actually sell them to random people on the internet. I think it would be so cool to be able to create something that people would want to buy. Anyways here is a link to see some of them. I know he'd realy appreciate comments on there since it helps his pictures look more popular.

Tofer vs the Blue Man

8 MONTHS!

Just in case you didn't catch THAT FACE!



8 MONTHS OLD

LOVES

1. Taking a bath
2. Making loud noises
3. Crawling everywhere
4. Pulling himself up on everything
5. When I bite his side
6. Squealing
7. Pulling Dad's hair
8. Pounding on piano
9. Playing toy drum
10. Reading books with Mom
11. Eating toilet paper, pears, and sweet potatoes
12. Being cuddly when he wakes up
13. Listening to Mom sing

Does NOT like

1. Getting his diaper changed (it's a true acrobatic event trying to pin him down)
2. His carseat
3. The Blue Man (post explanation coming)
4. Sitting in the grass
5. Being confined in any way, shape, or form and sadly this includes the exercauser (he used to love it)

I can't believe he is 8 months old already. We LOOOOOVVVEEE him. Cute little Tofer man.

This One's for the GIRLS!

Go ahead, click on the pics to enlarge.

"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer




When I went to college I remember praying so hard that I'd find a good group of roommates. But I never imagined I'd be so lucky to meet some of the BEST women I've ever known.

Freshman year at BYU we conquered that world ;) everyone called us "the Giggs" even though these girls refuse to admit it, ahem. And yes, I'm not mentioning your names to protect you privateers from human trafficking in Thailand...but HOW could I keep the world from your beautiful faces? ;)

We've been meeting up in random places for reunions every couple of years since those fateful days in John Hall. Here we are, over a DECADE later (are we getting BETTER looking even?) We spent last week in a cabin in Arizona. FUUUNN! And our little group of five has grown to TWENTY FIVE with husbands and kids included.

Thanks for a fun and INSPIRING week, ladies. Love you!

P.S. The late nights got me DEATHLY ILL! Go figure. I'm not sure how we averaged 4AM bedtimes in college and never got sick.

Cheese

Yes, I do recognize and am well aware of the occasional cheesy nature of some of my posts. I've also had friends tell me they stopped blogging altogether because reading about other people's "perfect lives" made them depressed.

Well, that's just a shame.

WE ALL KNOW...

Everyone has a picture where they look like Beavis and/or Butthead. You probably won't find it on their blog, unless it's hilarious.

Everyone has a moment where they wanted to go into a mad rage and throw something at their spouse (and I am actually pretty even tempered so it makes me wonder what really fiesty people want to do). Ha!

I'm not sure everyone has locked their husband out and made him climb through the kitchen window or built a barracade of pillows between them while sleeping so they didn't have to look at eachother...but I'm pretty sure, I'm not the only one.

But isn't it life's imperfections that make it so beautiful and dare I say...fun?? We laugh our heads off about the night with the pillow wall. I'm not sure he thinks climbing through the window was hilarious but I laugh pretty hard about it still.

"Life is just like an old time rail journey ... delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride." — Gordon B. Hinckley

Happiness is:

After spending 24/7 with your husband for a week, this gchat made me smile. It's fun to have a buddy.

cgeigle: you callin me? got ur message :) sorry i missed ya :(

Kris: no prob
i'll call you in 15 min for your third and final chance

cgeigle: LOL

Kris: weird not being with you all day

cgeigle: i know :( i dont like it one bit

Kris: ah
I hope you have a plan of how we can never have to be apart another day when i call

cgeigle: LOL
i love you

Kris: love you too babe

The Latest Favorite

Yes, Tofer LOOOOVVVEEESSS his bath and his latest fascination is the running faucet water so this is what we do at the end of every bath. Cute huh?

Caught on Video!

P.S. Video is pretty dark, huh? But how fun to get his first crawl on tape!

Nostalgia

A few nights before Kris and I got married, he and his buddy Brandon (who I love to death) stayed up all night finishing a song that Brandon sang at our reception. It was a suprise for me and I loved it.

Here we are, almost two years later, the baby is sleeping in the other room and Kris and Brandon are playing the song in the living room right now trying to remember all the lyrics - we lost the paper :( I'm just soaking it in. Not sure why listening to it makes my throat hurt. Time goes by so fast. I found a pic the photographer took while Brandon was playing the song (above).

Here's what we remember so far...

"We're two and two, me and you, walking side by side...through the blue lights...feel like I'm five again, I'm alive again...can't wait to see what comes next, when i'm with you."

"You caught me by suprise with those big brown eyes and i know most of the time, i dont deserve you. Cuz you make me feel like i could be the man i always knew i could be, you belive in me and heaven knows that i need you"

"With liberty and love we make a single vow in God's good grace so hold on tight and we'll jump this face of love...one foot in front of the last."

If we ever figure it all out we'll record it and maybe I'll put it on here. Life gets too busy. So many to-do's. So many stresses and worries. Always working towards something or saving up or making plans for this and that. ALWAYS overbooked. It's nice to just sit back and remember the important things. Just soak in all the feelings I had that day.

Cutie Pootie

I realize I'm way behind on new pics of the baby. I have so many on my little camera but whenever I want to post I can't seem to find it, so I pulled these off of Kris's photog blog www.burntexposure.com

I LOVE THIS LITTLE GUY! His big smile in the bath (he loves taking a bath) just seriously fills me with joy. And that POUTY FACE IN THE GRASS. HAHA! Kills me. I don't know how I got so lucky to have such a funny, sweet, darling little son.

The New Face of Turtle Shells

That face melts my heart. The new "face" of our (Cheryl and my) new company. And I got to hear how cute it was from buyers all over the world all week in Vegas! You know I was loving that. Hahaha.

So, yes, Cheryl and I and our hubbys and babies went to an expo in Las Vegas to launch our new company. Yes, I've been busy, busy these days. I'm excited to talk more about it but the website is temporary and still needs some tweaks. I actually cropped the banner to take out some info until we're ready. In the meantime, it's just something to wet your whistle ;)

Be back with more in a few days...

Baby Factory

Seriously.

So the boundaries for our local church (we call it a ward) are in downtown Huntington Beach. In our ward alone, we have had THIRTEEN new babies born since January - the most recent little peanut was born a few weeks ago. A true baby factory. Crazy fun, huh?

On Sunday we decided to take a quick pic in between meetings to document the anomaly.

The Cute Babies


The Hot Mommies


Click on the pics to enlarge! Tof is the third baby from the left on the couch. He was hilarious and just kept staring at the babies sitting right next to him.

More pics on the photog blog www.burntexposure.com

Happy Six Months!

Dear Little Kristofer,

I can't believe you are six months old already. Time really does fly by. Today I found a little newborn diaper on the shelf that you used to wear and it made me a little emotional. You are such a big boy now! So darling. You LOVE LOVE your Daddy and laugh then he rubs his nose on your little toes, or dances around the room, or plays the drums with his fingers on the table. Whenever he's in the room you like to watch everything he does and will sit on his lap forever, happy as a clam. You love your Mommy too and you want to be with me all the time. You even cry when I walk out of the room. I have to call out to you and talk to you so you know I'm still around. It's so cute.

Just this week you got your first two teeth! Your two front bottom teeth. It is so cute! You love to go on walks, swing in the hammock, have baths, play with your feet, and play in your exercauser. You also love flash cards and books! Such a smarty pants already. I sing to you and you smile at me. It melts my heart. In the morning your favorite thing to do is get on the bed with us and grab Daddy's face while he's trying to sleep. I think this is especially funny :) You are very funny too and always have a twinkle in your eye and a determined look on your face. Your smile lights up the room. It's the cutest thing we have ever seen.

Sometimes I look at you and I cry because I love you so much. You are the light of our lives. We love you more than anything. Happy 6 months.

Love,

Mom


One Week Old


Six Months Old

Sweet Dreams

Yesterday Kris and I were talking to a good friend about marriage and going over the "lists" of the do's and don'ts to consider when looking for a spouse (like we're all professional or something - ha).

Anyway, last night while I was sleeping I had a dream that I was with a bunch of guys but I couldn't remember who my husband was. I knew I was married but I couldn't remember WHO I married.

All at once my mind started racing..."Oh, I hope I married someone that I really like! Did I marry someone just to get married? Did I marry someone just because they seemed like a good choice? Did I get married but I'm not in love? Oh man, who is it? Am I happy?? CRAP, WHO DID I MARRY!!??"

Suddenly, I remembered. His face and name came to me.












A FLOOD of relief washed over me. And I was SO EXCITED THAT I MARRIED KRIS!

Now THAT was a sweet, sweet dream.

Once Upon a Time...

I used to blog.

And then Baby Jayce came along and I just wanted to watch that blog. And then he passed away and I cried and didn't want to blog at all because it just made me sad. And then I started getting headaches and weird cravings (I ate 1.5 bags of mini Twix in one week- I KID YOU NOT) and I woke up at night hungry and was really really tired all the time...yea. So for a few days I was SUPER paranoid that I was pregnant which I'm NOT. Thankfully.

Then Kris went out of town and I freaked myself into thinking someone had come in the house, moved something to unobstruct the hallway that leads to my room (hahah yes i really got myself to believe this), that they unlocked the back door and opened the back gate and were waiting for me to fall asleep so they could attack me...sooooooo I couldn't sleep. 3 am bedtime followed by 4,5, and 7 wake ups and a million escape route scenarios. Yes, call me paranoid. Whatever.

Then I just felt too overwhelmed and busy to blog. So I'm making this post.

P.S. The baby is doing great. In fact, he is the most darling, wonderful, happy, funny little creature I have ever met. Pics and videos to come shortly. Promise.

P.S.S. I am NOT blonde but thanks for those of you who were encouraging. Haha. Wigs are fun! Today I pick Kris up at the airport again and I think I'm going for the secretary look this time. Dark wavy hair and glasses.

Inasmuch...

MATTHEW 25:40


My friend grew up with a family that just had their first baby. There are major complications and multiple surgeries ahead for him. The hospital is six hours from their home. The Dad is trying to go to med school but might have to defer this next year because the hospital stay for baby Jayce is going to be at least six months.

PLEASE take a look at this blog. And if there is anything you can do, please help.
http://www.jaycef.blogspot.com/

Also, PLEASE spread the word. There is so much power in numbers and blog to blog spreads like wildfire.

Finally, sometimes the best gift you can give is your fasting and prayers. Heart surgery for him today. A big day.

Remember, prayers work miracles.

Do blondes have more fun?

Can I get some cool wife props here?

The other day I went to pick up Kris at the airport...he saw me driving up from a distance and pulled out the camera...



I believe his last sentence was, "What happened to my wife!?"

I figure with two blondes in the family now, I'm out numbered. If ya can't beat 'em, join 'em!! But the question remains, will I have more fun??





P.S. You should've seen the outfit I picked him up in last time.

Taladega Nights

HAHAHAHAHA. Ok, I'm sorry but am I the only one who CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT NASCAR when you look at Kris with the handlebar thing going on? You would be every women's dream out there in the stands, honey. HA! Yes, it was just for the pic, he shaved it right after. I must say though, you're a babe - white trash or not.

I'm one to talk. I look like a ridiculous poser in half of these. We're pathetic. Only the baby is innocent. Although he's kind of trying to look studly in the first one. Yea, you noticed, didn't you? ;)

San Fran

I don't imagine things...

When we went to San Francisco people kept staring at us. Why? Because we are uncommonly goodlooking and have magnetic personalities? HA! No, the baby. I swear he was the only baby in that entire city, well that corner of the city anyway. It wasn't a tourist spot.

It was strange and it was almost like he wasn't welcome...(something about depleting the earth's natural resources, im sure - ha). To make sure I wasn't imagining things, because I'm really not dramatic that way, we even verified this information with some of Kris's coworkers the next day. They laughed that we noticed, agreed, and said all their friends move out of the city when they have kids.

I had a very profound experience that night, most of which I will keep to my journal but I WILL say, our little son was full of light, a shining beacon on a hill in a place that didn't really want him there. I felt such love in my little family. Such a power in this union. The "rightness" was tangible. Not only could I feel it, but as I made eye contact with the on-lookers, I could actually see it in their eyes. They were affected. How can I ever really explain it? I can't but it was so profound to me, I will never forget it.

We loved our trip. We really love San Francisco. Such an amazing place. It was the beginning of two two-week voyage. Baby's first vacation. He did AWESOME! Here are some pics.

The classic ones, naturally.



We went all over sightseeing, to restaurants, the city, etc. We've been here several times so we tried to explore Marin County a little more (the place where mountain biking was basically created). We even went mountain biking! First time since the baby! I took a pic on my phone I'll put up when I figure out how.






Father and son outing. Kris took Tofer out for a few hours one night to an awesome building next to our hotel that he wanted to see.

Firsts

I know, I know. It's been over a month. It's been so busy!! San Francisco to Lake Tahoe to Texas to Huntington Beach 4th of July. Phew. Lots of firsts this month. First trip for Tof. First swim. First airplane. First hotel. First time at Grandma and Grandpa's ranch. First 4th of July. It's too overwhelming to catch up so I'll start with his first swim with his Dad in Texas and we'll see how far we get in the next few days.

Seriously though, how cute is he???? I could stare at that face all day and never get bored. Oh wait, I do and no, never boring. Would you? Sheesh, he's like BabyGap Gerber King. ;)

Dear Husband

Dear husband chartered a sailboat with "The Pelican Army" (AKA - group of buddies he has down here who came up with this boy club) and is sailing from Newport Beach to Catalina Island for the weekend.

Dear husband left me with a list of to-do's to take care of while he is gone on vacation playing Peter Pan. Ahem - Pay bills, sell car, take other car to the shop, mail pics to photog clients...


Dear wife was not amused.

P.S. To make myself feel better I'm scheduling a hair appointment for next week. Cut and dye. Seriously, I look like a rat and I couldn't stop thinking about it after that last post. And since he left the house a mess when he departed, I may just have to get a massage too for my poor muscles that spent all weekend cleaning it ;)

P.P.S. He's lucky he's so good looking.