Happy Holidays

Figured it was a good time to put up another post. I have had an awesome week this past week. I got to see lots of family, friends and I even turned 30. I gotta say....not as bad as some people make it out to be. :)

It all started last Wed. (Dec. 12th), Brandy took me out to dinner and we went to see The Golden Compass. Pretty good show (don't worry, God doesn't die in the first movie). We went to dinner at a place called The Gun Barrel. Kind of a "hick" motif but they had some mighty fine steaks. Then I had to work on Thu., but my awesome girlfriend came up to Cedar and surprised me and took me out to lunch (I'm avoiding the part of the story where I was about as bright as a 1-watt lightbulb). Skip to Sat. where Brandy and I went to "Ejna's" B-day party and got to hang with most the family. Then we went to Iggy's for dinner, where Anje (sneaky little niece that she is) got the wait staff to sing to me. After Iggy's, Brandy and I headed over to her work party and we talked with a few of her coworkers and we got to play pool, foosball, and air hockey. It was a fun night all around and for those who are curious...I got an "A+" from Brandy's workforce. So, apparently I DO make a good bit of eye candy. lol

Yesterday, Brandy and I went to I Am Legend. It was really good. Brandy was about jumping out of her seat for most the movie.

On to news of Bella (the most important news, that is)....as of tomorrow morning (Fri. Dec. 21st) she will be living up in Ogden. They were busy packing the truck today and will be leaving tomorrow morning to finish the move. I will miss being able to see her so much, but I will make every effort to see her when I can. She is a sweetheart and I love her more than ever.

We also got to celebrate Christmas a little early this year (because of the move). I let Bella open her gifts while I had her up this way. I gave her a VTech digital camera (which she has been loving), some "Kitty In My Pocket" stuff, and this cool "Mega Fort" that took up most of her bedroom. She also got a cool magic wand laptop from Papa Strong and Grandma Pam. Grandma Dawn gave her a Garden Girlz playset (which we will grow the next time she is down). She loved all her gifts this year and sends her thanks to everyone.

Much Love,
Chad & Bella

Updated Monopoly List

**Finalized List for 2007**

Chad's Monopoly Boards

Monopoly Brand Games
*Deluxe Edition
*Disney Edition
*LOTR Edition
*Millenium Edition
*Original Edition
*Scooby-Doo Edition
*Star Wars Edition (Ltd Collector's)
*The .com Edition
*Simpsons
*The Fantastic Four Edition
*Nintendo Edition
*007 James Bond Edition
*Here & Now Edition


Misc. Games
*Monopoly Express - Dice game
*Monopoly Party - Nintendo Gamecube


Monopoly Jr. Games
*Toy Story Edition


Games By "Late For The Sky"
*Whoville-opoly
*Make-Your-Own-opoly
*America in a Box

Happy Holidays

Well it's been a month since my last post, so I figure I may as well alert anyone to the new stuff going on in my life. There isn't any. j/k

Bella and I went up to my mom's house on the Tues. before Thanksgiving and I helped her set up her new 42" LCD flat panel tv(About time she upgraded...sheesh). The picture didn't really look overwhelmingly different, but that is mainly due to the source of her signal...her 10,000 yr old DirecTV receiver. Once she upgrades to the HD receiver then her picture will look great in all its 720p glory. The next day Tonya and Anissa arrived with their respective clans, thus overloading mom's house to the breaking point. It was good that Bella got to see all her "southern" cousins again before she makes the move up North.

Thanksgiving day was hectic, to say the least. This was the first Thanksgiving in 3 years that I was able to take the time off and actually get to spend the whole day with the family, instead of only a couple of hours. It was really nice to get to see "the cousins" and all their families. Also, Brandy and her kids, Nicail and William, came to the celebration as well. They seemed to survive the onslaught. William spent most of his time outside playing with Shaylie and the kitten that was found. I believe it got named "Ginger" by someone. William really wanted to take it home, but Brandy refuses to get another cat, seeing as they already have two cats (and a REALLY annoying dog, and I can't leave out the two pet mice) at home. Nicail and Anje got along pretty good as far as I could tell. I kept seeing them together and that is usually a good sign.

Brandy had a blast playing PIT with Anissa and myself. She'd never played it before and she really likes it. Brandy had to head home that night since she had to work the next day. But it was really nice to be able to spend time with her and her kids AS WELL as my family.

Oh and for those of you who don't know, Krissy and Bella are moving up to Ogden around the 21st of Dec. Aaron (Krissy's fiance) got a really good job offer up there, so they are making the move. I will miss my Bella a lot, but will make every effort I can to get to see her. :) May involve getting a new car. lol

I'm in the middle of trying to figure out what to buy everyone for Christmas. This is not EVER an enjoyable feat for me. I never seem to be able to pinpoint what people want as gifts. (Mike and Erin any clues would be greatly appreciated).

In related news, the updated "Monopoly List" will be posted soon. So keep your eyes peeled. I believe I got a record (for me) 4 versions of Monopoly last year. Haven't played a single one either. :(

That should just about do it for this post. Hope I didn't put too many readers to sleep with this one.

Much Love,
Chad & Bella

New Info. Update

Well, since Mom decided to bug me about getting some new info on here...here ya go.

I know pretty much everyone in the family knows about my current situation, but I have a wonderful new girlfriend named Brandy (pictured with my ugly mug..lol). I've never been happier than I am now. :) I met Brandy on an online dating site back in early September. We went on our first actual date in early October and after a few other successful dates we decided to date exclusively. :) She has two awesome kids: Nicail, 10 and William, 8. I've had a great time playing video games and other games with all of them. (For the record, I won at MarioKart). haha

In other news, Bella is doing great. She has met Brandy and thought she was really nice and liked spending the day with her. I won't be seeing Bella for the next couple of weeks, I am letting Krissy keep her so Papa Scott can get some time with her while he is here visiting. I will, however, get to see her this Saturday for the photoshoot. Bella is growing up way too fast, but I love seeing her grow into such a great human being. :) I really did luck out with her. Bella is also loving her new baby sister, Sophie. She makes a good big sister.

Well that's about all the new news I have for this week...so hope you enjoyed. :)

Much love,
Chad & Bella

New Bella Pics

Here are some new pics that I took of Bella. We went for a drive up the canyon to see the fall colors and these are the best pics of all I took. :) Enjoy.

WOOHOO!!!

This post is to appease Tonya's curiosity. I have purchased Halo 3, but will not play it until Bella is asleep tonight. I had a blast playing the Multiplayer Beta with Geoff during the summer and I from what I've seen the campaign and all the other features look pretty cool as well. Now if a CERTAIN UNNAMED FRIEND would buy a Xbox360 and Halo3 then I would have somebody to play against....(not so subtle) HINT HINT!!!

Car Troubles.....AGAIN

Sometime last week my passenger side windshield wiper motor decided to take a permanent vacation. I don't know how it happened, but the motor pretty much split in two. So I had to get that fixed pretty quickly since the weather will be getting worse from here on out. Plus I didn't feel safe having Bella in a car where the wipers wouldn't work.

Took my car in this morning and they told me they would give me a call after they had a chance to look at it. Well about an hour and a half later I got a call telling me that the part I would need to get to replace it was going to cost me close to $200....and yes that's only for the one side. So all in all, it cost me about $265 to get it fixed. Hopefully they will survive the winter.

Well that's about all the news I have. This weekend I will be going down to St. George to catch Bella's third soccer game. I heard her team didn't do so well in their second game, but oh well.

Much Love,
Chad

Bella Playing Soccer

New Bella Pics

Here are some new pics of Bella from her first soccer game. And some of her in her dance outfit. Enjoy!

Pictures

Since I know the majority of you don’t visit my deviantart page regularly I am posting a link to my Picasa web album here on my page (In the "Links" section under "Photography Album"). I will be uploading my favorite landscape shots to this album for my family to see.

Check it out.

Well, well, well...

I guess it is about time for me to post another...post. (Should have thought that sentence through more before I typed it out) Anyway, this last month has been a little busy. Geoff and I tried to get some last minute golfing in before he had to head back to Phoenix for his last year of law school, so we headed down to St. George to play at Sky Mountain Golf Course. While we were hitting some balls out on the practice range I tweaked my back pretty good. Laid me up for a couple of days. In fact, my back is still a little sore from it. Oh well...I guess that is the price of getting old.

Last weekend I took Geoff back down to Phoenix. While I was there I was planning on visiting an old friend from high school, but she saw fit to stand me up TWICE while I was there. At least I got to spend some time with Dez and Geoff before I headed back. They took me to some pretty good restaurants down there. The California Pizza Kitchen and the Red Kilt were the best ones.

Just when I was starting to think that my job schedule couldn't get any worse...the airlines decide to prove me wrong. Starting next month they are making it nearly impossible to get my 10 hrs. for my shift on Sat and Sun. Hopefully I won't have to start working an extra day again. I've quite enjoyed having three days off.

Starting next month, Bella is going to be starting to take dance lessons and she is going to play soccer during the late summer season. I am sure she will have a great time doing those things. Especially the dance classes. :) I'm excited to get to see her perform. I am glad to have her with me this week. I haven't had the chance to spend much time with her lately. She is doing great and she is doing an awesome job with learning the alphabet and numbers. Krissy is doing a great job of teaching her. :)

Well, I guess that post will do for now. Hope everything is going well for everyone.

Much Love,
Chad

Big Girl Bella

Well, Bella can officially ride her bike now WITHOUT training wheels. Krissy has been doing a great job of teaching her how to ride. She still needs a little help with the takeoff and she doesn’t quite have confidence going down hills yet, but she’ll get there. I’m very proud of her.

Also in Bella news, she is doing MUCH better on recognizing letters and numbers. Krissy bought her the "Letter Factory" Leapster game and I guess it is a pretty good program. The other day Bella and I were sitting on my bed and I was looking at a paper that had multiple advertisements on it. She grabbed it out of my hand and she started reading the phone numbers off of it. I was in shock. (Had a "proud dad" moment)

In other news, I went golfing on Saturday and got a birdie on a par 4. And I have noticed that my scores are slowly getting better. I have to work on my approach game and the majority of my drives tend to have a bit of a fade (aka SLICE) to them, at least, more than I would like them to have. But I will work on it and try to work out the kinks.

Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to Tonya. Of course, I thought about it the day before and the day after, but forgot on the day OF. Oops. Hope you can forgive your little bro.

Much love to all,
Chad

My First Birdie

Well I know I haven’t been the best blogger as of late, but it’s summertime and it is always better to get out and be doing things rather than sitting in front of the computer.

First off, this last week, Geoff and I went golfing. We ended up playing with a couple of guys from Hildale. We were all doing okay when I FINALLY got a LEGIT birdie on a par 5 hole. If I would have had a shorter 2nd shot I would have been on the green in two and had an eagle opportunity, but I was happy with a birdie. I am really glad that I decided to get me my own set of clubs. I have had lots of fun this summer going golfing with Geoff.

Now as for work, today started a new schedule for us. We no longer service SLC, only Las Vegas, Phoenix, Farmington NM, and Ely NV. Who knows what will happen at the end of Sept. when Mesa Air pulls out and we have a new airline (again)...but the upside is that I don’t have to show up for work until 7AM now, instead of the dreaded 530AM call.

I would update you all on how Bella is doing, but since I haven’t had the opportunity to see her for the last couple of weeks, due to the Lagoon trip, and her swim lessons...I can’t really tell you anything. I will get to see her for a few hours tomorrow, so that makes me happy. Then this coming weekend we are heading up to Mom’s for the BIG FAMILY REUNION!!! I’ll have to let you all know how things go after that (even though most of you will have attended it as well)

Much love,

Chad

Update

Well I just thought I’d give everyone an update on how big Bella is getting. I took her in last week to have a wellness check done and she is now 46 1/2 inches tall and 52 lbs. and 2 oz. Of course this places her well off the charts, but that comes as no surprise to any of us.

This last weekend was spent helping my mom move her fence back 35 ft....I survived....nuff said.

Hope all is going well with all of you.

Much Love,
Chad

As Many Of You Know....

I'm an avid gamer. So of course I'm gonna get excited when I hear earlier in the year that they are going to be releasing a Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta to the public. They gave 3 ways to get access to the Beta...1) Win a contest and receive the invite 2)Play so many hours of Halo 2 on certain days and be entered to win an invite or 3) Purchase a copy of a videogame called "Crackdown". So I chose to do option #3. Crackdown was a great game, still is...Now about a month ago they tell us that the Beta will go public on May 16th (which is in 2 days)...they also say that about 4 days prior to that (May 11th) they will be releasing a "Friends and Family" beta invite. And how this worked was they chose 40,000 people from the Bungie.net website (chosen by some unknown criteria) and then on May 11th they were going to randomly send codes to gain access to the Beta EARLY to 10,000 of those people. Imagine my shock and astonishment when I, that's right "I", checked my messages yesterday on the bungie website and had the invite.

I didn't even think to actually check on May 11th for the code because I didn't think I had a chance, so I was excited yesterday when I saw the code and started downloading the Beta. So I played a few games yesterday and LOVED it. I can't wait until Wed. when there are more people on there playing AND my friend, Geoff, will be back in town today for the summer so he and I are going to have a blast playing the Beta.

Okay I've rambled enough now. Time to play with my Bella. :)

Word To The Wise

NEVER buy a Chevy Malibu.

Since purchasing my car I have had to replace the rack and pinion not ONCE, not TWICE, but now officially THREE times now. On my way home from work yesterday I completely lost my power steering. I was hoping that it was just a hose leak or at the worst a seal in the power steering pump, but of course not...it has to be one of the most expensive things I've had to fix on this car.

So here I speak out to any future car buyers......DO NOT BUY A CHEVY MALIBU!!!!!!

If you ever wanna know....

what could be making your car engine squeal....I suggest looking under the hood. You'll never know what you may find. Like this...



My belt had shredded into two halves. Right down the middle and as you can see the pulley was completely missing off the end of my tensioner. The guy was surprised that I had driven it two days with it in this condition. And this is what it is SUPPOSED to look like:



So 150 bucks down and I now have a new belt and tensioner in my car and it is squeal free. :)

Much Love,
Chad

M.A.L.I.B.U. spells "Piece of &%@$"

As I’m taking Isabella back to St. George I hear this funny little squeak coming from my engine. I figure it will be okay by the time I get back up to Cedar (I know it sounds like I’m setting up this story like there was a huge explosion, but I assure you there wasn’t). Well I meet Krissy at Worthen Park and say my goodbyes to Bella and as I start my car a sound emits from my engine that would make a banshee jealous. I make the U-turn and head back up to the Blvd. to head home (I have neither the time nor the money to stop and get it looked at in San Jorge) it quiets down a little bit. I get on the freeway and miraculously make it back to Cedar. So now I have to make an appointment to spend money I don’t have to get my car (that I just paid off...of course *rolling eyes*) fixed. I’m hoping it is just a belt and won’t cost me an arm and a leg. I need to really start considering getting a new car, cuz I don’t think this car will make it through the year.

Well that’s my sob story. Boo.......hoo.

(Time go kick my car)

Home Again

Well I have finally returned from my trip to California. I got home at about 12:30 AM. I was exhausted by the time I reached halfway between Cedar and St. George, but I made it home and am GLAD to be back.

I had a great time in San Francisco. Right as soon as we left the airport we headed to Pier 39 and ate at Bubba Gump’s. Then we just walked around Pier 39 and then headed up to Fairfield. The next day we went to Santa Cruz and went to Municipal Wharf and walked on the beach and went to this cool little cantina on the end of the pier. So we sat there and had these absolutely HUGE burritos. Seriously, they were the size of my forearm. We got to see lots of sea lions swimming around the wharf. It was cool.

We also stopped in Walnut Creek and walked around the shopping district there. It was interesting to see all those shops. And, of course, the three Starbucks that are in a one block radius of one another. Starbucks will eventually run the U.S..

The next day we took a ferry from Vallejo to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. We then walked all over the Wharf and had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. Then we decided to walk up Hyde Street to the top of "the crookedest street" on Lombard St. (I was absolutely DYING by the time we reached the top of the hill). So then we walked down Lombard and then backtracked to the Ghirardelli Square and out to the Golden Gate Nat’l. Recreation Area (couldn’t see the Golden Gate bridge due to fog). After this we proceeded to walk up the hill again to Coit Tower. I think I lost about 20 lbs. walking around this part of town. After Coit Tower we headed down the hill, for the final time, and back to Pier 1 to where our ferry departed for Vallejo. By my estimations, we walked about a total of 7 miles around the Wharf area. And the majority of it was uphill. I recommend that if you wanna lose weight....move to San Francisco. haha That night, we went up to Vacaville and had dinner with one of Amanda’s friends.

On Tues. we just took it easy that morning and then she dropped me off at the airport, where I sat for 4 hours waiting for my plane to take off. Now you are probably asking yourself, "why were you waiting for 4 hours?" and I would tell you that it was because she and I didn’t have much to say to each other (mainly my fault). I had a great time meeting Amanda and she was a gracious host, but as far as anything romantic between us....well it was non-existent.

I am, however, glad I got the opportunity to go and see the wonderful city of San Francisco. It was fun, but I’m glad to be back home in Cedar City.

Much love,
Chad

Upcoming Trip

Well I am getting ready for my trip to California. This will be the first time I’ve ever been to the San Francisco area, so it should be fun. Hopefully I will be able to get at least SOME good photos while I’m down there.

I’ll be there from this Saturday until Tuesday. I’m really excited to finally get to meet my friend Amanda. She’s a sweetheart and I appreciate her letting me stay with her, so I don’t have to waste money on a hotel room. She’s gonna be my guide around the area while I’m there. I can’t wait.

Bella wishes she could go with me this time. I had to tell her that maybe next time she’d be able to come with me (assuming I make it out that way again). She said that was okay.

Hope everyone is doing well. Talk with you all later.

Much Love,
Chad

Mike's Graduation Slideshow

http://chadalyx.slide.com/p/2/DSC+0044

If you go to that site you will be able to see some of the pics from Mike’s graduation. If you follow some of the links you can download the pics as well.

That’s all.

Much Love,

Chad

MINE ALL MINE

Well I officially paid off my car today. It was probably the biggest check that I have ever written... ...but well worth it in the long run. Now I just need a tune-up and a new tire and I’ll be good to go.

Well that’s pretty much all I wanted to say in this post.

Much Love,
Chad

D-SLR Here I Come/Bella Party

I have finally purchased a Digital-SLR camera. It’s a little treat for myself this year. I am hoping to learn more about photography this year so this camera will be a great investment. I chose to buy a Nikon D50. My friend uses one and she absolutely loves it. Plus I figure I can get pointers from her (which will just mean trips to Salt Lake every now and again).

It was fun at Bella’s b-day party today. She was excited about all the gifts she received. And it was great that Dad, Pam and Bryan all happened to make it down for it as well. I really appreciate it.

Well it is late and I have to be to work early tomorrow so I am off to bed.

Much Love,
Chad

Vista-fied!

Well I have upgraded to Windows Vista and I gotta say...I like it. Had a few issues with setting up the Media Center portion of it last night, but just finished that up this morning and now it is running smoothly.

We are also having Bella’s 3rd party for her 4th birthday today. I bought her a Leapster (educational gifts...gotta love ’em). I hope she likes it. I am sure that she will.

Also, Dad, we got your present for Bella. She is excited to play them when she comes up next. (I didn’t install them right away cuz I was having issues with my old OS), but she understood I had to fix the computer and was satisfied by playing games on the playhousedisney.com website.

Thanks again to everyone for all they do for myself and Bella.

Much Love,
Chad

Bella's B-Day

Well it is officially Isabella’s 4th birthday. Now granted it is only 1:30 in the morning and for some odd reason I am not asleep. I will be getting there right after I post this.

We are still planning on having a little family get together on Saturday, February 10th to have her 3rd party so far, but as Dad once told me...."Stretch out the celebration of your birthday as long as you can". So we are just getting her into her family customs.

Well it is late (or rather early) and I think Bella will be waking up earlier than I would like. So hope you are all having a good day and I will talk with you all later.

So....

Here are the plans for Bella's birthday. This coming Friday (Feb. 2nd) Krissy is having a party for Bella and her little friends. Taylor, Shaylie, and Anje are all invited. I believe it is going to be some sort of princess party. Then the following day, Krissy is having a party for Bella with her family...so I have decided to throw Bella's party on Saturday Feb. 10th. (Tonya: I hope your house will be open to visitors that day)

It isn't going to be a theme party or anything just family members, so for anyone that can make it down (or over) let me know so I can make final plans.

We (Bella and I) are both doing well. We've had a lot of fun playing with the toys she got for Christmas. She keeps kicking my butt at the Dora Memory game that Uncle Mike and Aunt Erin bought her. That seems to be the one we play the most.

I can't believe she is gonna be 4 next week. The time has definitely just flown by. I'm very proud of her. She is a sweetheart and I am glad she is turning into such a great little (don't tell her I said little) girl. :)

Much Love,
Chad

Flashback

You creep through the maze...
The smell of blood thick in your nostrils...
You can smell the beast...
He is close...
BUT...
Is he straight ahead?
Or to your left?
You are confident you know where he is...
You pull back your one arrow...
You chose WRONG!!!!!

Time to HUNT THE WUMPUS!

Home At Last

Well I have survived the 2006 Holiday Season. Overall it was a good one. I had a blast spending so much time with Isabella. She really enjoyed all the gifts she received. She was excited to get her "Glo E Bear" with the wand. I was surprised I was able to get everything home in my car. (Thank goodness I took the rocking horse home last week)

I also want to thank everyone for the wonderful gifts they got me. Especially the FOUR new monopoly games I received. I'm really liking that Monopoly Express dice game. Now I just need to get some friends to come over and play some of them with me.

I got to thinking about how we had all the kids there and we didn't take a picture. Oh well!

Well I hope everyone else had a great holiday season.

Much Love,
Chad