Merry Christmas

I hope everyone is having a great day with their friends and family. I've been having a great time with Bella. She enjoyed getting her new bike. :) I will have to post some pictures later when I get more time.

Bella's New Haircut

Also, Bella has a cell number now. It's one of those TracPhones, but obviously I'm not going to post it on here.

Much Love,
Chad

What Took So Long? lol

Well it has finally happened. Bella got her ears pierced this last weekend. Sorry the picture isn't very good. It's from a cellphone. She said it hurt a little but Krissy says that Bella was very brave. :)



Much Love,
Chad

Thanksgiving? What's that?

As most of you know, my Thanksgiving this year was pretty much non-existent. I didn't have Bella this year, so that kinda kills it as being a holiday right there...but other causes were that I had to go into work at 5am and then because I'm trying to save up enough leave hours for Christmas time, I ended up having to stay to work until early afternoon.

I, luckily, had my laptop there with me so I was able to stream a couple of movies from Netflix. Those helped pass the time. However, one of them I had to watch just to remember why I thought that movie was bad. lol (It was called Pulse)

So when I went home I ended up just playing some video games and then made me some chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner. Exciting stuff, I know.

Hope everyone else had a great Holiday.
Much Love,
Chad

NXE Version of ME!

VERSION ONE:


VERSION TWO:


For those who don't know (which is probably everybody who reads my blog..lol), NXE is the New Xbox Experience. They have incorporated something like the Nintendo Miis. So this is the one that I created. Just thought I'd post it for funsies.

Much Love,
Chad

EDIT: Tell me which you like most.

Halloween Pic of Bella

Here is my beautiful girl as a kitty. (She was told to look mean and I think she pulled it off quite nicely):



And here she is next to her pumpkin:

Fort Building 101

So last week I got to spend the weekend with Bella. I had a blast seeing her again. I took the weekend off of work so I could head up to Orem. Krissy dropped Bella off on Friday night at my dad's house, where we stayed all weekend.

One of our funnest* activities was the fort building that we got to do in the living room. As you can see...here's the little goofball sticking her head out the door to the fort.



While inside the fort we decided to take some pictures. Well Pam had this light-up toys that Bella had fun with so we got a little creative with our photos. :) Here they are. Starting with her trucking down a bunch of toys to put in the fort.



Here she is inside the fort:



Here's where we get a little silly with the photos.













One last picture (She's such a poser):



We ended up moving that fort up into her bedroom, so she could sleep the night in it. :) She had a great time building forts. It made me think back to all the Super Forts that Bryan and I used to build in dad's basement back in the day. We were pros at those things.

As for what I've been up to this last week after seeing Bella...My life has been consumed by a video game (shocker I know). This game is called Fable II. It is a game of choices. These choices affect how the world around you changes. I played through once as a "good" character and I am now playing as an "evil" character. It's amazing what happens in the game with all the small decisions. Whole sections of the main town are completely different. In the "good" version...the section where you grow up will become a pretty decent living area with nice houses and nice people. Same place in the "evil" version...is a slum with beggars, call girls, and thieves. The buildings are rundown and everything. They definitely improved on the "decision=consequence" gameplay that they tried to get in the first one (which I was also a major fan of. I recommend this game to anyone who has a xbox 360. I think my brothers would both like it a lot, but neither of them are in possession of said xbox. :( Anyway, I guess I should go to bed now. It IS 1am.

Much love,
Chad

*For those who don't think "funnest" should be a word. LOL!
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/is-funnest-a-word.aspx

Myka's Blessing

I know my post is a little later than it should be, but I figured I would post two pics from Myka's blessing day. (For more photos visit Mike and Erin's photo page)

Here is one of Bella and I. She looks so pretty in this picture. I love it. :)



Here is the whole family. It was good to get everyone together again. It has been awhile since that has happened. Myka is a great addition to "The Girls" as they are called. She looked very cute in her blessing dress.



Hope all is well with everyone.
Much Love,
Chad

Quick Update

Well not much has been going on since my last update. I've mainly just been working.
Bella has started kindergarten and she loves it. I haven't talked to her in awhile so I will have to put more on here once I hear from her.

Sorry about this one being so short, but when nothing is happening...nothing is happening.

Much Love,
Chad

Best Week Ever!

I took some time off work this week so I could spend some time with Bella before she starts kindergarten. I headed up to my mom's on Sunday night after work and Krissy sent Bella down to Holden with her friend Terrell(sp?). I was very happy to see her. We spent a few days at my mom's house. This trip was mainly focused on Bella getting to spend some time with her grandparents before school. Bella spent most of her time in Holden digging out in the garden or playing on the Wii or even running through the sprinkler.



She didn't care much for the cold water as seen in this photo:



On Wednesday we headed up to Orem to see Papa Strong and Grandma Pam. We had a great time there. Here we are heading up to Orem (Bella is watching a movie in the background):



We, once again, ended up playing the Wii quite a bit. Bella was having fun showing Papa and Pam how good she was at all the WiiSports and WiiPlay games. It was very cute. We went to the city park near Papa's house where Bella played on the playground and had quite a few little friends to play with. She had a great time there. Here's a pic of her at the park (didn't get any with her and her little friends though):



Dad challenged me to another game of Cashflow. He has been determined to beat me ever since we started playing that game. :) This first game didn't quite go his way. Bella was helping me out quite a bit and I ended up winning (even after losing MILLIONS of dollars due to "DIVORCE" and "TAX AUDITS"). We also went for a drive up Provo Canyon. It was beautiful. I haven't driven up there for years so it was weird to see all the changes that have occurred. Here's some adorable pictures of Bella sitting in the back of the convertible:





This is her in front of Bridal Veil Falls in the canyon:



We ended up taking what I believe is called the Alpine Scenic Loop past Sundance and Cascade Springs. We had fun looking for the fish in the water here. I would like to go back someday and explore this place more thoroughly, but let's just say I came away from this little jaunt with quite a sunburn on my leg and arms. I was in a hurry to get some food and shade so we hurried out of there. Thanks to Papa and Pam for taking us here though. Here are some pics of Bella at Cascade Springs:







Friday was the day that I had to take Bella back up to Krissy, but before we left Papa and Pam took us to the University Mall and we went to Build-A-Bear. Bella was excited when she saw where we were heading. So, everyone, say hello to Rosie the Pink Leopard. (Bella named her after my friend Rosie who we spent some time with a few weeks ago)



Here is a picture that I took up in Ogden when Bella was able to get Kitty and Rosie together:



Bella was extremely excited to see her little sister Sophie again. She was screaming and smiling for about 15 minutes after we got there. It was cute. I waited at Krissy's house for a little bit waiting to hear from my friend up in Logan who I was supposed to go and see, but she had to cancel our plans right at the last minute, so I hung out with Bella, Krissy, Aaron and Sophie for a bit. We ended up playing Guitar Hero. We were attempting "Medium" which I've only done a few times. It was rough on a few of those songs. Around 930pm, I said my goodbyes to Bella and got on the road again (heading back to Dad's). Dad was happy to have me come back and spend some more time with him and Pam. He saw the opportunity to challenge me again at Cashflow. I was a "Lawyer" and he was the "Truck Driver"....I admit this with much chagrin....but he WON. :( (Only by a few turns though...I was right on his heels. Wasn't I, Dad?) haha

We ended up playing Split Second and Scattergories too. It's always fun to play games up there. (Yes...even when I lose) I decided to come home today (Sunday) but stopped off at Target to buy my mom a wireless router (not a modem, mom) so I could set up her home network. She's been wanting to be able to use her laptop without having to connect the phone cord to it and now that she has high speed internet we were able to make that dream come true. For more on that story, go over to her blog.

So, I'm back home now. I just want to say thanks to my mom and dad for putting up with me for the week. I know my plans were kinda up in the air, so thanks for giving me a place to crash when I needed it. Love you guys.

Much Love,
Chad and Bella.

p.s. Everyone send Bella your good wishes...she starts kindergarten tomorrow. :)

The Time Has Come...

In about two weeks, Bella will be starting Kindergarten. I can't believe it has come to be that time already. Next thing I know...she'll be graduating college. lol
I am excited that I get her for all next week. I'm taking some days off of work to be able to spend more time with her now since I'm not sure how I'll be able to work out seeing her during school. We'll be trying to come and see the grandparents mainly while I have her. So expect a phone call.

That's really all that is new with me so I will sign out now.

Much love,
Chad

First Golf Round of the Year

Geoff and I went out and played 9 holes today. I, as usual, started out pretty good, but towards the end I was sucking it up. lol I did, however, still beat Geoff by 9 strokes. It was good to finally get out on the course. I played the whole round with the same ball, which is a HUGE win for me. lol That means that I didn't have to spend much time in the dirt and weeds looking for my shot. Hopefully after the BAR, Geoff and I will be able to get out there more often...on the course, not out in the weeds.

Well I just wanted to brag a little bit. :)

Much Love,
Chad

No More Green Walls...

Hooray for the Chesnuts!

They found a great little place just a couple of buildings behind me. I was glad that I could help them out by giving them a place to stay and some help when moving all their stuff out of the storage unit. We came away with a couple of injuries, but should all recover quite nicely.

D&G: Anytime you guys need anything...you just have to ask. :) I'm always glad to help friends out.

Much love,
Chad

Happenings...

So it has been a few weeks since my last post. I would say things have been busy, but realistically they haven't. A few note-worthy events have occurred though.

Dez and Geoff have been living with me for a week now. (if you want the full story follow the link to their blog "Chesnut blog") It's been fun having them here. We've been rocking out to Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. I had never played a GH game before so I decided to buy one and see what all the fuss was about and it really is a fun game.

Yesterday, I decided to have a bbq with the Chesnuts and I invited Brandy up. We had fun. I cooked up some hamburgers and hot dogs. Dez made a yummy cobbler dessert. After we finished eating we played a little GHIII, so Brandy could see it, she wasn't quite ready to take it on herself though. lol Then after that I had to scour my closet to look through the plethora of boxes containing games to find Phase 10. Because apparently I wanted to get my butt handed to me at some game and Brandy is like a Phase 10 goddess. Geoff made a nice run at the end but ended up losing anyway to her. I was a good 3-4 phases behind them. haha

Brandy had a good time meeting Dez and Geoff (and vice versa). And now I guess I should put all the game boxes back. They pretty much take up my living room.

Well I hope everyone is doing great.
Much Love,
Chad

Bloggity, Blog, Blog

So there are a few things I'd like to cover in this post. First off, I'd like to welcome Dez and Geoff back to the state of Utah (where they belong). It was good to see them when they stopped to empty the majority of their belongings into a storage shed. I am excited to have them heading back to Cedar this summer.

Next, I would just like to say what an awesome job Anje did in "Grease Jr." last weekend. Definitely reminded me of my old theater days back in high school. It was good to see that she was one of the few chorus singers who actually knew the words to the songs. Great job, Anj.

Now I would like to thank the plethora of people who helped get Bella down here so she could see Anje in her play and so I could get to see her for a longer period of time than usual. Bella had a great time staying at Papa's house and with the girls. She loves getting to spend time with everyone when she heads down this way.

Funny story...when Dad and Pam were dropping Bella off at my house on Sunday, Dad was telling Bella what a great time he had with her and that she was very entertaining and she says, "Well, it wasn't MY idea." It was very funny. I started cracking up.

And lastly, this may come as a shock to some in the family, but they are actually replacing the fences in my backyard...FINALLY!! That was something that the HOA had been talking about before I even bought this place. So imagine my shock when I found a note on my door saying that they were going to begin on Wed. (May 21st) They tore the old fence down rather quickly and got the posts in for the new fence on the first day. Now they are hanging the fence and should hopefully be done by tomorrow evening. By the way, the fence isn't the white pvc that I thought it was going to be...it is the chain link fence with the pvc slats that go within the fencing. Should look pretty good. I'll have to post a picture when it is all finished.

Well I hope everything is going well for everyone.
Much Love,
Chad

It's Been Decided...

That I shall attempt to fix my Xbox 360 on my own. I have step by step instructions and they seem pretty easy to follow. I am just waiting for the kit to arrive (should be here tomorrow). I'll have to let you know how it turns out.

The above photo is how my Xbox has been sitting for about two days now. I decided to get a headstart on the repair process. :) Wish me luck!

Much Love,
Chad

UPDATE: Recieved the kit today in the mail and MY XBOX IS UP AND RUNNING AGAIN!!!

R.I.P. Xbox 360

It has happened. My xbox 360 has taken the hit that thousands of xboxes have suffered before..The infamous Red Ring of Death!!!

I have been pretty lucky thus far. Most of the early adopters of the 360 are already on their 4th or 5th xbox by now. The RRoD is thought to be caused by the solder joints between the motherboard and the GPU coming apart due to heating and warping of the motherboard. So I consider myself lucky that I've gone over two years and am just having this issue. Luckily, Microsoft extended the warranty on the 360 due to the unusually high number of failures. So as long as I get it sent in before 2009, I should be okay.

The downside to this whole story is that I won't have my Xbox for about 4-5 weeks while it is being repaired, but luckily I have my Nintendo Wii to keep me entertained while the 360 is out on sabbatical.

So in this case "R.I.P." will have to stand for "Repair It Promptly".

(There is a DIY fix that is available on the web and looks relatively easy...I've heard that it is more of a permanent fix than what the M$ people do to "fix" it. So let's do a little unofficial poll: Should I send it to Microsoft or attempt the DIY fix?)

Much Love,
Chad

Future of Gaming (Hopefully!)

I recently came across this video by a guy named Johnny Lee. It is pretty awesome what he came up with using about $10 of extra hardware for the Wii Remote. Check it out:

The Joys of Tag

Well I've been officially "tagged" by Dez (thanks a lot :p) So here we go:

10 YEARS AGO:
I would be just finishing up my 2nd year of college, which would mean I was moving out of the Village (aka Meat Market as my friend Ruth used to call it). I would have been working at the college for over a year then and STILL not knowing what I wanted to do with my life. lol

5 THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST TODAY:
1. Dishes
2. Laundry
3. Clean up back patio area
4. Organize downstairs closet
5. Watch TV

SNACKS I ENJOY:
1. Popcorn
2. Kit Kat bars
3. CreamSlushes (From Sonic)
4. Cookies
5. Cheddar & Sour Cream Ruffles

WHAT WOULD I DO IF I WERE A BILLIONAIRE?
1. Quit my job
2. Pay off all debt
3. Get my mother out of Holden. lol
4. Buy gifts for siblings and friends
5. Travel the world (Stole answer from Dez)

3 BAD HABITS:
1. Procrastination
2. Indecision
3. Laziness

5 PLACES I HAVE LIVED:
1. Springville, UT
2. Holden, UT
3. Cedar City, UT
4. Mesa, AZ (for all of a month and a half)
5. Came home to Cedar City.

5 JOBS THAT I HAVE HAD:
1. Larry's Drive-in ~ Cook
2. Arby's ~ Cook
3. SUU ~ Student Janitor
4. Wal-Mart ~ Deli worker
5. TSA ~ Lead TSO

5 THINGS PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME: (This is a hard question.....)
1. That I don't play video games as much as people think I do. lol They are really a last resort for me. I'll watch something stupid on tv usually rather than play games. But as a side note: I'd play more if Geoff had a Xbox 360.
2. That I wished I was as creative as my sister Tonya, as outgoing as my sister Anissa, as daring as my brother Mike, and as handy as my brother Bryan.
3. That I have lately been getting extremely sick of my job and wish I could find something else to do...something that I was actually interested in doing. (Could be lack of vacations this last year that have worn on me)
4. That I wished I lived in a home with a garage (stupid frost and snow) haha
5. (Most people know this one, but I can't think of anything else) I was arrested on Dec. 26th, 2003 for not paying a speeding ticket.

There ya go Dez. I've finished the list. I will consider "tagged" everyone in my familia who has a blog (mainly Tonya and Anissa, since nobody else updates theirs).

Much Love,
Chad

Happy Easter!

Well here it is....another wonderful spring day and I'm stuck inside the airport. :p Yay me!

I had a great time with Bella last week when she was here. We had a blast hanging out together. There was lots of driving involved, but she seemed to handle it very well. We just took along the little princess computer that Dad & Pam gave her (for Christmas, I believe) and we would listen to the songs on it (mainly Canon in D, which she really likes for some reason) and she was doing an awesome job at the "Missing Letters" game. I didn't even have to help her and she was sounding out the words and getting the majority of the words right on the first try. I was very proud. The addition/subtraction game was a little harder, but she was starting to get the hang of it.

I hope everyone is having a great Easter weekend so far. I went down to Hurricane yesterday and spent the evening with Brandy and her kids. It was fun.

Much love,
Chad

No Movie For Old Men

So I just got done watching No Country For Old Men and can I just say that is probably one of the worst cinematic endings I have ever seen. Prepare to be extremely disappointed with the "wrap-up" of the plot. This is just going to go on my list of movies that won "Best Picture" that I hate.

I do have to give Javier Bardem some credit though. He played an awesome villain in this movie. Within the first couple of minutes of the movie you get to see him set the tone of his character and he sticks to it throughout. He'll creep you out just by seeing him on screen...he doesn't even have to be doing anything other than standing there.

{End Movie Review}

I am so excited to get to see Bella tomorrow. I haven't had her at my house since mid-January. I've missed her so much. She's missed me as well. I'm glad that I have had the opportunity to speak with her on the phone. I love it when she calls me, even though we only talk for a few minutes, I enjoy every second of it.

Well I hope all is well with everyone.
Much Love,
Chad

The Guzzler

So I am finally out of the Malibu. All I can say is HALLELUJAH!!!! I was looking at getting a nice mid-size SUV, but when I test drove some of them I just liked the feel of the Dodge Durango better. It feels more sturdy and it also had less road noise than the others. The downsides to getting rid of the Malibu are that I now have a car payment and this thing is VERY, VERY thirsty. Huge gas tank (25+ gal.) but I like having a car with power. :) So I will just get used to the hit to my wallet every time I fill this thing up. lol

I got to see Bella this last Tuesday as well. I was SO glad to see her. I've missed her lots. I'm glad that I will get to see her for a little longer next month (or whenever I can work out some time off).

Much Love,
Chad

Awesomeness

I just received my new 42" LCD 1080p HDTV. It is awesome. I can't believe the difference from my old tv. I tested the difference with my old tv using Assassin's Creed on my Xbox 360. With my old tv I couldn't hardly read the writing on the screen. Clues to where my assassination target was were barely legible, but on the new tv......DANG!!! It is crystal clear. I love it. I recommend a HDTV to everybody now. I got this one as a refurb for a good price. Now I just need to hook my computer up to it and use it as a monitor. :)

Time Flies...

So in two days Bella will be turning 5. I can't believe how fast these years have gone by. When I talk to her on the phone she sounds like such a little lady now. I am definitely blessed to have her as my daughter. She is by far the greatest thing that has ever happened to me (and that ever WILL happen). I still don't know what I am going to get her for her birthday. I'm sure we'll find something though.

And now for something completely different....

I got my taxes done (finally) and with my refund I plan on getting myself a new car. My current car will not survive the next year. Think of it as being hooked up to a respirator and being forced to run a marathon. I've been looking around and found a car that I like. I'll get more into that when I actually have a new car though.

Hope all is well with everyone. Much Love, Chad

First Post of 2008

Well I guess since the "dead blogs" have been resurrected, I may as well put up my first post of the new year. :)

My holiday season was okay. A little depressing at times, since I didn't get to see Bella for most of them. I had her with me the week before Christmas and then she and Krissy moved the weekend before Christmas and with work and everything I couldn't find time to get up there to see her for New Year's. I did get to talk with her a lot. She's been calling me almost everyday, which I love. I'm glad that I will be getting her this weekend for a few days. I took Sunday and next Thursday off work so I would have some more time with her. I'm spending the whole time with her and we are going to plant the seeds in the "Garden Girlz" set. Every time we talk on the phone she mentions them so we are going to plant them and then I am going to send her pictures of the plants once they start growing. :) It will be fun. It's been kinda weird not having her here with me every week. :(

Well I hope everyone's new year is going well. Glad to see that the "biggest losers" in the family are making some progress towards their goals. :) Keep up the awesome work you guys.

Much Love,
Chad