Party Central

Having 2 kids with the same birthday=lots of fun and excitement and parties! This was the first year that Kaleb had a birthday party without Emily. He still got to share his party though since his friend, Joshua (sitting on the blue chair), has a birthday on June 1st. We had a combined pool party. It was a lot of fun, and since most of the kids aren't strong swimmers, we had moms and siblings come too. I think we ended up with 25 or 30 people. We all had fun though, and no one drowned, so it was a success!

Kaleb and I took donuts and chocolate milk to share with Emily's class. They sang happy birthday to both Emily and Kaleb.

That night we had cake and candles. Emily and Kaleb each made a wish, and blew out their candles on their side of the cake.

Saturday we had Emily's pool party. It's a lot easier to swim with 8-year olds than 5-year olds. She invited all of her girl scout troop and a couple of friends from church. It was a lot of fun, but all of us ended up with colds at the end of the week.

So having a double birthday is a lot of fun. I'm just glad it's only once a year!

Cruising with the Webers

The cruise was a blast! We were on the Carnival Elation. We got spoiled having food whenever we wanted, and having someone make our beds each night.

A kiss at sunset.

It's hard to believe I know, but Becky still found time to read. Here she is in Catalina.

I love this picture of Becky. A look of pur joy on her face!

It was so fun to go on the cruise with Kirsten, Spencer, Richard and some of his family. We had a great time together with lots of laughs.

These guys were our waitors. The first night at dinner the kids all had ice cream cones, so the one waitor started calling Kaleb "ice man." It stuck, and he called him that for the rest of the cruise. Very fun guys. They all sang for us one night, danced the next night, and sang a fairwell song the last night. They are great.

We all looked forward to returning to our room after dinner to see what towel animal we would have. Emily loved this turtle.

We were too cheap to buy the nice pictures the cruise people took of us, so we took our own picture in our room with a blanket propped up behind us. It's not professional, but it's free!

This is us waiting to get off the boat to head to Catalina. We love the island! We went snorkeling on a couple of different beaches. Spencer had never gone snorkeling before, and he really liked it. We also did a little shopping and a lot of walking. I'd love to go back again.

This picture of Kaleb sums up our whole trip. Fun, relaxing, and like Kaleb says "the cruise was so fun!"

From the mouth of Kaleb

The other day we were driving in the car and Kaleb said, "You know what my favorite car is Mom? I like the ones with no topping. You know that kind Mom? The ones with no topping." It took me a minute to figure out he meant a convertible. What a great way to describe it.

This morning, Kaleb walked in my room while I was in the process of getting dressed. He looked at me and said, "Oh, you just have your garlics on. Is that what their called Mom, garlics?" We had a little discussion about it, and had a good laugh. You've got to love kids!

Here's a video Kaleb did when Grandma and Grandpa Torgersen were here. Caution: Could cause motion sickness!



It's fun to see things from his point of view.

A bit sour

Easter was great! My friend Kym gave the kids a big easter basket full of treats. Kaleb was excited to try this sour treat.

We were expecting a good reaction, but his sour face was so funny!! We all had a good laugh about it, and he repeated the process for the girls who missed it. Thanks for keeping us entertained Kaleb!

A visit from Grandma and Grandpa Torgersen

We had the best general conference weekend. Blake's parents came to visit! Friday we went down and met Blake for lunch overlooking the ocean by his work. Saturday and Sunday we watched conference by connecting our computer to our tv. It would freeze at times, and we'll have to read a lot of the talks again to catch what we missed, but that's probably a good thing. There were so many talks that I really enjoyed. As we listened, Grandma taught the kids how to crochet. Emily ended up making a scarf for Becky's doll, and Becky made a chain, and even Kaleb was able to do it once Grandma showed him how to do it without a hook.

We also had the best carmel popcorn. Blake used the "food" option on our camera when taking this picture. It makes me want to make some more!

We also enjoyed putting together puzzles, although all but one of the puzzles we did was missing pieces.

In between the sessions we went on walks. The weather was beautiful and it was nice to get out. We are so glad that Grandma and Grandpa Torgersen came to visit! We can't wait to see you again in July.

By the way, Kaleb took this picture with our old camera. I love it. The kids have been having fun taking lots of pictures, which I will get on flickr as soon as Blake reinstalls it for me.

Blood, Sweat, and Tears

I am not a very patient person. I really wish I were, and I get lots of opportunities to practice, so hopefully one of these days I'll get better. Blake is a very patient person. That's why I usually have him hang the pictures on our walls because I know he will do it right the first time, since he takes the time to measure. That's why we only have one picture up in our bedroom. I've been waiting for him to do it right since we moved in 10 months ago, and got tired of blank walls, so I hung up a picture of the temple which only took one nail and no anchors. Anyway, recently I decided to make a FHE board since I didn't want to pay $30 for one. A lady in my ward does vinyl lettering, so I got the lettering a couple of weeks ago and set it aside since I didn't have a board yet. Last week I went to Lowe's and got some boards while Kaleb was at preschool. I had it painted by the time I picked him and his friend up and brought them home. After it was dry I started putting on the vinyl lettering. I didn't mesure, just eyed it and called it good. It slants slightly upward, but not much. I added the magnet strips and the rocks with our names on them, which didn't turn out exactly as I had planned:

Kind of a big gap, but they serve their purpose. So when everything was on I nailed the mounts on the back so I could hang it up. Now, I tried to be patient and copy Blake's methods for hanging things up. I measured, twice, then put one screw in. As I was holding the board as it rested on the one screw so I could measure where to put the other screw, it slipped off, scraped the wall, and the corner landed right on Kaleb's foot, who had come to see what I was doing. Screaming, a little blood, and tears from him and me.

Once I got him (and myself) calmed down, I put a band-aid on, and he stayed a safer distance away as I put in the second screw. After all my careful measuring, I went to hang up the board, and it was off, barely. Another hole in the wall, I hang up the board, and it was very crooked and I have lost my patience and am ready to give up but I don't, so I added one more hole in the wall (luckily they're all behind the board) stepped back, and was happy with the result:

So blood, sweat, and tears went into making the board, but the kids looked forward to FHE all week, and they all knew what their jobs were so nobody argued about whose turn it was to lead the song, so besides Kaleb getting hurt, it was worth it. I'm glad I did it, and even more glad that it's done!

Daddy/Daughter Dates are Great!

The girls love spending time with their Dad. Last month the girl scouts had a princess daddy/daughter dance that the girls loved. They liked getting dressed up and being able to wear some make-up too. Blake was a good sport and wore his suit. They danced, ate, played games and Becky even won a stuffed animal.

The next weekend was a daddy/daughter hoe-down with the stake acitivity day girls. Bex got Blake all to herself, and loved it!