Being a Mom

I love being a mom. It is definitely challenging, and I've learned a ton about myself that I wouldn't have otherwise, but I feel blessed, and I'm loving the age of my kids now. They're old enough to not need a lot of looking after, but still young enough to cuddle in the morning, and to get so excited about things. Mother's day was great this year. Blake and I woke up Sunday morning to breakfast in bed by Emily and Kaleb. I thought it was very sweet that they broght us both breakfast. Each of the kids gave me very sweet homemade cards that they had spent a lot of time on, and they said they were giving me two presents that I had to guess. I asked if one was that they were going to be good listeners, (yep), and asked if the second was that they were going to be nice to each other, (right again). I'm so glad they know what I want most.


I got a rose at church. We all got a kick out of how tall it was.

For part of my Mother's Day present I printed off new pictures for our frames in the frontroom. Time is going too quickly.

Blake's present to me was great. After living in our house for almost two years, I told him all I wanted was for him to hang up the stuff I had collected for our bedroom walls. I love how it turned out!

After seeing the video of Kaleb riding his bike, Emily asked if I could put a video of her on the blog. Here she is being a monkey last month when Grandma and Grandpa Torgersen came to visit. Good thing she's wearing a helmet! Also, there is a video of Kaleb reading a Mother's Day poem. I'm so glad to be a mom!

Freedom to ride!

We had a great Easter weekend with Blake's parents here. Kaleb surprised us all by starting to ride his sister's bike. Life is good, and I'm so excited for all the bike rides we're planning for this summer. Emily just got a new bike for an early birthday present, I got a beach cruiser, and we're painting Emily's old bike for Kaleb on Saturday. Now we just need to get Blake a bike and we're set.

A whole new world

No, we didn't go to Disneyland, but we did go to Stagecoach in Indio. It was a huge country concert with 60,000 people there. We saw amazing artists like Billy Currington, Sugarland and Keith Urban. We also found out that you don't have to wear much of anything to go to an outdoor concert. (I never knew a bandana could be used as a top).



We had a great time hanging out with our friends. Ron kept finding us better seats, so by the time Keith Urban performed, we could easily see him on stage, without having to stand on our chairs.



It was a fun trip, and reminded me of how we are in the world but not of the world. I'm happy with my semi-sheltered life, and I'm really glad we left the kids home with friends.

Thank goodness for a cavity

Because if Blake hadn't had a cavity and gotten the day off to go to the dentist, my dining room floor might still look like this:

Which, granted, is defnitely better than this:

But I LOVE having it done! Now I can't wait to rip up the carpet in the front room. That room doesn't have so many tricky angles, so I won't have to wait for Blake to get his next cavity in about 4 years.

Visitors and Visits

Okay, lets try this again. I already wrote a bunch of stuff, and then it got lost and I had to take some time off before I was ready to try again. I really hope it works this time. These are pictures of the girl's trip, Dallas and Adrianne's wedding and from last month when my mom was here. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures when my sister came to visit so you'll just have to imagine pictures of her finishing painting my kitchen, fixing Kaleb's new church pants, and great visits on the beach.

We got stuck in a big snow storm in Beaver and woke up with 6 inches on the car. The freeway was closed for a while, so the girls got out and had a mini snowball fight.

Dallas and Adrianne's wedding was beautiful. We're so excited to have her in the family!

My amazing mother-in-law with the quilt she made them.

Adrianne made 10 dresses for all of the nieces. She's pretty amazing too.

One of the funnest things we did when my mom came to visit was go to the Mormon Battalion memorial in Old Town San Diego. We all learned a lot and had fun. What a great church we have!

Blake and Bex went to a father/daughter dance at the school. Blake said he lasted about 2 seconds in the hula hoop contest.

Bex got an award for being an outstanding citizen at school. Way to go Bex!

We had a really fun day out on the waverunner in February. The weather was perfect and we had a blast!

My mom and I love these victorian homes in Old Town. Some day we'd like to live in one together. It's fun to dream.

Panning for gold at the Mormon Battalion. We were all successful, although both Blake and I dropped a piece in Kaleb's pan while he wasn't looking.

Playing with Grandma at the beach. So fun, and we miss you!

Skipping races.

I love you Mom!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The girls and I had fun doing Valentine's Day hairdos this morning. I love how they turned out! Here's Emily's one heart.

Becky ended up with two hearts.