Happy Valentine's day!

The girls love unloading all the shoes from our shoe "ottoman" and then it becomes a really cool boat, bus, hideout! Aren't they cute in their red and pink outfits :-)
Kajsa is having one of the Valentine muffins that Sofia and I made.
I put on the frosting and then Sofia decorated them all by herself with sprinkles galore!

Favorite Things!

Here are some pictures of current favorites:
Drake has found a new snuggle friend, Sofia's Lion pillow, aaww what a snuggley couple :-)
Sofia's favorite, always, is CHOCOLATE!!!
And M & M's, they of course contain the all-important ingredient - CHOCOLATE!
Kajsa is digging her new CAT Dump Truck, thanks Gramma and Grampa :-)
Kajsa didn't fall far from the tree either and is definitely a budding CHOCO-HOLIC too!!!

Christmas and Fun in the Sun

We had a wonderful 2 week holiday in the Bahamas with my parents. The weather was beautiful and the girls loved boating, the beach and all the adventures that we had everyday :-)

Here's a collage for you to enjoy!
(double click to see a bigger version)

Birthday Marathon!

All in the same week Kajsa turned 1, Ryan turned 31 and Sofia turned 3! Lots of 3's and 1's there. We started the week with Elton Brown's Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, then had homemade German Chocolate cake with coconut frosting, and finished off the week with a Gramma created Little Girl cake! Wowey, that was a lot of cake.

Cutey Kajsa

Here is our blue eyed cutey girl, Kajsa! She was so proud of having put on the headband all by herself.

Truckee Summer Fun!

I'm trying to instill my love of horses into Sofia and it seems to be working. Last year Sofia wasn't too sure about sitting on the horse, but this year she got on right away and we did 3 laps on the trail! What a cowgirl :-)
Here is another of Sofia's own pictures - she's quite artistic when she's yielding the camera.
We went on a "nature hike" trail with Gramma. This was a very fun adventure until an escaped Husky started following us and picking a fight with Drake. We called the owner's number on the collar but he didn't care.
The husky kept bugging us and when we sat down to have our picnic snack he came right up to us and stole Sofia's lion right out of the back pack on my back! This was Sofia's very special lion that she put to bed every night and who sat in the pocket of her apron when she was baking, took baths with her and was her little special friend. Needless to say it was VERY traumatic to see a dog run off with her lion and not come back. Gramma went to hunt down the dog but to no avail, the dog that wouldn't leave us alone was nowhere to be found!
Here is Sofia's lion 15 minutes prior to THE ABDUCTION! We visited the local children's thrift store and got a little kitten stuffed animal. He wasn't so special at first, but we can happily report that "Kitty" is now a very cherished Sofia friend who even wears cloth diapers that mom has sewn for him!

4th of July!

This year marked the first year for the Annual Kalmbach Family 4th of July Parade! We created a very cool float by making a giant Uncle Sam hat out of chicken wire and tissue paper.

Camping in the Sierras

Last weekend we went camping at Dinkey Creek above Shaver Lake. It was Kajsa's premiere camping trip and everything went great so now there will be more trips coming :-)

 

 

 

 

Sweden trip 2008 Slide show

Click on the slide show to see it bigger!

3 Girls in Sweden!

Sofia, Kajsa and Emma went to Sweden for 3 weeks in June. We had a wonderful time visiting friends and family. First we stayed with Helena, Jonas and Lovisa, where we got to attend Lovisa's christening, then we headed to Helsingborg in southern Sweden for 3 days to visit my grandmother (Momutti) so that she could meet her second great-granddaughter, Kajsa. Once back up in Stockholm we stayed with Johanna and Lars-Goran where Sofia and Kajsa had tons of fun making friends with Andre and Alexander. The last week we stayed on my parents sailboat in Vasahamnen right smack in the middle of Stockholm.Traveling to Helsingborg on the X-2000 high speed train. Sofia was pretty excited about going on a super fast train and she thought the coolest part was using the potty on the train!

Momutti with Kajsa at the breakfast table.Kajsa and Sofia in the "karamell stolen". Two little beauties!

Fun with Pippi! (Longstocking, that is)

The past week had a little bit of a Pippi Longstocking theme.
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Sofia's neighborhood friend, Kaleb, came by to have some fun in the backyard and they ended up soaking each other with the garden hose and so needed dry clothes. Don't they look like 2 little rascals in matching Pippi shirts and jeans :-)Later in the week Sofia let me do her hair in Pippi braids. I managed to do it real quick while she was sitting still coloring, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten near her hair!Here's my two little cutie girls on our new living room couch that we got from http://www.freecycle.org/. Love, love, love, freecycle and love, love, love this new comfy couch! What a great way to re-purpose things and pass it through the community. Sofia's photo skills are being honed everyday! She loves telling us all to smile and say "cheese".Kajsa is ready for baby yoga! She loves chewing on her toes. I didn't whip the camera out quick enough, as a second earlier she had both toes in her mouth!!! :-)

Sofia feeds Kajsa!

Sofia is such a big girl now. Here she is feeding her little sister, Kajsa.

2 girls having fun!

Here are some pictures of Sofia and Kajsa from the last week:

Sofia likes to play peekabo with Kajsa when she's eating. Kajsa is now eating pureed veggies and rice cereal - yum!
This is the first time that Kajsa got to join Sofia in the tub - they had lots of fun and Sofia was doing a great job showing Kajsa what bathtime is all about.
This is the beautiful quilt that Raina, Carl's girlfriend, made for Kajsa. We love it! Kajsa is wearing a knit cardigan that my dad (morfar) wore when he was a baby. Handmade things last forever! I hope that Kajsa can pass down her quilt when she becomes a mom :-)


Sofia is becoming quite the little photographer, didn't she do a great job with this picture!

Easter Fun

On Sunday we celebrated Easter at Gramma and Grampa's house with an egg hunt, Easter baskets and a yummy lunch with paninis, pasta salad, and fresh fruit.
Isn't Sofia adorable in her Easter dress! She was all about finding lots of eggs, she was super excited about "found another one!"
Kajsa wasn't as talented as Sofia at hunting eggs, she enjoyed being snuggled instead :-)
Sofia got a really neat fish bubble wand in her Easter basket. She was blowing a whole bunch of bubbles all by herself.

A visit to Gilroy Gardens

On Sunday we spent the day at Gilroy Gardens in Gilroy, CA. It is a beautiful botanical garden and it's also a little amusement park for young kids. Gramma and Grampa came along too. Sofia had a blast riding all the little rides and was really a lot braver than her Mamma and Pappa thought, even riding several twirling fast ones all on her own!

Spring Blossoms!

We did a car ride tour of the Fresno Blossom Trail for the second year this past weekend. Lots of different gorgeous blooming trees including plums, cherries, and more. The flower petals on the ground made the orchards look like they had a fresh dusting of snow, however the temperatures were in the high 60's :-)