Happy 30th Birthday, Carl! Big hugs from Ryan, Emma, Sofia, Kajsa and Drake. Have a wonderful day :-)
July 06, 2009
April 20, 2009
Easter and a visit to Gilroy Gardens
Sofia, Benjamin and Alexandra at Gramma's house for Easter egg hunting. The cousins were dressed so nicely, we didn't manage to get Kajsa in the picture though.
The next weekend we visited Gilroy Gardens for a day of fun rides.
Kajsa was so excited to be a big girl and go on rides by herself :-)
Kajsa thought the carousel was really neat, but she didn't want to sit on the horse without mamma!
Sofia smiled and said please so nicely that Grampa just had to get her an icecream cone, however all she ate was the chocolate on the outside!
Here's our little big girl, Kajsa riding a fire engine. She was so proud of herself!
The next weekend we visited Gilroy Gardens for a day of fun rides.
Kajsa was so excited to be a big girl and go on rides by herself :-)
Kajsa thought the carousel was really neat, but she didn't want to sit on the horse without mamma!
Sofia smiled and said please so nicely that Grampa just had to get her an icecream cone, however all she ate was the chocolate on the outside!
Here's our little big girl, Kajsa riding a fire engine. She was so proud of herself!
April 05, 2009
Lots of fun!
We've had lots of fun lately and been pretty busy with all sorts of stuff. We've had fun in the snow up in Truckee, visited Storyland and Playland in Fresno, dug out the massive tree stump out of our front yard and more. Here are some picture highlights :-)
Snow dog! Drake loves the snow in Truckee. He bounces around like Bambi!
Sofia and Kajsa riding the ladybug at Rotary Playland in Fresno. Kajsa was enthralled with this ride because it was pretty much the only one she was big enough for and she insisted on going on it 3 times in a row!
Kajsa's new idea of being goofy is trying to be a dog and pick up stuff with her mouth. She'll get down on all fours and pick up stuffed animals, her snuggly and here she's eating grapes - very funny and cute!
The stump is officially out! Ryan worked for a day and a half hacking at the roots with an axe, digging and levering and finally it came out. He was pretty sore after! Now we have an entirely new problem and that is that there are 2 sprinkler lines we've broken off that went underneath the stump, so the hole is still there. It's filled with water which the neigborhood birds love. They can drink, take a bath and fluff their feathers in the dirt!
I'd just come home from the grocery store and unpacked everything and suddenly there was a cucumber thief on the loose! Note to self: buy 2 cucumbers next trip :-)
Snow dog! Drake loves the snow in Truckee. He bounces around like Bambi!
Sofia and Kajsa riding the ladybug at Rotary Playland in Fresno. Kajsa was enthralled with this ride because it was pretty much the only one she was big enough for and she insisted on going on it 3 times in a row!
Kajsa's new idea of being goofy is trying to be a dog and pick up stuff with her mouth. She'll get down on all fours and pick up stuffed animals, her snuggly and here she's eating grapes - very funny and cute!
The stump is officially out! Ryan worked for a day and a half hacking at the roots with an axe, digging and levering and finally it came out. He was pretty sore after! Now we have an entirely new problem and that is that there are 2 sprinkler lines we've broken off that went underneath the stump, so the hole is still there. It's filled with water which the neigborhood birds love. They can drink, take a bath and fluff their feathers in the dirt!
I'd just come home from the grocery store and unpacked everything and suddenly there was a cucumber thief on the loose! Note to self: buy 2 cucumbers next trip :-)
March 19, 2009
Fun at the playground!
The last couple of weekends we've had beautiful weather here in Fresno and we've had weekend playground adventures with long walks and picnics.
Ryan with his girly-girls. Daddy is the best!
Sofia dressed her doll "Lovisa" this morning with a pink shirt, jean dress and striped tights. We managed to dress Sofia and Kajsa to match "Lovisa", how fun! Don't they look cute!
Kajsa proudly carried her sandwich through the grocery store, all by herself! She really wants to be a big girl like her big sister ;-)
Wheeee! Swinging is so much fun! Hopefully no braces for those beautiful straight pearly whites.
Another recent favorite game: playing in daddy's car. Quite tricky when they're done though as there are lots of sticky fingerprints afterwards and last weekend we had to jump start it the next day because the dome light had been turned on!!! Oooppss!
Ryan with his girly-girls. Daddy is the best!
Sofia dressed her doll "Lovisa" this morning with a pink shirt, jean dress and striped tights. We managed to dress Sofia and Kajsa to match "Lovisa", how fun! Don't they look cute!
Kajsa proudly carried her sandwich through the grocery store, all by herself! She really wants to be a big girl like her big sister ;-)
Wheeee! Swinging is so much fun! Hopefully no braces for those beautiful straight pearly whites.
Another recent favorite game: playing in daddy's car. Quite tricky when they're done though as there are lots of sticky fingerprints afterwards and last weekend we had to jump start it the next day because the dome light had been turned on!!! Oooppss!
March 18, 2009
March 14, 2009
A visit from VIFs (Very Important Friends)!
Tina and baby Cerridwen have been here to visit for almost a whole week and we've had tons of fun! It was awesome getting to know Cerridwen and she is an amazing content and happy baby. We entertained Tina by touring local community gardens and botanical gardens and we entertained Cerridwen just by being us - 3 crazy girls and a slightly neurotic dog :-)
Cerridwen tried out our back pack carrier, she approved and napped nicely!
Kajsa and Cerridwen playing in the office.
Peekabo!
Cerridwen tried out our back pack carrier, she approved and napped nicely!
Kajsa and Cerridwen playing in the office.
Peekabo!
March 05, 2009
Making an artistic mess is fun!
Today I made up our own fingerpaints and it was a gooey, fun and artistic mess :-)You mix together flour and water to a paint like consistency and then color it with drops of food coloring. I'm not sure if the girls liked the painting part more or the pouring ridiculous amounts of the "finger paint" out onto the paper and then feeling it squish between their fingers and then repeatedly slapping the paper so that the paint went flying everywhere!!! I thought I had a whole afternoon project planned out but the paint was gone in 10 minutes, yikes :-) It was 10 minutes of perfect happiness though.
This was the first time I've ever used food coloring and Sofia was enthralled by the power of putting drops into stuff and seeing the colors change, so for a few days after she wanted to color everything - the gluten-free muffins I baked ended up a moldy green!!!
February 25, 2009
Snuggle nest and Chef Sofia
Sofia and Kajsa collaboratively carried and dumped pretty much every loose pillow, blanket and available stuffed animal into our office and made a little snuggle nest on the floor this morning. Drake apparently liked it, because he snuggled right in!
Sofia and I made a Play-doh pizza, complete with shredded cheese, olives and sausage. Sofia's favorite combination :-)
February 19, 2009
Where's Waldo, er I mean Drake?
February 17, 2009
Loggers!
The past two weekends we've been in the logging business, well sort of! We were forced to cut down a tree on our front lawn because the roots grew very shallowly (sp?) and was growing underneath our house and cottage foundation. The first weekend we felled the tree with some expert advice from my dad and the second weekend we chipped up all the branches. Thank you so much to the Brummels for lending their wood chipper :-)

Check out the UPS Logger sweatshirt - very appropriate!!!



Check out the UPS Logger sweatshirt - very appropriate!!!

February 14, 2009
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!

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!
January 28, 2009
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!!!
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!!!
January 21, 2009
Christmas and Fun in the Sun
August 18, 2008
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.
August 05, 2008
Cutey Kajsa
July 29, 2008
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!
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!
July 05, 2008
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.
June 28, 2008
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 :-)
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