Birthday Week Begins

Another sign that the babies are truly turning 1 this Saturday. We began receiving gifts in the mail last week. First we got a package from Great Aunt Sue which we haven't opened yet. Then we got a card from Roberta and Sam in Omaha with a Target giftcard inside. So Birthday week has officially kicked off. When we went to a friends house in Lehi last night to get my hair done, they gave the boys these cute sock monkey pj's. I'd had my eye on them at Christmas time and actually bought some on clearance but in a much bigger size so I was excited that she found some their size I can't wait to see them in it.


Today we got a package in the mail from my dear friend Shelby and her family in Arizona. I let the boys go ahead and open them. It was some much needed practice and excitement for the party on Saturday. The package was making all sorts of noise when I picked it up, probably gave the mailman a little fright. So I couldn't wait to see just what was in there.

Inside were these fun shake and go cars. One is an ape and the other one is an elephant. We are having fun zooming them all over the floor they like to watch Caleb shake them up and make them go.

I can't believe it's really here, just 5 more days away! This is going to be a fun week of getting packages and gearing up for the party. Get ready for a picture bizarre!

Surprise Visit

Dear Papa and Grandma Judi,

Thanks for having Uncle Ryan text my mom to tell her that you were going to be picking up Tyler for a visit. I was glad that my mom was going to Lehi anyway to get her hair cut and dyed at Braxton's house and that we were able to leave earlier to meet you guys at Cabela's. I had so much fun walking around and looking at the animals with you and all the fun stuff. Thank you so much for my new gun that you bought me. I love it. Me and Braxton hunted all over his house with it and shot all sorts of animals. It's also the first thing I started playing with this morning. I set up my dinosaurs this morning and am going to let mom use my gun to hunt some dinosaurs. I bet she gets a big one.


We also love this camo dishes that you bought for my brothers. We will make sure they use them. Mom says she doesn't know if we'll be hunters like you are but that we can always be your hunting buddies.

Thank you again and we will see you on Friday when we come to Price.

Love you,

Caleb

What's For Dinner?

I had two helpers the other night when I was getting ready to cook dinner. As soon as I opened the fridge door they came hauling butt crawling across the floor and spent a lot of time just checking out the stuff in the fridge. It was so cute. I hated to move them to close the door. The down side was that these pictures showed me how dirty my fridge has become and I have been ignoring it....so guess what I should do this weekend?

Another Summons

Caleb has managed to again summon the Tooth Fairy from her hibernation. Tonight Caleb and I were having a race to get on our pj's and were chasing each other around when I saw something drop from his mouth and heard him say "uh oh". I asked him what that was when he bent over to pick it up and he said "oh just a tooth from my bottom." What? All I could do was stand there with my mouth open and muster up the energy to yell "Mike" and tell him. I asked Caleb if it was loose and he said yes that he had just been moving it back and forth with his fingers. I wish he would have mentioned it to us, we were both shocked and total taken by surprise on this one. For a moment he thought he was in trouble because Mike and I couldn't gather our thoughts quick enough. Once we settled down, we explained to him that he wasn't in trouble and we were just surprised, so he is a happy camper tonight. We got back out the tooth pillow and put in the tooth and all is well as he anxiously awaits the Tooth Fairy's visit tonight.

Bumbles Bounce

I knew I would be flooding my blog with photos of the trampoline fun and it's only been up a week. Here's the latest fun that happened toward the end of last week. Mike got on for some fun and I got some silly pics. First off he helped Zaric bounce a little. He loved it!

And them bouncing together

And here's Mike trying to be the grand master of the tricks. Wait until I get on there.....I've got a few of my own up my sleeve!

Everyone knows that Bumbles Bounce!

Solo Trip

I took my first solo trip to Price with all 3 kids this weekend. Caleb didn't have school on Friday and I had gotten an invite to My Aunt Roz's 60th Bday party so I decided that I would go for it. Mike decided to stay at home and get some work done and take a much needed and deserved break from us.
After I arrived on Friday, my sister and I broke out the cricut and worked on a project that she has going for Teacher Appreciation week at the elementary in Wellington. Papa took Caleb for a ride to pick up kids from school so we took the twins and had lunch together.
My niece, DaNell, had been selected for Student of the Month at the Jr high so I tagged along to the assembly. She didn't know she was getting it or that we would be there so imagine her surprise when she looked up from the stage and there we were. She said she couldn't figure out who I was waving at her until I started pulling faces at her, then she figured out that it was her "crazy Aunt Becca". Here's just one of the pics I took afterwards.

Later that night, Schydi ,(Caleb's twin when we are there) asked to spend the night at Papa's too. When Caleb asked me to read him a bedtime story, she volunteered to do it instead. It was so cute, I couldn't resist taking a pic.

When it was time for bed, I asked her if she needed help getting her bed ready in the spare room and she told me no. I couldn't figure out why until I went to check on them and this is what I found. Of course I had to take a pic of that too.

Early on Saturday morning, I decided to put in my application for "Best Aunt Ever" and picked up my nieces DaNell and Maygun at 5:30 am to be at Walmart by their 6 am opening time and pick up our copies of the Twilight movie. We got there a little early and sat in the parking lot where I broke out my ipod and cultured (they say tortured) them with some NKOTB, The Greatest Hits. Then we grabbed some donuts and headed back to Papa's to watch the movie. After my sister got there, we did a little more on her project then it was time for the big party.

It was at the park so of course I didn't see Caleb much for a couple hours as he and Schydi were off playing. The twins were tired and kinda crabby but we got them to play for a little bit. Here's a group of the kids playing. That's nearly all of my neices and nephews. Only minus 2. You'll notice that all of my kids are wearing matching shirts. I couldn't resist the opportunity when I saw these at the Carters 50% off sale a few weeks ago. And what better to wear them to but a party.

Here's my Aunt Roz (my Mom's sister) and Uncle Jerry when she sat down to open her gifts. We got her the little plant you see on the table.

The best part about going to the party was that my cousin, Mindy, was in town from Virginia, my Uncle Roy and his fam were in town from Colorado and I finally got to meet my cousin, Jason's, wife (Melissa) and their cute little girl Hailee. Here is Jason with Aunt Roz. It was almost like a mini Forsgren family reunion, that doesn't happen much.

This is my Uncle Roy with my Mom and my brother and sister. One baby was sleeping and the other wouldn't look at the camera much at all. He was having a camera-shy day.

And here's my mom with Roz and Roy still holding that sleeping Zaden.

This is my favorite pic that I got of the day, the cousins pic. In here are Tracey, Ryan, Jason, Carli, Mindy, Me and Becca (yes 2 Becca's).

Thanks for the invite Mindy. I had a good time. I wish we would have gotten to visit with everyone longer though. :( . I can't wait to see all the pics you got. I didn't get all of the shots.

We left Papa's earlier than expected. Caleb was pretty wiped out from all the playing and slept the entire way home. So we were home by about 5:30. Mike did everything on the "honey-do" list I left him and even managed to make it to the driving range with Garrett so I think we both enjoyed our time. Next Price trip....less than 2 weeks away!

What's in a Name?

Or a Nick-name to be more exact. I have been searching for the perfect nickname for Zaric lately. They have come so easily for the other two.:

For Caleb- I call him Buggie and Lubbie or the Lubster most of the time it just flows.
For Zaden- Tank, Tanka, Doodle, Doodle Bear, Doodle Monster- They all seem to fit

Zaric has been hard for me for some reason. Nothing seems to "fit". We called him "skinny" for the first few months because he was much littler than Zaden, but now he's not. They are practically even. I have been calling him Zar-Bear here and there and Mike calls him T-Rex because when he cries lately he'll tilt his head back as far and he can and open up that mouth and let it out more like a roar. It's cute, but I seem to have a hard time calling him that. I want something that just comes out and flows without me having to think about it like I do with the other two.

Any suggestions for a nickname for this cutie pie?

St. Patricks Day

We hope you all had a great St. Patrick's Day. We didn't do a whole lot here. This isn't too big of a holiday here at the Ouren household. We wore some green (of course) and then for dinner I decided we would have some green breakfast food. So waffles and eggs won. I was a little sad that I didn't have any ham to make green eggs and ham but I promised Caleb we would do that another day just for fun. I can't wait.

Gearing up

The party is only 2 1/2 weeks away. Creeping up on us every minute. Back in December I got the newly released Sesame Street Cartridge for the Cricut but had yet to use it. I decided to give it a go this morning and what better to make something for than the party coming up? So here's what I came up with so far:
These are small. Only about 2 in each. I think that I am going to pin them to whatever clothes they are wearing for the party. Kinda like a bday badge.

These are much bigger. My plan for these 2 things is to have the people at our small party write them each a little bday message on these to keep in their scrapbooks. I thought it would be a nice momento.

I am having so much fun with this and need more ideas of things to make.....any suggestions?

Jumping Bean

Yesterday Mike worked outside pretty much all day getting the trampoline ready for Caleb. He took the time to pull up some weeds and level out the dirt a little (which is nearly impossible in our yard) and then set up the trampoline frame by himself. I helped with the mat and it still took us forever. We will be putting the safety net up today. But look at this happy boy!!

Caleb has been sick again and had been up and down with a fever all day. That didn't stop him from jumping a little though. As you can tell in these 2 pics, he had to get on before Mike even got the bumper pads on.

Mike took him to the night clinic last night at the Dr office since he also has a lovely cough to go with the fever. They say it's just a cold so it should be done with in a day or two. We can live with that.

So this is the start of probably a ton of trampoline pictures this summer (beware). I can tell already that's it's going to be a good purchase!

A Couple of Suckers

I finally got brave a few days ago and let the babies have their first suckers. I put them in the high chairs to contain the sticky. It was funny to watch them trying to figure it out but once they got it figured out there was no turning back.

Friend Fun

Just sharing some pics from some previous posts. These first ones are the ones from our visit with out friends Garrett and Laurel and their little girl Madeleine (MJ). These first ones look like she's giving them a little piano lesson.

MJ also had fun crusing around in their "space racer" walker.

These are some from the party we went to for our friend Kylee's Birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. We really have a good time.

So glad we have such great friends!

Something's Fishy

On Saturday we were meeting some friends for dinner and decided to do an activity with their family as well. Since we were meeting them in the area of the valley near the Living Plant Aquarium , we decided we may as well head there. As most of you know, I really, really hate fish of all sorts so it's not usually my first choice. But it had been a couple of years ago when we went with just Caleb and he liked it and we had been seeing commercials about the new exhibit they had so off we went. The only big issue was that apparently the rest of the valley had seen the commercials too. It was packed so we didn't get to spend as much time at each area as we would have liked. But we still had fun and got a ton of pics to share.

Caleb got to touch some star fish. He's says they are "bumpy" and "cute".

This is a gigantic lobster. The had seaweed that had landed on his head so it looked like he had a fro. One of the ugliest things I have ever seen. (Aunt Sue...if I could have I would have wrapped him up for the ugly gift contest cuz eeew!)

Just a seahorse swimming around.

This ugly thing (no I don't remember the name) was swimming with it's head pointed to the ground....weird.

Here's Caleb and his buddy Braxton checking out the exhibit of tropical fish.

They have sting rays in a pool that swim around. They were all kinda sleeping when we went there. so they weren't very active. They let you touch them as they swim around but most of them had positioned themselves too far in for anybody to touch.

Except this one. Mike got to touch him.

We FOUND NEMO! and Marlin and Dori. You might have to enlarge the pic to see him hiding back there.

Just more fish swimming around.

Caleb hanging by the turtle.

The turtle himself.

Part of the new exhibit had a cayman. All of the things in this exhibit are from South America.

And here's the piranha. All I could think of the entire time was Darla from Finding Nemo saying "I'm a Piranha, I live in the Am-azon." Too Funny

And the aquarium approval rating is a thumbs up from Caleb.