The Caldwell Family: August 2011

2010 came and went like a whirlwind. I couldn't believe it when it was over. Here was what our lives looked like...in a nutshell. My camera was on the fritz for part of the year and I realized that I have to get a hold of the memory cards from my mom's camera. She has the rest that fill in the gaps. But at least by the end of this blog post I can at least be on 2011 for our blog stories.

So, our year starts with Tymorie turning two. I know, I know...what happened to January and Febuary and the rest of March...not sure. But hopefully, they are on the other camera (mom, hint...hint.)

I meant to have a formal family dinner party for her but I was super busy and never really planned one out. But some of her friends got together with her at the park for some yummy cupcakes. It wasn't supposed to be her "party" but that's what it turned in to. Hey, at least there's a picture to document the moment.

Then it was Easter. We spent it with our family. My mother-in-law asked me to take pictures of all of the grandkids for her. This picture filled my frame for a long time...I just love how cute they all look!

As you can see, all the kids were SO happy to be taking pictures. They all looked right into the camera and gave their best smiles...LOL. At this time last year, there were only 3 kids missing from this picture (they couldn't make it to the easter festivities at Grammys) making it a grand total of 13 grandkids. Now we are up to 15!

We went to the San Diego Zoo for the first time. We had been to the Wild Animal Park but never the zoo with the kids. The gorillas were in quite the mood that day and were REALLY playful. We probably stayed in their exhibit for over an hour....just laughing hysterically at them. So the next time we took the kids to the Wild Animal Park, Tymorie was not impressed. She asked to go to the other zoo where the animals were more "fun"

There was a family reunion. The kids had a full day of swimming and yummy BBQ. And Grammy even got pushed into the pool fully clothed by The Hubs. The next time we went over there they were STILL laughing about it.

In addition to the summer reunion, we had our own fun in our backyard. The kids spent alomost everyday swimming in the pool. Tyler stopped wearing floaties and was swimming like a pro.

The Hubby even set some pretty spectacular water balloon fights.

Then the school year began. Kaliana started school and officially wanted to stop being called by her nickname. She told all of her teachers and all of her friends. I don't know why it made me sad. I think it was because it was just another sign that she was growing up. And she cut off all her hair and wanted to start wearing it straight. Geesh, the girl was breaking my heart.

But I have to admit, there are some really great things about "Kaliana" growing up. For example...the girl loves to SHOP. For school we made it just a mommy and her date and we went to lunch and then went shopping for all her new school clothes. She picked out every outfit and I was impressed with her fashion sense.

Then just when I thought my heart's growing pains were over. Tyler turned FOUR. We celebrated by taking some of the cousins to Medieval Times with the grandparents. This is when "Sir Tyler Caldwell" was knighted by the King. He had so much fun and cheered his little heart out for the Red Knight. And he even ate dinner with NO SILVERWARE (that was such a treat for him considering it will probably never happen again).

Just for fun, The Hubs and I took the kids to Old Town Temecula for an impromptu photo shoot. This is my favorite from the day...

After that...fall was here and we had lots of fun doing things like:

CARVING PUMPKINS....

VISITING OUR FAVORITE PUMPKIN PATCH

NAVIGATING THROUGH THE CORN MAIZE

AND TRICK OR TREATING.
Tymorie was Cinderella, Kaliana was Selena Gomez and Tyler was a Transformer. This was the first year we stayed around our house to go treatin' and I couldn't believe how many kids there were in our neighborhood. I was out of candy in the first hour....definately was not prepared for that and I wasn't shaddy with the candy purchase. I bought a TON. For dinner we had Mummy hot dogs, Witches brew and Cheesy Fingers.

Next, our good friend, Christie is a hair dresser and she gave Tymorie her very first hair cut. It was really cute to see her with her hair all shaped. And trip out...we thought she was a blond but her roots are actually brown! All of the blond she has in her hair is from the sun and it is just on the ends. So, it was like she got her hair cut and dyed all in the same day.

We got to visit Thomas the train, I don't know why this pic is not vertical but I will have to figure that out later.

And by this time...it was winter. And what better thing to do in the winter than....decorate gingerbread houses!!

And cut down your very own tree from the tree farm.

And then decorate it with pretty lights and your favorite Christmas ornaments. Now, we aren't a "themed" tree kind of family. Our tree is a smorgasbord of ornaments from Christmas Pasts. I loved the ornaments that I had as a child and my mom passed them on to me and I've added a few to our collection throughout the years. One of my favorite things is to sit and tell the kids where the ornaments are from and why they are special. Christmas is my FAVORITE time of year for so many reasons.

Then....the growing pains started all over again with my sweet baby girl turning 8. We had a rollerskating party and it was a blast!! And, I took my shot at making my very first two tiered birthday cake. I probably won't do that again any time soon just because it was so much harder than it looked but it was well worth it to me because Kali was so proud of it and it was a nice way to show her how much I love her.

I'll end this post with our family Christmas card portrait. Our good friend Leah is an amazing photographer and she helped me capture this moment with the fam.

And then we did a BIG family one to update Grammy and Papa's portrait wall. This was all of us. In the same place at the same time. And to think...this picture is already outdated with the special TWO new additions.

So, it's been a while since The Caldwell Famiy has posted a little something on here. In fact, it has been about 2 years!!

It's amazing all of the things that happen in 2 years. So, I will try my best to catch you all up.

Well, one of our last posts was about us signing the escrow papers to our very first home! Well, escrow closed on our home and we had some work to do. We were so blessed with a home we could call our own and have had a really great time fixing it up just the way we like it.

One of our biggest projects that we have had was our landscaping. Our home was a foreclosure so the landscaping was REALLY bad. But with a little TLC it's now our dreamscape.

Here was the outside...

And here is the outside now...

Here was the backyard...

And here is the backyard now...

The hubby put in SIX fruit trees for me!! I have always wanted to have fruit trees in the backyard and now I have SIX! The fruit is tiny and still needs some time to mature but I LOVE it.

This is going to sound cheesy...but theres something about looking in the backyard and watching the birds fly around, build nests and perch on our little bird bath that warms my heart. It's like a scene from a musical every time I was the dishes.