Alex and his NEW backpack

Alex got a new backpack recently and just wanted to wear it everywhere!  He wanted to wear it to the store, to nap time, everywhere!  I just couldn’t help but have my “model” snap a few photos to commemorate the moment.  He can unzip the backpack and put toys in there.  He wants to take his backpack to “big boy school” someday.  But, for now, he just wants to take it to preschool.

I got the back pack at skip hop.  And got one for Sara for when she’s a little older (an owl), too!   I love that they are such simple classy cute backpacks and not all the Disney/commercial stuff you see in the regular stores.  I’m sure we’ll get those one day, but I’m holding out while I can!  So far, I think I’m doing OK.

3 year anniversary - blogging

 

It’s my 3 year anniversary of blogging.  Wow!

 

I started this blog as a way to record and remember what is going on in our lives.  I had just gone back to work after Alex was born and wanted some way to “capture” what was happening with him and our new family.  Things were moving so fast and I felt like I would forget it if I didn’t put it down somewhere.  I tried scrapbooking for a while and learned that it wasn’t for me - I needed something more real-time and current with what was happening then.  If I waited too long, I lost my motivation.    I started a blog and learned that it was easy for me and I loved it!  I have blogged about starting solid foods, being a Mom, sleeping, new words to add to the dictionary, teething, hairstyles, my own poem about pumping, remodeling, ear tubes, layoffs, cooking, gardening, Halloween, The beach, dancing with elmo, a carrot, an egg, and a cup of coffee, ER visits, pregnancy announcements, hope, birth announcements, birth stories just to name a few. 

 

A few stats from the last 3 years:

 

First post: August 30th, 2007

# of posts to date: 431

# of posts in 2007: 73

# of posts in 2008: 134

# of posts in 2009: 121

# of posts in 2010: 98 year to date

most popular post: Baby Phoebe, Part 2

2nd most popular post: 4 generations

# of absolute individual visitors: 1,031

# of total visits: 8,469

Day with most visitors/#: 37 visitors

# of countries: 34 (everything from USA to Norway, Pakistan, Cambodia, Japan, Argentina, Italy, Australia, and many more)

pages/visit: 1.27

average time on site: 33 seconds

 

Traffic sources over the last 3 years: 70% direct, 7% referring sites (facebook) and 13% search engines (google)

Traffic sources over the last 3 months: 55% direct, 38% referring sites and 6% search engines

 

Most searched keywords to get to my blog: allison torgesen (306 times), torgesen family times (146 times), toregsen family times (71 times) (misspelled last name), torgesen family times blog (16 times), torgesen family, torgesen, and a few others.

 

Visitor Loyalty: WOW!  Most of my visitors are repeat visitors! 

Most visits repeated: 201+ times Count of visits from this visitor including current Visits that were the visitor's nth visit Percentage of all visits 1 times 1,015.00 9.65% 2 times 298.00 2.83% 3 times 182.00 1.73% 4 times 148.00 1.41% 5 times 120.00 1.14% 6 times 111.00 1.06% 7 times 99.00 0.94% 8 times 93.00 0.88% 9-14 times 487.00 4.63% 15-25 times 653.00 6.21% 26-50 times 1,001.00 9.52% 51-100 times 1,269.00 12.07% 101-200 times 1,400.00 13.31% 201+ times 3,642.00 34.63%

 

 

It’s been so fun for me to blog our weekend updates, our funny stories, our ups and downs.  Here’s to the next 3 years!

 

Cheers – and thanks for reading!

 

XOXO

Allison

Boating rules

 

It started off with just 2 simple rules…

 

#1: Kids must wear life vests at all times

#2: Lance must steer at all times when going fast, no Alex hands near the steering wheel.

 

Lance agreed easily. 

 

Well, this last time we were out on the boat - we added rules #3 & #4

 

#3: At no time, will water spray over the bow of the boat while going fast. 

#4: At no time, will Allison’s bottom come off the seat while going fast.

 

Lance, I mean – “Captain Lance”(as he demands to be called) didn’t agree so easily on these ones.  But “First Mate Allison” (aka the mother of his children!) persisted and even had to say that she just wouldn’t ride in the boat anymore unless rules #3 and #4 were adopted by “Captain Lance”.