dress up and check up

So even though Will and Jake go to two different preschools, they both had a dress-up day today. For Will, everyone at his school dressed up for "western day," ending a week full of western stuff; although he did miss school on Wednesday because he was sick, but he's mostly better now. In Jake's class, they dressed up as community helpers, to round out their week of studying different helpers in the community. To finish it all off, Daren went in to Jake's class to talk about being a fire fighter. I didn't make it there this morning to take any pictures because I was running around doing shopping for a Harry Potter party we are having here tomorrow. Bummer!

How cute are these boys?! Will was so excited to wear his cowboy outfit that he set it all out yesterday in the middle of the day. Jake, on the other hand, decided 15 minutes before he left to school today that he wanted to be a builder/construction worker.

We took the twins in to their pediatrician on Wednesday for their 5-year checkups, which included their kindergarten shots. I'm so glad I took the advice of a friend to bring along some help, namely Daren. Jake weighed in at a whopping 53 lbs., and measured 46" tall, which both put him in the above 95th percentile, while Will weighed in at 39 lbs, measuring 42" tall, putting him in the 50th and 40th percentiles, respectively. This is the biggest difference there has ever been between them, but it works. They were both so cute lying there on the table, side by side, as the doctor checked them out. The fun came to a quick halt, though, when it came time for the shots. It took both Daren and I to hold onto Will, and even then he was still so squirmy as he was crying/screaming hysterically. Two shots in each arm--ouch! I have to sympathize with him, though, because I was the same way with shots in my younger days. I only overcame that when I had to give myself shots while trying to get pregnant. Jake was really brave with his shots. He cried, but not for long, and it was just me holding him. To soften the tears, we went to rent a Redbox movie-Bolt-and get some treats at the gas station across the street.

Other notes of interest from this past week: sunny and 74 degrees last Saturday--then cloudy, snowy and 36 degrees Monday (spring in Utah!); "Race to Witch Mountain" with the boys on Monday (they LOVED it!); Will home from school Tuesday and Wednesday because of runny nose and cough (did I mention before that Will started a new preschool on Tues and Thurs each week through the Jordan School District--trying to get him where he needs to be to start kindergarten next year, bless his heart); little Vander, at 1 week old, made it through his heart surgery and had a scary first 12 hours after, but is on the mend and doing well--yea!; I took the boys rock climbing at Lifetime Fitness--it was the twins first time now that they are finally old enough, and after a few tries they both made it to the top a couple of time to ring the bell; and finally, today we took them to see the much anticipated movie, Monsters vs. Aliens, in 3-D IMAX. We were joined by bro-in-law, JD, and kids Ciera, Garrett, and Gage (Brenda had to work). The boys have been dying to see that show, and you know it's bad when they have been quoting the previews for the past month!! It was a very cute show--highly recommended!

never a dull moment

Have I ever mentioned that there is hardly ever a dull moment around here?! Two cases in point...First, the other day Ben got carried away in his Harry Potter stuff again...
He is rarely seen without a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead, and somehow the other brothers show up with scars as well! (Amazingly enough, he had a green scar on St. Paddy's Day!) This was a conversation Ben and I had the other night:

Ben: Mom, when I'm asleep tonight, will you take something really sharp and make a real scar on my forehead.

Me: What?!

Ben: Yea, I want a real scar, so can you pleeeeease give me a real scar? *at least he did ask nicely* It won't hurt because I'll be asleep. Just get some big bandaids, and some big towels to wipe up all the blood, and in the morning I'll have a scar.

Mom: *trying not to laugh* I'm not going to cut up your head to give you a scar!

I went on to explain that he wouldn't get a scar from a small cut, and he wasn't totally convinced. Then when he woke up the next morning and there was no cut, he was actually really mad at me!! But he hasn't asked since. Crazy boy! And so he's gone back to drawing them on.

Somehow the administration of Hogwarts found Harry Potter at 1332 Cancun Way in Surrey. These were crammed in the mailbox...probably because we don't have a mail slot in our front door to send them through!

This is what the note said, but "Harry" hasn't left yet. Hmmm, can I take over that room too when he's gone?!


The other case of our non-dull life: this morning the twins got in the "little tub." Will wanted a few bubbles...and that's what he got...a few bubbles...!!

So Will calls out to me in the other room, "Hey Mom, we have too many bubbles. They are going to flood our house!" I can't leave them alone even for just a few minutes! It actually made me laugh, and I'm glad I thought to grab my camera! And there wasn't any major damage--whew!

As a p.s., today little Vander Knight, who was born just a week ago to Jed and Alisha, will be having heart surgery at Primary Children's Hospital to fix a kink in his aorta. We wish all the Knights the best and hope for a quick recovery for Vander, who will hopefully come home in a couple weeks.

spring break 2009, part III: califonia adventures!

Dang, this has taken me long enough to get to posting! Because my mom and dad are California residents, we got a "bounce back" pass to get into the other park that we didn't go to the first time, so the Monday we were there we went to California Adventure. As luck would have it, Daren's mom, dad, brother Brett, and his wife Honnelore and their two little girls were there for the week too, so we all hooked up that day to go on the "adventure" together.

Last year we did the same thing with the two parks, but on the day we were supposed to go to Cal. Adventure, I got really sick. Daren ended up taking the boys by himself--they left at 10am and didn't get home until 11pm! I got the rest I needed, and they had a blast. The twins were still 3 years old then, and they all rode the Tower of Terror, (or "Tower of Terra" as Will calls it, to which Jake always says back to him in a very exasperated voice, "It's not Tower of Terra, it's Tower of Terr-OR!") and that's all I've heard about ever since. So my 3 year olds rode it before I have at thirty...something!

So the big day arrived and the first ride the twins wanted to go on was the Tower of Terror. Ben has refused to go on it again since last year, and true to his promise, and as much as we tried to persuade him, he wouldn't go--he stayed outside with Grandma Train and Elyse, who is just 17 months old while the rest of us went in. THAT IS THE FUNNEST RIDE EV-ER!! Will wasn't too happy about it, though, this year. By the end of the ride he was in tears, but I loved it. Not his tears, the ride!

We plowed ahead with the rest of our day. We had fun on the Monsters, Inc. ride, which apparently the boys rode over and over again last year.

This was a funny moment: Jake got into the taxi in the backseat and pretended like Ben was his driver as he ate his Cheetos. In turn for being Jake's driver, all Ben wanted for payment was a few Cheetos...and on he drove.

Wall*e--a favorite from this past year!

We eventually had to break for some lunch, and while we were waiting, the kids took the opportunity to check out the map to make a plan of attck after lunch was over!

And we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get a photo with Mater and Lightning.

The Grizzyly Rapids ride was, hands down, Jake's favorite ride. It was only in the low 60's that day, so I graciously offered to stay behind and take pictures--wasn't that nice of me! After the ride was over, Jake and Will came running down the stairs and said, "Mommy mommy, you have to go with us!" So I reluctantly went, and fortunately I mostly stayed dry while the boys got soaked...and loved it!! Jake was pretty unhappy at the end of the day when the park closed and he wasn't able to ride it again.

The boys loved playing on the tug-boat thingy, or whatever it was. Will LOVED ringing this bell, which annoyed me and everyone else around, but he had fun.

Who's the real firefighter?!?!

We tried out the new Toy Story ride, and it is also waaaaay fun! I was sandwiched in between Will and Jake (while Daren and Ben were riding California Screamer), so I didn't get my own gun to shoot, though I did try to help Will. We recommend it--such a fun ride!!!!! And Jake in his lovely 3-D glasses.

We were there for the parade just before the park closed, and it was fun to watch, except for the 15 minutes the "Monster's Inc." float broke down in front of us so the same music played over..and over...and over. These are some of the fun pictures we took--The Incredibles, Toy Story, and Will's picture of his foot and mine! :)

What a beautiful sunset we saw on the way out of dodge. The boys are playing in/on the first A.

We messed around in a few of the stores as we left, so it was pretty late by the time we hooked up with the rest of the group for dinner at Mimi's Cafe. Will was pretty much gone in my arms in this picture, but it was such a fun day, and it was so fun to spend it with more of our family!

happy birthdays/anniversary

I'm still in the middle of trying to post all the stuff from our spring break trip, but in the meantime I had to take a break to post this one...lots of things have happened the past few days, including the twins turning 5 on Sunday, and Daren and I celebrating our 14th anniversary on Tuesday. March is a big month around here!


Look at these boys!! Where does the time go?! It just seems like yesterday that I was in the hospital with these two little guys...on mine and Daren's 9th anniversary!

Thus, the cute little shamrock outfits, since our anniversary is on St. Paddy's Day. We got married on my friend's, Teresa and Rick's, 6th anniversary, so if you do the math, it was their 20th anniversary the other day too--congrats to them! And if that wasn't enough, congrats to Alisha and Jed and "unnamed Knight" who was born that morning and is two days old now. Whew, a big day!! Happy Anniversary Daren--thanks for so many great years together and for making such a great life for us!! I love you!

Well, March 15 came quickly again this year, and now our babes are five. Ben wanted to know what time they were born so he could wish them a happy b-day then--Will was at 8:05am, Jake at 8:06am, so although Will may always be smaller, he will always be a minute older! I showed them pictures (which I will NOT post) of me posing in a bikini to show my XL belly just before I had them, and for the rest of the day Jake told everyone, "I saw pictures of my mom when I was in her belly and she was REALLY FAT!!"


Will obviously began his day in his birthday suit--that's because he was in the tub while Ben and I were hurrying to decorate and get their presents ready. It's not easy to throw a birthday together when you've been gone for a couple weeks!! Will has become a Sponge Bob JUNKIE, so I couldn't resist getting this pillow for him. (he's singing the Sponge Bob song in the picture!)

I know you can't tell, but Jake was thrilled with his new garden tools. Yep, that's what he wanted! Now if I can really get him to use them this spring... He was excited for his new Legos Indiana Jones too.

Will has been glued at the hip to his Indiana Jones cargo truck he got, along with a few Indiana Jones characters. He loves the cargo boxes, and has slept with the truck and boxes every night ever since. One of the Indy characters came with the golden idol, from Raiders of the Lost Ark, but Will calls it the "American Idol." He will often ask me, "Mom, have you seen the American Idol?"

And Jake chose Lucky Charms for his birthday breakfast--not a bad deal if you ask me!!

Later that day we had a little gathering for them with some of Daren's family--Will was thrilled because he got to eat, yet another, "crabby patty." (Sponge Bob's specialty)

Ben has become a Harry Potter fanatic lately, and when we got home from our trip he promptly found the Harry Potter glasses and hasn't parted from them since, except for when he goes to school. When he gets into something, he goes into it hook, line and sinker.

The boys loved their dinosaur cake, and their day was complete. We love these guys and feel so blessed every day for the miracle that they are in our lives.

spring break 2009, part IIb: we are family

On Sunday we went to Eric and Jenny's ward in the afternoon. Jake thought Ben was sooooo lucky because I forgot Ben's church clothes and he had to wear jeans with a nice shirt.

Grandma Waterwheel didn't make the trip to Mission Viejo with us because she was still fighting her cold and wasn't feeling up to it. It turned out that our short visit with her on Friday was the only time we saw her because of that darn cold--we hope you are feeling better Grandma!!

I'm glad we went to their ward because Matt, Eric and Jenny's oldest at 16, played a beautiful arrangement that I hadn't heard before of "Praise to the Man." He is very talented and did a great job. The rest of the cousins were just excited to be able to sit next to each other at church! After sacrament meeting we went to Eric and Jenny's for the rest of the afternoon/evening and had a great time together.

The two gaming junkies, Jake and Spencer, found each other and it was hard to pull them away from playing!

Daren, Matt and Andrew spent plenty of time in the sunshine throwing a football around. Even Ben and Will got in on the act a little bit.

Will also spent some quality time with Marissa and the little lizard she found in the backyard. Will was being very brave and was quite proud when he let the lizard crawl on his arm!!

We had pizzas and salad for dinner and cupcakes for dessert, and Will managed to find an interesting way to throw away his wrapper! Jake actually pulled himself away from the video game long enough to find this sprinkler octopus thingy.

Grandpa Airplane and Marissa also got into the football throwing, while Grandma sat to watch them.

As we have found in the past, a trip to Eric and Jenny's would not be complete without a talent show! Rebecca and Marissa love to put this together, and the boys, for now, are happy to comply. So around we gathered, ready for some good times!

Marissa got the talent show going by playing her cello, followed by Rebecca playing the piano,

followed by Rebecca playing the violin, and, as per the program, Daren eating oranges while singing I'm a Little Teapot--don't ask!! Obviously the program got changed around a little bit so that we did all the inside stuff first before we went outside, so up next...the hug!

Unfortunately the hug picture didn't turn out so well, so I just took a cute picture of Eric and Jenny...and Rebecca.

I'm not sure who determined that climing the library ladder qualifies as a talent, but that's what Jake signed up for--these boys will listen to anything their cousins tell them to do! It's cute. So here's Jake, climbing the ladder, and then Spencer pushed him back and forth. Now there's talent!!

Just a random picture thrown in--Jenny is cleaning out her scrapbook room, so all her stuff got put out in the front room, and the boys were enjoying the mess. (she's gonna kill me for putting this picture in, but you have to admit, it's a cool picture...that Eric took, not me!!)

Ben showing off his talents--cartwheels and sommersaults, in motion. Ben did 39 sommersaults, and then I did seven--we each did each others ages, and at the end of 7 I was dizzy and almost ready to barf!! I don't know how he did that many (and not hit any of Ainsley, the dog's, landmines!)!

Matt and Andrew had it rough--back to throwing the football for their talents, only this time they had to deal with...

...Daren trying to intercept Andrew's catch. If you look close, they are both going for the ball.

Will surprised us with an unscheduled rendition of Frosty the Snowman at the end of the talent show.

What a fun group of cousins--thanks so much to everyone for a great weekend (and to Eric for the use of his camera!)