Anyway, Jack and Annie went to their first day of pre-school the other day and had tons of fun. They’re already making friends and having fun with the many activities that school has to offer. The other day Jack taught me all about “Stop, Drop & Roll” and Annie told me that I should always crawl under the smoke (they were learning about fire safety last week). They also told me all about dialing 911 so I’m waiting until they decide to try it for real. I didn’t get many pictures before dropping them off cause we were in a bit of a hurry, but here they are in their new school clothes with their backpacks on.

Anyway, Jack and Annie are now 4 years old! It’s crazy to think that its already been 4 years, but they’re growing fast. They’ll even be starting preschool in the next week or so. It’s interesting to watch their personalities as they grow though. Under identical learning conditions, they’ve developed into their very own little people.

Jack has become the little jokester. He’s always trying to be funny and loves to tease his sisters. He’s also become quite addicted to playing the Wii. He loves Batman and Spiderman and enjoys playing with Owen and Cutwer (Cutler).

Annie is definitely the boss. She loves to have things her way and is quite vocal about it when things don’t go her way. She loves ponies and would happily own every single one if she could. She’s also becoming quite the artist and has developed her own unique style.

We celebrated in the back yard on the 21st and had family over for cake and ice cream. As you can see, Emily made them fun cakes. Jack got Batman with a sweet Bat symbol and cityscape on the side and Annie got a cool pony cake (and she got to keep the pony). They gots lots of fun presents from their cousins and grandparents and we all had a good time.

Happy birthday Jack & Annie!

This being the first time that Annie has done dance, we weren’t sure what to expect with her. What we found out though is that dance isn’t as exciting past week 3 and she got tired of having to get ready to head to the school. She wasn’t always very attentive at class and she spent more time watching herself in the mirrors in the dance room than she did listening to her instructor, but she seemed to have fun when she was paying attention. The pictures below aren’t very good on account of my crappy camera, but you get the idea. Hopefully she’ll be more interested and excited in a year or two.

As you can see below, Annie and I went to Yogurtland down in Jordan Landing. I had the tart fruit mix with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries on top and Annie had the strawberry yogurt with mini gummy bears on top (disgusted shiver). We spent some time making faces and talking about dance class and primary but mostly Annie was distracted by activity going on around her. She commented on what everyone was getting and the strawberries in the water cooler and the colored spoons and everyone’s reflections in the glass and the fire pit outside Iggy’s. Basically I had a tough time retaining her attention, but we still had fun and she thoroughly enjoyed her gummy bear filled strawberry yogurt.

“Serously! Jack put his trucks under the bed. Serously!”

or

“Serously! My pony’s hair is crazy! Serously!”

I’m sure this was a word that she picked up from me as I do tend to use it now and then when I’m exclaiming at the absurdity of some of the things that the older girls do. For example:

“Seriously?! Did you really just throw your whole dinner in the garbage? grumble, grumble…”

But now Annie has adopted it as her new favorite word. It’s awesome!

The most serious picture of Annie I could find:

Three years ago today we were at the hospital pointing out the differences between them (besides the obvious) so that we could tell them apart as they lay next to each other in the nursery dolly. Three years ago today we doubled the number of kids we had. Three years ago today we finished up our family. And now, three years later we’re pretty much officially out of the “baby” stage (even though we still refer to to them as the babies). In fact, just this morning as Jack and Annie opened their presents, Emily caught herself telling Annie not to let “the babies” get the small pieces of her new Polly Pocket collection. It was only after it was out of her mouth that she realized what she had said and had to backtrack.

I remember vividly the shock and awe Emily and I felt as we left the doctors after our first ultrasound appointment. Up to that point Emily had had several doctors appointments, but the doctor apparently hadn’t noticed the fact that there were two heartbeats. So as the ultrasound technician mentioned that both heartbeats sounded good, we did a bit of a double-take and I seem to remember saying “Wait, what?!” However, three short years later it’s hard to imagine our lives any other way. We obviously needed both of them in our family and I don’t doubt they needed each other.

We’ve been lots of places and had lots of adventures in the last three years, but we’re still just getting started. It’ll be fun to see what the next 3 years brings.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY “BABIES”!