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!

As we got a bit of a late start we stopped off in Park City for some Wendy’s (and to let the Jeep cool off a bit). After finishing our Frostys, we arrived at the campground and setup our tent. Jack played with Cutwer and the rest of the boys while I got things set up and then we sat around the fire and roasted some marshmallows. After a short fireside we went to lay down in our tent. Luckily I had good coverage on my phone and we got to watch a few episodes of the old 1960′s Spiderman series on Netflix.

The next morning we woke up and had an excellent breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon. After taking the tent down Jack and I went on a walk around the campground and spent some time throwing rocks in the river. We then proceeded to wade into the river and Jack ended up on his can in the water after trying to stand on a rather mossy rock. Once Jack was in some dry clothes we played some frisbee with the Tomers and threw his football around for a bit. Even though it was a short outing, we had fun sleeping in the tent and sitting around the fire.

I think a large part of his problem was the fact that he was playing in a 3-5 year age bracket and he’s a small 3 year old. There was one kid in particular on his team who was obviously 5 and quite aggressive. Over the course of several games this kid proceeded to injure multiple other children by pushing them out of his way. I think Jack was just scared to be on the court for fear of getting hurt. But the fact that the kids weren’t “sharing” the ball with him didn’t help either. It finally came to the point where I had to put him on the court (they played on a basketball court with some makeshift walls with gates for access) and hold the gate door so he couldn’t come back out. That didn’t work for very long though because he figured out that there were two access gates to the court. He’d simply run to the other gate and come right back out to the sidelines any time I’d put him in. Oh well though. As with Annie, we’ll give it another try in a couple years and maybe he’ll be more excited then.

Cruddy pictures on account of my lame camera below:

Anyway, in an effort to be fair, Jack and I also went to Yogurtland. His choice was very similar to Annie’s and he ended up with strawberry yogurt with blueberries (cause I had some) and gummy bears. It was an interesting choice, but I respect his ability to make wise decisions (I was actually just curious to see if he’d eat it). We had a face making contest and then ran around on the playground in the cold afterward. It was a fun outing.

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”!

I figured that was the end of it and I had resigned myself to stay home, but once Jack woke up, he was still excited to “do (think “go” with a D) tamping”. I could tell he was still feeling sick, but I had gotten him so excited to go camping and sleep in the tent that he didn’t care about his 101 degree temperature. I felt terrible and knew he should probably stay home, but I also felt bad that all that built up excitement would be for nothing. We gave it a couple hours and I just mulled around the house waiting to see how he was feeling, but his excitement would not be pushed aside and he continued to ask if we could “do tamping”.

After some internal debate I decided we could give it a try and if he felt too sick we could always come home (we were only going to be about an hour from home). So we packed up in the Jeep and decided to head out. It started out well enough as we headed for Parley’s canyon, but after 15 minutes of curvy canyon roads Jack wasn’t feeling too awesome. The Jeep had been smoking up the canyon thanks to a small transmission leak so I pulled off as we got into Park City just to check it out and as soon as I stopped the car Jack lost what little dinner he had eaten into his lap. I felt horrible. I could tell he felt like crap so I pulled out one of the camp chairs, stripped him out of his puked on clothes and we sat in the shade of the Jeep in an empty parking lot with a light breeze blowing and cooling us off. I asked him several times if he wanted to head back home, but he wasn’t having it. “I want to do tamping!” was the only response I got.

After sitting in the parking lot for about 30 minutes (and providing directions to a poor lost Asian couple from Alabama) we hopped back in the Jeep to finish the drive to Rockport. He did ok the rest of the way and actually dozed off by the time we got to the camp ground. Once we were there though, he was up and ready to go sit by the fire. He impatiently waited for me to put the tent up and get camp settled and then we walked over and joined the ward around the fire. After about 15 minutes of that we took a walk around the camp ground and even got out our Master Replicas Darth Vader light saber to show off (the kids had been playing Star Wars steal the flag and most had brought plastic light sabers). Jack was happy to be the center of attention with our “real” light saber. He quickly set to “killing” anyone who came in range.

After we put the light saber away, we sat by the fire a bit more and he fell asleep on my lap as we watched the flames and the stars. He was still a bit warm, but other than the single loss of lunch in the car, he seemed to be feeling a bit better.

The next morning he woke up ready to “wock and woll” so we had some breakfast and then set out to explore. We didn’t stick around long, but Jack was happy to be outside and free to wander around camp. We even took our shoes off and waded in the river for a bit, but that didn’t last long cause the water was too “told”. I still felt a little bad for dragging him out camping while he was sick, but I’m glad he’s a trooper and wouldn’t let it drop cause we had a lot of fun hanging out with just the guys.