Reasons Why We Love Our Dad

You may think this is an early Father's Day post for Larkin, but that thought hadn't occurred to me until right now. The reason for this post is to tell our Daddy how much we love him and how much we miss him! Daddy's out of town for the week (hopefully securing our future for the next few years), and we miss him. LIKE CRAZY! The twins wanted to tell Daddy some of the many reasons why they love him so much.

1. He's the most fun dad there ever was.

He'll do things like set up a fort for us to play in.

2. He teaches Will how to be a man. These instructions include things like, "Put down that pink purse and pick up your football" and "Stop crying; you're not even hurt." 3. He'll relinquish control of the remote for us. He has watched more episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Imagination Movers than any daddy should ever have to.

4. The number one, most important reason why we love our dad is because he loves us SO MUCH!

Also on this note, we love Dad because he loves Mom. Mom is kind of silly, and it takes a special guy to love her as much as Daddy does.

We miss you, Dad! We can't wait for you to come home and be with us!

A Rockin' Good Time

In the last few months we have given the twins more freedom in our house by opening up the nursery for them to play in. There ARE several shelves filled with toys for them to play with, however, in true kid form they ignore their toys and find "toys". First they discovered the little bookshelf full of kids books that they can pull off and throw around the room. I wouldn't mind the fact that they get books out to look at, except for the fact that to find a book they have to pull out all 200-ish books to find the one they want. In effort to slow this we have put the rocker in front of the shelf. It makes for fun reading opportunities like this one.



Allyson is reading them an animal book and if you listen close you can hear them making cat noises (cat is Will's favorite animal/noise - thanks Grandma Karen). It would have been longer but the battery died on the camera.

Of course the penalty of using the rocker in front of the books is that then the rocker itself becomes the toy. I think they see it as a roller coaster. Just listen.




The funny thing about this video is that at first glance you might say, "Awe, look they really do love each other and play with each other." But then if you watch closely at the end Anna gives William a nice little push that, you would see if the video had lasted a little longer, resulted in his belly-flop/face-plant on the floor. Ah, aren't kids the best!

Swingers

This week we went to a public playground for the first time this spring. Now that the kids are older they seem to enjoy outside time TONS more. They ran around the playground and loved all the things they could do. Anna particularly loved the slides. They were both timid at first but Anna got over it eventually (she must have gotten inspiration from cousin Bella's video). William liked running through the tunnels and looking at the other kids more than going down the slides. Eventually we tried them in the swings. The video speaks for itself, we're pretty sure they had fun.

No One Mourns the WICKED!!!

I was first introduced to the musical Wicked about five years ago. I got the soundtrack and was even so intrigued by the storyline that I read the book (don't, by the way - it's terrible for all sorts of reasons). I looked online to see when it would be in a city where I might see it, including cities in Utah, Colorado, Ohio, Nevada, etc. When I went to NYC four years ago, I stood in the lobby of the sold-out theatre where it was playing hoping that my name would be drawn out of the lottery so that I might see it. Of course my name wasn't drawn. More waiting.

Back around October, I read that Wicked was coming to Salt Lake. Larkin, who I had made listen to the soundtrack on numerous occasions, had promised me that we would go see it if it ever came to a city nearby. This was my chance! Tickets went on sale to the general public in December for the shows in April through May. The morning they went on sale, Larkin and I got online on the laptop and on my work computer (yes, during work hours), and we both started calling the ticket office on each of our cell phones. After FOUR HOURS of online website difficulties due to "overwhelming response" and a phone's busy signal, we got through! Yes, I made Larkin continue trying both methods for four hours. I was desperate. When I finally got to talk to a ticket agent, the only tickets left were for shows on Sundays. I didn't care. We bought our tickets! We bought four, and our friends Russell and Shyla came with us.Us outside of the theatre - so excited!Shyla and me waiting for the theatre to open. I look a little wicked myself in this pictures. That's unfortunate.
Us in our seats. What is that behind us? Yes, it's the wall. We were in the very last seats in the very top row of the utmost rear balcony. Nosebleeds. To the extreme. Luckily, we could stand the whole performance and not block a single person's view. And we could see the whole stage, every actor, dancer, stage hand, etc. This gives you a better idea of where we sat:We actually ended up loving our seats. We made friends with the other poor people around us. We really had a great view of the stage, and most importantly, we got to see Wicked! We absolutely loved it! We'll rave about it for years to come. I've already looked up its tour schedule for the next few months to see when I may be able to see it again. Obsessed? Yeah, okay. But it was also a great opportunity to go on a date with my amazing husband. That alone made it a wonderful night. Thanks to Aunt Sally, Aunt Marie, and Jacen for making it so that we could go. We love you guys!

Dancin' Babies

Maybe we encourage it too much, but the twins are dancing MACHINES! They'll start dancing at pretty much any music that they hear. They've even started dancing without hearing any music - completely unprompted. It's so amusing that we had to capture some moments on camera. The first one is kind of long, but it shows a little glimpse into daily life with the twins. You get to see them dancing, Will falling and faking being hurt, Anna jumping at the chance to take Will's basket while he turns his back, Anna being silly and doing an elephant noise and trunk movement, more dancing, etc.


These next clips demonstrate Will's latest dance moves - his shoulder shimmy. I don't know where he got this one, but it cracks us up every time! This one he doesn't need music for; he busts it out while waiting for a meal, while playing with his toys, and even, as shown in these videos, after a diaper change.





Wanna dance?

Blast Off!

This post is specifically for people familiar with the show Little Einsteins. In that show, characters ask viewers to help Rocket blast off. In order to do this, viewers (kids) "pat the beat" on their laps. Once they've reached the correct speed, they're asked to "raise your arms as high as you can and say, 'Blast off!'" I can tell when the show is starting not by the opening music but by hearing the twins smacking their hands on their legs. Also on the show, kids are asked to help Rocket go super-fast by again patting and then "shaking your whole body." Will and Anna demonstrate both of those for you in this video.

Wild Animals!

Will and Anna are getting so smart. They have a big animal book and love to point out the ones they know and make the sounds. They also love learning new animal sounds. It is so much fun to watch them learn and grow. Notice that a "bunny" doesn't make any sounds; it just moves its nose up and down, as demonstrated by Anna.