ARIZONA TRIP HIGHLIGHTS! Part 2

Ready for more pictures, everyone? Here we go!

 This is Chase and Gunnar at a totally awesome place in Mesa called Pipe Organ Pizza.  There is a MASSIVE pipe organ on the lower level, and they have really amazing artists come in and play.  But it's so much more than just listening to music, it's a show! They have lights that come on with different tunes, and certain areas of the organ are highlighted for specific bits in songs as well.  Our guy played "Under the Sea" from "The Little Mermaid", and bubbles floated down from the rafters as the song played! And then he did a "Star Wars" medley and it was awesome!

 The twins liked the show, but they enjoyed the pizza more than anything.  Yeah, our group put down 2 large pizzas in no time flat!

 This is Parker, me (with no makeup!) and Gunnar at Pipe Organ Pizza.

 Ah....these little angels are Abbie and Baylie (don't get me lyin' as to which one is which!) My friend Windy and her family live in Queen Creek, which isn't too far from Mesa, and every time we come to town we try to get together.  Her girls are actually fraternal twins, but they look more alike than my identical twins!

 Mason wasn't too interested in the girls (you can see his face in the previous picture that he wasn't thrilled to be taking the picture!) However, Parker kept feeding them pringles and seemed genuinely interested in being around them while they were there.  Perhaps there could be a double wedding in the distant future? I honestly hope so! Those girls are so adorable, and we'd be so lucky to have in-laws like Dan and Windy!

Now most of the McKnights know what it means to get together with the family- food, and May I! May I is a card game that my husband's uncle came up with using Rook cards.  It's complicated at first, but once you have a few years of experience (or a good set of written instructions) it becomes very fun! Parker decided he was going to play with Aunt Carrie, and she was nice enough to let him hold a few of her cards during this game. 

So, after 2 full weeks of playing, swimming, and watching movies (Seth and Carrie went with our boys and our nieces to see "Brave" in the theater!), we headed out for Utah.  My mother-in-law drove my Suburban, I rode shotgun, and my brother-in-law, Seth, rode in the back with the boys.  We drove up to St. George, Utah, and drove around to see the sights before heading to their house there.  It was a brief stay, because we were up early the next day, and we drove into Provo.  We drove around Orem/Provo and then headed up to Aspen Grove.  It was a quick drive up the canyon, and a few minutes around the mountain from Sundance.  When we got there, it was cold and raining, but it warmed up quickly and quit raining, and then we started unpacking at our HUGE family cabin.  I'll leave it there for today, and post about Aspen Grove, Chase's birthday, and our adventures in Salt Lake City tomorrow!

ARIZONA TRIP HIGHLIGHTS! Part 1

 So Todd will probably murder me for putting this picture on here, but here he is in the pool with Mason.

 This is Todd's sister with Parker, and Chase and Gunnar (wearing a shark fin swim jacket!)

 And what kind of trip to Arizona would it be if we didn't have In-N-Out? It honestly seems to be the only thing we can agree on when we're out there.  The boys didn't want McDonald's or Chik-Fil-A, only burgers from In-N-Out! I thought the hats would be a fun touch for photos!

 Chase and Gunnar wore their hats for a long time, and they always eat really well when we have I-N-O, but I think they enjoy the fact that they get to have a drink that isn't kid sized! Coca-Cola for everyone!

 My Sister-in-law made shirts for her family before the big reunion, so we decided to make some Sharpie Marker tie-dyed shirts.  You use regular Sharpie markers on a plain white t-shirt, then use a medicine dropper filled with rubbing alcohol to made the pattern "bleed" out.  Here is a picture of the twins coloring their shirts.  They did such a great job!

 This is me making my shirt.  I tried to use pretty, vibrant colors and make it look like a tie-dyed shirt I would have purchased.  I LOVE tie-dye (at one point in high school, I had a different tie-dye shirt for every day of the school week!)

 And here is the finished product! Too bad they faded really bad after their first wash.  I looked it up on Pinterest the next day, and we forgot a step- we didn't "heat set" the shirts after we finished with the rubbing alcohol. 

And here is a picture of all 4 boys on the couch. (L-R) Gunnar, Chase, Parker, and Mason.

SUMMER VACATION!

Hi ho, there, I'm back! I decided it was finally time to update the blog and let everyone know how our Summer went!  So after we finished up with T-ball, and school had ended, we had a bit of a break.  For 2 whole weeks we didn't have anything to do, and it was great! We slept in every day, and just bummed around.  Then, we started swim lessons for the older boys.  

 Chase was the only one in his group, maybe because he was more advanced, but he became a much more confident swimmer, that's for sure.

  Gunnar was in a group of about 5 or 6, and even though he swam without a life jacket or floaties, he still didn't feel quite as confident as Chase did.  They had swim lessons 4 days a week for 2 weeks, and I'm certain we'll do lessons for the twins next Summer as well!

 And of course, the Twins were jealous that they couldn't get in the pool when their big brothers were swimming.  I kept promising them that they would learn soon enough, and that we would get to play in Grandma's pool when we got to Arizona.

Here are the little ones in the fridge!  They have become so independent, and have taken to getting out their own snacks when I don't act quickly enough.  They loved having all of the delicious Summer fruit around the house, like strawberries, nectarines, and peaches.  They have also become big fans of cheese, and grapes! Parker broke my Pampered Chef Mix-N-Stir pitcher (just look on the top shelf, see it? We LOVE those pitchers!), because he thinks he is strong enough to get it out of the fridge on his own, and he dropped it while it was full. 

So there are a few quick pics before we head off to ARIZONA! We had our last swim lesson the morning that we left, and let me tell ya, it was a really busy day!

ARIZONA

This was a trip that our boys had been looking forward to all year long! We had planned to have a McKnight family reunion at Aspen Grove in Utah the first week of July, and we had already planned to spend some time with Todd's parents in Arizona, so we came up with the idea that Todd would drive the family out and I would stay with the 4 boys for 2 weeks before our Aspen Grove trip.  The drive was really quite pleasant this time around, probably because we didn't have to stop too much, and our dog wasn't with us this trip.  The only bad part was that the kids never napped in the 2 days we drove out from Tulsa.  We left home a little after one o'clock, and it was the first time we had left so early in the day.  We made it to Albuquerque, New Mexico by 10:30 at night when we stopped for the night.  We stayed in a nice hotel, had a good night's rest, and complimentary breakfast the next morning.  We noticed that my car was starting to have some transmission issues (shifting improperly) and told Todd's parents that we might have to have it serviced while we were in town.  Well, things got worse with the car, but we were still managing to make pretty good time driving.  We were just outside of Mesa when the Suburban decided it wouldn't go any faster than 40 miles an hour.  So, we called in the reinforcements, and Todd's parents were there in no time flat with 2 cars to unload all of our luggage and kids.  Mason and Parker started bawling, because they had no idea what was going on, their Daddy wasn't getting in the car with us, and they hadn't napped in 2 days.  We got to the house, everyone unloaded pretty quickly, and we were settled for the next two weeks!

I'll start a new post that is all pictures, so I won't mess up how this one looks.  Enjoy!

The little guys!

I let you know what the big boys were up to, but here are a few pics to show you what the little guys have been doing.

The pictures are a little out of order, but the twins have always been able to entertain themselves very well.  Lately, they've decided chasing each other with my pot holders are so much fun.  They put them on their hands and say "ROAR!" and then run through my house, squealing with delight.

Here's Mason posing with my most recent creation- a knitted scarf (stockinette pattern)

And here's Parker posing with my scarf...

And here's the two of them together, both wearing the scarf!

Like I said, the pictures are a little out of order, but this is what I did yesterday- I completely organized Todd's closet.  It was a total disaster! Crap all over the floor, nothing made sense, and I hated putting his clothes away because it was so gross.  So, while Todd was cleaning out my car to take to Bartlesville, I started cleaning out his closet. If I was smart, I would have taken pictures of his "before" and what it looked like having just about everything in his closet spread out all over our bedroom!

Mason (smiling) and Parker.  Anytime I get the camera out, they stand and smile for me!

Organized shoes! They were once all over the floor, and now they have a home! I even downsized my shoes so I could put my shoe rack in Todd's closet for his boots!

So not only did he have shoes all over his floor, but I (at some point, I don't remember when) started putting all of the electronic cords, and anything computer related on his shelves.  I organized everything by relevance, and put them in a set of clear drawers.  Need a charging cord for the computer? Bottom drawer!

Mason has started taking Todd's Mr.Dew out of the case, and stacking them up.  I totally busted him, so in this picture, he's putting them all back.

I like how in this one they both have their hands up, as if they're saying "no thanks, we're done, no more pictures!"



Can you see how Parker is getting ready to hit Mason with that oven mitt?


So that's what we've been up to lately. Oh, and things are changing for Todd and I in our roles at church.  I was released as the Young Women Personal Progress leader, and Relief Society (women's group) teacher, but I kept my calling as the Nursery Leader.  Todd was the 2nd counselor in the Elders Quorum group, but was released and is the new Elders Quorum President.  He was immediately immersed with phone calls, and meetings, and moving people.  Basically, he'll be doing a lot more service oriented activities, and organizing them.  I know it will be a complete blessing to have him in this calling, and I'll support him all the way! Well, it's late, and I'd better get off of the computer. I'll be posting what we'll be doing the whole Summer long.  My list includes a lot of knitting! I'll be finishing up a baby blanket for Gunnar's baby doll, Baby Knucklehead, and I'm hoping to post more pictures of what we're doing this Summer! 

Schoooool's out for SUMMER!

My older boys finished school last week, and we had the last of their t-ball/baseball games as well, so I thought I'd post a few pictures of them on here.


Here's Gunnar with his Pre-K teacher, Mrs. Sloat, and his TA, Mrs. Seabolt (aka Miss Shelly).  I absolutely loved them so much! Mrs. Sloat came highly recommended, and I thoroughly enjoyed having Gunnar in her class this past year.  She was so thoughtful, understanding, and did a great job with my baby! He came away from her class with so much knowledge! I'm really going to miss her next year!




Todd and Gunnar.  Todd was an assistant coach on Gunnar's team this year. This was the last game of the season, and they handed out the team trophies that night as well. Go, Cougars!



Here's Gunnar on 1st base.  The kid loves to run!



My little slugger!




I love this photo! He played at the pitcher's position (the coaches pitch to the boys in this age group) and he caught the ball for an out, but immediately turned and threw it to first base and they got the 2nd out.  I'm so glad I caught his reaction to the double play!



Todd was also an assistant coach for Chase's team this year.  Same thing as Gunnar- last game of the season, handed out trophies that night.  Chase played on the same team as last year, and they really improved! Good job, Rangers!

So that's what the big boys have been up to lately.  We sat down the other day and made up our list of things to do for the Summer, and I'm sure I'll be taking pictures of that as well!

Happy Mother's Day!

So I was pretty certain that Todd didn't get me a present, but Chase totally outed him last night at my parents' house.  Mom gave me a present, but I wasn't allowed to open until today.  I woke up this morning to my favorite breakfast- cherry pie waffles (which are Belgian waffles with cherry pie topping on top.) Then, Todd brought the older boys in to give me my presents.  He secretly went to my favorite store, Brighton, and picked up a matching pair of earrings, necklace, and bracelet.  It's not really my style, and he's told me it's OK to for me to exchange them for something else that I like.  Then, I opened my Mom's present- a set of jumper cables.  The story behind them is my car died a few weeks ago after a knitting class, and I had to call my parents to come help me out, because Todd was home with the boys.  I told her I didn't have a set of them for my car, so now I have some! Yeah, Mom!

We went to church, I was called as the Nursery Leader. Yep, that's now a running total of 3, count them, 3 callings that I hold in the ward.  I teach every 2nd Sunday in Relief Society, I am the Personal Progress advisor for the Young Women, and now Nursery Leader.  And as far as I know, I'm not getting released from the other callings anytime soon.  I taught my lesson, got set apart for my calling, then came home.  Todd fed us lunch, put the twins down for a nap, and let me basically hang out for the day.  We had dinner, got the kids to bed, and now we're just hanging out watching TV.

 And thus ends my week long blog challenge.  I've really enjoyed it, it's been fun.  I can't say that I'll be blogging on here every single day, but I will surely try to get on here more often and update my blog.  Hopefully every time I make something, I'll post it on here.  And I'm also hoping that I won't wait for months to go by before posting some fun pics of the kids on here.  We have a big trip coming up this summer, and I really can't wait to post about it! Catch ya on the flip side, friends!

Saturday, a.k.a. pre-Mother's Day...

It started off as a promising day, but somewhere I got into a funk of an attitude.  Todd took Chase to his baseball game, and after doing the dishes and laundry, we ate lunch and got Gunnar ready for his game.  He said his legs hurt too bad for him to run the bases, and after some near death threats from my husband, Gunnar parked it on the couch and wasn't allowed to get up and run around.  He missed his game because of his stupid shots! Whatever... after a little bickering with the hubby, I decided to take a nap.  It didn't last long, because as soon as I laid down, Todd came in and decided to take a bath with the whirlpool jets on, and it was much louder than I was hoping it would be. Then, as I was drifting off, the twins woke up from their nap. Nap fail- awesome.  Then, I asked Todd to make baked beans while I took a shower, and he did, but to my dismay, he neglected to do a few things that I usually do in the recipe, and I didn't think they would taste very good.  So, we loaded up the kids and headed over to my parents' house for dinner with my siblings and their family.  It was a fun night with some good grub, and presents for my Mom and Dad (celebrating Dad's birthday, and Mother's Day.)  So we came home, got all the kids bathed and in bed.  I finally prepared my lesson for church tomorrow, (it's going to be a good one!) and now I'm on here to give my day 6 post.  I know, kinda short, but hopefully tomorrow will be a little better.  I'm actually enjoying posting everyday...maybe I'll keep this up! Naw...better not get too hopeful. ;o)