The Knecht Four 2009

A few thoughts on Christmas...

I just wanted to share a few thoughts that I've had recently about this Christmas. This Christmas and holiday season is the first Christmas that we have been away from our family in California (except for the Christmas we spent in Italy, but that doesn't count because we didn't have any kids then). And I have to admit that I've had mixed emotions about being away from the majority of our family at this time of year. For me the holiday season revolves around family and the traditions that we take part in as a family. I'll certainly miss Christmas Eve dinner with my family and waking up Christmas morning at the Knecht's to a big yummy breakfast. Yet, I'm looking forward to creating our own traditions. I'm looking forward to morphing the fun and wonderful things that I've enjoyed in Christmas' past into Christmas' future.
Another thing that I was definitely concerned about was missing the feeling of being around family. The feeling that you know that your mom-in-law loves you because she put a tooth brush in your stocking, or your mom makes your favorite cinnamon rolls, or your aunt makes your favorite guacamole, or your dad-in-law passes out the presents one by one by pushing them across the carpet. But I have to say that I've felt that feeling even here in Utah, far, far, away. One of the reasons I've felt that feeling is the past couple of days we have received box after box. As of today we have received 12 boxes from our loved ones. I haven't even opened any of them, but just knowing they're here and that each one of those boxes is filled with the love and generosity of special people in our lives. What a blessing to know how much we are loved! I don't want you to think this is all about our family getting presents. It's not. It's knowing that people love us enough to think about us and to take the time and effort to show us that they were thinking of us.
I hope this make sense. Thanks for obliging me and reading my ramblings.
I hope you all know that we reciprocate your feelings. We think about all of our friends and family regularly. I am grateful for all of the great memories and traditions that we have to share. I'm grateful for the Christmas season when all of those great feelings and impressions can be relived and shared with one another. I hope you will enjoy your Christmas knowing that we love and miss all of you.

Penguin FHE

I recently got this random "family" magazine in the mail. And no, it wasn't the Ensign or the Friend, although I do subscribe and I do really like those publications very much. I received a copy of Disney Family Magazine and to my surprise it had a lot of fun craft and food ideas to make with the boys. So for FHE tonight we decided to make a penguin family. You can find the supply list and instructions here.





Ben loved helping me glue the eyes and other parts onto the penguin. Tom loved throwing things down on the floor and eating the foam craft sheets. We had a great time.


Ben named his penguin Percy. Tom named his penguin Melvin.


The whole family.

Halloween Fun

This was the first year since we've been married that Sam and I carved pumpkins. We've never really gotten into Halloween, but now that we have kids we're making an effort.








So this year the boys dressed as Tigger (Ben) and Winnie the Pooh (Tom). Their costumes make look kinda familiar, that's because Ben was Pooh last year and Tom was Tigger. This year Tom wore last year's Pooh costume, and some very nice friends gave us a new Tigger costume for Ben. Before we went trick or treating Gina and Chris came over to see the boys in their costumes.





Ben loved wearing his costume, but Tom was not excited about wearing his costume. After Gina and Chris left we went trick or treating with our friends the Reeves. First we started out at Jordan Landing, a large open air shopping mall, which was way too crowded. Then we went to the Reeves' neighborhood. Ben didn't really enjoy trick or treating, but Tom loved knocking on doors and seeing new people. A couple of times he tried walking into random houses, maybe he thought he was looking for a new family, I'm not really sure.






By the time we got home the boys were done being in costume, but we managed to get them to sit for a bit to take these picutres. They had so much fun. Ben keeps asking me if we can have Halloween again and go trick or treating.

Pumpkin Patch

In October we were super lucky to have Grandma and Lindsey come and visit. While they were here we went to a pumpkin patch with the whole Utah gang. It was a blast.

Tom was not excited about sitting in this wagon. (That is a blow up turkey behind the boys. I guess I should have gotten him in the shot too, and not just its feet. Oh well.)




Tom wanted to take all of the pumpkins home. He kept trying to lift all of them up into our cart. It was hilarious to see him trying to heft a five pound pumpkin with his little boy muscles. He thinks he's SuperMan.




Here's my handsome big boy. When you ask him how old he is he'll tell you he's 3, even though he's only 2. He wants to be a big kid already.


Here we are at the beginning of the corn maze.




In the corn maze they had a bunch of these fun cut-outs. So of course we had to stop and take a few silly pictures.



Here we are close to the end of the maze. What a great looking group we made. :)



At the end of the maze they had some fun bouncers. Ben was not excited about jumping in the bounce house. He just held on to the rope on the sides and wouldn't jump. What a funny boy.

We had such a great time with our family. I think we'll make this a yearly experience.

Bathing Beauties

Ben and Tom love taking baths. They love playing with all their bath toys, dumping water on each other, splashing each other, and just being silly.




Aren't their farmer tans cute? I love these boys. They're great.

Captain Batman Underpants

Ok, I know it's been forever since I blogged last. So here are a few pictures taken in the last couple of months.
In the last part of August we started talking about potty training a little more. We bought a potty chair and got Ben some "big boy underwear". When we got the underwear for him he was really excited. And when I say excited, I mean excited to wear them, not excited to go potty on the toilet. That first night we got them he wanted to wear them to bed, but he wanted to be able to see them. So he put them on over his pajamas. He's so cute.



Maybe someday he'll actually wear them under his clothes, until then he'll be known as Captain Batman Underpants!

Fun day at Gardner Village

Today Camille, Clarissa, me, and the boys all went to Gardner Village. Gardner Village is a fun little village filled with all kinds of trendy little shabby chic shops. They have a duck pond, petting zoo, and pony rides. After walking through all the shops we walked by the ponies, and to our surprise Ben actually wanted to ride a pony. I was shocked because he's usually kind of scared of trying new things. But he got up on the pony like a rock star. He even got to the point he could do it alone without me following next to him like a paranoid mother. It was a lot of fun.




After the pony ride we went to the little bakery they had there and had lunch. Tom was really enjoying his PB&J sandwich.

Wendy Brock saved my life!!!!!!

That's right Wendy I'm talking to you (you will always have a special place in my heart). You may remember a previous blog post where I vented my woes of my troubling children. Wendy posted a comment about a book called Parenting with Love and Logic. This book has revolutionized my family and has helped me and Sam establish peace in our home. We went from yelling, crying, spanking, and losing control almost daily to loving each other and looking forward to spending quality time together. Before Love and Logic I dreaded Sam leaving me home alone with the boys each day and only looked forward to my kids napping in the afternoon. Ben (2 yrs old) was constantly hitting, biting, and taking toys from his brother Tom (1 yr old). After reading this book I've learned how to help Ben learn from the choices that he makes. The thing I love about this book is it makes sense. It's not all about punishing your kids, it's about teaching them to live with their choices and consequences. I recommend that every parent read this book. This book will help give you the tools to raise pleasant responsible children.
Ok I'm done preaching. Thanks again Wendy for the great advice.

What a day!

For most of our married life Sam has been home by 6:00pm at the latest and always home on the weekends. I believe those days are over. We are entering a new and unknown world where Sam is no longer in charge of his waking hours, his work is the charge now.
Today Sam left the house at 6:45am and did not return until 10:00pm. 14.5 of those hours away from home were spent working. What does this mean for me and the boys? It means that mama's drinking again. And when I say drinking I mean Dr. Pepper. In fact, just today I went through a drive-thru on our way back from our morning outing to purchase a small Dr. Pepper. As we drove home I was planning out how I'd put the boys down for a nap and sit down in the peace and quiet to savor my DP. I was almost giddy with excitement. When I got into the house I started by changing Tom's diaper and whilst getting him ready for a nap I called to Ben, "Ben, why don't you come into the bedroom so mommy can change your diaper?" I heard no response. I should have known that the silence that returned was trouble. I kept calling as I finished with Tom. Then I went into the kitchen and "NOOOOOOO! What have you done?!?!?!?!" Ben had poured my DP all over the kitchen floor and was playing with the ice. My eyes went misty. Didn't he know that I really needed an hour of solitude with my DP? Wasn't my bedraggled appearance a dead give away that mama was two clicks away from crazy???
Don't worry, I know that you were all worried that the day ended horribly, but things resolved themselves. Gina and Chris picked-up a DP on their way over this afternoon, the boys went to bed at 7:00pm this evening (just having them asleep for the night almost cancels out anything bad they may have done during the day), and Sam finally came home. All is well in Zion.

Workin' at the car wash. . .

When we were in California we went to Papa and Grandma Knecht's house and lo and behold a few of Ben's aunts were there too. Most of you know that in the Knecht household Saturday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for Sunday, which means we wash all the cars (Grandma Knecht does not like going to church in a dirty car.). Ben of course wanted to get in on the action. He started out washing and then turned on his aunts and started spraying. It was hilarious.






Then the tables turned and his aunts started spraying him.