Thanksgiving Adventures

Last Wednesday afternoon Sam and I decided we should pack the kids up in the minivan and head on down to California.  It was a last minute decision because Sam wasn't sure if he'd be working on Black Friday or not.  Fortunately he didn't have to, so we made the trip. 

We left American Fork (that's where Sam's office is located) at about 6:15pm and drove directly to Claremont.  We arrived at about 2:30am Thanksgiving morning.  We made pretty good time and had a pretty smooth trip.  It was so nice to have Thanksgiving dinner with my family.  Especially since every year my mom goes crazy and makes 8-10 different kind of pies, all homemade.  She rocks!

After eating with my family we drove down to Chino to surprise Sam's family.  They had no idea that we were in California.  This is starting to be a really fun Knecht family game, surprising out of state relatives by showing up on their door steps.  It really is the best, give it a try.  We got to Casa de Knecht around 4:00pm and sent the boys to knock on the door while we hid by the garage.  It was the highlight of the trip to see everyone's shocked expressions.  We had just had all of Sam's family here in UT a couple of weeks earlier, except for Lindsay and Rachel.  It was especially great to see them.  We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening hanging out there.  It was fabulous.

Saturday the boys, several of the boys' aunts, my mom, and I all went to see Tangled.  We loved it.  It was cute, funny, and not scary.  (I'm kind of chicken, I don't do scary.)  Then the boys went down to Chino with their aunts while I went shopping.

Sunday morning we left Claremont to drive back to Utah at 5:00am.  I don't mess around when it comes to driving home.  I like to leave early.  We got into St. George at about 10:45 am local time and had to make a stop.  The whole weekend Ben had been running a fever, but he was teething and getting in his molars, so I didn't think much of it.  By Saturday night he was complaining of immese pain in his ear.  By Sunday the pain was unbearable for him.  We stopped at an urgent care and sure enough, he has an ear infection.  That delay took us about 3 hours.  Just before 2:00pm we got back on the road.

The roads driving up past St. George were ridiculous.  There was heavy snow, slushy/icy roads, tons of drivers, and too many accidents.  After driving for almost 4 hours and only getting to Fillmore we decided to cut our losses and stay at a motel over night.  I'm so glad we did.  Although I wasn't in my bed last night, we were safe, and we slept well.  I've never driven in such poor conditions.  And that's saying a lot, because I've lived in Idaho and made it through the worst winter of my life Nov '07- Mar '08.

We finally got to our house around lunch time today.  I felt so blessed as we pulled into the driveway in one piece.  There were a couple of times driving yesterday that I thought we were not going to make it home alive.  Boy am I glad we did.  We had such a great time visiting with our family, it made yesterday's drive almost worth it :)   

Sunday Best!

This morning we woke up to about a foot of snow. It was beautiful.

This is our house and Sam's work truck.  Fortunately my new minivan is parked in the garage.

This was the view from our front steps looking over our front yard.  That's my wonderful husband, Sam, shoveling our sidewalk.

After church today we took pictures of the boys in their new Sunday clothes.  Aren't they handsome!  We could not convince Ben that his tie should go inside his vest.  He kept it out all day.

I was proud of the boys for not jumping into the snow.  They were sorely tempted.

It started snowing just as we were finishing and this was the last shot I got.  I don't know if Tom got snow in his eye, or if he's trying to be Pop Eye.

Happy Sunday and Happy Birthday to Aunt Gina!  We love you Aunt Gina!

I love my boys...

This morning Tom was carrying as many toy tools around that he could manage.  Then he came over to the table and attempted to get up in his chair while holding all of the tools.  As I watched him struggle to get up I mentioned that he should put the tools down to get up on his chair easier.  He looked up at me and said "I'm building the temple, mom."  Then he took all his tools into the living room and started "working and building" on the couch, while repeating over and over "I'm building the temple."  Of course I had to join in with my rendition of "Let's Build the Temple" (hand motions included).  I didn't realize how much our trip to Temple Square last week really made an impression on him.  He's so cute.  I love my boys!

Fun Things

The past couple of weeks have been busy and very fun.  The first weekend of the month Sam's work paid for one night's stay, dinner, and game night at a beautiful resort in Park City.  It was a really fun night to celebrate the completion of the latest project that Kiewit had been working on.  Here are a couple of pictures of our room. 

The hall way leading from the front door into our 1300 sq. ft. suite.

The living room area.

Looking back from the living room fire place into the kitchen area.

Our large and spacious bedroom, which also had it's own fire place and flat screen TV.

The huge bathroom, with walk-in shower and jetted tub.

The suite also included another full bathroom, several storage closets, private patio with hot tub, and washer and dryer.  I was tempted to stay forever.  It was luxurious.

Casey and Kylea were the super heroes of the weekend for taking care of the kids.  Thanks guys!

The Wednesday after family came to town.  Woo Hoo!  Ginger and Katie flew in Wed. evening and came to our house.  Thursday morning we played with Katie while Ginger went to visit family.  Thursday afternoon Ginger came back and Sam and I took off for another get away.  We went to a B&B in Midway called Johnson Mill.  It was great.  What a lucky break to have two seperate nights away within 1 week's time.  Friday morning Sam and I went and bought a minivan on the way home from Midway.  We found exactly what we were looking for, a Kia Sedona with about 70k miles for a really great price.  It's so nice to finally have a vehicle that fits comfortably.  I felt so cramped in our little put, put car.  Friday afternoon Ginger, Katie, Tom and I all went to see the new exhibit at the South Visitors Center in Temple Square about the temple.  It was fantastic.  If you haven't seen it yet, it's definitely worth the drive up there.  That evening we picked up Scott and Camille from the airport and we all went to dinner.  Saturday morning we headed down to Provo to hang out as a family at Gina and Chris' place.  It was such a nice time being all together, minus Rachel and Lindsay.  (We missed you guys tons.)  I love having family in town.  It's the best.  We always have such a great time being together.  Thanks for coming guys!  

Ben is funny.

Most week day mornings the boys watch Super Why on PBS.  It's a cute show.  In the beginning of the opening sequence the main character introduces himself and then asks the viewers to say their names.  This morning this is what I heard coming from the family room:

TV:  "...and I'm Super Why, what's your name?"
Ben:  "I'm Benjamin Spence Knecht.  No, no, I mean, I'm Spiderman."

It made me laugh.  He's got a great imagination.  I love it!

Exciting News!

I'm pregnant!  I'm due sometime in May.  Both Sam and I are really looking forward to our new addition. 

Visiting with Shawna

This past weekend I had the privilege of visiting my sister Shawna and her family in MapleValley, WA.  It was the perfect weekend.  Before this trip I had never been to visit Shawna in WA.  Plus a bonus was that my mom was also visiting.  It made for a great time.

 On Friday one of the first places we visited was Pike's Place in Seattle.  It's famous for its shops, fish markets, produce, and flower markets.  It was a lot of fun to walk around and people  watch.

On Saturday morning we went into Tacoma to see the Glass Museum.  This is the view of the port area from the museum.

Here's my lovely mom and sister in front of the Glass Museum.  Funky looking thing, right.  It reminded me of the Tin Man's hat in Wizard of Oz.

This is the bridge that connects the glass museum to the rest of the city.  It's really cool because along the way it's like an open exhibit.

These vases and sculptures are part of the open exhibit along the bridge.  It was so cool to see all of these beautifully crafted glass pieces enclosed in plexy glass.

Josh (3), Sammy (8), Me, Clare (18 months), Jake (6)

Another really great part of the trip was being able to spend time with my nieces and nephews.  It's been 2 1/2 years since Shawna and David moved to WA, and it's been 3 years since Sam and I moved from CA, so I haven't really had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with these cuties.  Sometimes I feel like I hardly know the younger two.  But they are all really sweet and cute kids.  They're all funny and quirky in their own ways.  It was so much fun to get to know them better.

These are the younger two, Josh and Clare.  Josh is about 2 months younger than Ben, and Clare will turn 2 yrs old on Jan 1st.  Josh loved flirting with me.  He was always willing to give me a hug and a kiss.  It was adorable.  Clare is sassy and sweet.  She loves baby dolls and necklaces.  She's a girly girl.  She also likes being held all the time.

Going to visit Shawna and here family was fantastic.  Thanks, Shawna.  You're the best.

National Museum Day and other stuff

 Saturday was National Musuem Day, so we went to the Utah Museum of Natural History and got in for FREE! We had a great time looking at all the neat fossils, minerals, and bugs.

Ben and Sam standing in front of Allosaurus, Utah's state fossil.

The museum has a fun show with this large puppet that tells about the recent discovery of a new kind of dino species found here in UT.

In other news, I've been trying to find some new ways to keep the boys entertained during the day in hopes there will be a little less arguing.  Here is one of my most recent attempts; the table tent.  They thought it was fun for about 20 mins, and then became disinterested.

I can tell already, it's going to be a long winter.  If you have any suggestions for keeping two little boys busy with indoor activity please let me know.  I'm already stocking up on ideas.

Remember when.....

Remember when my boys were so little?  They've grown so much lately.  It's hard to imagine they used to be little babies.

This is Ben when he was about 6 months old in Rexburg, ID.  Sam had just started school.  We were all adjusting to being so far away from family.  It was a tough time, but a really good time.

Ben used to sleep in this cute little "sleep bag".  He'd just woken up from his nap and was spending time sitting next to daddy, while daddy was on the computer probably doing homework.

For some reason Ben loved to lay underneath the rocking chair.  It was like his little fort.  He would back his body up under the chair and sit there watching people.  (This was about the time we found out that we were expecting Tom.)  Ben was about 7 months old.

This is Tom back in Rexburg, ID.  He's about 6 months old in this pic.  Tom was such a different baby from Ben.  Both were wonderful blessings, Tom was just a little easier to please.

Tom loves to wear hats.  Even now he likes to wear his ball cap all over the place.  Unfortunately this cute little Dodger hat didn't fit Tom for much longer.  Welcome to the Knechts, Tom.

Tom loved playing on the floor in the middle of the room.  I always had to put a lot of pillows around just in case Big Brother wanted to play too :)

I love being a mom.  I love having these two beautiful boys.  They are so much fun to be around.  I can't believe how much they've grown.

Just one of those days.

Today I've been kind of tired.  I didn't sleep very well last night, and since I didn't have anywhere to go or anything to do I stayed in my pj's until 11:00am.  Don't judge.  It's just been one of those days.  So finally around 1:00pm Ben piped up and said he was hungry (don't worry I fed them breakfast at 8:00am, it wasn't his first feeding for the day).  So I peeled myself off the couch and got Ben some cottage cheese (he's in love with the stuff, he would eat it for every meal if possible) and I got Tom a bowl of Cap'n Crunch.  Oh no, what have I done?  Last night I bought 3 boxes of said cereal because it was on sale for less than a dollar a box.  But now Tom is serioulsy in love with it.  After he finished his first bowl he walked up to me with a very serious face and his arms folded across his chest and said, "I need more cereal mommy."  Ok, that's fine because the bowl that I had given him was farely small.  What would another bowl hurt?  About 10 mins later, he comes up to me and has his little hands folded together and says, "I need more cereal, please, please, please.  More mommy."  He was totally begging.  I can't really blame the kid, Cap'n Crunch is the best breakfast cereal ever known to man.  So I obliged, with a warning that this was the last bowl for today.  Wow.  I guess I'll have to watch the Cap'n Crunch intake around here.

Once Upon a Time...

At our house our bedtime routine goes as follows: bath or face washing, brush teeth, get jammies on, read at least 1 book, get into bed, Sam tells a story, and then prayers.  One of my favorite parts of the ruitine is Sam's story telling.  Tonight was an especially funny story.  I'll try to recapture the essence for you.

Sam: Once upon a time there was a(n)__________. (he pauses for Ben to fill in the blank.)
Ben: an antelope.
Sam: Ok, an antelope.  And did the antelope have big horns or small horns?
Ben:  No, daddy.  He had medium sized horns.
Sam:  My bad, what was I thinking?  OK, so this medium horned antelope had a friend who had a garden.  The garden had a lot of weeds.  So the antelope used it's medium sized horns to dig up all the weeds. (While Sam was saying this he started demonstrating, using his fingers along side his head as horns and putting his head down to the floor.  It was epic.)  This made his friend very happy, and they were best friend forever.  The End.

Now you understand why I love Sam so much.  He's awesome.  Nuff said. 

2nd installment (just because Grandma can't get enough)

Here are a few more pics of our camping trip and stuff.  Ben and Tom's Grandma wanted more pics, and she's one lady I like to keep happy.  Here you go Ginger, I love you!

Ben hugging Tom, aka a choke hold.

Now you know where my children get their good looks :)

I have more pics of Tom because he's kind of a ham, and Ben has no patience to stand still for a pic.

Isn't he cute?

What did I tell you about being a ham...

Yes Tom, is there something you want to say?

Doesn't he look like such a big boy?  Where did my baby go?

What did I tell you about laying down in random places.

Isn't he cute?

This is also how he sleeps.  For some reason he really enjoys his arms against his head.

The End.

The Garden of Eatin'

This year has been the first time that we've ever had a garden.  I love to garden.  It's a very relaxing and theraputic activity for me.  Plus who doesn't love picking all the vegetables?  This is what I picked just last night.   

32 Tomatos, 14 peppers, 4 zucchinis

These are not the only veggies we have in our garden.  We planted corn, butternut squash, pumpkins, lettuce, onions, cawliflower, zucchini, tomato, bell peppers, anaheim peppers, and green beans.  It's been a lot of fun to care for all of these plants.

Bring on the fun!

Last Thursday night was Sam's last night shift for work.  For those of you who don't know, Sam was working 80 hour work weeks.  He'd leave for work around 3pm and get home about 4:30am, then go to sleep until 1:00pm and do it all again.  This was a normal ruitine for him 6 days a week for the past 6-8 weeks.  Needless to say, we were ready for him to get a break.  So once he got caught up on sleep, we got busy on some fun.  Starting with Saturday, we went to Swiss Days in Midway, UT.  It's a fun festival that celebrates Midway's Swiss heritage.  We met Chris & Gina in the morning and got a place for the parade.  The boys loved all the candy from the parade, but they weren't so excited about the loud motorcycles.  After the parade we got some lunch and went home.  It was a fun day.

    On Monday, Labor Day, we had a BBQ.  It was a lot of fun to have our Northern Knecht Clan and the Will & Amber Mickelson Family with us.  It was great weather and a lot of fun.  The kids loved playing on the swing set.

Tuesday morning we packed up the boys and drove to Moab, UT to go camping.  We were really looking forward to this camping trip because it's the first time that we've gone on a real family vacation (driving to CA for holidays doesn't count).  We got down to Moab and set up our camp site and immediately it started raining.  None the less we still had a great time.

Ben, Sam, & Tom trying to stay dry.

Ben checking out our tent.  You can see all the water drops on the tent.

The rainbow we saw at our campsite between showers.

After a good night's sleep we got up and went to Arches National Park.  Because it had rained the night before and that morning, the weather was overcast and cool.  It was perfect for our desert excursion.

Ben sometimes likes to lay down in random places.

Fiery Furnace

Delicate Arch

After we finished our tour of Arches we took a drive over to Dead Horse Point ("Utah's Grand Canyon").  The boys had a little nap on the drive over.

Dead Horse Point was amazing.  I've never seen anything like this.  You know how I feel about heights, I was terrified the whole time, yet I managed to get close enough to the edge to take a few pics.

That's the Colorado River down there.

The boys enjoyed climbing on the rocks near the picnic area.

After all of our site seeing we went back to our campsite had dinner and ice cream.

Then we got ready for bed.

We had such a great time, even with all the weather we experienced.  We'll definitely make camping a family tradition.