""Falls" a-comin'"

So to begin tonight, I will have to ask you to forgive me for the number of photos I posted here under this one post. It may take you a while to go through them all. Oh who am I kidding? You are blog-hopping. What else is on your to-do list? Second of all for my gratuitous use of parenthesis in the title. You see it is getting a bit "fallish" round these parts and there have also been a great number, yea, innumerable bonks, crashes, spills and doinks in our house. We currently identify the boys by bruises on either left or right side of the forehead. I can't tell you which side because in the course of this memory card, they have both healed nicely on both sides.


Here is our two-toofed hillbilly group sitting on the porch at dusk. At least they are in upscale Adirondacks huh?!

Bedtime after bottle is such an awesome time of the day. First of all, Carin and I get to have some "kid free" time and do whatever we want. Carin usually works on projects, crafts or journals for the kids. By the way, I defy anyone who reads this blog to tell me they have seen a hotter mother of twins. I took this picture and immediately thought-holy crap Kirk-you married a model. I think she is absolutely stunning. To look this good at the end of a Sunday with twins and a three year old is like jumping out of an airplane, falling 10,000 feet, landing on your head, popping your helmet off and having "Pantene hair." It just doesn't happen. Except to ME!

The boys were officially introduced to bubbles tonight. I am not sure what they thought of them.

Bennett look less enthused.

The other day, the boys got up from their nap and were playing around while Carin was sewing. Things got quiet and then a door shut. Carin thought the boys must have pushed Taylor's door open and awaken her from her nap. Upon further investigation, the boys have sneakily gone into their own room and John crawled up on top of the Huggies box and was perched there while Bennett watched. Exhibit A for bonks on the head.

So we are getting in all the summer activities possible before it gets too cold. We went to the Hogle Zoo last week and enjoyed the excitement the kids showed. John is enthralled by the ginormous elephant eating a bail of hay strung high above his head. So much so that he doesn't care that the same fly that spent the previous night exploring said elephants back side now perched itself upon his head.

Taylor tended Grandma Welling's kitty while she was at the temple on Saturday. Grandma Welling has adopted kitty after kitty's mommy broke into her house had a litter of kitties and then split. Now kitty is the only one left surviving and she has been bottle feed kitty formula since she was the size of a large mouse. Grandma is pretty protective of her little treasure. We all know she secretly loves kitty and wants to keep her forever.

The dinosaur park in Ogden. The boys enjoyed their lunch and watching Taylor on the slides. Ever since the trip they have both began growling at everything. It's pretty sweet.

Our little bone excavator at the Dinosaur park.

John's first taste of mommy's baked pasketti. They loved it!

Bennett finishes off his Italian feast with a brownie. These boys eat like starving Aborigines.

One of our favorites is mommy's German pancakes. This one broke a record for height above the pan. Taylor will eat them until the whole pan is gone. Yes, this is the same little girl who has weighed 25 pounds for a year. If it doesn't get dipped in syrup or ranch she is not interested.

Mommy and Taylor by the giraffes at the zoo.

Bennett's expression of the elephant that so much pleased his brother is priceless and needs no caption.

Sickos!

I think (cross everything) that the kiddos are officially over the NASTY cold bug we have had the past week. I tell you what, 3 sick kids are NO fun..especially when you are sick yourself!! But Bennett's fever broke yesterday and John's broke Friday and I think the worst is over! YAY!! Now we just have to get Daddy all better and are house can officially be free and clear of sickos! Why are summer colds so much harder to get over than winter colds? It makes no sense to me.

Here's a little update on what's been going on other than the sickness. Bennett officially has 5 teeth now!! That's right 5! Can ya believe it? That might have contributed to the sick factor of course. I thought he just had one poking through on top but I felt 2 more tonight. He'll be eating cow in now time! John still only has the one on top poking through...and if that other one doesn't poke through pretty soon we are going to have to put a couch on our front porch and let him sit out there in his diaper. (So he can be a little one toother redneck-for those of you that aren't able to catch my late night wit). I am preparing myself for the inevitable day of walking for Bennett and John...I know it is coming soon. They are starting to scoot around really well along the furniture and man they are fast crawlers. The other morning (ok about 2 weeks ago-during pre-SICK days) I took all 3 kiddos outside to help me water the plants. I was thinking the boys would just kind of be happy chillin' on the grass but boy was I wrong. John bee-lined it to get a mouthful of rotten apricots that were roasting in the sun on the cement and Bennett found the flower beds and found himself a nice handful of dirt (or was that John too?). Then Taylor and John found a bucket of water and they both had a great time splashing each other and ended up DRENCHED! And John has decided that he likes to climb up on the cement patio out front and scare me to death by crawling right to the edge of the 2 foot drop off (he hasn't developed spatial reasoning quite yet). Needless to say I haven't attempted that again because I don't think the flowers even ended up getting watered. Gone are the days of being able to go outside with the boys and actually work in the yard. Here are some recent picks of the goings on at our house.

Here is the latest addition to the Chugg family. Kirk's new bike...and wow do we love it! Karla and Mont came over and watched the kids the other night and Kirk and I went on a date on the bike. And WOW it was so much fun!!! We had a blast! Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

Story time after a long day as you can tell by these tired faces.

Three monkeys smiling in the bed. The boys woke up from their nap before Taylor did so John crawled in to Taylor's room and woke her up...she was thrilled. I think her exact words were, "Don't come in my room John!" Obviously she got over that fast.

Hot August Days

So it been a while. It's not like we have anything else to do! So here it goes. It will be a long one at least with a lot of pictures since we have about a month to cover. I will not be held liable for any ommission I might make as I may not be able to remember what happened a month ago but I will give it my best shot. We'll start with the current and go back.

Way to go on Updating the blog daddy-o. This is hilarious because every picture I have of myself from my mission, I'm doing this corny thumbs up. This is a full bellied, tired-eyed Bennett. JOhn was next to him in his chair sound asleep.

Our neighbors love us apparently. Our home teacher down the street brought up this little stroller that all of our kids fit into like sardines. They fit today but I'm not making any guarantees for tomorrow. Their three little heads down there bouncing around is hilarious.

I dare you to identify these guys. Yes, it's one picture of both-probably 30 seconds apart. The winner receives a free night of babysitting! Um...I think they are identical. What do you think?

We had our Funk Family reunion at Layton Park on Saturday and loved walking around and seeing the ducks, swans and geese. This was a great picture I thought of the girls. They both looked back at the same time to see where Daddy was. Then snap!! Paparrazzi!

This is our little Taylor. She's not very photogenic and has a hard time smiling.

She's available for hire for the following 4 types of commercials-juicy juice, kix cereal, JIF peanut butter, baskin robbins ice cream. My research indicates these are the premium spot for kids. We will settle for nothing less.

Johnny Rocker loves to play the drums at the dishwasher. It is an immediate attractant to the boys. Dishwasher+distracted mommy=jam session. I think Bennett will probably pick up guitar soon.

Bennett after Bath-before clothes.

Again we may consider Coke or Pepsi commercials but only when aired during a major sporting event like the Olympics or Superbowl. None of this Wimbeldon mumbo-jumbo.

Taylor wanted to see how heavy Dad's new helmet was. She's fine....

I think this is Bennett. They both love their Tractor. If it has wheels, they love it.

Daddy got an old trail bike to go to the mountains with. Taylor is bonkers about riding it. We only go on state highways and never go over 65.

I went to the ranch with my grandfather Funk to ride my new motorcycle. I had a blast by the way. What guy still goes riding 40 miles with his Grandpa in his 70's? He's a stud.

Anyway-upon coming home, I meet an excited-no jubelant-Carin in the drive way. I assume it's because she missed me during my overnighter. Come to find out, she's been offered a trip to Park City and can go with her best bud Jenny. This means Daddy has twins all weekend by himself. I too am jubelant. She takes Taylor with her and has a fine time. The picture above was the reaction I got from the twins upon their realization I was the sole caregiver for more than a couple hours. Kind of a "you're kidding right?" I survived, Carin got a much needed weekend away and we all appreciate mommy that much upon her return. Works out for everyone!

STORIES!

So clearly it has been a while since we have updated our blog and boy have we got stories for you! The first to come to mind happened this Sunday. Grandpa and Uncle Rob had just gotten to our house and so Taylor, John, and I excitedly went out to see Rob's new truck (Bennett had been sleeping in the front room). So we went outside and as soon as I closed the door behind me Bennett woke up and I realized that I had locked us out and him in!!! And to make matters worse he's a crawler now and I wasn't so sure that I had the door above the stairs closed! IDIOT! So we checked all the doors and sure enough...locked out. And of course our good intention of hiding a key someplace for just such an occasion was just that...a good intention. So we began trying to find a window that wasn't locked. Finally Grandpa spotted the tiny bathroom window in the basement was open. One small problem...Taylor is the only tiny one in the bunch and the window drops about 5 feet into the bathroom. But we had to try. So I lowered Taylor through the window and she used her toes to put the toilet lid down and I dropped her onto the toilet. She then quickly scampered upstairs and let us in. TAYLOR SAVES THE DAY! She was pretty proud of herself for that rescue. And fortunately Bennett had no clue that any of this was going on...he just sat happily in the front room playing with his toys. What an adventure!!! Another funny story happened just this morning. It is Taylor's birthday today and Grandma Chugg came over for a minute this morning and she said, "Taylor did you get up early this morning?" But Taylor heard, "did you get a burly this morning?" So Taylor said, "Gramma, what's a burly?" What a funny little lady! She has been so excited for her birthday. Every morning for the past week we have had the sleeps countdown, "only 4 more sleeps until my birthday!" and on and on. It has been fun having her so excited this year and boy did we have a fun day despite the minor setbacks in the gift department. All Taylor asked for for her birthday was a fish. Well I take that back, she started out asking for a dog and worked her way down to a fish. So Kirk picked a beta fish on his way home from work on Monday. We we got it all transported into it's fish bowl after Taylor went to bed and had it all set out on the table with her other gifts for when she woke up. Well...I'm sure you can imagine what happened. We woke up to find little fishy dead. Taylor looked at him and said, "oh, he's dead." Fortunately, not too heartbroken. So we made a plan that she could go pick out her own fish for her birthday at the pet store with daddy and she was excited about that. Her other gift from us was a blow up pool for the yard. It was supposed to be really great with a canopy that had a sprinkler in it. And it was great...for about a half an hour. Then once the sun heated up the plastic, the canopy just sort of fell over. As the day went on it just ended up floating in the pool. Gift dud number 2! But we have a plan to return this pool and get a better one and she's good with that as well. It's a good thing we have such an easy going little lady...cause WOW we didn't do so great in the gift department. Fortunately though we still had a fun day Taylor got to ride daddy's new motorcycle and we got to go swimming at the pool. Everyone had a great time! Taylor loved it and the boys both fell asleep in their little tubes (pictures will be here soon). And then we had a great party this evening and Taylor had a great time. So, it ended up being a great day. Here are some pics of the recent goings on in the Chugg house.

Taylor's new favorite thing is to push the boys around in her doll stroller. They enjoy it too! I'm sure she'll be dressing them up in girl clothes in no time!

We had a slip'n'slide party at Grandma and Grandpa Chugg's house. Taylor went down maybe 3 times and spent the majority of the time wrapped up in a blanket shivering.

Anna on the other hand had a grand ole time on the slip'n'slide!

Here's Mommy!

And Daddy! Kirk won the competition as to who could skid across the grass the furthest. I think the grass still hasn't recovered.

I think Josh should win the prize of the biggest splash!

And Michelle should win for the best expressions.


But for sure Grandma wins for the best noises made while sliding. How did she put it, "Uhmmph" I think.

Firsts

Happy dudes after a scrumptous bowl of bananas and rice cereal!

All three of our adorable kidlins took a bath last night in the same tub. It was a big step for us scheduled, regimented clock nazis around bedtime to veer from the normal course and try something new but it worked and will be fine with a little refinement. The boys are bound to be fish. They loved to splash around as evidenced by mommy's wet clothes.

The other night was the end of a long day for our family and the kids were pooped. The above child, who will remain unnamed for several reasons, one being his daddy can't identify him because his hairline is not visible, conked out on the rug while waiting for daddy to come back and finish the job. It is either Bennett or John for sure. Don't you feel this way sometimes?

My favorite thing is the reaction time between emotions with the boys. They are either evaluating you, smiling at you or looking at you with wondering eyes. They always seem to have the same emotions at the same times. As shown by the first and last pictures of this post. I think they were marveling at their mommy as she danced a jig trying to get them to look at the camera.

A little bit of Chugg life

So, if you are wondering why you can't get a hold of Carin on her phone anymore, you haven't yet heard the story of Miss taylor thinking Mommy's phone was so dirty that she ought to give it a good bath in the dish water. I got an email at work telling me that if i need to talk to my wife, I would need to email her as her phone took a bath. The old phone, as evidenced by the above picture has become the toy of choice. Taylor no longer has access to the phones! Email us if you are looking for Carin's new number! (It changed)

Sometimes we wish we could just get a smile out of our kids--is that too much to ask? This is Mr. B.

John was the unfortunate victim of the family's first dress up party. Not only did Taylor hang the multi-colored beads on her confused and frightened brother, she then took this picture of him. Ask carin where she got those beads.

Picnics outside are becoming more and more frequent. Last Saturday was beautiful and the boys are always happy with a Ritz cracker. L-R John, Bennett.

John and Bennett are becoming mobile. They must get frustrated because the only gear they currently have is reverse. Both bros often back themselves into spaces between laundry baskets, sofas and swings with slippery skill-I think they will be great parellel parkers. However, in this instance, Carin found John stuck under the lazy-boy with a befuddled look on his face.

Thursdays are discovery time at the library and we now have our own little librarian that loves to read to her brothers. We both enjoy seeing our kids interact and enjoy each other. It's a new thing for us and we find it quite amusing to not have to be involved in the entertainment of three little ones for a few minutes.

Bennett & John Can Sit!

Just look at these big boys! Can you believe it! They still require a little assistance in balancing but they are getting better everyday!! Bennett is on the right in the above pic. For some reason the booger sucker is the toy of choice these days...go figure.
Already learning how to share "ish". Now that they can sit by themselves that is their favorite way to play. They also mastered pivoting on their bellies. We can lay them side by side in the front room and in just a few minutes they have squirmed themselves to opposite sides of the floor. Crawling is just around the corner I'm afraid. Then the fun really begins! Here we go! Of course a Chugg family picture wouldn't be complete without the ever present laundry basket in the background.

Here is little Miss Taylor helping mommy with the bread. Her favorite job is to "squish the bread". She would eat the whole batch of dough if I let her I think. She is the best helper. If I ask her to do anything related to the boys she jumps to do it. I couldn't ask for more! She's such a sweetie!

This is a miraculous event. Everyone is looking at the camera!!! WOW!

Boca Raton

These are Banyan trees. They have roots that drop from the branches and become secondary trunks to the tree. This is one tree and it spreads a good 150 ft wide. It was cool just to stand under it and look at how big it was.

This is the courtyard that our room overlooked. We had a deck to sit on and see all the Lamborginis and Bentleys drive up to the yacht club. I enjoyed that.

Boca Raton is translated to "Inlet of Thieves". It is supposed to be where all the pirates hung out. The resort was the first "resort" in the world. It was 365 acres of beautiful landscape. It is supposed to be fashioned after a Spanish estate. It was gorgeous! We loved it. We had Chris Gardner speak to us(the man they made the movie The Pursuit of Happyness" after. His speech was great. We also heard from a guy Jaime Clark that has climbed Everest and was one of the only westerners to cross the Sahara on a camel. He was a great speaker. It was fun to hang out with a bunch of successful advisors and get some business ideas from them and just enjoy the company. Next convention will be in 2010 in San Diego!

Our 5th Anniversary

Well, 5 years ago, Carin and I tied the eternal knot. I can hardly believe how fast it's gone by. So much has happened though. If you were to tell us we'd have 3 kids in 5 years and do all the things we've done, I'd have called you crazy. It's been an awesome 5 years. I love you sweetheart. You are by far the best thing that has ever happened to me. You are an amazing woman. Very few could do once what you do everyday. Happy Anniversary-you are the best!

This is a picture from Boca last week. We really enjoyed the beach. Everyone could tell we were from where the sun hadn't shined much this year. If people have a problem with us, they should wear their sunglasses!

Off to Boca!!

Taylor's new library book about Airplanes. I think she'll get along with the boys just fine!

One of Taylor's Favorite things to do when I get home is Play Hide and Seek. I think I am going to have to work on teaching her how to hide. These just don't provide much of a challenge. But she thinks they are great! She is still so small she hides in the couch cushions and in the suitcases when someone comes over.

Speaking of suitcases, we are off tomorrow morning for the Securian National Sales Convention in Boca Raton Florida. Yes I know, you ask yourself how do you go to Boca Raton with three kids? You don't. We are extraordinarily blessed to have awesome parents who volunteered to watch them. Everyone is so excited for us to go. Taylor will get someone to play with her, and the boys will get to look at someone elses' faces. We are so blessed to have such great family. Thanks Mom and Dad!!

I'm sure we'll go nuts without the kiddos after about 4 hours. We'll just have to deal with it!