Thursday, October 8, 2009

movie night

andy was out of town last weekend, so we did our traditional movie night. we rented scooby-doo (which the boys loved all the slap-stick humor)....more than anything, i just love that i didn't set up this photo...tysen and logan just cuddled up together on their own!
of course earlier the boys got to pick out a movie treat from walmart!

logan had done some apple taste testing at school, so he decided one day that he wanted to bake an apple pie. so one of our activities while andy was gone was to make this! he had a lot of fun, but he didn't like it! crazy boy!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

twin factor

i've never blogged about this, but decided i would. especially since i've learned that you can print your blog!!

if you are married to a twin, then you will totally understand. if you're not, you won't. its such a one of a kind thing for there to be someone else in this world that looks and acts exactly like your spouse. in case you didn't know, andy has twin...joey.

honestly, the feeling is kinda new...cuz when we were dating...they really didn't look all that much alike. they were pretty different. andy's hair was shorter...he wore glasses...and he's a little smaller (but super fit, babe!!) than joey, so all that put together...they looked like they could be twins, but it was easy to tell the difference. as they have aged, they are more and more similar, and sometimes its just weird. (not in a bad way...just weird)

sometimes its fun. like this summer, we've been to several weddings that they were a part of, and it became a competition of sorts to count compliments...whether they were the right one or not...like andy officiated a wedding...and joey was getting compliments on it. and joey sang at a couple of them...and andy got more compliments on the music than joey did! its pretty humorous. and i can understand cuz a lot of people don't know us all that well. joey is teacher, in the roanoke area, and when we are in that area, there's a lot of kids that will smile and wave at andy. some will have the boldness to say "hi mr. vanderveer"...we don't know even half of them, but andy just smiles and waves. sometimes he'll tell them, but most of the time, its just easier to wave back. andy is working with youth here in denton...so its easy to get them confused...especially since joey taught here in denton a few years back. that gets especially tricky. andy lived in denton, then moved -- at the same time, joey moved to denton. then joey moved, and a short time later, andy is back. people probably don't even know there's two of them.

it really gets interesting now that they are both married. we live in close proximity to each other, and have most of the same friends....but have different enough lives to keep people confused. i remember a few years ago after we had just had logan, i walked into the office at the apartment complex where we were living...and at the same time waved bye to joey and kyle (joey's wife) who had been over for dinner. the girls in the office looked at me with wide eyes, and i just smiled and said "that's andy's twin brother". gasps broke out and the manager said, "o my gosh! thank goodness! we thought andy was cheating on you!" whoa. i never even thought of that! i wonder how long they had thought that! ahh! and then there was the time that a close friend of kyle's parents actually sat them down, prepared to have a very distraught and hard conversation that they believed joey having an affair with another woman...who had kids. that would be me...out with andy and the boys! and these were good friends! yikes! it concerns me a little of how many people have thought that, but never asked or said anything. pretty weird.

lately its been even more strange because they do look so much a like! our friends sat thru a whole wedding and listened to joey sing several songs....and the whole time, thought it was andy! don't get me wrong. i don't fault anyone for mistaking them....i know they are identical twins. its just funny, and weird.

probaby the part that has freaked me out most is when i've mistaked joey for andy. it has happened 2 times in my life. but it has scarred me. :) not really, but sorta. early in our marriage i almost (not did...almost) grab joey's hand. thankfully, i stopped in time. the second time was only a few months ago...and it was the first time i touched joey, thinking it was andy. his back was turned, and i kinda rubbed his shoulder just barely (i was about to ask him to get logan a drink)...but then saw andy in my periphereal ... just watching me smirking. i screamed and jumped back (in my defense, they were wearing the same color of shirt). so, so weird. to have someone look so much like your husband...just odd.

and now we have kids....so far, just boys. (the 'so far' is for kyle's sake, not mine...) and i thought the other day how convienent it is cuz she doesn't have to re-mark any of our hand-me-downs! they already say 'vanderveer' in them!

twins have the most incredible bond. they think alike, they look alike, they act alike, they say the same things, and respond the same way. i mean, they do share genetic information. its soo cool, and there's no one closer to andy (except me) than joey.
its pretty fun (and sometimes weird) to be apart of....

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

even more like his daddy....

of all the boys, ian has always been most like his dad. in looks, in personality, and now...we see in the eye genes as well...i've always kinda wondered how i would know if the boys needed glasses, cuz andy had them at a very early age. at the 4 year checkup at the dr. they do an eye screening that showed some discrepancies in ian's eyes. so we went to an eye dr. last friday, and sure enough, his left eye was much worse than his right eye. the dr. said it was a fairly significant astigmatism (20/80) so ....now we wear glasses! ian was sooooooo excited!! we picked out the glasses on friday, and they just got them in today, so tonight was his first time to wear them. he's very proud (we all are!) of them...i'm so glad! i asked him if he could see better, and he said yes...but he was just looking around a lot (probably amazed to be seeing clearer)...from what they told me, it was really affecting his vision, so the glasses should make a big impact. he acted like they helped a ton...:) as if he didn't look old enough from his huge size...
now, he really looks grown up!!

family feud....ian style

so, ian was riding with aunt kyle in the car the other day, and proceeded to play his version of 'family feud'. its not exactly like the game, but he just thinks of questions, and you either get a 'ding-ding-ding--good answer!' or you get an 'errr--sorry, good answer, but that's not on our board'. and then he'll go on to the next question.

he starts the game with aunt kyle:
ian- "what does grac-cas mean?"
kyle- "you mean gracias? that means thank you"
ian- "correct! good job!"
there were probably a few other questions in there, but then...
ian- "ok, now. what is chinese?"
kyle- "you mean the country, china?"
ian- "no"
kyle- "like a chinese person?"
ian- "no"
(and it goes on as kyle is trying to determine what he's talking about)
finally....ian- "chinese is orange chicken. that's what chinese is...good try, aunt kyle"

(oh yeah, his favorite restaurant is panda express...)

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

New Words

i just love it when toddlers start to talk. tysen has his own little dialect, that only andy and i understand. he can say "get down"...which sounds more like "di-dow"...and he says "pop-pa" which is "poptart"... "waaaa" is water...."passy" is "pappi"....and of course "wa-mlmlmlml"...ya know -watermelon. but right now, my favorite is "lav-la"...that one is "love you"...
every night when he goes to bed i kiss his nose and say "love you"...and he says back to me "lav-la"...it melts my heart. but yestarday...he said it for the first time, unpromted. and that about brought tears to my eyes. i put him in his carseat, and gave him a spontaneous kiss, and he looked at me with his bright blue eyes and said "lav-la"....

and then of course, i proceeded to kiss him again and again just to hear him say it!

Monday, September 14, 2009

allergies and rain

well, we had ian tested again to check on the progression of his milk allergy. unfortunately, we did a different test (which they said was more accurate than a normal food rast), which was good, but the numbers and scales are different, so we can't compare his old numbers to it...but we do know that he's still allergic!! i had hoped it was going away, since i don't see reactions anymore...but maybe that's because i completely cut milk from his diet. hm. anyway, no worries, he still has his milk allergy buddies in his cousin, zach, and brother tysen!
in other news, we really enjoy the rain!! (unless its pouring when we are getting out)...its soo calming to me...and we actually went out saturday and played! the boys loved it....and it really was a ton of fun!




Tuesday, September 1, 2009

playtime

i just loved this picture...logan and tysen were playing together, and i love these moments of brotherly love....plus, its a big deal to me that tysen will "play" with toys now...even for short amounts of time....it means, i have a second to put the dishes away, or fold the clothes without him tugging at my pants....here he was...so relaxed...feet all kicked up...just playing...