At the bottom of the knockoutjs docs for extending observables it states...
More than one extender can be applied in a single call to the .extend method of a
If the order is important, you can call extend
multiple times:
this.firstName = ko.observable(first)
.extend({ required: "Please enter a first name" })
.extend({ logChange: "first name" });
That being said, browsers generally process an object's properties in the same order they were defined. Thus your original method will have the same effect as this one.