Blessings

So, Jeremy starts his job tomorrow! I am excited for him to start his career & to use what he's learned & he'll make a great dentist. BUT, I will miss him, I'm not going to lie. It's been perfect having him home for the last almost 2.5 months! Pray that I'll be able to take care of my kids in a patient & loving way on my own...yikes!

So, we went to a State Park 1.5 hours away from our home on Friday. We drove all the way there & unpacked all the stuff & kids & started walking when we discovered someone (his name will remain anonymous :) forgot to put the formula back in the bag before leaving the house! So, we put everyone & everything back in the car & drove back to the nearest town with a grocery store (we were in the middle of no where) to buy a new can. I was a bit annoyed. But we got back to the park & had a great day. Well on the way home Jeremy & I decided we'd stop & take advantage of Mc'D's 49 cent cones if the kids were all asleep. They were so we stopped for some soft serve & then got back on the road. Then our van started sounding really weird & wouldn't go faster than like 25 mph. And we broke down right in front of a Dodge Dealership in the middle of No Where, Missouri! What are the chances??

Everyone there was so nice, they took a look at our car, they let us use their air conditioned lobby for a couple of hours while we got things figured out. State Farm towed our car for free to Springfield & the head mechanic left his car at the shop & drove us home, 45 minutes, in one of their minivans so we wouldn't have to rent a van with money we don't have. What nice people seriously. Of course they did try to sell us a van, but can you really blame them? Hopefully it won't come to that but if so, we'll be alright. (And I'm so glad Jeremy convinced me he needed an old car, not a scooter because at least we have 1 set of wheels, even if we can't all fit into it!)

Back to the formula. I'm so glad we left it at home & had to buy a new can because the formula we would've brought was almost gone anyway & it wouldn't have been enough to feed the babies the whole day. We were gone an extra 4/5 hours beyond our plans.

Heavenly Father blessed us so much that day! It couldn't have been a better place & time to break down :)

Playing at the State Park

Jeremy & I enjoying the beautiful sunset tonight after a terrific thunderstorm! Seriously, it was gorgeous. Of course the pictures don't do it justice. At one point the whole sky was just a solid bright yellow color!

And Emma is now rocking on her knees. I am not ready for a crawler. I need to buy some more gates. Justin can now roll onto his back if he's mad (which is any time he's on his belly for more than 1 minute). He hates his belly!

Saint Louie

We went to my old hood St. Louis last week-it was sooo good to be back. I love this city. It doesn't hurt that there's a temple there & I must say after a 12 month hiatus it was wonderful to be back there as well.

A new goal: 12 months is way too long before we go back again

(I was a nanny in Saint Louie for a year after high school for a fabulous family)

We went to the Science Center-still had the same dino exhibit from 13 years ago! (I am old)

Highlight: bridge over the freeway

Here is the Bug keeping Em happy at the Science Center. There has been quite a bond between these 2 lately. I'll find Hunter on his belly talking jibberish to Emma who in turn smiles & tries to talk & Hunter will laugh & then talk more jibberish. They must understand each other because I sure don't.

Turtle Park

We went to Union Station

And more importantly, the fountain across the street to throw rocks.

It was 103 degrees that day-whew! And we actually hung around outside. This coming from a heat-intolerant person. I think I'm adjusting to the crazy weather. And our poor van saw 0 degree weather just a few months ago in Ann Arbor.

And my personal favorites

1. The Arch (we'll go inside maybe next time)

2. My crazy kids, I love my little family

-all 4 of them slept the whole 3 hours home, I think we wore them out well.

Rice

It's official-they like the stuff!

**Emma is now getting up on her knees & starting to rock back & forth-this girl will not be stopped!**

A Bowling Father's Day

I must say it's fun to have kids old enough to participate in more activities. We took everyone bowling on Saturday for Father's Day & the boys had so much fun. There is a smoke & alcohol free bowling alley in Springfield, complete with bumper pads! We will definitely be going back. No offense to Wii lovers, but you can't beat the real deal!

One of Hunter's modeling poses

Sometimes they had to wait a long time until their ball reached the pins but when it did, it was exciting no matter what :)

I thought it was cute how Hunter would roll his ball-he got 2 spares (with a little help)

Justin's new favorite snack are his toes. Emma's favorite thing to do is to try to bite or poke Justin, or steal his bottle if her's falls out of her mouth. I found her sucking on his toes the other day, crazy girl!

And last, our 2 red heads playing. Their hair color is exactly the same. Isn't it crazy we have 2 red heads? I love it!

Reunion

Jeremy's Mom & sister Jennie with her two kids came to visit for a week! I have loved watching my kids play with their Turner cousins the last 2 years & I'm so excited to get some good play time in with the Shakespear cousins. Here are 6/8ths of them reunited!

(We missed Cole & Kylie!)

We celebrated Nana's birthday!

We played at home a lot-our couches double as a bounce zone on most days :)

Nana with her 3 grandbabies. Someone asked us if we had triplets when we were pushing Miss Sarah around in the stroller with the twins-oh my, can you imagine?!

We spent a lot of time pushing our 3 double strollers. It seems excessive to have 3 double strollers & 2 single strollers but they all came in handy this week!

We went to the Springfield zoo & loved it! We heard it was small but it was great & small is just our size these days

We found 3 monkeys by the sea otter pool-weird.

Mommy/Justin time

Justin tried his first lick of apple. And we saw giraffe's. Any zoo is a success with me if giraffe's are present.

We went to the Bass Pro Shop which is ginormous. Tons of fishing/hunting stuff which doesn't sound exciting if you're not into stuff like that (like me, esp the hunting part) but it's actually great. There are tons of boats/ATV things for the boys to climb all over & tons of fish in aquariums & waterfalls, streams & lots of stuffed animals etc. It's almost as great as the zoo & it's free. Hunter talks about it all the time.

We went to the Nature Center. As great as it is I don't think we'll be going back, at least not for a long time. Emma came back with a tick as you recall on a previous walk & Nana came home with one this last time. We've only gone there 4 times, so I don't like those odds.

Oh how I love this picture! Look at that little face! So happy!

(Thanks for all the pictures Nana!)

Come back soon!!!!

The Mall

Jeremy has had 1 & the same pair of shorts since I've dated/been engaged/married to him (about 7 years). Somehow they are still in good shape but even so we thought it would be fun to get him a couple new pairs so off we went to the mall this morning to take advantage of JCPenny's Father's Day sale.

Jeremy went to the store & I took the kids to the play place in the middle of the mall. So over the last 5 months there have been a lot of looks & comments about the size & young-ness of our family. You kind of get used to it. But today I was annoyed. Walking back to meet up with Jeremy this woman gave me "the look" that I've come to pretend I don't notice. She stopped & said "Oh. My. Goodness." Then gave me the look that somehow we have some kind of mutant family. Whatever. Immediately after that this old man walked by & remarked to his wife/girlfriend "Look at all them kids...I bet she isn't even married." HELLO! He was standing right next to me when he said it, there was no way I could've missed what he said. And I've misplaced my wedding band.

I know I shouldn't let it get to me but sheesh. Like 4 kids is really that many, come on. There are lots more super nice people that coo at our babies, say our big boys are cute & remark that we are blessed. That's how I see it & I should just focus on that, right? :)

Tolmanitude

Jeremy's friend Jon Tolman & his lovely family came from Kansas City to play for a day with us this weekend.

Here is Jeremy & Jon

And here they are again

Here is Hyrum & Sam, who got along smashingly well & we are hoping things develop a bit more seriously in the future

Here's the older crew wet

And here's the older crew dry & covered in chocolate

And HERE is their most thoughtful, personal & generous house-warming gift! Awww..you shouldn't have :)

Come back soon! Click here for more cute pictures of the kids