Busy Week

We had a busy week! To celebrate Pioneer Day we went to a ward party. It was HOT. They had a slip & slide for the kids so they stayed cool & had a blast! Hyrum wondered why we didn't sing any Pioneer songs at the party so we sang all the Pioneer songs in the Primary songbook that night. It was perfect that we've been reading the little Doctrine & Covenants kid book for scriptures lately & we read the chapter where Brigham Young arrived in the Salt Lake Valley & said 'this is the place.' That happened on July 24, 1847.

Jeremy had an Elder's Quorum service project laying sod out at "the castle". My calling is in Young Women's (or old woman as Hunter calls it) & they were invited to come help too so we decided to drag our kids & all go. Our Relief Society president & her husband are building this castle by themselves to be a wedding/reception/bed & breakfast type place way out in the middle of nowhere. I couldn't believe it was an actual castle. Until we got there & saw it for ourselves. So cool!!! We thought it was a pretty risky enterprise but they'll do great! Who wouldn't want to have their wedding reception in a castle?!

Hunter had his first invitation to a birthday party for just him. There was a train theme & the Mom went all out! Everything was so cute. Here is a picture of the little birthday boy & his friends. If you're looking for Hunter in this picture, you won't find him. He refused to dress up or pose for pictures or play any games! Stinker :) Sometimes it takes him a while to warm up. But I know he had fun by the way he talked about it afterwards.

The cake was out of control amAzing! Not only did it look perfect but it was one of the best tasting cakes I have ever had.

Nothing beats a quick, nutritious dinner after baths & before bed!

Hyrum gave his very first talk in Primary this Sunday! I was soooo proud of him! We practiced his talk about 12 times this past week so he would be prepared & feel comfortable. He wasn't nervous at all & had the whole thing pretty much memorized. He talked about following Jesus' example & told the story of how He washed His disciples feet. Then he talked about how Hyrum is a big help to his Mommy around the house & with our babies. He did great!

Jeremy & I were just talking last night about how much Hyrum has changed. He has always been really shy & cautious & kind of nervous in new situations or with new people. But he is so willing to do new things & make new friends & is really breaking out of his shell these days. It's so fun to see. And he's becoming much more independent & I never thought the day would come! :)

Our babies had their 6 month check up (a little late) this week. They are both 18 lb & 7 oz, which is unusual with twins to be the same weight. Even though they're the same, it put Justin in the 50-75th percentile & Emma in the 90th. She's 27.5 in long & he is 27.25 in. And his head is over 3 cm bigger around! I knew his head was gigantic!!!

*We also went swimming with friends (without Jeremy!) & I was nervous to take all my kids to the pool without him but everyone had a blast & no one drowned

*I had a girls night out & we saw 'Letters to Juliet' at the cheap theater. I never do girls night out so it was fun even if it was one of the girliest, cheesiest movies I've ever seen! I love our ward.

*Another run with friends to Hunter's favorite place in Springfield-the Bass Pro Shop. We had four happy little boys bouncing around the ATV's & boats. I'm not sure how the employees feel about us using their store as an indoor park though! I think we'll feel obligated to buy something at some point with all the time we spend there. Hyrum has said we need a 6 man tent now. Hmmm...

*Ruth, my good friend & roommie from Ricks & her family came & spent the night on their way to Oklahoma. We haven't seen each other since I was preggo with Hyrum so it was so good to hang out for a couple hours. They live pretty close to us so it'll be fun to get together again! They have twins too :)

I feel like since we moved here we started running & haven't stopped yet! But it's a good kind of busy. We're loving this area & the people. Here's to another good week.

Awwww...

I looked over the couch this morning & this is what I saw! I think it was a sitting down version of ring around the rosies. How cute :)

Sleep Over

We had our second ever family sleep over on Friday night. Last time Hyrum was 2 1/2 years old so it's been a while! Our new favorite place to play the last couple of weeks are the couches smashed together. The boys call it their tree house. So we watched a movie, had ice cream, told ghost stories, & played games on the tree house. It was fun but I think it will be funner (is that a word? I don't think it is) when the boys are old enough to not be so cranky staying up until 10pm-3 hours past their bedtime! Jeremy & I drug our futon out to the living room to sleep on.

I still can't believe we slept on that thing for the first 3 years of our marriage. I just didn't want to spend money on a bed! I love our bed now.

Luckily Hyrum took one of his blue-moon naps that afternoon.

In twin news:

*They are 6 months today!

*They are sleeping a solid 11-12 hours through the night

*They are doing pretty well sitting up on their own, especially Justin. We keep pillows around them in case-I have finally found something to do with the 6 couch cushions we have but never use except for an occasional pillow fight.

*They love rice cereal & would probably enjoy more variety if I would just take the time to make/buy them something different! Justin has become quite the pro. Emma still tries to suck it down with her tongue like her bottle & ends up crying the whole time she's eating but she cries harder if I stop feeding her! Hopefully she'll get the hang of it soon.

*Justin is enjoying blowing raspberries, his exersaucer, & playing with Hyrum. He is completely ticklish & does (what we've dubbed) the Justin flap constantly. We'll have to make a video.

*Emma isn't crawling yet but she wants to so badly. She spends all of her time on all fours it seems & gets up on her feet with her hands on the ground. She is still the smiliest baby. Hunter will talk to her sometimes like he's having a conversation with her-it's so cute & she gets so excited. She loves to be social :)

Happy Independence Day!

We had a great 3-day weekend! I just wish I had taken more pictures.

Saturday we spent the day with some friends having a BBQ & the kids went swimming in their community pool. The boys even had their first experience riding in the back of a truck (it was only 2 blocks to the pool!) They have kids exactly the same ages as ours. Hyrum & their little girl are quite the holding hands buddies now :)

Sunday evening we got together with a few other families in our ward to do our own fireworks & eat good food. It didn't start until 8pm & our kids go to bed around 7/7:30 so we had them all take naps after church & then we woke them up at 8 to get in the car. I was so worried they would all be in major grouch mode but they did great. Emma slept through the whole thing, Justin woke up just for the last 15 minutes of the finale & the boys sat on my lap the whole evening too terrified of the fireworks to participate but they did like the food & at least they were quiet! It was a lot of fun.

Monday we had a picnic at this great park that has a butterfly house, Japanese gardens & lake. I gave the boys haircuts-I love cutting their hair SHORT! Then we had some friends over for dinner & FHE.

Next year we'll have to think of some activities or something to teach the kids more about our Founding Fathers or the Revolutionary War or something more patriotic. If anyone has any ideas let me know.

God bless America

Emma is finally learning how to laugh, although it still sounds like she's deciding between that or crying-I don't think she likes being tickled! But then neither do I. But boy do I like to do the tickling :)

Eclipsed

I went & saw 'Eclipse' this afternoon (Jeremy has Thursday afternoons off-saweeeet!!!) I just barely saw 'New Moon' for the first time a couple of weeks ago so I decided to actually see this one in the theater. Christie & I were really counting on scads of teenage girls (and their Moms) squealing, giggling, blushing & fainting over Jake & Ed.

Well, what a disappointment! We were there 30 minutes early, the first ones there, they weren't even seating anyone yet, the theater was only half full, & there was absolutely none of the anticipated reactions from anyone! How disappointing. So next movie, we may brave the midnight showing & make ourselves some TEAM MIKE shirts just for fun. Come on, you know Bella didn't even give poor Mike a chance. He's a nice guy, even if he is a wimp watching action flicks.

To give it some credit, I thought it was the best of the movies so far. Even though, true to form, there was plenty of the Twilight cheese :)

My sis-in-law had this great youtube clip on her blog a while back & it has given Jeremy & I many good chuckles. So since I didn't get a chance to have a laugh at the giggly teens I had to watch this one again tonight. Someone had way too much time on their hands to put this together & I'm so glad they did because it's just really funny.