Hyrum turns 7!!!

Sometimes I wish I could slow time down or even stop it.  Hyrum is getting so big.  I miss him smaller but he is so much fun as a big kid I can't be too sad.  He is so silly, funny, creative & interesting to talk with.  I love letting him stay up a little later than his younger siblings to read to me or talk.  He often gets giggly & it's very entertaining :)

I love this look on his face!  He's opening his 28 pack of Magic Treehouse books.  He was squishing that present for weeks trying to figure out what it could be & I think he was pretty excited & surprised about it.

Texas Sheet Cake-I love that our kids pick cakes that are actually yummy!!

"Safelighter" (as Justin as dubbed them) wars

Between us & both sets of grandparents Hyrum received 49 books for his birthday.  I was worried he would be disappointed he got little else but he has loved it.  I find him frequently reorganizing them all on his shelf & I think he's read bits of a bunch of them because he wants to read all of them at once.

Nana & Poppie were visiting for his birthday & Hyrum really wanted to go see a cave so we went to the Talking Caverns in Branson.  I had to push my claustrophobia aside & I'm glad I did it was an amazing tour! The best part was Hyrum loved it & remembered all the facts from the tour guide.  I thought it was crazy the formations only grow 1 inch per 100 years!

What a sweet boy we have!  We feel so blessed to have Hyrum in our family & as our oldest kid.  It's so fun to see him learn & grow & have interests.

I have to tell a Hyrum story.  One night a couple weeks ago Jeremy was reading to the younger kids on the couch & I was sweeping the kitchen floor after dinner.  Dallen was sad so I was holding him as well.  It was too hard to do both with a squirmy baby so I said to myself 'I guess I'll sweep later' & went to sit down to listen to the stories.  Next thing I knew Hyrum was in the kitchen sweeping for me-what a sweetheart!

We love you Hyrum!!!

Emma & Justin turn 3!

The picture below is my favorite of these two lately.  They fight a lot but they also get along & play nicely together a lot too & it is so sweet to see & listen to. 

I can't believe they are 3 years old!  Seems so impossible somehow.  Twins are fun & hard & I feel so grateful we were blessed enough to have them - not everyone gets to experience twins!  And now that I have them I think everyone should experience it firsthand :)

We started the day with giant pancakes, balloons, streamers & presents.  Justin is beyond obsessed with 'Little Einsteins' right now.  To him he IS Leo & definitely answers to that name.  And he makes everything into his baton.  So he was very excited to get a bunch of their movies & a book.  Emma Lou got lots of dress up stuff. Her room has transformed into lots of purple, pink & frilly things.  Quite the transformation around here.  Now the challenge is just to get her to play with them :)

 

We love our girlie girl.  She is so sweet & always saying 'thank you Mommy' whenever I do anything for her.  She loves to pretend she is a baby animal anything from a caterpillar, kitty or dragon.  She loves playing cars with her brothers but loves to wear her pretty dresses to church & play with her My Little Ponies.  Lucky for me she loves to cuddle.  She disliked cuddling immensely as a baby so it's so nice to get some cuddle time in now.  She is always willing to give hugs & kisses anytime, anywhere.  I love how she mispronounces words & I try to never correct her except for the few times it sounds like a curse word!  For example Popsicle is 'bockabull' & biscuit is 'spiget'.  She is doing awesome at potty training!  And it's amazing what a difference it is to have one less kid in diapers!

Justy is a fireball.  He loves to run around racing himself & battling 'scorpie's' (scorpions) & other bad guys with his variety of weaponry.  Swords & guns are preferred.  The kid is constantly singing to himself.  I love to hear him.  He continues to have the best, most contagious laugh in the entire world.  I dare you to stay straight faced while he laughs.  It's impossible to at least not smile.  This is tricky when he's being naughty while laughing.  He keeps us on our toes every moment he is awake & he keeps us laughing.  He can recite the book "Spooky, spooky, spooky' by heart & sing the entire theme song to 'Little Einsteins'.  He tells me 'I have a whisper (secret) for you' & then proceeds to whisper the song to me in my ear-I love it.  Despite his protests Poop Camp Part IV is soon approaching...

 

We spent the rest of the morning watching 'Little Einsteins' & then playing at Bass Pro Shop.

It was beyond sweet- Hyrum & Hunter played for about an hour with Emma & her new Tangled doll dressing her up in all her clothes

We love you so much Em & Justy! 

Life around here would be much less exciting without you both!

The Bug turns 5

Here he is in all his 5 year old glory :) We've made an unconscious tradition of opening presents at breakfast 'cause who wants to wait for cake later in the day!? Maybe we should just start eating birthday cake for breakfast..hmmm..

 

First Transformer!

Hyrum imparting all his Transformer wisdom & the kid has a lot.

Everyone had fun playing with his new stuff.  FYI hexbugs are really cool.  Hyrum got one for Christmas & the only thing cooler is to now having another one bumping around.

I had the most helpers I've ever had in the kitchen.  Hunter wanted to help & so did the twins.  I let Justy lick the batter & now I think he will always want to help in the kitchen.

Hunter wanted our favorite Chocolate Mousse Cake but he wanted a race track on top with his cars of course.  Luckily I convinced him that the heath bits on top were just like gravel so they could have an off-road race & he liked that idea.  Whew!  Putting frosting on top of this cake to make a track...it just wouldn't have tasted as divine.

He wanted to go bowling & out to Ihop for dinner so we made all his dreams come true :)  The kid bowled a 67!  Future member of the BYU bowling league perhaps?  That's usually what I bowl.  BUT I must say one of my dreams came true that day too & I can mark it off my bucket list.  I bowled OVER a 100!!!!  106 to be exact & I have been wanting to do that for years & years.  Yes I am a big nerd.  And not that great at bowling obviously.

Our Primary this year is doing a spotlight on each kid & Hunter was last Sunday.  We told the kids some of the things Hunter loves.  Everything to do with cars.  It's his favorite thing to play with, read about, color & watch.  He also loves to ride bikes, be outside, read books, watch movies, go to Orange Leaf, go on dates, to the park etc.  He loves pancakes, hot dogs & pizza.  

Some of the things we love about Hunter is how happy & cheerful he is.  It's hard to stay sad or in a bad mood around the kid because he is always smiling, laughing, singing & having fun.  We love how helpful he is playing with Dallen to keep him happy, running errands with us & helping cook & bake.  We love how sweet, kind & thoughtful he is.  

He is sincerely concerned about others & is always the first one to investigate why someone is crying around here.  As soon as one of his napping siblings is awake he runs to play with them in their bed.  He wants everyone to be included & happy.  Jeremy gave a family home evening lesson on gratitude the other day.  He showed the kids some pictures of slums in different parts of the world.  He ended with a picture of a little boy living in one of them.  We talked about how different life would be in a place like that & how blessed we are.  Hunter said "Well, why don't we go over there & maybe give them some food or something."  Some day that would be a great idea!

 

What a goof.  He & Hyrum are in charge of unloading the dishwasher & it always takes Hunter about an hour to unload half of it.  I wonder why :)  

I was looking for a specific picture of him as a toddler & found quite a few that I love.  Here are some of them.  I had forgotten how blonde the kid was!  I have been feeling reminiscent about Hunter.  Again, I know I'm a big nerd but I'm already dreading kindergarten for this kid.  I am going to miss him so much!  But I know it will be good for him & I know public school is what's right for our family (at least right now).  Doesn't make it easy though.  He has always been my little buddy.

 

This is my most favorite picture of the Bug & I.  

5 points to anyone who can guess where we are??

Happy Birthday Hunter we love you!!!