My Boys











Hyrum is starting to slowly take more notice of Hunter and he's been asking to hold him and wonders where he is if he can't see him. I love it! Can't wait till they're the best of friends :)

Happy Birthday Hyrum!!!!!!!


It was Hyrum's birthday today!!! I can't believe our little boy is two years old! Time flys by. The first picture he was only a couple of days old, then the next one was on his first birthday and then the third picture was taken a week ago. He has changed so much!!! We decided to have a party for him and he has been SO excited for it. He has been singing "Happy birthday to you, Hyrum" over and over the last three days and has been talking about the party a lot. We had about 33 people in our little house, 14 of which were kids 3 and under and it was a BLAST!!! Jeremy and I decided we need to have big groups of people over more often. I was a little distracted so we don't really have many pictures which is too bad but we ate dinner and visited, then sang Happy Birthday and ate ice cream and the awesome frog cake that Jeremy made and broke open the pinata downstairs! Thanks to everyone for coming and making Hyrum's day so special!!!

Two weeks old!
Hunter is two weeks today and time is flying by! I already can't imagine our home without him. He is such a sweet, healthy baby! He is happy when he is awake and he sleeps great--if he's in his car seat that is. The first five nights were pretty sleepless for the three of us but then we decided to try the car seat and he sleeps 4-5 hours at a stretch at night and has pretty much put himself on a 2 1/2- 3 hour schedule during the day. Hyrum is having a bit of a hard time adjusting to life now but we are looking forward to having our happy Hyrum back again soon :) Today was my first day without my Mom or Jeremy home with me and I think things went alright. I can still honestly say that I am lovin' having two kiddos at home. I'm just hoping I never have to leave the house again, if I can just stay home everyday I think I can do this two-kid thing!!!

Oh and I have to say how much I'm loving the sunshine here! Last winter was so gray and gloomy. So even though it may be 5 degrees with a wind chill of -10, inside our home it's warm and the sun is shining almost everyday and it makes things so happy!

We had to say goodbye to my Mom yesterday after enjoying her company for 10 wonderful days!!! We were so lucky to have her here and grateful to my Dad for letting her go. I don't quite know how to thank her for her amazing love and service. It was the greatest gift and I hope I can do the same for my daughters and daughters in-law someday.

Here are some of the ways she kept herself busy....

-Did 2 to 4 loads of laundry practically everyday
-Did 2 loads of dishes every single day
-Cleaned our dirty bathrooms
-Scrubbed our dirty kitchen floor
-Helped fix food
-Cleaned up after every meal
-Got Hyrum up, changed, fed every single morning
-Fed Hyrum snacks and lunch every day
-Read Hyrum books non-stop
-Played with Hyrum non-stop
-Put up with Hyrum's "terrible two-ness" :)
-Bought us diapers, wipes, and some fun movies!
-Shoveled our driveway/sidewalk when it snowed-buff woman!
-Let me take naps, pick up Jeremy from school kid-less, and let Jeremy & I have a date
-Held and sang to Hunter
-Took Hunter at night
-Changed mountains of dirty diapers
-Lifted heavy things for me
-Lots of nice talks with me
-Kept me company all day long
-Loved my kids
-Made me feel like I can actually do this parenting thing!
-And still manage to be cheerful, happy, and energetic everyday

I love you Mums, you are the BEST!!!!!!

Welcome Hunter Scott Shakespear!!!!!!











Well I wouldn't have believed it but Hunter was actually born on his due date!!! Last Friday I went to the doctor and was still just dilated to a 1 cm and nothing else was going on so I thought for sure I would be two weeks late. But Monday night I started having contractions and Tuesday morning at 7:32 am our little guy was born. He weighed 8 pounds and 7 ounces and was 22 inches long. Being induced with Hyrum this was a whole new experience for me, especially when the epidural tube had fallen out and I ended up feeling everything for the last two hours, including all the pushing etc. Wow! We are so excited to all be home as a family and to have my Mom with us for the next few days. And of course thanks to Laura Hall for taking great care of Hyrum while we were in the hospital-she is the best!

I just have to say that I have the sweetest little boy in the world. I had a rough night last night, I had to get up every hour (ended up being like 7 times) to go to the bathroom and felt like the rest of the night was spent tossing and turning and never getting comfortable. But I woke up to Hyrum running into my room (at 9:30!) with a huge smile on his face saying 'goodmorning mommy'. He wanted up on the bed right away and kept giving me kisses and asking for hugs and he said he wanted to lay down under the blankets and take a nap with me. He laid down and put his little arm around my neck. What a way to start the day! Thank you Hyrum :)

Happy New Year!!!
We woke up this morning to......

Merry Christmas to all!!!
We hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas season! This was our first Christmas spent without our extended families and we have really been enjoying our time together as a family. On Christmas Eve we had a Mexican food and pie potluck with our "dental family" out here and later that evening some friends in our ward did a party with gingerbread houses, carols, and a Christmas pinata. We went out to eat and saw the Bee movie (at the dollar theater of course!) with some friends and had a game night with some other friends so we are grateful for our friends who stayed around for the holidays! It has been fun. Hyrum understood Christmas so much better this year and was excited to open his presents and our presents as well. It must have taken us 2 1/2 hours to open just a few things because he wanted to play with every toy, read every book, and put every puzzle together :) It was a nice, relaxing morning. Jeremy starts school again on Wednesday and that of course is a sad thought BUT I must be grateful to the U of M for giving my man such long vacations, 3 weeks is definitely a nice chunk of time! And with being almost 39 weeks pregnant I can't express how very awesome it's been to not have to lift Hyrum or to chase him around and wrestle new diapers and clothes on him and strap him in his car seat and how awesome Jeremy has been to let me sleep in until 9:30 every morning and cook meals and pick up the house and do laundry and dishes etc. and to let me just sit. He is quite the man!!!

We love Nana & Poppie!
Jeremy's parents came to visit us for a few days last week and we had such a blast with them!!! Nana spent lots of time reading to Hyrum and Poppie spent lots of time throwing balls in the basement with Hyrum. Hyrum took to them immediately and wanted nothing to do with Mom and Dad :) Every time he woke up from the night or a nap he would immediately ask for them-it was so cute! In addition to playing, we went to a Christmas tree farm and cut down our own tree and set it all up in the living room--it looks awesome! We were able to tour Jeremy's dental school and see a bit of downtown, go "elfing" and Christmas light watching. We had Christmas Eve and Christmas day together and sang carols and read Luke 2 and opened gifts. Hyrum was super excited to have a train set, blocks, stuffed animals, and a new puzzle to play with. The craziest thing that happened was Sunday morning we woke up to about 8 inches of snow all over the place! It continued snowing throughout the day and it ended up being about a foot I think. Church was canceled and later that day we braved the weather to play in the snow a bit. I guess those snow boots for Hyrum were a good idea this year. We made lots of good memories and were so glad for the visit!