FIVE

Jeremy and I celebrated the big 5th Anniversary tonight! Our actual anniversary is on August 7th so even though we're a month and a half late I guess at least we celebrated!

Jeremy let me pick Olive Garden because I was craving their fagioli chili soup and breadsticks and their stuffed chicken marsala. We even split a piece of black tie for dessert. Yum! I was full after one bowl of soup and half a breadstick (darn this belly!) so of course, per my tradition, I brought my entire dinner home. Lunch will be especially good tomorrow. Then I spent one of my Godiva chocolate gift cards from Mother's Day and we exchanged cards-I love getting cards from Jeremy.

(This is a picture of us about a month ago I think.)

Here are a couple wedding photos. I haven't looked through our wedding albums for a long time and it was fun. That was one perfect day. I love this man and not a day goes by that I don't wonder how I lucked out to meet and marry him! Well I guess it really wasn't luck :)

22 Weeks

We had a fun week.
Here I am in all of my 22 week glory. HUGE! But if it's any consolation to me (which it really isn't) Moms carrying twins usually are showing like they are about 8 weeks further along if they were just carrying one. So I'm showing like I would be around 30 weeks. Yikes!

We had a re-visit to The Parlour-couldn't help ourselves! Plus we had to share the discovery with our fellow ice cream fans the Smyers. Brad actually finished the entire banana split and yes he felt sick after. Jeremy is holding up his hand for a size comparison to my brownie sundae.

The boys played their first arcade games

I have always been nervous to have a girl but I must admit I'm getting a bit more excited about it. It helped when my Mom sent me some dresses and shoes she had kept from when I was a baby. I am the most excited about the blessing dress (white one on the right) that my Grammy made and my Mom and I were both blessed in! Cool.

We had car races down the driveway

Hunter has become quite the dipper, if he won't eat just throw a little ranch on it or on the side and he is one happy boy. As a plus, he gets it all over his face too.

The boys enjoyed their first bouncing on a trampoline! They had a blast and laughed a lot.

Still my baby

We had a couple of fun playdates with friends, Hyrum of course went to preschool, and we had two dental parties (one at our house). There are 5 first year dental students in our ward, 1 second year and 3 of us fourth years so it's fun we have a good crowd now. We had about 15 adults and 8 kids over one night and it was a tight squeeze. I must admit when I saw the first years, my first thought was 'oh I'm so glad that's not us again!' As fun as this adventure has been, it feels so good to be almost done!!!!!

First day of Preschool

A friend in our ward started a preschool in her home this year with all kids from our ward. I never thought I would send my kids to preschool but I felt like it would be good for Hyrum to go. I wasn't ready to send him to a school building with teachers and kids I didn't know so this was a perfect fit for us! He'll go Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-11:30.

When I gave him an apple to give to his teacher he wanted to know why and then he answered his own question, 'Probably because teachers are hungry all day long'--I think I would be, trying to keep up with 3 year old's all day!

Hunter saying goodbye-he asked for Hyrum a few times today, I think he was bored with just Mom around

Home and SO excited to go back on Thursday!

We all scream for ICE CREAM

This past weekend we dined at The Parlour in Jackson, Michigan. We have heard of their generous and delicious portions of ice cream and knew this was the place for us. For $5 Jeremy was able to enjoy this tremendous banana split, with 6 giant scoops of ice cream and all the assorted trimmings-doesn't he look happy. They have a creation that is made of 21 scoops of assorted flavors and if you can eat the whole thing in an hour you get it free! Anyone up for a challenge??? Lu or Zac?

The boys were beside themselves with happiness & joy at the prospect of such 'chlocklatey' goodness and I was happy for some help

Hyrum was determined to have a 'hangaber' but Jeremy wanted him to experience the good ol' American Corndog and I'm pretty sure he is a fan for life now

As if we didn't eat enough junk at The Parlour, we had to make more at home

Quite possibly my favorite thing about living in Michigan are the abundant Cider Mills and apple orchards. Our first visit was 5 days after they opened up for the season and we plan on enjoying many more visits through November.

Turner Time

My entire family got together the second week of August for a Turner Reunion and here is a picture of the whole crew (notice everyone looks great but my children? Hmmm)

Our first stop was a few days in Ann Arbor and we loved having everyone in our home-it was so much fun and I'm hoping we can host again soon. We took Darlin' and Pa to the park...

...To a Detroit Tigers game (which has fabulous fireworks at the end regardless of who wins thankfully!)

(My Dad held Hyrum the whole time, except for when he was entertaining Hunter outside-he works miracles with my kids!)

...and to Jump City (a Shakespear favorite)

We were also able to celebrate Mums birthday a little early

The next stop was Kirtland, Ohio where we were able to take the church tour of the town. It was a wonderful experience. I was again impressed with the faith of the early members of our Church, in particular this time with Newel Whitney and his wife Elizabeth-they were amazing! Sister missionaries give the tours and being around them made me miss my mission so badly but I realized again how grateful I am that I was able to serve a mission as well. I really hope my little girl goes too! (And my boys of course)

We stayed a few nights at Brigg & Hava's house and were able to enjoy the lovely beach of Lake Erie. My parents also watched the kids so we could go see the new Star Trek movie-we are big Trekkie fans around here and the new movie was awesome. Then we stayed a night in Pittsburgh with Zac and Joy. We had a great time with the Turner family and can't wait till the next reunion!

Shakespear Awards Ceremony

I get sick when I'm pregnant. This time was a lot like last time except maybe worse. I started out throwing up everything and anything like usual, ended up in the ER for a 15 hour stay + 4.5 hour waiting period to be re-hydrated with a super slow dripping IV. Then I get my beloved Zofran but this time it wasn't as beloved because even though I took three 8 milligram tablets a day I was still throwing up every day for about 6 or 7 weeks. Now I'm all better. It was kinda hard to feel like a useless blob for so long.

During my 2ish-month bout of illness (I am SOOO grateful it wasn't longer than that because I know lots of you have it way worse) I had some angels to get me through it all. So now for the top awards...

Best Husband & Father Ever Award goes to: Jeremiah Shakespear! (of course)

I know it was hard on him ( I didn't realize how hard until recently) but I never would have guessed it during the time. He is so darn patient and easy-going, I wish he would share some of that with me.

*He would let me sleep in as long as I wanted on weekends or until he needed to go to school during the week
*He got the boys up, dressed, fed, changed, entertained until he had to go to school
*He picked up the house every day by himself
*He made dinner every night by himself
*He cleaned up dinner and the kitchen every night by himself
*He played with the boys and got them ready for and in bed every day by himself
*He took the boys outside for some sunshine and air every day by himself
*He ran all the errands and did all the chores (like laundry)
*He took the boys with him everywhere by himself like grocery shopping (I'm so sorry Babe)
*He brought me my pill and breakfast every morning in bed
*Changed all diapers when home
*He listened to me moan and cry
*He told me I was beautiful even though I hadn't brushed my teeth for 4 meals, hadn't showered or brushed my hair in 3 days, or worn make-up in weeks or worn anything but sweats (I violently threw-up when entering the shower so that is my excuse for my lack of personal hygiene!)
*He washed my hair for me in the kitchen sink so I could enjoy clean, ungreasy hair without violently throwing up

Angel Nana award goes to: Nana (Susan)

Somehow I have lucked out in the Mother-in-law department. I love my Mother-in-law and she has been such a blessing to me and this is one of the many ways. Jeremy had an externship up in Brimley in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for two weeks during my icky time and she offered to come help so she flew out here and stayed for two whole weeks!

*She let me sleep in as long as I wanted every morning (usually until 9:30)
*She got the boys up, fed, dressed every morning
*She played with the boys all day long and read them oodles of books and had pillow fights with Hyrum & ran them ragged down in the basement
*She took them places and let them play outside
*She made all the meals-bless her!-so I didn't have to enter the dreaded kitchen very often
*She cleaned up after all the meals and did laundry
*She kept me company during the evenings talking and watching movies
*The coolest thing, she was playing with the boys at the mall while I had my doctor appointment across the road when I found out we were having TWINS and I was so glad to have someone to scream with and be excited with!!!!! (I'm so glad you were here in person!) And she was so very excited for us-I loved it!

Bestest food maker friend award goes to: Andrea Richards!

My friend Andrea gets sick when she is pregnant too. Very sick. So she understands and when she found out I was sick, decided she would bring me food, and the yummiest food at that. Food that I could actually swallow and keep down, in fact I never threw up any of her food at all which was a miracle! I was so selfish with it too, I would eat it all by myself and somehow she knew when I was on my last serving and would knock on the door at 9pm with another delicious morsel for me. She kept me from having to fix myself food every two hours to keep the nausea in check. I get teary just thinking about her-sniff!

Best Chatty parents award goes to: Darlin' & Pa!

My Mom has recently received a cell phone and I'm so glad because she decided since she couldn't come out to be with us she was going to call me every day. It really helped keep me sane to talk to her. A lot of times things are much bleaker when we feel alone and looking forward to the phone calls helped so much. My Dad called a lot too! Thanks for letting me cry and moan and complain to you and for listening!

Trooper Award goes to: Hyrum Macailif & Hunter Scott!

Last and most definitely not least in the awards this morning goes to my boys. They went from going places and doing things almost every day to doing absolutely nothing and going absolutely no where all day every day. Poor kids! I felt so guilty about that but did they complain? Never! They completely adjusted to our new and boring schedule.

*They enjoyed jumping on our couch pillows more than ever
*Hyrum got snacks and water, diapers and wipes for me, put things down the laundry shoot and other assorted jobs
*They endured weird and non-nutritious lunches
*They endured a mother who was half-asleep all day
*They enjoyed watching more than their fair share of movies
*Hyrum would frequently ask me if I'd had my pill yet that day and if I was feeling better
*When I would throw up in the kitchen sink Hunter would mimic me and laugh and Hyrum asked if I was trying to get the baby out

Thanks to all those other Mom's out there that commiserated with me in my condition and for all our family and friends that have been so excited for us in our TWIN adventures so far!

Gender Games

Can anyone guess what we found out at the hospital today?!!!!!?

Here are some more clues

I was really hoping for a BOY and a GIRL and I'm so excited we get just that!!! They both cooperated very well for their first photo shoot and we are 100% sure that Baby A is a girl and Baby B is a boy!!! Finding out the gender and feeling the babies move a lot this past week have really made this become real for me. I can't wait to meet our babies in just over 4 months! Everything was normal and looked very healthy and the babies were actually pretty big-the boy was 97th percentile and the girl 94th-we're shooting for nothing less than 6 pounds for each of them when they're born. Not to give out too much info, but my cervix is super long which is a great sign because it reduces the chance of preterm labor-hooray! I'm hoping to go to 37 weeks at least.

Jeremy really wanted a girl this time, I wanted both, Hunter doesn't care as long as he gets a cupcake and Hyrum was stuck on boys so I think everyone is happy. Hyrum told me in the car that he is going to call the boy 'Macho' and the girl 'Toot Toot'. I don't think we'll be consulting him a whole lot when it comes to picking out names :)

Bond. James Bond.

A week or two ago Jeremy and I wrapped up our James Bond movie marathon madness. Wow. We watched all 22 Bond movies within a few months thanks to our most obliging local library. They were all entertaining but I must admit I got really tired of the womanizing routine.

So after much evaluation (not really) the winner is:

Daniel Craig

The newer movies are just so much better and cooler and he isn't nearly as much of a womanizer as the previous Bond's so that's why he wins my vote. For all you fans out there, the 23rd Bond movie starring our winner will be out sometime in 2011

Jeremy and I are now looking for another series to watch because it was rather fun. Any suggestions?

Poop Camp...

Has officially started. August 15th 2009. 8 A.M. Cold Turkey. No more diapers. Ever. Wish us luck!

Baby Shakes 3 & 4

That's right, this Shakespear family will be welcoming TWINS to our home January 24th 2010 (or hopefully a couple of weeks before)

Need proof? Because I did...

Aren't they too cute side by side?

Our reactions to the news:

We are way too excited (and still in a bit of shock!)

Random Information:

I am 15 weeks along today and yes I'm showing like I was 25 weeks along

They each have their own sack and placenta, which is the healthiest for the the babieS(!) so they are probably fraternal but there is still a very small chance that they could be identical

We haven't found out the genders yet but will sometime in August

I have been super sick this time, just like the previous two pregnancies but am feeling much better now (more on that at a later post)

At first I wanted two girls but then I was admiring Hunter's extreme cuteness one night on the porch and got very sad (almost panicky) about the thought of never having another little boy, so basically we will be super happy with whatever we get but if I COULD choose it would be one of each

We are calling them Hazel and Howard until further notice

Hunter turns 2 on January 8th and Hyrum turns 4 on January 26th so January will be our party month-come party with us!

I think it's a really cool story so I will share a part. I get really sick when I am pregnant, where I am not able to really function. I have always wanted 4-6 kids but with each pregnancy it gets harder and worse. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do this again but I really wanted at least 4! So I started hoping and actually praying for twins this time around. Moral of the story is to be careful what you pray for because Heavenly Father will answer prayers! And I'm so glad He did and that this is actually happening. I am a bit anxious too but mostly grateful.

Who wouldn't want two more of these cuties at the same time!!!