Em & Justy turn 4!!!

Look at those cute faces!  I can't believe these two were growing in my tummy 4 years ago.  I've been looking at lots of old pictures & just can't get over how fast life goes by - cliche yet true.  I can't believe how full my life has been & continues to be.  Full of blessings & not the least of which are these two!  It's a story I've probably told & won't retell it now but having these twins was a bit of a miracle.  It always normal & right that we had two babies at the same time.  I thought I could see the reason it was right for us but I see new reasons here & there as the years go by.  It is so fun & crazy!  I love having twins. 

The morning of - eating a special requested breakfast of Fruit Loops (they were extremely excited) & opening presents from Darlin & Pa!  Emma got a huge stuffed elephant she has named Ella the Elephant (thanks to Nana for suggesting that one!  It is much better than the name Daddy gave her for the first two weeks - Roger, hmmm) Justy got some puzzles that he mastered quickly & happily.  Brigg & Hava gave Emma a purse to add to her purse collection.  Her new favorite game (next to Harry Potter) is playing purse.  It consists of putting things in purses & walking around the house with it on your shoulder.

Brigg & Hava gave Hunter & Justy some sea animals & this 'Star Trek book of opposites'.  If you need a good belly laugh this is the book for you.  I cried reading it the first time - it might help if you had been raised watching each & every episode of Star Trek like we did :)

The day after Hunter's party we had Em & Justy's friend party at a local jump/play house.  It was so much fun!  They had about 10 little friends come from our Mommy preschool & from our church.  I think everyone had fun bouncing around, eating cupcakes & opening presents.  It was crazy!

Here's Justy sporting his new birthday nose & glasses

I had been requested to make a mousse cake for the three birthdays but I had decided making 60 cupcakes would be easier to make & transport.  So I made the mousse cake on Sunday evening instead.  I can't pass up a chance to make that thing.  Delicious!  I'm so grateful my kids request cakes that are actually yummy.

Nana sent the birthday kids the coolest present -there are all these gears & wheels you put together & make fun creations with them.  It's kept us busy for many hours so far! 

I love to hear & watch these two playing pretend games every day.  Even though their personalities are pretty different they play really well together & somehow find games to play that they can both have a blast with.  It helps that Justin is willing to play girlier things like ponies, puppies & princess castle (although I haven't seen him play purse yet) & Emma is willing to play robots, dementors (that's where someone pretends to be a dementor & when they kiss someone else they turn into one too until everyone is one) & Super Heroes.  Although the way they play these games is different of course :)  They both have great imaginations & are super sweet playing with Dallen & including him in their games.  It is one of the best feelings for a Mom to see your kids playing happily together.

Emma is definitely our snuggler.  She will snuggle & cuddle anytime & anywhere. She loves to play pretend especially if it involves animals.  She & Dallen spend much of their time on all 4's pretending to be cats, dogs & occasionally fish or octopi.  She is sensitive, sweet, very excitable & silly & we love our Lulu!  

Justy has become slightly obsessed with all things Harry Potter & spends his days casting a variety of spells on all of us. He loves to do puzzles, play board games & read books.  He loves movies & music.  He is one super giggly, silly boy & when he gets laughing it's impossible not to join in.  I just asked Hyrum how he would describe Justin & he said 'violent...and action packed' Haha!  We love our Justy Bear.

Hunterbug turns 6!!!

On January 8th Hunter turned 6 years old.  On the kids birthdays we try to do a "Yes Day" (you should read this kids book it's really cute) or at least as much as we can.  Hunter wanted donuts for breakfast & banana pancakes for dinner so we got lots of sugar that day :)  He went to the grocery store with me the night before so he could pick the specific donut each family member would eat.

I let him pick the activities for the morning before school & it consisted of painting, painting, more painting, playing cars & computer games.

Hunter was beyond excited about a certain movie & I was saving it for his birthday evening.  Can anyone guess what it was by the picture he drew above?  He LOVED it by the way!

Pa & Darlin' got him some new socks, a racing outfit & some new cars- how fun!

A week or so after his actual birthday he had his friend party.  He really wanted to have it at the arcade despite all of my suggestions of other places :)  So we had it at the arcade/pizza place.  We were lucky enough to have Pa, Darlin, Brigg & Hava & boys come too.

Happy Birthday!

Hunter invited his 3 best friends from school to come & I'm so glad they could all come & we could get to know their families better.  He had so much fun that night.

Here are the boys figuring out all the Lego's from his friends!

Awww.. here is one of my favorite pictures of my Bug.

Hunter has a great love for life.  He still gets super excited about all sorts of things like seeing things from a helicopter landing to a cookie on his plate after lunch.  He sees the fun in everything.  He is a really sensitive & affectionate kid & wants everything to be alright in the world & with everyone in it.   He loves Harry Potter & acting it out with his younger siblings.  He loves all babies & little kids & has an amazing gift with them.  He is absolutely full of energy & is always bounding & bouncing around in whatever he's up to.  He loves to laugh & have fun, he loves his friends & to be around people & still has a bit of stage fright.  He has changed so much in the last year I can't even begin to say.  He has developed an independence that I was sure he would never have & it's wonderful to see.  He loves school & eating yummy food & movies & cars & games & painting & drawing & riding his bike & exploring outside. We love our Buggy!

Bringing in the New Year

Happy New Year 2014!!!

We are starting some new traditions this year with New Years.  I love having traditions with the kids.  I want to give them fun things to look forward to on the holidays but I only like doing things that are really simple & don't take a lot of craftiness & organization from this Momma.  So I think we've found some good traditions that will fit our family.

My sister in law found a cute idea on (of course) Pinterest.  The gist of the thing is to have a different activity planned for your kids leading up to midnight on New Year's Eve.  Of course our "midnight" was 7:30 & bed time was 8pm.  Heck I don't even make it to midnight anymore!  Every 30 to 60 minutes you pop a balloon & find out what the next event will be. (Yes I know my writing is upside down on the balloons-oops!)

1st balloon was to help Daddy build a fire in the fireplace to get all cozy.

Ahhhhh...

2nd balloon was roasting hot dogs in the fireplace for dinner.

3rd balloon was making noise makers.  We colored paper plates, stuffed them with lentil beans, folded & taped them together.

4th balloon was making a special treat - cookie & ice cream sandwiches

The 5th balloon said to play a game.  I saw another idea somewhere else where everyone writes down 3 favorite things that happened in the year & 1 least favorite thing.  So we all wrote or drew pictures & then went around taking turns telling everyone else.  We all had to guess if it was a favorite or least favorite.  That was actually a lot of fun & the kids really got into it. Some of our favorites are: school, swim lessons, jump house, going to the beach, living in a small town, having Thursdays off of work, going to the Cheese factory, going to the Great Wolf Lodge, riding a scooter, Christmas & having more time to read (that was Hyrum).  Our dislikes included: going for walks without riding something, paying expensive rent, hitting other kids (ahem, Justin), going on long trips, playing "boy" stuff (ahem, Emma) & being cold.

The 6th & final balloon of the night was a balloon drop from the ceiling & a rowdy & crazy dance & noise making party!  Whew!

For New Years Day we hosted the 1st ever Shakespear Family Olympic Games.  Hopefully we will have one each year.  The first event was donut eating on a string.  That was the tastiest event by far.

The second event was an obstacle course.  We asked Hyrum to make it out of these panel things they got for Christmas & he came up with a great idea.  There were two mazes (one was filled with balloons) & the kids had to army crawl through them, jump over two sets of stairs & then go down the slide.  They each did it several times trying to beat their own score.

Notice that trundle bed in the corner?  A super nice couple in our ward just gave that to us with the mattresses-they got it from a neighbor who was moving!  Jeremy & I have been having the bunk bed verses trundle bed discussion for years.  I'm grateful they made the decision for us because we may never have decided otherwise!  We tend to talk about things for years before deciding.  We talked about a flat screen, my sewing machine, a food processor etc. etc. etc. for years before getting them! We've been talking about getting Netflix for 8 years & we still haven't gotten it.  Hmmmm...does anyone else do this or are we just weird?

Cheese!

3rd event was the 3-legged race

4th event was the ever popular pillow case hop.  Although Hunter & Hyrum basically ran - there wasn't much hopping going on there.

The 5th & final event was apple bobbing

Everyone got a unique award & they were presented with their medals at the close of the ceremony.

Shakespear's brought home the gold!!!

 

 

We went to get $1 ice cream cones from the Candy man after lunch & walked along the Promenade in Seaside.  On every holiday this year we've been able to play outside & we always end up at the beach.  I don't think this is normal winter weather around here but we will take it while it lasts!

Here are some pictures from in between Christmas & New Years

Hunter genuinely loves babies & babies love him back.  All I have to say is that whoever his wife will be is going to be one lucky gal.

We went to a Nature Center in Hillsboro with Brigg & Hava.  We will have to go back.  The Nature Center is one of the things we miss most from Springfield.

 

Dallen & Vincent enjoyed sharing a stroller

 

My little super hero & his books

Ta da! Our newest member of the family.  2nd car paid for in cash. Jeremy test drove lots of cars but decided to stay true to the Honda family.  This used baby is one nice ride!  I was talking to my Dad & we realized between them, my brothers & us we had 8 Honda's in our family.  And nothing else.  Now I'm hoping that we won't have to buy any more cars for a very long time!