First, I have to say how much I love our chaotic Christmas tree. First, it's real and you have to love that. Second the boys decorated it and continue rearranging the ornaments each day. So, you end up with bunches of ornaments all in one place and lots of bare spots. I love it! It's so cute. And I love how 75% of all the lights are on the top half of the tree. Trees like this are the best I've decided.

The boys woke up at 6:30 instead of 4:30 of which I was grateful. We opened stockings first. Hyrum's favorite was a little jet courtesy of our friend Miran and Hunter's favorite was the candy canes.

Next we enjoyed our leave them overnight & bake them in the morning cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Thanks to Sharon and Alton Brown we have found ourselves a great, simple and yummy tradition!

The boys received oodles of books. I love it and they love it. It took us hours to get through our few presents because they wanted to read each book they unwrapped. Maybe I can take back some of our hostage library books now :)

One of the biggest hits of the day were the nerf guns Zac & Joy got the boys. Hyrum seriously played with it the rest of the day-no exaggeration- and shot down all of his other new toys.

Christmas is so fun with kids! We spent the rest of the day playing, watching a movie, taking a nap (Bug & I at least), eating a delicious ham dinner Jeremy made, & talking to Grandma's & Grandpa's.

I've been feeling so grateful for my little family the last while. It's hard to explain how blessed I feel with a wonderful husband, two sweet kids and a couple more on the way. We are thankful for all our friends & family that also bless our lives in countless ways. Merry Christmas everyone!

Three much needed haircuts

Making, decorating and snacking on our gingerbread house (thanks Jen-it was a hit!)

Movie & popcorn afternoon
(I must admit I got a bit teary-good flick!)

Reading the Christmas story from Luke 2 (after delicious breakfast taco's for dinner). The boys put the characters from our nativity scene out as Jeremy read about them. We sang songs and almost acted it out but I think we'll wait until next year (maybe.)

Cookies & milk for Santa & Mrs. Claus

Wrapping presents for the boys & starting cinnamon rolls...last year Hyrum woke up at like 4am and kept getting up every 1/2 hour so tomorrow should be fun! :-)

Our good friends the Hall Family stayed with us for a night while passing through town and it was so fun to see them again. We are good ol' BYU buds and spent 2 years here in Ann Arbor going to graduate school and now after 11 months of hard core searching they have landed a sweet marketing job in Minneapolis MN! We are so excited for them and their future adventures, although we'll miss them. Hyrum & Felix were shy for about 2 minutes and then spent the rest of the time chasing each other, falling down and bursting into laughter.

Somehow they all had the same pajamas on so of course we had to take pictures. Awww, I love these boys!

Jeremiah Shakespear just spent the first 3 days of his Christmas vacation taking the last part of his National and Regional (North Eastern Regional Boards: NERB) dental boards-whew! I do not know how he does it. 3 days of like 400 questions a day or something insane like that. I would be grumpy, selfish, demanding, and coming home and going straight to bed if that was me, but with Jeremy you'd never know he was taking one of the most important tests ever. Nope, he comes home and plays with the boys and makes dinner and then spends the evening chatting and watching a movie with me.

You amaze me!!!

Now he has to take his practical exam on 3 patients in March and then you'll be looking at one of America's newest dentists! How exciting, so proud of you Babe!!

I went to the hospital again for another ultrasound to measure the babies. 4 weeks ago they were both 3 lb 13 oz so I was hoping they would be just under 5 lb each. I was so surprised when the tech said our girl was 5 lb 5 oz and our boy was 5 lb 12 oz!!!!!!!! She has gained a pound & a half and he has gained 2 pounds in only 4 weeks! I'm sure I have another 4 weeks left.......I may just have 7 to 8 pound babies! So if anyone is wondering why I'm so large in stature, give me a break-- I have 11 pounds of baby in me :)

Our little girl Our baby boy

Jeremy has been gone for the last couple of days interviewing for jobs again and it is sooooo nice for him to be home. The bigger and further along I get the harder it is for him to be gone. Hopefully this is the last time. So he and the boys decorated our tree last night while I manned the camera. And the boys have been rearranging things all day today.

Most of the lovely ladies who came to my baby shower. I usually avoid attention like this at all costs but it was really fun and everyone was so sweet & generous. Thanks everyone for coming & thanks to Kirsten for convincing me!

We found our perfect little Christmas tree and are now enjoying the pine smell



My long lost college friend, Becky, came with her husband Pat and little girl Sophie to visit for a few days. We haven't seen each other for about 5 1/2 years and it was so fun to catch up! We have the same due date and I'm so excited they're having a little boy.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving. Brigg & Hava came up for a couple of days and we had some friends, the Curtis & Wintch families from our ward, come over for dinner on Thursday. And it still hasn't snowed yet! I forgot to take a picture of our dinner & everyone there.

But I did capture the aftermath

This handsome man finished his eighth and final rotation for school last week!

So while he went to beautiful (and cold) places like this

And this

I got to stay home with these two stinkers

I have been dreading these rotations since I learned about them. Eight, week long rotations without my husband from Sunday afternoon to late Friday night. How would I do it? I classify myself among the needy wives of the world. I love my husband, I love spending time with him one on one and I love to watch him play with our boys every day and to have family time. And he helps tremendously with everything.

But I must say that this has been really good for me. It showed me I could take care of our family and home by myself if I had to. But what also helped was knowing this was temporary, so I admire you lovely women out there whose husbands are gone a lot, a lot, a lot on a regular basis. I don't know how you do it but you are amazing! It's so great to have Jeremy home.