May 30, 1949-July 8, 2014

Wandall Jim Hughes.
To his friends, he was Jim. 
To his close family he was lovingly called Chubby.
 To his 2 children, he was Dad or Pops.
 His 6 grandchildren called him Pop-Pop.
And to the love of his life he was….more than just words.

He was a proud Pop-Pop. We would joke that when we were all gathered together was when he was most relaxed. Because every single time, he would fall asleep. 

I was his right hand man. He was my best friend. He often called on me to do things around the house that he couldn't.  We loved to go fishing together. We spent many nights on the boat catching fish and talking.  I was proud to have him as a father, he was proud of me.

My wife, Adrienne was like a daughter to him. He treated her like one, often teasing her. Saying she always took the longest to order when we went out to eat. He loved when she would bring over one of her homemade pies. 

I gave him 3 grandchildren:
Jayden Wandall Hughes- Age:10
Ava Renee Hughes- Age: 6
And
Wyatt Owen Wandall Hughes-Age: 9 months

My sister Amber was his baby girl. She was fortunate enough to share his cheesy sense of humor and they always joked around together. He loved her cooking and was always in awe of all the things she could do. From crafting and sewing to photography. He was so proud of her.
Amber is married to Matt Shoemaker. As the years passed, Matt and Jim became close. They would often sit in a quiet room and just talk. He knew Matt was good with computers and would call on him when he needed help with anything electronic.

Amber gave him 3 grandchildren:
Matthew Wandall Shoemaker-Age: 13
David Bowen Shoemaker-Age: 6

and the latest addition to our loving family,

Emma Jo Shoemaker-Age: 6 weeks

He loved his nephew Clay Wuensche like a son. He was very proud of all of Clay’s accomplishments.  He would joke with Clay’s wife Christin that she was not allowed to come to the house unless she made his favorite spinach/artichoke dip. He also loved their son Patrick like a grandchild and treated him as such. 

After we were grown and out of the house, he and my Mom loved to travel. Together they explored:
Cabo St. Lucas, Mexico
Caymen Islands
Virginia (Jamestown)
Washington, D.C.
Las Vegas
And many more.

He was an avid golfer. He went to the golf course every single day for years. He was very good and managed to get two two holes in one while they lived in Arizona.
He loved my Mom more than anything. They were married August 28, 1971. It would have been 44 years this year.

He was a hard working entreprenuer who had many jobs: 
He was millwright at Alcoa.
He owned his own bowling center, which was his dream.
He was a real estate agent.
And he retired with Chase Bank as an Inside Salesman. 

He had amazing charisma. He would meet someone and next thing you knew, they were talking like they had been best friends for years.

He will be missed by many.

And we will never be the same without him.

The Story of David

David Bowen Shoemaker was born on May 11th, 2008.

Tomorrow he will be 5 years old.

I realized I had never written out his birth story. I still need to because right now I want to write about my pregnancy with him. Let me tell you....it was a crazy ride!

It all started when Matt decided to join the National Guard. He had talked about wanting to join for years. But we had Matthew and he was still quite young and I was afraid he would miss out on all his firsts so I never gave him my consent.

From the time Matthew was 3 we had been trying for baby #2. For years nothing happened. I knew I could get pregnant, I got pregnant so easily with Matthew. I just couldn't figure out why it was taking me so long to conceive again.

Matthew was 6 when Matt brought up wanting to join the Army again. We were having lunch at the local pizza shop in Maryville, MO. At the time I realized I didn't want to hold him back from his dream and Matthew was getting older so I told him to do it, join the Army. I told him we'd just try again when he got back. I laugh just thinking about that now because that's not how it turned out at all.

Matt left for basic training on Matthew's 7th birthday. With basic training and A.I.T. (where they train him for the job he had in the National Guard) he would be gone for 8 months. So we decided to stay with my parents in Arizona while he was gone. I knew having him be gone that long would be hard but I really had no idea just how hard it would be.

About 2 weeks into the 8 month stay I start complaining to my sister-in-law, Adrienne,  about having body aches. She instantly perks up with "You are pregnant!" I just brush her off because we had been trying for over 3 years. I was certain I was not pregnant. A couple of weeks (if not days) later she bought me some pregnancy tests. I just rolled my eyes. I told her "fine, I'll take these just to prove you wrong."

Well, imagine my surprise when I get back to my parents house, take the test and it shows up POSITIVE!

I was elated. I couldn't believe it was actually happening...finally! I then realized that Matt would miss my entire pregnancy and possibly the birth of our second child. What a roller coaster of emotions that was!

Later that day I picked up Matthew from school and told him in the school parking lot. His reaction? "I'm not changing diapers." {He totally did though.} He had been asking for a baby sibling for a while and I was so happy to finally give him one.

In the end Matt was able to see me 4 times during my pregnancy. Once when he graduated from basic training. (I was only a couple months along) Another time when we found out we were having another bouncing baby boy. Again when I was about 6 months along. And finally in the end he made it home 48 hours before I went into labor.

That last week or so before he made it home were some of the hardest days of my life. I wanted him with me for the birth so very badly. He was there, and with his help I was able to give birth to the best Mother's Day present I could ever ask for.

David was born healthy and screaming at 8lbs. 15oz. The joke was if he hadn't pooped on the doctor he would have been an even 9lbs.

Now here we are, 5 years later. Our life wouldn't be the same without our David. He has brought so much joy {and mischief} to our lives.

Happy Birthday baby boy. I love you.

The Marshmallow Experiment

I have to give credit where credit is due. Matthew found this experiment on Youtube and came to me asking if we could try it on David. 

Obviously I jumped right on that bandwagon!

It starts off kind of rough. I had a hard time trying to explain it to him what he was supposed to do and after watching it I realized I explained it kind of wrong.

But either way the end result is pretty funny. 

If you don't know what the "marshmallow experiment" is I'll explain it briefly before you watch the video.

You take a child, preferably a young child, and you give them a marshmallow. You tell them they can eat this one now or wait 5 minutes and get another marshmallow. 

Train a camera on them, leave and let the fun begin!!

David's Story

While going through my previous posts I found this draft that I had not finished. So I figured I'd go ahead and upload the whole shebang. 

These were taken at the Armory Christmas party last year.

I'm not really sure what I was going for when I put this together.

 I think I remember that I was going to make up a story to go a long with the pictures. 

This last picture cracks me up. I'm pretty sure this started the whole thing.

Moral of the story: Don't mess with this boy while he's eating or he will give you this face. 

Storytime

I used to read to the kids every night before bed. But we have the same books and I really got tired of reading the same ones over and over and over again. (really need to get some new books)

It was then that I remembered we used to do story time with Matthew when he was little because we would giggle at the adorableness that would come out of his mouth. 

So I've started back up this tradition of storytelling with David. 

We usually do the back and forth storytelling. I tell a little bit until he feels like filling in. 

This was his story the other day. 

A:Once upon a time, there was a little boy named...

D: DAVID!!

A: David and his mommy decided to go into the garden to pick some vegetables for a salad!

D: then they found a worm!!

A: yes, they found a worm and David picked it up and the worm crawled all over his arm.

D:  then David climbed on da worm and they flew away!! (makes flying noises)  Then the worm fell out of the sky!! (AAHHHH!!!) And David broke his foot.

A: So then his mommy picked him up and took him to the doctor to get his foot fixed. The End.

D: Awww....Phank you Mommy.

David the Dog Whisperer

Tonight during bedtime David came downstairs to use the bathroom. Our dog Maggie is in her dog crate this time of night and inhabits the bathroom.

This little nugget of awesomeness followed:

{David exiting the bathroom} Mom! (in that whiny little boy voice) Maggie told me to be quiet.

Me: No she didn't, David. Do you know how I know?

David: No.

Me: Because Maggie is a dog. Dogs cannot talk, David.

David: Oh... {runs back into the bathroom} Maggie!! {in a voice seething with attitude} You can't talk!!


We all had to stifle our laughter. He is supposed to be going to bed. Laughing at him only delays the process.

 That kid makes me smile on a daily basis. 

Hats and Scarves

Matthew has been wearing this hat and scarf combo for the past couple of days. I rather like it.

The hat he acquired from his Uncle Bear and I made the scarf especially for him.

 He's been quite camera shy lately so when I suggested we take some pictures and he agreed, I was shocked. 

Not so surprisingly, he totally hammed it up for the camera.

 I had to get David in on the hat/scarf fun. They both pull it off so well!

 I only wish David had been wearing a different shirt. But this was an impromptu photo shoot so I just tried not to let it bother me too much.

 *kissie face!!!

This last one is a Matthew original. He decided he needed a mustache to complete his look. 

Gotta love him!

Conversations with a 3 year old

While getting out of the tub, David hears the water draining.
"Mommy! It's burping!! (moment of stunned silence) Oh, it says 'Excuse Me.' "

While I was getting him dressed after his bath.
"Mommy I naked boy!"
(in his best superhero voice) "Naked Boy!"

This little exchange happened the other day.
"Mommy, you're awesome."
"Thank you David."
"You're welcome Mommy."

"I like the skelly goat."
After a few seconds of mental confusion I realized what he was talking about. A telescope.


While sitting on my lap with his head on my shoulder and rocking us back and forth.
"Rocky a baby, in the tree."
Looks up at me and whispers...
"Close your eyes Mommy. Go to sleep."

Silly boys and a BIG surprise!!

Things have been kind of crazy here at the Shoemaker Homestead.

Winter is closing in fast so I've been trying to relish in the last warm days of Fall. 

Last week it was so warm we decided to grab some blankets and soak up some sun. It was just what we needed. 

A few days later Matthew took it upon himself to rake some leaves in the backyard. He then led his little brother out there and they jumped and played. It's days like that that get me through the days when they aren't getting along so well. 

Matthew as the leaf monster!!

 David attempted to be a headless leaf monster also but then quickly decided the itchy leaves were no fun to lay in.

A few nights ago Matt was off working the night shift at Energizer so it was just the boys and I. We went upstairs early that night. (Morning sickness has been kicking my behind and all I want to do is curl up in a bed with a good book.) 

So there I sat in my bed while the boys played. At one point they came in like this:

 Then Matthew had the brilliant idea of grabbing my sweater to put around David.

 Oh, these boys always know how to make me smile. 

In other news we found out that I AM PREGNANT!!!

I'll know more about when my due date is when I go to the doctor but we're estimating at late May/early June.

We couldn't be more thrilled. Everyone keeps asking if we hope it's a girl. Of course we'll take whatever is given to us. A girl would be different, but if it's a boy then at least we'll know what to do with it! Hahaha!

Donut Heaven

About a week ago someone in my little family suggested making homemade yeast donuts. I don't remember who it was, maybe my dear husband who is well known for his massive sweet tooth. Either way the thought of  homemade yeast donuts  instantly had us all drooling. Matthew signed up to be my side kick in the donut making process. He was instantly ready to get in there. He even went and washed his hands without having to be ask. (he's getting so big! *sniff*)

I had never made donuts, much less yeast donuts.  I may be kind of weird, but I can't stand anyone (mostly my children who demand attention) in the kitchen when I'm trying a recipe for the first time. I just need to be able to concentrate so that I don't waste food if I botch it up. There's a lot of pressure there. I never like throwing away food. Even though we now give the veggie scraps to the chickens and the meat scraps to the dog. But those scraps aren't nourishing my family...so yeah, pressure.

Attempt #1 you're supposed to heat up the milk, sugar and butter on the stove until the butter melts. Well I didn't consider that the milk mixture would get screaming hot and kill the yeast when I poured it in there. That was a flop. Didn't rise one little bit. 

Attempt #2 heated up  the milk mixture and then let it cool for about 5-10 minutes. I also made sure to watch it so it didn't get as hot as it did last time. 

Nope, that didn't help either. The yeast died and I was left with dough that was hard as a rock. I wanted to throw it at someone!! But I didn't, I simply threw it in the compost pile. 

After the second attempt I decided to do some research. Matt was concerned that my yeast was old and that's why it wasn't rising. So I checked online and found a little experiment

Take couple of teaspoons of yeast and sugar and add them to a glass of lukewarm water, Let sit for about 5 minutes. If it starts to foam then you know your yeast is good!! If not, well then it's time to restock.

I also found out that the milk mixture needs to be between 80-90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Attempt #3 I took my newly discovered information and put it to the test. I dug out my candy thermometer and put together the milk mixture. I was shocked to discover that it took almost a half an hour to cool down to 90 F after getting everything melted. I just wasn't expecting that. 

Matthew then joined me in the kitchen. I felt pretty confident it was going to work this time. David was not allowed in the kitchen at that time because he becomes very needy and demanding. (I want a drink! No milk! I want water......umm, no. I want milk!) It's a bit tiring. Luckily Matt was home and swooped in to distract David with toys and good ol' rough-housing.   

Matthew and I measured and mixed. Then the hardest part. THE WAITING!!

(Would it rise!?! Would it fail?? Only time would tell!?!)

We waited an excruciating 60 minutes. I tried not to go into the kitchen during that time. And if I did, I did not make eye contact with the covered bowl sitting on the counter. 

The timer dinged (Matthew practically informed the entire neighborhood) 

SUCCESS!! THE DOUGH HAD RISEN!!

I won't bore you with the rest of the cooking process.

 We fried them up and topped with warm chocolate frosting. Oh yeah, they were divine!!

Matthew had just polished off his second donut when he practically floated into the kitchen proclaiming "I think I'm in Donut Heaven!"

Once I figured out all that I was doing wrong, they didn't take too long to make.

It looks like we may have the start of a family tradition on our hands. I can handle that.

Momma's Hot Cookies!

The local church here in Parnell had a Bible School for all the kids last Monday. It was a 2 hour event and even David was able to go. That meant a whole 2 hours with no kids at the house!!

Afterwards they had little performance we got to watch. David ran over and sat in our laps as soon as we were in sight. So he just sang in our laps. We spotted Matthew hanging out with his local buddies, they were singing with very goofy expressions. *sigh* What can you do...

We were then led down to the play area where they had made cookies and decorated hot pads while they were there. This was my favorite part.

Yes, that says "Momma's Hot Cookies."

That coupled with Matthew's hilarious smug look makes this whole thing priceless.

I couldn't love him more.

David enjoying a cookie with his baker's hat. He was very serious about the cookies.

Then Matt put on David's hat, because it made us all laugh.

David holding his beloved hot pad that he lovingly decorated.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Who needs TV with silly shows when I have unlimited entertainment right at my fingertips?

When David and Matthew are in the room (and are both in a good mood, this is key) it's like comedy hour at our house. They can really ham it up and it's hard to resist joining in on the fun.

Recently we held a "laughing contest" while my mom (aka Nana) was here. In case you don't know what that is, it's when you square off with an opponent and you each do whatever it takes to make the other person laugh without laughing yourself. I can't remember who won or lost, only that Nana lost within seconds of squaring off with Matthew. It was fun. We are never without an abundance of fun at our house.

I would like to say that I have truly been blessed with some amazing kids. It's an honor to be their mother.

This is David's rendition of Itsy Bitsy Spider

Dinosaurs in my house

This little exchange happened today between my husband and son, David (age, 3):

David: Daddy! Daddy! I a di-saur!! (dinosaur)

Daddy: you're a dinosaur!? Me too! Let's go be dinosaurs together!

David: Yea!

Daddy: I'm from the Cretaceous Era!

David: Yea! A Eh-wa! (Era)

They then proceeded to attack me and then "eat" various things around the house including a stuffed teddy bear.

Typical day.

Muddy Cousins

This afternoon, I was charged to look after my own boys plus my nephew, Atom. No big deal, I thought. What's one more kid?

What I didn't realize is that a group of boys means mischief, especially if that group of boys are cousins.

I had been watching them from the kitchen where I was happily making homemade marshmallows. (They are delish!)

I peaked out once and they were digging in the dirt.

I peaked out again and they were washing the dirt off with the water hose and spraying each other with it.

I walked out the third time and found....this.

I had a moment of mental freak out where I said to myself "Their Dad/Uncle Matt is going to KILL them!! It's right in the garden area!!" But then I realized nothing was planted there and they were just having good um...clean, fun.

They wanted to go in right away and take showers but I insisted on taking them to the back and hosing them off first to get the top 30 layers of mud off first.

(I got no enjoyment on setting the hose sprayer to jet and watching them squirm, gotta get that dirt off somehow! *wink!*)

Staring Contest

I was cleaning out my emails today when I came across this email I had sent to my parents. Apparently it was written pre-blog.

I should note that the email is dated August 14, 2008. So David was just around 3 months old at the time.

So the other day David was being really fussy. He just wanted to be held. So I would hold and rock him till he fell asleep. But as soon as I put him down, he would start crying again. I kept picking him up and soothing him, but again he would start crying as soon as I put him down. It was Matt's day off so I threw my hands up and told him to please try and see if he could get him to sleep. I went into the next room and can still hear David crying.

A couple of minutes pass and I notice he's not crying anymore.

Matt proudly comes strutting out with a huge smile on his face, and says. "I put him to sleep!" I ask him HOW!?! (please share your secret so that I may use it too!)

He said he put him in his swing and then proceeded to stare him down. David just stared right back and eventually just went to sleep!

So come to find out, after all my failed attempts to put him to sleep, all I had to do was stare at him.

Figures...

David turns 3!

My little bouncing baby boy turned 3 on May 11th. I've been realizing for some time now that my babies are no longer babies. I'm going to try to not dwell on that too much.

We had planned a modest birthday party for him. It was going to be at the park and we were going to make it as fun as possible on a minuscule budget.

I had plans to make newspaper hats for all the wee ones and have them decorate them. Then stuff them full of cake and ice cream and set them loose on the playground.

Unfortunately, the only thing that went according to plan was that David still turned 3.

The day of his birthday is started pouring rain off and on. Since I had planned an outdoor party I had to make the difficult decision to call around and tell our friends that the party had to be cancelled. It kept nagging at me that they would get all the way out here and it would rain....and then rain some more. Then we would all be stuck inside. Not that I wouldn't mind sitting and visiting with all my friends and my sons friends. It's just not what I had envisioned.

That bugged me.

I realize now that it must have bugged me pretty good because I didn't get very many pictures of him.

Of course he could have cared less. There was cake...and ICE CREAM!! And he could eat as much as he wanted! (ha! so he thought, we pulled him away from the table on more than one occasion.)

So to make up for my lack of picture taking on his actual birthday I included a couple other pictures that were taken not long after his birthday. My apologies.

The newly minted 3 year old helping to cut his cake. Cause you know...he's a big boy now. :)

Matthew made sure all birthday traditions didn't go unnoticed.

You see that blotch of red icing on David's nose? That is a birthday tradition (usually only involving me) where my mom puts icing on my nose. It's been going on since I was about 4.

Matthew actually pulled off this tradition. Nana...you should be proud!

These were taken a week or so after his birthday. The park down the street from our friends house had finally opened up. So of course we had to go check it out.

I think he approves.

Happy Birthday my little Rhino!! I love you! xoxo

Nap Time

I was doing a little Spring Cleaning in my picture folders when I came across this picture. It instantly made me smile.

I think this may be the cutest picture of my Dad ever.

David, who is turning 3 next week, was just a couple of days old at the time of this picture.

If you look closely you can see David had his little arm propped up near his head, just like his Pop-Pop.

Super Goobs!!

There isn't really a whole lot to say about this picture. Basically...I got bored. I decided to start playing with my makeup. It was supposed to be a masquerade mask. I pranced around the house showing off my handy work. David kept looking at me strangely. He said "Mommy?? Mommy??" I knelt down and he gave me a big hug. I asked him if he would like to be a superhero. His face lit up and he sat still all of 2 minutes while I quickly drew on his face.

Matthew, always willing to one-up his brother, said "I can sit still for a long time!" So he sat down, told me his mask idea and I got to work.

My husband was a poor sport and wouldn't let me touch him with the makeup. I didn't pout though. I'd already had my makeup fill. Plus my boredom had been cured!!

Easter

This year we spent Easter with just our little family of 4. It was amazing and relaxing and tons and tons of fun. Matt and I stayed up entirely too late the night before and ended up sleeping in on Easter day. (Boo...) That means we missed the church service. Note to self: please start going to bed earlier...PLEASE!!

I'm hoping that once the craziness of Matt's college schedule stops, we can return some normality in our lives.

But I'm getting off topic.... EASTER!

The kids woke us up promptly at 7:30 yelling "Candy! Candy!!" (that was mostly David doing the yelling) We decided to just let them have at it. We opened packages and Matt popped on an Easter movie the church had put out. We then fell back to sleep and woke up around 10:30.

Thank goodness Matthew is such an awesome big brother. He took care of David while his Mom and Dad slept in. That kid is awesome. He didn't complain once! Of course having an ample supply of chocolate didn't hurt either I'm sure.

We finally got around to the hunt once we woke up. Matt had bought some edible grass to put in the kids baskets. Thus the picture below. I will say, just because they say it's edible doesn't mean it tastes good. It was like sweetened styrofoam. Blech.

But that didn't stop the boys from shoving handfuls in their mouth and mooing around the house.

I had boiled a dozen eggs for the hunt and Matthew colored all of them. They were magnificent. Unfortunately his brother saw the beautiful eggs and threw half of them on the ground. I think he liked the crunching sound they made.

So we were left with 6 eggs to hide. Matt had just sprayed weed killer the day before. So we didn't want to poison the kids by hiding cracked eggs in the sprayed area. The kids couldn't have cared less that there were only 6 eggs to hide. Matthew just adapted. He came up with the idea to have his Dad and I hid the first round of eggs. They hunted and found.

Next, Matthew hid the eggs and the rest of us had to find them.

Lastly, Matt hid the eggs. I ended up sitting and taking pictures. I didn't get any really cool ones. But I love any picture of my kids.

David was super excited about the whole "find the egg" thing. Of course he needed lots of help from Dad to find any. But he had lots of fun. Everytime he found one he would come up to me and say "Mommy wook! A egg!"

If you look closely in some of the pictures you can see our "free-range" chickens. They're usually in the chicken shack but Matthew said he wanted to let the roam around the backyard that day. (I suppose he was feeling sorry for them)

After wards we went inside, snuggled up on the couch and rented two movies online. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt1, and the new Narnia movie (which was awesome!!)

It was so much fun to just hang out with my little family. We played, we laughed, we were lazy.

It was lovely.

David was happy of course because of the amazing bounty of chocolate he woke up too.