This is Your Life!

I’ve been wanting to do a post about my sister and her twin boys and today is the day! First,

MUSICA! The picture below on

the right, is my sister as a baby. I was fourteen when she was born (she’s the youngest of eight and I’m the oldest) so my mother let me name her — I chose Michelle after the most popular girl in my Junior High School (whose name was Shelly Stewart). Most of us call her Shelly, some say Shelly Belly, and I call her Belle, as in Mee-shell, ma belle, somblay mon kee bon tre bien on somble . . . (my “French” is phonetic in case you can’t tell!).

That is Belle just after giving birth to the loves of her life in 2003. Two little boys, Mason and Paden Stewart.

My sister was forty-one when the boys were born . . . she had suffered with breast cancer a short time before she became pregnant, so these little dolls were and are her little miracles. Mason is in Green and Paden is in red. Not that you will ever be able to tell them apart.

Happy babies from the beginning. I have no idea which one this is.

But here’s the other one. If I was forced to guess . . . (I can’t). Sometimes I call them and ask who’s who in a photo and the boys don’t know either, which makes me feel better.

They have been such good friends from the very beginning, We would come in when they were infants and they’d be in their crib holding hands.

They’ve been in it together from the start.

Shelly and the boys used to live in Durango, Colorado. Unfortunately, their dad wasn’t well and so went MIA early on; that’s what happens sometimes . . . my brave sister has done it all herself. ♥

Maybe with a little help from this guy. The twins are very much loved by my brother Jim who lived right next door to them in Durango for the first seven years of their lives.

They used to go on the job with him . . .

My mom came to visit and the boys are doing what they do all the time, making art . . . paper, pens, pencils, brushes and paint, they love it and they’re good at it. That’s Mason in the Martha’s Vineyard lobster jammies. You might wonder why the one on the right (Paden) has a beard and those amazing eyebrows. That’s because this was November first . . . think about it.

Here’s Mason on October 31st, doesn’t he look happy? He’s getting ready to go trick-or-treating. Shelly is a wonderful costumer . . . look at these boys ↓

So darling!!!! She made their swords with cardboard and aluminum foil. On the left, if I have this correctly, is Mason, on the right is Paden. Or it could be the other way around. Either way, they could not have had any more fun going trick-or-treating that night than we did, going along and watching them.

I’m pretty sure this is Paden with the beautiful eyes. But it’s hard to tell because Mason’s eyes look just like Paden’s!

I can almost hear Shelly going Arrrgh.

See what I mean about the eyes? Holy Smokes as my dad would say. Here we are in Las Vegas at the Shark Tank (celebrating my Mom’s 80th birthday), and these are stuffed toy sharks. The one on the right is the Hammerhead shark. They will know who they are based on who had the Hammerhead.

Mason, Brianna (their next door neighbor) and Paden, Adorable children, and beautiful eyes on all of them.

One way you can tell who they are (which doesn’t always work): Paden is usually in the green shirt, Mason wears blue.

Paden is not happy because he is having his picture taken under the giant statue of Marilyn Monroe in the Seven Year Itch called “Forever Marilyn” and he would just rather not. I really don’t blame him.

These may be the only two pictures I have of them where they aren’t smiling.

They take paper and crayons or pens everywhere they go. They have sent us their art for years.

Here are a couple of samples of their wonderful work ~ Paden’s snowman, and . . .

Mason’s fish that looks like he might have a bit of chicken in him (I mean the fish — around the mouth). (Ooops, just got a call from Mason, this is an Angry Bird, of course, what was I thinking!) The colors in both of them are wonderful . . .

They send me their art and I send them mine . . . these are the two tickets to paradise I made for them for their seventh birthday.

They are very proud of their Lego creations. They put these things together, look close, there are like five of them on the table . . .

This is another of their passions. Minecraft. It’s a really popular video game and they LOVE it ~ at least they did last October when I took these pictures, by now I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t have a whole new passion.

Joined at the hip, they have magnificent obsessions ~ they know every species of shark (and draw great pictures of them); they also know the scientific name for all dinosaurs and whether they eat carnivores or herbivores (and draw great pictures of them). When they were around seven, their school quit teaching cursive, so they asked Shelly for books with cursive writing and they taught themselves. Boys after my own heart. Here boys . . . Here’s some sharks for you:

Click HERE for Fun Facts about Dinosaurs. I bet you know all this stuff already!

So these are their own home-made Minecraft characters. (His name is Enderman.)

They make these little box creatures out of paper.(He’s a zombie.)

This one is like a snowman-pumpkinhead. (Actually to be exact, he is a “snow golem.”) I know this may not be the most interesting thing to the Girlfriends, but for sure the TWINS will love it. Right guys? I thought the characters you made were wonderful . . . really creative . . . I liked them all but the craziest one was the tarantula! I don’t know how you did that!

These are their friends . . . from the left is Michael, then Seth, Mason, Ryan, and Paden ~ you can tell by their pinkies that they have decided to drink “elegantly!” That’s what I heard. You might note that perhaps the twins could be actors, they have very interesting facial expressions!

Shelly and the boys are HUGE animal lovers.

MAS MUSICA? This is Gracie who is no longer with us, except in this beautiful frame, which she deserves because she was a doll of a love bird. She stood on Shelly’s shoulder while she put on her make up, and took seeds out of her mouth. Adorable birdlet we all loved.

From the left, starting with Shelly’s dog Elsie ~ then my brother Brad’s two Jack Russells, Samantha and Orbit ~ and then Shelly’s Pepper, Chica, and at the top right, that’s Schmoopy . . . and that really cute little hairless dog over there with the red car is Paden.

This is Jack.

Unfortunately Jack didn’t make it which was a very sad day for everyone. But he was given the BEST funeral with full honors. No fish was ever loved so much. Look at the lemon/rock circle of love, plus the little cross . . . Boys, you did an amazing job with this . . . ♥

. . . brilliantly constructed from highlighter-enhanced ice cream sticks and a pipe cleaner. Rest in Peace pobrecito.

Elsie has also gone to heaven too, and one of the boys made this as part of their memorial. The hearts! ohhhh. xoxo

And now, Chica, on the right, my personal favorite because of her adorable winning smile and because she never forgot me, passed on only a week ago. She’s in heaven now and only Pepper is left to carry on. Everyone is being very brave and so happy they were able to have their petty-pets for so long.♥

So when Aunt Sue and Uncle Joe come to visit . . . what do they bring?

Something orange . . . hmmmm, it’s Halloween . . . so maybe . . . .

Ah yes, just a little something for the yard.

Shelly loved it too.

Belle is a great cook ~ she fixed us this most wonderful lunch of spinach salad with toasted pecans and strawberries. To

balance out all that health, she made her favorite recipe for “Macaroni and Cheese.” Here’s the recipe . . . she changed the elbow macaroni for “shell” pasta (of course she did) ~ this has four different cheeses and is OUTRAGEOUSLY delicious. She served it all on our great grandma’s Haviland China. (Alice Carpenter, was the boys great-great-grandma. That’s pretty good boys!)

Course we all had to go to the giant flea market.

And now it’s time to say goodbye. We always kiss goodbye. We are sisters for life. ♥

Bye Mason, Bye Paden, I hope you enjoyed these pictures! You live a magical life boys, mostly because of how you are.♥ Give your mom a hug for me. Now look away because I’m going to say something nice about you . . . These boys are fun, funny, smart, and creative, such good artists ~ they’re really great as a pair, good to each other, good to their mom, and just the best to be around. On top of that, for the last three years they have made the principal’s honor roll at school. I hope they keep doing that forever. And never change and stay just the way they are (inside anyway — they are allowed to grow up,if they insist).

AND JACKSON BROWNE? If you’re out there somewhere, you should let my sister make some macaroni and cheese for you.♥

BYEEEEE, XOXO