Post-Christmas Fun!

We have had so much fun over this two week break from school.  We have had days where we don't change out of our pj's and just cuddle up infront of the tv (most of them were sick days with the influenza...no fun!) and we have spent other days bundled up out in the snow.  What a blast! And days with cousins at our grandma's houses.  We are busy making memories for sure!

 Rhett got a BB gun and a bow and arrow for Christmas. Ryan took him out for a quick lesson on it.  He was pretty good at it and thought it was great!

 With the snow comes sledding! Ryan plowed it into a pile and they have played and played on that pile!!

Dallin and Laiklie

 Laiklie and Rhett got these GIANT sized stuffed animals this year for Christmas and they are so fun to cuddle while watching movies. Laiklie has made us haul her puppy to my parents house TWICE! It takes up an entire seat plus some in the suburban! What a funny girl! She also made my sister haul it to Preston in her car for the few days she spent there. hahaha!

 Goofing! We did a lot of that over the break!

 And a lot of cuddling too! My favorite!

 We spent a few days at grandma and grandpa Jake's with our cousins.  They were COOOOLD days and after sleeping in the chilly upstairs all 6 of these littles huddled around the fireplace to warm up.  Loved it!

 And these two goofballs helped grandma clean and organize a cupboard.  These are arm covers for a couch they found and wore as hats.  These two crack me up!! Such funny teenagers!

 And more sledding!! My sister took the girls home with her and we brought Tyce home with us and the three little boys wanted to go sledding at Grandpa Hawkins pit for New Years Eve.  It was a very cold -2 degrees....but you would never know from the fun they had! After an hour of sitting in the suburban watching them I made them come home.  They would have played all day long I think!

 Dallin

Tyce helping Rhett strap on the snowboard.  What a great cousin!

This has been an incredible year for our family! We are so very blessed and so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who has His hand in our lives! Here's to the start of another great year!

Christmas 2014

 Christmas is always fun! The only thing I hate about it is how very fast it comes and goes.  I wish it would slow down just a little.

 We always start Christmas morning off in mom and dads room for family prayer, then they can line up youngest to oldest and head out to see if Santa came. He always does! :)

Everybody had a great Christmas and got just what they wanted plus a few surprises.  We spent the day at home and at Grandma Hawkins for presents and lunch.  We enjoyed playing games together and watching the kids play with their new toys.  We were able to go to Grandpa and Grandma Jacobson's a few days later once the crazy snow storm got over.  We were so excited after a dry December to wake-up Christmas morning to a white Christmas so we weren't complaining about having to wait to go to grandma Jake's at all.  What a wonderful day we had as we celebrated the birth of the Savior of the world.  What an incredible blessing!

Pre-Christmas

 A few days after Thanksgiving I had to talk and talk to convince Ryan that he needed to drive us up to the ranch to get a live Christmas tree...and I was finally able to convince him and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE EVERYTHING about this picture of it! I love this little tree! It turned out beautiful! I love the picture of the Savior behind it and the pictures of my 4 littles next to that.  I loved that this year we spent several evenings with the lights off and the Christmas lights on watching movies or reading Christmas stories and filling our bellies with hot chocolate.  We had a great month as we prepared for Christmas!

The school always does a sing-along the last day before break and each class sings a song.  Laiklie is on the end in the red shirt.

 Rhett is in the back row, blue shirt. He is kind of a stinker and didn't tell me he was suppose to wear Christmas colors.  Oh well, the boy next to him didn't tell his mom either I guess. Or the BYU kid.:)

 And Dallin is back row next to the girl in the santa hat.  He is such a goof ball and wouldn't leave the poor kids infront of him hats/headbands alone! Stinker. 

We were SO EXCITED to be finished with school and have a TWO WEEK break! Yay!!

We also had our Christmas Dance Recital.  No pictures of Oakley or Violet though.  Everything is better with Cousins! These girls did great!

Then there was our Grandma Party/Family FHE! Always a favorite!  The boys did have influenza this week though so we didn't let our kids stay the night.  They were mad, of course! But slept good at home which helped them heal up for Christmas.  What a great grandma to have a fun Christmas Party for them!

 

Fall Yard Work

This fall was a little weird in that we got snow SUPER EARLY and then after several weeks it melted and we didn't get anymore until Christmas Eve.  So we did our fall yard work in December!

 We loaded the flat bed truck OVER AND OVER again trying to get everything cleaned up! Oakley and Dallin fought over who got to drive it with each load. haha! That is Dallin's head you can see in the window. The kids were all great help!

 We also cleaned up the corn stalks out of the garden.  Rhett and Laiklie loved falling into them.  :)

Sure love these little helpers!

Primary Nativity

This year at the ward party they asked Rhett and his bestie Kylie to be Mary and Joseph. Rhett did not want to be recognized so he put on his Halloween beard.  It fit the costume so I let him wear it! hahaha!! So funny!! Love it! Love this little Joseph and Mary!

Black Friday Shopping

 SOOOO MUCH FUN!! Love these girls and love this tradition of spending time together in the middle of the night! Great memories made every year!

My Boys!

These are two of the loves of my life! I pulled in the driveway as they headed out to help feed the other day and I want to always remember the way they look right now.  As big as they are getting they are still little.  I love this farm life and them decked out in their coveralls with poopy boots.  They stole my heart the minute they were each born and will have it for the rest of my life!

Grandpa Jacobson

My grandpa, F. Max Jacobson, passed away November 14, 2014.  It was such a sad day for all of us.  I was SO VERY BLESSED to be able to spend several days with him and my grandma at the hospital during the last month of his life.  What a neat opportunity to get to know my grandpa and grandma better.  The thing I will remember the most from that last month of his life is just how very grateful my grandpa was for EVERYONE and EVERYTHING that was done for him to keep him comfortable.  What a great example he is to me! I love him.  I will miss his glassy blue eyes and how they sparkle when he smiles.  I will miss his big hands and big heart.  I will miss the way he calls me "Nat." I will miss it all.

The last thing my grandpa said to me about 2 weeks before he passed (when I saw him after that day he was always sleeping) as I was leaving the hospital after having spent the night with him and grandma was...I told him, "I am leaving grandpa." and he got a little teary eyed and in his sweet voice asked, "Well, where are you going?" I told him the things I needed to do for the day and that I loved him.  It meant so much to me to see him get emotional that I was leaving, especially because there were several days that I spent with him at the hospital that he didn't recognize me.  I know he knows who I am and that he loves me.  What a great feeling.  I will always remember that!

 My grandpa was a WWII veteran and SO VERY PROUD of his county.  He loved the USA! What a neat thing at the cemetery to have the Vet's honor him.

 This is them presenting the flag to my sweet grandma.  What an amazing lady.  She is so very lonely now and misses grandpa so much! I have been able to drive to the Valley and spend a few days with her.  I LOVE those days and will always treasure them! What a great blessing to be one of the lucky ones that gets to have Max and Madge Jacobson and my grandparents!

 My ENTIRE family (Except Jake's wife Chelsea) was able to make it to grandpa's funeral.  We have not ALL been together in years! We definitely took advantage of this photo opportunity.

My parents, siblings and spouses.  We are a crew.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!!

Dallin's Pigeons

About 4 days ago Dallin went out to check cows for his dad (we are calving) and came running back in after just a few minutes so excited to tell me he had caught 3 little pigeons.  The pigeons had got into the barn and when Dallin went in he was able to sneak up and catch them with his hands.  He hauled them right over to our old turkey coop/run and strawed, grained and watered them.  One got hurt just 2 days later and cut its neck open pretty good.  We thought she was going to make it but she ended up dying. :(  He still has the other two and absolutely loves having birds of his own to care for. 

Priesthood

Dallin received the Aaronic Priesthood on November 9, 2014.  Ryan was able to do the ordination.  It was a special day that both grandparents, Uncle Dale and Aunt Katie and kids were able to make it to.  Dallin is the kind of kid that I know will honor his priesthood in a pleasing manner to his Heavenly Father.  We are SO PROUD of him!

Dance Competition

On November 8th Oakley and Laiklie had a dance competition in Salt Lake.  It worked out great for our family because we were down there for my nephews wedding anyway.  We sent Ryan and the boys home with my dad and my mom and niece Ali stayed with me and the girls.  Oakley and Laiklie both danced great that day.  Laiklie came home with four 1st place awards and one 2nd place.  Oakley danced several more dances than Laiklie and split hers - several 1sts and several 2nds.  I am proud of both of them.  This is always a tough competition.  One funny thing happened that day that I want to remember.  Laiklie was up on stage doing her solos.  When it got to the traditional solo she was looking down at her feet the whole time.  We had talked that morning about how important it was to look at the judges and smile and she hadn't done that on the other solos.  So when she came down when she was finished with all her solos I told her she did great on all of them but that on the traditional she forgot to look at the judges.  She said, "I didn't forget to look at them.  Right when I got on stage a booger came out of my nose and I didn't want them to see it so I just looked down the whole time!" I laughed until I cried! It was hilarious!! She still got a 1st place on the traditional booger or no booger. :)

Jacob & Chelsea

 On November 7, 2014, my nephew Jacob, that lived with us for a summer a few years back, married the love of his life Chelsea in the Mount Timpanogas Temple in Utah.  I am SO PROUD of him! Jake is a great kid.  He had ALOT of growing up to do between the time he was with us at 17 years old and now and he really has done a lot of that growing up.  He still has a ways to go.....don't we all though. :) Jake worked on this temple not long after he went home from living with us.  He was able to do some of the gold leafing on the Angel Moroni.  How cool is that?! What a beautiful temple and a beautiful day. What made it even better is that my dad is a sealer in the temple and was able to perform the wedding.  What an incredible thing for your grandpa to be able to marry you!

 I made the girls in my life pose for a picture.  I sure am lucky to have them as not only my sisters/mom, but my best friends as well.

 Of course some wedding selfies! :)

 If you look close you can see them coming out of the temple. 

 My sweet babe. 

The weather was BEAUTIFUL and the warm sunshine felt SO GOOD!

 I absolutely LOVE this picture of Jake! & I absolutely LOVE this boy! It is a little different when they have actually lived with you! It makes it more like one of MY BOYS getting married!

 And here is our 12 year old birthday boy on the wedding/birthday!

 McAllister Family

When you leave your phone on the table and walk over to get some cake you get MORE WEDDING SELFIES! bahahaha! See why I love these two sisters of mine?! What a great day spent with family.  I am grateful for the knowledge that FAMILIES CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER when married in the right place by the right authority!