Laiklie turns 9!

This pretty little girl turned NINE years old on September 28, 2015! All she asked for was a bow and arrow and a bb gun. What a funny little girl.  She is soooo her dad's girl! I love it! 

 If you are going to hunt baby girl you need some camo.

 She also loves to sew and got a quilt kit to sew on her sewing machine.  She is super excited about it!

 I was lucky enough to find a PINK gun and bow and arrow.  PERFECT! Now she doesn't have to fight the boys on which one is hers!

 Laiklie is seriously still what I call the icing on the cake! She brings our family so much joy.  She is patient and kind. She loves to love others.  She has been climbing in my bed each morning this past week when she wakes up before my alarm goes off because Ryan has been hunting super early. Last night I had just gotten back into bed from checking Oakley's blood when I heard Laiklie get up to go to the bathroom and get a drink.  I climbed back out of bed to go tuck her in and by the time I got there she was standing in the middle of her room.  She said to me, "I got the best nights sleep EVER mom!" I looked at the clock and it was 3:27 AM! I kind of giggled and said, "Why don't we top the best nights sleep ever off with 3 1/2 more hours!" ;) Hahahaha! I think she thought it was time to come climb in my bed just before the alarm went off.  Nope! Middle of the night little girl! Love her SO MUCH! Happy birthday Lu!

Rhett Turns 11!

On September 21, 2015 this big guy turned 11! ELEVEN!! Can you believe that?!

 All he wanted was a Nintendo 3DS.  We kept trying to get him to change his mind and think of a cheaper less "gamey" gift, but in the end decided this would be perfect for him.  He was SO EXCITED!!

 He needed white cake and they happened to have orange frosting.  He was all about that! :) Rhett is a great kid! He is brave.  He tries things my other kids never would! Last year he tried out for a major part in the 4th grade play even performing a singing solo infront of both classes all by himself! Amazing! This year he decided to try and run for Vice President at the elementary.  He wrote a great essay and worked hard to try and get the spot.  He has learned that working with his dad on the farm isn't so bad! He has also found a love for hunting and driving.  He keeps us on our toes for sure! Love you Rhett! Happy birthday buddy!

 

Progress on the House

Slowly but surely it is coming along!

 This dude scared me to death! I am sure his mom has no idea what he does this for his job! He is standing on about an inch of the frames under each foot with a NINE foot drop on both sides while trying to control the concrete shute.  Insane! Glad he knew what he was doing!

Black tar/oil crap! What a mess! Ryan and I painted it on and it got ALL OVER US! It was the stickiest stuff you can imagine! It took paint thinner to get it off.  What a mess! Glad to be finished with that step! We also got window wells on you can see in the picture.  Now waiting for the inspector to ok the plumbing and then onto pouring the basement floor.  YAY!!! YAY!!! YAY!!! 

Fishing!

After the party at Grandpa and Grandma Romrell's we decided to stop and grab Oakley and take the kids to the cabin fishing.  We ran out of day light fast, but had been wanting to go so bad that it didn't matter to us!

 My 5 FAVORITE PEOPLE in one of my FAVORITE PLACES!

  Dale showed up as it was getting dark and so Ryan and him and I got to talking there on the dam as the kids fished.  I kept telling the kids just one more cast as we talked and all of the sudden on one of Rhett's "just one more cast" he felt the tug of a fish! Ryan and Dale coached him through reeling this 9 POUND BEAUTY in! He did it all by himself! Just what he needed!!

 I know this picture of Rhett is fuzzy, but I LOVE this picture of Ryan! You can see pure joy on his face!! And I just can't get enough of EITHER of those smiles!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!

 It was SO HEAVY he had a hard time holding it up one handed.

 The rule around here is You catch it, You clean it! Rhett is our one kid that doesn't like to get dirty and definitely doesn't do disgusting things.  Just trying to get him to hold the stupid fish took us 5 minutes of talking! So for him to be brave and clean it was amazing! He did a great job! Grandma Hawkins fried this big beauty up and we had a feast.  Thanks grandma for that and thanks grandpa for keeping fish in your lake!

60th Wedding Anniversary

On September 12, 2015 we celebrated Max and Ramona Romrell's 60th Wedding Anniversary! Ryan is blessed to have them as his grandparents, I am blessed to have them as my in-law grandparents :) and my kids are SO BLESSED to get to have them as their Great Grandparents.  They really are GREAT! They are so much fun and so incredible at supporting my kids in their activities.  They are amazing examples to us of how to live a righteous gospel filled life!

We had a great day celebrating....it involved food and the waterslide.  Couldn't ask for a better day!

Of course as many as could fit climbed on with Grandpa to ride to the slide.  His poor little four-wheeler had quite the load.

The slide is ALWAYS a favorite of our summer! 

 Laiklie was fun to watch go down.  She is so stinking tiny she just slid right down, hardly catching any air.  She always did a cute little scream that we loved.

 Rhett is also a skinny dude and didn't catch a whole lot of air either.  That would be my kind of sliding!

 Dallin and JD are a lot more adventurous than the rest of us and went down every way imaginable.  They had a BLAST! They were the last ones off the slide and even at that we couldn't hardly get them to leave.

 Ryan's Uncle Cory was here for the party and he was all about the slip-n-slide.  It was hilarious to watch him go down.  He caught a TON of air every time down.  Definitely the life of the party!

 Jason, Katie and Sharee weren't far behind Cory! They all got on their suits and enjoyed the slide as well.  Sharee and Katie going down together was so funny, but looked so painful! Jason and Katie went down and hit hard at the bottom....also looking pretty painful! Jason took the little boys down and they didn't stop when they hit the water.  They skid right across the top and didn't stop till they hit the sand bank on the other side.  Dallin hit a rock on his hip in the process and it slowed him down, but only for a minute. Glad everyone had fun and no one got seriously hurt!

 All the kids begged Jason and Cory to go down together! It was definitely something we all wanted to see.  HILARIOUS!

And while we were all sliding and partying Oakley and Brooklyn were at the Eastern Idaho State Fair dancing in the talent show.  These two amazingly talented girls brought home FIRST PRIZE! This was kind of a neat year to go because it is the last year they were having a talent show at the fair.  So to bring home a first prize on the last year is kind of special! This time they each got $50!! Perfect for two teenage girls! So worth it! 

 

Montana - Jacobson Family Vacation 2015

This year we spent our Family Vacation in Montana over Labor Day weekend.  The kids waited patiently all summer long and were so excited when it was finally time.  Oakley ended up having a volleyball tournament and Arnica's kids Kaden and Ali had a cross country meet so Arnica and I met Thursday night to trade kids.  I was going to take the littles and leave Friday morning and she would wait for the big kids and come Saturday when they were finished running and playing.  Friday morning Danica started throwing up! UGH! So yuckie!! We pulled the kids out of school at noon after she had had a nap and waited for another hour to make sure we were finished with the throw-ups, grabbed some ziplock bags just incase and headed for Bozeman, MT.  One funny story...we stopped at several gas stations for everyone to go to the bathroom and at one I was in waiting for Danica and the bathroom was full of other ladies as well.  Danica says, "Aunt Natalie I am having the diarrhea!" (Loud enough for ALL to hear!) Then she says, "And before I wipe can you come look at this rash I've got too?!" I wanted to DIE! So embarrassing! We laughed all weekend over that conversation!

When we got to Bozeman we only had an hour before the Hotsprings Pool closed and since it was raining and cold outside we decided to hurry and swim before we set up our tent. Great idea!

My favorite picture of the whole trip! Rhett makes me happy!

My brother Travis and his family made it in time to swim too.  We were the only ones, other than grandma and grandpa that made it in time. So fun!

We stayed that night at the Bozeman KOA and they do a candy hunt after dark.  It was fun and the kids got A TON of candy!

It was a very rainy, cold night! Dallin and Caleb slept in a 2 man tent and got soaked! Part of the experience I guess. ;)

 Sick little Danica with the throw-ups, diarrhea, rash, sore throat and fever off and on got to sleep next to me.  She had a rough night, but we survived! Arnica owes me one! Hahaha!

 The KOA served a great hot breakfast.  We had a great time there!

Then we were off to Travis' house for the rest of the weekend.

There was a lot of cousin cuddling!

We played a game where we all brought 2 of our favorite things wrapped up as a gift and passed them around and got to know each other better! So fun! Funniest part of it is Rhett and Tyce both opened brownies! Both gifts from different houses.  So funny they both happened to get the same thing. :)

We had a great time visiting and goofing around.  A weekend full of good times!

Oh, and A TON OF FOOTBALL!

The girls even got in on it!

Grandma and grandpa did firesides for the younger grandkids and one for the older grandkids. The advice they give is always worth listening too.  We also love to hear them bear their testimonies.  So good for the grandkids!

We also had a talent show.

Laiklie clogged

Dallin and Leslie went with the jumping jacks talent. ;)

Rhett showed us all how he can hand whistle

And we got to see a performance of "Kick the Dust Up" from Oakley and Ali.  It was so neat to watch all the grandkids share their different talents....some serious, some funny.  We are a very talented crew!

When we got to Travis' house the nights were so cold we all spread out between Trav's house and an extra one there on the ranch, but on the last night Rhett and Tyce INSISTED on sleeping out in this little two man tent.  It was COLD! But they lasted the entire night.  Funny boys!

While we were in Montana we got to go to Travis and Bekah's cute little branch.  We FILLED the building! They have never had so many young men and young women at church on Sunday.  They even combine priesthood and relief society because their wasn't rooms big enough to hold all of us. :) Our boys got to bless and pass the sacrament.  The whole day was special. We loved it. 

 

 Montana............like vacations of the past, we had a BLAST! We'll be back again!