Hawkins Christmas

It’s always fun to spend part of our Christmas day at grandma Linn’s with cousins. This year we had a delicious lunch and the cousins pass the present game. All of the cousins were there except Macady and her little family. It was fun to have so many of them together. We are so blessed!

Christmas 2023

Christmas 2023 was a good one! It was so fun to have everybody home and be together. We started the morning with sleeping in. Jax was sick while they were here with a fever and cold and had a terrible night. By about 10 AM I woke everybody up. We watched the church nativity video and had a prayer before we started opening our presents. It was a great way to start the morning. Christmas was a little different this year. We tried to buy experiences/tickets for the kids instead of so much stuff. The last thing we need around here is more stuff! So hopefully the kids each have something to kind of look forward to over the next couple of months. We spent the day eating a lot of delicious food and playing games. It always comes and goes so fast. Such a great day! 

Family Pictures 2023

We have tried and tried this fall to get family pictures done. We’ve even had it scheduled a couple of times, but it just never happened. Just a couple days before Christmas. I asked my cute neighbor Casie to take just a couple quick ones. You can tell the boys were really cooperative! Lol! The pictures are a little washed out. Winter pictures are definitely not my favorite, but we were so glad to get them done finally! 

Andrus Family Christmas Trip

Logan’s family does a trip for Christmas every year. This year they were in Arizona again. Oakley invited her great grandpa Max to go with them one day to the temple. I loved getting the pictures. I’m so happy she invited him to spend some of the day with her. My kids are so blessed to have Max! He has been such a big part of their lives. What a blessing grandparents are even if Jax doesn’t know that yet. ;) Hahaha! Such a cute picture of Jax and his great-great grandpa Max. 

Sledding

Cousin Tyce and Rhett have been spending a lot of time together recently with Tyce preparing to leave on his mission soon. One of the weekends he came we happened to get one of the only snow storms we’ve got this winter. So Rhett, Laiklie and Tyce loaded up the big sled and went down to the Ucon pit to try it out. Laiklie sent me this funny little selfie from their sledding adventure. They came home soaking wet, muddy and happy! I’d call that a win!! 

Christmas Recital 2023

Dance has looked very different this year! This is the first year in more than I can count that I haven’t had a kid dance in the Christmas recital. Laiklie and her dance BFF Ellie decided they weren’t going to do team dances this year. They are just going to do individual events. It has actually been a nice break! But…Sad to not have anyone in the recital. Laiklie is still teaching dance so she had to be there and so of course I was the backstage help again. :) Maybe one of these years I’ll retire from that job. Lol! 

 

Cousin Mindy

My cousin Mindy has recently moved back to Idaho, and purchased the home that my grandma and grandpa Murdock were in when we were little. She’s been doing a full remodel. It has been fun to be able to be part of that journey with her. Especially these last couple weeks. I was released as the Relief Society president the week before Christmas. Knowing that change was coming and then after it came, it was nice to have some thing to pour my energy into. I love reconnecting with Mindy and seeing her bring my grandma and grandpa‘s house back to life and turning it into something that will work for her and her family.

This was one of the many paint days we spent together. We have also done some demolition, closet building, sorting and organizing, and endless cleaning with the construction mess. It’s been an adventure! 

Quick Trip to Utah

Right after Thanksgiving, Oakley‘s doctors made a medication change for her depression/anxiety. It was definitely not the right change and it caused her to bottom out and become very suicidal. Logan took her to a mental health facility where she stayed for just a couple days. It was an incredible blessing! Not only did they help her find the right medication. They also taught her about different facilities in her area that were available to help and several coping skills. Such a blessing! After Oakley was discharged her and Jax came to Idaho for a few days. Ryan and I ended up taking her home and spending a night down there. We ran over to Temple Square to see the few lights they have up right now since the temple is under renovation. My nephew Seth was singing with his choir in the tabernacle. By the time they started singing Jax was very over it. So we didn’t get to hear many songs, but it was so fun to get to see my sister for just a couple minutes while we were down there. We also ran into Rhetts best friend, Madi by some crazy chance. So fun to see her too!

Our Little Handful

This little baby Jax is SOOO BUSY!! He definitely keeps us on our toes! He is at such a fun age. He is all over, into everything and starting to talk. We just can’t get enough of him! There’s nothing better than him saying his little “Pa” for Grandpa and then patting the floor so that he will sit down and play with him. Being grandparents is definitely the best!

Time is a Theif

This picture of Oakley and Macady and their tiny babies reminded me of a couple of other young moms years and years ago. It’s so fun to see our girls being young moms themselves now. It’s an incredible joy I didn’t expect. Where has the time gone?!?! 

Happy Birthday Linn

Tara had some big ideas this year with painting the hay bale. We learned a long time ago that her and I make a pretty good team. We had such a cute design at Thanksgiving that we decided to do a Christmas one to surprise Linn for her birthday. She was in Arizona when we did it and was so excited when she got home and saw it. Ciara and her husband Rhett came to help us. Oakley and Macady both happened to be around too, so we made them join in on the fun. It turned out so cute!