Fourth of July 2011

This 4th of July we spent at the parade in the morning and then the ranch in the afternoon. The kids LOVE going to the ranch and especially with cousins.

We spent hours on the peddle boat. By the end of the afternoon my legs were burning from so much peddling. We had SO MUCH FUN! We watched fireworks with my parents because the kids spent the night at their house because I left for girls camp early the next morning. The fireworks were REALLY GOOD! The kids LOVED them!!

4H Camp

I got to take Oakley, a couple cousins and a few friends to 4H Camp last week. OH MY WORD!! I was glad I survived. The girls were all 10 - 12 years old and SO MUCH FUN!! They kept me going all day and all night long! :)

Cousin Ali, Oakley, Clogging friend Whitney, Kyla (in front), Clogging friend Brooklyn (in back), Ciara, Cousin Macady and her friend Jessica. This was infront of our 1st cabin. Thats right 1st cabin.....on night #2 as we got back from the square dance and ready to tuck in I headed to the bathroom with a couple of the girls and a few minutes later the rest of the girls came busting through the door with the announcement of "A MOUSE IN THE CABIN!!" For those of you who know me you know I DO NOT DO MICE!! I seriously was ready to check into a hotel or drive my bum home. I was brave though and we moved cabins at about 11 pm. The girls were WIRED after all the craziness and didn't go to sleep until sometime around 1 am. I am still exhausted!!This is on the hike. Brooklyn (in pink) had some issues with lightheadedness and so her and I only made it 3/4 of the way there. The other girls all did fine and made it to the top and back. It was a pretty steep hike. We had fun even if I didn't get to the top.These are 4 of the cute girlies at the gun shooting range. Oakley is the closest to the camera. Oakley was the best shooter for the girls in her group. She was pretty excited about it. I was pretty proud. Getting a 22 for Christmas this past year sure helped with that! Here she is showing her shooting skills! The last night we were there they had a carnival/rodeo for the kids and their new stick horses. I also took t-shirts for the girls in our cabin to decorate. The girls came home with stick horses, picture frames they decorated, candles they made and a ton of little things from the carnival. They also got to make homemade ice cream, learn a square dance and do archery and rifles. They had a great time and we are already planning to go back next year!

Some Firsts

I have NO PROOF that any of these things happened, because I haven't pulled my camera out all week.....But

THIS WEEK:

For the 1st time all summer we put the sprinkler under the trampoline. It is the 1st time it has been warm enough.

For the 1st time all summer we ALMOST hit 80 degrees! We got to 78 and it felt SO GOOD!

For the 1st time this summer we went to the movies. I took the kids to see Yogi Bear. It was a good clean film....no bad words or bad guys. It wasn't my favorite movie, but my kids REALLY liked it!

For the 1st time Oakley and I tried Advanced Clogging. Oakley had her clog camp this week and her teacher thought her group was good enough last year to start advanced. When I got there there were a few ladies that I clogged with a year ago (I had to quit because clogging + young womens = too much!) that were going to try it. So, I paid the money and joined in. I have to say.....my brain DOES NOT remember clogging steps like it use to. I can do the steps fine, it is remembering what comes next that gets me! :) Oakley did great though and it was alot of fun to do it together. She would help me remember the steps to practice at home. I have to admit though.....I AM SOOO SORE!!

Another 1st that isn't this week, but we have been preparing for it this week is 4H Camp. Oakley has never been and gets to go next week. I decided to tag along as a leader (someone has to check her blood in the night.....I didn't figure anyone else wanted to do it!). We are taking a couple cousins and a few friends and are SO EXCITED!! Plenty of pictures to follow I promise!

This is My Life

So, 12 years ago when I signed-up to marry Ryan Hawkins there were ALOT of thing I signed-up for that I didn't realize I was GETTING MYSELF INTO!! Hauling cows every spring is one of those things! This it the type of thing though that over the years has become part of my life. The "Men" having JUST ONE MORE MEETING to talk about what we are doing around here. This is one of those things that I think we could TOTALLY AVOID if a girl ran this place!:)
Three of the kids waiting VERY PATIENTLY in the bed of the semi for their daddy! They LOVE hauling cows to the ranch because of the ride in the semi. Dallin has turned into "one of the men" and is ALL BUSINESS....so, he rode to the ranch this year with his uncle Chase.

This is Dale - just being Dale - riding on the ropes of the semi trailer after unloading this truck. Dale is Ryan's right-hand man. I can't even imagine doing this whole "Ranch/Farming" occupation without Dale by our side.
This is my tough and rugged cowboy! He was doing the "pour on" (if you know cow language you will understand...if not....no biggie...you really aren't missing out by not knowing!) and I was doing the counting. That is why there are no pictures of actual cows....I can't take pictures of them and count them at the same time. :) I wonder if Ryan would have known that if he still would have married me! :) Ha, ha!!


After the semi ride this is their 2nd favorite part of hauling cows. They LOVE to run free out here in all this wide open space. They would disappear and I would yell for them to come back and they would have been makin' an outdoor potty or picking wildflowers, etc. They LOVE the ranch! This is one of the parts I am SO GLAD I signed-up for!!

How can you NOT love this life?? Culverts, creeks and my 4 year old!!

Another part of ranch life is the opportunities my kids get to learn and grow. This is my little D standing next to uncle Chase's work truck. Dallin has been working his little guts out since the day school got out. He has been fencing, water changing, spraying weeds and branding cows. This day was the 1st time he got to drive uncle Chase's truck all by himself. I sat next to him on the seat, but that was it....he did great for a little 8 year old driver.

So, THIS IS MY LIFE - AND - I AM LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT.....THE PARTS I SIGNED-UP FOR - AND - THE PARTS I HAD NO IDEA ABOUT!!

This is one of two posts for today, so make sure and read on!

Parade Day

We had one of our local parades on Saturday and Oakley and Rhett participated in it with their clogging teams.

It took the parade FOREVER to start.....so, this is Laiklie and I, just chillin'!
This is Oakley (in the middle with bandanna) dancing on the float. I was yelling her name and she obviously couldn't see me! :)

Afterwards their dance groups got to dance at the park as part of the afternoon entertainment. This is Rhett (cow) and Laiklie's group doing their Old McDonald dance. It was perfect for a small town parade and rodeo.

This is our shy little sheepy, Laiklie. She is the one on the left.

That night I took the kids to the rodeo. I am just sayin'.....it was the most lame rodeo we have been to yet!! The speaker system didn't work, so they were almost 2 hours late starting.....then we had to sit an hour through all the Rodeo Queen announcements because they were suppose to do that an hour before the rodeo started. There were NO bull riders.....only one saddle bronc rider and only two bareback riders....and one of them had the horse he ride break its leg. So, the highlight of the rodeo was the little mutton busters! We may have to try to hit another - hopefully better - rodeo before too long.

Daddy Daughter Date

Last night my sweet husband took my beautiful little girl to her Activity Days Daddy Daughter Date!! It was a Cowboy Hoedown....and they were suppose to wear costumes.
I MADE Ryan wear the pink cow material around his hat for his hatband so he matched Oakley (he didn't see the point in matching, ha, ha, boys!!) I also made him wear the Sheriff's Badge! I LOVED IT!! :) They had a great time and played games including galloping stick horse races and guess your daughters hand. I asked Ryan if he guessed the right hand...he said, "Yep, I just looked for the darkest one!" Oakley's skin browns like a little indian! They also did a little boot-scoot-n-boogie! Totally wish I could have seen it!! When they got home Ryan said, "I remember why I love these cowboy boots so much." When I asked why he said, "Because they feel SO GOOD to take off!" I sure love Ryan and love watching him with his kids. Oakley had a great time and even got to go with him for ice cream afterwards! What a fun night for both of them.

Memorial Day 2011

We had such a great Memorial Day Weekend. It started on Friday with NO SCHOOL!!! Yay! We are SO GLAD to finally be finished with that for the year. We slept in on Friday and it was SO NICE!! On Saturday we went with Grandma Jake to a few cemeteries. It was a pretty nice day to visit cemeteries! Sunday we had some cousins arrive at our house and had a slumber party. My kids LOVE their cousins and could not wait for this batch of them to show-up. We ended up having my sister Arnica's family and last minute surprise my brother Cody's family showed-up too! My parents came and stayed the night also - WE HAD A HOUSE FULL and it was a BLAST!!
I went to check Oakley's blood Sunday night and her and her cousin Ali had made this cave type bed under Oakley's raised bed. I LOVED that they were matching sleeping!:)
Monday morning we hit some more cemeteries. This time it was a little chilly. I always love going to the cemetery with my parents and grandparents. This year my grandparents didn't make the trip because of cold weather and grandma not feeling well. My dad always tells the kids stories of the people we are there to visit. It is a great teaching moment!

My mom always takes pinwheels for the graves and this year she bought these birds for the grandpa's headstones. She handed one to Laiklie and Danica and the birds wings went CRAZY in the wind. I LOVED their little faces. They thought it was great!!

After visiting the Cemetery we headed to my Aunt's for our Annual Jacobson Memorial Day Picnic. It ended up being crappy weather so we did the picnic and games at the church.

This is Max. I had never met Max until this get-together. I fell in love with him instantly. He is my cousin Emily's little boy and such a cutie!! I seriously would have brought him home if I could have stole him away from her. He was such a little clown and I just couldn't get enough of him!!

This is a line-up of just "some" of the crowd of children at the Jacobson picnic. There are SO MANY OF US!! Ryan always teases me that I "make-up" cousins. This is proof that I have alot of cousins! This is a handful of the 3rd generation Jacobsons!

Games at the church. This was a version of freeze tag. I posted this picture for my big sis Jenny. Her oldest son Jake is staying with us for the summer and I wanted her to see him (big guy on the right) taking out the children in freeze tag! He ate it up!!

Back to my house for more snacking and lots more playing with cousins! This is Paige, Danica, Casey, Rhett and Laiklie.

So, to sum it all up we had alot of eating, alot of visiting, alot of laughs and SO MUCH FUN with family!