Ode to Jake

In May my great big....much larger than I....nephew Jake came to live with us. He came with an excitement not yet seen before about changing water and building grain bins. He came so we could SERIOUSLY work his guts out!! In May I had no idea what I was signing up for. We had had Jake come stay with us for short periods of time during previous summers, but never for this amount of time. We had mostly good days, a few rough ones, alot of laughs and some great late night talks.

Here is my list of things that I learned about Jake:

He can play the piano by ear....and not just play it, like seriously PLAY IT!

He is cool with eating food when his hands are covered in mud.

He LOVES the ladies....and he thinks that they LOVE him! :)

He has perfected changing the water in his church clothes.....HE THINKS....my secret is I always washed them afterwards!

He started the summer with not being able to wake up to ANYTHING - barely water in the face did the trick!....BUT, he learns quickly and by the end of the summer he was totally waking up BY HIMSELF to his own alarm! Yay Jake! SO PROUD OF YOU!!

He only has stinky feet 2 days out of an entire summer and those are the 2 days he wears the same stinky socks!

He can keep 4 children entertained by things like "His Gun Show" while I take a nice Sunday afternoon nap.

He can kill a bird with a sling shot and a salt water taffy. DON'T ASK?!

He can fit 17 candles into a piece of pudding pie.

He loves to dunk stuff in milk.

He likes to "crump it" as he is leaving to change water. HILARIOUS!

So....I think Jake and I both came out of this summer having learned alot of different things. My house is quiet without him and my upstairs no longer smells like teenage boy, AND we are kinda missing it! Jake....I love you! Thanks for being a part of our lives!

This is a picture Jake took just a couple nights before he went home on my camera. I liked this one because you can see my corrals if you look closely. I posted this one so that when Jake gets homesick for Idaho he can just log on here. The night after this he and I hiked out back to look at the solid red full moon together. I am gonna miss you big guy!

Swim Lessons 2011

So....swim lessons got over a week ago today, but life happens and we have been super duper crazy and after attempting to blog this several times and getting kicked off the internet, TODAY IS THE DAY that you finally get an update!
I signed all 4 kids up for swim lessons again this year and just like every other year they did amazing and had a BLAST.

This is Oakley shooting out of the slide. She lives for the last day when she gets to ride it OVER AND OVER again!This is Oakley's knee dive. She has been trying to learn to dive for the past couple years and it is kind of a tricky thing to learn. She is actually pretty good from her knees. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but her skin is super dark this year. She tans BEAUTIFULLY. We have been teasing her that her dad is going to think she is a Mexican and start making her change the water if she doesn't stop getting so dark. Here's "D!" He also LOVES the slide. Dallin and Oakley are both really good swimmers and I only keep them in lessons to perfect their swimming skills! :) He is seriously like a fish and spends more time under the water than over. He was a little funny when I told him he was a "pretty swimmer." He didn't quite know what to think of that. HE IS THOUGH!! He seriously glides his little body right through the water making it look effortless.This is as brave as my kids got off the diving board. I convinced Dallin to atleast do a twist off it. I couldn't talk any of them into doing a front flip.And, here is Rhett. OH MY WORD.....this year was AMAZING for him. This was his 4th year of swim lessons and he had successfully taken 3 years of swim lessons and never once got his whole head wet. This time though - on the first day it was normal Rhett. On the 2nd day he cried on the way there because he was worried about getting dunked by his teacher...and I TRUTHFULLY brought home a different child than I took. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HAPPENED, but he was a whole new kid. All of the sudden he was no longer scared of water and when I got in the pool that day to swim with them he kept saying things to me like, "Hey mom, do you want to see who can sit on the bottom of the pool longest?" WHAT IN THE WORLD!! It was amazing and he definitely grew the most this year at swim lessons!!!Here he is jumping off the diving board. He has walked to the end of the board several years now, but never actually jumped. THIS YEAR HE DID! See what I mean....whole new kid!And, here is my baby. I know she is almost 5 and NOT a baby anymore, but sometimes that is hard to admit. She had private lessons this year because the other child signed up with her never showed up. Her teacher was amazing and Laiklie ate up all the attention. She has a pretty mean glide she learned and is very proud to show!Here is her jump. I don't know if you can see her face, but it is super funny. You can see the fear!

The other thing that kept us busy last week was the FAIR. Oakley had her modeling....which she looked amazing, her rolls she baked and then this cake she decorated. We had a few frosting issues, but all-in-all it turned out cute. She was excited to come home from the fair with 3 blue 1st place ribbons and 1 red 2nd place ribbon. She also came home the proud owner of $11 as her ribbon winnings. It was ALOT of work and the day we turned everything in she told me that "no way was she doing 4H again next year." But, I think she actually LOVED it and will probably/hopefully forget by next year! :)

Dinner Conversation

The conversation at dinner tonight went something like this:

LAIKLIE: "Mom, are we having buttsghetti tonight?"

MOM: "What? Did you say are we having buttsghetti tonight?"
LAIKLIE: "Nooooo.....I said basghetti!"

RHETT: "Laiklie, it isn't BA-SGHETTI, it is PA-SGHETTI right mom?"

MOM: "Right!"

ha, ha, ha!!! It is conversations like this that make me hate to see them grow-up!!:)

PRETTY MUCH OVER THE HILL

So....today is my birthday. And, like the title says I am feeling pretty much over the hill!! :) I can barely stay-up til midnight anymore. In fact, I stayed up and waited for my nephew Jake (he is living with us this summer helping Ryan farm) the other night while he was on a date and thought to myself that we are still years from our children dating and I already can't stay-up and wait very well! :) I also have put on a few lbs since turning 30 and now 32 is kinda scaring me when it comes to that. I was just recently called as the YW president in our ward and have found that I am not as patient and kind as I once was. I am also not "super fun" anymore. Kinda makes me feel bad for the girls!

I did HOWEVER have a great bday today despite the number of years old I am. It started with a little service project for the neighbor lady. No feeling quiet compares to the feelings of a service project! We then ventured onto swimming lessons and stayed to swim afterwards. The kids and I hit a movie this afternoon.....we watched Rango....NOT highly recommended. A few inappropriate things - I thought anyway....remember though, I am 32 now and so maybe I view things a little differently than the world! Then Ryan took me to dinner.

On the list of bday presents....Ryan got me an iphone and then tonight after dinner we went and bought a cute pink/white cover for it. The inside scoop on the phone is - Ryan actually had 2 iphones because of switching from AT&T to Verison....so he didn't have to buy me one (I love saving money)....he just had to program it to my number. I tried calling him like 20 times on the way home from swim lessons to tell him my phone wasn't working - piece of crap! :) It was because he had switched my number over to the new phone that he hadn't given me yet. Funny!! He also bought me a dozen roses and a new frying pan. Some would think a frying pan would suck as a bday gift, but I REALLY needed a new one and was actually super excited about it. I have some amazing friends and got flowers, jewelry, cookies from some of my YW and lots of phone calls, facebook messages and texts.

So, now I am off to have some strawberry chocolate cake (Ry got that too....isn't he cute!) and a happy bday song from my kids. That is ALWAYS my favorite bday present!:)

Birthday, Birthday, Birthday

Can you believe it is birthday time AGAIN! ALREADY!! AND....can you believe she is 11!!!

This year we had something neat happen. Oakley's very best friend Alicia (one next to her on the left) called me about 2 weeks before her birthday and asked if she could PLEASE do a surprise party for Oakley. I seriously had to hold back the tears as I talked to her on the phone because I count Alicia as one of our greatest blessings. She is an AMAZING friend to my sweet Oakley and I was thrilled that she wanted to put together a party for her. When Oakley arrived at Alicia's all these super good friends were waiting in the back yard to surprise her. She had NO IDEA and had a BLAST spending the afternoon with them! Alicia thought of everything....she even had them all dress in purple because it is Oakley's favorite color. She did the party for her on Saturday so she got to celebrate her bday twice this year!
This morning we opened presents! SUPER FUN!! And then after swim lessons we went to lunch with Grandma Hawkins and her Hawkins aunts and then her and I went to town for pedicures. It was Oakley's first pedicure and she LOVED it. She especially LOVED the massage chair. :) So cute!! The little Chinese guy that did her pedicure found out it was her bday and gave her a few little flowers on her toes as an extra special deal! Fun!!

Tonight was Oakley's 4H Modeling. She was in tears twice today over this. She didn't think having to model on her bday was any fun! She looked GORGEOUS though and did amazing. She was speedy and we were pretty far in the back so all I got were fuzzy pictures. Sorry!!
After modeling we hit Chinese food dinner with the family and then home for candles in chocolate pudding pie.

As I tucked Oakley into bed tonight I couldn't help but cry a little (I KNOW I am a baby) as I explained to her the feelings I felt 11 years ago as the doctor placed her in my arms. It was the 1st time in my life that I realized what this whole "plan of salvation" thing was....I finally understood eternity and the importance of living righteously so we could be together forever. I understood for the 1st time just how much my Heavenly Father loved me because he gave me HER! I can't even image life without Oakley!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG GIRL!!

Dallin and His Space Rocket

This past week Dallin had his first space rocket derby. (Our ward decided to do this instead of a pinewood derby this year...kinda hoping to do the pinewood derby next year!) This is Dallin and his Derby. He went with the Amercian Theme this year! :)
Here is one of the races!! SOO EXCITING!

Just one little side note: ISN'T HE SO HANDSOME....I SURE LOVE HIM!

This space rocket thing kinda ended up being a joke. The rockets kept falling apart and they had all sorts of issues with the wire track etc., etc., etc.!!! There were no real winners or losers....which was a nice thing. They boys were all just excited for the one or two times that their rockets actually stayed on the wire and made it anywhere! Dallin did come home with something however........two bloody knuckles and about 6 small cuts on his fingers. Those space rockets were DEADLY! If you let go of the propeller mid-turning WATCH OUT!! Dallin (and Ryan) did great on the making of the space rocket and he was happy with the night, so all-in-all it turned out great.

4-H

This summer Oakley signed up with a few of her clogging buddies to do 4-H. We had never done 4-H (since I was little anyway) and so this was definitely ALL NEW to us. She signed up for a sewing, bread making and cake decorating class. The sewing made me a little nervous because I knew she would be relying on my sewing skills to learn her sewing skills and.....I am not gonna lie to you.....I suck at sewing. My sweet mother is an AMAZING seamstress and has tried over and over to teach me to sew. I have learned several things from these classes, but not enough to help my sweet daughter sew this skirt she chose to sew.

I was however pretty proud of myself with the fact that I figured most everything out except the bias tape by myself. Thank you mom for the lesson on bias tape! :) Oakley, however, WAS AMAZING! I couldn't believe how quickly she caught on. She has also had a few small sewing classes at grandma's house, so this wasn't her very 1st, but for what she did she blew me away!Do you see what I am talking about?! She sewed this super cute zebra skirt with a tie-dye hot pink overskirt and a tulle petticoat. It is SO STINKING CUTE!! She gets to model it for the judges at the fair next week. She is also suppose to make some bread of some sort.....thanks to grandma Hawkins for already agreeing to help with that. (I also suck at making bread....SORRY MOM! I know you tried!) And she is suppose to turn in a dumby cake that is decorated using frosting tips. This is one of the 5 practice cakes she had to do for the class. She LOVED the cake decorating and has gotten pretty good at it. She may now be this houses official cake decorator! Oakley AND I have both learned SO MUCH from doing 4-H and I am especially glad she decided to take part in it this year just because of the few things I learned along HER 4-H journey. Love you Oakley and I AM SOOO PROUD OF YOU!!