D's Day

We celebrated Dallin's....aka D's...birthday yesterday. I can't believe he is already 9!! He has been super excited about his birthday!

This is the pogo stick he asked for. He was BEGGING AND PLEADING Sunday for us to let him open it after church. We kept telling him he had to wait until Monday - HIS BIRTHDAY! He cried and thought we were the meanest parents EVER! But, he survived the wait and enjoyed learning how to use it. He is actually pretty good at it now. We are counting down the minutes til we get a broken arm though!! :)

Dallin is an amazing kid. He works very hard and LOVES to work. The minute he walks in the door from school he calls his dad to see where he is so he can head out and help. Because of this he is learning new things so quickly. Dallin can already drive a STICK SHIFT TRUCK and when I have to drive the tractor or anything else that terrifies me I make him go with me because he is a great coach and he isn't scared of the cows like his mommy is! His teacher told us last week at parent teacher conference that he is a delight to have in the classroom because he is just so laid back and easy going. Dallin is a good kid and a great friend to so many other children. He is a great blessing in our lives! Happy birthday Big Guy!! We sure love you!

2011 Halloween

This is the family tradition of painting the straw bale pumpkin at grandma's house. This is actually halloween day....the day we painted the pumpkin it started to rain!
Pumpkin Carving....what a ooey, gooey mess!

And here are the finished Jack-o-lanterns. They LOVE this part of Halloween!! Dallin's pumpkin this year was HUGE! We weighed it before he started and it was a whoopin 40 lbs. I carried it outside when he was finished and I don't think it lost a lot of weight being cleaned out. Here's a big shout out to Uncle Jason for the super large pumpkin!

This year we hit the ward trunk-or-treat Monday evening and then headed into Grandma and Grandpa Murdocks for a little visit. They LOVE having the kids come see them. It makes their day!

Oakley was a lego, Laiklie a pirate princess (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates cartoon), Rhett was a penguin and Dallin a hunter. We came home with the mother-load of candy, like every other year. Super fun!!

What did I ever do before I had kids??

Do you see what I see? I was sitting on the couch Sunday night listening to the home teachers and looked up and what do you know? MONKEYS! I find such random things like this day in and day out and I wonder what I seriously did before I had kids to find joy?!
We had a super late night last night because of Ryan and I both having to be at stake meetings. So, kids got to bed late. This morning I decided to let them sleep in and drive them to school. Oakley had an orthodontist appt too, so I was trying to get all 4 kids up and motivated on a Monday morning (almost impossible!) and out the door by 8. I grabbed my socks and cowboy boots on the way out the door to slip on as I drove to the school. (I know....SO NOT SAFE!) I put the left sock and boot on....no big deal. I got the right sock on - much more complicated since it is my driving foot - and started to slip on the boot when I felt something! AH!! Ya....4 littlest pet shops had made their home in my cowboy boot. KIDS!!:)
Also on the way out the door I grabbed Laiklie a waffle and a thing of milk. On the way to the orthodontist she asked me if she could plant "this seed?" I asked, "What seed?" and turned around as she held up her SEED...a WAFFLE seed! Ha, ha!!

Dallin Earns his Wolf

Dallin has been working extra hard these past few months on his scouting and this past Thursday was awarded his Wolf badge and a gold arrow point and a silver arrow point. He has one more pack meeting before he turns 9 and is super close to earning another silver arrow. I am SO PROUD of him. He has worked hard on everything from cleaning up the side of the road in front of our house to grilling chicken outside to learning about our country and state flags. He is such a fun big guy and I have loved every minute of working along side him on this first year of scouting.

Voicemails

(This is one of Rhett's "I'm up to something smiles!")

Yesterday as I was just leaving the last lady's home that I visit teach my cell phone rang. I saw it was HOME calling, so I ignored it thinking I would call them back when I got in the car. When I got in the car to call them back I noticed I had a new voicemail. Now, my voicemails from home are always pretty interesting. I have to admit though, my new favorite voicemails are from Rhett. The other night he left me one while Ryan and I were at a fireside that said something like this:

Mom, when are you going to get home? because I am the only one even being nice. Oakley said she will give me a shot with her insulin thing and they are throwing cheese at me!

Hmmm....you can only imagine what kind of a hurry I was in to get home. NOT!! :) A cheese fight?! Seriously kids??!!

So....back to the visit teaching voicemail. It is my ALL TIME FAVORITE voicemail Rhett has left me. I saved it so I could type it word for word including the pauses....I only wish you could all hear his sweet voice....

Hi Mom, Ummm well........ I'm bored, REALLY bored...... and I want you to come home SO BAD! (Pause).....like I told you on the other message that. I am having popcorn for myself and I told Laiklie that she couldn't have some then she started crying so Oakley beated me up and ripped the popcorn bag. Then she hurt my ummm, side THEN....... she's so mean and she should be grounded ........for a week ...............maybe even for a year!

Ha, Ha! I still laugh everytime I listen to it. What a fun little guy! One of my other FAVORITE things Rhett does I discovered is:

On some of the papers he brings home from school on the NAME line instead of writing Rhett he writes Mr. Hawkins. Ha, ha! LOVE IT!! LOVE HIM!!

West Yellowstone and More

This past weekend the kids were out of school for Thursday and Friday and since all the Hawkins grandkids were, the Hawkins ladies decided to take a trip to West Yellowstone. We of course picked the crappiest weekend to go. It was snowing and cold and we could barely see Old Faithful through the snowy, cloudy sky.....but....the kids didn't know any different and HAD A BLAST!!
Kiana, Oakley, Macady, Rhett, Laiklie, Dallin, Ciara and JD.
The plan was to drive to West, go through the park, and sleep in Jackson Hole. The problem was though, the weather. Because of the storm the pass to Jackson was closed. So we turned around in the park and headed back to West Yellowstone. We were super lucky to find enough rooms in this hotel with an indoor slide for all of us. The kids swam for seriously 2 hours and then we FORCED them to get out!

This is Oakley at the bottom of the slide. Oakley is amazing! She would go down the slide and then stand at the bottom and catch her two cousins Kiana and Ciara that were too short to touch in the 4 feet deep water. She did it over and over again. She is a great cousin!

This speedy blurry dot on the slide is Dallin. He seriously went down every possible way to go down. He did some head first, on his back, belly etc. He LOVED it!

And here is Rhett. He was a little nervous at first and made me stand at the bottom of the slide the first couple times down, but once he figured out that he LOVED it and that at the bottom he was capable of swimming to the side of the pool he went down over and over again. He was the cutest because 1/2 way down the slide he would wave to us EVERYTIME over the side of the slide. Super cute!!

Here is Lu. She went down the slide 2 times on my lap. The first time she threw her head back at the bottom and gave me a fat lip....ouch! The 2nd time as we got to the bottom my feet slipped and we both went under and I couldn't get my feet under me and we were under it seemed like FOREVER!! She coughed and coughed. I asked her if she drank some of the pool and later heard her tell Rhett that she drank "half da pool!" She spent most of her time in the kinda nasty, kinda dirty hot tub. The nasty, dirty water didn't seem to bother her the way it bothered me. :)

THE CREW!

That night it worked out that I had Rhett AND Laiklie in bed with me. This is just one of the positions my sweet Laiklie slept in several times that night. She was flopping all over the bed all night. At one point I had to break up a "sleep fight" between her and Rhett where she seriously THUMPED him. I was so glad he slept through most of the attack! Crazy girl!

The next day after we got home Ryan decided he wanted to go to the Cabin for the night. This is Laiklie on the way to the cabin. She was making up for her restless night in West.

We rented a few movies and went in search of some deer and elk for the kids to see and mostly just enjoyed some family time together!

Now....here are just a couple other things we have been up to...

Dallin started taking a basketball clinic once a week and it learning some great bball skills. This is his cousin JD behind him....he was at grandma's this day so we took him with us to watch Dallin.

Oakley started playing in the band about 3 weeks ago also. I have a picture of her with her clarinet, but forgot to upload it. I will post pictures of the Christmas Band Concert. Should be good! :) She has also started her Christmas Choir with the school. It makes for some early mornings and long days on days she has band after school plus homework, but I have to remind myself all the time that she is growing-up and can handle it. She loves it and never complains about any of it. She is also clogging again this year and her team has actually moved up to be an advanced group. The dances she is learning are seriously AMAZING!! She is a great little clogger!

Yesterday for FHE we ran to Grandma Hawkins house to "paint the pumpkin!" This is something we do every year. The kids love it.

You can see in this next picture the girls ducking trying to avoid the rain. It came a little too soon so they all rushed to the house and I stayed out in it and finished the pumpkins face. High Five Natalie!! Way to take one for the team! :)

You can see we have been crazy busy, but loving every minute of it!

I am a Member

Of the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints and I am NOT ashamed!

This weekend our church held its 181st General Conference. Ryan and I were able to go with the bishopric and some of the young men and young women in our ward to the Saturday morning session of conference. We had never been before so this was a new experience for both of us. WHAT AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE!! We had great parking underneath the Church Office Building so all we had to do was cross the street. We made it in and found our seats in the very tippiest top of the conference center. I was told the center hold somewhere around 21,000 people. I think Ryan and I were 20,998 and 20,999. :) Just before it was to start everyone stood-up for the Prophet Thomas S. Monson to come in. In came his counselors, Pres. Eyring and Pres. Uchtdorf.....but.....no prophet. My heart sunk. I thought to myself, "I came all this way, my one time to come and NO prophet." We all sat down and tried to pay attention through all of our whisperings of "where is the prophet??" You could see the uneasiness on Pres. Eyring's face as he got up to conduct a session he wasn't suppose to conduct and having to skip the 1st talk which always belongs to the prophet. About 2 talks in as the speaker finished speaking and the lights came back on - THERE HE WAS....HE WAS THERE IN HIS SEAT! It was as if he was never missing. The feeling in that GIANT conference center had changed. You could feel his presence! He was there....the Prophet of God! Pres. Monson then got up to speak. It was incredible. I seriously hung on every word and as he was finishing I longed for more. I think I could have sat and listened to him for hours!!

As we came out of the conference center after conference was over we also got to experience for the 1st time those that are against our church. It was a very eye opening experience to be yelled at from the sidewalks of the conference center that the things we believe are not true. They were yelling things like, "YOUR GOOD WORKS ALONE CAN'T SAVE YOU!! YOU ARE LIKE THE MUSLIMS, BANKING ON....." and "THERE ARE 163 COMMANDMENTS IN THE BIBLE, THERE ARE 163 COMMANDMENTS IN THE BIBLE, ARE YOU LIVING THEM ALL?" They also had these HUGE signs that read things like, "THE BIBLE WARNS AGAINST FALSE PROPHETS!" The 1st thing I thought when I heard these things and saw their signs was, "Ya, I know what the bible says....WE BELIEVE IN THE BIBLE!!" Also, we KNOW that it isn't good works alone that save us. I felt bad for these people standing on the streets yelling things at us that they didn't understand or truthfully know anything about. It hurt my heart FOR THEM! It didn't shake me, or my faith! I BELIEVE AND MY ROOTS ARE FIRMLY PLANTED!

We walked through the picketers and towards the temple gates and as we approached the temple gates there on both sides of the gates were members of our church lining both sides of the sidewalk singing hymns. The feeling as you walk from the picketers into the members singing was INCREDIBLE. The spirit was SO STRONG! As you turn and walk into the temple gates you feel peace and safety. Much of what I believe heaven will feel like! It was an amazing feeling to walk out of the worldly influences into the truth! I learned as much from my after conference experience as my actual conference experience.

I, Natalie Hawkins, belong to The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints. I believe that we are children of a loving Heavenly Father. I know that His Son and our brother, Jesus Christ lived on this earth and suffered in Gethsemane and died for each and everyone of us. I have read and know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that Joseph Smith saw our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and restored the church to the earth. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God on the earth at this time. I know where I came from, why I am here and where I am capable of going. I know that each and every person on this earth has the ability to know of the truth just as I do if they only ask Heavenly Father.

What a great weekend. I am looking forward to the day that Ryan and I can take our children to conference and hopefully allow them to feel some of the very same feelings I felt.