Scouts

Dallin has had a big summer with scouts.  On July 26th he was awarded his Bear!  That is still MONTHS away from his birthday.  So...he has been working hard to earn some arrow points. 

 You can barely see him in this picture.  He is in the red/blue shirt standing next to his AMAZING leader, Brother Hagan.  We are so grateful for WONDERFUL scout leaders!!

 Dallin also got to do the rain gutter regatta this past week.  He made his boat, for the most part, all by himself.  He was happy with it and it turned out very nice.  He was pretty good at blowing his boat to the end of the rain gutter.  I knew he would have NO PROBLEMS with this.:)

I LOVEY, LOVE, LOVE those cheeks!!  We are so proud of all the hard work Dallin has put into his scouting.  He is such a great kid and knows how to dig in and get the job done!

Summer Days

I am not ready for them to end!

You're Looking at Her

This isn't best picture ever of my volleyball player, but here is the NEWEST MEMBER OF THE RMMS VOLLEYBALL TEAM!!  Oakley had tryouts monday and tuesday this week.  When we walked in there were 43 girls and we were told they would keep 24.  Some of the girls were SO GOOD! You could tell they had been playing for years!  Oakley only started volleyball this spring so I left thinking that we (she tried out with 3 friends too) didn't have a chance of any of them making it.  She worked her guts out and proved she wanted it though and SHE MADE THE TEAM!!  It was kind of a day of mixed emotions though.  As excited as she was for herself and her friend Lauren, her friends Katie and Alicia didn't make the team and her heart was broke for them.  We are so proud of her and can't wait to be the annoying parents in the stands yelling for our girl! :)

A Little Birthday.....A Little Camp....

Oakley turned 12 this year on August 1st.  I know 12!!! It seriously BLOWS MY MIND! Where did the last 12 years go?!  She is AMAZING! I went with her yesterday and listened to her tell her diabetic story to a company that is going to help with the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes and she had me in tears and 3 grown men all teary eyed.  She is such a special daughter of Heavenly Father and Ryan and I are SO BLESSED to be her earthly parents!

We celebrated her bday on Sunday since we left for girls camp Monday morning.  Her birthday wasn't really until Wednesday so we let her open presents early.  This iphone that she is talking on was her FAVORITE (& Rhett's favorite :) present.  We ONLY got her an iphone because we found a blood glucose meter that plugs into it....allows her to check her blood ON HER PHONE....and then she can hit a share button and it emails it right to my phone.  AMAZING!!! Technology is FABULOUS!!  She also got make-up, clothes and a new bed set.  She was excited about it all!

This is her on Wednesday blowing out candles on the cake the very sweet priesthood leaders brought up for her.  She had a good birthday. *Mostly because she didn't have to hike that day! Ha, ha! If you've ever hiked a girls camp hike you will know what I am talking about! She got to be with all her friends and I was, once again, blown away at the love of her sweet friends.  We had SO MANY of her school friends that are in our stake, but not even our ward, that remembered it was her birthday and took gifts to girls camp for her.  She is so blessed to have wonderful friends!  Happy birthday Oakley!!

Now....On to girls camp stuff...

This year we started girls camp a little differently.  I decided that my sweet little young womens group needed to walk to the temple as part of our girls camp experience.  I decided MONTHS ago and have been working with my presidency and many, many others for months planning it.  We left Saturday, July 28 at 5 am from our stake center and walked the 10 miles to the temple.  I had 4 young women out of my 17 that couldn't be there that day. Otherwise they were all there and we had an AMAZING EXPERIENCE!!  We had pit stops every 2 miles where we got something to eat, drink and motivate.  Those that helped with the stations were FABULOUS!!  We were sore and achy when we got there, but we changed into our sunday dress and headed inside to do baptisms for the dead.  What a neat experience! I struggled with only 1 thing that day......my baby girl Oakley got to walk the 10 miles with us because we did it as part of girls camp, but she didn't get to go inside the temple because she had not yet turned 12.  It was hard to leave my girl outside as I went in. :( BUT.....what a blessing it is to know that I already have her FOREVER! Thanks to a loving Heavenly Father that knows families should be together forever!

We then left for girls camp Monday, July 30 and were there until Friday, August 3.  The stake had so many fun things planned for us and our ward leaders were wonderful.  The girls had a great week.  I had a great week! We had a little girl drama and a couple bad attitudes I had to deal with, but otherwise it was GREAT!

Oakley and her hatchet throwing skills!

This is me and my archery skills. :) Notice you get the picture of me shooting....not of my target. Ha, ha!

And here is the bishopric! They deserve the GOOD TROOPERS AWARD! We always try to do something fun with them on bishops night so the girls get to see them in a little different light.  Ryan is on the left getting his shave on! :)  The girls giggled and giggled all through this.  It was fun to have Ryan there again this year and extra special for him to get to come to hear his daughter bear her testimony for the 1st time.  Girls camp does something for the insides of YW that they can't get ANYWHERE else! So grateful to be a part of it!!

Swim, Swim

Dallin, Rhett and Laiklie had swim lessons in July and LOVED them.  My kids are like fish and LOVE being in the water. 

This is Rhett coming out of the big slide on the last day of lessons.  He can slide and jump off the diving board all he wants without a life jacket now.  He has become quite the swimmer.  When I signed Dallin and Oakley up for swim team at the beginning of the summer he was mad I wouldn't sign him up.  I told him he needed to do lessons a few more years and he said, "I just....................I just.................I just feel like I am too good for lessons!"  Ummm....that is EXACTLY why I put him in lessons.  I think he is a little OVER-CONFIDENT!  He did great in lessons and loved every minute of it!

This is Laiklie, the little boy in her class and her teacher.  She LOVED jumping off the diving board the last day of lessons and even insisted on doing it once without the life jacket.  She is my favorite one to watch when she swims.  She kicks and paddles like a tornado.....but her little body doesn't actually move. :) SO CUTE!!  When she does figure out how to put that energy into motion, WATCH OUT!!

Oakley just did swim team this year.  She was in the pool every Mon - Wed all of June and July.  There were mornings in June that she was getting in the water at only 40 degrees.  SOOO COLD!!  She stuck it out though and has become a strong little swimmer.  She was good when she started and is even better now!  My sister calls their swim team goggles Magnum PI goggles. Ha, ha!  Oakley has the most gorgeous brown skin now from swim team! It scares me sending my beautiful baby off to JR. High in just a few weeks! AH!!!

And here is Dallin coming off the slide.  He LOVES the water.  He did double duty and did swim team and swim lessons.  He didn't mind!! I had him do both when I realized swim team didn't teach them their strokes real well.  I wanted him to KNOW them and decided putting him in both was the way to go.  He loved it all.....other than the 40 degree weather.  He did complain about that a few times. :) I don't blame him!

Family Reunion

A couple of weeks ago we were able to host our Jacobson Family Reunion. All my brothers and sisters and their families were able to attend....minus the brothers-in-law and my great big nephew Jake. We had SO MUCH FUN!! We had skits and a talent show, fireworks and a water party and visited both of the great grandparents. We stayed up late and woke-up early and just enjoyed being together!!  When we all show up there are 43 of us.  WE ARE A CROWD!! We even had to rent a porta-potty because I only have 1 bathroom and I knew that wouldn't work for 43 people!! :)

This is grandpa and the boys helping hold down the air mattresses!! I think grandpa was trying to get a nap....hard to do under a doggie pile of little men! :) 

We took all the kids to the temple.  The Idaho Falls temple is the one that everyone of us - including our parents- were married in and some of the grandkids had never seen it up close. 

And here are the two trouble makers.....it is because of these two that we have

THIS!

This is 28 of the 29 grandkids that my parents have!  WHAT A BLESSING!!  We went into the visitors center and had a neat experience there.  I have a FIRM TESTIMONY (and our experience at the visitors center only strengthened it) that the temple is the one place where heaven and earth combine. 

We had a great 3 days together and can't wait for the next time!!

A Little of This.....&....A Little of That

This summer is FLYING BY!! We have done so much and I am FINALLY getting around to posting just a few pictures from THIS & THAT!!

 I am SO IN LOVE with this picture.  You can't tell, but this is Dallin (on the back of the trailer) and his cousin JD (on the front) helping haul cows.  These two little boys LOVE to work.  They KNOW HOW TO WORK! And they work HARD!  I can't believe they are almost 10 years old!! In only 9 short years these two are going to be putting this hard work training to the test as they go to work as missionaries for our Heavenly Father and His church.  I am so proud to be Dallin's mom!

This summer we have played in the ditch ALOT!!  We own a million pairs of water boots and they are constantly cluttering my porch.  This is Rhett walking the edge of the concrete and Laiklie (in her dress-up leo).  She loved filling her boots with this little water fall and then emptying them. :)

We took Oakley out shooting one afternoon.  She just finished hunters safety this spring and her and her dad just got the hunting info this past week.  This fall she has drawn on an extra deer hunt (that means she can kill 2 deer), an elk and an antelope.  Ryan drew on the same.  I am going to DIE if either of them bring home anything else I have to hang on my walls.  I just don't have room in my little farm house!!  I am excited for her though.  She is a good little shot with a gun!

We have spent a few nights at the Bone cabin.  The kids have each got to go to the Kilgore cabin with grandpa and grandma Hawkins for a night too.  It isn't as fun as Bone....you know.....indoor plumbing beats an outhouse ANYDAY!!

The next pictures are from one of the days we went to the Kilgore ranch with Ryan to run the generator to water the cows.  The kids got bored waiting and found a tree that use to have a tree stand in it so it has nails in the trunk to climb up the tree.  I laughed at how their heads would disappear in the branches.:)

Best Sister Ever!! Oakley giving Laiklie a boost!

Dallin is kind of hard to see because he has his camo jacket on.  He actually made it the highest.

Oakleys legs! Ha, ha!

And Rhett was my favorite! He was seriously about doing the splits around that huge tree trunk!

This summer we also got 3 new baby kitties.  They were abandon at about 4 weeks old, we think, and are just as sweet as ever! There is this little black one the kids call Blackout and two identical gray ones called Fluffers and Chubbers.  Our other cat got killed this spring by a skunk or raccoon because of a fight that caused his tail to get infected.  Yuck!!  We are happy to have a few new little mousers around!

For pack meeting a couple weeks ago Dallin had a bike rodeo.  He was always too speedy for my pictures and I could only catch his back.  He thought the bike rodeo was super fun!

Also this summer Oakley, Dallin and I went to 4H Camp.  We didn't take a single picture.  We were too busy having fun I guess.  We had 3 little cousins and lots of friends go with us.  Dallin loved shooting the guns, and archery.  Oakley loved it all!

Rhett is still taking gymnastics and has finally learned how to do his back hand springs on the ground! Yay!! He has been working on them for a few months now and we are so proud of him for getting them down!  We are going to take the month of August off of gym to have a little break before school.  He needs and deserves one.

We have also been doing swim team 3 mornings a week.  Oakley and Dallin are both doing it.  Oakley LOVES it.  Dallin LOVES being in the water....not so much having someone tell him what stroke to swim. :) They are both becoming such strong swimmers and Oakley's brown skin is gorgeous!!  Rhett and Laiklie started swim lessons this week and have them again next week.  So...pictures to follow.

We also just had our Quinn Jacobson Family Reunion at OUR HOUSE and a post to follow on that as well - as long as my internet cooperates that is!!!