Priesthood Preview

Tonight was the Priesthood Preview.  I have been to a Priesthood Preview before.  I was a counselor in a primary presidency and then a primary president and so I have actually been to several Priesthood Previews before, BUT.....

never with this guy sitting by my side.

Tonight was DALLIN'S PRIESTHOOD PREVIEW! I can hardly believe he is big enough to receive the priesthood this next year.  Is he ready? Not quiet, but he will be.  Dallin is INCREDIBLE! He amazes me every day.  He has a strong desire to do what is right.  He wants to and tries very hard to be obedient to not only his parents, but his Heavenly Father as well.  He is a great example of hard work and kindness in our home.  He will be a GREAT priesthood holder.  I got teary eyed several times tonight (especially as he joined the other 3 boys in singing A Young Man Prepared!) thinking about how fast he is growing.  I remember the stubborn little boy who would only wear wranglers and wouldn't leave the house without his cowboy hat.  He use to tell people he was going to be "tres" (three in Spanish) years old at his birthday.  It seems just like yesterday.  Tonight they talked about these boys going on missions and I looked at my boy sitting next to me......and he winked at his momma.....and I thought HOW WILL I EVER SEND HIM?? I pray everyday that I am preparing him not only to be worthy of the priesthood he will soon receive, but also to be worthy to serve a mission for the Lord.  I sure love this kid and I know before I am ready the time will come to send him on that mission and I will be as proud of him then as I was tonight sitting there in the primary room with him eager to get the priesthood.  I sure love you Dallin!

Mr. Fuzzy

I did a post yesterday on Laiklie.  She is ONE OF A KIND! She makes me laugh everyday and it didn't surprise me when  this is what I found on her dresser today.

 She calls "him" Mr. Fuzzy! "He" is a ball of elastic string she has strung out and balled up together.  STRANGE!

 A close-up of Mr. Fuzzy

And every ball of fuzz needs breathing holes. :)  She CRACKS ME UP!!

She has always been this way.  She takes random things and NAMES THEM and then keeps them FOREVER! She took the ends I cut off an orange one day and named them Mr. Clammy. She cried a few days later when she found Mr. Clammy in the garbage. :) She also cut a corner off of one of my wash cloths one day and named it Mr. Snuffles. She packed Mr. Snuffles EVERYWHERE with her for weeks.  Mr. Snuffles has now died (that's what I heard her tell her cousin recently)....or in other words got lost!  Laiklie is such a fun girl and keeps life interesting for sure! 

World's Best Friends

We seriously have WORLD'S BEST FRIENDS!! We invited a few of our neighbors/friends to go bowling with us tonight for Family Home Evening and we had a BLAST!!!

Eight adults + Sixteen Kids + bowling = SO MUCH FUN!!

 The Big Boys (Dallin, Kaleb and Nathan)

 The Big Girls (Oakley, Lauren and Katie)

 The Middle Size Girls (Savanna and Kadence) 

 The Little's (Rhett, Preslie, Ava, Laiklie, Kayia and Emily)

 Laiklie and Ava getting their BOWL on!!

 Brinley, Kylie and Rhett - everyone had someone to be with and we all had a BLAST!!

 And my favorite people....THE BOWLING MOMMA'S!! I love these ladies and I am so grateful to a Heavenly Father who knew 7 years ago when he changed the ward boundaries that I NEEDED these ladies.  There are so many ladies in this ward that are my age that have kids my kids age and I am RICHLY BLESSED!

After bowling we headed across the parking lot for ice cream and we seriously filled the place.  We had almost every table full.  It was a great night and so fun to get out together.  There will definitely be more of this neighborhood bowling in the future! We may have to start our own league! :)

I Love This Little Girl!

 Laiklie is HILARIOUS! She is so much fun!!  She is still young enough that she doesn't quite understand everything and that makes life more fun.  She finds happiness in the smallest things.

She is also such a tease and jokester.  I mean....look at her.  She is a crack-up!!

This was the first snow we got of the year and she had slept downstairs with Oakley the night we got it.  The next morning she came up stairs, saw the snow out the window and announced, "This is the best day of my LIIIFFFFEEE!!!" Ha, ha!

Yesterday as we were headed up to the cabin with all the Hawkins cousins to celebrate Ryan and Linn's birthday I was talking to Siri on my cellphone as I was driving so she could text for me.  I have to pronounce my words very clearly or Siri gets them wrong every time.  I said, "we are on our way to the C.A.B.I.N" and Laiklie broke out laughing.  When I turned around to see what she was laughing at she said, "Mom, you called it a CABIN.....it's not a CABBBBIN, it's a CAVIN!  You said it wrong!"  We tried explaining to her it is called a CABIN and every time we said it she died laughing thinking that was absolutely ridiculous.  Who would call it a CABIN?  So.....from now on at our house we go to the CAVIN!:) She also said something yesterday about ValentiMe's Day. :) I love it all! I don't want her to grow-up!

An Extra LOW Night

Oakley's blood fluctuates SO MUCH right now because of growth spurts and hormones.  It worries me and so we try to watch it super close.  The other night we went out for ice cream and on the way home I asked if she had done insulin.  She said, "Yep, 60 carbs." That was great and I was proud of her for doing it before I  even asked.  About a 1/2 hour after I put her to bed though she came up with this blood number..... 

She was shaky and that ALWAYS makes us nervous! We handed her what was left of my pepsi on the cupboard, some candy and a bag of doritos.  The lowest Oakley has ever been was a 36, so we were pretty close to our lowest low.  :(  I checked her several times throughout the night and thankfully she came back up to normal range.  It took me until the next morning before it hit me what we had done wrong.  Oakley did 60 carbs for AN ICE CREAM CONE! She usually has a shake which is about 60 carbs, but this time she has a cone which is 1/2 the carbs of a shake.  I am so glad she felt the low before she drifted off to sleep.  Diabetes is a scary disease.  We hear all to often of children going to sleep, going low and never waking up.  Because of this I wake-up night after night after night to check my sweet girls blood as she sleeps.  There are nights that I pause at her door and pray she rolls over or makes some sort of noise or movement before I walk into her room just as a reassurance that she is okay.  We love this girl (along with our 3 other babes) more than life itself and what a blessing it is that she is strong enough to deal with diabetes LIKE A BOSS!! :)

Dallin's Birthday

I can't believe my boy is 11 years old now!  He does NOT LIKE the camera and was NOT happy about pictures!

 Dallin does love duck dynasty though so he was super excited about a giant sized duck dynasty pillow.

 He also really wanted a bb gun pistol.  He loves it!!

And the last thing he really wanted was 10 lb weights.  When I picked them up in the store to put them in my cart I knew he had NO IDEA how heavy 10 lbs really was, but I knew he would be sad if I came home with anything smaller.   This picture is fuzzy, but I love the look on his face as he is trying it out for the 1st time.  I am sure he will grow into them.  They will help with that pull-up bar (in the doorway behind him in the picture) that he lives on too! 

Dallin is a GREAT kid.  He makes being a mom easy! We sure love him! Happy Birthday D!

Halloween 2013

We love Halloween!!

 This year Oakley was Thing 2, Laiklie was Miss America, Rhett was a minion and Dallin was a hunter.  We went to the ward trunk-or-treat and in to see Great Grandma Murdock.  We got to trick-or-treat at her building too.  Some of the old people were a little weird though.....like the guy who made EVERY KID recite the entire "trick-or-treat smell my feet give me something good to eat, if you don't I don't care I'll pull down your underwear!" After Dallin and Rhett recited it to him Oakley and Laiklie decided to go ahead and skip his treats. :)

 And here is the Thing 1 to our Thing 2.  I sure love these girls!!

And Miss America also made an appearance at the elementary Halloween parade. :) She is definitely the cutest little toothless Miss America I've ever seen!