The Hawkins Happenings

Christmas 2014

Christmas is always fun! The only thing I hate about it is how very fast it comes and goes. I wish it would slow down just a little.

We always start Christmas morning off in mom and dads room for family prayer, then they can line up youngest to oldest and head out to see if Santa came. He always does! :)

Everybody had a great Christmas and got just what they wanted plus a few surprises. We spent the day at home and at Grandma Hawkins for presents and lunch. We enjoyed playing games together and watching the kids play with their new toys. We were able to go to Grandpa and Grandma Jacobson's a few days later once the crazy snow storm got over. We were so excited after a dry December to wake-up Christmas morning to a white Christmas so we weren't complaining about having to wait to go to grandma Jake's at all. What a wonderful day we had as we celebrated the birth of the Savior of the world. What an incredible blessing!

Pre-Christmas

A few days after Thanksgiving I had to talk and talk to convince Ryan that he needed to drive us up to the ranch to get a live Christmas tree...and I was finally able to convince him and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE EVERYTHING about this picture of it! I love this little tree! It turned out beautiful! I love the picture of the Savior behind it and the pictures of my 4 littles next to that. I loved that this year we spent several evenings with the lights off and the Christmas lights on watching movies or reading Christmas stories and filling our bellies with hot chocolate. We had a great month as we prepared for Christmas!

The school always does a sing-along the last day before break and each class sings a song. Laiklie is on the end in the red shirt.

Rhett is in the back row, blue shirt. He is kind of a stinker and didn't tell me he was suppose to wear Christmas colors. Oh well, the boy next to him didn't tell his mom either I guess. Or the BYU kid.:)

And Dallin is back row next to the girl in the santa hat. He is such a goof ball and wouldn't leave the poor kids infront of him hats/headbands alone! Stinker.

We were SO EXCITED to be finished with school and have a TWO WEEK break! Yay!!

We also had our Christmas Dance Recital. No pictures of Oakley or Violet though. Everything is better with Cousins! These girls did great!

Then there was our Grandma Party/Family FHE! Always a favorite! The boys did have influenza this week though so we didn't let our kids stay the night. They were mad, of course! But slept good at home which helped them heal up for Christmas. What a great grandma to have a fun Christmas Party for them!

Fall Yard Work

This fall was a little weird in that we got snow SUPER EARLY and then after several weeks it melted and we didn't get anymore until Christmas Eve. So we did our fall yard work in December!

We loaded the flat bed truck OVER AND OVER again trying to get everything cleaned up! Oakley and Dallin fought over who got to drive it with each load. haha! That is Dallin's head you can see in the window. The kids were all great help!

We also cleaned up the corn stalks out of the garden. Rhett and Laiklie loved falling into them. :)

Sure love these little helpers!

Primary Nativity

This year at the ward party they asked Rhett and his bestie Kylie to be Mary and Joseph. Rhett did not want to be recognized so he put on his Halloween beard. It fit the costume so I let him wear it! hahaha!! So funny!! Love it! Love this little Joseph and Mary!

Black Friday Shopping

SOOOO MUCH FUN!! Love these girls and love this tradition of spending time together in the middle of the night! Great memories made every year!

My Boys!

These are two of the loves of my life! I pulled in the driveway as they headed out to help feed the other day and I want to always remember the way they look right now. As big as they are getting they are still little. I love this farm life and them decked out in their coveralls with poopy boots. They stole my heart the minute they were each born and will have it for the rest of my life!

Grandpa Jacobson

My grandpa, F. Max Jacobson, passed away November 14, 2014. It was such a sad day for all of us. I was SO VERY BLESSED to be able to spend several days with him and my grandma at the hospital during the last month of his life. What a neat opportunity to get to know my grandpa and grandma better. The thing I will remember the most from that last month of his life is just how very grateful my grandpa was for EVERYONE and EVERYTHING that was done for him to keep him comfortable. What a great example he is to me! I love him. I will miss his glassy blue eyes and how they sparkle when he smiles. I will miss his big hands and big heart. I will miss the way he calls me "Nat." I will miss it all.

The last thing my grandpa said to me about 2 weeks before he passed (when I saw him after that day he was always sleeping) as I was leaving the hospital after having spent the night with him and grandma was...I told him, "I am leaving grandpa." and he got a little teary eyed and in his sweet voice asked, "Well, where are you going?" I told him the things I needed to do for the day and that I loved him. It meant so much to me to see him get emotional that I was leaving, especially because there were several days that I spent with him at the hospital that he didn't recognize me. I know he knows who I am and that he loves me. What a great feeling. I will always remember that!

My grandpa was a WWII veteran and SO VERY PROUD of his county. He loved the USA! What a neat thing at the cemetery to have the Vet's honor him.

This is them presenting the flag to my sweet grandma. What an amazing lady. She is so very lonely now and misses grandpa so much! I have been able to drive to the Valley and spend a few days with her. I LOVE those days and will always treasure them! What a great blessing to be one of the lucky ones that gets to have Max and Madge Jacobson and my grandparents!

My ENTIRE family (Except Jake's wife Chelsea) was able to make it to grandpa's funeral. We have not ALL been together in years! We definitely took advantage of this photo opportunity.