House Update!

By the end of March we were getting SO CLOSE on the house!!

 I took this picture because I wanted to remember what $1000 at Home Depot looked like! They were ringing this up as we were checking out and I watched the total go up and up and up and about died that this cart full of faucets, plumbing supplies and some tiles cost us $1000!!! Building a house is EXPENSIVE!!!

We did so much of the work on this house by ourselves and because of that have such a sense of pride in it.  We laid floors until our knees ached and tile/grout until our hands hurt.  We lifted walls, framed, painted, etc, etc, etc.  I am so proud of our little family for working together to get the job done!

Diabetes Anniversary

On March 17th, not only did we put Oakley on an airplane to spend spring break in Arizona with her Great Grandparents......we also celebrated LIFE!! It was TEN YEARS ago that day that Oakley was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes.  I picked my little 5 year old up from Kindergarten after her St. Patricks Day party and ran her into the doctors office thinking that she had a bladder infection because she had to pee ALL THE TIME and had even had a few accidents.  That was SOOOO NOT Oakley.  The day she was potty trained, she was potty trained! We NEVER had accidents....so I knew something was wrong.  After a urine sample, a finger stick and a blood draw (about 20 mins) and we were diagnosed with Type One Diabetes and sent straight to the diabetic specialist where we spent the next 6 hours pumping her full of IV fluid, doing blood draws and learning how to give shots and really, just learning about how drastically our lives were about to change.  I still remember and tear up every time I think about leaving the specialists office that evening.  As we got in the car and pulled out of the parking lot I said to Oakley, "Oh sis, I'm sorry today has been such a long day!" and she said, "but not a bad day mom!" Our sweet girl had been poked and prodded for the past 6 hours over and over again and didn't consider it a bad day! That is how Oakley has always faced this disease.  It SUCKS! and we have some EXTREMELY CRAPPY DAYS because of it and it has had us in tears more times than I can count, but after 10 years Oakley still faces it head on and fights like the hero she is! We love her and are amazed by her EVERYDAY! So this year, 10 years later, we once again celebrated life and put her on a plan to Arizona. 

Arizona

If you look really close going up the escalator in the back is Oakley and Macady getting ready to board a plane headed to Arizona! Ahhhh!!!

 Tara and I decided to take Great Grandpa and Grandma Romrell up on their offer this year of having the girls come visit and bought the girls plane tickets for Christmas.  They left March 17th and spent the week of spring break down there having a blast and getting sun tans.

 The girls did water aerobics with great grandma each day and LOVED it.  They came home with all sorts of stories of how much fun they had with the Greats! We tell people all the time that our Great Grandparents aren't like "normal" great grandparents. They are so much fun!! Heck, they rode the California Screamer with us at Disney Land! They are seriously BEST GREAT GRANDPARENTS EVER!!!

 They took these girls and Cousin Vanessa to the Easter Pageant at the Mesa Temple while they were there and the girls said it was INCREDIBLE.  From the few pictures I got I can only imagine how good it was! I am so glad they had a good week and I love that they are getting big enough to go do these kinds of crazy adventures on their own.  It is so good for them and it was good for us mom's to see what they were capable of. :)

This Dumb Cat!

RACCOON????

NOPE! Just the dumb cat that thinks he lives IN our house and welcomes himself in anytime he can!

Rhett's Square Dance

On March 16th was the 5th grade square dance.  My kids have all LOVED participating in the square dance, and Rhett was no different.  It is ALL WE HEARD ABOUT for weeks!! He was so excited and he did such a great job.  I LOVE watching them and I love the tradition of it all.

 Rhett got assigned to dance with Hallie South.  All the 5th grade boys have a crush on Hallie and so they were all SOOO JEALOUS of Rhett and Rhett just ate it up!! The funny thing is Rhett was the only one in the class that DIDN'T have a crush on her!! Hahaha!! They did a great job dancing together! So fun to watch!! The square dance is seriously one of my favorite things our school does!

And just one quick picture of Rhett and Raeg. I love that these two are still best friends after all these years! 

Easter Egg Hunt 2016

Annual Hawkins Family Easter Egg Hunt 2016

We love doing the Easter Egg hunt and this year we were only missing JD.  These kids all got an abundance of candy.....as usual! :)

 We always start the morning off with breakfast and this was the only picture I got of the two big girls.  They are WAY past the egg hunting stage.  Hahaha.  Sure love them still!!

Club Volleyball

Laiklie played Club Volleyball this spring for the first time.  She had a great little team with most of the girls coming from our elementary.  Her coach saw me one day in the office at school and told me just how much she loved coaching Laiklie.  She commented that she was VERY coachable and tried so hard to make any adjustments or changes they recommended.  She said she worked very hard at practices and even though she wasn't as strong as some of the other girls (yet) that she would get there.  Laiklie was the youngest player on the team and the only 3rd grader, but she held her own and was fun to watch as she improved over the season. Can't wait to watch her again next year!

Laiklie, Ava, Emily, Maddie, Taylor, Kiaya, Quinn and Addison