What? Summers Over?

I CANNOT believe summer is over! I have a LOVE/HATE relationship with summer being over. I hate having to wake-up early every morning. I hate starting back into all the after school activities that make me feel committed and tied down. I hate not having my kids home to just jump up and go where ever we want to go. I love that with school starting means Fall and holidays are coming and I love having schedule and routine again. So.....today was the 1st day of school and with that I have decided to do our

TOP 10 FAVORITES OF THE SUMMER!

(Random order)

1. Movies - we went to ALOT of the free (with our PTO card) movies this summer including: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Shrek Forever, How to Train Your Dragon and Tooth Fairy. We had alot of fun with the Free Movies!

2. Family Reunion at Harriman Ranch - this is one that the kids are still talking about. They LOVED it!

3. Road Trips - we took one to my sister's in Preston and one to my brother's in Twin Falls. My kids cannot get enough of their cousins!

4. Swimming - (duh, it's summertime!) we made 2 trips to Ross Park and spent many days at Heise Hotsprings and last week hit Rigby Lake. We also had lots of water ballons and days with the sprinkler under the tramp.

5. We went to atleast 5 new parks - One of our favorite things to do is find a park we have never been to before and try it out.

6. 3 trips to the Zoo - the summer isn't complete without atleast one trip to the zoo.

7. Grandma's Houses - the kids spent the week that I was at girls camp at their grandma's houses and ALWAYS have a good time there.

8. Fishing and getting Firewood with Grandpa Jacobson, trips to the ranch with Dad, weekly library visits and a day at Blastoff!

9. Birthday Parties - Oakley and I both have our birthday's during the summer. This year birthdays included bear world, kittens and a day in the temple. Yay!

10. FRIENDS, FRIENDS AND MORE FRIENDS - This includes cousin's too!

There you have it! Our summer wrapped up in a top ten list! So, here our our FAMOUS 1ST DAY OF SCHOOL PICTURES! Every family has to have them! :)

These two are my morningers and since school starts earlier this year - it really is EARLY in the morning - we had to get up pretty early. They did great this morning - we will see how the rest of the week goes.

And Little Man Rhett is my afternooner - which is just what I wanted. It makes it nice that he can ride the bus home with the kids.
WELCOME SCHOOL YEAR 2010/2011! HERE WE COME!!

Photo Shoot 2010

I took the kids out the other day to try and get a few pictures before school starts. I always like to get their pictures done around their birthday and since it is that time of year again where the Hawkins Clan is having birthdays I decided now was a good time. I took as many pictures as possible before the sun went down and haven't had a minute (or knowledge) to touch them with photoshop, so what you see is what you get. I did get a few cute ones though.....check out my side bar for some other favorites!

Laiklie is a nightmare to photograph....she doesn't ever smile or look at me....I think it is that she is 3! So, I didn't get very many even close to being good pics of her. Plus....you can see if you look close and maybe even if you don't look close the stained on orange kool-aid mustache. Oh well, we will try again another day.

And here is my little man Rhett. He is excited and nervous about starting kindergarten in a week. His mom is feeling alot of the same feelings.:)

This is "D" as he is known in our family....aka Dallin. He is going to be my big 2nd grader. He CAN NOT WAIT to get back to seeing his friends everyday.

Ryan is NOT HAPPY about the crooked hat. I LOVE it and think it was super cute. I tried explaining to him that I know in "real life" my kids are not allowed to wear their hats crooked or backwards, BUT for pictures it was okay. He came back with, "Well is it okay for him to get his ear pierced if it is just for pictures?" OKAY....he won! So, there will be NO MORE crooked hat pictures at this house!

Now our 10 year old, 5th grader Oakley. Just saying that makes me feel OLD!

I had the dentist pull me aside the other day and tell me....."You know she is gorgeous don't you? I mean, you know that she really is a beautiful girl." I have to agree with the dentist....she is gorgeous!

So, there you go. I am going to try and get a few more done this week in a different place with different clothes - we will see though. It is on the list with only a million other things I want to get done this week!

Kind of a Sad Day

We buried one of Oakley's birthday kittens this morning. She has cried alot. It has been kind of a sad day around here. :( If you remember we got 2 kittens from the neighbor for Oakley for her bday. Last week the very cutest one was acting kind of sickly one day so I ran it to the vet. They ended up keeping it over night at the kitty hospital. (Ryan was not happy about this....you know how men are, right?!) After an IV and an antibiotic shot the kitty came home no big deal. When we went and picked him up we took the other kitty in for shots so we wouldn't have to worry about him getting sick. So, yesterday afternoon I noticed that this 2nd kitty wasn't acting like he felt real well, but yesterday was a CRAZY DAY and I didn't have one second to run the kitty to the vet so I thought I would run it this morning. When I got home at 10:30 last night I couldn't find the kitty anywhere. I worried about it all night and went searching again this morning still not finding it. AH!! I broke the news to Oakley and then the other kids a little later. She cried. It broke my heart. Then this afternoon she came in crying again....she had found the kitten. We had a little funeral where Rhett and Laiklie said their goodbye's while Oakley and Dallin cried. We did have a little yelling at the kitty funeral because Laiklie was mad that Oakley wouldn't say goodbye to the kitty! :) Anyway - I have convinced them all that the kitty is in kitty heaven. RIP Tiggy!! You were dearly loved!

Another Round

I am not gonna lie to you,..........there are so many days that I complain about being a farmer/ranchers wife. Like, the days when I feel the pressure of owing the bank more money than I know is possible to make in one year, or the days that we are all loading in the car and Ryan is FINALLY going somewhere with us and we get a phone call that the cows are out at the ranch and once again me and 4 children load up and go alone, or the days when I get a phone call that I need to go change his water because he is stuck working on a broke-down tractor.....my list could go on and on! But......there are also days like today when I drive over to pick-up one of my babies from "going to work with their daddy" (which they LOVE) and see this:

I know why it is that Ryan doesn't want a desk job. How could anyone want a desk job when they could spend the day in a tractor right here under these beautiful mountains with the option of taking one of their kids to work??

(Look close and you can see Lu waving!)

Ryan amazes me as to how hard he works. There are more nights than I like to count that I go to bed only to wake-up to him finally coming home around 3 am and then wake again to his alarm going off at 5 am for him to head back out. I have old men in the ward comment all the time on the crops Ryan raises and how they would give their left and right arms to raise a crop like his. He is REALLY GOOD AT WHAT HE DOES! This year has been a little different than most because all the workers are stretched out to the max because we are missing Senovio more than ever. I never knew one guy could make such a difference. It makes it hard for Ryan going to work every day without him and my kids miss seeing him pull in and out of here too.

We are so blessed to be able to do what Ryan loves to do. What a blessing it is for our kids to grow-up in a place where they learn to work hard and enjoy the outdoors. Like I said, I complain alot, but at the same time I am counting my blessings as Ryan once again jumps in the tractor for another round!

Our Birthdays!!

On Sunday Oakley celebrated her 10th birthday. So.....for any of you moms out there that are, or ever have been the mother of a 10 year old you know that it makes you feel OLD!!! It doesn't help that just 2 days after Oakley's birthday is my birthday - I was already feeling old, and then to actually have a new number....31, to be exact - makes it a little harder.

So, birthday news went something like this:

Saturday while Oakley was at a Primary Class Party the other 3 kids and I went and picked-up these two CUTEST KITTENS EVER and brought home as a surprise for Oakley. You can tell by the smile - she was NOT disappointed! Sunday we had our family party with grandparents and cousins coming for cake and ice cream. We did have some issues with the cake this year. I made a cake before church and as I was turning the pan upside down to put it on the cookie sheet the cake broke in 1/2. So, after church I made a new cake and it flipped out of the pan PERFECTLY! I was super excited and decided while it was cooling to run get some hay for the sheep and lock them in their pen before company arrived......well, while I was outside Laiklie decided to do a little taste-testing!

You can see where her dirty little hands got a handful of each corner. I was SO MAD! I had already made 2 cakes and didn't have time to start a 3rd. She kept trying to blame it on Dallin who had been outside with me......and, we could tell by the chocolate on her face and hands that she was definitely the culprit! I made her apologize to her sister and we decorated what was left of the cake.:)
Monday we had the friend party. I took her and her 3 best friends to Bear World to see the bears, visit the petting zoo and ride the amusement rides. It was fun. We then had them come back that night for a slumber party. I went to bed at 12:30 am and they were just starting a movie, so I was glad when I came out at 2 am that they were all asleep. They had a great time!

And then....here is a picture of me and my candle to blow out. My friend Hollie brought this cinnamon roll over with a candle in it and some Hershey kisses surrounding it and BIG BOSS LAIKLIE wouldn't let anyone have one of the kisses until we had FIRE (as she calls it) and a song. So, my sweet little kids sang me happy birthday and you can see from the kiss in Rhett's hand they didn't even let me get a picture taken after the song before they started in on the kisses!

I had a good birthday this year. A couple weeks ago when the YW pres. said she wanted to take the YW to the temple to do baptisms and to the visitors center to see the Hubble Spacecraft photos I was a little bummed it was on my birthday, but what a neat way to spend your birthday!

Thomas and Adria Brower Reunion

This past week we had the opportunity to take our kids to Harriman State Park for a Brower Family Reunion. Ryan's grandmother is a Brower and her father (Ry's great-grandpa) actually worked on the Harriman Ranch back in the early 1900's. It was neat to be a part of the reunion. This is a MODERN pedigree chart they made for the reunion with all the descendants of Tom and Adria Brower on it. Everyone is pointing at their names on the chart. This is also a 4 generation picture!!

This is Ryans grandmother Ramona (in red) and her sister Neta. They are the only children living. Neta is in her 90's and actually lived on the ranch with her parents as a little girl. It was SO NEAT hearing the stories that she remembers of where we were staying. The kids LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Neta. They took her several goodbye cards that said things like: "We hope you make it to heaven!" The kids told us she was really old and going to die soon!:) We were SO GLAD Neta had a good sense of humor!
This is the cabin we stayed in. It is called THE BUNKHOUSE and was very nice. The kids loved not only the cabin, but I swear their favorite part of the entire reunion were the bikes that their Uncle Jason brought up for them to ride. He even remembered one with training wheels for Laiklie! Thank you Jason!!
There was a talent show. What reunion would be complete without a talent show?? Oakley did one of her short clog solos and then Great Grandma Ramona taught the kids a Frog Kissing song that they performed. They were super cute!

On Sunday we had the whole afternoon free so we went on a drive to Big Springs to let the kids see the huge fish. I remember going here when I was little so it was fun to bring the kids too.

Soaking our feet! You can tell from the shirts we were the RED GROUP at the reunion!

I took this picture because I LOVED it and because I figure it won't be very many more years before Dallin realizes that holding his girl cousins hand is not cool anymore!

Same here. Oakley and Macady are both growing-up WAY TOO FAST!

We also took the kids to Mesa Falls. I had never been to the falls and it was so pretty! The kids loved it!

All 8 grandkids plus Ryan's cousin Vanessa. Banessa as Laiklie called her - and sorry Banessa - Laiklie was pretty much stuck to her side the entire 3 days!

Of course, Family photo opp!

We got the chance at the reunion to repair a section of the fence on the ranch Great-Grandpa Brower worked on. We had each of the kids take a turn hammering in a nail so that everytime they drive by Harriman they can say that they helped build "that fence."

Dallin couldn't get enough of swinging the hammer. I think he got a little annoyed with his cousin because he would only let Dallin swing it a couple times and then tell him to move over so he could finish the nail off. Oh well....atleast he got a little taste of a different type of fence fixing.

I had to beg and plead with Rhett to get him to even swing the hammer once for a picture. Apparently he is not a happy fence fixer!

Laiklie's turn to hammer the nail. I wish you could have seen her face....she was screaming bloody murder! What a little stinker!

We had a GREAT TIME at the reunion and learned so much about the Brower family. What a great opportunity!

Thanks Ramona and Linn!!

Fort Hollow

On Memorial Day we went to my aunts for a family get-together and while I was there I noticed she had in the corner of her yard a little fort for her grandkids to make mud pies in and I remembered just how much I LOVED making mud pies with my cousins on my grandma's dairy when I was little. So I decided that it was time to introduce my kids to mud pie making and to do that you definitely need a fort! So we ventured out into our pasture the other day and found the perfect "FORT" area. Why the name Fort Hollow you ask?? Well, as we were cleaning the area to make the fort the kids say, "Hey mom, when we use to have kittens we would slide them down this old hollow tree trunk!!" Ummm.....where was your mother??:)

It is hard to tell from the pictures how COOL the fort really is. We have 1/2 of a wood wall on one side and then the sheet/curtain...mostly used for wiping muddy hands on....and then a secret passage way to the back door and an oven to let the mud pies bake in the sunshine, and this evening when I went to take the pictures I was informed that they have also added a bathroom!! WELCOME TO LIFE IN THE COUNTRY! Warning to all neighbors...as you drive by if you see a little moon in the trees near my house please don't honk. You might scare them which could lead to pee on their pants!:)

When I asked Laiklie what she was making she said, "Mud pies wis salt and evysing!" We made a stop at the Goodwill yesterday to pick-up a few dishes for the fort and happened on these salt and pepper shakers. What kid doesn't love a good S&P shaker to add to the mud pie making?

So far Fort Hollow and the mud pies have been a HUGE HIT!