Icing on the Cake

Laiklie is what we call at our house "The Icing on the Cake!" She brings us so much joy and was the perfect addition to our family. She had her big 4th Birthday yesterday!! I can't believe my BABY is 4!! She told everyone all day that it was her birthday and even made a new also 4 yr. old friend at Winco as I bagged my groceries!:) She is so funny. She was SUPER EXCITED about presents this year. Everyone she opened was her "favorite" and "just what I wanted!"

Because we celebrated her birthday with family on Friday, yesterday was kind-of just a normal run around with mommy day. We did go to the ranch to haul calves with dad.....you can tell in the cupcake and blowing out candles pictures how dirty her face is from being at the ranch. Then, since I had mutual the kids stayed home and watched her new Tinkerbell Movie. She seemed to have a great day!

I thought I would tell you all just a little about Laiklie that you may or may not know. She loves the color pink. She loves purses, zhu zhu pets, make-up and watching TV. She thinks her name is spelled ABC. She is often found bullying her brothers to the point that they are both in tears. She loves to do ANYTHING the big kids are doing and had a very hard time when they got to go to school and she didn't. She has been dressing herself and picking out her own clothes from the time she could open the dresser (which has resulted in some pretty interesting outfits!). She tells me when she thinks her hair is ugly. She is stubborn, determined and definitely the "boss" of our house. We love her so much and can't imagine life without her!

One funny thing she said yesterday (this age is my very favorite for funny things they say!), she came running in the house yelling, "Mom, dis is sewious!" I asked what was serious and she said, "da kitty cat is awl da way at da top of da tree. We can't yet dis be happening!" What a funny little thing!:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG GIRL BABY!!:)

GOODBYE TO THE GREATS

On Saturday Great Grandpa and Grandma Romrell, AKA "the greats," left on yet another mission. This time they are off to the Mesa Temple Visitor's Center. We are so excited and proud of them. They have served so many missions and are such a great example to not only Ryan and I, but to our 4 little children also. We know we are blessed because of their devotion and obedience to the Lord.

On Friday they had a little going away party for the family. They had the little great grandkids come swim at their hotel and filled their bellies full of pizza. We also did cake and ice cream as a combine birthday party for Rhett and Laiklie. It was great to spend a few hours with them before they left. They gave the kids a picture of themselves and of the Mesa Temple to hang by their beds to remind them to pray for them. We will be praying for them and look forward to a trip to Arizona to see where and what they are doing!

Grandpa and Grandma.....we love you and will miss you while you are gone, but THANK YOU for making the decision to serve!

Love,

The Hawkins Great Grandkids :)

(Sorry about the picture...we obviously forgot the camera and had to use Ry's phone!)

Rhett's 6

Today is our little - or not so little anymore - Rhett's Birthday. He has had a birthday countdown going for probably the past 10 days and was SO EXCITED. He would even tell random strangers how many days til his birthday and how old he was going to be. :)

Rhett is our - ONE OF A KIND KID! He likes things that most boys don't like. For his birthday this year he asked for zhu zhu pets, a radio (he loves music), and A BASKET FOR HIS BIKE! (*Giggle, Giggle*) He really does bring joy to our lives! He has his own little personality and I LOVE that he knows what he likes and it doesn't matter what other people think! So, about the basket....the only baskets they had at the store were those little princess baskets and I know he would have loved those, but we are trying to be supportive of what he likes while trying to avoid him getting teased because of it. So, I happened to find this grocery basket that attaches to a bike and it was PERFECT. He was SO EXCITED that it holds 3 carebears all at the same time!:) We decided to get him a new bike to go along with the basket because he has been riding Oakley's very 1st hand-me-down pink bike! You can tell from the smile he was happy about the whole thing!

Rhett wanted to have his friends party at the "rock" park. Since he is in afternoon kindergarten we had presents here at home this morning and then cupcakes and playing at the park and then over to Wendy's for some lunch before I took them to Kindergarten. He has been SMILING all day!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY! We love you so much!

Bear World

On Saturday after the JDRF Walk (which if you haven't read my post on that keep reading after you finish this post!) we decided since we had a $20 off coupon for Bear World we would take the kids. They LOVED the white elk.....my children have a huntin' father so elk are SUPER COOL at this house. They loved the grizzly bears and the wolves (which we are NOT usually lovers of) and feeding the fish and ducks and well, pretty much LOVED IT ALL!
My own little bear cubs!

The petting zoo! They had chickens and turkeys that Dallin chased all over trying to pet one....so funny!:)
The free (they call them free, but I am sure they took it out of my $37.50 that I paid them) amusement rides! Yay! We LOVE riding rides!

JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes

Oakley and I got to do a neat thing today. We volunteered to be helpers at the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) Walk to Cure Diabetes. Last year was the 1st year we knew about it here in our area and I had just had surgery so we weren't able to be a part of it. So this year since I didn't really know much about putting together a walking team we decided to just volunteer to help out. It was such a neat experience! We stuffed coupons into water bottles, we helped man the breakfast table, we handed out the water bottles as they came to the end of the walk, we helped set things up and take them down and helped with some of the food for the lunch afterwards. We both loved working alongside all these wonderful people......some not even having anyone in their family with diabetes - what good people to come take time out of their busy life to support someone like my sweet Oakley!! We got to see some old friends and meet some new ones. Oakley always loves meeting other children with diabetes. We both agreed that we are DEFINITELY going back again next year! and we may even look for some recruits to take with us! :)

This is one of the ladies I have met through Facebook. I have a whole group of diabetic moms I have met and found support from on facebook and it was SO NICE to meet a few today!

This next picture is one I found when I uploaded the JDRF pictures that at some time that I am unaware of Oakley took of her monkey brothers and crazy lady sister! It makes me smile so I thought I would share! :)

Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking, scrapBOOKING, SCRAPBOOKING! Ahhhhhhhh!!! That is all I have done since Monday. That's right MONDAY!! It is ALOT of work trying to keep 5 scrapbooks up-to-date! I have 3, almost 4 kids finished so all I have left to do is the family scrapbook. I should be done tomorrow. I hope I am done tomorrow. I BETTER be done TOMORROW! TOMORROW OR BUST!!

Labor Day at the Fair

Every year we take our kids to the State Fair on Labor Day. We usually meet my parents and any of my brothers or sisters that can come that year there and spend the day together.COUSINS are my kids FAVORITE part of the fair!
Laiklie LOVES the miniature horses. She loves horses period, but couldn't get enough of these sweet little ones.

This year they had this Free Kids Zone play area that all the kids loved. It had such cool things for them to do. This one you would have one kid pedal the bike and it would cause air to blow bubbles. They had all sorts of crazy fun things like this for the kids to try.

We also like the free shows too. This year they had Doggie Diving. The dogs would run jump off a platform into this huge pool of water and the splash would get the kids wet and they LOVED it. They also had this stupid clown on one of the stages. He was so dumb, but we laughed SO HARD at him. He had this funny saltine cracker trick he kept doing that was so stupid it was funny! The kids thought he was great.

Also this year before we even left the house Dallin started telling me he was going to ride "The Bull" this year at the fair. I have never let him ride it before.....not so much because it scared me, more because of the price! Anyway - he rode to the fair with my parents and when we got there my dad said that he had told my dad he was going to ride "The Bull" too. I decided he was so set on riding that I didn't want to break his heart. He did great, but you can see (kinda see that is) from the last picture the terror on his face once they sped it up. They also make the bull chase them a little once they get bucked off and I WISH I would have gotten a picture of his face then! :)

This year the Labor Day crowd showed up earlier than it usually does so it was a nightmare getting all these kids through without losing one of them. We had a good time, but left without even getting cotton candy! :( You can't go to the fair and not even buy cotton candy! So.... I am really trying to talk Ryan (since he didn't go with us) into taking me down one of these nights maybe as like a date.....since married people should date too!!! We will see....it is hunting season! Ah!! My brother has a shirt that says "I INTERRUPT THIS MARRIAGE FOR..............HUNTING SEASON!" That is kinda how I feel sometimes - I may be making my trip back to the fair for cotton candy solo! :)