Pumpkin Patch

We have always been blessed to have pumpkins in either ours or Grandpa Jacobson's garden, but this year we had no such luck. So...we decided that if we had to buy pumpkins, the pumpkin patch sounded SO MUCH MORE FUN than the Albertsons Parking Lot. We went to the U-Pick Pumpkin Patch and they had a FREE (my favorite price) straw maze that the kids loved.

A $2.00 train ride that they also LOVED. It was actually a long train ride so it was worth the money. The kids got to go all around the pumpkin patch and through the corn stalks and thought it was great.

Then we got the family deal where you get ANY 5 pumpkins for $20. We thought it was a pretty good deal - atleast as good as the deal we would have gotten at Albertsons plus the extra bouns of the train and straw maze. We told the kids that they could pick any pumpkin they wanted but they had to be able to carry it to the car. Ya,.....I know I carried 2 pumpkins and Ryan carried 2 so I am not sure if that rule worked out real well.:)

This is Laiklie mid-picking. I am sure this isn't the actual pumpkin we brought home for her. She was funny. She would pick-up one....walk a few feet....put it down.....pick-up another one. She was fun to watch.

Oakley saw this beauty right off and was a trooper to actually carry it the majority of the time. Her poor little arms were dead! She was happy with her pick you can tell by the smile.

Rhett and Dallin were a nightmare. Ryan finally had to set the timer on his phone so that they knew they had to hurry-up and pick one. Rhett carried multipule pumpkins around like Laiklie. He would carry it for a minute and then hand it to me to carry and then go find a new one. Silly man!

Dallin finally settled on this one. I wish you could see in the picture all the rough little bumps all over it like warts. It is a super cool pumpkin.

We thought the pumpkin patch experience was worth the $28 that it cost us. We talked alot on the way home about opening our own Hawkins Family Pumpkin Patch next year. We couldn't believe the amount of money made on their little 2 acre lot. We could SO DO THAT! I guess we will see what next year brings. Heck....if we kept the sheep we could charge a fee for the petting zoo. We would probably also have to have parents sign release forms because of the headbunting thing!:)

Just what we need.............MORE ANIMALS!

Look what cute little baby spent the night with the other animals at the HAWKINS FAMILY PETTING ZOO!!

This little baby calf got left ALONE in the mountains for 6 days. We hauled all our cows home last Friday and then yesterday got a phone call that a guy whose ranch borders ours saw a baby calf. Ryan went and found him, and we were very surprised he was still alive. Problem is that the day before the phone call Ryan had preg. checked all the cows and any that were not pregnant he hauled to the auction yard. This little guys mom was considered "not pregnant" and got hauled away. So, that left "mommy me" to bottle feed yet another animal (did I mention - I AM NOT AN ANIMAL LOVER) last night. He is super cute though! My kids cried and cried this morning when Ryan hauled him over to his dads to hopefully find a new cow mommy.

Our running animal tally is:

1 cat

1 parakeet

1 dang dog (not my favorite - you can tell by the "dang")

5 sheep (did I mention that these ARE NOT MY FAVORITE EITHER!)

1 super cute baby calf (now out of the yard...too bad the sheep didn't follow)

100 other cows

2 mice I saw in our de-ttached garage when I was cleaning it the other day ....super thankful for the de-ttached part!!

Atleast one of these animals has found its way to a new home and the cat did kill one of the mice so we are s.l.o.w.l.y. getting rid of a few of the animals at the zoo! YEAH!!

COME ON PEOPLE......I AM DYING HERE!!

TODAY WAS SUPPOSE TO BE THE DAY! WHY CAN'T TODAY BE THE DAY???

Remember back in April when we got these cute little baby lambs. They were so much fun!! My kids loved bottle feeding them and packing them around. Pretty soon they learned to run and jump and play and my kids LOVED THEM MORE!

Then summer came and the lambs grew and the kids found new ways to play with them. They would herd them (super fun when you are a 7 year old boy) and they even attempted to ride them several times (even more fun when you are a 7 year old boy!). They thought the sheep were great!

This is Rhett trying to protect his sand castle!:)

BUT....the sheep continued to grow and grow and as they grew two of our "sweet little lambs" turned into RAMS. That is right, I said R.A.M.S!! If you know anything about rams you know they like to headbunt. The problem is that our rams chose to headbunt MY CHILDREN!! The sheep all-of-the-sudden weren't so fun anymore. We tried to sell them, but apparently NO ONE WANTS SHEEP THAT HEADBUNT CHILDREN!! One of the problems was that they kept getting out of their pen (we are cow people and fenced for cows, not sheep....maybe someone should have mentioned that minor detail to us BEFORE we got the sheep!) So that left the sheep to be in MY YARD!! I already have "White Trash Yard of the Century," but this year it is 10 times worse because of the dang sheep. We found out last week that every other Monday they have a sheep sale at the auction yard and so I had my countdown going and struggled just to make it through the end of the week. Then.........last night after a quick phone call Ryan found out they are not actually having another sheep sale until NOVEMBER 1!! NOVEMBER 1!! I AM DYING HERE! I can't do two more weeks! THIS IS SOOOO NOT FUNNY!!! 14 more days......336 hours......I don't even want to know how many minutes that is, because it is DEFINITELY TOO MANY!!

Yesterday Laiklie says to Ry and I, "Brownie(Dallin's sheep) is about turnin' into a buckin' bull!" I am telling you people WE HAVE GOT TO GET THESE SHEEP OUT OF HERE!!

I LOVE Where We Live

I am absolutely in love with where we live. I always have been. I love what we do - although, farming is not always glamorous - I love that my kids get THIS as their life!

I LOVEY, LOVE, LOVE this picture. I only wish you could hear her singing and see her cowboy boots on the wrong feet! PURE JOY!!

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!