IT HAS ARRIVED!!!

FINALLY! We had our last day of school yesterday!! Two of my kids (O & R) have LOVED every minute of this past school year and I think would have kept right on going all summer long if that was an option. D on the other hand is more like his mom and has been counting down the days for over a month now!:)

On Wednesday (the only day the sun was out) we had field day. I helped with Dallin's age group in the morning, but forgot my camera....bummer. I got to help with the afternoon Kindergarten and Oakley's age group in the afternoon and got a few pictures.

This is Rhett's kindergarten class. I had the opportunity to do the Physical Fitness program with them every Friday this year. Also, about 1/2 way through the year one of the other moms that helped on Friday could no longer help so I got to step into her place and got to do school work with them also. I got to know these sweet kindergartners very well and LOVED being in their classroom.

This is a little bit of a close up of Rhett in the line-up. It is a little blurry, but you can see that cute little best friend Raeg right behind him. :) I told you they kinda like each other!! This is Oakley (in the Red t-shirt) playing twister with some of the girls in her class. I was the twister caller - you can see my leg on the left - and had NO VOICE by the time I was done yelling twister calls for 2 hours over the super loud 4-6th graders. More twister. They spray painted it on the grass. SUPER GREAT IDEA!, but the circles were REALLY far apart and they seriously had to do the splits to reach them. Poor kids!
On the last day of school we had the awards assembly. This is Rhett and his Physical Fitness award. Our elementary is 17 time state champion in Physical Fitness because we have from kindergarten - 6th grade participate in the program. We work once a week all year so it gives as many children the opportunity to get the Presidential award as possible. I really stressed to all 3 classes that I worked with (all 3 of my kids classes) that Presidential, National, or just Participant DOES NOT MATTER.....it is doing their VERY BEST that does matter. I was SO PROUD of all of them no matter what award they got.Dallin and his award. This is Oakley and her awards. She not only got the Physical Fitness award, but Oakley's teacher Mr. Stones got up and the first awards he started with were the Citizenship awards. He explained that for the Citizenship awards this year he picked kids that were totally selfless and very willing to help anyone around them and always trying to be kind to others and never thought of themselves.....the very first child he announced was my sweet little Oakley. Selfless fits her to a T! This is Oakley and her teacher Mr. Stones. He was an amazing teacher and the reason she loved this past school year. This was Mr. Stones last year teaching at our school because he is moving to Arizona. After the awards assembly he gathered all the kids in his classroom and had a little heart-to-heart with them. I happened to be one of the moms in the classroom to pick-up Oakley diabetic supplies to take home and got to witness this little heart-to-heart. Mr. Stones cried, the kids cried....some bawled....the moms cried. It was very touching. He truly loved this class and they loved him. Oakley cried most of the afternoon. It was heartbreaking. He will be missed!

Then, to finish off the night of the last day of school we had pack meeting. It was the BIKE RODEO! The weather was HORRIBLE and we FROZE!, but of course all the little 8-10 yr old boys didn't know that! :) This is D running the obstacle course. He had to borrow Rhett's bike because of a popped tube on his. He did great and had a blast! I sure love that he has the opportunity to be in scouts.

So, NOW WHAT???? A super fun summer!! We can't wait to get started!

We've Been Busy

We really have been busy this week. We have had alot of fun things going on. First off.....Rhett has really struggled his whole life with friends. Not that Rhett doesn't have friends or can't make friends, he has just ALWAYS had GIRL friends. He has alot of girl cousins his age that live close to play with. The only other kid in our old ward his age was his very best friend in the entire world Tylee (who moved). His preschool class consisted of Rhett and 3 girls....not on purpose....the other little boy moved only a few months into preschool. So for a very long time we thought Kindergarten is where he would start to find some boys his age to play with.

INSTEAD RHETT MEET RAEGAN This is Raegan and my sweet little Rhett. Everyday Rhett comes home talking about what he and Raegan did at school. For along time I thought maybe it was kinda one sided and Raegan probably didn't like Rhett as much as he liked her. Then, I went to school where I got the chance to see the two of them together. She TOTALLY likes him as much as he likes her, IF NOT MORE!! She is always right next to him. They hold hands at recess. When we walked in the door at stake conference she was there to greet him and followed him to his chair and sat RIGHT NEXT TO HIM the entire 2 hours. She infact told her mom she was no longer going to church unless she got to move to Rhett's ward! :) They really are BEST FRIENDS!
Here are some other BESTIES!!
Kooky Katie, Always texting Alicia, and Oakley are best friends. They have been for a few years now. (They are missing one of their besties Lauren who moved away for the year....we are hoping she will be back this summer. We miss you Lauren!!)
The big smiles are because Oakley called yesterday from the school for me to bring her her camera and I stopped by the office, the gym, her classroom and FINALLY found these three dancing and giggling in the BATHROOM!!! I made them pose for a smile!!

Oakley needed her camera for the annual 5th grade bike ride. They ride to the next little town 6 miles away....have some bbq lunch and play and then ride the 6 miles back. This is most of the 60 5th graders we have at our school.
This is Oakley (far right), Katie, and Alicia lining up and ready to go. They are looking much better here than when they came riding in to my yard the 12 miles plus 1 1/2 miles from the school to my house later!! :)
So, what do two little girls need after a super long bike ride??

A MAKEOVER!!

We had our monthly ward potluck last night so these two girlies were looking GORGEOUS for it!! They loved having their hair and make-up done after a long day.

Today as I was hitting a few yard sales I got a phone call from Ryan telling me that I had to run a calf to the dead pit for him when I got home. YES, UNFORTUNATELY I AM ONE OF THOSE WIVES! So, when I got home Dallin, Rhett and I jumped in Ryan's almost dead '92 Red Flatbed truck that doesn't even have a radio that works with a bloated and EXTREMELY stinky dead calf tied to the back and headed for the ranch. The girls didn't want to go (WONDER WHY??) and when I came back I could see they had done some makeovers of their own.

Here is my little Laiklie looking gorgeous thanks to big sis!
The only other thing we did this week that is note worthy is Dallin and I went on a date. At conference I heard a talk about how we need to be doing one-on-one interviews with our children and I decided that date night it was!! We went first to the hospital to visit my grandma, then over to Toys R Us to buy him the long saved and awaited MP3 player and since it was a date we hit Petco to see the animals. He LOVED it. I had to send him to see the hamsters, mice and rat type animals alone because I knew they would cause nightmares if I saw them! AH!! We had a great time being together and I LOVED talking and learning more about him!

What a fun, busy week!!

Lagoon and SLC 2011

On Friday we headed to Salt Lake City with our Hawkins cousins. We took the kids to the Church History Museum. My kids had been to the museum before, but their cousins hadn't. I LOVE the museum. One of the missionaries there explained to us that the church only has 1 museum, so everything in the museum is ORIGINAL. We got to see pages written by Oliver Cowdrey of the translation of the Book of Mormon and we saw the face castings (I think that is what they called them) of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum. We got to see the huge 12 foot tall Angel Moroni that is a replacate of the one on the temple, plus SO MUCH MORE.

One of my kids favorite parts of the museum is the childrens "hands on" exhibit. They have changed it since the last time we came, so it was all so new and exciting. This is the magnetic wall that they could build their own quilt on. This is the back of JD, Oakley, Macady and Rhett. (from left to right)
This is Nephi's boat. There were some planks the kids got to put together like a puzzle, then of course, the fishing. SO FUN!

They had a fire truck to climb on and a kitchen and a shape sorter type garden to plant. They also had stuffed chickens you could lift up to gather the eggs. My kids loved it all!

This was our favorite part.....they had a 1/2 wall of mirrors that you got to put these great big, full Spanish skirts on and stand in front of. Behind the kids were two screens of Spanish dancers that would do these Spanish dances and the kids would watch them in the mirrors and try to follow along. It was so fun to watch them. They were actually pretty good at it!

These are the boys dancing the boys version with their Spanish vests on!:)

They also had these big foam pieces you could build towers out of. They had so much more than I could even take pictures of for the kids to try out. My kids seriously could have spent hours there and my favorite part is......it teaches them about the church and it is all FREE!!!

Saturday we went to Lagoon to watch Oakley and her group dance. This was them practicing. The building they danced in made my pictures super dark, so these were actually better pictures than the real ones.

Lining up for dance #2! Oakley is 2nd from the right.

This is just after they performed. One of the girls disappeared so I only got these 3. They did SOOO GOOD! They got a 1st and a 2nd place on their dances and Oakley got 3 1sts on her solos and 2 2nds.

We had a day full of fun with BEAUTIFUL weather. I rode quite a few rides I hadn't rode since I was a teenager. The kids are getting big enough to ride the crazy exciting rides and so I am the lucky one that gets to join in. Rhett insisted on riding the "mouse" and I had only rode it once as a little girl and HATED it. I tried convincing him that we shouldn't ride it, but he insisted. SO - he and I climbed on. WE HATED IT!! We both ended up closing our eyes almost the entire ride! It was as awful as I remembered. Laiklie rode a ride with me and 1/2 way through she yells, "Dis ride is makin' me sick......I am really getting sick.....sick, sick, sick!" I was laughing at how cute she was saying it and praying she wasn't really getting sick. She survived!:) We had a great day together and look forward to next year!

I posted 2 posts today, so if you didn't read about the fort, keep reading!!

MAKEOVER

NO....NOT ME, I WISH!

Remember Fort Hollow?

Winter was pretty hard on the kid's fort and so I had been promising that we would fix-it-up all spring. We finally had nice enough weather one day last week to do some actual work on it. We cleaned a bunch of dead fallen branches out and the entire wood wall had fallen and the kids were dying to do some painting. So, we put up a new wood wall (they wanted it like a ladder) and made a bench and a table and did some painting. They are still wanting to do some more painting on the door in the back, but we ran out of time that day and have been super busy since. Hopefully we will get around to it before the end of summer!!:) I think the colors turned out super cute and the kids are already busy making mud pies, so they must like also!!

Dallin's 2nd Grade Program

Dallin had his 2nd grade program this past Friday.
This was one of his parts to hold the big South sign!:)

This was his other part....his speaking part....it was a line of a poem. He did so good!! They also sang a few songs and he did great on those too. I LOVE watching my kids learn and grow. Dallin has loved 2nd grade, but we are glad it is only days away from being over!

Now....for Mothers Day!

My 4 sweet kids came upstairs yesterday morning flooding me with gifts they have made at school and activity days. I was given painted flowers, a flower bow for my hair, planted flowers and paper flowers with chores they would do written on them. I was also given love notes - which I LOVED! My favorite gift of the day though came from my sweet little 4 year old Laiklie....she carried out from her room an old wrinkled 1st Place Blue Ribbon and handed it to me. "Dis is for you for Moders Day Mom......It says Oakleys name on it doe (though). but dats okay." I LOVED it!! She thought I was 1st place mother!:) She is also the one that gave me the very best compliment over mothers day weekend. On Saturday evening she asked me to put this super long piece of material in her hair so that she could play Rapunzel and after I finished attaching it to her hair she said, "Did you use you mommy magic to put dis in my hair?" SHE THINKS I HAVE MOMMY MAGIC! What a compliment!!:)

We got to spend Sunday afternoon at our mom's homes. Ryan and I are so blessed to have the mothers that we have. They have been amazing examples to us. We have been very loved, well taught, cared and nurtured and prayed for over and over by these two beautiful women and we are eternally grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who blessed us by allowing us to be their children.

I told my kids yesterday that they could give me gift after gift after gift and they still wouldn't be able to top the very best gift I have already been given and that is TO BE THEIR MOTHER! The fact that Heavenly Father loves me enough to entrust them into my care is a gift far greater than any other gift imaginable. My four beautiful babies are my very most precious jewels and the fact that I am even their mother is greater than anything I could ever ask for!

Puffer Face Contest

OAKLEY

DALLIN

RHETT

LAIKLIE

The kids decided to have a Puffer Face Contest the other night. I was laughing SO HARD! They all look sooo different all puffed up! Ha, Ha!! You can decide who wins!

Easter Weekend

We had a great Easter weekend. The sun was FINALLY shining and the wind was FINALLY done blowing (for 2 days....don't worry....we are back to windy!! Ugh!). On Saturday morning we had our Annual Hawkins Cousin Easter Egg Hunt and Breakfast. This year we decided the kids were too big to just pick the eggs up off the grass, so we had the egg hunt in the pasture. They LOVED it! They actually had to LOOK for the eggs. It was so much fun!

In the picture is Ryan's dad - Grandpa Hawkins - he picked up this water trough and told the kids it was "his Easter Basket" and that he just needed a "5 minute headstart." The kids laughed and laughed! What a fun grandpa!
My grandma Murdock has been in the hospital this past week waiting for back surgery. On Sunday we had Stake Conference so we decided as soon as it was over to run in and let the kids see her. She was SO EXCITED to have some Easter company and LOVED the girls new Easter dresses!

I LOVE this picture of "MY CREW!" With these 4 sweet kids (Dallin hiding behind Ry) and 1 giant man I can do anything in this world! They are definitely my very most prized possessions!!

At this time of year I love reflecting on the things that the Savior did for us and the True meaning of the Easter holiday. I KNOW MY SAVIOR LIVES! I KNOW HE DIED FOR ME AND FOR MY FAMILY AND THAT BECAUSE OF HIM DOING SO WE CAN BE RESURRECTED AS HE WAS! I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR THE KNOWLEDGE I HAVE OF ETERNAL LIFE AND KNOW THAT IT IS THROUGH JESUS CHRIST THAT WE CAN ACHIEVE IT!