September

School took over our weekdays and soccer dominated every Saturday morning. Gradually, we settled into our new schedule and before we new it, October had come.

Fourth grade has brought four times the homework. Instead of one math worksheet each night, Nathan has up to 30 math problems to figure out with spelling and reading on top of that.

Brock joins us many afternoons for the after-school snack.

Justin goes all out for his after cheer-school-coaching snack.

We wind our evenings down with reading and pet snuggles.

Getting the boys moving for soccer every Saturday was my weekend chore. I'd finally get them out of their beds (usually with tickle torture and promises of hot cocoa) to find them cuddled up with Charlie on the kitchen floor.

Hyrum is all bundled up for another sunny, yet chilly, soccer morning.

After soccer we get our chores done, which Brock usually helps with so that the boys will be free to play faster. The photo albums were quite the dusting distraction.

Nathan volunteered himself to clean the bathroom the moment he posted this on the door.


When Derek came for a weekend visit, Hyrum was thrilled to have someone understand his design plans (which were only stored in his head). The two of them spent the afternoon cutting, drilling and building a clubhouse.

His plans required a front door, back door, a sun light, shelf and soft floor.

When they finished, Hyrum gave us personal invitations to join him for some hangout time. He also had great plans to spend the night in it, which I allowed, but he never made is past full dark.  Still, he has completely enjoyed his "own apartment".

The following weekend he used up the leftover paint and, with Nathan's help, gave his home a splash of color.

He then made an "OPEN" sign ( with black electrical tape) to hang when he was open to visitors.

Back to School

Nathan ~ 4th grade with Mrs. Garner

Hyrum ~ 2nd grade with Mrs. Schwendiman

Charlie walks them out the door each morning and watches while they get on the bus and like clockwork, he begs at the door to go out as soon as he hears the squeals of the bus pulling into the subdivision. However, he's not so great with homework help.

No, really, the dog ate his homework!

Justin is a Junior and rockin' the year with Cheer.

He takes the trusty Malibu early each morning for cheer practice and gym before school starts.

6:30am - Alarms go off; Justin responsibly gets right up while mom drags herself out of bed to make breakfast.

6:55am - LeRoy, Nathan, and Hyrum up and getting dressed.

7:00am - Scriptures over breakfast.

7:20am - Justin leaves for cheer (Wed at 7am for gym).

7:30am - Nathan and Hyrum leave for bus.

2:45pm - Bus returns home.

Homework, gym, piano, soccer, dinner, showers, reading, bedtime . . . repeat next day.

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Vivien started her first year of University, moving from Bratislava to Brno.

Umm yeah I got some stuff :D barely fit in my dad's car :D and we even went shopping to get some kitchen, bathroom and cleaning stuff. And some food :D

I have a nice new room with Kika. New small kitchen, bathroom and toilet. I love it. Other dorms don't even have bathroom in the room but they have to go to the hallway.

Anyway it's a maze for new people there. We got lost couple of times :D and it's a pain if you have a class at the 4th floor. It's more than 100 stairs you have to make! I don't even need to exercise after school :D :D also Brno has a lot of hills so you are going up and down in the city. It's not what I'm used to around my home :D our dorm buildings are also in a hill so I'm getting in shape :D

Yeah after an hour of crazy numbers and formulas he got our attention. That creature is supposed to be an elephant and those are birds fighting over a worm :D :D :D that's how he explained Newton's laws .

Repairing a bike, ironing, sewing his pants, cooking with me. Could I ask for more? I love this boy ❤️

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Levi started his 2nd year of college at EITC.

By October he was the face of the EITC Open House as well as a paid developer putting in (LONG) professional hours.

Summer Wrap Up

LeRoy was given tickets to the Culpepper and Merriweather Circus in Ashton. LeRoy, Bret, Erika, Nathan and Hyrum enjoyed watching the acrobats fly through the air and laughed at the silly clowns They were even impressed that the elephants and lions looked healthy (unlike the emaciated creatures we have seen in the past).

Bret and Erika also took Nathan and Hyrum to a Chukars Game in Idaho Falls.

Pretzels, a foul ball hitting a car, the cool evening wrapped in blankets and a souvenir poster all added to the fun.

Flip flop weather calls for cute toes. Daymia painted and stamped fun designs on their itty-bitty nails.

 This summer's favorite games were Rummikub, Clue, Uno, Telestrations and Wackee Six.

Nathan has loved reading the Michael Vey series. One evening he asked me to mail a letter that he had written to the author, Richard Paul Evans. We sent the letter the next morning and Nathan checked the mail daily for about a month. Finally, he received a response and now he has a goal to meet Richard.



Aaron and Kristin's Wedding

Bret's brother, Aaron, stayed with us for a couple of weeks before his wedding.

Waiting outside the temple for the bride.

Erika and Bret flew to Denver to meet up with the Hellbusch family and then they all flew to Indiana for the wedding.

Erika, Bret, Katie, Megan, Cory, Jill, Aaron, Kristin
(Jill looks like one of the kids! Ron taking the picture)

Derek's new hobby is carving pencil tips. The first one is a regular #2 pencil; the second is a carpenter's pencil. His text: "I saw a video on Facebook and decided to give it a try so I bought an xacto knife and it's so much fun!"

Another burst of creativity from Derek.  His text: "I just finished it! It's made entirely of discarded bar code stickers from work :p just over 2000 of them . . . but it's sturdy and awesome!"

Speaking of Derek, he was the best man at Chris's wedding. It was so strange to see these two all dressed up and formal and serious. There's eight years of mischief behind those grins! Chris also asked him to step in last minute to walk the bride down the isle, even though he had only met her once. He was so worried about doing something wrong and was unsure of his part; asking me what he was supposed to do. I told him that his main role was to make sure the bride didn't trip or fall while walking down the grassy isle in her heels. When he accomplished that, he turned to stand in best man position next to Chris and winked at me. So did Chris. These boys have a special place in my heart!

Bret and Erika took a helicopter ride over Rexburg. They absolutely loved it!

Helicopter view of our house (far left). We need more trees!!

LeRoy turned 48 in August (that is freakishly close to 50!). He was so excited for his New York style Strawberry Cheesecake that after blowing out the candle he took a big bite right out of the side and then let Nathan and Hyrum each have a bite.

Daymia turned a mature 22 and squealed with excitement when Levi surprised her with a pinata.

Levi, Daymia, Erika, Bret, Shane, Katie and Brooke all had a birthday campout and the next day Levi took her to Bear World.
(I would like Levi to plan my future birthdays!)


Charlie is outgrowing many of  his puppy tendencies and becoming a trusty, dependable companion.

Bret and his cat, Nolan, taking a nap.  Bret and his new puppy, Rufio.


Daymia has wanted a gecko for a long time and this summer her reptile dream came true.

We all got to meet Sylvester and see huge bulgy eyes and watch his jumping skills.

Summer in Utah - part 2

Nathan, Hyrum and I spent 9 days with Hailey and Madelyn at the Boyd house in Lehi while Kellie and Shawn were child free in D.C. It was a bit of an adjustment for me to go back to diapers, bottles, cutting food into tiny pieces, binkies, getting up during the night to baby cries, and caring for girls in general (hair, bows, PINK, lots of pink).

It took some adjusting on the boys part too. No longer could they roam an acre of land for the day, riding bikes on the empty open road or digging holes in fields, but they did find bugs to collect and we had taken their scooters . . . to ride in the garage. It was a good reminder (as we consider moving from Rexburg) that we are country people.

Occasionally, the boys would hit a point where they needed some alone time. Hyrum would disappear to the basement and hide in a closet to "think about stuff" (he usually does that in our back yard but there was nowhere to be alone in their yard) and Nathan would take off with his book to a his own hiding place. When I was in need of personal space I would go to the bathroom.

Kara, Max, and Zane also stayed with us for 5 days. The kids all played very well together, having lunch breaks together, movie time together, bedtime routine together and occasionally, arguments together. It was good to see the kids all play and live together, learning to compromise according to the varied personalities.  I hope that they will always remember their cousin time and have them for friends as they grow older.

Movie time
(and waaay too much red eye for the computer to even attempt correcting).

The long dining table became the frame for their fort.

Madelyn had her own fort in the empty kitchen cupboard. She would climb up on the shelf, hide her toys in there and eat finger snacks in there.


We took a couple of field trips to get out of the house. Kate, Korben, Logan and Brooklyn met us at Discover Park in Pleasant Grove.

(photo borrowed from the internet)

I had my arms full with a very tired Madelyn so not one single picture was taken but if I ask them about the park their eyes light up and they ask when we can go again.

Another day we went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity near Thanksgiving Point. We could have spent days there and not covered all the exciting, hands-on things for them to do.

Nathan and the Musical Waterworks ~ Hyrum and Max taking x-rays at the Vet Clinic

And that is the extent of the photos I captured inside since my focus was on Madelyn in the stroller and keeping an eye my three kids (Nathan, Hyrum and Hailey) among the hundred of kids running around. I was so grateful to have Kara there with us, though she too was watching her own kids.

For our museum finale we ended outside on the playground where the boys each had a couple of turns on the zip line.

We will definitely go to this museum again!

Summer in Utah - part 1

We were able to get a group photo while waiting for the fire department to declare the building safe for the BYU production of Princess Academy. Evidently, the fog machines got a bit out of hand which caused the fire alarm to go off which required an evacuation of the building.

Cami, Maya, Emma, Samantha, Lucia, Erika, Jessica, Kara, Kate, Kellie, Mom, Kimber
Becky, Kylie, Hailey, Andie

Erika went to Lucia's house to spend the night with Maya, Emma and Samantha and they stayed up all night long . . . seriously, 5am!

Those of us who stayed at Kellie's house weren't any smarter. We stayed up until 3am playing 7 Wonders.

Something happens when we get together and we forget that we are not youngsters anymore.  Church at 9am reminded us rather quickly.

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My wonderful aunts (mom's sisters) put together the Ormas and June Hawkins Reunion in Salt Lake.

Carol, Colleen, Kathy, Pat and Val put together a wonderful carnival for the kids where they could earn tickets to buy prizes.  The kids loved it and came home with many treasures.

For the adults, they had baby pictures of Grandma and Grandpa as well as all of my mom's siblings and we had to guess who was who. Then we played Family Reunion Bingo and learned many fun details about our grandparents, aunts and uncles.

Brooklyn's purchased treasures.

Bingo and Darts


My aunts have made wonderful scrapbooks of their growing up years and they had them out for us to look through.  While Kate and I were very caught up in the past, I found some real treasures that I have never seen before.

Grandpa Hawkins up a telephone pole. He was such a quiet, calm, hard working, loving man!

Grandpa Hawkins with his mother, my Great Grandma Hawkins.

We have always said that Derek gets his height from Grandpa Hawkins but it wasn't until I saw this picture of him in his younger years that I realized how many other features Derek inherited.

Not only did he inherit the Hawkins height but the same teeth and thin upper lip; hairline and ears; broad shoulders and long arms; and as Derek ages I imagine him looking more and more like his grandpa. Derek also inherited Grandpa's mellow temperament and a mind for fixing and building things.

Grandma Hawkins holding me (about 20 months old), my mom in the middle, Aunt Kathy holding my brother Joe (about 6 months old). This is one of the few pictures I've seen of my mom with long hair.

My dad playing dominoes with our exchange student (Derwin Velarde).  I would have only been a couple of years old and I have only seen my dad play games a  few times in my life.The tinsel overloaded Christmas tree and the wild fabric pattern of the chair really take me back to another time!