New niece and other stuff!!

My sister Jen's 4 kids slept over on Friday. They are such fun kids. Hema had a great time playing spiderman with Porter. Porter is on the left and Hema on the right. They are just about the same size and it is a good thing we bought 2 spiderman costumes after Halloween!

On Sunday Jessica and Sterling blessed Sterling Henry Fillmore. It was a beautiful blessing. Here is a picture of the Hawkins who were there. It was fun to visit with the Fillmores too.

Here are baby Sterling and Beckam. They are just 5 weeks apart.

Hema agreed to install the tile we bought months ago in our bathroom and laundry room downstairs during his Christmas break. Here is the vinyl floor being removed.
Both Hema's working hard.
Some of the tile down.
We are having all of my family over for a New Years party tomorrow night. It should be interesting with this project underway. Hopefully we can at least get it grouted and the toilet reset before then.

And now for the best news of all.....
... baby Brynlee Hawkins has finally arrived. She was 3 days late, but worth the wait. She weighed in at 7 lbs 11 ozs, 20 inches and is so cute! I know this isn't the clearest picture, but it was late and this is all I saw through the window. I can't wait to get a closer look. Laura, Josh and Brynlee are all doing well.

Congrats Josh and Laura!!!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. On Tuesday we got to meet with Hema's birth mother (Katie) and it was so great to see her. We went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point, then went to lunch and then hung out at our house for a while. Katie is doing great and is so sweet with Little Hema and Vela. We love you Katie and are always so grateful to get to spend time with you!

Here's the shirt Katie got for Hema. That night a we had a awesome group come Christmas caroling to us. They were on a Horse drawn cart that was all decorated with lights. You can't see it very well in the picture because a very impatient car was trying to get around the horses. The Van Bloem family was singing and they are amazing. It was so cool. I wish I could sing so that I could do that next year. Maybe we could just go on a sleigh ride or something. We spent Christmas Eve at the farm with Becky's family. It was fun to have dinner, read the Christmas story from the bible and exchange family gifts. All 8 kids and their spouses and children were able to come. It was wonderful to be together. My mom made all the girls in the family these cute aprons.

All the grandsons got slippers. Here is Hema modeling his with his new jammies!We spent the night there and here are our kids and the Pixton kids lined up on the steps Christmas morning. It was a little early for Vela. (It seems like we have posted a lot of pictures with her crying lately, but I assure you she is a very happy girl!)

Little Hema was so excited to finally get Spike the dinosaur. He hasn't stopped playing with it! Daddy Hema has had at least that much fun too! Vela liked the pink pony, but loved the baby doll. She took turns feeding the baby the bottle and then herself. Here is my favorite gift that Hema made in preschool.Great grandpa got up a little later for breakfast and presents. We are so grateful for the time we get to spend with him! For those of you that don't know. This is my parents house. They live pretty much in the middle of nowhere and it is pure heaven. Unless there is lots of snow and wind drifting the snow and you are trying to leave in a Toyota Camry. We got major stuck and had to have the men dig us out and push a lot to move at all. Finally my dad just hooked us up to his truck and pulled us to the main road. The kids thought it was great! Here's our hero!!
Then we hurried home and headed up to the Katoa's for more fun. Here is grandma Katoa and the kids with the clothes she made them.
Here is Hema's sister Lepeka and a few of the cousins.
We had a great meal and lots of fun. Everyone was there, even Mani made it in from Hawaii! Aunt Lote spoiled the kids with gifts. Thanks Lot!! I have no idea why we didn't end up with more pictures. We had a great time with our families and love them and are so blessed to have both so close. We've done lots of things since Christmas, but this post is so long and I feel just about like Vela in this picture right now...

... so I will post more later.

Fun Weekend!!

Well, Jessica's plane was about 5 hours late coming in on Friday night and then it took over an hour to get her bags. I drove through the junkiest snowy weather to get to the airport and was there for about 2 1/2 hours. But seriously this sweet baby made it all worth it! (Of course I was happy to see my sister too!) I had to post this picture of baby Sterling because it is the only picture I have seen that he sort looks like Jess!

We stopped off her her in laws house and then headed to my parents and got there around 2:00 am. I slept there and got to hold the babe lots! He is so sweet. My mom has been busy making 18 aprons for all the girls for Christmas. Here she is modeling a Christmas one she made for herself. Isn't she talented?!?!
It was fun to spend time with my parents and sister and also my grandpa Hawkins. He always has the most amazing stories to tell.

Later on Saturday we went to a surprise 60th birthday party for a lady in our ward and then took the kids to see The tale of Despereaux. Vela was a pill and wanted to talk really loud and try to crawl around and eat all the trash on the ground and screamed if we tried to hold her. By the way, it was a pretty lame show. Really weird (I didn't get the vegetable guy) and sort of scary for a rated G movie. I had read the book and like it, but it was a while ago and I didn't really remember it. I don't recommend the movie!

Hema's mom made Christmas outfits for our kids. She made them from some material that I bought in Tonga a few years ago. I love this fabric and regret not getting enough to have a dress made for me too!
As usual, the kids wanted to dance rather than hold still for a picture! Hema tried holding Vela on his lap, but she escaped. They loved the outfits! Thanks Grandma! You are so talented! (She never even uses a pattern!)

Here's a shot of just Vela.

We have a busy week ahead and are so excited for Christmas!

Another Update

I know I am making a bad habit of doing long updates rather than nice short daily posts, but hey at least I do update!

Life has been a bit crazy and fun around here getting ready for Christmas. Last week, Little Hema had some serious stomach pain. Our doctor sent us to the hospital to get blood drawn. Let's just say he freaked out!! Poor kid! By the way, he was fine and they think he just had a bug or bad gas??? At least he's okay!

We've been to the TGP dino museum about 10 times in the last 2 weeks. We love that place and it keeps us all sane in the cold weather. Here is a model skeleton Hema did all by himself. It's a Hemasauras.
Vela is so big she can do lots of the activities there now and loves it.

Here we are hanging out in the dino cave.

This is Hema's mean shark face, in front of the shark face.

Hema and Vela riding their buddy!
Vela's new favorite thing it to take of her shoes every second!

On Monday we had the Hawkins family Christmas party at my parents house. Here are a few pictures.

My grandpa was telling some stories. He is in the far left hand bottom of the picture.

Another picture.

More family.

My dad with Vela and Maren. (My dad had just gotten off a LONG day's work and was so tired, but such a trooper.)

Every year our family plays the chimes to various Christmas songs. My uncle John leads it. It is SO fun and everyone loves it. Here is a clip for those family members who missed the party this year. (It sounds a bit weird on this video - but truly sounds better in person!)

We also played bingo and ate stack ups! I love the Hawkins party - it is such a fun tradition!
Today was Hema's Polar Express party at preschool. He got to wear his pj's and take little presents for his classmates. He had so much fun! He loves preschool and is going to miss it over the next couple of weeks. Good thing he'll have dad home for 2 weeks to keep him busy!
And I am looking forward to this to keep me busy....

I get to pick up my sister Jessica and her new baby Sterling. I haven't met little Sterling yet in person and can't wait to hug and hold him! We are also excited for Jen and Jim and their kids to arrive next week! We love Christmas! Yeah!!!

11 Wonderful Years!!!!

Today is our 11th anniversary!! The last 11 years have been so great. I seriously don't know how I lucked out and married such a wonderful man! I thought I would post 11 reasons I love him so much! Oh and this picture of our funky wedding cake. Yes it was chocolate with fans of white chocolate, milk chocolate and dark chocolate stuck in all over.

1. He just loves me for me - doesn't try to change me!
2. He is the best dad! He would rather play with the kids or tend to them than almost anything else.
3. He is such a hard worker. Works 2 jobs with a smile so that I can be a full time mom!
4. He loves family. He loves his and mine and makes me want to be closer to both as well!
5. He enjoys serving in the church! He loves to help people and does anything he can to lift others.
6. He is super hunky!! I LOVE his eyes!
7. He is content. He rarely ever wants anything for himself. I have to force him to buy new clothes or toys for himself. He just doesn't need "stuff" to be happy.
8. He genuinely sees the best in others. He is friendly to everyone he meets and really likes everyone. I don't know anyone who doesn't like him.
9. He loves to travel and try new things, yet is perfectly happy in our own home.
10. He plays board games with me even though he doesn't really like them because he knows I love them.
11. He makes me want to be a better person. I want to be more like him.
I love you so much Hema!! Thank you for making the last 11 years so great! I look forward to the next 11,000,000 and then some!! Happy Anniversary Baby! FOREVER!!!!

Festival of Trees

We love going to the Festival of Trees each year. It is such a cool event for such a good cause. All of the money from the trees, admission and everything sold there goes to Primary Children's Hospital. There were quite a few cool U of U trees and displays and I only saw one BYU themed tree. Perhaps Ute fans are just feeling happier this season??

There is such a wide variety of trees. This wouldn't really go in my house, but don't you love it??Of course there was a Twighlight themed tree. Check out this cool tree made out of cut up golf clubs. I picture a disgruntled ex-wife making this with her ex's clubs!This one is hard to see with my poor photography. It is three palm trees decorated with fish and such. Both Hema's loved it. We would love to have a palm tree as our Christmas tree. This was my favorite tree and perhaps the coolest one there. It was like 8 feet tall and made out of blown glass. It lit up to music and was really amazing. Once again my picture is poor. The Ashtons (they own Thanksgiving Point - our favorite place!!) donated it and the Holdman brothers made it. We went to high school with the Holdmans. It was so neat. I wish I knew how much it sold for. There are also candy houses and other items for sale there. This is Bella and Charlies house from Twighlight. I love the gum siding!
Check out this amazing castle. It was at least 5 feet tall. I can't imagine the work that went into making it. I know this is a bad picture, but I was trying to be discreet. These 2 ladies with their matching pink dog strollers made me laugh. It was a pain moving about with a stroller. I can't imagine being willing to hassle with a stroller for a dog!

We also went to Thanksgiving Point on Saturday and saw 2 of Santa's reindeer and drove through their light display. It isn't the greatest display, but the kids loved it and it was only $3.50 a car (for members) and 3 minutes from home.