A Fence Update!

Our yard backs a farm, which we love, but we haven't always loved our back fence. Years ago it was a nice tight wire fence and then a huge tree fell on it, and some cows pushed through it, and some horses pushed through it.... well you get the idea. Needless to say, the fence got uglier and uglier! It had been repaired with wire and clips and even rope in one spot. It had random pieces of fencing and also random posts of various heights all along it. It was pretty ugly. Can you see the random fence posts and random types of wire all along the back?? Fancy right? 

A few months ago the back neighbor decided to change it out and he and Hema took it down.  Here is what it looked like for the last few months. By the way can I tell you how much I love that my sweet 7 year old mows the lawn now!! 

Well today the neighbors and I put the new fence up. We wanted to keep some of the wire open along the back nearest the horses. Our kids LOVE to feed them carrots and grass and all of that. We were using some old fencing that another neighbor gave to the back neighbor and I was crossing my fingers it would turn out. It started out a bit scary. 

But after some serious stretching of the fence and some magical power washing by this little man:

It turned out pretty great! 

I'd have to say that for a few hours of work and some free fencing, this little yard project makes a big difference! Now if I can just get the fire pit done! 

Mother's Day

I have such mixed feelings about Mother's Day. For so many years it was such a day of sadness, really more a day of feeling empty. Now I am so grateful to be a mother, but at the same time I know that there are many who have empty arms and sad hearts on this day and I feel for them. I sat in church and my heart ached for those dear to me who long to be mothers, but aren't yet. I hate how they pass out flowers or whatever and even thought they give one to everyone, it still is a painful reminder of what you don't have. One of the counselors in my primary presidency hasn't been able to have kids and the other recently adopted. They are such amazing women, sometimes it is so hard to understand the why to infertility! Also, I love my sweet birth mothers and know that this day certainly has a bit of an extra sting for them. 

Now that the kids are getting older, they really love to spoil me and are constantly planning and scheming with their dad all the things they can do. Vela told me about a week before Mother's Day that she told her dad he should take us all on a cruise for the holiday, but said the wasn't going to happen. Thanks for the awesome suggestion though Vela! Maybe one day! 

I may not have gotten the cruise, but I was spoiled nonstop for about a week, and really am so grateful to get to be the mom of these sweet kids that I feel loved and spoiled every day! 

On Friday Vela had her Mother's Day program at preschool. It is their big, end of the year program and she did so great. Here she is with her teacher Mrs. Yates, who has been wonderful for Vela. 

 Vela made the cutest card for me and gave me this cute plant. 

 I told my husband and kids I didn't want to go anywhere to do anything big on Mother's Day. Things have been so busy and I just wanted to take a nap on the trampoline and snuggle my kids and relax. My mom insisted that we come to her house for dinner and that we couldn't bring a thing. I'm so glad we went. She made ribs and sauerkraut and all kinds of tasty stuff.  I really am blessed to have her for a mother and to live close enough to be spoiled!  

 Hema made this cute little candle holder at school. He brought it home a Friday and asked me about every 10 minutes if I wanted to just go ahead and open it early. So I did, and we waited until it got dark and burned a candle with all the lights off for about 30 minutes while the girls oohed and awed about how talented he was for making it. He is so sweet! 

 Hema got me chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels from a ward fundraiser our Young Women did. They were gorgeous and yummy! 

 I haven't ever really been the type that loves flowers, but it is so fun to see how excited the kids are when I get them. It has made me love to get them. Vela always insists that Hema gets me flowers. I love these beautiful roses I received! 

I also got a great date night out on Saturday with my love for sushi! Yummm! 

Hema and the kids also cleaned the house, massaged my feet, planned a fun movie night with chinese take out on the trampoline in the back yard, gave me a 1,000 hugs, kisses and compliments and were basically pure angels all week long. 

Honestly, I was spoiled rotten! 

My favorite gift of all was an awesome video that Hema and the kids made for me telling me how much they love me and why I am a good mom. They did some sweet dance moves on it too! I'm keeping it close during their teenage years, just in case they are anything like me or Hema were as teenagers. It was so thoughtful and sweet. I can't figure out how to load it, but maybe when Hema gets home he can do it. 

I am beyond blessed and grateful to be a mother and for a loving family that makes me feel like the luckiest girl alive!  

And of course I am grateful beyond words for these 3 brave women who share the title of mother with me! My children's birth mothers are the best!! Love you women to the moon and back! 

General Conference Weekend

I absolutely love General Conference weekend. It is so great to enjoy a couple days with lots of family time, some great food and a huge spiritual lift! 

Our niece and nephew (Ava and Joey) slept over on Friday so we ran over to the Home Depot kids building project early Saturday morning.  Our kids love to go to them and although we usually forget they are the first Saturday of the month, my dad works at Home Depot and always calls to remind us! This month the project was bird feeders. All the kids had a great time making them. Home Depot even gave us bird seed to put in them. 

Don't mind the poor pictures quality my phone offers! :)

We came home and painted the bird feeders and hung them out in the yard.

Saturday we enjoyed the conference sessions at home as a family and then Hema usually takes his dad to the Priesthood session, but his dad wasn't feeling well so he just went to our local stake center. 

Sunday morning we always go to my parents house to have a yummy griddle cake breakfast and watch conference with the Hawkins family. The kids love to spend time with their cousins!  This year we didn't do the candy buckets, I felt like the kids were getting way too much candy which really ends up with hyper and crazy kids by the afternoon session!

Here is Hema's drawing of President Monson speaking.
It says, "To be good our parents go to the temple."

We did a lot of coloring and conference printable worksheets and they kids all sat pretty quietly and were well behaved. 

 Halle and Hema

 Vela loves to snuggle with Grandma and soon fell asleep and was snoring pretty loud. 

Hunter and Cora. Cora stole her headband for the picture. 

Hunter did a little easter egg hunt for the kids after conference and everyone had a great time! 

I love all the messages we heard at conference. I really needed to be reminded of what is really important and how vital my role is as mother to my three littles. I found a link on one of my favorite blogs to these free conference prints. (Here's the LINK)

I look forward to reading the talks again and again and continuing to learn.

Tonsillectomy

Today Cora's beautiful birth mother, Krychele, had her tonsils removed. We decided we better got visit to deliver some popsicles and a little cheer! 

Cora picked out a little Hello Kitty that had "glasses like Cheley" and chose balloons in a few of her favorite colors. She was pretty excited to deliver them. 

Before we went up I had tried to explain to Cora that Krychele had an "owie" in her throat. Somehow, Cora thought Krychele had a puppy in her throat and I think she was a little disappointed that there was no puppy. Luckily, the bunny and cats at the house made up for the lack of puppy!

I should have taken a picture of this cute board "nurse Kim" had written up with popsicle flavors and drinks that were available. Luckily Krychele posted a picture on FB and I stole it. How cute it that!?!?! Krychele is definitely in good hands! 

Cora and Krychele enjoyed popsicles and a fun visit! 

I am so grateful that Krychele is part of our lives. She is beautiful and amazing and as we loaded up in the car Cora said to me, "Mom, I love my Cheley." What a blessing that relationship is for sweet Cora! 

We love you Krychele and hope you are feeling better fast!  

Random Post about Ken Dolls

My girls are fully in the Barbie stage. Vela and Cora and any number of other little neighborhood girls play for hours at a time with the Barbies at our house. They girls totally scored lots of fun Barbies and cool clothes for them for Christmas, so their Barbies are well dressed and highly fashionable. But all the Ken dolls around here were picked up used off the classifieds. Some came with no clothes and others came barely dressed. I haven't had the time or desire to whip up clothes for the Ken dolls and there is no way I'm paying full price for them. So since there is a shortage around here, there are a lot of cute Barbies dancing with naked Kens. Is it just me or is it creepy seeing Ken dolls laying around naked? They don't even have the little textured nude colored underwear like the Barbie dolls do. Anyway I got sick of seeing them and decided to draw some boxers on all of the dolls. It is a huge improvement. Just check out the 2 Kens below and see the difference.

By the way what is up with the poor black Ken having a baby blue butterfly tattoo on his chest? Creepy right? 

Well black Ken got boxers too after this picture so that helps his appearance a lot. Maybe I could turn the blue butterfly into a black bat or something more manly using the same sharpie that added the shorts... Anyway enough of this random post. Just rest assured that our Barbie dances are being held at a much higher level of modesty around here! 

Contentment

It seems like last year was a crazy one for our family - full of some big changes and decisions. One of the hardest decisions we have ever made was to pull our adoption file from LDS Family services and no longer be actively trying to adopt. (We of course will always be open consider another adoption of someone were to come to us.) I can honestly say that I never thought I would ever in this lifetime feel like our family was complete and that I thought I would always feel a little cheated that I didn't get the big family I had always dreamed of. But somehow, Heavenly Father healed my heart and the aching and wanting and emptiness and deep painful sorrow went away and it was filled with other things instead. It was filled with good things. My heart was filled with the 3 sweetest little children that could ever come to a family.  My heart was filled with three of the most amazing women I have ever known  - my children's birth mothers. They are dear and strong and courageous and amazing and we love them. Before we adopted I never knew that I could love a "stranger" so much, so fast and so fully and never would a day pass that I wouldn't think of them and be thankful for them and pray for them. My heart was filled with birth fathers and birth families and so much love that comes from open adoption. My heart was filled with gratitude for great sacrifices made so that I could be a mother. My heart was filled with laughter and tears and quiet moments of reading and snuggling with precious little ones who are growing up too fast. My heart was filled with the word "mom" that is called out so many times every hour of the waking day - and even now it beats just a bit faster each time I hear that word and know that it is me - I am finally mom. My heart was filled with so much good and joy and love and peace and most of all with contentment. 

One day I just woke up and realized that it was enough. My family is here and it is enough. When I think about it, it even seems like we got more than our share, so much more than we could have ever hoped for back in those dark days that family was just a word that I longed for. And as Hema and I discussed it, we knew that we were done trying to grow our family through adoption. 

So today as I logged onto this blog for the first time in nearly a year and saw the old adoption links, I decided it is time to catch up and start blogging again. 

Stay tuned for lots of pictures and updates... 

A Birthday, The End of Summer, and Potty Training

Well it has been a fun and busy time for our little family.

Our little Hema turned 7 earlier this month. He wanted to know what lobster tasted like so we took him to Red Lobster for his birthday dinner. He loved it... I had to explain that it is one of those things that people don't get to eat very often. Notice his option included crab and shrimp. 

He wanted to go fishing for his birthday so we invited a couple of friends and some cousins to join us down at the fishing pond. The fishing was slow but the kids still had lots of fun. My little girls were to busy posing and showing attitude that they pretty much left their poles unattended the entire time.

We got in as much sun and water as possible before the kids had to return to school. We are not sunbathers but some things just come natural to cute little girls.

The kids absolutely love to swim. My little Vela wants to be a mermaid when she gets older. This summer she finally got enough courage to try the diving board... not stopping her now!

Little Hema wanted to give outdoor soccer a try this year and was excited to be the goalie... not so exciting when the other team couldn't get the ball past mid-field. It was a long half and he hasn't volunteered for goalie duty since.

 The kids love Grandma & Grandpa's farm. Feeding and riding the horses is one of their favorite activities. 

But nothing will ever beat the SWING!!!

 Summer has to end sometime and my little ones are back at school. 

Hema on his first day of the 2nd Grade and excited to ride his scooter to school.

Vela looking absolutely beautiful for the first day of preschool. She is in her second year and is doing awesome.

My little girls have so much fun together and Cora wishes she could go with her big sister to school.

 Now that the older ones are at school it is time to get serious about another kind of learning. Fun, fun, fun. My little Cora is making great strides in the potty training efforts with very few if any mistakes. We are so proud of her. I am also happy for a wife who is patient enough to sit for long periods of time next to a child on a toilet. Boy... I love her for that!

It has been a fun filled family summer but I am sad that each summer comes at the cost of my kids getting older. Our kids are teaching us things everyday and hopefully they are learning a few things from us as well. Thank you Heavenly Father for the blessing of parenthood. - Hema

A Mission to Boise, Idaho...

Psyche... no one is going on a mission... but our family did go to Boise, Idaho.

Our sister Jessica and her Fillmore clan flew into Boise before heading off to the Fillmore Family Reunion. They weren't going to make a stop in Utah this year so we thought we would take them some Utah Hawkins family love to Idaho. It was a quick but fun family trip. Long enough of a drive to be considered a vacation... but close enough to qualify as a stay-cation. To be honest with you my kids think going to a hotel is the vacation and have even asked why we have to drive so far when we could just go to the hotel next to Thanksgiving Point (1.5 miles away) for vacation. Be careful what you wish for, that might just be in my future plans.

You can really tell the family resemblance, I can't even tell whose kids are whose. I hope I brought the right ones home with me.
This is how little Cora likes to travel... they stopped me at the airport last time I tried this (J/K).

Here are the kids on the roll-away bed at the hotel. Can you guess which of my kids is a morning person.

We had to check out the local Man vs Food joint and ordered this baby at "Big Judd's". I kid you not, this little guy killed half of this baby by himself. Probably not a healthy option but seriously, this kids gonna eat me out of house and home.

Sterling suggested we check out Malad Gorge on our way back to Utah. Our navigation app sent us into backwoods Idaho and we spent about 45 mins wandering through some tiny towns. You know it is  a small town when the local gas station doubles as the Chamber of commerce. We eventually found it and of course it was right off the highway exit and I-15 was bridged right over it. Go figure!

This Mountain Goat came right up to our van and there is a walking bridge that spans the gorge

Me and the kids on the bridge.

The view of the gorge from the bridge. It was a cool stop right off the highway. It has a park and nice restrooms if you just need to make a pit stop.

Here are the kids at the overlook in Twin Falls. Also cool, next time I would like to drive down there and check it out.

Shoshone Falls was another awesome stop on the return home.

Looking down the river from Shoshone Falls.

But the best part of the trip... by far... was meeting up with our family and strengthening our family ties.  

We love you guys... sniff, sniff... no, I'm not crying... I got allergies... for reals!      - Hema