daddy rocks!!!

 Dad is the star at our house. 

my boys cannot get enough of him. 

especially colton. 

Lately dad is who he asks for when he wakes up and goes to sleep. 

You can tell why.

he is the fun one 

full of laughter, fun, wrestling, jokes, silliness

Boy oh boy are we glad we have him!!! 

Family Gathering

Sunday was my cousins farewell. He will be serving an lds mission in Hondouras. We are all so excited for him. We drove up to pocatello to listen to him speak and have fabulous food. I was terrified how my boys would do but they did great! It helped we could go 80 mph most of the way.

 Grandma Loland, Aunt Tanna, Aunt Toni

 Grandma Roma, Shane, Brooke, Brittannia

doesn't brooke look so feminine and graceful?! Brittania is 5 months pregnant. i swear. talk about unfair!

i have always envied and compared myself to these to women.i had no sisters-they were the next closest thing i had growing up.  I love them and think they are beautiful!

 My man and Braxton, the future missionary

 Uncle Mark has his hand in front of his face.

 Me, sleeping colton, and my mom who looks fabulously skinny!

Braxton and I

crud, i remember when this kid was a baby! 

time flies people. we better cherish what we have.

Weekend in Pictures

Another busy weekend. I will be having these until after christmas--i don't love being busy but i love being with family so it is worth it.

HALLOWEEN PARTY
Rob was in charge and he did a great job pulling our wards halloween party together. Our ward goes all out. nearly everybody dresses up and it is so much fun!!

 Colton the cow. I realized as i put on the 'hoofs' that they were tights. I don't know how mothers of girls put their daughters in tights faithfully every sunday. It sucked putting them on. I had one mother assure me it wasn't very bad at all. Maybe her daughter didn't move for the process.
Aren't his eyes to die for?!

 This man is taken! He looks like Tim McGraw (so someone told him)...he was shooting for indiana jones but then we just went for cowboy but no beltbuckle or overly tight jeans or cowboy boots so just a hot guy with a cowboy hat and a fabulous t-bar mustach. This man rocks my world and treats me like a queen. I am beyond lucky to be his.

Me and my little cow. I tried to be a 50's housewife. The hair took forever and it didnt' even seem that big. I ratted (backcombed?) it forever, tons of hairspray (both of which i never do/use on my hair). My arms got tired and i renewed my gratitude that i have low maintenence hair. I found these totally cute shoes too but no pic. I will likely wear them with other outfits--once i fix the heels.

like the fabulous mother i am, i didn't snap pictures of caleb. He is a monkey and i figured i coudl get awesome pictures at the trunk or treat instead. He had a blast at the party!








A BIG SURPRISE

 ever had dogfood in your syrup? 

well now we have. 

we found this while cleaning on saturday. good thing we weren't having pancakes.

 

Jam-Packed weekend

 Loading up to go to the Maybe Farm pumpkin patch

 My Men searching for appropriate pumpkins

 These are my old stomping grounds. My running route took me by the Jordan River Temple every time i ran. Sunset was perfect; fields all over that i watched slowly disappear to development as i grew up. I love my home town. Maybe farms have always been around and i hope they will always be around. The geese come in the fall and eat up the leftover corn and the sound of their wings flapping and their honking forever hold magic over my heart. That and the sounds my brothers make mimicking guns and Grandpa Jack and Uncle Mark as they prepare for slaughter.

 The Loot

 BYU Football runs in the blood of every Hakes family member (except Kirk-he bleeds red). We were brave and took our beloved boys to their first foodball game. BYU vs Idaho State (my parents alma mater). ISU got killed and caleb learned the fight song. (ra ra rarara ra ra rarara gooooooo cougars!!). Colton was a champ and it was totally worth it! K didnt like it when i (and everyone else) cheered--apparently i was too loud.

 Family Home evening was carving pumpkins, roasting seeds and eating fresh raspberries with dark chocolate. It rocked!

 If you don't know this already, rob is a bit of a perfectionist with projects (he claims he "just wants this to be nice"). he carefully drew the face after he and i drew a few faces on paper and let caleb choose which one he wanted. K didnt like the feel of pumpkin innards at first but quickly acclimated (with encouragement from dad). We roasted the seeds and the boys ate them all. Rob even managed to convince K to eat raw pumpkin with him. i wanted to gag.

 

Finished product

(praise heaven for an awesome camera)

Not So Silly Things

Do you ever have silly things that make you think?? 

 I do... All the time

Bless my everastling husband's heart. He is so patient with all my thinking and intense feeling. I watched Revenge last night (if you watched it you will know perhaps where some of these thoughts stemmed from). After i turned off the tv i looked and saw this picture (look at my adorable son's cheesball grin):

I couldn't help but think how grateful i am to be an honest person. Also a member of a happy family. 

Sometimes i look at myself in the mirror and think "holy cow, this is my life"?!! 

i still feel like the 17 year old naive girl who just met this impossibly cute, cool mysterious guy who mowed the grass while i planted flowers, picked weeds, did rain dances and spied on him. 

 

 It boggles my mind i am a mother of two children and a wife--to that guy 

That hot and completely unattainable guy and all that he represented -- happiness, romance, kissing, holding hands, butterflies in my stomach and a life full of summer sunrises (only if you have experienced these repeatedly can you understand the magic of those moments)

I get funny looks when i express this sentiment but it is true it is my life; it just seems like i am living a life too good to be true. How could i be so...fortunate...lucky...blessed...loved.... 

It just makes my heart want to explode with gratitude and joy. 

I used to think i had to have everything figured out and myself completely figured out, set up and perfected before i got married. Instead i got married at 20 years old with almost nothing figured out but a testimony of Jesus Christ and love for the man i married

That is all i ever needed. 

Bear Lake

 

Rob and I had a vacation weekend. We went up to bear lake and hung out. It was beautiful. weather was perfect, the canyon was full of colors and the moon was full and glinting off the water. We ate, ran, watched modern family and listened to cougar football. The boys stayed with my parents and supposedly they were good.

Yesterday was a vacation hangover day. I am still super tired--i am getting far less sleep than i did on vacation and i am resisting cleaning my house. The boys are tired too. 

It was soooooo completely worth it! 

I was giddy with happiness the whole trip. Being relieved from the responsibilities of motherhood for a couple of days was exactly what i needed!

Alpine Loop redux

 I haven't driven the alpine loop since i was a  young girl. It was breathtaking. I drove, as i usually do, and the road is very narrow. I was making rob nervous but we enjoyed the drive! So, if you have time, go and enjoy. We drove while we listened to sunday afternoon session of General Conference and our house was being bombed for bugs. Spiders really. Huge spiders. eeewww.

Fall Color, a Moose and a million kids

 Going up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Oaks turning red. It is far more majestic in person! Take the kids and go!!

 Quakies turning yellow

 This is the moose. Can you see the dock on the very left? The moose was probably 25 feet from the boardwalk at Brighton Lake. Since i have seen movies of moose attacks and spent time in Island Park (35 miles outside yellowstone park) where they roam freely i am well acquainted with the dangers of moose. Everyone else up there were taking pictures and oogling. I was waiting for it to charge. Call me a doomsdayer but i wasn't going to wait for it to come after me and my babies. I don't have any pictures of the millions of kids but there were two school buses parked in the parking lot. Hopefully that creates enough of a mental picture of the amount of people there. Ironically, i thought it would be dead because it was a monday mid-morning.

f

 I kept colton in his carseat (which he hates) because i was worried about him getting cold. When he was born and taken to his doctor (weighing 5 lbs) the doc was very clear in telling me not to let him get cold-it would waste his energy on staying warm rather than growing. Since he was so small, i was paranoid about him not growing. I still worry about that, he seems so small to me, so i try to keep him bundled if it seems the least bit nippy outside. 

Aren't his eyes to die for?!

 And my precious, strong-willed Caleb. we had so much fun wandering around the lake, looking for ducks, feeding them with rocks (didn't work so well), looking for dragonflies and wondering what every other person was doing up their.

I saw this and had to take a picture.

Reminds me how so many times this is all we can see of our lives. A little bit of the path, one single bend, sometimes nothing at all. Everything else is taken on faith and hope in a Supreme Being who directs the universe and loves us--you and me--beyond that which we are able to imagine.

I am honored to be on this journey. I believe that is what life is...a journey filled with beauty, joy and mind-blowing wonder. Thank You Lord for this privilege.

Post 100

This is how we spent tuesday afternoon. I have found Cars marshmallows at target. Caleb loves to set them up on his cars mat and play. We have to send the dog out so she doesn't eat them while we play. 

 Gassing up Mqueen. Caleb doesnt' know how to play alone yet (ever?) so we play together. I keep telling myself this will help him be a more secure adult. Who knows if that is mumbojumbo but it sounds nice. And truth be known, despite the effort it requires, i really enjoy it. I enjoy pulling out my imagination, dusting off my creativity and prentending.

 Caleb figured out how to take pictures so every time i pull out the camera he wants to take pictures. He did pretty good for his first time. Aren't my muscles pathetic?! HA.

The babe  waking  up. He is not attached to his binkey, unlike his older brother was. He is most content when he is on my hip. And beginning to learn to crawl. Mentally, he hasn't totally figured out "hey, i want to go here and i CAN." I am so glad. I am not ready for mobility for him. I am positive that is when i will lose the remaining shreds of my sanity. It has been a rough week and half. My beloved children need/want me intensely and i frequently feel overwhelmed. I consistently work to remind myself  one day they won't want me anymore -- and to cherish their undying love demonstrated in this way while i have it.
Sometimes...even the reminders aren't enough to sustain. But i love them and i will happily sacrifice myself for them for i am a mother. Their Mother.
What an honor.

Hakes Family Dinner

 With so many beloved people in the hakes family Momma Hakes decided to do dinner monthly. Here is september's dinner:

Games with Aunt J

 Braylie eating dad's belt

 Miles checking out Caleb's face. I can't wait until colton is big enough to play more with caleb. When miles and colton are older...we all are in for it. Colton had that doll...not sure why.

 Dinner action shot. Pappa Hakes asked me to warn him next time i take a pic. At dinner Pappa Hakes told the story of the plane falling from the sky 12 inches away from the wall of the elementary school he teaches at. Actually, the wall it fell outside of was the wall between him, his lunch and the great outdoors.  We all concluded Angels helped the plane fall perfectly so it didn't hurt anyone. No small miracle since there were children outside playing. So glad you were protected Pappa Hakes.

 Braylie and Colton talking. Usually this is how Mark and I are able to eat dinner. It doesn't last super long but it does let us get some dinner. Ü
I love that colton has cousins so close in age (braylie is 2 weeks older than him; miles is 3 months older). We all look forward to them being good friends.

Dads and babies. From left to right: Mark and Braylie. Cody and Miles. Rob and Colton

I love family dinners and i love my family. I feel privileged to be a member of the Hakes Family. I love our conversations, the food and all the people.

Enjoyable Show

My dear sister-in-law (of one year--congrats to her and my brother) showed me and episode of this show two weeks ago and Rob and i have watched a few episodes. It frequently makes me laugh.  This may not be a popular opinion but i don't appreciate the gay couple. I believe marriage and child rearing is between a man and a woman. I still enjoy the show and am looking forward watching this upcoming season.

On a totally different subject:
I want to say i am proud to be an American. I spent time reflecting yesterday of the 9/11 tragedy and what the subsequent decade has brought us as a country (as well as personally). I love our constitution, country and the hope for the future.

Wannabee update:
First loss of season. The team wasn't in their division so they are still undefeated in their division.
go bees!