Christmas Card 2017

I couldn't pull off real Christmas card this year, but here's a good substitute...

Greetings from the trenches!  The Hawkins have had quite the year.  The biggest news is the arrival of little Thomas Lloyd Hawkins on November 22nd.  He's been a celebrity from the beginning and is the best baby any family could ask for.  He's growing a ton already and will soon be able to defend himself against his brothers.

Drew (2) has been having a hard adjustment not being the baby anymore.  Other than that, he's been growing a lot and saying more and more words.  He loves to follow Dallin around everywhere and will not be left behind.  His greatest loves are candy and grandpas.

Dallin (4) just keeps going and going and going!  He loves his preschool and all his friends.  His favorite recess activity is chasing the girls.  He's obsessed with cars, machinery, and trucks (especially if they have a siren).  He has the tenderest heart and smothers baby Tommy with kisses every day.

Anna (7) is living the dream of a 1st grader.  She loves going to school all day and loves all her friends there.  She's greatly improved her reading and language skills this year.  She has quite the following of stuffed animals and keeps them all on her bed.

Bevan's highlight for the year was running the Boston Marathon!  He ran it with his sister, Trisha, and had a great experience.  He's already talking about running it again!  He's still working at Deer Valley and loves that it keeps him in shape.

Donna is holding it together, adjusting to 4 kids.  She felt really good being pregnant with Tommy, and was blessed with ample energy throughout the year.  She kept working in Park City right up to delivery, even if it did get her some looks from clients.  Since then, she's switched to 24-hour mom, and loves every minute. 

We hope the Christmas Season finds you well!  We love the Savior, Jesus Christ, and the hope the gospel gives us.  We know the new year will be a busy one with our growing family.  If you don't see us much next year, don't worry, we'll see you in 2019!

Eve

Christmas Eve was so amazing and ended in quite dramatic fashion.  We only had sacrament meeting that morning, which was just right for our wiggly kids.  Later on, we headed to American Fork for dinner and the annual nativity production.  Once again, we provided the baby Jesus!  Tommy was spectacular!  He just laid there in all his swaddling cuteness!  It was fun to catch up with the family.  Those teenagers grow up so fast.  

It was snowing lightly as we were leaving (kind of a trend lately), but it got cold super fast.  By the time we got to the mouth of Provo Canyon, they closed it!  The trooper claimed there were a dozen slideoffs they needed to clear, which might take another 2 hours!  Back to American Fork we went.  Anna was getting nervous about missing Santa, but there was still plenty of time.  We killed time by watching cheesy Hallmark movies with Grandma Beverly.  We left once the UDOT cameras showed traffic in the canyon again.  The drive was still sketchy and we wondered where all the snow plows were... but we made it home at 11:45pm.  I've never seen Anna get ready for bed that fast!  It's all so magical when you're young.  I find more joy in seeing Christmas through their eyes now!

Almost Christmas...

Our ward has the most fabulous playgroup!  Well, actually it's for anybody with smaller kids that like to get together and play.  This is good because the wards all split and we're not in that one anyway.  My good friend Margaret is now in charge and she plans the most fabulous activities!  She's also good at delegating, so it spreads out the work.  We played "Pass the Parcel", make pipe-cleaner wreaths, and decorated sugar cone Christmas trees!  I managed to get pictures of both Dallin's and Drew's before they got dropped.

That night, Anna, Beverly, and I went to see the Nutcracker.  It was performed by our local dance school and they did an great job!  There is some amazing talent in this valley!  Apparently they did an abbreviated version.  I'm not a regular patron of ballet so I couldn't tell the difference.  The length was perfect for my attention span.  I asked Anna afterwards if she wanted to get into ballet dancing and she politely replied, "No thanks".  Phew!

With only 2 days left until Christmas, we thought it would be fun to drive around and look at house Christmas lights!  Unfortunately, our citizens must spend more time practicing ballet then decorating their houses.  We found ONE good house!  It was way over on the east end of Heber.  Oh, how I wish there was a street comparable to Winder Lane, back in West Valley!  Oh well.  The night wasn't a total wash.  We ended with ice cream cones at Dairy Keen.  According to the kids, it was all worth it!

Party, party, party!

The weeks leading up to Christmas were pretty uneventful.  Having a newborn forced us to keep it simple.  I only left the house if I was desperate enough, like if we were out of food or (even worse) diapers!  Yikes!  We did have a fun Saturday on the 16th.  It was Grandpa Lloyd's birthday party as well as the Ackerson family Christmas party!  I pepped myself up, did my hair and makeup for the first time in weeks, packed extra diapers and outfits, re-arranged ALL the car seats, and set off.

Lloyd's birthday dinner was at Golden Corral in Orem.  It was so fun!  The kids were in heaven, being able to eat whatever they wanted, mostly just pizza and ice cream!  Little Tommy loved being held by Auntie Tina.  Thank you Grandpa Lloyd, for having such an awesome birthday!

It started snowing on our way up to Centerville, but luckily the traffic wasn't that bad.  We arrived just in time for dessert and cousin presents.  Sharon was Skyping from Maryland and that was a lot of fun!  Dallin got his first nerf gun and the 3 bullets it came with were gone within minutes.  No matter, he's happy without bullets and so am I!  We lingered way too late and I ate way too much junk.  The snow was really coming down by the time we left, but luckily, it got lighter and lighter the further into the mountains we got.  Go figure!

All I want for Christmas...

...was a tree!  With the arrival of little Thomas Lloyd, and the crazy amount of time he takes up, I knew some things would get cut from Christmas festivities.  We bagged outside lights for the house, making fresh wreaths, visiting temple square, Christmas cards, the town party, and even neighbor treats!  The only thing I wouldn't budge on was cutting down our Christmas tree.  We worked so hard to get that permit, which involves standing in line at Soldier Hollow at 4am to get the wristband, which is later exchanged for the permit itself. 

Once again we left the kids in the care of Grandma and Grandpa Ackerson.  They live very close to the forest boundaries there in Francis!  Some day, we'll take them along and make it a whole-family-tradition, like the Grizwalds....  But for this year, we had to be fast!  We drove to the same spot as last year: the very first pull-off once you pass the forest boundary sign.  Good enough!  It was a pleasant walk and it was fun to see snow again.  We had to walk a little further up the hollow to get a good tree.  It couldn't be too big since Bevan was on his own dragging it out.  We finally found one and Bevan cut it down in no time!  It was late by the time we got back to Midway, but the kids and I decorated it the next day.  I also learned a valuable lesson on trimming a very fresh tree:  do it first thing!  Don't let the tree sit inside for a day because the sap will start moving and leak out with every trimmed branch!  Ugh!

Anyway, the kids are enchanted with it!  We've only broken 4 bulbs too.  If this is all we do for Christmas, them I'm perfectly satisfied! 

Thomas Lloyd!!!

Oh, how we love this boy!!!  Little Thomas Lloyd Hawkins was born on Wednesday, November 22.  He was 8 lbs 10 oz and 21 1/2 inches long.  His birth story was uneventful... but trying to leave the hospital was quite the story!

The day started out as expected.  I opted to get induced 2 days before my due date because 1) Dr. Falk was going out of town for a week and 2) I was DONE being pregnant!  It took me 4 pregnancies to finally realize that I don't like surprises.  I LIKE being induced!  There's a plan, a schedule, and reliable childcare for my other kids.  Labor took a little longer than I anticipated, but I knew I would have a baby by the end of the day!  Poor Bevan was so bored I sent him to the outlet stores for a few hours.  I got some Christmas shopping done on Amazon.  Around 4pm, it was time to push.  I was hoping it would go faster than when I had Drew.  He was so big and so very posterior!  Luckily this baby was not so big and a little easier to deliver.  Yay!!!  It's always such a miracle to see these little babies.  Bevan and I couldn't believe it... 4 kids!

We got to enjoy the next 24 hours chilling in the hospital, eating their (decent) Thanksgiving dinner, and watching all 3 nfl games!  Little Tommy got to enjoy every minute of it!  We were getting ready to discharge and Tommy came back with a failed pulse oximetry screening.  Yikes!  They had to keep him there and monitor him to keep his blood oxygen levels up.  They even had to supplement his oxygen, and as the night went on and on, it took more and more oxygen to keep him normal.  Finally, at 4am, they called lifeflight.  To Primary Childrens Hospital we went!  We needed to find out what was wrong with our poor baby!  It was mid-morning and after his echo-cardiogram that they diagnosed PDA (patent ductus arteriosus) and pretty high blood pressure in his lungs (which was probably causing the PDA.  I was so relieved it wasn't life-threatening, but still scary!  They kept him in Primarys with extra oxygen and monitoring for the next 48 hours.  I don't witness many miracles in my life, but he rebounded so quickly that even the doctors were amazed!  He kept good oxygen levels on his own and after a second echocardiogram confirming a closed ductus arteriosus and better pressure in the lungs, we were able to go home!  I'm so grateful for good doctors and mandatory screenings.  I'm grateful that Bevan had a 6-days off work.  I'm grateful I was able to spend an extra 2 1/2 days alone with my baby.  And I'm very grateful for new baby boys!

That THIRD week of November

It may be common knowledge by now... but we like fall-time babies.  To be more specific, 3rd-week-of-November babies.  Was all this planned?  Yes and no.  In the end, it just happened.  It's ridiculous.  Our new baby will join this club too!  In that case, we had to get birthday celebrations out of the way early.  The best part is that I only had to decorate the house once!... and left it up for a week.

Anna's birthday was on the 24th, but we had her friend-party on the 18th.  She wanted a My Little Pony theme, which was super easy thanks to pinterest.  Unicorn headband craft, pin the tail on Rainbow Dash, pony races around the house, and a nice big chocolaty BT cake!

Bevan's was on the 17th and we celebrated by going out to dinner without kids.  It was glorious!  Afterwards, we took his cake over to the babysitter's house (when we picked up the kids) and sang happy birthday!  Thanks Julie and your amazing family!

Drew's was on the 20th.  We went to Dairy Keen for lunch and then cupcakes that night.  I was so busy getting ready for the new baby.  I promised him his party next year wouldn't be so lame.  I still can't believe he's 2.  I LOVE 2!  I hope he stays sweet and cute! 

And when will this new baby be born???  With any luck... tomorrow!!!

Spiderman, a Lion, and Miraculous Ladybug!

Halloween really snuck up on this year!... probably because we just got back from San Diego the night before.  Hey, at least the kids didn't miss their class Halloween parties!  Anna walked an outside parade with the rest of her school and Dallin did an abbreviated one through the halls for his preschool.  There were only 3 other Spidermen in his class of 12 boys.  Anna was the only Miraculous Ladybug in her entire school (go figure).  Thank you netflix and your low-budget french cartoons. 
That evening, we had a ball trick-or-treating!  Anna and Dallin could run to every house and Drew tried to keep up.  They ended up with enough candy and I let them pig-out until it was time for bed.  I combed their piles for some good stuff, but realized I should just buy it myself.  No peanut butter Snickers or Take-5s, or even caramel apple pops!  I probably should cut back anyway.  They're not doing anything for my figure!

Babymoon 2017: San Diego!

Every late October, we try to take a trip somewhere fun and warm!  Sometimes the kids miss out if we time it with our "babymoon", or a couple-only retreat before the new baby comes!  Southern Utah is usually a safe bet, but spending long hours in a car didn't sound appealing.  We also wanted to go somewhere we've never been:  San Diego!  Well, Bevan HAS been there before with his family, but it's been so long, it didn't count.  90 minutes in a plane vs. 4-5 hours in a car was a no-brainer!

We left late Thursday night so Dallin and Anna wouldn't miss too much school.  Nora was amazing for watching them and they weren't even sad when we left, if they noticed at all.  You can't compete with fun cousins!  They had an absolute blast!  We got in pretty late for our schedule, but luckily they streamlined the rental car process and our hotel was pretty close to the airport.  I was amazed how busy the airport was for 11pm!

We decided to hit up Sea World our first full day, while I was still full of energy.  Because it was the week after fall break, the place was completely dead!  It was great!  It's a fun place with pukey rides and over-priced food and even some sea life!  I guess they're trying to veer more towards "education" of sea life than the making them perform for guests, and then trying to make up for it by building more roller coasters.   Environmentalists made them tone-down the Orca show... but the dolphin show definitely made up for it!  We found most of the exhibits and saw a lot of cool fish!  I forced Bevan to ride the pukey rides in place of me.  Since Sea World closes so early, we also had time venture out to Ocean Beach for some yummy Mexican food and then walk the long pier over the ocean.  It was heaven!

On Saturday, we visited Old Town, and they were busy with "Day of the Dead" festivities!  It was fun to walk around to all the old buildings, although every stucco-covered building in San Diego looks old!  The Mormon Battalion monuments were especially fun.  I love their new exhibits!  We wandered all over some hill called Presidio Park, found a museum that looked older than it was (go figure), and ended up at some fancy mexican restaurant again.  After lunch we headed out to Coronado for beach time!  I love "Some Like it Hot" and always wanted to see the famous hotel!  Turns out the beach is pretty special itself.  Many people swear it's the best in San Diego!  An older couple felt sorry for me and gave us their beach chairs as they were leaving.  Bevan built an amazing sand castle that was admired by many beach strollers.  And we stayed to watch the sunset... which isn't hard when the sun sets at 6!

Sunday was a little more moseying and a lot of driving.  After church in the middle of some twisty neighborhood (San Diego streets drive me crazy!) we headed up north.  The temple grounds were VERY closed (couldn't even walk the grounds!) so we wandered over to Torrey Pines golf course... which Bevan found almost as spiritual.  I guess it's pretty famous.  We also saw another beach + cliffs and then some more beach in La Jolla.  We barely made it to Point Loma right before they closed.  We didn't get to see a whole lot before being chased out by some NPS folks.  There was a lighthouse, there was some ocean, and a million incredible views!

We didn't have much time on Monday before our plane left, but just enough to check out Balboa Park.  Beautiful buildings and beautiful gardens!  I felt like we saw it all.  San Diego was a little more "city" than "tropical destination", but it was still a blast.  Now time to go home, have a baby, and endure another long (and hopefully snowy) winter!