Our 2012 in Pictures

 JANUARY

Work on our house continued...

First raccoon we caught

and the next 3...

This is what the inside of our house looked like as we demo-ed it!

 FEBRUARY

Joe feeds our neighbors dog a treat (this dog helped us find several coons in our house)

removing the summer kitchen (it was beyond repair)

replacing the roof over the kitchen and family room

Joe is ready to give orders...

MARCH

completed building project with Grandpa

National Park badges earned with Grammie's help

We didn't get much snow last winter...so why not sled on the dirt pile!

camping out at our house

trying to feed the coon pups we found in the house

 ApRiL

 

Jake is ready for MLB opening day

Joe

first day of swim lessons

the boys learn some sewing pointers with Grammie

Grandpa shares stories from his army days

Grammie and Jake work on a Mayflower replica

the beginning of April

the end of April

Eric and Rachel catch snakes under our metal pile

 MAY

Jake lost his first tooth

Joe watches tractors from our yard...with extreme delight!

Joe rides with no training wheels!

JUNE

Joe and Papa share some sugar

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Help from friends

Great places to set up army guys

July

caring for the neighbor's goat

AUgUSt

the baby kitten we acquired...Daisy

Jake starts first grade

Joe's tractor pull trophy...

catch of the day....a baby rabbit

finding a way to pass the time (movies) while we work on the house

SEPTEMBER

brushing teeth on the front porch when we didn't have usable water yet

Joe helps dad

baking cookies in our new oven

sunrises we enjoy daily

the boys find another way to help with the house

OcToBeR

St Louis Arch

in Colorado for Jen and Andy's wedding

Jen and Andy

NOVEMBER

First ride in a combine

painting the handprint camo border in their bedroom

DECEMBER

It snowed...

an inch...maybe...but it was gusting wind at 40 mph.  So...two little boys just stayed inside and watched from the window.  NOT!

Nope.  The Hawkins duo put on multiple layers covering their entire bodies...and ventured out into the wind, cold, and snow.  And they loved it.

Mom finally got up enough desire to head out and join them!  (I believe the wording to Josh was "They are only this age once! And some day I'll wish I went out with them in the freezing cold...I think!")

Daisy was the smart one.  She darted out the garage door as soon as it was (blown) open.  But, after two steps, she darted back in the garage like she had just been shot out of a cannon.  I think the wind was blowing hard enough that she probably had great assistance from behind with her speed.

Anyway...the boys shoveled the drive (Jake wanted to be sure we could get our cars out.) And then we got our slick sled out to test the hill in the woods that we cut out.  It worked pretty well the first few times, but it just wasn't enough snow to really have fun for long.
So, we traveled the yard looking for a better spot.  Not much luck, though.

Our feet were cold...so we went inside.

A couple weeks of random things...

 Josh was going out to cut wood.  Joe eagerly dressed and followed to help.
Then, Josh decided to fill in some low spots on the driveway.  Joe wanted to get his wheelbarrow and help, too.   Wished I had the video camera on as Joe pushed his wheelbarrow across the yard next to Josh...but these pictures give you the idea! :)

I was fixing lunch one colder day and Joe said..."I think I'll just warm up right here!"

   Interesting in December...a rainbow after a thunderstorm.  When I see a rainbow, I always think "God keeps His promises" and then I ponder the promises He has shown me in recent days.
   However, in light of the Christmas season, I found myself chasing thoughts of His birth and of the promises people had to cling to for so long before seeing the promise fulfilled.  This led me to a series of thoughts before I realized I probably hadn't really thought about a lot of those things before...b/c rainbows are so rare in December.  Amazing where a simple rainbow took me for a few moments...God Keeps His Promises! :)

So, Jake was out practicing with the pellet gun and a box.  Shortly, thereafter he and Joe were traveling the yard looking for things to shoot at. (Joe had a stick gun.)   Then, this was how we saw the boys...hunting for birds in the tree by the barn. 

Daisy wanted to check on the fun. I found this series of pictures to be a funny short "movie" where Daisy creeps up...

Daisy checks out the attacker...

 She tries to attack...

 Daisy goes down! :)

Here the boys are watching a video that has a segment on the Blue Angels.  I realized they were pretending to be the planes on the video...switching places at times in order to act like the stuntmen in the planes! Quite creative and worth the 2 minutes of watching...

Cookies, cookies...and...

Sunday we made sugar cookies.  The boys each got half the dough to help make the cut outs (insert "lots of flour making a big mess").  They had so much fun picking which cut out to use next...talking about the details and the shapes.

Then, on Monday, they iced the cookies.  This, of course, was to Joe's great delight. "Can I lick my finger?" must have been asked 100 times.  But, despite the mess, it was interesting to see their creativity and their different styles of decorating the cookies.

Tuesday found us at the library for a Family Christmas story time.  We saw friends we hadn't seen in awhile which was really fun.  And we enjoyed stories, songs, a couple of crafts, and, of course, milk and cookies! :)


And...of course, the week has been filled with schoolwork, talking about advent, learning about the books of the Bible, talking about compassion (from their Sunday school lessons) and attempting to put all we are learning into practice.  Fun stuff...!

The BIG bus

  This week has had several highlights...but Joe was super excited about riding with the swim team on the big yellow bus.  The mini-busses were fun for the the first couple meets, but he would ask, "When can we ride on the big yellow bus?" 
  Tuesday was the big day.  All day Joe talked about riding on the bus.  "I can't wait to ride on the bus," said Joe to Jake.  Jake said, "A pretend one...oh, yeah, the one with the swim team this afternoon. Yeah, I know, it will be fun!"  (One was obviously anticipating it a little more than the other! :)
   Once on the bus, Joe took his seat and said, "No seat belts, Mom?" "I guess not." I replied, as I realized how fear-inflicting those words can be.
   Not phased, Joe eagerly peered out the window sitting properly in his seat...legs barely wrapping over the front edge of the seat.  Jake sat behind him-equally intrigued by what was out the window...so he could stand up and lean forward to tell Joe what to watch for.  They talked back and forth between the window/seat space...eager to share what they were seeing.
  On the ride home, Jake was asleep (upright) within 5 minutes.  But Joe kept watch, taking it all in.  He gets so excited when he sees outdoor decorations.  So, eventually, I thought to have him sit on my lap so he could see over the seat in front of him at the road.  This was when the bus driver realized this was Joe's first time on a bus...and commented how it was obvious Joe was taking it all in.  Despite how tired he was, Joe managed to fight it off and stay awake all the way home.