Flake Fun

I read through your posts and feel like our weeks are so boring!  But, boring or not, here is our report.  Our garden is finally starting to sprout and we are pretty excited about it.  We have lettuce, spinach, carrots, broccoli and some cover crop outside.  The greenhouse has tomatoes and peppers sprouting and almost ready for transplanting to bigger pots.  We also have a rogue onion that decided to finally emerge after a year or two! And we planted some turnips on a very hard spot of ground to see if we can break is up at all.  We'll see!  Scott has been learning a bit about no-till gardening and we may try our hand at it next year. 


We did some branding on Saturday which was fun.  One of Scott's 7-year old second cousins came with us and she was a hoot!  She was quite concerned for the calves and didn't like the smell of the branding but she was a trooper and helped out. 


On Friday night we had a couple of other second cousins come visit and that was also really fun.  They are 11 year old twins and kept us laughing the whole time they were here.  When their dad came to get them they ran away & he stayed and played games and chatted with us for about an hour! Good times.


I think that's about it for us.  We are excited to see everyone in a couple of weeks! 

Hart Happenings

Hey all!
  My apologies for our too-long hiatus.   It took me quite a while to catch up on all the blog posts we've missed!  Never a dull moment in this clan, I swear.
  This week has been full!  We started off celebrating Alex and my anniversary.  13 years.  And with three boys the perfect way to celebrate is to have your oldest child split his chin open and have a member of the bishopric stop by on his way home from work (emergency room doc) to stitch him up on your kitchen island.  Then watch the next son kill it at his soccer game, and finally end the day on a  helicopter ride with the best ministering brethren the world has ever known.  Unbelievable!  I couldn't make this stuff up people.
  Compared to that Monday, the rest of the week was tame.  Play day with the cousins, moving the chickens out of the kitchen (praise the Lord), prepping the yard of the airbnb houses, and hosting a baby shower for a friend who is pregnant with her 5th baby (after 4 boys finally a girl) definitely worth the celebration!
  The weather was spectacular this weekend so we spent the bulk of it outside.  We got the sprinkler system up and going again. We trimmed up all the tall poplars on the perimeter of the property and had a commercial chipping machine come and chip up all the branches.  The boys were freaking out!  It was an amazing piece of machinery!  We began ripping out the hedge on one side of our garden.  It lets in so much more sunlight!
  Ian had fun playing night games with his friends on Saturday night after we attended our first ever gender-reveal party for our friends' kittens.  Yes, that is right, and heavy on the irony.  It was HILARIOUS!  I'm still laughing about it.  You would love the couple that hosted it.  They are probably the funniest, best people I have ever met.  And the wife is from Cove.  Not surprising, right?  So fun!
  We are reading Summer of the Monkeys right now and laugh our heads off through every chapter.  So great to revisit those classics that I remember Mom reading.
  Can't wait for the Gathering and we are also super excited for all of you entering new chapters of your lives.  Thomas (new job), Joe and Lori (new job and house), Mom and Dad (for real empty-nesters, new house, retirement).  Big changes like that can provide so much impetus and momentum into whatever lies ahead.  Lots of positive vibes and energy coming from us to you guys!
  See you in a couple of weeks......

...And Loving It

What's up what's up what's up?? How's it going family? Anything crazy happening?

Crazy thought - I leave in 16 days! How cool is that?? I finally have my flight inventory and everything, so I fly out of SLC to Mexico on the 15 of May at 9:37 AM! Woot woot! It'll be great! I'm taking all the advice I can get so if you have any more, send it my way :)

Hey y'all, thanks for all the birthday wishes! They were awesome.  Also, happy 2nd birthday to Wesley! I heard he got some pretty legit "baketeball" stuff so I'm sure he's happy about that :) My birthday was pretty great.  Mom took me out to breakfast, then I went to Olive Garden with my roommate and some friends, then me and the girls went and got pedicures! Sista's, we've got to go get pedicures! I love them so much! Overall it was a pretty great day until we played Secret Hitler and I lost :( Jk jk jk, it was great ;)

This past week was dead week and it's now my favorite week of the school year.  SO nice.  Except I still had tests so that wasn't so great.  But I think I'm passing all my classes so that's a blessing! This weekend, I saw Infinity War and it was............ UGH if I say anything then I'll spoil it all.  Let's just say it made me super mad and it's in two parts so I won't be able to see it until I get home.  Alex and Thomas, don't you dare spoil it for me while I'm gone.

On Wednesday, I had a great conversation with an institute teacher, Brother Winward, about my mission.  I mean, most of you have served missions, so I hope you remember that it can be pretty nerve wracking to go! I'm super excited but it's still kind of scary.  Mostly I'm just concerned that I won't live up to expectation and that would be super super awful.  Anyway, he gave me a book by Sheri Dew titled "Amazed by Grace." I'm sure most of you have read it, but if not, you should! It's so great! I feel like we talk about grace a lot, and some people make it more complicated than it needs to be.  One thing Sister Dew says is that grace "is never dormant.  It is not suddenly unleashed when we sin or need help."  That reminded me of what President Monson said about Heavenly Father's love.  He said something to the effect that though we may not feel that we deserve His love or presence, it is simply always there.  It's also the same idea of the Atonement and repentance.  Christ has already paid the price for our sins; it's already been done.  Anyway, it's so great and the gospel is amazing.  You all have at least 7 years of experience on me, so just let me know your thoughts and such.  Love you all.  Hope you have a great week.

Also, sorry for the super annoyingly long post.  My bad.

Flake Fun

This week was fairly normal but our weekend was amazingly productive!  Scott did some plumbing fixes on Saturday morning & then hit some of the weeds with weed killer.  We stopped at the cousin's house but they had people doing professional insulation so we didn't stay long.  Then we worked on our front island (it is getting closer to completion!), took a long bike ride and planted potatoes.  By that time it was dark so we relaxed for the rest of the evening.  


The weather has decided to warm up a bit so we enjoyed being outside quite a bit.  It did freeze a couple of nights last week though.  We're not sure if our apple trees survived. 


Funny story of the week:  We went on our Sunday morning walk through the back field.   The cows were kind of bunched together and didn't get out of the way very much.  And they were being quite noisy.  We walked past them & headed up a small hill.  I turned around & looked back and the entire herd was following us!  It looked like we were taking our cows out for a walk!!!  They followed us all the way around the field and back!  Quite the sight I am sure!


Our fish survived the winter and are quite big. It is fun to watch them and they are quite the attraction to visiting neighborhood grandchildren. 


I had an interesting scriptural insight yesterday.  I was actually reading the Ensign & came across a scripture about pruning the olive trees.  It said something about not cutting off all of the bitter branches at once lest the root overtakes the branches.  The article interpreted this to mean that we need opposition so the Lord won't remove all of the hard stuff from life.  But the thing that came to my mind was that we don't have to tackle all of our sins, shortcomings or flaws all at once.  Take them down one branch at a time & make sure that they are really gone & that your tree is still strong before you tackle the next one.  Sometimes I have a habit of looking at everything that I want to change about myself & getting overwhelmed by the size of the task which brings feelings of worthlessness, self doubt & despair.  That is definitely not good for my "tree".  Interesting thought.


Anyway, love you all!  Can't wait to see you in a few weeks!  There are plenty of nice big houses for sale in Snowflake if anyone is interested! (And housing is significantly cheaper here!!)

Manning Moments

The last little while has been pretty low key. We built a little fence around our chicken coop and we will be putting our chickens outside because they are getting so big! Nick is quite the handyman and he figured out all the little particulars. 
We have been taking a hypnobirthing class from a lady in our ward and she is a hoot! We just laugh the whole class which is really fun. My favorite quote from last week was "labor doesn't have to be a fish flipping experience people!"
Wesley is a basketball nut. I have never seen anything like it. We take the basketball everywhere with us: the store, the library, on walks, to bed, etc. We have only gotten basketball books from the library lately and he just pores over them. He notices everything that slightly resembles a ball or a hoop. It is so funny! We are getting him a little hoop for his birthday this week and I am so excited I can hardly wait. The only problem with the obsession is that he doesn't sleep well sometimes. He wakes up crying for his ball or really early because he wants to play ball.
Life is good. Can't wait to see you all!

HP HQ Highlights

Today I had a few mini-meltdowns. Seems I couldn't control my sudden weeping moments. They just came, uninvited and unexpected. I will blame most of that on lack of sleep due to allergies that keep me up much of the night. I suppose most of the distress came because of the realization that not only is Dad retiring soon, and not only are we moving to who knows where, and not only is Emma (our baby) leaving for a year and a half, but they are all happening simultaneously - and 2/3 are happening without our planning for them. Makes for some excitement and anticipation, but today it only made for some fairly melancholy feelings.

We are still driving around every day to look at homes and lots for sale and for places to rent. We think we may have a rental lined up. We just have to check out the particulars. Whether we build or buy, we will likely need to rent for a short time (or perhaps a long time). That takes up several hours some days. But we are also cleaning things out and getting rid of some stuff, packing other stuff. It is a big, big job to clean out and pare down 30 years of accumulated belongings. Thank goodness I'm not a "keeper" of lots of things. But I have kept more than I thought!

The weather is delightful and Dad spent yesterday mowing and tilling and I weeded a bit in the front. It feels good to be outside without a jacket. It's just a teaser, I'm sure, but we are enjoying it!

Plans are brewing for our Gathering! Please let us know when you plan to arrive and leave so we can pack the activities into the time when most of us will be here. You won't want to miss some of what is on the schedule.... :)

Nilsson News

I think that spring has finally found Idaho Falls!  This weekend we have had temps in the 60's and everyone is looking a little more pink cheeked now.  It is funny to me that as soon as the weather hits 60, all of the sudden people are wearing flip flops and shorts and are buying burgers for grilling.  And yet, when we went to Arizona and the temps were 60, everyone was wearing a jacket saying how cold it was.  Perspective.
Things with our little goat are looking up.  It has been a wild ride, but he is now out and about kicking his feet and jumping all over the place.  I keep thinking about when Joe broke his femur how long of a recovery it was and if only he had the hardiness of a goat, he would have been back to playing basketball in no time!  Cookie's femur broke in two places resulting in three separate pieces of bone.  Ouch!  It's crazy that it can heal itself.
Millie is now a walker!  She is so excited about it and it is very entertaining to watch her accomplishment.  She walks down the hall looking like she is cheering with her hands held high above her head for balance.  Adorable.
All the other kids are super excited about this springtime weather and have been putting the treehouse and swingset to good use.  My mind has begun spinning with all the projects that continuously appear.  Why is it that on a projects list you write down five things and only get to check off one before adding another five?  Currently, a chicken coop is a top priority since our chicks are growing way too fast.
It is hard to believe that we will be seeing all of you in just a few more weeks!  Family Gathering time already.  I think most or all of our activities should be at the house because this will be our final shin dig there.  That is kind of a sad thing to think about so I think I will stop thinking about it.  We should definitely have a night for reminiscing on all the wonderful memories we have made there.  Nothing can replace our HP HQ!

Flake Fun

Well, we hit a cold & windy spell for the last couple of days with nighttime temps around 22 degrees and wind gusts up to 75 mph.  Needless to say, I think we lost all chance of fruit on our trees this year.  It did warm up a little on Saturday so we were able to plant some stuff outside (corn, spinach, lettuce, onions, & broccoli).  We're keeping our fingers crossed that the weather is ready to warm up now. It was 55 degrees at 6:45 this morning so perhaps we'll get our wish.


Glad to hear that Cookie is doing well! 


I led the discussion in Relief Society yesterday.  It was on Elder Rasband's "By Divine Design" talk from October & it is a great talk.  The thing that really stood out to me was a quote by Elder Maxwell that talked about how many of us don't take advantage of the "people-opportunities" allotted to us.  How true that is!  That is one thing that I personally really struggle with; not wanting to be a burden or problem so I have a mentality of "I can get through it alone."  I am resolving to do better.  But, I encourage everyone to take another look at that talk.  It is awesome!


That's about it for us.  Hope that everyone has a great week!

T&T

Well it's been a whirlwind the last couple of weeks!  I quit my job as the Fitness Director for Avanti, and that same day Tori and I went to the gym and I got offered a job there, out of the blue!  God's plan is really something, ya know?!  Kinda blows my mind sometimes.  So I've been working at our gym setting people set up with trainers and programs, which is tough, but good!

Tori and I got the opportunity the first week of April to go to Hawaii with her family.  We started the first couple days on the island of Kauai where we learned how to surf!  We also read about this really neat, short hike, the Queens Bath, so we decided to go try it out.  Now it had been raining pretty consistently since we arrived with a couple of hurricane style storms here and there, so it was pretty wet everywhere.  Anyway!  We go to the trail head and it looked pretty muddy... Eh, it'll be alright, it's less than a mile, so we decide to go for it.  hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha oh silly us... it was so so muddy.  People were falling down right and left!  Best part, we get to the rocky shore where the "bath" was and there's this wooden sign that looks like it was carved by the Swiss Family Robinson with 28 notches in it, meaning that 28 people had died getting to this pool!  But have fun!  But it all seriousness, it was gorgeous.  I'll attach some pictures to show ya.

We got to spend a day at the Polynesian Culture Center, which was so cool!  I remember one of our family videos has some clips dad took there, and it's exactly the same today.  Really fun activities, with great food and entertainment, 10/10 would recommend to anyone! We also got to wander around Pearl Harbor right before we left, which was also really special.

The day we got back, Tori had to leave 5 hours later for work in Florida.  So she kind of just rearranged her bag and had to get back on the plane!  She's taking noise samples on the Royal Princess cruise ship.  Yes, she's literally getting paid to be on a 7 day cruise right now.  Yup.  So that's pretty neat I guess... Nope, I'm not jealous....

We're so excited to see everyone in May!  Can't wait!  Anyway, that's about it for us!

Nilsson News

I've been a huge blogger slacker but I will try to do better.  This has definitely been a doozy of a week.  I'll tell you the crazy saga we have been dealing with.
On Wednesday night, Addy's goat Nibbles had her triplets!  I honestly thought she would only have one, maybe two, because she was not very large around the middle.  We were so surprised to find three!  She delivered all on her own and the baby boys were black, black with a white spot on his head, and spotted black and white.  Adorable.  The next morning, the Harts came over to see the cuteness.  We were all in agreement that the cutest baby animal on the planet is definitely a baby goat.  The kids (the human kids that is) were in and out of the barn a few times throughout that morning.  Just after lunch when Addy and Ian went out to the barn, tragedy hit.  They found that the latch to Nibbles' pen had been opened and she was out of her stall.  The other animals were extremely curious of the baby goats and did the number on them.  We found one dead and the other two pretty well mauled but still alive.  Ian took charge of all the kids at home while Elise, Addy and I took the two babies to the vet. 
We worked on getting them warm and stabilized first and then hydrated.  We left the goat kids under the warmer at the vet and went home for about an hour.  When Addy and I went back to the vet, I was prepared for the awful news and was prepared to put the little guys down.  The vet however was very optimistic.  He showed us the x-rays and the black one (Chip) had a dislocated hock and the spotted one (Cookie) had broken his leg in three places.  The vet said our best option was to leave the injuries alone and let them heal over time.  Our job was to keep the kids warm and fed. 
We put them in a box on a heating pad in Addy's room.  I quickly learned how to milk a goat so we could feed these babies.  We got up every two hours during the night to feed the little guys.  They wouldn't take a bottle so we had to force feed with a syringe.
In the morning, they seemed to be okay.  After having breakfast, Addy noticed that Chip's breathing was slowing and then it stopped all together.  So very sad.  We took Cookie back to the vet to see what he thought we should do.  He still thought that the little guy might have a chance.  After some antibiotics and pain meds, we went back home. 
That afternoon I had the idea to take Cookie out to the barn to see if Nibbles remembered him.  I knew it was a long shot since he would smell funny but we would give it a try.  Addy held him and Nibbles instantly started giving him kisses and Cookie was kissing her back!  It was the most adorable thing I have ever seen!
Sorry to make this so long, but it has kind of overtaken our lives!  We put a heat lamp out in the stall and left the two goaties together.  Since being put with his mom, Cookie seems to be thriving now.  Today he was trying to frisk and jump about like goat kids do.  He is champ at balancing on his three good legs.  He is a fighter and we are just playing the waiting game for now...

 This is the only picture we have of all three together.

 This is Cookie in a pretty sad state.

So much better now that he is with mom!

Thank you for all your kind texts and phone calls.  It has been quite a sad thing to deal with and kind of the tip of the iceberg with the rest of the year behind us.  Hopefully from here on out we will have more happy news!

Manning Madness

I am back on the blog after a short but eternal sabbatical. However, I do read what you post every week so thanks for doing that! Ever since December we have had very little healthiness going on which isn't fun. But we are improving now and I am hopeful that we won't just go back into another slump. 
It has been an eventful 2018 so far. We were having some kind of trouble with our furnace and weren't sure what was going on. After many, many, many companies coming over and scratching their heads over our 1976 AC and wacky furnace set up, I could probably work at an HVAC company and sound pretty legit. All of the quotes were around 8,000-9,000 dollars until Nick did some digging in our home warranty and we got everything worked out for half that amount. We felt very blessed that it fell apart before we had been here a year.
Shortly after that, Nick came down with the flu and gave it to Wesley who gave it to me! They didn't seem to have it too bad but I had to go to the emergency room and stay in bed for a couple of weeks. Thanks to all of you who helped at the drop of a hat to come play with Wesley and keep me sane. We have the best family in the world!
This last week was Nick's spring break. It was wonderful to start it off with General Conference which was so inspiring! Then Wesley and I stayed at HQ in Hyde Park while Nick went to Nevada for the frontsight handgun training. To say he was excited would be a gross understatement. He came back glowing. I don't quite understand but maybe you other guys might? Anyway, he managed on the second day to get a flat tire but the place that fixed it basically did it for free which was so nice! Then on the last day, he went to the Las Vegas temple and went to dinner afterwards. When he came out, someone had smashed our car windows and taken his temple bag and his 72 hour kit. So that was exciting. Neither of these events dampened the thrill of the training for Nick.
Other than that, life is great! We found out we are having another boy which is exciting. Wesley will be such a good big brother. He is talking up a storm and is obsessed with basketball. That is the most important thing right now and it is what we do all day. When we went to the library he looked for a basketball book and it is his prized possession. It is so fun!
Other than that I think there is nothing to report. Can't wait to see you all in a few weeks!

Flake Fun

8 April - This was a pretty good week.  We had a very low key but nice anniversary. Can you believe it has been 11 years already?

The highlight of the week was getting 3 huge totes from Aunt Donna that she thought had mostly bills & junk paperwork.  Upon opening and digging through them I found so many fun treasures! To name a few:  mission letters from 2 uncles, birth certificate & obituary from great grandma, letters from grandpa to grandma when he was in the navy, & even a birthday card from grandma's dad in Canada.

The weather this week was beautiful and I have a small sunburn to prove it!

Hope you all had and have a great week!

HP HQ Happenings

Conference was a wonderful experience this weekend! "I feel like shouting Hallelujah whenever I...." listen to conference! What a blessing to have such amazing, inspired leaders. I hope you all got to hear or watch most or all of the sessions. I felt the whole time like everything spoken and all of the changes are just leading us closer to becoming a Zion people. Let's Gather to Zion, family!!

Lauren and Wesley are here to spend spring break while Nick is out of town. It is a delight to have them here. This little 2-year-old has completely won our hearts. He rules the roost and has each of us wrapped around his little finger! We are very happy that Lauren is feeling better day by day. She is still not completely 100%, but is doing much better than when I was at her house a couple of weeks ago.  Thanks to everyone who went down to stay and help her. It was a blessing to her and Wesley.

I waited all last week for a baby to come, but to no avail. I will wait again this week. It's always a waiting game. Only problem when a baby is slow to come is that it gets closer to the time the next baby is due to come. That gets a bit stressful. Hopefully we'll get this baby here this week before the one who is due next week decides to come...

The weather goes back and forth still, but we do have flowers blooming, which makes us think that spring did not forget to come this year.  We hope to get outside before long and get things in shape.

Dad had a crown on his tooth replaced this week. Again. They don't last forever. He's busy at work, but busier at home getting three talks ready to give at his stake conference next weekend, which causes a bit of stress. Elder Stanfill is coming to preside at that conference, which also causes some stress. Things are winding down for this semester, but that means his interviews are winding up for missionaries and for weddings. Also, he must replace 4 bishops and create 2 new wards and call 2 other bishops this summer. That takes weeks and weeks of preparation - multitudes of phone calls and interviews and paper work. Needless to say, he is rather consumed with church work right now.

We are looking forward to having you all here for our family gathering in May. Thanks for responding. More information will follow before long. Have a great week!

Flake Fun

Well, it is between conference sessions so I thought I would take a minute to blog.   The craziest thing that has happened in the last couple of weeks (other than the random little snow storm) was having to go with a law enforcement office to re-poses a county vehicle.  We had an employee that decided not to show up to work for about 3 weeks.  After going through the whole legal process, I was asked by the health director to go out and get the county vehicle the employee had been driving.  It was quite the adventure & I felt like a criminal!  Glad I went with law enforcement!

Other than that, we have just been doing the normal. Make breakfast, pack lunches, go to work, make dinner & go to bed.  Pretty boring life but that's okay I guess!

Love you all!  Can't wait to see you next month!