Smithfield (Scary) Scoop

So, I think Emma sent her mouse trouble our way! I was making granola on Tuesday evening when all of a sudden Dad shouted, "A Mouse!" He spied it scurrying across the floor in my little reading room right off the front door. We cornered him, put him in a plastic box and Dad took him to the "relocation camp" up the road to the canyon. Solved. No big deal - except that it took about 45 minutes to catch him...

I went back to making granola to send to Emma when Dad said, "There's another one!" I thought he was teasing me, but lo and behold, there was another little critter running around the livingroom -  under the piano, behind the chair, under the table where the stereo is... These are little, itsy bitsy guys, really quite cute - IF they weren't in my house!!! After lots of furniture moving and scrambling around, we caught mouse #2 after another 45-60 minutes.

I admit I was a little shaky and anxious after that. I had Dad get down and look under the bed before I could kneel down and say my prayers! And I walked on tip toes the next morning. Dad had set some traps before we went to bed and there wasn't anything in them the next morning, so I felt much better. Actually, I wondered if these little ones would even be big enough to set a trap off...

Anyway, I had an early errand to run and left. On my way home, I got a text from Dad that said, "Mouse #3 in box on freezer. Peacefully sleeping on top stair. I have put a trap in the storage room." What!!!!??? Yes, another mouse he found asleep on the top step to the downstairs. Easy to catch - put a box over him and scooped him inside. He was the smallest of all. Dad had gone to a meeting and took him to the relocation camp when he got home. Ugggghh!!

Where there are baby mice, there are parents. Where are they and why are they in our house?? Yuck! Makes me feel all creepy crawly... But, so far, no more. Not today.  I still can't walk without wearing shoes in the house. I can't decide if I should wish to never see another one, or to wish to see whatever critter is still hiding out in our house.

You would all be so proud of me - I didn't scream at all! Not once. I did holler at Dad when the second mouse took off across the room... "Grab the box! Grab the box!" And he did. Thankfully!

We did not get photos of Mouse #1, but this is #2...

And this is Mouse #3, the smallest of all

...

And this is our house in shambles while catching #2...

A blog?

Hey this is great!  Who came up with the idea of a blog?  I was going to suggest that we do a little newsletter thing so we could keep up with what everyone is doing!! 
Well...we'll let you know when we have something exciting to write about.  It's a blast to hear about everyone's adventures.  Love you guys!

Nilsson News

What a month this has been so far!  Arizona was a blast!  The company was fantastic, the food was wonderful and the weather was much better than for those up north.  We thought we'd escaped the cold, but oh not so.  The first day of summer (Friday) brought with it a freeze the night before and the next night.  When the forecast says 35 degrees, we plan on 32 or lower.  There was a blanket of white and the things we didn't cover didn't survive too well.  This is bizarre weather!
While we were getting the garden prepped for winter time, these little guys surprised us:

It was a mama skunk and her five little kits!  They are pretty cute at a glance but these critters can be quite destructive, especially when it comes to a garden.  A couple days prior to this, we found a skunk exploring the inside of our chicken coop.  They are known for killing chickens and eating the eggs.  Thankfully, all our birds survived but the eggs didn't.
Our donkey, Penny, had her foal this past week!  We had Penny's due date written down for the middle of May.  It isn't unusual for donkeys to have a 13 month gestation but it sure makes the waiting much more intense.  Aren't you glad the normal for humans isn't a month past their due date?  See Jenn, there is always something to be grateful for!  Anyway, her foal Nellie, is absolutely adorable and loves the attention of the little kids.

Yesterday, we were finally able to haul our hay.  The weather has not been cooperating and keeps raining which makes the hay too wet to bale.  We were able to take advantage of a dry window.  Monday we will be hauling our neighbor's hay as well so hopefully that will give us a good start for the winter ahead (which may start next week).  Addy was our driver!

Here are a few more pictures of fun happenings.

 Eliza harvested her first purple cauliflower head from her little garden.  It was tasty!

Having fun in the treehouse "boat."  I love how kids use their imaginations!
Well, we re looking forward to seeing you at the Spartan in about a month!  It will be a fun time and it might actually be hot by then.  Have a terrific week!

Smithfield Scoop

Darling pictures, Jenn! Here are a couple more from our recent, delightful venture to Arizona...

Jenn was honestly surprised when she opened the door and saw her sisters!

Scott treated us to some delicious, gourmet s'mores! Yum!

We thoroughly enjoyed our time the Flakes. We walked and talked and ate and organized and worked out and talked some more. Scott and Jenn got some parenting ideas from the experts, Ruth and Elise. It couldn't have been any better weather. It was absolutely wonderful to be together. Camille drove over from New Mexico to be at the shower and Becca stayed the whole weekend with us, so Jenn had a couple of Belliston and Larsen aunts there to help balance all of the Flakes :)  (who are really great folks, by the way) Ruth and I concluded that when the babies are blessed, all of the men in the congregation will stand in the circle, since Scott is related to nearly everyone in the ward! Ruth's solution is to invite half of them to help bless baby brother and the other half to bless baby sister!

Besides traveling to Arizona, we've worked hard in the yard and the garden is looking really nice. The potatoes are nearly growing out of the grow box and the tomatoes are getting big, too. We didn't lose any plants in the freeze that occurred while I was gone to Arizona (unlike the Idaho family memebers…). Dad had a neighbor help fix our sprinkler system and that is working nicely in the now very warm weather.

Dad and I went to Jamie's house the other day to help her get some packing done. We will go again this week and help finish up and get the last of the cleaning done before Matt gets back from Missouri and loads the truck to move the family there. We will miss them. Wish we could have spent more time with them while they were closer...

We enjoyed visits from Thomas and Becca earlier in the month. It is always so nice to have people come and fill up the downstairs for a while.

We are enjoying teaching Primary - 5 and 6 year olds. Very fun. There are 9 on the roll. Some come each week, some come sometimes, others don't come. We have some work to do! Dad took charge when I was gone and did great. We teach the first 2 weeks of the month, then get to one week of Sunday School and one of RS/Elder's Quorum. Nice arrangement.

There is one more baby due in about a week and after that I will head back down to Snowflake to await a sweet arrival. It seems that the time has flown by. Jenn may not think so, with her puffy feet and legs! It won't be long before we meet these little people. 

Thanks to everyone for such kind and thoughtful calls and gifts for Dad. He had a delightful Father's  Day, despite a terrible toothache that has bothered him for a while now. Hopefully the dentist will take care of that tomorrow.

Love you all! Have a wonderful week! 

Flake Fun

These last several weeks have been just awesome.  The awesome-ness started with a very surprising visit from Mom, Becca, Ruth and Elise!  We had a bunch of fun together and they pampered and took care of me in royal fashion.  A great big thanks to them for all of their help with organizing the plethora of gifts from the baby shower.  I am now sorting through things a little bit at a time and it isn't quite as overwhelming. 

We had an ultrasound last week and currently both babies are head down which is awesome!  Hopefully they both will stay that way.  I feel like they have so far.  They are both growing and developing like they should;  Baby Boy is 4 lb 9 oz and Baby Girl is 4 lb 5 oz.  We even got to see little boy "breathing" which the ultrasound tech said he doesn't see very often.

The weather is finally turning to summer and we (Scott) have gotten nearly everything planted that we were hoping to.  Just a few things remaining. That is all that I can think of right now so here are a few pics for you!

Me at 33 weeks

I kept getting surprised all day! 

It was so fun to spend time with them! 

Can you see the tiny little bunny?  

It's been a while since I got on here!  May was the craziest month ever for us!  Tori traveled to North Carolina, Louisiana, around Texas, and Utah.  At the same time, I went to New York, Los Angeles, and Utah for training and tumbling clinics.  It was so fun to see the Harts and Bellistons, watch Aladdin with them, do lots of workouts HAHA! and just enjoy your beautiful families! 

Things are pretty crazy right now.  If you don't know, I got a job as an instructor at a luxury fitness studio.  Yeah, yeah "luxury" sounds like a marketing scheme, but it's....................for real.  Like a lot of our clients come in their lambos, or before their concert tours, or to get in shape for a movie role, etc.  So that's definitely a new world to me, but it's exciting!  Elise kind of got a taste of the style of workout, and Joe and Lori have had a version of it, but this is the breakdown: 50 minutes of workout with a 5 minute stretch at the end.  Half of the workout is done on the floor with bands or dumbbells, and the other half is done on a treadmill.  It is quite literally IMPOSSIBLE not to drown in sweat through this workout, trust me......I tried. 

Anyway! So Tori is still working as a safety consultant and traveling quite a bit.  She is still with Beach Body, and helping people get into working out consistently in a comfortable, safe, and at-home environment. So between those two things she stays crazy busy! 

I will be headed back to New York this week to work at the New York studios before we open our location on the 29th!  So that's going to be crazy!  Oh and I got another personal training certificate to build credibility, and because there's not much else to do in this industry....?

Well...........................Not much else is happening.... Looking forward to hearing about the Spartan in July!  Good luck to everyone involved!  Love you mucho mucho!

Nilsson News

We enjoyed some of the same excitements as the Hart clan.  Asparagus harvesting, observing the bee swarm, basking in the sunshine and getting the rest of the garden planted.  Best news of the week is our donkey Dee Dee had her foal on Memorial Day!  He is super tiny (19 inches) and almost black.  He is a little shy so we are working on that.  We finally decided on a name for him today.  He is the first son of his dad Inigo, so we decided on Montoya or just Monte for short.  We are still waiting for Penny to foal who is now three weeks past her due date (sigh).

We have been loving the sunshine and warmer weather but as I looked to the south this afternoon, I saw some pretty threatening clouds and would you take a close look at this picture:

Yes, you are seeing it correctly.  That is a tornado!  Garrett was at a neighbor's with the kids and as soon as he got home we asked if he'd seen the tornado and he said there was a tornado watch alert on his phone.  Crazy!
Here are some pics of the bee swarm.  The dark clump are thousands of bees.

 Henry was having way too much fun with the smoke can.

Ready for a new home at the Harts!

Hope you all have a wonderful, sunshiney week! 

Hart Happenings

So, I hate to jinx us, but folks, I think maybe, just maybe, summer has arrived in Idaho.  The sun has shown itself for the majority of the time this past week, and the seeds have decided it is worthwhile to poke their heads out and take a look around.  Hooray!  I feel like Dad, developing such an obsession with the weather, but it really impacts my most favorite activity, so you guys get to hear all about it, straight out of the gate every blog post these weeks!

A couple of highlights from the week in Idaho Falls:
  - Emer, Jack, and Peter identified a host of homeless bees in the neighbor's yard that eventually swarmed.  We called our bee friend who came and boxed the swarm up in a hive and brought them to our house!  They are doing well and look like they have decided to stick around for the time being.
  - We went to the local asparagus field and harvested the last of their asparagus with Ruth and some friends.
  - Peter and Jack both won their last soccer games with Peter scoring a beautiful goal.  It has been fun to see their growth as little athletes over the past season.
  - Friday was a full day with a backyard ice cream party celebrating the last day of school, hosted by some friends, and a priesthood commemoration BBQ for the fathers and sons AND a friend's birthday party for Ian, which looked like a lot of fun when I went to pick him up.
  - We got some good work done outside over the weekend planting pots, laying sod, and enjoying new view after we cut down some more hedge around the garden.  So lovely!
  - We broke in our fire pit with some s'more roasting and storytelling which was really great.
  - I enjoyed a nice, rare, chat with Jenn over the phone.  It was such a treat!
  - Mom and Dad came up to play for a few hours on Thursday which was a treat.  They brought Emerson and Addy over the community gardens while the boys and I were there doing our class.  Actually Ian wasn't there, he was at the temple with the youth in the ward and Alex.  It was fun to visit and they did some helpful work in the garden and we managed to squeeze in a game of corn hole as well.  That's right folks, it is the season for corn hole again.  There is a standing invitation for all of you anytime to come up and play a few rounds.
  - And news of the week!!!!!  Ian got into Matilda!!!  He auditioned a couple of weeks ago and has been dying of suspense ever since.  The cast list came out yesterday morning and he was so excited!  He has a bunch of friends who also tried out and made it, so he is really looking forward to being able to work with them again.

It is shaping up to be a wonderful summer up in this "neck of the woods" (Dad quote) and we'd love to see any of you who feel drawn north!  We are planning a few forays down south as well and are hoping to cross paths with our favorite people while down there.  That's you!

Have a brilliant week!  A nice, normal one would be good too!  I've decided that there is much to be said for plain days.  They are their own kind of delightful.