Flake Fun

Things are snowy and white in Snowflake right now - and bitter cold! It snowed most of Saturday which was so fun.

We had a good Christmas, the best so far according to Scott.  Randy and Dona rented a cabin in a little town called Pine and that was fun.  We woke up Christmas morning to snow which I loved.  Robin and Rand got spoiled. 

Since then we have been hunkering down trying to keep a fire in the stove so we don't turn into popcicles!

I am looking forward to 2020.  The first big event being on Jan 10th when I "retire". I can't wait!!

We hope that this year brings lots of Utah and Idaho visits since the twins did so well on the Thanksgiving trip.  If there are big family events, please let us know so we can try to be there!

Now for some pictures:

Christmas outfits from Grandma Flake

If you look closely you can see a baby in all the checkers!

This is how I felt too after all of the festivities

Hart Happenings

Happy holidays everyone!
  The Christmas part was full of family time, concerts, parties, and some good down time.  I'm with Lauren and Ruth about excitement for new beginnings and fresh starts that new years always stir up in me.  And I really like the look of the year 2020 on paper. Here's to our visions, thoughts, and dreams of the brand new year!!!  Huzzah!
  A highlight of the holiday was Thomas and Victoria's announcement about their baby.  We are so excited for them!
  It was a treat to host Emma for Christmas!  She is a super fun person to have around and made the week seem that much more special.  We got some good girl time in watching the new Little Women movie and breaking it down afterward.  It actually inspired me to pull out the book and have another go at it.  I'm almost done and it is just as wonderful as I remember.  Speaking of books, I'm so glad that you like The Happiness Paradox book, Lauren.  I can't wait to colloquialize with you about it!
  Jenn, my boys wanted nothing more than to jump in your epic pile of muddy buddies when they saw the picture.  So tasty!  And I think yours is the only picture I've ever seen of babies on Santa's lap NOT crying!  Well done.
  I have been inspired by Ruth's simplifying push.  Emma and I hauled some boxes out of the basement and felt much accomplished.  Ruth's energy and drive never fails to impress and motivate me!  On to my kitchen drawers!
  Peter and I took a turn with a foul stomach bug the past couple of days and luckily are feeling better today.  Ruth brought a bag of lovely tomato soup, bread, berries, and other delicious items.  Thanks mucho!
  Hope all is well with you and that the New Year brings lots of opportunities to see all you lovely people!
 

Nilsson News

The snow has finally decided to fall!  The kids were all excited to wake up this morning to a white blanket.  Christmas was up and down for us.  The kids all started off well, but by the afternoon, Henry had a burning fever and Emerson soon joined in.  Lauren, it is a huge blessing when everyone is well.  This has definitely not been our year in the health department!  Oh well.  We got to hang out with the Hart family and Emma on Christmas Eve and that was a blast!  We again got to see them the day following Christmas. 
Right after the festivities, we hit the cleaning and organizing pretty intensely.  It has felt so good to get rid of so many things that have piled up and made us feel guilty for various reasons.  All the kids have seemed to get excited about a clean house and helped sort out each of their own bedrooms.  This surprised me!  It feels like an altogether new house!  I know we still have a long way to go but we are peeling back the first layer anyway and getting started.  Garrett said he thinks this is the cleanest and most organized our home has ever been.  I just hope we can keep it that way and really shift our way of living.  It has been interesting the few times I've gone shopping since thinking about minimalism and nothing really draws me in or tempts me.  It is wonderful! 
I am looking forward to starting the new year!  2020!  Isn't it great that there are always new goals to set and ways to improve ourselves?  I was looking back through my temple journal and in 2018 I went to the temple 14 times.  In 2019, I made it a goal to attend every week and I counted 42 times that I went.  Not a perfect goal but much improved from the previous year.  Maybe 2020 I can make the every week attendance happen.  Hopefully we can plan an epic Belliston gathering and unveil our time capsule from twenty years ago.

 Emerson's bedroom before and after pics

 This one is a little harder to tell the improvements, but this picture only shows one corner of the room.  It was a mess in every corner and by the end, this was the only corner left with stuff!

A few pics of our donation piles!  (Sorry for all the cleaning photos, but we are pretty excited and proud of what we have accomplished!)

 Addy, Emerson, and Eliza preparing for their Christmas choir concert with Jenny Oaks Baker.  It was was quite fantastic!

 A surprise visit form Santa!  Does it remind you of our surprise visit from Santa Dan Balls?

Christmas morning!

Oh, and in addition to our cleaning out and organizing, we are going to start our big kitchen renovation!  Woot woot!  It was kind of a last minute thing but I'm pretty stoked!

Manning Mahem

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! We had a wonderful week and we were healthy which was a huge blessing and we felt very grateful for that. Nick was home all week which everyone loves! The boys ask dad to do everything and watch everything they do so that is a happy arrangement!
Christmas Eve we got to see mom and dad and go to the bookstore which is such a great tradition. We then went to the Mannings for dinner and games with all of Nick's sisters. It was a good time. We came home that night and were at home for Christmas which was lovely. Little people are so fun at holidays, it makes me appreciate simple things. Chet loved the toothbrush in his stocking and Wesley loved his books. Then when Wesley opened his massive box of sea creatures, life went to a new level and he was giddy, ecstatic, elated, in heaven. What a great day! We had a lovely Christmas dinner and Nick's parents joined us for that which was very fun for the boys.
Chet is doing a lot of talking these days. He is one active boy and I need help surviving an accident prone, wild man. I am so tired of bonks. Our Sabbath morning was a little rocky because I could hardly handle one more thing and more things kept happening. It started last night when Chet threw a huge tantrum about the above mentioned toothbrush. He wanted to have his and Wesley's toothbrush and it was the end of the world. So he finally went to sleep and it was a rough night. Then this morning, he continued the plight of the toothbrush and when we had breakfast, he kicked himself away from the table and fell over backward and smashed a big dent in the wall with his head. Good thing he is so cute.
I always get reflective at the end of the year and want to improve in dramatic ways but that usually doesn't work very well for me. Elise recommended a book called "The Happiness Paradox" by Richard Eyre, and it has really changed the way I see things. It has given me food for thought on the things I really need to be changing so thanks Elise!
Hope you all have a lovely new year and hope it's not too long before we see you all!

Flake Fun

Congtats to the Harts on their new fireplace! More power to Ruth to achieve her minimalistic lifestyle!  It makes me anxious to do something productive!!! 

We harvested our first greenhouse tomato this week and we have several more coming on!  Yes, you read right, we harvested in December!!! Kind of a fun thing.  We also made a huge batch of muddy buddies (see picture below) as Christmas goodies for our neighbors and friends. 

The babies will be 5 months old tomorrow which is really hard to believe.  They are starting to toy with the idea of rolling over consistently and are trying to scoot around. They are getting pretty good hand-eye coordination and they babble quite a bit.  

We had our ward Christmas party yesterday and the babies sat on Santa's lap.  We backed them in so they never saw his face and they were happy! 

I am counting down the days until my retirement from employment. (16 more working days). Work coupled with little sleep and the realization if how quickly time is now passing made for a very emotional week for me. Thankfully I have a patient husband. 

I believe that is all that we have to report this week!! Happy holidays to everyone!!

Hart Happenings

Drumroll please......
  The fireplace is done!!!!!!  A few finishing touches and this project will be one for the books.  So amazing to have it fully realized in our family room.  I can't even tell you how much I love it!
  Bummer about Scott not getting the job but it makes me a little more hopeful that he might be more open to relocating his family to Idaho if we can find the Flakes a nice place to live and some job options.......
  We made a fun, quick trip down to Utah this week and connected with Lauren and her ADORABLE boys which was a treat.  She fed us some killer chicken enchiladas and the boys spent their time having an indoor snowball fight and playing in a fort they made.  So fun!  Then it was off to Joe and Lori's house to make caramel apples with Emma while the parents were away.  They were lovely and the kids devoured them as soon as they had them decorated.  That night we had a blast at the Hale Center Theater with Emma watching Seussical.  It was crazy good!  The boys also had a good time at the Family History Library where they visited the interactive displays and learned a lot about our heritage and the people we are connected to.  So glad we were able to go down.
  I spent a lot of time working on Primary things this week.
  Alex spent a lot of time working on ward mission stuff this week.
  We got invited over to make samosas with some friends of ours last night and had a lovely time visiting, cooking, and eating.  So nice to have lovely friends.
  Ian performed in his first ever recital and did a bang-up job!
  Peter had his last basketball game and told me afterward that he really prefers soccer.
  Jack played an incredible soccer game and scored a "hat trick", which is soccer vernacular for 3 goals in a game. He also received his Arrow of Light award at our last Pack Meeting ever.  So proud of him.
  We enjoyed a fun Idaho History day with Ruth and her kids and learned all about the Snake River aquifer which the kids really got into.  We live in a pretty neat place.
  Alex enjoyed attending a Master Your Influence conference with Joe and Lori.  It sounds like they had a really good time.  I'm so glad to be part of a family that is interested in learning and growing throughout their lives.
  It has been a lovely holiday season so far!  Thinking of all of you.

Nilsson News

One more week until Christmas.  Why does it disappear so fast?  Last week, Addy received her Young Womenhoond medalion.  It has been a race to finish.  She has been really dedicated to complete the program in one year and now is looking forward to the new program next year.  Emerson is also working hard and will complete and receive his Weblos and Arrow of Light award this week.  They have been excellent programs and we are excited for this new era of goals and learning and growing. 
Speaking of goals, I have decided what my major goal is for 2020.  I am going to try to adopt a minimalist lifestyle.  I found an excellent blog called "Minimal Mom."  This gal has four kids, lives in a 1500 sq.ft. home and she is not a type four organized person!  Most organizing info I find out there is written by a type four, pre-programmed organizing guru.  I need help from someone who understands my dilemmas!  Anyway, my biggest take away so far has been that every single item that comes into your home instantly becomes something that has to be managed and taken care of.  The more stuff you have, the more stress it brings.  Pretty soon your home becomes a place that you want to escape rather than being a haven of security and peace.  So, I'm going to do it because I have got to get rid of the stressful feeling we have in overabundant supply here.  I highly recommend checking out this gal's blog and her videos.  She's great! (and she lives in a cute farmhouse with a red barn and 11 acres...sigh)
I hope you all have a lovely week leading up to Christmas!

Flake Fun

Has it really only been a week since we were in Utah? It was so good to see and visit with all of you. Sorry to hear that the T's spent the holiday sick on the couch!

Scott had a second interview for my job but unfortunately wasn't offered the position. Huge bummer. I am counting down the days until I'm done working, that's for sure.

The weather has been chilly and drizzly lately so we have stayed inside mostly.  The kids are congested but seem to have escaped the cousin illnesses so thanks to everyone for extra hand washing and caution.

That is about all that I can think of to report.  Hope that you are all having a wonderful holiday season.

Hart Happenings

Greetings all!
  What a treat it has been to be with each of you recently.  You truly are our most favorite people on earth!
  Thanksgiving was a blast!  The food was super yummy, the Cousin Christmas Concert was a hoot and quite the display of talent, the house was cozy, and the company above average!  So great to see Jenn and Scott and their littles.  Thanks so much for making the effort to come all that way and in horrible weather too.  You guys are all troopers!
 Our gathering was the perfect introduction to the holiday season which has descended in real time at the Hart house.  It feels/smells/tastes/looks like Christmas.  We have really enjoyed Lighting the World.  The boys are always looking at our calendar on the fridge to see what the day's suggestion is and planning ahead to the next few days.  It is a good reminder of what the season is really about.
  There have been book clubs, ward parties, family Christmas parties, soccer games, parkour races, concerts, a little bit of sickness, and everything in the book this week.  All of it very enjoyable.
  The boys love all the above things (minus the sniffles) and it is fun to see them engage in their lives with such vim and vigor while Alex and I just try to match their enthusiasm and keep up with them!
  Our fireplace surround is scheduled to be installed next week which has me over the moon excited!  It will be so nice to have that project wrapped up and completed.
  We are so grateful for all of you and hope your holiday season is proceeding in a lovely, cozy, heart-warming way.