Flake Foursome

Since COVID isn't really impacting us, I feel like things are getting better. There seems to be toilet paper on a regular basis at Walmart which is a good sign in my book.

Things are starting to warm up here. We still have an occasional cold day or night but the sun shines most days.  And the wind blows, so we don't go outside as much as we would like.

Rand has mastered crawling and seems intent on walking now. Robin is toying with the idea of crawling. I think that she secretly knows how but doesn't want to admit it!  She has started using a goofy grin when someone enters the room which makes everyone smile.

Other than that, things are pretty low key here. No statewide lockdowns. No travel bans. Just the 4 of us in our cozy house.

Hope that you all have a great week!

Smithfield Scoop

What a beautiful kitchen, Ruthie!! Well done! The pictures are lovely, but I can't wait to see it in person. And, it's one thing to see little Rand crawling and Rosie dancing away over Hangouts, but I sure hope to be able to see them in person before they are walking and running! "Social Distancing..." Never have liked it much, especially when it comes to family.

Does anyone else feel like their lives have changed so much in the past week that it leaves your head spinning? Like maybe 75-90% different? Like a 180 degree change? I'm still trying to wrap my mind around what just happened! We have been in touch with Kate in France and Becca in Arizona and our family in several other places. We are not dealing here with "Corona Parties" like they are having in France, or beach parties in Florida. Nor do I have to put a sign on my car that I'm a "medical practioner" on my way to a birth (yet), like Becca, who is now preparing for that. But, there have been several major changes in the way things are going around here. Like when we go check on our ministering families and they barely open the door to receive our treats. And when we have to keep a distance when running into some old friends at the store. I'm still trying to figure out how to palpate a baby in a mom's belly while standing 6 feet away... Thankfully, the last birth I attended happened before the latest restrictions and recommendations. However, there are several moms due right now and we are endeavoring to figure out how it's all going to work. Especially since my assistant is sick right now - not with Coronavirus, just a plain, old influenza.

The most sad thing that has happened since we last posted was when we cancelled our reservation for the lovely house in LaVerkin where we had scheduled our family gathering. Actually, it was a huge blessing that the owners were willing to give us a full refund on our initial payment and also gave us their phone number to privately make our next reservation when Corona has been dethroned. Hopefully, that will happen sooner than later.

Well, we are still walking. Outside. Rain or shine. We are still enjoying reading in the mornings and playing ping pong in the evenings. It's delightful to see things popping up in our grow boxes - flowers and garlic. Dad harvested the carrots we left in the ground over the winter, and they were delicious! We LOVE Hangouts and FaceTime and any and every way we can connect with all of you!

Weather on our walk yesterday....

Kind of chilly, but we walked fast and got home in time!

Darling little garlic plants popping up.

Darling, happy little crocus! Love it!

Until we can see you in person, stay well and know that we are praying for you and think of you all constantly! We will continue to bug you for "electronic, in-person" visits!

Flake Foursome

Well, this past week has been quite interesting to say the least.  With all of the Covid fear going around, like most of you, we are seeing empty shelves at the stores.  Thankfully we have what we need and are just waiting for things to normalize.
Scott got a text last night saying that things would be changing at work so he'll find out more on Monday.  We are guessing that he will be working from home at least part time.  There will be a lot of kinks to work out for sure.  I do not envy our county IT Dept!!

Enough about that though.  Rand is now officially a crawler and is getting quite quick! Robin has started to dance and get her groove on which is adorable. She definitely has her daddy wrapped around her finger!

Our garlic is coming up which is fun.  We also have some watermelon and onion starts that showed up this week.

I haven't felt well this week and I think that we narrowed it down to gallbladder issues.  Not fun. I don't know if it was brought on by the pregnancy but I am watching what I eat and it is surprising what seems to agitate it.  Anyway, I'm feeling quite a bit better now.

Hope that you all have a safe and happy week!!

Nilsson News

What a week!  We started it off by going to Addy's clogging competition in Pocatello and from there headed down to Utah.  Nick had his favorite gun getaway in Vegas so we decided to keep Lauren company (I hope we haven't permanently worn out her boys!).  Garrett, Addy, Emerson and Eliza went and met up with a few members of Garrett's family in Zion's.  They played with cousins, hiked Angel's Landing and enjoyed a little better weather.  While they were exploring the southern part of Utah, Mille, Henry and I stayed in American Fork and did a fun little bedroom makeover project.  Mom and Dad came down on Monday and that was an immense help.  Peter and Elise joined in on the fun on Tuesday.  We enjoyed the sunshine, went to a delightful storytime at the library, played at the park and were treated to some fantastic soft serve ice cream.  In between all of that, we painted, painted and painted some more!  Wesley and Chet were very good to share all their toys with their overly energetic cousins and Lauren fed us delicious food and was the perfect host.  The bedroom took on a total transformation and looks lovely!  I hope someone will share some pics!

When we got home, all of the sudden it seemed like the world turned upside down!  Another reason to move to Idaho is because disease and sickness doesn't seem to make it here.  As of yesterday, we only had one confirmed case of the virus in Boise.  Just sayin...  Anyway, I attempted the grocery store at 5:30 on Saturday morning when generally there isn't a soul to be seen.  The parking lot was packed.  It was insane!  No tortillas (except the whole wheat ones which is what we eat), no potatoes (wait, don't we live in the potato capitol of the world?), no butter, no flour, no bananas or oranges, no immune support anything, no chicken or beef.  I am so grateful to mom who taught us how to cook from scratch, can my garden produce, and to have a decent amount of food storage.  As I was standing in line for the next hour, I was intrigued to see what priorities made it into people's carts.  Packs of soda, frozen pizza, cases of ramen, piles of frozen instant dinners, gallons of Tampico and of course, toilet paper.  It is quite the time in which we live but we are eagerly looking forward to the springtime!
On Thursday, the kids and I got our supplies to do our own tree tapping!  We tapped into two of our Silver Maple trees and our big Box Elder tree (which is a relative to the maple).  As soon as we drilled the hole, the sap started dripping out.  In just two days time, our five gallon buckets are already half full!  Apparently you can leave the taps in for a good two weeks so that should give us a good amount of sap.  It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.  It has been a really fun project and the kids like going out and checking to see if the taps are still draining well and report on how much sap we have collected.

 It has been raining for the past couple of days which has allowed us to just about finish our kitchen!  We have a few touch up things left, but for now, I am calling it complete!  Are you ready for picture over load?  I love before and afters...

We love our new space!  It has been a long awaited and long drawn out project.  We kept the original cabinets and just filled in the engraved areas with wood filler on the drawers and then added some thin wood strips around the edges of the cupboard doors to give it a shaker style look.  We kept the orginal hinges and polished them up (they were disgusting!)  I may need to make it more of a priority to clean my hinges regularly so they don't end up collecting 60 years worth or grease and grime.  The shelves are made out of our old kitchen table that was falling apart.  We took it all apart and the slabs were just the right size for all our shelves.  Just a few more pictures...

Okay, I'll stop.  We are excited about being able to enjoy this much used space more fully.  We hope you are all able to stay healthy and well and maybe we will see you at some future time!

Flake Foursome

This past week has been very nice because the weather has been terrific for the most part. We have been on multiple walks and even played on the grass for a few minutes on a particularly nice day. If anyone is tired of snow and the cold, come on down. We're in the low 60s most days now

  

We did have a bout with baby constipation which was not fun for anyone. Grandma was the lifesaver and sent tons of suggestions and advice. 

Our tulips are coming up which is so much fun!!!

Rand is getting a little better at crawling every day. Robin has turned into quite a chatterbox!  

Hope that you all have a great week!! 

Smithfield Scoop

What a blessing it is to have everyone feeling better! It took Dad the better part of a week to feel like getting up and around. He got quite a bit of reading and resting done before he felt entirely better. So, so happy Elise, Jenn, Rand, Rosie, Scott, Wesley, Chet, Lauren (to some degree), Eliza and Henry are all feeling better. Words cannot explain how fortunate and grateful Emma and I feel to not have had to deal with the particular bug that afflicted so many of our family members.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Kaysville last week to listen to Lori's dad, Dave Baird, give a presentation about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and show artifacts hand made by himself that depict different aspects of the restoration of the gospel. My favorites were the liahona and the death masks of Hyrum and Joseph. If possible, we would love to have Brother Baird come to one of our family gatherings to give that same message. If that doesn't work out, we would strongly encourage you to keep in touch with Lori and Joe to see when he is speaking again so you can attend! It was fascinating, interesting, and very inspiring.

Things have gone basically smoothly the last couple of weeks, after Dad got well. Besides Dad having a couple of teeth break and having to get a crown on one tooth, and the truck breaking down, things have been going well here. Emma has been busy with classes, work, study, dates, speaking in church, going to California with friends for spring break, and making future plans - including being accepted by ILP to teach English in the Dominican Republic from the beginning of May to the end of August. 

It was especially wonderful to gather with some of our family for Grant's baptism on the last day of February, which happened to be "Leap Day." It's a blessing to be with loved ones for these memorable and eternally significant occasions.

We celebrated heading into March with the Harts coming to our house for Ian's birthday! True to the little saying, March did "come in like a lion" this year and we awoke to snow. Despite the snow and it being Fast Sunday, Ian was a good sport and we enjoyed dinner, games, ping pong and frozen fruit with birthday candles in it. The rest of the family returned to Idaho Falls while Ian remained here to go with Grandpa to California to keep Emma company for the rest of her spring break vacation. They missed Thomas and Victoria by a few hours, though the Ts were in Los Angeles rather than in San Diego, so their paths wouldn't have crossed anyway. We will have to report on their adventures next week after they get back to tell the tale!

Some favorite recent pictures of some of my favorite faces....

Happy March to all!!

Flake Foursome

Let's see, what happened this week?  It seems like it was a pretty typical week. The spring winds have arrived so we haven't gotten out much.  The kids are doing a little better with their sleep which is really nice. They are still quite thoughtful and coordinate naps so that I don't get lonely.

Rand is on the cusp of crawling and is quite frustrated that all his efforts seem to take him backward instead of forward.

Robin seems to be grasping the language idea and has linked "Nnnn" to nursing and seems to have a little "Muh" for Mom. At this point it is only understood by yours truly but I think it is adorable.

Well, we hope to see you all soon.  Wish we could have joined the clan for Grant's baptism but hope to hear good reports about the day.