Flake Foursome

It was so fun to see everyone last week and again this evening for Emma's birthday.

Things have been a little hectic since we got back with Scott trying to finish up work projects before starting his new job this coming Friday. I learned that it takes several days to unpack and get back to normal after a vacation with 2 crawling babies around.

Robin has started to pick up speed with her crawling but still doesn't seem to see the point of exploring like her brother.  Rand on the other hand is loving his new independence!

The weather decided to take a jump so we are expecting 80's this week. All of our trees are blossoming so we are hoping that freezes are behind us.

Happy birthday to Emma!!!

Smithfield Scoop

Well, I'm distraught that we haven't posted on this illustrious blog for over a month! That is unforgiveable - unless, of course, we begin posting regularly again. So here goes...!

The big news for today, as Ruthie mentioned, is Emma's 21st birthday! Happy Birthday to Emma! Thanks for a fun birthday Zoom meeting for her, Thomas! Great idea. She was gracious enough to come for a birthday breakfast of crepes and we enjoyed the hour we spent with her before she ran to an interview with the bishop. She decided a few weeks ago to move to an apartment, as most of you know, so that her friend, Cambria, wouldn't have to be in the apartment all alone since all of her roommates had gone home. Emma has been enjoying the independent life. She and Cambria are moving to a different complex next weekend and will be staying here for a night or two because of a gap between when they have to be out of one place and when they can move into the next spot. We miss her terribly, but she comes now and then to do laundry and get some spices or butter or other food stuffs. We love it when she plays the piano while she's here!

The big news for the month is that the Flakes came from Arizona and the Bellistons came from Houston to spend a few days!! Woo Hoo! That was a blast! Jenn and Scott stopped to visit with Mannings for a couple of hours on their way, then met us in Ogden for an 18 week ultrasound - and, no, they did not discover the gender :) But baby (only one!) appears to be perfect in every way. We stayed at the birth center long enough for the babies to stretch their legs and be ready to get back in the car and finish the trip to Smithfield. Talking, playing with babies, going on a walk and digging in the yard, Scott "fixing" the chainsaw and helping Dad finish cutting down the tree in the front yard, playing Wacky Six with T and Em and hearing them sing together on Sunday were all great experiences of having them here. We were so glad that the Nilsson crew came on Friday to visit with the baby cousins, Thomas and Victoria came on Saturday and again on Sunday, and the Harts came on Sunday, while Emma popped in and out and got to see just about everyone! It was such a delightful time. Couldn't have been better! Flakes stopped at Joe and Lori's on their way home Monday morning, so they got to see everyone this time around. Perfect!

To top it all off, we opened our 2001 Time Capsule with some of us here, others on Google Hangouts. It was so fun to see what we had put in the capsule and remember "the good ol' days" together. It was delightful to read everyone's predictions - Jenn's being almost spot on for everyone. Such a fun thing that I'm really glad we did all those years ago. Hopefully, we're all still around in 20 more years and can enjoy opening other time capsules with you!

We don't have any other big news, but we have enjoyed some recent activities. We went to Idaho for Peter's birthday, which was on Fast Sunday. He was a trooper and was happy and pleasant despite fasting and not being able to be baptized. We also attended a delightful birthday barbeque for Wesley, who turns 4 in a couple of days!! He was one happy boy and it was very fun to be there! We went back to Idaho when I had to pick up some oxygen and were finally able to see Ruth's new kitchen in person! It is even more lovely in real life than in the pictures. We came home with a headboard that Elise and Alex built for us and tomato seedlings that Ruth planted. We surely love visiting family :)

Our lives are fairly normal, much the same as always. But that is good. Nothing to complain about! We are grateful to be healthy, to have wise and inspired prophets to follow, to have an incredible family, and things to do. Hope you all find a way to get to Smithfield again very soon! We'd love to see anyone, any time!

Nilsson News

First of all, Happy Birthday to Emma for real!  She's growing up so fast ;) !
Where have I been the past month and a half?!  There really shouldn't be any excuses since we are basically locked up at home and not running around crazily.  Well, we have been enjoying some nice weather here and there which means we are now transferring all projects outside!  My favorite time of year!
I'm really trying hard to think of what to write about.  The biggest news for us is that after working for D.I. for the past ten years, Garrett left that emploment and transferred up to BYUI.  He is working there as a career counselor for the college of physical science and engineering (the same one that Jody Swenson is director over), and the college of business and communication.  He is really excited about it because they are currently working to integrate career counseling into the college scene rather than only having academic advisors so his is actually a brand new position.  He is also helping to write the curriculum for the new freshman career exploration class.  He is working at home and has yet to meet any of his staff in person.  The college students are all doing classes online but will hopefully be able to return in the fall.
The kids have been playing outside and I have been playing (working!) outside.  We have a few things planted in our garden and many plants started in the greenhouse.
It has been so fun to see all of you on Zoom gatherings and some in person (shhh, don't tell anyone because I'm pretty sure we weren't social distancing sufficiently).  The opening of the long awaited time capsule was SO FUN!  We are working on our own family time capsule for 2020 and we got a lot of great ideas.  Thanks so much for being the greatest family in the world!

 We've been getting the younger donkeys out and have been taking them on walks.

Having fun on the rocks by the river.

 Our watermelon plastic is heating the soil and this year we have room for about 42 plants.  Last year we ended up with only 15 plants, so this is quite an extension.

 Easter egg dying.

The annual Hart and Nilsson egg hunt fun!

Hope you all have a lovely week and are able to enjoys some rays of sunshine!

Flake Foursome

Yes, I am grateful every day that I am no longer working at the Health Dept. I am also extremely glad that Scott didn't take over my job. I texted the nursing supervisor there a couple of days ago and she has been putting in 12-15 hour days for the last 6 weeks.  The Lord knows what we need even before we do!!

Conference was incredible. At times it was hard to hear it concentrate but I heard what I needed to hear.  Now to remember it and put it into practice. That is always the difficult part, isn't it?

Things in Snowflake are warm and windy. Our greenhouse is starting to green up which is always fun. We have a whole garden in there!!

Rand is crawling everywhere and pulling himself up on whatever or whomever he can get his hands on. He currently loves pears.

Robin still won't admit that she can crawl but she claps and loves it when she gets into crawling positions and we cheer for her.  She loves oranges!

Some of you have heard but to cover my bases, Scott was offered a position as Accounting Manager for the local college
 He will be transitioning over there on May 1st. (He made sure not to interrupt our Utah trip!)

Hope that you all have a great week. See you soon.

Hart Happenings

   Hey Jenn!  Are you glad you don't work for the Health Department these days?  That would probably be pretty crazy times there.
  A whole lot of nothing to report these days.  It is pretty much business as usual for the Hart house.  We have had a few wonderful things to celebrate like Peter's birthday.  He is 8 now and very excited to be that number.  He is anxiously waiting the day that he can be baptized.  He is a little bummed that we don't have a swimming pool at our house that he can be baptized in like his friend Drew.  Another one of his friends had a birthday today and we participted in a drive-by parade at 1:00 where we drove by with a bunch of other friends and neighbors and waved a poster the boys made and threw candy out of the window.  I thought it was such a clever idea!  After we arrived back home and were getting out of the car Peter said, "I miss my life".  It was really nice to see some familiar faces and yell out of our car windows at each other.  We also enjoyed a drive-by this afternoon from members of a local baptist church who drove around waving palms out of their windows and waving posters and signs that said "HOSANNA" and other celebratory things.  It was really neat.  I have been really impressed by all the creative ways people have found of connecting with people around them and doing/spreading good.
   Per my yearly tradition, I planted peas in between sessions of Conference.  It always lifts my spirits to dig a nice, straight trench and drop some seeds in the ground.
  It has been nice to have some extra time to work on yard projects.  Ruth and Garrett came over and helped us take down the weird fence that surrounded our deck and remove the stinky cedars alongside it.  We can now see the mountains from our deck and back windows!  It's a miracle!
  Mom and Dad came up last weekend to help us celebrate Peter's birthday which made it seem a little more special and really meant a lot to him.  We ate some delicious crepes and enjoyed a lovely church-at-home session.  It is so neat to observe how smooth that transition was.
  The chicks are getting bigger and louder every day.  I can't wait to put them outside, but the weather is not cooperating.  The temperatures are staying nice and low but we take them out during the day when the sun is shining and they LOVE it.  They are hilarious to watch.
  Ian has been doing piano lessons online which is a novel experience and my yoga instructor has set up Zoom meetings so we can keep practicing during the lockdown.
  Jack has been wanting to do an egg-drop challenge with some friends and he decided to challenge his friends while they were all out of school and at home due to the virus.  The challenge was for them to create a egg-drop device with things they found at their houses and then take the contraptions to a drop-zone he identified and send a video of what happened.  He then created a YouTube video with all of the entries.  Here is the link:  https://writerduet.com/script/?hplogin#VY989~***~branch=-
  Here are some photos of things that we have been up to lately:

 We copied Ruth and decided to tap our birch trees for syrup.  For the 13 gallons of sap we collected we got the above quart of syrup.  It isn't much but it sure is delicious and it was such a fun process!  Thanks Ruth!

 Church-at-home.  My new favorite thing.

At least the weather has been nice these days.  This picture was taken at one of the Menan Buttes, old blown up volcanos, the caldera is behind us and was taken with Alex's brother's family just before the Stay at Home order was issued.

Lots of love to everyone!  Hope you all are well and have been able to take advantage of the imposed slower pace of this current situation.  I'm not going to lie.  I have loved lots of parts of it.  But I can't wait to be able to be with all of you guys soon!  But I have really loved our Zoom chats and workouts.  Maybe we should keep those up!