Smithfield Scoop

Oh my goodness! If you could only know how much I love reading this blog! It is definitely a family treasure. I can't help but think that in a few years we are going to be so grateful and happy that Jenn started this way back when. I'm already grateful for it and feel that it will be even more delightful as time goes on. We have to have Dad find a way to ensure that it will always be accessible, even if technology changes...

Since we last posted, at the beginning of June, our time has been consumed with little Chirp whom Dad rescued when some magpies had a heyday and destroyed the nest he was comfortably living in. They have a lovely friendship and Chirp waits on the deck and chirps to encourage Dad to come out of the door. He's growing and getting more adventurous and is now able to get his own food (nightcrawlers) out of the dish in one piece (Dad used to have to cut them in pieces - yuck!) and eat cut up strawberries off the plate. He enjoys splashing around in the wet grass when we turn the hose on. Emma has had to step in a couple of times and tend him/her while we were gone, so they have become pretty good friends, too.
 

Wesley and Chet enjoyed getting acquainted with Chirp and took turns holding him and feeding him while they were here with Lauren last week. It was darling! It was so fun to have the Mannings come for a few days and play!

While Dad played with his baby, I was helping with other babies. There have been four born in June, all healthy and well - 1 boy and 3 girls. To balance things out, there are 3 babies due to be coming in July and all are boys. Such a blessing to participate in such a sweet time in a family's life.

We enjoyed, for the most part, going to Duck Creek (in the canyon east of Cedar City) to meet with some of Dad's siblings for a trust meeting. Kate, Anne and Janine were unable to come, but the rest came with spouses and we had a great time. Christi also attended and we picked her up on our way. All went well until we began the drive up the canyon. For some reason our little Toyota didn't like that drive and decided to not finish the climb. We were scheduled to arrive at 4 or 5, but after waiting for the tow truck and for Carl and Michelle to pick us up after a kind man took us back to Cedar City, we finally got to the cabin at about 9:30 - too late to make the cobbler that I had planned to prepare for everyone. Oh well. The car hung out at the mechanic shop all weekend, waiting for the small valve that needed to be replaced, but was nowhere to be found and had to be ordered. The gathering adjourned on Sunday morning, but Dad had to wander the streets of Cedar all day today (Sunday) and likely most of the day tomorrow (Monday) waiting for the repair on the car. Just for the sake of history, the needed part is called a PCV valve and is valued at less than $30, but the labor to install it is quite intensive and will likely cost around $400. Urrrrggh!

**As a side note, and much to his credit, Dad never once said, "Stupid piece of junk!" about this difficulty. He was pleasant and calm the whole time! I was a mess, however, worrying about missing a birth because I didn't have a way home. Nick was a hero and came to the rescue when he called and said he was on his way down to pick me up. He arrived after 1:00 AM and woke up at 6 in the morning to drive me back to American Fork to meet the next hero, Emma, who drove me home. What would we do without such a wonderful family??!!

Emma was delighted to be invited to Lagoon with the Harts. She had a blast! She's really looking forward to going to North Carolina in a little over a week from now. She's got all kinds of visits lined up and plans to hit all of her favorite restaurants while she's there. She has had a couple of different movie nights here with different groups of friends, which has been very fun for us! We love having people come and make some noise here! Other recent activities have been boating with her roommates, going to Bear Lake, playing spike ball at USU on the hill, and other such fun times. She also works some days and has been having job interviews with different companies :)

We are anxious to get to Idaho and see the yard improvements at Harts and the new additions to the Nilsson barnyard. And we can't wait to get to Texas and Arizona and see the folks down there! We are trying to make those plans work out sooner than later.  It's also fun to drop in on the Sandy Bellistons and the Mannings now and then and see their goings on. Thanks for the yummy cherries, Joe, and for always feeding us, Lauren!

We love you all and are glad you are spending time doing such productive and useful and delightful things in this crazy Covid era.

Hart Happenings

To be honest, I kind of forgot about the blog over the past couple of months. Even though the virus life has been lovely and I completely support the slower life pace it still completely obliterated our routine and one of the casualties was the blog.  But we have had the best hour catching up on reading through the posts and laughing our heads off at the antics of various of the youngers in the family. 

Alex’s sister came from California and stayed for an extended visit at the beginning of June which was delightful. The cousins had a blast playing together and it was fun to catch up with the adults. 

The kids’ activities are up and running again which means that Ian has been auditioning for all kinds of things, Jack and Peter have kept us busy with soccer four days a week, and a Peter was finally able to be baptized! Ian got the part of Maui in the local production of Moana Jr. and will be performing that at the end of July. Peter played his last soccer game on Saturday (we really enjoyed the abbreviated season) and has a new best friend from the team who happens to be Elder Christofferson’s grandson. Jack has been playing really well and enjoying his last season with his soccer team. They have been together for 3 years but will be disbanding this fall because everything soccer now goes to club teams or middle school ball. We’ll see what he decides to do. 

We enjoyed a day trip to Lagoon this week. It was doubly fun because Emma came with us! The boys had never been and thought it was great!  They had taken lots of precautions that were interesting to see. 

We’ve been working on all kinds of yard projects lately. At the forefront is a significant garden expansion and the creation of a football field in the backyard for all the games that we end up playing in a given summer. Trees have be felled, lawn dug up and tilled under, stumps ground, plants planted, etc....It’s been fun and exhausting.

We’ve loved seeing family so much and staying in touch during these virus days. Let’s not let that slide! I’m so excited about the upcoming babies! Hope Victoria and Jenn are feeling well and ready! 

Flake Foursome

We are so excited that Charlie joined the Nilsson family safe and sound! Can't wait to hear more baby news! 

The last couple of weeks have been quite hot so we spend our days and nights trying to stay cool.  Gratefully the forecast says things should cool slightly this week. 

We decided to try our hand at the camping with kids last weekend and it was pretty fun. So for Fathers day the kids gave Scott two baby camp chairs so we can do it again. 

Robin and Rand are toddling all over the place and are learning to do stairs.  They can both go up without problem and they know how to go down, but sometimes they don't have the patience for it! We haven't had too many tumbles though which is nice.  

Scott is putting in late nights every night to complete some projects.  Hopefully that will be over soon.  

Robin has recently taken to pulling funny faces. She likes to crinkle her brow into a concerned look and babble. Normally she has something that she is trying to communicate. Other times she will smile and giggle when I respond with my own wrinkled brow.  Very cute.  

Hope that you all enjoy the 4th.  Most of our celebrations here have been cancelled but there are rumors that fireworks will still happen! (I honestly expect to be asleep by the time they start!)

Nilsson News

Happy Sabbath!  It has been a pretty good week.  We started off hauling hay on Monday.  The Harts came over to join in the fun and Alex really got into the spirit of the occasion complete with hat and kerchif.  We are having a really fun time with our little Charlie foal.  He will chase and run after the kids and loves to play and socialize.  We had the elders over and they couldn't get enough of the donkeys.  They took pictures holding the Book of Mormon while posing with Charlie.  It was great!
Yesterday, Eliza participated in her first fiddle competition in Swan Valley.  She played three songs and did a superb job!  She was ecstatic when she was announced as the first place winner of her division.  She now carries her trophy with her all over the place.  Oh dear.  Its always a hard thing when they begin at the top because what do they work towards after that?
It is now raining and about thirty degrees cooler than it was yesterday.  Thankfully all the hay is nicely covered.

 Is anyone interested in some kittens?  We are ready to give them to a new home!

 This is a gorgeous waterfall that we stopped at on our way up to Swan Valley.  They hidden gems of Idaho!

 Happy fiddle player!  She had such a fun time and that is the most important part.

 After a long day outside.  Didn't even make it to the couch to lay down.

Nilsson News

Well a lot has happened since we posted last, mostly in this past week.  It sounds like everyone is dealing with crazy weather and being from Idaho, we will definitely not be left out of that category!  We had our hay cut because the weather looked clear.  Ha, ha!  It was about 90% dry with a few green pockets and we'd hoped to get it baled within a day or two, then the rains descended.  For two days straight it poured.  Well that can put a damper on things, literally.  It has been a week now and we think it may have dried out sufficient to have have the hay baled tomorrow!  The kids love hay day!

The most wonderful news is that Serenity had her foal on Thursday evening.  She came two weeks earlier than expected and we got her stall ready for her just in time.  She walked in very willingly and about half an hour later her foal was born and most of us got to witness it.  He is a handsome little jack that the kids call Charlie.  It was such a blessing that he came without any problems and just before we had to take our two foals from last year to their new home in Twin Falls.  Grandpa came up and let us use his truck for the excursion and he was champion grandpa and stayed with the kids.  Our two girls, Lu and Nellie, are at a wonderful home now where they will be immensely spoiled.  Garrett and I were amazed to see what some people do when they have a lot of money (he is a doctor) and no kids at home.  It was a lovely estate!
We are still feeding these three orphaned kittens we found in the barn.  It is sad to think that they are only destined to become a cat.  I guess sometimes you don't get to choose what you want to be when you grow up.  Kittens are kinda cute but that quickly fades in a short amount of time.  Donkeys on the other hand are completely adorable when they are little and they are adorable when they grow up.  A win-win for them!
We are looking forward to summer weather, which might decide to come this week.  Can't wait to see you all again soon!  Feel free to come visit anytime!

 Addy finally had her clogging recital!  They had it as an outdoors venue and it was terrific!

Flake Foursome

Things have been windy in Snowflake which is slightly abnormal for this area but then again, our garden froze on Tuesday morning so who knows what normal is anymore!! 

Despite the freak cold night, our garden is limping along. We lost a handful of plants but hopefully enough survived that we can still have a good harvest in the fall.

Scott has been putting in a lot of hours to get some projects caught up at work and he seems to be making some good headway. They are projects that he inherited when they were already quite behind schedule. We are waiting to see if things will change with his schedule now that businesses are starting to reopen but only time will tell.

We had so much fun with Dad visiting and are very appreciative of his help. Due to his advice we are trying to dig around our peach trees and give them some new life!

Robin and Rand are both cruising around the house at top speed and loving their new independence.  Rand has 6 teeth and is working on a 7th. Robin is still working on her top two.  They are taking their sweet time coming in.  

In an effort to preserve my back we switched the car seats to forward facing and the twins really seem to enjoy the new view!

We discovered recently that the twins like spaghetti! 

Smithfield Scoop

Well, we were startled by this sound early this morning.... (Oops! Tried to paste a video of a loud, crazy hailstorm, but it wouldn't attach...) It was quite the hail storm, complete with lightening and thunder - and lots of hail! We are afraid to look at the garden. We hope it survived the onslaught. We are trying to decide if it is summer - or spring - or winter here! This week it has fluctuated from temperatures in the 90s to high winds to lows near freezing to hail and thunder today, rainstorms, etc. The plants are planted, the strawberries have been ripening, so the hope for summer is still lurking in the wings. We are holding out faith that it is definitely around the corner!

I guess the photos will have to do since the video didn't work.

Oh, Lauren, you crack us up!!! We laughed and laughed about Wesley and Chet! You are really going to have to stay on your toes with those two 😁 

We had such a delightful time with Jenn and her babies while they were here! It was a special treat to be able to be chosen by one baby or the other at different times to be the caregiver. Quite the honor! We had a good time going on walks, watching the ducks, playing in the big tub, visiting the Bennetts, shopping and being outside. Rand loved playing in the sprinkler and the flower pots that only had dirt in them. That dirt was especially tasty. Jenn is a trooper. She goes and goes and goes, day and night to care for these babies. It completely exhausted Dad and me and certainly gave us a greater appreciation for Joe and Lori and all parents of multiple babies!

It was a sweet blessing to have a spontaneous family gathering while Jenn was here. Thanks so much to everyone for coming to play and to work in our yard. It is looking so nice and fresh and welcoming. We couldn't be happier with it or more grateful for all your help! It was very satisfying to watch the cousins enjoying one another so much. It appears that everyone in our group has a pal or two to enjoy when they are together. That provides great joy and comfort to these grandparents!

We have missed the company this week. It's always too quiet here after everyone leaves. Dad enjoyed driving with Jenn and the babies to Snowflake and spending a couple of days there, planting and working in the yard a bit. He always loves holding the babies and they seem to like to have him hold them, too. He flew home and almost immediately plopped into bed, exhausted! I attended a birth while he was gone and was quite tired myself. It has taken a few days for us to feel up and going.

It was a sweet blessing to be able to participate with Peter at his baptism. What a beautiful occasion, with a wonderful young boy who is determined to do the right thing. Even over the Zoom meeting, I felt a beautiful, committed spirit. Thank you for the invitation and opportunity to feel a part of the special day for Peter and his family.

We sure love you all and hope to see you again very soon. Come any time and visit!

Manning Moolah

Well this week has felt like I'm riding a wild horse named Wesley and I am trying to reign him in. He is starting to make connections that are great but I need to be on top of things which I am definitely not right now!
He has discovered how much he wants to play with friends. Every second of the day he want to go see if he can play with neighbors even if he has already played with them for hours! I need to find more friends for him. Two of the neighbors play together often and they have been very kind to come down and ask if Wesley can play. It has been fun for him but everything else seems pretty boring in comparison.
He has really loved riding his bike and we enjoy going on bike rides together. But he discovered the joy of riding a scooter when another neighbor let him ride his scooter. Wesley wouldn't drop the issue and he kept wanting to knock on the neighbor's door to see if he could play but only wanted to ride the scooter. So I finally told Wesley if he really wanted a scooter we could could the money he had and see how much he had and he could earn some more money. He has just collected spare change we have given him. He understands that money=work but he hasn't experienced it. Anyway, we looked up how much scooters cost, counted his money and guess what? He had the exact amount! I was hoping he would have to do an extra job. Anyway, when Dad got home we all went to the store and he chose a scooter and payed for it with his change! So cute!
Since then he thinks he is rolling in the moolah. We had some neighbors who were selling lemonade and so Wesley can running home and we counted a dollar from his bank to buy some. Chet is also learning the ropes and he grabbed a handful of pennies while yelling "Money!" He handed the money to the boys and was super offended when I took the cup of lemonade. He knew he had bought it and he thoroughly enjoyed it.
So if you have any advice for staying minimalist and sane and responsible with two little boys like that please let me know.
Nick starts some work meetings this week and he is excited about that. We are loving the rain right now but very much loving the warm weather and working outside!
It was so good to see you all for a few hours last week and we hope it happens again sometime soon!