Hart Happenings

 Greetings all!

  This afternoon I was writing down some things that I wanted to be more mindful of and contributing more regularly on this blog made it on my list.  It has been so fun to read back through the posts you guys made over the last month and see all the pictures.  We have the best family!  It has been the highlight of our summer to see so many of you so often this summer!  Thanks to those who made the long journey north to visit for a weekend of fun.  My kids are already planning our next get together.  It was delightful to visit with you all, go fishing, play games, eat homemade ice cream, and enjoy the Xanadudes show.  We are extra glad that Mom was able to sneak away.  Let's make sure these gatherings keep happening!  Can't wait for the next one with T and Victoria and baby JJ.  Now, if we can just figure out how to get our crew down to Snowflake......

  Speaking of family gathering, we have seen every. single. one. of Alex's 8 siblings over the course of this summer.  The exception is one sister that lives in NC and whose husband is a doctor and couldn't be spared at this time.  We have had non-stop visitors since the first week of June.  It has been crazy town.  Alex could see that I was nearing my breaking point and when his brother from Oregon called to say they were in Bear Lake and wanted to stop on their way home and stay a week, he shipped me off to mom's house so I didn't go over the edge.  Ruth came down too and we had a lovely visit with the parents.  Emma made an occasional appearance and I got to meet Cameron and helped clean her apartment since she was moving out.  It was restorative and lovely and just what I needed.

  Ian has had a fun summer participating in productions of Moana (have you watched the movie yet, Mom?) and High School Musical.  He did great in both and it was fun to see what those kids could put together with the short rehearsal schedule they had, just 10 days for each production!  

  Jack tried out for the middle school soccer teams and made it onto the blue team.  The coach knows Jack from coaching a rival team in the last league they were in and he told me he was really excited to have Jack on his team instead of playing against him.  It made Jack feel really good.

  Peter has reveled in all the company we've entertained these past few months.  There has always been someone around to play with!  But it has taken a toll as well and the other night he had a complete meltdown when I asked him to sweep the floor.  It wasn't noisy but with huge, copious tears streaming down his face he said to me: "Mom, I know it's not true and I don't sweep the floor every day but it just really feels like I do."  It was quite tragic.  We are all glad for a little respite.

  We have enjoyed some fun activities like huckleberry picking with the Nilssons, making raspberry freezer jam, and going to the local water park.  According to Alex there is a cold front sweeping in this week at some point so we appreciate the nice summer heat that we have experienced.

  I brought Dad's book Then Some Other Stuff Happened home and the boys and I have been laughing our heads off as I read the essays of eighth-graders that their history teacher compiled.  Here is a favorite excerpt:

  We are currently in the middle of finalizing the plans and getting bids for the add-on we are creating for Alex's parents.  His mom is having a really hard time getting up and down the stairs and after going through a bevy of options from installing a hydraulic lift (similar to an elevator), to a ramp that wraps around the side of our house into the basement, to a garage remodel, we decided that the simplest thing would be to just attach an apartment behind the garage so Sally can access her home from ground level. Now, if we can just afford it.  

  Love to all and hopefully I can figure out how to attach pictures one of these days.

Flake Foursome

 The past week has been fairly normal with a few abnormalities thrown in.  Robin got her first goosegg by face planting in the laundry room. After the first few minutes it was more traumatic for me than for her I think! Now it is just a barely visible bruise. 

We are not having the gardening success that the Mannings are enjoying but we are grateful for what we have harvested so far. The watermelons have been especially delicious. 

We did some wood cutting yesterday which was quite the adventure. Randy and Dona came and help and I am afraid that we may have incapacitated them for the next several days! It is very hard work and gauging on how sore Scott is... but we drove away with about 2.5 cords of wood. (That is enough to fill 2 pickups and a trailer.) We are very glad that the Sabbath is a day of rest. The twins have been napping for 2 hours and Scott is napping too. I also took a nap. 

We are working on helping Robin and Rand sleep through the night in hopes that it will catch on before the baby is born.  If anyone has tips, I'd love to hear them!

We are sad that we won't be able to attend the baby blessing on the 6th but hope that we can do a video call or something when everyone is around!! Give JJ some extra snuggles for us!

Manning Moments

 Well, this last week was the beginning of school for me and the boys and for Nick also. I started doing a morning routine devotional thing with the boys and it has been a blast. They really look forward to it. I hope it lasts. We have also started having more consistent play time with other friends and homeschool families which has been fun! I have set my heart on finding a monarch caterpillar but it has been a little harder than I remember it being when I was little.

Nick started teaching at American Heritage and it has been pretty good. At the beginning of the lockdown it looked like they would be more relaxed about things but then I guess the governor has shut that down and maybe parents have changed their minds about how serious things are. I don't know. Either way, it is pretty ridiculous. Masks are required, first hour the teacher have to take temperatures of all the students. Seats are spaced far apart, the teachers have to wipe down desks and seats after every hour! and they have these huge disinfectant machines that go off and certain intervals. Not only is it way overboard but the cost of it is exorbitant! Anyway, Nick is a good sport about everything but he has been discouraged because he cannot hear his students. With his condition he really does depend on lip reading and seeing people's mouths to know who is talking because he has no directional hearing. So that has been frustrating and I hope that we can figure out some solutions.

We have had a good harvest so far. We froze our corn. We have had tomatoes and potatoes and cucumbers and squash and onions and lots of tasty things! We had a recital for Nick's and my students in our front yard and it was a blast. Mom and dad came down for it and were life savers because I was a little over my head. But it was very fun and Wesley played in his first recital!

Little Chet turned two and he is letting everyone know it! Oh my. He is perfecting the scowl and hitting and kicking and talking as unpleasant as possible! The problem is that it is so cute! Arghh. He dislikes everything. Whenever I say what we are doing, he says, "Don't like pasta anymore!" "Don't like sleep anymore!" "Don't like dada anymore!" He is a cute little guy that we love so much!

Well, my family woke up and the world is falling apart apparently so I had better get breakfast going! Happy Sabbath!

Smithfield Scoop

Hello All! After hoping to get to Arizona all summer long, and having the car loaded twice to go, only to be thwarted by someone thinking they were in labor, it was so nice to finally get there to check on Jenn! We had a delightful time holding and playing with babies, but mostly watching them constantly on the go. They were under the weather when we got there and had a rough couple of nights and a day of only wanting mom to hold them, but after they felt better, everything improved. They are delightful little folks.

We have a new piece of furniture that we are absolutely thrilled about!

 Dad has been busy today trying to put it to good use. It is still being finished and will have doors on the bottom middle part where we will hide the stereo. We have unloaded about half of our boxes of books so far and are trying to figure out where to put them all. There is a small bookshelf downstairs and the one from the front room is now in our bedroom, so there is room for most all of our books, we think...

The other thing Dad has been doing is painting. And painting. And painting. The Livingroom and "library" and laundry room. Still has the bathroom and bedrooms to go... sometime... 

And he's been working on the path down the hill. And taking care of the yard. I have been helping moms with births - 3 in 48 hours last week (the reason we ran down to Arizona!) and enjoying the gladiolus in our yard. Oh my goodness, they are lovely! I can't get over how beautiful they are! They certainly "cheer and bless and brighten" my days.

We are getting very excited to have the Texas Bellistons arrive! We can't wait to hold that darling baby!! We hope he will enjoy getting acquainted with the Belliston side of the family. Thomas and Victoria are planning to bless him on Sunday, September 6 at our house. You are all invited to come. We will let you know the time after that has been decided.

Have a wonderful week! Keep blogging and especially sending pictures! That's the best part!

Flake Foursome

 The highlight of the week was definitely the last minute visit from Mom and Dad. They arrived Wed night and left Saturday.  We loved having them. They were very helpful, as always.

Rand and Robin both came down with a fever on Wed night and had a rough day on Thursday but they seem to be on the mend and are back to smiling and running around. 

Our peach tree is producing perfect miniature peaches which is fun.  We have also harvested 2 watermelons from our garden which were delicious.  The kids love to be in the garden and if our tomatoes  make it to ripeness it will be a miracle!!

We have started weekly virtual sacrament meetings which are a bit strange but I'll take what we can get. We meet over Zoom and have a song, prayer, 2 talks, another song and a closing prayer. 

The kids are growing up and doing fun new things every day.  Rand discovered the joy of flour yesterday!!

Hope that you all have a good week!!

Nilsson News

 Hey there family!  It has been another eventful week in our world of donkey drama.  We were super excited to meet our little Ginger with no complications in getting her here.  We were so glad so many of you were able to meet her as well!  I will be very concise in her story.  She was not showing signs of progressing and was becoming very lethargic.  We ended up taking her to the vet where they gave her a blood test which showed that she didn't get colostrum (SUPER important folks!).  They gave her an IV of plasma.  The next day we took her back for a follow up test.  Her levels had increased but weren't quite up all the way.  Another dose of plasma and an addition of hoof splints to help her walk on her hooves rather than her hocks.  She is now, finally showing improvements so we are hopeful!  She is completely adorable!

We may be looking in to getting more donkeys in the fall or spring.  Seven to be exact.  The fellow that lives across the street from Nick's parents in Layton, is selling his herd and we just might be the recipients.

Aside from donkeys, Garrett's parents came and spent the week with us and that was enjoyable.  We went huckleberry picking with Harts and have been picking produce from our own garden as well.  We picked the first watermelon yesterday hoping Garrett's parents could have a taste.  It was still a wee bit premature but possibly by Emerson's birthday we will have some good ones!

It's hard to believe that summer is on the downhill slope but we are trying to enjoy every minute that we can.  We are looking forward to seeing many of you the end of this month!

Painting rocks with the Belliston cousins!

Ginger is tiny!  Here she is right next to our other two month old foal, Charlie.

Gotcha

Hahahahahahahaha can you imagine if I left it on that!? 

Okay lets be real, all you want it pictures, so I'll just say we're healthy happy, and coming back to Utah Aug 31-Sep 13! 

Here ya go! 

Smithfield Scoop

Happy Birthday to.... Robin, Rand, Elise, Joy, Jake, Jefferson James, Lori, and in two days to Chet who will be two years olds! That's a lot of birthdays! A lot of celebrating!

Speaking of that, we were so happy to have Lauren and her boys, Joe and Lori's family, and the Harts here for part of Elise's birthday - one of those most pleasant, unplanned, serendipitous happenings that is so joyous it almost takes your breath away! The Mannings were the only ones who had planned to be here, but when Joe's clan stopped to spend the night after hiking in Logan Canyon, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to invite the Harts to stop on their way to Escalante to celebrate her birthday hiking in that lovely area. It was a long shot, but I decided to go for it and was elated when they said they would come! We enjoyed every minute of visiting, eating, hiking, playing at the park and watching the cousins enjoy each other so much as they got acquainted with the horses in the pasture at the bottom of our hill. Next time we hope the Flakes can come to spend their birthdays with us, too!

We were devastated when Ruth's sweet Coco and her foal did not survive, and our hearts were so heavy for Ruth and her family. Such hard things to face and so many questions that seem to go unanswered. We are thankful for such a loving family who reached out with thoughts and prayers for them. 

Dad got the upstairs painted, which looks very nice. And he didn't fall off the ladder or have any other mishaps during the project. It seems to have lightened things up quite nicely. We have yet to re-hang the pictures and decide which room to tackle next...

The most recent delight was being with so many of the family in Idaho Falls. It was a glorious gathering! I cannot express how grateful I am that I took a chance and went - and had an absolutely wonderful time. We did miss Jenn and Scott and their littles and our Houston Belliston clan and Emma. Hopefully we can all be together at another gathering soon!  Originally, we were all going to Idaho in order to attend the production of Muana, in which Ian had a leading role. But we could only view it from home because of the virus, which we did. It would have been better if we could have seen it in person, but we could tell that they had worked hard and put together a great show. Ian did a fabulous job! The rest of the time was spent enjoying fun outdoor entertainment and games in the Hart's yard, a fishing trip for the men and boys who wanted to go, an excursion to the park to hide painted rocks and play in the river, no end of playing and visiting and eating! One highlight was getting a phone call early Saturday morning and hearing Ruth holler, "We have a baby!!!" What a wonderful blessing - a healthy baby foal and mama donkey! After such a tragic outcome last time, Ruth has been more than a little anxious about this donkey. But all was well and this little one is quite the adorable addition to their herd. Another highlight was the latest Zanadudes production by the Hart boys. Absolutely spectacular in every way - great singing and choreography and stunts and intrigue... This show had it all!! Harts are the quintessential hosts and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. Thank you so much!!

We had 2 trips to Arizona planned in the last few weeks and nothing has worked out for us to go. We are now doing "telemed prenatal visits" since there doesn't seem to be a way to get down there right now. Urrrrrgggh! But, Jenn is patient and Scott is learning the midwifery ropes, so all will be well. One of these days we will get there! Hopefully it will be before Rand learns to drive the truck :)

Oh, and we had a hailstorm! Boy, did we ever have a hailstorm! It beat up some of our garden, washed away the rocks and dirt on the back hill and flooded our storage room. We are slowly getting it cleaned up. Hope it doesn't happen again too soon.

Emma has a new job which she seems to be enjoying. She works from home in her office (her bedroom) because the computer screens and accessories they gave her won't fit in her apartment anywhere. She arrives about 7:30 every morning and stays in her office until 2:00. Then she runs to another job, either at Love to Cook or with the marching band. She's a busy gal and seems very happy.

I hope to write less by getting on the blog more often... Sorry for the lengthy post. Just trying to record history :) Love you all!

Texas Turnt UUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPPPPP

WASSAP FAM?!?!?!?!?!?!

Whoo, it's been a hot second.

Not a whole lot to report here, it's pretty hot and humid (normal), lots of people in quarantine (normal), lots of people hate quarantine (normal), working out lots and lots (normal), and we have a baby boy (NOT normal) ANNNNNNNNDDDD thats about it. 

Flake Foursome

It is still very hot here.  We did have a nice monsoon rain storm on Monday but it has been dry ever since.  But the rain did something to the garden and everything is ripening and producing.  

Robin now has another tooth on the bottom which, for her, is quite a feat.  Both she and Rand are working on their vocabulary but so far Mom and Dad are needed to interpret for everyone else.  

Funny small town story of the week.  Scott ordered some things from Amazon and got an email saying that the package had been delivered.  When it didn't show up for the next couple of days we sent a missing package form to the post office.  They called that evening to say that the package had been picked up at their office.  After a couple more phone calls we were able to deduce that the package had been given to the sister in law of the other Scott Flake in town.  When he opened the package and realized that he was the wrong Scott Flake it was returned to the post office and was finally delivered.  Apparently this happens to Scott and Scott about every 10 years or so.  We had to redirect someone a couple of years ago that was very interested in our Palamino stud!

We went camping on Friday.  It was a quick trip and we weren't sure if our CX-5 was going to make it in or out but somehow it did!!

I believe that is all that we have to report! Hope that you all have a good week!!