Manning Moments

 Well it has been a while since I wrote. But you all know the biggest news in our family is boy #3 coming in July! We are excited! 

We watched a great primary broadcast yesterday that was delightful. You all should watch just a few minutes so you can see the adorable hosts that they have. It was so well done as the church always does. We also got to watch Grace give a talk in church and she was remarkable. Very mature.

We are just trying to be creative around here while we wait for warmer weather. But I know that I can't really say that when we have family in Idaho Falls! Wesley is learning how to read really well and Chet is learning letters and numbers. Chet also has a a deep love interest in construction vehicles. He sleeps with his excavator and doesn't go anywhere without it. Luckily there has been construction work going on around our block so we can walk around and see all the excitement. Yesterday we had a very dramatic moment when Chet asked for the 50th time, "Can I ride an excavator?" I said, "We don't have one." "Can we buy one." "Well, you have to be a construction worker Chet." "Can I be a construction worker!!!" Sobs and tears. It is very serious stuff. So if any of you have an excavator or front loader hanging around you know where to send it!

Hope all is well with everyone! Can't wait to see you sometime!

Flake Fun

 We read a lot of stories this week because the weather wasn't very nice until Friday.  We took a nice walk that day.   

The stories of the week are: if you give a moose a muffin (and we made muffins), if you give a pig a pancake and the new favorite, 5 little monkeys sitting in a tree. 

We started some more seeds in the greenhouse and the twins love to check on their little seeds each morning.  The large pumpkin sprout is a crowd favorite currently.

That is all that I can think of to report.  Hope that you all have a great week! Can't wait to start our colloquium next week!

Smithfield Scoop

 Congratulations to Emma for possibly taking first place in the "Funniest Blog Post Ever" category! Just don't tell Rosie (who has a fettish for cleaning) the toilet bowl scrubber story or she may find the used one at home and try it! That was so funny! Dad and I had a great, long laugh over that one! Didn't your mother teach you anything useful, Emma??!! And we love your title - especially since we already have Hart Happenings. Keep the hilarity coming!

We did have a delightful time with family these last couple of weeks... Fun facetime with JJ and his parents - he really enjoys eating these days and is very cute to watch. Eliza's baptism was very special. Visiting overnight with the Mannings is always very entertaining as well as inspiring. The walks in the sunshine, playing at the park, and digging in the dirt in Snowflake was quite refreshing. Cheering Jack on at his soccer game caused a few more gray hairs to appear for both Dad and me, but was quite fun. A short, spur of the moment visit with Joe and his children was very pleasant! 

Preparing soil for planting

Making music with Grandpa!

Painting with pudding (but mostly eating it!)

I saw this barn from the back and thought it would be a great one for Ruth to consider 

building. Couldn't figure out why a barn would have a parking lot... until we saw the sign...

Look them up! But don't convert! I think I can only

 appreciate this because of the cowboy genes in my blood.

Fun birthday activity for Henry and Millie. They got to pet rays and a tortoise, 

have birds land on them to feed them, have "doctor fish" clean their hands/arms, 

and see a porcupine out for a walk!

Then there was the absolutely hilarious interaction with Lauren about her baby boy. It was the best thing that has happened in a long time! We loved everything about it - especially the name suggestions! We are holding our breath to see which name is the chosen one for this new grandson. It would be hard to choose from the list of options. From what I could gather, here is the compiled list: Willie, James, Moses, Thor, Wolverine, Black Panther Claws, Captain, America, Donald, Oliver, Joseph, Cameron, Maverick, Cole, Brigham, Maxwell, Bert, Neil, Buzz, Bubba, Claude, Alejandro Ignacio Fernandez Manning!, Nacho, Burrito, Chimichanga, Pepe, Joseph, Hyrum, Samuel, Don Carlos, Lars, Glenn, Gus, Roy, Stan.... What is truly priceless is the commentary in between the suggestions. Good luck choosing from such a thorough list, Lauren and Nick!

We had a great time yesterday celebrating Henry and Millie's birthdays with lunch, a visit to the aquarium, cake and ice cream and some fun visiting with the children and parents. We also stopped at Elise's to see the canned light progress, which was.... still in progress! 

It's hard to express how very much we love to be with, or at least virtually be with, all of you. We hope it continues for many years to come, in any way it comes. Two folks in Smithfield are really looking forward to discussing the book "All Things New." Thanks to Elise for getting that going! It will be very eye opening and mind expanding, I'm sure! 

Love you all loads and hope to see you again before too long!

Nilsson News

 Well we actually have some news for this week....Our basement project is basically complete!!!!!!  I can see the fireworks and hear the drumroll, it is wonderful.  Lest you think I was getting tired of doing a project, that was not the case.  I live for projects.  What I was getting tired of was living in a constant chaotic mess.  When items are not in their place because the place is being renovated, it makes for some serious disorganization.  Anyway, all that is left is to finish painting the doors and we are still waiting for our hall lights to arrive from their long journey across the ocean (never again).  Garrett did an amazing job at building our bookshelf and he may need to join forces with Cam and start a wood working business.  And now, my very favorite part of showing the before and afters.

This fireplace has gotta go!

There were two layers of this wallpaper on all our walls.

In the hall we had to create a new doorway for access into the storage room.  Blasting through the 3"  cement ledge was definitely not Garrett's favorite part and he is now willing to pay any cement worker to come and cut out our cement.

Look how fun this is!  The boys were in heaven!

The beautiful bookshelf.  It now has books on it.

We now have an electric fireplace, tiny mantle, storage closet and bare wall to project movies on to.

See the lovely storage room door and finally a finished hallway!

It is a much brighter and enjoyable space.  The kids actually spend time down there.  It is looking a little sparse but decorating will come in time.  I'm really enjoying the bare, clean walls.

Yesterday, we had a fun early birthday party for Millie and Henry.  I'm really loving how we can combine their celebrations.  Mom and dad came up and braved the blizzard conditions which we found out were only hovering above our house.  We had a great time exploring at our local aquarium and playing with new gifts.  Addy had satisfied both requests for a whale cake and narwhal cake and the birthday kiddos were ecstatic.  It was super tasty and I'm not really a cake person.  Good times!

We went cross country skiing at the golf course and the kids had a blast!

Hyde Hilarities

 The title, you ask? Yeah I actually don’t know. We just wanted something a little more spicy than Hyde Happenings or something... and we’re flipping hilarious so there you go.

Happy Valentines Day everyone! Cam and I went on a little vacation to Sandy this weekend. Super random, but we just wanted to get out of Logan for awhile. We just went and did some shopping and relaxed a little bit. For Valentines Day, Cam got me roses and we made pizza :) it was awesome. We got the game Rumikub and we’ve played it a total of 9 times this week. Out of the nine, I can say I’ve won two, but one didn’t count because Cam helped me out 😅 I’m a mess. Anyway.

Married life is great!!!! Grateful to finally have caught up to the rest of you and have a spouse ;) I think the honeymoon phase is going to last awhile ;) we have tons of fun playing lots of games, building stuff, watching movies, and praying for summer to come so we can do lots of fun outdoor stuff :) if you have any brilliant ideas for date night or things to do when there’s nothing to do, let us know!!

Lastly, thanks to everyone for making the wedding so special!! Like wow. Y’all are seriously the very best and we are so grateful. It was such a great day and were so glad everyone could come, even if it was freezing!! We are getting thank you cards written and sent out slowly... so don’t think we’ve forgotten you!! Love y’all!! 

Ooohhh wait I have an announcement. Have you ever hated hand washing your drinking glasses because they’re deep and just the worst ever??! Say no more. Use a toilet scrubber. Here’s the story behind that: cam and I went on a date this week to the dollar store. We each got $5 and we had to find things that reminded us of the other. I got stuff like a candle and peanut mnms and stuff.... and a toilet bowl scrubber, because Cam likes to clean right?? The only thing was I didn’t know it was a toilet bowl scrubber, I thought it was a water bottle cleaner. Anyway, fast forward. We wrapped the presents and stuff, and gave them to the other. Cam looked SO confused and just kinda chuckled when he opened it. I was so excited and told him he could clean his water bottle with it and he just about died because he knew it was a toilet bowl scrubber. It’s moments like these where I recognize how blonde I am. Shoutout to my spouse who just lives with it. Long story short - the toilet bowl scrubber is great for water bottles.

Flake Fun

The word of the week at the Flake house is "teeth".  From what we can tell, Rand is working on 4, Robin got 1 molar and is working on a second and James just cut his first 2 bottom teeth.  

 

It was so fun to have Mom and Dad here for the past week!  They came down on Sunday and headed to St George on Friday for Jack's soccer game.  We spent the week playing, digging in the dirt, and watching the heavy machinery next door/field! 

We are getting new neighbors.  A family bought half of the field across from us and they have started the prep work for their new home.  We especially missed having Chet around while we watched the loader, backhoe and dump truck move dirt around.

Robin and Rand are still working on expanding their vocabulary and it is really fun to hear them chattering and making connections.  Their favorite book currently is "Each Peach, Pear, Plum". Rand calls it "plun pie". 

James is making great progress toward sitting on his own and he is quite the scooter.  He doesn't move much when he is doing tummy time but he sure can cover some ground when he is on his back!

Robin and Rand both learned how to go down the slide on their own at the park which was fun. 

With Dad and Mom's help we got quite a few seeds started in the greenhouse.  The twins love to take care of them and they faithfully water every day.  

Congrats to Jack on his soccer game!!

Well, we hope that all of you have a wonderful Valentine's day and a great week!!

Hart Happenings

This was quite the Sunday.  Lots going on.  I got stuck after church taking care of some business so the boys decided to walk home so they could get on their Zoom Sunday school meeting.  When I got home Jack was nowhere to be seen, Ian was on Zoom, and Peter came around the corner with his sad face going strong.  Said I, "Peter, what's wrong?"  Silently he went into the laundry room and pulled out his church pants.  One leg was completely covered in mud.  "I slipped and fell in the mud coming home," said Peter, "but you should see Jack.  He is so much worse!"  Apparently, on the way home Jack had been the first to slip in the mud and ended up completely covered. (I'm dying laughing as I write this)  Peter immediately started laughing at Jack in the mud and promptly slipped and fell himself.  Ian was there to witness the whole thing but didn't feel like playing along and wallowing in the mud himself.  So funny!  I will be checking out that re-run in the afterlife.  February 7, 2021 walk home from church.  I wish I could have seen it happen!

Our Great to be 8 event went really well and we had an excellent turnout.  It was super fun to meet with those kids again and got me really excited to go back to having Primary in person which we have now been cleared to do starting February 21.  Hooray!

We had such a good time with everyone who came up for Eliza's baptism.  Thanks for feeding us all, Ruth and Addy!  Super yummy!  We had to step out for Ian to go to his audition for Guys and Dolls which, in his own words, he "slayed".  Good job, Ian.  Peter also had to leave the party early to play a soccer game which they won, aided by Peter's 3 goals.  So fun!

Ian also attended his first teen dance.  The homeschool group sets them up every few months and uses the Menan town hall to hold these dances.  Ian's friends were convinced that these dances were probably Ian's spirit animal and he should absolutely go.  Predictably, he loved it.

Jack is having a really good time interacting with his Deacon's quorum these days and it is so fun to listen to them get on their Zoom meetings and laugh like only 12 year old boys can.  It cracks me up.  They have done a Zoom scavenger hunt and Zoom egg drop challenge among other things.  A couple of weeks ago Jack put together a Zoom Would you Rather game which had them all laughing and debating for an hour!  One of our favorite questions was "Would you rather be able to stop time for 10 seconds every day or have a do-over once a day?"  Please answer this!  Such a good question!  Also, "would you rather be able to fly 10 mph or run a 100 mph".  

Alex went to Salmon and had a meeting with a business owner up there that completely inspired him and made him want to move to a smaller town.  First time, ever, that he has mentioned such a thing.  I'm sure the urge will pass. *sigh*

We are gearing up for our annual Super Bowl party tomorrow morning!  Should be fun.  Ian took it upon himself to come up with a bunch of games to play since the boys don't actually care about the game.  But they are thrilled with the menu they planned!

Thanks for your Monday morning messages, Mom!  

Have a great week, y'all!  Hope to see you soon!  Hope the Joe Belliston crew is feeling better! Covid stinks.

Nilsson News

 It was an eventful week!  Thank you to everyone who came and supported Eliza at her baptism, whether in person or virtually.  Because of covid, the Stake has each baptism candidate meet in separate rooms with their family and friends rather than gathering as a group in the chapel.  I have to say that I actually prefer this way because it makes things much more personal and special.  Eliza was beaming and so happy to have everyone there.  We had a fun gathering afterwards enjoying some yummy food.  Thanks to the extra manly hands that helped load the insanely heavy fireplace for Steve.  He was very grateful for the help!

Our downstairs project is coming along.  It isn't quite finished yet partly because supplies are out of stock.  Garrett's dad has been helping us install our doors.  They aren't pre-hung so they require a lot of extra work.  We basically have all the finish work left - trim, baseboards, caulk, nail filling, etc.  It is taking shape and looks completely different.  I hope to post some pictures next week!

We brought home a couple of new goats this week.  Addy has been wanting to breed her little doe so we are renting a buck for his breeding services and we also purchased a super cute, tiny doe named Bumble.  We were able to sell our other goat that had horns and wasn't very nice to the kids so now there shouldn't be any worry having the kids go out there to play with the goats.

We hope all of you are well and are able to make it through the month of February.  Thankfully it is the shortest month of the year!