Hart Happenings

We are pretty much the worst.  Our schedule had gone through a major shift and it always takes me a few weeks to settle into a new one.  The blog is something that slipped through the cracks. 

Happy Memorial Day weekend!  I always enjoy remembering what a great family we are a part of.  We usually take the boys to the cemetery where Alex's grandparents are buried and Alex regales them with stories which is a fun tradition.

Peter has learned to do a back flip on the ground which is super fun.  I ordered a gymnastics mat just to make myself feel better about all the crazy tricks the boys are doing lately as far as Ian's aerial silk stuff and all the flipping going on around here.  His antics and super dramatic facial expressions keep Alex and I in stitches.

Jack won his last soccer game of the season.  He played really well and is looking forward to some tournaments over the summer.  He is also getting really good at Spikeball and plays as much as he can.  Alex asked him to be his partner at an upcoming tournament which made Jack's day.

Ian has spent a lot of time working in the past few weeks.  He was saving up for a really pricey camp put on by BYU Young Ambassadors in July.  Happily, he earned the money he needed and is all registered and set to go.  Yay!  He did some farm work for a family friend while they were away, including bottle feeding a baby lamb twice a day.  He is also working at a local boutique, Love at First Bite, where he has learned to run the cash register, decorate gourmet cupcakes, dispense fancy, infused olive oils, make Italian sodas, and all other kids of things.  He comes home with some funny stories sometimes.  There are weird people in this world.

Alex has been preoccupied creating his dream soccer/footbal/ultimate frisbee/spikeball field.  The lights are coming this week and our backyard is a disaster zone right now.  He had to dig a huge trench all around and through the yard to run electrical to the lights on the perimeter of the field which inevitably sliced through multiple sprinkler lines. So we have had a crew out here fixing those, and as soon as they think they have them fixed they find another broken one....or five.....In his spare time he plays Spikeball.

I'm gardening every spare minute I have and am in heaven.  The kids' garden program is up and running again and has been going really well.  The kids we have involved this year are really great and we have had a blast together.

Must run for scriptures and bedtime.  See you soon!

Manning Moments

 Jenn you put the rest of us to shame with consistently writing even when you have three babies and potty training two of them! 

We also started potty training Chet and he has done really well with it. We are trying to keep our garden alive but that has taken a back seat this year. Wesley has been learning a lot and has really done well with reading and math this past year. It is so fun to see them connect the dots and learn to master things. Chet has loved having construction going on around our house for the last several months. We go on lots of walks and see the excavators and big trucks of all sorts.

Nick finished teaching School last week and is glad for a little break. He is trying to start teaching group guitar classes and seems really excited about that. He took the boys on a father and sons campout a couple weeks ago and they loved it. I know the boys loved it, I have my doubts about Nick's sanity but he was a good sport!

It has been nice to see many of you over the last little while and are excited to see you in a few weeks!

Flake Fivesome

 We haven't gotten out much since our last post and life revolves around the two little potty chairs that follow the twins around.  Potty training is taking longer than we had anticipated but looking back it is getting better every day...almost.  

The kids and I did venture out for a quick visit to walmart last week to pick up some garden soil ammendment, cherry tomato plants and strawberry plants.  We had fun planting those and hope to see the literal fruits of our labors before the season is out. 

The wind is becoming more reasonable so we can usually go outside for a little bit in the mornings. 

James has become enamored with his siblings and Rand is a doting big brother.  He'll run into the room exclaiming, "baby James awake!" The other day I though James would make himself sick from laughing so hard at Rand playing peek a boo with him.

I think that is about all.  We can't wait to see most of you in a few weeks at the cousin's reunion!  By the way, Rand has been very interested in connecting the family dots lately: "Jack, Peter, uncle Alex." "Wesley, Chet, uncle Nick." "Go see Uncle Joe, Grace."

Any time either of the twins sees a picture of Thomas they exclaim, "JJ!!!" 

Flake Five

 It was so fun to see most of you a couple of weeks ago in Smithfield. We were sad to miss the Hydes, but we don't blame them for being away!!  

We started potty training yesterday and it has been an adventure so far. It has been very nice to have Scott working from home so he can help out. 

It is still super windy but we had a couple of decent mornings so nearly all of our garden is planted which is fun.  Now we'll just keep our fingers crossed that everything does well and that the wind calms down long enough for me to keep it at least semi weeded. 

Have a fabulous week!

Hyde Hilarities

 So I’m actually the very worst about posting on the blog, but I do enjoy reading about y’all’s lives, so keep it coming!!

Nothing really goes on around here, but we did just get back from Cancun which was AWESOME. It was sooo warm and humid and perfect. We got to go see Cenotes, which are basically underwater caves. I’ll attach pictures, but the pictures do not to them justice. The water was sooo clear and pretty and blue. Lovely. We pretty much just drank piña colada’s all day and sat around in the pool. The resort was only at 15%, so it was basically empty which was probably one of my favorite parts. The guy that met us at the airport when we arrived assured us that because we were in Mexico, we could drink in the mornings. And the weird thing is that everyone did! It was like 8am at breakfast and people legit had some sort of alcohol with their pancakes. It was nuts!! I’m 99.8% sure we weren’t slipped some sort of alcohol while we were there.... we went to a few nice restaurants, and we’d get Pepsi (they didn’t have coke... and we were in Mexico...) and I’m pretty sure all the waiters were really confused and stuff. 

Anyway, so the part with Hilarities comes in now. I do share this with Cams permission ;) we were getting ready to go to bed one night, and I was already in bed and halfway asleep. Cam was still brushing his teeth and turning off lights. He was still in the bathroom when he turned off all the lights. I didn’t think much about it until I heard a big “whack” and a “dang it.” I kinda chuckled and asked if he were okay, and then he goes “I think I need stitches.” I don’t think I’ve ever gotten out of bed so fast. So, the doors in our room were like sliding barn doors, except when you slide them open, they don’t open all the way. Like, the door is still inside the door frame. So Cam turned off the light, and felt the door frame. Because he felt it, he figured he was good to go and ran straight into the door. So, not funny he hit his head, but then we went to find some bandaids. Luckily the cut wasn’t bleeding, it was just deep. We were hoping some butterfly bandages would do it okay. Anyway, we went to the front desk, and the guy had zero bandaids. Like, the front desk had no bandaids. He went to see what he did have, and came back with a packet of gauze and some rubbing alcohol. The bottle clearly had someone else’s dried blood on it, but he was so generous and let us take it 😅 then we went to the bar to see if they had anything, and they didn’t. Then went to find a security guard, and still nothing.... haha anyway. It was an adventure. We went back to our room and patched it up as good as we could with the gauze, and it was pretty good to go the next day. It was pretty funny. Memo: if you go to a resort in Mexico, bring your own bandaids.