Flake Five

 It has been a couple of weeks but there isn't much to report.  The wind is still blowing which is making garden maintenance difficult. Hopefully I'll be able to weed sometime soon.

Robin seems to be recovering from what we think was a bad case of dehydration.  It has taken several days but she is eating and not throwing up which is a blessing.  The boys are benefitting because they are getting loaded with electrolytes and getting lots of water to drink.

He sleeps in some strange positions. 

She popped the sunglass lenses out and loves her new glasses! 

I wanted to thank everyone for the thoughts and prayers.  We are still waiting for the miscarriage to happen after many false alarms. It is nice to have such an amazing support system. 

Nilsson News

 We still are waiting to announce the "big news" but feel like it will be fairly soon.  The fun event we did have this week was the arrival of Nibbles the goat's babies.  On Monday morning we suspected that she was in labor.  After about an hour, the first baby goat arrived and it was a pretty big girl so we thought maybe there would be twins or triplets.  About 20 minutes later, a second was born, another big baby, a boy.  A short time later, a third popped out and she was itsy bitsy.  We were trying to get these babies dried off when Nibbles pushed out a fourth and it was another girl!  Quadruplets!  They are all nursing great and up and bouncing around.  We are grateful that everything went so well and that we were there to help out a little.  In keeping with our Shakespeare naming theme, Addy named them Claudia, Horatio, Titania, and Viola.

Aside from that, we have been working on projects in the yard.  Not yet planting everything in the garden since the weather continues to go up and down.  We are expecting another freeze tonight and then hopefully we will be out of the cold.

Addy had her National clogging competition at Lagoon and she did the best that she has ever done.  Practice surely pays off!  The other kids have enjoyed jumping on the tramoline and being outside more.  Garrett is ready to take a few weeks off of work when our baby gets here.  He was sure the baby would get here early so he lessened his work load and now he is trying to find more to do while he waits- and all of us wait.

Claudia

Horatio

Viola

Titania

Flake Fun

 Things in Snowflake are starting to warm up but gratefully they cool off in the evening.  We have nearly everything planted in our garden that we are going to plant. I'm hoping to find some cantaloupe, watermelon and peppers but haven't seen any yet. We have potatoes and onions coming up and our tomatoes are looking like they may survive. 

 The wind is starting to settle down which is nice. There is a week of wind in the forecast but there are a handful of nice days before and after. 

The kids get bigger and smarter every day. I am constantly amazed with the infrmation processing that Rand and Robin do all of the time.  It is fascinating.  

We went to a place called Bearizona on Friday.  It was a lot of fun.  It is a drive through wildlife park with a walk through portion.  The kids enjoyed hanging out the car windows to see bison, reindeer, big horn sheep and mountain goats.   The bears and wolves were viewed behind rolled up windows!  They also got to see a skunk, raccoon and porcupine up close in an animal encounter show as well as feeding fish to the otters.  It was a really fun day. 

Peter Quill the porcupine

When it is too windy to go outside, the kids make their own fun.  Yes, that is flour...

Manning Moments

 Well life has been pretty good and very loud and energetic as usual.

Gus is a mover. He may just stick with crawling forever because he is so blasted fast and will get into everything. It is impossible to work outside with him because he is right in the dirt eating it and digging like a dog. He also loves the attention he gets when he screams at the dinner table. We love this little crazy one.

Chet and Wesley both decided to have their own garden space which basically means they took over the whole garden. They both wanted to try pumpkin and wheat. When we went to the greenhouse, we couldn't decide on one pumpkin so we came home with three. So we will have a pumpkin garden and their wheat is coming up. Hopefully something will produce since I don't know how to do either.

We tried to finish off the school year with vigor but that didn't really happen since February or so! But they are still learning and Wesley has really gotten into piano which is very fun. Mom and Dad came down yesterday for a little school show and tell which is always an adventure but we had a good time.

Nick has been so busy lately. He helped the tennis team which was very busy in April and May. He teaches guitar, has high council stuff and he is going to front sight as much as possible because they may shut down. He is also being moved to Orem high next year. American Heritage has been a dream seminary teaching job and we will miss being there.

After Nick spent five weeks trying to get an appointment with the board of adjustments to figure out our house, we learned there isn't a board of adjustments. It just kind of dissolved and maybe he can talk with them if they come back together. There's good government for you! In the meantime we will be grateful for our little house and our mortgage payment!

We hope you are well and can't wait to see you!

Smithfield Scoop

 The crazy busy time we had earlier this year has passed and things are slowing down enough that we think we will be able to make time to post on the blog more regularly. The hard thing about that is... when things slow down and there is time to write, there isn't much to write about!! But we will try to be a presence, at least.

Thanks to everyone who posts fun things on the family blog. We love the history that we have here. It's great to hear about your adventures and all the goings on - good and challenging.

We were happy to go to Arizona together to pick Jenn and the littles up to bring them back to Utah for a few days. We hit quite a storm on the way back and actually had to pull over and the night in Utah County because the wind was so bad we couldn't see to drive. Since it was likely to get worse instead of better, we stayed at a hotel in American Fork and had lovely weather to drive to Smithfield the next morning.

While the Flake family was here, we were delighted to have a baby shower/birthday party for Ruth/Emma while Jenn was in town. Thanks to Lauren and Elise making an effort to be here, as well. The most fun part of it all was that both Ruth and Emma were quite surprised! They each thought the party was for the other and looked authentically surprised. We made lots of freezer meals for both families to be used while packing in one case, and while recuperating in the other case. Hopefully, the meals were and will be helpful. We had a blast cooking together, as well as opening gifts for both sisters. Peter was the champion baby sitter during the party and all the kiddos were happy while the moms were busy. I've been thinking that we should do that regularly for everyone - regardless of having a baby or moving!

Our next adventure took us to Houston for a few days, which was so much fun! Thomas and Torie are excellent hosts! We went straight from the airport to Barry's, where T works. Torie stayed for a class Thomas was teaching and we took JJ to a local park. We used every ounce of energy we had to keep the little guy from breaking his neck!! He is so fast and carefree that we feared for his life as he climbed up and down the stairs and went up and down the slides! It was very fun to see him have such a good time. We slept really well that night. Thomas interviewed Dad for his podcast, which is really good, and we enjoyed eating at some fun places. Dad is entirely converted to Texas barbeque at Truth Diner. So, so yummy. We also had a great time at the beach in Galvaston. We walked the "Strand" and marveled at the very old building that house fun shops and a quaint ice cream shop with the most delicious, creamy ice cream ever. JJ tried unsuccessfully to drown in the ocean. Torie has very quick reflexes and pulled him up out of the water numerous times. We will definitely get down there again!

The only dismal part of the last few weeks was when Emma and Cameron left for Kentucky. It was a sad day for me and I was fairly dysfunctional after they pulled their trailer away early in the morning on Emma's birthday. It feels terribly lonely just knowing we have no children and no grandchildren in Cache Valley. But, they are off on an adventure! They will likely only be back to visit on occasion, so we will plan to travel east from time to time in the future,

We are looking forward to the July family gathering in Idaho Falls! Can't wait for that great event! But there are some fun things happening in the meantime... including the addition of another Nilsson family member! Here are the predictions of when this little fellow may join the family... (prizes to come for the winner who guesses the actual birthday!)

Thomas - May 10
Emma - May 19
Jenn - May 11 or 20
Jack - May 31
Addy - after May 14
Elise - May 23
Peter - May 2
Dad (Grandpa) - May 22

Love you all! Have a great week!

Hart Happenings! Da boys are writing.

Hey family!!! Mom asked us to write on the blog today while she was at her meeting so here we are. Just be prepared for a lot of exclamation points and a LOT of incorrect grammar and punctuation. 

This week was FIRE!!! (Fire in teen lingo means awesome.)

Monday: We just chilled. Our homeschool co-op is now over so our Mondays are not quite as busy. Alex, Jack and Peter went down to Pocatello for a Spikeball match.                                                                 They really love that sport. (Heh, heh, heh, heh... Panicked laughter)

Tuesday: Ian went and hung out with friends downtown. (His new favorite place to be.) Alex and Elise left that evening for a late anniversary date night. They got dinner at a new restaurant here in town and hiked the Menan Bute. Afterwards they stayed the night in an old, renovated train car. They had a blast! The boys stayed home and got drinks at a local soda shop, had a little dance party and didn't burn down the house. (Woop woop!)

Wednesday: We went over to the Nilsson's house for our weekly Geography and Shakespeare lessons. The country's in our world have strange names. . . and Shakespeare wrote some very beautiful and also very disturbing plays. Jack and Ian wen't to the movie theater with some of their friends that night. They had a blast!!! Those kids are adorable. 

Thursday: Joe's Family (Joe, Grace, Grant.) came up for the weekend which was probably the highlight of our ENTIRE WEEK! They came in the afternoon and we had good conversations while Ian and his friend got headshots for their acting resumes. Ian is getting serious about this whole acting thing. (Heh, heh, heh, heh. Panicked laughter) But all joking aside it has been so cool to see this kid progress in the thing he loves to do most. Thursday night Peter, Jack and Alex had a Spikeball match and while they were playing in the rain we thought we'd go rock climbing the nearby Indoor climbing gym. It was so FIRE! Grace was the star of the show and she climbed those HUGE walls like there was no tomorrow. I think she's giving Cam a run for his money. 

Friday: We went to the same movie that Jack and Ian went to on Wednesday. It was so funny! You guys have got to see: The Bad Guys. So cute! Addy joined us which was so fun! We love hanging out with her. Afterwards we went to an escape room downtown which we SLAYED! (Played means to conquer, win, be the best, etc.) That was Joe's family's first time and they had so much fun! But afterwards we had to say goodbye so that Joe could get back to the rest of the fam. That night Jack, Peter and Alex left for Utah for . . . you guessed it! A Spikeball Tournament. 

Saturday: They boys played all day in the sunny weather of Provo Utah. Ian worked while Elise went over to help Ruthie set up a drip system. Afterwards Ian and Elise went downtown to support a local bookstore who was having a party to celebrate national Independent Bookstore Day. (Seriously there is a holiday for everything now.) There was good, live music, fun people and later they went and tried a new vietnamese cuisine restaurant. IT WAS SO GOOD!!! They boys came home late that night very sunburned buuuutttttt. . .  VICTORIOUS! Peter got 1st place in his devision! He is so happy and we are so proud of him!!! 

Sunday: And now we're resting. From a crazy but fabulous week. These are the days we live for. When we can be with the ones we love and let life do it's thing. We hope y'all have a great week and we hope to hear from all of you very soon! 

Keep on being AMAZING! Love you all! xoxoxo

- Da Boys