Hyde Happinesses

 We got our family pictures back! They were so cute thanks to Mr Stetson Boy. We love him so much. 

Not too much happened this week. We had our ward trunk or treat which was a blast. We were the three amigos. We were able to take pictures with ponchos, mustaches, and sombreros and everything! It was wild! Stetson let us do it too before he ripped it all off. 

This week was a fun fall week. We raked leaves and went on long fall walks. Very pleasant :) we love the fall over here. It was very warm this week which is awesome. This coming week will be much colder but that’s alright. Seems to happen with Halloween. 

The primary program was today which was fun. Glad it all came together. It always seems like it won’t, but it does! We only have 30 kids, so it was definitely not like a Utah/Idaho primary situation. The kids sang great and did their parts really well. There were quite a few visitors which is also a very welcome thing. 

I’m still enjoying sourdough baking. I’ve got some pumpkin sourdough in the oven as we speak and I can’t wait  to try it. We took our friends, the Carrols, to Wallace Station yesterday. She’s the one I gave some of my start to. They seemed to enjoy it and it was fun to show them around the little town called Midway. Very quaint. 

Anyway. Love you all. Just fyi we’re coming for Thanskgiving. If anyone reads the blog they’ll find out ;) but don’t tell anyone else if you know… except maybe me, so I know, ya know  ;) love ya!

Also it was Emi’s birthday this week so here is a throwback to the good ol’ days. 

Hyde Happinesses

Guys. Get this. Once upon a time Cam and I have almost been married for 3 years. Cool right? Guess what’s even cooler?? In all our lengthy years of marriage, we’ve never bought shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotions and moisturizers, makeup, or toothpaste 🤯 I mean how cool is that??!?! The time has come. In the very near future I will have to purchase some shampoo. Then some toothpaste. Then makeup 😭 It’s a tragedy. But anyway. That’s the big news of the week.

Stetson and I survived the first half of the week without Cam. He was in Florida attending a business meeting for the Stretch Zone. He said it was very enlightening and he enjoyed it a lot. 

Stetson is growing up so so fast. He is a riot guys. He’s hilarious and he knows it, which makes it 100x funnier. He now waves at everyone we see, though if you ask him to do it, he won’t until the time has well passed. He also enjoys clapping and giving high fives. He’s not super interested in walking yet, and I am a-ok with that. He’s a cruiser and has loved getting into the garbage lately. He also loves throwing oakleys ball and trying to climb out of the doggie door. 

As for me, I have loved this season of baking and cooking. We’ve had the missionaries over several times, and I’ve tried to make them something special each time. Sister Jensen missed Zupas, so we made paninis and Wisconsin Cauliflower soup last week which was very fun. Now I have to find something else to make for them soon. It is so so fun. On Saturday, we had some friends over to watch a football game. Loren is my new bestie. She’s a sweetie and is so fun to be around. I gave her some of my sourdough starter a few weeks ago, so she brought some sourdough pretzels over and I made sourdough brownies. It was so fun and now we want to start “sourdough Saturday.” I also made an actual sourdough bread for our paninis. It was pretty yummy! I definitely need to hone my skills but it was a fun experiment. 

We took fall pictures this week and I can’t wait to see them!! We also went to the races and had some delicious food and watched the horses run. When you guys come visit, we’ll take you to the track. It is such a fun vibe (as long as you’re not down in the crowd… that’s mostly just drinking and smoking). 

Anyway. Love you so much! Have a great week. 

Stetson has enjoyed helping Oakley find her ball and throwing it for her. She’s still not a big fan of him, but he feeds her enough to keep them on good terms.

He loves to wave 

The cutest teethies!! They are RAZORS 

The answer is no. He’s never not smiling

I keep telling Ruth we need to put Dane and Stetson in a padded cell for the next couple years. That’s the only way they’ll be safe. 

Big helper

Flake Fun

The last little while has been quite interesting and, at times difficult for me.  At the end of September, Scott flew to San Diego for his annual business conference.  Then he stayed a few more days with his dad and brother to celebrate Randy's 65th birthday with some off shore fishing.   They caught 2 Mahi Mahi.  

James turned 3 and had turned into a talking machine! He chats all day and loves it when his conversations are taken seriously.  He was delighted to get a basketball and shovel for his birthday! 

We had a lot of fun getting pumpkins at our local pumpkin patch.  The kids are very excited about carving them which we plan to do sometime this week.  

We went through a couple of weeks of sick kids but we all seem to be on the mend now.

We have had a lot of birds fly into our greenhouse lately which is fun, except when they knock themselves out. 

Scott and I were asked to speak in church today on Elder Bednar and Elder Anderson's conference talks.  It went well.

We miss you guys like crazy and can't wait to get together for Thanksgiving.  

Nilsson News

 Emma, you are so faithful at posting on the blog and your photos are so adorable!  We also ripped out our entire garden yesterday.  I was so ready to be done with it, even though our tomatoes had just decided it was time to ripen (a little late in my book).  They are one of those plants that is tricky to grow here because they like the heat and by the time the heat arrives (does the heat ever arrive?...), most of the canning has been finished and it is time to get ready for the winter.  I think next year I'm going to experiment with planting peanuts.  They thrive in the heat so you are probably wondering why I would try to grow those?  Our greenhouse during the summer is definitely hot and I haven't had great success with planting other things in it, so why not?

We had a fantastic time pressing cider with the Harts and grandpa.  It brought back so many memories of our pressing adventures with the Ashcrofts and Bennetts.  We have only a one tub press but it's just right for our smaller orchard.  Everyone took turns manning the grinder and the press and Dane was excellent at taste testing every apple and throwing those he didn't approve of.  We had an impressive knife and apple show by Jack and Alex.  One would toss an apple into the air and the other would catch it with his paring knife.  A new sport in the making!  Grandpa was great at overseeing that not a single worm hole escaped into the wash basin.  The overall outcome and flavor was incredible!  We made about 16 gallons worth.  A few days ago we had some students from Garrett's BYUI class come and we served them some cider.  They kept asking what we put in the cider, cinnamon, sugar, what made it taste so good?  They could hardly believe that the only ingredient was apples!  Side note: one of those students that came was from South Africa (awesome accent!) and I mentioned that my sister's best friend recently married someone from there.  Come to find out, he knew Jared Caine and said that their dads were mission companions.  Small world!

Last week, Garrett took Emerson, Eliza, Henry and Millie down to St. George for their cousin's baptism.  They were able to enjoy beautiful summer like weather and also had a wonderful time walking through the St. George temple open house.  Addy, Dane and I stayed at home and it was so quiet!  I went on a cleaning frenzy and our house stayed clean for the three days that the others were gone.  It was so refreshing!  Addy and I invited Elise to join us in a Pride and Prejudice marathon.  Addy had just finished reading the book so we rewarded her with watching the 6 episode version and it definitely took us back to our younger, swooning days.  Such a good book/movie!

Dane is getting in to absolutely everything!  He is very resourceful and independent and knows how to drag the kitchen chairs to everywhere he wants to go.  The words that he is starting to say make me laugh because they aren't the typical first words of a toddler.  "Iyuce (ice), dong (the doorbell), peash (please), uh-oh, shoos (shoes).  You can tell what is truly the most important to this little fellow.  Sleep is not.

Claustrophobia anyone?!

Addy's date to Homecoming!

Cider time!