Manning Memories

 Well, this holiday season didn't start quite like we wanted but we grew closer together amidst the vomit. This stomach bug was a doosy. I will spare you the details. The kids haven't gotten it and we hope it stays that way. They can stick with their colds which have been hanging around for a while. Some of the more pleasant things have been: having Thanksgiving with the Mannings, getting a Christmas tree, moving our shed, cutting down our giant tree, tearing down our fence and flagpole, and much more.

A little more detail needs to be given concerning the above mentioned Christmas tree. I missed the day to get the forest service permits that cover the Heber area. We have gotten two trees from that area and it was super fun. This year I blew it so I looked at BLM permits and was skeptical of the area it said we were allowed to cut. They also didn't specify a type of tree so I imagined that they figured we could take whatever we could find! I imagined a field of sagebrush. Well, Nick went with the big boys to scout it out. They came back with a tree alright. It kind of looks like a really big sagebrush! Anyway, the story is that they started hiking out into an area and Chet started to complain. And whine. Then it started to hail. So they cut a tree down and brought it home! I don't know what kind it is but it looks kind of wind swept and wild. It is pokey too. So, sometimes a fake tree might be better Emma. 

The house plans continue. We still haven't got a building permit but we are hoping for the best. Last week we had lots of people come out to look at the site before giving us bids. It was kind of weird because of few of them just scoped things out without knocking on the door. So one day a guy was just looking through our windows and Nick hadn't told me the window guy was coming. Another time a guy just came and put a ladder up and climbed onto our roof. 

We sure missed seeing you all at Thanksgiving. I hope to see you soon! 

Hyde Happinesses

 Hello all! It was so so fun to see you all (minus the Manning’s) this week! Mannings, you were greatly missed and we hope you are all feeling much better :) it’s always a pleasure to spend time together and just laugh the day away. Cam is always impressed with how much we can talk 😅 

Just wanted to get on and say how much I love all of you! As I’ve gotten a little older and seen a few different family dynamics, I’ve really grown to appreciate ours! The total lack of pettiness and arguing is so awesome and unfortunately pretty rare these days. I always look forward to spending time with you guys and am always sad when it’s over. We have a pretty special crew and I’m grateful to be apart of it. Thanks for being awesome parents so I can learn and imitate you! I’m seriously in awe of all of you and your parenting. Thanks again for everything! Love y’all and can’t wait for the next time!

Our Christmas setup!! It’s a fake tree this year… I feel like I’ve betrayed years of tradition…

Stetson approved 👍🏼

Goofball 

Driving grandpas car

Glad we got to go to the temple in Utah! Ours is closed until March 😭

Best buds

Cousins that take off socks together stay together 

Can’t wait for Jane to join and make this a threesome 

That’s a plum folks… a plum!

The classic 😬 face

More best buds 

Bonus material: where can Scott sleep? The answer: anywhere/anytime. I didn’t understand how someone could just sleep anywhere… until I had a kid who doesn’t sleep ever. Now I understand all too well 😅

Smithfield Scoop

 We have enjoyed perusing the blog this evening! What wonderful photos and recaps of what is going on in your lives! The pictures are especially fun. Thanks for taking time to post and publish your goings-on and the proof of it in the day to day snapshots. Hopefully Dad will get some of his great, daily photos posted soon. Problem is, which ones to choose. He's coming up on 365 consecutive days of photo taking - and has several photos of each day that he has to choose from...

Our recap for the past few weeks:

- We got new carpet upstairs and we love it! Some of you have seen and walked on it. So nice! 

- Had a few visitors - Sarah Belliston (Nate and Aimee's daughter) and her boyfriend came for a couple of nights. Lauren and her children were here for a couple of nights and days. Mama Hart and her three boys for a couple of hours. And looking forward to many more of you coming in a week or so!! CAN'T WAIT!!

- Helped Mannings with some "getting ready to start an addition to their house" projects, like cutting down the big pine tree, leveling the chicken run (chickens have been moved) so that the shed can be moved to where the chickens used to be, cleaning out the shed, and spending time at their ward chili cookoff and trunk or treat. Very fun! Mostly fun because my main responsibility was keeping Jane and Gus happy and out of the way :)

- Exercising (biking, walking, pickleball) for our Goal-it effort. It's always so nice to have to account for what we say we'd like to do!

- Dad spends a lot of time at the temple. He has two sealing shifts each week and then recently he has substituted for several sealers, as well as a friend who is an ordinance worker, and he attended an endowment session, since he was already there! It's a good place to be.

None of that sounds extremely exciting, I suppose, but it is thrilling for us to be with family whenever we can, and we love to be at the temple.

We do love you all and appreciate the blog posts. 

Hyde Happinesses

 Hey y’all. The best news of this week is that Ian came to visit!! It was SO FUN. We had a blaaaaaaaast. If you haven’t had Ian for a weekend, I highly recommend. We did a lot of shopping and sight seeing, we made up a dance (call me the cool aunt), and ate lots of good food. Just a fun time to coexist with my nephew. 

That was really about all that happened this week! For those of you who don’t know, Cam is going back to school and in preparation for that, we are moving. We had a couple people over to look at the house which is pretty crazy! Seems very real. But it will be a good change. 

Hyde Happinesses

 Happy birthday to Gracie girl and Jenn earlier this week! We hope you both had wonderful days and felt loved and celebrated. 

Hello all :) life is peachy over here in Kentucky. Last week was pretty cold, but this week we’re back in the sixties and even seventies some days! Woot woot! Very enjoyable and pleasant. We love going on walks and soaking up the rest of the sun we can get. 

There’s not a lot to say about this week. But I was chatting with Emi Bennett Palmer this week, and she had a very good insight. She is the ward organist and last week, she stumbled on the first couple verses of the opening song. There was an issue with the sound and volume of the organ, and it got her flustered. After she figured out how to turn it up, the rest of the meeting went smoothly. Following sacrament meeting, the chorister came up and told Emi what a great job she did and how she was grateful Emi was the organist. Emi scoffed a little and was about to say “did you hear me?? It was so awful!” But she stopped herself when Heavenly Father whispered “you can still be great and make mistakes.” Wowza. I loved that and I’ve thought about it everyday since! I love that it doesn’t have anything to do with perfection - just you can still be doing a great job and make mistakes. You can still be a great mom and make mistakes. A great teacher and make mistakes. A great wife or husband and make mistakes. I loved it. I was reviewing some of my notes in Preach My Gospel from when I was a missionary, and one thing I had jotted down was that when I make a mistake or sin, all of a sudden I’ve never done anything right and I never was a good missionary or wife or mom or driver or cook or whatever it is! But that is sooooo not true. Just because we make a mistake doesn’t make our efforts and triumphs from before any else meaningful or important. Anyway. That’s my thought from the week. 

Oakley tries to recruit Stetson to get her ball for her. It’s pretty cute 

Pumpkin painting on Halloween

Smarty pants for work 😅 credit goes to Peter Hart 

The golden child