Hyde Happinesses

 Hello all! Life has been good. I cannot believe that October is almost over! That should be illegal. Luckily we’re still hanging out in some pretty good weather. Definitely need a jacket or sweatshirt, but not cold enough for several layers. Both of my boys run warm, so they don’t need much to stay toasty. 

We got back from Destin Florida this week. It was so fun and mostly relaxing. The fun thing about having the only kids in the family is that you have almost unlimited babysitters (that will actually fight for a shot at babysitting), and all everyone loves to do is spoil them and talk about how wonderful they are. As everyone knows, it’s really fun to brag about your kiddos and be proud of them, but I literally have to race the in-laws to say good things about my kids! 😂 wherever we go we get comments about how sweet and cute the boys are and my sisters in law and mother in law (honestly the males in law too) all jump in and have to brag about them before I can 😂 I’m not complaining. It’s nice to have your kids adored. 

Florida beaches were lovely. The sand is pearly white and so soft it squeaks! The water was a little chilly this year because we went later in the season, but our vrbo had a nice warm pool and hot tub. Stetson probably spent 3 of the 6 days we were there submerged in water. He is a fish. He didn’t love the beach, and neither did Beckham, but they were good sports and made the best of it. Beck slept absolutely horribly but when we got home, he began pulling himself up on everything, so I think he was working through that while we were there and didn’t get much downtime to do it. 

We had our ward trunk or treat yesterday. Stetson has been saying he wants to be a pumpkin for the longest time. Apparently a Little Einsteins episode had one of the characters dressed as a pumpkin and that’s exactly what he wanted. Well I can’t sew by any means, but my mother in law can. I had tried to get a costume, but they were all jackolanterns and not what Stetson had in mind. So my sweet mother in law made him a costume in about 2 hours! I was so impressed! We also had a chili cook off yesterday, but a white chicken chili won 🙄 we should petition to disqualify those I think. 

Anyway, sure love you all. While the boys plan their boys trip, I think we girls should do our Prince Edward Island trip. That would be a dream. How about in the spring?…

Always watching airplanes

Excited to fly 

Superhero dad

The boys went on a deep sea fishing trip… let’s just say they’ll never do it ever again. Ever. Never. 

Nilsson News

 It has been kind of a minute since we have been on the blog so I'm going to illustrate with photos and bounce from one thing to the next.

We did some remodeling this summer and one those projects was the tiny bathroom in the boys bedroom.  It was in dire need of an update!

The other big project we tackled was the removal of some big trees in the front.  I had no idea that doing this would create such a stir in the neighborhood but it has been the talk of the town!  The big spruce is gone, along with a massive, rotting poplar, and two maples.  We ended up with a ginormous pile of wood chips which led us to the next phase of the project...

We brought in four dump truck loads of topsoil and Dane thought he had died and gone to heaven.  Forget about any toys, a kid just needs some dirt in order to have is day full of happiness!  We formed a berm with the dirt (what's a berm you ask? A mound of dirt.) and then covered it with the wood chips and leftover logs.  In the spring we will start planting it up with trees and shrubs.

We did do some other actual "fun" things this summer, though projects and work are fun according to Ruth.

Fishing and crawdad catching is one of the obsessions right now.  Henry will talk your ear off about all things fish.  He got a 55 gallon fish tank last week and he has some fish related to the dinosaurs and he just discovered that one of his fish laid eggs so now we have that new adventure to look forward to.

Addy and I were able to go see Ian perform in Footloose and it was amazing.  It might have barely been a step up from when Ruth accompanied her high school performance of it.

We hiked to Mesa Falls for Emerson's birthday and it was so nice!

We have been going on field trips with the Harts as part of our science studies.  We went to Yellowstone and saw some elk, right on the road, a bison, and a even a big bear!  You couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous day!

I've made it a practice to cut a new flower arrangement every week and it has been so fulfilling.  I highly recommend!  Addy put together a lovely and tasty charceuterie board for general conference.

This was another field trip we took to Craters of the Moon.  It is such a fun place and the kids had a blast looking at all the cool rocks everywhere.  Because of the government shut down, the caves were all closed off but we were able to enjoy some other hikes.

Happy fall y'all!  We didn't grow any watermelons this year but boy, did we have an abundant pumpkin harvest!

Flake Fun

James had a great birthday and is really enjoying being bigger.   

The treehouse seems to be progressing faster than our actual house but it has been a fun project.  

The rain has continued and is causing some flooding and major erosion around our culvert which will need major repairs...once it dries out enough that we can see the extent of the damage. 

We had a lovely week in Utah and were sad that our coughs didn't allow us to see more of you lovely people. 

So. Much. Water.

Our pumpkins

The awesome rainbow by the Smithfield temple

The hideout we found on our hike.

But now it is back to real life! Hope that you all have a great week!!

Hyde Happinesses

 Hello! Here’s to wishing everyone a lovely autumn. We are loving it over here. I actually enjoy the outdoors again. It is so pleasant. We have been outside lots and lots, enjoying a new swing Cam built us and the sudden loss of our humidity :) it’s been lovely, as Stetson would say. 

Big news! Stets went to nursery all by himself today. He practically dragged me out of the pew to go find his teachers to go to class! And he chatted about it allllllll through sacrament meeting 😅 he’s one of a kind that kid. Beckham is pretty much fully mobile now too which makes life quite exciting! Stetson is very patient with Beck breaking his towers and getting into his things, and is a very good sharer. We love our boys. 

We’re heading to Florida this week. I must be a homebody because while it will be a fun trip, I’m already looking forward to being home and enjoying the rest of fall. It’s so so pretty right now and just the perfect temperature.

We enjoyed a great conference with some friends for a couple of the sessions. They happen to be Stetsons nursery leaders and the reason he is so stoked to go to nursery. So I actually heard quite a bit of Saturday sessions while they entertained him 😅 they get an immediate pass to the Celestial Kingdom I think. We also went with them to our favorite restaurant in town yesterday (Carson’s) and they quite enjoyed it. It’s a little bittersweet making friends in our ward because most of them are here temporarily with dental school/medical residency, but we’ll take what we can get. 

Beckham enjoys looking at himself when we call the grandparents. I can’t get enough of his dimple!

The coolest swing you ever did see! It is so fun

We got a LOT of rain this past week, so of course we went puddle hunting. In some places it went up just below Stetsons waist! He was soaked. When he climbed onto his swing after, all the water came spilling out of his boots and it reminded me of That Darn Cat when Canoe gets stuck in the garage door and makes a waterfall 😂

stets asks to hold Beckham all the time now and it’s pretty great. I think they’ll be good friends 

I think we’ve got a blue-eyed boy 

still watching airplanes