Hart Happenings

Life goes on here in Idaho. Some weeks you enjoy just the usual, nothing out of the ordinary. And that was this week for us. Nice and slow and laid back. We went to the library, had a friend over for dinner, spent some time in the yard, trimmed trees at the mall, and house hunted. The latest place we're drooling over is on 17 acres with an incredible view of the mountains and.....wait for it.....the cemetery. Yes. That's right. 

We are in the middle of football mania here and can I just say how great it is to have a Jack that understands football and loves watching it with his dad? I'm now absolved of all the guilt I used experience when I didn't get all jazzed to watch football with Alex. Thanks goodness for sons. And it is really fun to watch them cheering and high-fiving each other from the comfort of my reading chair and a good book. 

Jack thinks that you should all know about the white cat who sometimes changes color depending on the spray paint available to his owners that moved in across the street. It has taken to leaving dead mice in our yard. Sweet thing. 

I don't know if I'm the only one, but with the onset of this cold weather the baking bug has hit hard here. Currently we have a batch of molasses cookies on the counter and a pan of brownies in the oven which follows on the heels of homemade macaroni and cheese. Comfort food season, y'all! But it is wreaking havoc on the family challenge, I must say. 

A highlight of our week was a trip to the local bowling alley to play darts. It was intense. Peter led the whole way by a pretty hefty margin, but then Jack came from behind and swept us all! Hysterical game! Good times. 

Glad to hear Eliza has migrated from the couch and has resumed some of her normal activity. 

We are counting down the days to Thanksgiving. Can't wait to see all of you! Peter has big plans for himself and Joe.

Quote of the week from Peter: "Mom! I found a balloon in my bum! It's magic!"

Context: while getting dressed that morning he had lost the balloon he was playing with and when he ran in to use the potty and pulled down his pants, there it was! He had made it disappear and then reappear!

 

Flake Fun

8 Nov 2015 -  On Tuesday evening it was really windy and moments after I started dinner, the power went out.  We waited a few minutes and the lights were still out so we lit our stove with a match and ate burritos by candle light. The power stayed out for the next hour or so but it was fun.  Then, the next evening it snowed!  We woke up to 1/4 inch of snow which disappeared quickly but was snow nevertheless!

On Thursday night we went to inspect our new house (Lovelake) and I learned that temporary renters don't feel an obligation to keep the home clean since they are not the ones personally losing a deposit.  I spent Friday morning de-junking the house and now I think we can get started on the repairs that need to be done before we can rent it again. 

Saturday we filled nail holes at Lovelake (Emma, I missed your expertise!) and took a general look around the house to finalize what projects needed to be done.  In the afternoon we went to help TJ and Kim on their house.  It is coming together.  They now have 5 walls up and are hoping to get the rest of them up and the roof on by Wednesday.

We just got back from a wonderful regional conference.  Elder Lynn Robbin's talk really hit home to me.  It was about the joy of simplicity.  Elder Oaks was in attendance and Elder Robbins explained that when Elder Oaks calls a new stake president he tells them that while Satan most likely won't have success in getting him to commit horrible sin, he will most likely have success at getting him to becoming too busy.  "The one thing that money can't buy is time." I thought about that and the need that I have for slowing down. It was satisfying to think that while we could have spent the whole day at Lovelake, we had the time to help out a neighbor with something that is. perhaps, more important.   That was my pondering for the day. 

Love you all.  Glad that little miss Liza is feeling better. See you in a few weeks!  Oh, does anyone want some decorative cactus plants?  We found a whole bushel of them in the backyard! 

Manning Musings

I can't really think of what happened this week because time goes by so fast. One of the highlights of the week was the Latin American concert Nick was able to play in. The University had several guest artists from South America come and do various workshops, concerts and lessons. During his senior year, Nick went to Brazil with some guitar majors and we guests at a music school there. The director of the school can here for the festival and gave Nick a lesson and they played together in the concert. It was a very fun night!
I am feeling a little better lately and have had some pretty good days which has been a blessing. It was so nice to have Joe come up and teach my classes. It was fascinating and the students enjoyed it. We have a very talented brother!
Looking forward to Thanksgiving break and seeing you all!

Nilsson News

First off, Happy Birthday to Jenn!  It sounded like you were able to do a little celebrating and that is good.  Seeing the leaves falling in my yard reminds me of last year at this time when the girls took leave down to Arizona.  How fun was that?!  That was also the first time we heard about this Nick fellow.  Who knew that in a few months from that time he would be a member of the family?  Good times!

We were sorry to miss playing with the Springville cousins, especially since we don't get that chance very often, but we were unexpectedly thrown into having company.  For those who may not know, Garrett's brother Quinn, is going to be living with us for a few weeks while he attends a rehab in Ogden.  In order to make it more comfortable for him, Garrett's dad consented to helping us finish a bathroom and hopefully bedroom downstairs.  After three crazy hectic days with hosting Garrett's parents, Quinn, and Garrett's brother Chris and his two girls, we are proud to announce that we now have a working toilet, sink and bath downstairs!  Now that the not so fun steps are done, we can work on putting up walls, painting and fine tuning.  Looking at it, it seems like not too difficult of a process.  50 steps and you have a bathroom, BUT you usually forget to take into account when you mess up (like drilling into the main sewer line, hooking up the hot water to the wrong piping, failing to tighten everything so when it turns on water spews forth all over) that it takes an extra 50 steps to fix the mistakes you made.  DIY always takes a long time, but isn't it so satisfying?

It looks as though fall is in full swing.  We had our first hard frost Friday morning and the whole day was chilly.  I'm about ready to stoke up our fireplace.  (Don't tell the government officials or we may get fined or something for polluting our air).  Addy had her first piano recital with Anarie, and she did a fantastic job.  The kids had a fun Halloween and did the traditional door to door trick or treating since our trunk or treat didn't happen.  They had fun dressing up (I truly hope to get some pictures on here).  Addy was a cowgirl, Emerson a chomping T-Rex, Eliza was a panda, Henry was an O Henry! bar and I was a BabyRuth and Garrett a Garrettdelli bar.  Pretty fun!

My ponderizing quote for the week is taken from the Lectures on Faith:
"When a man works by faith he uses mental exertion instead of physical force.  Faith works by words, and with these its mightiest works have been and will be performed."

Hart Happenings

Weeks like this make me really grateful for the good health we normally enjoy in our family. Each of the boys took a turn with a flu-like bug that took them down for about 2 days each. Then came the aftermath grumpiness for a few days after that but I think we are now all in the mend. 

Alex and I got away for the weekend which was really fun. We spent a couple hours at Lava Hot Springs and then stayed in a really cool hotel that one of Alex's friends owns. The boys stayed at home with the daughter of one of my friends and had a great time. 

Everything up here froze too so I try to avoid looking out the window these days. The snow will come eventually and cover things up, but right now everything just looks so desolate. 

Things are going really well right now for Alex in all of his business ventures and it's really rewarding to see some of his hard work and efforts paying off.

Halloween was a riot! We went to the ward trunk or treat and then some friends of our came over to trick or treat around the neighborhood. We kept collecting random friends as we walked around. Our neighbors joined the party and then our old bishop and two of his kids hooked up with us. The weather was perfect and no one got cold. My favorite part was wathching Peter try to give the people who gave him candy and piece of his in return. Then he would holler "Happy Halloween!" and jump of the porch and run to the next house with his Batman cape flapping behind him. Good times.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. 

Flake Fun

1 Nov 2015 - It was fun to be able to drive to work nearly every day this week with Scott.  We are still working out the kinks of the schedule but I think it is going to be great in the long run. 

We officially received the keys to our new house and got all of the utilities transferred into our name.  We bought paint, some light fixtures and new locks for the doors and now we just need to figure out what else needs to be done before we can rent it out.

This weekend was a fun one.  We helped TJ and Kim grout their house (pour cement into the block foundation wall) on Friday morning.  Then we ran some errands and were able to get some things done.  We went out for dinner at a really fun BBQ place called Grumpy Jakes.  Oh, and we bought an engine for the tiller so hopefully we'll get that put together and get it running. 
On Saturday we went back to TJ & Kim's to help lay floor joists.  We got there at 9:00AM and left at 5:30PM.  It was a long day but so much was accomplished.  It has been a while since I did that much physical labor!  The joists are now in and about 1/4 of the subfloor panels were put into place.   Then we went to the annual 4th ward Halloween Chili Cook-off.  Nathan brought his family up for Halloween.  Baby Kaitlyn is getting really big.

The weather has turned beautiful but it froze hard on Friday night.  Our last tomato plant is toast! We are pretty pleased with the harvest that we got though.

Hope that you all enjoyed an extra hour of sleep this morning!  Now we are all on the same time!  

Hyde Park Happiness

There is always much happiness in Hyde Park when we have visitors!  We were tickled, delighted, thrilled, pleased, etc., etc., to have Joe, Lori and little ones here.  What a busy family this is - times two!!  These four little people are always on the go!  I was amazed all over again at the dedication of the incredible parents and their ability to keep up with the constant movement, demands and chatter of four energetic little busy bodies, especially with as little sleep as they get night after night!  I cannot imagine how exhausting it must be.  But we had a very fun time while they were here.  I particularly enjoyed watching Jake and Joy play in the flour drawer and chase Chester around.  They had a blast playing tug-of-war with Chester.  It was hilarious!  I will try to post pictures later.  Joseph taught Lauren's classes, and did a mighty fine job of it I'm told.  Dad got to listen to both sessions and Lori attended in the afternoon while I drove four sleeping children around the valley.  I was supposed to take them home to play, but they all fell asleep, so I just kept driving.... :)

We were sad that the Hart boys couldn't join us this weekend due to a stomach bug that joined their family.  Ruth's family couldn't come either because they had company and were working on their new bathroom.  Grace was sorely disappointed to not see cousins.  We will definitely have to set up a cousins play date very soon.

Thomas and Victoria have set a tentative date, or time frame, for their marriage.  The last weekend in February - the week before spring break at USU.  It may change, but for now you can put that in the back of your minds for planning purposes.

Emma returned from her marching band competition in St. George at 6:00 this morning, after traveling all night long on a bus.  They did well and received a music caption award and 2nd place overall out of lots (I can't remember exactly how many) of bands from various states.  It was a great experience, but now she's sad that it's all over.  She'll miss her friends and the time she got to spend with them.

We (Dad, really) have been picking more apples and have our applesauce work cut out for us.  There are countless boxes of apples in the garage that we have got to get to one of these days. If anyone is needing a fun activity, you can always come and help make applesauce!  It makes for good memories...

I have fallen very far behind on the family challenge this week.  It's hard to get to bed on time and to get exercising in when we have company - but I wouldn't trade that for anything!  I will just have to re-double my efforts this week so that Alex doesn't get too far ahead of me.  I've given up trying to catch up with Ruth and Elise.

Dad has his stake conference coming up in a couple of weeks.  He's quite stressed about it and could use some extra prayers.  He hopes it will be a very uplifting and inspiring conference for the members of his stake and will open their minds to a higher purpose on the Sabbath day and more intentional living of the Gospel.