Nilsson News

It was a Happy Birthday week for Emerson!  Wednesday morning we sent him on a treasure hunt for his presents around the yard.  His final gift was actually hidden in the garage bathroom and he was overjoyed with what he found there- a bearded dragon.  He's been a little obsessed with reptiles lately and has been begging for one so I thought a beardie was a good place to start.  Not too keen on the crickets and meal worms living in our house but so far none of them have escaped.  In the afternoon we went to Heise Hot Springs to swim and we were delighted to have the Harts join us.  We had a great time and ended the evening with a pinata smash and cake and ice cream.  I told Emerson to treasure this next year because it's his last as a single digit!
We did some more work on our pine tree stump and have just about got it taken care of.  We are trying to get a lot of areas prepped for grass seed so we can get that planted before too long.  Last but not least, we have been harvesting watermelons!  Due to the crazy weather we had at the start of the season, we didn't get as many melons as we were hoping for and they didn't get as big as we were hoping, but they sure taste delicious!  We've deemed it another experiment year and have taken melons to neighbors and friends in exchange for their honest opinions about the melons.  Next year, if all goes well we will begin the business part and try to sell a few.

 Millie loves the watermelons and this one was her favorite in particular.  She would check on it every day until it got so ripe that it split open and then we had to enjoy its sweetness.  I think the hugs made it extra sweet!

 This is like one of those spot the differences pictures.  It's quite the difference!  That trunk was a bugger to saw through.  I now have immense respect for those early settlers who had to clear the land with only brute strength and no power tools.

Have a great week all!

Manning Moments

Well this week has been great as we welcomed Chet into the world and our family has changed forever! It has been the smoothest and best transition I think anyone could have with a new baby so we feel extremely blessed!
So last Saturday, mom left in the morning to go back home after spending three days with us and helping in the yard and house. She is amazing! It seemed like a normal day and we did work outside and cleaned the house. Nick wanted to go to a spicy food restaurant to see if that would kick things into gear (I think he didn't want to go to work and have coworkers ask why he was at work! jk). So we went to our favorite Indian restaurant at 6. It was a busy place so we didn't get home until 8 but we had a great time. My back kind of hurt but not more than most days while being on my feet a lot. When we got home Nick wanted to finish a project outside and I started to get Wesley ready for bed. I realized that I had to concentrate on relaxing and that I needed to be on my hands and knees to alleviate the pain in my back. So Nick came in to put Wesley to bed and I called mom and hopped in the bath. That was at about 9:00. It took me a while to realize that I was really in labor and then I started pushing! Chet was born at 11:06 and mom walked in the door at 11:30! So it was very exciting! Nick thinks he wants to go into midhusbandry now!
So that is our story and everybody is in love with little Chet. Wesley adores him.  We are all very happy!
Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts. We love you!

Nilsson News

I'm pretty positive that I have the best family in the whole world!  Reading your posts is truly inspirational.  Thanks mom for the pictures of our past.  It really doesn't seem that long ago.  I'm finally starting to realize how fast time goes by.  I was talking to a friend a few days ago while we were at the fair and she mentioned Addy and her friend Lillie being able to raise lambs together but then she mentioned that hopefully the fair wouldn't be at the same time as girls camp because both those girls will be there next summer!  Crazy!  I kind of have a hard time with things changing so drastically.  I envisioned what mom wrote about relating to dad walking off campus for the last time and how exciting/hard that would be.  Entering a new phase of life but closing the door on something your have devoted your whole life to so far.  Since mom and dad are looking for things to do in this new phase of retirement, Elise and I thought of a brilliant plan.  We thought it would be fun for mom and dad to put together a Belliston family cookbook complete with pictures and everything!  Each of us would need to submit our tried and true recipes from various categories (main dish, dessert, soup and salad, bread, etc.) and attach a picture if possible or invite mom and dad over to sample and take pictures for us.  We can also submit requests from each other if there are certain recipes we'd like to have.  Anyway, start thinking about food, food, glorious food - and how to make it.  Good idea?

We have been gearing up to start school in a couple weeks.  We are going to try a new program to supplement our homeschool called Tech Trep Academy.  It is tech and entrepreneur based and the kids seem pretty excited about it.  I feel however, that our summer has just started and now it is already winding down.  That is not right.  I would have to agree with Elise that being in the garden right now is the most enjoyable place to be.  Addy refers to it as her "Happy place."  We too have a pumpkin plant that is trying to overtake the universe.  Maybe these pumpkins are in alliance with each other!  We have harvested a handful of delicious watermelon.  Millie loves to go out there and check on the melons.  She walks by and pats them and hugs them.  I know for sure that must be the secret for adding sweetness to the fruit.  My phone is out of commission currently, but I will post some adorable pictures soon!

Like I mentioned earlier, we attended the fair this week.  It isn't much of a fair in comparison to Cache County's fair.  This one is just 4-H animal shows.  Next year they will be relocating to a brand new fairgrounds and may be holding it during the War Bonnet Roundup rodeo.  I've decided that we are going to take the plunge and let the two older kids raise a couple of lambs.  I hope it will be a good experience!

This is turning into a long essay, but I can't end before mentioning our huge project we did on Saturday.  We chopped down a ginormous blue spruce that was on the side of our house.  We had some chainsaw trouble at first and I was starting to envision having to take this tree down with a simple handsaw and some serious blood, sweat, and tears and whether or not Garrett would ever speak to me again when the Harts came to the rescue with their heavy duty chainsaw.  It worked like wonders!  We still have the big stump to tackle but I'm already enjoying the open space.  Don't tell Garrett, but we have one more blue spruce on the other side of our house that also needs to be removed but we will give it a few weeks.

Have a terrific week everyone!  Can't wait to to hear Lauren and Nick's side of the story and I'm looking forward to seeing cute baby Chet!

Hart Happenings

This weekend has been pretty quiet on the home front.  All our excitement went to Joe's house.  Alex took the boys down for a spur of the moment boys' trip.  Jack and Alex went to a Real Salt Lake soccer game while Peter and Ian hung out with Joe and his kids.
Prior to that we spent a lot of time in the yard trying to wrap up some projects that we started months ago and still hadn't finished.  There is something so satisfying about seeing things through to a conclusion.
We got to hang out with cousins this week which is always fun and Ruth and I chatted about and made some plans for the upcoming school year.  I'm pretty excited!
Our ward is growing like crazy and we are frantically trying to keep up with it in Primary.  I think we've had 5 new families move in in the past 3 weeks!
The garden is a splendid place to be this time of year.  I'm convinced our pumpkin has world domination on its mind.  It is beyond vigorous and is consuming everything in its path.  Ian has measured about a foot of growth every day.  We've been eating blackberries (thanks parents) and tomatoes and peas and beans and the watermelon should be ready any day now.
We rode electric bikes the other day when we went to get our chainsaw repaired and now Alex and the boys are busy planning a new business venture bringing a fleet of electric bikes to the river.  It'll be a hit!
Life is good!  We're hoping to get down to see the Mannings sometime soon.  Can't wait to meet Chet!

North Logan Notes

I want to reassure you all that we actually celebrated our anniversary this year!! Thanks to Mike and Barb  Hammond (he was in the mission with Dad and is now his executive secretary), who provided the tickets and the transportation, we attended a musical tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber - who wrote Cats, Phantom, and other Broadway shows. We went to dinner with the Hammonds and another couple before the show and talked and laughed and ate. It was a very fun evening and perfect way to spend our anniversary. No donuts and potato chips from the grocery store this year! We really should have done this before :)  It's been a glorious 39 years! We are  already planning our big 40 year anniversary...

I came home to this beautiful bouquet on our anniversary! Dad is too good to me!

The greatest excitement since I last wrote was when little Chet Manning was born. He is a beauty and such a sweet disposition. He seems to like things just so, very much like his dad and brother :)  Wesley is a wonderful big brother and loves baby Chet. Lauren and Nick have an amazing story to tell, so give her a call so she can let you know the scoop on Chet's birth!

We continue to look for houses and for house plans. Nothing yet. Some days are discouraging, but things are going really well in all other aspects of our lives, so I do my best to not complain most of the time.

Dad is winding things up at work and will be officially done 19 days. He's getting all the computers cleaned off and stuff labeled and organized. It will be a significant day for him, and for us, when he walks off campus the last day of August.

So, I've been wanting to be more engaged in family history work and decided to do that for my GOALit challenge this time. It has really helped me get in the spirit of family history. I have been working on getting photos organized - hundreds, perhaps thousands, of them!! It's fun to look back at them and remember the fun times. Recently, I came across some pictures that caused me some reflection about firsts and lasts... I love these photos taken of our family when Elise was leaving on her mission. Our first missionary! It doesn't seem like that long ago! Emma was 2 1/2 when Elise left - and now she is on a mission. Words cannot really portray the feelings I had when I thought about those first and last missionaries and all of the happenings in between. Truly it seems to have gone by overnight, as if in a dream...

 2001 - Lauren, Elise, Ruth, Jenn

2001 - Joseph and Elise

Not the best quality photos, but you get the idea...

Have a great week, all!  Sure love each one of our sweet family! Hope to see you all soon. And, Happy Birthday to Emerson this week!!!

Flake Fun

Scott called me on Tuesday and asked if I would like to go to Tucson with him for a business conference so I made arrangements at work and we spent a very nice and relaxing 4 1/2 days in Tucson.  The weather has been quite lovely with rain nearly every evening and some overcast days.  The resort is quite nice and we have had a good time together.  It has re-affirmed in my mind that people are more important and any time that you get the chance to spend time with family, especially your spouse, you should take advantage of it.   Anyway, that is all for us this week!

Flake Fun

6 Aug 2018 - First off, congrats to the Mannings!  Can't wait to hear more about baby Chet.  I hope that Lauren is recovering and that things are going well.


Things are going pretty well in Snowflake.  It has been quite hot lately which makes sleeping uncomfortable but we are managing. 


The garden is still producing like crazy!  We are giving zucchini away on a regular basis and we have cucumbers coming out of our ears.  On Saturday night we went out to the tomato patch with our black light and located 3 big tomato worms.  NASTY!!!  The black light helps because they kind of glow so it is easier to locate them. 


A few weeks ago I put down some patches of grass seed and it is coming up!!! I am so excited!  Perhaps you remember how sad our back yard was without grass...well, it is getting a little better.


Last night we sat in an apple orchard with neighbors and chatted the evening away. It was marvelous.  Have you taken time to sit under an apple tree lately?


Hope that you all have a great week!