Hello there!
We are not sure what to make of the balmy heat wave we've been having. It has been raining for the past couple of days and the temps are in the 40s! Bizarre. It seriously feels like spring. But we have no false hope, don't worry. It is Idaho and bizarre is the name of the game when it comes to weather up here.
We enjoyed a nice Stake Conference this weekend. Alex and I both spent a lot of time in meetings and tried to have a good attitude about it. In between the meetings we all went to Jack's soccer game which was fun and in which he made a goal!
This week the boys took turns being sick so we were pretty homebound. We did enjoy a day out at Ruth's house. It was fun to see all the improvement she's made and the kids always enjoy playing. We were there for our Geography lesson. It has been really fun to learn about our world. We are entering our South America unit and are looking forward to our food tasting class. It should be yummy!
We appreciated mom and dad shooting up here on Monday to drop off some beef. It was good to see them and it is always nice to have the freezer stocked up.
Ian is back into his crazy schedule. He leaves around 2:30 everyday for band, goes straight from there to his Newsies practice and doesn't get home until after 7:00. It is rigorous and we are excited to see the finished production!
Alex has been trying to get to know all his new deacons. They had a fun activity where the Young Men took an old couch that was in the bishop's garage and mounted it on skis and then went couch sledding. Unfortunately, one of the new deacons was rough housing on the hill and ended up breaking his wrist. Luckily the second counselor was working at the E.R. that night and was able to put everything right.
Jack has really been working on his soccer skills and asked that I take him to the church a few times this week to practice. One afternoon I took him and Peter decided he wanted to stay home. While he was home something spooked him and he went looking for another person. Alex was out in the office, but when Peter looked in the garage it was empty (Alex had parked the van outside) and he assumed that he was home alone. He freaked out and ran to the church. Jack and I had been there about 20 minutes when I had the impression to go out in the hall and check the time. When I did I heard a child howling. I was so confused but went the to the door and was shocked to see Peter standing there wailing for his mama! He wasn't wearing a coat and I had no idea how long he had been there. It was so sad!!! We got him home and calmed down and Alex and I loved on him for a while, but I felt like such a rotten parent! I was so grateful that I had the prompting to go check the time because I wouldn't have heard him from inside the gym.
The boys have been working all week and last week on an awesome snow fort. It is huge and has a slide attached to it that has provided hours of entertainment for the boys.
Ian hosted his monthly book club this week. It was supposed to happen last Friday but he was sick so he postponed it to this week. They had fun playing Book Title Pictionary and making mug cakes. It is a fun group of kids and we like having them in our home.
One of the boys' new favorite things to make in the kitchen is pretzels. They are delicious and the boys have a blast forming them into different shapes. That is what we ended up doing today after church. Good times.
Hope all is well with you guys and that your 2019s are off to a great start! Hope to see you all at some point!
Sunday, January 20, 2019
Nilsson News
(This is a really random post and I apologize for my ramblings) Well, I'm sitting home from church with a sad and sick Eliza girl. She has a tendency to catch anything and everything. We are hoping that she will get over it quickly so she can be 100% better for her birthday that is upcoming.
The weather is so bizarre right now. It has been raining a lot the past few days which makes a sloshy mess of everything but at least the temperatures are warmer. Garrett was out with the animals yesterday and we have both come to the conclusion that we have a huge mouse problem in the barn. I might actually have to give in and get a couple of cats. I guess there could be worse things.
The kids are getting excited about having their own garden plots in our big garden this year. They will be completely in charge of their little spot. We are going to order seeds tomorrow! They each want to grow some interesting varieties so we'll see how it goes. Eliza is going with a purple theme (you should come see it Jenn) and wants all of her plants to be purple. Purple flowers, purple beans, eggplant, purple cauliflower, and purple popcorn. Ahhh, to think about spring!
Well, I don't have much else to write about so I'll show you the pictures of our painting projects we've done recently. Huge improvement folks!
The playroom before was an awful orange-peach color with a flat, could-not-clean-it-at-all finish. The pictures don't look all that great but the after is now a very light whitish-grey. SO much better!
All the light switches and outlets were adhered to the walls with who knows how many layers of ancient paint. Garrett replaced all of them and they look so much happier.
I am slightly embarrassed to show this picture of the boy's room. Clearly, it was not well organized and needed some serious help and attention, more than just paint (Again, the same orangey color). We're getting there...
AFTER! Emerson wanted a brick wall in his room and I'm surprised at how well this turned out! I saw a neat idea to build bunk beds into part of an existing closet to help add more space to a room. It may be a future project.
The old, orange looking railing got a face-lift as well.
Cute girl, but not so cute drawers and handles.
Welcome to our dark and dreary expanse of hallway and stair chasm.
Is that a light up there?
I wasn't going to replace the stair rail hardware, but it became a necessity when we were moving the old treadmill upstairs and got just a wee bit too close. Snap.
AFTER!
Sorry to overwhelm you with so many pictures but I'm just so excited about the transformation! You should see it in person because the pictures don't really do it justice. Hope you all have a lovely week!
The weather is so bizarre right now. It has been raining a lot the past few days which makes a sloshy mess of everything but at least the temperatures are warmer. Garrett was out with the animals yesterday and we have both come to the conclusion that we have a huge mouse problem in the barn. I might actually have to give in and get a couple of cats. I guess there could be worse things.
The kids are getting excited about having their own garden plots in our big garden this year. They will be completely in charge of their little spot. We are going to order seeds tomorrow! They each want to grow some interesting varieties so we'll see how it goes. Eliza is going with a purple theme (you should come see it Jenn) and wants all of her plants to be purple. Purple flowers, purple beans, eggplant, purple cauliflower, and purple popcorn. Ahhh, to think about spring!
Well, I don't have much else to write about so I'll show you the pictures of our painting projects we've done recently. Huge improvement folks!
Sorry to overwhelm you with so many pictures but I'm just so excited about the transformation! You should see it in person because the pictures don't really do it justice. Hope you all have a lovely week!
Monday, January 14, 2019
Flake Fun
Great story Lauren!
The adventure of the week was definitely waking up to 5 inches of snow yesterday morning. Nearly every 9:00 ward was cancelled. I say nearly because we were not. I don't know if it has to do with the inordinate number of trucks in our ward but the chapel was just as full as always. During the sacrament song the electricity flickered and the organ quit which was quite funny. The chorister just kept leading, the congregation just kept singing and the poor organist frantically tried to re-set the organ. A verse and a half later, she joined in on the chorus. I am proud to say that we were still on pitch and singing with gusto!
Other than that, things are fairly normal. By normal I mean I go to work in the morning and come home to a clean house with the dishes done, a fire in the fireplace and dinner on the stove. Scott is absolutely amazing and is taking wonderful care of me. While I'm at work he has been getting everything put together for our tax business and making sure that he has all of the ID numbers and stuff that he will need.
I am feeling okay for the most part as long as I remember to eat (but not too much) and if I can get sleep. I am finding that I wake up a lot at night which leaves me pretty tired during the day.
Hope that you all have a great week!
The adventure of the week was definitely waking up to 5 inches of snow yesterday morning. Nearly every 9:00 ward was cancelled. I say nearly because we were not. I don't know if it has to do with the inordinate number of trucks in our ward but the chapel was just as full as always. During the sacrament song the electricity flickered and the organ quit which was quite funny. The chorister just kept leading, the congregation just kept singing and the poor organist frantically tried to re-set the organ. A verse and a half later, she joined in on the chorus. I am proud to say that we were still on pitch and singing with gusto!
Other than that, things are fairly normal. By normal I mean I go to work in the morning and come home to a clean house with the dishes done, a fire in the fireplace and dinner on the stove. Scott is absolutely amazing and is taking wonderful care of me. While I'm at work he has been getting everything put together for our tax business and making sure that he has all of the ID numbers and stuff that he will need.
I am feeling okay for the most part as long as I remember to eat (but not too much) and if I can get sleep. I am finding that I wake up a lot at night which leaves me pretty tired during the day.
Hope that you all have a great week!
Sunday, January 13, 2019
Manning Mania
This week has been interesting to say the least. I was talking to mom and asked a very sincere question. "How do you make it through the toddler years without either murdering the toddler or going insane?" I hope to find the answer. There were good things that happened too. We were pretty much healthy this week. Other than people choosing not to sleep for whatever reason, we didn't end up in the doctor's office over it!
Here's a story that sums up the week (Don't ever have a child that is smarter than you!) So we have been working with Wesley when he says something in a not nice way or demanding way, I say, "How can you say that nicely?" or "try again." And he is getting the hang of it. Well, at dinner time he was having a little scuffle with Nick who was trying to help him. I said something to try and help things along and Wesley said, "stop talking mom!' I was a little shocked and said, "We don't talk to our mom like that." So Wesley said in a nice, sweet way, "Mom, please don't say anything." We just had to laugh. I am way in over my head with this parenting thing. Hope you have a lovely week!
Here's a story that sums up the week (Don't ever have a child that is smarter than you!) So we have been working with Wesley when he says something in a not nice way or demanding way, I say, "How can you say that nicely?" or "try again." And he is getting the hang of it. Well, at dinner time he was having a little scuffle with Nick who was trying to help him. I said something to try and help things along and Wesley said, "stop talking mom!' I was a little shocked and said, "We don't talk to our mom like that." So Wesley said in a nice, sweet way, "Mom, please don't say anything." We just had to laugh. I am way in over my head with this parenting thing. Hope you have a lovely week!
Monday, January 7, 2019
Flake Fatigue
Happy New Year everyone and apologies for our absence for the last several weeks. I feel like I am almost back in the groove. To catch you all up:
We left Logan on Thursday morning and made it back to Snowflake around 8:00pm. (There was snow!!) The next morning we got up and left for Mesa around 6:00 to attend Scott's grandpa's funeral. We drove through more snow) We got back from that around 5:00pm. The next day we went to Lakeside for the burial (Grannie is from Lakeside and has a family plot there) which was very nice with full military honors. That evening we spent several hours fixing a plumbing problem at one of our rentals.
On Monday we only had to work a half day because...it was snowing! And it kept snowing all night and some more the next day! That meant that I had a delayed start for work on Wednesday. I have never seen this much snow in Snowflake and it stuck around until it rained yesterday! Yay for moisture!!
I am feeling pretty good for the most part these days. Trying to figure out how to get comfortable enough to sleep all night long but I'm sure I'll figure something out. Scott has been an angel giving me back rubs and foot rubs as well as doing most of the cooking and other stuff around the house.
We are venturing into self-employment realm with Scott looking into doing taxes this year. He isn't working for the Town of Pinetop-Lakeside anymore. I think that it will be a really good thing.
We're sorry to hear that everyone is sick and under the weather. Hope that you all get better soon.
We left Logan on Thursday morning and made it back to Snowflake around 8:00pm. (There was snow!!) The next morning we got up and left for Mesa around 6:00 to attend Scott's grandpa's funeral. We drove through more snow) We got back from that around 5:00pm. The next day we went to Lakeside for the burial (Grannie is from Lakeside and has a family plot there) which was very nice with full military honors. That evening we spent several hours fixing a plumbing problem at one of our rentals.
On Monday we only had to work a half day because...it was snowing! And it kept snowing all night and some more the next day! That meant that I had a delayed start for work on Wednesday. I have never seen this much snow in Snowflake and it stuck around until it rained yesterday! Yay for moisture!!
I am feeling pretty good for the most part these days. Trying to figure out how to get comfortable enough to sleep all night long but I'm sure I'll figure something out. Scott has been an angel giving me back rubs and foot rubs as well as doing most of the cooking and other stuff around the house.
We are venturing into self-employment realm with Scott looking into doing taxes this year. He isn't working for the Town of Pinetop-Lakeside anymore. I think that it will be a really good thing.
We're sorry to hear that everyone is sick and under the weather. Hope that you all get better soon.
Sunday, January 6, 2019
Smithfield
Well, after talking with most of the family today, it appears that most of us have had/still have some sort of illness. I didn't attend church today, but I hear that the Nilsson children also stayed home, as well as many of the Belliston children. I'm so sorry that everyone feels yucky and hope it doesn't last very long!
We are continuing to make progress on organizing and repairing our home. We have a guy who is working on patching the ceilings and replacing a door in the garage that had a doggy door in it. He may help us do a few other things outside when it warms up a bit. It will be nice to get those things out of the way. We also got a little sample size of paint to put over the bumps and nail holes in the upstairs walls. It matches okay, but there are places where the paint has faded and it is quite obvious. We may end up having to paint the whole upstairs after all. We'll just get Ruth here to help, since she loves those projects!
The storm last night brought a few inches of snow, which is nice. It's always good when it's gone and the sun is shining by afternoon.
We are off to bed, with plans to feel 100%, tip top tomorrow morning! And wishing the same for all of you... Love you loads!
We are continuing to make progress on organizing and repairing our home. We have a guy who is working on patching the ceilings and replacing a door in the garage that had a doggy door in it. He may help us do a few other things outside when it warms up a bit. It will be nice to get those things out of the way. We also got a little sample size of paint to put over the bumps and nail holes in the upstairs walls. It matches okay, but there are places where the paint has faded and it is quite obvious. We may end up having to paint the whole upstairs after all. We'll just get Ruth here to help, since she loves those projects!
The storm last night brought a few inches of snow, which is nice. It's always good when it's gone and the sun is shining by afternoon.
We are off to bed, with plans to feel 100%, tip top tomorrow morning! And wishing the same for all of you... Love you loads!
Nilsson News
Happy New Year to everyone! We hit the ground running with the new year, well, not exactly running, but painting. Last week I thought painting the playroom was a good project and then that moved over to painting Emerson's bedroom and updating the outlets and light switches. When I started painting the ceiling in his room I realized just how nasty it was and painted the ceiling in the playroom as well, and the hall and entry way, oh and I think I should probably include Addy's room and the stairway. Okay, I can't let the living room feel left out, so I painted the living room ceiling until I ran out of paint. Now that all the ceilings were looking nice and new, I needed walls to match so I tackled the hallway until I ran out of time. The stairs will be next and then the majority of our upstairs will be bright and cheerful. What a refreshing way to jump into the new year! Ahh, I love a good project(s). I do have pictures to post but as of right now I only have before's so I will post them once I get the after's.
The year also began with our oldest daughter entering youth-hood. She had an interview with the bishop and on New Years Day received her temple recommend. We found her five family names and the next day, Garrett took her to do baptisms. It was crazy packed and took them two and a half hours to get through! Speaking of crowded, I went to the temple yesterday morning and got there at 6:20 a.m. and oh my goodness! They pass out cards that tell you which session you will be going to and at 6:20, the next available session was 8:15! Since there was such a long wait for the session, everyone waiting decided to go to initiatories and there was a 45 minute wait there where usually the workers are waiting for someone to come. The Lord is hastening his work! It was a lovely thing to see.
All the kiddos have decided to get sick. They are all coughing and have lost their voices. It comes with the season I suppose. The kids and I have started to discuss what plants we want to start in our greenhouse. In order for them to be big enough in time, we need to start them the end of this month. 20 watermelon plants is on the list! If anyone wants something started for them, let me know. We have plenty of space!
Hope you are enjoying the new year and love you all!
The year also began with our oldest daughter entering youth-hood. She had an interview with the bishop and on New Years Day received her temple recommend. We found her five family names and the next day, Garrett took her to do baptisms. It was crazy packed and took them two and a half hours to get through! Speaking of crowded, I went to the temple yesterday morning and got there at 6:20 a.m. and oh my goodness! They pass out cards that tell you which session you will be going to and at 6:20, the next available session was 8:15! Since there was such a long wait for the session, everyone waiting decided to go to initiatories and there was a 45 minute wait there where usually the workers are waiting for someone to come. The Lord is hastening his work! It was a lovely thing to see.
All the kiddos have decided to get sick. They are all coughing and have lost their voices. It comes with the season I suppose. The kids and I have started to discuss what plants we want to start in our greenhouse. In order for them to be big enough in time, we need to start them the end of this month. 20 watermelon plants is on the list! If anyone wants something started for them, let me know. We have plenty of space!
Hope you are enjoying the new year and love you all!
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