Flake Fun

We were so glad (and jealous) to hear that the party was a huge success.  We wish that we could have been there.

Things here are going fairly well.  The weather was quite hot this last week but the forecast is saying more manageable temps this coming week so we are excited about that.

I have been catching up on some family stuff while I sit and feed babies all day. I just want to say that Joe's podcast is incredible but Joe is even more incredible. And Ruth's blog is awesome! My siblings never cease to amaze.

Baby update of the week is that Robin and Rand are now both smiling. Rand reserves a his for mom and dad but Robin will usually smile at anyone who will talk to her.  She is developing quite a personality.

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Smithfield Scoop

A Million Thanks!!!

How can I ever express how delighted, surprised and grateful I was to have all of you come so far yesterday just to say Happy Birthday to me? What a blessing you all are to me! I have a confession to make: On Friday night, when we were with some friends in Salt Lake for President Nelson's birthday celebration, I said to my friend, Barb, "We finally have a home big enough for our family to gather in and no one comes to visit!" Now, I will have to eat my words! Thank you so, so much for your  thoughtfulness. It means so much to me. I know what a sacrifice it is to come with your families when you have so many other things you could/should be doing. I do hope to repay your kindness in some way, someday. It was the second best day of this whole year (July 16 was the best day this year, when Jenn's twins were born)!

Thank you for the fun "midwifery conference!" I learned so much about helping moms prepare for motherhood, how to relax, and how to draw blood with my eyes closed! Every activity was so fun and funny! I loved the music, of course, and the food was heavenly! We are still savoring every morsel of Ruth's delectable watermelon. We still have some..... anyone tempted to return? Chet? Thank you for your effort to make it all happen and for staying and visiting for a while after you should have been on the road home. Dad and I had a blast after you left, reminiscing about funny things the children did and said, going down the path downhill, the activities, the food, and the video - which was definitely the highlight! I want to send copies of it to Jenn, Thomas and Emma! We laughed as we wiped watermelon juice off the floor, and the windows, and the light switches, and the walls, and the couch, and the..... :) Please come again!!

We will post pictures as soon as Dad can get them off the camera....

Bringing the Texas Heat........But also, go Utes

WHATTTTTTTTTTTTS UP!?!?!

It's been a minute since Tori and I updated... Sorry!  Things have been going great here in the sweat bowl called Houston.  Literally, a sweat bowl.  Like 80% humidity at 102 degrees.  Yup, so enjoy y'alls harvest and cooling weather, we'll just be drowning in heat down here, it's cool. 

Anyway!  Tori's been traveling all over for work, mostly in Texas, with a few jobs in other states.  But she enjoys being able to see fun places and connect with people that she's communicated with via social media.  She leaves this week for Tokyo to work on a cruise ship there for 8 days, and I get to join her after, to explore the city for a week!  I know nothing of Japan other than they love anime, and Disney, so it will be quite the adventure I'm sure...

The job at Barry's has been going wonderfully, and we've been growing and doing so well in the community!  Last week I had a couple of former NFL players in class, which was super fun/intimidating!  They are GINORMOUS human beings.  But it's fun to see them dying along with everyone else in the room.  Quite satisfying, if I do say so myself. 

I think that just about covers how things are going here.  Work hard, play hard.  But mostly work. 
Oooooooooooooooh, I did find a fantastic quote that I use in class all the time, and I think everyone needs to read it.  This really smart dude named Socrates said, "No man [woman] has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man [woman] to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which [their] body is capable." 

You go Socrates.

Flake Fun

Well, unlike all of you we are not enjoying a bountiful harvest. Our garden was a bust this year but we have had some yummy cherry tomatoes, a few at a time. 

Other than no fresh produce, things are going well in Arizona. It has been extremely hot so the babies have been bare all week. I think that it distresses some people who want to see them in cute outfits but oh well. 

Nilsson News

Happy Labor Day ya'll!  Amen to all the previous posts.  This is definitely the lucious harvest season and we have been enjoying a few tastey things- mostly watermelon.  It is really SO good!  Last week we set up our watermelon stand.  Emerson had some kale to sell, Addy made watermelon themed cupcakes and I helped Eliza make a delicious watermelon limeade slushie.  We had about fifteen melons and we had all but four sold in the first hour and a half.  We shut down early because the wind was picking up pretty bad.  It was a fun adventure!  We have over twenty melons ready to sell again.

The excitement as of late, has been with our chickens.  We had one hen who decided to go broody (sits constantly on the eggs).  Origianlly, she was sitting on 7 eggs but the rest of the hens continued to lay eggs on top of her so she ended up with 22 eggs.  We kept track on the calendar and after 21 days we were really watching her.  One evening, I went out to check on her and discovered that a chick had hatched but it had been killed by the chickens.  Evidence was on the mom's beak so I made a rash decision and removed all the eggs from the nest.  We had borrowed an incubator from a friend and placed all the eggs inside.  After about four days, one hatched!  We were so excited but worried because it was a pretty lonely chick, peeping quite noisily.  Last night, right before going to bed, we got to watch a second chick hatch!  So cool!

Tomorrow we will be canning peaches and enjoying the last day of summer.  School starts up for us the following day.  It has been a fun but oh too short of a summer!

Hart Happenings

  Such cute babies!  Glad to hear they are growing and so fun to get the occasional photo update.  Hoping to see them in person again soon!
  This time of year it is all about what is going on in the garden.  Well, that and soccer, and play practice, oh and school starting up again, and (Alex will be disappointed if I don't include this) college football season.  Right.  All of the things, but mostly the garden.  It is glorious!  We are reveling in juicy blackberries, a plethora of crispy cucumbers, bean by the bag, cabbage, potatoes, a few tenacious peas, and the intermittent tomato.  So fun!
  We went to the zoo this week and caught the animals at a very active, awake time.  I don't think there was a single exhibit that didn't have the animals up and around in it.  So fun to see it all!
  Our friends, the Cronins (I think some of you know them) came over for s'mores on Friday night and it was so nice to visit with them and enjoy their company.  They have 4 girls to our 3 boys and its nice to have that cosmic balance restored when we are together!  Angela tuned into Joe's podcast the next day and texted to say how much she enjoyed it.  They are such good friends.
  We kicked off college football season with the BYU/Utah game on Thursday night.  That is all the mention it deserves.
  It was fun to see Ruth's watermelon stand over the weekend.  She is hustling up some great business with her great product.  She had a Hispanic couple stop by even before they got the sign up and they wanted to trade tamales for watermelon.  An excellent trade!  I was kicking myself for the rest of the day that I didn't buy some while they were there.  So Ruth ended up with a dozen hot tamales and it wasn't until after they left that I realized we could've had tamales all day if I had been on the ball. It'll be interesting to see how this project evolves over the next few years.....
  Ian is enjoying getting to know his new Young Men's presidency.  They seem really great and they enjoyed a fun marshmallow war activity this week.
  We were doing some yardwork yesterday and some black crawling through our lawn caught my eye.  Upon closer inspection it was a salamander!  I wish I had gotten a picture of it because it was HUGE!  It is the third one we have found on our property, all in different places, but this one was, by far, the biggest.  We were worried that it would get run over by the lawn mower so the kids relocated it to the pavilion area.  Hopefully it can feel at home there.
  Hope you all have fun plans for Labor Day weekend and hope to see you soon!

Smithfield Scoop

Ah, Jenn! What darling photos of darling babies! Oh my, I am aching to hold them... One of these days we'll get back down there - hopefully sooner than later. Thanks for the pictures.

Since we don't have babies to admire and snuggle, we are being entranced by the flowers that seem to be blooming everywhere! We planted some and are are also enjoying some that were planted long before we arrived. My personal favorites are the gladiolus because they are all different and exquisitely detailed on the inside with such lovely colors on the outside. But the daisies... well, now there's a delightful flower! We also planted some hydrangeas that we found on a "buy one get one 1/2 off" deal at the garden store.

Besides sitting on the deck and smelling the flowers, we shucked, blanched, cut and froze 5 dozen ears of corn yesterday. And got 15 bags of corn in the freezer. Not enough. We'll have to do more. But it is very yummy corn and we are so grateful to have it. Since the corn cost $15, each bag is worth $1.00. We will relish every bite of it in the winter time :)

We are trying to figure out how to implement our new callings as Youth Family History and Temple Specialists. Not a "real" calling - as in, not in the Handbook, so there is not any specific direction, which is a bit of a challenge. We met with the Elder's quorum president, YW and YM presidents and the ward FH consultant today and they said, "The bishop said to let you run with it to make our lives easier." So, what to do? Any ideas to help get the youth to the temple and get the temple in the youth would be welcome. I think really the bishop wants the youth to have the Spirit in their lives through doing family history and being in the temple. There are powerful promises associated with those activities, so that's where we'll start.

Sure love you all and hope you are enjoying the end of summer. At least we hope it's at the end for Jenn and the babies who have been melting in the heat. Thank goodness they have a basement that is a few degrees cooler during the day! We will be glad when temperatures there moderate a little. On this end, it's kind of a sad day when the temperature changes. Our little hummingbird friends seem to have flown south. That's a lonely feeling since they have been fun company all summer. But the harvest is nice and it's yummy, beautiful time of year up this way!